tagged w/ Earth and Science
-
By Andrew Jones
Sunday, February 5, 2012 15:00 EST
Saturday Night Live joined in on the “Newt Gingrich loves the moon” fun in its latest episode.
With his bid of becoming President of the United States no longer possible, SNL’s Gingrich is now president of the lunar world in 2014, providing him sweet redemption for those who ridiculed his “out of this world” idea.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/?p=382836
WATCH: Video from NBC, which was broadcast on February 4, 2012.
"Bang Zoom, Off to the Moon!!!" =)By Andrew Jones
Sunday, February 5, 2012 15:00 EST
Saturday Night Live joined in... more
-
-
KB723
-
added this
-
5 days ago
- |
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
This is something I pulled off Wikipedia because I wanted to try and understand if Natural disasters are getting worse because of Climate change, I've listed only the disasters with the highest 'Death Toll' but the Top 10's are on the link for your perusal.
My conclusion is, I don't know whether Natural disasters are getting more frequent due to Climate change, whether they are better reported because of technology today, whether technology of today has saved many lives from what could have been worse natural disasters, all I can see is, Natural disasters have always happened and have always been tragic...
I've also concluded, Natural Disasters may be responsible for many lives lost, but that number is dwarfed by Mosquito's and Religion!
Avalanches
Death toll (estimate): 50,000
Event: 1970 Huascarán avalanche; triggered by the1970 Ancash earthquake
Location: Peru
Date: 1970
Blizzards
Death toll (estimate): 4,000
Event: 1972 Iran blizzard
Location: Iran
Date: 1972
Communicable diseases
Death toll (estimate): 100,000,000 approx.
Event: Black Death
Location: Asia, Europe, Africa
Date: 1300s–1720s
Cyclones (including hurricanes)
Death toll: 500,000
Event: 1970 Bhola cyclone
Location: East Pakistan, Pakistan (now Bangladesh)
Date: November 13, 1970
Earthquakes
Death toll: 830,000
Event: 1556 Shaanxi earthquake
Location: China
Date: January 23, 1556
Famines
Death toll: 15,000,000–43,000,000
Event: Great Chinese Famine
Location: China
Date: 1958–1961
Floods and landslides
Death toll: 2,500,000–3,700,000
Event: 1931 China floods
Location: China
Date: 1931
Lightning strikes
Death toll: 4,000
Event: Palace of the Grand Masters Explosion, Rhodes
Location: Greece
Date: 1856
Limnic eruptions
Death toll: 1,746
Event: Lake Nyos
Location: Cameroon
Date: 1986
Storms (non-cyclone)
Death toll: 15,100
Event: Torrential rains and mudslides
Location: Venezuela
Date: 1999
Tornadoes
Death toll: 1,300
Event: The Daulatpur-Salturia Tornado
Location: Manikganj, Bangladesh
Date: April 26, 1989
Tsunamis
Death toll: 230,210 - 310,000
Event: 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
Location: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Malaysia, Somalia,Bangladesh, Thailand
Date: 26 December, 2004
Volcanic eruptions
Death toll: 92,000
Event: Mount Tambora (see also Year Without a Summer)
Location: Indonesia
Date: April 10, 1815
Wildfires and bush-fires
Death toll: 1,200–2,500
Event: Peshtigo Fire, Wisconsin
Location: United States
Date: October 8, 1871http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
This is... more
-
-
Artist's conception of the rogue planet Nibiru, or Planet X.
On Dec. 21, 2012, many doomsday believers fear the apocalypse — anything from a rogue planet smashing into us to our world spinning end over end. However, the world should expect nothing more next year than the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, NASA says.
Many people point to the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 as evidence of the coming apocalypse, but astronomers have been quick to stress that there is nothing to be concerned about.
According to the ancient Mayan calendar, next year's winter solstice marks the end of a 144,000-day cycle. This cycle, which begins at the mythical Maya creation date, has already been repeated 12 times. The 13th will end in 2012, capping a full 5,200-year Mayan cycle of creation.
This date has long been shrouded in mystery, with many claiming that it will bring destruction to our planet.
Rogue planet Nibiru?
One fear is that a rogue planet that has been dubbed "Nibiru" or "Planet X" is supposedly aimed at Earth. Self-proclaimed Nibiru expert Nancy Lieder, who says she is in contact with the aliens from Zeta Reticuli, first said Nibiru would cause widespread disaster in May 2003, only to change it to Dec. 21, 2012.
