Richard Holbrooke:

AMSTERDAM COULD BE NEXT

"Terrorists of Mumbai, New York, Londen, Madrid en Bali could strike again"

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Goro:

Mar 31: Quick Update: The last wake-up call song played on the space shuttle before landing (Mar 28, Orange Window active) was 'I Have a Dream' (by ABBA), evoking Martin Luther King, Jr. famous for his 'I Have a Dream' speech. 'Orange King' was a major signal via the shuttle's launch on the Ides of March. MLK was killed on April 4th (1968), now just days away. This is not an isolated coincidence but part of a long-running pattern continuing from last year... (P.S. Orange Alignment is most precise today.)

and what to think of this synchronicity:

Another Meteor? No, Russian Rocket

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Residents of Virginia in the US reported hearing booms and seeing flashes of light Sunday night, and originally, it was reported to be another possible meteor. But now officials from the U.S. Naval Observatory say it was likely the second stage of the Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth. Parts of the rocket from last Thursday's launch to the International Space Station would have fallen to Earth about that same time. "I'm pretty convinced that what these folks saw was the second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched the crew up to the space station," Space.com quoted Jeff Chester of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

Several people called 911 reporting streaks of light and loud booms, according to news reports. (Spaceweather.com has compiled several eyewitness accounts.)

Chester heard about the incident this morning and checked the listing for debris expected to enter the lower atmosphere during that time and found that second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched last Thursday was re-enter Earth's atmosphere during a window that started at 8 p.m. on March 29.

Chester ran a satellite tracking program that showed that the rocket debris should have come down exactly in the area where the fireball was spotted.

"This is just too much of a coincidence to be coincidence," he said.

Chester said that U.S. Space Surveillance Network had not yet confirmed that this was the case, but said that he was "99 and four one-hundredths [percent] convinced that this is what it is."

The descriptions of the boom and streak of light reported by local residents were "entirely consistent with re-entering space junk, especially something this big," Chester said.

Space.com also reported that Delta airline pilot Bryce Debban reported seeing the streak of light on a flight from Boston to Raleigh-Durham when his plane was about 31,000 feet in the air.

The Soyuz rockets jettison their second stage after entering orbit in such a way that the second stage will slowly fall back to earth in a few days. But "you can control precisely where these things are going to come down," Chester said.

It's possible that some fragments of the rocket made it to the Earth's surface, but they would likely have a couple of hundreds of miles east of Cape Hatteras, Chester said.

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Scientists offer new theory for largest known mass extinction

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Hypothetically speaking, large areas of the hyper saline Zechstein Sea and its direct environment could have looked like this, which in the Permian Age was situated about where present day Central Europe is. At the end of the Permian Age the Zechstein Sea was irrevocably disconnected from the open sea and the remaining sections of sea soon dried out after that. As a result the microbial-limited halogenated gases from the Zechstein Sea stopped and vegetation was able to regenerate again. The pink colour of the Zechstein Sea was probably brought about by microbes with an extreme preference for salt, as is the case with salt lakes today. In the background sand dunes can be recognised from a landscape with hardly any water. Photo: Dr. Karsten Kotte/Universität Heidelberg

The largest mass extinction in the history of the earth could have been triggered off by giant salt lakes, whose emissions of halogenated gases changed the atmospheric composition so dramatically that vegetation was irretrievably damaged. At least that is what an international team of scientists have reported in the most recent edition of the "Proceedings of the Russian Academy of Sciences" (Dokladi Earth Sciences).

At the Permian/Triassic boundary, 250 million years ago about 90 percent of the animal and plant species ashore became extinct. Previously it was thought that volcanic eruptions, the impacts of asteroids, or methane hydrate were instigating causes. The new theory is based on a comparison with today's biochemical and atmospheric chemical processes. "Our calculations show that airborne pollutants from giant salt lakes like the Zechstein Sea must have had catastrophic effects at that time", states co-author Dr. Ludwig Weißflog from the Helmholtz-Center for Environmental Research (UFZ). Forecasts predict an increase in the surface areas of deserts and salt lakes due to climate change. That is why the researchers expect that the effects of these halogenated gases will equally increase.

The team of researchers from Russia, Austria, South Africa and Germany investigated whether a process that has been taking place since primordial times on earth could have led to global mass extinctions, particularly at the end of the Permian. The starting point for this theory was their discovery in the south of Russia and South Africa that microbial processes in present-day salt lakes naturally produce and emit highly volatile halocarbons such as chloroform, trichloroethene, and tetrachloroethene. They transcribed these findings to the Zechstein Sea, which about 250 million years ago in the Permian Age, was situated about where present day Central Europe is. The Zechstein Sea with a total surface area of around 600.000 km2 was almost as large as France is today. The hyper saline flat sea at that time was exposed to a predominantly dry continental desert climate and intensive solar radiation - like today’s salt seas. "Consequently, we assume that the climatic, geo-chemical and microbial conditions in the area of the Zechstein Sea were comparable with those of the present day salt seas that we investigated," Weißflog said.

