How to Run Your Car Using Water

delvis11 | May 24, 2009

For more information please visit http://www.greenfuelh2o.com

Opportunity Epidemic: The Silent War On Trees (Redux)

gail zawacki | Feb 20, 2015

Ozone is invisible but highly toxic air pollution. As the background level increases, trees that absorb it are poisoned and become more susceptible to insects, disease and fungus. Epidemic attacks are causing forests to decline around the world.


More info at WarOnTrees.blogspot.com

New Study Reveals the Many Benefits of Urban Rooftop Gardens

Natural Blaze | Feb 17, 2015 | Robin Powell

In summary:

- Growing vegetables and herbs on the roof of a private or commercial building offers many advantages, including reducing stormwater run-off and helping to cool the building.

- A report prepared by a UTS academic for City of Sydney council sets out best-practice guidelines for food production on rooftops.

What if the greens you need for tonight's dinner were grown on the roof of the office where you work? From a cook's perspective this is a dream – fresh produce and no time wasted on shopping. And the advantages of urban farming extend way beyond the wellbeing of the time-poor consumer. Produce farmed on urban rooftops also contributes to reducing the heat island effect of cities, lowering summer temperatures and minimising the carbon footprint of food.

Rooftop vegetable gardens increase urban biodiversity; decrease stormwater run-off; offer psychological benefits to those involved with the garden and with fellow gardeners; and can even protect and extend the lifetime of the roof.

Interest in green roofs is growing like dandelions in spring: the City of Sydney reports an average of one development application a week for a green roof or wall. Already, 100,000 square metres is given over to green roofs across the city, and  Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the City is doing all it can "to introduce more of these features into our urban landscape".

Yet few are food producing. Sydney's environmental conditions suggest an urban harvest could contribute significantly to food production. The city of Toronto, for instance, which is under snow for three or four months of the year, estimates that 10 per cent of its fresh food could be grown within the city limits.

Research by Dr Sara Wilkinson, Associate Professor in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), aims to fill the evidence gap on urban farming in Sydney. Her study, funded by the City of Sydney, addresses the barriers and provides evidence for best practice in rooftop food production.

The final report was delivered to council late last year. User-friendly guides developed from Dr Wilkinson's findings are being drafted for the council website.

Dr Wilkinson stresses that the goal of urban farming is not self-sufficiency but to contribute to food production and derive the other benefits of green roofs.

"On food security, food miles, social and psychological concerns, environmental action, it ticks so many boxes to grow food locally," she says.

The first step in her study was to identify appropriate sites for the test gardens. "Factors like access, water and power have to be considered," she says, "and then there is the attitude of building managers."

Her expertise is in building adaptation rather than horticulture so she has the background to understand building management concerns. To alleviate these she is developing a template for a rooftop farming licence agreement that will set out the terms, roles and responsibilities of all parties involved in rooftop food production.

The UTS study compared three types of gardens on the roof of three campus buildings. Vegetables and herbs were grown in a raised bed, a vertical garden and a wicking bed.

(A wicking bed waters plants from below through a capillary action that draws water from a reservoir in the base of the container. The soil is separated from the water by a layer of geotextile fabric, and the plant roots take up moisture as needed. The reservoir means that watering – the most labour-intensive aspect of container-gardening – is reduced from every second day to about once a week.)

Of the three types, the wicking bed proved the most efficient. It was the cheapest to establish ($412 plus labour), required the least water, produced the largest harvests, was easiest to transport, assemble and to garden.

The beds were planted with eggplant, zucchini, basil, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, chilli, capsicum, silver beet, celery, rocket, mizuna and marigolds. Soil toxicologists studied the produce before it was harvested for consumption, to allay concerns about pollution from the busy Broadway traffic several floors down or from other sources such as water or soil.

Initially, traces of lead were found, but after one crop, as the garden established itself, naturally occurring micro-organisms in the soil absorbed the lead in a process known as bio-remediation. Subsequent tests showed the produce was clear of contaminants.

Of the produce grown the silver beet gave the best results for the least time and effort.

The next stage of Dr Wilkinson's research is to apply the findings in the corporate and commercial sector. She is in discussions to introduce food production to the rooftops of commercial buildings in Sydney's central business district. Though it's not here yet, the future may offer salad and sides from the rooftop of your workplace or apartment block.

Findings from Dr Wilkinson's research will be part of a book, Building Resilience in Urban Settlements: Green Roof Retrofit, to be published by Wiley Blackwell next year.

Source: University of Technology, Sydney

How learning artistic skills alters the brain

SOTT | Feb 12, 2015 | Tom Jacobs

New research finds neural changes not only reflecting increased technical capacities, but also enhanced creativity.

© Miramax Films
John Cusack (left) in Bullets Over Broadway.

Are artists born, or made? At the end of Woody Allen's great comedy Bullets Over Broadway, the John Cusack character concludes that, in spite of his desire and effort, he will never be a creative genius. He simply does not have the gift.

But is his reluctant assumption that artistry is encoded in one's genes, or perhaps one's soul, really true? A recently published paper suggests otherwise.

"Creativity is another concept that is often thought of as something we are either born with or will never have," says Dartmouth College psychologist Alexander Schlegel, lead author of a paper published in the journal NeuroImage. "Our data clearly refute this notion."

Schlegel and his colleagues report that taking an introductory class in painting or drawing literally alters students' brains. What's more, these training-induced changes didn't only improve the fine motor control needed for sophisticated sketching; they also boosted the students' creative thinking.

