June 29, 2011

Tron-Themed Audi R8 - MyWishlist, lol


What we have here is a chrome-plated Tron-themed Audi R8, engineered by Pimp My Ride vehicular tricksters West Coast Customs, which (we imagine) is (probably) faster than a lightcycle. This version of the R8, however, isn’t quite so subtle — with glowing rims, glowing vents, a glowing back seat and a chrome finish so perfectly reflective that you can check your hair and makeup in the car’s bonnet. All the glowing bits gradually fade through a series of colours too, for added Tron-style excellence. This thing would be perfect cruising the streets of South Beach surrounded by neons and hot babes flocking, yea my 1992 Taurus will have to do until I get this thing.


More pics of this bad boy found below






June 25, 2011

Microorganisms Under a Microscope

Are you used to have seen one of these creatures? Yes, if you are a lover of Microbiology, and “swallow” everything that has to do with this topic. Otherwise, they are all around us, but you can not see them because they are too small. Hidden, tucked, this small but very complex beings live their lives. Their external structure reminiscent of the animals much larger than them. The diversity of microorganisms is really amazing and interesting, and these photographs enable us to learn more about the world around us, which is incredible.
microorganisms under a microscope01
microorganisms under a microscope02
microorganisms under a microscope03
microorganisms under a microscope04
microorganisms under a microscope05
microorganisms under a microscope06
microorganisms under a microscope07
microorganisms under a microscope08
microorganisms under a microscope09
microorganisms under a microscope10
microorganisms under a microscope11
microorganisms under a microscope12

TOP 20 Strategy Games, We use to play some a lot... :D

Throughout the centuries people have enjoyed games. From simple ones to pass the time to more complex ones that use strategy and challenge the participants to compete intellectually and have been called mental sports. Man’s love of competition and play has evolved over recent decades and there are far more choices now than ever before. For the list I have skipped video and online games, sticking with those that have actual physical pieces. No exclusions were made based on whether they are better with 2 or multiple players. In the 17th and 18th century, being a great gamer was admired as often top military leaders played wargames to determine different scenarios and plan attacks.
Today gaming is simultaneously more popular yet often considered as nerdy. Hopefully this list will inspire some people to try out new games or dig their old ones out of the closet.
20
Dominoes
12th Century
Dominoes 3Sfw
The game features bones (tiles) with a number of pips on them. Players match them up trying to empty their hands by matching one of the numbers with one of the free numbers on the table. Dominoes are also noted for being able to stand on end in long rows so that when one is knocked over they all fall in a row. A popular pasttime is lining up hundreds or thousands of dominoes to make designs when they fall.

