Clipmarks | vk2yoc's clips

Do Galactic Cycles Influence Earth's Biological History?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:33:07 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc

Early last year, research revealed that the rise and fall of species on Earth seems to be driven by the undulating motions of our solar system as it travels through the Milky Way

The University of California, Berkeley found that marine fossil records show that biodiversity increases and decreases based on a 62-million-year cycle. At least two of the Earth's great mass extinctions-the Permian extinction 250 million years ago and the Ordovician extinction about 450 million years ago-correspond with peaks of this cycle, which can't be explained by evolutionary theory.

Our own star moves toward and away from the Milky Way's center, and also up and down through the galactic plane. One complete up-and-down cycle takes 64 million years- suspiciously close to the Earth's biodiversity cycle.

Normally, our galaxy's magnetic field shields our solar system from this "galactic wind." But every 64 million years, the solar system's cyclical travels take it above the galactic plane.

NASA's Climate TimeMachine

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:11:13 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: From the people who know what they are about. Very scary if you want to keep living here on Earth.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

NASA's Climate TimeMachine visualization shows the changes in annual Arctic Sea ice, sea surface height, carbon dioxide emissions, and global surface temperatures.

Arctic sea ice minimum is shown from 1979 to 2007. At the end of each summer, the sea ice cover reaches its minimum extent, leaving what is called the perennial ice cover. The area of the perennial ice has been steadily decreasing since the satellite record began in 1979.

Sea surface height variations are shown, observed by the TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 missions from January 1996 through December 2005. These variations between what we see and what is normal for different times of year and regions are called anomalies, or residuals.

Annual carbon dioxide emissions produced by the top 12 nations or regions from 1980-2004 is graphically illustrated. Units are given in thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel consumption.

NASA Climate TimeMachine

Scientists Create a "Law of War"

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:00:20 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: These guys must have found their degrees in a box of crackers.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

An international team of scientists have bravely taken time away from fusion research, curing cancer and solar power to announce some truly staggering results: in war, sometimes some people get killed. But other times, more people get killed. It's amazing stuff

In a complexity study more staggeringly misleading than a blind guide dog that's just been spun in a centrifuge, their discovery of a "Law of War" was announced at the European Consortium for Mathematics

"Regardless of the origins and locations of modern conflicts, the insurgent groups in each case are operating in the same way. In short, it is effectively the same enemy on all fronts", he says, and if you can see the words "pseudoscientific backing for concept of the War on Terror here, PLEASE FUND ME" swimming between the lines, then congratulations on having basic cognitive ability

if I told some troopers we spent the money on this instead of body armor, would they punch me in the face?

HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE PHOTOGRAPHY.

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:22:14 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: Go to the site to see how it's done.

Clip Source: stuckincustoms.com

The Deepest Swimming Pool In The World

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:58:41 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: It's in Belgium near Brussels.

Clip Source: braingoodbye.com

Large Hadron Collider: "This machine will not blow up the universe."

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:09:15 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: Einstein won't let it happen!

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The LHC has been plagued by doom-sayers since it entered the public eye, though "irritated" would be a more suitable word. The volume of the fearmongers is surpassed only by their utter lack of evidence or even the most fundamental understanding of probability.

These claims are always popular, but suffer from the slight flaw that the people telling you that the planet will be dissolved into a strangelet soup don't actually know what strangelets are. The people building the LHC? They know that they are; they discovered them, wrote the library of books on them, and you'll notice that when they have something to say it comes in the form of refereed journal papers and not tabloids that have to start with "A black hole is like a vacuum cleaner...."

That CERN have been forced to patiently explain to the scientific community equivalent of a toothless man screaming on streetcorners is tragic, but a sign of their maturity that they will address any statement as if it wasn't retarded.

Automated Buoys Predict Climate Change from Land & Ocean Links

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:48:55 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Oceans are an equal partner with the atmosphere in producing the weather, and the dominant partner with regard to long-range weather patterns.

The oceans play an important role in heat storage and transport, and are vital to the transportation of heat from the equator to the poles. They are essential to the hydrological cycle as well. Covering 70% of the Earth's surface, the oceans have 1,100 times the heat capacity of the atmosphere. They contain 97% of the free water on the planet—90,000 times as much water as the atmosphere. And they receive 78% of global precipitation. Unfortunately, oceanic processes have not been studied nearly so well as atmospheric processes; even environmentally crucial properties such as salinity and heat transference at depth have been relatively neglected until recently. Abrupt climate change has everything to do with “thermohaline” dynamics in the ocean depths; that term is a compound of two ancient Greek roots meaning “heat” and “salt.”

Extraterrestrial Climate Change - A Message for Earth?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:44:25 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: But will we heed the warnings!

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

“It seems that both and Venus started out much more like Earth," says David Grinspoon, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and one of the Venus Express interdisciplinary scientists. "They both hold priceless climate information for Earth."

The atmosphere of Venus is much thicker than Earth’s. Nevertheless, current climate models can reproduce its present temperature structure well. Now planetary scientists want to turn the clock back to understand why and how Venus changed from its former Earth-like conditions into the inferno of today.

Climate scientists believe that the planet experienced a runaway greenhouse effect as the Sun gradually heated up. Astronomers believe that the young Sun was dimmer than the present-day Sun by 30 percent. Over the last 4 thousand million years, it has gradually brightened. During this increase, Venus’s surface water evaporated and entered the atmosphere.

