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- Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips
In the middle of the night on Feb. 13, something disturbed the animal population of rural Portal, Georgia.
Cows started mooing anxiously and local dogs howled at the sky. The cause of the commotion was a rock from space.
"At 1:43 a.m. Eastern, I witnessed an amazing fireball," reported Portal resident Henry Strickland. "It was very large and lit up half the sky as it fragmented. The event set dogs barking and upset cattle, which began to make excited sounds. I regret I didn't have a camera; it lasted nearly 6 seconds."
Strickland witnessed one of the unusual "Fireballs of February."
"This month, some big space rocks have been hitting Earth's atmosphere," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "There have been five or six notable fireballs that might have dropped meteorites around the United States."
It’s not the number of fireballs that has researchers puzzled. So far, fireball counts in February 2012 are about normal. Instead, it's the appearance and trajectory of the fireballs that sets them apart.
"These fireballs are particularly slow and penetrating," explained meteor expert Peter Brown, a physics professor at the University of Western Ontario. "They hit the top of the atmosphere moving slower than 15 km/s, decelerate rapidly, and make it to within 50 km of Earth’s surface."
The action began on the evening of Feb. 1 when a fireball over central Texas wowed thousands of onlookers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
"It was brighter and long-lasting than anything I've seen before," reported eyewitness Daryn Morran. "The fireball took about eight seconds to cross the sky. I could see the fireball start to slow down; then it exploded like a firecracker artillery shell into several pieces, flickered a few more times and then slowly burned out." Another observer in Coppell, Texas, reported a loud double boom as "the object broke into two major chunks with many smaller pieces."
The fireball was bright enough to be seen on NASA cameras located in New Mexico more than 500 miles away.
"It was about as bright as the full Moon," said Cooke.
Based on the NASA imagery and other observations, Cooke estimates that the object was 1 to 2 meters in diameter.
So far in February, NASA's All-Sky Fireball Network has photographed about a half a dozen bright meteors that belong to this oddball category.
They range in size from basketballs to buses, and all share the same slow entry speed and deep atmospheric penetration.
Cooke has analyzed their orbits and come to a surprising conclusion: "They all hail from the asteroid belt—but not from a single location in the asteroid belt," he said. "There is no common source for these fireballs, which is puzzling."
This isn't the first time sky watchers have noticed odd fireballs in February. In fact, the "Fireballs of February" are a bit of a legend in meteor circles.
Brown explained: "Back in the 1960s and 70s, amateur astronomers noticed an increase in the number of bright, sound-producing deep-penetrating fireballs during the month of February. The numbers seemed significant, especially when you consider that there are few people outside at night in winter. Follow-up studies in the late 1980s suggested no big increase in the rate of February fireballs. Nevertheless, we've always wondered if something was going on."
Indeed, a 1990 study by astronomer Ian Holliday suggests that the “February Fireballs” are real.
He analyzed photographic records of about a thousand fireballs from the 1970s and 80s and found evidence for a fireball stream intersecting Earth's orbit in February. He also found signs of fireball streams in late summer and fall.
The results are controversial, however. Even Halliday recognized some big statistical uncertainties in his results.
NASA's growing All-Sky Fireball Network could end up solving the mystery. Cooke and colleagues are adding cameras all the time, spreading the network's coverage across North America for a dense, uninterrupted sampling of the night sky.
"The beauty of our smart multi-camera system," noted Cooke, "is that it measures orbits almost instantly. We know right away when a fireball flurry is underway – and we can tell where the meteoroids came from." This kind of instant data is almost unprecedented in meteor science, and promises new insights into the origin of February’s fireballs.
Meanwhile, the month isn't over yet. "If the cows and dogs start raising a ruckus tonight," advises Cooke, "go out and take a look."
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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- Written by: Dennis Fordham
Most people who have heard about special needs trusts are familiar only about the Testamentary Special Needs Trust.
Testamentary trusts are established at the death of the person establishing the trust pursuant to his trust or will.
Stand-alone Special Needs Trusts, however, are established while the benefactor is alive. Let us compare these two trusts.
First, the Stand-alone SNT can receive assets from multiple persons wishing to provide for the well-being of the person with special needs.
This can be a real cost saving to the family and encourage giving by persons who might otherwise be discouraged by the cost of establishing a special needs trust. That is, only one special needs trust would be established to allow multiple benefactors to make bequests into the same special needs trust.
Second, when the benefactor dies, or perhaps becomes disabled, the assets inside Stand-alone SNT remain immediately accessible to assist the person with special needs from the date the trust is established.
