Author Archives: marcia

Get Ready for the Draconid Meteor Shower

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Draconid Meteor Outburst

Oct. 4, 2011: On October 8th Earth is going to plow through a stream of dust from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, and the result could be an outburst of Draconid meteors.

“We’re predicting as many as 750 meteors per hour,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “The timing of the shower favors observers in the Middle East, north Africa and parts of Europe.”

Draconids (comet, 200px)

Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner in Nov. 1998 photographed by astronomers at Kitt Peak. [more]

Every 6.6 years Comet Giacobini-Zinner swings through the inner solar system. With each visit, it lays down a narrow filament of dust, over time forming a network of filaments that Earth encounters every year in early October.

“Most years, we pass through gaps between filaments, maybe just grazing one or two as we go by,” says Cooke. “Occasionally, though, we hit one nearly head on–and the fireworks begin.”

2011 could be such a year. Forecasters at NASA and elsewhere agree that Earth is heading for three or more filaments on October 8th. Multiple encounters should produce a series of variable outbursts beginning around 1600 Universal Time (noon EDT) with the strongest activity between 1900 and 2100 UT (3:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT).

Forecasters aren’t sure how strong the display will be, mainly because the comet had a close encounter with Jupiter in the late 1880s. At that time, the giant planet’s gravitational pull altered the comet’s orbit and introduced some uncertainty into the location of filaments it has shed since then. Competing models place the filaments in slightly different spots; as a result, estimated meteor rates range from dozens to hundreds per hour.

Draconids (models, 558px)

Comet dust stream models suggest a succession of peaks in meteor rate between 1600 and 2100 UT on Oct. 9th. Click here for details. Credit: MSFC/Meteoroid Environment Office.

One respected forecaster, Paul Wiegert of the University of Western Ontario, says the meteor rate could go as high as 1000 per hour — the definition of a meteor storm. It wouldn’t be the first time. Close encounters with dusty filaments produced storms of more than 10,000 Draconids per hour in 1933 and 1946 and lesser outbursts in 1985, 1998, and 2005.

Meteors from Comet Giacobini-Zinner stream out of the northern constellation Draco–hence their name. Draconids are among the slowest of all meteors, hitting the atmosphere at a relatively leisurely 20 km/s. The slow pace of Draconid meteors minimizes their danger to satellites and spacecraft and makes them visually distinctive.

“A Draconid gliding leisurely across the sky is a beautiful sight,” says Cooke.

Unfortunately, many of this year’s Draconids will go unseen. Draconids are faint to begin with, and this year they have to complete with an almost-full Moon. Lunar glare will reduce the number of meteors visible from Europe, Africa and the Middle East by 2- to 10-fold. The situation is even worse in North America where the shower occurs in broad daylight—completely obliterating the display.

for more, go to:    http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/04oct_draconids/

Argentina 6.2 Earthquake

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Very strong shallow earthquake in Argentina – San Pedro mayor speaks of “impressive shaking”

Last update: October 6, 2011 at 2:20 pm by By 

Update : Interview from Cadena3 with the “intendente” of San Pedro de Jujuy Mr. Esteban Zamar. San Pedro de Jujuy is the second most populated city of the Jujuy province and is located approx. 60 km from the epicenter.
Click here for the interview (Spanish)
Most important in English : Mr. Zamar is continuously thanking God that despite the intense shaking only light damage has been inflicted in San Pedro. He is thanking God too that nobody got hurt.

Update : People in the quake area have reported that the shaking lasted for about 10 seconds.

Update : The earthquake was also felt in Asuncion, Paraguay

Update : What astonishes us more and more at Earthquake-Report.com is that NO-ONE talks about the villages at a few km from the epicenter but ONLY about the provincial capitals (big cities of course). Most of the attention should go the the people living in a radius of 20 km from the epicenter location, even more when such a shallow earthquake occurs.

Update : So far no traces of serious damage or injuries. Signs of broken windows in San Salvador de Jujuy.
Mobile networks were out of business for several minutes in Salta.

Update : The information in the local press can be called “minimal”. Even the San Salvador de Jujuy local press (closest to the epicenter) has only a couple of paragraphs citing the seismic data as the main content.

Update : People living in San Pedro have reported a MMI VI shaking (strong shaking). San Pedro is approx. 60 km from the epicenter. San Pedro has a population of 58,430 people!)

