Author Archives: marcia

NASA Live Track YU55 Asteroid 11/08

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ASA in Final Preparations for Nov. 8 Asteroid Flyby
10.26.11

Radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55This radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 was generated from data taken in April 2010 by the Arecibo Radar Telescope in Puerto Rico. Image credit: NASA/Cornell/Arecibo

Animation of the trajectory for asteroid 2005 YU55Animation of the trajectory for asteroid 2005 YU55 – November 8-9, 2011. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the agency’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., as the space rock safely flies past Earth slightly closer than the moon’s orbit on Nov. 8. Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of opportunity – allowing instruments on “spacecraft Earth” to scan it during the close pass.

Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid will begin at 9:30 a.m. local time (PDT) on Nov. 4, using the massive 70-meter (230-foot) Deep Space Network antenna, and last for about two hours. The asteroid will continue to be tracked by Goldstone for at least four hours each day from Nov. 6 through Nov. 10. Radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin on Nov. 8, the same day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST.

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) or 0.85 the distance from the moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including our planet’s tides or tectonic plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest this space rock has come for at least the last 200 years.

During tracking, scientists will use the Goldstone and Arecibo antennas to bounce radio waves off the space rock. Radar echoes returned from 2005 YU55 will be collected and analyzed. NASA scientists hope to obtain images of the asteroid from Goldstone as fine as about 7 feet (2 meters) per pixel. This should reveal a wealth of detail about the asteroid’s surface features, shape, dimensions and other physical properties (see “Radar Love” –http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-00a).

Arecibo radar observations of asteroid 2005 YU55 made in 2010 show it to be approximately spherical in shape. It is slowly spinning, with a rotation period of about 18 hours. The asteroid’s surface is darker than charcoal at optical wavelengths. Amateur astronomers who want to get a glimpse at YU55 will need a telescope with an aperture of 6 inches (15 centimeters) or larger.

The last time a space rock as big came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this large will be in 2028.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called “Spaceguard,” discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch.

More information about asteroid radar research is at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

More information about the Deep Space Network is at: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

from:    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/yu55-20111025.html

Record of Ancient Pilgrimages Found

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Long Pilgrimages Revealed in Ancient Sudan Art

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 03 November 2011 Time: 08:33 AM ET
Banganarti Upper Church
A 3-D reconstruction of the upper church at Banganarti. Built almost 1,000 years ago this medieval church was one of two that archaeologists excavated at the site.
CREDIT: Bogdan Zurawski

Excavations of a series of medieval churches in central Sudan have revealed a treasure trove of art, including a European-influenced work, along with evidence of journeys undertaken by travelers from western Europe that were equivalent to the distance between New York City and the Grand Canyon.

A visit by a Catalonian man named Benesec is recorded in one of the churches, along with visits from other pilgrims of the Middle Ages, according to lead researcher Bogdan Zurawski of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The discoveries were made at Banganarti and Selib, two sites along the Nile that were part of Makuria, a Christian kingdom ruled by a dynasty of kings throughout the Middle Ages

The art there tells stories of kings, saints, pilgrims and even a female demon, said Zurawski, who presented his findings recently at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Inside medieval churches

Zurawski said the most recent of the churches uncovered in Banganarti, built nearly 1,000 years ago, is unique. “It has no parallel in Nubia and elsewhere,” he said. [See images of Banganarti church discoveries]

The church contains 18 square rooms, two staircases and, at its center, a domed area that probably contained holy relics. The team believes the building was dedicated to the archangel Raphael and was used for healing rituals. “The multitude of inscriptions addressed to this archangel are more than suggestive” that the church was dedicated to him, Zurawski said.

Beneath this building lies a structure, built about 300 years earlier, which also appears to have been dedicated to Raphael. This lower church, as the archaeologists refer to it, contains a ninth-century mural depicting “the Harrowing of Hell,” which shows Jesus visiting the underworld to rescue the firstborn. [See images of the lower church]

A Catalonian journey

The team uncovered numerous inscriptions at the two sites, many left by pilgrims visiting the churches in hopes of being healed.

