May Your Creativity Be At It' Best!!!!
WISHING EVERYONE MUCH SUCCESS IN 2010!!!!!!!
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Thursday, December 31, 2009
2010
May you always have love to share, health to spare and friends that care.
May Your Creativity Be At It' Best!!!!
WISHING EVERYONE MUCH SUCCESS IN 2010!!!!!!!
Fudgy Mocha-Toffee Brownies
Coffee and toffee give these rich chocolate brownies a unique twist. If they haven't all been gobbled up, store leftover brownies in an airtight container for up to a week or wrap tightly in aluminum foil and freeze for up to four months.
Yield: 20 servings
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
- 1/4 cup hot water
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup toffee chips
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350º.
Coat bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.
Combine coffee and hot water, stirring until coffee dissolves.
Combine butter and chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at high 1 minute or until butter melts; stir until chocolate is smooth.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine coffee mixture, butter mixture, vanilla, and eggs in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add coffee mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with toffee chips. Bake at 350º for 22 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Nutritional Information
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Cornfield on Cocaine
A driver hopped up on cocaine and trying to escape police during a high (no pun intended) speed chase created some funky looking crop circles in a cornfield in the Netherlands. Police eventually apprehended the 35-year-old driver, but not before the chase destroyed four cop cars and a whole slew of corn. Hmm, more proof that crack is whack.
TERRORIST
We need to look at terrorist in a totally different way than criminals or POW. We should make it well know to the world no terrorist will ever see the light of day once we have them in our custody. All terrorist should be executed with 3 months after capture. Terrorist have no rights as far as I am concerned. We need to impose the worst kinds of torture on them....if their lives mean nothing to them, why should we protect them.....???
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Evolution of Music
Music 1.0 - the first generation of the music business where the product was vinyl records, the artist has no contact directly with the record buyer, radio was the primary source of promotion, the record labels were run by record people, and records were bought from retail stores.
Music 1.5 - the second generation of the music business where the product was primarily CDs, labels were owned and run by large conglomerates, MTV caused the labels to shift from artist development to image development, radio was still the major source of promotion, and CDs were purchased from retail stores.
Music 2.0 - the third generation of the music business that signaled the beginning of digital music, piracy ran rampant due to P2P networks but the industry took little notice as CD sales were still strong from radio promotion.
Music 2.5 - the fourth generation of the music business where digital music became monetized thanks to iTunes and later, others like Amazon MP3. CD sales dive, the music industry contracts and retail stores close.
Music 3.0 - the current generation of the music business where the artist can now communicate, interact, market and sell directly to the fan. Record labels, radio and television become mostly irrelevant and single songs are purchased instead of albums.
Evolution of Music
Music 1.0 - the first generation of the music business where the product was vinyl records, the artist has no contact directly with the record buyer, radio was the primary source of promotion, the record labels were run by record people, and records were bought from retail stores.
Music 1.5 - the second generation of the music business where the product was primarily CDs, labels were owned and run by large conglomerates, MTV caused the labels to shift from artist development to image development, radio was still the major source of promotion, and CDs were purchased from retail stores.
Music 2.0 - the third generation of the music business that signaled the beginning of digital music, piracy ran rampant due to P2P networks but the industry took little notice as CD sales were still strong from radio promotion.
Music 2.5 - the fourth generation of the music business where digital music became monetized thanks to iTunes and later, others like Amazon MP3. CD sales dive, the music industry contracts and retail stores close.
Music 3.0 - the current generation of the music business where the artist can now communicate, interact, market and sell directly to the fan. Record labels, radio and television become mostly irrelevant and single songs are purchased instead of albums.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Only in China
When this faulty plane from Shandong Airlines was stuck in a Zhengzhou airport, passengers were asked to get out and push it!
How to move a house in China
A fake chinese version of Nike!
An Optimus Prime Statue in Yunnan, China.
A Mercedes C vs its chinese copycat, the Geely Merrie 300
10 Foods We Love ... But are Toxic!!
When eating, we generally find food that we think tastes great. Others like to focus on how healthy a certain food is before eating it. In any case, food is essential to all of our being. It is speculated that the body can only last two weeks without eating before it starts to break down due to lack of nutrients. Of course this number changes, depending on body mass, weight, etc.
However, have you ever stopped to think, while shoving a nice red ripe apple into your mouth, that you may be eating something poisonous? Many don’t know it, but a lot of the common day foods that we eat are toxic! Here is a list of ten toxic foods us humans just can’t say no to.
10. Cassava (Yuca)
Though not too widely used in the United States, cassava is a woody shrub that is generally found in the Caribbean and South America. When using cassava, it can either be made to be sweet or bitter. The taste, as well as the smell, all depends on the amount of cyanogenic glucosides, which are in fact, extremely poisonous. Most who prepare it like it to be bitter, as it keeps away insects and even animals. If cassava is prepared incorrectly, it can be deadly. Cassava poisoning, due to high levels of cyanide, is known as Konzo. Cassava poisoning leads to irreversible paralysis. Photo by
Interesting fact: Cassava roots are ground into a flour-like substance which is then used to make tapioca. Cassava leaves contain cyanide but if pounded into a paste with flour and left in the shade for 5 hours, the cyanide is broken down.
9. Pufferfish
Pufferfish stand to be the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world. Though you won’t find pufferfish in the U.S., many in Korea as well as Japan find some parts of the fish to be delicacies. However, certain organs of the fish, such as the liver, as extremely toxic, and can be deadly. The poison in the fish, known as tetrodotoxin, can cause numbness, high blood pressure, and muscle paralysis, which is what leads to death as the diaphragm muscles become paralyzed, disabling breathing. Known as fugu when eaten as a meal, many in Asian countries refuse to not eat the fish.
Interesting fact: Pufferfish has been made illegal to be eaten by the Emperor of Japan.
