(Updated 10-1-97)
As the effects of Hale Bopp continue to be clearly observed, by all of those who are willing and able to see them, we struggle for understanding of this glib and insincere paradox. Meanwhile others suffer and die from the consequences of this object's influence as it passes through our lives.
It is far too simple and easy to quickly declare that comets are not "harbingers of evil" as has been stated throughout history by many well educated and revered men, rather than critically review the evidence presented. This is simply and purely the backbone of scientific research... nothing more, nothing less.
As long as these men and women are safe and comfortable in their bought and paid for sheltered lives, they are free to spout their ridicules and falsehoods. However... one day the shelter will not protect them from the onslaught that must surely come. They will one day be victims, just as those who have thus far been victims.
Victims such as those who have lost possessions and their very lives in the disasters of the last several years. Typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic activity, aircraft crashes, fires, floods, severe heat and cold, droughts, and all other manner of nature's assaults on human life, have increased in great numbers, in direct correlation with our solar system's rendezvous with Hale Bopp.
The opportunity is here now to acknowledge the possibilities that such a destructive power holds over our civilization. We are all to be held accountable for our effort to appropriately deal with such a bitter enemy to human existence. If we indeed do expect that someday our planet will encounter, head on, a sizable asteroid or other object, then why spend so much time and energy in lies, denying the destructive force of this object.
This threat will not go away. It is in fact our destiny, as has
been so many times proven out in history. We could choose to construct
a plan of defense; a tactic to conquer this foe. Or we could simply continue
to blame it all on Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
Here are just a few examples of recent concern:
An increase of solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections, with other significant solar activity.
CME's have critically increased over the past 8-10 weeks. Even as recent as a couple of years ago an "M' class CME was unheard of. These are now occurring on nearly a daily basis, with some days having multiple "M" class flares. The following scale reflects the exponential increase of flares from one class to the next.
Ranking of these bursts or a FLARE based on its X-ray energy output are classified by the order of magnitude of the peak burst intensity (I) measured at the earth in the 1 to 8 angstrom band as follows:
Class (in Watt/sq. Meter)
B I less than (l.t.) 10.0E-06
C 10.0E-06 l.e.= I l.t.= 10.0E-05
M 10.0E-05 l.e.= I l.t.= 10.0E-04
X I g.e.= 10.0E-04
Interesting to note that the CME list maintained by the LASCO team has periodically disappeared recently. We are also, according to historical documentation, supposed to be at a minimum level of solar activity. So what is the reason for the large amount of activity, which is nearly without precedent?
The so-called "El Niņo" effect.
The meteorologists are calling this current event the strongest that may be seen in the entire century. I contend that what we are seeing is not just an El Niņo, but that it is a result of core heating from the passing of Hale Bopp.
Coincidence? How many coincidences before recognition?
Maurice Goodman, Communications Director of FEMA, stated on MSNBC on October 11th, "The word is preparedness, preparedness, preparedness!". He said this concerning the predicted coming onslaught of the worst El Niņo in history. Now where have we heard these words before?
Polar ice receding and/or melting.
The polar ice caps have been noted to be receding and/or breaking up at an alarming rate. In some areas the melting appears to be occurring at the rate of hundreds of miles in only weeks. In the image above, you see what is being referred to as the "El Niņo" effect. However you will notice that there are occurring areas of excessive heating around the polar ice cap. Surely this is not reflective of a Pacific event.
Is it another coincidence that it is occurring at a latitude relative to auroral activity?
SYDNEY, Australia (AP)
- Deep holes and cracks several miles long are spreading through an Antarctic ice shelf, and a scientist who examined them predicted shelf soon will collapse. Two years ago, the northern section of the 620-mile-long Larsen Ice Shelf collapsed after a period of warmer-than-usual temperatures.
On Wednesday, Rudi del Valle, director of geology with the Argentinean Antarctic Institute, flew over the rest of the 4,600-square-mile ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula and predicted it would collapse within two years. "It will be destroyed without any doubt,'' he said. In January 1995, a 500-square-mile section of the ice shelf collapsed and broke up into thousands of icebergs.
Prior to the collapse it had become crisscrossed with deep cracks, some 30 miles long and 100 feet wide. "We saw a lot of cracks and ice rifts - a lot,'' del Valle said of his trip Wednesday. "We saw holes - big holes in the ice shelf. And we don't have an explanation for these holes. In summer, there are rivers ... and small lakes.'' Greenpeace sent two helicopters from its research ship, the Arctic Sunrise, over the area Wednesday.
Marc de Fourneaux, a climber and Antarctic expert who dropped down onto the ice from one of the helicopters, said he had never seen so many cracks in the surface of an ice shelf. He also was surprised at the number of lakes - some larger than football fields - that have formed from melting ice.
Glaciologists from the British Antarctic Survey contend that the disintegration of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula is a sign that they are reaching their "limit of viability'' due to increasing temperatures over the peninsula. In a recent paper, glaciologists David Vaughan and Chris Doake said ice shelves on the peninsula were starting to retreat south as temperatures continued to increase.
"Ice shelves appear to be sensitive indicators of climate change,'' they wrote in Nature magazine last year. Scientists disagree over whether the warming is due to the greenhouse effect of the buildup of carbon dioxide and other gases released by the Industrial Age, or whether it is part of the Earth's natural warming and cooling cycle. Del Valle said in recent years it has even rained in coastal Antarctica - a previously unheard-of event.
