Volcanoes under the artic

and somehow the "experts" discount the influence on the ice sheet? Pull the other one please. The Gakkel Ridge is dotted with volcanoes and hot water vents and since the discovery in the 1950's there seems to have been an increase in the activity of the geothermal sources, my common sense tells me this is the overlying reason for the increased loss of ice cover and not climate cahnge per se. Especially when one looks at the map... it lies in the centre of the artic se and one can compare it to the element inside an electric kettle, sooner or later it will heat up the water above it and disturb the existing thermoclines which would have shieded the ice from the warm water. Heat will eventually find a way to rise to the top of a thermal system... basic physics! This of course has been kept rather quite in the media as it does not fit in well with the popular scenario of Climate Change. Tectonic activity is also why part of the Antartic ice shelf is melting while the rest of the continent is recoding record ice levels. 
Yes, we are living in changing climatic conditions but there are bigger influences from earth and space than the puny species homo sapiens can ever imagine. Having said that we should be guardians over our little patch in any case but to presume that we can influence the winds is taking things out of perspective. Bear in mind that we should always remember who is really in control...
Psalm 8:4 "What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?"

For the Fallen

For The Fallen Laurence Binyon
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Today we remember that freedom came by the sacrifice of those that fought for it. Never forget that!

"But if dying's asked of me,
I'll bear that cross with an honor,
'Cause freedom don't come free."
Toby Keith - American Soldier lyrics

Island Missing, presumed lost by faux reporter.

"For the first time, an inhabited island has disappeared beneath rising seas. Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports."
When I read this I said to myself this smells like Lutkefisk and I was right, this island in the Ganges is part of a the world's largest river delta which by it's very nature is a changing land form, just one good flood and it can be changed overnight, this fact I did not even have to look up as it is elementary geology and common sense.
Which brings me to the point, the Island "disappeared" more then 10 years ago as far as I could find out! As the picture of the delta shows there are thousands of islands, some new some old, it is the nature of a delta as the inhabitants of New Orleans also found out during Katrina... water will always find the path of least resistance and wash away the weakest part of the land. I also believe that the disappearance of this island was due to the local people abusing the mangrove forest which helps stabilise the silt the land id made of.

Now once again a reporter has been exposed for fake reporting. This of course makes me question all reports henceforth from this source. Geoffry has done himself and the world a disservice by faking news.
The Town Crank also had the same idea as I did and posted this comment on his blog;
"It seemed to me that there could possibly be another explanation than "rising seas" to explain the disappearance of Lohachara Island."
He also searched the Internet like I did and exposed this report as a lie within seconds.
I am not saying that man had no influence in the ecology of the region but to blame it on Global Warming and supposed rise in sea level is sheer insanity.

Some fish cannot fry

NOAA and the BBC had this amazing report on flatfish that seem to relish temperatures and acidity that would pickle and fry any normal fish.
We know so little about the world we live on and this is why my common sense tells me that we know even less about what drives our climate.
Yes, we are custodians and should not treat the world like a dump but to say that our actions are the only reason for Global Warming is to me a oversimplification and myopic view.
Here we have underwater volcanoes spewing liquid CO2 and other highly toxic chemicals into the oceans, do we know how many more there are? I seriously doubt that because we know more about the surface of the moon than the oceans on earth! But the most amazing part is that some forms of live seem to relish the extremes, I for one am sure that evolution has not stopped...

8 and counting

This year has been a very quite year in the Atlantic as far as Hurricanes go, Ernesto was the only one to make serious land fall on the North American continent, the others were all more of a Tropical storm class and all seem to have veered north up the central Atlantic so far. If this is what Global Warming is going to do then stoke the fires!

Mud flood threatens Java residents

Mud flood threatens Java residents This is something that no one seemed to have bargained for, I also realize someone has to bear the brunt of the locals displeasure but sometimes nature bites back... at least it did not trigger a volcano!

Alien Invader with a cute name - Fairy Moss

"Azolla filiculoides- Fairy Moss (Salviniaceae)
Small, free-floating aquatic fern with pinnately branched rhizomes. The frond is almost moss-like, 1/16 inch long with 2 lobes, the upper lobe floating, the lower lobe larger and submerged. Sporocarps are produced by the lower lobe. The plant is native from Washington to Mexico and South America"

View across the dam and mats of Azolla from the Bird Hide on the northen side of the dam.
Some of the weed is eaten by waterfowl but not nearly enough!
A view from the Koppie down on the lower dam near the N1 highway, which is completely covered!
Close up of the critter. Quite pretty and I can see why people would want it in a fishpond or aquarium.
A view of the main dam from the Koppie, not nearly as bad as the lower dam. The Bird hide is in the tree line on the bottom of the picture.
The plaque at the dam wall explaining what the weed is about. Excuse the bird droppings!

