Wednesday, September 12, 2018

This is not Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry, Starry Night."


September 12, 2018
By Brian McNoldy and Matthew Cappuci

The Northern Hemisphere (click here) is facing an onslaught of hurricanes and typhoons, seemingly overnight. With three storms spinning in the North Atlantic — Hurricane Florence one of them — the tropics have exploded to life at the peak of the annual season. At the same, in the tropical Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut is the most intense tropical cyclone in the world, packing 170 mph winds.

Why the remarkable uptick in activity? In the Atlantic, in particular, it's all thanks to a sudden alignment of the two things that fuel hurricanes: energy and wind.

If the winds aloft in the atmosphere are too strong, they can shear apart a developing storm. It’s ironic but true — calm winds are needed to brew a hurricane. The amount of shear in the Atlantic has reached its seasonal minimum, kindling any fledgling storm and fostering its growth....

How many people GLOBALLY are under the threat of severe storms TODAY?

The troposphere is hot, the global movement of air slow and incredible loss of carbon sinks, including massive fires with a three mile high fire tornado and coral reefs that are bleached to the depths of over 130 feet.

From Nature, this is the abstract, but, the entire SCIENTIFIC article is at this link:

Published: 

Deep reefs of the Great Barrier Reef offer limited thermal refuge during mass coral bleaching

  • By Pedro R. Frade, 
  • Pim Bongaerts, 
  • Norbert Englebert, 
  • Alice Rogers, 
  • Manuel Gonzalez-Rivero & 
  • Ove Hoegh-Guldberg 

  • Nature Communications, volume 9, Article number: 3447 (2018)

  • Our rapidly warming climate (click here) is threatening coral reefs as thermal anomalies trigger mass coral bleaching events. Deep (or “mesophotic”) coral reefs are hypothesised to act as major ecological refuges from mass bleaching, but empirical assessments are limited. We evaluated the potential of mesophotic reefs within the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and adjacent Coral Sea to act as thermal refuges by characterising long-term temperature conditions and assessing impacts during the 2016 mass bleaching event. We found that summer upwelling initially provided thermal relief at upper mesophotic depths (40 m), but then subsided resulting in anomalously warm temperatures even at depth. Bleaching impacts on the deep reefs were severe (40% bleached and 6% dead colonies at 40 m) but significantly lower than at shallower depths (60–69% bleached and 8–12% dead at 5-25 m). While we confirm that deep reefs can offer refuge from thermal stress, we highlight important caveats in terms of the transient nature of the protection and their limited ability to provide broad ecological refuge....

  • Earth's beauty lends itself to tourism and economic strength, but, the function of that beauty is far more important than any currency.

  • The Congress, especially the Republicans chronically make reference to "The captains of industry know their own business;" and bend to their will. But, when it comes to bending to the will of scientists attempting to save Earth, Congress' seeks every idiot form of hubris and slander that can be found to indulge the petroleum industry beyond reason.

  • I thank the Washington Post, it really is a very good article.
  • The Trump Administration does not know nor care about prioritizing the needs of the American people.

    $200 million of diverted funds for Trumps' border war.

    September 12, 2018
    By Ron Nixon

    Washington — The Department of Homeland Security (click here) transferred nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a budget document released by a Democratic senator late Tuesday night, diverting funds from the relief agency at the start of the hurricane season that began in June. The release of the document comes as a major storm barrels toward the East Coast.

    The document, which was released by the office of Senator Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, shows that the money would come from FEMA’s operations and support budget and was transferred into accounts at ICE to pay for detention and removal operations. The document also shows that the Department of Homeland Security transferred money from accounts at Customs and Border Protection that pays for border fencing and technology.

    The transfer was a part of more than $200 million the Department of Homeland Security moved from the budgets of other agencies to ICE’s detention and removals....

    A thirty-eight percent increase in border APPREHENSIONS or ARRRESTS, which is it? Where are the children and is Trump continuing to separate parents and children?

