Overall Weekly Color 11/10-16

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November 10-16

The theme this week is Too Near and yet, Too Far.   You can find yourself getting rally fed up with things that keep happening over and over.  You can find yourself really, really ready for that change, that move, that new sunrise.  This is a perspective changing week!

 

Overall Color for the Week:     Tan

The week is almost over, yet the surprises and events of the week are just beginning to crescendo.  This is a good week for making sure that you have things on hand.  You can find yourself needing things that you never thought you would and missing things that you thought you had.  You can also be finding that some of your usual habits are changing and along with those eating and sleeping patterns.  Do not fight it, just go with it.  Your body is changing some of its nutritional needs and some of the old right and wrong nutritional so-called paradigms are no longer quite so applicable to the new physicality that is emerging.  This is all good.  You will be changing more as the patterns click more and more into place, and those changes can bring tears and laughter.  You will be feeling the shift his week, and the important this is to allow, to go with it, not to fight it.  Step back from all the craziness and be the observer.  It is time to allow the new information to come in.  Some of it you might be aware of , and some can be an huge surprise.  Regardless, take it.  It is there for you and will benefit you as the year moves towards its end.

On the larger scale, things are just beginning.  What you have seen happening in the firs days of this week will continue more and more.  There is a huge atmospheric bump or cloud that will be expressing or spilling or coming forth in some crazy way this weekend.  It will be affecting the Earth and the effects will shake up some rocky political situations.  There is an individual in South America who will be coming on the stage.  This person has some unusual messages to put out there.  Some of these are warnings.  Much will be taken for granted until it is seen that what is being said is true and verifiable.  There can be fear attached to all of this.  There is much uncertainty in many countries these days.  Add to it the fear that is being engendered by those who feel they are pulling the strings, and this weekend can see some really unexpected and potentially frightening things.  The extra galactic energy is playing hide and seek with the Sun these days.  It will be felt in the atmosphere of the earth as things begin to drift in.  Along with that, there can be unusual activity in the skies as the Cloud Gatherers come froth in an attempt to regulate and give direction to this energy.

Your Color Vibe for Tuesdaym 11/12

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Tuesday, November :    Rose Pink

Once upon a time…   So, be prepared to listen to a lot of stories today.  Some are true.  Some are patently not true.  Some are merely fiction.  And some have a moral to tell.  The tricky part is knowing which is which.  As always, it is well to start the day grounded and centered.  Work with the knowing of your heart and open the sense of its deepest intuition.  There are lessons in everything around you, and there are pointers.  You are working towards your own fulfillment right now, and the closer you get, the more confusing it can become  Even as you are weeding out and throwing away, that opens up space where other stuff flies in.  Right now, you are the quester upon the path to the grail.  There is help along the way, but the deepest and truest and most consoling of help comes from your connection to All That Is, the Universal Consciousness, god/goddess, however you wish to term that totality of which you are a clear part.  Know your power, and know that when things become cloudy or difficult, there is always help.

10 Corporations that Own Just About Everything

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10 Corporations Control Almost Everything You Buy — This Chart Shows How

Chris Miles's avatar image By Chris Miles  
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Ten mega corporations control the output of almost everything you buy; from household products to pet food to jeans.

According to this chart via Reddit, called “The Illusion of Choice,” these corporations create a chain that begins at one of 10 super companies. You’ve heard of the biggest names, but it’s amazing to see what these giants own or influence.

(Note: The chart shows a mix of networks. Parent companies may own, own shares of, or may simply partner with their branch networks. For example, Coca-Cola does not own Monster, but distributes the energy drink. Another note: We are not sure how up-to-date the chart is. For example, it has not been updated to reflect P&G’s sale of Pringles to Kellogg’s in February.)

Here are just a few examples: Yum Brands owns KFC and Taco Bell. The company was a spin-off of Pepsi. All Yum Brands restaurants sell only Pepsi products because of a special partnership with the soda-maker.

$84 billion-company Proctor & Gamble — the largest advertiser in the U.S. — is paired with a number of diverse brands that produce everything from medicine to toothpaste to high-end fashion. All tallied, P&G reportedly serves a whopping 4.8 billion people around the world through this network.

$200 billion-corporation Nestle — famous for chocolate, but which is the biggest food company in the world — owns nearly 8,000 different brands worldwide, and takes stake in or is partnered with a swath of others. Included in this network is shampoo company L’Oreal, baby food giant Gerber, clothing brand Diesel, and pet food makers Purina and Friskies.