8. Mushrooms
There are about 5000 types of mushrooms known in the U.S. and about 100 of them are said to be toxic, while less than a dozen are deadly. In any case, mushrooms can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Since mushrooms are fungi and the fact that there are so many species, it can be hard to know which are poisonous. As rule of thumb, it is usually said that any mushroom found in the wild are more than likely poisonous. One of the deadliest types of mushroom toxins is Alpha-amanitin, which causes extreme liver damage. Toadstools, as they are called, are the poisonous mushrooms.
Interesting fact: There are 38,000 known kinds of mushrooms; about 5% of these are toxic.
7. Cashews
Though really seeds and not nuts, cashews grow inside of a shell-like structure that grows on a fruit. When buying “raw cashews” in the store, take note that these nuts have actually been steamed and are not entirely raw. This is because raw cashews contain urushiol, which is the same chemical that you’d find in poison ivy. It can cause the body to have a very similar reaction to one experienced from poison oak or ivy. If a high level of urushiol is ingested, it can be deadly. Cashew poisoning is rare, but those who handle them in order to manufacture them to get the shell off sometimes experience the side-effects.
Interesting fact: Cashews come from a fruit, which in South American countries, is eaten, and the seeds (cashews) are then thrown away.
6. Chilies
You’ve probably eaten a chili or two in your life. No matter if it was an extremely hot one, or one that was pretty mild, every chili you have ever consumed has contained a chemical called capsaicin. In chilies, capsaicin is what makes them spicy and “hot.” Of course one chili won’t hurt, but if you eat enough of them, capsaicin can kill you. The chemical is so strong that it is used as a paint stripper, and it is even used in pepper spray used by police forces. In hotter chilies, such as habaneros, capsaicin can be felt on the skin if you cut the chili, as it will produce a burning sensation.
Interesting fact: Chilies are extremely high in Vitamin C. One green chili pod is said to contain about 6 times as much Vitamin C.
5. Potatoes
We’ve all heard something or another about potatoes. Whether it is the potato famine, some Irish story, or some other historical event centered on potatoes, one thing you may not have heard of is that potatoes are toxic. The stem and leaves of the plant are toxic, and even the potato itself is toxic. If you’ve ever looked at a potato, you may have realized that some turn a greenish color. This is due to levels of glycoalkaloid poison. In the past, there have been deaths due to potato poisoning. It is rare, but most happen due to someone drinking potato leaf tea, or eating green potatoes. Death doesn’t come suddenly. It usually results in weakness and then a coma. Don’t worry about having the occasional green potato chip, but do discard any potatoes that have green eyes, sprouts, or greenish skins, rather than prepare and serve them, especially to children.
Interesting fact: Potatoes make great food for astronaut! In fact in 1995 potato plants were taken into orbit on the Columbia and actually grown.
4. Almonds
Almonds, most always said to be nuts, are actually seeds and are extremely popular in kitchens around the world. Much like cashews, almonds are extremely poisonous if not introduced to some sort of heat source. It is generally the bitter almonds that need to be treated to get rid of the poison. The seeds are full of cyanide, and in many countries are illegal to sell without having been processed in order to get rid of the poison within the seed.
Interesting fact: Almonds are said to be one of the earliest cultivated foods, being mentioned in the Bible’s Old Testament.
3. Cherries
Cherries are definitely one of the most versatile fruits. You can eat them raw, cook them, bake them, and get them tart or sweet. Cherries can even be used in certain types of liquor. Despite their overall red goodness, cherries are toxic. If you’ve ever eaten a cherry and without thought chewed on the pip or left it in your mouth, you more than likely introduced hydrogen cyanide into your body. If a cherry pip is chewed, crushed, or somehow damaged, it automatically produces hydrogen cyanide. Symptoms of mild poisoning include headache, dizziness, confusion, anxiety, and vomiting. Larger doses can lead to difficulty breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and kidney failure. Reactions can include coma, convulsions, and death from respiratory arrest.
Interesting fact: Cherries contain extremely high amounts of Melatonin which is good for helping and keeping the body regulated.
2. Apples
Apples are definitely a popular fruit no matter where you go. Like others on the list, and many other types of fruits, apples contain cyanide, but not in high levels. The fruit itself does not contain the chemical, but you will find cyanide in the apple’s seeds. Eating all of the seeds in one apple won’t kill you, but it’s definitely not recommended. Of course, if enough apple seeds are eaten, this means chewed and swallowed, it can result in complications.
Interesting fact: Apples float because at least 25% of their mass is nothing but air.
1. Tomato
Despite the extreme popularity of tomatoes and many countries, it is true that they are poisonous. Though the fruit itself doesn’t contain poison, the stem as well as the leaves contain a chemical known as glycoalkaloid. Higher levels are said to be found in wild tomatoes, but those grown domestically still contain glycoalkaloid. This chemical is known to cause upset stomachs and nervousness. The leaves and stem can be used in cooking for flavor, but must be removed before eating. This chemical is so powerful that it is actually used as a way to control pests.
Interesting fact: In 1893, in the U.S. Supreme Court case Nix v. Hedden, it was argued whether or not a tomato was a vegetable or a fruit, which dealt with taxes being paid on vegetbles and not fruits. In the end, the court ruled that a tomato is a vegetable when referring to the Tariff Act, but is botanically a fruit.
Life-cycle of a Star
Why Do Stars Change?
In order for stars to go through the process of nuclear fusion, they need fuel. Stars are made out of this fuel, and have only a limited amount. These fuels are mostly hydrogen and helium, as well as smaller amounts of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. As a star uses up one type of fuel, it must change its size and pressure in order to use another. Sometimes these changes are very subtle, while other times the are literally quite explosive. These changes take place over a course of millions to billions of years.
