Monthly Archives: December 2011

Word of The Year

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Word Of The Year: Merriam-Webster Dictionary Picks ‘Pragmatic’

Word Of The Year

By STEPHANIE REITZ   12/15/11 06:24 AM ET   AP

  When the time came for Merriam-Webster to pick its top word of 2011, its editors decided they needed to be pragmatic.

So they chose … pragmatic.

The word, an adjective that means practical and logical, was looked up so often on Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary that the publisher says “pragmatic” was the pragmatic choice for its 2011 Word of the Year.

Though it wasn’t traced to a specific news event or quote from a famous person, searches for “pragmatic” jumped in the weeks before Congress voted in August to increase the nation’s debt ceiling, and again as its supercommittee tried to craft deficit-cutting measures this fall.

“Pragmatic” may have sparked dictionary users’ interest both because they’d heard it in conversations, and because it captures the current American mood of encouraging practicality over frivolity, said John Morse, president and publisher of Springfield, Mass.-based Merriam-Webster.

“`Pragmatic’ is a word that describes a kind of quality that people value in themselves but also look for in others, and look for in policymakers and the activities of people around them,” Morse said.

A new feature on Merriam-Webster’s site allows users to tell the dictionary publisher why they sought that specific word, and the feedback from those who looked up “pragmatic” was that they wanted to reaffirm that the connotation was positive.

“People have a general sense of what the word meant and in fact had even been using it, but then they had a moment when they thought to themselves, `Perhaps I ought to look up that word and make sure it means what I think it means,'” Morse said.

Merriam-Webster has been picking its annual top choice since 2003. Previous winners include: austerity (2010), admonish (2009) and bailout (2008).

“Austerity” also made the top 10 list in 2011 along with ambivalence, insidious, didactic, diversity, capitalism, socialism, vitriol and “apres moi le deluge.”

That quote, attributed to King Louis XV of France, translates to, “After me, the flood,” and was used by columnist David Gergen in a piece about the Congressional supercommittee’s failure to reach a deficit-cutting deal.

Merriam-Webster says it’s generally used to allude to people who behave as if they don’t care about the future, since “the flood” will happen after they’re gone.

Morse and Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, said they would not have been surprised if some people had expected “occupy” to be the 2011 Word of the Year because of the interest raised by Occupy Wall Street protests and similar encampments.

Though it was used a lot in conversation, “occupy” did not prompt an unusual number of searches.

“It’s like the dog that doesn’t bark. `Occupy’ or `recession’ or `entitlement’ are words you see pop up occasionally in the daily log of lookups, but not in the yearly log,” Sokolowski said.

“Occupy” still has a chance to grab a spot in the linguistic limelight, though, because it’s being considered among the front-runners for the American Dialect Society’s 2011 Word of the Year.

That group’s annual choice isn’t driven by dictionary lookups, but is a word or phrase that members consider widely used, demonstrably new or popular and reflects the year’s popular discourse – similar, in a sense, to Time’s selection of Person of the Year. The magazine chose “the protester” as its person of the year for 2011.

The American Dialect Society will announce its selection Jan. 6 after a vote at its annual convention in Portland, Ore., and the group’s executive secretary, Allan Metcalf, says “occupy” is getting a lot of buzz.

But so is “Tebow time,” a concept that alludes to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s ability to rally late-game comebacks – and, in a broader sense, applied to any success or comeback at crunch time.

“Maybe `Tebow time’ might win the Word of the Year in the crunch, but we have two weeks left to go, so who knows what other words might pop up,” said Metcalf, who is also an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., and author of “OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word.”

Another outlet, the London-based Oxford English Dictionary, also named its 2011 word choice in November: “squeezed middle,” a primarily term credited to British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to describe the financial pinch felt by the middle class in Great Britain.

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/word-of-the-year_n_1150312.html?ref=culture&ir=Culture

Saudi “Witch” Beheaded —

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If this is true, it is another indication of small minds and bigoted religious views.  What is religion?  In many ways it is ‘religere’ a rope to bind and control, and those who do not accept are ostracized, tortured, and even put to death.

Saudi ‘Witch’ Beheaded for Black Magic

Benjamin Radford, Life’s Little Mysteries Contributor
Date: 14 December 2011 Time: 04:35 PM ET

An accused witch, Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia earlier this week. She had been convicted of practicing “witchcraft and sorcery,” according to the Saudi Interior Ministry. Such a crime is a capital offense in Saudi Arabia, and so Nassar was sentenced to death. Nassar’s sentence was appealed — and upheld — by the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council.

Nassar, who claimed to be a healer and mystic, was arrested after authorities reportedly found a variety of occult items in her possession, including herbs, glass bottles of “an unknown liquid used for sorcery,” and a book on witchcraft. According to a police spokesman, Nassar had also falsely promised miracle healings and cures, charging ill clients as much as $800 for her services.

