Laser project aims at controlling the weather and making clouds do what humans want
Published on September 4, 2011 2:30 am PT
– By Betty Johnson – Writer
– Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller
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(TheWeatherSpace.com) — Physicist Jerome Kasparian, of the University of Geneva, admits they can control clouds by pointing a laser into the sky.
The system is called laser-assisted water condensation and could one day enable humans to decide where and when it will remain.
The powerful laser can run continuously and it can be aimed well. Scientists tell TheWeatherSpace.com that they are close to manipulating weather conditions, even prevent rainfall.
The idea of lasers is catching on across the planet. The HAARP project fires into the ionosphere and some blame it on the vast weather extremes lately. This projection to control the weather has been the human curiosity for quiet some time.
LIMB FLARES: The northwestern limb of the sun is crackling with M-class solar flares. The source appears to be departing sunspot complex 1280-1286. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) emerging from the blast site are not Earth-directed. Nevertheless, these flares are having a minor effect on Earth as their radiation ionizes our planet’s upper atmosphere. For an example, see “Radio-Altering Flare” below
RADIO-ALTERING FLARE: On Sunday morning at 1145 UT, an active region on the sun’s western limb unleashed a strong M3-class solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation:
Although the blast site was not directly facing Earth, radiation from the explosion nevertheless ionized Earth’s upper atmosphere. This altered the propagation of radio signals around Europe, where it was high-noon at the time of the flare. “I detected a sharp change in signal levels from two radio stations on the VLF band,” reports Rob Stammes of Lofoten, Norway. More radio anmolaies were detected by Dave Gradwell in Ireland (data) and a team led by Valter Giuliani in Italy (data). This shows that flares can affect our planet even when the underlying explosions are not “Earth-directed.”
(TheWeatherSpace.com) — The sun has a sunspot group that is facing our planet today and any large flares would be directed at us.
The field has a beta field which could harbor M-Class solar flares. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center is monitoring for changes in the field.
The interesting thing about this one is the shape of it. We know the Sun does not have eyes, but took a look at the image caught today. The sunspot group has an eyelid and eyeball shape. Pretty interesting huh!
Thunderstorms will continue all day and through the night across Southern California
Published on September 5, 2011 8:20 am PT
– By Jim Duran – Writer
– Article Editor and Approved – Ron Jackson
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(TheWeatherSpace.com) — Thunderstorms slammed the populated areas overnight on Sunday and into Monday morning and this will continue today.
TWS’ Southern California Weather division; SCWXA, issued a Thunderstorm Watch for the region on Monday evening. A few hours after, the first thunderstorms hit Los Angeles. (View watch box)
TheWeatherSpace.com Senior Meteorologist Kevin Martin states the watch continues and there will be more.
“Widespread thunderstorms are occurring in the Southland,” said Martin. “Per my projections at SCWXA, will keep the Thunderstorm Watch box activated through today and tonight as the best is yet to come where we get frequent lightning anywhere from Orange County, Inland Empire, and San Diego County today and this evening.”
It appears that retail giant Wal-Mart is ready to take another step on its sustainability journey. Sourceswithin the food industry are reporting that Wal-Mart is planning to begin collecting data from its fruit and vegetable vendors in order to assess the sustainability of their operations.
This is a continuation of Wal-Mart’s initiative rolled out last fall in which they pledged to support farmers and their communities by selling $1 billion worth of food from one million small and medium farmers who will be trained in sustainability practices. This move will effectively double the amount of locally grown food they sell in the US, while increasing revenue to smaller farmers by 10-15%.
They also pledged to produce more food with fewer resources and less waste by investing over $1 billion in their food supply chain over the next five years and reducing food waste in their stores.
Furthermore they pledged to seek more sustainable sources for foods such as palm oil for all of their private branded products and beef from sources that do not contribute to rainforest deforestation.
The metrics announcement stems from the 2011 Sustainable Food Lab Leadership Summit which met in late June. Wal-Mart is working with and seeking input from the Sustainability Consortium which is jointly administered by the University of Arkansas and Arizona State University. A substantial portion of the metrics they will use were developed by the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops (SISC), which was also mentioned as part of last fall’s announcement when the company pledged to “accelerate the agricultural focus of the Sustainability Index, beginning with a Sustainable Produce Assessment for top producers in its Global Food Sourcing network in 2011.”
SISC is a multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a system for measuring sustainability performance throughout the specialty crop supply chain which includes fruits, vegetables, nuts and horticulture. In addition to retail food buyers such as Wal-Mart and Wegmans, other stakeholders include growers and their representative associations, large food producers such as Heinz and Del Monte, packers, shippers, distributors, government agencies, academics and NGO’s including Defenders of Wildlife and the World Wildlife Fund. More than 400 representatives of these groups have joined the effort since its inception.