Birth
A star is born in a huge cloud of gas and dust known as anebula (plural: nebulae). This nebula is about 21 light-years(125 trillion miles) across. Part of the nebula begins to shrink under the pull of its own gravity. This forms a protostar which is about 60 million miles across. The star begins to take shape. The temperature continues to rise and nuclear fusion begins to take place. The pressure from inside the star finally equalizes the gravity pushing in, and the star stops contracting.
Nebula M16 (click image for larger one)
Life
In order for nuclear fusion to take place, there must be tremendous amounts of pressure and heat. This pressure crushes together elements to create more massive elements and energy. Stars begin fusing hydrogen first because it is the least dense and the easiest to fuse. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form one nucleus of helium. By-products of this is the production of two positrons, two neutrinos, and the release of energy. Stars that are going through this hydrogen burning process are known to be on the main sequence. Stars spend most of their life (aprox. 90%) on the main sequence.
Death
A star will eventually use up most of it's hydrogen and be left with helium. At this time there is not enough pressure crushing down on the star to create a nuclear reaction with helium. Nuclear reactions cease inside the star, and because there is no longer any outward push from fusion, the star begins to collapse upon its self. Here is where the star leaves the main sequence. This collapse begins to create more and more pressure inside the star until it is sufficient to have the fusing process of helium begin in the core, while some of the remaining hydrogen burns just outside of it. The products of this helium burning is carbon and oxygen. The star swells, and depending on its size, either becomes a red giant or a red supergiant.
Small Stars:
After the hydrogen burning process is complete in stars with an initial mass of less than 8 solar masses, they become red giants. These red giants have a diameter of roughly 60 million miles. Helium is burning in the core producing oxygen and carbon, while a thin layer of hydrogen is burning around it where there is not sufficient pressure for helium burning. The red giant begins to brighten between 1,000 and 10,000 times. The hydrogen-rich covering on the surface of the star begins to swell and becomes as large as as the orbit of Earth or Mars. Because there is so little pressure now in the outside areas of the star, the surface temperature drops to about 5,000 - 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature is actually very cool for a star. A strong solar wind begins to blow, and jettisons away most of this hydrogen covering. All that is left is a long-period variable star. This shed material is known as a planetary nebula. It can get as big as 1 light-year across.
The center of the star has now met its demise. During the formation of the planetary nebula the star ceases all nuclear reactions. The star is still very hot, up to several hundred thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Over a few hundred million years, the star cools and becomes a white dwarf. As the star cools more, it becomes dark and barely detectable. It is now known as a black dwarf.
a white dwarf is circled
The white/black dwarf is composed of carbon and oxygen. Surrounding this is a thin layer of helium, sometimes surrounded by hydrogen. The star is very compact. Although only about the size of earth, it's mass can be from a little less than one half a solar mass to a little more than one solar mass.
Large Stars:
If a star starts off with a mass of less that 8 solar masses, then it will stop at the red giant stage. More massive stars continue to burn. The carbon and oxygen produced in the previous stage begin to fuse. Carbon begins to be crushed into neon and magnesium, while oxygen is being crushed into silicon and sulfur. Silicon and sulfur get crushed into an iron core.
This iron core now just sits in the center of the star. The reason for this is that iron doesn't burn. Nuclear burning is only possible if an object is releasing energy. In order for iron to go the the fusing process, energy must be added. This leads to the collapse of the star. The addition of energy that the iron needs will only occur during the supernova explosion caused by the collapse of the star.
Because the iron is not fusing, it does not create any outward pressure do balance the effects of gravity. As the iron gets a mass of about 1.4 solar masses, gravity gets the upper hand and the core collapses from a size of about 5,000 miles to about 12 miles in less than a second. This sudden crush makes protons and electrons combine to form neutrons. This expels high-energy subatomic particles (known as neutrinos.) This huge energy release is equivalent to 100 of our stars burning for more than 10 billion years. A small amount of energy is deposited in the lower layers of the shell surrounding the core, triggering the supernova explosion. The energy deposited around the core creates a shock wave that runs outward toward the stars surface. As it is passing through, it heats up the shell sounding the core, starts nuclear burning, and throws off the shell faster than 10 million mph. This is when the iron fuses to create heavier particles. When the shock wave reaches the surface, it heats them very quickly and causes them to glow. In a day or 2, the star is brighter than a billion suns. In a couple of weeks, the explosion diminishes, although it may remain visible for months or years.
[Background on the words Nova and Supernova]
the rings of supernova 1987A
What's left is two distinct parts. There is a rapidly expanding gaseous shell that barges through the surrounding interstellar medium and interacts with it, and there is the compact stellar remnant which is either a neutron star or a black hole.
Neutron stars are super-dense remnants of supernovae. They have about 1.4 solar masses, but only have a diameter of 12 miles. Because they are so small and faint, they can't be seen with visible light. Neutron stars spin very fast. Usually they spin about once every second, but some can spin much faster. For example, a neutron star in the Crab nebula has been found to spin 30 times per second. This rapid rotation creates a large magnetic field. The neutron star begins to emit radiation out of it's poles. This radiation ranges from radio waves to visible light to x-rays to gamma rays.
Neutron stars can lead to pulsars. Pulsars are short for "Pulsating radio sources". Because neutron stars emit beams of radiation out of their poles, if they're positioned right they will sweep across earth and a pulsating signal will be detectable.
[Pulsars and Little Green Men]
If an object with four or more solar masses remains after a supernova explosion, it will become a black hole. Because there is so much mass and no nuclear reactions inside of the star to compensate for it, the gravity continues to crush the star. Eventually, the gravity gets so strong that it even holds back light. When material first begins to get pulled into a black hole, it swirls around it for awhile. It will heat up and eventually give off visible x-rays that are detectable before finally crossing theevent horizon and enter the black hole.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Why Was Jesus Born in Such Humble Circumstances?
