31 ago 2016

But Something is There

This link goes to the production blog for Steve Neill's But Something is There. It's Steve's autobiographical film of his life in close encounter, and Whitley Strieber is in the production! To keep up with what's happening, visit the blog often. It changes constantly, as the production moves ahead. From Whitley Strieber: "I've read the script, and this is going to be something quite marvelous."


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New High-Powered Computer Simulations May Determine if we are Living in a High-Powered Computer Simulation

A growing number of scientists are starting to seriously consider the possibility that we are living in a Matrix-like computer simulation, including influential physicists such as Dr. Michio Kaku. And some are actively looking for scientific clues as to whether or not this is a constructed reality, as a team of researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany are doing, looking for patterns in simulations of the mechanics of the universe, and seeing if those patterns also hold true to "real life".

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A New Level of Experience, Part 2

In my last journal entry, I described the first part of a major experience with my wife Anne. Since her death on August 11, 2015, there have been many such experiences, but none so powerful as this one, which took place on the anniversary of her death, August 11, 2016.  For details of the first half of the experience, please refer to my previous journal entry. Click here to read it.

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Women in Black

August 31, 2016
This week on Dreamland we look into a dark corner of reality, led by the ever-interesting Nick Redfern.

Listen in the car, listen on the beach, listen at home…but maybe not at night.

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Want Some High Strangeness? Try Cursing a UFO!

Wednesday August 31, 2016
What happens when you flip off an approaching UFO? Hint: they don't call it cursing for nothing. It sounds rather silly and yet the centerpiece of this week's interview is a fascinating glimpse at just how highly strange high strangeness can get. It's not the only jaw-dropping encounter discussed here but it may be one of the most intriguing ever told. And the guest? Host Jeremy Vaeni's new neighbor, Michael.

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El púlsar más lento del universo

Astrofísicos españoles e italianos han encontrado un púlsar que, como si fuera un faro, emite rayos X cada 6,4 horas, lo que le convierte en el de rotación más lenta detectado hasta ahora. Los púlsares son estrellas de neutrones que emiten radiación periódica y este es del tipo magnetar, por el potente campo magnético que hay a su alrededor, dentro de una supernova situada a 9.000 años luz de la Tierra.
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30 ago 2016

Object Filmed in UK Likely Unknown

This object was observed and recorded by Chris Henry, the author of UFOs and Extraterrestrial Visitations in Ancient Cultures. It is becoming more and more common that people who take an active interest in the field end up as direct witnesses. This object is not a drone an unlikely to be a balloon unless very large and especially fabricated to have the unusual shape. It was also stationary.

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Did Rowan Blanchard of Girl Meets World Get a UFO Photo?

Actress Rowan Blanchard may have captured an image of a type of UFO in New York that was frequently observed and filmed in that region in the 1980s, and has more recently been photographed in Scotland and San Diego. However, we have been unable to determine if she took the shot from behind a window or if she was outdoors when she did it. If she took it from behind glass, it is more likely to be a reflection that was not noticed at the time she made the shot. However, if she was outdoors, then, unless she was using a camera with a lens defect, the image is unexplained.

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Costa Rica Runs on 100% Renewable Energy for nearly an Entire Year!

Earlier this year, we reported that the countries of Portugal and Germany had set new records by generating electricity using renewable resources, with Portugal running on 100 percent renewables for four-and-a-half days, and Germany reaching 95 percent over the duration of May 8, 2016. But a much bigger achievement made the previous year by Costa Rica went largely unnoticed, where electricity was generated for nearly the entire year of 2015 on renewable resources alone.

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29 ago 2016

Global Warming May Cancel Future Summer Olympic Events

As we wind down from another meeting of the world's greatest athletes at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, a new report is warning that global warming may dramatically reduce the number of cities that can host the event in the future, with rising temperatures posing a safety concern to the participating athletes.

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26 ago 2016

Awakening 18: Healing Journey to a Dark Past

Whitley Strieber describes the breathtaking experience that took place on the day after he had the contact with Anne Strieber described in Awakening 18. This time, he was meditating under the direction of a monk of the Dalai Lama's Shartse Phukhang Monks, who offered the will Vajravidharan Ritual, which is designed to dispel dark presences and forces. There followed a powerful sequel to the experiences described in Awakening 18, as Whitley ascended the stairs in the library he described in 18. He was handed a book by Anne entitled "Life." When he opened it, he saw a dark truth about his own past from which he has been trying to free himself all of his life.

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A Crop Circle Expert Gets Banned by Facebook and a FULL REPORT from Linda Moulton Howe on that Ultra High Strangeness Ansty Crop Formation

August 26, 2016
Crop circle expert Nancy Talbot was banned by Facebook after posting the first authenticated video of a light altering crops. Are we looking at the beginning of internet censorship of crop circle research, and possibly more? Then Linda Moulton Howe reports on the high strangeness involving the Ansty formation of August 11.

The website of Nancy Talbott and the BLT Research Group is BLTResearch.com.

This is a placeholder. The full show and description will be posted late Friday August 26.

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Million-Year-Old Stone Tools may have been Hunting Weapons for Early Humans

A new theory put forward by a team of researchers may indicate the use of stone weapons by ancient humans from nearly 2 million years ago. The round stones, first excavated in South Africa's Cave of Hearths 30 years ago, have been analyzed by a team of archaeologists, kinesiologists and psychologists, bringing them to the conclusion that the stones may have been used as throwing weapons.

The 55 mysterious spheroids, each about the size of a tennis ball and dated to between 1.8 million to 70,000 years old, have been found to be just the right size, weight and shape, to hit a target about 25 meters (82 feet) away when thrown.

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25 ago 2016

An Earth-Like Planet has been Found Orbiting the Closest Star to Earth -- So Close we can Almost Reach It!

Astronomers with the Pale Red Dot Project have announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the star closest to Earth. The newfound planet, currently called "Proxima b", has the fortune of being 1.3 times the mass of the Earth, and orbits within the star's Goldilocks Zone, meaning that it is just the right size and temperature to host liquid water, one of the requirements for life as we know it.

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24 ago 2016

The Natural Path to Transcendence

Wednesday August 24, 2016
This week, host Jeremy Vaeni reads and responds to email updates from two former guests. Then, he reveals a means to transcending Western brain-mind into the heart that he's been working out with Tiokasin Ghosthorse. It is so simple to do, it's no wonder it was missed all this time--and the results could be world-changing!

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Un planeta similar a la Tierra orbita en torno a la estrella más cercana al Sol

Después de mucho buscar, un equipo internacional de astrónomos liderado por científicos españoles ha encontrado el exoplaneta más cercano a la Tierra. Se llama Próxima b, presenta una masa similar al nuestro, gira cada once días alrededor de la vecina estrella Próxima Centari y está situado en la zona de habitabilidad, es decir, que podría albergar agua líquida y, potencialmente, vida.
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Native Alaskan Village Forced to Move due to Climate Change

The erosion of the shoreline of Alaska's Sarichef Island from rising sea levels has prompted the residents of the island's village of Shishmaref to decide to relocate, before their traditional island home is overcome by the sea.

Home to 650 Inupiat Inuit, Sarichef Island lies in the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait, and like the rest of Alaska, is warming twice as fast as the contiguous states. Shishmaref is one of 31 Alaskan villages that are in danger from erosion and flooding, according to the US Government Accountability Office.

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China's 'Quantum Satellite' to Provide Hack-Proof Communication Network

On August 1, China launched their Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. This satellite, a joint Austrian-Chinese collaboration, is intended to facilitate long-distance experiments in quantum optics, to allow the development of secure quantum-encryption communications and quantum information teleportation technology. On August 19, Beijing's control center successfully received 202 megabytes of data from the satellite, nicknamed Micius after the 5th century Chinese scholar, secured using quantum encryption keys.

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22 ago 2016

Global Warming may Uncover Secret Army Base in Greenland -- Including its Cache of Toxic Waste

In 1960, the United States Army launched a program called "Project Iceworm", a plan to build launch sites for nuclear missiles under the northern Greenland ice sheet, to provide the missiles with closer access to the Soviet Union. To test the feasibility of this concept, the Army established a base called Camp Century, a functioning military site consisting of tunnels and chambers carved directly into the ice. However, the site's engineers soon found that the glacier that the base was built into isn't a stable mass of ice, but instead flows at a slow rate, deforming the base's tunnels. This resulted in Camp Century's abandonment in 1966.

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21 ago 2016

Profound Wisdom from an "Alien Video" by Whitley Strieber

A video has been uploaded to YouTube that purports to show an alien under interview by an unidentified young man sometime in the 1960s. I am not going to essay an opinion about its authenticity, but I would like to comment in detail on the statements made.

