Climate Change Caused Mass Extinctions, not Asteroids?

A group of Climate Scientists and Earth Scientists are now proposing a theory that sudden climatic change, not asteroid collision, has been responsible for most of the mas extinction events which have occured throughout history. They are basing this off the partly off the geological record, and what is known to have occurred during the early periods of life on Earth.

Whether right or wrong, it is a fact that mass extinctions have occurred due to climate change. The extinction event at the end of the Permian period is a prime example, where a combination of glacial melt and volcanism is thought to have initiated the climatic change.

So, the question is, are we next? Are we condemned to repeat the past?

Read more about Earth's extinction events here...

More about Climate Change and the Extinction cycle can be found here...

The Real Death Star?

Scientists are in disagreement over the threat a local star presents to our solar system. They do, however, agree that it will very likely explode in the near future. This star, T Pyxidis, is a pair of stars in close orbit, called a Binary Star. One of this pair, is a White Dwarf, and is siphoning off material from the larger star at a cataclysmic rate.

It is widely accepted that this smaller star is at or near what is known as the Chandrasekhar Limit. This limit is the absolute maximum of matter the small dwarf star can hold without collapsing under it's own gravity. When this star collapses, it will form a Supernova, and destroy everything in the vicinity in a blinding explosion that will light up the sky.

The trouble is some scientists feel we are within the danger zone for this explosion. It is located 3200 light years from Earth, but if the explosion is poweful enough, it could strip away elements of our upper atmosphere, such as our Ozone Layer, on the side facing the explosion. This can lead to a reaction within the atmosphere, wherein all life eventually fails on the Earth's surface.

The scientific community is in disagreement over the danger presented by this small star. But one thing is for certain, when it goes, it will be the show of a lifetime (possibly ALL lifetimes!).

Here is a Popular Science article on this issue...

Russia Announces Mission to Deflect Earth Killer Asteroid

In a surprise announcement, the Russian Space Agency says it is sending a mission to the asteroid named Apophis, which is suspected to be on a collision course for Earth. This asteroid measures over 1000 feet in diameter, and is on a path which will carry it very close to Earth in the year 2029. It is expected to get a gravitational push, which will place it on a collison course for the Earth in 2036. If it strikes Earth, it will likely kill hundreds of thousands and devastate an entire region of the planet.

The US Space Agency, NASA, has downplayed the risk this asteroid poses in the last few years. The Russians, however, are intent on making sure no risk of striking the Earth remains. They feel it is better to spend the money now and develop a system to defend against threatening space objects, than to wait until a devastating planet strike occurs.

Read more hear on PhysOrg...

Strange Goings on at the Large Hadron Collider

The newest and largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, was created to search for the Higgs-Boson particle. This particle is the last particle predicted by our current understanding of particle physics that has not been directly observed, and is believed responsible for such things as giving "mass" to other objects, and holding the universe together like "glue". It has been named the "God Particle" by the press.

Well, it seems the "God Particle" does not want to be found. Several physicists have half joking made the claim that it appears the Large Hadron Collider is being sabotaged from the future. A series of unusual accidents or unfortunate events has brought every particle accelorator ever built to study the Higgs-Boson to a screeching halt. They say it is almost like waves from the future rippling back and snuffing out the attempts to find this particle.

By the way, did I say the search for this particle in itself is highly controversial, and the possible results from finding this particle include such niceties as the total destruction of the Earth...

Maybe the "God Particle" knows what will happen when they find it and is trying to save us?

Here is an informative article about it from the mainstream media.

The Tenuous Web We Weave...

Here is my take on a particularly interesting bit of dark science...

Our modern world has given us a great many conveniences. All manner of electronic wizardry is at our fingertips. This alternate electronic reality has come with a cost. With every step we take on the plank of electronic convenience, we run the risk of falling into the deep void of societal collapse.

How can something as simple as a cell phone lead to the end of our civilization?