By Billy Graham
Q: Why was Jesus born in such humble circumstances? Wouldn't people have been more likely to listen to Him if He'd been born in a palace instead of a stable? I've never understood why God arranged it this way. - H.T.
A: Let me ask you a question: If Jesus had been born in a palace, would you feel like He could really understand the struggles and heartaches of ordinary people like you and me? I doubt it. But Jesus was born in the most humble circumstances imaginable, and all His life He lived like most of the people around Him - only poorer. Think of it: From all eternity His home had been heaven, surrounded by all the glory and power that were rightfully His as God's only Son. But He willingly left all that behind and came down to share our lives on this earth - and even our temptations. Because He did this, we know He understands what our lives are like. This is why you can bring every burden you have to Him in prayer, because you know He loves you and understands your needs. The Bible says, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). The real question, however, is this: What place does Jesus Christ have in your life? Have you committed yourself to Him, and are you seeking to follow Him every day? Make this the best Christmas possible by receiving God's gift of His Son into your life today. The Bible says, "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).TunesBag Launches
Cloud-based music library provider tunesBag officially launched with a new interface, premium services, and more. Similar to MeCanto, tunesBag enables users to store, search and play their entire personal music collection online anytime, anywhere via the cloud.
TunesBag Launches
Cloud-based music library provider tunesBag officially launched with a new interface, premium services, and more. Similar to MeCanto, tunesBag enables users to store, search and play their entire personal music collection online anytime, anywhere via the cloud.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MUCH SUCCESS IN 2010!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
How Can We Keep Christmas Merry?
By Billy Graham
Q: This has been a very hard year for us, because we've both lost our jobs and I'm not even sure we're going to be able to keep our house. I know Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and happiness, but how can it be for us? - Mrs. V.R.
A: Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus knows what you're going through? He knew what it was to be poor, and even homeless. On one occasion, He said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). We remember this especially at Christmas, because Jesus couldn't have been born in poorer circumstances. His birthplace was a stable; Mary and Joseph were so poor they couldn't afford the customary sacrifice for dedicating the child to the Lord; later, they had to flee to Egypt because King Herod was determined to kill Him. The Bible says that Christ, "being in very nature God... made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant" (Philippians 2:6-7). The point is this: Jesus Christ understands your fears and your heartaches, because He experienced them in His own life. And that's why you can turn to Him for the strength you need to face the future with hope. Christmas reminds us that God loves us and cares for us. He loves us so much He was willing to send His Son into the world for our salvation. This Christmas ask God to help you focus on Christ and His love for you, and not just on your problems. And take time each day to thank Him for everything you do have because of Him. Then trust Him to guide you to a better future.People's Will Ignored and Dismissed
In fact, among the most dramatic changes in Washington has been the disappearance of the practical person, the individual -- whether pol, hack or advisor -- who more than compensated for deficiencies in formal learning with a superb understanding of life. It is these individuals who lent some sanity to Washington life when politicians went bad. They were either masters of the pragmatic or of the moral, but in either case served as the gyro compass of national politics.
In their place we find a town overflowing with decadent dandies who, to quote a 19th journalist, have been educated well beyond their intellects. They keep busy creating fictions about the nature of politics and the presidency that coincidentally serve their own ambitions, until they become incapable of returning to reality and helpless before the banal practicalities of such evils as high crimes and misdemeanors.
For many of the elite, the Clinton scandals have forced them to look at real politics for the first time. They have few tools for this. After all, they work with paradigms and perceptions -- not with life.
Above all they have been taught to rely excessively on deductive thinking, in which inferences are drawn from theories rather than from facts; and in which, too often, life's phenomena are misfiled according to musty and presumptuous principles rather than truly understood.
If you think I exaggerate, consider this: while in discussions about a title for my last book, The Great American Political Repair Manual, my editor called with a concern. She said that two of her colleagues had told her that repair sounded too much like work. Of course. I had forgotten that in many parts of Manhattan the idea of repair was alien. When something broke, you just called the super.
The problem with such a dependent culture is not new in America but it doesn't have a particularly happy history. For example, one cause of the failure of early Virginian colonization was that every cavalier brought along a valet who was meant to do all the work. Thus the colony had to feed two people for every one on the job.
While the feeding problem has been largely solved in modern America by turning the cavaliers' valets into restaurant waiters, the liabilities of entitled inutility remain, among them the desiccation of the mind.
The intelligentsia, like everything else, has become corporatized. This can be seen at its worst on campuses and in publishing houses. Journalism and academia have become so subordinated to the needs of their controlling conglomerates that the vital ground between starvation and surrender has become, economically at least, increasingly difficult to hold. The safest route is to cling to symbols while shucking substance, to serve in a House of Lords of the mind, robed and bewigged but naked of power and meaning.
This alteration in the relation of the intellectual to the culture was instinctively grasped by a DC elementary school student the other day as she defined the difference between art and graffiti as "Art is when you have permission to do it." These are days when you not only need permission for art, but also to think. And the place you go for permission is, more likely than not, a corporation.
The blacklisting of skepticism.. For much of my life I have hewed to H. L. Mencken's dictum that the liberation of the human mind has been best furthered by those "who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving that doubt, after all, was safe -- that the god in the sanctuary was a fraud."
For much of my life this strategy has worked. Even in the gathering gloom of the Reagan-Bush years. But with the arrival of the Clinton administration and its cultural as well as political authoritarianism, skepticism began being blacklisted. Not only was belief to be unopposed by doubt but the terms themselves were banned. In their place was only loyalty or disloyalty. Not unlike the situation a free thinker might have run into in late 17th century Marblehead or mid-20th century Moscow.
To retain doubt was to risk being declared, among other things, a conspiracy theorist. One didn't need either a conspiracy or a theory to earn the title. Just a reasonable interest in facts and what they might mean. Or, perhaps, reasonable questions about the reliability of those serving a president who would defend himself before Congress by lying under oath about his previous lies under oath.