    IT DIDN'T STOP IT MR. PRESIDENT, DID IT? They know where the Trump buses stop for a ride to shelter and humanitarian assistance. Hungary, thirsty, exhausted and seeking shelter from severe violence and drug cartels in their homeland.


    September 12, 2018
    By Julian Aguilar

    The number of undocumented immigrant family units (click here) apprehended last month along the U.S. border with Mexico spiked by nearly 40 percent compared to July, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday.

    About 12,800 family units were apprehended on the border in August, a 38 percent increase from July’s 9,247. In a statement, DHS spokesperson Tyler Q. Houlton attributed the spike, in part, to smugglers and traffickers exploiting immigration laws.

    “Smugglers and traffickers understand our broken immigration laws better than most and know that if a family unit illegally enters the U.S. they are likely to be released into the interior,” he said....

    Bad attitude Trump NEVER LISTENS. Well, here is the result.

    Big election issue is control of the border. That doesn't mean siphoning off funds from every other agency to feed the ICE detentions. 

    CATCH AND RELEASE

    CATCH AND RELEASE

    CATCH AND RELEASE

    Hello?

    Super Typhoon Mangkhut will remain on it's current path.

    September 12, 2018
    1530 UTC
    NOAA West Pacific Water Vapor Loop - Himawari-8 (click here for 8 hour loop - thank you)

    Unlike the Atlantic storm currently menacing North Carolina there is no interference from the "Gulf of Mexico." In the case of Mangkhut the turbulence to it's west is adding to it's velocity.

    It is a very hot troposphere to support so many storms in both oceans while the storms are reaching high velocities, near storm capacity. The capacity of the Pacific storms are greater than the Atlantic storms.

    All precautions of this storms path must be taken. Do not under estimate coastal flooding with a large storm surge that accompanies these wind speeds.

    Vietnam needs to be prepared for high winds. The diameter of this Super Typhoon will grow and effect their coast as well. Vietnam is probably receiving severe storms currently.

    Northern Vietnam, Hanoi, is receiving intermittent thunderstorms while the southern reach of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City is receiving unrelenting thunderstorms. Vietnam will receive significant winds and rain with flooding and coastal erosion.

    13 September 2018

    Hong Kong is bracing for a super typhoon (click here) this weekend that could be the most intense storm ever to hit the city.

    Super Typhoon Mangkhut, equivalent to a category 5 Atlantic hurricane and still gaining strength, was on a collision course for the Philippines first on Wednesday – with Taiwan and Hong Kong next on its forecast track.

    The city’s government convened an interdepartmental meeting chaired by the security minister to discuss contingency measures and ensure preparedness.

    “Representatives from relevant bureaus and departments also reported their preparatory work and contingency plans, particularly on measures in the prevention and handling of flooding, backflow of seawater and emergency plans for high-risk locations,” a government statement read.

    Mangkhut, named after the Thai word for the mangosteen fruit, was forecast to come within 80km of the city on Sunday, but the Hong Kong Observatory said it was too early to predict a direct hit.

    “It could be very close to Hong Kong,” senior scientific officer Queenie Lam Ching-chi said. “It has a large circulation with intense winds, so even if it is not a direct hit … it can constitute a great danger to Hong Kong.”...

    India will receive rains and wind, but, diminished compared to Vietnam. It will primarily be effected on it's east coast, especially the northern coast. Warning for the Indian Ocean for shipping is important, there will be high waves and potential rouge waves. There can be some dust carried from the Sahara as well. The dust will be inconsequential to outcomes from the Super Typhoon.

    Madagascar should be fine and central Sub-Sahara Africa can use the rain. Australia (not pictured) is below the equator in the southern hemisphere and will be unaffected by the current storm conditions to it's north.



    This lung disease has been affiliated with diacetyl for a long time. Why has the Vape phenomena been allowed to continue unchecked?

    13 March 2018

    ...According to the American Lung Association, (click here) using electronic cigarettes or vaping, particularly the flavored varieties, can cause popcorn lung.

