Author Archives: marcia

Fireballs fr/Constellation of Taurus

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TAURID FIREBALLS: Sky watchers should be alert for fireballs in the nights ahead. Forecasters say Earth might be heading for a swarm of gravelly debris from comet Encke. If so, meteoroids the size of pebbles and small stones hitting Earth’s atmosphere at 25 km/s would produce a slow drizzle of very bright fireballs flying out of the constellation Taurus–hence the name “Taurids.” The display is expected to peak with a few fireballs every hour during the nights of Nov. 5-12.

NASA’s network of all-sky meteor cameras is already picking up some Taurid fireballs–“7 in the past two nights and 11 altogether since Halloween,” reports Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office. Here are their orbits:

In the orbital diagram, the location of Earth is denoted by a red splat. The orbits of the meteoroids (yellow) roughly match that of parent Comet Encke (orange), confirming their association with the Taurid debris swarm.

“What always strikes me about the Taurids,” notes Cooke, “is how deeply they penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. On average, they make it to an altitude of 44 miles. Contrast this to the recent Orionids, which burn up at an average altitude of 58 miles. Part of this is due to the speed difference: Taurids are slow (27 km/s) while Orionids are fast (66 km/s). In addition, many Taurids are made up of stronger stuff than the Orionids.”

Yesterday, Cooke received this report from a hunter in Tennessee, who was near the terminus of a Taurid fireball which made it all the way down to 18.5 miles altitude: “On the morning of October 30 at approximately 6:00 CDT I was walking into a hunting spot in the middle of the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge. As I was standing, this bright white light appeared from the north, illuminating the woods like daylight, casting shadows of the trees, and as it passed overhead in a couple of seconds, the shadows quickly reversed direction. It was so intense I felt like a searchlight from an overhead helicopter was on me, but there was no noise. As it disappeared into the southern sky, I heard three extremely loud booms which I also felt much like a sonic boom from a plane. The resident birds all began to call for a minute after. In my 62 years of living on this planet, and witnessing several meteor showers- some very bright- I can tell you I have never witnessed anything like this. The experience was not totally unlike that seen in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the man’s truck was stopped at a railroad crossing and he was engulfed in light!”

from:   spaceweather.com

Pesticide Corps Mobilize to Back Monsanto

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6 Largest Pesticide Corporations Funding Effort to Try to Defeat GMO Labeling Proposition 37

25th October 2012

By J. D. Heyes – naturalnews.com

In what should probably surprise no one who has been following the Proposition 37 issue, a California proposal that would require the ingredients in all GM foods to be labeled, the so-called “Big 6″ pesticide corporations have become the movement’s main opponents.

Filings released this week by the California Secretary of State’s office denote that the world’s six largest pesticide corporations have become the six biggest contributors to opponents of Prop 37. In all, they have funneled in excess of $20 million to oppose the measure which, again, would require what should already be happening: the labeling of genetically engineered or modified food. The money has especially funded an aggressive, extensive ad campaign in recent weeks.

“Pesticide corporations like Monsanto continue to enjoy unfettered and unlabeled access to the market, while consumers are left largely in the dark,” said Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, PhD, senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network. “Despite the best efforts of the big six to confuse and distort the issue, Californians have a right to know what’s in their food and how it’s grown.”

The Big 6 – Monsanto, BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont and Syngenta – far and away dominate the global seed and pesticide markets; they are actively opposing Prop 37. In filings released recently, each of the corporations “made contributions of at least $2 million, with Monsanto’s contribution alone totaling more than $7 million,” said PAN, in a press release.

What do the Big 6 have to hide?

The opposition really wants Prop. 37 defeated. Including Big 6 donations, so far those committed to defeating it have ponied up in excess of $37 million; they’ve spent $19 million with Sacramento public relations firms and on aggressive television advertising and paid mailings to voters.

But why? Why are companies so opposed to openness and honesty when it comes to allowing consumers the right to know what’s in the GM foods they are buying?

The answer may lie in a comprehensive study released a week ago. According to Dr. Charles Benbrook, who conducted the study using federal government data, the Big 6 likely don’t want you to know that genetically engineered crops drive up the use of dangerous pesticides while they open more markets for them as well (as usual, “follow the money”).

Benbrook found that GM crops have “increased pesticide use by over 400 million pounds in the United States over the past fifteen years,” said the PAN statement.

“Increased pesticide use has led to greater and greater weed resistance. In turn, this has led to more applications of pesticides – as well as use of more hazardous pesticides – in agricultural fields, putting rural communities and farm workers at the greatest risk of harm due to pesticide exposure,” the activist organization said.

More pesticides, more chemicals, more danger

In addition to the use of more pesticides, the control over seeds has also benefited these giant biotech companies – at the expense, of course, of consumers.

“The Big 6 chemical and seed companies are working diligently to monopolize the food system at the expense of consumers, farmers and smaller seed companies,” said Philip H. Howard, an associate professor at Michigan State University and an expert on industry consolidation.

In all, Monsanto alone controls 23 percent of the world’s seed market, while Bayer controls 20 percent of the global pesticide market.