Start doing the work, and the brain responds, allowing one to build and retain not just technical knowledge, but also the imaginative capacity needed to utilize it fully.

Their study featured 35 college undergraduates, 17 of whom took a three-month introductory course in observational drawing or painting. All underwent monthly brain scans using fMRI technology.

At the beginning and end of the study, all participants completed a standard test of creative thinking, which measures such factors as fluency, originality, and the creative use of imagery and language.

During each of the monthly sessions, their brains were scanned under two conditions: as they "judged properties of illusory visual stimuli," a test designed to track the development of their perceptual abilities; and as they made "quick, 30-second gesture drawings based on observations of human figures."

"We did not find any improvements in the art students' purely perceptual skills or related brain activity relative to a control group of students who did not study art," the researchers write. "We did, however, find that the art students improved in the ability to quickly translate observations of human figures into gesture drawings, and that fine-grained patterns of drawing-related neural activity in the cerebellum and cerebral cortex increasingly differentiated the art students from the control group over the course of the study."

In other words, the researchers were able to watch as the brain adapted to learning new skills. But more importantly, they also observed changes in their prefrontal white matter that corresponded to an increase in their ability to think creatively.

The art students specifically increased "their ability to think divergently, model systems and processes, and use imagery," the researchers write. The results suggests that, in a matter of a few months, "prefrontal white matter reorganizes as (art students) become more able to think creatively."

So here is still more evidence of the plasticity of the brain, and its ability to adapt to new habits, new skills, and new information. Start doing the work, and the brain responds, allowing one to build and retain not just technical knowledge, but also the imaginative capacity needed to utilize it fully.

"Maybe there are gene variants that give individuals a proclivity toward art (e.g. make them more open to new ideas or more prone to make connections or see patterns), but that is a long way from saying they were born an artist and that those without such gene variants are doomed to being uncreative," Schlegel concludes. "It also propagates the strange myth of the artist as a special class of human. I hope our study will help to debunk the notion that there are "artists" and "the rest of us."

Source: Pacific Standard

Ideas on How to Build a Composting Toilet

© R. Mark Sink

Ideas on How to Build a Composting Toilet 

By R. Mark Sink

In these times, having an alternative emergency toilet is not a bad idea, especially with the ever increasing unstable nature of both the planned obsolescence of building methods, and our uncertain future brought on by our normalcy biases that everything is just fine.

Wood How To presents the idea of a stand-alone portable unit capable of receiving a standard 5 gallon bucket along with a standard toilet seat from Kohler© (sells for $20). The factory seat has a self-closing mechanism and is easy to clean.

Composting requires various mediums where some can be purchased locally. A mixture of saw dust (60%), and peat moss (40%), provides a good starting medium that can be transferred for additional mediums. There is mention of hemp stalks also as another medium, although, there might be a plethora of possible mediums available to further the processes and make use in soil restoration.

To learn more about composting this type of material, watch this video. Although you may use this methodology inside your bucket to some extent making the transfers into your own composting area that you have created more frequent. A consideration for additional compost material such as chicken manure can be combined for the ultimate garden soil once organisms have reduced the compost into a suitable growing medium.

© R. Mark Sink

Building Your Compost Toilet

In the U.S. a 5 gallon bucket (18.9 liters) range in height from 14" (35.5cm) up to 15" (38.1cm), be sure and check the height of your bucket so that it will fit into the cabinet you build. This particular cabinet is 19 inches tall. (48.26cm) The seat is slightly higher yet, so a consideration for use can be tested, and also consider who will be using the compost toilet when needed.

In my project, and leading up to this idea, I had experienced some plumbing issues, and found that having the off-the-grid unit around the house would be a major benefit. It would also get me thinking more about soil restoration and building instead of the never-ending mowing the yard which burns and wastes energy.

Unfortunately, our world is designed around wasting energy instead of utilizing the yard for much more productive means.

Underneath the factory seat there are ridge plates surrounding the oval shape that are intended to rest upon the bowl ring of standard toilets. Make sure you cut your hole in the cabinet top in parallel range of these ridges, about 1 1/2 inches (3.81cm) larger in diameter than the actual factory hole in the seat. You may want to also check the actual brand of seat you purchase for your unit. Drill two holes where the seat fastens in the back which seem to be a standard 5 1/5 on center to center (13.97cm).

Arrange the seat so that the bucket underneath can be slide into place easily with the seat not to far from the front edge, to make the seat easier to access. You may also want to allow for the lid to be on the bucket when installed or removed.

© R. Mark Sink

This cabinet is 20 1/2 inches deep (52.07cm), 19 1/2 inches wide (49.53cm), and also has a back that stands at 29" (73.66cm) tall. Legs were added along with the scrap material (this means it was extra, or left over from other work) used mostly of (1/2 inch (1.27cm) cherry plywood, solid cherry, and solid mahogany scappings.

The back was added because the seat is a bit delicate in that regard, the seat could be damaged by swinging back to far or by accident, so a back was created as support. To make use of the compost toilet, one certainly does not need to build a throne, these materials also could be just about anything that is workable to get the job done.

Assuming that our systems are not outdated in the middle of horrible economic burdens now present and covered over by the media, being prepared for the unexpected has its values, especially with all the uncertainties abound, such as electric failure, which drives the water pump to allow flushing to occur.