In fact, conspiracies are most often redundant in such a context. Put enough Yale graduates in the same room and you can reasonably predict their consensus on many matters, particularly those of interest to the Council on Foreign Relations or the Washington Post. If you are educated well enough, you'll know what to do when the time comes. No conspiracy is necessary.
Under the rules of the Clinton years, truth belongs to the one with the most microphones clamped to his podium and the most bucks to buy them. In the end it has become a struggle for the control of fact and memory not unlike that described in 1984:
"Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory.
In such a time those with wrong memories and wrong facts are considered mad, disparaged, and dropped from the Rolodex. To hold power happily, one must not be curious and one must not question fully accredited paradigms. To think is to fail. Again from 1984:
"From the proletarians nothing is to be feared. Left to themselves, they will continue from generation to generation and from century to century, working, breeding, and dying, not only without any impulse to rebel, but without the power of grasping that the world could be other than it is. What opinions the masses hold, or do not hold, is looked on as a matter of indifference. They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect. In a Party member, on the other hand, not even the smallest deviation of opinion on the most unimportant subject can be tolerated."
The decline of the struggling intellectual. America has frequently been blessed by the bitter dissatisfaction of those still barred from tasting the fruits of its ideals. It has been the pressure of the dispossessed, rather than the virtue of those in power, that has repeatedly saved this country's soul.
In this century, three such influences have been those of immigrants, blacks, and women. Yet in each case now, social and economic progress has inevitably produced a dilution of passion for justice and change.
Thus we find ourselves with a women's movement much louder in its defense of Bill Clinton than about the plight of its sisters at the bottom of the economic pile. We have conservative black economists decrying the moral debilitation of affirmative action but few rising to the defense of those suffering under the rampant incarceration of young black males. As Angela Davis recently told a group of black newspaper columnists, today some people don't even know what you mean when you speak of "the struggle."
We are also near the end of an succession of Jewish writers and thinkers, raised on the immigrant experience, who created much of the form of progressive 20th century America. Economic progress has calmed the sound of revolution and reform; in its stead we find the conservative Ben Stein speaking at a Jewish anti-abortion conference:
I'll tell you how I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Jewish position in America had changed dramatically. The wife of a very close friend of my father died a few weeks ago and they had the memorial service at the Chevy Chase Club. And there was a cantor with a yarmulke giving the service at the Chevy Chase Club. And I cannot describe to you how astonishing a turn of events this was.
Wow. If Emma Goldman could only see you now.
The point is not to begrudge anyone's social and economic progress. But if you listen carefully to black and feminist leaders today, if you press them as to why they remain so attached to Clinton, you will often hear something quite similar to Stein's view of achievement -- such as "look at all the appointments he's made" -- in fact a Reaganesque trickle-down view of cultural triumph.
Meanwhile, those truly at the bottom -- such as black and white men without a college education or new immigrant groups -- are rarely heard from or about except in reports on crime and poverty.
Outside of rap and rock, the economically disposable young male -- forming no small portion of the nearly three million Americans in prison -- remains a crisis rather than a validated culture. And when was the last time you read about Ethiopian and Salvadoran American life in the New Yorker?
The dirty secret of 20th century social movements is that they have been successful enough to create their own old boy and girl networks, powerful enough to enter the Chevy Chase Club, and indifferent enough to ignore those left behind.
Their elites have joined the Yankee and the Southern aristocrat and the rest of God's frozen people to form the largest, most prosperous, and most narcissistic intelligentsia in our history.
And as the best and brightest drive around town in their Range Rovers, who will speak for those who, in Bill Mauldin's phrase, remain fugitives from the law of averages?
We are building an oligarchy that gets its faces from Benetton but its economics from Dickens. Which is why a new President Clinton could claim his administration would "look like America" and still have the most millionaires ever in a White House cabinet. In a more recent example, a biracial coalition of successful Washingtonians went to the polls to vote for a black man alleged to represent highest ideals of the corporatist state -- it was claimed he was a "good manager." But no one in the major media noted that in the city's poorest and blackest ward, turnout for this "new era" dropped 51% from the previous mayoral election.
The rise of a post-modern adhocracy. Behind the disintegration of interest by the intelligentsia in justice and human decency has been the triumph of the various cross-currents of post-modernism. Clinton is the archetype, the man who -- so it was said in Arkansas -- would turn green if he lay on a pool table. The man who is advised weekly by pollsters on what to say he thinks. The man, who when confronted with the crisis of his life, turned first to a spin doctor to see if he could once more talk his way out of it.
But it goes much deeper than that. Once a culture accepts a value vacuum it delivers itself to an adhocracy based on propaganda and force. Truth becomes the privilege of those who are the best liars and biggest bullies.
Such an adhocracy requires not just Napoleons of the moment, seizing each sound bite and every news slot as though it were another mile of Europe, it also requires the acquiescence of all those who once would have said simply, but with force: no, that is wrong.
Instead we have an intelligentsia that, rather than doing its true work on behalf of human betterment, has become merely the technocracy of a Peronist post-constitutional regime. Instead we have an intelligentsia believing that all facts are malleable, all truths disposable, and, in the end, the only real test is what you can get away with
Long before the rise of deconstructionism, there was a name for such an approach; it was called anarchy. And those who practiced it best were not scholars and philosophers but the leaders of gangs, armies, mobs and dictators
Hence we find the journalist who asked a source the other day, "putting morality aside, what do you think?" We have a president whose disposition was greatly complicated by the fact that no one could figure out any way to shame him. We have talking heads treating the darkest of public affairs as though at just another sports contest. We have a MSNBC lightweight expressing righteous annoyance that the Lewinsky tapes weren't more interesting. And we have member after member of the intelligentsia pimping for Clinton as though it were a sign of solidarity -- wearing sophistry like a crossed ribbon on their lapel.