There is, however, no evidence that Nibiru is real.
"Nibiru is ridiculous because it doesn't exist — it never existed as anything other than a figment of the imagination by pseudo-scientists who don't seem bothered by a complete lack of evidence," astronomer Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told SPACE.com.
There is no basis for the claim that it might be lurking behind the sun, as it could not have hidden from observation until now, Yeomans said. If such a planet was headed toward Earth by Dec. 21, 2012, it would already be visible to the naked eye.
Cosmic alignments?
There are also concerns that planets or stars might line up in ways that will transform Earth. For instance, some theorists claim that from our point of view, the sun will cross in front of the plane of our galaxy on Dec. 21. However, the sun already does this twice a year, Yeomans said.
In fact, the sun will eventually cross the plane of our galaxy. However, the sun is about 67 light-years from the galactic plane, so it should take several million years to do so, Yeomans said. Even then, when our solar system finally does cross the plane, nothing special will occur, he added.
Some also claim that gravitational effects from planets lining up with each other will somehow affect Earth. However, there is no planetary alignment due on Dec. 21, 2012, "and if there were, it wouldn't cause any problems," Yeomans said.
The only bodies that have any significant gravitational impact on Earth are the moon and the sun, effects we see as the tides. Tidal effects from other bodies in our solar system are negligible at best, and in any case, we have experienced them for millions of years without notice.
Solar storms?
Solar storms — deluges of energetic particles from the sun — do happen, usually waxing and waning in cycles that last roughly 11 years. When these charged particles collide with Earth, they can trigger auroras and damage satellites and power lines, although not really inflicting any lasting harm, Yeomans said.
There are accounts of a solar "super-storm" slamming into Earth in 1859. Although that caused relatively little damage back then, there are concerns that such a storm might cause far more harm now that our world is more dependent on electronics.
Yet, there is no evidence that such a super-storm will happen on Dec. 21 of next year, Yeomans said.
Flip-flopping Earth?
There is some alarm that 2012 could see the flipping of Earth's poles — either the planet's geographical poles, which mark the Earth's axis of rotation, or its magnetic poles, which our compasses point toward.
But, there is no reason to fear such an occurrence, scientists said, because the moon stabilizes our planet's spin. The planet's magnetic poles do flip, but over periods of about 500,000 years, and not suddenly, "but over thousands of years," with no evidence of a flip on Dec. 21, 2012, Yeomans said.
Even if the planet's magnetic poles do flip, no real problems would occur, other than the inconvenience of us having to change our compasses from north to south, he added.
Cosmic impacts?
The Earth is always vulnerable to impacts by comets and asteroids, but giant impacts are rare, with the last major collision taking place 65 million years ago, ending the Age of Dinosaurs.
Still, astronomers do monitor the sky for near-Earth objects.
"There are no known near-Earth objects in 2012 that present a credible risk to Earth," Yeomans said. "None, zero, zip, nada."
But despite evidence to the contrary, doomsdays theorists have garnered attention, and similar prophecies will continue to proliferate unless scientists become more involved in bringing truth to these outlandish claims, Yeomans said.
Mounting hysteria regarding these unfounded doomsday predictions "will improve only if scientists get more engaged in debunking pseudoscience," he said.Artist's conception of the rogue planet Nibiru, or Planet X.
On Dec. 21, 2012,... more
-
-
By Muriel Kane
Friday, December 9, 2011
When asked about his views on climate change at a campaign event, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney replied that the earth might be getting warmer, but that his top priority as president would be to increase energy production in the United States.
“I’m not a scientist, so I don’t know the answer to these things,” he told the questioner. “I think the earth is getting warmer. May be wrong. I think we probably contribute something to it, but I don’t know if we contribute a little or a lot. And therefore, when I come to the policies I’d put in place, I do not support cap and trade policies, which raise the cost of energy.”
“Scientists will figure that out ten, twenty, fifty years from now,” he concluded. “But the right policy for me is, use our domestic sources of energy — including our renewables, and our gas, and our coal, and our nuclear, and our oil — and that’s the right course for America.”
In sharp contrast with Romney’s suggestion that the question of climate change can be deferred for another fifty years, however, the majority of scientists have already concluded that man-made global warming is real, has already contributed to an unprecedented number of climate disasters, and will be irreversible unless significant changes are made within the next decade.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/09/romney-scientists-can-figure-out-global-warming-50-years-from-now/
This video is from CNN, broadcast Dec. 9, 2011.
