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lensman51

The Environment

Giant Antarctic Ice Bridge Collapses

By Laurie J. Schmidt Posted on 4.15.2009 13 Comments
A 25-mile-long ice bridge that linked the Wilkins Ice Shelf to Charcot Island on the Antarctic Peninsula has collapsed. NASA satellite imagery shows that the bridge's disintegration occurred sometime between March 31 and April 6. Scientists had been keeping a close eye on the bridge since last March, anticipating its collapse following dramatic changes that have taken place on the Wilkins Shelf in recent years.

5.16.2009 at 10:23am - Comment by lensman51

lensman51: Most inhabited land is low level on our existing continents and a fair part of that inhabited land is coastal. A small rise in sea level by loss of Antarctic and other ice (earlier comment said to be a good thing, provocatively?) will have a major impact on humanity!!! More than half the world's population lives within 60 km of the shoreline, and this could rise to three quarters by the year 2020 (source: www.globaloceans.org) If there gets to be a few thousand square kilometers ice free in the Antarctic and if farm fishing is not an option, there are not many crops that grow well on bare rock! It takes a long time for soil fertility to increase and all the known main food crops are only viable within tight temperature bands and the warmer Antarctic climate may not be warm enough for their liking. If you throw in changes in the salinity of the ocean then the circulatory dynamics of the world's oceans (called the Ocean Conveyor)could cause a sudden and long term new pattern of ocean currents. Its the difference between a mild or harsh climate at higher latitudes were warm currents run alongside coastal areas. Air temperature above the oceans warmed by just a few degrees could stoke up the power of hurricanes as well as significant changes in the 'Jetstream' and other wind patterns around the planet so long standing climatic changes could be the result. Experts can't predict the detail but quite a few accept the idea of sudden change at an unknown tipping point. Loosing Ice Bridges of some considerable size seems to me to be consistent with that tipping point process: i.e. we will wake up one morning to see significant change which is a bit late in the day to complain about or act on. Ice that has melted means less sunlight reflected so that the oceans warm up and as global temperature increases, re-freezing is ruled out awaiting other changes such as a major volcanic dust cloud around the earth to drop surface temperatures down again. The Arctic and Greenland are not doing too well with really big numbers involved: ice down by up to 57% at the September to September assessment point between 1953 and 2006 (source J Stroeve, MM Holland, W Meier, T Scambos, M … - Geophysical Research Letters, 2007 - smithpa.demon.co.uk). Does anyone want to comment on these chilling facts?
Gadgets

Pentium Prosecution

By Stuart Fox Posted on 5.13.2009 21 Comments
Since 2001, the European Union's (EU) anti-trust regulators have investigated complaints that chip maker Intel engaged in anti-competitive practices. They accused Intel of of paying retailers not to sell computers with AMD chips, and for using its position as the number-one chip manufacturer to muscle around competition. Today, the EU handed down the decision in the form of a $1.4 billion fine, the largest in European history.

5.16.2009 at 08:51am - Comment by lensman51

lensman51: $1.45 Billion in what? The media are good at quoting a single figure but don't relate it to anything else such as the total size of the market (B$) or the E.U. estimate of the actual benefit derived (B$) as a result of breaking the rules that others abide by. I am sad to see this happen as I have a relative who works for Intel so on the one hand some of the resources that could have gone on innovation will go elsewhere and that will impact jobs. On the other hand how many jobs were lost in the E.U. and elsewhere through unfair competition? Microsoft seemed to set a precedent years ago by paying a regular US anti-competitive fine and continuing to be anti-competitive because it simply payed them to do that. Is it so surprising that that governments and the E.U. finally start to take some action to correct bad habits?
Science

The First Few Minutes After Death

By Sam Barrett Posted on 10.31.2008 23 Comments
After countless accounts of near-death experiences, dating as far back as ancient Greece, science is now taking serious steps forward to explore the nature of the phenomenon. A new project aims to determine whether the experience is a physiological event or evidence that the human consciousness is far more complicated than we ever believed.

11.4.2008 at 07:38pm - Comment by lensman51

lensman51 Just a small clarification for Michael Taylor's comment: Our main existence as species spirit, as related by people on that side of life, takes place in a timeless environment which is event driven: part of us belongs to that timeless environment now but is linked to our human side which is tied to the material world with the predictable sensory experience of a timeline. If you are interested in learning more there are books dictated from the higher side using people on this side of life to jot them down and I can recommend 'The Universe of Silver Birch' to fill in some of the spiritual side in a question and answer format that tends to say how things are clearly and concisely but is descriptive in character rather than technical. On the physics side I note that Julian Barbour in 'The End of Time', derives all the equations of Newtonian physics and Einsteinian space-time and Quantum Mechanics from first principles by starting from a timeless environment. He is quite good at presenting concepts and leading the reader through the simplified environment of Triangle Land to end up in the timeless universe of 'Platonia'. By page 326 he considers if there is a role for a creator as his mathematical treatment presupposes structure that would have to have come from somewhere and on page 327 he ironically considers where Heaven might be! I suspect this is a much more profound unification than he realizes as the deeper experiential reality of our multiverse did not figure in his treatment which was limited simply to unifying the physics of the macro-world with the markedly different physics of the micro-world.
Science

The First Few Minutes After Death

By Sam Barrett Posted on 10.31.2008 23 Comments
After countless accounts of near-death experiences, dating as far back as ancient Greece, science is now taking serious steps forward to explore the nature of the phenomenon. A new project aims to determine whether the experience is a physiological event or evidence that the human consciousness is far more complicated than we ever believed.

11.4.2008 at 09:16am - Comment by lensman51

I suspect that a successful study if published in a recognized scientific journal could change some of the norms within the N.H.S. and allow anecdotal evidence from nurses witnessing the 'life to the next stage of life' transition with their psychic senses, to be more freely shared. One thing that is easily checkable is the loss of bodyweight of approx 4 ounces /125 grams at the point of death: a 'litmus test' well suited to laboratory standards would be a huge missed opportunity if not included. I have had a first hand account of weight loss (also referred to separately, anecdotally) from a forensic pathologist who used to work at Hendon Police College: Geoff Fried. I can only urge that this weight check is done and is verified in time by separate studies so that the boundaries of science can be officially pushed back a fraction more. It remains to be seen if the current scientific study can create a new facet which has its own scientific validity. I hope that valid scientific findings can be produced. The chance of publication in a scientific journal of a successful study is however slim as the peer review process is designed to kill any new science which is not an incremental step from existing textbook science but best of luck anyway! I believe as a member of a scientific forum with a fair number of skeptics and nothing wrong with that by the way, that the main stumbling block to progress is the reluctance within orthodox science to acknowledge our higher sensory potential. Perhaps the Buddhist meditator who commented earlier could make room for me on his mountainside while I serenely watch the developments. I know from my own personal experience of interacting with those who have already made their transitions and also though the 'linking' or 'channeling' process that forms a bridge for the transmission of healing energies in 'spiritual healing', which is a recognized therapy grouping, regulated in the UK through 'UK Healers' that we do indeed live in a rich 'multiverse'. Perhaps the Divine Plan is that we each have to make the effort ourselves though our own spiritual development to experience it first hand!