First Posted: 01/25/2012 9:57 am Updated: 01/25/2012 10:43 am
Fifteen teams of snow sculptors from ten different countries have already begun carving what they hope to be the winning piece in Breckenridge’s annual Snow Sculpture Championships.
Each team of artists must carve out a massive sculpture from a 12-foot-tall, 20-ton block of man-made snow without the use of any power tools or colored dyes. The teams began the sculpting process Tuesday at 11 a.m. and 65 hours later on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 10 a.m. the teams must be finished with their work.
The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday at 3:30 p.m., but curious visitors are encouraged to come and view the process and the final products anytime starting Jan. 24, according to the GoBreck contest website.
The event plans on keeping the sculptures up for viewing until Feb. 5.
The Snow Sculptures are located in the area around the Riverwalk Center at 150 West Adams Avenue in Breckenridge.
Check out GoBreck for more information on the Snow Sculpture Championships.
We have been discussing here the nature of The Holy Experience, and the difference between God and human beings. And one thing we noted is that…
…the difference between Divinity and Humanity is that Divinity seeks only to distribute, and Humanity seeks only to gather.
God cannot gather anything, because God IS everything. Therefore, there is nothing for God TO gather.
Yet if God cannot gather, and if you are God, then you cannot gather, either. Perhaps you’ve already noticed this. Perhaps you’ve already noticed that, even if you do manage to collect a few things along the way, sooner or later it all disappears. At the end, none of it is there. You go on, but none of it goes with you.
What is it they say? “You can’t take it with you.”
In fact, it’s all starting to disappear right now. You don’t have the friends you had. You don’t have the stuff you had. You don’t even have the feelings you had. Everything you thought was “you,” or that at least helped to define you, has disappeared. There is nothing that is permanent. There is nothing that stays. Everything goes.
Which is an interesting fact about life.
Everything goes.
And when you understand this, everything goes. There are no restrictions anymore. You can do anything you wish, say anything you wish, think anything you wish, because you’re not trying to hold onto anything anymore.
What’s the point? You can’t hold onto it anyway. It’s all going to go away. In the end, if not before.
This may sound like a desolate and despairing scenario, yet the truth is, it’s liberating. You can’t have anything forever. If you had it forever, the having of it would mean nothing.
The Holy Experience is knowing this.
Each moment becomes truly holy, because each moment ends. It cannot be held onto forever. Not a single moment can. Therefore, every single moment is sacred.
Like a snowflake, the moments fall and form a collection that melts into the stream of our lives that evaporates into nothingness, disappearing from sight but not from Reality, condensing and forming cloudy formations, which then drop down as new snowflakes, new lives, starting the whole cycle over again.
Each snowflake, each moment, is utterly magnificent; cryingly, achingly, tearfully beautiful, unfathomably perfect. As is each life.
As you know, our minds can be very noisy sometimes. As this Shift continues to unfold and trigger more of the who-we-are-not to surface and move out, understanding the steps or levels our thoughts move through may prove helpful in managing them. We are moving toward becoming more masterful of every thought, every emotion, and every action in every moment. Thoughts occur at many levels of loudness from the complete silence of knowingness to the screaming and arguing inner voice. Although there are many levels or layers of thought, let’s keep it simple and talk about the seven distinctive layers available to each of us. As we do this, please don’t get locked into these layers as rigid lines. There is actually a fluidity and flow between them. The flow from one layer of thought to the next is similar to watching the dawning of the day. For instance you can’t easily identify 6:30am, or 6:32am by looking at the sky. The sun rises and the sky flows from darkness into light. A moment ago it was pre-dawn. Now the sun is up and shining.
First Layer of Thought
The first layer of thought is where we simply speak without thinking much about what we are saying. We see this occur every day. The man in the airport just blurts out meaningless comments. The woman chatters away as if she has no filter. Two minutes later, they don’t remember what they were talking about. Functioning in this layer of thought, a person is generally unconscious of being unconscious, and goes about their day in a default-mode vs being conscious and intentional. Those who have not awakened spiritually live here. And those who are more awake and self-aware may still find themselves in this layer of thought. You might make a project of becoming more aware when you are in this layer. Notice when you make unnecessary comments, gossip, or contribute to a conversation that is noisy. When you begin to become conscious of this layer of thought, you will quickly begin to not participate in the unconscious babble. You will make better choices about how to present yourself and in what layer of thought you want to live.