Update : Based on our CATDAT data from November 19, 1973 and the current data, earthquake-report.com expects a similar kind of damage and NO casualties.

Update : James Daniell’s CATDAT reports : In November 19, 1973, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake produced damage in the town’s eastern provinces of Salta and Jujuy, especially in Santa Clara. No casualties. The estimated peak intensity reached VII degrees on the Modified Mercalli scale and had a magnitude Mb = 5.9 degrees on the Richter scale.
Besides this earthquake there have been many nearby earthquakes without major damage

to read more, and for the link to the interview, go to:   http://earthquake-report.com/2011/10/06/very-dangerous-and-very-strong-shallow-earthquake-in-argentina/

Historic Evidence of Collapse of Canary Islands Volcano

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Scientific paper reveals massive historic Tenerife volcano flank collapse

Last update: October 6, 2011 at 10:57 am by By 

Written by Dave Petley
Dave Petley is the Wilson Professor of Hazard and Risk in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom. His blog provides a commentary on landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.

This post provides a brief review of a new paper that describes a newly discovered catastrophic landslide deposit in Tenerife.
One of the most intriguing but poorly understood landslide types is that of thevolcanic flank collapse.  In a volcanic flank collapse, the side of a volcano fails, usually catastrophically, generating a landslide.  These slides can be really big – tens or even hundreds of cubic kilometers – and they can travel huge distances along the sea floor.  Such failures grabbed attention a few years ago due to the potential (overstated, in my opinion) for generating a catastrophic tsunami.

However, we understand such phenomena  really poorly.  There are a number of reasons for this, principally that:
a. They occur rarely (globally about one in every 25 years on average), so actually recording one is a challenge
b. the remains tend to lie in a very dispersed state on the floor of the deep ocean.  Fieldwork at 4 km water depth remains difficult, even if you are really good at holding your breath.

However, it is one particular aspect of these landslides that remains elusive, but is crucially important.  This is the trigger of the collapse event (i.e. of the landslide itself).  Numerous mechanisms have been proposed, including sea level change, climate change, hydrothermal pressure, intrusion of volcanic material, and various others.  It has proven very difficult to ascertain the importance of each of these.  This is an important question if we are to reliably estimate the hazard associated with future potential collapses.

In a paper published in Geology this month, Harris et al. 2011 report a very interesting find on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. This is the remains of an ancient collapse event on the south-eastern part of Cañadas volcano.  The landslide deposit, which is up to 50 metres thick, has been mapped across a large area – 90 square kilometres – and this is just the onshore component of the mass, which may extend another 50 km offshore.  The deposit consists of a classic debris avalanche material, with large (typically up to 12 m long axis), shattered blocks in a highly disrupted, unsorted matrix.  This is typical of a highly energetic, very large collapse event. Intriguingly, in the upper part of the deposit some fluviolacustrine (water/lake) sediments are found in the remains of hollows, indicating that in the aftermath of the landslide shallow lakes formed on the surface, presumably as a result of blockages created by the landslide.  Associated with the landslide deposit are the remains of pyroclastic flows.

to read more, go to:   http://earthquake-report.com/2011/10/06/scientific-paper-reveals-massive-historic-tenerife-volcano-flank-collapse/

Severe Weather on the Way

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10/5/2011– Tornaodes in Texas & Snow out west = severe coming to midwest / east coast soon

Posted on October 5, 2011 by sincedutch

 

As the low pressure system moves in from the west / northwest .. it is pulling cold air to the south.. also.. the southern arm of the system is pulling warm air up from the south.. mixing in North Texas.. producing tornadoes / tornadic cells.

here is the video:

to see the video and for more, go to:   http://sincedutch.wordpress.com/

New Minister of Antiquities in Egypt

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New antiquities head, new plan, protestors satisfied
The newly appointed secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities says he will meet protestors’ demands, promises reform
Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 2 Oct 2011
Today, in his first day in office, newly appointed Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mostafa Amine met with protestors camped in front of the SCA’s Abassiya building for four days.

Amine told Ahram Online that he told protestors that he agreed with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to immediately resolve their problems and to appoint all temporary staff who have spent more than three years working at SCA.

As a first step, he asserted, 4065 temporary employees will be immediately appointed to be followed by more appointments until the almost 12,000 temporary employees are all made permanent. The protestors were convinced and promised to end their protest.

But what about fresh graduates?

