Italian ordered to pay 2,500 euros to charity over Ebola joke
Dublin: An Italian man, arrested for making a joke about Ebola at Dublin airport, was ordered to pay 2,500 euros (3,130 dollars) to charity to avoid a criminal conviction, state broadcaster RTE reported Friday.
Roberto Binaschi, 56, wrote the words “Attenzione Ebola” on the lid of a disposable coffee cup as a joke with his daughter while on board a flight from Milan to Dublin Thursday, Xinhua reported.
The cup was disposed of but cabin crew spotted the wording on the lid, sparking an alert and resulting in his arrest. At Dublin District Court Friday, Binaschi apologised and said that he never intended to cause concern. (IANS)
Ghost appears in selfie
London: A selfie of two Newcastle-based girls clicked at a bar in London has gone viral on social media for there was a “ghost” standing behind the girls.
The “ghostly” figure is of an elderly woman, media reports said.
The phenomenon was caught on camera by two women – Victoria Greeves, 22, and Kayley Atkinson, 23 – as they were enjoying a girls’ night out in Newcastle.
After finishing their drinks, they decided to take a selfie.After striking their best self-portrait together, the two noticed there was a third person in the photo – appears to be an elderly lady in Victorian outfit.The girls first uploaded the picture on Snapchat.
Terrified later, they deleted the photo from their phones but the photo is doing rounds on the social media. (IANS)
A planet that never sticks to schedule found
Washington: Astronomers have discovered a new planet that has a highly inconsistent orbit time around its Sun.
The low-mass, low-density planet, known only as PH3c, which is 2,300 light years away from the Earth, has an atmosphere loaded with hydrogen and helium.
The planet nearly escaped detection as PH3c does not have a consistent orbit time around its Sun due to the gravitational influence of other planets on its system.
“On the Earth, these effects are very small, only on the scale of one second or so,” said Joseph Schmitt, a graduate student at Yale University.
“PH3c’s orbital period changed by 10.5 hours in just 10 orbits,” explained Schmitt.
This inconsistency kept the planet out of reach for automated computer algorithms that search stellar light curves and identify regular dips caused by objects passing in front of stars, he said.
The researchers discovered the new planet with the help of Planet Hunters programme coordinated by Yale University and University of Oxford.
The programme, which has found over 60 planet candidates since 2010, enlists citizen scientists to check survey data from the Kepler spacecraft.
Not only did Planet Hunters spot PH3c, but the discovery also enabled astronomers to better characterise two other planets – one on each side of PH3c.
An outer planet PH3d is slightly larger and heavier than Saturn. An inner planet, PH3b may have a rocky composition like the Earth.
“Finding the middle planet was key to confirming the others and allowing us to find their masses,” Schmitt explained.
The discovery appeared online in the Astrophysical Journal. (IANS)
Endangered vampire-like deer sighted in Afghanistan
Kabul: Strange deer with vampire-like fangs have been spotted more than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting in the rugged forested slopes of northeast Afghanistan.
Known as the Kashmir musk deer – one of the seven similar species found in Asia – the last scientific sighting in Afghanistan was believed to have been made by a Danish survey team traversing the region in 1948.
However, recent surveys led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), confirmed the presence of the endangered species in the Nooristan province.
The survey team recorded five sightings, including a solitary male in the same area on three occasions, one female with a young one, and one solitary female, which may have been the same individual without her young one. All sightings were in steep rocky outcrops interspersed with alpine meadows and scattered dense high bushes of juniper and rhododendron.
According to the team, the musk deer were difficult to spot and could not be photographed.
“Musk deer are one of Afghanistan’s living treasures,” said study co-author Peter Zahler from WCS.
This strange deer species is now endangered due to habitat loss and poaching. Its scent glands are coveted by wildlife traffickers and are considered more valuable by weight than gold, fetching as much as $45,000 (Rs.2,766,600) per kilogram in the black market.
The male’s distinct saber-like tusks are used during the rutting season to compete with other males. (IANS)