Second Layer of Thought
This is the layer where you have conversations or arguments with other people in your head. You go back and forth in your mind about the situation and how you were right/bad/wrong/hurt. You scold the other person about how they were wrong/bad/hurtful/stupid. Guilt and blame lives here. So do resentment and revenge. All these thoughts can be very, very loud and consuming sometimes. Although not spoken, this level of thought also has a relationship to telepathy and clairaudience, because that conversation you are having in your head is very real in the moment and it is happening. Whether the person is next to you or a thousand miles away, the conversation is happening. On an energy level, that other person can feel the energy you are throwing at them. This is also the layer where you really want to curse at the person standing before you: “You stupid person/idiot/jerk,” but instead you smile pleasantly and continue to argue with them in your head. Like the first layer of thought, this one has a huge amount of internal motion to it. In both layers you are still “going-to,” or engaging with the situation versus being still.
Third Layer of Thought
This third layer is where you figure things out, strategize, and problem solve. There is still a bit of motion here, and an internal, back and forth type of conversation. There is still a degree of engagement and emotional attachment.
“I tried three different things and know this next way won’t work. How can I get this computer issue figured out before this deadline?”
“Okay, I said hello to her but she didn’t see me. What do I do now to get her attention?”
“What does that sign over there say? It looks so interesting.” Although not as screaming and intense as the first two layers of thought, there is still a little bit of undisciplined focus. Your mind is bouncing around trying to find an answer. There is a looking outward for the answer vs taking a breath, becoming quiet, and allowing the answer to make itself available to you.
Fourth Layer of Thought
This layer is a place that I will define as pondering. It is being curious and sitting back without being engaged in a situation. This is the first non-engaged, non-invested layer of thought. Curious: ”I wonder how that works?” Or “Where did that come from?” Or “What an interesting possibility.” There is no emotional attachment, judgment or pre-definition of answers or possibilities. Many times you get into this easy layer when you are not stressed or not being pushed on; when there are few external demands on you at that moment. You might begin to think, ”Well, maybe it’s time to consider moving. I wonder where I would like to live?” This is a question without a defined answer to it. The question is open-ended. The answer appears where that non-charged question is asked. All you have to do is allow it and not “move” from your thought to search for the answer. The answer, and the wandering thoughts surrounding the answer, then come into your awareness from the broader field of possibilities: “Well if I go to Portland, Oregon I will have this experience, but if I go to Tokyo I will have that experience, and then I could always move down to Perth in Australia and have this.” The process unfolds by itself and you are simply watching the process from a place of neutral curiosity. In this layer of thought someone may say to you, “Have you considered Boulder Colorado?” and you are open enough to consider it without rejecting or judging the possibility. No opinion. Curious.
Try it. Feel the difference – and let us know what you discover.
Jim Self is an author, international speaker, and teacher of the Tools for Mastering Alchemy. This work is in co-creation with Archangels, Ascended Masters and Teachers of Light. www.MasteringAlchemy.com or 775-851-8950 ~ Copyright: You may share this article with your friends as long it is kept whole and our website is included.
Death Valley in California has plenty of hazards, ranging from searing temperatures to flash floods, rock falls, rattlesnakes and scorpions.
Now geologists say that one of its volcanoes is actually far younger and more active than previously thought and is due to go off, because it last exploded in 1200 and has an eruption cycle of 1,000 years or less.
A team based at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory found that the half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater, formed by a prehistoric volcanic explosion, was created just 800 years ago – and not 6,000 years ago as previously estimated.
Explosive: The half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley
The researchers used isotopes in rocks blown out of the 600-foot crater to show that it formed around the year 1200.
That geologic youth means it probably still has some vigour, with the scientists certain that there is still enough groundwater and magma around for another reaction.
Ubehebe is the largest of a dozen such craters, or maars, clustered over about three square kilometres of Death Valley National Park.
The violent mixing of magma and water, resulting in a so-called phreatomagmatic explosion, blew a hole in the overlying sedimentary rock, sending out superheated steam, volcanic ash and deadly gases such as sulphur dioxide.
Study co-author Brent Goehring says this would have created an atom-bomb-like mushroom cloud that collapsed on itself in a donut shape, then rushed outward along the ground at some 200mph, while rocks hailed down.
Any creature within two miles or more would be fatally thrown, suffocated, burned and bombarded, though not necessarily in that order.