"Seems the GOP is always willing to kick the can down the road... More often then not, after they have been here and gone!!!"By Muriel Kane
Friday, December 9, 2011
When asked about his views on climate... more
-
-
KB723
-
added this
-
2 months ago
- |
-
Earthquakes of a 4.0 magnitude east of the Rocky Mountains can typically be felt from up to 60 miles away, according to the USGS. A 5.5 magnitude quake can be felt up to 300 miles from its epicentre.
http://goo.gl/I0zx6Earthquakes of a 4.0 magnitude east of the Rocky Mountains can typically be felt from... more
-
-
A SCIENTIST has created a series of snapshots showing how power lines, roads and air traffic corridors dominate the surface of the planet.
Felix Pharand Deschenes has created the stunning scientific illustrations of modern technology's effect on the Earth using only the internet and a home computer.
He collected his data through various US government agencies."These pictures show several sides of global human activities,.
"We see everything from paved and unpaved roads, light pollution, railways, electricity transmission lines, all the way to submarine cables, pipelines, shipping lanes and air traffic."
The representations are not to scale, however, as electrical wires could not be seen from space.Felix added: "But it shows the extent of our civilisation, the patterns of our global sprawl, how human-influenced our planet now is."
Felix is the founder and director of Globaia, an organisation that seeks to increase awareness of the impact of the human race on our world.
This will only become more exaggerated in the future, as The United Nations Populations Fund revealed earlier this week that there will be more than SEVEN billion people on Earth by October 31.
In 1999, there were six billion people on earth. By the end of the 21st Century the world population could more than double to 15.8billion people.
Felix said: "I thought there would be huge strengths associated with global pictures depicting how far we've been at colonising, domesticating and transforming our home planet.
"We've seen similar pictures in movies like Star Wars, Contact, Avatar and the likes but I have never seen realistic renderings for our Earth."
During his research, he discovered that more than three per cent of the world's land surface had been covered in tarmac. This equates to a land mass of 1.7million square miles - bigger than the whole of India.
He said: "Today's global civilisation is the work of billions of people throughout history.
"The world at the start of the 21st Century is also the result of what we call the Great Acceleration - the most rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in history."A SCIENTIST has created a series of snapshots showing how power lines, roads and air... more
-
-
German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry.
The move is a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March, chief executive Peter Loescher said.
He told Spiegel magazine it was the firm's answer to "the clear positioning of German society and politics for a pullout from nuclear energy".
"The chapter for us is closed," he said, announcing that the firm will no longer build nuclear power stations.
Mr Loescher also gave his backing to the German government's planned switch to renewable energy sources, calling it a "project of the century" and claiming Berlin's target of reaching 35% renewable energy by 2020 was achievable.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced at the end of May that all of the country's 17 nuclear reactors would be shut down by 2022.
Prior to the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power accounted for 23% of electricity production in Germany.
The decision marked a complete U-turn by the chancellor, who only in September 2010 had announced that the life of existing nuclear plants would be extended by an average of 12 years.German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from... more
-
-
Wetdog
-
added this
-
5 months ago
- |
-
http://rtruth.blog.com/2011/09/12/collateral-damage-uncovering-haarp/
HAARP with its 180 transmission towers, that combine to emit a massive beam, of power and light, In a burst lasting more than a few minutes, it slices through the Ionosphere like a scalpel made of microwaves. This produces a long incision in this vital layer of the atmosphere. HAARP then heats large sections of the Ionosphere until they bulge to form a ‘curved lens’. This ‘curved lens’ reflects HAARP’s massive energy beams, back to earth to destroy selected targets. Presumably without leaving even a trace of what caused the devastation. Except for the strange circular cloud formations that occur once the ‘curved lens’ is created. Think about the movie Independence Day when the White House was obliterated by the alien Spaceship hovering above. Well HAARP works like that beam from the spaceship. However you don’t need to hover over your target or even be seen. HAARP directs the beam from space and you can’t even prove it was HAARP. Wow! Thats scary at the same time.http://rtruth.blog.com/2011/09/12/collateral-damage-uncovering-haarp/
HAARP with... more
-
-
mab001
-
added this
-
5 months ago
- |
-
We are Spiritual Beings, partaking on a journey through Earth. The Ego is a creation of the mind in the Physical sense that it can help you create your reality on Earth. However it has no spiritual knowledge to what the Creator has in store for you. The ego is apart of your physical body, not your Spirit.The Spirit is your direct connection to the Source Energy and all that is, and yet to be, that is God. The Spirit has the divine knowledge through the Source Energy of God and possesses the Understanding to empower you with the wisdom to reflect the Creator in his creation you! The Spirit is permanent therefore it is real on more planes then one.We are Spiritual Beings, partaking on a journey through Earth. The Ego is a creation... more
-
-
mab001
-
added this
-
5 months ago
- |
-
A man who has spent a lifetime in politics should have learned more about how one should conduct one’s self in public. Profanity-laden tirades —while one wallows in character defamation of the growing number of scientists who are willing to risk their careers to disagree with the theories that have become the ideological core of the environmental movement — ought to be beneath Gore, but apparently it is not. In truth, if it were not for the high office which was once entrusted to him, it would be easier to simply feel pity for Al Gore.A man who has spent a lifetime in politics should have learned more about how one... more
-
-
End Thirst.
