Asteroid Blast Reveals Holes in Earth's defences

As the US government ponders a strategy to deal with threatening asteroids, a dramatic explosion over Indonesia has underscored how blind we still are Movie Camera to hurtling space rocks.

On 8 October 2009 an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That's about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed. However, the blast caused no damage on the ground because of the high altitude, 15 to 20 kilometres above Earth's surface, says astronomer Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada. Brown and Elizabeth Silber, also of UWO, estimated the explosion energy from infrasound waves that rippled halfway around the world and were recorded by an international network of instruments that listens for nuclear explosions.The explosion was heard by witnesses in Indonesia. Video images of the sky following the event show a dust trail characteristic of an exploding asteroid.

Sudden Impact

The amount of energy released suggests the object was about 10 metres across, the researchers say. Such objects are thought to hit Earth about once per decade. No telescope spotted the asteroid ahead of its impact. That is not surprising, given that only a tiny fraction of asteroids smaller than 100 metres across have been catalogued, says Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet objects as small as 20 or 30 metres across may be capable of doing damage on the ground, he says.

"If you want to find the smallest objects you have to build more, larger telescopes," says Spahr. "A survey that finds all of the 20-metre objects will cost probably multiple billions of dollars." The US Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the White House, must develop a policy to address the asteroid hazard by October 2010 under a deadline imposed by 2008 legislation. It is likely to be influenced by a report from the National Research Council on the asteroid problem, which is expected by year's end.

By David Shiga

Amazing Russian Baby Ali Yakubov Koran/Qur'an Appears on his Skin

Ali Yakubov is a medical mystery. Doctors and family deny any person is responsible for it and that there is no one writing on the boy's skin – nevertheless, words from the holy Koran mysteriously appear on his skin.

The word Allah appeared first, on Ali's chin soon after his birth. Ali was born prematurely with a coronary heart disease and transparent skin which revealed his intestines. At the time doctors warned that he may only live 2 or 3 days. In another twist, his mother, Madiana, complained to doctors that she could ear him crying before his was born. Doctors dismissed this out of hand but Mr. Ahmedpasha Amiralaev, a chairman of the Sagida Murtuzalieva Charity admitted that by the late term even the doctors themselves admitted that it seemed to be the unborn baby that was crying.

Ali has become a religious sensation in Russia. It has been reported that new Koran Arabic script appears on the back of his legs and hands (sometimes his stomach and head) before fading after a few days. Madiana says the boy reaches upwards of 40 degrees centigrade during these appearances.

source : here

Now you can believe it or Not? If you think this is not true, now how is it getting there?

Algeripithecus was not a Human Ancestor

A creature that could fit in your hand has long been seen as the strongest evidence that humans and apes originated in Africa. But now scientists say 50-million-year-old Algeripithecus was not an ape or human ancestor and was more like today's lemurs, after all.

What's more, a new study of the 3-ounce (85-gram) fossil species could add weight to the idea that our earliest ancestors arose not in Africa but in Asia. Discovered in 1992 in what is now northern Africa, Algeripithecus is considered to be the oldest known ape ancestor on that continent. But the new analysis suggests the creature belonged to another ancient primate group, the crown strepsirhines. Crown strepsirhines, which are not in the human ancestry, gave rise to modern-day lemurs, galagos, and lorises (see a loris picture).

Oldest Human Ancestors From Asia?

Asia is the only other known region where ape ancestors have been found. Whether apes arose there or in Africa is a "hotly contested issue" in the study of ancient primates, the study says.
The Africa theory rests heavily on Algeripithecus, now apparently exposed as a non-ape ancestor. Other than Africa, Asia is the most logical ape-ancestor "birthplace," study leader Rodolphe Tabuce, of France's University of Montpellier, said in an email. But evolutionary anthropologist Blythe Williams said "absence of evidence" is not enough to lend credence to an out-of-Asia theory.

After all, no one knows what evidence may still linger beneath African ground.
"It's quite possible that we haven't looked in the right places or that the sediments that would have preserved that portion of the fossil record no longer exist," said Williams, of Duke University, who was not involved in the study. But she does agree that Tabuce and colleagues' research weakens the case for an African origin.

Toothcomb Technicality

Algeripithecus fossils were first found in 1992 by researchers from France's University of Montpellier at the Glib Zegdou site in northeastern Algeria. The French team has continued to unearth new, and more Algeripithecus fossils, notably skull fragments and jawbones, some nearly complete.
The jaw and skull of Algeripithecus lack classic features of anthropoids, which include monkeys, apes, and humans, according to the study, published in the September 9 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Instead, Algeripithecus's jawbone has a long, thin formation, which the study says is "entirely compatible" with a "toothcomb," comblike lower front teeth used for grooming—common in strepsirhines, including modern lemurs.
Despite the new evidence, Algeripithecus is still a crucial figure in early primate evolution—but instead as one of the oldest known examples of a crown strepsirhine, the study says. Duke's Williams said the study's findings are helpful for scientists tracing how apes became human. The new study, she added, does "focus our attention on Asia"—though it's impossible to say yet if apes originated there.

Source : here