Many Shiite Muslims — like many fundamentalist Christians — consider fortune-telling an occult practice and therefore evil. Making a psychic prediction or using magic (or even claiming or pretending to do so) are seen as invoking diabolical forces. Fortune-telling, prophecy and witchcraft have been condemned by Saudi Arabia’s powerful religious leaders. There is some question as to whether Saudi law technically outlaws witchcraft, though in a country where politics and religion are so closely aligned the distinction is effectively moot.

Just last year a Lebanese man named Ali Sabat, who for years had dispensed psychic advice and predictions on a television show, was accused of witchcraft. Sabat was arrested in Saudi Arabia by the religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. His crime, like that of Nassar, was practicing sorcery, and Sabat was condemned to death in April 2010, though it’s still unknown if his sentence has been carried out.

Accusations of witchcraft and sorcery are not unheard of around the world, especially in political campaigns where they are used as a smear tactic. Close associates of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were accused last year of using witchcraft and summoning genies by influential clerics in that country. According to news reports, about two dozen of Ahmadinejad’s close aides have been arrested and charged with being “magicians.” One man, Abbas Ghaffari, was reportedly accused of summoning a genie who caused a heart attack in a man who was persecuting him.

Even the United States is not immune; Christine O’Donnell, the Republican who ran a failed bid for a Senate seat in 2010, had to answer political questions about whether she had practiced witchcraft. For centuries, accusations of (and laws against) witchcraft have been used as a tool by those in power to silence dissenters; whether that was the case with Nassar is unknown, but her death is a reminder that belief in magic is taken very seriously in many parts of the world — and can have grave consequences.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/17486-saudi-arabia-witch-beheaded.html

Comet Lovejoy (and Companion) Dive to the Sun

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BIG COMET PLUNGES TOWARD THE SUN: Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) is diving into the sun and furiously vaporizing as it approaches the stellar surface. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is recording the kamikaze plunge:


SOHO Coronagraph: movie, latest image

“This is, without any doubt, the brightest sungrazing comet that SOHO has ever seen,” says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC.

The comet’s nucleus, thought to be twice as wide as a football field, will skim approximately 140,000 km (1.2 solar radii) above the solar surface on Dec. 15/16. At such close range, solar heating will almost certainly destroy the comet’s icy core, creating a cloud of vapor and comet dust that will reflect lots of sunlight.

“If Comet Lovejoy gets as bright as magnitude -4 or -5, there is a tiny but non-zero chance that it could become visible in the sky next to the sun,” says Battams.

Indeed, something similar happened to Comet McNaught in January 2007 when it was visible in broad daylight: gallery. Standing in the shadow of a tall building to block the sun allowed the comet to be seen in blue sky nearby.

“Comet Lovejoy will be reaching perihelion (closest approach to the sun) right around sunset on Dec. 15th for people in the US East, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones,” continues Battams. “Be alert for the comet to the left of the sun at that time.” Caution: Do not look at or near the sun through unfiltered optics; focused sunlight can seriously damage your eyes.

Discovered on Dec. 2nd by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy of Australia, the comet is an unusually large member of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers are fragments of a single giant comet (probably the Great Comet of 1106) that broke apart back in the 12th century. SOHO sees one plunging into the sun every few days, but most are small, no more than 10 meters wide. Comet Lovejoy is at least ten times larger than usual.

Got pictures of Comet Lovejoy? Submit them here.

COMET LOVEJOY HAS A COMPANION: “Comet Lovejoy has a friend!” notes Karl Battams in his blog. “Look for it in the upper-half of this animation moving perfectly in step with Lovejoy. It’s another Kreutz-group comet. This is not surprising. SOHO’s Kreutz-group comets are very ‘clumpy,’ for want of a better word. We frequently see them arrive in pairs or sometimes trios, and the big bright ones in particular will often have a little companion comet.”

from:   spaceweather.com

2011’s Most Dangerous Toys

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The Most Dangerous Toys of 2011

Life’s Little Mysteries Staff
Date: 14 December 2011 Time: 10:08 AM ET
Toy manufactured by "Joking Around." Credit: U.S. PIRG 'Trouble in Toyland' report
Toy manufactured by “Joking Around.”
CREDIT: U.S. PIRG ‘Trouble in Toyland’ report

Safety experts from U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the federation of state public interest research groups, browses toy stores across the country looking for potentially dangerous toys. Despite the stringent regulations imposed on toy manufacturers in the United States, these experts never fail to find a handful of items on store shelves that appear innocuous, but actually pose toxic, choking, strangulation or excessive noise hazards to children. The team, led by public health advocate Nasima Hossain, detailed their findings for 2011 in a year-end report and in correspondence with Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

So, as you’re going cart-to-cart with other parents during the next two weeks, crossing items off your child’s Christmas list, here’s a list of toys not to fight over in the store aisles.

