Slippery Rock Gazette

Cartoons by Mark Anderson

A very small earth-bound asteroid has exploded as a fireball in mid-air before landing in Germany, NASA reports.

The U.S. space agency said the 3 foot-sized asteroid disintegrated harmlessly over Germany on January 21, one and a half hours before it would have impacted Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA’s Scout impact hazard assessment system, which monitors data on potential asteroid discoveries, gave advance warning as to where and when the asteroid would impact.

This is the eighth time in history that a small Earth-bound asteroid has been detected while still in space, before entering and disintegrating in earth’s atmosphere.

The asteroid’s impact produced a bright fireball, known as bolide, which was seen from as far away as the Czech Republic and may have scattered small meteorites on the ground at the impact site about 37 miles west of Berlin.

Since the asteroid disintegrated over a relatively populated part of the world, many photos and videos of the fireball were posted online minutes after the event.

A 26-year-old man who tried to sell what he claimed was a walking stick used by the late Queen Elizabeth II has been sentenced for defrauding eBay buyers.

Dru Marshall, from Hampshire in southern England, claimed he was a senior footman at Windsor Castle and that the proceeds from the sale of the “antler walking stick” would go to cancer research. The auction had reached 540 pounds ($686) before he cancelled the listing after learning police had launched an investigation, prosecutors said.

He was found guilty of fraud by false representation at Southampton Magistrates’ Court and sentenced to a 12-month community order.

“Dru Marshall used the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to try and hoodwink the public with a fake charity auction – fueled by greed and a desire for attention,’’ Julie Macey, a senior crown prosecutor, said. “Marshall’s scheme was ultimately foiled before he could successfully con any unsuspecting victims.’’

A Kentucky city has come up with an out-of-this-world campaign to promote tourism.

The Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau used an infrared laser to beam a message into space to invite extraterrestrial travelers.

“The first thing you’ll notice as you descend through Earth’s atmosphere above Central Kentucky is the lush green countryside that surrounds Lexington’s vibrant city center. That’s our famous bluegrass,” the message begins. It goes on to describe gentle rolling hills, horse farms and bourbon before suggesting places to stay and eat and shop.

The idea for the campaign came from recent UFO revelations and advances in deep space imaging that have fueled the belief that we are not alone in the universe, the visitors bureau said in a statement announcing the move.

The agency said it worked with scientists and scholars to beam the message toward potentially habitable planets in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system 40 light years away. 

The effort was led by Lexington native Robert Lodder, who is an expert in computer engineering, astrobiology, and Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. 

“We brought together experts in engineering, linguistics, digital media, philosophy, and science fiction to design, debate, and transmit this message,” he said in the statement.

The message was sent with FAA approval and has a coded bitmap image.

“The bitmap image is the key to it all,” linguistics expert Dr. Andrew Byrd said. “We included imagery representing the elements of life, our iconic Lexington rolling hills, and the molecular structure for water, bourbon, and even dopamine … because Lexington is fun!” 

It could take a while to get an answer though. The agency says it will take 40 years to get to its intended target and could take another 40 to receive any response.

In the meantime, the agency says earthly travelers are invited to visit.

A man crashed his car outside a Bass Pro Shop in Alabama, stripped down to his birthday suit and plunged into the giant aquarium inside the store, police said.

The spectacle happened one Thursday night in front of shocked shoppers in a town just outside Birmingham, Leeds Police Chief Paul Irwin said.

The 42-year-old Alabama man did a “cannonball” leap into the aquarium and then stood under a waterfall. He left the water to yell at two officers, then dove back into the aquarium, police said.

The man eventually climbed over the side of the aquarium and fell to the concrete floor below. Police then apprehended him, the news site Al.com reported.

He faces several charges including public lewdness, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.

The man was in the water for about five minutes before officers arrived, Irwin said. 

Witnesses commented, “Major shrinkage, Bud! That water must be really cold!”

Richard Plaud, a Frenchman who has dreamed of building the world’s tallest matchstick sculpture, made headlines this week when Guinness World Records rejected his huge model of the Eiffel Tower, saying Plaud broke the rules.

“It hurt me,” Plaud told TF1 French TV news. News outlets reported on his disappointment that his work was rejected.

But after an official review, “it seems that we have been heavy-handed in the application of our rules in this case,” Guinness World Records Director of Central Records Services Mark McKinley said in an email to NPR as Guinness announced the reversal.

The 1:45 scale model stands 7.19 meters (a little taller than 23.5 feet). It took Plaud years — and more than 700,000 matchsticks — to build the finely detailed structure. Finally, last month, he unveiled the finished result to thousands of people and his followers on Instagram. 

The unveiling of the Eiffel Tower model drew a large crowd, and Plaud enlisted the survey firm AGT to validate the structure. The event was memorialized by a video showing the fruit of his long-term project.

The Guinness records organization initially said the materials Plaud used were too different from standard matchsticks you can buy in a store. At issue was his decision to go straight to a French matchstick company and arrange for a shipment of sticks that were evidently fairly standard — but lacked the match’s normal flammable tip. 

Because there was no sulfur, Plaud’s dream went up in smoke, as Le Parisien reported. 

The idea was to save time and prevent waste. But in their initial ruling issued in late January, the Guinness judges found that, based on their rules and criteria, Plaud wasn’t using the same materials as other record contenders such as the now-former title holder Toufic Daher of Lebanon, who used approximately 6 million matches to build a scale replica of the Eiffel Tower in Beirut standing around 21.4 feet.

Plaud, who lives in Montpellier-de-Médillan, about 70 miles north of Bordeaux in western France, spoke to the media about his dreams being crushed like so many thin sticks of wood. A local paper reported on Guinness’ refusal to homologuer his bid for the record, mirroring a unique English verb: homologate (to formally or officially approve), a term that would surely be more common if it didn’t sound like a scandal.

Then came Thursday’s dramatic reversal. Guinness World Records overruled its earlier decision and updated its website to declare Plaud the record-holder.

“We are therefore very happy to award Richard with the Guinness World Records title,” McKinley said in a message to NPR, “and we have corrected some inconsistencies within our rules which now allow the matchsticks to be snipped and shaped as the modeller sees fit.”

Plaud, 47, has been posting images and stories documenting his progress in building the wooden Eiffel Tower on his Instagram and Facebook pages. In the past week, he’s also been sharing news articles about Guinness’ refusal to declare his achievement a record.

Guinness World Records says it regrets the “distress” Plaud has experienced due to the difficulty in getting his bid for the record certified. It’s now congratulating him “on his truly impressive structure — and his new Guinness World Records title.” Richard Plaud, a Frenchman who has dreamed of building the world’s tallest matchstick sculpture, made headlines this week when Guinness World Records rejected his huge model of the Eiffel Tower, saying Plaud broke the rules.

“It hurt me,” Plaud told TF1 French TV news. News outlets reported on his disappointment that his work was rejected.

But after an official review, “it seems that we have been heavy-handed in the application of our rules in this case,” Guinness World Records Director of Central Records Services Mark McKinley said in an email to NPR as Guinness announced the reversal.