One of the inscriptions at Banganartiis written in Catalonian and appears to have been inscribed sometime in the 13th or 14th century by the man named Benesec. It reads: “When Benesec came to pay homage to Raphael.”

Banganarti Lower Church
In addition to the monograms of Raphael, a prayer to the archangel, written by a King Zacharias, was found inscribed in the ruins near Banganarti.
CREDIT: Bogdan Zurawski

Zurawski told LiveScience that “Benesec” was a very popular name in 13th- and 14th-century southern France. This particular Benesec had probably traveled some 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from southern France or northern Spain.  The journey took him east across the Mediterranean Sea and far up the Nile into the interior of Africa.

The inscription and a Catalonian playing card found downriver by another team, which may or may not have been left by Benesec, were the only traces found of these visitors from Europe.

Zurawski said Benesec may have been a trader who, along with other Catalonians, received permission from the Mamluk rulers of Egypt to pass through their territory. “The Catalonians were granted trade privileges, trade rights, to exchange goods and to trade with Egypt, and apparently they also came to Nubia,” he said

to read more, go to:    http://www.livescience.com/16854-sudan-yields-medieval-art-signs-long-pilgrimages.html

 

 

Interview Lilou with Drunvalo Melchisedek

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AN INTERVIEW WITH DRUNVALO MELCHIZEDEK – 10/28/11

From Lilou Mace and “Juicy Living” (About 1 hour)

On October 28th 2011 Drunvalo and Lilou Mace got together for a virtual conversation to talk about everything under the Sun – including the end of the Mayan Calendar. For approximately one hour Drunvalo goes all over the map. He starts out with the Mayans, their prophecies, and presents us with heretofore undisclosed facts that call into question everything we think we know about their traditions and their culture. Later on in the conversation, the talk leans toward the Reptilians, the Greys, and the forces whose influence has kept us under quarantine for thousands of years. As we touch the hem of Unity Consciousness, Drunvalo reminds us that the dark ones are as much a part of the Ascension Process as those of us who work with the Light. In the last segment, the nature of our reality and the fact that we are awakening to visions of a new and better world leads Drunvalo into a discussion of the Single Eye of the Heart. By the time he and Lilou finish up your mind will not only be blown, you will have a much clearer sense of what’s happening on this planet and a better connection to the idea that the “End of Time” is not so much about dates and times – it’s more about the fact that the time has come for all of us to wake up.

To tune in, click here:

Part I Mayan and 12/21/12 (27+ Minutes)

Part II Reptilians, ITs and ETs (20+ Minutes)

Part III Nature of reality and our participation (10+ Minutes)

 

this comes from:  http://www.spiritofmaat.com/nov11/index.htm

 

November 5th Taurids Meteor Shower

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Coming up in 2011

November 5, late night until dawn the following morning South Taurids
The South (and North) Taurids are perhaps best suited to die-hard meteor aficionados. The meteoroid stream that feeds the Taurids is very spread out and dissipated. That means the Taurids are extremely long lasting (September 25 to November 25) but usually don’t offer more than about 7 meteors per hour. That’ll be true even on the South Taurids’ expected peak night of November 5 (before dawn November 6). The big and bright waxing gibbous moon ruins the show during the evening hours on November 5, but if you’re a night owl, try watching after moonset, or in the wee hours after midnight on November 6.

from:    http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide

Levis New Twist on Water Conservation

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CHANGES IN THE AIR

Stone-Washed Blue Jeans (Minus the Washed)

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

A line of Levis jeans was made with world water shortages in mind.

By 
Published: November 1, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO   —  From the cotton field in rural India to the local rag bin, a typical pair of blue jeans consumes 919 gallons of water during its life cycle, Levi Strauss & Company says, or enough to fill about 15 spa-size bathtubs. That includes the water that goes into irrigating the cotton crop, stitching the jeans together and washing them scores of times at home

The company wants to reduce that number any way it can, and not just to project environmental responsibility. It fears that water shortages caused by climate changemay jeopardize the company’s very existence in the coming decades by making cotton too expensive or scarce.

So to protect its bottom line, Levi Strauss has helped underwrite and champion a nonprofit program that teaches farmers in India, Pakistan, Brazil and West and Central Africa the latest irrigation and rainwater-capture techniques.  It has introduced a brand featuring stone-washed denim smoothed with rocks but no water. It is sewing tags into all of its jeans urging customers to wash less and use only cold water.