Not-so-funny glasses

Goofy disguises aren’t so funny when they contain toxic chemicals. U.S. PIRG discovered that a glasses-and-fake-nose set manufactured by “Joking Around” contained 42 times the legal limit of phthalates — chemicals used to increase the flexibility of plastics. Worse still, a pink sleep mask sold at Claire’s contained 77 times the legal phthalate limit.

The use of phthalates in toys was severely restricted in 2008 after studies by the Environmental Protection Agency showed they can cause developmental problems in fetuses and children.

“If you think about it, when you go to Target or Kmart, most toys in the baby and kids section are made out of plastic, and so up until the 2008 law got enacted, the market was cluttered with products that had phthalates in them,” Hossain told Life’s Little Mysteries. Manufacturers have since been required to find substitutes for phthalates, she said, but clearly some products containing them still end up on store shelves.

‘Little Hands’ lead book

A cardboard book intended for toddlers called “Little Hands Love Book” (Piggy Toes Press, 2009) was found to contain 720 parts per million (ppm) of lead. This was more than twice the legal limit (300 ppm) at the time of the book’s printing, and more than seven times the prospective legal limit, which was recently set at 100 ppm. Furthermore, a toy called the Whirly Wheel, manufactured by LL, was found to contain an astonishing 3,700 ppm of lead — 37 times more than the newest legal limit.  Several other toys (including a Disney Tinkerbell watch, a Honda model motorcycle, and a Hello Kitty keychain) contained quantities of lead that were below the legal limit, but over the limit recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (40 ppm).

“Toxicity is the biggest danger posed by toys. [Manufacturers] use lead in plastics, and when this is exposed to air, it rubs off on the skin and children can breathe it in,” Hossain said.

Toys too small for tots

Since 1990, 57 children have died from choking on small toys or toy parts. For this reason, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) imposes strict regulations on the minimum size of toys intended for use by children — especially children under age 3. Nonetheless, U.S. PIRG safety experts found several toys on the market that did not meet these size requirements, and thus posed choking hazards for children. Among them was a wooden block set made by ToySmith and an Oscar the Grouch doll made by Sesame Workshop. [The Cool Physics of 8 Classic Toys]

Many other toys found by the group lacked the necessary warning labels about choking hazards (which must be placed on the packaging of toys for children ages 3 to 6); this serves as a reminder to parents that they must always consider the safety of toys themselves before buying them, rather than taking labels — or the lack thereof — at their word.

Small ball hazard

Small bouncy balls and marbles have caused 69 choking deaths since 1990. Consequently, small balls meant for children under age 3 must not be able to fit through a 1.75-inch-diameter test hole — which approximates the size of a child’s wind pipe — and balls meant for older children must come with choking hazard warning labels. Nonetheless, when perusing toy bins across the country, the U.S. PIRG experts came across several balls that did not meet these requirements, again suggesting that parents must be extra vigilant when buying small balls or marbles for their kids. [Is There a Santa Claus?]

Burst balloons

Balloons are all fun and games until they burst. Pieces of burst balloons pose a choking risk for children under 8 years of age, and have caused 86 deaths since 1990. For this reason, U.S. PIRG recommends keeping balloons away from young children completely, and was discouraged to find balloons in stores that were being marketed for infants’ and toddlers’ birthday parties.

Quiet down, toys

The CPSC places strict regulations on the maximum sound level that may emanate from toys, because excessive noise can damage a child’s hearing. “Even minor hearing loss in children can affect their ability to speak and understand language at a critical time in their development,” the U.S. PIRG report explained. According to the law, “close-to-the-ear” toys must have volumes less than 65 decibels (dB), and toys played with at a distance must be quieter than 85 dB (or 115 dB for short bursts of sound). However, several toys were found to violate these laws. The too-loud toys were an “Elmo’s World” talking cellphone manufactured and sold by Fisher Price, Victorious stereo headphones from Nickelodeon and the Super Stunt RAT BOMB from Hot Wheels.

from:   http://www.livescience.com/17468-dangerous-toys-2011.html

Finding the Higgs Particle

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Long-Sought Higgs Particle Cornered, Scientists Say

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 13 December 2011 Time: 08:52 AM ET
Particle collision tracks at LHC
A typical candidate event at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by red towers) is measured in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter. The yellow lines are the measured tracks of other particles produced in the collision. The pale blue volume shows the CMS crystal calorimeter barrel.
CREDIT: CERN/COMS

Physicists are closer than ever to hunting down the elusive Higgs boson particle, the missing piece of the governing theory of the universe’s tiniest building blocks.

