D Tuesday, January 26, 2010 News By Ed Carty Wot well do if u drive n send txts THE Department of Transport is considering the use of technology that prevents drivers sending text messages. The technology, which uses GPS to determine if a phone is moving in a car, will be used to block the mobiles texting function. Satellite TV is upsetting the aliens SATELLITE television and the digital revolution are making humanity more and more invisible to inquisitive aliens, the worlds leading ET hunter, Dr Frank Drake, has said. This is likely to make the search for extra- terrestrial intelligence by Earthly scientists harder, he believes. Dr Drake, who founded the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence, in the US 50 years ago, said the digital age was effectively gagging the Earth by cutting the transmission of TV and radio signals into space. At present, the Earth is surrounded by a shell of radiation from analogue TV, radio and radar transmissions, he said. But to a race of observing aliens, digital TV signals look like noise. Digital transmissions are also much weaker than the terrestrial equivalent, the scientist said. A whale of a show off Ireland . . . FOOTAGE emerged yesterday of giant humpback whales in acrobatic display off the Irish coast. The creatures were filmed breaching in the sea three miles off Hook Head, Co Wexford on Saturday providing some of the most dramatic wildlife foot- age ever shot around the coast. Pdraig Whooley, of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, chartered a boat after reports of large num- bers of whales in the area since the New Year. One of the largest creatures on the planet explod- ing out of the water is truly one of the most remark- able sights in the animal kingdom, he said. None of the researchers had previously witnessed it in Irish waters. The images have been sent to the College of the Atlantic, in the US state of Maine, for matching with the North Atlantic Humpback database of more than 5,000 individually recognisable whales. Humpbacks, once hunted to near-extinction, are now found in every ocean and can grow to about 15m and weigh up to 40 tonnes. Scientists are not sure if breaching serves some purpose, such as cleaning pests from the whales skin or whether whales simply do it for fun. The 45-minute spectacle captured by wildlife film- maker Ross Bartley, will be screened in RTs Wild Journeys series which tells the story of whale migra- tion between Ireland and the Cape Verdes islands. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html