19
Checkers/Draughts
3000 BCE Persia
Checkers
This popular game among children features discs which move along an 8×8 grid jumping opponent’s pieces to remove them from the game. It does feature pure strategy and no luck (outside of tournament play) but tends to be simplistic by today’s standards. In the 1930s Tournament play began reducing the number of draws by introducing random starting moves.
18
Monopoly
1935 Darrow/Parker Brothers
Monopoly-Box
The world’s most popular and imitated boardgame features players as landlords trying to buy properties, build houses and hotels, and monopolize areas for higher prices. A trading aspect is popular. The game has undergone criticism as being too simplistic but is still considered a classic by many and is a great game for kids. The economic aspects are highly balanced however and common rules variants such as collecting money while landing on free parking tend to remove the strategy turning it into a luck based game.
17
Scrabble
1938 various manufacturers
Scrabble Tiles
The game played on a 15×15 grid features players spelling out words for points. The game features areas with double or triple letter or word score and letters have more points if they are less commonly used. Fanatical players have actually gone as far as memorizing all the acceptable words from the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. Be warned, if someone you don’t know offers to play you for 10 cents a point as they might be able to win by many hundreds of points.
16
Kensington
1979 Forbes-Taylor
32513
This game has undeservedly remained relatively obscure since its creation but is on par with the best in the world. The game is played on an unusually designed board of 7 interconnecting rings made of triangles, squares and hexagons. One of those games that takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. You place pieces each round trying to control areas and you do have the option of moving opponents pieces to areas of your choosing.
15
Backgammon
Backgammon Board3
Versions of this game have been popular ranging as far back as 3000 BCE in Egypt, Persia, and Rome. The game involves some luck with dice rolling and some strategy with planning moves. It has been very popular since the 1700s as a strategy/gambling game. Today there are a number of clubs devoted to it and a world championship held each year in Monte Carlo.
14
Risk
1957 Parker Brothers
Risk-Game-Of-Global-Domination
The original mass produced world conquest game has each player send their armies into battle to take over continents and finally the world. Play has a large random element with dice rolls, a good amount of strategy, and is fun for the making of alliances and the
eventual backstabbing when they no longer suit you.
13
Diplomacy
1959 Games Research
400X00100
Similar in some ways to Risk this world conquest game has a unique twist. Before each round players go off in pairs with each other making deals. “If you send troops to attack him here I will attack him here”. They negotiate this way with each other. “He is planning to move to attack you here so fortify it and he will be weak here so I will attack him there” After everyone has made plans this way they write down on paper what they actually do which can range from anticlimactic to shockingly unexpected.
12
Mah Jong
Mahjongcv
Developed about 2500 years ago in ancient China this game (not to be confused with the Mah Jong solitaire game which has been a popular video game in different versions) caused a sensation when introduced into the west around 1920. It became a fad among the middle and upper classes and today vintage sets from that era are sought after collectibles, however be warned many had tiles made of ivory and ownership can be illegal in some areas.
11
Tactics II
1958 Avalon Hill
Tactics Ii Cover
The original Tactics published in 1954 was a predecessor to this classic. Avalon Hill was known as THE wargame company and produced strategy “chit based” games on virtually every major battle in history. This was the one that started the entire wargame genre and without it there likely wouldn’t have been many of the newer games on the list.
10
Bridge
Bridge
19th century developed from earlier games. This is the king of trick taking card games. Teams work together to try and make books after bidding on how many they expect to take and the suit to be considered trump. Not as popular as it once was, there are still a number of fans and newspaper columns devoted to the strategy of the game appear in many newspapers on a regular basis.
9
Civilization
1981 Avalon Hill
Civilization-4-2
The opposite of the conquer the world type games this is about developing societies through trade and cooperation with other players. You need to help your fellow players in order to advance your own societies and the game has a good moral lesson as well as being highly fun to play. An online version of the game has been remarkably successful as well.
8
Dungeons and Dragons
800Px-Dungeons And Dragons Game
While this one barely qualifies on the physical pieces requirement it has to make the list based on originality and long lasting appeal. In 1974 Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) a small company that produced wargames produced this based on their chainmail game of wargame rules. The longest lasting and most popular of the RPG (Role playing game) genre has each player create a fantasy (typically middle ages style) character while a DM (Dungeon Master) creates a story scenario. The players then work as a team to solve the created problems such as battling monsters, negotiating with NPCs(Non player characters run by the DM), disarming traps, and rescuing damsels in distress. The role playing part can range from minor bad acting out of fantasies to seriously talented (I’ve seen a few people who could be on the stage with their skill) but the strategic part is what interests many players. There have been several editions over the years with different rules so be sure your group uses the same set that you do. The game suffered a bad reputation in 1982 when an exploitive TV movie was made about a teenage player using the game as a way to plan the murder of his stepfather.
7
Settlers of Catan
1995 Klaus Teuber/Mayfair Games
Giant-Settlers
The game that established Germany as the most innovative game nation of the last decade has had tremendous worldwide popularity with many different versions (Seafarers of Catan/Starfarers of Catan). One of the cooperation/resource trading games genre it features gathering of the resources you have access to such as wood, grain, wool, and brick and trading extras to other players so that you can each build your areas. Played on a board of interconnecting hexagons, it can be rearranged for each new game creating different strategies each time.
6
Carcassonne
2000 Hans Im Gluck/Rio Grande Games
Carcassonne
This German game won the 2001 game of the year award and has been extremely popular worldwide with a number of optional expansion sets. Square tiles are drawn and feature a puzzle like design. Placed together in different ways the game board is built as you play as you try to build cities, roads, fields, and cloisters scoring points both along the way and at the end. One of the fun aspects in multiplayer is that no one gets eliminated along the way and has to sit and watch the surviving players.
5
Axis and Allies
c 1980 Nova Games. 1984 Milton Bradley
Axisallieseuropeboard
The ultimate world conquest game has been called “Risk on steroids”. Highly in depth rulebook and attractive playing pieces have made this THE World War II game. It features in depth strategy and even though it is dice based a minimal luck factor. Some players even eliminate the dice and just determine results of attacks based on odds. The original features the entire world war while later versions have been produced concentrating on Europe or the Pacific. A highly addictive game for many be warned to have enough time as games can take quite a while. I once played from 7pm to 6am, although 4 hours is usually enough time. Optional expansions both licensed and unlicensed have been produced.
4
Illuminati
1982 Steve Jackson Games
Illuminati-Cards
The ultimate game for conspiracy theorists and just silly fun for others. This game features cards for various groups and players work to each build their own conspiracies through them. Perhaps the FBI is controlling the Ford Motor Company, or the Semiconscious Liberation Army has secret plans regarding the IRS and Cattle Mutilators. Do South American Nazis really run the Nanotech Companies? Along with a traditional method of winning each player also has an individual victory goal which makes the game highly challenging. Special rule… cheating is both allowed and encouraged (other than stealing from the bank while collecting your normal income) as long as you don’t get caught.
3
Go
From about 2000 BCE Japan and China.
Go-Game
Former world chess champion Emanuel Lasker once said “although chess is probably confined to Earth, if there is intelligent life on other planets, surely they know Go.” Each player has stones of either white or black and take turns laying them on intersections of a 19×19 grid. Simple rules and infinitely complex strategies make this one of the greatest games ever.
2
Chess
Chess
(Predecessors from 600 BCE) India. What can be written about chess that hasn’t been? One of the most popular games worldwide for over 500 years this game has had more clubs devoted to it, more books written about it, more computer versions (one theory suggests computers were invented mainly to create chess programs) than any other game. The game masters the art of removing luck and leaving it purely at skill.
1
Poker
Poker Cards
The origins of the game are lost to history today but variants such as the French Poque have been around for 300 years. The most popular strategy game in the US and probably the world today is played regularly by tens of millions in the US alone. The game is about mastering luck in which the random element of the cards dealt is compensated for by the skills involved in betting, bluffing, calculating odds, and trying to figure out what your opponent has and will do. Poker has experienced an explosive growth in popularity over the last 6 years as televised matches among the top players have been very popular. Although there are many variants such as 7 card stud and Omaha High-Low, one of the lesser known ones worldwide, No Limit Texas Hold-em has been the most televised and seen the biggest boost. The World Championship held each year in Las Vegas is open to anyone with $10,000 to enter and often features celebrities (Don’t underestimate them! some like Gabe Kaplan, Sully Erna, Jennifer Tilly, and Montel Williams have had some notable results) and poker professionals, online players, and amateurs.