Scientists at the world’s largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, announced today (Dec. 13) that they’d narrowed down the list of possible hiding spots for the Higgs, (sometimes called the God particle) and even see some indications that they’re hot on its trail.

“I think we are getting very close,” said Vivek Sharma, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, and the leader of the Higgs search at LHC’s CMS experiment. “We may be getting the first tantalizing hints, but it’s a whiff, it’s a smell, it’s not quite the whole thing.”

Today’s announcement was highly anticipated by both the physics community and the public, with speculation running rampant in the days leading up to it that the elusive particle may have finally been found. Though the news is not the final answer some were hoping for, the progress is a significant, exciting step, physicists say. [Top 5 Implications of Finding the Higgs Boson]

“It’s something really extraordinary and I think we can be all proud of this,” said CERN physicist Fabiola Gianotti, spokesperson for the LHC’s ATLAS experiment, during a public seminar announcing the results today.

Experts outside the LHC collaborations agreed.

“These are really tough experiments, and it’s just really impressive what they’re doing,” Harvard University theoretical physicist Lisa Randall told LiveScience.

Physicists at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland view a presentation of the data collected so far in the search for the Higgs boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS experiment.
Physicists at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland view a presentation of thedata collected so far in the search for the Higgs boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS experiment.
CREDIT: CERN

Origin of mass

The Higgs boson is thought to be tied to a field (the Higgs field) that is responsible for giving all other particles their mass. Ironically, physicists don’t have a specific prediction for the mass of the Higgs boson itself, so they must search a wide range of possible masses for signs of the particle.

Based on data collected at LHC’s CMS and ATLAS experiments, researchers said they are now able to narrow down the Higgs’ mass to a small range, and exclude a wide swath of possibilities.

“With the data from this year we’ve ruled out a lot of masses, and now we’re just left with this tiny window, in this region that is probably the most interesting,” said Jonas Strandberg, a researcher at CERN working on the ATLAS experiment.

The researchers have now cornered the Higgs mass in the range between 115 and 130 gigaelectronvolts (GeV).For comparison, a proton weighs 1 GeV. Outside that range, the scientists are more than 95 percent confident that the Higgs cannot exist.

Within that range, the ATLAS findings show some indications of a possible signal from the Higgs boson around 125 GeV, though the data are not strong enough for scientists to make a claim with the level of confidence they require for a true discovery.

The CMS experiment also showed preliminary indications of a signal around that spot.

This plot shows the data collected so far by the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS experiment in the search for the Higgs boson particle.
This plot shows the data collected so far by the Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS experiment in the search for the Higgs boson particle.
CREDIT: CERN/ATLAS

“The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below, but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive,” CMS experiment spokesperson Guido Tonelli said in a statement. “As of today what we see is consistent either with a background fluctuation or with the presence of the boson. Refined analyses and additional data delivered in 2012 by this magnificent machine will definitely give an answer.”

Proceed with caution

Ultimately, scientists said they were excited by the LHC’s findings so far, but that it’s too soon to celebrate.

“Please be prudent,” said CERN director general Rolf-Dieter Heuer. “We have not found it yet, we have not excluded it yet. Stay tuned.”

The fact that the independent studies conducted by ATLAS and CMS appear to be pointing in the same direction is particularly promising, experts said.

“Based on the predicted size of the signal, the experiments may have their first glimpse of a positive signal,” University of Chicago physicist Jim Pilcher wrote in an email to LiveScience. “It is especially important to compare the results of two independent experiments to help reduce statistical fluctuations and experimental biases.”

But it shouldn’t be much longer before scientists can be sure if the Higgs exists, and if so, how much mass it has.

“We know we must be getting close,” Strandberg told LiveScience. “All we need is a little bit more data. I think the data we take in 2012 should be able to really give a definitive answer if the Higgs boson exists.”

Underground explosions

The Large Hadron Collider is a 17-mile (27-kilometer) loop buried underneath France and Switzerland, run by CERN, based in Geneva.

Inside this loop, protons traveling near the speed of light collide head-on, and release huge amounts of energy in powerful explosions.

This energy then coalesces into new particles, some of which are exotic, hard-to-find species like the Higgs. The Higgs quickly decays into other particle products, which are then sensed by the detectors inside ATLAS and CMS. [6 Exotic Particles Explained]

The new results are based on data accumulated over 500 trillion proton-proton collisions inside the LHC.

Big payoff

The Higgs boson and its related Higgs field were predicted in 1964 by physicist Peter Higgs and his colleagues. Though the Higgs mechanism is the best explanation for why particles have mass, it can’t be trusted until its major prediction — the Higgs boson — is found. [Infographic: The Higgs Boson]

“It would be a major discovery, absolutely,” said Randall, who is the author of a recent book covering the Higgs and other particle mysteries called “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World” (Ecco, 2011). “We’ve known about the Higgs mechanism for years, but we don’t know if it’s right.”

