The New Jargon

I recently came across this article which dissects the jargon used by a lot of right wingers and conservatives to intimidate people and make their viewpoint paramount. It is long, but worth reading, just to help you identify this type of jargon and maybe call out someone who is using it on you. I recommend reading it.

Life on Mars?

This article: NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars discusses new work pointing to the likelihood that there is life on Mars. This finding has seemed inevitable to me as Mars research has progressed. One of the Viking landers in the 70's tested for life. Three tests were done. 2 of the 3 tests were positive, but the negative result for the the third test, which failed to find organic compounds was deemed sufficient to negate the other two tests. I never felt like the explanations offered to discount the other two tests were convincing.

Since that time we have discovered bacteria living deep in the subsurface at extremely high temperatures and in Antarctic ice. Basically, it appears that bacteria can live just about anywhere, plus some studies have shown they can survive in space. Given all this, it is not surprising to discover there is life on Mars. I would also not be surprised to learn there is life on Jupiter or Saturn, or even Venus. I think in the Solar System and in the rest of the universe, life is much more prevalent than most people believe.

Can This Black Box See Into the Future?

This article: Can This Black Box See Into the Future?, was quite interesting. It says that random number generators are being influenced by global events, sometimes even before they happen. Of course, it seems a bit hard to believe, but the data appears to be genuine. Food for thought...

William F. Ruddiman Graphs

The March issue of "Scientific American" has one of those "wow" articles that everyone interested in the global warming debate should read; "How Did Humans First Alter Global Climate". You cannot access the Scientific Amerian article online, but this publication; "THE ANTHROPOGENIC GREENHOUSE ERA BEGAN THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO" by the author, William F. Ruddiman, covers most of the same ideas and has more details of the science behind his proposals. Two graphs from this article are shown above.

I found these articles fascinating because they seem to answer a lot of the questions that I had concerning what the current global warming means in the context of historical climate change. There are several interesting conclusions that come out of these articles. One is that a new glacial age would have begun with new continental glaciers beginning to form in northern North America about 5000 years ago, if not for methane and CO2 being added to the Earth's atomosphere by early argicultural methods and deforestation. Another is that pandemics such as the "Black Death" in western Europe show up in ice core data as anomolous decreases in CO2 that subsequently led to global cold spells. By killing off 40-50% of the European population, the "Black Death" led to the abandonment of numerous farms and small villages which in 50 years or so reverted to forest, pulling CO2 out of the atomosphere and cooling the planet. The spread of bubonic plague is often blamed on the success of early argicultural societies that led to crowding in cities with unsanitary conditions and of course the rats feeding on the grain. Mother nature seems to have checks and balances which so far we have continued to override, but how long can this continue?

The other big question is what role do we humans want to play in determining climatic conditions. It would appear that the very stable climate for the last 8000 years that has allowed our civilization to flourish is not natural but an unwitting result of our own activities. We may be close to understanding enough about climate to control it, but what is really optimum and how could we ever reach some global concensus.

The use of fossil fuels is the one component of the climate system many people seem focused on, but limiting methane production from farming practices and reforestation could have very significant impacts that may not have been adequately considered. Also, we must consider that the natural changes in CO2 and methane that are driven by Earth-orbital cycles continue downward, leading to a glacial age without man's interference. Clearly, there is a lot to think about here and this latest work by William Ruddiman has added a lot to the dabate.

The Tsunami's Epicenter

Sonar picture of the Indian Ocean near the tsunami epicenter.

This article: "Asian tsunami seabed pictured with sonar" discusses the changes on the floor of the Indian Ocean that were caused by the earthquake that started the recent tsunami. It appears that this quake was certainly a massive and startling event caused by millenia of stresses building up at the juncture of the Indian and Burmese tectonic plates.

Shortly after the tsunami I read some comments suggesting that oil company seismic testing might have caused the quake. This is so ridiculous, it is not even funny. Why are certain people so eager to blame big oil companies for problems. The truth of the matter is that the oil industry has a better environmental record than most other industries. We supply a needed resource at a good price. Without this resource we might literally be in the dark ages right now. Please give us a break!

NASA's Official Words on Iapetus

In order to present a balanced view here is NASA's description of the ridge on Iapetus:

"The most unique, and perhaps most remarkable feature discovered on Iapetus in Cassini images is a topographic ridge that coincides almost exactly with the geographic equator. The ridge is conspicuous in the picture as an approximately 20-kilometer wide (12 miles) band that extends from the western (left) side of the disc almost to the day/night boundary on the right. On the left horizon, the peak of the ridge reaches at least 13 kilometers (8 miles) above the surrounding terrain. Along the roughly 1,300 kilometer (800 mile) length over which it can be traced in this picture, it remains almost exactly parallel to the equator within a couple of degrees. The physical origin of the ridge has yet to be explained. It is not yet clear whether the ridge is a mountain belt that has folded upward, or an extensional crack in the surface through which material from inside Iapetus erupted onto the surface and accumulated locally, forming the ridge."

More can be found at this website.

Is Iapetus Artificial?

The pictures below show Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons. There are some very startling features of this moon that are hard to explain as natural features. This website goes into great detail discussing the anomalies and what they might mean.

The general idea is that the 12 mile high, 800 mile long equatorial ridge must be an artificial construct. Further evidence is presented that the moon is not round, but faceted, as if it were geodesic structure. The arguments presented on the website are fairly persuasive- there is something very strange about this moon. Extreme blowups of some photos purporting to show smaller artificial structures on this moon are not persuasive and actually detract from the stronger arguement that this moon may be an artificial satellite or spaceship.

It is certainly a science fiction idea, but who knows, it might be true. On the other hand, do we really understand nature so well, as to rule out natural explanations. I think we may be hearing more about this moon in the future.

Faceted Horizon on Iapetus 

Closeup of Iapetus Equatorial Ridge 

Equatorial Ridge on Iapetus 

The End of the World

Yes, the end of the world is here. If you do not believe it, check out this website.