Science and Technology

Why is Pluto Not a Planet????

Posted on June 1, 2008. Filed under: Science and Technology |

Most of you people might still be wondering as why “” Pluto is not a planet!!”” . Even I did and when I came across this article which I would like to share with you………

Pluto was first discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona. Astronomers had long predicted that there would be a ninth planet in the Solar System, which they called Planet X. Only 22 at the time, Tombaugh was given the laborious task of comparing photographic plates. These were two images of a region of the sky, taken two weeks apart. Any moving object, like an asteroid, comet or planet, would appear to jump from one photograph to the next.

After a year of observations, Tombaugh finally discovered an object in the right orbit, and declared that he had discovered Planet X. Because they had discovered it, the Lowell team were allowed to name it. They settled on Pluto, a name suggested by an 11-year old school girl in Oxford, England (no, it wasn’t named after the Disney character, but the Roman god of the underworld).

The Solar System now had 9 planets.

Astronomers weren’t sure about Pluto’s mass until the discovery of its largest Moon, Charon, in 1978. And by knowing its mass (0.0021 Earths), they could more accurately gauge its size.

The most accurate measurement currently gives the size of Pluto at 2,400 km (1,500 miles) across. Although this is small, Mercury is only 4,880 km (3,032 miles) across. Pluto is tiny, but it was considered larger than anything else past the orbit of Neptune.

Over the last few decades, powerful new ground and space-based observatories have completely changed previous understanding of the outer Solar System.Instead of being the only planet in its region, like the rest of the Solar System, Pluto and its moons are now known to be just a large example of a collection of objects called the Kuiper Belt. This region extends from the orbit of Neptune out to 55 astronomical units (55 times the distance of the Earth to the Sun).

Astronomers estimate that there are at least 70,000 icy objects, with the same composition as Pluto, that measure 100 km across or more in the Kuiper Belt. And according to the new rules, Pluto is not a planet. It’s just another Kuiper Belt object.

Here’s the problem. Astronomers had been turning up larger and larger objects in the Kuiper Belt. 2005 FY9, discovered by Caltech astronomer Mike Brown and his team is only a little smaller than Pluto. And there are several other Kuiper Belt objects in that same classification.

Astronomers realized that it was only a matter of time before an object larger than Pluto was discovered in the Kuiper Belt.

And in 2005, Mike Brown and his team dropped the bombshell. They had discovered an object, further out than the orbit of Pluto that was probably the same size, or even larger. Officially named 2003 UB313, the object was later designated as Eris. Since its discovery, astronomers have determined that Pluto’s size is approximately 2,600 km (1,600 miles) across. It also has approximately 25% more mass than Pluto.

With Eris being larger, made of the same ice/rock mixture, and more massive than Pluto, the concept that we have nine planets in the Solar System began to fall apart. What is Eris, planet or Kuiper Belt Object; what is Pluto, for that matter? Astronomers decided they would make a final decision about the definition of a planet at the XXVIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, which was held from August 14 to August 25, 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Astronomers from the association were given the opportunity to vote on the definition of planets. One version of the definition would have actually boosted the number of planets to 12; Pluto was still a planet, and so were Eris and even Ceres, which had been thought of as the largest asteroid. A different proposal kept the total at 9, defining the planets as just the familiar ones we know without any scientific rationale, and a third would drop the number of planets down to 8, and Pluto would be out of the planet club. But, then… what is Pluto?

In the end, astronomers voted for the controversial decision of demoting Pluto (and Eris) down to the newly created classification of “dwarf planet“.

Is Pluto a planet? Does it qualify? For an object to be a planet, it needs to meet these three requirements defined by the IAU:

It needs to be in orbit around the Sun – Yes, so maybe Pluto is a planet.
It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape – Pluto…check
It needs to have “cleared the neighborhood” of its orbit – Uh oh. Here’s the rule breaker. According to this, Pluto is not a planet.

What does “cleared its neighborhood” mean? As planets form, they become the dominant gravitational body in their orbit in the Solar System. As they interact with other, smaller objects, they either consume them, or sling them away with their gravity. Pluto is only 0.07 times the mass of the other objects in its orbit. The Earth, in comparison, has 1.7 million times the mass of the other objects in its orbit.

Any object that doesn’t meet this 3rd criteria is considered a dwarf planet. And so, Pluto is a dwarf planet. There are still many objects with similar size and mass to Pluto jostling around in its orbit. And until Pluto crashes into many of them and gains mass, it will remain a dwarf planet. Eris suffers from the same problem.

It’s not impossible to imagine a future, though, where astronomers discover a large enough object in the distant Solar System that could qualify for planethood status. Then our Solar System would have 9 planets again.

Even though Pluto is a dwarf planet, and no longer officially a planet, it’ll still be a fascinating target for study. And that’s why NASA has sent their New Horizons spacecraft off to visit it. New Horizons will reach Pluto in July 2015, and capture the first close-up images of the (dwarf) planet’s surface.

Space enthusiasts will marvel at the beauty and remoteness of Pluto, and the painful deplaneting memories will fade. We’ll just be able to appreciate it as Pluto, and not worry how to categorize it. At least now you know why Pluto was demoted.

source:Universetoday

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Crop circles

Posted on May 22, 2008. Filed under: History, Science and Technology |

Crop circles is a term used to describe patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat, barley, rapeseed , rye, corn, linseed and soy.

Overview

The term was first used by researcher Colin Andrews to describe simple circles he was researching. Since 1990 the circles evolved into complex geometries, but by then the term had stuck. Examples can be found worldwide. Various hypotheses have been offered to explain their formation, ranging from the naturalistic to the paranormal. Naturalistic explanations include man-made hoaxes or geological anomalies, while paranormal explanations include formation by UFOs. Many circles are known to be man-made, such as those created by Doug Bower, Dave Chorley, and John Lundberg, and a 2000 study into circle hoaxing concluded that 80 percent of UK circles were definitely man-made.

