Organic Universe

The following blogs were built from October 2011 through August 2012 (see research list in left sidebar) and remain available for research during these periods, ending in March 2015, where the project was moved and updated to one blog, see here.

These sites as of this posting have generated over 800,000 visits, and provide an array of alternative news information and transformation occurring during these times.

Everything that was posted here can still be followed exclusively through Twitter as one of five categories. (See widget in sidebar.) Although, now, and because of the transformations occurring, I must move forward and reduce the workload, improve focus, and provide a better platform that reflects the entire house as a course of action.

"It seems impossible to not know what our five senses are being used for. It has been learned that information must include an array of the what we perceive as sensations for preception to occur, that is to say, so that we understand them in context to our environment. Alternative media authors are rapidly working out the kinks in this chain where feelings have been assumed and fed with useless sensational alterations. The truth however, is that these stigmas are not really sensations, they are powerful centers entwined in the octave of life."

Learn more here. You can contact me here.

Postings on this blog may occur in the future for research purposes only. Be sure to visit and bookmark the current posting schedule here.

SOTT Summary February 2015 - Extreme Weather, Earth Changes, and Fireballs

SOTT Media | Mar 8, 2015

The following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during February 2015 - 'earth changes', extreme weather, meteor fireballs, and planetary upheaval.

The pattern of global deluges continued last month as flooding again hit the Balkans, Greece, Bolivia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Northwest, Australia, and East Africa. February saw 'orange' snow, 'blue' snow and 'dirty rain' as particulates from ever more erupting volcanoes and incoming meteors continue to build up in the atmosphere. It's not just conditions above ground that are changing: alarming numbers of whales, sea lions and other sea creatures continue to wash up dead or dying on beaches around the world.

February saw meteor fireballs ranging from flashes that momentarily turned night into day over New Zealand, Florida and Korea... to a long-duration bolide of comet/asteroid size that broke up over the western half of North America. There were several major train derailments in February, particularly in the U.S., where oil companies are bypassing pipeline networks to transport fracked oil. We suspect that many railway lines are deforming due to the increased seismic activity.

More loud booms were heard and felt across the U.S. in February. Although attributed to 'frost quakes', where water seeps into the ground then freezes and cracks the bedrock, these localized booms also happened in ice-free regions, suggesting that some other mechanism is causing them. Besides strong earthquakes off Japan and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an unusually strong quake in central Spain sent people running into the streets. Japan saw more snow records broken, wild weather continued to pummel the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East was again snowed under.

THE major weather event in February 2015 was the record snow and cold in the U.S. Northeast. The South and Midwest were also hit hard, but the Northeast appears to have had both its snowiest and coldest month ever, at least since since record-keeping began in the mid-19th century. Meteorologists attributed this to the meandering Polar Jet stream delivering a 'Siberian Express' of non-stop winter storms from the northern Pacific down and across the North American continent, but another factor could be super-cool air coming down from the troposphere.

The ice age cometh?

If you like this video, please share!

[...]

Unnaturally Surreal | The Darkest Of Days February 2015 (1)

HawkkeyDavisChannel | Mar 4, 2015

DOUBLE BARREL M-CLASS SOLAR FLARES - March 2, 2015

Solar Watcher | Mar 2, 2015

Departing active region 12290 prior to turning off the solar disk unleashed two moderate M-Class Solar Flares this evening. An M3.7 eruption at 15:28 UTC and M4.1 at 19:31 UTC. A spectacular Halo Coronal Mass Ejection followed spewing safely out into space and will not have any earth directed component due to the proximity of the blast site being at right angles or 90 degrees to the earth.


Newsletter Download Link (March)
http://www.solarwatcher.net/index.php...
Newsletter Download Link (April)
http://www.solarwatcher.net/index.php...
Website Subscription Information
http://www.solarwatcher.net/index.php...

