Mar. 23, 2014: Monkey Head Nebula Photos by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

June 28, 2014: Curiosity Selfie at Windjana Photos by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

June 10, 2014: Tight Solar Loops Photos by NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

November 13, 2014: Welcome to a Comet! ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

June 15, 2014: Soaring Eagle Nebula Photos by Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

October 12, 2014: The Most Amazing Thing This Man Has Ever Done ESA/NASA

Watch Earth roll by through the perspective of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in this six-minute timelapse video from space. Combining 12 500 images taken by Alexander during his six-month Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station this Ultra High Definition video shows the best our beautiful planet has to offer.

Marvel at the auroras, sunrises, clouds, stars, oceans, the Milky Way, the International Space Station, lightning, cities at night, spacecraft and the thin band of atmosphere that protects us from space.

Often while conducting scientific experiments or docking spacecraft Alexander would set cameras to automatically take pictures at regular intervals. Combining these images gives the timelapse effect seen in this video.

An Uber driver charged with raping and beating a female passenger 12 days ago in Cambridge is also being eyed in several 
recent Boston attacks on women who told police they had summoned Uber vehicles, police 
said.

Alejandro Done, 46, of Boston is charged with rape, kidnapping and assault and battery.

He is under investigation by Boston and Cambridge cops for three alleged sexual assaults on women by possible ride-share drivers Sunday, said BPD spokesman David Estrada.

“We are aiding Cambridge in that investigation,” Estrada said. He said police will look at “any potential incidents that could be linked.”

Women told Boston police they were assaulted between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Sunday at Dorchester Avenue and Columbia Road, Commonwealth Avenue and 
Faneuil Hall — eight days after the Cambridge incident.

<snip>

A clerk called City Councilor Cody Gibby to report the chief was drunk and should not be driving, and the elected official said Woodruff was holding a can of beer when he arrived.

The two men argued as Gibby tried to wrestle the keys to the patrol car away from Woodruff, who state troopers said struck the city councilor several times as he attempted to drive away.

<snip>

Woodruff previously pleaded guilty to DUI and open container charges in 2004, when he was Delaware County sheriff and had been driving an unmarked sheriff’s vehicle.

He was arrested for drunken driving again in 2008, when he was also charged with carrying a firearm while intoxicated.

City council members said they had been hearing the police chief frequently bought beer while driving his patrol car.

DECEMBER 15--The grand jury witness who testified that she saw Michael Brown pummel a cop before charging at him “like a football player, head down,” is a troubled, bipolar Missouri woman with a criminal past who has a history of making racist remarks and once insinuated herself into another high-profile St. Louis criminal case with claims that police eventually dismissed as a “complete fabrication,” The Smoking Gun has learned.

In interviews with police, FBI agents, and federal and state prosecutors--as well as during two separate appearances before the grand jury that ultimately declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson--the purported eyewitness delivered a preposterous and perjurious account of the fatal encounter in Ferguson.

Referred to only as “Witness 40” in grand jury material, the woman concocted a story that is now baked into the narrative of the Ferguson grand jury, a panel before which she had no business appearing.

While the “hands-up” account of Dorian Johnson is often cited by those who demanded Wilson’s indictment, “Witness 40”’s testimony about seeing Brown batter Wilson and then rush the cop like a defensive end has repeatedly been pointed to by Wilson supporters as directly corroborative of the officer’s version of the August 9 confrontation. The “Witness 40” testimony, as Fox News sees it, is proof that the 18-year-old Brown’s killing was justified, and that the Ferguson grand jury got it right.

Uber was offering refunds to riders in Sydney, Australia after the personal taxi service charged customers up to four times its normal rate to leave the area where a hostage situation was unfolding.

Authorities on Monday warned the public to stay away from Sydney's central business district and evacuated buildings there after a gunman took an unknown number of hostages inside a Lindt Chocolat Cafe. Mashable reported that some Uber users trying to leave that area saw surge pricing was in effect at four times the service's normal rate, with a minimum fare of AU$100, or $82.

We are all concerned with events in CBD. Fares have increased to encourage more drivers to come online & pick up passengers in the area.

— Uber Sydney (@Uber_Sydney) December 15, 2014

Uber employs price surging when demand for the service is high -- on New Year's Eve, for example -- so that more drivers are motivated to get on the road and pick up passengers.