1. The interrogator asks, "State planet of origin." The answer is "Earth." This answer is consistent with my own impression of major aspects of this very complex experience mankind is having with the unknown. There are three levels:

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19 ago 2016

Spain: CIA Document Discloses Possible UFO Sighting in Barcelona



Source: PLANETA UFO and La Razón (Spain)
Date: 08.15.2016
Original Article by Víctor Fernández, La Razón
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Spain: CIA Document Discloses Possible UFO Sighting in Barcelona

May 21, 1952. Barcelona was making preparations for the International Eucharistic Conference to such an extent that the La Vanguardia Española discussed the arrival of the archbishop of Ottawa as though he were a special guest. The possibility of some afternoon rain showers that Wednesday was in the forecast. Journalist Valentín García was among those who looked at the sky that day, but it seems he saw more than just a storm warning.

This is what a document declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attests. It forms part of a series of documents disclosed last February, a considerable part of them related to the likelihood of unidentified flying object sightings.



Valentín García, as the CIA reports, was crossing Avenida de Jose Antonio - the modern Gran Via de les Cortes Catalanes - on the way to his newsroom when he saw something strange - too strange - up in the sky. "I saw a strange object flying at high speed from the Prat Airport, some 2000 meters over the ground, leaving a broad plume of smoke in his wake," the journalist told the news agency. García even made some inquiries about the object and ascertained that it was not an aircraft of which the El Prat and Sabadell Airports were aware. He also noted that there were differences with the so-called flying saucers because it did not emit "flashes or light, nor did it spin on an axis."

The reporter was not alone in seeing that craft, according to what is presented in the CIA's declassified pages. "My colleagues at the office saw the smoke, but not the object," said one document. A curious item of information is that when it was already over Badalona, the craft or whatever it was stopped expelling the eye-catching smoke and "vanished for a few seconds, reappearing once again kilometers later, issuing smoke. Telephones started ringing at the paper's newsroom, with people claiming having seen the same smoking vehicle that Valentín García mentioned.

There is something more, although all we have is a reference in the CIA papers. A photograph is known to exist, but unfortunately, it appears to remain classified because it does not appear in the raft of documents released on 21 February. It was taken by Francisco Andreu and according to the note, [the object] "presented a diagonal stripe." Oddly, it is said that the photo was taken on 17 May, even though the information is from the 21st of that month. Clerical error?

What is indeed certain is that this incident, whose existence is known thanks to a journalist in contact with the CIA, caught the attention of the U.S. intelligence services.

[Translation (c) 2016 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

via Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology http://ift.tt/GCRz8J

Spain: "I Saw a UFO" (1975)



Source: PLANETA UFO and LaRioja.com
Date: 08.17.2016


Spain: "I Saw a UFO" (1975)

Over 40 years ago, Murillo had become news due to a particular event. A local resident, Doña Andrea, told Diario LA RIOJA in August '75 that she had seen a UFO. The 51-year-old woman claimed having seen it close at hand and at high speed. Unfortunately, these phenomena are always accompanied by a vague description. But in Andrea's own words: "Those who want to believe it are free to do so."
-- Editorial comment from Diario La Rioja

As Round as A Hat and as Shiny as Silver
By Luis Sáez, Diario La Rioja, August 1975

Murillo remains a hotbed of curious news items. Yesterday we visited this locality to interview Mrs. Andrea Esteban so she could elucidate on her strange sighting of a "UFO".

Doña Andrea, who lives in the town of Murillo, takes care of some animals that she has. One fine day she was walking in the company of a friend when she was startled by a strange object crossing the sky.

"Where did you see it, exactly?"
"I was walking along the Agoncillo road when we saw it fly over the road toward Zaragoza. My neighbor didn't get to see much of it."
"What was it like?"
"It was round, just like a straw hat, and as shiny as silver. It was also rather large."
"How fast was it?"
"Hard to guess, just like the size, but I figure it was going very fast."
"Do you know what it was exactly?"
"I don't know if it was a flying saucer. I only know that it was so shiny it was blinding us."
"Can you give us any more details?"
"Unfortunately, no. I already told my neighbor that it was a shame that we weren't able to get a closer look."
"Were you scared?"
"No, no. I've already told you that I wish it had flown right beside us. I wouldn't have been scared like other people who've seen those machines."
"Do you believe in flying saucers?"
"I've always maintained that when so many of us have seen "UFOs" there has to be something to it."
"Have you told your neighbors?"
"Only a couple of people, so I haven't been looking for celebrity."
Doña Andrea says she's currently 51 years old and isn't lying about her age. Those who want to believe are free to do so, Doña Andrea adds.

[Translation (c) 2016 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

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Mexico: Alleged UFOs Recorded By Separate Witnesses, Mexico-Pachuca Highway



Source: Ana Luisa Cid
Date: August 14, 2006


Mexico: Alleged UFOs Recorded By Separate Witnesses, Mexico-Pachuca Highway

Prof. Ana Luisa Cid writes:

Greetings - I am attaching three videos from this past August 14th. The witnesses have described a very large object floating over the México-Pachuca Highway. [They recorded it] using their cellphone cameras. Several drivers slowed down to witness the phenomenon. One possible explanation would be an enormous "globo de cantoya" (sky lantern), although the luminosity that appears to surround it is startling. Some have described a metallic dome. - Regards, Ana Luisa.

Next are the links to the respective cellphone videos provided by each witness:

Maricruz Hernández: https://youtu.be/BlOLJUheaOU
Jim Morrison: https://youtu.be/cUmCQ0Vx3Qk
Jorge Mendoza: https://youtu.be/zW120b0ncHQ

[Translation (c) S. Corrales, IHU]
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And You Thought You Were Old: Greenland Sharks can Live to at Least 400 Years

A new study on the lifespan of the Greenland shark has established that this fish may be the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth. While marine biologists have long suspected that this species of shark had a long lifespan -- one individual, caught twice, with each catch more than a decade apart, had shown growth of less than a centimeter per year -- researchers had no definitive way of dating individual specimens, as dating fish involves counting the layers in their bones. Sharks, on the other hand, have cartilage skeletons that don't exhibit this layering, making dating them difficult.

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18 ago 2016

The Communion Letters

Thursday August 18, 2016
Jeremy Vaeni is off this week. Whitley Strieber fills in reading from the Communion Letters and commenting on three amazing and revealing stories of close encounter. They are from among the 115 letters that were collected by Anne Strieber from over a quarter of a million that Whitley and Anne received after they published Communion.

They were published as the Communion Letters with commentary by Whitley and Anne. The book has been out of print for 10 years, and has now been republished as an ebook for $3.99. It is available wherever ebooks are sold.

To order a copy from your preferred ebook retailer, go to Whitley's book page, Strieber.com.

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Major Crop Circle Revelation, PLUS Empowerment Through Joy

August 19, 2016


We start the show off with a SPECIAL REPORT from Linda Moulton Howe on the controversy and extreme strangeness of the fantastic Ansty crop formation that was discovered on August 11. This formation is one of the most intricate ever found. BUT IS IT A HOAX? Wait until you hear this remarkable report, as fantastic and bizarre a story as has ever appeared on Dreamland.




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New Findings Overturn Long-Standing Theory on Human Migration into the Americas

First posited by the 16th century Spanish naturalist, José de Acosta, it has been a long-standing theory that the indigenous human populations in North and South America arrived there at the end of the last ice age, via the Bering land bridge, before rising ocean levels cut off the connection between the Asian and North American continents. According to this theory, the migrants made their way south via an ice-free corridor that ran between the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets, cutting southward through what is now the province of Alberta in western Canada.

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17 ago 2016

El despertar de una nova tras su hibernación

Astrónomos polacos han observado una estrella enana blanca antes y después de que produjera una explosión conocida como nova. El estudio, centrado en Nova Centauri 2009, proporciona nueva información sobre este brillante evento asociado a la transferencia de materia desde una estrella compañera.
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Mind-Controlled Exoskeletons Help Paraplegics Regain Control of their Limbs

One of the more positive aspects of the development of brain-machine interfaces -- the technology of linking mind and mechanism -- is the promise of allowing paralyzed individuals to regain their mobility through controlling machines via their thoughts. While there has been a great deal of progress in this field over the last few years, one program appears to have had an unexpected effect on the subjects involved, where the individuals were able to regain sensation in, and control of, their paralyzed limbs after learning to use the equipment.

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15 ago 2016

Un agujero negro acústico para observar la radiación de Hawking

En los años 70 Stephen Hawking teorizó que los agujeros negros no son completamente negros, ya que pueden emitir una radiación que hoy lleva su nombre. Ahora un físico israelí ha recreado un agujero negro sónico en el laboratorio para aportar la mejor prueba hasta la fecha de la existencia de esa radiación y del entrelazamiento cuántico que se produce entre dos partículas, una que queda dentro y otra fuera del agujero.
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Various Species' Shared DNA may be the Key to Regenerating Lost Limbs

Earth is a treasure trove of biodiversity, with over 8.7 million known species alive today, and that only represents an estimated 20 percent of all of the existing species that currently exist. But despite the sheer diversity of lifeforms, be it plant, animal, or microbe, we all share a common single-celled ancestor that started to diverge into new species 1.6 billion years ago. And because of that common ancestor, all species have a lot in common when it comes to our DNA: chimpanzees are nearly genetically identical to us; we share 69 percent of our genetic makeup with the otherwise oddball platypus; and we have even one-quarter of our code in common with rice.