In 1966 one of the most famous accounts of UFO traces happened in the small town of Tully, Queensland, Australia . A sugar cane farmer said he witnessed a saucer-shaped craft rise 30 or 40 feet up from a swamp and then fly away, and when he went to investigate the location where he thought the saucer had landed, he found the reeds intricately weaved in a clockwise fashion on top of the water. The woven reeds could hold the weight of 10 men.

There are also many other anecdotal accounts of crop circles in Ufology literature that predate the modern crop circle phenomena, though some cases involve crops which were cut or burnt, rather than flattened.

Crop Circle Designs

Early examples of crop circles were usually simple circular patterns of various sizes. After some years, more complex geometric patterns emerged. In general, the early formations (1970–2000) seemed to be based on the principles of sacred geometry. Later formations, those occurring after 2000, appear to be based on other principles, natural sciences and mathematics designs, including fractals. Many crop circles now have fine intricate detail, regular symmetry and careful composition. Elements of three-dimensionality became more frequent, culminating in spectacular images of cube-shaped structures.[more…]

Creators of Crop Circles

In 1991, two men from Southampton, England announced that they had conceived the idea as a prank at a pub near Winchester, Hampshire during an evening in 1976. Inspired by the 1966 Tully Saucer Nests, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley made their crop circles using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools: using a four-foot-long plank attached to a rope, they easily created circles eight feet in diameter. The two men were able to make a 40-foot (12 m) circle in 15 minutes.

The pair became frustrated when their work did not receive significant publicity, so in 1981 they created a circle in Matterley Bowl, a natural amphitheatre just outside Winchester, Hampshire – an area surrounded by roads from which a clear view of the field is available to drivers passing by. Their designs were at first simple circles. When newspapers claimed that the circles could easily be explained by natural phenomena, Bower and Chorley made more complex patterns. A simple wire with a loop, hanging down from a cap – the loop positioned over one eye – could be used to focus on a landmark to aid in the creation of straight lines. Later designs of crop circles became increasingly complicated.

Bower’s wife had become suspicious of him, noticing high levels of mileage in their car. Eventually, fearing that his wife suspected him of adultery, Bower confessed to her and subsequently he and Chorley informed a British national newspaper. Chorley died in 1996, and Doug Bower has made crop circles as recently as 2004. Bower has said that, had it not been for his wife’s suspicions, he would have taken the secret to his deathbed, never revealing that it was a hoax.[more…]

Paranormal Beliefs

Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extra terrestrials.

According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops. Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.

The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief-systems incorporating crop circles; Including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing. New Age followers sometimes gather at crop circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.

UFOs and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop circle sites, leading to them becoming associated with UFOs and aliens. Some people claim to have seen images of UFOs forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by skeptics as being indistinct or clear hoaxes.

Scientific Analysis

In 2002, Discovery Channel commissioned 5 aeronautics and astronautics students from MIT to create crop circles of their own. Discovery’s production team consulted with crop circle researcher Nancy Talbott, who provided them with three attributes which she believed set “real” crop circles apart from known man-made circles such as those created by Doug and Dave. These criteria were:

Elongated apical plant stem nodes
Expulsion cavities in the plant stems
The presence of 10-50 micrometer diameter magnetized iron spheres in the soils, distributed linearly

Over the course of a single night the team were able to create a stereotypical “man-made” circle which they then attempted to enhance using the three criteria. The team used lengths of rope to plot their design and trampled the wheat down in a spiral pattern using lengths of wooden board attached to loops of rope. To meet criterion 2, they constructed a portable microwave emitter; using it to superheat the moisture inside the corn stalks until it burst out as steam. To meet criterion 3 they built a device – dubbed the “Flammschmeisser” – which sprayed iron particles through a heated ring. However, the device proved to be too time consuming to use and they were forced to finish the task using a pyrotechnic charge to distribute the iron around the circle. The circle was later analyzed by graduate students from MIT, who declared it to be “on a par with any of the documented cases”. Their conclusion was later questioned by Talbott, noting that the team had only been able to recreate 2 of the 3 criteria. Talbott also expressed concerns that the iron particles were not distributed laterally. Furthermore, she felt that the team’s use of night vision headsets and other technologically advanced items would be out of reach for the average hoaxer.

The creation of the circle was recorded and used in the Discovery channel documentary “Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields”.

Slideshow:

Click on the slideshow and open in a new window to see original size HQ pics.

source:wikipedia

Worlds Smallest Gun

Posted on May 20, 2008. Filed under: Fun and Facts, Science and Technology |

Americans have a lasting fascination with guns. The perennially debated Second Amendment has guaranteed citizens of the United States “the right to bear arms” since 1791. And while what, exactly, that means is up for interpretation, the Amendment has never been abolished. There are federal and state laws that control guns in the U.S., however — even ones the size of an iPod nano.

Harold Lloyd Trust/Getty Images
Prior to the 1920s, there were no gun control laws on the books in the U.S., a point understood by silent film star Harold Lloyd in
“An Eastern Westerner.”

It wasn’t until the 1920s that states began regulating firearms. As states passed gun laws, the federal government did, too. The National Firearms Act of 1934, the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 and the Gun Control Act of 1968 created and codified the restrictions on gun ownership in the United States [source: U.S. Department of Justice].

The relationship between gun laws and the Supreme Court has continued into the 21st century. The nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., maintains a law that bans handguns. The law is meant to prevent people from carrying easily concealed weapons. This regulation was challenged by a case before the Supreme Court in March 2008 [source: Washington Post]. But even if the court upholds the local law, it will still be a difficult task to rid the district — or any city — fully of handguns.

