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Meteor

Best of the Web: Kenya's Rain of Meteorites

Kelly Beatty
Sky and Telescope
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:59 UTC
Kenya Meteorite
© Michael FarmerMeteorite hunter Michael Farmer poses with Rose Kamande, who found this 7.7-pound (3.5-kg) stone on July 17, 2011 — one day after meteorites fell from the sky in the villages surrounding Thika, Kenya.
Statistically, every year roughly 1,400 meteorites of pebble size and larger fall somewhere on Earth's lands. But few of these are ever found - and even fewer (about 3%) are actually seen as they arrive. Because they're rare, these witnessed falls are especially prized both by scientists (because the stones are fresh and unweathered) and by meteorite collectors (they command higher prices).

As it happens, a bunch of meteorites fell from the sky over east-central Africa on July 16th, and only now are details of this extraterrestrial special delivery coming to light.

On that morning, residents in villages near Thika, Kenya, heard a loud explosion but didn't know what to make of the strange stones that fell around them. Local police were called to investigate a sizable one that dropped into a cornfield and carted it off for further study.

This is a desperately poor region, and it didn't take long for local villagers to realize that these plain-looking rocks might be worth something. Word of the event soon reached meteorite hunters, and within hours the chase was on.
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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Is The Number Of Earthquakes Increasing? Why The 5.8 Virginia Earthquake Might Just Be A Preview Of Things To Come


End Of The American Dream
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:41 UTC
Virginia Quake
© End of The American Dream
Is the number of earthquakes increasing? Are major earthquakes becoming more frequent? In the aftermath of the magnitude-5.8 earthquake in Virginia, a whole lot of people are asking those questions. All over the mainstream media, "experts" are coming on and assuring the public that all of this is "normal" and that the number of earthquakes is not actually increasing. The USGS continues to insist that the frequency of major earthquakes has been "fairly constant" and that there is no reason for alarm. But is that really the truth? In this article, you will be presented with evidence that the number of earthquakes is definitely increasing. Please approach the evidence with an open mind. The truth is that this year we are on pace to have more than twice the number of major earthquakes than we did just 10 years ago. The mainstream media is much more interested in keeping people calm than it is in telling them the truth. Our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, and the magnitude-5.8 Virginia earthquake that we just witnessed might just be a preview of things to come.

The Virginia earthquake is already being called a "once a century" earthquake for the east coast. The earthquake was felt from Georgia all the way up to Ottawa, Canada. It was felt as far west as Cleveland, Ohio. It prompted the evacuation of congressional buildings and the Pentagon. The earthquake actually cracked the Washington Monument and now it is closed indefinitely for repairs.

But that was not the only major seismic event in the U.S. that day. A magnitude-5.3 earthquake rattled the area along the Colorado/New Mexico border. That was the largest earthquake that region had seen in more than 40 years.
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R2-D2

Best of the Web: David Seaton: Will This All End with a Bang or a Whimper?

David Seaton
David Seaton's News Links
Sun, 04 Sep 2011 08:00 UTC
U.S. corporate profits and efficiency are getting absurd. On Friday we saw record quarterly profits of $1,450 billion, making up a record share of GDP at 10.1%. We're also at record corporate efficiency of $15,278.72 -- up 22.3% from last year (...). That last one says it all. Rampant job cuts and salary cuts, with new responsibilities for old workers, during the recession turned corporations into profit-making machines. Stimulative policies from the government and the Federal Reserve helped plenty. New technology also helps with efficiency. Unfortunately there are no signs that corporations are turning revenue into jobs. Business Insider

Employment

Image
The problem with US manufacturing is not that it has been shrinking - despite the "offshoring" of textile and electronics manufacturing to China, US manufacturing output rose by 3.9 per cent a year between 1997 and 2007. However productivity grew 6.8 per cent annually in the same period, so millions of jobs were lost. If manufacturing carries along the same path, McKinsey estimates that it could shed another 2.3m jobs by 2020, while the economy needs to create 21m more jobs to return to full employment. The mini-recovery in manufacturing jobs - 164,000 were added in the six months to April - recently stalled. John Gapper - Financial Times

Over time, advanced economies will need to invest in human capital, skills and social safety nets to increase productivity and enable workers to compete, be flexible and thrive in a globalized economy. The alternative is - like in the 1930s - unending stagnation, depression, currency and trade wars, capital controls, financial crisis, sovereign insolvencies, and massive social and political instability. Nouriel Roubini - Project Syndicate
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Family

Best of the Web: Gut Biota Never Recover from Antibiotic Use: Loss Extends to Future Generations

Heidi Stevenson
Gaia Health
Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:50 UTC
Image
© Gina TylerPainting by talented artist and homeopath,
Gina Tyler.
(Words Added by Gaia Health.)
Evidence shows the mass antibiotics experiment is devastating our children's health. It may be the reason so many struggle for breath and can't assimilate food properly.

Emerging research shows that the harmful effects of antibiotics go much further than the development of drug resistant diseases. The beneficial bacteria lost to antibiotics, along with disease-inducing bacteria, do not recover fully. Worse, flora lost by a mother is also lost to her babies. The missing beneficial gut bacteria are likely a major factor behind much of the chronic disease experienced today. The continuous use of antibiotics is resulting in each generation experiencing worse health than their parents.

