Article Archive for September 2010
Meteorite Strikes Colombia – Ignored by Media
It’s strange when you closely follow a topic, and and you only hear about a news item via an article claiming the media ignored it. But it isn’t unusual, take Project Censored for example, who inform us about such 201o stories as Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina and US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s, that you just didn’t hear about via mainstream media.
So, apparently a meteorite crashed into Colombia on September 6:
The Colombian media has been buzzing with eye witness accounts of the fireball, which caused a massive explosion at 3:15PM local time Sunday.
Andina.com reported that Bucaramanga Mayor Fernando Vargas confirmed that the phenomenon was a meteorite that left a crater 100 meters in diameter when it crashed into the earth in the San Joaquin municipality in Santander.
Colombian air force helicopters were commissioned to fly over the area to try to locate the source of …
Naples Supervolcano: Drilling to commence soon
Naples, Italy sits upon a supervolcano that supererupted just 39,000 years ago. It has been known for some time that scientists are planning to drill into the volcano, an act that some believe could trigger an eruption – in fact the concerns were published in New Scientist last year. Now dates have been set:
The project is due to start early next month, when the team will drill 1640ft into the ground at a site in Bagnoli, near Naples.
The second phase, due to start in the spring, will involve the drilling of a 4,000 metre deep borehole at the same location.
Solar Flare ‘Could Paralyse Earth’
This was discussed by US governmental bodies in the last year, and not much has been achieved. Perhaps the UK can be more prudent?
Nasa has warned that a peak in the sun’s magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could generate huge radiation levels.
The resulting solar storm could cause a geomagnetic storm on Earth, knocking out electricity grids around the world for hours, days, or even months, bringing much of normal life grinding to a halt.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox, who delivered the keynote address at an international conference on the vulnerability of electricity grids around the world, warned that modern societies’ dependence on technology leaves them vulnerable to such events.
Fox added in the threat of nuclear detonations created by rogue nations that could also knock out power grids. Hopefully we will see government(s) take action to prevent a tragedy, rather than going Katrina on …
Scientific American – “The End” Issue (updated)
There’s just no letting up – the End of The World meme keeps snowballing, and while we expected Fox News to milk it (and they’ve only just begun, IMHO), it is a little bit surprising to see Scientific American to get it on the act. Numerous articles covering the topic are in this month’s issue, such as:
Could modern civilization really come to an end? Experts take stock of eight doomsday scenarios (subscription required…)
Why We’re Suckers for Stories of Our Own Demise
The latter begins with:
Once again, the world is about to end. The latest source of doomsday dread comes courtesy of the ancient Mayans, whose calendar runs out in 2012, as interpreted by a cadre of opportunistic authors and blockbuster movie directors.
UPDATE: Here are the odds they give on a few scenarios, in order of destructiveness, with the worst last:
Solar SuperStorm – 5% in the next 15 years
Runaway …
Open Question: What Could the Mayans Predict?
[I mean scientific predictions, not prophecy]
Most of the Mayan books were burned by the Spanish conquistadors, and there are bound to be plenty of Mayan monuments that are yet to be discovered. Or the knowledge may have only been transmitted orally. Therefore it is quite possible that the ancient Mayans did indeed specify a disaster for 2012, and we are just unaware of it.
It is also possible (and to my mind most likely) that they inherited the Long Count calendar from an earlier or visiting civilization. Regardless, the question is the same – what type of event could have been predicted in ancient times, for Dec 2012?
I’m not looking for evidence that similar predictions were ever accurately made, just the possibility, because with the Long Count calendar we really are grasping at straws.
My personal preference is the return of an asteroid or comet, or meteor shower, and the accompanying potential for …
Will Betelgeuse Go Supernova?
There has been enough internet chatter for the Bad Astronomy blog to address the subject. The known facts appear to be:
The shape of Betelgeuse is changing, indicating a potential supernova – although it might be many, many years away…
Orthodox science says that only a supernova of 25 light years away (or closer) could harm us, but Betelgeuse at 600 light years cannot
When it does explode, it will be as bright in the sky as the full moon. But appearing much smaller, it will be more intense, and perhaps painful to look at directly
My key concern is the absolute certainty scientists seem to have regarding the harm that can come from supernovas more distant than 25 light years. We receive regular reports of new types of supernova, or stars that do not fit pre-existing models. It seems quite clear that our knowledge of stars is far from complete, that new types …
New Twist to Long-Life Foods
The food looks great – vegetarian, lasts 15 years, quality ingredients – but that’s not what brought this US company to my attention. As evidence of heightened concern regarding the future availability of food, Sundance Global are offering long-life foods, and the ability to store even more food if you refer friends or family. The site has only just come online, with a full launch on 10/20/2010, but you can sign up today. While it looks like multi-level-marketing, it is hard to tell at this stage what the structure is. Regardless, new members receive $15 of free food (you just pay $5.95 for delivery). And you can earn more free food if people you refer claim their free food… Sounds like a good excuse to start storing.