Facebook Live Quake Data
https://www.facebook.com/EarthquakeHu...
http://solarwatcher.net
Earthquake Forecasting Channel
http://youtube.com/thebarcaroller
Another Quality Solar youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/Skyywatch...
Earthquake Reporting Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/EQForecaster
Soho Website
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
Solar Soft website
http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest...
Solar Terrestrial Activity Report
http://www.solen.info/solar/
WSA-Enlil Solar Wind Prediction
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/
Helioviewer
http://www.helioviewer.org/
Quality Solar Website
http://www.solarham.com
Estimated Planetary K index information
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/k-ind...
GOES Xray Flux Data
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xra...
Sunspot Information from Solar Monitor
http://www.solarmonitor.org/
Quality Weather Website
http://www.westernpacificweather.com
Space Weather Website
http://www.spaceweather.com/

Record snowfall in Canada – Video

Ice Age Now | Mar 2, 2015 |

Roofs caving in – People trapped inside


A huge blizzard dumped over 80 cm (2½ feet) of snow on Prince Edward Island.

In New Brunswick the snow piled up in huge drifts, in some cases trapping people inside.

And in Halifax, it snowed and it rained and it froze again and now ice is encasing everything.

“It’s clear the Maritimes weather has crossed the line from difficult to dangerous.”

A stranded driver said he could barely see the end of the hood on his car.

Many Maritimers spent most of the month digging out after record snowfalls.

Both Halifax and Moncton recorded more than double the average amount of snow for the month.

Charlottetown was buried under more than seven feet of snow (222.8 cm), including nearly 90 cm in a single storm that hit PEI’s capital on February 16th.

In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, residents were digging out after snow storms dumped more than 50 cm (16 inches) in some areas that led to the closures of schools, businesses and highways.

Moncton saw the worst of the blizzard with more than 50 cm of snow, while Fredericton and Saint John received over 30 cm (12 inches).

http://globalnews.ca/news/1856489/coldest-february-on-record-in-quebec/

http://globalnews.ca/news/1833283/winter-storms-slam-maritimes-deep-freeze-continues-in-quebec-and-ontario/

Thanks to Carl B for these links

Four More Mystery Craters Found In Russia, Bright Flash of Light Witnessed Claims Underground Explosions

Dahboo77 | Feb 23, 2015

http://www.undergroundworldnews.com

Four new mysterious giant craters have appeared in the Siberian permafrost in northern Russia.
Scientists spotted the new holes, along with dozens of other smaller ones, in the same area as three other enormous craters that were spotted on the Yamal Peninsula last year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetec...

Drone film of Niagara Falls frozen over

SOTT | Feb 21, 2015

The ice encasing the Niagara Falls, which has drawn in visitors from all over, isn't expected to melt entirely until May. Drone footage captures this rare and beautiful occurrence.

Bad news for warmists: Sun has gone quiet - Weakest solar cycle in over 100 years

© spaceweather.com
Latest solar image with 
little sunspot activity

SOTT | Feb 17, 2015 | Paul Dorian

Discussion

Overview

The main driver of all weather and climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar system, the great ball of fire in the sky - has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. For the past 5 days, solar activity has been very low and one measure of solar activity - its X-ray output - has basically flatlined in recent days (plot below courtesy NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center). Not since cycle 14 peaked in February 1906 has there been a solar cycle with fewer sunspots. We are currently more than six years into Solar Cycle 24 and today the sun is virtually spotless despite the fact that we are still in what is considered to be its solar maximum phase. Solar cycle 24 began after an unusually deep solar minimum that lasted from 2007 to 2009 which included more spotless days on the sun compared to any minimum in almost a century.

© NOAA/SWPC
The flatlining of solar X-ray output in recent days

Solar maximum

There was an uptick in the number of sunspots in April 2014 which produced a second peak during solar cycle 24 and it is looking increasingly likely that this will be considered the solar maximum point for this particular cycle (figure below courtesy NASA). Many solar cycles are double peaked; however, this is the first one in which the second peak in sunspot number was larger than the first peak which occurred in February 2012. Going back to 1755, there have been only a few solar cycles in the previous 23 that have had a lower number of sunspots during its maximum phase.