Martin Blaser, the author of a report in the prestigious journal Nature writes:
Antibiotics kill the bacteria we do want, as well as those we don't. These long-term changes to the beneficial bacteria within people's bodies may even increase our susceptibility to infections and disease.

Overuse of antibiotics could be fuelling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations.
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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: Revealed: The mysterious US organisation that has killed more enemies than CIA since 9/11


Daily News & Analysis
Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:44 UTC
JSOC
© unknown
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and paramilitary forces may have killed dozens of al-Qaeda leaders and thousands of its foot soldiers, but there is another mysterious organisation that has killed even more of America's enemies in the decade since the 9/11 attacks.

According to the Washington Post, since the September 11, 2001 attacks, this secretive group of men (and a few women) has grown ten-fold while sustaining a level of obscurity that not even the CIA managed.

"We're the dark matter. We're the force that orders the universe, but can't be seen," a strapping Navy SEAL, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said in describing his unit.

The SEALs are just part of the US military's Joint Special Operations Command, known by the acronym JSOC, which has grown from a rarely used hostage rescue team into America's secret army.
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Light Sabers

Best of the Web: When Men Become Truly Free

Sentient Mind
YouTube
Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:53 UTC
When men become truly free:

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Meteor

Best of the Web: Space Junk Rising Exponentially (and No, It's Not Man-Made)

Ian Sample
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:52 UTC
Image
© Getty ImagesForget man-made space junk, the real threat is coming from further out in our solar system.
Scientists warn of 'tipping point' but shuttle's demise means there is no easy way to remove defunct satellites

The amount of junk in space is rising exponentially, with continuous collisions between abandoned equipment, spent rockets and other debris creating ever growing clouds of dangerous fragments, an influential report warned on Thursday.

The report, commissioned by NASA, says the quantity of hazardous material circling the Earth has reached a "tipping point" and poses a real and increasing danger to satellites and the International Space Station.

It suggests developing a clean-up strategy, which could include catching debris with nets, magnets or giant umbrellas.
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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Disasters in US: An Extreme and Exhausting Year

Seth Borenstein
The Associated Press
Sat, 03 Sep 2011 06:43 UTC
weather
© unknown
Nature is pummeling the United States this year with extremes.

Unprecedented triple-digit heat and devastating drought. Deadly tornadoes leveling towns. Massive rivers overflowing. A billion-dollar blizzard. And now, unusual hurricane-caused flooding in Vermont.

If what's falling from the sky isn't enough, the ground shook in places that normally seem stable: Colorado and the entire East Coast. On Friday, a strong quake triggered brief tsunami warnings in Alaska. Arizona and New Mexico have broken records for wildfires.

Total weather losses top $35 billion, and that's not counting Hurricane Irene, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. There have been more than 700 U.S. disaster and weather deaths, most from the tornado outbreaks this spring.

Last year, the world seemed to go wild with natural disasters in the deadliest year in a generation. But 2010 was bad globally, and the United States mostly was spared.

This year, while there have been devastating events elsewhere, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Australia's flooding and a drought in Africa, it's our turn to get smacked. Repeatedly.

Comment: Notice the Global Warming - you have to get used to it - propaganda: "The idea is that these events keep happening, and with global warming they should occur more often, so society has to learn to adapt, said former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, NOAA's deputy chief."

What they don't mention is that global warming inevitably leads to global cooling, as in the Ice Age Cometh! An Ice Age means the deaths of millions if not billions of human beings because there simply will be no food with the disruption of growing cycles and destruction of agricultural land. Even without an Ice Age, the Earth has long since passed its carrying capacity. See Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth for details.

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Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: Can Climate Change Cause Mental Illnesses?

Anissa Haddadi
International Business Times
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 23:46 UTC
Image
© N/A
As climate change and its impacts on our planet and society are still debated, a new report by the Climate Institute of Australia warns against the devastating effects of extreme weather events on communities' mental health.

Taking severe weather events in Australia as a point of focus for the study, the report also blames adverse weather on climate change and says:
"Unabated, a more hostile climate will spell a substantial rise in the incidence of post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression - all at great personal suffering and, consequently, social and economic cost."
The document, published this week, also warns that up to 20% of affected communities will suffer extremes stress, emotional injury, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and substance abuse.

The study found that as severe weather events in Australia increase in number, "climate change will have many adverse impacts on Australians' health - physical risks, infectious diseases, heat-related ill effects, food safety and nutritional risks, mental health problems and premature deaths.

Comment: An excellent form of meditation to reduce emotional pain or stress is to practice Éiriú Eolas Breathing and Meditation Program and can be found here.

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Snowman

Best of the Web: Early Winter Snowfall Predicted For Ireland and UK

Mark Dunphy
Irish Weather Online
Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:12 UTC
UK under snow
© MODISIreland and UK from space on Christmas Day 2010.
A long range weather forecaster is predicting an early start to winter 2011-2012 for many regions of the United Kingdom and Ireland. James Madden of Exacta Weather says heavy snowfalls are likely in places as soon as late October and early November.

Last week, UK-based Positive Weather Solutions also predicted that the winter months will be colder than average everywhere and that some regions will experience significantly colder than average temperatures between December and March.
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