End Hunger.
End Droughts.
End Crop Failure.
End Disease Epidemics.
End World Wide Pollutions.
End Human Misery and Poverty.
End Heat-Provoked Earthquakes!
Provide Potable Drinking~Crop Water
to all Third World Countries & their people...
by eliminate all crude oil combustion engines by
converting Combustion Engines into Steam Engines.
Problem is pollution is finishing off humans and their planet. Problem: the number of World Engines horsepower equals 37 BILLION OXYGEN-BURNING HORSES. Problem: Childhood Obesity from low O2 = fewer calories burned. Are humans stupid? No, we need a major Paradigm Shift (change course helmsman). We love big engines under the hood!!! => http://www.proformanceunlimited.com/PC081628.png
Actually there's nothing wrong with wanting the best, best clothes, best homes, best lives, nothing wrong with that. We prefer riding to walking long distances. Our engines are wonderful to have our servants that free us to live without 18 hours a day working the fields or flour mills or cotton fields back home. Working our lives away so much there's no time left to live the life with a family, learn to play instruments, study flowers and butterflies and astronomy and trips to the Moon.
We spend our whole life working deep in some coal mine... for ENERGY. That big beautiful V-8 engine can easily be converted to being a steam engine, but unlike the steam engines of old in locomotives, cars and trucks, even ocean liners and cotton mills, and weaving factories, THE COMBUSTION ENGINE CAN RUN ON WATER ALONE. Our engines are made Backwards. Here's how it is done =>
#1: Get rid of the sparkplugs, put in straight nozzle injectors.
#2. Take out the radiators & replace with TANKLESS WATER HEATERS.
#3. FILL THE GAS TANK WITH WATER.
#4. Fill the engine cooling system and tankless water heater with a dense, heat-retaining fluid that circulates into the engine "cooling jacket" except it is so super hot it flashes the injected water into steam. Hello 21st Century Good-bye World Poverty!End Thirst.
End Hunger.
End Droughts.
End Crop Failure.
End Disease Epidemics.... more
-
-
In the early 20th Century---coal mine operators had become so blatantly abusive and exploitive that they were even doing things like hiring private armies of mercenary thugs to intimidate labor organizers. In several cases they even murdered people indiscriminately in areas where labor organizing activities were taking place. This is when the word "thug" came into common use, after a group in India that murdered people by strangulation----paid assassins.
-------" Throughout the early 20th century, West Virginia coal miners attempted to overthrow this brutal system and engaged in a series of strikes, such as the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike of 1912, and which coal operators attempted to stop through violent means. Mining families lived under the terror of Baldwin-Felts detective agents who were professional strikebreakers under the hire of coal operators. During that dispute agents drove a heavily armored train through a tent colony at night, opening fire on women, men and children with a machine gun.[8] They would repeat this type of tactic during the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado the next year, with even more disastrous results.[9]"--------
Blair Mountain is the site of the largest armed conflict in the United States outside of the Civil War. As many as 130 people were killed in battle with Logan County sheriff's deputies and paid strike breakers from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency.
Now, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, in moves that only highlights its well known and well paid position of bought and paid for by wealthy industrial interests-----not only wants to destroy the environment which they are supposed to be protecting, they also want to destroy our history as well by allowing the mountain top removal mining of Blair Mountain. Destroy the environment, destroy the people who have to work in the mines(WVDEP allowed violations that led to the deaths of 29 miners last year at a Massey Energy mine----and countless others)-----and now, they want to destroy our history as well. By erasing the memory of miners who gave their lives trying to make better working conditions.