June 24, 2011

Well, what wil happen? 2012 theories, what they say, really...



In the near future, Earth could be faced with the threat of severe atmospheric activity, including solar explosions, near Earth asteroids, and geological anomalies. The Earth is currently traveling through the geological epoch known as the Holocene period. An epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale that is based on the study of rock layering. The Holocene began approximately 12,000 years ago and was preceded by the Pleistocene. The end of an epoch is characterized by extreme climate change and mass extinction. During Earth’s transition into the Holocene, the planet experienced the Quaternary extinction and the Younger Dryas global climate cooling event. Modern research conducted at the Russian Antarctic Vostok Station has suggested that we may soon be reaching the end of the Holocene. This was determined by studying the layers of the Earth’s crust through the process of massive ice core drilling. This revelation is a bit concerning with the current global climate disruption we are experiencing on Earth. Everyone is familiar with the current 2012 doomsday predictions. In December of 2012, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which was used by several Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, will reach the end of its 13th baktun. People have predicted that this indicates that a massive geological event will occur on Earth. This article will be examining some theories surrounding the sun, space and the 2012 severe weather patterns. Put yourself in the place of a high level government official. If you had direct information that a cataclysmic event was approaching Earth, would you suppress it from the public or announce it? The obvious answer is to hide it and secretly prepare for a response.

10
Holocene Impact Working Group
Tunguska Event Trees
The Holocene Impact Working Group is a collection of scientists from Australia, France, Ireland, Russia and the US, who hypothesize that meteorite impacts on Earth are more common than previously supposed. The group has suggested that the Earth experiences one large global impact every 1,000 years. They claim that the geological formation known as a chevron or a wedge-shaped sediment deposit observed on coastlines, are created by megatsunamis and asteroid impacts. This idea is controversial because other scientists proclaim that there have not been enough large impacts and landslides to explain all the observed chevrons in the world. The Impact Working Group understands that their research contradicts much of what is understood about impacts and tsunamis. However, they have gathered some significant results and located major impact zones on Earth. The most important being the Burckle Crater, which is an undersea crater located to the east of Madagascar and west of Western Australia in the southern Indian ocean. The position of the impact crater was found by the Working Group, based on evidence of prehistoric chevron dune formations in Australia and Madagascar.
The impact zone is very large and estimated to be about 30 km (18 mi) in diameter. The Burckle Crater has yet to be dated by radiometric analysis, but it is strongly believed that the object impacted Earth between the years 2800-3000 BC, which is only 5,000 years ago. Numerous cultures make references to an ancient flood during this time in history and a wide range of events point to a disaster on Earth, including the end of the Early Harappan Ravi Phase, the end of the pre-dynastic “antediluvian” rulers of the Sumerian civilization, the start of the First Dynasty of Kish, and the pre-Xia dynasty rule of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of China. In 2003, another impact zone was revealed off the New Zealand continental shelf. It has become known as Mahuika Crater. The impact zone is over 20 kilometers (12.5 mi) wide and over 153 meters deep. The findings are extremely interesting considering the fact that, around the year 1400, the natives of New Zealand totally abandoned their southern coastal settlements. The event has historically been attributed to an earthquake induced tsunami, but no specific earthquake could be identified. The Mahuika Crater explains the signs of megatsunamis in this area of the world. The massive crater has been dated to around 1443 A.D., which is only 567 years ago. Earth’s most recent encounter with a meteoroid or comet is known as the Tunguska event. In 1908, a large explosion was recorded near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Russia.
The blast was measured at between 15-30 megatons of TNT. It was equivalent to the Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb, tested on March 1, 1954, or about 1,000 times as powerful as the atomic bombs dropped during World War II. The explosion demolished an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers (830 sq mi). The Tunguska event is believed to have been caused by the near air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometers (3.1–6.2 mi) above the Earth’s surface, meaning that the comet never actually impacted Earth. It is generally believed that the object was approximately 20-40 meters (65-131 feet) across, which is clearly much smaller than the Burckle and Mahuika meteorites. The Tunguska event is the largest impact event over land in Earth’s recent history. However, all Impacts of a similar size over remote ocean areas would have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2002, The B612 Foundation was developed. The B612 is a private foundation dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes. Their immediate goal and mission statement is to “significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015.”