© NASA
Sunspot numbers for solar cycles 23 and 24 (current) with second peak

Consequences of a weak solar cycle

First, the weak solar cycle has resulted in rather benign "space weather" in recent times with generally weaker-than-normal geomagnetic storms. By all Earth-based measures of geomagnetic and geoeffective solar activity, this cycle has been extremely quiet. However, while a weak solar cycle does suggest strong solar storms will occur less often than during stronger and more active cycles, it does not rule them out entirely. In fact, the famous Carrington Event of 1859 occurred during a weak solar cycle (#10). In addition, there is some evidence that most large events such as strong solar flares and significant geomagnetic storms tend to occur in the declining phase of the solar cycle. In other words, there is still a chance for significant solar activity in the months and years ahead.

Second, it is pretty well understood that solar activity has a direct impact on temperatures at very high altitudes in a part of the Earth's atmosphere called the thermosphere. This is the biggest layer of the Earth's atmosphere which lies directly above the mesosphere and below the exosphere. Thermospheric temperatures increase with altitude due to absorption of highly energetic solar radiation and are highly dependent on solar activity.

Finally, if history is a guide, it is safe to say that weak solar activity for a prolonged period of time can have a negative impact on global temperatures in the troposphere which is the bottom-most layer of Earth's atmosphere - and where we all live. There have been two notable historical periods with decades-long episodes of low solar activity. The first period is known as the "Maunder Minimum", named after the solar astronomer Edward Maunder, and it lasted from around 1645 to 1715. The second one is referred to as the "Dalton Minimum", named for the English meteorologist John Dalton, and it lasted from about 1790 to 1830. Both of these historical periods coincided with below-normal global temperatures in an era now referred to by many as the "Little Ice Age". In addition, research studies in just the past couple of decades have found a complicated relationship between solar activity, cosmic rays, and clouds on Earth. This research suggests that in times of low solar activity where solar winds are typically weak; more cosmic rays reach the Earth's atmosphere which, in turn, has been found to lead to an increase in certain types of clouds that can act to cool the Earth.

Outlook

The increasingly likely outcome for another historically weak solar cycle continues the recent downward trend in sunspot cycle strength that began over twenty years ago during solar cycle 22. If this trend continues for the next couple of cycles, then there would likely be more talk of another "grand minimum" for the sun. Some solar scientists are already predicting that the next solar cycle, #25, will be even weaker than this current one. However, it is just too early for high confidence in those predictions since some solar scientists believe that the best predictor of future solar cycle strength involves activity at the sun's poles during a solar minimum and the next solar minimum is still likely several years away.

Source: Vencore Weather

200 pilot whales stranded at Farewell Spit

Whales stranded on Farewell Spit in
January last year. Photo / Jo Richards

The New Zealand Herald | Feb 13, 2015 | John Weekes

More stranded pilot whales are expected to die as weather conditions and nightfall hamper efforts to save 174 pilot whales that ran into trouble today.

The whales were stranded on Farewell Spit at Golden Bay, near Nelson.

Andrew Lamason of the Department of Conservation (DoC) said up to 500 volunteers could be needed to help get the whales back in the water tomorrow.

Initial estimates of 30 stranded pilot whales rose today to 60, then 143, and finally 198.

Mr Lamason said of those, two dozen had died by 6.30pm and he expected that number to rise.

The Department was scaling down the rescue operation as night approached.

"We can't have people overnight in the water with whales. It's just far too dangerous," Mr Lamason said.

To have a good chance of survival, stranded whales needed overcast or rainy conditions, but Farewell Spit had experienced dry, sunny conditions today.

"It hasn't been a great day to be a stranded whale," Mr Lamason said. "This is a big stranding. It's a real challenge."

He said people had to brace themselves for the unpleasant possibility the pilot whales would have to be euthanised, but rescuers were a long way from giving up on the animals.

"We'll just keep on trying."

The high tide tomorrow evening just before dusk would be a good chance to refloat the stranded pod, he said.

He said most pilot whales in the pod, which included adults and juveniles, were probably closely related.

"It's like a hapu or a village," he said. "It's a whole mixed family group."

