Clipmarks | mariana3's clips

France and music downloads - Jamendo's Campaign

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:25:28 GMT

clipped by: mariana3
clipper's remarks: I'm not endorsing here worldwide illegal downloading of music. I do have my own particular view of that, but that's another story. But this is about freedom of the Internet, freedom of artistic expression and sharing the works of musical art with others. This is about what all of the Internet should be like - in a utopian world.
If you're interested in these types of movements, google "Open Internet", too.

Clip Source: blog.jamendo.com

Three strikes vs. three thanks

After the UK and New Zealand, France is considering a so-called “three strikes” law to fight illegal file-sharing on the internet. Here at jamendo, we of course support free and legal music downloads, which is why we are launching a “Thanks for downloading” campaign!

Tags: internet, music, art, campaign, france, jamendo, free

Scientist: My quake prediction was ignored

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:50:47 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: edition.cnn.com

L'AQUILA, Italy (CNN) -- A researcher says he predicted Monday's devastating earthquake that killed dozens of people and left tens of thousands homeless in central Italy, but authorities dismissed him as a scaremonger.

Gioacchino Giuliani, an employee at a physics institute at Gran Sasso, near the badly-hit city of L'Aquila, has demanded an official apology for what he says was an unforgivable failure to act on his predictions.

"There are people who must apologize to me, and they must have the weight of what occurred on their conscience," Giuliani said after the quake hit, according to local news site Ilcapoluogo.com.

Last month, vans with loudspeakers drove around the area broadcasting Giuliani's warning after he claimed his method of predicting seismic events by radon gas emissions had forecast an imminent quake.

The scientist was reported to police for spreading false alarms and was made to remove his findings from the Internet. "They called me an imbecile," he said.

Rise of sea levels is 'the greatest lie ever told'

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:30:57 GMT

clipped by: mariana3
clipper's remarks: ... read the entire article at the website, and google Dr. Morner so you can find more about this subject.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Although the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only predicts a sea level rise of 59cm (17 inches) by 2100, Al Gore in his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth went much further, talking of 20 feet, and showing computer graphics of cities such as Shanghai and San Francisco half under water. We all know the graphic showing central London in similar plight.

But if there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone else in the world it is the Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mörner, formerly chairman of the INQUA International Commission on Sea Level Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner, who for 35 years has been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the globe, is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story.

Tags: global warming, earth, climate, earthscience, geoscience, geology, sea, oceans, news

Venus Valentine

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 10:14:08 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

The Goddess of Love is sending a message for Valentine's Day, and it's in Morse code:

"Lately, Venus has been spectacular as our Evening Star," says astronomy professor Jimmy Westlake of Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, CO. "I took advantage of moonlight on the snow and used the light from Venus, the mythological Goddess of Love, to create this 'Venus Valentine' to the world. The 'dots' were 30-second exposures and the 'dashes' were 3-minute exposures," he explains.

And now for the message:

..		.-..	---	...-	.		-.--	---	..-
I		L	O	V	E		Y	O	U

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tags: holiday, valentines, venus, space, solarsystem

NASA needs radio clubs

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:06:24 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

NASA is forming a mini-Deep Space Network to monitor the "Dark Side" of the Sun. Ham radio clubs with access to 10m dish antennas can join the effort. Read the full story from Science@NASA and, if you're an experienced ham with an interest in participating, contact the STEREO team for technical details.

Tags: info, space, sun, astronomy, nasa, earthscience

Aurora Dance

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:30:42 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

"Last night's Northern Lights were by far the most incredible I've seen this year," reports Remi Boucher in Dawson City, Yukon. "They were bright and moved very quickly." He took this picture looking straight up:

Similar displays could appear tonight. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, causing intermittent geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia should be alert for auroras.

Tags: astronomy, earth, atmosphere, aurora

A Close-up of the Milky Way's Black Hole

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:01:15 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

An international team of astronomers has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers linked together radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a virtual telescope more than 2,800 miles across that is capable of seeing details more than 1,000 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope. The target of the observations was the source known as Sagittarius A* ("A-star"), long thought to mark the position of a black hole whose mass is 4 million times that of the sun.

(...)
Read the rest of Astronomers Link Telescopes to Zoom In On Milky Way's Black Hole (498 words)

Tags: astronomy, space, galaxy, blackhole

Steam Devils

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:44:57 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

Steam devil season is underway. In late summer-early fall when waters are still warm but morning air is growing cold, little tornadoes of steam are often seen dancing across lake surfaces. Iowa photographer Mike Hollingshead caught this one at sunrise on August 29th:

"I saw these amazing devils on a small lake near DeSoto Bend," he says. "The rapid motion in them can be rather captivating if you can get a close enough view; my 400mm lens did the trick."

Steam devils appear when vapor released by a warm lake condenses rapidly in cooler air above. Light winds spin condensing plumes of steam into dancing columns. The bigger the lake, the bigger the devils. Steam devils on Lake Superior have been observed to rise 1500 ft tall!

"These steam devils really seem to prefer the morning shadow line of some trees along the lake shore," notes Hollingshead. "Differential heating must help them get started there."

Tags: earth, geoscience, earthscience, climate

Beautiful Alaskan Aurora

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:41:00 GMT

clipped by: mariana3
clipper's remarks: For a larger photo, go to original site and click on the image.

