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Caution
Technical information and scientific data from the US Government agencies (NASA, EPA…) are subject to variation due to political expediency.
This caution also extends to the UN organizations (e.g., FAO, WHO…).
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The very low IQ Vice President Mike Pence has announced that the Department of Defense is planning to establish a sixth military branch, known as the Space Force. He says the new Space Force military division will be in place by 2020.
It’s unclear how much more NASA would be involved in military and intelligence activities within the Space Force.
Prepared by FIRE-EARTH teams and affiliated political scientists.
Presentation available from FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.
[Latest FIRE-EARTH DIRECTIVES, ALERTS, FORECASTS, BULLETINS and MESSAGES available to authorized groups via FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.]
WMO, the UN’s climate and weather organization, reported today a record-size Antarctic Ozone Hole (AOH); however, it said there was no cause for alarm as it should shrink again!
[Be sure to familiarize yourself with the AOH narrative. See links to blog posts on the subject listed below—Ed.]
WMO Antarctic Ozone Bulletin no. 4, 2015
The area of the region where total ozone is less than 220 DU, the so-called “ozone hole area”, averaged over the 30 worst consecutive days has reached 26.9 million square kilometres according to data from NASA. This places 2015 as the third largest ozone hole on record according to this criterion. One has to go back to 2006 and to 2000 to find a larger ozone hole area for this time period. A stable and large vortex, concentric around the south pole and characterised by low temperatures explains why 2015 experiences the largest ozone hole since 2006. […]
The figure shows the partial ozone column between 12 and 20 km altitude above the South Pole station. This is measured with electrochemical ozonesondes launched on balloons from the ground. The small light blue dots show all observations done from 1991 to 2014. The medium blue circles show the measurements from 2006, the year that saw the most severe ozone hole on record. The orange diamonds show data from 2015. Although the 2015 minimum is not as low as in 2006, the 2015 observations still show some of lowest partial columns measured throughout the history of the Antarctic ozone hole. This figure has been provided by Bryan Johnston and Kirk Thoning at the Global Monitoring Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Source: WMO Antarctic Ozone Bulletin no. 4, 2015.
On 5th August the NAT area reached a maximum for the season with 28.2 million km2, which is higher than the maximum reached in recent years. One has to go back to 2009 to find a higher PSC area maximum (28.4 million km2). Also in September and so far in October, the NAT area has been well above the long-term mean. Since mid October, the NAT area has oscillated around the long term maximum for this time of the year.
Willie Soon, a U.S. climate change skeptic, who also denies mercury health risks, is a Big Oil pawn: Greenpeace
Soon, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has received funding from:
NASA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Big Oil and Big Coal
American Petroleum Institute
Koch Industries
“Last year, the foundation of Charles Koch, chairman and CEO of privately held Koch Industries, gave Soon $65,000 to study how variations in the Sun are related to climate change,” a report said.
“Soon also got $131,000 from oil major Exxon Mobil Corp in 2007 and 2008 received grants to study the Sun’s role in climate change and global warming in the Arctic, Greenpeace said.”
FIRE-EARTH is receiving dozens of comments from at least four different sources that are forcefully demanding a debate on the Sun’s role in climate change and global warming.
Needless to say, those comments are invariably deleted.
Who’s Willie Soon [Sourced from wikipedia]
Willie Wei-Hock Soon (born 1966 in Malaysia) is an astrophysicist at the Solar and Stellar Physics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Soon has testified before Congress on the issue of climate change He is known for his views that most global warming is caused by solar variation.
He is chief science adviser to the Science and Public Policy Institute, a think tank which disputes the belief that global warming is anthropogenic.Soon is also associated with the George C. Marshall Institute, where he co-authored Lessons and Limits of Climate History: Was 20th Century Climate Unusual? with Sallie Baliunas. The pair have also written for the Fraser Institute of Canada regarding Sun-climate connections.
One of their publications was the center of political controversy, and editors resigned from the journal which published the paper.Soon and Baliunas have also been criticised because their research budget was funded in part by the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association. Another paper coauthored by Soon started a heated debate with polar bear experts.