Mr Lamason said the geography of Golden Bay meant it was often the site of strandings.

"It's a big, shallow hook. Things come in, they get disoriented, and unfortunately we end up with a lot of dead whales."

Mr Lamason said local iwi would perform karakia on the dead pilot whales.

After that, the creatures would be tethered at mid-tide and nature would "take its course" as happened when three stranded sperm whales were towed to another part of Farewell Spit to decay away from the public in November.

Darren Grover, Project Jonah general manager, was this evening arriving at the site of the stranding.

"We'll be mobilising our supporters from the South Island and ...hopefully from the Wellington region as well."

The whales were about 5-6km east of Triangle Flat at the Spit's western end.

The cause of strandings remained a mystery.

DoC said it was plausible pilot whales' echo-location was not well-suited to shallow, gently sloping waters as they usually preferred steep areas such as continental shelf edges.

"Another theory points to pilot whales' highly sociable behaviour - when one whale loses its way and strands, its pod mates may swim to its aid," the Department said on its website.

Pilot whales are oceanic dolphins and include two species -- long-finned and short-finned.

Mr Lamason said people who wanted to help the pilot whales should arrive at Triangle Flat from 8am to 3pm tomorrow.

He said people should bring wet weather gear, sunscreen, food and water. DoC was installing portable toilets at Triangle Flat.

Colima Volcano - Daytime and Nighttime eruptions, overflight of crater

Photovolcanica | Feb 11, 2015

Colima volcano can be considered one of the potentially most devastating volcanoes on earth. Repeatedly, within about 5000 year cycles, the volcano has built a new edifice and then collapsed again, devastating large swathes of surrounding landscape. Today around 400000 people live in the areas that may be affected.

The volcano is presently in a state of heightened activity, marked by frequent small to moderate explosive events.

The video includes timelapse animations from nighttime eruptions, spectacular still images, daytime eruptions and video from a volcano monitoring flight.


For more information see:
http://www.photovolcanica.com/Volcano...

Planet Phenomena: Shockwaves, High Winds, Cosmic Traffic, Electromagnetic Universe [Video]

Lightning inside a storm
© Courtesy SOTT Summary

SOTT | Feb 8, 2015

The following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during January 2015 - 'earth changes', extreme weather, meteor fireballs, and planetary upheaval.

Phenomenal amounts of snow were dumped in the Northeastern and Southern US, Western and Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, Western China, and Far Eastern Russia. Saudi Arabia and the Southwestern US desert were hit with snow for the third year running. The US media has apparently dropped the term 'Polar Vortex' because Arctic conditions extending all the way to the Gulf of Mexico is now 'normal'. The one place where you might expect a lot of snow this time of year - Moscow - instead enjoyed its warmest January in 100 years.

© Courtesy SOTT Summary

The Great Lakes in North America aren't as frozen over as they were this time last year, but those 'ice boulders' returned to Michigan in January, and the Niagara Falls have again partially frozen. Up to half a million people were affected by the worst flooding Southeastern Africa has seen for decades. The Balkans were flooded for the 5th time in 20 months, and barely two months on from receiving 70cm of rain in one day, Sicily was hit with a similar quantity of hail. Among the spectacular meteor fireball sightings in January were a comet fragment breaking apart over the Russian Far East, and a fireball that turned night into day in Bucharest, Romania.

'Mystery booms' continue to freak people (and animals) out across the US. We suspect that some of them are shockwaves from overhead meteor explosions, but others occur in clusters and are picked up by seismometers (despite there being no known fault-lines), so we are probably looking at general and unusual seismic activity resulting from the slow-down in the planet's rotation. This would also be responsible for all these volcanic eruptions, of which there were more spectacular ones in January. 'Earth opening up' also saw sinkholes swallow moving cars in Florida and Maryland.


As you watch this video summary of events in January, keep in mind that we had to leave out so many other unusual events because they're now part of 'the new normal'!

If you like this video, please share!

Send us your photos and videos to sott@sott.net

[...]