According to a 2006 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms report, a total of 3,614,452 handguns, rifles and shotguns were manufactured in the United States that year. Of those, 333,499 were exported outside of the country [source: ATF]. The United States certainly provides a major market for gun manufacturers. In 2005, the U.S. imported 1.84 million guns from overseas for sale — in addition to those made in America [source: U.S. Census]. As a result, there are more than 200 million guns in the U.S., and the nation has 44 million registered gun owners [source: The Globalist]

But there’s one gun that won’t likely show up in America. It’s been recorded as the smallest gun in the world. While its bullets only travel just over the length of a football field, because of its small size, the gun is illegal to import into the United States [source: Daily Mail].

The SwissMiniGun

According to Guinness World Records, the title of the smallest working revolver in the world goes to the Miniature Revolver C1ST, manufactured by SwissMiniGun [source: Daily Mail]. The tiny firearm measures just more than 2 inches and weighs less than 1 ounce. It fires bullets made by SwissMiniGun that are 2.34 mm caliber, rim fire cartridges and come as either blank rounds (which don’t produce a bullet) or live rounds (bulleted) [source: SwissMiniGun].

Courtesy SwissMiniGun
The SwissMiniGun Miniature Revolver C1ST

Only a very small number of the guns have been produced since they were first manufactured in 2005. They’re largely collectors’ items. About 300 have been made — this tiny gun carries a big price tag. The standard steel C1ST model goes for around $6,200, and the company has been creating only 100 of them per year [source: SwissMiniGun].

There’s also a customized version of the revolver — the Nr. A1YG — made of 18k gold. The higher-end model can be outfitted with all manner of grips, from ebony to diamonds. This version comes complete with a tiny rocket launcher attachment, which fires luminescent rockets that explode in green, white or red. The company has fetched up to almost $60,000 for a custom Nr. A1YGs [source: Daily Mail].

The novelty SwissMiniGun will likely never be mass produced. The detail that goes into each one and the high cost prohibit widespread manufacturing. But that hasn’t kept concern among some law enforcement quarters from growing. The company says it can’t ship its firearms to the United Kingdom, and the guns are banned in the United States. The U.S. federal gun laws outlaw any working firearm with a barrel less than 3 inches long [source: Daily Mail]. This is greater than the entire length of the SwissMiniGun.

One reason the guns are outlawed in the U.S. is due to the small size of their bullets. Firing a cartridge essentially smashes the bullet, making it impossible to trace using ballistics investigation [source: WTVJ]. The SwissMiniGun is also small enough that it fits completely in the palm of the average adult’s hand, rendering it highly concealable — its holster even has a key chain ring on the end. This makes some federal agencies nervous: U.S. laws prohibit any firearm that can’t be detected at airports [source: ATF].

While Paul Erad, the owner of SwissMiniGun is complying with laws that prohibit him from selling the guns to these countries’ citizens, you could say he’s incredulous. In one interview he cited post-Sept. 11 “paranoia” as the reason for America’s unwillingness to import the guns [source: Daily Mail]. The official SwissMiniGun site points out that some pellet guns pack as much as 10 times the wallop of the tiny revolver.

The SwissMiniGun’s 2.34mm-caliber ammunition travels just under 400 feet per second. Its bullets pack a punch of about 0.71 foot pound of energy [source: SwissMiniGun]. By contrast, the Remington 300 Ultra Mag round carries 4,220 foot pounds of energy with it [source: Remington].

On the other hand, according to the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, it takes at least one foot pound of force to inflict a penetrating wound, like a gunshot injury. Anything less (like the force delivered by SwissMiniGun cartridges) “is incapable of penetrating even vulnerable parts of the body, such as the eye” [source: House of Commons]. But ballistic experts claim that even when fired at close range, a projectile with less than a foot pound of force can still penetrate the skin — especially the eye.

These statistics aren’t convincing U.S. authorities to lift the ban on the SwissMiniGun, though. One airport security official told Miami’s NBC 6 station, “I think anything that shoots a projectile is dangerous” [source: WTVJ].

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Ten Alien Encounters Debunked!!

Posted on May 19, 2008. Filed under: History, Science and Technology |

With alien encounters, we find that often an explanation lies not necessarily in the skies but in our minds. Humans are pattern-seeking creatures, and our brains try desperately to make sense of things we don’t immediately recognize. Often we are correct in our assessments of what we see and experience, but many times we simply misperceive, misunderstand, or misremember.

Those who claim to encounter aliens and see UFOs are sometimes ridiculed as crazy, but in fact we are all hardwired with the same fallible brains. While some people seek out the skeptical or scientific explanations, others decide that since they can’t explain something, no one else can either, and therefore that experience is mysterious or inexplicable.

So with that, here are 10 alleged alien encounters—those brushes with aliens (or supposed aliens) that have been definitively debunked over the years.

Benjamin Radford

THE TEN ENCOUNTERS STARTIN FROM 10

Alien Engineers

Story/Myth
Science can’t explain how the Great Pyramids of Egypt were constructed; because they are so precisely aligned and designed, aliens must have had a role in creating them thousands of years ago.
The Real Story
While many people assume that those living in earlier times (such as the ancient Egyptians) were not resourceful enough to possibly have created impressive engineering feats without extraterrestial aid, this is not true. Actually, the methods by which the pyramids could have been constructed are well documented, and have appeared in many places including National Geographic magazine and Mark Lehner’s book The Complete Pyramids. The only real mystery surrounding the pyramids is why anyone would still think aliens were involved.

Cattle Mutilations

Story/Myth
When alien visitors are not abducting people or implanting things in them , or making circles in crops , they butcher cattle, either for research purposes or perhaps sadistic amusement. Since the 1970s, hundreds of animal corpses have been found with unusual or inexplicable features, including being drained of blood and having their organs removed with “surgical precision.”
The Real Story
Livestock predation has plagued ranchers and farmers for millennia, but it wasn’t until the last few decades (during the public’s peaking interest in UFOs) that anyone thought to attribute the deaths to aliens. Research has shown that the “mysterious” features are in fact quite ordinary and are caused by natural decay processes and scavenger attacks. Curiously, exactly the same phenomena has been attributed to not only aliens but also to Satanic cults and the dreaded chupacabra creature of Hispanic folklore.