The Testamentary SNTs are not immediately accessible until the share belonging to the special needs trust is transferred into the special needs trust. That delay can be avoided by having assets inside a Stand-alone SNT that are always accessible to the trustee of the special needs trust
Third, the Stand-alone SNT is a single purpose trust. A Testamentary SNT, on the other hand, is a subtrust created within the scope of the broader revocable living trust document.
Accordingly, the Stand-alone Trust has more provisions specifically relevant to special needs trust.
The most important provisions typically pertain to the oversight and replacement of the trustee (usually by a trusted family member), the distributions at the death of the special needs beneficiary, and the amendment of the special needs trust if necessary to conform to new laws affecting special needs benefits.
Fourth, the assets transferred into the standalone trust are not answerable to the creditors of the estate of the deceased benefactor.
Provided that the benefactor transferred assets into the Stand-alone SNT at a time when he or she was solvent, those transferred assets are removed from the benefactor’s estate.
They are not subsequently answerable to the benefactor’s own creditors, whereas the assets within the benefactor’s living trust, on the other hand, are answerable for the debts of the deceased benefactor.
If these assets are the assets with which the benefactor intended to fund the Testamentary SNT, then what is actually transferred into the special needs trust may be less than intended (after the creditors are paid).
Finally, establishing the Stand-alone SNT and administering it while the benefactor is still alive, allows an opportunity to become familiar with the rules related to administering such a trust.
That way, if experience shows that any adjustments are needed they can be made under the supervision of the benefactor who may be the initial trustee or the trust protector (i.e., person who can replace the trustee).
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A search effort was under way Thursday night in the Cow Mountain area, where officials were attempting to locate a lost man.
Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue teams, along with K-Corps and CalStar 4, were working into the early morning hours attempting to find the man, according to radio reports.
Based on latitude and longitude coordinates CalStar gave, it located the man in an area near the Whitethorn trail off of Trail No. 15 in the wilderness area, on an eastern facing slope one ridge over from the Cow Mountain repeater site, according to radio reports.
The area was estimated to be about two miles by ground from the Mendocino County side of the wilderness area, based on reports from the scene.
However, CalStar’s pilot said there was no place to land safely due to vegetation and terrain, so he gave latitude and longitude coordinates to help the teams locate the man.
With CalStar 4 running low on fuel, it had to leave shortly after 10:30 p.m.
Shortly after 11:30 p.m., the missing man – who was calling 911 on a cell phone with a low battery – reportedly told a dispatcher that he was shaking, couldn’t stand and was out of water after drinking the one bottle of water he had with him some time before.
Search teams were moving into the area on foot and four-wheel motorcycles early Friday morning.
Additional details about the search and the missing man were not immediately available.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Redding man wanted for a parole violation in Mendocino County was arrested in Clearlake early Thursday on a number of charges including possession of stolen, vandalism and alcohol-related charges.
Clearlake Police Sgt. Rodd Joseph said Anthony Shane Wilburn, 26, was taken into custody in the case.
Joseph said a Clearlake Police officer was dispatched to a report of a man on a bicycle prowling parked vehicles at Winding Road Motors at 14952 Lakeshore Drive at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday.
When the officer arrived at the scene he noticed that one of the parked vehicles at the dealership had a shattered window, Joseph said.
While the officer was investigating the parked vehicle, he overhead yelling coming from Flyers, located at 15010 Lakeshore Drive, according to Joseph.
He said the officer drove to Flyers and learned that a subject on a bicycle had just stolen merchandise and food and fled from the store. The suspect was last seen heading behind the business toward W. 40th Avenue.
The officer found the suspect – later identified as Wilburn – behind Flyers, pushing a bicycle and holding a large quantity of food and merchandise, Joseph said.
When Wilburn saw the officer approaching, he dumped his load of merchandise, got on his bike and fled, according to Joseph’s report.
Joseph said the officer managed to catch up with Wilburn and, using his patrol vehicle, stopped Wilburn and arrested him.
After taking Wilburn into custody, the officer found out Wilburn was a wanted parolee out of Mendocino County, Joseph said.
Evidence found at the parked vehicle with the broken window allegedly linked Wilburn to the vandalism, and the property and food that Wilburn dumped was determined to have been stolen from Flyers, Joseph said.
In addition, Wilburn was alleged to be intoxicated and uncooperative with police, according to Joseph.
He said Wilburn was charged with a parole violation, public intoxication, resisting arrest, vandalism, riding a bicycle under the influence of alcohol and possession of stolen property. Wilburn was booked into the Lake County Jail, where he remains in custody on a no-bail hold.
Anyone with information regarding this incident or other crimes in the city of Clearlake is asked to call the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251. Callers may remain anonymous.
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