A bright burst of energy was spotted by a satellite telescope six months ago that would have been the most distant object in the universe ever visible to the naked eye.

The fact that no humans have been reported to have seen the event directly, the gamma-ray burst, an explosion that signals the violent death of a massive star, is changing theories of how these events look.  Gamma ray bursts are typically accompanied by intense releases of other forms of radiation, from X-rays to visible light.

The burst, which was dubbed as GRB 080819B, was first detected by the Swift satellite on March 19, while the spacecraft was serendipitously looking at another gamma-ray burst in the same area of the sky.

The light that the burst emitted in the visible part of the spectrum was so intense that the burst would have been visible to the naked eye in the constellation Bootes for about 40 seconds, something that no other gamma-ray burst has ever been visible without the telescope.

Jonathan Grindlay of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics calls “the birth pangs of a blackhole.  This is the scream.”  Grindlay wrote in an editorial accompanying a new study of the burst n the September 10 issue of the journal Nature.  Grindlay added, “This means that the explosion happened 3 billion years before the sun or Earth even formed.  When astronomers see such distant objects, they are in effect looking back in time.

After the Swift detection, telescopes around the world were alerted and trained their eyes onto the new gamma-ray burst, giving scientists a highly detailed view of these explosions.

The story may not be recent, but a Lego version of one of the largest ships afloat never gets old.

In February 2005, after watching a documentary about aircraft carriers, IT consultant Malle Hawking from Munich, Germany, was inspired to make one of his own – using Lego bricks.

Hawking said that he used to play and build Lego models when he was a boy but stopped in his teens.

With about 25 pictures from the Internet for reference, he tried to copy the Harry S. Truman again and again until he got it right.

“It took me months to purchase the parts and besides assembling sessions after work I can’t think of anything I have done in my life before that was as exhausting as sorting through all the pieces,” said Hawking.

About £10,000, over 300,000 Lego bricks and more than a year later, his scale model of the aircraft carrier was finally completed.

Measuring over 5m long, 1.2m high and weighing more than 160kg, the Lego USS Harry S. Truman is the largest Lego ship in the world. It is just like the original even to the smallest of details. It features electric lights on the flight deck, in the hangar and inside the aircraft, as well as movable lifts and radar dishes, and even a motorized catapult.

The (real) USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) is the first ship in the United States Navy to be named after the 33rd President of the United States. She was commissioned on July 25, 1998, where Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker of the ceremony.

The aircraft carrier’s first deployment was in Operation Southern Watch from November 28, 2000 to May 23, 2001. During the Truman team’s involvement in OSW, the air wing flew 869 combat sorties, totaling more than 2,700 flight hours.

In competition year 2004, the USS Harry S. Truman won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award, an honor given to the most battle-ready ship in the US Atlantic Fleet. She also received the Battle “E” award for three consecutive years, from 2003 to 2005.

More pictures of the Lego USS Harry S. Truman can be viewed here.

Today, the army wore their body armor and helmets on patrol in Iraq, including a 3^rd Brigade Combat Team Soldier whose family said he was killed after being told that protective gear wasn’t necessary for a friendly patrol.

The family told newspapers in Missouri and Alabama that Spc. Steven Fitzmoris was sent on a patrol last week in Baghdad without the Kevlar and steel armor because the unit was headed to a safe area. The family said the information came from “unofficial” Army sources.

Rosemarie Fitzmorris-Currier, the Soldier’s mother, told the Opelika Aubum News in Alabama that the Army was also late in telling the family about the death.

In an e-mail from Baghdad, brigade spokesman Maj. Mike Humphreys said Fitzmorris and other Soldiers were on their guard when they went into the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiyah to meet locals and distribute fliers. Fitzmorris was assigned to the brigade’s 3^rd Battalion, 29^th Field Artillery Regiment and he was part of a group of artillery troops who had been pulled from guard duty at Baghdad’s Green Zone compound to conduct patrols in the neighborhood.

Fitzmorris, together with his comrades were battle-ready, like every patrol in the vicinity. But the armor wasn’t enough to save the life of Fitzmorris. According to a Fort Carson official, Fitzmorris was shot in the neck by a sniper who aimed for the inches-wide gap between his body armor and helmet.

Humphreys and the soldiers scrambled to save Fitzmorris and the hunt for the sniper was halted. Unfortunately, Fitzmorris died within a few hours, when he was rushed in the hospital.

After the death, Army officials tried to find Fitzmorris’ family, but Humphreys said information on Fitzmorris’ relatives seemed to be out of date. Fitzmorris’ widow and two young children were located in a few hours. Humphreys said it was about 24 hours by the time the mother had been found.

Humphreys said the Army is working with troops and their families to get updated contact information that will allow people to be found rapidly if the worst happens. In Adhamiyah, the hunt for the sniper who killed Fitzmorris still continues. Fitzmorris said:

“We have intensified our search for snipers in the area, specific ally the one who killed Fitzmorris,” Humphreys said, noting that the Army is offering cash to locals who would help find the shooter.

The Petlyakov Pe-2 was a Soviet dive bomber used during the Second World War. The Pe-2 was fast and maneuverable yet durable, and was manufactured in large numbers. It became known by the NATO reporting name Buck. The Finnish Air Force serial code was PE- and unofficial nickname Pekka-Eemeli.

The Pe-2 quickly proved itself to be a highly capable aircraft, capable of eluding the Luftwaffe’s interceptors and allowing their crews to develop accuracy with their bombing. Throughout 1942, the design was steadily refined and improved, in direct consultation with pilots who were actually flying them in combat.

During the Continuation War Finland purchased six war Pe-2 aircraft from Germany. These arrived to State Aircraft Factory facilities at Harmala in January 1942, where the airframes were overhauled and given Finnish serial numbers. It was initially planned to use these planes as dive bombers in the 1^st flight of LeLv 48, which began to receive its aircraft in July 1942. The role of the Pe-2s was changed to fly long-range photographic and visual reconnaissance missions for the Army General Headquarters. Three Pe-2s were lost in accidents or technical failure during the Continuation War, one was destroyed in bombing of Lappeenranta airfield, one was shot down by Soviet fighters and one went missing in action. In the Lapland War the only remaining machine flew a single reconnaissance sortie in October 1944.