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Mexico: A UFO in San Baltazar Atlimeyaya?



Source: PLANETA UFO and El Grafico (www.elgrafico.com.mx)
Date: 08.16.2016
Article by Yohanan Díaz Vargas


Mexico: A UFO in San Baltazar Atlimeyaya?

08.13.2016-14:49 - An impressive UFO sighting was recorded at San Baltazar Atlimeyaya, Puebla, on Saturday 6 August at 10:58 p.m. before the startled eyes of nearly 50 people who met to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Great UFO Wave of 1991 organized by Grupo Volibolo.

A startling and unexpected sighting, given that Saturday was overcast and with heavy rains. The rain stopped after 10 o'clock at night. As the cold increased, witnesses saw a shining green object rising through the trees some 200 meters away from their position. The UFO was flying slow at a low altitude and was soundless. It vanished minutes later by simply turning itself off. It was seen later on over some houses near La Cabaña Encantada, a restaurant owned by UFO contactee Paulino López López, who said that some 30 years ago a very beautiful being gave him a substance to scatter on his property, fostering his production of avocados, lemons and peaches.

The people watching the anomalous flying object saw it flying scant meters over the rooftops: "The UFO is looking for something," they said.

UFO hunter Salvador Guerrero, a dean of UFO research and videography, shot a green laser beam at the object and it responded with a very bright flash of light that astonished those present. Some of them felt fear. "Stop doing it, or it will attack us, don't do it..."

Others, who were leaving a conference that was interrupted by an attendee, who informed the gathering of the UFOs presence, asked: "Where's the UFO?"

The interrupted lecture had been the one offered by Miguel Angel Dominguez, who described the unidentified object as "impressive" upon seeing it.

The UFO hunters could be heard to say: "Quit shooting the laser at it...it's answering us already."

Eduardo Ortega, a UFO hunter with 20 years' experience and nearly 500 videos of these anomalous objects, has recorded them in the vicinity of the Popocatepetl Volcano. That Saturday, August 6, Ortega boasted about his prowess and recorded the mysterious object, which was spherical in shape, white in its middle, and with a greenish-purple hue to its surroundings. When asked about it, he replied: "This isn't terrestrial in my opinion on account of its movements. Not just any object can execute them. It was neither a drone, nor a helicopter nor a plane." He added: "It's quite possible that these beings knew we were here, searching for them in this area where UFO sightings are constant."

The incident lasted a total of seven minutes before [the object] vanished into the horizon.

[Translation (c) 2016 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

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14 ago 2016

A New Level of Experience

I have been very hesitant to write about what has been happening in my life recently. I have left a partial record in the "Awakening" talks in our subscriber area, but have not described the depth, intimacy or the absolute sense of reality that accompany these experiences. The reason that I haven't done it is that they involve contacts with Anne. Now, one might say that it's important to make a record because it empowers others. That's only partially true. I have a number of friends who have lost loved ones and are grieving. But none of them have had experiences anything close to what is going on between me and Anne, and stories like this have a tendency to deepen grief, in two ways. First, the person thinks 'why doesn't that happen to me?' and feels sad.

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El Great Eastern, un monstruo de los mares

En el momento en que vi el Great Eastern, estaban colocando las máquinas, que son cuatro, dos de alabes y otras dos de hélices. (…) El casco del buque sobrepuja tanto las proporciones que todos están acostumbrados a ver, que al primer golpe de vista se puede dudar que haya fuerza, por grande que sea, capaz de dar impulso a ese aparato gigantesco, sobre cuyo puente se abren calles y verdaderas plazas, ni más ni menos que en el seno de una ciudad (…) pero cuando nos acercamos a esas poderosas máquinas, a esos cilindros monstruosos y a esas paletas colosales destinadas a batir el agua, comprendemos y admiramos la armonía de este conjunto que formará indudablemente la muestra más inconcebible de la audacia del ingenio humano.

Fragmento de una crónica de N. García Sierra
en su visita a la construcción del SS Great Eastern,
publicada en el periódico La Esperanza, el 22 de octubre de 1857.

El Great Eastern en construccion.

El Great Eastern en construccion.


En nuestro mundo hiperconectado parece que ya no hay casi nada que nos llame realmente la atención. El asombro de nuestros antepasados ante artilugios más rápidos, más grandes, más seguros o que fueran capaces de volar más alto, o de llevar cargas mayores de acá para allá, parece que ha desaparecido en gran parte en las gentes de las sociedades actuales.

No hay más que mirar una pantalla de móvil, tablet o de un ordenador para asistir a espectáculos que hubieran llenado de asombro a personas de hace no demasiado tiempo. He ahí, por ejemplo, aplicaciones como Flightradar24, que despliega ante nosotros de forma detallada el tráfico aéreo de todo el planeta en tiempo real. A cada minuto que pasa, un increíble enjambre de aviones de todo tipo circula por los cielos de todo el planeta. Con esa aplicación podemos identificar el tipo de avión, su origen, destino y muchos otros detalles. Algo parecido sucede en los océanos terrestres. Con sistemas como Marinetraffic podemos contemplar la localización de miles de barcos en tiempo real surcando los mares, identificando los cargueros, cruceros, buques factoría y muchos otros.

Nada de eso llama ya la atención del común de los mortales, y no sólo por número de máquinas impresionantes que hay por ahí, nada de eso. La velocidad tampoco sorprende y, por supuesto, el tamaño tampoco. Hoy navegan por los océanos buques tan inmensos que apenas hubiera sido posible que fueran imaginados por el más fantasioso escritor decimonónico. Ahí están, por ejemplo, esas gigantescas ciudades flotantes con más de 225.000 toneladas de registro bruto y más 360 metros de eslora como son los cruceros de la clase Oasis. Son el Oasis of the Seas y el Allure of the Seas, a quienes se unirán otros hermanos similares en los próximos años. Se trata de los barcos de pasajeros más grandes jamás vistos, pero ni mucho menos son los navíos más inmensos. Ahí tenemos petroleros y mercantes cargados con contenedores que dejan enanos a muchos de sus congéneres, como el monstruo más grande jamás construido por los humanos, ese superpetrolero que atendía al nombre de Knock Nevis, retirado hace pocos años, capaz de desplazar más de 650.000 toneladas y que contaba con una eslora de casi 500 metros. No es el único, hay varios buques en el mundo que superan los 300 metros de eslora, incluyendo algún portaaviones, cuya capacidad de carga es impresionante.

Ahora bien, eso es lo que sucede en nuestro mundo repleto de máquinas, pero hubo un tiempo en que cada nuevo buque que salía de un astillero se consideraba todo un logro a celebrar y, si además era algo nunca visto, el eco de su nacimiento resonaba en todo el mundo. Es el caso de un barco que marcó toda una época y cuya estela llega a nuestros días. Fue el sueño de un hombre excepcional, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, que luchó contra quienes opinaban que aquello era ir demasiado lejos, hasta conseguir llevar al mundo real una nave llamada Great Eastern.

El 1 de mayo de 1854 comenzó la construcción de este monstruo de los mares en unos astilleros cercanos a Londres, concretamente en Millwall. Fue botado en enero de 1858 y permaneció en activo prácticamente hasta 1890, cuando acabó en la chatarra. Podía desplazar más de 32.000 toneladas y su eslora superaba los 200 metros. Vale, no parece gran cosa hoy día, ¡pero en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX aquello parecía algo mágico!

El Great Eastern en el astillero.

El Great Eastern en el astillero.

Animado por cuatro inmensas máquinas de vapor para mover los dos grupos de palas, junto con un sistema de hélice, además de seis inmensos mástiles para velas, el Great Eastern era capaz de transportas a cuatro millares de pasajeros, junto a más de cuatrocientos miembros de la tripulación, con agilidad y seguridad, a una velocidad de 14 nudos.

Cuando se hizo a la mar aquel lejano 31 de enero de 1858 se convirtió en la más asombrosa obra de ingeniería jamás vista, el barco más grande, capaz de dar una vuelta al mundo sin necesidad de reabastecimiento. Este gigante mantuvo su primacía en los mares hasta los albores del siglo XX, cuando comenzaron a construirse naves más grandes. Prácticamente medio siglo siendo el rey es algo que deja huella. El inicialmente llamado como Leviathan, nombre que no le quedaba nada mal, probó las aguas del Támesis de costado, y no de popa como era común, pues era tan inmenso que debió construirse paralelo al río. Tras su botadura, el sueño de Brunel comenzó lo que fue una azarosa vida, digna de una novela steampunk.

