Article Archive for July 2010
Cosmic Rays / Sting / Asteroid in 2182
A neutrino observatory consisting of strings of detectors buried deep in Antarctic ice has confirmed that more cosmic rays arrive from some parts of the sky than others, something already observed in the northern hemisphere
BBC movie show Talking Movies has an interview with Sting about the new 2012 doco called 2012: Time For Change
Spanish asteroid trackers estimate that asteroid 1999 RQ36 has a chance in 1,000 of crashing into our planet in the year 2182. NASA says 1 in 3,570. At over 500 metres in width, the impact would be catastrophic. Still, you’d expect we’d be able to shift the path of an asteroid by then…
Not a 2012 Disaster: Large Hadron Collider
For all I know it is just spin, but the news this week is that the LHC couldn’t possibly cause a doomsday in 2012 – it will be shut down for repairs.
In September 2008, just 9 days after physicists first circulated protons through the 27-kilometer-long subterranean accelerator, the LHC suffered a catastrophic failure when one of those connections melted. After 14 months of repairs, CERN officials decided to limit the accelerator to half-energy to protect the connections and to shut down to repair them as soon as the LHC had produced a sizable data set, which should be by the end of next year.
Looks like 2013 will be the earliest that we will see the LHC operating at 100% capacity. Fingers crossed for that!
Protecting Earth: Governments Finally Getting Serious
The timing could be better, because Dec 2012 is only 2.5 years away, but better late than never!
Last month, Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) introduced the new bill before Congress, H.R. 5587, titled: “To establish a United States Commission on Planetary Defense and for other purposes.”
The commission will investigate the role of the United States in identifying NEOs (Near-Earth Objects), and their capabilities for neutralising any potential impacts. The budget is a pitiful $2 million, and has me wondering why Congress is even needed to debate the worthiness of it. Most scientists working in this field would tell you that there is no doubt about what is required – a huge amount of money to be spent ASAP. We have the capability to protect our planet, and so far we are sitting on our hands…
Meanwhile over at Space Daily is a report on a meeting in Germany attended by …
Siberia: A New, Recent Hominin Added to the Mix
For a very long time, homo sapiens were the only human species that were thought to have existed in the last tens of thousands of years. Recently we have witnessed the addition of two species, the Neandertals (latest research says that everyone apart from Africans have some Neandertal DNA), and the Hobbits (who we do not appear to have interbred with).
All of a sudden, we are presented with the possibility of many hominins existing at the same time. If we have determined three (the 3rd is below), how many more are there that we are yet to discover? Due to my belief that one form of evolution involves mutations via cosmic rays during global cataclysms, I expect that immediately after such a cataclysm there are many new species, and with time most die out. Given the rarity of fossils, most new species will never be discovered, but those that lingered …
Mel Gibson Update
[that Mel Gibson has any special knowledge regarding 2012 is pure speculation on my part, as an example of how a famous person, in the know, might seem to act as 2012 approaches]
Well, well – back in February I speculated that perhaps Mel Gibson – the only person who has ever made a movie about the ancient Maya, star of Conspiracy Theory, company logo looking very Illuminati – is becoming increasingly unhinged due to an impending 2012 catastrophe.
Now, after the very public airings of his alleged violence towards former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, it appears that he is heading for what is perhaps the safest safe spot of all – Australia.
MEL Gibson is poised to quit the US and return to Australia with his ex-wife Robyn after selling his mansion near New York.
He has told friends he will move back to Australia with his former wife, …
NASA Discovers 25,000 New Asteroids
And as an example of how infrequent it is for an asteroid to crash into our planet, not one of the 25,000 is aimed for Earth.
It’s a pretty impressive haul for WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), finding that number since last December, and also discovering 15 new comets. The telescope is up in space, just like the famous Hubble. Being infrared, it can “see through impenetrable veils of dust, picking up the heat glow of objects that are invisible to regular telescopes.”
While I wouldn’t pretend to know if the $320 million cost is a good investment for science, as an early warning system it is extremely cheap if we can somehow avert a disaster in 2012 or any other year.