9
Solar Cycle 24
Suncombo1 Prev
The energy of the Sun supports all life on Earth. The Sun accounts for 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System and drives the Earth’s climate and weather. It is important that people understand the characteristics of the Sun and how it follows a solar cycle. In 1843, a German astronomer named Samuel Heinrich Schwabe discovered a pattern while observing the Sun over a 17 year period. He noticed a periodic variation in the number of sunspots recorded on the Sun. It has since been realized that sunspots indicate intense magnetic activity on the Sun, creating areas of reduced surface temperature. Sunspots produce solar flares in the regions surrounding them. A solar flare is a large explosion in the Sun’s atmosphere that propels radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. Solar flares are dangerous and can cause mass bursts of solar wind and even geomagnetic storms on Earth.
Every 10.7 years the Sun passes through a solar cycle. The cycle directly changes space weather patterns and impacts climate on Earth. The solar cycle is marked by two extremes, a solar maximum and a solar minimum. The solar minimum is the period of least solar activity, where the sunspot and solar flare ratio diminishes. The opposite end of the spectrum is the solar maximum, where the Sun is peppered with sunspots, solar flares erupt, and clouds of electrified gas are hurled into space. Since 1755, there have been 23 solar cycles. In 2008, the Earth entered Solar Cycle 24. It is predicted that the solar maximum for cycle 24 will peak in 2013. Solar Cycle 24 has been the center of a heated discussion among the Internet community. Various proponents of the 2012 phenomenon use the cycle as evidence that a cataclysmic doomsday event will occur on Earth. In 2008 and 2009, the Sun experienced a deep solar minimum. This has concerned many scientists, including people like Mike Hapgood, who is the head of the European Space Agency’s space weather team. He has predicted that the resulting solar maximum in 2013 will be the biggest we have seen in 100 years.
In 2009, Hapgood was quoted as saying, “We’re in the equivalent of an idyllic summer’s day. The sun is quiet and benign. The quietest it has been for 100 years, but it could turn the other way.” In 2010, high ranking NASA officials released a disturbing report stating that the Earth could be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares during the 2013 solar maximum. The report used the word “super storm” and warned humanity of possible catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security. Dr Richard Fisher, the director of Nasa’s Heliophysics division has put forth some chilling quotes, “We know it is coming, but we don’t know how bad it is going to be.” It will disrupt communication devices such as satellites and car navigations, air travel, the banking system, home computers, everything that is electronic.”

8
Current Action
Spt
As of early October, 2010, sunspots are regularly appearing on the Sun. Many websites are dedicated to tracking and documenting this activity. Earth is currently in the rising phase of Sunspot Cycle 24 and we are experiencing solar flares and coronal mass ejections. In the last five years, a number of international space experiments have been developed in order to study the Sun and its influence on Earth. NASA is currently conducting a space program named Living with a Star. The goal of the study is to look at many different aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system and to determine how they directly affect life and society. Specifically, how the Sun interacts with space weather and geometric storms. Living with a Star will include Space Environment Test beds, which will be used to test target protocols in space. The first active science mission of the program is named Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and it was launched on February 11, 2010. The goal of the mission is to actively view and photograph the Sun for five years, while it travels through the solar maximum.
The best spot in the world to make intergalactic observations is the South Pole. The Pole’s high altitude and extreme cold weather creates a thinning of the atmosphere. In 2007, the US National Science Foundation completed construction on the South Pole Telescope. The primary goal of the telescope is to conduct space survey’s to examine several thousand clusters of galaxies. In December of 2009, the camera on the telescope was upgraded. Claims have been made that the South Pole Telescope is being used for top secret observations of space asteroids and other celestial bodies. The largest solar flare ever detected came from the star system II Pegasi, which is located 135 light-years away from Earth. II Pegasi is in the constellation Pegasus. In December of 2005, a massive flare was detected in the area of Pegasus. It was derived from a star that is slightly smaller than the Sun. The solar flare was 100 million times more energetic then the typical solar flare viewed on the Sun. It has been estimated that the energy released from the event was equivalent to 50 million trillion atomic bombs. Clearly, this type of disaster would trigger a mass human extinction.