Unilever, of soap fame, reportedly serves 2 billion people around the world, controlling a network that produces everything from Q-tips to Skippy peanut butter.

And it’s not just the products you buy and consume, either. In recent decades, the very news and information that you get has bundled together: 90% of the media is now controlled by just six companies, down from 50 in 1983, according to a Frugal Dad infographic from last year.

 

It gets even more macro, too: 37 banks have merged to become just four — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and CitiGroup in a little over two decades, according to this Federal Reserve map.

The nation’s 10 largest financial institutions hold 54% of our total financial assets; in 1990, they held 20%. As MotherJones reports, the number of banks has dropped from more than 12,500 to about 8,000.

(Click to enlarge)

The numbers are stark, and the charts visualize the mind-bending reality. This is the world we live in.

from:    http://www.policymic.com/articles/71255/10-corporations-control-almost-everything-you-buy-this-chart-shows-how

Dr. Rita Louise on Fear

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Fear – The Thief Of Dreams

by Dr. Rita Louise

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.”
H.P. Lovecraft

Fear is defined as an emotional response to an unknown or impending danger, or as an expectation of evil. Fear can create feelings of apprehension, anxiety, alarm, dread, fright or terror. When you are in fear, you are scared of someone, something or a potential outcome.

We all experience fear at one point in time or another. Actually, fear is a great way to keep us from hurting ourselves. Fear has a limiting effect on our behaviors and ourselves. Fear keeps us from putting our hand on the hot burner of the stove. It keeps us from jumping from high places, or leaves us tentative when going into a darkened room. These types of fears are good. They keep us safe. They make us think before we act, knowing full well the potential outcome and repercussions of our actions. Even with activities such as fire walking, skydiving and bunji jumping, a major component-or should I say thrill-of these activities is saying hello to and overcoming fear.

Fear comes in all shapes and sizes. In extreme cases, individuals find themselves afraid of closed in spaces such as elevators. They may be afraid of insects such as spiders or bees; they may be afraid of heights, afraid to fly in airplanes, or even afraid of the water. Fear is elicited as a response or reaction to some previous life experience or trauma. It can be experienced when we look to venture into uncharted ground, especially when the outcome is unknown. We can also experience fear when we lose our jobs, look to end a relationship, or even when we try to express our needs and desires.

Fear can impact us in many ways. It was once said, “Fear is the thief of dreams”. The truth to that statement is unbelievable. Bottom line … fear takes away our choices. It can keep us from doing the things we want or need to do for ourselves. It limits us, constrains us, and can end up ruling our lives. It consumes our energy and enjoyment of life, leaving us experiencing additional unexplainable stress, frustration, or feeling just plain stuck.

When it comes to health, the role of emotions, especially the emotion of fear, is not something to be taken lightly. Fear causes the body to contract. Fear causes our life force energy, or chi’, that flows through our bodies to slow down, creating distortions in its flow. The impact or sizes of these energetic distortions are dictated by repetition, intensity, and our reaction to the negative/fear causing factor. These energetic distortions can be likened to an imaginary button within ourselves. The impact or size of these distortions is equated to how many times or how hard the button(s) gets pushed, multiplied by our unique reaction to the event or situation. It is like finding out that you owe the IRS money. Some people take it in stride, with little to no reaction. In others, it may evoke an intense reaction – one that will be remembered for years.

As these energetic distortions grow, our life force energy slows down proportionately, until it finally stops. Once stopped, disease is only a step away. When we are in fear, we are hesitant to take steps forward. Our minds are filled with thoughts of a traumatic experience, a negative outcome, or the potential repercussions of our choices and decisions. We manifest these fears as procrastination, where we choose to do nothing. Sometimes we go into resistance, digging our heels in and holding on tightly to our current position or situation. Some of us go into denial about our fears, choosing to blame others or the situation for their choices. Others just avoid putting themselves into scary situations, thus eliminating any possible threat.

Being in or living in fear is all about choices…you can choose to move forward, or you can choose to stand still, marking time. Again, while some fears are good and essential for our basic survival, many of the ones we face daily have nothing to do with any real threat or danger. For many of us, the only real peril we experience are the thoughts and ideas we conger up in our minds.

