Confirmed: It was a failed Russian missile launch. Click here for the full explanation.

Could it all be a hoax? Maybe it's a massive joke, but all kinds of Norwegian news sites are reporting on it. According to NKR—Norway's national TV channel—it could be related to a rocket fired from a Russian submarine in the White Sea. The Russians are denying any part on it at this at the moment. Nick Banbury, a witness located at Harstad, described how it all happened:

We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Arctic Norway, but on my way to work this morning I saw something completely unexpected. Between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time, there was a strange light in the sky. It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in colour to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end. This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to the earth.

As hard as it is to believe, you can't dispute the fact that the strange spiral was witnessed and recorded by thousands of people from hundreds of miles away, which means that the phenomenon occurred at a very high altitude. Even Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy agrees that this is real, and says that it was probably a rocket out of control. Norwegian astronomers and news outlets have actually confirmed that this was a failed Russian missile launch.

So barring any epic group joke, expect your new alien overlords to arrive at any time now. We can only hope they are all peace-loving voluptuous blondes with blue eyes. [Altaposten, VG, NRK via SpaceWeather via Universe Today—thanks Gonzalo Oxenford]

If you know Norwegian and have any information, contact me on AIM or by mail.

As soon as the email archives' contents were made publicly available, arguments broke out. Was there proof of data manipulation that could flip the entire climate debate topsy-turvy? Were scientists at the university working to keep works by climate skeptics out of journals? Answers to either question are unclear. According to New Scientist, there was no evidence of actual data manipulation, but some of the email exchanges could be construed as attempts to suppress some research.

No matter how those questions wind up being resolved, in the end the trouble doesn't seem to be in the contents of the emails or in the data, but in the fact that the Climate Research Unit restricted access to the climate data to those it deemed "bona fide researchers." Maybe some of the accusations the unit faced could've been avoided had the data been more freely shared in the first place. [New Scientist]

Photo by coda

Today, we spoke with a Denver-area student who claims to have worked with Falcon's father, Richard Heene, on a reality show proposal for ABC.

The student wants to sell the information and says the National Enquirer is considering buying it for between $5,000 and $8,000.

The student claims to have been hired by Heene, and says the two worked together from March until May 2009 to prepare "business plans and proposals" to pitch to ABC.

Here's what the seller says the documents prove:

"The show surrounds scientific experiments and controversial pranks, and one of the pranks within it — actually several of the things within this document — talks about very similar information to what is being debated on the air."

The seller adds:

"When Mr. Heene is denying having any involvement with this being for a show — when the little kid, Falcon, says 'Dad, you said to go hide in the attic, we're doing this for the show' — and then he's adamantly denying that, that's when I started cracking up because I have proof that that's not true."

The student says Heene never paid for the work, which took more than 15 hours. The student emailed him/herself the proposal as a record and doesn't believe Heene knows the seller has the information.

"I never would have thought it would become valuable, but at this time, this is kind of the evidence that they're looking for," the seller says.

"I'm a student, you know, so if I can get my rent paid from this it'd be awesome."

If you want to buy the proof, let us know, and we'll put you in touch with the seller.

Talking to the Daily Mail, a spokesman from Moscow's weather forecasting service said: "Several fronts have been passing through Moscow recently, there was an intrusion of the Arctic air too, the sun was shining from the west – this is how the effect was produced.

"This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive," he added.

Ok, so it's just clouds—but when you watch the video you still expect an alien ship to drop through that hole with lasers blazing. [Telegraph]

But I did what any geek would do. I regressed into an excited 10 year old, grabbed the camera, and went out to play in the freakish weather. After 5 minutes of constantly clearing my throat, and noticing that my G9 had started to collect dust, I decided it just wasn't worth it. Having been asleep with a window open meant a little dust was also inside. I switched off my main desktop (it's got a big air-intake fan), and fired up a laptop to find out what the hell was going on.

