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An eyewitness says: "It was pretty freakin' real when all the dogs started barking right before it hit, then EVERYTHING shook. We were in the field just outside the barn & the barn continued to shake for a couple minutes afterward. We are about 50-60 miles or so from where it hit."

When you're building one of the world's most advanced jet fighters, there's no room for error. Engineering technology used by BAE Systems, a partner in the F-35 joint strike fighter program and the manufacturer of Typhoons, even takes the moon's gravitational pull into account. The moon causes the ground to shift by one to two millimeters every time it pulls the oceans' tides in and out. And this tiny movement can throw off the precise alignment of an aircraft's frame as pieces are put together. "That might not sound a lot, but given the tolerances we are working to on...

On March 25, 2012, millions of Christians (Catholic and Orthodox) will celebrate the “Annunciation” – which commemorates the conception of Jesus. This March 25, there will be a neat astronomical arrangement in the sky, that seems to mesh nicely. See the description below: The sky will be spectacular in the west after sunset on March 25, 2012, with the waxing crescent moon and the planet Jupiter very close to each other in the evening twilight sky. Plus Venus is nearby – the sky’s brightest planet. You’ll see Jupiter and the moon below Venus in the west after sunset. The famous...

The massive solar storms currently bombarding the earth with charged particales (@ 4 million mph!) are the largest in over five years, driven by a double solar flare. This phenomenon could bring the beauty of the Aurora Borealis to places it's rarely seen early this morning and heading-on-in to Thursday night... What we have is the Sun belching-out a cloud of gas (twice) who's strong electrical charges will temporarily warp the Earth's own magnetic field as it gets here... which is now. They also play havoc with elements like Nitrogen in our upper-atmosphere, and thus the auroras are produced. But as we wait for...

Via: On the probability of occurrence of extreme space weather events Key Points Probability of a Carrington event occurring over next decade is ~12% Space physics datasets often display a power-law distribution Power-law distribution can be exploited to predict extreme events By virtue of their rarity, extreme space weather events, such as the Carrington event of 1859, are difficult to study, their rates of occurrence are difficult to estimate, and prediction of a specific future event is virtually impossible. Additionally, events may be extreme relative to one parameter but normal relative to others. In this study, we analyze several measures...

My endless rants here about the hot field of multiverse studies are mainly motivated by concern about the effect this is having on particle theory. Multiverse scenarios all too often function as an excuse for not admitting that string theory/extra-dimensional ideas about unification have failed. Such an admission would encourage people to move on to more promising ideas, but instead hep-th is stuck in an endless doldrums with the high profile public face of the subject dominated by excited claims about what a wonderful discovery this region is.Independently of the string theory problem, I’m personally a skeptic that multiverse...

A blast from the past animated the blogosphere earlier this month when a buddy of famed "Fire in the Sky" UFO abductee Travis Walton accused a dead debunker of attempted bribery. Steve Pierce said he -- Pierce -- had been offered $10k to say Walton had hoaxed the whole thing back in 1975... Klass was a prolific writer who dismissed the Walton controversy as confabulation in his 1983 book UFOs: The Public Deceived... Klass' take on what became known as the Cash-Landrum incident stopped me cold. Because I'd actually done my homework on that one. And that's when I got...

The primary focus of NASA's-- manned space program-- should be the pioneering and colonization of the rest of the solar system. That means building the space transportation and habitat infrastructure that can get humans into space and settled into the rest of the solar system. That would also mean minimizing the use of terrestrial resources while maximizing the use of extraterrestrial resources in order for humans to survive in the New Frontier. But any significant deviation of our manned space program away from the primary goal of-- human colonization-- would be a waste of tax payer dollars, IMO. And it...

This is astonishing beauty. One has to believe in God when seeing such splendor! Here's another time-lapse video of the aurora borealis from tonight in Norway: Aurora Time lapse from Kattfjorden (Norway) Here is the photographer who got these beautiful shots: Helge Mortensen Tromsø, Norway arcticshooter.blogspot.com/ I mostly shoot the aurora borealis/Northern lights in the winter season. In the summer I really enjoy the midnight sun and the incredible light you get. I take all kind of pictures but my sweet spot is landscapes that includes the ocean. I do bracketed shots if it benefits the image. But I...

I need some astronomy help from the smart-guy Freepers. Short version: What can cause a satellite to suddenly glow brightly (as bright as a meteor) for a few seconds and then gradually fade? We saw it last summer on three satellites, one after another, with all 3 visible at the same time (after fading). Different areas of the sky and two different directions of travel! My first thoughts were of rotating satellites reflecting sunlight, but that didn't make sense: First time in 40 years of skywatching and I see 3 at once?? Another unlikely scenario: 3 satellites getting slagged by...