De hecho, el Great Eastern inspiró obras de todo tipo, incluso de la mano de genios como Julio Verne. No era simplemente un barco gigantesco, además era el primero de toda una nueva época, dotado de dos inmensas ruedas de palas propulsoras con un diámetro de 17 metros, así como una gran hélice de más de siete metros. Sus 8.000 caballos de potencia, así como el uso del acero por doquier, hacían que se adelantara a su tiempo, era como ver un reflejo del siglo XX y el final de los buques a vela.

Su primer viaje, en modo de pruebas, se inició el 7 de septiembre de 1859 y, justo al poco, falleció Brunel. Puede que fuera mejor así, porque la vida de su criatura no fue precisamente venturosa. En aquella primera navegación se produjo una explosión que obligó a llevar a la nave al dique seco durante un tiempo para ser reparada. Tras nuevas pruebas, el gran navío comenzó sus viajes de línea desde Southampton en el verano de 1860. Era capaz de llegar a Nueva York en poco más de once días pero, a pesar de haberse convertido en el más moderno de los transatlánticos, era tan caro de mantener que pronto de pensó en su abandono. ¿Qué hacer con semejante monstruo? Hubo quien pensó en enviarlo prematuramente a la chatarrería, pero he aquí que una nueva tecnología llegó en su auxilio.

El Great Eastern.

El Great Eastern.

Eran los primeros ecos de una red mundial de comunicaciones, algo que tampoco nos llama la atención hoy pero que asombró a sus contemporáneos. El Great Eastern era ideal para una tarea nueva y arriesgada: tender cables submarinos. En 1866 fue el primero en lograr tender un cable telegráfico a través del Atlántico. El monstruo había conseguido hacer el mundo más pequeño. Salvo por algún que otro servicio para turistas, se dedicó durante años a aquella tarea, hasta que novísimos buques diseñados exclusivamente para tender cables hicieron que se convirtiera en un cascarón obsoleto. Hoy puede contemplarse lo único que queda del Great Eastern en Anfield Road, en el estadio del Liverpool Football Club, donde aparece uno de sus mástiles en cuyo extremo ondea la bandera del club.

El SS Great Eastern en Nueva York.

El SS Great Eastern en Nueva York.

El Great Eatern estaba tan bien construido que, cuando fue enviado al desguace allá por 1889, no vieron muy claro cómo acabar con él. Durante año y medio un ejército de dos centenares de trabajadores luchó con esfuerzo por deshacerse de aquella joya de la ingeniería. Así murió el sueño de Brunel, un hombre sobresaliente que merece buen recuerdo.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel fue un ingeniero singular. Construyó todo tipo de grandes estructuras, no sólo barcos, pues también se las vio con grandes puentes. No sólo era un soñador impenitente sino que sus ideas a veces fueron muy controvertidas y sus proyectos acabaron bastante mal en ocasiones. Nacido en 1806, fue siempre un genio de las máquinas. Llevó a la vida la línea de ferrocarril Great Eastern que unía Londres con el oeste de Inglaterra y Gales, principalmente entre la capital y Bristol. Años más tarde se encargó de construir la línea Great Western, un gran proyecto en el que Brunel soñaba con que los pasajeros compraran un solo billete en Londres y, a través del tren, llegaran a uno de sus grandes vapores y surcaran el océano hasta Nueva York. La idea no era tan loca como pueda parecer pues se adelantó en más de un siglo a las ideas sobre transporte ágil en grandes ciudades que hoy podemos ver materializadas, por ejemplo, en las lanzaderas que llegan desde las estaciones de ferrocarril hasta los grandes aeropuertos.

Brunel fumando un puro en la botadura del Great Eastern.

Brunel fumando un puro en la botadura del Great Eastern.

De los trenes pasó a los puentes y, de ahí, a los grandes barcos a vapor. Si no hubiera fallecido tan tempranamente, estoy seguro de que le hubiera hincado el diente a la navegación aérea. Quién sabe, bien pudo haber saltado de los dirigibles a los aviones, pero esto sólo es fantasía.

Brunel nunca sintió que un problema pudiera ser imposible. Donde otros ingeniero se rendían, él asumía al mando sin complejos. Desde sus primeros estudios de ingeniería en Francia, hasta su empleo como artesano con Louis Breguet, con quien aprendió el valor del trabajo manual a la hora de crear instrumentos científicos de precisión, nunca se rindió ante ningún reto. Encargado por su padre, también ingeniero, de una obra considerada muy complicada, y con apenas veinte años, logró salir airoso del reto, y su fama como ingeniero milagroso comenzó a crecer. Se trataba de construir un túnel bajo el Támesis, un simple “aperitivo” que sirvió para abrir su apetito por las grandes obras. Varios de los impresionantes puentes de metal que diseñó, siguen en uso hoy día. Por desgracia, tal y como le sucedió con el Great Eastern, muchas de aquellos puentes colgantes y otras obras, fueron concluidos después de su muerte.

Los grandes buques a vapor ideados por Brunel, el Great Western, el Great Britain y, sobre todo, el Great Eastern, son considerados como grandes genialidades de la ingeniería. Pensados para transportar mercancías y pasajeros alrededor del mundo, incluso pensando en viajes de línea hasta Australia, aquellos barcos mostraron que no había límites, el futuro de la navegación a través de los océanos estaba allí. Puede que todo aquello fuera demasiado para un solo hombre. Las naves de Brunel, sobre todo su gigante final, eran caras de mantener y en su construcción se superaron todos los límites de presupuesto. Recibió fuertes críticas por todo aquello, pero nada le hacía frenar en su carrera hacia el futuro. Todas sus ideas vieron la luz con éxito… ¡pero casi medio siglo más tarde! Pocos entendieron lo que Brunel estaba diseñando. Los buques con casco de metal, el uso de hélices y muchas otras tecnologías avanzadas que desarrolló para sus máquinas eran vistas como excentricidades pero el tiempo demostró que iba por el buen camino.

Brunel ante las cadenas de amarre del Great Eastern.

Brunel ante las cadenas de amarre del Great Eastern.

Todo aquel febril trabajo le pasó factura. Dicen que fumaba sin parar y que apenas dormía, siempre estaba dibujando sus nuevas ideas y haciendo cálculos. Antes de que muchas de sus grandes obras fueran concluidas, Brunel falleció con 53 años de edad, de un derrame cerebral. Nos dejó una última “loca” idea, patentada tiempo antes pero que nadie había llevado a la práctica, el ferrocarril atmosférico, un extraño ingenio que probó hacia 1847. Se trataba de un vehículo sobre vías que era impulsado a través de una conducción por el efecto del vacío. La tecnología de la época no le pudo ofrecer los materiales ni la fiabilidad necesarias para lograr el éxito en aquella extraña experiencia.

_______________
*Ya he escrito anteriormente en TecOb sobre este gran barco, uno de mis favoritos de siempre. El texto de este post, en esta ocasión, pertenece a uno de mis artículos rescatados del proyecto iHstoria para iPad.

El Great Eastern, un monstruo de los mares apareció originalmente en Tecnología Obsoleta, 14 agosto 2016.


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13 ago 2016

Massive Flooding along Gulf Coast

A flood of historic proportions could inundate parts of the Gulf Coast over the next 48 hours. The region has already received record amounts of rainfall, and flooding has killed at least one person and caused enormous amounts of damage across a wide area. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and the Louisiana emergency management office has called it a "historic flood event."

In a 24-hour period over Friday and Saturday, Baton Rouge reported 11.34 inches of rain. The Comite River near Baton Rouge and Amite River near Denham Springs, both in Louisiana, were predicted to set record crests over the weekend.

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Another Mind-Bending Crop Formation in an Astonishing Season

This formation, found earlier today, is almost certainly an anomalous one. Creating it with any known technology would be very difficult indeed. It ranks as one of the most marvelous formations ever found, and the best one so far of what is proving to be a very good season.

Can anyone interpret the glyphs around the edge of the formation? I asked Whitley Strieber, who said that they have a familiar look to him, as they do to me but we are so far unable to place them.

If you are in the UK, you can enter this formation by following the reservation instructions on the Crop Circle Connector website.

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12 ago 2016

This Week's Astronomy News: The Stars are Dimming, The Sky is Falling, and Io's Atmosphere is Collapsing

Last fall, researchers with the Kepler Planet Hunters program announced that one of the stars they were studying, KIC 8462852, was experiencing brief but dramatic dips in its brightness, leading to speculation that the effect might be caused by extraterrestrial megastructures in orbit around the star.

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Wild and Wonderful UFO Video "Y'all Need to be Shootin' That!"

See video
If this is a fake of any kind, the gent doing the narration needs to get an Academy Award. The objects in question are not drones, planes, sky lanterns or any other known object. Given the intensity of the witness reaction and the fact that other people can be heard reacting as well, it's unlikely that this is a computer animation, but it would be an easy one to do. It is also not a known form of meteor of any kind. Rated A.

