Mini-twister off the coast of Hastings

http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local/mini-twister-spotted-at-sea-1-5484355




 

Oh!

Mars Curiosity rover celebrates loneliest birthday ever by singing 'Happy Birthday to Me'

The rover has already succeeded in its main mission, showing that ancient Mars could have supported life

There might not have been anyone around to hear it, but yesterday a very familiar tune played out across the surface of Mars. To celebrate the one year anniversary of landing on the surface of red planet, Nasa engineers managed to coax a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday To You’ out of the 2,000lb Curiosity rover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uxVVgBAosqg

Nature as Artist

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Low tide

The hand of ………?

Darksiders?

Could the universe have a dark side, complete with its own force, a zoo of particles and even a shadow version of the Milky Way?

"Could there be a mirror world where interesting things are going on?

The way stars and galaxies move shows there is more mass present than we can see.  To account for this, 80 per cent of the universe's matter must be dark.  The trouble is the stuff stubbornly refuses to interact with ordinary matter, except through gravity, so has not been conclusively detected.

Close call coming: Averting the asteroid threat–Simple! Ask the Lightbringers

With an errant space rock heading this way, just how good are our asteroid defences – and how do we avert the cataclysm?

IT COULD easily be the plot for a Hollywood disaster movie. Last February, a young dental surgeon called Jaime Nomen was sailing along the Mediterranean coast of Spain, checking images on his laptop from an observatory 600 kilometres away. Suddenly he spotted a speck of light speeding through the constellation Boötes. Nomen knew exactly what it was.

He alerted the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which collects information about asteroids and comets. Telescopes around the world swung into action, checking the new asteroid's orbit. The result was sensational: asteroid 2012 DA14 was on near-collision course with the Earth. (New Scientist; registration required.)

Maybe they’ll start looking somewhere else for Goldilocks Heaven?

No ultimate judge

Shockingly, Earth – which used to be smack-bang in the middle of our sun's habitable zone – is now a scant million kilometres away from the warm edge, so almost too hot for liquid water. Of course, we know Earth is robustly life-friendly – the mismatch is probably because neither definition accounts for clouds, which reflect sunlight away from Earth.

As Earth shows, the Goldilocks zone is no ultimate judge of habitability, something exoplanet researchers have known for years. As well as clouds, volcanic activity or the location of other moons or planets in the solar system, may be important for life to develop on planets like Earth.

Ring Any Bells?

Sandy! What have you been up to?

Only joking! Cheers

Maybe we should have used NASA

A cosmic collision: Two satellites due to smash into surface of the moon… but don't worry, it was all planned by Nasa

I just remembered a song n Mάνα μou used to listen to - Πιο Ψηλά Κι' Aπ' T' Άστρα

Maybe the Darksiders had a point!

US planned to blow up the moon

A missile carrying the bomb would have been launched from an undisclosed location on Earth and travel to the moon, where it would detonate on impact.

The project would have been carried out in 1959, but was reportedly abandoned by military officials due to fears that it would endanger people on Earth should the mission fail.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/us-planned-to-blow-up-the-moon-20121128-2aejm.html#ixzz2DWjO8Cbu

Finder’s, keepers?

Is this you?

Found it on the beach, brought it home to take a photo and will put it back now.  Might have done an Internet search, but I can’t really read it.

The Rewards of beachcombing

Been there, done that!

How to save humanity from a giant asteroid? Shoot paintballs at it, of course

MIT graduate proposes theory as a submission to the 2012 'Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition' sponsored by the UN

Perhaps they should read The Stone Summons? or read this - This is totally unbelievable....... 

Sea glass has new home!

Having doubled in size in one fell swoop, it seemed time for a new home.

The Smallest Sea Glass Collection in the World just got bigger!

No idea what it is, it is less opaque when wet, and seems to have bits of fine wire through it.  Please le tme know if you know what it is.

Many scientists have said it didn't exist.....

Scientists uncover mystery of ball lightning

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-12/scientists-uncover-mystery-of-ball-lightning/4310800

By ABC Science Online's Darren Osborne

Posted 8 hours 16 minutes ago

Photo: Ball lightning can occur when regular lightning strikes near non-conductive surfaces. (PJ Taylor: User submitted via ABC Contribute)

Map: Australia

A team of Australian scientists believe they have uncovered the cause of one of nature's most bizarre phenomenon - ball lightning.