So what’s the big deal, really? Why should GM foods be labeled anyhow?

Probably the biggest reason why is because GMOs – genetically modified organisms – in general were not created by food or agriculture companies. They were created by Monsanto – the same biotech and chemical company that brought us DDT, PCBs and Agent Orange. Monsanto also marketed aspartame and created bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to infect milking cows that put pus into commercial milk.

That’s what the big deal is.

from:     http://wakeup-world.com/2012/10/25/6-largest-pesticide-corporations-funding-effort-to-try-to-defeat-gmo-labeling-proposition-37/

The Toll Of Hurricane Sandy

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Sandy by the numbers: trying to comprehend a stunning disaster
Published: 7:19 PM GMT on November 01, 2012

The immensity of the impact of Superstorm Sandy on the Eastern U.S. is difficult to comprehend, and the scenes of devastation coming from the impact zone are stunning and heart-wrenching. To help understand the extraordinary scale of this historic storm, I’ve put together a list of notable statistics from Sandy:

Death toll: 160 (88 in the U.S., 54 in Haiti, 11 in Cuba)

Damage estimates: $10 – $55 billion

Power outages: 8.5 million U.S. customers, 2nd most for a natural disaster behind the 1993 blizzard (10 million)

Maximum U.S. sustained winds: 69 mph at Westerly, RI

Peak U.S. wind gusts: 90 mph at Islip, NY and Tompkinsville, NJ

Maximum U.S. storm surge: 9.45′, Bergen Point, NJ 9:24 pm EDT October 29, 2012

Maximum U.S. Storm Tide: 14.60′, Bergen Point, NJ, 9:24 pm EDT October 29, 2012

Maximum wave height: 33.1′ at the buoy east of Cape Hatteras, NC (2nd highest: 32.5′ at the Entrance to New York Harbor)

Maximum U.S. rainfall: 12.55″, Easton, MD

Maximum snowfall: 36″, Richwood, WV

Minimum pressure: 945.5 mb, Atlantic City, NJ at 7:24 pm EST, October 29, 2012. This is the lowest pressure measured in the U.S., at any location north of Cape Hatteras, NC (previous record: 946 mb in the 1938 hurricane on Long Island, NY)

Destructive potential of storm surge: 5.8 on a scale of 0 to 6, highest of any hurricane observed since 1969. Previous record: 5.6 on a scale of 0 to 6, set during Hurricane Isabel of 2003.

Diameter of tropical storm-force winds at landfall: 945 miles

Diameter of ocean with 12′ seas at landfall: 1500 miles


Figure 1. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite acquired this image of Superstorm Sandy around 3:35 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (7:35 Universal Time) on October 30. This image is from the “day-night band” on VIIRS, which detects light wavelengths from green to near-infrared. The full Moon lit up the tops of the clouds. Image credit: NASA.


Figure 2. Preliminary death and damage statistics for Sandy as compiled by Wikipedia on November 1, 2012.


Figure 3. Precipitation from Superstorm Sandy for the 7-day period ending at 8 am EDT Thursday, November 1, 2012. Image credit: NOAA/NWS/AHPS.


Figure 4. Top five weather-related power outages in the U.S.


Figure 5. Strong winds from Sandy blow snow in West Virginia on October 30, 2012. Image credit: Facebook/Cheryl Clay

Sandy’s snows
Several cities set records for snowiest October day on record during Sandy: Elkin, WV (7″, previous record, 4.6″ in 1917) and Bluefield (4.7″, previous record 3.2″ in 1993.) Heavy snows caused roof collapses in West Virginia, and snows of two feet or more fell in four states–West Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, and Virginia. However, Sandy fell short of setting the all-time record for snowfall from a hurricane. The Vermont Journal estimated that the Snow Hurricane of 1804 dumped up to 4 feet of snow in Vermont.

36″ Richwood, WV
34″ Mount Leconte, TN
34″ Sevier, TN
33″ Clayton, WV
32″ Snowshoe, WV
29″ Quinwood, WV
28″ Frostburg, WV
28″ Davis, WV
28″ Huttonsville, WV
28″ Flat Top, WV
26″ Redhouse, MD
26″ Garret, MD
26″ Craigsville, WV
24″ Oakland, MD
24″ Alpine Lake, WV
24″ Nettie, WV
24″ Norton, VA
24″ Quinwood, WV
24″ Alexander, WV

Links
Impressive loop of 1-minute visible satellite imagery spanning 6 days of Sandy’s life.

A one-day time lapse video from a New York City webcam showing Sandy’s impact on the city. It’s eerie to see the city suddenly plunged into darkness.

First round of damage assessment aerial imagery collected by NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey on Oct. 31 along the New Jersey coast.


Figure 6. Flooding in Haiti from Hurricane Sandy. Image credit: The Lambi Fund of Haiti.

Charities mobilize for Sandy
The outpouring of charitable donations in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy has been one of the bright spots in the gloomy aftermath of the storm. The main owners of The Weather Channel have agreed to match donations of up to $1 million to the American Red Cross, if you text SANDY to 90999 ($10). I also recommend my favorite disaster relief charity, Portlight.org. They are focusing their response efforts exclusively on the post-Sandy neeeds of people with disabilities.Check out the Portlight blog to see what they’re up to; donations are always needed.