7
Orion Nebula
Dazzling Image Of Orion Nebula
There is something quite strange and eerie about the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion’s Belt. The area is clearly visible to the naked eye and appears as the middle “star” in the sword of Orion. The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and widely viewed objects in space. The nebula is peppered with a group of massive star formations and it is the closest region of star collections to Earth. It has also been observed that supersonic “bullets” of gas are repeatedly piercing the dense hydrogen clouds of the Orion Nebula. Theories have been listed on the Internet that state that the area surrounding the Orion Nebula contains stars that are dangerous to Earth. Many of these statements stem from a group of YouTube videos and articles suggesting a government cover-up. The videos explore a space coordinate that is located near the Orion Nebula in both Google Sky and the Microsoft space viewer. They claim that specific areas of the sky were purposely blacked out by the business giants.
We are all familiar with the fact that the Maya Long Count calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Apparently, the Maya people of Central America had a folk tale which dealt with Orion’s part of the sky, known as Xibalba. The word is roughly translated as “Place of fear.” Many of the traditional hearths or fireplaces of the Maya people contained a smudge of glowing fire that corresponded with the Orion Nebula. This is strange because some of the greatest astronomers in history, including Galileo who made specific telescopic observations of the area surrounding Orion, did not mention the nebula. In fact, there is no mention of the Orion Nebula prior to the 17th century. This has led to speculation that there is a current flare-up of the illuminating stars in the nebula that has greatly increased the brightness of the area. It also proves that the Maya people had pre-telescopic knowledge of the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula has been rigorously studied and photographed by international space programs. Stars in the nebula regularly emit large bursts of stellar wind. In many cases, these massive events are on a larger scale than stellar wind produced by the Sun.

6
Global Climate Disruption
Global-Warming-Polar-Bear
Recent press releases have indicated that the White House would prefer that people start using the term “global climate disruption” instead of the coined “global warming.” The reason being that the phrase “global warming” oversimplifies the problem and makes the situation sound less dangerous than it really is. We are experiencing a change in a wide range of weather patterns and the phenomenon is not just a warming. Anyone who has studied global warming understands this because, from 1998 to 2009, the Earth did not record any increase in global temperatures. This general global cooling was predicted by scientists who study the Earth’s natural weather cycles. In fact, 2007 and 2008 were the coldest years in decades and the use of greenhouse gases has increased.
In December of 2009, supported by mounds of data, 650 of the world’s top climatologists made a presentation at a UN Global Warming conference and voiced their opinion that human-made global warming from the release of greenhouse gases is a media generated myth without scientific basis. Dr. Kunihiko, Chancellor of Japan’s Institute of Science and Technology, has been quoted as saying “CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or the other … every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so.” With the coming solar maximum the Earth’s surface temperature is expected to rise over the next couple years. However, scientific literature and text books state that human greenhouse gas emissions are the cause of our current global climate disruption. If this is not true, I can’t imagine why we have all been lied to.
The current opinion surrounding global climate change is evolving and many international polls have reported a significant decrease in the percentage of people who think human-made greenhouse gases are responsible. The data is also location specific, with a larger majority of people in the European Union and Japan showing concern over the Earth’s global climate change, while people in the US and China show the least amount of concern. Like all international polls, media coverage is a strong contributing factor to this data. Theories exist on the web that human-made global warming is a ploy developed by world governments to explain the events that will occur in 2012, as a planetary object approaches Earth and causes its axis to shift. Claims have been made that this will create an increase in world temperatures and cause massive ice glaciers to melt.


5
Earthquakes and Pipeline Explosions
Califfire99Jpg-1F959C04771417B9 Large
Experimental studies are routinely performed on the Sun in the hopes of better understanding its influence on Earth. Recent research has suggested that the Sun has a greater impact on the Earth’s tectonic movements than originally thought. Scientists have proven that sound generated deep inside the Sun can cause the Earth to shake and vibrate in sympathy. Recently, NASA’s fleet of five THEMIS spacecraft discovered that a certain type of space weather will cause spacequakes, or a tremblor in the Earth’s magnetic field. A spacequake is felt more strongly in the Earth’s orbit, but the destruction is not exclusive to space and can reach the surface of the Earth. The total energy in a spacequake can cause a relatively large earthquake. According to THEMIS, magnetic jets crash into the Earth’s geomagnetic field and the impact sets off a rebounding process, in which the incoming plasma actually bounces up and down on the reverberating magnetic field.
It has been proposed that spacequakes, acting together with Sun vortices, can generate substantial electrical currents in the near-Earth environment, possibly disturbing radio communication and GPS. The 2013 solar maximum will only increase this behavior. In 2010, the world has been hit with a series of devastating earthquakes. The largest examples being the quakes that hit in Haiti and Chile in early 2010. However, as we progress in 2010, earthquakes are becoming more frequent. In January and February, we experienced eight notable earthquakes with a magnitude over 6.0. In August of 2010, there were eighteen such events. Government officials and news outlets continue to publish stories indicating that the 2010 earthquake season shares a similar event ratio to other years. On April 4, 2010, an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude struck Baja California. The following day the Earth experienced one of the largest geometric storms of the year, peaking at a K-index rating of 7. Following the Baja California earthquake, the San Andreas Fault experienced over 500 after-shocks of 2.5 or larger.
The year 2010 has also been littered with an outbreak of pipeline disasters. On September 9, 2010, the city of San Bruno, California, experienced a massive pipeline explosion that resulted in severe damage. Immediately following the accident, US news outlets published many stories questioning the safety of pipelines throughout the country. The San Bruno explosion was caused after the pipeline had severed and released a large amount of natural gas. No reports have been released indicating how the pipeline broke. However, in many similar disasters a small earthquake is responsible for the failure. If the Sun’s solar maximum is capable of forming earthquakes on Earth, then pipeline ruptures may become a major concern. Time will tell if the abundance of earthquakes and pipeline explosions will increase as we reach the 2013 solar maximum.