Industry Waste: Unknown grey goo kills over 200 San Francisco Bay birds, officials stumped

A bird is cleaned at the International Bird
Rescue in Fairfield, California January 20, 2015.
(Reuters/Robert Galbraith)

RT | Jan 22, 2015

California officials are unable to identify a grey, goo-like substance that has been found coating the feathers of hundreds of birds. More than 200 seabirds have been found dead along the coast, while more than 300 have been rescued so far.

The strange, gooey substance degrades the water-repellent properties in the birds’ feathers, causing hypothermia from extended stays in the water.

The seabirds – Surf Scoters, Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, and Horned Grebes – have been turning up dead or in need of rescue along 20 miles of coastline in the San Francisco Bay area over the past week. If they react quickly, rescuers can treat the birds for hypothermia and then wash off the goo with baking soda, vinegar and a chemical agent, then soap and water. Others are not so fortunate.

“The birds tend to come into care needing hydration and medical stabilization, and we have a mandatory 24-hour stabilization process before cleaning,” spokeswoman Barbara Callahan of International Bird Rescue told CNN.

Officials know the gooey substance is not oil because it would be far harder to treat, and officials think whatever the substance is, it was probably dumped.

“It’s some material that we nor the wildlife center has ever seen before,” Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a real mystery.”

Hughan said the material is not a public health hazard; the birds died because they froze to death from loss of body heat – not because they were poisoned.

“The birds tend to come into care needing hydration and medical stabilization, and we have a mandatory 24-hour stabilization process before cleaning,” spokeswoman Barbara Callahan of International Bird Rescue told CNN.

Officials know the gooey substance is not oil because it would be far harder to treat, and officials think whatever the substance is, it was probably dumped.

“It’s some material that we nor the wildlife center has ever seen before,” Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a real mystery.”

Workers at International Bird Rescue have spent the week cleaning and reviving the birds affected.

“Just like if it were an oil spill, it degrades their waterproofing,” Callahan told AP. “They’re all seabirds; they live on top of the water all year long. So as soon as they find that their waterproofing has been breached, they put themselves on the beach.”

She said the rescue effort has cost the center some $8,000 a day.

“Nobody’s paying because they don’t know what it is and they don’t have a responsible party. We’re footing the bill on our own,” Callahan said.

There have been no reports or evidence of an oil spill. Tests are being conducted to try to identify what the substance is and where it might have come from.

Initial thoughts were that the substance might be similar to the synthetic rubber fuel additive polyisobutylene (PBI), which was found to have led to the deaths of 4,000 seabirds in England in 2013. But officials said tests have ruled PBI out.

12/30/2014 -- Iceland's Bardarbunga volcanic eruption covers 35sq miles in lava

Dutchsinse | Dec 30, 2014

The ongoing large volcanic eruption at Bardarbunga Holuhran fissure, has now covered over 35 square miles in fresh lava.

(had to image stabilize this video due to hand camera shake from the person holding the camera inside the helicopter - as it is not an outside mounted cam )

This newest flyover (from December 24, 2014) shows the rift as still being majorly active.

Large volumes of lava are being forced to the surface via a split which occurred on the flank of the Bardarbunga volcanic complex.

The fissure has spread over the past few months.

The reason the crack at the surface has spread, is due to the movement of the magma chamber deep below. Also, the entire area is confirmed to have SUBSIDED (collapsed) by over 120feet. As the magma chamber is moving it is also collapsing due to loss of magma in the chamber below.

This subsidence could reach a critical mass, in which case the ground above will collapse below into the chamber (depending on the depth of the magma chamber below , this could be quite an issue in the future).

More information here , as well as multiple videos of the caldera:

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-vo...

French Alps hit by massive snowfall, thousands of cars stranded (PHOTOS)

A car is stuck in the snow on December 27, 2014
on the road to Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie,
central-eastern France. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)

RT | Dec 28, 2014

Massive snowfall, aggravated by strong winds and ice in the French Alps, has trapped thousands of holidaymakers, with up to 15,000 people forced to spend Saturday night in emergency accommodation centers in the Savoie region in southeastern France.