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11 ago 2016

Awakenging 18: Living with The Afterlife

From Whitley: "It is August 11, 2016 as I am writing this. On this day last year, Anne died. This morning after my meditation, at about 5:30, I had an extremely powerful and informative experience. I saw how those who are not in the physical see us. This came in a direct contact with Anne of such sheer joy and energetic intensity that I feel as if it has changed the whole nature of my experience of being. Afterward, I immediately sat down and recorded this."

 


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The Joy of Ascension

August 12, 2016
William and Clare Henry reveal their latest discoveries on the path of ascension. Their profound and powerful spiritual journey has rarely been disclosed with the energy that pours from them in this wonderful interview. Just by listening to their voices, you can taste of the joyful energy that is what ascension is all about.

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The Power and Wonder of Childhood Close Encounters

Thursday August 11, 2016
Join us this week for a one-of-a-kind roundtable discussion about experiences of high strangeness in childhood and beyond. Sometimes commonality lives in the differences. What does that mean? We will find out together.

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Researchers Develop a Shape-Changing Liquid Metal

Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia has developed a new method that can allow liquid metal to self-arrange its own shape, using external chemical inputs. The substance is made up of a highly-conductive liquid-metal core, surrounded by a film of semiconducting oxide skin, allowing the arrangement to be completely malleable, resembling the mimetic polyalloy used by the T-1000 from the Terminator movies.

The technique used to cause the metal to rearrange its shape involves changing the chemical makeup of the water that the metal is kept in, altering the pH levels and salt content of the solution. This prompts the skin surrounding the metal to change its shape, to the point where this change can cause the metal blob can propel itself.

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Diminutive UFO Occupants or Elementals?



Diminutive UFO Occupants or Elementals?
By Scott Corrales (c) 2016


Traditional cases involving “close encounters of the third kind” are as rare as hens’ teeth these days. These occurrences – involving contact between alleged non-human entities and ordinary humans – filled magazine articles and news columns in the ‘60s and ‘70s, petering out in the 1980s as UFO research went into a deep sleep, or into a cocoon from which an entirely new thing emerged. A media-savvy ufology, front-loaded with images and situations drawn from television series (“V”) and conspiracy literature. Roadside encounters in the night were replaced by the more convenient non-humans visiting witnesses (now “experiencers”) in their homes. These too would slow down to a trickle, and other pursuits would fill the agendas of a new generation of researchers.

The old-fashioned, quaint encounters did not go away, however. A careful search will show that human lives are still affected by contact with the unknown in remote corners of our planet, and while they may lack the impact of a Travis Walton or Pascagoula-type case, they are compelling in their own right.

One such incident comes to us from Costa Rica’s Exploración OVNI website (http://ift.tt/1CjK2DS), which presents us with a case that reportedly occurred on May 7, 2012 in the small hours of the morning – 1:30 a.m. to be exact – at a small community known as Bagatzi near Guanacaste in the smallest but loveliest of Central American countries. No names are given, but webmaster Fernando Távara provides a transcript of the report as it was received. It reads thus:

“A friend and I were involved in tourist service business in a community known as Bagatzi, in Bagaces, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The town of Bagatzi is one kilometer distant from the Palo Verde National Park, and we chose this location because I had visited it with my family for 15 years and its vegetation and natural attractions are incredible. I moved to the community and rented somewhat rustic lodgings. There was no glass on the windows, there was a screen to keep bugs from coming in, and some bars [around the window] but from within I could see the surroundings and distant landmarks from the room. Only a few people make up the community, fifty at most, and the school only has two classrooms. There’s a soccer pitch and one store from which essentials can be purchased.”


The author of the report goes on to provide additional details on the area, concerning agricultural production, the vast amount of wildlife, and the fact that the Guanacaste area received the most amount of sunlight during the day while being the darkest location in the country at night. Light pollution is non-existent.

One night, described as excessively hot and dark – so dark that he was unable to see his outstretched hands before him – the witness saw what he believed was the light of a motorcycle headlight reflected against the wall of his room, but was unable to hear the sound of a distant engine. Local dogs started to bark as the light grew nearer, no longer white or light yellow, but orange. “[The light] came through the screen mesh, a tube of powerful orange non-halogen light whose brightness appeared to dim as entered the room.”

Far from being frightened, the witness marveled at the tube of orange light, realizing it had nothing whatsoever to do with a motorcycle headlight. “It measured some fifty centimeters wide and made a fluid, watery motion which I compared to gelatin. It had a life of its own, and it stopped a meter and a half from my head, since I was lying in bed with head to the west and my feet to the east. The thing came in through the window, and I was able to see that the tube of light contained an object in its rounded tip.”

What follows is the most astonishing description. The object contained in the orange shaft of light appeared to protect a small entity standing some forty centimeters tall (15 inches), described by the witness as reptilian, “similar to a manta ray, except it was contained within this substance, its hands and feet outstretched, as if floating within the gelatinous tube, giving it sustenance and protection.” The diminutive creature’s head was described as rhomboidal, with small eyes and mouth, a featureless nose, and no tail.

“I saw my entire room illuminated,” goes on the witness, “and could not take my eyes off this animal, as it considered it to be such. I felt no fear, and thought that I could easily catch it in my hands, since it was level with my chest. I had the feeling that this creature was a watchman, a monitor of the area, and entered my room out of curiosity in a relaxed, very natural manner.”
Upon realizing that the room was occupied, and its occupant awake and alert, the light became “solid and rigid”, according to the eyewitness’s testimony, contracted and left the room in a split second. “I jumped on my bed and managed to see it turn to the northeast, as if terrified at having been seen. It left the way it came, through the trees and where the dogs had been barking – a 300 meter stretch – in two seconds.” He adds that he was accustomed to making use of Stellarium (software that creates a planetarium effect) to study the stars and follow man-made satellites and one of the lights in the sky was brighter than normal. Despite the absolutely clear night sky, the unusual “star” stopped being visible after a few minutes.

Cases involving diminutive non-humans are nothing new, and the Costa Rican case shares characteristics with others in Latin America and elsewhere around the planet. Although the witness makes a connection between the tiny reptilian creature and the elusive “star”, there is nothing to suggest that it is a craft from another planet.
In May 2008, an Argentinean news wire reported that the citizens of San Carlos in the northwestern part of the country had witnessed a small creature standing no more than 40 centimeters tall – again, 15 inches -- with the uncanny trait of being able to generate a kind of “force field” that kept people from getting to close to it.

The witnesses to the high-strangeness event, whose names are given as Walter Lopez and Omar Ferlatti, reported their sighting to officials, describing the entity as “small, glowing and wearing pants”, and apparently shielded by “a magnetic field”. This apparent close encounter of the third kind took place as the entire valley region (the Valles Chalchaquíes of Salta) was in commotion over a large UFO reported in the area.

“Kids aren’t going out at night out of fear of the strange creature and the UFO,” claimed a resident of San Carlos in a statement to the COPENOA news agency. Ferlatti and Lopez’s account dovetails with the one given by a shepherdess on the hills, who was startled by the strange visitor. Police have stated that both stories coincide and that local residents are indeed frightened. “It hasn’t been seen again. It would be good for it to return, to ascertain that the events were indeed as described,” said deputy sheriff Luis Comenares.

Not all locals were as agitated about the diminutive visitor. Andean peoples have an extensive tradition of small creatures usually lumped under the classification of imps or goblins, and they are purportedly the spirits of children who died unchristened or attacked their parents. Pablo Villarubia, a tireless journalist of the occult, visited the Cafayate Museum in the city of Salta to speak to curator Elga Brabo, who was very forthright in their discussion on the subject of these half-magical, half-real sub-humans.

When asked if imps had ever been reported in Cachi, she replied affirmatively, adding that the creature was even known as “el duende de Toma Colorado” (the Toma Colorado Imp) – an entity that was more playful than perverse, but which hadn’t been seen for years.
One wonders whether these entities could be related to elemental forces of the Earth, nature spirits of a kind. Not the slightest hint of technology is evident. The orange tube of light in the Costa Rican case did not seem to have a generator or controls; the personal force-field used by the Argentinean imp did not appear to be related to a device worn on its body, at least not one that the witnesses were able to see.

Since the early days of ufology, and going even farther back in history, accounts of diminutive intelligent beings have played a crucial role is shaping our perception of the phenomenon. The sizes of these creatures range from a scant twelve inches to a not-so-small four feet in height. They occupy a special position within the study of the unknown, since they straddle the divide that separates folklore from contemporary approaches to enigmatic creatures: every culture on earth has a tradition which involves small beings that can be good or malicious, intelligent or brutish. That accounts of such creatures occur in our highly technological twentieth century, and in relation to the UFO phenomenon, constitutes an enigma in itself.

The brownies, pixies, gnomes and dwarves have their equivalents in the Mexican ikhals, chaneques and aluches. It is extremely odd to find such a variety of names to describe creatures that supposedly do not exist.