Area-51

Story/Myth
Area 51 is where the U.S. government stores and studies extraterrestrial bodies and aircraft, including the unfortunate (and apparently poorly-trained) alien pilots that crashed in Roswell. Some even say that it is an officially-sanctioned landing base for spaceships.
The Real Story
The simple fact of the matter is that the public doesn’t really know much about what goes on at the military base near Groom Dry Lake, Nevada (popularly but not officially called Area 51). It is a top secret military base, and there are of course perfectly legitimate government and military reasons for keeping the base’s purposes secret that have nothing to do with aliens or UFOs; 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl suggested that the area may be a dumping ground for toxic waste. There’s no reason to think that anything alien is going on there, but where there is secrecy, there will be conspiracy.

Crop Circles

Story/Myth
Aliens are the most likely explanation for the mysterious circles and other designs that occasionally appear in farmers’ fields. They are some sort of sign or message that humans have not yet deciphered.
The Real Story
Despite films like Signs, there is no evidence that crop circles are made by alien intelligences. Hoaxing is by far the best explanation for crop circles—far more so than aliens who supposedly travel across the vast universe to reach Earth, only to flatten wheat in rural English and American farms as some sort of information. (You’d think that aliens with superior intelligence would realize their messages aren’t getting through, and be a little more direct.)

Face on Mars

Story/Myth
Proof that intelligent alien life exists in the universe can be found on Mars—or so claims Richard Hoagland, author of the book The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever. According to Hoagland, NASA photographs of the Cydonia region of Mars show a human-like face. According to Hoagland, this must have been constructed by intelligent beings and indicates that there are (or were) alien cities on Mars.
The Real Story
The “Face on Mars” is an example of imagination and wishful thinking. The photographs that show an area vaguely resembling a face on Mars were taken by the Viking 1 Orbiter in 1976. Since then, far better photographs have been taken of Mars (for example, by the Mars Global Surveyor in 1998). They show that the area is heavily eroded, and the “face” was simply a combination of low image resolution and tricks of light and shadow.

The Alien Autopsy Film

Story/Myth
The 1947 “Roswell Incident” got a boost of credibility in 1995 when a grainy, black-and-white film surfaced. The top-secret film (shot by the military and showing a post-mortem dissection of an alien body) was touted as evidence of what some UFO buffs had claimed all along: that alien bodies had been recovered by the U.S. government.
The Real Story
Soon after the alien autopsy footage was broadcast on Fox television, serious doubts were raised about the authenticity of the film. Skeptics (and even many UFO researchers) branded the film a hoax, pointing out anachronisms and inconsistencies in the film. Yet because the Roswell story is so short on evidence, others clung to the autopsy footage as real. Earlier this year, the special effects artist who created the alien confessed that it was in fact a hoax.

Flying Saucers

Story/Myth
On June 24, 1947, the modern UFO era began when a man named Kenneth Arnold saw nine “flying saucers” moving at high speed near Mount Rainer, Washington. Soon others began reporting seeing similar UFOs, spawning a “flap.”
The Real Story
The phrase “flying saucer,” so familiar to Americans and UFO buffs, is the result of a reporter’s error. After interviewing Arnold about his sighting, a reporter from the Eastern Oregonian newspaper reported that Arnold saw round, aerial objects (in fact he said they were “crescent shaped”). Arnold stated that the objects “flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water”—not that what he saw resembled an actual saucer. Yet that “saucer” interpretation stuck, prompting many eyewitnesses to repeat (and hoaxers to duplicate) Arnold’s nonexistent description. This strongly shows the role of suggestion in UFO sightings; as skeptic Marty Kottmeyer asks, “Why would extraterrestrials redesign their craft to conform to [the reporter’s] mistake?”

Alien Implants

Story/Myth
As part of nefarious experiments, aliens have implanted various objects in human abductees. Victims have found small foreign objects in their bodies and come to realize they had been abducted. Several alien implants have been recovered, and when they are scientifically tested, they are found to be indestructible or of materials not found on Earth.
The Real Story
Joe Nickell, a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, noted that “Since 1994 alleged implants have been surgically recovered but they’ve become remarkably diverse: one looks like a shard of glass, another a triangular piece of metal, still another a carbon fiber, and so on. None was located in the brain or nasal cavity, instead being recovered from such extremities as toe, hand, shin, external ear, etc.; some were accompanied by scars while others were not. As physicians know, a foreign object can enter the body unnoticed, as during a fall, or while running barefoot in sand or grass—even as a splinter from a larger impacting object.” People find all sorts of weird things in their bodies, but so far none are of alien origin.

Alien Abductions

Story/Myth
Hundreds of people claim to have been abducted by aliens, especially during in the 1980s. They were subjected to rape, experiments and implantations (see number 3), and other bodily intrusions. Several prominent researchers, including Harvard’s John Mack, supported the claims and wrote books about these victims.
The Real Story
There may be several causes of the alien abduction experience. Many of these experiences are only recovered years later, during psychological treatment for other issues. Research has proven that false memories can be created in the course of therapy by careless psychologists. People can actually come to believe they were abducted or abused when they were not. Other researchers have shown that a common psychological process called sleep paralysis may be misinterpreted as an alien abduction.