Fear can be thought of as a scary old-time black and white movie poster of the Werewolf or Dracula hanging on the back of a door in a darkened room. As we look ahead, the only thing we can see is this scary creature obstructing our passage and forward movement. What we don’t realize is that the threat isn’t real. Once we turn on the lights in the room, we can see that it is only a poster and no danger at all. What’s more, as we sit in this darkened room, unable or unwilling to either turn on the lights or step through that door, we will never know what is on the other side. We will be forever trapped by our own reservations, worries and uncertainties and will never come to know the freedom and sense of power that is experienced as you step through its limitation and into the light of a new day. Addressing fear, saying hello to it, is a major component in overcoming it. It is like turning on the light in that darkened room, the unknowns become known, what was once scary becomes mundane and may even seem trivial.

Miraculous things happen to those who consciously choose to overcome their fears. As they begin to move forward in this new life journey, many find deep, long lost, feelings of inner strength and renewed self-confidence. They gain certainty in their skills, abilities and even downfalls. They have the good fortune of learning more about themselves, their wants, needs and desires, thus opening new doors of opportunity and enjoyment.

What do you fear? Perhaps it is time to turn on the light and step through the door of empowerment and behold a new and brilliant day.

from:    http://www.soulhealer.com/fear.htm

Ida Lawrence on Awareness

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The Tree Probably Does

The Tree Probably Does

Story by: Ida Lawrence

I’m going to begin with the image of a tree because there is plenty of symbology around that image: I’ll rest my back against it for a bit as I put these thoughts together. Our tree will symbolize inexhaustible life transforming, and since it is also said to span dimensions, we’ll visit that possibility as well.

Pressure and response: interesting to think about in times of change… and change isn’t coming on slowly anymore. It can certainly be seen in our personal lives. Outcomes of past choices, whether wise or foolish, conscious or unconscious, have been arriving on doorsteps with increasing speed. On the positive side, the pressure of change can cause the response of growth… if you’re into it and up to it.

When we change our perspective from personal pressure to worldwide pressure, it can become nearly overwhelming… so rapid, so destructive is the decline of this world. Is the global picture something we can bring into a conversation without becoming either angry or despondent? We’re going to try.

In the consciousness movement we work to know self. Part of that self-knowing comes through observing how, when under pressure from the outside, we may revert to conditioned and programmed responses inside. Through awareness of our conditioning and the system’s programming, we take up the task of replacing these patterns with ones that are more refined and liberating.

My thinking on this process was triggered recently when talking with my godson… our in-house Qi Gong practitioner. I’ll just quote him, and you’ll see the correlation:

“The body is a sensory and counter-pressure mechanism. When the External pressures demand a response there is an internal counter pressure that responds. A very basic example is an automatic response… when it’s hot (external pressure) you sweat to cool down (internal counter-pressure). Through the practice of Qi Gong you can control the counter-pressure.”

He went on to say that you begin with one energy circulation and practice it daily. After three months or so your work on the circulation becomes automatic… you will have a new switch inside, in response to a certain pressure. You can then move on to the next practice.

What the circulation of energy achieves is the ability to clear, clean, flow and store energy and do things with energy. What the Qi Gong master can do with energy is pretty incredible. There are videos online of masters who can start a piece of paper on fire just by projecting energy from their hands.
Stored energy can be used both to heal and to harm. And there is more, but it’s not for everyone. Most practitioners take years to get to heal or harm and that is where they stop. The ‘more’ has to be learned from a teacher who has taken the path.

Whether it’s mythology or history, stories tell of people giving their lives while learning the possibilities of energy; experimenting with the outcome of different practices. While only a few masters may know the ‘more’, a presumption can be made that it is the very real trans-dimensional metaphysician’s doorway. In today’s world, such doorways are being used.

Let’s move on to external pressure and internal counter-pressure in relation to our thoughts and emotions. Thoughts and emotions are energy too, and we can certainly create new pathways for them once we know what we’re dealing with. As I mentioned, we are conditioned and programmed to respond in a certain way. Unlike the body’s natural response, for the most part these responses are not what we were born with. Yet, like the Qi Gong practitioner, if we want to re-train these learned and programmed counter-responses we have to study, observe and feel.

Among the tools to increase awareness, re-train thoughts and emotions, and raise the energy from a dense state to a more refined state, are written lessons, specific meditations, guided meditations, physical disciplines, and therapies. Many people have been doing this work for years, and they are the ones offering tools on how to transform the fear response, as well as the anger, sadness, self-pity, hostility, weakness, indulgence and so on. So much could be said about this, and we’re just touching on things today.