4
Cataclysmic Pole Shift Hypothesis
Screen Shot 2010-10-13 At 4.35.09 Pm
Charles Hapgood was an American academician who developed the cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis. The theory suggests that the Earth’s axis of rotation has shifted numerous times in geological history. Such an event would create calamities on Earth, such as mass floods, earthquakes, and flash freezing. Charles Hapgood was a Harvard graduate and friend of Albert Einstein. In fact, Einstein was extremely intrigued by Hapgood’s research and wrote the foreword for one of his books discussing the topic. Charles Hapgood based many of his ideas on archival maps, which he claims show Antarctica with free flowing rivers. One example is the Piri Reis Map, which shows a vast southern continent similar to Antarctica in shape.
Hapgood argued that the Caribbean section of the map was rotated nearly 90 degrees from the top of South America, giving Earth an “alternate north.” He also uses paleontological data of Woolly Mammoths and other ancient animal species, which have been found in the South Pole, frozen solid with undigested vegetation in their stomachs. This would suggest a single cataclysmic event occurred with such ferocity that it killed these species in their tracks. Charles Hapgood theorized that the earth has gone through three such mass crustal displacements over the last 100,000 years, and, according to his data, the last occurrence was approximately 12,000 years ago. I went searching for more factual based information to support the pole shift hypothesis and came across Vostok Station.

3
Vostok Lake
3681517097 1269D3287A Z
Vostok Station is a Russian Antarctic research center that is located at the southern Pole of Cold. This part of the South Pole holds the lowest measured temperature on Earth. In the 1970s, the former Soviet Union began a project of drilling huge cores into the ice underneath Vostok Station. This activity began to expose subglacial lakes buried in the ice. The largest discovery was Lake Vostok, which is an enormous mass of water that covers an area of 15,690 square kilometers (6,060 sq mi). It is located 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet. The lake is one of the most bizarre and influential discoveries in recent history. Small islands have been discovered on Lake Vostok and the water’s temperature is unusually warm with hotspots ranging from 50 to 65 degrees F. This clearly indicates a sub-terranean heat source.
It is quite amazing that underneath the frozen South Pole, an isolated ecosystem has been discovered and samples of unidentifiable bacteria have been removed. Many strange magnetic anomalies have also been recorded near Lake Vostok. This has caused scientists to release statements indicating that the Earth’s core might be thinner near Lake Vostok, but many conspiracy theorists have latched on to the idea that an accumulation of metals, the kind that you would find in an ancient buried city, has caused the magnetic disturbance. The original goal of the ice core drilling was to measure past weather conditions. This was accomplished by Russian scientists and data was gathered stretching back 420,000 years. This data has revealed some concerning facts. Apparently, the Holocene geological epoch which began approximately 12,000 years ago is going to end soon.
The Vostok ice cores have given scientists important data indicating that changes to the Earth’s surface can occur suddenly and violently, which is in direct opposition to the current geological model of gradualism. Scientists predict that the last sudden shift occurred around 13,000 years ago. All of this data supports Charles Hapgood’s ideas surrounding a sudden pole shift hypothesis. A sudden change in the Earth’s alignment relative to the sun would plunge parts of Earth into a perpetual freezing hell. The pole shift hypothesis has gained a substantial Internet following. Claims have been made that the Maya people understood the danger, which may reveal itself as an orbiting planet or asteroid that enters the Earth’s atmosphere on a timed schedule.

2
Nibiru Collision
505484863
The most discussed conspiracy theory surrounding the 2012 phenomenon involves a large planetary object named Nibiru. Claims have been made that this planet is in orbit with the Sun and that it will enter the Earth’s atmosphere causing mass destruction. Nibiru has been used to explain periodic pole shifts and catastrophic events in the Earth’s past. Internet groups have suggested that the Maya people understood the path of Nibiru and predicted when it would approach Earth next. However, the Maya clearly did not have the technical advancements that we do today, so if this is true a massive government cover-up would have to be involved. In 1983, the IRAS mission was launched into space and became the first-ever space-based observatory to perform a survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths. It mapped 96% of the sky four times. The observatory made media headlines briefly in 1983 with the discovery of an “unknown object” that was at first described as “possibly as large as the giant planet Jupiter and possibly so close to Earth that it would be part of this solar system.” However, later analysis is said to have revealed this report to be false.
In 1984, world leaders decided that it was time to create a global seed bank and began to store seeds in an abandoned coal mine at Svalbard, located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, which is 1,300 kilometers (810 mi) from the North Pole. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault officially opened on February 26, 2008. Under high security, the facility preserves a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. It stores approximately 1.5 million distinct seed samples of agricultural crops. The mission of the vault is to provide a safety net against accidental loss of diversity, with an emphasis on a possible global catastrophe. In 1894, Bostonian astronomer Percival Lowell became convinced that the planets Uranus and Neptune had slight discrepancies in their orbits. He concluded that the gravitational pull of the two planets are being influenced by a more distant object.
Astronomers point to the fact that such an object so close to Earth would be easily visible to the naked eye. People have responded by claiming that the object has been hiding behind the Sun for several years, and has recently become visible, revealing itself as a second Sun. Thousands of pictures exist on the Internet claiming to have captured Nibiru, but it is hard to judge the reality of these photographs because adding a second Sun in Photoshop is simple. People have also claimed that the recently discovered dwarf planet Eris is in fact Nibiru. Eris is the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth-largest body known to orbit the Sun directly. Because Eris is 27% larger than Pluto, it was initially described as the “tenth planet” by NASA and in media reports after its discovery. Certain websites have released postings claiming that Eris will reach its closest point to Earth around 2012 and cause major problems for our gravitational pull.