Sandy’s greatest devastation occurred in Haiti, where rains of up to 20 inches in 24 hours unleashed rampaging flood waters that killed at least 54, left 200,000 homeless, wiped out thousand of acres of crops, and killed massive numbers of livestock. For impoverished families in Haiti still struggling to recover from the earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Isaac in August, Sandy was devastating.  These crops are the very essence of rural Haitian’s livelihoods, and there are fears widespread starvation will result. A disaster relief charity in Haiti that I’ve contributed to for many years, The Lambi Fund of Haiti, is seeking donations to help farmers purchase local seeds so that they can replant their crops in the wake of this latest terrible Haitian catastrophe.

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html

Ede Frecska on the Non-Local Mind

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The Direct-Intuitive-Nonlocal Mind: Another Foundation for Knowledge?

by Ede Frecska on November 28, 2010

Nonlocal information about the physical universe offers the missing link between objective science and subjective experience, including consciousness and spiritual experiences. Based on the principle of nonlocality and with the “quantum array antenna” of subcellular, cytoskeletal networks, the brain can be resonating with the whole universe. The brain may contain the whole Cosmos like a quantum hologram, and the perennial wisdom of “As above, so below (or: As within, so without)”, “The kingdom of Heaven is within you”, or “Look within, you are the Buddha” creates the appropriate perspective. The cytoskeletal matrix can be the mediator of the Jungian ‘collective unconscious’, and cytoskeletal quantum holography can explain a very common but obscure phenomenon known as ‘intuition’.

Ritual ceremonials and other spiritual practices based on the integrative forms of altered states of consciousness (ASCs)—an integrative ASC leads to healing in contrast to a disintegrative one such as psychosis or drunkenness—elude neuroscientific explanations based on classical cognition. Classical cognition can be conceptualized as a ‘perceptual-cognitive’ way of information processing characteristic of ordinary states of consciousness. This information processing utilizes the local aspect of the universe and is contrasted with another way of obtaining knowledge, which is based on nonlocal connections denoted here as ‘direct-intuitive’.

The ‘perceptual-cognitive’ mode is neuroaxonally based, relies on sensory perception, cognitive processing, and on symbolic (visual, verbal, logical-language) mediation. This form of information processing is an indirect mode of achieving knowledge compared to the ‘direct-intuitive’ way. In accordance with the indirect nature of its processing, this mode splits the world into subject and object, and then performs its modeling. The linguistic feature makes this mode transferable from individual to individual but at the same time limits it to be culturally bound. The ‘perceptual-cognitive’ mode of information processing has been evolved for the purpose of task solving, represents a “coping machine” at work, and reaches its peak in Western scientific thinking.

The introduction of a nonlocal, ‘direct-intuitive’ channel is necessary for an ontological interpretation of integrative ASCs, such as the shamanic or mystic states of consciousness. We may assume that this mode of accessing knowledge is based on subcellular, cytoskeletal functions, provides direct experience (no subject-object split), and is not bound by language or other symbols. It is practically ineffable, non-transferable. Since the ‘direct-intuitive’ channel lacks linguistic-symbolic mediation, it has universal characteristics, shows more transcultural similarity, although culture-specific interpretations exist. This may be why mystics get better agreement comparing their “data” than do materialistic scientists. I am not arguing here for the ontological validation of every experience in ASCs, but for a few, very informative experiences that constitute the integrative ASCs.

The ‘direct-intuitive’ perception of the world carries a high degree of uncertainty, needs rigorous training for its highest development – as in other fields. It takes decades to train an indigenous shaman or Buddhist monk because the ‘direct-intuitive’ route into the realm of “non-ordinary” consciousness is seemingly capricious, its denizens are unpredictable, and our ‘perceptual-cognitive’ mind is unprepared to face its challenges. What can be nourished can be atrophied as well; the latter happened in Western civilization and the ‘direct-intuitive’ channel has become “The Forgotten Knowledge”. It might have been the source of ancient myths. Giving credit to mythical knowledge also means that the teachings of ancient myths and wisdom traditions should be considered as a starting point for the development of modern scientific theories, and deserve to be treated as “working hypotheses” in applying the scientific method.

The ‘perceptual-cognitive’ foundation of knowledge is a result of the brain’s interactions with the local aspects of the universe. The ‘direct-intuitive’ perception of the world derives from the nonlocal features of the Cosmos. In other words: the local universe of the classical, Newtonian worldview is the reality of our ordinary consciousness, based on the ‘perceptual-cognitive’ process. On the other hand, the brain’s interfacing with the nonlocal universe generates the reality of “non-ordinary” states. Moreover, as will be outlined below, the ‘direct-intuitive’ way is also the source of the subjective component of our consciousness. My main point is that intuition, consciousness, and non-locality are interwoven.

