Clipmarks | Chile Clips

50 Billion Suns! -The Biggest Single Object in the Universe

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:17:51 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Based on this self-regulating maximum rate, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts, and the European Southern Observatory, Chile, have calculated an upper limit for these mega-mammoth masses. Fifty billion suns, that's 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg, otherwise known as "ridiculously stupidly big" and triple the size of the largest observed black hole, OJ 287.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Scientists have determined the mass of the largest things that could possibly exist in our universe, and they don't appear in the Oprah studio audience.

New results have placed an upper limit on the current size of black holes - and at fifty billion suns it's pretty damn big. That's a hundred thousand tredagrams, and you'll never get the chance to use that word in relation to anything else.

While there's theoretically no upper limit on how big a black hole can be, there are hard limits on how big they could have become by now. The universe has only existed for a finite amount of time, and even the most voracious black hole can only suck in matter at a certain rate. The bigger the black hole, the bigger the gravitational field and the faster it can pull in matter - but that same huge gravitational gradient means that the same matter can release huge amounts of radiation as it falls, blasting other matter further away.

Tags: astronomy, cosmology

100 Million Green Facts You Didn’t Know About Junk Mail

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:20:57 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Jim Ford, the report’s author, said: “Junk mail has implications for climate change that start in the forest, continue through paper production, printing and distribution, and end with recycling or landfilling.”

Clip Source: ecoworldly.com

A report by ForestEthics, the nonprofit environmental organization whose mission is to protect endangered forests, has made a very startling revelation: that there are 100 million green reasons why junk mail are an annoying intrusion.

Not that the 100 billion pieces of junk mail Americans receive each year are irksome enough or that the emissions of junk mail are equal to those of over nine million cars or 51 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The group estimates that every year, more than 100 million trees are cut down to make junk mail - the equivalent of clear-cutting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months!

According to the report (PDF), those trees come from endangered forests like Canada’s Boreal, the forests of the Southeastern United States, Indonesia and northern Europe, as well as smaller areas of rare or disappearing forest ecosystems in the Western United States, Brazil, Chile, and Russia.

Tags: environment, trees, junk mail

Amazing photos from Chaiten, Chile.

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:04:51 GMT

clipped by: zalisan
clipper's remarks: Ready to be humbled? This all took place in Chaitén, which after some research, is evidently in Chile, near Los Lagos.

… nature is pretty AWESOME!

Clip Source: universoulproductions.wordpress.com

Volcanoes. Wow!

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:35:08 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Great Pics.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Recent Volcanic Activity

Several volcanoes have erupted in the past few months - two in Chile (Chaiten and Llaima) and one in Alaska (Okmok). At any given time, approximately 20 to 50 volcanoes are active worldwide (depending on the definition of "active"). Collected here are photos of volcanic events from the the past several years, seen from many angles, including low Earth Orbit. (15 photos total)

Lava explodes from the Llaima volcano, one of Chile's most active volcanoes, in Cherquenco, Chile, early Thursday, July 10, 2008

Okmok Caldera in Alaska as viewed from an Alaska Airlines jet in early June, 2007. The 3,500-foot Okmok Caldera, which consists of a 6-mile-wide circular crater about 1,600 feet deep, erupted with little warning Saturday morning July 12, 2008

July 13, 2008

the Okmok Caldera erupting

Rabaul volcano, near Kokopo, Papua New Guinea on Sunday, April 13, 2008

Mt. Etna's eruption on October 30th, 2002

Mt Augustine

2006

Chaiten volcano

Chile

June 17, 2008

Kliuchevskoi Volcano

I Want My Country Back

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:37:50 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "I love America, and I can't stand quietly by while the land of peace and liberty is being destroyed.

I love the America of the Constitution and limited government - not the America of the Patriot Act and the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security.

I love the America that Washington and Jefferson said should be far removed from all the age-old quarrels of Europe and Asia, while trading benevolently with people all over the world - not the America that has troops in a hundred countries while our own government prohibits us from peaceful trading with dozens of countries."

Clip Source: www.populistamerica.com

Thoughts on the American empire

Is it an empire?

Whenever I say that America has become an empire, someone is sure to say I'm being ridiculous.

But what do you call a government that has tried (usually successfully) to force "regime changes" in Panama, Grenada, South Vietnam, Cuba, Guatemala, Chile, Rhodesia, South Africa, Iraq (in 1963), the Philippines, Serbia, Afghanistan (twice), Iran and several other countries that don't immediately come to mind?

What do you call a government whose leader says everyone must play by his rules or risk being attacked?

World government

America rules the world - by force.

And that's ironic. Because for as long as I can remember, conservatives have been railing against the threat of world government.