Conditions remained difficult on Sunday, a spokesman for the Savoie prefecture said. Authorities set up shelters in a dozen towns for stranded tourists in the area.

The chaos on Saturday left nearly 2,000 passengers stranded at Chambery airport in southeastern France. A spokesman for the Savoy region, which comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps between Lake Geneva in the north and Dauphiné in the south, said: "We have not estimated the number of people who spent the [Saturday] night in their cars."

According to the prefecture, a number of travelers were taken care of in emergency shelters that became almost 100 percent full. "There were 83 shelters open," Transport Minister Alain Vidal said on Sunday on Europe 1.

Snow fall as vehicles move bumper-to-bumper along the motorway near Albertville, on December 27, 2014 as they make their way into the Tarentaise valley in the heart of the French Alps, home to many of the famous French ski resorts. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)

Neighboring departments, Hautes-Alpes and Haute-Savoie, also opened several hundred beds in Gap, Briançon, Annecy and Cluses under emergency accommodation plans over Saturday and Sunday nights, Le Dauphiné Libéré reported.

Early Saturday morning, the traffic along the Tarentaise Valley, a key path into a number of popular resorts, was disrupted.

People walk at the Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie, central-eastern France, as snow falls on December 27, 2014. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)

Thousands of cars were blocked because of the terrible weather. "We just made 130 km in 10 hours," Kevin Clavel told told Le Dauphiné Libéré, as he was stuck in his vehicle with four other passengers on A410 highway between Albertville and Chambery.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Secretary of State for Transport Alain Vidal praised "the coolness and sense of responsibility" of drivers, asking all those, who still can, to postpone their trips and to exercise "the utmost caution."

 

People put snow chains on their tires as snow falls on December 27, 2014 on the road to the Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie, central-eastern France. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)

"Getting to the ski stations is still pretty tricky and snow chains are mandatory. The advice is that all those who can should delay their journey," the Transport Ministry also said in a statement.

Due to heavy snow and significant wind gusts, 19 departments were placed on the country's second-highest "orange alert" in northeast France and the Northern Alps on Saturday.

In northern France, wind gusting at nearly 160 km/h led to the closure of the port of Calais, interrupting ferries to England, and traffic restrictions on the A16 motorway along the coast. In Ile-de-France, the gardens of the Château de Versailles also had to be closed to the public because of the high wind, Le Monde reported.

A man uses a snow plow to clean the road as vehicles drive past on December 27, 2014 on the road to the Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie, central-eastern France. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)

Heavy snow and ice caused the greatest disruption in the east of the country. At midday on Saturday, a 27-year-old man was found dead in his car after his vehicle slid into a gorge in the Belledonne mountain range in the Isère region. The accident was "probably due to snow," the police said. The car did not have snow tires, Le Figaro reported. A female passenger in the car was slightly wounded and taken to hospital in Grenoble.

Poverty and Fear Still Rankle, Ten Years After the Tsunami

Common Dreams | Dec 26, 2014 | Amantha Perera, Inter Press Service

Men walk past destroyed buildings in the
Hambantota town in southern Sri Lanka.
Reconstruction in this town subsequently
moved at a rapid pace.
(Photo: Amantha Perera/IPS)

It took just 30 minutes for the killer waves to leave 350,000 dead and half a million displaced. Less than one hour for 100,000 houses to be destroyed and 200,000 people to be stripped of their livelihoods.

For many thousands of people in South Asia, the Christmas holidays will always double as a memorial for those who suffered tragic losses during the 2004 tsunami, which rushed ashore on Dec. 26 leaving a trail of tears in its wake.

The island nation of Sri Lanka was one of the worst hit, with three percent of its population affected and five percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) lost in damages.

According to the Disaster Management Center (DMC), over a million people, mainly poor families from the coastal areas, had to be evacuated.

The Northern and Eastern provinces – already struggling in the grip of the protracted civil conflict that at the time was showing no signs of abating – bore the lion’s share of the destruction.

Weary from years of war, the population caught up in the fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were battered further by the waves: according to government data, 60 percent of the tsunami’s impact was concentrated on the northern and eastern coasts.