‘Cogito’ Updated

The basic principles of the second foundation of knowledge (the direct-intuitive-nonlocal) can shed light on peculiar features of consciousness on what various cultural views and wisdom traditions attribute to it. For example, the indigenous Arawate people of the Amazon state that in the jaguars’ perspective they are the people and we are the jaguars. In essence, jaguars are conscious beings. Aside from questions of ignorance, how can rational thinking make sense of such a statement? How come that there are traditions which connect consciousness with beings and inanimate objects other than the human brain? The following passage may help to interpret these concepts and the principles of panpsychic and hylozoic views

As a starting point I refer to Ervin Laszlo (2007), who had the notion what I wish to build upon: “What we call ‘matter’ is the aspect we apprehend when we look at a person, a plant, or a molecule from the outside; ‘mind’ is the aspect we obtain when we look at the same thing from the inside.” For me it means that if we use the ‘perceptual-cognitive’—the “outsider” approach—then everything is seen as an object without consciousness. How do we relate to our brain from inside, how do we perceive our own consciousness? Naturally, we cannot see, touch, smell our own or others’ mind. We are left only with the other approach, the nonlocal, ‘direct-intuitive’ mode of knowing, that is the method of looking at things from the inside. The intuitive apprehension is the way for us to recognize that we are conscious. All of us have a direct, intuitive knowledge of our own consciousness, and not a perceptual one.

At the base of the yet dominant Newtonian-Cartesian worldview stands Descartes’ Cogito(I think, therefore I am). It presupposes another question: ‘How do I know about myself?’ Turning Descartes’ coin to the other side: “I am aware of myself, therefore (or because) I am intuitive.” That means I have a way of getting knowledge without the senses, without using local processes of nature. This leaves me with the other, the nonlocal mode of apprehension.

My conclusion may sound trivial, yet carries non-trivial consequences. ‘Direct-intuitive’ is a way we relate to things from their inside. In the eye of the “insider”—as Ervin Laszlo pointed out eloquently—we always sense the presence of consciousness. Consequently, intuition, nonlocality, and consciousness seem to be intimately related. We can have intuitive knowledge without awareness of its source. However, if we are aware of its origin then we can attribute consciousness to the source in nascendi. In this regard Stuart Hameroff is right: subneural structures (which serve as the interface for the ‘direct-intuitive’ mode of information processing) mediate consciousness. I would add: these structures mediate not only our consciousness, but the consciousness of every entity to which we relate intuitively.

What follows next is a generalization: The same way I attribute consciousness to myself, I can attribute it to everything else via the ‘direct-intuitive’ approach, since consciousness arises during the intuitive process. Our perceptual reality consists of material objects, while the world of intuition is filled with conscious entities. Animals, plants, even rocks or the whole universe are conscious. They can be felt to be that in an integrative ASC, which has the ‘direct-intuitive-nonlocal’ approach as its modus operandi. The eternal philosophical debate over the priority of consciousness or matter seems to me to be transcended by the recognition of the reality of nonlocal and local processes. Consciousness and matter are attributes that depend only on the way we obtain our knowledge.

from:    http://ervinlaszlo.com/forum/2010/11/28/direct-intuitive-nonlocal-mind/

“You Can Heal Your LIfe” Movie

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Here is a new movie that takes off where THE SECRET left off:

“The LAW OF ATTRACTION is just the tip of the iceberg. BOB PROCTOR explains the other 11 Universal Laws: http://www.quantumlaw.info

You Can Heal Your Life is a “The Secret” style movie based on Louise Hay’s teachings about healing and shifting your perceptions (an interesting point of view about the law of attraction applied to health), with the participation of Gregg Braden, Esther Hicks, Wayne Dyer and many others”

And the link:

 

Dr. Jeff Masters on Sandy’s Trek IntoNew Jersey

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Why did Hurricane Sandy take such an unusual track into New Jersey?
Published: 4:33 PM GMT on October 31, 2012

We’re used to seeing hurricane-battered beaches and flooded cities in Florida, North Carolina, and the Gulf Coast. But to see these images from the Jersey Shore and New York City in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is a shocking experience. New Jersey only rarely gets hit by hurricanes because it lies in a portion of the coast that doesn’t stick out much, and is too far north. How did this happen? How was a hurricane able to move from southeast to northwest at landfall, so far north, and so late in hurricane season? We expect hurricanes to move from east to west in the tropics, where the prevailing trade winds blow that direction. But the prevailing wind direction reverses at mid-latitudes, flowing predominately west-to-east, due to the spin of the Earth. Hurricanes that penetrate to about Florida’s latitude usually get caught up in these westerly winds, and are whisked northeastwards, out to sea. However, the jet stream, that powerful band of upper-atmosphere west-to-east flowing air, has many dips and bulges. These troughs of low pressure and ridges of high pressure allow winds at mid-latitudes to flow more to the north or to the south. Every so often, a trough in the jet stream bends back on itself when encountering a ridge of high pressure stuck in place ahead of it. These “negatively tilted” troughs have winds that flow from southeast to northwest. It is this sort of negatively tilted trough that sucked in Sandy and allowed the hurricane to take such an unusual path into New Jersey.


Figure 1. Inlet section of Atlantic City, N.J., after Hurricane Sandy. Image credit: 6 ABC Action News.