In 2004 Soon was awarded the “Petr Beckmann Award for courage and achievement in the defense of scientific truth” by Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. (!!)
DDP is unconvinced of the role of CFCs in ozone depletion, the role of greenhouse gases in global warming, and in the utility of renewable energy sources. [Sourced from wikipedia]
Glory and the launcher probably ended up in the Southern Pacific Ocean: Launch director
Taxpayers observed in agony and despair as another $500 million dollars of their borrowed money sank in the ocean.
An autistic impression of Glory satellite orbiting Earth. Source: NASA
The Taurus XL rocket’s payload fairing failed to separate about 3 minutes into the launch as planned, making the rocket too heavy to reach the correct orbit.
The launch director said the satellite and the launcher had probably fallen in the Southern Pacific Ocean.
The previous Taurus XL launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory also ended in a similar abysmal failure in February 2009 when payload fairing separation failed to occur.
NASA SNAFU: Launch video clip of the failed Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA’s Glory satellite
NASA’s Failed Orbiting Carbon Observatory and its Taurus booster. “The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere.” Source: NASA
Corporate Sabotage, or Sheer Incompetence?
It would be difficult to pin down the second failure on the sheer incompetence of NASA teams involved. It would become increasingly clear however that the Glory failure may have been one giant leap toward “necessitating” the corporate takeover of yet another national institution [See references concerning Googlification of NOAA on this blog.]
Serial No 1,552. Starting April 2010, each entry on this blog has a unique serial number. If any of the numbers are missing, it may mean that the corresponding entry has been blocked by the authorities/Google in your country. Please drop us a line if you detect any anomaly/missing number(s).
At a time when all of our scientific efforts should be concentrated on saving this planet’s ability to support life, ESA and NASA, Adam’s two unruly children, are diverting attention and resources from Earth to Venus. Their efforts are wasteful and therefore UNINTELLIGENT.
The following was released by the European Space Agency, ESA
Venus is alive—geologically speaking
ESA’s Venus Express has returned the clearest indication yet that Venus is still geologically active. Relatively young lava flows have been identified by the way they emit infrared radiation. The finding suggests the planet remains capable of volcanic eruptions.
The image shows the volcanic peak Idunn Mons (at 46°S, 214.5°E) in the Imdr Regio area of Venus. The topography derives from data obtained by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, with a vertical exaggeration of 30 times. Radar data (in brown) from Magellan has been draped on top of the topographic data. Bright areas are rough or have steep slopes. Dark areas are smooth. The colored overlay shows the heat patterns derived from surface brightness data collected by the visible and infrared thermal imaging spectrometer (VIRTIS) aboard ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft. Temperature variations due to topography were removed. The brightness signals the composition of the minerals that have been changed due to lava flow. Red-orange is the warmest area and purple is the coolest. The warmest area is situated on the summit, which stands about 2.5 km above the plains, and on the bright flows that originate there. Idunn Mons has a diameter of about 200 km. The VIRTIS data was collected from May 2006 to the end of 2007. Source: ESA/NASA/JPL
It has long been recognised that there are simply not enough craters on Venus. Something is wiping the planet’s surface clean. That something is thought to be volcanic activity but the question is whether it happens quickly or slowly? Is there some sort of cataclysmic volcanic activity that resurfaces the entire planet with lava, or a gradual sequence of smaller volcanic eruptions? New results suggest the latter.
“Now we have strong evidence right at the surface for recent eruptions,” says Sue Smrekar, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
That strong evidence comes in the form of compositional differences compared to the surrounding landscape in three volcanic regions. The data were collected by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet since April 2006.
VIRTIS records the brightness of surface rocks, providing an estimate of ’emissivity’. In 2008, Jörn Helbert and Nils Müller, Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Berlin and co-authors on this new work, published a map of the variation of infrared emissivity across the southern hemisphere of Venus.
Dr Smrekar and her colleagues targeted three regions that geologically resemble Hawaii, well known for its active volcanism. They show that the regions on Venus have higher emissivities than their surroundings, indicating different compositions.