As Earth warms in response to man-made pollution, it risks the same fate

NASA's "Vital Signs of the Planet" Widget

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:14:31 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: Cool,

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Don't miss out on the opportunity to download this totally cool widget that tracks global warming and climate change indicators around the world.

NASA Global Climate Change Widget

Immortal Invaders Infect World's Oceans

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:09:29 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: Suddenly, immortality doesn't seem so attractive.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The Hydrozoan, a small predatory sea creature like a jellyfish but without all their well known exciting higher functions, can achieve the dream of millions and become a child again. When adverse environmental conditions threaten death it can collapse into a rugged blob of cells to survive. When it re-emerges, it does so as a child - literally building itself up all over again. Since this isn't just a shell to hide in, but a complete structural restart, it seems possible that it could keep this up forever.

Since one of these adverse environmental conditions is "getting sucked into the ballast tanks of a freighter", the hardy hitchhiker has spread all over the globe. It possesses stingers and eats things, which are definitely qualities you don't want in something that's unkillable and spreading worldwide, but if you're larger than a shrimp you're still safe.

The rather damp phoenix-stylings of the hydrozoan have obviously made them a hot topic in genetics

Tree Invasion of the Arctic -A Global Warming Accelerator?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:45:56 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: More evidence of Global Warming.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

An army of trees is invading the Arctic

Conifers are conquering the Ural mountains and it could be a global warming accelerator

The latest observations come straight from Siberia, a location synonymous with being extremely damn cold. The arboreal breakthrough into tundra is a major sign of global warming effects in the Arctic circle. Yes, the place they keep all that frozen ice that isn't currently in the oceans and flooding the world.

Arctic tundra is where the subsoil is permanently frozen (permafrost), stunting growth for anything but the hardiest of shrubs. But it turns out that soil that's full of water isn't exactly anti-plant once the ice melts, and the recent promotion of trees from "stunted barely surviving shrubs" to "tall, fertile forests" is encroaching on previously inhospitable territory.

snow-white arctic is a major part of the Earth's albedo (ability to diffusely reflect light), and its loss means that increasing amounts of solar energy will be absorbed into the ecosystem

The Snowflake Cluster and the Cone Nebula

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:52:16 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Bright stars from the Snowflake Cluster located about 2,500 light years away toward the constellation of the Unicorn, dot the field. These stars soon heat up and destroy the gas and dust mountains in which they formed. One such dust mountain is the famous Cone Nebula, visible in the above image on the left, pointing toward a bright star near the center of the field.

Will Exploration Threaten Antarctic's 15-Million Year Old Lake?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:46:22 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Lake Vostok is an international treasure. We have to convince not just the scientific community but the entire world that we can do this without contaminating the lake

Because of the long isolation, it's believed that Lake Vostok could contain new lifeforms, and unique geochemical processes

The overlying ice provides a continuous paleo-climatic record of 400,000 years, although the lake water itself may have been isolated for as long as 15 million years

NASA has expressed interest in exploring the lake to search for microbes that might be similar to ones on other planets. How the bacteria get energy to survive is an important unanswered question. The lake could be an analog to Jupiter's moon Europa or subsurface where conditions are similar

The original Russian Vostok station sits over the south end of the lake at the precise geomagnetic South Pole, surrounded by decades' worth of discarded machinery, waste and rubbish.

No other natural lake environment on Earth has this much oxygen

Holographic Mobile Devices by 2010 (or sooner!)

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:40:46 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc
clipper's remarks: I'll believe it when I see it.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

According to the Indian technology giant Infosys, with a $4 billion annual revenue and their pyramid shaped HQ in Bangalore, by 2010, mobile phones with holographic projection will be common place. This after the firm announced they had developed the technology for mobile handsets to project, capture and transmit 3D images.

The predicted device will harbor a powerful onboard processor, capable of much more than even our mobiles today, and will take a series of 2D shots to build a 3D hologram. The patent for this device, which was granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office recently, says that this format of holographic technology will allow for the unprocessed data to be transmitted and rebuilt on the other end of the line.

Infosys’s device provides 3D images by using a projector with a laser source, and micro holographic optical elements lenses to project the display up above the phone.

The future in your hand: sounds a bit like a commercial doesn’t it.

Tags: science, high tech, future, phone

Giant Solar Tsunami Viewed from NASA's STERO Spacecraft

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:13:25 GMT

clipped by: vk2yoc

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Just as earthquakes can set off huge tsunami waves on the surface of our oceans, a coronal mass ejection or flare can cause a tsunami on the Sun's surface—and it did on May 19, 2007. The waves generated by the explosions can travel at over a million kilometers per hour. The event was captured by NASA's twin Stereo spacecraft and was observed by a team at Trinity College, Dublin.

The event lasted for about 35 minutes and ultimately covered almost the full disk of the Sun. “The energy released in these explosions is phenomenal, about two billion times the annual world energy consumption in just a fraction of a second,” stated Long.

The researchers even saw the pressure wave reflect and refract off different regions of the Sun's atmosphere exactly as Earth's tsunami's do as they crash against land. This past April it was reported at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting by David Long.