The Sun’s activity increased during the 20th century, [ 1364 ]

Has the Sun been more active in recent decades, and could it be responsible for some global warming?

By Holli RiebeekJune 24, 2010

Scientists are still debating whether or not the Sun’s activity increased during the latter half of the 20th century, but even the highest estimates of activity can’t account for the warming observed since about 1950.

the Suns's aqctivity

Studies do show that solar variability has significantly influenced past climate changes. For example, a decrease in solar activity is thought to have triggered the Northern Hemisphere’s Little Ice Age between approximately 1650 and 1850, when temperatures dipped low enough that rivers that don’t freeze in today’s human-warmed climate froze over.
Scientists use substitutes (proxies) like records of sun spots, which have been kept since Galileo’s time, or carbon in tree rings to estimate the amount of energy the Sun has sent to Earth. Though not perfect, these estimates give a rough approximation of how much the Sun’s activity has varied over time. Scientists are still debating over how reliable proxies are in determining the Sun’s past activity, but current estimates indicate that the Sun is probably now as active as or more active than it has ever been during the past 8,000 years.

Records of sunspots dating back to 1610 provide an indication of energy output from the Sun. In general, more sunspots (blue peaks) mean more intense solar activity and more energy received by the Earth. On average, there are more sunspots now than during the Maunder Minimum 350 years ago, but the increase in solar activity alone is not sufficient to explain the temperature increases that have occurred since 1950. (Graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from Hoyt and Schatten, 1997.)

A shorter, but more detailed record comes from NASA satellites, which have been recording the Sun’s activity from space since 1978. The measurements, however, come from six different satellites, each with its own bias. It is difficult to combine the measurements from these satellites into a single 25-year-plus record to get a trend of solar activity. Different scientific teams have attempted to create a continuous record from the satellite data. Each long-term record shows the rise and fall of two 11-year sunspot cycles, but they differ from one another in the average trend over the full period. When stitched together one way, the satellites seemed to record a slight increase in solar activity, but in other analyses, solar activity remained constant.
Regardless, even when scientists assume that solar activity is increasing based on proxy data and the satellite record, they can’t account for all of the warming observed at the end of the twentieth century. Climate models can only reproduce the warming observed since 1950 when a rise in greenhouse gases is built into the system.

Gen Petraeus:Violence in Afghanistan have increased. [ 1363 ]

Gen Petraeus tells senators Afghan fighting may worsen

BBC.,Tuesday, 29 June 2010 22:08 UK

Gen Petraeus: "Levels of violence in Afghanistan have increased significantly"

The man chosen to take charge of the US military in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, has warned of an escalation of violence in the coming months.

"The going inevitably gets tougher before it gets easier," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee, which backed his nomination to lead the war.
The general said troops were engaged in a contest of wills with the Taliban and promised a more co-ordinated approach.
President Obama chose Gen Petraeus after sacking Gen Stanley McChrystal.
The outgoing general and his aides criticised senior administration officials in a Rolling Stone magazine article. He has since announced his retirement.
Rules of engagement In written answers to the Senate committee on Tuesday, Gen Petraeus described the security situation in Afghanistan as "tenuous" and insurgents as "resilient and still-confident", particularly in the south of the country.
However, he did say that he believed progress was possible.

ANALYSIS

Continue reading the main story

Paul Adams,
BBC News, Washington

At a time when Washington craves reassurance that the strategy in Afghanistan is working and that the right mix of generals and diplomats is carrying it out, the appearance on Capitol Hill of America's most celebrated soldier is just what everyone needs.
But a number of senators wanted to know whether the deadline of July next year for the start of an American withdrawal wasn't creating an unrealistic set of expectations.
Gen Petraeus said it only marked the beginning of a process. America's commitment to Afghanistan was, he said, an enduring one.
Amid the polite exchanges, only South Carolina's Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, expressed any real frustration with the general's answers. Someone, he said, needs to get it straight what the hell we are going to do come next July.

