"From hell's heart I stab at thee." Sound familiar? That was the famous line that Captain Ahab uttered in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Speaking of white whales, scientists have found another one in Alaskan waters - only it's a killer whale, not a sperm whale. More on this rare creature in the full article after the jump.

We've seen global warming rear its ugly head in ways that run from in the subtle to the stark in recent years. A recent report, however, suggests that the Pentagon's Northern defense strategy may be put into compromise by the planetary crisis. Find out what's happening to NORAD radars up in Alaska and Canada in the detailed version.

A panel of more than 20 former pilots and U.S. government officials held a press event early this week urging the current administration to re-open its investigation on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) and find out once and for all the truth behind the existence of extra-terrestrial beings.

The topic was brought to the spotlight after Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich admitted during a televised debate that he's among those who've witnessed UFO sightings. Check out the full story via the "read more" link below.

In a great show of endurance, a female bar-tailed godwit managed to fly from Alaska to New Zealand within nine days without stopping for nourishment or rest, travelling a total of 7,145. According to scientists, the godwit's flight is the longest bird migration ever measured, and the satellite tags attached to the bird prove the feat.

Phil Battley, a scientist from New Zealand's Massey University expressed his surprise upon the discovery. "This shows how incredible and extreme birds can be," he said. "The prospect of a bird flying all the way across the Pacific was so much further than what we thought possible, it seemed ludicrous."

The long-haul flight was discovered during a documentation of godwit migration carried out by the US Geological Survey and PRBO Conservation Science from California. About 16 godwits were equipped with satellite transmitters, enabling scientists to track down their movements.

The research yielded the information that about 70,000 godwit birds take slight from Alaskan breeding grounds to New Zealand every September, then taking a return trip on March the next year. That's a great feat, considering that the godwits do not have the luxury to enjoy relaxing flights like those offered by major airlines.

  

Life on Mars has always been a topic of popular science fiction novels, and one that has captured many an imagination. There is still a pretty strong movement among scientists who believe that life can exist on the red planet, therefore NASA has launched the Phoenix Probe.

The spacecraft is expected to arrive on Mars after nine months. The probe has been designed to dig underneath the surface of the planet on a mission to find any evidence of life. The scientists from NASA are hoping that the vehicle will land on relatively flat lands at a Martian latitude equivalent to our own northern Alaska. This particular location was chosen due to the fact that water ice is thought to lie just a few tens of centimetres below the surface, well within reach of the unit's robotic arm.

The mission's principal investigator is a professor at the University of Arizona named Peter Smith discussed the details and goals of the mission:

The real question we're trying to answer is: "has that ice melted", because liquid water in contact with soil may provide us with a habitable environment. For microbes, the word 'habitable' means you have liquid water, complex organic molecules of the type our bodies are made of - proteins, amino acids and so on - and it also means you have energy sources.

That's a lot of necessary requirements that the planet has to possess to be considered habitable. Mission scientist William Boynton gave a few interesting details relating this mission with the NASA mission last 1970 and why the group has not yet given up on the idea of life on the planet despite previous findings:

One of the interesting questions is why organic molecules weren't found on the surface of Mars by Viking [Nasa Mars mission from the 1970s]. The answer is we think there is a mechanism which can destroy organic molecules on Mars. This mechanism might not be operating in the polar regions because water and ice can decompose the oxidants that destroy the organics.

After this mission has concluded, we'll be one step closer to finding out if there are any other planets within our own solar system that can support life. However, even if they find nothing, you can always bet that somewhere, someone will still be believing that there is life on Mars and that we just need to look closer to find it.

 

Surviving a bomb blast from your throat is no easy feat, but a monstrous 50-ton bowhead whale did and lived around a hundred years after. Found off the Alaskan coast, this 49-foot behemoth had a 3 1/2-inch arrow shaped projectile stuck under its blubber which could've existed 115 to 130 years ago.

Apparently, hunters failed their attempt to kill the whale by firing an explosive metal cylinder supposed to take its life instantly. The poor guy went on with its life while the weapon was still inside. Just recently, it was killed using the same but more advanced method.
 
Experts say that it's pretty rare to find whales this old, but some almost reach 200 years old. To protect these geezers, there's a hunting quota issued for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. Only 255 bowhead whales can be hunted in 5 years.

For more info, check the Read link below.

A shoemaker rock fish estimated to be 90 to 115 years of age was caught off the coast of Alaska in the Bering sea by Seattle-based fishermen.