How long Weimar America can go on like this is anyone's guess. There is enough disgust around to fertilize yet another national transformation. There is also enough despair to prevent it.
I do know that much of this need not have happened if those blessed with the time, intellect, and position to reflect on something other than survival had used their gifts more wisely. Their betrayal of America shares with that of Clinton an egregious failure of stewardship for our times.
One of Camus' characters writes a German friend after the war:
This is what separated us from you; we made demands. You were satisfied to serve the power of your nation and we dreamed of giving ours her truth.
This then is what comprises the high crimes and misdemeanors of America's intelligentsia: it was willing to trade in the truth just to sit a little closer to power.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Global Warming – Or Simply Massive Under Sea Volcanoes? – Updated!
One of the disconnects the Church of Al Gore/IPCC has yet to address regarding so-called Global Warming is why is it the Arctic ice extent is receding (thus all the chicken-little screams) while the Antarctic ice extent is growing at historic rates. Given the fact CO2 levels are ubiquitous across the Earth, if this was really a global climate driver we should see higher temperatures (and less ice) across the globe, adjusted for latitude and the amount of land vs sea surface area. Here is the Northern ice extent plots from NOAA
And here is the southern ice extent plots:
Well it seems we may have an answer to why the Arctic water temperatures were rising and the ice was melting – massive undersea volcanoes:
Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday.
The eruptions — as big as the one that buried Pompei — took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.
Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms.
But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts finally got a first-ever glimpse of the ocean floor 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) beneath the Arctic pack ice, they were astonished.
What they saw was unmistakable evidence of explosive eruptions rather than the gradual secretion of lava bubbling up from Earth’s mantle onto the ocean floor.
Folks need to understand that the Arctic Ocean is a fairly closed system because it resides in a large bowl shaped depression with only limited outlets that rise to much shallower depths, as seen in the following picture:
The natural basin that is the Arctic Ocean is possibly the reason why Arctic water temperatures were rising because the warming caused by these massive underwater explosions couldn’t really circulate out of the basin. Is this the real culprit for why the ice and glaciers have been receding in the Arctic and ice as been growing in the Antarctic? Seems highly possible.
Update: In case folks are wondering the Gakkel Ridge is that ridge running through the middle of the basin (click to go to enlarged version).
Update: Is it simply coincidence that the regions of the Arctic Ocean experiencing thin ice (which has so many ’scientists’ blowing hot air about Global Warming) is the same region that is right over these massive undersea volcanoes just discovered?
Seriously, I doubt this is coincidence. I would need to see exact locations of the volcanoes, the deep sea current paths and a depth chart to be sure, but it seems obvious to me that the warm waters and thin ice are to the Russian side of the Lomonosov Ridge, which cuts the Arctic Ocean basin in half – the same side as the Gakkel Ridge where the volcanoes are. And it is not surprising the warm water from the volcanoes has risen to the surface and spread out into the shallow continental shelf where it stays warmers. That is exactly how one would expect the warm water to travel out of the hot spot near the North Pole.
Looks like the Arctic Ocean is going to be the place that destroys the Global Warming mythology. How appropriate!
Update: More here from National Geographic, which notes these eruptions generated the largest earthquake swarm in recorded history along these kinds of spreading ocean ridges.
This earthquake swarm was the largest in recorded history along a spreading mid-ocean ridge and prompted researchers to return to the area for further investigation.
In 2007 Sohn and his team stumbled across the glassy pyroclastic rock deposits while searching for hydrothermal vent fields in the Gakkel Ridge.
Powerful eruptions sent a plume of carbon dioxide, helium, and liquid lava up into the Arctic waters. When the material cooled, rock debris fell to the ocean floor, he explained.
The article actually confirms some of my initial speculation on how this event could have created significant warming in the region that now shows thin ice.
“The dispersal of the particles does not necessarily indicate that the eruptions were highly energetic, only that the eruption heated the surrounding seawater and the rising plume of heated water carried the lava fragments upwards where currents could disperse them,” Clague said.
And this article notes the swarm included over 300 quakes, which is why the region is now being investigated.
“The Gakkel Ridge is covered with sea-ice the whole year. To detect little earthquakes, which accompany geological processes, we have to deploy our seismometers on drifting ice floes.” This unusual measuring method proved highly successful: in a first test in the summer 2001 – during the “Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge Expedition (AMORE)” on the research icebreaker Polarstern – the seismometers recorded explosive sounds by the minute, which originated from the seafloor of the volcanic region. “This was a rare and random recording of a submarine eruption in close proximity,” says Schlindwein. “I postulated in 2001 that the volcano is still active. However, it seemed highly improbable to me that the recorded sounds originated from an explosive volcanic eruption, because of the water depth of 4 kilometres.”
The scientist regards the matter differently after her participation in the Oden-Expedition 2007, during which systematic earthquake measurements were taken by Schlindwein’s team in the active volcanic region: “Our endeavours now concentrate on reconstructing and understanding the explosive volcanic episodes from 1999 and 2001 by means of the accompanying earthquakes. We want to know, which geological features led to a gas pressure so high that it even enabled an explosive eruption in these water depths.” Like Robert Reves-Sohn, she presumes that explosive eruptions are far more common in the scarcely explored ultraslow-spreading ridges than presumed so far.
The Arctic seabed is as explosive geologically as it is politically judging by the “fountains” of gas and molten lava that have been blasting out of underwater volcanoes near the North Pole.
“Explosive volatile discharge has clearly been a widespread, and ongoing, process,” according to an international team that sent unmanned probes to the strange fiery world beneath the Arctic ice.