In their current publication the authors explain the similarities between the complex processes of the CO2-cycle in the Permian Age as well as between global warming from that time and at present. Based on comparable calculations from halogenated gas emissions in the atmosphere from present-day salt seas in the south of Russia, the scientists calculated that from the Zechstein Sea alone an annual VHC emissions rate of at least 1.3 million tonnes of trichloroethene, 1.3 million tonnes of tetrachloroethene, 1.1 million tonnes of chloroform as well as 0.050 million tonnes of methyl chloroform can be assumed. By comparison, the annual global industrial emissions of trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene amount to only about 20 percent of that respectively, and only about 5 percent of the chloroform from the emissions calculated for the Zechstein Sea by the scientists. Incidentally, the industrial production of methyl chloroform, which depletes the ozone layer, has been banned since 1987 by regulation of the Montreal Protocol.

"Using steppe plant species we were able to prove that halogenated gases contribute to speeding up desertification: The combination of stress induced by dryness and the simultaneous chemical stressor „halogenated hydrocarbons“ disproportionately damages and destabilize the plants and speeds up the process of erosion," Dr. Karsten Kotte from the University of Heidelberg explained.

Based on both of these findings the researchers were able to form their new hypothesis: At the end of the Permian Age the emissions of halogenated gases from the Zechstein Sea and other salt seas were responsible in a complex chain of events for the world's largest mass extinction in the history of the earth, in which about 90 percent of the animal and plant species of that time became extinct.

According to the forecast from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), increasing temperatures and aridity due to climate change will also speed up desertification, increasing with it the number and surface area of salt seas, salt lagoons and salt marshlands. Moreover, this will then lead to an increase in naturally formed halogenated gases. The phytotoxic effects of these substances become intensified in conjunction with other atmospheric pollutants and at the same time increasing dryness and exponentiate the eco-toxicological consequences of climate change.

The new theory could be like a jigsaw piece that contributes to solving the puzzle of the largest mass extinction in the history of the earth. "The question as to whether the halogenated gases from the giant salt lakes alone were responsible for it or whether it was a combination of various factors with volcanic eruptions, the impact of asteroids, or methane hydrate equally playing their role still remains unanswered," Ludwig Weißflog said. What is fact however is that the effects of salt seas were previously underestimated. In their publication the researchers working with Dr. Ludwig Weißflog from the UFZ and Dr. Karsten Kotte from the University of Heidelberg want to prove that recent salt lakes and salt deserts of south-east Europe, Middle Asia, Australia, Africa, America can not only influence the regional but also the global climate. The new findings on the effects of these halogenated gases are important for revising climate models, which form the basis for climate forecasts.

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in relation to the 'Tunguska warning'
Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Mars 'journey' experiment begins
A Big Brother-style experiment to test whether humans could travel to Mars and back has begun in Moscow.

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Six volunteers from Russia, France and Germany have been locked into a capsule to simulate the conditions of a manned flight to the planet lasting two years.

Those who survive more than 100 days experiencing the same isolation and claustrophobia as astronauts will earn a $20,000 (£14,000) reward.

If any of the six men get homesick, they will be allowed to come out early.

Inside the mock spacecraft, the volunteer astronauts will also have the same daily work routine and the same communication problems with mission control that real astronauts face.

That means, for example, the time delay of 20 minutes that a spacecraft near to Mars would encounter sending an astronaut's voice back to Earth.

"The experiment won't be fun but it is an honour," Sergei Ryazansky, the Russian commander of the mock spacecraft, admitted to the BBC.

Although any of the volunteers could leave if they could stand it no longer, every effort would be made to persuade them to stay for the full 105 days, he added.

"How do I feel? I am very motivated. There is a kind of relief. We have been working for a long time and finally were are getting to the start point," said Cyrille Fournier just hours before entering the capsule.

"The challenge is to live with the same people for a long period but it is a positive challenge. I think we are going to learn a lot about each other," his fellow volunteer, Oliver Knickel, added.

The experiment is a joint project between the Institute for Medical-Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the European Space Agency.

"This is a preliminary, short experiment while the main 520-day research is scheduled to begin at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010," said Pavel Morgunov, a spokesman for the Moscow institute.

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ISS: 'Toilet row' lowers space morale
The International Space Station, once a place where astronauts would share food and facilities, is said to be embroiled in a Cold War-like stand-off.
the lack of sharing was lowering the crew's morale.

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