The Rosewell Incident

Story/Myth
The most famous UFO crash in history occurred in 1947, on a ranch just outside of Roswell, a dusty New Mexican town. Mysterious debris and alien bodies were recovered, spirited away in a government cover-up.
The Real Story
There was indeed a cover-up of what crashed outside Roswell, but authorities were hiding not a crashed alien saucer but a weather balloon from a secret spy program called Project Mogul. The debris described by the original eyewitnesses exactly matches the balloons used in the program; the fanciful stories of alien bodies did not appear until much later. The Roswell Incident was in fact only one of many similar (and clearly folkloric) stories of crashed vessels containing alien bodies and debris—some dating back nearly 100 years earlier.

source:space.com

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Premonitions n some famous Prophesies

Posted on May 18, 2008. Filed under: History, Science and Technology |

Premonition refers to a situation when future events are foreknown or forecast. They are attributed by some people to the presence of supernatural or paranormal abilities. However, the distinction between precognition and ordinary evidence-based predictions is sometimes not made sharply. “Premonition” may be defined to include or exclude ordinary predictions, and this means a fallacy of linguistic ambiguity can lead to an overly supernatural explanation for the accuracy of predictions.

The phenomenon is characterized by such sensations as anxiety, uneasiness, a vague feeling of disquiet suggesting impending disaster to actual visual or auditory hallucinations. Premonition is sometimes referred to as a “gut-level” feeling. The sensation tends to occur prior to disasters, accidents, deaths and other traumatic and emotionally charged events.

The sensation of premonition may be considered precognition at times because there is no clear-cut line between them. However, generally premonitions are sense-oriented, dominated by a syndrome of physical uneasiness, depression, or distress that is without discernible source or reason. It is an unexplainable feeling that “something is going to happen.” Precognition, on the other hand, is more precise, involving visions or dream of the event that is to occur in the future.

For some investigators premonitions can include actions of patients and individuals in magnetic and mediumistic trances who prophesy that their malady or some terrible event, to them, will occur within a certain period of time, and may subconsciously wish to fulfill that prophecy. It might be question whether the similar phenomena might occur in a veridical dream or hallucination. This is theorized on the conclusion that a post-hypnotic person generally weaves his action into the surrounding circumstances, even though the very moment of its performance may have been fixed months before. Therefore this raises the possibilities that fulfillment of dreams and hallucinations might be suggested through telepathic communication to a person from another agent, which may not be far-fetched or impossible.

Another consideration is coincidence. The dream or hallucination of an event could possible coincide with the incident. Also, it is possible that impressions, whether they remain vague forebodings or are embedded in dreams, must at times be subconscious inferences drawn from an actual, if obscured, perception of existing facts. Such premonitions are by no means to be disregarded. However, frequently premonitions, no matter how impressive, prove to be absolutely groundless, where a ghostly visitant issues the warning.

In 1948, the prominent Soviet psychic Wolf Messing traveled to Ashkhabad to give some demonstrations of his abilities. Prior to his performances as he walked the streets of that city he was seized with a terrible dread and an intense desire to leave as soon as possible. He canceled his performances, the only time he did so in his life, and left. Three days later a massive earthquake leveled Ashkhabad, killing 50,000 people. Messing’s premonition saved his life; however, he had no specific forewarning of the earthquake.

On October 21, 1966, twenty-eight adults and 116 children were killed when a landslide of coal waste tumbled down a mountain in Aberfan, Wales, and buried a school. According to three surveys taken afterwards up to two weeks before the disaster about two hundred people experienced both premonitions and precognitions. The premonitions included depression, a feeling that “something bad” was going to happen (some people accurately pinpointed the day), sensations of choking and gasping for breath, uneasiness, and impressions of coal dust, billowing black clouds, and children running and screaming.

Premonitions occurring in a waking state are more predominant that those that occur in dreams because in the latter they are frequently disguised as symbols, and tend to go unnoticed. However, when theses symbols frequently reappear in dreams, the individual may learn to recognize distinguishing symbols or emotional tones.

Premonitions can give early intuitive warnings that occur frequently but are too subtle to register on the conscious mind. Some of these intuitive warnings apparently register on the subconscious and cause the person to unknowingly alter his plans, which some evidence indicates. In the 1960 W. F. Cox examined passenger loads on trains involved in accidents between 1950 and 1955. By comparing the number of passenger on the train the day of the accident to the number of passenger on the same train for the preceding seven days, the preceding fourteenth day, and the twenty-eighth day, he found that on some accident days, but not all, there was a dramatic decrease in passengers. One example was the Chicago & East Illinois Georgian, it just had nine passengers on the accident day of June 15, 1952; whereas five days before it carried a more typical sixty-two passengers. Cox concluded that many of those intending to travel the disaster-bound trains had unconsciously altered their plans or missed the trains by being late.

A the similar or same factor may relate to doomed ships. The Titanic carried only fifty-eight percent of its passenger load on its disastrous maiden voyage when colliding with an iceberg in April 1912. A group of twenty-two stokers were late and the captain declared the ship would sail without them, a fact which may have saved their lives. The psychiatrist Ian Stevenson recorder more than nineteen incidents of premonitions and precognitions concerning the Titanic in England, America, Canada, and Brazil, which occurred within the two weeks prior to the ship’s sailing date of April 10. Some cancelled their reservations after dreaming of the ship’s doom; others said it was bad luck to sail on the ship’s maiden voyage. Some of the survivors said they had felt uneasy but sailed anyway; the later is questionable because some sensation might have been prompted by after the fact thought.

Following the Aberfan disaster, a British Premonition Bureau was established in January 1967 to collect and screen early warnings in an effort to prevent disasters. A year later the Central Premonition Bureau was established in New York for the same purpose. Both bureaus did not progress too far because of low budgets, poor public relations, and much inaccurate information.

The functioning of premonitions is not exactly known, that is, why some people possess them while others do not. One theory is that some people are more open or prone to psychic suggestion. A cause for the diminishing of this psychic ability in people is that a larger portion of the population has become less intuitive. With the advancement of the scientific age people have began to rely less on their sensations; it is just in recent years that science is investigating the importance of human intuition and sensation

Famous Premonitions

Abraham Lincoln’s prophetic dream of his death and funeral, which he related to both his bodyguard and his wife mere hours before his assassination.
Otto von Bismarck predicted the beginning of the First World War, by saying (shortly before he died in 1898) to Mr. Ballen: “If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans” . Note that this is a good example of a premonition that could easily be due to a good intuitive understanding of politics, rather than being precognitive.
The novelist Mark Twain predicted that Halley’s Comet would be seen on the day of his death, just as it was when he was born. Twain died weeks before Halley’s 1910 appearance on May 18th.
The French apothecary and seer Nostradamus is also believed to have predicted his own death and the date in which his tomb would be opened.
Julius Caesar’s wife Calpurnia had a dream the night before he died that he would get stabbed by a friend, and she warned him not to go.