Evolution professor Lawrence Krauss is now saying that the universe, and everything in it, came from nothing. Not only that, but there are probably billions and billions of universes that have spontaneously arisen. Occasionally a universe happens to have all the right properties for life to arise spontaneously within it, and that would be us. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Krauss, a theoretical physicist and head of The Origins Project at Arizona State University, is not the first evolutionist to defy the age-old wisdom that something does not come from nothing. World-famous physicist Stephen Hawking popularized the idea...

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that in England 1014 AD, on the eve of St. Michael’s day (September 28, 1014) “came the great sea-flood, which spread wide over this land, and ran so far up as it never did before, overwhelming many towns, and an innumerable multitude of people.” This is clearly a reference to a tsunami similar to the one that struck Indonesia in December 2004 which killed over 250,000 people. What could have caused this tsunami? Could a meteor or comet impact in the Atlantic Ocean have been the cause? Researcher Dallas Abbott of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory...

A mysterious metal ball reportedly fell from space , landing in a grasslands area of the African nation of Namibia. So far experts claim the object is not of alien origin. It has two bumps on each end, appears to be hollow and weights about 13 pounds. Namibia's National Forensic Science Institute Director Paul Ludik said the sphere is 3.6 feet around and is made out of a "sophisticated" alloy that is not unknown to modern science, although it has no identifying markings to link it with a country or a company. So far that's about all we're told. But...

Is a giant, cloaked spaceship orbiting around Mercury? That's been the speculation from some corners aftera camera onboard NASA's STEREO spacecraft caught a wave of electronically charged material shooting out from the sun and hitting Mercury. Theorists have seized on the images captured from the "coronal mass ejection" (CME) last week as suggestive of alien life hanging out in our own cosmic backyard. Specifically, the solar flare washing over Mercury appears to hit another object of comparable size. "It's cylindrical on either side and has a shape in the middle. It definitely looks like a ship to me, and very...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new explanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5). The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation.These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700. The potentially habitable alien world, a first for...

Astronaut and blogger Ron Garan is coming home after nearly six months in space. Reflecting on his preparation for his trip, he writes: “As I prepared to leave for final launch preparations, I experienced an interesting phenomenon. Realizing that leaving Houston starts me on a journey that will take me off the planet for six months, I started to take note of things that I will not experience for half a year. Whether it’s a flock of birds against the sunset or early morning mist on the water of Clear Lake, or a million other things that define the beauty...

I posted this a few days ago, but I think it's so awesome that I wanted to share it again with anyone who missed it. This is simply amazing... You Tube: A musical investigation into the nature of and subatomic particles, the jiggly things that make up everything we see.

This is seriously cool... You Tube: A musical investigation into the nature of atoms and subatomic particles

On July 7, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio spoke on the future of America’s space program. “When this final shuttle mission draws to a close, many Americans will be startled by the realization that we don't have an answer to the question: What's next for NASA?” he said. “We know that our commercial space partners are working to fill some of the gaps in our human space flight capabilities, and that is a promising development that we should encourage. But we need NASA to lead.” I follow one of those commercial space partners,Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, on Facebook....

This is pretty cool- click on pic: At the link above you see the actual cockpit of the US Space Shuttle Discovery- note insulation panels installed over windows for re-entry- guess they get a little warm. Last week's final mission -completing 30 years of manned Shuttle flights- was completed by the Atlantis... some facts about the craft: The Space Shuttle was the first orbital spacecraft designed for reuse. It carried different payloads to Low Earth Orbit, provided crew rotation for the International Space Station (ISS), and performed servicing missions- the first one went up in the early days of the Reagan Administration,...

Look Up and See!

Victor Stenger, a retired physics prof from the University of Hawaii, has given us two books that explain both atheism and "multiverses", and behold, they are one. Few other proponents of multiverses are quite as forthcoming with their logic, but clearly something besides data must motivate the science of multiverses, because by definition multiverses are not observable. Stenger makes the connection explicit, whereas Hawking or Susskind is a little more coy with their metaphysics. Multiverse-theory is designed for one purpose, and one purpose only, and that is to defend atheism. It makes no predictions, it gives no insight, it provides...

Professor Raymond Wheeler, from the University of Kansas, at first almost stumbled into the frightening data. The connection was initially discovered by noted Russian scientist Alexander Chizhevsky during 1915: solar storms trigger conflict, wars and death. A vortex of death. Chizhevsky found after intense research that the rise and fall of solar activity—interacting with the earth's magnetic field—causes mass changes in human's perspective's, moods, emotions and behavioral patterns. All are affected by sunspots and solar flares. Building upon the Russian scholar's research, Wheeler applied a numerically weighted ranking system during the 1930s to separate wars and even individual battles assessing...