1
Loss of Electricity
Electric-Storm-8X6
It is no secret that humans’ hold a heavy reliance towards electronic devices. Since the invention of the computer, technical networks have been developed and aspects of many countries infrastructure use electricity. It is also a fact that electricity is sensitive to magnetic energy. As the Earth enters the heavy portions of the 2013 solar maximum, we will be left susceptible to possible geometric storms. In 2007, NASA launched the THEMIS satellites. The goal of the space program was to study energy releases from the Earth’s magnetic surroundings. One of the THEMIS satellites discovered a breach in the Earth’s magnetic field. This breach has caused NASA to release documents stating that during Solar Cycle 24 the atmosphere might experience a higher intensity of geomagnetic storms. Geometric storms are associated with solar flares and are generated by a solar wind shock wave that strikes the Earth’s magnetic field. The solar wind pressure changes the electric currents in the ionosphere, causing a magnetic storm on Earth.
If we experience a significant amount of geomagnetic storms in the atmosphere then huge levels of radiation will be displaced. On Earth, the major concern will be direct damage to world power grids, communication satellites, and all things electrical. As a human population, we need to start considering scenarios where large areas of land will lose power for a long time. One potential hotspot is northern Europe and Britain, who apparently hold “fragile” power grids. The National Academy of Sciences has released various statements on the situation. One indicates that GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications could “all be knocked out by intense solar activity.” Your government is aware of the situation, but it seems that the mainstream media was not given the memo. The US government has said that “contingency plans were in place to cope with the fallout from such a storm.” This includes allowing certain electrical transformers to be turned off for a period of time. The National Risk Register in Britain has similar plans in case of an electrical disaster.
In 1989, an electromagnetic storm disrupted power throughout most of Quebec and caused visual aurora as far south as Texas. The worst recorded solar storm in history occurred in 1859 during solar cycle 10. During the storm, auroras were seen around the world and telegraph systems failed all over Europe and North America. Telegraph pylons began to physically spark and caused major fires and damage. Apparently, 18 hours before the storm’s onset, a massive solar flare was seen exploding towards Earth. It has become known as the Carrington Super Flare. During the 1859 solar maximum, numerous large solar flares were recorded, including the Steward Super Flare. In August of 2010, the Sun experienced four large Coronal mass ejections directed towards Earth. The solar flares possessed enough energy to cause aurora to be observed by the naked eye. The event caused scientists to reaffirm that these types of occurrences can greatly damage infrastructure, such as power grids and telephone lines not adequately protected against induced magnetic current.