Premonition Culture

In the Final Destination series, the protagonist of each film has a deadly premonition of an unfortunate accident. Throughout the films, these premonitions continue in a more subtle manner, similar to fate hinting at them.
In the WB television series Charmed, one of the main characters, Phoebe Halliwell, has the power of premonition.
In the television series Supernatural, Sam Winchester has the power to see the future.
In Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku, Bardock, the parent of the main character Son Goku, is given the power of premonition. He has a premonition and sees his own death and the death of his home planet.
In That’s So Raven the protagonist (Raven Baxter) has a premonition in every episode.
In Alias (TV Series) the fictional 14th century prophet Milo Rambaldi is credited with predicting the start of events ranging from the start of World War II to the exact day that certain people will die.
In ABC Studios’s Lost (TV Series) the character Desmond Hume sees the death of Charlie Pace before it happens as well as other events, resulting from a near death experience while in the Swan.
In the 2007 movie Premonition, starring Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon, the protagonist has premonitions, including her husband’s death.
In the novel series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, one of the main characters, Alice Cullen, has the ability to see decision-based futures.

source:themystica

Astral projection

Posted on May 18, 2008. Filed under: History, Science and Technology |

Astral Projection—-Most of the people associate this word with the famous Israeli Psychedelic Trance outfit, and infact am no less either. But when I tried to understand as why their band was named after this word “Astral Projection” I learnt this…..

Astral projection (or astral travel) is a paranormal interpretation of an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation.

Overview

The concept of astral projection assumes the existence of another body, separate from the physical body and capable of traveling to non-physical planes of existence. Commonly such planes are called astral, etheric, or spiritual or . Astral projection is often experienced as the spiritastral body leaving the physical body to travel in the spirit world or astral plane.Astral projection is controversial. Skeptics say that there is only anecdotal evidence that anything actually leaves the body.

The Three Schools of thought

Seperation model

The separation model includes a large variety of belief systems, which say that astral projection takes place outside of the physical body. In this model, an astral or etheric body carries the consciousness outside of the physical body. Some, such as those who believe in Theosophy, say that the higher astral planes are reached through the progressive projection of subtler energy bodies from previous projected bodies, much like a Russian doll, while others believe in less complicated systems.The subtle body is attached to the physical body by means of an energetic connection which usually takes the appearance of a silver cord ‘plugging’ into the chakra system.

Phasing model

According to the phasing model, defined mainly by Robert Monroe, no “movement” actually occurs during astral projection. The astral planes and the physical world are points on the spectrum of consciousness. When a person projects, they actually “phase” into another area of consciousness and the locales it contains. This can be likened to tuning a radio to another station. The phasing model does not say that the mind is dependent on the brain, but only that our concepts of space do not necessarily apply to astral travel.

Skeptical model

This model argues that astral projection is an experience which takes place in the mind/brain of the experiencer. Thus, it is not truly a model of astral projection, but an explanation of astral projection as hallucinatory or imaginational experiences. The exact mechanisms are unknown, but experiences somewhat similar to an Out-of-body experience -though without any experience of astral planes- can be induced with drugs or brain stimulation.

The Projection Types

Astral Projection

In astral projection the traveller finds him- or herself in an apparently real domain, which has no parallel to any physical setting. This is termed by New Agers and occultists among others as the astral plane or “the astral”. Environments here may range from populated to unpopulated, artificial to natural to completely abstract environments and from beautific to horrific. Here, normal physical laws often do not apply. The quality of detail ranges from crude to vivid and fascinating. Projectors may gain access to visions of the past or future of Earth, and to the Akashic records. It has been said that space and time do not exist on the astral plane in the same way they do on earth, or that they can be transcended. Many travelers have theorized that people having dreams travel to the astral realms. Travelers have reported seeing dreamers enact dream scenarios on the astral plane, unaware of the more extensive and varied non-physical environment surrounding them. Some also claim common movements in dreams, such as falling or feeling like you are walking through quicksand, is the astral body in action. The astral environment is often divided into levels or planes. There are many different views concerning the overall structure of the astral planes, and many different numbering schemes applied to them. These planes may include heavens and hells, places where people go immediately after death, transcendent environments for those who are “more enlightened,” and other less-easily characterized states.

Etheric Projection

Though closely related to astral projection, in etheric projection a projector encounters mainly that which exists physically, moving about in a (usually invisible) etheric body. The term was used as far back as the 1940s, by Dion Fortune in her book Psychic Self Defence. In contrast to astral projection, during this type of experience, there are no fantastical worlds, or self-absorbed encounters; the majority of the experience can -hypothetically- be validated.

The world encountered during etheric projection may seem to be at variance with physical reality if strict mind control is not maintained. Robert Monroe describes this type of projection as a projection to “Locale I” or the “Here-Now”, and describes it as containing people and places that actually exist in the material world.Robert Bruce refers to a similar area as the “Real Time Zone” (RTZ) and describes it as the nonphysical dimension level closest to the physical.

In Western theosophy, each subtle body is functionally distinct. Since the etheric body and astral body are not the same, they cannot represent the same kind of psychic activity.

According to Max Heindel, the etheric “double” serves as a medium between the astral and physical realms. Ether, also called prana, is the “vital force” that empowers the Physical forms in order for change to take place. This means that when one views the physical during an OBE, they are not technically “in” the astral realm at all.