The fish was hoisted up from a depth of about 2,100 feet by the crew of the Kodiak Enterprise. The fish stood out from the rest of the catch because of its extraordinary size. The fish is 44 inches in length and weighs 60 pounds.

The ship, owned by Trident Seafoods, handed the fish to scientist Paul Spencer who examined the fish's ear bone called the otolith. The bone gives biologists an idea of the specimen's age because it bears growth rings like a tree trunk.

 

The old fish is under the custody of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. The century-old fish comes second in size to a specimen 47 inches long found years ago.

Further examination has revealed that the rock fish is female, and even in its advanced age, has the potential to reproduce as the ovaries looked healthy and carried developing embryos.

After Al Gore told us about the Inconvenient Truth, the White House seems to be buckling under the inconvenience. This is after an internal memo, distributed in the Alaskan division of Federal Fish and Wildlife Service, appear to be discouraging biologists and other employees traveling in countries around the Arctic to speak regarding climate change, polar bear, and melting ice caps unless assigned to do so.

Late last year, the Bush administration was pelted by calls from environmental groups to include polar bears as one of the species under the Endangered Species Act. The said Arctic mammal is facing sheer loss of numbers from the unusual retreat of sea ice (used by bears for seal hunting) caused by warming climate. Environmentalists are trying to use such a listing to force the United States to restrict heat-trapping gases that scientists have linked to global warming as a way of limiting risks to the 22,000 or so bears in the far north.

The issued memos, to be used by biologists and wildlife officials as a guide in prepping travel requests, carry the heading "Foreign Travel — New Requirement — Please Review and Comply, Importance: High". Here's what's written on the cover note:

Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175 requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice and/or polar bears will also require a memorandum from the regional director to the director indicating who'll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to questions on these issues, particularly polar bears.

The sample memorandums indicate that employees applying for travel permits should understand "the administration's position on climate change, polar bears, and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues."

When asked for comment, Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Bruce Woods defended the memo saying. "What the administration wants to know is who is going to be spokesperson and do they understand administration policy? It's not saying you won't talk about it."

It will be remembered that the US government has been wary of verging into efforts to alter the negative impacts of Earth's deterioration, even choosing to pull itself out of the Kyoto Protocol back in 2001. It's been long argued that capitalist nations would be hit the hardest when the rest of the world has started clamping down on pollution.

Well, it sure looks like that a lot of people have reserved front row seats for the recent lunar eclipse show. CNN reports that stargazers were thrilled by the total lunar eclipse. At the Croydon Observatory in southeast London, about a dozen people - young and old - have gathered to watch the show. According to Paul Harper, the Chairman of the Croydon Astronomical Society, the eclipse was "really very dark...and it was quite a nice one".

Other spectators are really excited about it too. A 60-year-old architect compared the deep red color of the moon to the planet Mars. He says he felt excitement and he mentions that "it's like having the red planet on your doorstep". A young Cub Scout, on the other hand, said "I've never seen anything like it before. I'm really excited."

Cloudy conditions over most parts of Europe didn't faze the event as a variety of Webcasts carried the event live and astronomers urged the public to not miss out on the show. Residents of East Asia saw the eclipse for quite some time as it was cut short by moonset. Those in the eastern parts of North and South America were also able to see it.

Eastern Australia, Alaska, and New Zealand missed out on the lunar eclipse. But on August 28, they'll be in for a treat since another lunar eclipse is set to happen and they have front row seats to it.

18 years after the notorious Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, pollution still persists and is in fact predicted to last for decades more. This was found out from a study by U.S. government scientists, which will be published in two weeks in the Environmental Science and Technology journal.

According to the study, more than 26, 600 gallons of oil still remains over at Prince William Sound. The decline rate of the oil spilt is just for a mere four percent every year for that area, and is much slower in the Gulf of Alaska.

The conclusion of the study, a portion of which was published in advance, states:

Such persistence can pose a contact hazard to inter-tidally foraging sea otters, sea ducks, and shore birds, create a chronic source of low-level contamination, discourage subsistence in a region where use is heavy, and degrade the wilderness character of protected lands.

In response, Exxon Mobil has said that they will review the findings. Says spokesman Mark Boudreaux, "Based on our initial review of the report, there is nothing newsworthy or significant in the report that has not already been addressed." In fact, he claims that their company has supported more than 350 independent studies, all of which has purportedly not found any evidence that would suggest a significant long-term impact.

The 1989 oil spill is tagged as the worst single incident of pollution in American history, covering 1, 200 miles of pristine shoreline.