Hello Cruel World
Monday, June 30, 2008
 
A Century of Tunguska

Monday, June 30, 2008 — One hundred years ago today, something exploded over Siberia
At a little after seven in the morning, settlers near the north end of Lake Baikal saw something bright appear in the sky, crossing to the northwest leaving a trail behind it. As it touched the horizon, it was transformed into a column of black smoke in which flames could be seen. Soon after, they felt a thump in the ground and heard a series of bangs that they compared to artillery in the distance. Other villagers to the west of them gave similar descriptions. Later scientific expeditions would locate the ground zero of the explosion in a remote area among the tributaries of the Podkamennaya (Stony or Lower) Tunguska River. Seismic stations around the world recorded the ground movement and set the time at precisely 07:17:11 AM.
(An excellent telling of the history in the 'Archy' blog)

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[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 6/30/2008 10:04:00 pm
Monday, May 05, 2008
 
Milky Way panorama (APOD May 3rd)

APOD: 2008 May 3 - Alborz Mountain Milky Way: Snow-capped stratovolcano Mt. Damavand climbs to 5,670 meters (18,598 feet) near the left edge in this panoramic view above the Alborz Mountain Range bordering the Caspian Sea.

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[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 5/05/2008 02:54:00 pm
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
 
Annihilation: Black Holes


'Annihilation', from the Latin word nihil, meaning nothingness, nothing, absence, zero.

Utter destruction: eradication, extermination, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, liquidation, obliteration.
putting an end to: abolishment, abolition, abrogation, annulment, cancellation, defeasance, invalidation, negation, nullification, voidance.

In law: avoidance, extinguishment.

Images

Sheer joy that Liberal Party is worried. I'm not sanguine about the result, though; many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, as the old saying goes. I do like the use of the word they so freely and without feeling or care liked to use to wipe out people from consideration being used repeatedly in the dictionary/thesaurus entries for the word they are worried about for themselves. (I used to carp and say they should use 'extinction' rather than 'extinguishment', because that might bring people up a little short and get them to think.)

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[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 9/11/2007 12:33:00 pm

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/ . Lives in Australia/New South Wales/Sydney, speaks English. Eye color is hazel. I am what my mother calls unique. My interests are photography, reading, natural history/land use, town planning, sustainability.

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Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, English, photography, reading, natural history, land use, town planning, sustainability.