Simple. For those of us who grew up in the cold war days, we were shown that there are some very nasty side effects to things like a nuclear blast. One of those effects is a nasty little bugger called EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse). Back in the old days, the only way to generate one of these was with a nuclear device. This is no longer the case.

In these modern times, EMP weapons, while relatively unknown by the public, are an accepted fact. These weapons (or even a simple nuke detonated in the right location), will send a burst of electromagnetic energy through all electrical equipment in the affected region, frying and burning up all electronics making them totally unusable. This energy is particularly insidious, as it travels fast enough to bypass surge protectors and circuit breakers and affects the most modern solid state electronics much worse than the older analog circuitry. The modern solid state electronics and our existing power grid, will actually amplify these effects, making the resulting energy cascade far worse than it would have been with older technology.

It does not take much imagination to figure out what happens next. Consider that if a group of militants decides to detonate a small strategically placed nuke, or activate an EMP device, the resulting network overload will render EVERYTHING electronic in the region totally unusable. This includes all telephones, radio, vehicles, and anything that makes our modern society what it is. We will literally be returned to the Stone Age in milliseconds.

Fine you say. How will it kill millions and make our world fall apart? It does not. At first.

Over the course of time, it is said 9 out of 10 Americans could die. Within a week, large masses of our urban population will begin to starve, as nearly all our vehicles will not be drivable. The only usable vehicles will be the very, very old ones which have no computer circuitry. No planes will be flyable either, and large numbers will crash when the EMP is set off. In short, our food supply network will simply vaporize. Poof!

Nor will we have any means to call for help, as all landlines, radios, cellphones, and communications networks will be totally burned out with no hope of repair. Where there is no call for help, there will be no help to come. Large masses will be forced to sit and starve with no help on the way and no hope for rescue. Rescue services, police, and fire departments will be incapacitated as well. Our military will probably still be mobile, but there will be too few of them to make much difference and they will be fighting to control the migrating, starving mobs.

As we spin our web of technology, we go further out from the safety net we once had as short as two generations ago. Not enough of our population knows simple survival skills, or has the capacity to provide their own basic needs, such as food. They rely upon a vast global web of technologically dependent supply lines, leaving them vulnerable to disruptions, even on a small scale. As a society, we have lost the ability to be self-sufficient on a personal level. This has the potential to be disastrous. As our populations fill the cities, and pave over farmland in the name of urban sprawl, we could be sealing our fate in the grand order of things. With the death of the small family farm, so dies our capacity to survive in the global age.

The scary thing is that this could happen strictly to the US and not affect the rest of the world. In fact, there may be plans just for this event to take place. A few years ago, it was determined that a lot of our electronic infra-structure might have hard wired "off-switches" built into them at the time of manufacture, put in place by foriegn agencies who wish to flick off our switch in times of war. The total extent of the problem remains unknown.

As usual for America, no contingency plans are currently in place for us for when this event does occur.

Pretty scary stuff, eh?

Soylent Moo?

With the global rise in population and the possibilities of food shortages, we are starting to see some interesting tidbits from the bioengineering world. Interesting is probably not the word, scary is probably better. A research group recently announced that artificially grown beef will be readily available within ten years. This beef will be grown from cloned cells, in a vat. Yum! Growing this meat has meat has already been accomplished, it is just a matter of economics to bring the costs down to a marketable level.

We are already consuming cloned cattle. Is just another step in the process of removing mankind from the natural world, or will it provide a benefit for bleak future where food is scarce?

You can find out more about this mystery meat here...

Ten Creepiest Robots from Hell

Here is a link to ten of the creepiest REAL robots ever made.

Creepy Robots from Hell

We are done for...

Apperantly the Japanese have been developing humanity's replacement in secret. They are now teaching it how to be human. They expect it to have the reasoning capability of a small child in a few years. Pretty scary. I hope the batteries run out before it learns enough to be an adult. An even scarier thought... What if the learning can be transfered to the next artificial robot brain. You could concievably go through unbroken generations of learning, eventually becoming far smarter than humans.

At any rate, I welcome our new robot overlords.

Read about it here...