The 1903 Vagabond Hurricane
The only other hurricane to hit New Jersey since 1851 besides Sandy was the 1903 Category 1 Vagabond Hurricane. According to Wikipedia, the Vagabond Hurricane caused heavy damage along the New Jersey coast ($180 million in 2006 dollars.) The hurricane killed 57 people, and endangered the life of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was sailing on a yacht near Long Island, NY, when the hurricane hit. However, the Vagabond Hurricane hit in September, when the jet stream is typically weaker and farther to the north. It is quite extraordinary that Sandy was able to hit New Jersey in late October, when the jet stream is typically stronger and farther south, making recurvature to the northeast much more likely than in September.


Figure 2. The path of the 1903 Vagabond Hurricane, the only other hurricane to hit New Jersey since 1851.

The blocking ridge that steered Sandy into New Jersey
A strong ridge of high pressure parked itself over Greenland beginning on October 20, creating a “blocking ridge” that prevented the normal west-to-east flow of winds over Eastern North America. Think of the blocking ridge like a big truck parked over Greenland. Storms approaching from the west (like the fall low pressure system that moved across the U.S. from California to Pennsylvania last week) or from the south (Hurricane Sandy) were blocked from heading to the northeast. Caught in the equivalent of an atmospheric traffic jam, the two storms collided over the Northeast U.S., combined into one, and are now waiting for the truck parked over Greenland to move. The strength of the blocking ridge, as measured by the strength of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), was quite high–about two standard deviations from average, something that occurs approximately 5% of the time. When the NAO is in a strong negative phase, we tend to have blocking ridges over Greenland.


Figure 3. Jet stream winds at a pressure of 300 mb on October 29, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy approached the coast of New Jersey. Note that the wind direction over New Jersey (black arrows) was from the southeast, due to a negatively tilted trough of low pressure over the Eastern U.S. caused by a strong blocking ridge of high pressure over Greenland. Image credit: NOAA/ESRL.

Arctic sea ice loss can cause blocking ridges
Blocking ridges occur naturally, but are uncommon over Greenland this time of year. According to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, blocking near the longitude of Greenland (50°W) only occurs about 2% of the time in the fall. These odds rise to about 6% in winter and spring. As I discussed in an April post, Arctic sea ice loss tied to unusual jet stream patterns, three studies published in the past year have found that the jet stream has been getting stuck in unusually strong blocking patterns in recent years. These studies found that the recent record decline in Arctic sea ice could be responsible, since this heats up the pole, altering the Equator-to-pole temperature difference, forcing the jet stream to slow down, meander, and get stuck in large loops. The 2012 Arctic sea ice melt season was extreme, with sea ice extent hitting a record lows. Could sea ice loss have contributed to the blocking ridge that steered Sandy into New Jersey? It is possible, but we will need to much more research on the subject before we make such a link, as the studies of sea ice loss on jet stream patterns are so new. The author of one of the new studies, Dr. Jennifer Francis of Rutgers, had this say in a recent post by Andy Revkin in his Dot Earth blog: “While it’s impossible to say how this scenario might have unfolded if sea-ice had been as extensive as it was in the 1980s, the situation at hand is completely consistent with what I’d expect to see happen more often as a result of unabated warming and especially the amplification of that warming in the Arctic.”

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html

Turning Air into Oil — A New Alchemy?

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Scientists turn fresh air into petrol: is breakthrough a milestone on the road to clean energy?

 264 12 907

By Steven Connor
Friday, 19 October 2012

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A small British company has produced the first “petrol from air” using a revolutionary technology that promises to solve the energy crisis as well as helping to curb global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Air Fuel Synthesis in Stockton-on-Tees has produced five litres of petrol since August when it switched on a small refinery that manufactures gasoline from carbon dioxide and water vapour.

The company hopes that within two years it will build a larger, commercial-scale plant capable of producing a ton of petrol a day. It also plans to produce green aviation fuel to make airline travel more carbon-neutral.

Tim Fox, head of energy and the environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, said: “It sounds too good to be true, but it is true. They are doing it and I’ve been up there myself and seen it. The innovation is that they have made it happen as a process. It’s a small pilot plant capturing air and extracting CO2 from it based on well known principles. It uses well-known and well-established components but what is exciting is that they have put the whole thing together and shown that it can work.”

Although the process is still in the early developmental stages and needs to take electricity from the national grid to work, the company believes it will eventually be possible to use power from renewable sources such as wind farms or tidal barrages.

“We’ve taken carbon dioxide from air and hydrogen from water and turned these elements into petrol,” said Peter Harrison, the company’s chief executive, who revealed the breakthrough at a conference at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London.

“There’s nobody else doing it in this country or indeed overseas as far as we know. It looks and smells like petrol but it’s a much cleaner and clearer product than petrol derived from fossil oil,” Mr Harrison told The Independent.

“We don’t have any of the additives and nasty bits found in conventional petrol, and yet our fuel can be used in existing engines,” he said.