Take a moment and consider your place in the bigger scheme of things~ And while that's indeed illuminating (sorry)....  it's a  big universe with plenty of other stars out there: Jupiter only one pixel on that scale. But this behemoth Arcturus -25x the Sun's size and 110x as bright-is just 5th largest here...our own sun down to a single pixel: The monster above -Anteres- is the 15th brightest star in the sky, and is over 1000 light-years away. Feeling your place yet? Now try to wrap your mind around this: the photo below was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and ultra-deep-field infrared shot of...

Around 10:30 PM tonight my son and I saw a bright green streak that appeared to be heading South to North toward Charlotte, NC. The light appeared to be going very fast, and accelerating on a downward path in the sky. I haven't heard anything on the local news about it.

People love to hype 2012 as the end of the world. It's BS, but hey, when it gets into the public consciousness, things stick. Anywho, a scientist named Brad Carter is predicting that the star Betelgeuse is expected to go super-nova very soon. If this happens, the sky that we look at could have two stars in it, even though Betelgeuse is 1,300 light years away. On the bright side, Carter assures us that we won't all die

Here in New York, anyway. Looks like a hazy sky.

Cool video of the Antikythera Mechanism rebuilt in Lego, and how it works.

Cosmic Impact Site That Created Earth’s Axial Tilt and Fault Lines © Mihai Radu Draghici Abstract: Using Google Earth and browsing the geographic appearance of the Earth’s crust starting from the South Pacific Ocean right above Antarctica and traveling over to Drake’s Passage and into the South Atlantic Ocean there seems to be a visual trace that some sort of cosmic collision occurred in that area. (See Figure 1) The impact of the object surfed across the ocean and collided with the bottom of South America where it once connected to Antarctica creating Drake’s Passage opening. This impact also may...

As of today i've 5,007 opinions that i've posted and i think for the past 2 or so years that's enough outta' Miss Dairy Goodness VT i'll be back sooner than you think just don't give me a hard time w/my new screen name i love you all

"No More Down Low," a new online show launched this week, aims to portray the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community in a more holistic light and dispel myths about gay life. "No More Dow Low" is co-hosted by actress Janora McDuffie and Jonathan Plummer, ex-husband of author Terry McMillan. (Jonathan Plummer, the Jamaican native infamous for giving author Terry McMillan her "groove" back and summarily taking it away again once he came out of the closet, that is.) ... NoMoreDownLow.TV segments are told from an African-American LGBT point of view to demonstrate it is possible to live a successful...

The recent discovery of Gliese 581g, an alien planet in the habitable zone of another star, has been an exciting development for scientists probing the galaxy for signs of extraterrestrial life. At least one claim of a possible signal from the planet has already surfaced – and been met with harsh skepticism among the science community. Following the Sept. 29 announcement of the discovery of Gliese 581g, astronomer Ragbir Bhathal, a scientist at the University of Western Sydney, claimed to have detected a suspicious pulse of light nearly two years ago, that came from the same area of the galaxy...

If I put my hand in the Large Hadron Collider what would happen ?

This is an image of Mercury's tail obtained from combining a full day of data from a camera aboard the STEREO-A spacecraft. The reflected sunlight off the planet's surface results in a type of over-exposure that causes Mercury to appear much larger than its actual size. The tail-like structure extending anti-sunward from the planet is visible over several days and spans an angular size exceeding that of a full Moon in the night sky.

Seth Shostak, a top astronomer at SETI has recently suggested that instead of trying to listen for standard transmissions from advanced alien biological lifeforms like ourselves, we should probably be listening for AI transmissions. This is based on our own experience, we as humans developed radio transmissions only a short while ago, considering the length of time our civilization has been advancing. And if we're any indication of the general route technologically capable life evolves, the galaxy is probably full of sentient AI collectives, not biological lifeforms. In an interview with the BBC, Dr Shostak said:"If you look at the...

Back on 11 August I wrote about Stephen Hawking’s forthcoming book and how it was going to challenge God as an explanation for the universe. The national secular media have now caught up. On Saturday (2 September 2010), the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph both carried exactly the same headline: ‘Stephen Hawking: God was not needed to create the Universe’, and the rest were similar, e.g. ‘Stephen Hawking says universe not created by God’ (the Guardian). The reason for all the publicity? The launch of the physicist’s book was only a week away. In the somewhat ironically titled ‘The...

As Yoda has said repeatedly, the Federation of the Obamocracy is a case of the Dark Side, interfering with the Constitutional Right to Bear Arms on our experimental gun platforms.. And This Interference MUST be met with the full force of patriot ridicule. So be it. May the farce, errr..FORCE be with you patriots and may the DARK SIDE go pizmo on Nov.2nd!

