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The CIA and Associated Press intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian regularly collaborated on stories promoting the spy agency's image, according to a report by The Intercept. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show how during his time with the Los Angeles Times, Ken Dilanian worked with the agency to more positively portray CIA actions, at times explicitly promising positive news coverage, according to the report. RT's Lindsay France digs into the newly revealed documents to explore the depth of the relationship.
According to witness a large fireball exploded over Corsica lighting up the sky on August 29 2014. Stock photo only for representative purposes (not the actual bolide).
Was it a disintegrating fireball?
In the night of Friday to Saturday, August 30, 2014, an explosion was heard at around 2am across Corsica.
From Saint Cyprien, Chera through Muratello, Alistro, Bonifacio and up to Sartene, many people have reported a loud bang literally lighting up the sky.
Although the site of the explosion has not been determined yet, police and security are investigating the source of this detonation. Meanwhile here is a timelapse that immortalizes this mysterious flash (@ 0:28) from Sartene:
© Wikimedia Commons
Trevor Ycas, who lives in the Martin Acres neighborhood, was lounging in the backyard with four friends around 11 p.m. when they saw what he said was a meteor. They watched, said Ycas, as it split into four distinct pieces.
"It was going south to north, so I think it broke up somewhere north of Loveland, or maybe Greeley. I used a compass to check the trajectory, and I think it was about 15 to 20 degrees east of north," Ycas said.
Several in Ycas's group attempted to film it with camera phones, but were unsuccessful in capturing good images. But the time stamp from those attempts show that it occurred about 10:34 p.m., Ycas said.
There were plenty of other witnesses as well, including some who were out under the stars at Red Rocks Amphitheater for Film on the Rocks. "Meteor so large the crowd at Film on the Rocks was cheering," tweeted one.
Seth Hornstein, director of the Sommers-Bausch Observatory at the University of Colorado and a professor in the Department of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, had not heard about the sighting until contacted by the Camera.
"It was probably a lone meteor," said Hornstein. "There's no showers coming up - the Persieds were in August, and the Orionids are the next ones in mid-October. It was probably just a stray."
© Unknown
If that finding is true, then every year, between .12% and 1.16% of all the animals on Earth vanish. Rodolfo Dirzo, the lead researcher on the Science study from Stanford University, points out that we've already lost 40% of the Earth's invertebrate species in the last 40 to 50 years. Almost half the animals without skeletons have gone extinct within half a human lifetime. The wide range of these estimates reflects our own uncertainty on this subject, but even our low-end assessments are alarming.
Bugs and worms are gross, though; who cares if there are fewer spiders in my house now than in the arachnid-infested '60s? Unfortunately the future looks just as bleak for mammals. Dirzo says that if current trends hold, "in 200 years, 50% of the [mammal] species are going to be driven to the very edge of extinction."
Most of North America's megafauna - mastodons, short-faced bears, giant ground sloths, saber-toothed cats and American camels and horses - disappeared close to 13,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene period. The cause of this massive extinction has long been debated by scientists who, until recently, could only speculate as to why.
A group of scientists, including UC Santa Barbara's James Kennett, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science, posited that a comet collision with Earth played a major role in the extinction. Their hypothesis suggests that a cosmic-impact event precipitated the Younger Dryas period of global cooling close to 12,800 years ago. This cosmic impact caused abrupt environmental stress and degradation that contributed to the extinction of most large animal species then inhabiting the Americas. According to Kennett, the catastrophic impact and the subsequent climate change also led to the disappearance of the prehistoric Clovis culture, known for its big game hunting, and to human population decline.
In a new study published this week in the Journal of Geology, Kennett and an international group of scientists have focused on the character and distribution of nanodiamonds, one type of material produced during such an extraterrestrial collision. The researchers found an abundance of these tiny diamonds distributed over 50 million square kilometers across the Northern Hemisphere at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB). This thin, carbon-rich layer is often visible as a thin black line a few meters below the surface.
© Twitter @SarahPSparksMeteor in Christchurch May 3
Seen from all different parts of the country, most eye witness accounts describe a fast moving green light with a white tail flying over the sky between 6pm and 7pm.
"Wife and I saw a bright blue/greenish light with white tail as we were crossing the Auckland harbour bridge into the city around 6:25pm. We initially thought it was fireworks but was puzzled as it came out of nowhere from the sky and flew near-horizontally before it vanished. It appeared pretty close, as if it was flying just over Freemans Bay," James commented to Weather Watch.
Did you see the meteor and manage to get a photo? Send to newsviews@tvnz.co.nz
Stardome Observatory educator Tim Jessop confirmed the siting to Weather Watch.
Comment: Just one out of many this year.
© Wikimedia Commons
It's been described as like a sonic boom, "a heck of a bang" and left some wondering if a P lab had exploded or a meteor had crash landed.
Rowe Rd resident Janice Fischer remained mystified.
"It sounded like a bomb blast," she said.
"It sounded like a car had driven and hit our roof."
She and her husband nervously headed outside for a look.
© Thinkstock
The burning ball of space rock was spotted from locations throughout the country, including the West Coast, Auckland, Christchurch, Upper Hutt, Palmerston North, Napier and Nelson.
Many of those who sighted the meteor described it as large with a colourful tail, streaking across the sky about 6pm.
"[I] saw brilliant blue meteorite with long tail travel east to west across the northern sky. It seemed like fireworks at first and appeared close," Richard from north Canterbury posted on the WeatherWatch meteor watch website.
Another witness, Michelle, said: "Very large, beautiful meteor sighted over Napier, New Zealand aprox 6pm."
Steven said: "Very bright white light,showing the signs of a classic small meteor fly across Christchurch."
© NASACameras at the Tellus Museim in Cartersville caught a fireball on camera streaking over north Georgia on Saturday.
Monday, scientists at the Tellus Museum in Cartersville confirmed there was a possible meteorite late Saturday evening. Their NASA camera caught the fireball passing over the state around 11:30 p.m.
Residents from Paulding County to Alpharetta to Gainesville reported seeing the streak. Some describe it getting as bright as daylight at one point.
© Screen Capture YouTube
A dashcam video posted to YouTube shows a bright object streaking across the sky over the Don Valley Parkway.
CityNews viewer Rahsaun Hutchinson was in a park in north Ajax and saw "a bright flying, star-like object" streak across the sky around 10 p.m.
Peter Brown, a professor in the Western Meteor Physics Group at Western University, says such sightings are common this time of year.
Having watched the video, Brown said the object appeared to be a "bright but not spectacular meteor" and likely not large enough to produce meteorites.
Comment: It won't be so easy to ignore. Cyclic cometary bombardments have wiped out this planet before:
Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!
Fireballs reported since June 1, 2014: