Moonhowlings

From Huffingtonpost.com  :

WASHINGTON — Sea level has been rising significantly over the past century of global warming, according to a study that offers the most detailed look yet at the changes in ocean levels during the last 2,100 years.

The researchers found that since the late 19th century – as the world became industrialized – sea level has risen more than 2 millimeters per year, on average. That’s a bit less than one-tenth of an inch, but it adds up over time.

It will lead to land loss, more flooding and saltwater invading bodies of fresh water, said lead researcher Benjamin Horton whose team examined sediment from North Carolina’s Outer Banks. He directs the Sea Level Research Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania.

The predicted effects he cites aren’t new and are predicted by many climate scientists. But outside experts say the research verifies increasing sea level rise compared to previous centuries. Read more…

Despite what you read or hear climate change is just a communist pinko hoax started by the Democrats to make people afraid.  Global warming simply cannot be. 

[sarcasm button on]

Joplin, Missouri was practically wiped off the face of the earth last Sunday.  The tales coming out of this town are heartbreaking.  I have never heard such tales of horror.  Now this town braces for another round of bad weather.  Surely this town won’t get hit a second time.

Of particular interest is the story of the graduate, on the way home from graduation, who was sucked out of his family car and has not been seen since.  What does a tornado do with people?  Are people dumped down, miles from home? 

This spring has been a nightmare, between Tuscaloosa and Joplin, the two areas hardest hit. These locations are not the only areas hit and not the only areas where people have lost their lives, but their names will be synonymous with the Titanic after the dust settles.  Flooding is a horrible problem for those living along the Mississippi River.  Billions of dollars have been lost in crops, homes,, human life.  Weather predictors say 18 hurricanes will be nameable.  That’s a lot of hurricanes.

Until man can control his environment, we will always be at the mercy of Mother Nature.  And yes, she is still a bitch.   We can put men and women in space.  We can predict hurricanes.  We cannot control volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding (to some degree) lightning or tornadoes.  We are at their their mercy and may always be. 

Towns like Joplin simply make me speechless. 

A recent spate of tornadoes  has left more than 280 people dead, 5 of them in southwest Virginia.  50 Virginians were injured.  The governor has declared a state of emergency.  This move will allow Virginia agencies to assist local governments with clean up. 

According to the Washington Post:

Tornado warnings were issued across the D.C. suburbs early Thursday morning. Fast-moving bands of storms packed high winds and torrential rains. A funnel cloud formed over Point of Rocks in Frederick County shortly before 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service, but there were no reports of tornadoes touching down in the immediate area Thursday morning.

There were widespread reports of damaged trees, including one that fell across Route 109 in Barnesville and another that landed on an electric line in Middleburg, according to the Weather Service.

Read more…

An article was published March 10, 2011 about astrologers thinking that the super large moon on March 19 would trigger natural disasters.  March 10th was the day before the horrible 9.1 earthquake that set of the chain of events that has crippled the nation of Japan. 

According to Yahoo. com:

On March 19, the moon will swing around Earth more closely than it has in the past 18 years, lighting up the night sky from just 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers) away. On top of that, it will be full. And one astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet.

Richard Nolle, a noted astrologer who runs the website astropro.com, has famously termed the upcoming full moon at lunar perigee (the closest approach during its orbit) an “extreme supermoon.”

When the moon goes super-extreme, Nolle says, chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth. (It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.)

But do we really need to start stocking survival shelters in preparation for the supermoon?

Judging from the past week, the answer must be YES.  We have had  earthquakes, tsunamis,  nuclear disasters, and volcanic eruptions.  Read more…

Simon Winchester continues his discussion of geological history and assures us that a major earthquake along the west coast is inevitable.  In the video, he talks about the San Andreas fault line and the Cascadia subduction zone which runs from California to Vancouver, B.C.  The Cascadia fault would be under water which would create tsunamis. 

Much area along the west coast is coastal highway with only one way out.  The area is flat and if everyone tried to leave at once, the roads would become parking lots. 

For every Winchester, there are nay-sayers who say “the big one” will not be like what happened in Japan.  Further south, two nuclear plants, San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, both in Southern California, are built along fault lines.  Both are built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.  That would not pass muster in last weeks Japanese quake.  Those with California Emergency Management seem to be assured and  us that they are ready.  That statement seems to ignore the fact that even though something is very improbable, that doesn’t make it impossible. 

We can only wait and see if the earthquake cluster theory has validity.  There is also some concern on the part of geologists that the super-volcano Yellowstone is due for a dust up.  Any eruption of Yellowstone would be disastrous for not just that region but the entire country and Canada because of fallout from the eruption.