Amine responded that for the time being it is impossible to hire new graduates as “We have to appoint the temporary staff first, as they have priority.” “They are among the SCA’s staff and its office echelon,” Amine pointed out, asserting, “I have to first fix the conditions of the SCA’s temporary staff and then see about outsiders.”

Amine said the delay in appointing the temporary staff is not the fault of the SCA’s last secretary general, but rather is the fault of the previous government. Even the 4065 temporary employees that former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass had approved appointing were not appointed due to government reluctance amid fears that other ministries would ask for the appointment of their temporary staff.

Amine also met top SCA officials and listened to their complaints. He informed them of the details of his meeting with Sharaf in an attempt to open a new page with them and other SCA staff. “I am the son of the SCA and all the staff are my colleagues,” Amine said.

Asked about the fate of Egypt’s ancient monuments under his tenure, given his specialty in Islamic and Coptic monuments, Amine assured that his training would not be an obstacle to caring for ancient Egyptian monuments. “My duty is to preserve Egypt’s antiquities, whether Islamic, Coptic, Jewish and Pharaonic,” Amine confirmed.

Amine told Ahram Online that he wants some time to reorganise the SCA and its administrative and archaeological works, but he promises to complete the SCA’s mega projects such as the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC), as well as removing all encroachment at Al-Muizz Street and at Sphinxes Avenue in Luxor in order to reopen it soon.

Amine said that his first decisions as SCA secretary general were to appoint former secretary general Mohamed Abdel Fatah as the head of the NMEC Supreme Committee, and Adel Abdel Satar to head the Islamic and Coptic Antiquities Department. Amine was formerly head of that department.

for more, go to:    http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/9/40/23109/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/New-antiquities-head,-new-plan,-protestors-satisfi.aspx

 

10/04 Severe Weather — AZ

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Arizona Dust storm causes pileups on Tuesday due to Severe Thunderstorms

Published on October 5, 2011 11:30 am PT
– By TWS Weather Reporter
– Signed by SEO Officer



(TheWeatherSpace.com) – Phoenix has seen its fair share of dust storms and thunderstorms this season, far more than most. However, on Tuesday one of those storms created a major pile-up, killing one and injuring many on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson.

TWS Senior Meteorologist Kevin Martin warned people in Arizona that severe thunderstorms would hit and a severe thunderstorm watch was needed for the area. There was no severe thunderstorm watch issued for Phoenix residents.

fr/http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-100511_phoenix-arizona-storms.html

Explosion on the Sun 10/04

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fr/spaceweather.com

FARSIDE CME: Yesterday, October 4th, something exploded on the far side of the sun and propelled a spectacular CME into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the cloud as it emerged from behind the sun’s limb:

Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab have combined observations from SOHO and the twin STEREO spacecraft to calculate the CME’s trajectory: It is heading for Mercury. The CME will hit the innermost planet on Oct. 5th around 04:30 UT plus minus 7 hours. Energetic particles accelerated by shock waves at the leading edge of the cloud could also have minor effects on the MESSENGER probe in orbit around Mercury. The CME’s forecast track shows that Venus might also receive a blow on Oct. 6th.

Pituitary Attunement fr/Hathors through Tom Kenyon

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Transmission of Light: The Pituitary Dimensional Attunement

A Hathor Planetary Message through Tom Kenyon

From our perspective the ascension process can be viewed as two converging energetic streams.

The first involves your KA body, your subtle energy body (i.e. your etheric twin or spiritual double). Any method that raises the vibratory rate of the KA is a method for ascension.

The second stream involves the physical body and the transformation of matter into light. The complete metamorphosis of matter into light is a very advanced form of ascension, and is generally only seen in highly developed Initiates.

However, the seed forms of this metamorphosis can, and do, present themselves in various stages of the ascension process.

The sound meditation we wish to share with you is a vehicle to increase the inflow of spiritual light (i.e.interdimensional light,) into your endocrine system. During the ascension process the hormones that comprise your biological sea and the inner realities of your body go through a refinement. This sound meditation is a gentle yet potent means to facilitate this upward movement.

The Meditation

We wish to share two methods for working with this Attunement.

The first is for beginners, those of you who are unfamiliar with the inner realms of your own consciousness. The second method is for those of you who are more advanced.

Both of these methods work quite well. Recognize where you are in your own development and choose accordingly.