We’re going to return to the tree again as a symbol of inexhaustible life transforming within a system. Have you wondered how many trees there are, i.e. how many self-contained and interrelated energy systems there are? The body is one; and the earth itself is one; the universe; the multiverse. I’d better add… and on and on.

If we as individual human beings can re-train our conditioned and programmed thoughts and emotions and raise our energy to a more refined level through a kind of ‘consciousness Qi Gong’, how about the collective consciousness of human families… can that be re-trained, or the global collective consciousness? Can a significant number of us go for transformation and liberation? If we do, can it lead to a way out of the current control system?
I’ll let you play with that, but to me, the whole thing looks like the fractal tree. And if that is true, we can say that the truth of the small is the truth of the great: for every confinement, no matter how seemingly inescapable, there has to be, built-in at the origin, an avenue of escape… because the avenue of escape exists on a small scale. We already pointed to it with the master of energy and the metaphysician.

Now let’s go to the global consciousness. We know that it is confined within a system of control… some call it a matrix of control. It seems the ones who run things have very well locked us down. When they put on the pressure, we provide an automatic counter-pressure. Normally it’s fear and compliance, sometimes it’s another reaction… argument, anger, rebellion, sorrow… but always within the confines of our conditioning and programming.

An earlier observation about pressure (when it increases, counter-pressure increases) points out the positive side: on the positive side, the pressure of change can cause the counter-pressure of growth… if you’re into it and up to it.

The intensity of global change and the downward force of it does bring the opportunity for growth. Can we intentionally be like the tree… inexhaustible life transforming? We can look into it at least, and whisper to ourselves… this may not turn out as badly as we expect.

Humanity is awakening, and the collective response to external pressure is amazing to watch. We can see energy moving, we can see the system watching and trying to manipulate it… and failing more and more often. So let’s never close the door to the possibility of liberation. We must keep on observing the movement, re-training our own conditioned responses, rejecting the programming, envisioning the change we want, and raising our energy. Our change makes a difference to the whole.

Who knows the doorway out… the tree probably does.

from:   http://spiritofmaat.com/magazine/november-2013-the-heart-of-darkness-edition/the-tree-probably-does/

Building the Coral Castle

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Mystery of the Coral Castle Explained

By Benjamin Radford, LiveScience Contributor   |   November 08, 2013
coral castle, engineering
 Author Benjamin Radford is shown visiting Florida’s mysterious Coral Castle in 2012.
Credit: Benjamin Radford.

In Homestead, Fla., not far from Miami and off the South Dixie Highway, sits a world-famous structure called the Coral Castle. Though not really a castle — and not really made of coral — it is nonetheless an amazing achievement. More than 1,000 tons of the sedimentary rock (oolite limestone) was quarried and sculpted into a variety of shapes, including slab walls, tables, chairs, a crescent moon, a water fountain and a sundial.

“You are about to see an engineering marvel that has been compared with Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt,” touts an information sheet available at the site. Many sources claim that the castle, originally called Rock Gate Park, is scientifically inexplicable. According to the attraction’s website, “Coral Castle has baffled scientists, engineers and scholars since its opening in 1923.” It has appeared countless times in books, magazines, and television shows. Rock musician Billy Idol even wrote a hit song about the place, “Sweet Sixteen.”

For decades, the park featured a perfectly balanced stone gate that, despite its weight, would easily swing open with a strong breeze or the push of a finger. How it worked remained a mystery until 1986 when it stopped moving. When the gate was removed it was revealed that it rotated on a metal shaft and rested on a truck bearing.

As strange and amazing as the site is, its history is equally improbable. It was created by just one man working alone for nearly three decades until his death in 1951. He was a small Latvian immigrant named Edward Leedskalnin who stood, it is said, 5 feet tall (1.5 meters) and weighed 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Legend has it that he was inspired to build the structure after being abandoned by his 16-year-old sweetheart on what was to be their wedding day. Spurned by his lost love, he set out to prove to her — and the world — that he could do something remarkable, and make something of himself despite his poverty and fourth-grade education. And he succeeded spectacularly.

Philosopher of stone

Though Leedskalnin was a private person, he opened the park in 1923 as a tourist attraction and would often greet visitors to personally show them his handiwork. Leedskalnin was not only a hard worker but also a self-styled philosopher (and a bit of a crank) who issued a series of pamphlets about his personal views on political, social, and domestic issues. One moralizing booklet optimistically titled “A Book in Every Home” complained, “The schools and the churches are cheapening the girls! They are arranging picnics — are coupling up the girls with the fresh boys — and then they send them out to the woods, parks, beaches, and other places so that they can practice in first-degree love making.”