‘It would be fun to witness – but I’d want to be 10 miles away,’ said Goehring of the explosion.
Study: Geochemists dated the crater by analysing rocks thrown out when it exploded. Pictured is researcher Peri Sasnett contemplating a sample
The team began its work after Goehring and Lamont-Doherty professor Nicholas Christie-Blick led students on a field trip to Death Valley.
Noting that Ubehebe remained poorly studied, they got permission from the park to gather some three to six-inch fragments of sandstone and quartzite, part of the sedimentary conglomerate rock that the explosion had torn out.
They pinpointed the dates to when the stones were unearthed to between 800 and 2,100 years ago and noted that this happened in clusters.
The scientists interpreted this as signalling a series of smaller explosions, culminating in the big one that created the main crater around 1200.
A few other dates went back 3,000 to 5,000 years – these are thought to have come from earlier explosions at smaller nearby craters.
Christie-Blick said the dates make it likely that magma is still lurking somewhere below.
He pointed out that recent geophysical studies by other researchers have spotted what look like magma bodies under other parts of Death Valley.
‘Additional small bodies may exist in the region, even if they are sufficiently small not to show up geophysically,’ he said.
He added that the dates give a rough idea of eruption frequency – about every thousand years or less, which puts the current day within the realm of possibility.
‘There is no basis for thinking that Ubehebe is done,’ he said.
The scientists stress that there are currently no signs of it waking up, which would be preceded by shallow earthquakes and the opening of steam vents, events that could go on for years before anything bigger happened.
The study appears in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Earthquake overview : A moderate but shallow and thus moderately dangerous earthquake occurred only 13 km from Parma, Italy.
Minor damage (fallen stones, objects etc)
Update 13:39 UTC : This experience report just arrived in our website, it gives a good description of what happened when the earthquake occurred :
We were at school, everything normal until I felt a light shake. I was the first in class to feel it So I backed up my chair but felt nothing anymore, then, a few seconds later (10 seconds) there was a bigger one and everyone immediately went under their desk. Then the teacher cried; ‘no time for that! Get out quick!’ so we got out and went to hallways. Shortly after, there was the alarm therefore everybody quickly went down the stairs to go outside. There were little 4-year-old girls crying and policemen going in the building. We stayed there for 1hour+ until parents came to get us. ER comment : This teacher should know that what he ordered could make victims. The first pupils action was by far the best (look for cover under desks when the shaking starts). More people are being killed by falling objects than bu collapsed houses. Only evacuate when the shaking stops. This is an advice of almost all of the Preparedness Agencies in the world.
Update 10:43 UTC : INGV, the Italian local seismological service has reported a magnitude of 4.9. The earthquakes epicenter was located in the valley of the River Po, one of the Italian main rivers. As far as we could follow up the present reporting NO signs yet of any serious damage or injuries although it is too soon to make a final balance.
Update : Max. reported shaking at USGS is a V to VI MMI (moderate to strong shaking). Minor injuries from falling objects like tiles, stones etc cannot be excluded.
Update : experience report just in from Parma says : it lasted about 30-40 seconds. strong shaking. things falling off of shelves and walls. pictures broken.
Update : schools in and around Parma have been evacuated
Update : The actual epicenter of this earthquake has been located near the villages of Lentigione, Corte Godi and Enzano.
Update : local reports are mentioning some collapsed chimneys and a lot of panic in the streets of Parm. Also reports of rubble in the streets of Parma
A first weaker 4.1 magnitude earthquake shook Northern Italy at 00:54 local time. It was experienced by a lot of people as a light to weak shaking. The epicenter of this earthquake was close to Verona.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.1
UTC Time : Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 08:06:35 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 09:06:35 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10.2 km
Geo-location(s) :
13 km (8 miles) NE of Parma, Italy
75 km (46 miles) SSW of Verona, Italy
Tokyo sees high quake probability, scientists warn
By Elizabeth Yuan, CNN
updated 7:17 AM EST, Tue January 24, 2012
Japan’s highest mountain, Mount Fuji, rises behind Tokyo’s skyscraper skyline, as the sun sets in this photo last year.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Forty-two million people live in Tokyo metropolitan area
University researchers cited findings on increase in small tremors
Government put 70% probability of magnitude-7 quake in region within 30 years
March 11 quake and tsunami left more than 15,700 dead, government says
(CNN) — Tokyo faces the possibility of being hit by a massive earthquake within the next four years, according to Japanese researchers.