Batteries Not Included

For those bent upon an ETH-centered approach, the thought of a civilization sending miniaturized explorers to look over the galaxy isn't far-fetched. Small crewmen would consume fewer resources, and these tiny explorers would more than likely be biological robots (biots, in the parlance of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama) as opposed to shrunken members of the spacefaring society, a concept that brings to mind Gordon Williams' The Micronauts (1979) in which a future society beset by environmental collapse and famine decides that the only way forward lies in Project Arcadia, an initiative at miniaturizing human beings to a size far smaller than the fifteen to twenty inches reported in these cases.

Ufology provides us with a fair number of cases that should remind us of Batteries Not Included, the Matthew Robbins film in which small mechanical life forms render assistance to beleaguered humans. One of these events – a particularly charming one – was researched by Antonio Ribera, the dean of Spanish ufology, and translated by Gordon Creighton, editor of Flying Saucer Review. The case involves a tiny flying saucer that disgorged a crew of uniformed ufonauts in the Spanish town of Villares del Saz, Province of Cuenca (Central Spain) in July 1953. Máximo Herraiz, 14, was tending to the family flock when he heard a “faint, muted, intermittent whistling” sound that caused him to turn around. He was surprised to see what he took for “a big balloon”, in his own words, which glowed with brightness that he was not accustomed to seeing.

Herraiz tried to grab the object, whose diameter he estimated at a meter thirty (four and a quarter feet), but “a door opened and little guys started coming out of it”. The object’s three diminutive occupants had an estimated height of 65 centimeters (25 inches) and addressed him in an unknown language. When the young man was unable to reply, one of the mini-ufonauts slapped him and all three returned to their object. “They went off very fast, like a rocket.”


Corroboration for this unlikely tale came from the boy’s father, who found landing marks on the ground, measuring thirty-six centimeters on either side. The local police chief, Crecencio Atienza, added his own testimony: “When the affair at Villares del Saz occurred, we saw what appeared to be a greyish white object which was stationary in the air, and then vanished shortly afterward. Its shape was very much like a ball. It left no trail, and when it disappeared it went toward the east.”

Riberas’s extraordinary report appears in the anthology The Humanoids (Chicago: Regnery, 1969) and is one of several events involving diminutive occupants from that period in history.

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10 ago 2016

The St. Paul Island Mammoths Nearly Survived into the Bronze Age -- But What Finally Drove Them into Extinction?

When we think of woolly mammoths, what typically comes to mind is the classic hairy pachyderm that inhabited what is now Siberia's tundra, megafauna that went extinct shortly after the end of the Pleistocene, nearly 12,000 years ago. But a number of mammoth species survived for thousands of years into the current era, including a colony of mammoths on Russia's Wrangel Island that did not disappear until 1650 BC.

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El experimento MoEDAL del LHC restringe la búsqueda de monopolos magnéticos

Los investigadores del experimento MoEDAL del gran colisionador de hadrones del CERN han acotado los límites donde buscar una nueva partícula, el monopolo magnético. Estas partículas con un solo polo fueron teorizadas por el físico Paul Dirac en los años treinta, pero hasta ahora no se han observado. El Instituto de Física Corpuscular es el único centro de investigación español que participa en MoEDAL.
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Las ‘cinco W’ de las perseidas

En periodismo y otros ámbitos, como la investigación policial, se utiliza el concepto de las ‘cinco W’ inglesas para saber la historia completa sobre algún asunto. Con la ayuda de la Federación de Asociaciones Astronómicas de España respondemos a las cinco W sobre las perseidas, una lluvia de estrellas que este verano alcanza su máximo el 12 de agosto.
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9 ago 2016

Twenty-First Anniversary of the Bariloche Case (July 31, 1995)



Source: PLANETA UFO and El Cordillerano (elcordillerano.com.ar)
Date: 08.09.2016


Twenty-First Anniversary of the Bariloche Case (July 31, 1995)

The sighting occurred in the vicinity of the local airport by the crews of two aircraft: one aboard an Aerolineas Argentinas 727 (Flight 674) and the other a Cheyenne belonging to the National Gendarmerie (GN705). The event took place on July 31, 1995 between 20:00 and 21:00 hours.

Jorge Polanco was at the rudder of the Aerolineas Argentinas airliner. He was the protagonist of one of the UFO cases that shook the nation: the Bariloche Case.

On the evening of 31 July 1995, Polanco was making his final approach to the local airport aboard the Boeing 7272 when "a light - at first dim, then intense and bright, got between the aircraft and the runway." The pilot immediately advised the control tower of the situation, but their reply was stunning: there was no unidentified traffic. The strange light accompanied the Boeing and its 100 passengers for seventeen minutes. An aircraft belonging to the National Gendarmerie also confirmed seeing the same object. The situation was made even more dire by another fact: there was a blackout at the airport.

Between 20:17 and 20:31 hours on that evening, a power outage had engulfed all of Bariloche in darkness, with the breakers of the substation conveying 132 KW of electricity from Alicurá to the city having been tripped. When the blackout occurred, Flight 674 and its 102 passengers and 3 crewmembers, was escorted by a UFO as it flew at an altitude of 3000 meters, initiating its final descent into Bariloche Airport. Captain Polanco said the following: "When we were 15 minutes out, 40 miles to be exact, the tower authorized us to initiate an instrument approach, causing us to descend from 12,000 to 3,000 meters. We were then advised that there had been a power outage in Bariloche, so we waited until descent was authorized. At the moment that the maneuver began, I noticed a white light heading toward us on a collision course at full speed. It stopped a hundred meters away. When we began our descent to the airport, the UFO made a very strange turn, accompanying our own turn, flying beside the plane some 100 meters away," explained the pilot.



The instruments on the Boeing 727 remained unchanged. The only modification was to the color of the UFO, which now displayed two lights at its ends and an orange one in its middle, flashing intermittently. The UFO was the size of a passenger plane.

"600 meters above us," continued Captain Polanco, "there was a Gendarmería airport whose pilot contacted us upon seeing the UFO. The UFO insisted on escorting our plane as it descended toward the runway. With the runway in sight, the airport's lights blinked out again, causing me to engage in an escape maneuver, climbing to 3000 meters. I contacted the tower once again from that altitude, and was told that all of their instruments had gone offline as we approached and before the outage. When I made the escape maneuver, the UFO rose at an incredible rate of speed and remained suspended at 3000 meters, waiting for us to achieve that altitude. It didn't move or travel according to known laws of physics. We remained in the area for a few minutes before receiving permission to land once more. Upon seeing us descend, the UFO took off at full speed, and according to the pilot of the Gendarmería aircraft, it vanished near Cerro Otto. As I walked toward the control tower, I was met by Air Force Major Jorge Luis Oviedo, who could not believe what he had witnessed from the tower."

The second airplane from the Gendarmería Nacional, the witness to the UFO's presence, carried pilot Rubén Cipazuk and Gendarmerie Commander Juan Domingo Gaitán, who said: "At 11,000 feet over Lake Nahuel Huapi we saw an amber-yellow light whose intensity increased and decreased as it flew toward the Cordillera a high speed." Cipazuk confirmed the UFOs location with Captain Polanco with the following words: "I'm seeing a light to your right and I don't know what it is, but it's following you."

"The case had considerable impact worldwide in the media. Even experts from NASA came to interview me. It was the most solid, real and spectacular case," stated Polanco.

[Translation (c) 2016 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO]

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Armageddon-Asteroid's 2169 Impact Risk Isn't as Dire as Many Fear

Discovered in September of 1999, asteroid 101955 Bennu is a 500-meter (1,640 foot) asteroid that crosses Earth's orbit once every six years. Because it has been observed for 17 years, astronomers have been able to plot its orbit very accurately, and have found that it will make a series of extremely close passes to the Earth between 2169 and 2199, but they calculate that the chance of an impact is only 1-in-2,700.

Unfortunately, this possibility of an impact has fueled the circulation of a great deal of misinformation on the internet, with most articles illustrating a civilization-ending impact to take place in 2135, with the equivalent energy of 3 billion tons of TNT -- but this figure appears to be grossly erroneous.

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El diseño del cemento debe tener en cuenta el agua de sus microporos

Investigadores japoneses y de la Universidad del País Vasco han analizado las características físicas del agua que forma parte del cemento, para contribuir a diseñar mejor este material de construcción. Los resultados muestran que las temperaturas elevadas hacen desaparecer el agua de los poros más pequeños, produciéndose microroturas.
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8 ago 2016

IceCube sugiere que los neutrinos estériles no existen

Los físicos llevan años tratando de encontrar neutrinos estériles, unas partículas hipotéticas que solo interaccionarían con otras a través de la gravedad, pero la búsqueda puede ser infructuosa. Los últimos datos recogidos por el experimento IceCube en la Antártida indican que, con una probabilidad del 99%, esas misteriosas partículas no existen.
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Las esperanzas de encontrar una nueva partícula se esfuman con los nuevos datos del LHC

Los indicios que el año pasado sugirieron a los científicos del CERN la posibilidad de haber encontrado una nueva partícula, que podría revolucionar los pilares de la física y la comprensión del universo, eran solo una fluctuación estadística. Así lo han reconocido los responsables de los experimentos ATLAS y CMS durante la conferencia ICHEP 2016 que se celebra estos días en Chicago, donde han presentado los últimos resultados del LHC.
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6 ago 2016

Have Archaeologists Unearthed the Birthplace of King Arthur?