The power in Florida goes out several times each year like clockwork, and this is expected to continue. There is also the issue of water availability that with a little research, one immediately learns that our water supplies are in serious trouble in the days ahead, as these sources are continually being degraded.

REFERENCES:

The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure, Third Edition

Prepper's Long-Term Survival Guide: Food, Shelter, Security, Off-the-Grid Power and More Life-Saving Strategies for Self-Sufficient Living

The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality

Leaked Star Wars Episode VII Filmset Footage!

Frank Wunderlich | Jul 2, 2014

Looks like the Story of Star Wars plays on Earth too in the next Episode. I took these pictures on my Flight back from the States to Germany at the Frankfurt Airport. Seems like the biggest german airport plays a key role as an imperial starport in the new episode -- there have just been imperial forces at the scene.


H/T RT

Looking for safe cookware? Try cast iron

© Courtesy Natural News

Natural News | Nov 22, 2014 | Jonathan Benson

With so many different types of cookware on the market today, making the best and safest choices for our families can be a challenge. But tried-and-true cast iron is still among the most durable and non-toxic types of cookware available -- and if you know how to use it properly, it can be just as easy to use and clean as the much more convenient but chemical-laden varieties branded as "non-stick."

Cast iron is about as classic as it gets when it comes to durable cookware. And if properly cared for, it can last a lifetime and be passed down from generation to generation. But a common complaint is that food tends to stick to pure cast iron since it hasn't been layered with Teflon or other non-stick surfaces, which often contain perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, that release noxious fumes into the air and leach toxic substances into food.

Stainless steel cookware is one safer option, but if scratched it, too, can leach nickel and other undesired substances into food. For pots and pans, stainless steel is still an excellent choice, as is copper, but when it comes to frying pans and griddles, cast iron is probably your best bet, and here's why.

Cast iron gets better over time 

On his blog, permaculture aficionado Paul Wheaton explains how to select quality cast iron cookware, how to properly care for it, and how to make it not only last but thrive. Unlike most other types of cookware, cast iron actually gets better over time when it is regularly scraped and seasoned. Individuals with anemia or iron deficiencies can also benefit from the iron found in cast iron.

According to Wheaton, the best types of cast iron are older pieces found at garage sales and online trading sites like Craigslist and eBay. Many older cast iron pieces were machine surfaced to be smooth, as opposed to the rough surfaces found on newer cast iron cookware. Older skillets have also typically been seasoned over many years of use, meaning they have already been "broken in."

"Many of the experienced cast iron folk [recommend] buying a heavily used skillet," he wrote. But if a new skillet is your only option, he recommends using a stainless steel spatula with a flat edge to "take the 'peaks' off as the 'valleys' fill with 'seasoning.'"

More on this is available here:  RichSoil.com.

Bacon grease, palm oil excellent for seasoning cast iron cookware 

Properly "seasoning" a cast iron skillet involves allowing natural cooking oils to permeate the cooking surface without washing them off after each use. This process is unique to cast iron, and it allows a smooth polymerized fat surface to form, making the cooking surface slick and easier to clean.

In Wheaton's experience, saturated fats like bacon grease and "organic shortening" (palm oil) that remain solid at room temperature tend to work best at creating the ideal cast iron cooking surface (though we don't recommend pal oil for anything). Hydrogenated oils are toxic and should thus be avoided, and mono- and polyunsaturated fats tend to leave the cooking surface sticky.

Seasoning cast iron with saturated fats also helps protect the surface against rust, which can form when pans aren't properly dried after use. Wheaton recommends heating cast iron pans on the stovetop to remove excess water, as towel drying typically won't get it dry enough. If rust, pitting, or caked-on gunk is already present, Wheaton advises using the self-cleaning option on your oven to literally bake off the crud.

You can learn more about that here:

RichSoil.com.

Sources:

http://www.ewg.org

http://www.richsoil.com

http://www.thekitchn.com

Crafting offers meditation-like benefits

© culturbia.net

SOTT | Nov 6, 2014 | Dr. Mercola

More than half of US households craft at least once a year,1 but for some it becomes a daily pastime. If you're an avid crafter - knitting, quilting, scrapbooking, etc. - you've probably lost yourself in a project on more than one occasion.

This tendency to become so absorbed in your craft that you're able to forget about your worries, obligations, and even physical pains is called "flow" - and it's a key reason why crafting may be phenomenal for your mental and emotional health.

Getting Creative Boosts Brain Health, Happiness

Crafts such as knitting and crocheting are no longer viewed as a pastime for the elderly. In fact, they're popular among all age groups, from 18 year olds to those over 65.

People in their 20s and 30s are actually taking up knitting in droves, and not because there's a shortage of baby blankets and hats. The number one reason why people are drawn to this hobby, according to a survey by the Craft Yarn Council, is because it's a wonderful creative outlet.²

Creating is beneficial for a number of reasons, one being that it allows you to become fully immersed in the moment to the extent that your worries fade away. This "flow," according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the secret to happiness. As he stated during a TED talk:³

"When we are involved in (creativity), we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life... You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger."

Not to mention, crafting likely offers many of the same health benefits to your brain that have been associated with brain games and crossword puzzles, which are known to boost memory and cognitive function.

Read more..

In 24 Hours We Lose 80,000 Acres Of Rainforest – This Invention Could Help Change That

Collective Evolution | Oct 12, 2014 | Joe Martino

New innovative ideas to help improve the dire situation we face when it comes to our climate and ecosystem are coming from all areas. Whether it be large scale systems and infrastructures or smaller ideas like the new invention below (Hydria Pot,) no idea is too small and all are very important.