Again, now is not the time to cut back on any safety precautions that can help us be ready to  survive major attacks from Mother Nature, whether it is hurricane, tornado, and other storm rediction, or earthquake, volcano and tsunami warnings.  Our very lives might depend on it.  Looking back just 6 years should remind us of the ferocity of Katrina and how there are just some things you can never be totally ready for.

A starving North Korea is begging for food from foreign nations.  Flood, a brutal winter, and livestock disease has made the situation worse in a country where malnutrition is already a way of life.  The North Korean government has ordered its embassy personnel to basically beg.  It is currently betting from Japan, a country that North Korea usually threatens.

The United States cut off food aid several years ago over concerns about nuclear transparency.  It has said it has no plans to start up again.   The UN Food Program has said it will only contribute food for another month.

According to the Washington Post:

The request has put the United States and other Western countries in the uncomfortable position of having to decide whether to ignore the pleas of a starving country or pump food into a corrupt distribution system that often gives food to those who need it least.

We have always been a generous nation, even with our enemies, at least in the 20th century.  North Korea is simply too much of a problem to start giving hand outs.   A country that won’t play by the rules and issues threats all the time is in no position to be asking favors.  On the other hand, there are starving people.  The question we must ask ourselves is, would the starving  people even get the food?  I would give food only if I could distribtute it to those in need.  If our troops went anywhere near there to give food, they would probably fire on them.

What do you think we should do?

Notice North Korea at night.  The people have no electricity:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is certainly the star of the giant east coast December snow storm.  He is twittering all over the place and out there rescuing people in destress.  He might even be wearing a superman cape.  He has delivered diapers to a family who was out, helped shovel out cars,

According to the New York Daily News:

Trapped in Newark after Blizzard 2010? Mayor Cory Booker wants to rescue you – and he’s only a tweet away.

Booker has been tweeting up a storm, personally responding to tweets from citizens stranded by snowed-over streets. For days, Newark’s hero mayor has helped dig out buried cars and snowy roads – and even delivered diapers to a stranded Newark family.

“Highland Ave b/w Bal and Berk not touched yet. My sis can’t get out to get diapers,” Timothy Hester frantically tweeted Booker. Hester lives in Virginia and tweeted the mayor on behalf of his snowbound sister Barbara, who lives in Newark.

The valiant mayor tweeted back, “I’m delivering the diapers now. We will get to her street soon.”

Read more…

The Winter Solstice has been observed in most cultures since time began.  It signaled the shortest day of the year.  The growing season had stopped in the northern latitudes.  Early people looked on winter as a time of dread.  In ancient times, many people didn’t make it through the winter.  They died or their loved ones died.  They battled the elements, faced starvation, ran out of fuel, and were often ravaged by disease.  Winter was deadly to early people.  Even as late as last century, winter could spell destruction  for people.  Depending on where you live and your circumstances, winter can be deadly even in our modern culture. 

Today we know that the solstice is caused by the tilt of the earth’s axis.  For the unscientific, we say that solstice is the shortest day and the longest night  of the year.  The ancients celebrated.  They knew something was up celestially.  They knew that the days had been getting shorter since what we know think of as June 21.  And they knew that now they had hard months ahead but that the days were going to get longer and there would be more sunlight. 

Non-pagan peoples also have their roots in this seasonal event.  Jews, Christians and Muslims all have festival days associated with the Winter Solstice.  Hanukkah and Christmas nearly always occur around the same time.  Perhaps early Christians used this time to convert pagans to Christianity.  After all, they were celebrating hope. 

It was critical to early man to renew.  That fear that the sun might never reappear gave way to great joy near the Solstice that the sun would come back and life would begin anew.  Meanwhile, the ancients prayed to their gods to make it happen. 

The ancients underwent Herculean efforts to mark and observe the Solstices.  Stonehenge, Maeshowe in Scotland and Newgrange in Ireland all align special light during  the equinoxes and solstices.  Each structure highlights an important aspect of astronomical light.  The fairly new field of archaeo-astronomy has thousands of examples of ancient man observing these celestial turning points.  North America has its own sites, the most famous being the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. 

Generally we think of solar and lunar architecture as being druid or celtic.  However, there are examples all over the world and on every continent except Antarctica.   In America many people incorporate the ancient symbols of the Winter Solstice in Christmas or Hanakah.  Observers of pagan based religions practice the old ways.

While most cultures celebrated the Winter Solstice, one might ask, why celebrate?   Good question.  All sorts of superstitions and rituals were performed for good luck and to ward off bad things and evil that could happen.  Of all early people, the Celts are probably the group many of us are most familiar with who celebrated Winter Solstice.