It's really really hot today. I got to hit my pool. It's mandatory. I've got a really neat floaty thing to relax in. (Day off) So my question is...where do I get a good waterproof laptop to relax with. Otherwise I'm stuck in the air conditioned home using too much electricity which probably depletes something in the atmosphere.Not that I'm adverse to depleting anything, especially our current White House resident, but I really could use some advice on water resistance and possible electrocution. (I never trust those batteries).

One sign of a mentally unhinged national leader is his constant misunderstanding of the levers of power. Stalin used census-takers to measure how effectively he had ethnically cleaned parts of the Soviet population . . . and then executed the census workers. When Venezuelan nut-job Hugo Chavez orders his national oil company to provide houses, hospitals and schools it is only an affirmation that nothing in the Venezuelan government works . . . except for Hugo's mouth. Then comes NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. In an interview with anti-American Al Jazeera, Mr. Bolden stated that President Obama had made clear that...

Obama was supposed to be competent. He was suppose to usher in a new era of smart politics – and just 20 days before the worst oil spill in U.S. history, he gave off shore drilling his blessing. Oops. Disasters like this, that could be prevented with government oversight were all to be avoided. WATCH VIDEO...

Photo credit Flying Jenny on Flickr Here in Cape Canaveral the windows were rattling as a powerful Delta IV rocket rumbled into space from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket is carrying a GPS satellite into space, the first of 30 that will eventually replace the global positioning satellites currently orbiting the earth. I wrote about this in this week's Surfin Safari column at WorldNetDaily. GPS, a constellation of 24 satellites with six backups, will be able to pinpoint your location within three feet, compared with a margin of error of 20 feet or more today. The U.S....

It was picture perfect! Space Shuttle Atlantis leaped from her launch pad on a bright sunny day here in Central Florida. I grabbed my camera and headed for the beach, as you can see here. The Space Coast is teeming with visitors from around the country who have come to watch the final mision for Atlantis. Two shuttle missions remain in the program which began in 1981. Congratulations to the NASA team and its affiliated contractors. *** [gallery orderby="ID"] From NASA's website:Space shuttle Atlantis is embarking on its final planned mission. During the 12-day flight, Atlantis and six astronauts will...

Up on Drudge right now (7:40 pm CST):

President Barack Obama visited Cape Canaveral this week to provide more details on his restructuring of the space agency. What clarity came out of it, I have no idea. Obama, as usual, used nuanced and nonspecific grand speech to cloud the fact that his space policy is basically the lack of a space policy. In traditional Obama-speak, Obama boldly predicted Thursday his new plans for space exploration would lead American astronauts on historic, almost fantastic journeys to an asteroid and then to Mars, relying on rockets and propulsion still to be imagined and built. Obama did not predict a Mars...

You have probably heard about the multiverse--the idea that the universe is really a large number of universes. The multiverse helps to explain why our particular universe seems so special. Our universe seems to be a finely tuned machine and the evolution of life would require low probability events. Is our universe special? The multiverse helps to deflect such thinking. If there is a large number of universes, then perhaps each has a different set of natural laws. And perhaps intelligent life can only be supported by a very particular set of laws. So the only life forms that would...

In the early seventeenth century a courageous and brilliant scientist, Galileo Galileo, confirmed heliocentrism, the idea first proposed a century earlier by Nicolaus Copernicus that the sun was at the center of the universe. Heliocentrism challenged geocentrism, the religiously motivated idea that a stationary earth was at the center of the universe. Galileo explained why heliocentrism was true and not surprisingly the church strongly opposed and persecuted the scientist. Ultimately, however, the truth could not be denied and church was forced to, once again, reluctantly give in to the objective truths of science. That was the false history of the...

* Carbon dioxide contributes to only 4.2 - 8.4% of the greenhouse gas effect * Only approximately 4% of carbon dioxide is man-made * Water vapor accounts for 90 - 95% of the green house gas effect * 99.99% of water vapor is natural, meaning that no amount of deindustrialization could get rid of it * There have been many times when the temperature has been higher than it is now including the Medieval Warming Period, the Holocene, the Jurassic, and the Eemian * Increases in carbon dioxide follow increases in temperature by about 800 years, not precede them *...

...when Obama announced the cut of the NASA moon program, I immediately thought I smelled a rat. When you consider that baked into this historically massive budget are programs most people don't even know about, many of which only came about through the stimulus bills, it seems odd to me to be cutting such a popular program as space exploration.

HEY! You're driving me CRAZE! I HATE those "ugly quote marks", when it’s just as easy to use “curly quotes.” And please, when quote marks occur at the end of a sentence, remember to place the ending period inside the “curly quotes.” IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?! YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAZE!

Voie Lactée or the Heavens above and the model below: The moon, the stars, the Milky Way and ethereally beautiful German high-stepper Katrin Thormann in an oodlesphere of designer duds… what else can one wish for?