With our climate changing and rainfall becoming inconsistent, potentially worsening over the coming years, coming up with outdoor solutions to create and support new vegetation in forests, and rainforests is a priority.

We are destroying our forests and rainforests at a rate that is astonishing. Over 80,000 acres a day are cut and another 80,000 are degraded. We need to not only stop this issue but work to begin replacing these lost trees.[1] The Hydria Pot could help with that. One of the greatest contributors of rainforest degradation is actually something that touches most of us. Find out here. 

During the early stages of a newly planted tree, getting the support it needs to grow can sometimes be tough. A new invention and concept called The Hydria Pot looks to remove that challenge. The Hydria Pot is an innovative solution that attempts to mimmick nature.

 Read more..

Monster mountain discovered lurking in depths of Pacific Ocean

RT | Sep 7, 2014

Credit: University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center.

Scientists have uncovered a giant mountain in the Pacific Ocean, with the summit of the seamount rising 1,100 meters from the 5,100-meter-deep ocean floor. The discovery was made around 2,600 kilometers south of Hawaii.

It was uncovered in mid-August by a research team, which was led by NOAA and University of New Hampshire scientist, James Gardner. The team was aiming to try and map the outer limits of the US continental shelf.

Gardner was surveying one of least known parts of the central Pacific Ocean, which was around 300 kilometers south east of uninhabited Jarvis Island. However, the seamount, which has yet to be named, appeared “out of the blue.”

Three-dimensional view of the southwest side of the seamount with 23-degree slopes (University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center)

“These seamounts are very common, but we don’t know about them because most of the places that we go out and map have never been mapped before,” the researcher said in a press release on September 2.

Since only low-resolution satellite data exists for most of the Earth’s seafloor, many seamounts of this size do not show up on satellite. However, advanced multibeam echosounder missions like this one can resolve them.

“Satellites just can’t see these features and we can,” Gardner added.

For now it isn’t known whether the seamount could have any human use. It is too deep (its summit lies nearly 4,000 meters beneath the surface of the ocean) to be a navigation hazard or to provide rich fisheries.

“It’s probably 100 million years old,” Gardner says, “and it might have something in it we may be interested in 100 years from now.”

Seamounts are formed due to volcanic activity and are normally found near plate boundaries. However, they can also be located in the middle of plates where there are particular hot spot areas.

While Mount Everest may hold the record for the highest elevation on land, the tallest mountain in the world is actually a seamount. Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano, is 10,200 meters tall when measured from base to peak; Everest is 8,850 meters. Only 4,000 meters of Mauna Kea is above sea level.

Credit: University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center.

Did You Know: California Legalized Selling Food Made From Home & 1001 Local Businesses Sprung Up

© Natural Society

Natural Society | Aug 27, 2014 | Christina Sarich

Imagine growing your own heirloom, non-GMO tomatoes and then brewing up a batch of pasta sauce that would make Pavarotti sing from his grave. Or, an angel food cake from a recipe your great, great grandmother passed down to you that makes everyone’s mouth water, full of fresh, free-range, organic eggs from chickens roosting in your backyard. Now, imagine being able to sell these confections to the locals in your own town without being regulated, taxed, and FDA’d to death. California has made this possible for thousands in their state in January 2013, all because they legalized selling food made at home.

In a time when food sovereignty is threatened and Monsanto wants to control every forkful of sustenance we put into our mouths, this isn’t just a great revenue and local business support, but a radical, in-your-face move that tells the Feds just where they can stick their regulations.

It used to be, if you sold a loaf of home baked bread, you could get a knock on your door from a government official. No exaggeration. It has happened to Mark Stambler, of Los Angeles, and many others. He was forced to stop making bread for over 18 months. Stambler was even featured in an LA Times piece, with mention of his specially created brick oven and artisan baking skills.

Read: Small-Scale Organic Farming CAN Feed the World

Mark’s loaves came in first place at the county state fair, but no matter, the government wouldn’t allow him to sell his grains to anyone – until now.

Assemblyman, Mike Gatto, and Stambler helped to draft the California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616) to legalize home-made food. AB 1616 was overwhelmingly popular with lawmakers, passing the California State Assembly 60 to 16 and unanimously passing the state Senate in August 2012. Upon signing the bill, Gov. Jerry Brown praised AB 1616 as a way to “make it easier for people to do business in California.”

Fortunately, as of January last year Stambler has been back to making bread again – one of the first to do so ‘legally’ in his state. Now there are over 1200 home-made food businesses to thank him and Rep. Gatto for their efforts. Power to the people – and let them eat some good bread!

World's biggest aquatic insect claimed by China

'With its wingspan measured as 21 centimetres, the
insect won the title of the largest aquatic insect in the
world,' reported Ecns.cn, the official English-language
service of the state-run China News Service.
(Zhong Xin/China News Service)

CBC.ca | Jul 24, 2014

An insect with huge horn-like jaws and a wingspan similar to a sparrow's has been reported by Chinese media as a record-breaking find.

"With its wingspan measured as 21 centimetres, the insect won the title of the largest aquatic insect in the world," reported Ecns.cn, the official English-language service of the state-run China News Service.