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

Last night (Sept. 2nd) in North Pole, Alaska, the sky turned green. "I didn't expect to see any Northern Lights, but there they were," says Bud Kuenzli, who opened the shutter of his Canon EOS 1D for 15 seconds and collected this photo:

In Alaska, this counts as a mild display, but it might herald a bigger show in the nights ahead. A solar wind stream is approaching Earth, due to hit late on Sept. 3rd or Sept. 4th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

Tags: astronomy, climate, aurora, sky, earth

Opportunity on the road again :)

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:20:36 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

Mars rover Opportunity is leaving Victoria Crater, and it's exiting the way it came in. Put on your 3D glasses and behold the new tracks beside the old:

Graphic artist Patrick Vantuyne created the anaglyph by combining left- and right-eye images from Opportunity's navigation camera.

"Making stereo images of Mars has become almost routine for me, but it's still a thrill to see something new in 3D, which is hardly visible in a single picture," says Vantuyne. As an example, he notes the clouds in the upper-right corner of the anaglyph. Gaze for a while into the sky and watch the fluff emerge: full-size image.

Tags: mars, solarsystem, astronomy, geology, science, space

Virtual Reality Milky Way

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:37 GMT

clipped by: mariana3
clipper's remarks: You can enter the VR Milky Way at this address (VERY "HEAVY" WEBPAGE - for fast connections only):

http://www.pixheaven.net/geant/080728_5187-202.htm

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

This is the time of year to find a dark place and behold our very own galaxy, the Milky Way, meandering across the midnight sky. Can't find a dark place? Here's one:

This is no ordinary picture of the Milky Way; it's a doorway. Just knock and you'll be wafted away to a beach in the south of France with a dizzyingly beautiful galaxy arcing overhead. Photographer Laurent Laveder explains: "Two nights ago, I used a fisheye lens to take 16 individual pictures covering the entire sky. I then combined them to produce a Quicktime Virtual Reality view of the Milky Way."

Tip: In the VR environment, look up and spin the Milky Way. You can make your own star trails. Don't go overboard, though; it can be disturbingly realistic.

Tags: astronomy, earth, galaxy, space, computer

Persian Clouds - NLC's going south

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:45:22 GMT

clipped by: mariana3
clipper's remarks: Spaceweather says:
"Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are supposed to be a high-latitude phenomenon, most often seen in Canada, Russia and northern Europe. On July 19th the electric-blue clouds crept south, all the way to Iran: "I took this picture from Mt. Sabalan, a 15,784 ft extinct volcano in northwestern Iran," says Siamak Sabet. "It is the third highest peak in our extremely mountainous country."

When noctilucent clouds first appeared in the late 19th century, they were confined to latitudes above 50o N. Mt Salaban is located at 38o N, far below the old threshold. Just last week, NLCs were sighted in Turkey at 40o N and in recent years they have appeared at least as far south in the United States as Colorado and Utah, also around 40o N.

Why are NLCs spreading south? That is an unsolved mystery of these puzzling clouds. Some researchers believe it is a telltale sign of climate change, but this remains controversial. One thing is certain: Sky watchers at all latitudes should be ale

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

Tags: earth, astronomy, geology, climate, clouds, photography, photo

Early Warning System For Earthquakes: Seismic 'Stress Meter' Warned Of Earthquake 10 Hours In Advanc

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:52:57 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (July 10, 2008) — Using remarkably sensitive new instruments, seismologists have detected minute geological changes that preceded small earthquakes along California's famed San Andreas Fault by as much as 10 hours. If follow-up tests show that the preseismic signal is pervasive, researchers say the method could form the basis of a robust early warning system for impending quakes.

"We're working with colleagues in China and Japan on follow-up studies to determine whether this physical response can be measured in other seismically active regions," said Rice University seismologist Fenglin Niu, the study's lead author. "Provided the effect is pervasive, we still need to learn more about the timing of the signals if we are to reliably use them to warn of impending quakes."

Tags: geology, earth, seizmo, earthquakes, science

Supernova in real-time!

Sun, 25 May 2008 13:18:27 GMT

clipped by: mariana3

Clip Source: www.nasa.gov

Swift took these images of SN 2007uy in galaxy NGC 2770 before SN 2008D exploded. An X-ray image is on top. The lower image is in visible light. Credit: NASA/Swift Science Team/Stefan Immler. > Larger image

On January 9 Swift caught a bright X-ray burst from an exploding star. A few days later, SN 2008D appeared in visible light. Credit: NASA/Swift Science Team/Stefan Immler.
> Larger image

thanks to NASA’s Swift satellite, astronomers have seen a star actually blow up.

On January 9, 2008, Alicia Soderberg and Edo Berger of Princeton University, in Princeton, N.J., were using Swift’s X-ray Telescope to observe a distant spiral-shaped galaxy known as NGC 2770. Suddenly, at 9:33 in the morning Eastern Time, the telescope picked up a powerful burst of X-rays coming from the galaxy. The burst lasted 5 minutes before it faded away.

For the first time, astronomers had seen a star blow up in real time!

Robert Naeye
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Plasma Rain

Fri, 23 May 2008 22:06:22 GMT

clipped by: mariana3
clipper's remarks: QUOTE:
"There's a rainstorm underway on the sun's eastern limb. You'd better bring your asbestos umbrella, though, because the "droplets" are Texas-sized blobs of hot plasma.

"This is prominence finery at its best," says photographer Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK. "Small bright points within the prominence that were seen on the capture screen have been recorded as blurs due to the rapid motion of material in just a few seconds!"

Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held above the surface of the sun by magnetic fields. While this particular cloud appears to be raining like a summer shower on Earth, the true situation is more complicated. Look carefully: Some of the plasma raindrops are falling "up." That's because the motions are controlled by not only gravity but also magnetism, a force of little importance in terrestrial rainstorms. The solar magnetic field is rooted below the sun's visible surface; roiling motions in the body of the sun itself cause magnetic fields high overhead t

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com