The University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute predicts there is a 70% probability that the capital’s metropolitan area will experience a magnitude-7 quake within four years and a 98% probability within the next 30 years.
Nearly one year ago, a magnitude 9.0 quake struck off Japan’s central Pacific coast, triggering a devastating tsunami and aftershocks that left more than 15,700 dead, according to a government report in December on Japan’s recovery from the catastrophe. About 4,500 were listed as missing.
Nearly 700 aftershocks registering magnitude 5 or greater followed last year’s quake, the government report said.
The March 11 earthquake — dubbed “Tohoku” after the region in which it occurred — also damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station, where three reactors experienced full meltdowns, creating a nuclear crisis for a country already grappling with disaster.
Quake, tsunami debris threaten coastlines
The research institute cited for its findings the Gutenberg Richter Law, which states that an increase in small tremors will likely increase the number of larger earthquakes. According to another paper published in September, the institute concluded that the quake ruptured a fault area nearly 500 kilometers in length and 200 kilometers wide offshore.
The fourth strongest quake recorded in history, Tohoku caused abrupt stress changes in the upper plate and triggered widespread seismic activity throughout the Japanese island. The northern part of Ibaraki Prefecture, in particular, saw a significant increase of shallow seismicity after the quake compared with the extremely low rate eight years prior, the researchers said.
Should Tokyo’s inhabitants be worried?
The research institute’s findings carry great consequences for the 42 million people who live in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The Central Disaster Management Council has estimated that a large-scale earthquake in the next few decades could result in 11,000 deaths and an economic loss of 112 trillion yen (US$1 trillion). Its goal is to halve the estimated death toll and reduce the estimated economic loss.
How precise are seismic forecasts?
Gary Gibson, a seismologist at Australia’s Seismology Research Centre Seismology Research Centre, called the Earthquake Research Institute’s findings “not at all unexpected,” given the level of seismic activity and their model.
“Seismologists cannot predict with certainty when, where and how large the next big earthquake will be,” he wrote in an e-mail to CNN. “However, it is possible to forecast the probability of an earthquake in a particular time range (e.g. the next four years), location area (e.g. the Tokyo region), and magnitude range (e.g. greater than magnitude 7.0).
“Long-term forecasts use average activity levels from past earthquakes, geological data from fault displacements, and data about plate movement and deformation from very precise GPS measurements and other methods to determine these probabilities.”
What is the government saying?
The government’s Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion had put a 70% probability of a magnitude-7 quake in Kanto region, which encompasses Tokyo and Yokohama, within 30 years, based on long-term seismicity and hazard studies.
Scientists have already dubbed as “Tokai” an expected 8.0 quake near Suruga Bay, where large quakes have historically struck every 100-150 years, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The last one, a magnitude-8.4 quake, occurred in 1854 — nearly 160 years ago.
According to Gibson, the seismologist, the enhanced seismicity in the area affected by the Tohoku quake may fall towards normal levels and could affect the research institute’s findings. Results for the six-month period after the quake would become available after this coming March 11, the quake’s anniversary, he noted.
Why is Japan so prone to earthquakes?
The Japanese archipelago and neighboring areas rest on or around four tectonic plates — the Pacific, Philippine Sea, North American and Eurasian plates — whose movements account for one of the most seismically active places on earth.
Can Tokyo withstand a 7.0 quake?
Gibson said that while the area is a very active one seismically, building standards are high, therefore reducing the damage caused by earthquakes. Buildings in Tokyo held up well in the face of the “Tohoku” quake. Reinforced concrete and anti-seismic systems in buildings are among features that have helped absorb shocks when earthquakes occur.
“A magnitude 7.0 earthquake is very much smaller than the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake,” he wrote. “It would need 1,000 magnitude-7.0 earthquakes to release as much strain energy as the magnitude 9.0. The fault rupture size is tens of kilometers, rather than hundreds of kilometers, and the fault displacement two to three meters rather than 20 to 30 meters.”
Serious damage could be limited, if it occurs offshore, he added. And the shallower the quake, such as within 10 kilometers of the surface, the more localized the damage.
The northern lights take on a weird, rippling shape in a super-wide-angle view captured Sunday night by the Canadian Space Agency’s AuroraMAX webcam in Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories. There’s more from AuroraMAX at the project’s website and on Twitpic.