The website posted photos of the insect, which was found in the mountains near Chengdu, in Sichuan province. One shows the insect's lacy, patterned dragonfly-like wings stretched far wider than the palm of the person holding it, and in another, a modest-looking chicken egg sits nearby for scale.

The website says the photos were taken on July 17 and that the insect belongs to the taxonomic group or order Megaloptera (a name that means large, folded wings). The group includes large insects called dobsonflies or fishflies, along with smaller alderflies.

While the insect is claimed as the largest "aquatic" insect, dobsonflies and alderflies only live in the water as a larvae or juvenile – adults live on land. On the other hand, they spend only a few days as adults. While the larvae are ferocious underwater predators, the adults either don't eat or sip only nectar and fruit juice.

The elephant beetle is one of many insects that are
likely far heavier than the new 'largest aquatic insect.'
(Udo Schmidt/Wikimedia Commons)

It also is nowhere near the biggest insect in the world in any dimension. According to the University of Florida Book of Insect Records, the record for biggest wingspan — 30 centimetres —  is held by the white witch moth; and several giant beetles and grasshopper-like creatures called giant wetas  — all of which are huge and have far stockier builds than the new dobsonfly — are the heaviest.

However, an insect quite similar, and not that much smaller than the new Chinese insect, lives right here in Canada. The Eastern dobsonfly Corydalus cornutus has a wing span of 14 centimetres and males have "sickle-shaped and tusk-like mandibles" that are about four centimetres long, according to entomologists Rob Cannings and Geoff Scudder of the Royal B.C. Museum.

"Such males have been seen to 'duel' with each other and to prod the female during courtship," the two wrote in a scientific article about the Megaloptera species in Canada.

Overall, there are 17 species of dobsonflies and alderflies in Canada.

The Eastern dobsonfly has a wingspan of up to 14 centimetres, and males have 'sickle-shaped and tusk-like mandibles.' While it can be found in Quebec, this specimen was collected in Ecuador. (Didier Descouens/Wikimedia Commons)

Mysterious dance of dwarf galaxies may force a cosmic rethink

At approximately 2.5 million light-years away, the
Andromeda galaxy, or M31, is our
Milky Way's largest galactic neighbor.

Sott.net | Jul 21, 2014

The discovery that many small galaxies throughout the universe do not 'swarm' around larger ones like bees do but 'dance' in orderly disc-shaped orbits is a challenge to our understanding of how the universe formed and evolved.

The finding, by an international team of astronomers, including Professor Geraint Lewis from the University of Sydney's School of Physics, is announced today in Nature.

"Early in 2013 we announced our startling discovery that half of the dwarf galaxies surrounding the Andromeda Galaxy are orbiting it in an immense plane" said Professor Lewis. "This plane is more than a million light years in diameter, but is very thin, with a width of only 300,000 light years."

The universe contains billions of galaxies. Some, such as the Milky Way, are immense, containing hundreds of billions of stars. Most galaxies, however, are dwarfs, much smaller and with only a few billion stars.

For decades astronomers have used computer models to predict how these dwarf galaxies should orbit large galaxies. They had always found that they should be scattered randomly.

Our Andromeda discovery did not agree with expectations, and we felt compelled to explore if it was true of other galaxies throughout the universe," said Professor Lewis.

Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a remarkable resource of colour images and 3-D maps covering more than a third of the sky, the researchers dissected the properties of thousands of nearby galaxies.

"We were surprised to find that a large proportion of pairs of satellite galaxies have oppositely directed velocities if they are situated on opposite sides of their giant galaxy hosts," said lead author Neil Ibata of the Lycée International in Strasbourg, France.

"Everywhere we looked we saw this strangely coherent coordinated motion of dwarf galaxies. From this we can extrapolate that these circular planes of dancing dwarfs are universal, seen in about 50 percent of galaxies," said Professor Geraint Lewis.

"This is a big problem that contradicts our standard cosmological models. It challenges our understanding of how the universe works including the nature of dark matter."

The researchers believe the answer may be hidden in some currently unknown physical process that governs how gas flows in the universe, although, as yet, there is no obvious mechanism that can guide dwarf galaxies into narrow planes.

Some experts, however, have made more radical suggestions, including bending and twisting the laws of gravity and motion. "Throwing out seemingly established laws of physics is unpalatable," said Professor Lewis, "but if our observations of nature are pointing us in this direction, we have to keep an open mind. That's what science is all about."

Journal Reference:

Neil G. Ibata, Rodrigo A. Ibata, Benoit Famaey, Geraint F. Lewis. ''Velocity anti-correlation of diametrically opposed galaxy satellites in the low-redshift Universe''. Nature, 2014; DOI: 10.1038/nature13481

Source: ScienceDaily

Giant 80m Siberian crater at 'world’s end' (VIDEO)

Still from YouTube video/Bulka

RT | Jul 16, 2014

A mysterious giant crater has been discovered in a remote part of Siberia, dubbed by locals ‘the end of the world’, and is now puzzling scientists. An urgent expedition was sent to the far-northern peninsula to try and solve the mystery.

The team arrives on Wednesday to survey the seemingly bottomless pit, located in one of Russia’s northernmost points, at a latitude closer to that of Greenland than Canada.

The hole is about 80 meters wide and apparently had some extreme thermal event contributing to its formation, according to scarce detail gleaned from video footage, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported. It wasn’t until that footage started to make the rounds that the media and the scientific community woke up to the possibility of surveying its origins.

The crater is believed to have been formed two years ago. No one knows how.