“It means that people could go on to a garage forecourt and put our product into their car without having to install batteries or adapt the vehicle for fuel cells or having hydrogen tanks fitted. It means that the existing infrastructure for transport can be used,” Mr Harrison said.

Being able to capture carbon dioxide from the air, and effectively remove the principal industrial greenhouse gas resulting from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal, has been the holy grail of the emerging green economy.

Using the extracted carbon dioxide to make petrol that can be stored, transported and used as fuel for existing engines takes the idea one step further. It could transform the environmental and economic landscape of Britain, Mr Harrison explained.

“We are converting renewable electricity into a more versatile, useable and storable form of energy, namely liquid transport fuels. We think that by the end of 2014, provided we can get the funding going, we can be producing petrol using renewable energy and doing it on a commercial basis,” he said.

“We ought to be aiming for a refinery-scale operation within the next 15 years. The issue is making sure the UK is in a good place to be able to set up and establish all the manufacturing processes that this technology requires. You have the potential to change the economics of a country if you can make your own fuel,” he said.

The initial plan is to produce petrol that can be blended with conventional fuel, which would suit the high-performance fuels needed in motor sports. The technology is also ideal for remote communities that have abundant sources of renewable electricity, such solar energy, wind turbines or wave energy, but little in the way of storing it, Mr Harrison said.

“We’re talking to a number of island communities around the world and other niche markets to help solve their energy problems.

“You’re in a market place where the only way is up for the price of fossil oil and at some point there will be a crossover where our fuel becomes cheaper,” he said.

Although the prototype system is designed to extract carbon dioxide from the air, this part of the process is still too inefficient to allow a commercial-scale operation.

The company can and has used carbon dioxide extracted from air to make petrol, but it is also using industrial sources of carbon dioxide until it is able to improve the performance of “carbon capture”.

Other companies are working on ways of improving the technology of carbon capture, which is considered far too costly to be commercially viable as it costs up to £400 for capturing one ton of carbon dioxide.

However, Professor Klaus Lackner of Columbia University in New York said that the high costs of any new technology always fall dramatically.

“I bought my first CD in the 1980s and it cost $20 but now you can make one for less than 10 cents. The cost of a light bulb has fallen 7,000-fold during the past century,” Professor Lackner said.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/scientists-turn-fresh-air-into-petrol-is-breakthrough-a-milestone-on-the-road-to-clean-energy-16226456.html?r=RSS&google_editors_picks=true#ixzz2AcOxkHRU

Dr. Jeff Masters on Hurricane Sandy

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Massive Hurricane Sandy building a huge and destructive storm surge
Published: 2:34 PM GMT on October 28, 2012

Massive and dangerous Hurricane Sandy has grown to record size as it barrels northeastwards along the North Carolina coast at 10 mph. At 8 am EDT, Sandy’s tropical storm-force winds extended northeastwards 520 miles from the center, and twelve-foot high seas covered a diameter of ocean 1,030 miles across. Since records of storm size began in 1988, no tropical storm or hurricane has been larger (though Hurricane Olga of 2001 had a larger 690 mile radius of tropical storm-force winds when it was a subtropical storm near Bermuda.) Sandy has put an colossal volume of ocean water in motion with its widespread and powerful winds, and the hurricane’s massive storm surge is already impacting the coast. A 2′ storm surge has been recorded at numerous locations this morning from Virginia to Connecticut, including a 3′ surge at Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and Sewells Point at 9 am EDT. Huge, 10 – 15 foot-high battering waves on top of the storm surge have washed over Highway 12 connecting North Carolina’s Outer Banks to the mainland at South Nags Head this morning. The highway is now impassable, and has been closed. The coast guard station on Cape Hatteras, NC, recorded sustained winds of 50 mph, gusting to 61 mph, at 5:53 am EDT this morning. In Delaware, the coastal highway Route 1 between Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach has been closed due to high water. Even though Sandy is a minimal Category 1 hurricane, its storm surge is extremely dangerous, and if you are in a low-lying area that is asked to evacuate, I strongly recommend that you leave.


Figure 1. A fright to behold: morning satellite image of massive Hurricane Sandy.

Sandy’s death toll now at 65
Sandy was a brutal storm for the Caribbean, the storm’s death toll now stands at 65. The death toll is highest in Haiti, with 51 deaths. Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told the Associated Press that “This is a disaster of major proportions. The whole south is under water.” Approximately 8 – 10″ of rain (200 – 250 mm) fell in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Eleven people were killed in Cuba, where 35,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Sandy is also being blamed for 1 death in Jamaica, 1 in Puerto Rico, and 1 in the Bahamas.


Figure 2. A resident carries a metal sheet from a house after heavy rains damaged by Hurricane Sandy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Sandy is being blamed for 51 deaths in Haiti. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)


Figure 3. Satellite-estimated rainfall amounts from NASA’s TRMM satellite show that portions of Haiti received over 12.75″ (325 mm) of rain (pink colors) from Hurricane Sandy. The capital of Port-au-Prince received 8 – 10″ (200 – 250 mm.) Image credit: NASA.