By Alan Boyle
Is it “auroras” or “aurorae”? The dictionary prefers the former, but either way, there was a multiplicity of auroral awesomeness this weekend — thanks to a solar storm that swept past Earth’s magnetic field over the weekend. During the past few days, we’ve shown off a few stunning images from Norway and Canada, and there’s a new crop to share today.
First, a little explanation for what you’re looking at:
Auroral lights arise when electrically charged particles from the sun interact with atoms and ions high up in Earth’s atmosphere, 60 to 200 miles up. The interaction sets off emissions in wavelengths ranging from blue, to green (the most common color), to red. The colors depend on the energy of the particles in question. To get the full story on that, check out the explanations from the“Causes of Color” website and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
This weekend’s auroras were particularly bright because ofa strong solar outburst that occurred on Thursday. There’s an interval between the outburst and the displays because the particles that are ejected from the sun travel at far less than the speed of light. But they’re still pretty speedy — the velocity is on the order of a million miles an hour.
Solar outbursts, known more formally as coronal mass ejections or CMEs, have the potential to disrupt electrical grids or satellite communications. There could be radiation effects on astronauts in orbit or passengers on high-altitude, pole-traversing airplane flights. Thursday’s outburst dealt Earth’s magnetic field a glancing blow, and no significant negative impact has been reported. However, an even stronger CME is currently on its way toward Earth and may force the rerouting of polar flights. Once again, electric-grid managers and satellite operators will be on alert, as will aurora-watchers.
Observers in northern latitudes can look forward to enhanced auroras over the next couple of nights — and the rest of us can look forward to more images like these:
Bjorn Jorgensen
Bjorn Jorgensen’s view of the aurora was captured on Sunday at Grotfjord, close to Tromso in north Norway. “This was amazing,” he told SpaceWeather.com. “It was a wonderful experience to see these stunning auroras.” The bird-of-prey picture was taken with a Nikon D3S camera equipped with a Nikkor 14-24mm lens. Exposure for the pictures in Jorgenson’s set was ISO 2200 at five and six seconds. Check out SpaceWeather.com andArcticPhoto.no for more views.
Chad Blakley / Lights Over Lapland
Chad Blakley said on Sunday that he had “an unbelievable night” at Sweden’s Abisko National Park. “As soon as the sun went down I realized that we were about to experience something special,” he told SpaceWeather.com. “The auroras have been dancing all night long and show no sign of stopping! I only came in because 32 gigabytes of memory cards were full and all three batteries were dead!” Click on over to Blakley’s Vimeo page for a time-lapse video version of this imagery, and check out SpaceWeather.com for more from Abisko.
ALMOST-X FLARE AND CME (UPDATED): This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion’s M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare’s extreme ultraviolet flash:
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft detected a CME rapidly emerging from the blast site: movie. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the leading edge of the CME will reach Earth on Jan. 24 at 14:18UT (+/- 7 hours). Their animated forecast track shows that Mars is in the line of fire, too; the CME will hit the Red Planet during the late hours of Jan. 25.
This is a relatively substantial and fast-moving (2200 km/s) CME. Spacecraft in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits passing through Earth’s ring current and auroral regions could be affected by the cloud’s arrival. In addition, strong geomagnetic storms are possible, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras
RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Solar protons accelerated by this morning’s M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications. An example of satellite effects: The “snow” in this SOHO coronagraph movie is caused by protons hitting the observatory’s onboard camera.
currently 1230am CST — there have been several tornadic outbreaks with damaging winds / hail… in Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Louisiana, and Michigan…
Areas to watch out for next will most likely be Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Illinois and Michigan are getting hit with hail and damaging winds– also possible tornadoes detected:
By 6am EST 1/23/2012 — look in the area marked below for severe weather to develop:
Watch the east coast states (new england)… it is up for debate as to whether severe will hit these areas.. or will the cooler weather kill the storm when it arrives in the north east?
I would venture a guess that AT LEAST damaging winds will reach New York. Be prepared as always.
Explosive: The half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley
Study: Geochemists dated the crater by analysing rocks thrown out when it exploded. Pictured is researcher Peri Sasnett contemplating a sample
Minor damage (fallen stones, objects etc)
Quake, tsunami debris threaten coastlines
AuroraMAX / Canadian Space Agency
Bjorn Jorgensen
Chad Blakley / Lights Over Lapland