The seriousness of the find is evidenced by Russia’s Emergencies Ministry being present among the expedition. The Russian Academy of Sciences is also on board, planning to take samples of the soil, air and water from the area, which is big enough to fit several MI-8 helicopters.


Yamal, the peninsula where the spooky hole is located, is far up in the northern-Russian steppes. The precise location of the crater is some 30km from the gas field of Bovanenkovo. The whole area is within Russia’s key strategic oil and gas region – the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

The 700km area is a huge stretch of ancient permafrost otherwise known for its variety of animal species and is renowned as an archaeological goldmine where wooly mammoth skeletons have been discovered.

While some of the more absurd theories about the hole’s origins have been readily dismissed – chief among them that it was caused by a UFO – others see a potential relationship with global warming, believing that salt and gas were mixed underground, causing a subterranean explosion.

The one thing everyone agrees on is that the soil found around the crater was thrown out of it.

When asked if it’s possible that the hole was caused by a meteorite, a spokesman for the Yamal branch of the Emergencies Ministry said “we can definitely say that it’s not a meteorite. No details yet.”

© RT

The theory about the ignition of underground gas posits that ice and sand helped gas accumulate over time. When this mixed with salt, the explosion took place. The reason for this theory is that sometime around the last Ice Age (about 10,000 years ago) the area was still all sea, according to the Sub-Arctic Scientific Research Center’s Anna Kurchatova.

When global warming happens and permafrost begins to melt, large deposits of natural gas are released, which may have led to an effect similar to popping open a bottle.

Much will remain hidden about the mysterious crater until the researchers come back with more answers.
Something that takes away from the mystery slightly is that this might after all be a naturally occurring, quite boring, phenomenon.

“Occurrences like this are nothing new in Yamal,” a spokesman for the governor’s office told Interfax-Ural.“This happened last year, as well as two years ago… earth and ice behave unpredictably An underwater river might have moved the soil,” he added, explaining how these processes repeat over time as surfaces melt and freeze over again. “So, there’s no emergency to speak of here.”

The spokesman flat-out rejected the meteor theory, but said that a further investigation of the area should yield further information.

A mysterious sound is driving people insane, it’s spreading — and nobody knows what’s causing it

A case for X-Files: The World Hum database shows incidents and reports
of the mysterious humming noise are increasing throughout
North America and nobody knows what’s causing it.

The Extinction Protocol | Jul 6, 2014

July 2014 – PARANORMAL – Some Hum investigators like University of Oklahoma geophysicist David Deming suspect that there’s a global source responsible for the Hum worldwide. “It’s a very, very low wavelength noise, perhaps between 50 or 56 Hz,” Moir told Mic. “And it’s extremely difficult to stop infrasound because it can have a wavelength of up to 10 meters, and you’d need around 2.5 meter thick walls, built with normal materials, to keep it out. It gets into our wooden houses very easily. And part of the reason people have so much trouble identifying the source of it is because of how low frequency the Hum is: It literally moves right through your head before you can figure out which ear picked it up first.” Deming’s research, considered close to authoritative in the Hum community, suggests that evidence of the Hum corresponds with an accidental, biological consequence of the “Take Charge and Move Out” (TACAMO) system adopted by the US Navy in the 1960s as a way for military leaders to maintain communications with the nation’s ballistic missile submarines, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, and long-range bombers during a nuclear war. As part of TACAMO, military aircraft use VLF radio waves to send instructions to submarines: Because of their large wavelengths, VLF can diffract around large obstacles like mountains and buildings, propagate around the globe using the Earth’s ionosphere and penetrate seawater to a depth of almost 40 meters, making them ideal for one-way communication with subs. And VLF, like other low-frequency electromagnetic waves, have been shown to have a direct impact on biological functions. (Strategic Communications Wing One at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, which is responsible for the manning, training and equipping of aircraft utilized as part of the TACAMO system, did not respond to requests for comment.)

© TEP

Scientific data and anecdotal experiences of the Hum vary so much from region the world that it’s still unclear whether VLF and ELF waves are the source of it, let alone a catalyst for mass murder. The idea of a mysterious noise driving people to suicide has given birth to all kinds of pseudoscientific conjecture, making the phenomenon a favorite for conspiracy junkies who suspect foul play by some malicious government scheme (or UFOs, obviously). The World Hum, a site devoted to exploring the “mysterious phenomenon being heard by thousands around the world,” is riddled with byzantine entries about UFOs crashing in Siberia. Dr. Glen MacPherson,  a lecturer at the University of British Columbia, knows how insane it sounds. “There’s a terrible irony to the vision of a conspiracy nut in a tinfoil hat, trying to keep the government from beaming thoughts into their heads,” laughs MacPhearson, “since aluminum does protect against some electromagnetic radiation. This is why you don’t put that stuff in the microwave.”

The federally funded investigation into the Windsor Hum and the serious examination of Kohlhase’s research by Connecticut authorities may serve as a beacon of hope for Hum investigators like MacPherson, Moir, Novak and Kohlhase. State-funded tests on Hum-affected regions may yield data that could lead to a real-world solution, rather than conspiracy theories. Until then, developing a unified picture of the Hum is exactly what MacPherson wants to accomplish in British Columbia. By providing one destination for Hum data and testimony, he’s hoping that professional and independent researchers will use the collected data to help develop and execute experiments that could help identify the source of their local Hum. But until someone funds and conducts rigorous tests in an affected region, says Moir, people will continue to use the Hum as an excuse to blame modern technology, from mobile phones to telecom towers to the digital radio bands used by law enforcement. And that aura of pseudoscientific insanity surrounding the Hum has made the job of independent researchers more challenging. “In the past, I’ve contacted my representatives, I’ve contacted my governor,” says Kohlhase. “There’s willful ignorance going on about this problem and the real consequences it has.”

