Environment – Page 14 – Slugger O'Toole

“It’s neat stuff and it fits together.”

Pete Baker on December 17, 2009, 5:21 am

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I’ve mentioned the potentially hazardous Yellowstone caldera before. Now, via the Professor, comes news that the magma chamber involved may be larger than previously suggested. University of Utah study details here. Interestingly.. Based on how the Yellowstone plume slants now, Smith and colleagues projected on a map where the plume might have originated at depth when the hotspot was erupting at the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border area from 17 million to almost 12 million years ago. They saw overlap, between the zones …

“The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist paintings..”

Pete Baker on December 16, 2009, 2:27 am

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It’s been 26 years since the last infrared sky survey, and on Monday Nasa’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer [WISE] launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II rocket – BBC report here and full launch video here. WISE will be used to identify objects as diverse as the most luminous galaxies known, over 10 billion light-years away, and potentially hazardous Near Earth Objects (NEOs) [see fun video here]. Those NEOs do occasionally get very close. As well …

The Geminids are coming!

Pete Baker on December 12, 2009, 11:44 pm

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If you’re fortunate enough to have clear skies this weekend, and the signs are good, don’t forget that the Geminids are due to make their annual appearance. Unlike last year, the moon has decide to take Sunday night off so conditions should be perfect for a good show when maximum activity is expected – Monday morning at 0510 UT. But there should still be plenty to see from around 9pm either tonight or tomorrow. The Irish Astronomical Association has viewing …

10 years of [XMM] Newton and the hexagon on Saturn

Pete Baker on December 10, 2009, 9:15 pm

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The European Space Agency is marking the 10th anniversary of the launch of the X-ray observatory XMM-Newton with a less than informative slide-show. Of better value, if un-embeddable, is the BBC hosted version. Meanwhile Nasa’s Cassini probe, after imaging Saturn’s northern lights, has been capturing visible-light images of the mysterious hexagon-shaped jet-stream around Saturn’s north pole – full image here. First seen by the Voyager probes in 1979, infrared images of the structure were previously captured in 2006. Image Credit: …

“The methane being generated on Mars is indigenous to Mars”

Pete Baker on December 9, 2009, 9:31 pm

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It’s still not proof of life on Mars but, as the BBC reports, “Scientists at Imperial College London say they have now ruled out the possibility that the methane is being constantly deposited by meteorites landing on the planet.” Or, as the Irish Times notes, “The methane being generated on Mars is indigenous to Mars,” [Kevin Nolan, physics lecturer at the Institute of Technology Tallaght] said yesterday. “It is a big deal.” And we also know there’s water [ice] there …

Sammy Wilson: Another economic convert to anti global warming lobby…

Mick Fealty on December 8, 2009, 9:35 pm

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Sammy Wilson is now claiming moral victory over the Global Warming lobby (of which he was – until quite recently – a semi detached advocate) for the ‘Global Warmists’… A passionate, if recent convert. And yet the doubts around the scientific modeling have not changed that much in the last ten years… It’s more likely he read a book (An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming) by a former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, and changed his …

CRU’s cheating may deliver us into the hands of ‘fools’…

Mick Fealty on December 7, 2009, 8:06 pm

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I’m still waiting to hear back from Queens on that tree ring data story… but Richard Tol in today’s Irish Times notes that in cheating with its data, the CRU has risked public opinion following fools, some of whom like James actually think anthropogenic global warming is a myth. (His blog editor Damian – author of the excellent Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History – is doing a reasonable job of uncharacteristically …

The problem of building for the future in a distressed present…

Mick Fealty on December 5, 2009, 3:41 am

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If you haven’t seen this week’s Frontline programme on RTE find some time before next Monday evening and do it… It’s a fascinating lesson in how not to deal with an angry mob as a politician. John Gormley took the brunt of the anger (high fives at Fianna Fail party headquarters), and took the rather naive position of not answering the question of what his government was going to do to meet their distress and instead point out that his …

“The following UK MEPs will attend..”

Pete Baker on December 5, 2009, 12:13 am

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As Mark Devenport notes, the UK MEPs heading to the Copenhagen Climate Conference as part of the official European Parliament delegation look to be a representative interesting bunch. The following UK MEPs will attend the UN Climate Change Conference as part of the official European Parliament delegation: Linda McAvan MEP (Lab, Yorks & Humber); Bairbre de Brún MEP (Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland); Nick Griffin MEP (BNP, North West). Pete Baker

Climategate: An unscientific response to unscientific arguments…

Mick Fealty on December 2, 2009, 6:05 pm

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Climategate is a term coined by my brilliantly louche former colleague at the Daily Telegraph, James Delingpole. Everyone, it seems, is talking about it. Guido thinks he has a local link at Queens, when he points to a mathematician who has been trying to get tree ring data from Queens but claims he has been consistently blocked in his FOI requests, of which more below the fold. On the general thrust of the argument I picked this link up from …

‘Rise’ “to cost £60,000 more then planned”

Pete Baker on December 1, 2009, 4:12 am

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Having crushed Trillian, the Oregon-based Ed Carpenter’s design selected in 2005 for the Broadway Junction Public Art Project, the re-launched competition for that public space – promoted as “opportunity for local artists” – was eventually won, from among “over 40 international artists”, by ‘Rise’ – a spherical metal sculpture standing over 120 feet high designed by Wolfgang Buttress. Now the BBC reports that Belfast City Council are deciding whether to provide an additional £36,000 for “extra safety checks not included …

Labour’s dilemma over Goldsmith: Party or country (and the world)?