On Earth, lava flows react rapidly with oxygen and other elements in the atmosphere, changing their composition. On Venus, the process should be similar, though more intense because of the hotter, denser atmosphere, chiefly of carbon dioxide.
The researchers interpret the fact that the lava flows appear to have different compositions from their surroundings as being evidence of a lack of surface weathering, indicating that the flows erupted relatively recently. They estimate that the flows are possibly as geologically recent as 2 500 000 years – and likely much less, possibly even currently active. “This is a significant result,” says Håkan Svedhem, ESA Venus Express Project Scientist.
Whilst the gradual resurfacing scenario might not be the most spectacular, it does make Venus look a little more Earth-like.
“There are some intriguing models of how Venus could have completely covered itself in kilometres of volcanic lava in a short time, but they require that the interior of Venus behaves very differently from Earth. If volcanism is more gradual, this implies that the interior may behave more like Earth, though without plate tectonics,” says Dr Smrekar.
As Fire-Earth always maintained, ‘return’ to the moon was a dumb idea!
US astronauts will not be ‘returning’ to the moon: White House adviser
White House has confirmed that US astronauts will not be “returning” to the moon, but NASA will instead focus on developing commercial space transport.
Buzz Lightyear imitating his namesake US Astronaut Buzz Aldrin in an Apollo spacesuit. Neither of the two Buzzes have ever revealed why it was so easy to go to the moon the first time, yet so difficult to return. Image credit: NASA. [Image edited by FEWW for added humor.]
“President Barack Obama will ask Congress to extend International Space Station operations through at least 2020 but abandon NASA’s current plans to return U.S. astronauts to the moon, administration and NASA officials said Wednesday.” Florida Today reported earlier.
NASA will instead be instructed to develop U.S. commercial space taxi services to transport American astronauts to and from the space station (ISS).
“‘Budgets are very tight,’ said former astronaut Sally Ride, who served on a presidential panel that determined NASA’s current Project Constellation—the post-shuttle program—is on ‘an unsustainable trajectory.,”
“For NASA to be getting new money over the projections is to me an indication of how seriously this administration takes NASA and our goal of future innovations for this country.”
White House is planning to create 1,700 jobs in Florida and another 5,000 jobs nationwide, to compensate for an estimated loss of 7,000 jobs at Kennedy Space Center when the shuttle program expires in 2011.
The shuttle is expected to make five additional flights, including the next mission by the Endeavour scheduled for a February 7.
“NASA since 2004 has invested $9 billion in developing the Constellation program’s Ares I and Ares V rockets and the Apollo-style Orion crew capsule for missions to the moon, Mars and, in the event no commercial means becomes available, the International Space Station.” The report said.
The plan was to ‘return’ NASA astronauts to the moon before 2020; however, the presidential panel which reviewed NASA’s plans decided that it was unlikely for anyone to ‘return’ to the moon before 2028. [Ouch!]
Meanwhile US astronauts are expected to taxi to the ISS aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
“We really do believe it is time for American companies to come into this program in a way that they have on the cargo side for decades now,” a senior NASA official was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity.
The totally mindless Constellation program was launched by the totally mindless George W. Bush in 2004.
President Obama, meanwhile, release a statement on NASA’s Day of Remembrance:
For more than a half-century, NASA has explored our final frontier and transformed humankind’s understanding of our planet and its place in the universe. These extraordinary achievements have required great sacrifice.
On this Day of Remembrance, we pause to reflect on the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crews, as well as others who lost their lives supporting NASA’s mission of exploration and study of the earth, the planets and the stars. All of humanity has benefited from their courage and devotion.
We mourn their loss while celebrating their spirit of discovery. May their sacrifice be an inspiration as we continue our nation’s work to explore our universe.
The worst thing that could have happened to NASA is actually happening. Unintelligent programming, and misuse of taxpayer money gave the administration the excuse theyre looking for to throw them at the big, bad commercial wolves!
Image of the Day: Please, can we have some more water?