Big winds had swept the dust from Australia's drought-stricken interior, carrying it hundreds of miles to the east coast. Sydney (with a population of 4.3 million) was most affected, but other cities were, too. In terms of air pollution, particle concentration reached a thickness of about 15,000 micrograms per cubic meter—a normal day here has about 10-20.

Comedian Arj Barker (from Flight of the Conchords) Tweeted this pic: "It's like Dune here in Sydney. This is the giant dust storm we had to land in."

Until winds swept the dust to sea mid-afternoon, flights were canceled, Twitter went crazy, MMS traffic spiked 50 percent, and data centers installed air filters…it was interesting to watch how technology intersected with the bizarre weather.

The dust cloud was the worst in 70 years, and it's still unclear if climate change was to blame. But at the very least, I got a dusty taste of life on Mars for the day (well, sort of). [Sydney Morning Herald]

Nah, it's one of the many art installations sprinkled over the dusty playa at Burning Man 2009. This year's theme is Evolution: A Tangled Bank. Safe travels if you're a weekend burner headed to the Blackrock Desert, and don't forget the distilled white vinegar to neutralize that alkaline playa dust!

One year later (and having travelled around three continents since), that stuff is still turning up in random places like my hiking shoes. [San Francisco Chronicle]

Along with ex-Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, Gates has applied for five patents that call for a fleet of specially equipped vessels to be deployed in a hurricane's path—vessels that are capable of reducing the surface temperature of the ocean by mixing in colder water from greater depths. This would reduce the heat-driven condensation that fuels hurricanes.

Of course, significantly altering the surface temperature of a large body of water is going to require many, many ships...a reality that is not lost on Gates. In the patent filings, there are a few proposals on how an endeavor like this one could be financed—including selling insurance policies in areas that are prone to major storms. While I seriously doubt the plausibility of such a scheme, if anyone can pull it off it would be Bill Gates. Besides, even if this doesn't work out he always has his important work with high tech kegs to fall back on. [Patent via Tech Flash via Slashdot via PopSci]

•Built-in solar panel converts sunlight energy into electrical energy for the 600mAH rechargeable battery
•Future weather forecast with graphical icons: Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Cloudy, Rainy and Snowy
•Displays temperature and humidity for up to three different remote locations
•Radio-controlled clock and calendar
•LED backlight and mold alert alarm

The problem is I find weather forecasts to be largely unreliable. All I need is a little observation and the unparalleled scientific accuracy of my trick knee. [Oregon Scientific via Gearlog]

This happened last week in Goshen co., Wyoming, the clip taken by the TornadoVideos.net SRV Dominator. The footage is impressive not because of what it does capture (the inside of a tornado) but also because of what it doesn't (girlish screaming and crying). [TornadoVideos.net via Neatorama]

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company, servicing northern California, has signed a contract with Californian-by-way-of-Armenia company Solaren for the latter to provide 200MW of energy with their space panels. The solar panels, possibly as large as a square kilometer, absorb solar energy and beam it back to Earth by converting it to radio waves, which will then be converted back to energy and fed into the power grid. It's a nice idea, since solar panels will be far more efficient without clouds and other junk to get in the way of the sun's rays, but the tech's original purpose was something quite different.

Satellites armed with solar panels were originally thought to have possible use in the control of weather systems. Yeah, you read that right. Space-controlled weather. The beams would be used to change the temperature or wind patterns of weather formations, thus lessening, or strengthening, natural events like hurricanes and rainstorms. This could be used to create a lovely microclimate for a wealthy city, or to rain down God's own fury onto one's enemies. Eep.

Solaren is confident in their solar energy strategy and hopes to start beaming down some juice within 7 years. They also insist that the radio waves will not be harmful to people, animals, crops, or even airplanes that pass through them, although we really just have to take their word for it at this point. Who knew green energy and super-villainy would mix so well? [The Guardian via BLDGBLOG]

From the app's descritption: "A beautiful girl will tease you until you get today's forecast with your sky condition and the temperature you'll feel." Well, alright. She could be a little less conservatively dressed in some of these, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

And here I was reading David Lynch's LA forecasts like a sucker. I don't even LIVE in LA. But this does bring up an interesting collaboration possibility: Sexy David Lynch Weather Forecasts? Now we're talking. Pin Up Weather costs $2. [App Store]

In theory, sending in a pair of the jets to do loops around the eye of the hurricane while it's still out over the ocean, creating sonic booms, would break it up before it hits the shore.