Intensity and Track Forecast for Sandy
Sandy has a rather unusual structure, with the strongest winds on the southwest side of the center, but a larger area of tropical storm-force winds to the northeast of the center. Most of the storm’s heavy thunderstorm activity is on the storm’s west side, in a thick band several hundred miles removed from the center, giving Sandy more the appearance of a subtropical storm rather than a hurricane. Satellite loops show that the low-level center of Sandy is no longer exposed to view, and heavy thunderstorms are increasing in areal extent near the center, due to a reduction in wind shear from 35 – 40 knots last night to 25 – 30 knots this morning. Wind shear is expected to drop another 5 knots today, which may allow the storm to build an increased amount of heavy thunderstorms near its center and intensify by 5 – 10 mph over the next 24 hours. The NOAA Hurricane Hunters noted this morning that Sandy had a partial eyewall on the west through SE sides of the center, and the storm may be able to build a nearly complete eyewall by Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, though, Sandy will be moving over cool 25°C waters, which should slow down this intensification process. However, the trough of low pressure that will be pulling Sandy to the northwest towards landfall on Monday will strengthen the storm by injecting “baroclinic” energy–the energy one can derive from the atmosphere when warm and cold air masses lie in close proximity to each other. Sandy should have sustained winds at hurricane force, 75 – 80 mph, at landfall. Sandy’s central pressure is expected to drop from its current 951 mb to 945 – 950 mb at landfall Monday night. A pressure this low is extremely rare; according to wunderground weather historian Christopher C. Burt, the lowest pressure ever measured anywhere in the U.S. north of Cape Hatteras, NC, is 946 mb (27.94″) measured at the Bellport Coast Guard Station on Long Island, NY on September 21, 1938 during the great “Long Island Express” hurricane. The latest set of 00Z (8 pm EDT) and 06Z (2 am EDT) computer model runs are in agreement that Sandy will make landfall between 10 pm Monday night and 4 am Tuesday morning in New Jersey.


Figure 4. Predicted maximum storm surge from Hurricane Irene. There is a 10% chance that the storm surge could exceed the heights given here, so most regions will receive a surge lower than this forecast. The greatest surge is expected in the waters surrounding New York City, since the shape of the bays will act to funnel the water to higher levels.

Sandy’s storm surge a huge threat
Last night’s 9:30 pm EDT H*Wind analysis from NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division put the destructive potential of Sandy’s winds at a modest 2.6 on a scale of 0 to 6. However, the destructive potential of the storm surge was exceptionally high: 5.7 on a scale of 0 to 6. This is a higher destructive potential than any hurricane observed between 1969 – 2005, including Category 5 storms like Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Camille, and Andrew. The previous highest destructive potential for storm surge was 5.6 on a scale of 0 to 6, set during Hurricane Isabel of 2003. Sandy is now forecast to bring a near-record storm surge of 6 – 11 feet to Northern New Jersey and Long Island Sound, including the New York City Harbor. While Sandy’s storm surge will be nowhere near as destructive as Katrina’s, the storm surge does have the potential to cause many billions of dollars in damage if it hits near high tide at 9 pm EDT on Monday. The full moon is on Monday, which means astronomical high tide will be about 5% higher than the average high tide for the month. This will add another 2 – 3″ to water levels. Fortunately, Sandy is now predicted to make a fairly rapid approach to the coast, meaning that the peak storm surge will not affect the coast for multiple high tide cycles. Sandy’s storm surge will be capable of overtopping the flood walls in Manhattan, which are only five feet above mean sea level. On August 28, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene brought a storm surge of 4.13′ to Battery Park on the south side of Manhattan. The waters poured over the flood walls into Lower Manhattan, but came 8 – 12″ shy of being able to flood the New York City subway system. According to the latest storm surge forecast for NYC from NHC, Sandy’s storm surge is expected to be several feet higher than Irene’s. If the peak surge arrives near Monday evening’s high tide at 9 pm EDT, a portion of New York City’s subway system could flood, resulting in billions of dollars in damage. I give a 50% chance that Sandy’s storm surge will end up flooding a portion of the New York City subway system.

An excellent September 2012 article in the New York Times titled, “New York Is Lagging as Seas and Risks Rise, Critics Warn” quoted Dr. Klaus H. Jacob, a research scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, on how lucky New York City got with Hurricane Irene. If the storm surge from Irene had been just one foot higher, “subway tunnels would have flooded, segments of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and roads along the Hudson River would have turned into rivers, and sections of the commuter rail system would have been impassable or bereft of power,” he said, and the subway tunnels under the Harlem and East Rivers would have been unusable for nearly a month, or longer, at an economic loss of about $55 billion. Dr. Jacob is an adviser to the city on climate change, and an author of the 2011 state study that laid out the flooding prospects. “We’ve been extremely lucky,” he said. “I’m disappointed that the political process hasn’t recognized that we’re playing Russian roulette.”

Sandy’s winds
Sandy will bring sustained winds of tropical storm-force to a 1000-mile swath of coast on Monday and Tuesday. Winds of 55 – 75 mph with gusts over hurricane force will occur along a 500 mile-wide section of coast. With most of the trees still in leaf, there will be widespread power outages due to downed trees, and the potential for several billion dollars in wind damage. A power outage computer model run by Johns Hopkins University predicts that 10 million people will lose power from the storm.