Her’s another egregious example of science gone awry from its intended purpose of serving humanity. At a time when socially blind NASA “elites” are spending tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money playing space invaders, bombing the moon and looking for water, people are perishing from the lack of water here on Earth, abandoned by science.
A villager walks in the partially dried-up Mahanadi river in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, November 17, 2009. REUTERS/Krishnendu Halder. Image may be subject to copyright.
When the Scientists Take the Taxpayers to the Cleaners Series
The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.—NASA
Well, whoever argued that in the first place, and which one of you thought of that smug opening line?
“Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.” [Watch out folks, you’re being included, and that always comes at a price.]
It’s a painful day for science, when NASA Lunar scientists, behaving like lunatic coal-mining engineers with a mountaintop removal company, blow up a mountaintop to find coal. [And how does finding water on the moon help a dying species back here on earth? FEWW]
If finding water on the moon is so important to the evolution of mankind and advancement of his science, and it isn’t by any stretch of imagination, why not sending a probe to look for water.
There’s something inherently violent about NASA ‘Lacrosse’ team and their methods: To prove moon was ‘fertile’ they had to rape her.
“We’re unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and by extension the solar system. It turns out the moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding,” said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
As any high school student could probably tell you, most of celestial objects known to us contain some ice. The comets are half ice. [And that ought to reveal some of the “secrets” of universe… Also try Jupiter, Saturn… It’s believed that water vapor is contained in a jet ejected from a supermassive black hole at the center of MG J0414+0534 galaxy. FEWW]
“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water.”
Don’t forget to take your bathing towel, buster.
To successfully venture into the galaxy, humankind needs a highly refined philosophical approach to the reason, strategy and outcome, the basis of which would determine the right method and appropriate technology. Mountaintop removal ‘science’ is not a valid option.
Further, any attempt that does not satisfy the philosophical criteria would be doomed to failure in the long term.
If this is the best they’ve got and that’s the route they are taking, don’t hold your breath for NASA lunar missions.
No they haven’t; neither have they any usable water!¹
These are just hypes and excuses trying to rekindle taxpayers’ interests in unnecessary manned flights to the moon, with a new commercial twist.
But beware also of the blue-ribbon panel, which equally condemns flights to the moon, while recommending that NASA should be privatized beyond anything previously envisaged.
Prodded by a powerful corporate lobby, certain elements within NASA are trying desperately to please a group of super-wealthy investors by way of resuming flights to the moon.
Is there really water on the moon? So what!
Dark shadows obscure craters on the moon’s south pole in a picture from NASA’s 1994 Clementine mission. Scientists have long suspected the moon might have water, possible hidden in these permanent shadows. Now a trio of satellites have confirmed that water does exist in trace amounts over the entire lunar surface, scientists said in September 2009. Picture courtesy NASA. Caption: National Geographic
The group, which includes the bosses of companies like Google, Oracle, Saatchi and Saatchi, Virgin Galactic, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Space Exploration Technologies Corp … [Tattaglias will guarantee security, Mike,] … are planning highly lucrative commercial space flights, and ultimately tourist moonshots.
They see NASA as an indispensable “partner” in their joint venture. NASA (the US taxpayer) would fit the flight bill, most of it anyway, while the Virgin Atlantic consortium, assuming they keep the same name, would reap unprecedented profits, making ever larger fortunes from the flights, as they continue to rape the moon.
Unfortunately, the abuse of the system won’t stop there. One day soon, everything to do with space would be highly commercialized, and some of the things you currently take for granted, like free access to space photos and satellite imagery, become available only at a price.
A blue-ribbon panel … called the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, headed by former Lockheed Martin Corp. Chairman Norman Augustine … calls for sweeping changes in the way NASA does business and envisions a dramatically expanded role for private enterprise in human space flight in the coming decades beyond anything proposed previously.
A new report by the panel “calls for sweeping changes” in the way NASA is administered and “envisions a dramatically expanded role for private enterprise in human space flight in the coming decades beyond anything proposed previously.”