The discovery of the Higgs would offer final credence to the idea and its originators.

“If it is found there are several people who are going to get a Nobel prize,” said Vivek Sharma, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, and the leader of the Higgs search at LHC’s CMS experiment.

from:  http://www.livescience.com/17435-long-sought-god-particle-cornered-scientists.html 

Fireball Over Toronto

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Blazing meteor falls east of Toronto

CBC News

Posted: Dec 14, 2011 10:11 AM ET

Last Updated: Dec 14, 2011 11:01 AM ET

Ontario researchers want to hear from anyone who saw a basketball-sized fireball in the sky east of Toronto Monday night or has found fragments of the fallen meteorites.

Meteorites, meteors and asteroids

  • Meteorites are fragments of rock or metal that have landed on Earth after falling from space. They are usually pieces from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun.
  • Meteors are fireballs or “shooting stars” visible in the sky when a piece of space rock enters the Earth’s atmosphere. The friction heats the rock until it glows brightly.
  • Asteroids are bodies made of rock or metal that range in size from boulder-sized to nearly the size of a small moon or planet. Most of the asteroids in our solar system form part of the Asteroid Belt orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

 

The meteor, described as a “slow-moving fireball, estimated to be no bigger than a basketball,” was recorded at 6:04 p.m. ET Monday by six cameras that are part of the University of Western Ontario’s Southern Ontario Meteor Network, the university said in a news release. 

Researchers think it likely dropped meteorites ranging in size from one gram to hundreds of grams east of Selwyn, Ont., north of Peterborough, near the end of Upper Stony Lake, about 115 kilometres northeast of Toronto. They may have a total mass of up to a few kilograms.

While the meteor fell during the Geminid meteor shower, researchers said it wasn’t related to that event.

Because researchers tracked the meteor’s trajectory with their cameras, they can figure out where in our solar system it comes from. They say it is rare and valuable to be able to combine that information with an actual meteorite sample.

“Finding a meteorite from a fireball captured by video is equivalent to a planetary sample return mission,” said Peter Brown, director of the University of Western Ontario’s Centre for Planetary and Space Exploration, in a statement Wednesday.

P.O.V.

What would you do if you found a meteorite? Take our survey.

“Only about a dozen previous meteorite falls have had their orbits measured by cameras … so each new recovered meteorite is adding to our understanding of the formation and evolution of our own solar system.”

The video footage showed that the meteor first entered the atmosphere at an angle of 25 degrees from the horizontal, moving at 14 kilometres per second. It first became visible over Lake Erie, then moved toward the north-northeast and was visible until it reached an altitude of 31 kilometres, when it was just south of Selwyn.


Based on the path of the meteor, as tracked by a series of six cameras, meteorite fragments probably landed near Upper Stony Lake, a northeast of Peterborough, Ont. Click for a larger image. (Courtesy University of Western Ontario)

Landslide Risk fr/PNG Massive Earthquake

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Massive but deep earthquake below Eastern Papua New Guinea – main concern : landslides

Last update: December 14, 2011 at 10:01 am by By 

Earthquake overview :A strong but very deep earthquake happened at 03:04 PM (15:04) below eastern Papua New Guinea. The depth of the earthquake will have weakened the shaking even just above the epicenter. Our main concern are possible landslides.

Update 14/12 – 09:55 UTC :   TJ Charlton, a person knowing the epicenter area very well, wrote a few minutes ago : Lots of legal and illegal gold mining in the Wau area. I am fearful of avalanches (ER : so are we) and some mine shafts collapsing…I was in Wau just a few months ago. Talk in Wau town (after a phone call) was that “trees were swaying from side to side” during the quake.  (ER : the good news is that the phone was still working)

Update : From James Daniell CATDAT database :
On 26th, February 1963, a M7.3 earthquake, 171km depth struck at -7.5, 146.2 (around 50km west of this epicenter), with only very minor damage reported and intensities of up to 7.
Other earthquakes to have hit the region have occurred in 2001 and 2010, although these are around 80km away, both being M6.2 and only causing minor damage. These were also shallower.
Generally PNG builds of materials that resist earthquakes well and it is unlikely that major damage occurred from this one.

Landscape in the greater area of the epicenter – picture courtesy Grant I. Tebbutt

Update : Mc Adam National park was at a relatively close distance from the epicenter (approx. 40 to 60 km).

Update : The closest settlements are Were Were, Winima, Kaisenik, Kwembu, Kudjeru and Wau

Update : The greater area of the epicenter has almost NO roads but a lot of small settlements . Based on our own experience with PNG earthquakes we do not expect to receive a lot of additional information from the inland settlements. They have NO phone lines (neither fixed or cell) and can mostly be reached by trails or dirt roads only.