To customers seeking further advice, Levi Strauss suggests washing jeans rarely, if at all — the theory being that putting them in the freezer will kill germs that cause them to smell.

Conservation worries are not limited to the clothing giants: food and beverage conglomerates, tobacco companies and metal and mining companies are all starting to reckon with their heavy dependence on water. Pepsico, for example, has embraced a method of sanitizing plastic bottles with purified air instead of water at a plant in Georgia. For its Frito-Lay brands, it has identified drought-resistant potato strains that it provides to farmers along with a soil-monitoring method so that crops are watered only when necessary.

The Carbon Disclosure Project, a group that monitors corporations’ greenhouse gas emissions, recently added water security to its priorities. Of the 150 companies that responded last year to a questionnaire that it sent to the world’s largest corporations, nearly 40 percent reported that water problems had already resulted in “detrimental impacts” to their businesses.

The threat of water shortages was brought home to Levi Strauss last year when floods in Pakistan and parched fields in China destroyed cotton crops and sent prices soaring. Roughly two pounds of cotton go into every pair of jeans that the company manufactures. Although scientists are wary of linking specific extreme weather events to climate change, recent increases in floods and droughts are in line with patterns that experts have long projected would result from global warming. The general rule of thumb is that wet regions will get wetter and dry regions will become even more arid.

Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, said that the local implications of those changes were still being sorted out but that “agriculture, which does best with a relatively consistent supply of water, will be impacted the most.”

That is particularly the case for cotton, the world’s biggest nonfood crop. Many big cotton-producing countries like India, which has tens of thousands of small cotton farmers, lack the reservoirs to store water, heightening the risk of shortages.

Companies doing business overseas are also contending with rising water costs or water that is not clean enough. Then there is the threat of bad publicity if a corporation is perceived to be squandering precious local water.

“The total volume of water used by a single beverage business, for example, may not be much,” Dr. Lall said. “But they are often the most visible users in a locality, depleting groundwater much more quickly than, say, a small farmer.”

It is not lost on American and European manufacturers that cotton already competes with grain for what arable land exists in some regions, a tension that will only grow as the world seeks to feed its growing population in coming decades.

Making ‘Better Cotton’

Because cotton is mostly grown by a diffuse network of very small farmers in more than 70 countries, encouraging water-efficient practices is a formidable challenge. Cotton cultivation accounts for more than 3 percent of the world’s agricultural water use and 6 percent of all pesticide purchases. Outmoded practices like field flooding contribute to overconsumption.

In 2005, nongovernmental and cotton industry organizations and some giant retailers, including Ikea, the Gap and Adidas, founded the international nonprofit Better Cotton Initiative to promote water conservation and reduce pesticide use and child-labor practices in the industry.

Levi Strauss joined in 2009. Partners include groups like Cotton Inc., an American industry association that has provided technical know-how. A three-year independent study of Indian farms found those adopting the new techniques reduced water and pesticide use by an average of 32 percent, the initiative says. The profit was 20 percent higher than that of a control group using traditional methods

to read more, go to:    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/science/earth/levi-strauss-tries-to-minimize-water-use.html?ref=science

Healing Benefits — People and Animals

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In the Company of Animals, Healing for Humans

By KAREN JONES
Published: November 1, 2011

SOPHIE is a goat whose taste in books leans toward popular best sellers, says Solana Mejia-Schnaufer, who reads aloud to her several times a week. “I know she likes ‘The Hunger Games’ because she didn’t try to eat it. That wasn’t true of ‘Animal Liberation.’ ”

Ann Johansson for The New York Times

A FRIEND Solana Mejia-Schnaufer, who has battled depression, said Sophie, a goat, had helped with her recovery.

Miss Mejia-Schnaufer, 21, and Sophie met at the Gentle Barn, a six-acre ranch in Santa Clarita, Calif. The facility heals and rehabilitates abused farm animals and invites visitors with emotional and physical challenges to interact with them. Bonding with Sophie was “a life-changing experience,” says Miss Mejia-Schnaufer, whose battle withdepression and eating disorders led to a suicide attempt this year. She credits Sophie, a rescue from an abusive petting zoo, with making her recovery possible.