1. REM: Probably traces of water do exist on the moon because water exists in many celestial objects in the Universe. Even comet nuclei are made up of ice, dust and other particles. But, would the water excuse make going to the moon good science anymore than mining comets for water does?
40 years ago two NASA astronauts landed on the moon and THEN blasted off back into the space without a moon crew
For the skeptics who don’t believe a word of NASA claims, see image below
Original Caption:LRO image of Apollo 11 landing site. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University. Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle. Image width: 282 meters (about 925 ft.) › Larger image
Apollo 11 guidance computer
The NASA achievement becomes even more interesting when you learn that Apollo 11 guidance computer had a grand old memory of 36kB (some sources say the memory was 72kB).
This Display and Keyboard unit, or DSKY, was the interface for the Apollo computers. The ‘Verb’ and ‘Noun’ buttons are on the lower left-hand side of the unit.
Buzz Aldrin Lightyear
This image is a screenshot from a copyrighted film. For copyright details see:Buzz Lightyear
Where are the Moon Buggies (LRVs) at? I believe they were about 7 square meters, so they should theoretically show up in the 15-17 images as at least a couple pixels. I wonder where they were located when the crews departed.
Great pictures, I’ve been waiting a long time to see these!
NASA Moderator: Buggies should be visible in some later images. This is just a taste of what’s to come.
NASA Still Believes You Need a Rocket Scientist to Launch a Satellite into Orbit!
NASA’s mission to measure carbon dioxide from space fails as the $300 million satellite dives into Antarctica.
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory and its Taurus booster lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. A contingency was declared a few minutes later. Image credit: NASA TV
OCO was launched on a Taurus XL, the smallest rocket used by NASA. XL is manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation and has reportedly flown eight times, with a 25 percent failure rate (two failures including the OCO launch).
In a statement released shortly after the failed launch NASA said:
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite failed to reach orbit after its 4:55 a.m. EST liftoff this morning from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate. The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere.
The spacecraft did not reach orbit and likely landed in the Pacific Ocean near Antarctica, said John Brunschwyler, the program manager for the Taurus XL.
A Mishap Investigation Board will immediately be convened to determine the cause of the launch failure.
Preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate. The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere.
The European Space Agency, ESA, reconstructed its Cryosat spacecraft after it was destroyed on launch in 2006. ESA officials recently announced that it would be launched again in late 2009. However, the future of the OCO mission remains uncertain for now.
This is an artist’s concept of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory. The mission, scheduled to launch in early 2009, will be the first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the principal human-produced driver of climate change. It will provide the first global picture of the human and natural sources of carbon dioxide and the places where this important greenhouse gas is stored. Such information will improve global carbon cycle models as well as forecasts of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and of how our climate may change in the future. Image credit: NASA/JPL. Caption: NASA.
A team of NASA engineers and scientists, who have now suspended the reactivation of the orbiting observatory after experiencing a new malfunction, had been trying to remotely boot up the space telescope’s back-up computer system after its primary data formatter, which sends data to Earth, failed in September. Photo: NASA/ESA
The Trouble with Hubble
Hubble’s Control Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) failed last month and stopped transmitting data back to Earth.
NASA remotely booted up the space telescope’s back-up data system last week trying to have Hubble back in full science mode. Although the instrument reconfiguration “proceeded nominally,” NASA reported, they were unable to reactivate the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) because “an anomaly occurred during the last steps of the commanding to the Advanced Camera for Surveys”.
NASA has now suspended the reactivation of the Hubble space telescope as a team of about 50 engineers and scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland investigate the “anomalies” found with its back-up computer system.
Among Hubble’s achievements:
Cat’s Eye Nebula, NGC 6543
Observations suggest the star ejected its mass in a series of pulses at 1,500-year intervals. These convulsions created dust shells, each of which contain as much mass as all of the planets in our solar system combined (still only one percent of the Sun’s mass). These concentric shells make a layered, onion-skin structure around the dying star. The view from Hubble is like seeing an onion cut in half, where each skin layer is discernible. Credit:NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Hubble Ultra Deep Field, HUDF
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. Called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, this galaxy-studded view represents a “deep” core sample of the universe, cutting across billions of light-years. The image required 800 exposures taken over the course of 400 Hubble orbits around Earth. The total amount of exposure time was 11.3 days, taken between Sept. 24, 2003 and Jan. 16, 2004.Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team.