Mick Fealty on November 30, 2009, 3:28 pm

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Lots of good stuff on Jeff Breslin’s blog this morning… Not least his sensible advice to Labour currently going full blast after Zac Goldsmith and his non dom status… …the key factor in this story is that Zac Goldsmith would contribute more to the UK as Environment Secretary than he would by stumping up a tax liability that doesn’t exist. Now Cameron is taking stick for his own anti AGW stance… The question facing Labour strategists is: do you take …

What a good Stormont Chair needs to do: hold his minister’s feet to the fire…

Mick Fealty on November 27, 2009, 5:58 pm

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I’ve had a look back at the water rates issue after blogging Tom Kelly’s piece and found this little gem from our archives, in which our Stormont Chair of the Year Fred Cobain spells out the bleedin’ obvious to the Minister Conor Murphy who, so far as we can tell, is still ignoring the ticking time bomb over water… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the …

Saturn’s Northern Lights

Pete Baker on November 25, 2009, 4:09 am

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Wondrous false colour images from Nasa’s Cassini probe of aurora at the northern pole of Saturn. JPL press release here and more details of the images here. Below the fold Cassini scientist Andy Ingersoll explains. Cassini scientist Andy Ingersoll on Saturn’s ‘northern lights’, shown for the first time in a visible-light movie. Video from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Update Original second [embedded] video wasn’t working for me. I’ve replaced it with a YouTube upload instead. Pete …

“This is a major piece of investment into our city centre..”

Pete Baker on November 24, 2009, 10:37 pm

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We now know that Belfast is built on sleech, but apparently “unforeseen underground conditions” are causing problems in Londonderry too. From the BBC report Work began on the regeneration of Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place over six months ago. Guildhall Square is closed while the existing square is replaced, but it is unclear whether the work will continue. The Department for Social Development said it was due to a number of “unforeseen underground conditions”. These were in relation to the …

“It’s great to see beam circulating in the LHC again”

Pete Baker on November 21, 2009, 4:12 am

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Understandably, it’s been a lot more low-key than last year. At the newly refurbished, and tested, Large Hadron Collider [LHC] at Cern scientists have successfully sent a beam of protons around the ring in a clockwise direction, some 10,000,000 times, and are preparing for the anti-clockwise beam. BBC report here. And from the Cern press release Particle beams are once again circulating in the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, CERN1’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This news comes after the machine …

“It flashed from the west, and it lit up the whole freakin’ neighborhood.”

Pete Baker on November 20, 2009, 4:30 am

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Via Space Weather. For something suppsoedly expected once every five years there seem to have been a remarkable number of “majestic” meteors recently – including one reported over Ireland in April this year. December 2008 over Edmonton, Canada. The anticipated asteroid 2008 TC3 over Sudan. Unexpectedly over Scandanavia in January 2009. The 8th October 2009 explosion over Indonesia. And in looking around I spotted this video report from Seattle in February 2008. Although they may have been variable in size, …

Space Shuttle Mission STS-129

Pete Baker on November 17, 2009, 1:08 am

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The space shuttle Atlantis is due to lift-off tonight at 7.28pm [GMT] from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on mission STS-129 – delivering stocks of spare parts ahead of the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2010. There’s the launch blog, and the usual live coverage on Nasa TV. And, if you’re lucky [and not in Europe – Ed], the Leonids might put on a show tonight. Adds A particularly stunning launch video from NasaTV Pete Baker

Unusual sights

Pete Baker on November 16, 2009, 10:20 pm

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16 helicopters in total, one formation of 9 and a second formation of 7, both flying relatively low, just passed over the yurt heading in a southerly direction.. Pete Baker

Great British public in agreement with `our Sammy`?

Kilsally on November 14, 2009, 11:38 pm

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According to a poll by the Times, some 59% of the UK population agrees with former NI Environment Minister, Sammy Wilson, that the case for Global warming is not proven. It seems the Government and Green lobby has a lot of work to do with a sceptical UK public in the run up to next months climate change summit in Copenhagen. KilsallyIT Technical Manager for a CCTV company in the UK & Ireland. Christian, Orangeman, Unionist. Webmaster of Ulster-Scots Online. …