In Celtic myth, the Holly king and the Oak king, twins,  were in a continual struggle for  domination.  At the Winter Solstice, the Holly King is overpowered and the Oak King rules until he is overthrown at the Summer Solstice.  Winter Solstice is a time for celebration because it marks the beginning of the days getting longer.  The cycle of the year is represented by this turmoil of continual struggle.  Neither can exist without the other.

Many of our Christmas traditions include pagan ritual involving Winter Solstice.  Yule logs, Christmas trees, Santa Claus, Mistletoe,  the date of Christmas,  holly, the colors red and green, wreaths, and ivy all have roots in pagan culture or in other religions.  Religions do not just spring up in isolation.  They merge and infuse and often take the old beliefs and remodel them into newer ones. 

So regardless of your religion or culture, you are sure to find a fit somewhere in the winter holiday season around the Winter Solstice.  Most of us are fortunate enough to be able to throw another log on the fire and sit back and let the winds howl outside.

Winter Solstice Information

Music Tributes under the fold

Read more…

This Tuesday brings a special treat for Winter Solstice.  Not only is it Solstice but also there will be a full moon.  And it just gets better.  There will be a full eclipse of the full moon.  The eclipse starts  on Tuesday morning, Dec. 21st, at 1:33 am. As it begins, the earth’s shadow will appear as a dark-red bite at the edge of the moon.  It takes about an hour for the “bite” to swallow the entire Moon. Total eclipse is  at 02:41 am  and lasts for 72 minutes.

If you aren’t planning to enjoy the entire eclipse in the dead of winter in the middle of the night, choose this moment: 03:17 am.  That’s when the moon will be  displaying  the most vivid  shades of coppery red.  The next full eclipse of a full moon on Solstice will be December 21, 2094.  I expect to miss that one.  This Solstice is a very special celestial treat, if the weather holds out.

Interactive charts and maps

Batten down the hatches, here comes Earl. And if Earl doesn’t get us there is Fiora out there and then some unnamed menace behind her. Yes, the hurricane season is upon us.

Right now, the most eminent danger is Earl who is classified as a category 4 hurricane at present. The Outer Banks and coastal North Carolina are right in his path. The weird thing about hurricanes is that they have a mind of their own. Earl could slam North Carolina or it could veer right abruptly and head on out to sea, to die a slow death as it reaches colder waters. No one totally understand hurricanes.

A century ago, before weather instruments were as exact, people didn’t have much warning about hurricanes. Huge killer storms  were right on top of people before they knew what hit them.  Hundreds, even thousands were killed.  I am sure people felt the air, the fallen barometeric pressure , and saw extra mushrooms coming up in unexpected places. But they didn’t always heed what little warning they did have.  Folks in Texas, along the Gulf Coast and Florida probably have been beaten up the most from these killer monster storms. They are not alone, however.

  Read more…

Lightning show out of Sarasota, Florida.

National Weather Service: Lightning Safety

19 people have been killed in the U.S. so far this year by lightning.

Moan, bitch, beef, whine, complain. It is just freaking hot out there. For the past 24 hours I have been without air conditioning and my neighborhood has lost electricity 3 times today. The first episode of no-juice was for over an hour.

Elliot (the Wonderful…..who has been cursed by me many times over since last night at 8 pm) finally rescued us today. He is our heating/cooling tech specialist. We weren’t getting the full 240 voltage to kick on the AC, so when it took a break, it couldn’t kick back on. Lafayette diagnosed the problem before Elliot ever got there. She said she just didn’t think they were giving us enough juice. She was right, although Elliot was more scientific.

For future reference, the Red Roof Inn takes pets. I was headed there when Elliot showed up. I had packed a tooth brush, dog food and water bowl, the ipad and a laptop and the latest netflix movie. I figured when I was done with that one I could call up one on the ipad.

What are the contributors doing during this horrible weather? Emma, how many movies total have you watched? I haven’t heard one nay-sayer anywhere make one of the usual snide cracks about global warming. If I had a choice, I would take a blizzard. My furnace is more reliable than the ac.

This weather is totally extreme. Who has the statistics?

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I love Rolling Thunder! They evolved out of the Vietnam War. As they came back from Vietnam, often bewildered, it was like time had stood still. Did they quietly accept that they had fought in an unpopular war and to suck it up and move on? Oh hell no.

Enjoy the roar

And from another perspective…ride along with them.

Rolling Thunder 2009 – Ride of the Patriots – Fairfax to Arlington