June 23, 2011

Top Paranormal Abilities


This list is a look at some of the abilities people claim to have that science can not verify – or oftentimes, even witness. The list should be taken with a grain of salt. In no particular order, the top 10 paranormal abilities.
1. Psychokinesis
K1
Psychokinesis is also known as Telekinesis and mind over matter, and it is the ability to move or manipulate objects with the mind. This, in combination with pyrokinesis (item 5) is the ability that Carrie White had in the excellent book and movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. Of all the items in this list, I would say this is the one that most people would love to have. It would make the television remote defunct and we could basically sit on our butts all day long and do nothing! The position normally taken by scientists and skeptics is that any apparent evidence of this ability is the result of fraud. Many books claim to help you learn this ability and they often contain exercises to help. For example, you may be told to throw a dice repeatedly whilst trying to control the number that comes up. Unfortunately, this creates the psychological state of illusion of control, in which a person comes to believe they are influencing the dice, when in fact, on every roll they have a 1 in 6 chance that their number will come up. One famous person who claims to have this ability is Uri Gellar, who is well known for his spoon bending trick in which he would (apparently) gently rub a spoon just beneath the bowl and the spoon would twist or turn. In fact, skeptics have been able to mimic this trick with great success and no claim to having supernatural abilities.
2. Extra Sensory Perception
Zener
Extra Sensory Perception, or ESP, is the ability to gather information without the use of the 5 senses (hence it is also sometimes called sixth sense). ESP is often tested with a deck of 25 cards called Zener cards. Familiar to most people, these cards comprise a deck of 5 patterns, a circle, a square, a triangle, a set of squiggly lines, and a plus. Two people participate; one views the cards one by one, and the other attempts to “see” the card with the power of the mind. Again, there is a 1 in five chance that you will guess the card correctly, so it is not a particularly useful method of proof. Of course your odds improve with every card produced if you are told whether your guess was correct, as you can use card counting. The cards are also used in tests of telepathy when the viewer does not just record the shape on the card for verification, but attempts to “transmit” the shape to the other person. On average, most people guess right about 20% of the time.
3. Telepathy
Extrasensoryperception
Telepathy is the ability to communicate with others with the mind. Within the field of parapsychology this is considered to be a form of ESP. Most often telepathy occurs spontaneously in incidents of crisis where a relative or friend has been injured or killed in an accident. An individual is aware of the danger to the other person from a distance. Such information seems to come in different forms as in thought fragments, like something is wrong; in dreams, visions, hallucinations, mental images, in clairaudience, or in words that pop into the mind. Often such information causes the person, the receiver, to change is course of action, such as changing his travel plans or daily schedule, or to just call or contact the other person. Some incidents involve apparent telepathy between humans and animals.
4. Clairvoyance
Crystal Ball Lg
Clairvoyance is the transfer of information without the use of the senses – it differs from telepathy in that there is no transfer of information from one person to another. Clairvoyants often say that the information comes from the spirit world. A related ability is called Clairaudience – which is the ability to internally hear information that is passed from the dead. A very famous clairaudient was Doris Stokes, a British spiritualist. Current thinking among proponents of clairvoyance posits that most people are born with clairvoyant abilities but then start to subliminate them as their childhood training compels them to adhere to acceptable social norms. Numerous institutes offer training courses that attempt to revive the clairvoyant abilities present in those early years
5. Pyrokinesis
Wp1024Firestarter02
Pyrokinesis is the ability to ignite or extinguish fires with the mind. In yet another book by Stephen King, Firestarter, the main character, a young girl, has this ability. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that this ability is real, though many people involved in the field of parapsychology believe it exists. There may be a connection between this alleged ability and the various reports of spontaneous human combustion.



6. Psychometry
Psychometry
Psychometry is the ability to “read” information from objects. For example, a psychometrist may hold a watch or wallet belonging to a person they do not know, and by concentrating on the object, garner information about the person’s past, present, or future. The concept of psychometry is a popular theme for stage act and Séance; with participants being asked to provide a personal object to be “read” by a medium or psychic. It was used as the basis for Johnny Smith’s visions in Stephen King’s 1979 novel The Dead Zone and its subsequent 2002 television adaption.
7. Precognition
Geuu 02 Img0352
This is the ability to foresee events. It was precognition that the famous American Psychic Jeane Dixon. She is best known for allegedly predicting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the May 13, 1956, issue of Parade Magazine she wrote that the 1960 presidential election would be “dominated by labor and won by a Democrat” who would then go on to “[B]e assassinated or die in office though not necessarily in his first term.” She later admitted, “During the 1960 election, I saw Richard Nixon as the winner.” Nixon held her in such high regard that he ordered preparations for a terrorist attack she had predicted. She was also one of a number of psychics who gave advice to Nancy Reagan during the Reagan Administration.
8. Bilocation
Pio1
Bilocation is the alleged ability to be in two places at the same time. St Pio of Pietrelcina, the famous stigmatic, was said to have this ability. It is said to be a physical, rather than spiritual ability, which makes it different from astral projection. Friends of Aliester Crowley, the occultist, claimed that he had this ability, though in situations were he was meant to have bilocated, he was unaware of it. Although it is uncommon, bilocation is an ancient phenomenon. It is claimed to have been experienced, and even practiced by will, by mystics, ecstatics, saints, monks, holy persons, and magical adepts. This is also normally the explanation given for the tales of people appearing to loved ones just prior to their death.
9. Postcognition
Psych 1
Postcognition is the opposite of precognition; it is the ability to see an event after it has occurred. This is probably the most widely used ability in modern days as many police forces invite psychics to assist them on difficult unsolved cases. This ability has been yet another topic of a Stephen King novel, the Dead Zone, in which the main character is able to see bad aspects of a person’s past from touching them or an object belonging to them. While there has often been some success with postcognitive visions in criminal investigations, it is still generally considered to be the result of hoax or fraud perpetrated by a person who has done research in to the crime, enabling them to give broad enough description to seem legitimate.
10. Astral Projection
Proj2
Astral projection is the ability to spiritually separate from your body and travel vast distances with the mind alone. It differs from bilocation in that the second body is a spirit body. The concept of astral projection has been familiar for thousands of years, dating back to ancient China and other ancient cultures. A great deal of skepticism exists around this ability due to the fact that the only evidence is the word of the person claiming to be able to project. A study done by Dr. Charles Tart tentatively concluded that astral projection may have objective validity. For example, in a 1967 study, a subject was not able to discover a five digit number written down and placed face up in an adjoining room, but did provide some details of the activities of the technician monitoring the experiment. Tart summarizes, “Thus, there is some indication that ESP may have been involved with respect to the technician’s activities, but it is not at all conclusive.”
Notable omissions: Aura reading
Sources: Wikipedia

ED: which are u?