Tom Clark---the director of WVDEP called the efforts to end the mountain top mining destruction of Blair Mountain---and preserve the site of one of the most significant pieces of the history of the the United States---"frivolous".
I suspect he calls anything that doesn't show a profit and put money in his pocket frivolous.
Please lend your support to stopping the destruction of Blair Mountain---and lets do what we can to preserve this site of an important piece of US history as a national park. Send letters to your congressmen and let it be known that you don't want our environment, our history and a piece of who we are destroyed to the profit of a few industrialists.In the early 20th Century---coal mine operators had become so blatantly abusive and... more
-
-
Wetdog
-
added this
-
6 months ago
- |
-
Yes, not only can stars be photographed in LOW EARTH ORBIT on the daylight side of the Earth....But they can be photographed without over-exposing the Earth and shuttle/ISS as well! Now the propaganda and lies can come to a close, ending the chapter of space lies coming out of NASA!Yes, not only can stars be photographed in LOW EARTH ORBIT on the daylight side of the... more
-
-
S3th
-
added this
-
7 months ago
- |
-
-
The moon will rise in Earth's shadow this evening in a rare lunar eclipse that could turn the moon a deep shade of red.
Skywatchers anticipate spectacular lunar eclipse tonight and if there are clear skies the celestial spectacle will be visible across the UK, with the exception of northern Scotland, as soon as the moon rises after sunset.
Moonrise time varies with location, but for observers in London, the show will begin at 9.13pm. Further north, in Glasgow, moonrise begins at 9.58pm.
Source: The GuardianThe moon will rise in Earth's shadow this evening in a rare lunar eclipse that... more
-
-
-
But, with food prices rising, 29 countries needing food aid this year, and budget shortfalls creating cries that foreign aid should be ended, we've got to cut the world's annual growth rate ever more quickly. As was stated at the Earth Summit in 1992 by the then United Nations Under-Secretary General, Maurice Strong, "Either we reduce the world's population voluntarily or nature will do this for us, but brutally." That was when the world had only 5.5 billion people to support. In another six months the number will be a full 7 billion, more than a 25% increase, with yet another 25% increase on top of that expected before 2050. For the foreseeable future, Strong's statement remains 100% correct and more important than ever. Voluntary population reduction remains a "must."But, with food prices rising, 29 countries needing food aid this year, and budget... more
-
-
SPOIL is a feature documentary produced by EP Films and the International League of Conservation Photographers on the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and associated supertankers that threaten British Columbia and its coast.
The film follows the recent expedition of the world's top nature photographers to the Great Bear Rainforest - in the heart of the proposed tanker route - to document the incredible wilderness and vast cultural values at stake from tankers that would carry Tar Sands crude oil and Bitumen through these Pacific Coastal waters en route for sale to Asia and the United States.
SPOIL recently claimed the environmental film prize at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.
http://vimeo.com/19582018SPOIL is a feature documentary produced by EP Films and the International League of... more
-
-
It looks like a giant potato in space.
And yet, the information in this model is the sharpest view we have of how gravity varies across the Earth.
The globe has been released by the team working on Europe's Goce satellite.
It is a highly exaggerated rendering, but it neatly illustrates how the tug we feel from the mass of rock under our feet is not the same in every location.
Gravity is strongest in yellow areas; it is weakest in blue ones.
Scientists say the data gathered by the super-sleek space probe is bringing a step change in our understanding of the force that pulls us downwards and the way it is shaping some key processes on Earth.
Chief among these new insights is a clearer view of how the oceans are moving and how they redistribute the heat from the Sun around the world - information that is paramount to climate studies.
Those interested in earthquakes are also poring over the Goce results. The giant jolts that struck Japan last month and Chile last year occurred because huge masses of rock suddenly moved. Goce should reveal a three-dimensional view of what was going on inside the Earth.
"Even though these quakes resulted from big movements in the Earth, at the altitude of the satellite the signals are very small. But we should still seem them in the data," said Dr Johannes Bouman from the German Geodetic Research Institute (DGFI).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12911806It looks like a giant potato in space.
And yet, the information in this model is... more
-
-
Follow the link to see these easy steps to create a bumblebee nest for your own back yard
Also check out http://www.bumblebee.org/nestboxes.htm for more advice and detailsFollow the link to see these easy steps to create a bumblebee nest for your own back... more
-