"They can sense concern in various capitals around the world and of course they want to increase that concern," he said.
"My sense is that the tough fighting will continue; indeed, it may get more intense in the next few months," he added. "As we take away the enemy's safe havens and reduce the enemy's freedom of action, the insurgents will fight back."
The general said he supported the president's plan to begin withdrawing troops in July 2011, but emphasised that there would be "certain tweaks, refinements, perhaps significant changes" after the White House's year-end review.
Senator John McCain said the US could not "afford to have a stay-the-course approach to starting our withdrawal in July 2011 when the facts on the ground are suggesting that we need more time".
Later, Gen Petraeus warned that raising the standards of the Afghan army and police was a "hugely challenging" task, he said, comparing it to "building an advanced aircraft while it is in flight, while it is being designed and while it is being shot at".
He also said he would look very hard at the current rules of engagement for US ground and air forces, which were drawn up to reduce civilian deaths but have been criticised for putting units at unnecessary risk.
"Those on the ground must have all the support they need when they are in a tough situation," he told the committee.
Mounting unease Gen Petraeus, 57, was nominated by President Obama last week to replace Gen McChrystal as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The widely-lauded soldier has formidable political and diplomatic skills. He has been credited with having turned around the military situation in Iraq with a "surge" there.

Continue reading the main story

We cannot afford Afghanistan to lapse back into a failed state, which will create a security vacuum, contaminate the region and threaten the national security of the UK and its allies

Dr Liam Fox UK Defence Secretary

There is a broad consensus among lawmakers that there is not a better man for the job, the BBC's defence correspondent Nick Childs says.
But his confirmation hearing is also likely to be become a platform for the airing of mounting unease in the Congress over the administration's Afghan strategy, our correspondent says.
Republicans are expected to question Gen Petraeus about whether Mr Obama's strategy of commencing a troop drawdown in July 2011 will hamper his leadership of the war effort.
The leading Republican on the Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain, has been a vocal critic of setting a date for withdrawal.
Some in Washington political circles also question the reliability of the Afghan government as a partner and the quality of Afghan forces.
The Obama administration is stressing that Gen Petraeus represents continuity and reassurance, and that he is in many ways the father of the strategy to which the US and its allies are wedded.

 

Gen Petraeus described the security situation in Afghanistan as "tenuous" In December, President Obama ordered 30,000 extra troops into Afghanistan, an announcement that received support from both parties.
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Robert Gates held talks at the Pentagon with his UK counterpart, Dr Liam Fox.
During their meeting, Dr Fox stressed the need to keep focus on ensuring that the necessary security conditions are met before transition to the Afghan authorities can take place.
"We cannot afford Afghanistan to lapse back into a failed state, which will create a security vacuum, contaminate the region and threaten the national security of the UK and its allies. That is why we are there and that is why we stay," he said.

Monarchy Crown ...[ 1362 ]

                      Russian Monarchy                     

29/062010,,01:29 By Robobloger

Russian Imperial Crown

Imperator SPB News

Atlanta, Georgia has a Russian-American community that worships in the Saint John Maximovitch Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian crown has been without a Romanov to wear it since 1918. Therefore, who would be the present monarch of Russia? Occasionally, one does hear about the remote possibility of reinstating Russia's monarchy. Reactionaries are always pestering the Russian parliament about establishing a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain's. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and Prince Nicholas Romanovich Romanov are the two chief pretenders to the Russian throne but there have been other pretenders too.

Anna Anderson, whose dubious claim to have been the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, died childless in 1984. Furthermore, after Anna Anderson's death, DNA analysis greatly diminished her claim to having ever been a Romanov. Heino Tammet claimed to be the Crown Prince Alexei but the discovery of Alexei’s skeleton near the Ipatiev House of Yekaterinburg in 2007 removed all doubt. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna’s grandfather was a younger brother of the last Russian Czar Nicholas II who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Nicholas Romanovich Romanov is a descendant of Czar Nicholas I who was the great-grandfather of the last Russian Czar Nicholas II.

France, Italy and Portugal have not reinstated their monarchies so perhaps it is just as well if Russia remains without a monarch. How would the royals react toward Lenin’s Mausoleum?