Research

Dr. Robert Crookall published case studies of astral projection in 1960. He divided these into naturally-occurring out-of-the-body experiences (people who nearly died, people who were very ill, people who were exhausted, etc, and people who were quite well) and enforced OBEs, from anaesthesia, suffocation, accidents and hypnosis.

Dr. Charles Tart tentatively concluded that etheric projection may have objective validity. For example, in a 1967 study, a subject was unable to discover a five digit number written down and placed face up in an adjoining room, but did provide some details of the activities of the technician monitoring the experiment. Tart summarizes, “Thus, there is some indication that ESP may have been involved with respect to the technician’s activities, but it is not at all conclusive.”

Robert Monroe, founder of the Monroe Institute, published several accounts of his experiences of astral projection, including Far Journeys. Monroe developed a method called “Hemi-Sync” to induce mental states that are favorable for projection. Hemisync is a method of altering brain waves using sounds, together with meditative instruction, listened to on headphones. The process is based on a concept called binaural beats.

Bruce Moen began as a student of Robert Monroe, but has developed the process of mentally exploring through ‘projection’ in such a manner as to frequently override the need for sound wave support such as Hemi-Sync.

Want to try out “The Out Of Body Experience”???

Quiet your mind. Clear your thoughts.

In your mind say:

“I’m going to count down from 3 to 1, visualizing each number on a white orb suspended in the air above my head. When I reach the third and final “1” my body will be deeply relaxed. I will have no awareness of physical sensations. I will not perceive any physical discomfort. My consciousness will be focused on my astral body.

Now visualize a white orb suspended in the air above your head. Mentally focus on the orb I visualize a number “3” on the face of the orb. The numbers can be any color. They may vary with each experience. Visualize the 3 –three times: three number “3’s” on the orb. Your body is completely relaxed. You are losing awareness of your physical body.

Then repeat the visualization with three number “2’s.” You are into greater relaxation. Now visualize the “1’s.” You are losing awareness of physical sensations. Your consciousness will be in your astral body.

Repeat this using the number “1’s” three times. Your consciousness is now in my astral body.

This could involve training of several sessions. You may also find audio tapes that take you down into these altered states as well. You getting better and faster as you go along each time.

There is no set agenda for how often you practice astral projection or any other out-of-body technique. It soon becomes fun. It is like a deep meditation.

Now the key is to remain conscious while my body is asleep. Different thoughts may pull you from your focus as the mind loves to chatter. Just push these thoughts away.

CME’s–Do they pose any threat to life on Earth???

Posted on May 14, 2008. Filed under: Science and Technology |

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is an ejection of material from the solar corona, usually observed with a white-light coronagraph.

The ejected material is a plasma consisting primarily of electrons and protons (in addition to small quantities of heavier elements such as helium, oxygen, and iron), plus the entraining coronal magnetic field.

Overview

The first detection of a CME as such was made on December 14, 1971 by R. Tousey (1973) using the 7th Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO-7). Earlier observations of coronal transients or even phenomena observed visually during solar eclipses are now understood as essentially the same thing.

The largest geomagnetic perturbation, resulting presumably from a “prehistoric” CME, coincided with the first-observed solar flare, in 1859. The flare was observed visually by Richard Christopher Carrington and the geomagnetic storm was observed with the recording magnetograph at Kew Gardens. The same instrument recorded a crotchet, an instantaneous perturbation, which could not easily be understood at the time because it predated the discovery of X-rays by Roentgen and the recognition of the ionosphere by Kennelly and Heaviside.

When the ejection reaches the Earth as an ICME (Interplanetary CME), it may disrupt the Earth’s magnetosphere, compressing it on the day side and extending the night-side tail. When the magnetosphere reconnects on the nightside, it creates trillions of watts of power which is directed back towards the Earth’s upper atmosphere. This process can cause particularly strong aurora also known as the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis (in the Northern Hemisphere), and the Southern Lights, or aurora australis (in the Southern Hemisphere). CME events, along with solar flares, can disrupt radio transmissions, cause power outages (blackouts), and cause damage to satellites and electrical transmission lines.

Properties of CME’s

A typical CME has a three part structure consisting of a cavity of low electron density, a dense core (the prominence, which appears as a bright region on coronagraph images) embedded in this cavity, and a bright leading edge. It should be noted, however, that many CMEs are missing one of these elements, or even all three.

Most CMEs originate from active regions (groupings of sunspots associated with frequent flares). These regions have closed magnetic field lines, where the magnetic field strength is large enough to allow the containment of the plasma; the CME must open these field lines at least partially to escape from the sun. However, CMEs can also be initiated in quiet sun regions (although in many cases the quiet region was recently active). During solar minimum, CMEs form primarily in the coronal streamer belt near the solar magnetic equator. During solar maximum, CMEs originate from active regions whose latitudinal distribution is more homogeneous.

Coronal Mass Ejections range in speed from about 20 km/s to 2,700 km/s with an average speed (based on SOHO/LASCO measurements between 1996 and 2003) of 489 km/s. The average mass based on coronagraph images is 1.6 x 10¹⁵ g. Due to the two-dimensional nature of the coronagraph measurements, these values are lower limits. The frequency of ejections depends on the phase of the solar cycle: from about one every other day near solar minimum to 5-6 per day near solar maximum. These values are also lower limits because CMEs propagating away from the Earth (“backside CMEs”) can usually not be detected by coronagraphs.

Current knowledge of CME kinematics indicates that the CME starts with an initial pre-acceleration phase characterised by a slow rising motion, followed by a period of rapid acceleration away from the Sun until a near-constant velocity is reached. Some “balloon” CMEs (usually the very slowest ones) lack this three-stage evolution, instead accelerating slowly and continuously throughout their flight. Even for CMEs with a well-defined acceleration stage, the pre-acceleration stage is often absent.