Read more..

‘Strip of ruins’: Witness to 2004 Indian ocean tsunami & aftermath

An aerial shot taken from a helicopter shows debris of
houses destroyed by tsunamis in the Galle district in the
southwestern coast of Sri Lanka,
27 December 2004.(AFP Photo / Jimin LAI)

RT | Dec 26, 2014

The scenes after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami presented a “surrealistic picture” of ruins alone the devastated seashore, recalls a witness to perhaps the biggest natural catastrophe of the 21st century, 10 years ago today.

“It was a surealistic picture. We saw an entire strip of ruins along the seashore. We had an impression that we are moving along a dump of construction waste. This dump stretched out for dozens of kilometers,” Sam Klebanov, a Russian film industry professional, told RT.

Sam Klebanov, a Russian film industry professional (Photo by Sam Klebanov)

Klebanov found himself in the epicenter of one of the biggest disasters when he arrived in Sri Lanka on December 26. However, he didn’t evacuate, but decided to organize help for those affected by tsunami.

Aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami ((Photo by Sam Klebanov)

At first, he and his friends bought water and necessary aid at their own expense, and then they managed to raise about $55,000 via the internet.

“Nobody knew if it was safe for us [to travel] along the devastated areas. We heard that the first humanitarian convoys didn’t reach their destinations and were robbed on their way,” he said.

Klebanov asked British High Commission in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, for security assistance. They were escorted by four British servicemen. However, during their mission no one attacked them or their trucks.

The convoy made it some 120km along the devastated coast. Klebanov said they saw only one official aid station for those who survived the tsunami, adding that neither UN, nor Red Cross were working in the first days after the disaster.

Aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (Photo by Sam Klebanov)

“People were burning the tires. They thought that by this they may scare away the infections. Everything was in smoke, in the darkness we saw lost figures of people on the ruins,” recalls Klebanov.

He spent about a month in the devastated areas and managed to help dozens of people who lost everything because of disaster, the region’s most powerful in 40 years.

Aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (Photo by Sam Klebanov)

“People were burning the tires. They thought that by this they may scare away the infections. Everything was in smoke, in the darkness we saw lost figures of people on the ruins,” recalls Klebanov.

He spent about a month in the devastated areas and managed to help dozens of people who lost everything because of disaster, the region’s most powerful in 40 years.

Aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (Photo by Sam Klebanov)

First of all they were delivering water, but later, when the Red Cross took over management of the water supply in the affected areas, Kebanov and his friends decided to bring clothes and toys.

“[The victims’] houses were all swept away. [The kids] didn’t have any toys… We had a touching moment when in one camp we arranged the distribution of toys. It was wonderful,” he recalls with a smile.

Aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (Photo by Sam Klebanov)

 The tsunami was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake the morning after Christmas, on December 26. A 17-meter-high wave crashed over dozens of countries, including Indonesia, Sri-Lanka, India and Thailand, wiping away entire coastal communities.

Aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (Photo by Sam Klebanov)

 At least 227,898 of people were confirmed dead and thousands remain missing. The survivors saw a dreadful picture of corpse-filled waters in the days after the tragedy. Indonesia’s Aceh province alone saw a death toll of about 168,000 people.

Apart from a large number of local residents killed in the disaster, there were about 9,000 foreign tourists (mostly Europeans) dead or missing.

Fukushima and the institutional invisibility of nuclear disaster

Black smoke at Fukushima
Daichi, 24th March 2011.
Photo: deedavee easyflow via Flickr.

The Ecologist | Dec 20, 2014 | John Downer

Speaking at press conference soon after the accident began, the UK government's former chief science advisor, Sir David King, reassured journalists that the natural disaster that precipitated the failure had been "an extremely unlikely event".

In doing so, he exemplified the many early accounts of Fukushima that emphasised the improbable nature of the earthquake and tsunami that precipitated it.