Archaeologists digging in England's county of Cornwall have unearthed the largest collection of Dark Ages artifacts in Britain, including what appears to be a fifth or sixth century palace. While this news isn't necessarily that groundbreaking, the site, in the parish of Tintagel, is where one 12th-century historian claimed that the legendary King Arthur was born.

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4 ago 2016

New Crop Formation of Startling Power and Beauty

Crop formations have all but disappeared from the public mind, and with them the chance that they offered to restore our sense of wonder about the world around us. This has happened not only because of the frantic debunking of the early years, but more recently because of the proliferation of hoaxed formations made by artists on behalf of farmers hoping to charge admission and tour companies eager to bring in busloads of tourists.

What is worse, after the death of Dr. William C. Levengood, the biologist whose study methodology was easily able to determine which were hoaxed and which were genuine mysteries, there is nobody to keep the circlemakers honest.

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Un siglo del Spanish Aerocar de Torres Quevedo

Versión para TecOb del artículo que publiqué en la revista Historia de Iberia Vieja, edición de julio de 2016.

Leonardo Torres Quevedo es el inventor de un sorprendente tranvía aéreo que acaba de instalarse sobre el Niágara, cruzando la fantástica vorágine del Whirlpool, que es algo así como un suntuoso complemento escénico, único en el mundo, de las célebres cataratas. (…) La compañía constructora está constituida en Canadá con elementos españoles y capital español, iniciándola el propio D. Leonardo Torres Quevedo. (…) El recorrido sobre el Niágara es emocionante en grado sumo y personas hubo entre las contadísimas que hasta el presente saborearon esa emoción, que sintieron sus cabellos de punta. (…) ¡Pensad que el tranvía rueda y se desliza sutilmente colgado de unos cables flexibles a muchos pies de altura sobre el acuático remolino! Sin embargo, las seguridades de su inventor son absolutas, imposibilitando la temida catástrofe.

Madrid científico. Número 881, 1916.


Donde el Niágara se distrae

Hay pocos lugares tan célebres como las cataratas del Niágara, tanto por constituir un paisaje impresionante como por su propia historia. El turismo masivo ya acudía a este lugar a mediados del siglo XIX. El auge de las visitas llegó a ser tal que, en el cambio de centuria, se habían levantado en sus cercanías todo tipo de caminos, carreteras, vías férreas, puentes y pasarelas, además de establecimientos hoteleros y similares, todo encaminado a satisfacer las necesidades de los visitantes. Pero, además, el lugar es célebre por haber sido el punto en el que comenzó la gran electrificación de Norteamérica, gracias a las grandes centrales hidráulicas y, cómo no, a los generadores de corriente alterna ideados por Nikola Tesla.


spanish_aerocar
El Spanish Aerocar. Fotografía de Diego Torres Silvestre. CC-By-SA.


El lugar, que ha aparecido en multitud de películas, está constituido por un conjunto de grandes cascadas que cortan el fluir del río Niágara en el noreste de Norteamérica, justo marcando frontera entre los Estados Unidos y Canadá. Con una caída cercana a los 65 metros, las cascadas están divididas en dos: una cercana al lado canadiense de la frontera, en Ontario, y otra próxima a la orilla estadounidense, en el estado de Nueva York. Existe otra catarata, más pequeña, conocida como Velo de Novia, también en el lado de los Estados Unidos. Cualquiera que tenga idea acerca de grandes cataratas a nivel mundial se da cuenta que esa caída mencionada no es gran cosa. Así, el Salto Ángel, en Venezuela, tiene una altura de 979 metros y las cataratas argentinas del Iguazú forman un conjunto de más de dos centenares de saltos con hasta 80 metros de caída. Dicho queda, hay muchas cataratas con mayor caída o en escenarios más asombrosos, pero las del Niágara, dentro de su propia espectacularidad, cuentan con una gran ventaja: se localizan en un área muy poblada, se puede llegar a ellas con gran facilidad desde grandes ciudades de Norteamérica y, por eso, han sido vistas por los ojos y las cámaras de millones de turistas desde hace más de un siglo. Siendo las cataratas más amplias de América del Norte, sus aguas fluyen por el río Niágara entre el lago Erie hasta el Ontario, dentro del sistema fluvial del San Lorenzo en el marco de los Grandes Lagos.

El espectacular marco natural en el que las aguas del Niágara se distraen, sorteando el desnivel gracias a sus cataratas, se completa con un sorprendente e inquietante remolino aguas abajo: el Whirlpool. Y fue, precisamente sobre tan salvaje paisaje, donde a principios del siglo XX se pensó en instalar una atracción sin igual. ¿Por qué no cruzar a los visitantes sobre el remolino? El atractivo de la idea era indudable, ahora bien: ¿quién poseía el ingenio para construir una atracción como esa? El honor fue de nuestro ingeniero universal: Leonardo Torres Quevedo.

El transbordador centenario

Nos encontramos en 1916, hace ahora un siglo. Medio mundo está metido en un horrible lío, matándose unos a otros en la Primera Guerra Mundial. Europa sufre entre trincheras, mares de sangre y novísimas armas. Mientras tanto, al otro lado del Atlántico, los turistas están entusiasmados ante la idea de “flotar” sobre el gran remolino del Niágara. Una atracción sin igual está a punto de ver la luz, de la mano de un ingeniero español.

Sí, ha pasado ya un centenar de años y la máquina sigue ahí, atendiendo al visitante como la primera vez. Conocido como Spanish Aerocar, el transbordador que lleva a los turistas sobre las peligrosas aguas del Niágara continúa en funcionamiento, cosa que no puede decirse de muchas otras máquinas. Aunque ha sido reformado y revisado en varias ocasiones, este transbordador siguen manteniendo en esencia los elementos que surgieron de la mente de su creador: Leonardo Torres Quevedo. Y, no solo eso, porque nuestro ingeniero diseñó la máquina, pero su construcción también corrió de la mano de una empresa española creada al efecto: The Niagara Spanish Aerocar Co. Limited., domiciliada en Canadá con un capital de 110.000 dólares, 30.000 de los cuales se dieron en concepto de derechos de patente a la Sociedad de Estudios y Obras de Ingeniería, de Bilbao. La compañía constructora contaba en sus primeros momentos como vicepresidente e ingeniero jefe con el hijo del inventor de la idea: Gonzalo Torres Polanco, siendo presidente y tesorero Antonio Balzola.

Abierto al público en el verano de 1916, el Spanish Aerocar constituye desde entonces una de las maravillas de la tecnología. Conocido en su tiempo como “tranvía aéreo”, ha demostrado ser, además de espectacular, un medio de transporte muy seguro. Nunca ha sufrido ningún contratiempo digno de mención, y eso que sortea un abismo sobre el Niágara de casi 540 metros del longitud. El vehículo que transporta a los turistas, que disfrutan como si pudieran flotar libremente sobre ese abismo, está propulsado por un motor eléctrico que cuenta con el respaldo de un motor diésel de emergencia para el caso de posibles cortes de corriente. El ingenio posee también un vehículo de rescate adicional para emergencias, pero nunca ha sido necesario utilizarlo.

En total son seis los cables de acero entrelazado, de una pulgada de diámetro, que sostienen todo el sistema del transbordador. El conjunto alcanza una altura en su punto central sobre el remolino de 61 metros, “colgando” entre dos estructuras situadas en terreno canadiense, aunque a lo largo del viaje se cruza la frontera con los Estados Unidos varias veces, cosa que emociona a muchos visitantes tanto como las propias vistas del área de las cataratas.

En un extremo de la línea del transbordador, los seis cables en suspensión están unidos sólidamente a una estructura de hormigón de más de 700 toneladas. En el otro extremo se encuentran libres, pasando por una gran polea y completados por contrapesos de 10 toneladas. Los dos extremos, o estaciones (Punta Thompson y Punta Colt), se encuentran a 76 metros sobre el nivel del río. Así, gracias a los contrapesos móviles, independientemente del lugar de la línea en el que se encuentre el vehículo con su carga, el esfuerzo de tracción por los cables, o tensión, es siempre el mismo. El sistema de soporte del vehículo, con un ingenioso mecanismo de contrapesos, está pensado para que no haya problemas en sortear el abismo incluso en el caso de rotura de alguno de los cables, cosa que, por fortuna, no ha sucedido nunca. En caso de ruptura de un cable, el sistema se ajustaría en altura, hasta encontrar un nuevo equilibrio. Los pasajeros se llevarían un susto ante el cambio brusco de nivel, pero no sucedería ninguna catástrofe. Cada cable soporta una tensión de 10 toneladas de forma constante. La barquilla o transbordador pesa de vacío unas tres toneladas y media y puede transportar hasta a 35 pasajeros. Diariamente, y desde hace un siglo, la navecilla de Torres Quevedo realiza unos veinte viajes entre las orillas, con una duración de casi diez minutos por paseo de ida o de vuelta, aunque podría realizar el trayecto en cuatro minutos en caso de emergencia. Haciendo números se llega a cifras pasmosas de pasajeros para una máquina centenaria que sigue cumpliendo con exactitud y eficacia su cometido original.