But should researchers like MacPherson and Moir finally pinpoint the local sources of the pain-inducing phenomenon, the Hum may transition from unexplained mystery to unfortunate byproduct of modernity, a fixture of human geography like light pollution. In the meantime, many just want to identify some relief. “A lot of serious researchers don’t want to have their name attached to that, but I’m not a formal academic researcher, and I’m quite willing to lend some credibility to this idea if I can,” says MacPherson. “This phenomenon is real and many people are suffering: I’m just trying to do the best I can to help.” -MIC

Newfound Dinosaur Sported 'Wings' on its Head

Live Science | Jun 19, 2014 | Elizabeth Palermo

This artist reconstruction reveals the
horned dinosaur Mercuriceratops Gemini,
a new species of horned dinosaur that
sported winglike ornamentation on the
sides of its skull.
Credit: Courtesy Danielle Dufault

Move over Triceratops: There's a new horned dinosaur in town, and its cranial ornamentation is even more impressive than the three-horned dinosaur the world has come to know and love.

A study of the recently discovered species, Mercuriceratops gemini, provides more details on this flashy dinosaur, which possessed not only the standard trifecta of facial horns, but also a giant, winglike frill protruding from the back of its skull.

"The butterfly-shaped frill, or neck shield, of Mercuriceratops is unlike anything we have seen before," said David Evans, co-author of the new study and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, in a statement. "Mercuriceratops shows that evolution gave rise to much greater variation in horned dinosaur headgear than we had previously suspected." [See Images of a Flashy Horned Dinosaur]

The research describing the new species is based on fossil evidence collected from Montana as well as Alberta, Canada. Mercuriceratops gemini lived about 77 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period, and was approximately 20 feet (6 meters) long and weighed more than 2 tons. Like Triceratops and other ceratopsid dinosaurs, Mercuriceratops was a plant-eating dinosaur, and researchers believe it had a parrotlike beak, as well as two long brow horns above its eyes.

Its headgear, though, is in a league all its own.

"Mercuriceratops took a unique evolutionary path that shaped the large frill on the back of its skull into protruding wings like the decorative fins on classic 1950s cars," said Michael Ryan, lead author of the study and curator of vertebrate paleontology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio, in the statement. "It definitively would have stood out from the herd during the Late Cretaceous."

The dinosaur's name, Mercuriceratops, is a combination of "Mercury" — the Roman God best known for his winged helmet — and "ceratops," a Greek word meaning "horned face." The second part of its name "gemini," is Latin for "twins" and refers to the fact that paleontologists uncovered two nearly identical specimens of the species, the first in north-central Montana and the second at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dinosaur Provincial Park, in Alberta, Canada.

The study detailing the two findings, published online in the journal Naturwissenschaften, focuses on skull fragments of Mercuriceratops found at each site. Originally, scientists believed the specimen they had uncovered at the Judith River Formation of Montana was simply a distorted fossil from the remains of a more common ceratopsid species. But the discovery of a nearly identical specimen collected from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta suggested otherwise.

Fossils of the horned dinosaur Mercuriceratops
Gemini were discovered in Montana as well as
in a quarry in Dinosaur Provincial Park,
Alberta, Canada (shown here).
Credit: Courtesy Philip J. Currie

"The Alberta specimen confirmed that the fossil from Montana was not a pathological specimen, nor had it somehow been distorted during the process of fossilization," said Philip Currie, professor and Canada research chair in dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Alberta, in the statement. "The two fossils — squamosal bones from the side of the frill — have all the features you would expect, just presented in a unique shape." (The squamosal bone is located in the skull of vertebrates.)

As to the question of why Mercuriceratopsdeveloped such a prominent skull ornament, the researchers presented a number of possibilities.

"Horned dinosaurs in North America used their elaborate skull ornamentation to identify each other and to attract mates — not just for protection from predators," Ryan said. "The winglike protrusions on the sides of its frill may have offered male Mercuriceratops a competitive advantage in attracting mates.”

Follow Elizabeth Palermo on Twitter @techEpalermo, Facebook or Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Funny Looking Tower Generates 600% More Electrical Energy Than Traditional Wind Turbines

The Mind Unleashed | Apr 5, 2014 |

The Sheerwind wind turbine promises to produce 6 times the electrical power than traditional wind turbines.

This funny looking wind tower acts like a funnel, directing the wind from any angle, down through a tube to a ground based turbine generator. The funneling of the wind through a narrow passage effectively creates a “jet effect” increasing the velocity of the wind, while lowering the pressure. This is called the Venturi Effect. This speeds up the wind turbine mounted inside the narrowest portion and generates electricity.

As such it can capture and generate electricity at a much lower wind speed than current wind power technologies. The idea is so simple, so elegant, and promises to produce so much more energy at lower cost and more efficiently, that it might just be the answer to many problems with current wind turbine technology. Aside from the lower capital investment to get started, and increased efficiency and power generation, it also might be a solution to the ever growing problem of birds (and bats) being killed by traditional wind farms. (Yes, that is a problem)

This technology is not really new in the science of fluid dynamics, however this is a new way to generate electricity, and if successful, promises to grow the wind energy in a more eco-friendly way than ever thought possible. Imagine a smaller HOME version on your off grid cabin. Now THAT is cool off grid tech!

