I can't copy all the pics unfortunately so you'll have to clcikt he link.
A MYSTERIOUS giant spiral of light that dominated the sky over Norway this morning has stunned experts — who believe the space spectacle is an entirely new astral phenomenon.
Thousands of awe-struck Norwegians bombarded the Meteorological Institute to ask what the incredible light — that could be seen in the pre-dawn sky for hundreds of miles — could possibly be.
The phenomenon has been dubbed 'Star-Gate' — as the world's top scientists and the military lined up to admit they were baffled.
Theories ranging from a misfired Russian missile, meteor fireball, never-before-seen type of northern light, 'black hole' and even alien activity were all proposed.
Witnesses across Norway, who first glimpsed the space show at 8.45am, all described seeing a spinning 'Catherine wheel-style' spiral of white light, centred around a bright moon-like star.
A blue "streaming tail" appeared to anchor the spiral to earth, before the light "exploded" into a rotating ring of white fire.
The spiral spectacle — which lasted for two minutes — was seen by vast swathes of the Scandinavian country's almost five million population, with sightings as far north as Finnmark to Trondelag in the south.
Totto Eriksen, from Tromso, in northern Norway, was one of the thousands who bombarded Norwegian newspapers with sightings — after nearly crashing his car on spotting the spiral overhead.
He said: "I was driving my daughter to school when this light spun and exploded in the sky.
"We saw it from the Inner Harbour in Tromso. It looked like a rocket that spun around and around - and then went diagonally across the heavens.
"It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain - but then turned into something totally different.
"People just stopped and stared on the pier - it was like something from a Hollywood movie."
Axel Berg, from Alta, also in the north of the country, added: "It was like a giant spiral - a shooting star that spun around and around.
"I initially thought it was a projector but then the 'tail light' left and the spiral remained spinning still."
Norway's most celebrated astronomer, Knut Jorgen Roed Odegaard, said he had never seen anything like the spiral before.
He said: "This was seen over an exceptionally large area of the country - in all of north Norway and the Trondelag.
"My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor - but it lasted far too long.
"It may have been a missile from Russia - but I can't guarantee that is the answer.
"I rang the Air Traffic Control tower in Tromse. They said it was over in two minutes. To me, that is far too long for this to be an astronomical phenomenon.
"This spiral shape is unique. It is definitely not a variation of the aurora borealis - northern lights."
Chief Scientist Erik Tandberg, at the Norwegian Space Centre, said that he too was "totally amazed" by the spiral.
He agreed with many other experts that the spiral pattern could have been caused by a missile from Russia — something the Russian military have strongly denied.
Dr Tandberg said: "I agree with everyone in the science community that this light was the weirdest thing. I have never seen anything like this ever.
"It may have been anything from an exploding missile whose launch went wrong - to a comet or other celestial object that for some reason has been behaving strangely.
"If it was a missile - most likely from the launch base in Pletsevsk in Russia or one of the Russian submarines or even from the European Space Agency base in Kiruna - then we are talking about a rocket launch that has gone wrong.
"The spiral suggests the object came off course and balance and entered the spiral movement. Leaking rocket fuel could account for the blue light.
"But I know that the military have denied this explanation. So we could be looking at an entirely new natural phenomenon."
Meanwhile, Nick Pope, former UFO analyst for the Ministry of Defence, yesterday added that the Norwegian sighting was a "real mystery".
He said: "My first thought was this was a meteor, a fireball, or debris from an old satellite burning up in the earth's atmosphere.
"But the spiral motion makes this unlikely. This is truly bizarre. It's a real mystery.
"A meteor or a fireball would simply travel in a straight line but for something to spiral in this way appears to go against the laws of physics.
"Some may think it is the Northern Lights but they illuminate the sky with a green glow.
"This is completely different from any image of the Northern Lights that I have ever seen.
"It's ironic that something like this should happen the very week after the MoD terminated its UFO project. It just goes to show how wrong that decision was."
Wow at both stories. Mission impossible gum. Yes.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:It's obvious -- he was chewing exploding gum because he was trying to kick his habit of smoking exploding cigars
Which he quit because when one was blown out of his mouth it caused the spiral in Norway!
Funny protest sign.
Woudl be perfect if hot pants could set you free!
gamingeek said:So I heard that a russian missile test caused the stargate. Booooooo!
So it was aliens then. Awesome. Roswell part 2.
Why does it look like a cheesy 80's movie special effect.
Here's one for the "What where they thinking: File. Yaris Related:
Toyota has been forced to pull a new advertisement in Australia following numerous accusations that the video was not only sexist but also making light of incest.
