Religion and astronomy may not overlap often, but a new NASA X-ray image captures a celestial object that resembles the “Hand of God.”

The cosmic “hand of God” photo was produced when a star exploded and ejected an enormous cloud of material, which NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, glimpsed in high-energy X-rays, shown in blue in the photo. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory had imaged the green and red parts previously, using lower-energy X-rays. 

“NuSTAR’s unique viewpoint, in seeing the highest-energy X-rays, is showing us well-studied objects and regions in a whole new light,” NuSTAR telescope principal investigator Fiona Harrison, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement.

The new image depicts a pulsar wind nebula, produced by the dense remnant of a star that exploded in a supernova. What’s left behind is a pulsar, called PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short), which spins around 7 times per second blowing a wind of particles into material ejected during the star’s death throes.

As these particles interact with nearby magnetic fields, they produce an X-ray glow in the shape of a hand. (The pulsar is located near the bright white spot in the image but cannot be seen itself, NASA officials said.)

Scientists aren’t sure whether the ejected material actually assumes the shape of a hand, or whether its interaction with the pulsar’s particles is just making it appear that way.

“We don’t know if the hand shape is an optical illusion,” Hongjun An, of McGill University in Montreal, said in a statement. “With NuSTAR, the hand looks more like a fist, which is giving us some clues.”

The red cloud appearing at the fingertips is a separate structure called RCW 89. The pulsar’s wind may be heating the cloud to produce the low-energy X-ray glow, astronomers believe.

The X-ray energies seen by NuSTAR range from 7 to 25 kiloelectron volts, or keV, whereas the energies seen by Chandra range from 0.5 to 2 keV.

The Hand of God is an example of pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon of perceiving familiar shapes in random or vague images. Other common forms of pareidolia include seeing animals or faces in clouds, or the man in the moon. Despite its supernatural appearance, the Hand of God was produced by natural astrophysical phenomena.

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Several newspapers report that over the weekend, 100,000 of the winged creatures have seemingly fallen out of the sky, littering trees, yards, and sidewalks with dead or dying animals.

The culprit in this case is apparently a scorching summer heat wave, which can wreak havoc on a bat’s fragile anatomy. “Anything over 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) and they just fall,” says Louis Saunders, a local conservation worker. “It’s a horrible, cruel way to die.”

The smell is becoming a nuisance for local residents, too.

The Scenic Rim Regional Council, west of Brisbane, has organized rubbish collectors to clear up the carcasses of about 2,000 bats.

Residents near Boonah’s Athol Terrace lookout say they have been putting up with the stench of the dead animals for four days.

Hundreds of bats also lie dead in trees and nearby bushes, and are being eaten by maggots.

The council today advised local residents it will not send workers into nearby bushland to collect the remaining bat carcasses, as it could cause further disruption to the nearby colony. [ABC News Australia]

Locals are advised not to touch the bats themselves, since scratches or bites can spread diseases like the lyssavirus, which can trigger paralysis and convulsions. One of the 16 patients receiving anti-viral treatment says she was scratched by a still-alive baby bat while she was clearing bat corpses out of a tree with a rake.

One man took footage when he saw over a thousand dead bats in his own backyard:

What’s more is that this isn’t even the first time the land down under has had a Hitchcockian encounter with thousands of bats ominously dropping dead. Last January, similarly hot temperatures in the south-eastern coastal city of Shoalhaven killed roughly a thousand grey-headed flying foxes, which are an especially vulnerable species.

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Protest of mirrors held to commemorate Nov. 30 police beating of demonstrators

At noon on Dec. 30, protesters in central Kyiv held mirrors in front of police for 30 minutes to commemorate the night of Nov. 30 when riot police used excessive force to breakup a peaceful rally on Independence Square consisting mostly of university students. 

Above: At noon, demonstrators lined the streets of central Kyiv for 30 minutes to hold up mirrors in front of police in commemoration of the Nov. 30 violent dispersal of protesting students from Independence Square. All photos by Kostyantyn Chernichkin 

In a gesture to remind the police of their violent actions that memorable night, EuroMaidan demonstrators lined up with mirrors to show law enforcement personnel their reflections. The civic demonstration took place near walkways and streets that lead to the government building district where police have been stationed. The buildings include the president’s headquarters, Cabinet of Ministers and central bank, among others.

Protesters also held posters that read, “Who and what are you protecting?” in reference to President Viktor Yanukovych and his appointed government whose ouster they have called.

The violent dispersal of student-protesters on Nov. 30 ignited the public’s ire. The next day, hundreds of thousands descended on central Kyiv in a show of protest over the police beatings. An encampment and barricades were erected, and three public buildings were taken over, including city hall.