The First Method

In this approach you simply place your focused attention in the area of your pituitary gland, the master regulator of your endocrine system. As with all of the previous Dimensional Attunements we have given, the sounds you will hear are analogs of fluctuations in the light realms, and they will create a movement of energies in the pituitary, so long as you hold your attention in the general area of the pituitary gland. This area is located approximately one inch (or 2cm) behind the bridge of the nose.

This general area is all that you need to focus on. It is not necessary to be exact. Simply resting your awareness in the area will accomplish the task. The operative word here is “rest” your awareness. This is not concentration. You simply rest your attention in the area of the pituitary gland and allow the sounds you hear to affect the area. When your mind wanders, simply bring it back to focused attention on the pituitary.

The Second Method

For those of you more familiar with your inner realms, we suggest you imagine that the area of your pituitary gland is a white lotus flower floating on a still and infinite body of pure water. This mental impression shifts your brain/mind into a highly receptive state and generates a quality of consciousness that is very helpful to this particular type of transformational work. We suggest the white lotus because all colors and all frequencies are held within it. You can imagine this lotus as a partially or fully opened blossom, or if you prefer, you can imagine it as a closed bud.

Hold the mental impression of this white lotus in the area of your pituitary gland, and as with the first method, when your mind wanders, bring it back to the lotus and the area of your pituitary.

Whether you use the first method or the second, the catalytic sounds will cause a movement of subtle energies within the pituitary creating a cascade of energetic effects throughout all of the glands that comprise your endocrine system. As you continue to experience this Attunement, you will become more familiar with its subtle and potent effects.

We suggest that before you begin, you spend a few moments separating yourself from the concerns of your daily life. Draw a line between this short meditation and the rest of your life. The meditation is approximately five minutes long, and after you are done listening to it, we suggest you spend a few moments in silence, sensing the area of your pituitary. If you are energetically sensitive and aware, you can feel the subtle effects in all of your glands.

As we said previously, this Attunement is subtle, yet potent. And this odd paradox is based upon an intricate relationship between matter and energy.

As you move into the more subtle levels of matter (i.e. sub-atomic particles) there is more potential energy. Likewise, as you move into the more subtle levels of your own consciousness there is also an increase in energy (i.e. the powers of consciousness).

The patterns that comprise this Attunement are precise and they form complex relationships in the subtle realms of consciousness.

Do not be deceived by its simplicity. This Attunement is a potent transformer of consciousness.

We therefore suggest that you experiment and find your own comfort zone with this particular Attunement.

When you generate an increase of light-flows within the pituitary gland and the endocrine system, you release a potent and powerful purification. Each of you has your own comfort zone in this.

For some of you, listening to the Attunement once a day will be all you can comfortably handle. Others may feel drawn to listen to it multiple times.

As you proceed to listen to this Attunement on a regular basis, you will find your energetic nesting or comfort zone expanding, and you will be able to listen to it multiple times. But the guiding principle is your comfort zone.

If you listen to this Attunement too often for your own energetic reality, you will know that you havecrossed the line. You will recognize that you are releasing more energies within you than you are comfortable dealing with. The simple fact is that as the glands comprising your endocrine system receive fluctuations of light, via the pituitary gland, they release inhibiting patterns of energy and consciousness.

The only guideline here is to proceed in a manner that is comfortable to you. Those of you who are more warrior-like in your nature can push the river, so to speak. But do realize that you are greatly accelerating the energetic transformation of your endocrine system. And if your perception, your thoughts and feelings, speed up too much, then slow down. Listen to the Attunement less often and find your comfort zone.

for the rest of the message, copyright information, as well as a link to the Pituitary Dimensional Attunement, go to:    http://tomkenyon.com/transmission-of-light-the-pituitary-dimensional-attunement

 


 

 

2011 Ig-Nobel Prizes

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Doomsday Math & Beetle Sex: Highlights from Ig Nobel Science Awards

by Natalie Wolchover
Date: 30 September 2011 Time: 01:27 AM ET

beetle attempts to mate with a brown beer bottle
A male Australian jewel beetle attempts to mate with a “stubby” beer bottle.
CREDIT: Darryl Gwynne

The Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony is like a mad hatter’s tea party. Held each fall in olde-worlde Sander’s Theatre at Harvard University, it honors scientists from around the world who have made important, but also completely off-the-wall, contributions to their fields.

This year’s ceremony was a variety show of chemistry-themed sing-alongs, a Win-a-Date-with-a-Scientist contest, audience-wide paper airplane throwing, and hilarious acceptance speeches that had to end before the 8-year-old time-keeper started screaming.