Update : A 7.3 earthquake who occurred in 1987 at a distance of 193 km from the current epicenter had NO shaking deaths (focal depth unknown)

Update : USGS is expecting that 506,000 people will have experienced a VI (strong) MMI shaking, 973,000 people a moderate V MMI shaking

Update : WAPMERR, a specialized theoretical damage calculator expects NO fatalities and a max. of 30 injured people as a result of this earthquake.

Update : GDACS, who has great demographic number has calculated that 1,376 people are living within a radius of 10 km. 8,212 within a radius of 20 km and 314,609 within a radius of 100 km from the epicenter.

Update : The exact place of the epicenter is of lesser importance for these deep earthquakes. Even living above the epicenter one can compare it (simplified) with living at 121 km from the epicenter of the earthquake (depth was 121 km)

Update : This was the official NOAA message confirming our own estimate :
BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/12/14/massive-but-deep-earthquake-below-eastern-papua-new-guinea/

Latest on Higgs Boson at the LHC

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Possible Hints of Higgs Boson Remain in Latest Analyses, Physicists Say

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2011) — Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have nearly eliminated the space in which the Higgs boson could dwell, scientists announced in a seminar held at CERN Dec. 13. However, the ATLAS and CMS experiments see modest excesses in their data that could soon uncover the famous missing piece of the physics puzzle.

Simulated production of a Higgs event in ATLAS. This track is an example of simulated data modeled for the ATLAS detector on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. (Credit: Image courtesy 

The experiments revealed the latest results as part of their regular report to the CERN Council, which provides oversight for the laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.

Theorists have predicted that some subatomic particles gain mass by interacting with other particles called Higgs bosons. The Higgs boson is the only undiscovered part of the Standard Model of physics, which describes the basic building blocks of matter and their interactions.

The experiments’ main conclusion is that the Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is most likely to have a mass constrained to the range 116-130 GeV by the ATLAS experiment, and 115-127 GeV by CMS. Tantalising hints have been seen by both experiments in this mass region, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery.

Higgs bosons, if they exist, are short-lived and can decay in many different ways. Just as a vending machine might return the same amount of change using different combinations of coins, the Higgs can decay into different combinations of particles. Discovery relies on observing statistically significant excesses of the particles into which they decay rather than observing the Higgs itself. Both ATLAS and CMS have analysed several decay channels, and the experiments see small excesses in the low mass region that has not yet been excluded.

Taken individually, none of these excesses is any more statistically significant than rolling a die and coming up with two sixes in a row. What is interesting is that there are multiple independent measurements pointing to the region of 124 to 126 GeV. It’s far too early to say whether ATLAS and CMS have discovered the Higgs boson, but these updated results are generating a lot of interest in the particle physics community.

Hundreds of scientists from U.S. universities and institutions are heavily involved in the search for the Higgs boson at LHC experiments, said CMS physicist Boaz Klima of the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. “U.S. scientists are definitely in the thick of things in all aspects and at all levels,” he said.

More than 1,600 scientists, students, engineers and technicians from more than 90 U.S. universities and five U.S. national laboratories take part in the CMS and ATLAS experiments, the vast majority via an ultra-high broadband network that delivers LHC data to researchers at universities and national laboratories across the nation. The Department of Energy’s Office of Science and the National Science Foundation provide support for U.S. participation in these experiments. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is the host laboratory for the U.S. contingent on the CMS experiment, while Brookhaven National Laboratory hosts the U.S. ATLAS collaboration.

Over the coming months, both the CMS and ATLAS experiments will focus on refining their analyses in time for the winter particle physics conferences in March. The experiments will resume taking data in spring 2012.

“We’ve now analyzed all or most of the data taken in 2011 in some of the most important Higgs search analyses,” said ATLAS physicist Rik Yoshida of Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. “I think everybody’s very surprised and pleased at the pace of progress.”

Higgs-hunting scientists on experiments at U.S. particle accelerator the Tevatron will also present results in March.

Discovering the type of Higgs boson predicted in the Standard Model would confirm a theory first put forward in the 1960s.

Even if the experiments find a particle where they expect to find the Higgs, it will take more analysis and more data to prove it is a Standard Model Higgs. If scientists found subtle departures from the Standard Model in the particle’s behavior, this would point to the presence of new physics, linked to theories that go beyond the Standard Model. Observing a non-Standard Model Higgs, currently beyond the reach of the LHC experiments with the data they’ve recorded so far, would immediately open the door to new physics.

Another possibility, discovering the absence of a Standard Model Higgs, would point to new physics at the LHC’s full design energy, set to be achieved after 2014. Whether ATLAS and CMS show over the coming months that the Standard Model Higgs boson exists or not, the LHC program is closing in on new discoveries.

