Japanese probe helps unlock riddle of sun’s heat: study

3 days ago

CHICAGO (AFP) — New observations of the Sun gathered by a Japanese probe may finally explain why its outer atmosphere burns white-hot in contrast to its relatively cool surface, scientists said Thursday.

The riddle of the star’s white-hot atmosphere, which at several million degrees kelvin is 200 to 300 times warmer than the surface, has intrigued solar physicists for more than 50 years.

The experts tended to fall into two camps, speculating that the extraordinary warmth of the outer atmosphere, or corona, was due to either miniature solar flares or atmospheric (Alfven) waves.

Several research teams had reported evidence of these Alfven waves, which could potentially heat the corona to extreme temperatures by releasing energy as they travel outward from the Sun along magnetic field lines.

But up to this point, scientists had not been able to detect the waves definitively because of the limitations of the available instruments. (more…)

Evolution News & Views: The Spiritual Brain: An Argument Against Materialism

Canadian neuroscientist Mario Beauregard notes at the beginning of his book The Spiritual Brain, co-authored with journalist Denyse O’Leary, that he belongs to a small minority of nonmaterialist neuroscientists. He is upfront about the fact that he “went into neuroscience in part because [he] knew experientially that such things [religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (RSME)] can indeed happen.” Driven by his curiosity about what is happening to the brain during RSME, Beauregard and his colleague studied the spiritual experiences of Carmelite nuns, coming to the conclusion that it is more likely that these mystics are directly experiencing a reality outside of themselves.

There is so much evidence, if you choose to approach it with a sincere and open mind, that consciousness and mind are able to function apart from the brain. (more…)

There is now a significant population of neuroscientists, along with philosophers and others, who accept not only their findings but also the interpretations they place on them, who argue that because of advances in brain science ‘we now know’ that free will is an illusion. The attacks on free will from this direction are particularly powerful because they encompass both material and cultural determinism; for the brain is not only a piece of matter causally wired into the material world, it is also brain-washed in a laundry made of a collective of other brains. This is a powerful double whammy for our notions of freedom and of the self as an independent point of departure.

It amazes me how science, in so many fields, is beginning to sound more like the religion belief, and less and less real science, which is rooted in establishing fact, measurable fact. (more…)

Gaia guru urges ocean pipes to fix Earth’s climate | Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - A series of giant pipes in the oceans to mix surface and deeper water could be an emergency fix for the Earth’s damaged climate system, the scientist behind the Gaia theory said on Wednesday.

James Lovelock, whose Gaia hypothesis that planet Earth is a living entity has fuelled controversy for three decades, thinks the stakes are so high that radical solutions must be tried — even if they ultimately fail.

This is what happens when very clever people, yet who have not cultivated Wisdom (prajña ) try to do something, anything, in the world to improve it. It is one thing to advocate, as I would, living in a way that doesn’t pollute the planet and in other ways treat the environment with violence. It is another thing altogether to propose actions such as this. These people give true environmentalists a really bad name. The key to helping the oceans would be to stop over fishing, even to stop fishing all together, and to never dump pollution into it. What’s so hard about this concept? The earth is far too vast for mankind at its current development to engineer. This is nothing but science fiction.

Here is a quote from this article:

“There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community,” Gore said at a forum in Singapore. “In actuality, there is very little disagreement.”

Gore likened the campaign to the millions of dollars spent by U.S. tobacco companies years ago on creating the appearance of scientific debate on smoking’s harmful effects.

“This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science,” Gore said. “We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion.”

My observation, it’s interesting that Gore himself is using the same techniques that he says the oil companies are using. Consensus in science is meaningless. Science is, or should be, based on objective observation. When it starts being ideological, it is no longer science, it is religion. Gore is a modern day religious jealot. He watched Superman as a boy, and now imagines himeself to be like the father of Clark Kent, who stood against the establishment on Kronos, or whatever the home planet of Superman was. He’s living in some very strange kind of fantasy world in which he is a world savior, yet, his own lifestyle brands him as a collosal hypocrit. (more…)

Very interesting:

If redshift is the effect of an expanding universe, it must be related to distance. Yet three galaxies with very different redshifts are the same distance from Earth.

Astronomer Halton Arp studied this galaxy, NGC 1232, in 1982. He called it “one of those rare and thrilling moments when you can look down a long corridor into the future.” What he saw was three galaxies with three very different redshifts. The primary galaxy has a redshift of z = .005. Its first companion (left side of photo) has a redshift of z = .021. The tiny companion on the upper arm has a redshift of z = .1.

Arp was sure that these three galaxies are next-door neighbors. The small galaxy on the left is the archetypal “companion galaxy,” not the type observed as an independent galaxy. Its star-forming regions and gas clouds are similar in scale to those of the large galaxy, and the influence of the small galaxy can be traced in disturbances along the larger galaxy’s arms.  Arp’s Catalogue of Discordant Redshift Associations presents similar in-depth documentation that the tiny knot on the upper arm is also a galaxy connected to NGC 1232.

Why were these observations so thrilling? They directly contradict the assumption upon which big bang cosmology is based. Because redshift is interpreted as an effect of the expansion of the universe, it must be related to distance. Yet here are three galaxies with very different redshifts that are at the same distance.

The astronomical community responded by dismissing his evidence and taking away his telescope time. But in the years since he made these observations, Arp has added hundreds of similar discordant associations to his collection. These associations will change our view of the distribution of galaxies, their ages, and the size of the “known” universe. And that will require a new theory of cosmology.

I found this story extremely disturbing. Especially the business about the I.V. Farben executive who worked at Auschwitz, and then later became head of Bayer. Clearly, this seems to support David Icke’s claim that there is some kind of Illuminati cabal at work. This business of the Codex Alimentarius is troubling.

Technology developed by an Irish firm that allegedly defies basic laws of physics to produce free power today goes on public display for the first time.

Steorn is challenging worldwide cynicism over its claims to have stumbled upon a revolutionary discovery that creates clean, constant energy and could end the global fuel crisis. (more…)