“Before I came to the Gentle Barn, nothing gave me hope that life was worth living,” she says. “But when I met Sophie, I thought she had the most incredible calm and open energy. There was this flow of love back and forth between us that I was feeling so in need of.”

Today Miss Mejia-Schnaufer volunteers at the Gentle Barn and has also become Sophie’s “special person,” visiting her at least twice a week to share companionship and a good book. “Sophie is like my totem that I carry around with me all the time,” she says. “Knowing I can see her has kept me alive.”

The Gentle Barn is the fulfillment of a childhood dream, says its founder, Ellie Weiner: “I was one of those children that brought stray and injured animals home. My parents were not amused.” She adds that it was her love of animals that helped her through her own abusive childhood. “The animals saved me and healed me. If they could do that for me, then they could do it for others.”

In 1999, Ms. Weiner opened the barn doors to visitors, and she is well known for her programs for “at risk” youth, arranged through local family and children’s services. Here, inner-city gang members, drug addicts and abused youngsters can feed a cow, hug a pig or just try to find peace in a pastoral setting. Before groups meet the animals, Ms. Weiner, or her husband, Jay Weiner, tell their stories of abuse and recovery.

This is critical to reaching troubled children, says Jamie Lynn Cantor, children’s services administrator for the Department of Children and Family Services in northwest Los Angeles County. “They hear the recovery stories of these animals who, after their horrific abuse, have learned to love and trust again. More important, they learn there is hope for the future, and they can have a life filled with love and people to love them. They are not hopeless anymore.” Ms. Cantor has been bringing groups of children in foster care to the Gentle Barn since 2008. She has seen many of them bond with a miniature pony named Bonsai, whose former owner, an alcoholic, beat him brutally.

“I can’t tell you how many kids would identify with this and say, ‘My mom used to do that.’ ” She adds that, though it took three years before Bonsai would trust people again, today he is a playful pony with a particular affinity for children with special needs.

“This is very unlike traditional therapy. There is no probing or rules,” says Ms. Cantor, who recalls a young boy who befriended an enormous pig named Biscuit. “The boy had been sexually abused and was very withdrawn. As soon as he saw this pig, he started to open up a bit. He laid there next to Biscuit for two hours, hugging him and talking to him. This sad little boy experienced some healing and left smiling.”

Ms. Cantor is compiling information for a survey she calls “Healing Youth Through Animals.” So far, she says, the results of one visit to the Gentle Barn “reflect significant improvement in the youth’s happiness, self-esteem, as well as decreases in anger, anxiety, hopelessness, depression and loneliness.”

Dan McCollister is community relations director of Pacific Lodge Youth Services in Woodland Hills, Calif., a nonprofit facility that offers treatment for teenage males on probation. Most residents are gang members “on the cusp of a major life decision,” says Mr. McCollister. “If they don’t change a few key things, they might end up spending their life in jail.”

He adds that because boys join gangs at a young age, his organization faces years of negative conditioning. Twice a month, he brings groups to the Gentle Barn as part of his activities schedule. “We have between six and nine months with them to make something positive click. The Gentle Barn is a great catalyst for that.”

During one visit, there was a “very tough, very hard” gang member who stood silent while hearing the story of a horse that had suffered repeated beatings, says Mr. McCollister. It was later learned that the youth’s arms had been broken repeatedly by his father while growing up. “The young man in question was later spotted in the back of the stable crying and softly petting the horse on the head, saying over and over, ‘No one is going to hurt you now.’ ”

Mr. McCollister emphasizes that a visit to the Gentle Barn “can blow a kid’s mind, show them compassion and empathy and, best of all, let them know that their story isn’t fully written. They can still change and lead a happy, meaningful life.”

According to Mr. Weiner, it takes about $50,000 a month to operate the Gentle Barn. Financing comes from individual donations, through the Web site, private family donations, corporate grants and foundations. Major donors include Ellen DeGeneres, Toyota, CBS, William Morris Endeavor and Princess Cruises.