But now we actually have a form of world government - a government run by George Bush and enforced by the American military - and most conservatives are all for it.

If you ask

foreigners, they make it clear that it's America's bullying foreign policy they detest.

online encyclopedia of spices

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:16:12 GMT

clipped by: Lexica

Clip Source: www.theepicentre.com

Ajowan

Chervil

Chile - Chili- Chilli
(general info)

Melegueta Pepper
(Grains of Paradise)

Nigella

Parsley

Rosemary

Sage

Tarragon

Thyme

Turmeric

Vanilla

Wasabi

Zedoary

African and Middle Eastern Spice Blends: Baharat, Berbere, Chermoula, Dukkah, Harissa, La Kama, Ras el Hanout, Tsire, Za'atar (Zahtar)

American Spice Blends: Apple Pie Spice, Cajun Blackening Spice, Chili Powder, Old Bay Seasoning, Pumpkin Pie Spice

Asian Blends: Chinese 5-spice, Chinese Seasoned Salt, Shichimi-togarashi

British Blends

Classic French Herb and Spice Blends

Indian Masalas

Tags: food, cooking, spices, reference

Spectacular Chile Volcano Eruption

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:09:11 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT

Clip Source: mysterytopia.com

Nature still has the best special effects....

Chile Volcano eruption!!
Several weeks ago, a volcano that had been dormant for 9,000 years near the
coast of Chile erupted spectacularly, hurling liquefied rocks many miles
into the sky with lightning. The results, which you see here, are called a

'dirty thunderstorm,' and are quite rare.

Nobody is certain what causes them, but according to National Geographic
it's believed to be 'the result of rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in
the plume colliding to produce static charges-just as ice particles collide
to create charges in regular thunderstorms.'

Tags: science, volcanoes, chile

Most Ethical Destinations?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:03:01 GMT

clipped by: Rebecca Ruiz
clipper's remarks: Worried about your travel footprint? Want to support tourism in a developing country but don't want to support bad environmental practices or human rights abuses? Check out this list of "most ethical destinations" compiled by ethicaltraveler.org.

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

In an effort to get travelers off the main tourist grid and support destinations in developing countries, a Bay Area group called Ethical Traveler has published a list of the "10 best ethical destinations."

To create the list, Ethical Traveler looked at environmental protection, social welfare and human rights in the world's developing nations. The honorees on the Ethical Traveler's list, in alphabetical order, are Argentina, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Namibia, Nicaragua and South Africa.

The organization used various resources to make the determinations, including data collected by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network; progress made by countries in reducing infant mortality rates as measured by UNICEF; and reports on civil liberties and human rights from sources like Amnesty International and Freedom House.

For more details, visit www.ethicaltraveler.org.

Volcanic Thunderstorms

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:25:16 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: Wow.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

PHOTOS: Chile Volcano Erupts With Ash, Lava, Lightning

May 6, 2008—After 9,000 years of silence, Chile's Chaitén volcano (pictured on May 3) is erupting with lava, ash—and lightning (full story).

Since the volcano awoke on May 2, it has continued erupting intermittently, blanketing the area in ash and forcing more than 4,000 people to flee.

The little-understood storms may be sparked when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume collide to produce static charges—just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms. (More: "Volcanic Lightning Sparked by 'Dirty Thunderstorms,' Study Finds" [February, 2, 2007].)

The mingling of lightning and ash seen above may be a "dirty thunderstorm."

Clip Source: www.ohgizmo.com

Tags: thunderstorm, volcation, chile, eruption, chaiten, photos, national geographic

Chile peppers' spice is a built-in pesticide

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:40:08 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

If you like your chile peppers hot, thank a fungus.

The spicy fruits developed their kick to ward off invading pathogens bent on destroying chile seeds before they could grow into new plants, according to a study published Tuesday. The bigger the threat from microbial invaders, the more pungent the pepper.

Chiles are native to South America, where heat and humidity nurture the toxic fungus Fusarium semitectum. The fungus enters chiles through puncture holes made by hungry insects.

Chile peppers responded by growing built-in pesticides -- capsaicinoids, the chemical compounds that give chiles their distinctive zesty taste.

Those antifungal properties may have been the reason why people first domesticated chiles more than 6,000 years ago, said Paul W. Sherman, a professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University who has studied the use of spices. Without refrigeration, ancient cooks would have needed a way to keep microbes from spoiling fresh food.

