triangle.com | Home

From: International Science Grid This Week 22 October 2008

Catching quakes with laptops

Inside your laptop is a small accelerometer chip, there to protect the delicate moving parts of your hard disk from sudden jolts.

It turns out that the same chip is a pretty good earthquake sensor, too—especially if the signals from lots of them are compared, in order to filter out more mundane sources of laptop vibrations, such as typing.

More cont...

Hmmm... lets try this again but without html this time.

Here's a couple of climate and energy related links which may be of interest that few seem to talk much about.

Ocean Acidification and a blog all about it below:
http://oceanacidification.wordpress.com/

Peak Oil and a NASA research study below:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/peakoil.html

Will it happen during this next century?

Here is the latest report from the USGS for those interested in some of the details scientists are now working with.

Abrupt Climate Change
Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.4
USGS - 15 Dec 2008

http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-4/final-report/default.htm

Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts

The above link is to the index of a 132 page document (free online reading but a paperback book version can be purchased too) that goes into quite a bit of detail concerning what may happen to our high-tech society if a major century class solar flare were to occur. Personally I have suspected such would occur but had not known the details of the full extent noted in this study - a real eye-opener for those who may not have been aware. This is definitely worth the reading even if one has to make time. About the only thing I have not seen mentioned (yet) is electromagnetic induction in railways and the effects these could produce at such places as switching yards or train stations.

Satellites Confirm Half-Century of West Antarctic Warming

The Antarctic Peninsula juts into the Southern Ocean, reaching farther north than any other part of the continent. The southernmost reach of global warming was believed to be limited to this narrow strip of land, while the rest of the continent was presumed to be cooling or stable.

Not so, according to a new analysis involving NASA data. In fact, the study has confirmed a trend suspected by some climate scientists.

More Cont... NASA Link