Ball lightning is typically the size of a grapefruit and lasts up to 20 seconds.
"Ball lightning has been reported by hundreds of people, for hundreds of years and it has been a mystery," said CSIRO scientist John Lowke, lead author of a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres.

Dinosaur footprint of the future?

Once in a blue moon!

If you have read The Stone Summons, you may remember my Gran and me saw a blue moon.  A skid at  school started making a fool of me, saying blue moon was just a phrase and din't mean the moon was blue.  So I was very happy when our science teacher showed me this!  (How did he know it mattered?  Because this skid put it on Facebook, didn't he! But doesn't know anything about privacy settings, serves him right!)

"The origin of the modern version of this phrase dates to March 1946, when amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett made a calendar error in an article for Sky & Telescope magazine.  Before then, the definition of a blue moon wasn’t quite set in stone.  It meant different things, including an obvious absurdity, a symbol for sadness and loneliness, a gin and curaçao cocktail, or a rare event.  In some very unusual cases the moon will actually appear blue, generally because of dust resulting from a volcanic eruption, forest fire, or dust storm.  The twice-in-one-month full moon definition has now become the standard."

1. The Stone Summons by M. J. Sak. (Paperback) - Lulu

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   5.0 out of 5 stars The stone summons you to read and enjoy. Then tell you friends....,... This review is from: The Stone Summons (Kindle Edition). I have already ...
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   The Stone Summons - - - - Buy Now! http://www.lulu.com/content/1063661. Alex, Sandy and Lexie discover why time flies, and do something about it with the aid ...

This is totally unbelievable.......

...and yet, of course, it isn't, because we did it!

But still, am totally discombobulated.
(Ha, bet you didn't know I knew that word!)

Swarm of pebbles could safely deflect asteroids

FLINGING pebbles at an asteroid sounds like a fruitless task,
but a new calculation shows that  this could deflect an
Earthbound rock.

• New Scientist
• 05 May 2012
• Magazine issue 2863

He just grinned up at me.

Now I've noticed the other one, on his side.  For some reason reminds me of "two vast and trunkless legs of stone..."

This is freaky! Was it us? When we flung the stone that put the stars to flight?

Invisible dark matter is supposed to make up over 80 per cent of the universe's mass but a new survey of nearby stars and galaxies suggests our patch of the cosmos could be totally free of the stuff.

If the only matter in the Milky Way is the visible stuff like stars and planets, then stars at the edge are moving too quickly to be held by our galaxy's gravity.

In order to keep the stars on the fringes from flying away, there must be some additional mass creating the extra gravity needed to hold them.

Not quite sure what it means but....

Rare Moon mineral found in Australia

Updated January 06, 2012 01:09:56

RELATED STORY: Probes in orbit to map moon interior

A mineral brought back to Earth by the first men on the Moon and long thought to be unique to the lunar surface has been found in Australian rocks more than 1 billion years old.

Named after Apollo 11's 1969 landing site at the Sea of Tranquility, tranquillityite was one of three minerals first discovered in rocks from the Moon and the only one not to be found, in subsequent years, on Earth.

Australian scientist Birger Rasmussen said tranquillityite had "long been considered as the Moon's own mineral" until geologists discovered it, by chance, in rock from resources-rich Western Australia.

In search of secrets on the far side of the moon

Can't help wondering what effect this may have!

Lunar mystery ... both sides of the moon are shown in this undated image. Photo: AP/NASA TWO NASA spacecraft are slipping into orbit around the moon to try to answer persistent questions about Earth's celestial companion.

It wasn't me, promise! Water spout at Hastings

Remember! Remember!

I know, but I couldn't resist posting this, from a book I am reading. It is by Annie Brassey and called "Sunshine and Storm in the East"

"The sea was rushing up violently like an immense fountain jet, while from the cloud above, which was intensely black, an inverted cone came down to meet the sea. Another waterspout, farther off, looked like a long back trough, pouring down from the heavens above into the cone shaped fountain in the sea beneath"

[Alex, somewhere between Paxos and Corfu - is this near you? Though this happened in 1874!]

Umm - from Sandy

I know what Alex said about the blog and I understand why, but just wanted to share this. (May be my only contribution!)

THE green flares of the aurora australis seen on Saturday night were the brightest they have been in seven years, says Astronomical Society of Tasmania spokesman Bob Coghlan.