The area covered by the Antarctic Ozone Hole grew to 27 million km² on September 12, 2008
A Deserving Dedication
The Moderators would like to dedicate this year’s Antarctic ozone hole to the outgoing [hopefully] US president [sic] Mr GW Bush. Furthermore we invite all parties concerned to consider renaming the Antarctic Ozone Hole after GW Bush for his contribution to the worsening state of the world. During his 8-year occupation of White House, Mr Bush caused more damage to the world (environment, climate, humanity, security … ) than anyone else before him.
[It’s hoped that NASA employees responsible for Ozone Hole Watch retain the integrity of all data, and blow the whistle if they find any anomaly in the data sets, this year.]
When the Scientists take the taxpayers to the cleaners
LHC has so far cost an estimated $10billion to build, while its annual operating cost remains a “secret.” FEWW Moderators believe the philosophy, direction and reasons for creating this white [super] elephant are entirely misplaced.
On a planet whose ability to support life is eroding daily, caused by the human onslaught on her ecosystems, and where the probability of finding any named living individual being still alive in a few years time is truly minuscule, the $10billion could have been better invested to:
Conduct research into low-energy technology in air quality improvement, water purification, food production, clean energy, health and hygiene, learning and education, sustainable living … and communication sectors.
Create working blueprints for low-energy, low-impact intelligent communities, providing about 1,500,000 people with a realistic chance of crossing the precarious “life bridge” into a possible future.
Bang for the Buck [readers will excuse the unintended pun]
The LHC project is inappropriate, ill-timed, unnecessary and hideously expensive!
Never mind the Big Bang simulation. The LHC’s poorly conceived philosophy would provide the tiniest, one-time, damp squib for your buck. The minuscule return on the enormous investment, the amount of [useful] science received for the cost of building and operating the project, makes LHC stand out like a giant white European elephant on the France’s border with Switzerland. The scientific payoff of LHC will not come even close to that of its orbiting uncle, the multi-billion dollar public-financed space science project black hole, aka the International Space Station (ISS).
And what exactly has NASA got to show for the ISS since 1998 when its on-orbit assembly began? To be precise, NOT much!
A simulated event at the CMS particle detector of the LHC, CERN, Switzerland. The simulation depicts the decay of a Higgs particle following a collision of two protons.
LHC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of 7 TeV protons. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics. The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies under the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. More …
When activated, it is theorized that the collider will produce the elusive Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model of physics and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass. More …
On the calendar, Scandinavian summer starts on June 21 in 2008, but summer temperatures had already settled over much of northern Europe by early June. This image shows land surface temperatures—how hot the ground is to the touch, a measure that is different than the air temperatures reported in the news—as observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite between June 2 and June 8, 2008.
The image compares the average temperature between June 2 and June 8, 2008, to average temperatures recorded during the same period in June 2000 through 2007. Areas that were warmer than average are red, while cooler than average conditions are represented in blue.The heat that dominated the weather in northern Europe in early June is evident in the dark red that covers Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and parts of Germany and Poland. Southern Europe experienced cooler than average temperatures during the period.
The intense heat and dry weather led to dangerous fire conditions in Scandinavia. Both Norway and Sweden were plagued with several forest fires in early June. A fire that burned for several days in southern Norway was the largest in the country’s history, causing an estimated ten million dollars worth of damage, reported The Norway Post on June 17, 2008.
Our world is a few extreme events away from total catastrophe
India
Widespread flooding caused by extreme monsoon rains has claimed about 100 lives in east and northeast India and left up to a million people homeless. As many as five million people are affected.
Philippines
As Typhoon Fengshen with gusts of of about 200kph lashed across the Philippines, flash floods and landslides killed about 155 people in south of the country. Dozens of people drowned, some of them buried alive after a landslide at a municipal garbage dump.
