Another web article on sprites and blue jets

Gigantic Jets Connect Thunderclouds to the Ionosphere and Video of giant sprites (from Richard Smedley)

Calomel once more --> Mercury(I) chloride

Calomel in America: Mercurial Panacea, War, Song and Ghosts

Calomel in American Medicine 

Parts of the book.  For those who read and remember the Calomel posts from 2008

I've learned a lot more about 'medicinal' mercury since then.  

Health Debate Short on Evidence-Based Science?

While searching Google for the phrase "Evidence-Based Science", came across this 2009 article, (which was new to me), and because I named this blog Evidence-Based Science, here is a link to the page and a comment.

A poll released Sept. 2 shows extraordinary levels of enthusiasm for policies that would help doctors and patients know what works in medicine, what doesn't work and for which patients. In a poll of 800 California voters conducted by Lake Research, 88 percent of respondents said they believe it is important that doctors have access to scientific evidence that compares the effectiveness of different treatments. Nearly half, 46 percent, consider it extremely important.
Health Debate Short on Evidence-Based Science

This seems like one of those obvious moments. What would be surprising in this case, would be if most people DIDN'T show "extraordinary levels of enthusiasm for policies that would help doctors and patients know what works in medicine"!!

I mean, come on! When it comes to your well being, your family and your health, your pocketbook, wouldn't most people choose knowing what actually works?

It seems self evident. Much like Evidence-Based Science. Does anyone want science that is not based on evidence?

Gamma Rays, Lightning and Antimatter, Oh My!

I posted about Red Sprites and Blue Jets before.  Amazing events that occur above thunderstorms, all the time.  It has been known for some time that thunderstorms also produce gamma rays, but now it looks like some of these gamma rays are being produced by antimatter.  Which is produced by lightning in thunderstorms, or more likely the events occurring above the storm,  hence the link to the previous post about what is going on above the clouds.

It's big news in the world of science.  From NASA

Jan. 11, 2011:  Scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before.

Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed inside thunderstorms in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF) associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 TGFs occur daily worldwide, but most go undetected.

 We may never look at a thunderstorm the same again.  Science, like Nature, is awesome.

Global Warming, Climate Change

For more than a year I have been researching, investigating and trying to learn about climate, weather, climate change and what goes under the name "Global Warming". 

There are few entries here about this, and none that try to present the evidence based science view.  This is because it is extremely complicated, and the evidence is involved with politics, as well as emotions and possibly other factors, making it extremely hard to be able to present evidence.  Even the evidence is argued about, and sometimes changed!! 

Frustrating. More to come.

How the oceanic tides actually work

(expanded info on this at new blog Nov 2015)
As is sometimes the case,the Wikipedia article on the Tides might not be accurate.

In simple terms, regarding how the tide works, if you are standing on the beach watching it, the tide is a giant wave.  A rotating Kelvin wave to be precise.

Seriously.  The tide is a giant wave passing you by.  When the crest comes down (or up) the coast, the water rises, at the peak of the wave, it is high tide.  As the wave goes on by, the water goes down, at the trough of the wave, it is low tide. It is a giant circular wave that rotate around a point, and the high tide you see is the same crest of the wave each time.   There is only one wave that makes both tides each day.

If you are standing on one of the rare places that has only one high tide, it is still the same thing, a giant wave, circling. Some places have a mixed tide, where both kinds of tides interact with each other, so two (or more) giant waves are causing the tide.

Here is the amplitude of the tide from just the moon, if it rotated exactly around the equator, and didn't change distance.


Here is an animation I made that shows the waves in motion, along with the moon moving.  The large bar is full moon, the small bar is the other side of the planet,  the water can either be high is light color, or dark, it doesn't matter.   It is just a model of what the oceans look like.



The water moving animation I "borrowed" from Steve Dutch and his
website

I edited the original, just doubled it and added the bars.  I did not create the original water animation. Steve would probably be pissed if he knew.

Extensive satellite measurements of the oceans show that the ocean actually does behave a lot like that model, but not as clean and easy to see.  But the tides actually are giant circular waves.  The ocean does not follow the moon around the earth like many people want to believe.  The 'two bulges' theory is not an accurate representation of how the oceanic tides work.

See the Dynamic Theory of Tides, and if that isn't explaining why there are no twin bulges,  go here

edited Jan 1 2016