THE END

Arctic space monitoring project..[ 1361 ]

Russia, Canada seek joint Arctic space monitoring project

The Arctic

18:45- 29/06/2010

© RIA Novosti. Alexandr Lyskin

MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) 

Russia and Canada will start negotiations on the integration of their national space systems to monitor the Arctic, a Russian space official said on Tuesday.

Anatoly Shilov, deputy head of the Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, said the first Russian-Canadian meeting was scheduled for August.

"We are currently discussing which services will be provided by Russian satellites and which by Canadian satellites," he said.

He said the Russian government had made a decision to create a multipurpose space system called Arktika (Arctic), worth around 70 billion rubles ($2.5 billion).

The satellite system will monitor climatic changes and survey energy resources in the Arctic region. It will monitor the weather and environment of the North Pole, pinpoint hydrocarbon deposits on the Arctic shelf, provide telecommunications over the hard-to-access areas and ensure safe air traffic and commercial shipping in the region.

Shilov said the first Russian and Canadian satellites could be orbited in three years.

"However, ground facilities will also be necessary. So the system should be up and running in no less than six to seven years," he said.

The vast hydrocarbon deposits that will become more accessible as rising global temperatures lead to a reduction in sea ice have brought the Arctic to the center of geopolitical wrangling between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark.

Under international law, each of the five Arctic Circle countries has a 322-kilometer (200-mile) exclusive economic zone in the Arctic Ocean.

However, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, if a country can show its continental shelf extends beyond the 200-mile limit, it can claim a right to more of the ocean floor.

Russia has undertaken two Arctic expeditions - to the Mendeleyev underwater chain in 2005 and to the Lomonosov Ridge in the summer of 2007 - to substantiate its territorial claims in the region.

Russia first claimed the territory in 2001, but the UN demanded more conclusive evidence.

Russia has said it will invest some 1.5 billion rubles ($50 million) in defining the extent of its continental shelf in the Arctic in 2010.

Τα... αποτελέσματα της Ηφαιστειακής.. τέφρας..[1360 ]

Λεσβιακός γάμος αρχηγού κράτους

Από marypertax  |  Αθήνα :  29/6

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  - Χωρίς λεζάντα - Άλλωστε τι μπορεί να γράψει κανείς ?

Παντρεύτηκε τη σύντροφό της η πρωθυπουργός της Ισλανδίας,

Γιοχάνα Σιγκουρνταρνότιρ χθες , την ίδια ημέρα που τέθηκε σε ισχύ ο νόμος που νομιμοποιεί τους γάμους μεταξύ ατόμων του ιδίου φύλου. Σύμφωνα με το ισλανδικό ραδιοτηλεοπτικό δίκτυο RUV, η Ισλανδή ηγέτιδα παντρεύτηκε επίσημα τη σύντροφό της, την Γιονίνα Λεοσντότιρ, μετά την κατάθεση της αίτησης μετατροπής της πολιτικής ένωσής τους σε κανονικό γάμο.

Το ισλανδικό Κοινοβούλιο υιοθέτησε ομόφωνα στις 12 Ιουνίου τη νομιμοποίηση του γάμου των ομοφυλοφίλων και ο νόμος τέθηκε σε ισχύ την Κυριακή. Μέχρι τώρα τα ομοφυλόφιλα ζευγάρια μπορούσαν να ενώνονται νομίμως και να έχουν τα ίδια δικαιώματα με τα ετεροφυλόφιλα ζευγάρια, όμως η ένωση δεν ήταν ένας αληθινός γάμος. 

Η Γιοχάνα Σιγκουρνταρντότιρ, η οποία ανέλαβε την εξουσία το Φεβρουάριο 2009, ζει με τη σύντροφό της εδώ και πολλά χρόνια και είναι η πρώτη ανοικτά ομοφυλόφιλη αρχηγός κυβέρνησης.

Κι έτσι από το ψεύτικο γάμο ,πάμε στον αληθινό. Καημός κι αυτός .

Με τις ευχές μας ...

H είδηση αυτή απεστάλη από τον χρήστη marypertax.