NASA shot a sounding rocket into the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, in Alaska last week. A fish-eye view:

(Donald Hampton - NASA)

NASA scientists say they shot the Terrier-Black Brant rocket at the lights to collect data on “space weather” that may be affecting GPS satellites. Steven Powell, who is leading the research team, explains space weather this way:

“[It] is caused by the charged particles that come from the sun and interact with the Earth's magnetic field. We don't directly feel those effects as humans, but our electronic systems do.”

For many months in 2007, plainclothes members of the New York Police Department built secret files on Muslim communities, taking pictures and eavesdropping in conversations at mosques, cafes and Muslim businesses in New York. The result: a 60-page guide to the city’s Muslims.
Fliers are posted on a wall outside of the prayer room at the Islamic Culture Center in Newark, N.J., in an effort to rebuild trust. (Charles Dharapak - AP)

The report, obtained by the Associated Press, was followed by another revelation Saturday — that the department had also monitored students at universities across the eastern United States, just for being Muslim. And then came the revelation that NYPD had spied on Newark, too.

Vladi­mir Putin wants the female youth vote back.

Demonstrators carry a model of a prison cell with a figure of Prime Minister Vladi­mir Putin inside during an anti-Putin rally in Saint-Petersburg earlier this month. (OLGA MALTSEVA - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Following weeks of protests by young Russians urging the prime minister to quit ahead of March 4 elections, Putin has released a series of suggestive election ads targeted at young women.

“If it’s your first time, make sure it’s for love,” says one ad, as a young woman swoons over Putin’s picture. Another ad shows a fortune teller revealing a tarot card to a young women with Putin’s face, beneath the candlelight.

A number of Wall Street Journal Facebook pages were the subject of a comment flashmob Tuesday, claimed by Anonymous, just hours after the Journal published a report that warned the hacker group was getting more powerful.

Protesters wearing Anonymous Guy Fawkes mask demonstrate in Budapest in February against a law protecting online copyright. (ATTILA KISBENEDEK - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

The Anonymous Kollektiv, believed to based in Germany, told participants to copy the following message on Journal sites:

“Dear editors of the German Wall Street Journal, You equated Anonymous with al-Qaeda in your February 2012 article and the related coverage. With this type of coverage you may be able to stir up fear in the United States, but not in the land of poets and thinkers! With this comment, we would like to oppose the deliberate dissemination of false information and express our displeasure with your lobby journalism. We are Anonymous. We are millions. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us!”

On Tuesday, New York introduced a proposed shark fin ban, joining a growing tide against the Asian delicacy. That same day, the Wall Street Journal challenged conventional wisdom and questioned the bans legitimacy, suggesting that efforts to restrict the shark fin trade were culturally biased.
A man walks past shark fins at a dried seafood store in Hong Kong. (Aaron Tam/AFP/Getty Images)

The story gave plenty of ink to Giam Choo Hoo, who the story identified as “a member of a United Nations body on endangered species.” Here’s the catch: I interviewed Giam for my book, “Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks,” and he wears a few hats. While he does participate in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), he’s also a representative of the shark fin industry in Singapore.