Yanukovych suspended three lower-level officials over the Nov. 30 incident, but many believe the ones who ultimately gave the order were not dismissed or are being investigated. The order apparently was given to make room for equipment and crew to resume work in putting up the capital’s main Christmas tree. The tree was never fully set up. Protesters instead have attached flags and banners on the metallic cone structure in place of artificial tree branches.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7zJrBCCNw4

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul claimed it would be “enlightening” for National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden and intelligence director James Clapper to “share a prison cell,” noting “the law has to be applied equally.”

The senator made the comment during an interview with Fox News’ Eric Bolling Friday night, where Paul unveiled a new class-action lawsuit targeting the Obama administration over the NSA’s invasive domestic surveillance program. “The question here is whether or not, constitutionally, you can have a single warrant apply to millions of people,” he explained. “So we thought what better way to illustrate the point than by having hundreds of thousands of Americans sign up for a class-action suit… It’s kind of an unusual class-action suit, in that we think everybody in America who has a cell phone would be eligible for a class-action suit.” 

He urged viewers to visit his campaign website RandPac.gov and sign onto the lawsuit, which Paul claimed already has “several hundred thousand people” participating. If successful, the suit would force the Obama administration to protect the Fourth Amendment and the right to privacy. “We want them to understand that we’re not willing to trade our liberty for security,” Paul declared. “We think we can have both, but we’re very upset that this president doesn’t seem to concerned about our right to privacy.”

The probable presidential candidate in 2016 told Bolling he “doesn’t really think” the NSA is monitoring him personally, but noted that the potential for an IRS-style abuse exists. “They’ve already shown that they will use what is supposed to be impartial, the IRS, to do it. Leads me to wonder and worry whether they would use the NSA that way.” He worried about a White House “whitewash” over NSA spying and urged that the issue appear before the Supreme Court.

The senator was finally asked about James Clapper’s lying surveillance testimony before Congress earlier this year. Paul compared the crusade against Snowden’s lawbreaking to the blind eye the administration has turned to Clapper’s own violations. “Lying to Congress is a felony,” he said, “and I don’t think we can pick and choose the law. You’ve got all of these people, like James Clapper and others, beating the table and saying ‘We want to put Edward Snowden in jail for life,’ and yet they don’t want the law applied to themselves? The law has to be applied equally.”

“I frankly think it would be somewhat enlightening for James Clapper and Edward Snowden to share a prison cell,” Paul concluded. “Maybe we’d all learn a little bit from that.”

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A North Carolina deputy insisted that the county sidewalk in front of the jail belonged to him, ordering a man off the sidewalk solely for the reason that he was video recording.

Although he refused to identify himself as he threatened to arrest the man, he has since been identified as Lieutenant Wright with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department. 

Wright began referring to the sidewalk as “county property,” but then when asked if it was “public property,” he clarified that the only public property in the area was the city-owned sidewalk across the street from the jail.

Then he became very territorial.

“You can get off my property or you’ll go to jail, sir,” Wright threatened.

The man with the camera agreed to leave, but insisted on asking for his name, which Wright refused to provide.

“You will get off my property,” he said. “I”m asking you very nicely to get off my county property.”

The man stepped off the property and called the Asheville Police Department in the hopes that they would identify the delusional lieutenant.

Although the responding officer was courteous, confirming that the man with the camera had every right to stand on any city-owned sidewalk, he did not go as far as saying he had the right to stand on the county-owned sidewalk in front of the jail.

The officer walked over to the jail to see if he could resolve the issue, but did not provide the man with the name he was seeking, only that he was the lieutenant of the facility, which enabled the man to eventually obtain his name.

The video was uploaded last November, but came to my attention this week.

Contact Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan at (828) 250-4503 or post on his Facebook page where he maintains a very active community information page.

UPDATE: The man behind the camera is named Tyler and had posted another video where he confronted a public official named Terry on camera, only for Terry to pull out his own phone and start recording Tyler. Both videos are below.

Terry was obviously bothered by being video recorded, but he responded the right way by turning the tables on Tyler. There was no need to escalate the situation any further.

They ended up having a civil conversation. Lieutenant Wright could take a few lessons from Terry Harrison.

In Terry’s video, Tyler mentions PINAC and Cop Block, a segment that Tyler removed from his video because he didn’t know if we would approve.

Yes, Tyler, you’re always welcome to mention both sites in your videos (I know my friends at Cop Block would approve). But for the record, it’s pronounced Pin-aK rather than having to spell it out.

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