Meanwhile a 24,000-ton passenger and cargo ferry capsized off central Sibuyan island, with 626 passengers and 121 crew. Only 4 bodies have so far been found.
Guatemala
Large landslides caused by torrential rains have killed up to 10 people and injured others scavenging at a garbage dump near the Guatemalan capital.
California
An “unprecedented” lightening storm sparked about 840 fires in Northern Calif destroying dozens of homes and forcing thousands of residents to flee the area. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the Calif National Guard to assist the firefighters.
Mars
Meanwhile, as climate change melts the arctic ice mush faster than most scientist had anticipated, NASA reported that the Phoenix Lander has discovered ice on the surface of Mars, near its arctic circle [where else !] The discovery of ice/water on Mars is a key step in establishing whether life has ever existed on the red planet.
It really makes a whole lot of sense worrying about life on Mars as life becomes extinct on Earth! Right?
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s military government is under pressure to allow a massive aid effort as relief workers struggled to help an estimated 2 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis.
The northern and western highlands of Scotland were still winter-brown and even dusted with snow in places, but the waters of the North Sea were blooming with phytoplankton (tiny, plant-like organisms) on May 8, 2008, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the region and captured this image.
Phytoplankton are tiny organisms—many are just a single cell—that use chlorophyll and other pigments to capture light for photosynthesis. Because these pigments absorb sunlight, they change the color of the light reflected from the sea surface back to the satellite (shades of bright blue and green). Scientists have used observations of “ocean color” from satellites for more than 20 years to track worldwide patterns in phytoplankton blooms.
Phytoplankton are important to the Earth system for a host of reasons, including their status as the base of the ocean food web. In the North Sea, they are the base of the food web that supports Scotland’s commercial fisheries, including monkfish and herring. As photosynthesizers, they also play a crucial role in the carbon cycle, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Some oceanographers are concerned that rising ocean temperatures will slow phytoplankton growth rates, harming marine ecosystems and causing carbon dioxide to accumulate more rapidly in the atmosphere.
NASA image by Norman Kuring, Ocean Color Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey (some editing by FEWW).
How do you say you’re a “hypocrite” without calling yourself “hippo turd” in German?
Brazil biofuels must respect Amazon: Merkel
German coal-powered plants must respect Earth: The World
German Chancellor Merkel urged Brazil to adopt tougher environmental standards in biofuels production. [She added rich nations needed to pay up to help protect the rainforests’ biodiversity.]
“Biofuels are a way to replace traditional fossil fuels but only if they are produced sustainably,” Merkel said in Brasilia. [She could hardly hide her disgust at the fact that Germany couldn’t import “cheap” Brazilian ethanol anytime soon.]
Merkel and Sarkazy. Two turds of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: Gerald Herbert, AP) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
“There are statistics that raise concerns about deforestation, the process of displacement between soybeans, beef and the rain forest,” Merkel said at a joint news conference with Brazilian President Lula.
Merkel with the other one turd of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: global-metropolis) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
Meanwhile Lula made his statement of the year saying that “Brazil was the most interested of all countries in protecting the Amazon but that the millions of people living there also had a right to prosperity.” (Source)
So, remember children, Lula style “prosperity” first, ecosystems second! Because if you are prosperous, you can tell mother Earth to go F*ck herself!
Previously …
Dr Hansen at Columbia University Earth Institute wrote to Dr Merkel (April 2008 ):
Dear Chancellor Merkel,
Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants in your country, a
matter with global ramifications, as I will clarify.
For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard
Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I
write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, on behalf of the
planet and life on Earth, including all species.
I recognize that you strongly support policies aimed at reducing the danger of global warming.
Also Germany has been a leader in pressing for appropriate international actions.
Yet there are plans for construction of new coal-fired power plants in Germany. Consummation
of those plans would contribute to foreseeable adverse consequences of global warming.
Conversely, a choice not to build could be a tipping point that seeds a transition that is needed to
solve the global warming problem. […] (Source)
Fire Earth 