Leedskalnin also opined that the unemployed and powerless should not have voting rights: “It is not sound to allow the weaklings to vote. Any one who is too weak to make his own living is not strong enough to vote, because their weak influence weakens the state….” He was clearly a man of strong will and convictions who prized self-sufficiency and a rigid work ethic.

coral castle, engineering
 Edward Leedskalnin used these hand tools to single-handedly build the Coral Castle.
Credit: Carl Stewart / Shutterstock.com

Creating the castle

Many stories and wild theories emerged over the decades about Leedskalnin and how he built his castle. Some say he levitated the blocks with psychic powers, or by singing to the stones. Others suggest Leedskalnin had arcane knowledge of magnetism and so-called “earth energies.”

As tempting as it is to view the amazing park through a veil of mystery, in fact we know how the castle was built. Creating a structure like the Coral Castle today could probably be accomplished in a few months with a construction crew and modern machinery. But Leedskalnin worked alone using basic tools like picks, winches, ropes and pulleys. Leedskalnin himself said that that he did it using hard work and the principles of leverage. The tools he used to quarry the rock are on display at the Coral Castle, and several old photos depict the large tripods, pulleys, and winches he used to move the blocks. Though the quarried stone slabs are large, they are actually lighter than they appear because the rock is porous.

Though Leedskalnin worked alone, he was not a reclusive hermit; he had friends who he saw often. One man, Orval Irwin, was not only a long-time friend of Leedskalnin’s but also a building contractor with a deep knowledge of construction techniques. Irwin wrote a 1996 book with the inspiring title “Mr. Can’t Is Dead! The Story of the Coral Castle,” and in it he explains, through photographs, drawings, and schematics, how it was done.

Irwin pours cold water on the paranormal theories that unknown energies, alien technology, or levitation built the castle. In fact, he finds such theories an insult to the hard work and integrity of his friend: “Back in the days when Ed started carving out his original stones,” Irwin writes, “his was a generation who knew accomplishments by the sweat of the brow. It wasn’t mysticism but hard work, this is how Ed really accomplished the massive project….” (Of course if Leedskalnin had used powerful supernatural assistance he likely could have constructed the castle in weeks or months instead of decades.)

It may be fun to think that the old, lovelorn Latvian who spent his life making the Coral Castle did it with arcane knowledge, lost technology, or superhuman powers, but it’s reassuring to know that he did it just like you or I would have: through patience, determination, and hard work.

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of six books including “Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries” and “Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore.” His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/41075-coral-castle.html

 

Typhoon Haiyan

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After spending 48 hours at Category 5 strength, the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone in world history, Super Typhoon Haiyan, has finally weakened to a Category 4 storm. With top sustained winds of 155 mph, Haiyan is still an incredibly powerful super typhoon, but has now finished its rampage through the Central Philippine Islands, and is headed across the South China Sea towards Vietnam. Satellite loops show that Haiyan no longer has a well-defined eye, but the typhoon still has a huge area of intense thunderstorms which are bringing heavy rains to the Central Philippines. I’ve never witnessed a Category 5 storm that made landfall and stayed at Category 5 strength after spending so many hours over land, and there are very few storms that have stayed at Category 5 strength for so long.


Figure 1. Super Typhoon Haiyan approaching the Philippines, as seen by the Japan Meteorological Agency’s MTSAT at 0630Z on November 7, 2013. At the time, Haiyan had maximum sustained winds of 175 mph. Image credit: NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory.

Haiyan’s place in history
Haiyan hit Guiuan, on the Philippine island of Samar, at 4:40 am local time (20:40 UTC) November 8, 2013. Three hours before landfall, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed Haiyan’s sustained winds at 195 mph, gusting to 235 mph, making it the 4th strongest tropical cyclone in world history. Satellite loops show that Haiyan weakened only slightly, if at all, in the two hours after JTWC’s advisory, so the super typhoon likely made landfall with winds near 195 mph. The next JTWC intensity estimate, for 00Z UTC November 8, about three hours after landfall, put the top winds at 185 mph. Averaging together these estimates gives a strength of 190 mph an hour after landfall. Thus, Haiyan had winds of 190 – 195 mph at landfall, making it the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in world history. The previous record was held by the Atlantic’s Hurricane Camille of 1969, which made landfall in Mississippi with 190 mph winds.