"Forms dense mats that choke out other species. Azolla lives in symbiosis with blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), taking advantage of their ability to fix nitrogen. It is sometimes introduced and used by farmers as a natural fertilizer for this reason."
The probable source for our invader in the Botanic Gardens was aquatic gardens and aquariums.
What is interesting is that it can be used as a fertilizer/compost, the problem is finding a economic way to harvest it and at the same time control this pest in our dams and rivers. At least it is not as bad as Kariba Weed! Our cold winters save us from that horrid invader.

There is Gold in them thar oilfields

Thomas Gold died this day in 2004 and no one seems to have taken his ideas further.
Further research into Abiogenic petroleum origin may just prove him and others right.
To me it makes sense when time after time hydrocarbons are discovered in space on other bodies in the solar system as well as in space dust. I mean we know more about the surface of the moon than our seas and lithosphere...

Rift vally rumblings

Seems like the East African Rift Valley fault is awakening again, a while ago reports came in from the northern end of new volcanic activity and on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 22:19:07 (UTC) a trembler of 7.5 hit Mozambique. All the way in the Southern Atlantic Bouvet island had a rumbling on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 04:04:05 (UTC), I wonder if the two events were somehow linked? We humans tend to forget that this planet is quite active and is continually flexing it's crust.

Life... Beating the cosmic odds

Is there life out there... yes I believe so... Is there Intelligent life? Not likely... Seems like I am not alone in this view, I think the chances on this is much more slender and that we live on a Privileged Planet... I will detail some reasons why I believe so. Bear with me as this page will be expanded upon from time to time.
The points I will cover will make things clearer. This has also been debated on Space.com.

The Cosmos is inherently hostile to life
Consider the creation of our universe, it was an extremely violent thing and early stars did not have planets at all, planet forming elements just did not exist. If one considers that stars run out of drive so to speak at the Iron stage it was many billions of years before the first protoplanet may have formed.
When one looks at most Galaxies we also see violent environments that to my mind preclude any existence of life. Supernovae and galactic centres beam out massive doses of cosmic radiation that sanitize the surrounding cosmos for thousands of light years.

The green band
Astronomers discover where to find ET
It seems that any life has only a 10% region of possible habitation in most galaxies, the outer regions are poor in elements for life and the central regions are just too hostile for life to exist let alone form.

Two is not company
Recent studies have shown that around more than 50 % of observed stars are Binary Systems and in some cases Quadruple systems. The turmoil in such systems to my logic would just be too much for any lifeforms. We are thus an exception to the rule.

DisaStars
Possible Hyper nova Could Affect Earth
Coming back to Supernovae, there is a class of Nova that spews out such radiation that even being 3000 light years away is no guarantee of safety.

How far is a light year
Then there is the distance factor, even at faster than light speeds it would take years to traverse the galaxy, at sub light speeds it is an insurmountable obstacle to my mind.

Physics or the lack thereof
If there is intelligent life they will have to overcome the laws of physics to travel from one star to another to even make it worth their while.

Do they need us
Any civilization capable of faster than light travel would to my mind find us as interesting as an elephant would an ant.

Do we need them
Here the plight of the Inca springs to mind... when they were conquered by the Conquistadors they had no answer for the technological capability of the Spaniards as well as the biological impact that European illnesses also had on them. What would happen if we were to be invaded by space traveling aliens?

Rare Earth
This is where I come back to my basic argument, when one looks at all the factors that have made this blue dot such a special planet one has to believe that we are rather unique in the Galaxy if not the Universe...
Our Solar system is in a quite backwater of the Milky Way, no big star fields or star forming areas with stars threatening to go nova or other galactic bullies.
Our planet is in the sweet spot... not too close or too far from the single sun, protected by 3 gas Giants from incoming strays.
It has a moon that contributed to setting up geologic conditions for life to evolve.
It has water in the right proportion, not so much to drown the continents and not so little that things have gone into deep freeze like Mars.
In fact the chances are so astronomical that to my mind it is not chance but very much by forethought that we are where we are in the universe. Truly we live on a Rare Earth...
.