Magnetic Poles at the Equator?
New research suggests that our magnetic poles have sometimes been at the equator. Even more interesting for anyone who thinks a pole shift is possible in 2012 – this switch occurred multiple times in a 50 million year period. And there is lack of intermediary polar locations – they were either at the poles we have today, or at the equator. This suggests a sudden switch.
Any sudden movement of the magnetic poles could cause problems, but I’m not aware of any reason why the new pole location matters – the change and the speed of the change are the important factors. The change is important because anything that currently involves the North pole actually being at the North pole will fall over. That would primarily be locational tools that humans use (GPS, compasses). The speed is critical. Slow is preferable, because fast will most likely leave us without a shield against …
Why call it an “ark” instead of boat or ship?
It’s the sort of question a 5-year-old asks, and she might be told that an ark is a special type of boat. We are so used to thinking we know all about Noah’s Ark that we automatically accept that it was a sailing vessel, despite the meaning of the word:
Ark: The word “ark” (הבת) probably comes from the Egyptian load word tbt which means “box” or “chest.”
http://www.bibleandscience.com/bible/books/genesis/flood.htm
This is strange terminology for a boat or ship, and would only serve to confuse. Even more confusing, the other major use of the word ark in the Bible is regarding the Ark of the Covenant – this is not known as a boat.
When we look at the two most substantial pre-Biblical texts that tell the story of Noah, there are also indications that the original story did not concern a boat.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh the ark was described as being 120 …
Shaolin Temple Building a 2012 Bunker?
Every now and then I get a little bit speculative
Here are the facts:
The Shaolin Temple is 1500 years old, and one of the most ancient still functioning sites in China. One could imply that the people running the place are powerful
It is the home of Shaolin Kung Fu
Located on Mount Song, one of the four Sacred Mountains of China
Built by a Chinese Emperor, Xiaowen
Clearly an important place, housing important people. As 2012 mania sweeps through China (according to some reports), we receive the following news:
The abbot of Shaolin Temple in central China’s Henan Province said the newly built underground funeral parlor is for monks’ ashes only and not for sale, after suspicions arose online claiming the parlor would be used for profit.
… Located in the western part of Shaolin Temple, the parlor consists of five caves and has an area of about 100 square meters.
Could this be a …
Major Asteroid Impact circa 3114BC
While a lot of energy is being spent on the Mayan Long Count end date of 2012AD, very few investigators (if any) are looking into the start date of 3114BC and possible reasons for that date. My long held belief is that the only feasible event an ancient culture could have predicted for 2012 is the approach of a comet or asteroid. My article on Comet Caesar explains the potential for a comet that visits us every 1000 years or so to be the reason for the existence of the Long Count calendar. The theoretical last approach (approx 987AD) would not have been recorded because in the Dark Ages we don’t even have a record of Halley’s Comet. 3000+ years ago there aren’t any useful records of comets. And 2000 years ago Comet Caesar was big news.
Well, here’s a candidate for circa 3114BC:
A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for …
Ancient Destructions – Previews
An Australian archaeologist, Peter ‘Mungo’ Jupp, is creating a series of films called Ancient Destructions and I cannot wait to watch them. The 26 films will all be about ancient cataclysms, and four titles are mentioned on his site so far:
The Destruction of Baalbek – City of the Thundergods
Mega Tsunami Melbourne 1500 A.D.
Lake Mungo and Lake Victoria the Australian Sodom and Gomorrah
Antarctica ..once a tropical paradise
The films seem to be far better researched than your typical History Channel fare. Jupp appears to be a cross between a real archaeologist and someone like Graham Hancock. For example, his site mentions how Antarctica once had marsupials, coal and a forest – which means it was obviously once a more temperate and hospitable place. He certainly seems to lean more towards understanding ancient myths to be true accounts, and less towards ascribing “goddess worship” and “ritual sacrifice” to everything discovered.
Of particular interest is something …