In addition, the Gentle Barn is developing a reality television show with Ms. DeGeneres. Ms. Weiner says her goal is “to see a Gentle Barn in every major city around the world.” She adds, “I would love to give people a chance to hug a cow, give a pig a tummy rub, snuggle with a turkey and see that we are really all the same. Every day I do this work, I get to witness a miracle.”

from:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/giving/at-the-gentle-barn-animals-and-people-find-healing-together.html?_r=1&ref=health

11/02/2011 Palindrome

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Rare Date: Today Is Once-in-10,000-Years Palindrome

by Bjorn Carey
Date: 02 November 2011 Time: 01:57 PM ET

Today might not seem any more special than yesterday or the day before, but it is a once-in-10,000-years event. Nov. 2, 2011, written out numerically, is 11/02/2011, which on its own makes it a very rare eight-digit palindrome date, meaning that it can be read the same way frontward and backward.

But, as one scientist has found, there’s much more to this date that makes it truly one of a kind.

This century features a relative wealth of eight-digit palindrome dates; today is the third date so far, and there will be nine more. In fact, we live in a relative golden age of palindrome dates: Before 10/02/2001, the last eight-digit palindrome date was Aug. 31, 1380 (08/31/1380)

“Eight-digit palindrome dates are very rare, and are clustered in the first three or so centuries at the beginning of a millennial, and then don’t show up for 600 to 700 years, until they appear as a cluster in the next millennium,” said Aziz Inan, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Portland who crunches palindrome dates in his spare time.

The reason these dates are so rare is that the day number can’t exceed 31. Consider, for example, a date in the year 1401. When you flip around that year, you get 1041, which is problematic because the day number, 41, exceeds the number of days in a month. That pattern carries on for the next several centuries, and is why a similar drought of eight-digit palindrome dates will set in after the year 2380. [Is Pi ‘Wrong’? Mathematicians Say ‘Yes’]

And while eight-digit palindrome days are rare,  Inan said that no date this century, or even until the year A.D. 10,000, will be quite as special as today.

“If you look at the date as a number, 11022011, it has very special properties,” Inan explained. “It is the product of 7 squared times 11 cubed times 13 squared. That is impressive because those are three consecutive prime numbers. No other palindrome date, up to A.D. 10,000, is like that.

“Not only that, if you write it out  as 72 x 113 x 132, you’ll notice that even the superscript power numbers – 232 – are a palindrome.”

Inan also charts seven-digit palindrome dates, which aren’t quite as rare: 26 of these fall within this century. Some people think this is cheating, he said, because it allows eight-digit, non-palindrome dates such as Feb. 10, 2012 (02/10/2012) to count as a seven-digit palindrome (2/10/2012).

“I thought the same way at first, but then I came to think that it should count because it’s still a full date number that corresponds to a single day in the calendar system,” Inan said. “People get excited when they show up, so to me, I say the more the better.”

from:    http://www.livescience.com/16846-rare-date-today-10-000-years-palindrome.html

Cold Air Heading towards California

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Cold storm system to slam California Thursday, to Southern California Friday

Published on November 2, 2011 12:55 pm PT
– By TWS Senior Meteorologist
– Edited by Staff Editor


(TheWeatherSpace.com) – A cold Winter-like storm will hit California on Thursday, starting in Northern California and heading into Southern California on Friday. This will provide low elevation snowfall in Northern California.

The storm will impact Northern California’s Interstate 5 with a few inches of snow and the Sierra Nevada Range over a foot. Drivers North of Sacramento driving toward Oregon on Interstate 5 should use extra caution with those several inches expected.

There will be cold air aloft with this one, enough for thunderstorms to form from the Bay area down into Southern California. The bay area will get it early Friday morning, Southern California later in the day on Friday.

The snow level in Southern California with this storm will be around 4,000 feet, lower in convective (thunderstorm) activity. There is a very good chance the Cajon and Gorman Pass will be affected with this snowfall.

Thunderstorms are likely from San Francisco to Southern California, strong damaging winds in the mountain and desert regions likely, blizzard conditions in the mountain areas, high surf, and heavy rainfall (small hail)

from http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-110211_cold-california-winter-storm.html