CME models

At first, it was thought that CMEs might be driven by the heat of an explosive flare. However, it soon became apparent that many CMEs were not associated with flares, and that even those that were often began before the flare did. Because CMEs are initiated in the solar corona (which is dominated by magnetic energy), their energy source must be magnetic. Only flares could provide enough heat energy to drive the CME, and flares get their energy from the magnetic field anyway.

Because the energy of CMEs is so high, it is unlikely that their energy could be directly driven by emerging magnetic fields in the photosphere (although this is still a possibility). Therefore, most models of CMEs assume that the energy is stored up in the coronal magnetic field over a long period of time and then suddenly released by some instability or a loss of equilibrium in the field. There is still no consensus on which of these release mechanisms is correct, and observations are not currently able to constrain these models very well.

Interplanetary CME’s

CMEs typically reach Earth one to five days after the eruption from the Sun. During their propagation, CMEs interact with the solar wind and the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). As a consequence, slow CMEs are accelerated towards the speed of the solar wind and fast CMEs are decelerated towards the speed of the solar wind. Fast CMEs (faster than about 500 km s^-1) eventually drive a shock. This happens when the speed of the CME in the frame moving with the solar wind is faster than the local fast magnetosonic speed. Such shocks have been observed directly by coronagraphs in the corona and are related to type II radio bursts. They are thought to form sometimes as low as 2 R_s (solar radii). They are also closely linked with the acceleration of Solar Energetic Particles.

STEREO mission

On 25th October 2006, NASA launched the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), two near-identical spacecraft which from widely separated points in their orbits will produce the first stereoscopic images of CMEs and other solar activity measurements. The spacecraft will orbit the Sun at distances similar to that of the Earth, with one slightly ahead of Earth and the other trailing. Their separation will gradually increase so that after 4 years they will be almost diametrically opposite each other in orbit.

CME’s–Do they pose any threat to life on Earth???

Posted on May 14, 2008. Filed under: Science and Technology |

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is an ejection of material from the solar corona, usually observed with a white-light coronagraph.

Interplanetary CME’s

STEREO mission

World’s top 5 tallest man-made structures

Posted on May 12, 2008. Filed under: Fun and Facts, Science and Technology |

1.Burj Dubai

Burj Dubai (Arabic: ‎ “Dubai Tower”) is a skyscraper currently under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is currently the tallest man-made structure on Earth. Construction began on September 21, 2004, and it is expected to be completed and ready for occupation in September 2009.As of 7 April 2008, Burj Dubai has reached a height of 629 m (2,064 ft), with 162 completed floors

The building is part of a 2 km² (0.8 sq mi) development called ‘Downtown Dubai’ and is located at the “First Interchange” (aka “Defence Roundabout”) along Sheikh Zayed Road at Doha Street. The tower’s architect is Adrian Smith who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) until 2006. SOM is the architecture and engineering firm in charge of the project. The primary builder is Samsung Engineering & Construction, along with Besix and Arabtec. Turner Construction Company was chosen as the construction manager[more…]

2.KVLY-TV Mast

The KVLY-TV mast (formerly the KTHI-TV mast transmitting ) is a 628.8 metres (2,063.0 ft) televisionmast in Blanchard, Traill County, North Dakota, USA channel 11. Although the , used by Fargo station KVLYBurj Dubai tower construction has surpassed its height, the KVLY-TV mast is still the world’s tallest completed man made structure.

The tower is located three miles west of Blanchard, North Dakota, which is roughly halfway between Fargo and Grand Forks. It became the tallest artificial structure upon the completion of its construction on August 13, 1963. The mast was surpassed in height by 18 m (57 ft) in 1974 by the Warszawa radio mast near Konstantynów, Poland, which later collapsed on August 8, 1991, making the KVLY-TV mast again the tallest structure on land.As of April 7, 2008, the official website for the Burj Dubai project reported that Burj Dubai has reached a height of 629 meters, which is 2064 feet, therefore surpassing the KVLY-TV mast by a foot.[more…]

3. CN TOWER

The CN Tower, located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a communications and tourist tower standing 553.33 metres (1,815.39 ft) tall. It surpassed the height of the Ostankino Tower while still under construction in 1975, becoming the tallest free-standing structure on land in the world. On September 12, 2007, after holding the record for 31 years, the CN tower was surpassed in height by the still-under-construction Burj Dubai. It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas and the signature icon of Toronto’s skyline, attracting more than two million international visitors annually.

In 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and also belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers.[more…]

4.Sears Tower

The Sears Tower is a skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. It has been the tallest building in the United States since 1973, surpassing the World Trade Center, which itself had surpassed the Empire State Building only a year earlier. Commissioned by Sears, Roebuck and Company, it was designed by chief architect Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Construction commenced in August 1970 and the building reached its originally anticipated maximum height on May 3, 1973. When completed, the Sears Tower had overtaken the roof of the World Trade Center in New York City as the world’s tallest building. The tower has 108 stories as counted by standard methods, though the building owners count the main roof as 109 and the mechanical penthouse roof as 110. The distance to the roof is 1,451 feet (442 m), measured from the east entrance.

In February 1982, two television antennas were added to the structure, increasing its total height to 1,705 feet (520 m). The western antenna was later extended to 1,730 feet (527 m) on June 5, 2000 to improve reception of local NBC station WMAQ-TV.[more…]

5.Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is a 101-floor landmark skyscraper located in Taipei, Taiwan. The building, designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and constructed from May 1995 to March 2005 primarily by the South Korean multinational Samsung Engineering & Construction and supported by the KTRT Joint Venture, is one of the world’s tallest completed skyscrapers. Taipei 101 received the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2004. It has been hailed as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World (Newsweek magazine, 2006) and Seven Wonders of Engineering (Discovery Channel, 2005).It stands at 509.2 mts or 1671 ft.[more…]

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World’s top 5 tallest man-made structures

Posted on May 12, 2008. Filed under: Fun and Facts, Science and Technology |

2.KVLY-TV Mast

3. CN TOWER

In 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and also belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers.[more…]