The online ad, entitled "Clean Getaways," is for the Toyota Yaris, a small car mainly sold to young women, according to the TheAge.com. The video, which is full of sexual innuendos and suggestive double entendres, begins with a young man arriving to pick up his date and telling the girl's father at the door, "I'm here to take Jennifer's virginity out tonight." From there the young man reels off such lines as "I hope I haven't come too prematurely," "it has traction control for when it gets a bit slippery and wet," and "I'll have her on her back by 11, I promise."
The ad was created as part of the "Clever Film Comp," a short-film competition organized in part by Toyota. Not long after the ad became the winner of the online contest, the competition's Facebook page was flooded with outraged comments from users, the London Times reports.
The charge that the ad made light of incest seems to stem from a line in which the father tells the young man, in reference to his daughter, "She can take a good pounding in any direction."
As one user wrote about this particular part of the ad: "The ad features a father and his daughter's boyfriend agreeing together, in a matey way, that the daughter is going to get a 'good pounding'. It has incestuous overtones."
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/14/toyota-yaris-ad-pulled-af_n_391221.html
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:Not that such a commercial isn't incredibly childish, but I hardly see how you can equate sexualism with sexism. Wouldn't that in turn make Sex in the City one of the most sexist shows ever?
It's Australia, we like to ban things.
Foolz said:Yodariquo said:Not that such a commercial isn't incredibly childish, but I hardly see how you can equate sexualism with sexism. Wouldn't that in turn make Sex in the City one of the most sexist shows ever?It's Australia, we like to ban things.
Like not being white.
Yodariquo said:Not that such a commercial isn't incredibly childish, but I hardly see how you can equate sexualism with sexism...
Just guessing from my years of corporate sexual harassment training, but I'd say the manner in which the two males reduce the female to being exclusively useful for sex acts would classify it as sexism (and if that is what they do in Sex in the City about males, which I infer from your comment, then yes, that would be sexist also). That part of the ad I thought was fine -- it was the incest stuff that was beyond the pale of what would be useful in an advertisement.
I shared this in a "so bad it's funny" way, not in some puritanical "OMG Toyota, BURN THEM" kind of way. Yaris = Incest is funny -- how does that sell a car?
aspro said:Foolz said:Yodariquo said:Not that such a commercial isn't incredibly childish, but I hardly see how you can equate sexualism with sexism. Wouldn't that in turn make Sex in the City one of the most sexist shows ever?It's Australia, we like to ban things.
Like not being white.
If only it weren't funny because it's true.
aspro said:That part of the ad I thought was fine -- it was the incest stuff that was beyond the pale of what would be useful in an advertisement.
I shared this in a "so bad it's funny" way, not in some puritanical "OMG Toyota, BURN THEM" kind of way. Yaris = Incest is funny -- how does that sell a car?
I follow that, though I think it's fair to say the incestuous implication was unintended. Terrible commercial, no doubt, and my concern was with HuffPo's write-up.
It's that now that we're (for the most part) past the "you're less than human" level of inequality, the issue in general still exists in a more subtle form, and stupid irrational hostility towards sex and other misrepresentations of the concept of equality do much more to hurt than help.
Anyway, yeah, there's usually no shortage of stupid marketing. Fortunately for myself I don't watch television.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:aspro said:That part of the ad I thought was fine -- it was the incest stuff that was beyond the pale of what would be useful in an advertisement.
I shared this in a "so bad it's funny" way, not in some puritanical "OMG Toyota, BURN THEM" kind of way. Yaris = Incest is funny -- how does that sell a car?
I follow that, though I think it's fair to say the incestuous implication was unintended. Terrible commercial, no doubt, and my concern was with HuffPo's write-up.
I agree. And yeah huffpo is a polemic source, so I take all that with a rock of salt.
Foolz said:aspro said:Foolz said:Yodariquo said:Not that such a commercial isn't incredibly childish, but I hardly see how you can equate sexualism with sexism. Wouldn't that in turn make Sex in the City one of the most sexist shows ever?It's Australia, we like to ban things.
Like not being white.
If only it weren't funny because it's true.
That reminds me of another thing the AU government bans -- the sale of "heavy" beer in aboriginal settlements. But that's not at all racism. It's so sad you have to laugh to get through it.
A 25-year-old student in Ukraine has been killed by an exploding stick of chewing gum, accordingto the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
The student, who attended Ukraine's Kiev Polytechnic Institute and remains unidentified, was apparently working at his parents' house when the incident occurred.
"A loud pop was heard from the student's room," a police officer explained, according to USA Today. "When his relatives entered the room they saw that the lower part of the young man's face had been blown off."
In terms of what might have caused the incident, the Telegraph says the student was apparently working on an experiment and had covered the gum in a chemical solution, possible some type of explosive, before trying to chew it. Ria Novosti reports that the student had the highly unusual habit of chewing gum that he had dipped into citric acid. Police believe the student may have confused the chemical packets he had applied to the gum before chewing.