El Hierro Update

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El Hierro Volcano : Yellow-Red alert – Combined time lapse video with harmonic tremor graph

Last update: December 13, 2011 at 7:17 pm by By 

This is the most recent El Hierro Volcano eruption report

Update 13/12 – 19:15 UTC

A new 4’48″ Julio del Castillo Vivero time lapse video. The original images have been altered to bring up detail of the steam coming out of the water (ER : water vapor not a volcanic cloud) . Time Lapse comprehending the period between 16.35 – 17.32 GMT/UTC With water bubbling and ‘jacuzzi’ style at El Mar de las Calmas, near La Restinga, El Hierro.

 

Update 13/12 – 17:21 UTC
People still looking at the eruption webcam can see clearly the drifting water vapor .
To prove our case,  we have been increasing the contrast of the Telefonica Cabildo Eruption webcam image and below is the result. Above the active jacuzzi you can see the foggy water vapor, below the Las Calmas sea without the steam.

Steaming vent on December 13, 2011 on the Telefonica, Cabildo Eruption webcam

Update 13/12 – 15:50 UTC
Those looking at the webcam have the daily difficulty of the backlight of the sun. Nevertheless the eruption jacuzzi, champagne area can still be seen very well on the Cabildo Eruption webcam.

Update 13/12 – 15:34 UTC
A REMARKABLE 3 minute Julio del Castillo Vivero Time Lapse video comprehending the period between 12.42 – 13.42 GMT/UTC With water bubbling and ‘jacuzzi’ style at El Mar de las Calmas, near La Restinga, El Hierro.  Julio combined 3 different elements with each other a) the image of the RTVC webcam (which has no clock !) b) a clock he connected himself to the video and c) the harmonic tremor graph from IGN. Thecombination of the tremor graph and the webcam image has not been published anywhere else as far as we know. Congratulations to Julio.

Update 13/12 – 13:34 UTC
Currently another interesting feature can be followed on the webcam(s) – see image below
We think, but we are nor sure for 100%, that the current activity above the vent looks like degassing bubbles, which means if this process continues from now on that the bubbles of the vent gas expansion reach the surface.

RTVC webcam capture image showing strong degassing bubbles above the vent

To make our case, we have been surfing on the internet and came out at the activity of the Eifuku volcano located at the Mariana Islands arc.  The activity of the volcano was videotaped by the Ropos rov (Remotely Operated submarine Vehicle). The vent of the volcano was in this case 1350 meter below sea level.  A similar kind of activity may be the case here. The images below are courtesy vulkaner.no.  People who want to find out more about these pictures can click on the vulkaner.no link.

Champagne emitting vents in a submarine volcano at the Mariana Islands – image courtesy vulkaner.no

Data Update 13/12 – 13:25 UTC
As we told you yesterday, Joke felt that she had to take the bus from El Pinar to La Restinga enabling her to take pictures from the Las Calmas sea and surroundings. The series below are very beautiful.  Unfortunately there was other weather today than yesterday (a cloud deck) and our experiment to show the vent making clouds has not succeeded today.  One picture in the series shows however a low cloud forming above the vent. It might have been also in this case purely coincidence :) . If you want to see the pictures in full format, please click in the main picture screen.

Data Update 13/12 – 13:15 UTC
It is very unfortunate that the Guardia Civil helicopter is not flying above the vent anymore. It would enabled us to compare the present jacuzzi with the earlier ones.  Reader Penny  did send us a Cabildo Telefonica webcam capture of bulging water this morning.
– the jacuzzi is keeping his strength
– still NO earthquakes
– the tremor signal seems to have subsided a little unless IGN did some rescaling of the graph. Bursts are less frequent than this morning and yesterday.

Image captured this morning on the Cabildo Telefonica webcam by reader Penny

Update 13/12 – 10:21 UTC – A round of honor to the players in the field
We remind our readers that what we witness right now at El Hierro is unprecedented volcano reporting in modern times. A Submarine volcano gradually growing from the sea floor to the surface. Thanks to the data of IGN, IEO and CSIC, the great images and videos from INVOLCAN, ITER and the GUARDIA CIVIL HELICOPTERES , the lively discussions and guiding in Spanish from AVCAN and in English from Jonfr and Volcanocafe , the webcams of the El Hierro Cabildo and Telefonica, RTVC and the Canary Island government and the El Pinar authority, the time lapse videos from Julio del Castillo Vivero, some internet sites (ER is only one of them) and last but not least the support of our volunteers, Joke Volta and Ian Carson, a submarine volcano has never been documented so much.  We thank all of them on behalf of the thousands of daily readers following this volcano birth in the earthquake-report.com website.

Update 13/12 – 10:21 UTC
– The RTVC webcam is showing a very turbulent Jacuzzi activity. The hydromagmatic bursts are having a growing impact on the surface waters and more than once the water is bulging.