    Once the dangers associated with diacetyl were discovered in the early 2000s, the majority of popcorn producers stopped using the chemical. However, e-cigarette vapor has been proven to contain diacetyl.

    A 2015 study of flavored e-cigarettes found that 39 out of 51 tested brands contained diacetyl. The same study concluded that most of these brands also contained the toxic chemicals acetoin and 2,3 pentanedione.

    Manufacturers add diacetyl to the "e-juice" that is vaporized by e-cigarettes, most commonly to the strongly-flavored varieties. Diacetyl occurs in a wide range of different flavored e-cigarette products, ranging from vanilla to caramel and coconut.

    The difference between diacetyl and butane are couple oxygens. It is highly organic, so it will become part of the body chemistry.

    Page 407 of "The Sensory Evaluation of Dairy Products" (click here) by Stephen Clark, Michael Costello, MaryAnne Drake and Floyd Bodyfelt.

    Diacetyl is part of dairy products. 

    Really?

    Sour (cultured) cream, cultured buttermilk, and cultured butter

    That really bothers me, because, when I think of milk I think of children. 

    Diacetyl is produced in two ways, naturally through fermentation to achieve a pH drop to sour what the target cream is and commercially through a process whereby there is dehydrogenation of 2,3-butanediol.


    There it is. A four carbon molecule whereby the H s of the O-H molecule is removed through a chemical reaction that turns the H s in to H2 and the bond holding the OH molecule together becomes a double bond from the oxygen to the chain carbon atom.

    Every bit of the molecule of Diacetyl is highly organically reactive. That is why it can be produced organically with a bacteria introduced to milk. The bacteria is harmless, but, Diacetyl weather produced organically or industrial is still Diacetyl.

    The idea teens make well informed decisions about their bodies is a complete misunderstanding of growth and development. The Vapes, as well as cigarettes, need to be made illegal to anyone under the age of 18 and those caught using them provided education to what both Diacetyl and Tobacco will do to their lungs. This needs to be taught in health classes across the country beginning in the sixth grade. WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS.



    The Vape manufacturers and any store selling these products need to be fined for allowing the sale to minors. Every principal across the USA regardless of a private, public or experimental school system (charter schools) is responsible for these products on their campus and need to carry out educational sessions for parents, students and teachers. Teachers should be empowered to remove any appliance used for vaping from a student without notice. Parents need to be made aware these appliances are illegal on any educational campus where minors are present and the school administrators will be held responsible FOR THEIR PRESENCE, whether being used or not. Vaping at any assembly on campus must be forbid and treated as cigarettes to a specific area away from cigarette smokers. Cigarette smoking and vaping have different chemicals involved when incorporated into a person's metabolism, therefore, their isolation for smoking need to be at separate locations, but, AWAY FROM NON-SMOKERS.

    September 12, 2018
    By Sheila Kaplan and Jan Hoffman

    Warning that teenage use of electronic cigarettes (click here) has reached “an epidemic proportion,” the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday gave Juul Labs and four other makers of popular vaping devices 60 days to prove they can keep them away from minors. If they fail, the agency said, it may take the flavored products off the market.

    The order was part of a sweeping action that targeted both makers and sellers of e-cigarettes. The agency said it was sending warning letters to 1,100 retailers — including 7-Eleven stores, Walgreens, Circle K convenience shops and Shell gas stations — and issued another 131 fines, for selling e-cigarettes to minors.

    In addition, the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a briefing that the agency would look closely at the manufacturers’ own internet storefronts. He flagged what he called “straw purchases” — bulk orders of the devices, which buyers in turn used to sell to minors.

    Such practices, he said, should be readily apparent to product manufacturers.

    “If the companies don’t know, or if they don’t want to know, “ he said, that such purchases are underway, “we’ll now be helping to identify it for them.”...
    September 12, 2018
    1430.30z
    UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of North West Hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

    My best estimate is land fall looks like Emerald Island. Croatan National Forest. It is near Camp Lejuene.