Sandy’s rains
Sandy’s heavy rains are going to cause major but probably not catastrophic river flooding. If we compare the predicted rainfall amounts for Sandy (Figure 5) with those from Hurricane Irene of 2011 (Figure 6), Sandy’s are expected to be about 30% less. Hurricane Irene caused $15.8 billion in damage, most of it from river flooding due to heavy rains. However, the region most heavily impacted by Irene’s heavy rains had very wet soils and very high river levels before Irene arrived, due to heavy rains that occurred in the weeks before the hurricane hit. That is not the case for Sandy; soil moisture is near average over most of the mid-Atlantic, and is in the lowest 30th percentile in recorded history over much of Delaware and Southeastern Maryland. One region of possible concern is the Susquehanna River Valley in Eastern Pennsylvania, where soil moisture is in the 70th percentile, and river levels are in the 76th – 90th percentile. This area is currently expected to receive 3 – 6 inches of rain (Figure 4), which is probably not enough to cause catastrophic flooding like occurred for Hurricane Irene. I expect that river flooding from Sandy will cause less than $1 billion in damage.


Figure 5. Predicted 5-day rainfall for the period ending Friday morning, November 2, 2012, at 8am EDT. Image credit: NOAA/HPC.


Figure 6. Actual rainfall for 2011’s Hurricane Irene, which caused $15.8 billion in damage, most of it from river flooding due to heavy rains. Sandy’s rains are predicted to be about 30% less than Irene’s. Image credit: NOAA/HPC.

Sandy’s snows
You can add heavy snow to the list of weather frights coming for the Eastern U.S. from Sandy. A WInter Storm Watch is posted for much of southeastern West Virginia for Sunday night through Monday, when 2 – 6 inches of wet, heavy snow is expected to fall at elevations below 2000 feet. At higher elevation above 3,000 feet, 1 – 2 feet of snow is possible. With high wind gusts of 35 – 45 mph and many trees still in leaf, the affected area can expect plenty of tree damage and power outages. Lesser snows are expected in the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

Sandy’s tornado threat is minimal
The severe thunderstorm and tornado threat from Sandy Sunday and Monday looks low, due to minimal instability.

Links for Sandy
To find out if you need to evacuate, please contact your local emergency management office. They will have the latest information. People living in New York City can find their evacuation zone here or use this map. FEMA has information on preparing for hurricanes.

People with disabilities and caregivers seeking information on accessible shelter and transportation can contact portlight.org

Corolla, NC webcam

Atlantic City beach cam

Statue of Liberty cam

An impressive 1-minute resolution satellite loop of Sandy today is at the CSU RAMMB website.

This impressive 1-min GOES loop beginning at dawn Saturday shows Sandy’s heavy thunderstorms fighting against high wind shear, and the tilt of the vortex to the northeast with height.

Our Weather Historian, Christopher C. Burt, has an excellent post on Late Season Tropical Storms that have affected the U.S. north of Hatteras. He also has a post, Historic Hurricanes from New Jersey to New England.

3-D “fly-around: of the rain towers of Sandy

Hurricane Sandy info from NASA.

Joe Romm at climateprogress.org has a thoughtful piece called, How Does Global Warming Make Hurricanes Like Irene More Destructive?

For those of you wanting to know your odds of receiving hurricane force or tropical storm force winds, I recommend the NHC wind probability product.

Wunderground has detailed storm surge maps for the U.S. coast.

The National Hurricane Center’s Interactive Storm Surge RIsk Map, which allows one to pick a particular Category hurricane and zoom in, is a good source of storm surge risk information.

Research storm surge model run by SUNY Stonybrook for New York City.

Climate Central has a nice satellite image showing which parts of New York Harbor are below five feet in elevation.


Figure 7. Tide gauge in Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, showing the 2.5′ tsunami that hit at approximately 09 UTC Sunday, October 29, 2012. Image credit: NOAA Tides and Currents.

Three-foot tsunami his Hawaii after big quake in Canada
A major magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit 25 miles (40 km) south of Sandspit, British Columbia last night at 8:04 pm PDT. The quake generated a tsunami that raced across the Pacific Ocean and struck Hawaii six hours later. The tsunami reached a height of 2.5 feet in Kahului, Maui, 1.2′ at Hilo, and 0.5′ in Honolulu. The earthquake was Canada’s third largest since 1900. The last stronger quake was a magnitude 7.9 that hit in 1958. The other stronger quake was a magnitude 8.1 that hit in 1949, with an epicenter very close to last night’s trembler.

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html

More Solar Eruptions

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SLOW ERUPTION: The magnetic canopy of a sunspot group just over the sun’s southwestern limb slowly erupted on Oct. 28th. When the hours-long eruption was over, this bright arcade formed over the blast site, marking the location where the explosion occured:

Arcade loops appear after many solar flares. It is how the magnetic fields of sunspots settle down after a significant eruption. This particular eruption hurled a massive CME into space, but Earth was not in the line of fire.

fr/spaceweather.com