Nunca ha sido necesario recurrir al procedimiento de emergencia, lo que da muestra de la fiabilidad del sistema, pero todo está pensado para que no suceda una catástrofe. En el caso en que se rompa el cable de tracción, por ejemplo, el vehículo comenzaría a oscilar entre los cables portadores, cayendo hasta el punto más bajo de la curva de trayecto, en el centro de la línea sobre el remolino. En ese momento se desplegaría el vehículo de emergencia sobre los cables portadores, para conectar con un cable de tracción auxiliar que, conducido hasta la barquilla, permitiría llevar a los turistas hacia la estación sin problemas. Torres Quevedo pensó en todo para que el viaje fuera muy seguro. Por ejemplo, ideó un sistema de puertas automáticas que sólo podían abrirse cuando el vehículo se encontraba a salvo en las estaciones, nunca en medio de un viaje sobre las temibles aguas del Niágara.


planta_motriz_niagara_torres_quevedo

Estación motriz del transbordador. El contrapeso de la fosa sirve para asegurar la tensión constante en el cable tractor. Fuente: Biblioteca Nacional. Mi Revista. Septiembre de 1916.


El proceso de construcción de tan sorprendente ingenio no fue nada sencillo. No bastaba con lograr el premiso de las autoridades canadienses, también fue necesario convencer a la comisión del parque nacional del Niágara, así como lograr permisos por parte del Estado de Nueva York y de Washington porque, a fin de cuentas, era el Gobierno Federal quien debía dar permiso por tener que sortear aguas de su competencia. Todo eso eran papeleos, burocracias varias, más o menos complejas pero factibles. Lo más complicado fue armar todo el ingenio sin colocar ningún cable ni estructura que entorpeciera las vías del ferrocarril del Niágara, que circulaba a orillas del remolino. Por otro lado, la empresa española recibió órdenes directas de las autoridades, prohibiendo alterar los acantilados o la vegetación de las orillas, limitando el tamaño de la construcción de edificios para las estaciones. Pese a todo, la máquina fue construida y armada con una precisión total, para asombro de todo el mundo.

Si Torres Quevedo fue el ingeniero llamado a crear una gesta como la del Spanish Aerocar, fue porque ya contaba con una amplia experiencia en dar vida a ingenios similares. Se puede decir que el vehículo del Niágara fue la culminación de una pasión que había encontrado tiempo antes un resultado igualmente sobresaliente: el tranvía aéreo del monte Ulía en San Sebastián construido en 1907 y desmantelado en 1912. Fue el primer tranvía aéreo pensado para transporte de personas.

La experiencia de San Sebastián, con aquel transbordador capaz de transportar a 18 pasajeros a través de una línea de 280 metros de longitud para salvar un desnivel de 28 metros fue pionera en todo el mundo. Fue tal el éxito de aquel ingenio que la Sociedad de Estudios y Obras de Ingeniería de Bilbao, encargada de su construcción, exportó el modelo a varios lugares de todo el mundo, incluyendo el célebre Spanish Aerocar del Niágara.

La patente de Torres Quevedo para este sistema de “funicular” se distinguía de sus contemporáneas por su originalidad, sobre todo en lo que a la disposición de cables múltiples se refiere. La tensión invariable en ellos, determinada por sus correspondientes contrapesos, independientemente del peso transportado, suponía un salto en cuanto a seguridad nunca antes visto. El transbordador del Niágara, que fue diseñado y construido en España, para ser transportado y montado en América, fue solo uno de los singulares proyectos ideados por Leonardo Torres Quevedo. Sin duda, esta figura debe ser considerada como una de las más importantes de la historia de la tecnología, no sólo de nuestro país, sino a nivel mundial.


Torres Quevedo, cántabro nacido en 1852 y fallecido en 1936, fue pionero de los dirigibles, de las máquinas automáticas, la cibernética y el radiocontrol. Célebres fueron sus demostraciones de calculadoras electromecánicas, el ingenioso artilugio ajedrecista o el control de naves por radio con su Telekino. A todas esas muestras de genialidad de un ingeniero universal se suma una de sus máquinas, que todavía sigue entre nosotros y que tiene vida para mucho tiempo más: el increíble Spanish Aerocar.

Un siglo del Spanish Aerocar de Torres Quevedo apareció originalmente en Tecnología Obsoleta, 4 agosto 2016.


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Forget A.I., Russia is on the Verge of a Breakthrough in A.E.: Artificial Emotions

Speaking at the Annual International Conference on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures in New York, professor Alexi Samsonovich, from Moscow's National Research Nuclear University Cybernetics Department, stated that Russian researchers are on the verge of a major breakthrough in AI. But Samsonovich feels this breakthrough won't necessarily be measurable in terms of artificial consciousness -- we can't even prove that humans are conscious, let alone an entity that might be as alien as AI -- but rather that true advancement in AI would be seen in terms of AE: artificial emotions.

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Por primera vez una empresa privada viajará a la Luna

La empresa privada Moon Express, con sede en Florida, ha sido autorizada por la Agencia Federal de Aviación de EE. UU a enviar una sonda robotizada a la Luna.  La misión de la empresa bautizada como MX-1E, que tiene pensado iniciar a finales de 2017, permitirá la explotación minera del satélite terrestre. 
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New Quantum Experiment Hints at Quantum Effects in the Macroscopic World

The mainstream scientific community has long asserted that the strange effects of quantum physics, such as quantum indeterminacy and entanglement, can not assert themselves at the classical, or macroscopic, level of everyday physics. In recent years, quantum physicists have been steadily pushing the scale of what can be affected by quantum effects upward, suggesting that large-scale objects can affect, and in turn be affected by distant phenomenon.

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3 ago 2016

Wakeup Points Part 4: Does It Matter if We Wake Up? (Some Explicit Content)

Wednesday August 3, 2016

WARNING: This episode gets a little bit sexually graphic. Listener discretion is advised.

In the 4th and final installment of the Wakeup Points series, "Bob From NJ" turns the tables on Jeremy and starts interviewing the host about some of his spiritual experiences. People have them, of course, but the question asked here is: Do we need to wake up into a fuller definition of ourselves or should we retain our humanity as is? Then, Bob tells his remarkable and miraculous experience of surviving a major stroke.

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UFO Over the Gateway Arch?

This video, sent to us by an Unknowncountry reader, shows a strobing light directly over the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. It is too stationary to be a hovering drone or a passing plane, so it is a genuine unknown. Rated A.

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Nuevo método para analizar compuestos químicos en muestras de agua

Investigadores de la Universidad de Sevilla han desarrollado un método para la determinación de parabenos en aguas superficiales mediante electromembranas. Champús, cremas, geles, bronceadores, medicamentos y otros productos llevan parabenos, unos compuestos habituales en la industria cosmética y farmacéutica. 
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Nuevo método para determinar compuestos químicos en muestras de agua

Investigadores de la Universidad de Sevilla han desarrollado un método para la determinación de parabenos en aguas superficiales mediante electromembranas. Champús, cremas, geles, bronceadores y otros productos llevan parabenos, unos compuestos habituales en la industria cosmética y farmaceutica. 
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Las perseidas pueden alcanzar los quinientos meteoros por hora este año

La actividad de la lluvia de las perseidas suele tener un máximo de unos cien meteoros por hora, pero las predicciones para este verano indican que podrían verse cerca de quinientos, ya que el fenómeno será especialmente intenso. El punto álgido será la noche del 11 al 12 de agosto, cuando científicos del Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía lanzarán una sonda para observar las perseidas desde la estratosfera, además de ofrecer propuestas de divulgación relacionadas con esta popular lluvia de estrellas.
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2 ago 2016

From Suffering to Joy

August 5, 2016
From Whitley Strieber: "I would like to welcome one of our favorite guest hosts back to Dreamland after too long an absence. This week Marla Frees returns with a deeply moving and beautiful discussion with the legendary author Marianne Williamson about her new book, Tears to Triumph, the Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment."

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U.S. Temperatures Forecast to be Above Normal for the Next 3-Months

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast that temperatures for the months of August, September and October will be above average for the United States, including both the contiguous states and Alaska. According to research into NOAA's archives on the matter done by Gizmodo, a forecast stretch of above-average temperatures this long is unprecedented.

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