A range of professional bodies made analogous claims around this time, with journalists following their lead. This lamentation, by a consultant writing in the New American, is illustrative of the general tone:

" ... the Fukushima 'disaster' will become the rallying cry against nuclear power. Few will remember that the plant stayed generally intact despite being hit by an earthquake with more than six times the energy the plant was designed to withstand, plus a tsunami estimated at 49 feet that swept away backup generators 33 feet above sea level."

The explicit or implicit argument in all such accounts is that the Fukushima's proximate causes are so rare as to be almost irrelevant to nuclear plants in the future. Nuclear power is safe, they suggest, except against the specific kind of natural disaster that struck Japan, which is both a specifically Japanese problem, and one that is unlikely to re-occur, anywhere, in any realistic timeframe.

An appealing but tenuous logic

The logic of this is tenuous on various levels. The 'improbability' of the natural disaster is disputable, for one, as there were good reasons to believe that neither the earthquake nor the tsunami should have been surprising. The area was well known to be seismically active after all, and the quake, when it came, was only the fourth largest of the last century.

Read more..

Rosetta Mission Update | Oops! No Water on Comet 67P?

Thunderbolts Project | Dec 18, 2014

The comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will be in the news for several months. And it has the potential to spark extensive controversy.  Issues could range from electric fields in space, to solar system history and the history of earth itself.

See Segment 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UliV...

Executive Producer: Gerald Simonson
Script and Narration: David Talbott
Chief Science Advisor: Wal Thornhill
Animation and Editing: Brian Talbott
Executive Assistant: Susan Schirott
Music: Softsound (Nancy Holt)

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Stormy Planet: Signs of Change December 2014

HawkkeyDavisChannel | Dec 17, 2014

#10 in series of documenting extreme weather events...

Most dangerous 5 days of snow and storms in 100 years, warns astrophysicist

© Daily Mail

Ice Age Now | Dec 9, 2014

Damaging storms, extreme cold and blizzards for UK

Tuesday, 9 Dec 2014 – “This is the weather peril warning that the BBC REFUSED to release at the end of November,” says Piers Corbyn, astrophysicist and chief forecaster for WeatherAction. “The Met Office B+I Winter Forecast is “Foolish babble from deluded charlatans and should be ignored absolutely.”

“The massive storm now heading for Britain and Ireland 9/10th bringing blizzard conditions for most parts and damaging gales or storms in all parts is essentially our top active period 5-8th extended a day or two.

This will then develop to set up the more Northerly VERY SEVERE SNOW AND BLIZZARD BLAST WITH EXTREME COLD AND GALES from Friday 12th to Tue 16th .  This was always forecast by WeatherAction (from 100days ahead with detail 27 days ahead).

“This will probably be the most extreme 5 days of snow blizzards and gales in Britain and Ireland for 100 years, even more severe than the worst events of December 2010 (which were also correctly forecast by WeatherAction).

“We are releasing this free to the public because of the serious danger.  We offered the BBC the chance to issue this free at the end of November but they refused – preferring to believe the Met Office mild December forecast which we told them would be wrong.

“THIS IS NOT THE END OF EXTREME WEATHER THIS DECEMBER OR WINTER.

On Dec 1, Piers also issued the following forecast for the United States:

• 5-8th Ferocious Nor-Easter with sticky snow blizzards in E/NE. (Looks like he was correct.)

• 9-11th Severe cold with ice storms likely Great Lakes, Midwest / N/NE.

• Xmas period very cold & snowy East Great Lakes & Northeast; much milder in central and South parts

• Mini-Ice-Age circulation in USA & world
• The changes in circulation giving these often extreme weather patterns will be driven by changes in the Solar-Lunar factors which govern the behavior of the Jet stream and are predictable by WeatherAction’s revolutionary Solar-Lunar-Action-Technique (SLAT11) months ahead and nothing to do with CO2 changes under the failed ‘CO2-Climate Change’ ‘theory’.

See Piers’ entire December forecast for the U.S.
http://www.weatheraction.com/resource/data/wact1/docs/USA1412DEC30dprod10-40dSLAT11circ30N ov.pdf

Thanks to Piers Corbyn and Argiris Diamantis for this link