Tags: spice, food

TURKEY MANDARIN ORANGE WRAP

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:44:29 GMT

clipped by: saved1

Clip Source: www.dvo.com

   4 (10 inch) whole-wheat flour tortillas
   4 ounces (half of a large block) cream cheese, softened
   1/3 cup mandarin oranges, chopped and drained
   1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper, optional
   1/4 cup sliced green onions
   6 ounces deli smoked turkey breasts, sliced very thin
   20 medium spinach leaves, washed, dried, and stems removed

Combine cream cheese, chopped mandarin oranges, and chipotle pepper until mixed. Spread 1/4 of the mixture on each of the tortillas. Sprinkle each tortilla evenly with the green onions.

Divide the turkey into 4 portions and mound down the center of the tortilla leaving 1 inch open around the edges. Top with spinach leaves. Fold wrap envelope-style by folding up the bottom and top edges 2 inches, then folding each side inward. Slice each wrap in half at an angle to serve.

Turkey & Mandarin Orange Cheese Wraps

No Tax Increase Needed for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:39:55 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

If Congress were to act responsibly (yes, an oxymoron), it would hold down the growth of spending, as was done in the late 1980s and late 1990s, and eliminate those government programs that do not meet a reasonable cost-benefit test. As has been shown before, such actions would quickly eliminate the deficit.

Clip Source: washingtontimes.com

Many of those who insist that tax increases are needed argue that the entitlement programs will grow more rapidly than the economy and they must be funded. The problem with this argument is that tax increases will slow economic growth, and that no amount of tax increase can fund these programs if they are allowed to continue to grow faster than the economy.

Other countries have solved, or are solving, the social security problem through privatization. The renowned economist, Jose Pinera, developed the world's first, major, privatized social security system when he was labor minister in Chile. The Chilean program has been in effect for 29 years, is fully phased in, and has provided the workers with a rate of return exceeding 10 percent per year compounded, resulting in many Chileans having a very large investment portfolio for retirement. The Pinera system has been so successful that more than 30 countries have now adopted it.

This program would be real constructive "change."

Tags: taxes, government

Siamese Galaxies and Toothy Fish

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:48:49 GMT

clipped by: asphere
clipper's remarks: see the all slide-show, its beautiful

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Siamese twin galaxies. Ninety million light-years apart, these two, almost identical spiral galaxies, NGC5427, left, and NGC 5426, look like they're doing a do-si-do in the Virgo constellation. The image was taken by the Gemini South telescope in Chile. Although they look like they're just passing by each other, the gravitational tugging has already begun to reshape the two galaxies and set off a wave of star formation. In about 100 million years, the two will merge into one elliptical galaxy.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Now you see it, now you don't. These are the two images that convinced scientists that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander had dug into ice in the northern arctic plains of Mars. In particular, several chunks at the bottom of the trench, left, were gone four days later. Water ice transforms into water vapor, a process known as sublimation. The other possibility, salt, cannot do that.

Tags: galaxies, science, slide show, photos

Internet-Telescope Will Provide Movie-like Window on Universe

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:33:10 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: LSST is designed to be a public facility. The database and resulting catalogues will be made available to the public with no proprietary restrictions. A sophisticated data management system will provide easy access, enabling simple queries from individual users. The public will actively share the adventure of discovery.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"LSST is truly an Internet telescope, which will put terabytes of data each night into the hands of anyone that wants to explore it. The 8.4-metre LSST telescope and the 3-gigapixel camera are thus a shared resource for all humanity — the ultimate network peripheral device to explore the universe."

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, partially funded by $30 million from Microsoft founders Bill gates and Charles Simyoni, the developer of Word and Excel, is projected for ‘first light’ in 2014 in Chile's Atacama Desert -the world's Southern Hemisphere space-observatory mecca. The 8.4-meter telescope will be able to survey the entire visible sky deeply in multiple colors every week with its 3-billion pixel digital camera. The telescope will probe the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, and it will open a movie-like window on objects that change or move rapidly: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids and distant Kuiper Belt objects.

Tags: telescope, internet

Mars is good habitat for Terry Pratchett dragons

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:24:25 GMT

clipped by: fraynelson

Clip Source: www.theregister.co.uk

NASA says:

Perchlorates are found naturally on Earth at such places as Chile's hyper-arid Atacama Desert. The compounds are quite stable and do not destroy organic material under normal circumstances. Some microorganisms on Earth are fueled by processes that involve perchlorates, and some plants concentrate the substance. Perchlorates are also used in rocket fuel and fireworks.

So, if we're following this correctly*, there could possibly be Martian animals with perchlorate-fuelled metabolisms, living off perchlorate-concentrating plants. Though there would be a significant risk of these creatures catching fire or exploding if upset - not unlike Terry Pratchett's Discworld dragons, in fact.

On the other hand, you do get the vibe that NASA would really rather not have found perchlorates - indeed would have infinitely preferred it if a little green man had walked up and peered into Phoenix's cameras by now.