Jet fighters flying at supersonic speeds along special trajectories with a hurricane/typhoon at various altitudes would create supersonic booms. In one such embodiment, the trajectories for the supersonic booms of the present invention are counter to the rotational component of the hurricane and/or typhoon being targeted. As such, supersonic booms can be tailored and/or designed to partially and/or fully -negate the basic rotational contribution in a hurricane by slowing down a hurricane's/typhoon's rotation. Additionally, when supersonic booms propagate downward to the surface of the ocean they also destabilize a hurricane's/typhoon's structure by increasing the pressure in the central part of a hurricane's/typhoon's eye.

It's a pretty crazy idea, but I guess it makes sense. It would be pretty amazing to be able to stop any hurricane before it hit shore, saving millions and millions of dollars and who knows how many lives. I can't wait for them to test this out. [Patent via AV Web; Thanks, Jason!]

Update: Readers are pointing out that it's probably due to the hurricane. Had no idea it was due to that, so we hope our Houston readers and their friends and family are safe. Here's to you guys.

26-year-old Kevin Kearney was strapped into his kite when a huge gust of wind came in and swept him away. A local TV crew was on the scene shooting weather footage and caught the entire disaster on tape. He's currently in the hospital in critical condition. Let this be a lesson to you all: don't be dumb. [CBS 4]

Sometimes, when a warm layer of air rolls in up above the surface, the beam from the Doppler radar can be deflected towards the ground—picking up traffic and other objects much like a police radar gun. The weather service alluded to the fact that the "speeder" could have been nothing more than noise, but it still makes you wonder how long it will be before they figure out how to bust motorists from space. [NWS via Jalopnik]

The Meteo watch tracks the weather conditions by measuring barometric pressure trends and displays the forecast for the next 12-24 hours using four easy-to-read icons (sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, and rainy)—kind of like their previous Weather in Motion Clock. Seems a little simple if you ask me. I mean, you can get a complete weather forecast via the web on just about any phone. Still, if you prefer to get your weather on your wrist, the Meteo will set you back about £40 ($80) when it is released this May. [Oregon Scientific via BIOS]

The scientists used "laser pulses to create plasma filaments that could conduct electricity," creating electrical activity within the clouds in a passing thunderstorm in New Mexico. No air-to-ground lightning was created due to how short-lived the filaments were, but now that they know what they're doing it's only a matter of time before they make that one happen.

Jérôme Kasparian, one of the scientists involved with the project, told me that they'd be able to consistently conjure up air-to-ground lightning within "5 to 10 years. This includes the development of a new, 10 times more powerful laser, for better ionization of the air, its test in laboratory and field campaigns."

Naturally, the first thing that came to my mind when hearing about forced lightning was: when can I use it to smite my enemies? Unfortunately, unless I'm hanging out with my enemy at the time, this will be a bad idea. "Let us leave this for James Bond. In fact, the laser would be able to attract lightning to itself (or near to itself) by providing an easy path for the lightning strike. If you would like to trigger a lightning on a target, you would have to have your beam go from the target to the thundercloud&#8212 this is not an easy configuration."

Don't shy away from a challenge, Jérôme. [Eurekalert]

Weather prediction updates come down four times a day and severe weather alerts come in as they are released. Apart from the initial wireless configuration and the profile updates, you don't even need a PC to use it. Multiple units can sync with a single base station and each can display custom information.

The product line is set to launch this spring with 10 different products ranging in price from $60 to $150, depending on feature set. [Weatherdirect]
Reporting and photo by Curtis Walker