Of course, ridiculous hats abounded.

Honorees at the 2011 Ig Nobels included Australian biologists Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz, who, 23 years ago, discovered a tendency among the males of a certain species of beetle to try to have sex with bottles of a certain brand of beer. “We’ve been waiting for the phone to ring ever since,” Gwynne said as he accepted his long-awaited Ig Nobel Prize in biology. [Photo gallery of 2011 Ig Nobel winners]

The theme of the 2011 ceremony was “chemistry,” and thus, winners received miniature periodic table tables.

The crowd favorite this year was Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuana, who received the 2011 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked cars can be solved by crushing them with an armored tank.

Judging by the cheers, it seems that many Ig Nobel audience members were among the millions who have watched a viral video showing Mayor Zuokas himself driving a tank over an illegally parked Mercedes. “It’s very popular everywhere. On Youtube it has almost 7 million hits!” Zuokas told Life’s Little Mysteries. Even better, his campaign worked — with drivers more mindful of their actions, the city of Vilnius has seen the problem of illegal parking significantly “curbed.”

Another winner was Peter Snyder, a neurology professor at Brown University who studied the cognitive impairment that results from really, really needing to pee. Apparently the “urge to void,” as Snyder calls it, destroys memory as much as going without sleep for 24 hours, or being drunk.

The honorees played along with the act. Makoto Imai, who, with a team of colleagues, was awarded for inventing a fire alarm that sprays wasabi in order to wake up sleeping people, told the audience: “The next application will be to use wasabi spray to reduce the uncomfortable smell of shoes.” Cue: his assistants, demonstrating the spraying of shoes with wasabi.

This year’s Mathematics Prize went to several people for making predictions of the end of the world that failed to come to fruition; among them was Harold Camping, the evangelical talk show host behind this year’s May 21 doomsday call.

None of the mathematics winners accepted invitations to attend the ceremony, but Marc Abraham, the founder and emcee of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, said they had been awarded “for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.”

The Ig Nobel Prizes are ultimately meant to make people excited about science. They do this very well.

from:  http://www.livescience.com/16313-doomsday-math-beetle-sex-highlights-ig-nobel-science-awards.html

Occupy Wall Street Protests Spread

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‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests spread to D.C., Boston, L.A. and Chicago

View Photo Gallery —  The movement is seeking to gather 20,000 people to set up beds, kitchens and peaceful barricades in order to occupy Wall Street for a few months as Boston protests support their effort to end corporate greed.

Tuesday, October 4, 12:55 PM

The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest movement that began last month has begun to take root nationally, with sympathy rallies planned in other major cities across the U.S.. As Colum Lynch reported :

New York’s budding anti-capitalism protest movement began last month with a vague sense of grievance over the widening gap between the rich and poor in America.

But in three weeks, it has provided fuel for a broader national anti-corporate message, drawing inspiration from the Arab Spring but struggling to define its goals beyond a general feeling that power needs to be restored to ordinary people.

Now similar protests are springing up in Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago, and organizers in Washington plan a march at Freedom Plaza on Thursday to “denounce the systems and institutions that support endless war and unrestrained corporate greed.”

On Monday morning, the scene at the heart of the self-styled Occupy Wall Street movement — Zuccotti Park, two blocks north of Wall Street — had the feeling of a street fair, with women in brightly colored wigs playing with hula hoops.

A collection of protesters wearing white face paint with streaks resembling blood at their lips conducted a “zombie parade” down Broadway to underscore what they see as the ghoulish nature of capitalism.

Despite having no single leader and no organized agenda, the protesters insist they are on the verge of translating their broad expression of grievance into a durable national cause. “The criticism has focused on the lack of cohesion in our message and demands,” said Arthur Kohl-Riggs, 23, a political activist from Madison, Wis. But what the critics don’t understand, he said, is “the value of forming a direct democratic movement” that is not controlled by political elites.

 

The protests gained more institutional support when a national transit union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, pledged its support Tuesday. As Michael Bolden explained:

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has been winning support from many quarters, but the latest comes from the world of transportation.

On Tuesday, the Amalgamated Transit Union, with more than 190,000 members in the United States and Canada, pledged its support.

to read more, find the links, and check out the photos, go to:    http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/occupy-wall-street-protests-spread-to-dc-boston-la-and-chicago/2011/10/04/gIQA9IOOLL_story.html