According to the official “best track” records from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, here are the strongest tropical cyclones in world history:

Super Typhoon Nancy (1961), 215 mph winds, 882 mb. Made landfall as a Cat 2 in Japan, killing 191 people.
Super Typhoon Violet (1961), 205 mph winds, 886 mb pressure. Made landfall in Japan as a tropical storm, killing 2 people.
Super Typhoon Ida (1958), 200 mph winds, 877 mb pressure. Made landfall as a Cat 1 in Japan, killing 1269 people.
Super Typhoon Haiyan (2013), 195 mph winds, 895 mb pressure. Made landfall in the Philippines at peak strength.
Super Typhoon Kit (1966), 195 mph winds, 880 mb. Did not make landfall.
Super Typhoon Sally (1964), 195 mph winds, 895 mb. Made landfall as a Cat 4 in the Philippines.

However, it is now recognized (Black 1992) that the maximum sustained winds estimated for typhoons during the 1940s to 1960s were too strong. The strongest reliably measured tropical cyclones were all 5 mph weaker than Haiyan, with 190 mph winds—the Western Pacific’s Super Typhoon Tip of 1979, the Atlantic’s Hurricane Camille of 1969, and the Atlantic’s Hurricane Allen of 1980. All three of these storms had a hurricane hunter aircraft inside of them to measure their top winds. Haiyan’s winds were estimated using only satellite images, making its intensity estimate of lower confidence. We don’t have any measurements of Haiyan’s central pressure, but it may be close to the all-time record of 870 mb set by Super Typhoon Tip. The Japan Meteorological Agency estimated Haiyan’s central pressure at 895 mb at 18 UTC (1 pm EST) November 7, 2013. This would make Haiyan the 12th strongest tropical cyclone on record globally, as far as lowest pressure goes.


Figure 2. Damage from Super Typhoon Haiyan in Legazpi city, Albay province, Nov. 8, 2013, about 325 miles south of Manila, Philippines. (Twitter/Ritchel M. Deleon)

Massive damage in the Philippines
Wind damage on the south shore of Samar Island in Guiuan (population 47,000) must have been catastrophic, perhaps the greatest wind damage any place on Earth has endured from a tropical cyclone in the past century. A massive storm surge must have also caused great destruction along a 20-mile swath to the north of where the eye hit, where Project NOAH was predicting a 17’ (5.3 meter) storm tide. Wind and storm surge damage were heavy in Tacloban, population 221,000, the capital of the province of Leyte, according to preliminary media reports. Much of Tacloban is at elevations less than ten feet, and several videos posted on YouTube showed a storm surge of at least ten feet moving through the city. The northern (strong) part of Haiyan’s eyewall made a direct hit on the city. Storm Chaser Jim Edds was in Tacloban, and reported that at least ten crewed boats were in the harbor, attempting to ride out the storm. Haiyan’s winds, rains, and storm surge have caused widespread devastation throughout the Central Philippines, though we do not yet have reports from the worst-hit portions of the disaster zone, including the south shore of Samar Island. Fortunately, the storm’s fast forward speed of 25 mph cut down the amount of rain the storm dumped, compared to typical typhoons that affect the Philippines. Hopefully, this will keep the death toll due to flash flooding relatively low. Flash floods are usually the biggest killer in Philippine typhoons.


Figure 3. Predicted rainfall from the 06Z November 8, 2013 run of the HWRF model, for the 96-hour period ending at 06Z November 12, 2013. A 100-mile wide swath of 8 – 16 inches of rain (medium dark red colors) as well as a 30-mile wide swath of 16 – 24″ (dark red colors) is predicted to affect Vietnam and Laos. Rains of this magnitude are likely to cause a top-five most expensive natural disaster in both nations. Image credit: NOAA/NCEP/EMC.

Haiyan an extremely dangerous storm for Vietnam and Laos
Haiyan will steadily decay over the next two days, due to colder waters and higher wind shear. However, it will still likely be a formidable Category 1 or 2 typhoon when it makes landfall in Vietnam near 06 UTC Sunday. Haiyan is expected to begin recurving to the northwest as it makes landfall, which means that a long 100+ mile stretch of the Vietnam coast will receiving the punishing winds and peak storm surge of the strong northern portion of the typhoon. With part of its circulation still over water, Haiyan will be able to pull in a huge amount of moisture that will create prodigious rains over Vietnam and Laos. I expect that the 12+ inches of rain that the storm will dump on those nations will make it a top-five most expensive natural disaster in their history.