More recent aircraft casualties.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The six U.S. military air crashes since September 13:
September 13 -- An Air Force C-141 transport plane flying from Namibia with nine Americans aboard collides with a German military plane off the coast of Africa. One body was recovered and 32 are missing.
September 14 -- An Air Force F-117A stealth fighter flying at a Maryland air show crashes into a residential area after a piece of one wing breaks off; the pilot ejects safely.
September 14 -- A U.S. Navy FA-18 crashes in the Middle Eastern country of Oman, killing the pilot.
September 15 -- A Marine FA-18D Hornet fighter jet crashes off the coast of North Carolina during a practice bombing run, killing the two pilots.
September 16 -- Two Air National Guard F-16s collide off the coast of New Jersey, sending one into the Atlantic while the other is able to land. The pilots survive.
September 19 -- An Air Force B-1B bomber crashes on a training mission in southeastern Montana, killing all four crew members.
Interesting to note that these failures occurred during a notable increase in serious CME activity. Also, this list does not include numerous small aircraft and other airline failures. Also to note that the MIR computer has failed FIVE times since July! Will the new computer survive the heavy doses of cosmic radiation and electromagnetic flux?
The Russian "seismic event".
Early in August the bells and whistles went off at the U.S. nuclear weapons detections center. The blast was pinpointed in Northern Siberia, an area commonly used by the Soviets to test nuclear warheads. Accusations flew and the politicians and mediators went to work. However, due to one particular detail a crisis was avoided; the soviets were not doing any testing and had not for years!
It did not fit the criteria for an earthquake, the indications were a blast equal to the power of a multi-ton nuclear warhead.
Washington
--- "The (Defense) Department believes a low-level nuclear test would be a breach of the Russian moratorium that has been in place for at least five years, but not a violation of the CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) since it has not yet entered into force," the written statement of September 3 said. "Beyond that, we do not believe it useful to make a legal determination. We have not yet reached any conclusions on the nature of the seismic event."
In response to a question regarding the recent seismic event in Russia during the regular DoD briefing on Aug. 28, 1997, the spokesman, Capt. Mike Doubleday, USN, incorrectly said:
"If the seismic event was actually a low-level nuclear test event, then the Russians would be violating the object and the purpose of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Beyond that, we do not believe it useful to make a legal determination. We have not yet reached any conclusions on the nature of the seismic event."
Was this the impact of a sizable meteor?
Newly discovered increased magnetic field of Mars:
PASADENA, Calif. (AP)
-- Scientists could gain insight into Mars' history and a record of a long-gone global magnetic field through magnetic anomalies found by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The discoveries have come even as the spacecraft is in the process of circularizing its long elliptical orbit by the novel technique of aerobraking -- dipping into Mars' upper atmosphere to use drag rather than rockets to alter the orbit.
The spacecraft has successfully done that nine times so far, Project Scientist Arden Albee told a briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Thursday. Mars Global Surveyor had earlier confirmed that Mars, unlike Earth, has very weak global magnetic field. The new discoveries are localized fields coming from areas in the crust -- about 30 miles deep -- rather than from the planet's center.
"It appears the crust of Mars is strewn with multiple magnetic anomalies," said Jack Connerney, a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist who is co-investigator on Global Surveyor's magnetometer/electron reflectometer experiment.
The anomalies are also far stronger than those found on Earth, he said. While a compass on Earth might lead you home, a compass on Mars would point in different directions depending on where it is located.
"If you are a Boy Scout on Mars with a compass, you're lost," he said.
Magnetic anomalies may occur where magma -- liquid or molten rock --rose and cooled, recording a magnetic signature of that epoch in a planet's development.
The Indonesia/Malaysian fires: (note the area affected is nearly the size of the entire country of China)
PEKANBARU, Indonesia (CNN)
-- Far away in the cities, children are told to stay indoors because of the haze. But on the outskirts of this provincial capital, workmen are setting yet more fires to clear rain forest. The fires have sent a deadly haze over large tracts of Southeast Asia, and decimated between 1.2 million and 1.5 million acres in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Indonesia declared a state of national emergency on Thursday, after two deaths were blamed on the haze. About 10,000 firefighters from the two nations were combating the fires. Both the German and French governments have offered material assistance, and Canadian firefighting experts brought state-of-the-art firefighting equipment to their Malaysian counterparts.
The smog has blanketed parts of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia, and its haze has extended as far north as the Philippines and Thailand. Haze at fault in air crash? Investigators were looking into the possibility that poor visibility may have caused an air crash in Indonesia on Friday in which at least 200 people were killed.
And a Hong Kong airline suspended flights to one of the airports in the region on Friday, citing the hazy conditions, and the government urged people that planned to visit the area to take precautions against the haze. Britain and the United States have already cautioned against travel to the area.
Drought contributes to fires, Indonesia is suffering its worst drought in more than a half century. Scientists say the drought was caused by the El Nino weather pattern, which spawned unusual weather patterns around the Pacific.
The question really is, are these really fires due to human hands or are they due to volcanic activity and CO2 release in the area, the incredible seismic activity of strength and depth in the area, or are they due to fire from above. There has also been over twenty tropical storms and typhoons in the greater area this season alone.
Coincidence?