SISC’s core operating principles include:
Avoiding duplication of efforts
Realizing that we will achieve more through a collaborative effort that includes all supply chain stakeholders
Creating metrics that are performance-based, non-prescriptive, allowing individual operators to innovate
We are inside a greenhouse, gazing at row after row of hydroponic tomatoes and green peppers, learning why people in this community in northern El Salvador are receiving death threats. We have been sent byThe Nation magazine to chronicle the struggle by people here to protect their river from the toxic chemicals of global mining firms intent on realizing massive profits from El Salvador’s rich veins of gold.
Before going to the greenhouse, we spend the morning at the home of Carlos Bonilla, a farmer in his sixties whose handsome face is creased with the wisdom, suffering, and joy of decades of struggles for justice. Over a delicious meal of local tortillas, vegetables, and chicken, Carlos and a group of eight young people tell us their stories.
“We reject the image of us just as anti-mining. We are for water and a positive future. We want alternatives to feed us, to clothe us.”
These young people run a radio station, Radio Victoria, where they broadcast to a growing audience across this mountainous terrain. They tell us about giving air time to local leaders who, beginning seven years ago, found themselves facing a new threat: Mining firms, granted permits to explore for gold in the watershed of the great Lempa River (which supplies water to over half the country’s 6.2 million people), entered these communities with promises of jobs and prosperity.
Gold is now selling for more than $1500 an ounce. Local organizer Vidalina Morales tells us: “Initially, we thought mining was good and it was going to help us out of poverty…through jobs and development.”
But, then, a strange thing happened. A stream dried up near the exploration wells that a Canadian firm, Pacific Rim, was digging. Concerned, Vidalina and other activists traveled to nearby Honduras to meet with members of communities where large mining projects were already underway. They returned with grisly stories of cyanide poisoning the soil and water (cyanide is used to separate the gold from the surrounding rock), and people in mining areas suffering skin diseases and other ailments.
This wasn’t what they wanted, especially near the Lempa River. Local people in northern El Salvador began to organize against the mining firms. First, they linked up with other groups across this province of Cabañas to coordinate opposition. Next, they found allies in other provinces and in the capital San Salvador, and they formed a National Roundtable on Mining. After discussion and debate, the Roundtable decided that the only way to save their vital water source was to organize for a national ban on gold and other metals mining.
Then, they tell us, the death threats began. Some came as anonymous phone calls, some as untraceable text messages, some as people were stopped by men in cars. In June 2009, a dynamic local cultural leader, Marcelo Rivera, disappeared; his body was found in the bottom of a well, with signs of torture reminiscent of the bloody civil war that convulsed this region in the 1980s.
SOLAR FLARE: This morning at 1145 UT, an active region on the sun’s western limb unleashed an M3-class solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flash of extreme UV radiation:
Although the blast site was not directly facing Earth, radiation from the explosion nevertheless ionized Earth’s upper atmosphere. This altered the propagation of radio signals around Europe, where it was high-noon at the time of the flare. “I detected a sharp change in signal levels from two radio stations on the VLF band,” reports Rob Stammes of Lofoten, Norway.
In addition to the UV flash, the explosion also hurled a CME into space: SOHO movie. The cloud is not heading for Earth, so no auroras will result from this particular event. That’s not to say, however, that no auroras are in the offing.
In this May 25, 2011 file picture, a line of severe storms crosses the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn., passing by the Memphis Pyramid. The dark formation was reported a few minutes earlier as a tornado in West Memphis, Ark. Nature is pummeling the United States in 2011 with extremes. There have been more than 700 U.S. disaster and weather deaths. What’s happening, say experts, is mostly random chance or the bad luck of getting the wrong roll of the dice. However, there is something more to it, many of them say. Man-made global warming is loading the dice to increase our odds of getting the bad roll.
Unprecedented triple-digit heat and devastating drought. Deadly tornadoes leveling towns. Massive rivers overflowing. A billion-dollar blizzard. And now, unusual hurricane-caused flooding in Vermont.
If what’s falling from the sky isn’t enough, the ground shook in places that normally seem stable: Colorado and the entire East Coast. On Friday, a strong quake triggered brief tsunami warnings in Alaska. Arizona and New Mexico have broken records for wildfires.
Total weather losses top $35 billion, and that’s not counting Hurricane Irene, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. There have been more than 700 U.S. disaster and weather deaths, most from the tornado outbreaks this spring.