Links
Visible satellite landfall loop from the Korean COMS-1 satellite, courtesy of Scott Bachmeier of the University of Wisconsin CIMSS group.
Damage videos from Tacloban from Marcjan Maloon
Twitter updates from Japan meteorologist Robert Speta.

Video 1. Damaging winds and a potent storm surge from Super Typhoon Haiyan are captured in this video from the capital of Leyte Province, Tacloban, which received a direct hit from Haiyan. Thanks to wunderground member GatorWX for posting this in my blog comments.

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

Volcanoes – Etna & Sinaburg

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Eruption Update for November 5, 2013: Etna and Sinabung

Etna in Italy erupting from two vents simultaneously on October 26, 2013. Image: Dr. Boris Behncke / Flickr.

Sometimes it takes as many days as the meeting to catch back up afterwards — which is clearly the case for me after GSA this year. Finally getting almost on track as we hurtle into November.

Volcano news!

Italy

So, like clockwork, right as I leave for Denver and the GSA meeting, a volcano decides to put on a show. This time it was Etna. After six months of relative quiet, the Sicilian volcano put on quite an impressive show (see above), with eruptions from two craters simultaneously: the New Southeast Crater and the Northeast Crater (see above). Both of these eruptions were explosive, producing plumes that reached a few kilometers over the volcano and spread ash across the area of eastern Sicily. At the same time, a lava flow issued from the saddle between the two crater, meaning that Etna has erupting from at least three different vents simultaneously during the October 26 eruption. Dr. Boris Behncke of the Osservatorio Etneo posted an excellent video of the action during the 10/26 paroxysm that shows the lava fountaining that occurred from the New Southeast Crater. Towards the end of the video, you can see some great examples of strombolian activity during the waning stages of the eruption from the New Southeast Crater as giant bubbles pop in the conduit of the erupting vent. Each “pop” of that bubble would send out thousands of lava bombs, and created the booming sound you can hear on the video. Dr. Behncke also posted a great sequence of images and a story behind the remnants of a former volcano observatory on Etna. Right now, only the antenna of the former building sticks out above many years of volcanic debris, but the October 26 paroxysm lava flow came with 1 meter(!) of knocking down even that last vestige of the structure. Things have settled down at Etna after this eruption, but as we all know, the volcano can ramp up quickly to a new paroxysm.

 

Indonesia

Across the world in Indonesia, Sinabung continues to produce explosive eruptions. Right now, these discrete event have been producing ash plumes that reach up to 7 km (23,000 feet) over the volcano. All of this activity at Sinabung prompted the PVMBG to raise the alert status at the volcano to its second highest setting (siaga – alert). This move increased the exclusion zone around the volcano to 3 km and ~1,300 more people have evacuated the slopes of the restless volcano. Elsewhere in Indonesia, looks like people want to add some fearmongering to the menu (as if actively erupting volcanoes weren’t enough). The IB Times has an article proclaiming “Lake Toba’s Volcanic Underbelly ‘Could Erupt at Any Time’“, snatching a poor choice of words by the president of the Indonesia Geological Experts Association, Rovicky Dwi Putrohari. The article itself sounds like an attempt by the IGEA to promote its annual conference that occurred this week — nothing like capitalizing on fear of the next eruption from a caldera to grab the media’s attention.

from:    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/11/eruption-update-for-november-5-2013-etna-sinabung/#more-322411

Your Color Vibe for Saturday, 11/09

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Saturday, November 9:    Apricot

Things will literally be coming out of the woodwork today, so be prepared.  The current energies are blowing around a lot of dust and you will have things in your face that you had forgotten about, that you were over, that you were tired of, that you never wanted to know.  Along with that, you will begin to see glimpses of new friends, new themes, new abodes, new interests, new jobs flying in the wind.  This is a good time to pick and choose.  What is it that you have gotten over and are ready to let go of?  What is it that is attracting you and calling you forward right now?  You have changed.  This is a day for looking at who you were just a year ago, just a few months ago and recognizing that you have gone beyond that place.  Regardless of whether you have moved in small ways or large ones, the important thing is the recognition that you have made some changes.  There are more to make, and today offers some possibilities, some hints.

Some Crystal People:

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