Update 13/12 – 09:49 UTC
– Joke is still taking pictures at montaña Naos of this mornings cloud, jacuzzi and stain. The weather conditions are however totally different than yesterday, so we think that yesterdays vapor clouds may not be present today.
– As expected, a VERY large and powerful Jacuzzi this morning. How do we see this ? During the last couple of weeks the Telefonica Cabildo webcam had to zoom into the jacuzzi sometimes beyond the buoy (laid there a couple of weeks ago). In todays image the webcam had to zoom out to be able to get an image of the extended jacuzzi. The jacuzzi activity is growing every day

Red point : Buoy – Jacuzzi December 13 – courtesy Cabildo and Telefonica El Hierro

Data Update 13/12 – 06:25 UTC
– NO earthquakes
– Medium harmonic tremor with periods of strong bursts and periods of lesser bursts

Data Update 12/12 – 22:22 UTC
INVOLCAN new CO² data shows a considerable further decrease. On December 5  the amount of carbon dioxide amounted to 1560 ton daily, yesterday 978 tons.

Data Update 12/12 – 21:21 UTC
Lets talk something serious now :
– NO earthquakes today
– Medium harmonic tremor with bursts every 5 to 10 minutes (hydromagmatic activity – see link to paper below). This happened all the day long – see graph.

Harmonic tremor graph December 12 2011 – image courtesy IGN

for more information, photos, videos, etc., go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/

Allen/Alien Telescope Array Targets SETI

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SETI Search Resumes at Allen Telescope Array, Targeting New Planets

ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2011) — The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is once again searching planetary systems for signals that would be evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Among its first targets are some of the exoplanet candidates recently discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.

The Allen Telescope Array. (Credit: Image courtesy of SETI Institute)

“This is a superb opportunity for SETI observations,” said Jill Tarter, the Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute. “For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems — including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analog in the habitable zone around its host star. That’s the type of world that might be home to a civilization capable of building radio transmitters.”

The ATA had been placed in hibernation mode last April as the result of the withdrawal of the SETI Institute’s former partner, U.C. Berkeley, due to budgetary shortfalls. Berkeley was the operator of the Hat Creek Observatory in northern California where the ATA is located. With new funding recently acquired for observatory operations, the ATA can resume SETI observations where it left off: examining the thousands of new candidate planets found by Kepler. Highest priority will be given to the handful of worlds discovered so far that are located in their star’s habitable zone: the range of orbital radii where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist. Most astrobiologists consider that liquid water is the sine qua non for life.

“In SETI, as with all research, preconceived notions such as habitable zones could be barriers to discovery,” adds Tarter. “So, with sufficient future funding from our donors, it’s our intention to examine all of the planetary systems found by Kepler.”

Observations over the next two years will allow a systematic exploration of these Kepler discoveries across the entire, naturally-quiet 1 to 10 GHz terrestrial microwave window. The ATA is unique in providing ready access to tens of millions of channels at any one time, anywhere in this 9 billion channel range (each channel is 1 Hz wide). Until recently many SETI searches focused on limited frequency ranges, including a small number of observations at the 8.67 GHz spin-flip transition of the 3He+ ion, proposed by the team of Bob Rood (University of Virginia) and Tom Bania (Boston University). In memory of Rood, who died November 2, the initial ATA search of Kepler targets this week will focus around the 8.67 GHz band, before moving on to examine the billions of channels available for observation at the ATA.

The restart of SETI work at the ATA has been made possible thanks to the interest and generosity of the public who supported SETI research via the www.SETIStars.org web site. Additional funds necessary for observatory re-activation and operations are being provided by the United States Air Force as part of a formal assessment of the instrument’s utility for Space Situational Awareness (see www.seti.org/afspc for more information).

“Kepler’s success has created an amazing opportunity to focus SETI research. While discovery of new exoplanets via Kepler is backed with government monies, the search for evidence that some of these worlds might be home to intelligence falls to SETI alone. And our SETI exploration depends entirely on private donations, for which we are deeply grateful to our donors,” notes Tarter.

“The year-in and year-out fundraising challenge we tackle in order to conduct SETI research is an absolute human and organizational struggle, yet it is well worth the hard work to help Jill’s team address what is one of humanity’s most profound research questions,” says Tom Pierson, CEO of the SETI Institute.

The public can follow the new ATA observations via theSETIStars.org web site and can read more about the overall work of the SETI Institute at www.seti.org. The SETI Institute is proud to be a supporting partner in NASA’s Kepler mission — see http://goo.gl/ykFTf.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the SETI Institute is a non-profit research organization that addresses the question of the origin, nature, and prevalence of life beyond Earth.

From:   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111207134852.htm