Last year, the world seemed to go wild with natural disasters in the deadliest year in a generation. But 2010 was bad globally, and the United States mostly was spared.
This year, while there have been devastating events elsewhere, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Australia’s flooding and a drought in Africa, it’s our turn to get smacked. Repeatedly.
“I’m hoping for a break. I’m tired of working this hard. This is ridiculous,” said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist who runs Weather Underground, a meteorology service that tracks strange and extreme weather. “I’m not used to seeing all these extremes all at once in one year.”
The U.S. has had a record 10 weather catastrophes costing more than a billion dollars: five separate tornado outbreaks, two different major river floods in the Upper Midwest and the Mississippi River, drought in the Southwest and a blizzard that crippled the Midwest and Northeast, and Irene.
What’s happening, say experts, is mostly random chance or bad luck. But there is something more to it, many of them say. Man-made global warming is increasing the odds of getting a bad roll of the dice.
“Gobble Up 87% of the Air Toxins in Your Home in
24 Hours – NASA Discovery”
Just go to your local nursery and pick out any of these 10 types of common houseplants. Plus, 9 extra steps you can take – and the gas created by “lightning” that’s the ultimate pac-man for destroying the enemy invading toxins lurking in your home…
Indoor air quality is a very big concern of mine. The following numbers pretty much speak for themselves, and can be both surprising and quite alarming at the same time…
Americans spend over 90% of their time indoors… some estimates go as high as 97%
Many homes and offices have airborne pollutant levels 25-100 times higher than the air outside
Over 1500 substances may be found in the typical North American home… some of which can emit toxic fumes
These numbers and statistics are not meant to frighten you… but simply to give you a wake-up call to what many folks unknowingly assume is okay… and that’s indoor air quality.
Since I last examined this, I believe the average time folks spend indoors may have even increased.
Why?
Because very challenging winters in the cold climates of the US coupled with more work-at-home opportunities (and economy-driven employment issues) add up to people spending more time at home and indoors.
The good news is there are some very positive steps you can take to enhance the indoor air you breathe… and I’m here to help you do just that.
Why the Indoor Air in Your Home and Office is So Important
Have you ever spent time in an environment that invigorated you, and inspired you to think clearly and creatively?
Ever wonder why spending time in
a natural pollution-free environment
can be so invigorating?”
Chances are this environment was somewhere outside in nature.
So what causes the air inside your home or office to not come close to having the same effect… or worse, to even reach high pollution levels?
First of all, the EPA tells us that the air outside your home establishes the baseline for your indoor air.
This seems to make perfect sense. It also means if you already live in an area with high levels of outside pollutants, your indoor air probably started out ‘bad’ before anything inside your house had a chance to impact it even further.
“Ever wonder why spending time in a natural pollution-free environment can be so invigorating?”
But once inside your home or office, the air you breathe can get worse and loads of other pollutants may be added from materials and faulty processes inside your home such as…
The main compounds in antibiotic wipes, creams and soaps — triclosan and triclocarban — have been added to chopping boards, refrigerators, plastic lunchboxes, and mattresses in an attempt to halt the spread of microbes.
But studies show that these antibiotic chemicals are no more likely than regular soap to prevent gastrointestinal or respiratory illness. In fact, for chronically sick patients, antibiotic soaps were actually associated with increases in the frequencies of fevers, runny noses and coughs.
According to Scientific American:
“What we do know is that the influence of these wipes and salves does not end with our hands, but instead spreads from them down our drains and out into society.
What happens when antibiotic soaps and suds go down drains? To find out, a group of scientists recently made artificial drains clogged with bacteria … and then subjected them to low and high doses of triclosan … Triclosan kills ‘weak’ bacteria but favors the tolerant, among them species of bacteria that eat triclosan … Triclosan may also favor lineages of bacteria that are also resistant to the oral antibiotics used in hospitals”.
Additionally, there have been recent concerns about its possible effects on human health — and triclosan has been detected in human breast milk, blood, and urine samples. A study evaluated the effects of triclosan in female rats, and was found to advance the age at which the rats hit puberty. Serum thyroid hormone concentrations were also suppressed by triclosan.
According to the study, published in Toxicological Sciences:
“In conclusion, triclosan affected estrogen-mediated responses in the pubertal and weanling female rat and also suppressed thyroid hormone in both studies.”
fr/spaceweather.com
The main compounds in antibiotic wipes, creams and soaps — triclosan and triclocarban — have been added to chopping boards, refrigerators, plastic lunchboxes, and mattresses in an attempt to halt the spread of microbes.