They returned with images and data showing that red-hot magma has been rising from deep inside the earth and blown the tops off dozens of submarine volcanoes, four kilometres below the ice. “Jets or fountains of material were probably blasted one, maybe even two, kilometres up into the water,” says geophysicist Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who led the expedition.
Again, why is it not plausible that the Arctic Melt is actually the result of volcanic activity that rivals that which buried Pompeii? Can the IPCC actually claim this historic level of volcanic activity is having negligible impact on Arctic Ice? Gimme a break.
Update: BTW, Symonsez you need to check out this post.
Update: Reader Crosspatch pointed me to a site which can show comparisons of arctic ice depths across two years. So I decided to look at 1998 (before the volcanic explosions) and 1999 (after). Here is what the results show (click here to enlarge):
Dark Purple is thick ice, reds and yellows thin ice. What is interesting to note is the 1999 year shows the shallow edges thinning out dramatically – which makes sense. The heated sea water would rise and probably run across the thicker ice, spreading, and possibly settling against the north coast of Russia. It would take time to actually melt thick ice. So I did a second comparison, 1998 to 2000, to see what heating over time might do – and it looks like a hole starts to develop (red area) right about where these explosions and venting took place (click here to enlarge):
By 2001 the depth of snow and ice returns to typical levels. In fact, if you compare 2008 to 1999, 2008 is looking like it will do better. Anyway, I am not sure if this effected Arctic Ice depths and extent – but I cannot see how if couldn’t have some effect.
Addendum: After getting some sleep on the matter I wanted to add one more observation to this. Ice thickness is important to the underwater shape of the ice sheet. As folks know with ice bergs, 90% of the ice mass extends below the water’s surface. Areas of thick ice look like inverted mountains while areas of thin ice look like the valleys.
Super heated water rising from the sea floor would hit the upside down mountain peaks first, and then start to flow towards the thinner ice as it rises – which is why you could get hot spots (which would look like basins in relief on the bottom topology of the ice sheet). The interesting thing about the 2008 ice thickness data is it looks like it large, long ‘valleys’ formed, just like rushing water forms valleys from storm run off. I have added a 2006-2008 comparison to show these features.
In the 2006 picture the ice sheet is lumpy, where dark regions reflect where the ice protrudes the farthest underwater, the light purple being regions where the ice is not as deep, and red/yellow thin spots. 2006 is interesting because there was another warm spot forming off the coast of Russia – which could mean the volcanoes were active or whatever. But 2008 is interesting with its radiating bands of light and dark purples, looking just like valleys etched by flowing water from a single point along the same ridge as the volcanoes.
Am I seeing things? Who knows – again I don’t have the data to do any analysis, don’t have any seismic recordings to compare to the annual sea ice thickness, don’t have current maps. Hopefully some real scientists will have the money and time to work this all out. Seems it would be prudent before we make today’s energy prices a fond memory as we embark on a fool’s errand to cut CO2 emissions to no effect.
Final Update: Sweetness & Light has a graph of what appears to be average ice thickness, which shows 1999 – the year of the massive eruptions – as the point when the Arctic Ice started melting in earnest:
Given the fact this graph looks to be from the bible of the Church of Al Gore it seems hard not to notice the 1999 impact from the volcanoes and demand an explanation from Gore and the IPCC.
Final, Final Update: It seems there is a lot of information out on the Arctic Ocean and these volcanoes which has not been correlated yet. Here is a 2007 news report on the Arctic Ocean circulation patterns, which have been shifting dramatically over the last 20 years or so. These shifting patterns are the result of salinity changes – which could be a direct result of the volcanic activity changing salinity levels and causing the changes. The take away conclusion from this is the activity is not driven by CO2 or “Global Warming”:
A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming.
This is “NASA” too, as much as that extremist Hansen is (probably more so because these folks run the science missions, Hansen just attempts to understand the data and has a proven history of botching even that). Like I said way, way, way up in this now way too long post, it looks like the Global Warming myths may die cold death in the Arctic Ocean physical processes.
29 Responses to “Global Warming – Or Simply Massive Under Sea Volcanoes? – Updated!”
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[...] The Strata-Sphere [...]
So I had an errand to run today and as I often do when I am out and about, I had the radio on a local station with frequent traffic reports (KCBS San Francisco). A report came on about the smoky air due to wildfires in the surrounding counties and the gentleman being interviewed was positively predictable in his pandering to political correctness.
First he started out by saying that all those particulates from the fires aren’t nearly as harmful as the particulates from vehicle engines but that they would have similar health impact. In other words, combustion of carbon from wood isn’t nearly as bad as combustion from coal or oil, which as everyone “knows”, is more evil than Hitler crossed with John Wayne Gacy. But it will cause exactly the same health impact. Much less evil but just as dangerous … give.me.a.break!!!!1111!!!eleven!!!!11
Then he starts on “oh, and I want to remind everyone that the problem of wildfire smoke is only going to get worse with climate change …” and thats when my finger hit the button for another station.
People … warmer climate means WETTER weather, not dryer. It also doesn’t mean higher daytime highs. It probably would mean MUCH higher nighttime lows. It just won’t get as cold at night.
The driest period of the last 100 years was in the final glacial maximum immediately before the end of the last ice age. That is when the maximum amount of Earth’s water was bound up as ice and deserts reached their maximum size. There is one notable exception to that rule … the Southwestern US. During that period the jet stream was configured in such a way that the Southwest got a lot of rain … like what now falls in Seattle. That’s when places like Lake Bonneville (The Great Salt Lake is the remnant) and Lake Lahontan (what is left of that is now called Pyramid Lake North of Reno, NV) were formed.
WARM = WET
COLD = DRY
Global warming is GOOD for plants, people, animals, and just about everything. Cooling would be a disaster.