Cerne Abbas Giant / Antibiotics / Skull Sculpting
The wonderful Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England is somehow still succeeding in his mission. The 180ft ancient chalk hill figure looks like a caveman with a club, but the key imagery is his erect penis, which of course proves that the site was used for fertility rituals, according to experts. Well, if more proof was needed, even without many rituals on the hill, local women are having more babies than anywhere else in Britain!
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Lancet Infectious Diseases has reported that within a couple of generations we could well be without the modern marvels of antibiotics:
Bacteria are great survivors. The biggest threat now, experts believe, is from multi-drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, such as NDM 1-producing enterobacteriaceae and an enzyme called KPC which has spread in the US (and in Israel and Greece) which also gives bacteria resistance to the carbapenems, the most powerful group of antibiotics we (once) had.
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Add the Aborigines of …
Bold Prediction from Patrick Geryl
According to Patrick Geryl, an 85-day (on average) pattern of solar storms has begun, and will culminate on Dec 21, 2012. Patrick believes that the ancient Mayans and Egyptians were aware of this cycle, and left coded messages. Here’s an excerpt from his blog 2012 Pro, via 2012 News:
On August 1st, the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. There was a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more. Three days later, our planet Earth was hit with magnetic storms, yet not strong enough to dramatically disrupt life, yet strong enough to disturb certain GPS systems. Researchers had predicted the eruptions to take place around July 31st yet didn’t publish the prediction. Now, they want to make it a point about their next …
Wandering Elders Behind Megaliths?
My proposition is that megaliths and pyramids were typically built under the instruction of “mysterious elders”, who were only temporarily involved with each culture they helped. This, to me, is the most logical explanation for why these construction abilities vanished from every culture that built such structures. A new study confirms the lack of consistent building, in Europe:
Rather than a single “megalithic” culture stretching across Europe, the outburst of mound tombs likely represents an idea reaching local cultures, he suggests, which then “stopped and started” across the centuries.
I do accept that the other possibility is that building megaliths “seemed like a good idea at the time”, but subsequently they failed to achieve what was expected. In the modern era we have plenty of fads, so why not back then as well? But megaliths (and pyramids) are more than just fads, for they have high levels of knowledge and expertise attached …
Ice Crystals and Solar Halos
According to recent reports, ice crystals in the sky are on the increase, as evidenced by some recent solar halos in Kolkata and Bournemouth:
The ice crystals are also to blame for a recent episode of severe turbulence aboard a Qantas flight. They have also caused problems in the ocean, in attempts to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak. Some researchers believe that an increase in ice crystals is due to an increase in cosmic rays. Perhaps these recent events are precursors to an announcement regarding uncertainty over why cosmic rays are suddenly more prevalent?
New Evidence for Rapid Magnetic Pole Shift
Suddenly a candidate for 2012 becomes more feasible… if only we can work out a way the Mayans could have predicted it!
Previous evidence for a high-speed pole shift (in 1995) was dismissed by most scientists because it was an anomaly. Now that more evidence has emerged, it is time for geologists to accept that a magnetic pole shift can affect us without notice.
This lava, Bogue says, initially started to cool and then was heated again within a year as a fresh lava flow buried it. The fresh lava re-magnetized the crystals within the rock below, causing them to reorient themselves a whopping 53 degrees. At the rate the lava would have cooled, says Bogue, that would mean the magnetic field was changing direction at approximately 1 degree per week. (Read the full news item at Wired.com.)
Still scientists are clinging to a slow reversal, rather than an on/off switch. 53 degrees …
US Grid Concerns Continue
One of the leading voices in the 2012 Doomsday field, Lawrence Joseph, has focussed on the potential for the next solar cycle peak to wreak havoc on electrical grids worldwide, but especially in the USA. The reasons the USA is singled out are:
their grid is antiquated
their grid is overloaded
Even without the Sun being a factor, the USA power grid can still easily have a cascading blackout. The concerns have been acknowledged by the US government, and bodies like NASA. Some books and articles have pointed out how catastrophic a nationwide outage could be. Basically, if the grid has failed in many locations, repairing it could take up to 6 months. That’s 6 months without electricity that runs hospitals, pumps water, runs gas stations, and powers heating and air conditioning. It is quite likely that millions would die.
While President Obama is supposedly committed to upgrading the US grid, in reality it …