Read more..

H/T Blacklisted News

Solar-powered aircraft makes inaugural flight

German test pilot Markus Scherdel steers the solar-powered
Solar Impulse 2 aircraft for its maiden flight at its base
in Payerne on June 2, 2014 (AFP Photo / Denis Balibouse)

RT | Jun 2, 2014 |

"An airplane like this is absolutely unique. And for the first time in history, we have an airplane that is flying with no fuel day and night, showing the incredible potential of the clean technologies - all these technologies that the world can also use in order to reduce the dependency to fossil fuel and to be cleaner and solve a lot of problems of pollution"

Ahead of its anticipated round-the-world trip scheduled for 2015, a solar-powered plane took its maiden voyage after an historic two-hour flight - yet more headway in developing aircraft that don’t need fossil fuel.

The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, with German test pilot Markus Scherdel inside the cockpit, took off from an airfield in Payerne, Switzerland at 03:35 GMT (04:35 BST; 05:35 CEST), climbing to just over 6,000ft (1,800m).

The carbon-fiber aircraft, which was first displayed to the public on April 9, has a wingspan of 72 meters (236 ft) - wider than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet – and weighs just 2.4 tons. It contains more than 17,000 solar cells inserted on top of the wings, which allow the vehicle to achieve a maximum speed of 140km/h (90mph).

Scherdel reported some early vibrations inside the aircraft, but overall the inaugural test flight was considered a success, with the plane performing a number of maneuvers to prove aircraft handling.

Read more..

You’ll Never Believe What Woody Harrelson Calls Monsanto

Live Free and Natural | May 15, 2014 | Cecil Iscool

 

Woody Harrelson, known for his role in Cheers and many Hollywood blockbuster films, doesn’t see the world through the same eyes as the fickle and fake industry that made him famous. He is now speaking out about the state of the world as it really is.

Written in a poem and put together with related images, Woody Harrelson’s poem hits at the core of what the ordinary people of the world are faced with at the moment.

Scroll down to hear for yourself.


“I sometimes feel like an alien creature for which there is no earthly explanation

Sure I have human form walking erect with oposing digits but my mind is upside down

I feel like a run on sentence and a punctuation crazy world

And I see the world around me like a mad collective dream

An endless stream of people move likes ants on the freeway, cell phones, PC’s and digital displays

In money we trust will find happiness

Prevailing attitude

Like a genetically modified, irradiated Big Mac that some how is symbolic of food

Morality is legislated, prisons over populate, religions incorporated

The profit modive is permeated all activity

We pay our government to let us park in the streets

And wars are the biggest money makers of all

We all know missile envy only comes from being small

Politicians and Prostitutes are comfortable together.

I wonder if they ever talk about the strange change in the weather

This government was founded by of and for the people,

but everybody feels it like a giant open sore,

They don’t represent us anymore.

And blaming the President for the countries woes is yelling at a puppet for the way it sings.

Who’s the man behind the curtain pulling the strings

A billion people sitting and watching TV in a room they call “Living”

But as for me, I see living is Loving.

And since there is no Loving room I sit on the grass under a tree dreaming of a way things used to be

Pre Industrial Revolution

Which of course was before the rivers and oceans and skies were polluted,

Before Parkinsons and Mad Cow and all the conveluted decaffieny of bad ideas like skyscappers and tree paper and earth rappers

like Monsanto and Dupont had there ways as they continue to today

This Pre Us

Back when the Buffalo roamed and the Indians home was the forest and God was nature and heaven was here and now

Can you imagine clean water and food and air, living in communities with animals and people who care?.

Do you dare to be responsible for every dollar you lay down?.

You gunna make the rich man richer?,

Or you gunna stand your ground?.

You say want a revolution, a communal evolution to be a part of the solution

Maybe I’ll be seeing you around…..”

Solar (R)evolution - Watch Now

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Does the sun have the power to transform humankind?
In Solar®evolution, world-renowned German biophysicist Dieter Broers makes a compelling case, pointing to a wealth of scientific evidence that shows a remarkable correlation between increases in solar activity and advances in our creative, mental, and spiritual abilities.
We are in the midst of a dramatic rise in solar disturbances, which have the capability of disrupting the Earth’s geomagnetic field and, as a result, our global ecology. Broers, however, sees this not as an impending apocalypse but as the dawn of a new era.
Drawing on research from a variety of disciplines, he shows how erupting solar activity carries the potential to boost our brain capacity and expand our minds in ways we never imagined possible. Abilities now seen as extraordinary or supernatural—telepathy, extrasensory perception, and off-the-charts intelligence quotients—may soon become ordinary and natural and could very well help us solve the mounting global crises we are facing.
Humankind is going through an evolutionary leap, says Broers, and the process has already begun.
Featuring: DIETER BROERS, RUPERT SHELDRAKE, MICHAEL PERSINGER, ERNST SENKOWSKI, MICHAEL KONIG, ILLOBRAND VON LUDWIGER, ELIZABETH RAUSCHER, ROLLIN MCCRATY, FRANZ HALBERG, GIULIANA CONFORTO, JJ & DESIREE HURTAK, FRANCINE BLAKE, and RICK STRASSMAN.