Mr Coghlan said the natural light show was caused by photon oxygen emissions in the Earth's upper atmosphere reacting against strong solar winds, causing an eerie green glow.

Aurora Australis lights up the night

The Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis

Hail and Farewell.

Dear Readers,

there are things afoot which make it difficult to keep up this blog currently. It is not dead, just in abeyance (it's an interregnum - Lexie)

I had hoped to score last minute English points with 'abeyance', but maybe Lexie will get them for 'interregnum'. (Joke)

Thank you for visiting,

Alex

Another delicate beauty.

A Thing of beauty is a joy forever

Join the dots!

A crab - but what sort?

Looks like a knight in armour going full tilt.

Underwater playground

My mind boggles - so I blog!

No one knows what dark matter is – astronomers merely detect its gravitational pull on normal matter..........

.....Earth's velocity relative to the surrounding sea of dark matter changes as the planet orbits the sun.

New Scientist

And I thought we'd put paid to all that! See The Stone Summons

What makes these odd low tide 'slugs'?

Bearing in mind this was originally an IT project.......

I read somewhere in passing that you could now add static pages to blogger. I decided to look into this (on the search for extra points maybe?) So I did a search and the first I don't know how many hits came up with completely clueless hits and laborious (marks for English usage?) instructions. So I was very glad when I eventually followed this link http://technicallyeasy.net/2010/04/how-to-create-pages-in-blogger/

And maybe, if I had been doing more blogging lately, I wouldn't even have needed that (not that I want to sound ungrateful.)

When you click on New Post you get options -

• New Post
• Edit Posts
• Edit Pages
• Click on Edit Pages, add your content and follow instructions/choices - Simples Lexie!

Tracy Island?

Heart Muscle?

Didn't make it!

I so wanted to get to the 3,000 mark, by 19th March, or 1,000 visitors for the past year, but not even there yet, despite Lexie's hard work. But I've just checked - didn't put the counter up until over a month after I started the blog, so maybe enough visitors beforehand to count?

Google Stats say

Pageviews all time history

2,695

and they didn't start until May 2010!

Beachcombing - low tide

Smallest sea glass collection in the world?

Something's afoot, as you truly say.

Just as well you told me about that weird language. I had enough trouble with 'summat's afoot'! But, me too. Or should I say Emay ootay! Atwhay aboutway Exielay?

Summat's afoot!

Iway oundfay Eterpay!

Hi Alex,

There is the other point too, mentioned after the photo (great photo!) which people who've read the book (The Stone Summons - - - - also on Kindle )
will realise.

Sorry, will get back to beachcombing soon - promise! (Though, it is YOUR blog!)

Hello Anonymous!

But I think I know who you are!

The photo is relevant to beachcombing because:

• Moon affects tides
• Tides bring in Flotsam & jetsam
• Flotsam, jetsam and other items are what beachcombers collect (along with the odd treasure or two when the gods are kind.)

Super Lunar Perigree

This photo is everywhere on the net, so I hope Anthony Ayiomamitis. does not mind that I share it also. See his fantastic website at http://www.perseus.gr/


I looked very hard, but there were no signs. Yes, I know it is the wrong side, but it felt like you should be able to see.

It's out to get you!

It's a pebble!

When I first saw it on the beach I thought it was a lamb's head, but then I thought a calf, it made me think of Keat's Ode on a Grecian Urn for some reason. Maybe because I have to learn it for school, and trying to learn it, I wondered it it was describing Alex's village.

In a fret!

"'T'is beginning to rain

"No, 'tis only fret off the sea."

["Rudolf the Red knows rain Dear!"]

At first sight the seagulls almost look like writing on the sand (yes, sand!)

Bad photo!

This is a very delicate shell, with the letter 'S' quite clearly showing on it, but the photo makes it look m ore like a fish!

Is this someone famous - or is it you?

Beachcombing with a vengeance

Cannons found in Panama believed to be from Sir Henry Morgan shipwrecks
Archaeologists have recovered six cannons from the ships of Welsh privateer Sir Henry Morgan, the first artifacts found in Panama to be linked to the man who remains a legend there...................

At the edge of the Lajas Reef, the team found what appeared to be a field of six cannons, all covered with layers of sedimentary rock that had built up over centuries...............................

At least two more guns are buried in the sand, along with an anchor, ceramics, bottles and other artifacts

Apparently this is a freaky flicker!