Let me give you a current set up for a major disaster:
Torrential rain in the US midwest has resulted in the destruction of a large part of the US grain crop. Much of it is getting replanted but pretty late. There is a good chance that this late crop is at risk of getting bitten by frost. Temperatures this year are running colder than normal. There is a good chance there will be an early winter. Late planting, outright destruction of some crops and the possibility of an early winter mean potential disaster for grain crops. That means starvation in areas far away from Iowa. Global COOLING would be a much worse disaster than warming.
funny you should write this.
Check out this story:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-no-ice-at-the-north-pole-855406.html
There is about a million square km more ice this year than there was last year in the Arctic.
Same with the Antarctic. In fact, there is about a million square kilometers more in the Antarctic than the 1979 to 2000 average. Both poles combined, the total ice area is right about average, up about 3 million square km from last year’s low.
This page has a lot of data, including an area where you can compare this year to last year visually.
This graph shows the global ice coverage since 1979. The red line shows the departure from average. You can see the dramatic recovery of sea ice over the past year.
That article in the Independent is a flat out lie.
Here is a visual comparison between this year and last year in the Arctic for today.
There is a problem with all that thinking, though. The eruptions were in 1999 and 2001. The Arctic ice didn’t start it’s shrinkage in any appreciable way until 2003 and it continued until 2007 until nearly completely recovering since 2007. NASA blames changes in wind that blew the ice out into the warmer Atlantic where it melted instead of blowing it against the continental shield where it would pack up and thicken.
This graph shows Arctic ice since 1979 (click the graph to enlarge it once you get to the link).
Oh, something I just realized. Hydrothermal venting activity doesn’t need to correspond directly to surface eruptions. If you have some magma rise under the surface that creates cracks in the rock, you can have significant hydrothermal venting from water flowing through the cracks. So the amount of heat released into the water might not be always directly related to surface eruptions.
A small quake that doesn’t result in an eruption can result in significant changes in the hydrology.
Also, chemicals introduced into the water can change the freezing point until they are diluted out.
Many people don’t appreciate, really, how much heat it takes to heat (and to freeze) water. It takes 1 calorie to raise 1 cc of water one degree C, or 1000 calories to raise one liter one degree C. How many liters are we talking about and how many degrees?
Mt. St. Heles released 1.7 x 10e18 joules of energy. That is enough to heat 4,063,097,514,340,344 liters of water one degree. One cubic kilometer of water is 1 000 000 000 000 liters. The arctic ocean is 17 million cubic kilometers in volume. A Mount St Helens sized event wouldn’t raise the arctic ocean 1 degree C.
This makes a lot more sense than the idea that humans have any control over the weather. Maybe this happened for a longer span of time back around 1000 or 1100 A.D. That would certainly explain why Greenland was filled with plants and vines at that time when Erikson discovered it.
[...] AJ at Stratasphere has done the best research on this, providing satellite imaging of the Ice thickness before, during, and after the massive event. [...]
CP,
I think the delay in impacting the ice pack was due to the time it took to melt that much ice. The thinner regions along the land masses showed more impact first being thinner anyway. But over time these hot spots showed up (which fragmented the ice shelf by making pockets. Once the ice mass was weakened by these holes the currents and winds could start grinding in up more.
Cheers, AJStrata
All of this information makes me get really angry when I see a politician or reporter talking about carbon anything.
hey did this “research” come from harry potter? or narnia?
or maybe from another video game?
maybe you saw it on a non-existent videotape?
Poor Norm, out of his element again and left to trying to insult others to compensate for his ignorance.
Too funny!
Sorry Norm,
I realized you really don’t know where the research came from. Most of it is from NASA, you know those folks who really do know math and science. The folks I work with.
LOL!
AJStrata
…hey did this “research” come from harry potter? or narnia?….
From the one who relies upon the science of a divinity school dropout.
[...] What about this story? It’s about the massive undersea volcanoes that are erupting under the North Pole. [...]
norm is a petty ignorant hateful Leftist
Ice Melt…
The scientists aren’t exactly acting like scientists here, but rather hoping that their preconceived notion of global warming comes true. They’re hoping that the polar ice cap melts so that they can “prove” that global warming exists, even though t…
[...] is interesting. The Strata-Sphere � Global Warming – Or Simply Massive Under Sea Volcanoes? – Updated! Fire under the [...]
[...] it’s all those volcanoes… “Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice [...]
[...] I’ve had my head up my arse, I have failed to catch this thingy discovered by Ace of Spades regarding polar ice-cap thicknesses. Until [...]
I would just like to point out a historical fact in reference to
“# BarbaraSon 27 Jun 2008 at 1:04 am
This makes a lot more sense than the idea that humans have any control over the weather. Maybe this happened for a longer span of time back around 1000 or 1100 A.D. That would certainly explain why Greenland was filled with plants and vines at that time when Erikson discovered it.”
It wasnt green in Greenland, Nor was Iceland covered in ice. Open a histroy book and lrn2read it. He named them accordingly to throw off his enemies.
I guess the old trick still works, since you beleived it too. shows how great the governement school system is doing here.
[...] effects of Global Warming too? What about the shrinking northern ice cap here on Earth and newly discovered massive undersea volcanoes there experiencing historic eruptions not seen since Pompeii (note: these could have been erupting [...]
[...] As I noted last summer a previously unknown volcanic eruption discovered near the North Pole which could have been the cause of the Northern Ice Melting during around the turn of the century. The eruption was one of the largest ever recorded (and yet missed at the time it happened) and preceded the Arctic Ice Melt which Global Warming alarmists use and an indication of their pet theories on CO2 driven heating of the Earth. The timing of the eruption and the ice melt seem to be too coincidental not to be related. And as the CO2 levels and global temperatures start diverging (the former rising, the latter falling) from the IPCC predictions (which have failed for nearly 20 years now to predict anything right) it seems more and more likely other forces are at work. When it comes to what the alarmists are claiming is man made global warming. [...]