Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 46

Fig. 1 Grooves around Vesta's Equator

Regular readers are aware of a hypothesis called the Exploded Planet Hypothesis (e.g. Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 40) which I found out about in the scientific paper: The Challenge of the Exploded Planet Hypothesis, Cambridge Journals Online, International Journal of Astrobiology / Volume 6 / Issue 03 / July 2007, pp 185-197.

It is a legitimate hypothesis or theory that I have written about over the years (e.g. Weekend Rebel Science Excursion, 7, 11; Exploded Planet Hypothesis, 2; Are Some or All Comets Pieces of an Exploded Planet?).

The current cosmological hypothesis or theory of planetary and stellar evolution is discussed in the context of exploding stars, which also impact planets (On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 5).

We discussed the issue when the Dawn Spacecraft (NASA Dawn Mission) was at the asteroid Vesta (Fig. 1), before it moved on to its current location at the asteroid Ceres .(Dawn Mission Nears Ceres Orbit Maneuvers).

The phases of a planet exploding is illustrated in Fig. 2 - Fig. 5.

Fig. 2

Imagine a planet with lots of water with a continent at one of its poles, a continent with a miles-thick ice sheet (Fig. 2).

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Cosmic forces interacting with internal forces, weaken the planet (Fig. 3).

Fig. 5

Eventually the planet breaks up.

The ice covered continent is ejected into space as huge chunks of crustal debris mixed with the water and miles-thick ice chunks (Fig. 4).

As space, time, and gravity work on the chunks, some join to form odd shaped space junk, maintaining an ungainly shape for a span of time.

Let's call one of them "Proto-Ceres," which will eventually become the asteroid Ceres (Fig. 5).

Other chunks from parts of the planet without as much ice or water, but with large layers of the planet's surface strata laid down by water and wind over millennia, eventually form a less perfect spherical form, such as the asteroid Vesta (Fig. 1).

If the once-planetary fragments which have now become an asteroid we call Proto-Ceres, is large enough, it will eventually morph into a sphere:

"Planets are round because their gravitational field acts as though it originates from the center of the body and pulls everything toward it. With its large body and internal heating from radioactive elements, a planet behaves like a fluid, and over long periods of time succumbs to the gravitational pull from its center of gravity. The only way to get all the mass as close to planet's center of gravity as possible is to form a sphere. The technical name for this process is 'isostatic adjustment'."

(Why are planets round?). Remember that some of the debris is sharp-edged granite or granite-like boulders miles wide.

Fig. 6

Those came from sections of the planet's rock layers of crust and were ejected along with the great ice sheets and other matter.

As the Proto-Ceres slowly, over many years, morphed into the asteroid Ceres (Fig. 6) (over time the ice, dirt, sand, rocks, and water were relocated by the forces of gravity).

The giant chunk of granite or granite-like rock still

Fig. 7 Pyramid

emerges from the surface of the asteroid Ceres, appearing as a pyramid shaped protrusion which is being called a mysterious mountain (Fig. 7).

There are other mysteries such as the bright spots (Fig. 6) which are still being studied.

When the software problems are rectified, and the Dawn Spacecraft moves into the lower orbit of about 250 miles above the surface, more will be known and discovered.

---

UPDATE: Is this (Fig. 8) a photo of the bright spots on Ceres when the Dawn Spacecraft was on the dark side of Ceres, i.e. when the other side was facing the Sun?

Fig. 8 NASA Photo Journal (click to enlarge)

The information pertaining to the photo does not specifically say:

"This image of dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 15, 2015, shows a cluster of mysterious spots that are clearly brighter than their surroundings. Dawn took this image at an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers). The resolution is 1,400 feet (410 meters) per pixel."

(Dawn Survey Orbit Image 16). The reason I ask is because in the first post about the Ceres approach, I opined that:

Thus, the light generation seems to not be a reflection, but rather light generated from two sources inside the crater.

However, some of the other bright spots don't seem to glow in the dark, so we will have to wait a few days for Dawn to enter orbit (Friday).

Then Dawn can take a look at the dark side of Ceres to see if any of them glow all the way across the dark side, or instead fade out.

If they fade out slowly the source could be sunlight generated phosphorescence that fades out while on the dark side, to be regenerated on the sun facing side --but if they immediately go out and stay out on the dark side, they could be only some type of reflection from a shiny surface at the floor of the crater (such as a flat surface of frozen ice or other reflective material).

But if they glow or shine all the way across the dark side, then the light is generated by a source in the crater rather than being merely a reflection of sunlight.

(Dawn Mission Nears Ceres Orbit Maneuvers). The photo is darker than usual so that is why I wondered about it.

It is a game changer if the spots are light generators rather than light reflectors, but less of a game changer if they are phosphorescent or have persistent luminescence.

Arctic Ice Extent: 2015 Struggles For First Place

Fig. 1 (click to enlarge)

The National Snow & Ice Data Center keeps daily track of the Arctic Sea Ice extent/area (NSIDC).

The graph at Fig. 1 shows the current horse race for the lowest sea ice extent/area on record.

It also shows that 2015 was winning the race until about June 13, when the 2015 sea ice extent/area, which had set the record low up until that time this year, slowed down to fall even with the 2012 record for that day of the year (The Question Is: How Much Acceleration Is Involved In SLR - 7?).

Subsequently, on July 1, it seemed to begin to track back toward the 2012 record level.

In this race, we are not talking about quantity / volume of ice, instead, we are talking about how much of the Arctic Ocean the ice covers (How Fifth Graders Calculate Ice Volume, 2, 3, 4).

This extent does not, therefore, have to do directly with sea level rise (SLR), however, since the ice cover is brighter and reflects sunlight, that cover helps to keep the ocean water cool.

On the other hand, when the ice cover mets and is gone, the sunlight enters the blue water, which has a darker albedo, to warm the water more and more.

Which does help to bring on SLR indirectly, since those warmer waters are in currents that travel to eventually flow around Greenland.

That warmth helps to melt the coastal zone ice on the land surface in Greenland.

When that melted ice water reaches the ocean it contributes to SLR  (see this and this).

---

UPDATE: 2012 is holding the record still (click graph to enlarge):

Fig. 2 (as of July 13)

---

There are other things to consider, as explained by an Arctic sea ice expert in the video below (and see this).

---

Dr. Peter Wadhams:

---

The next post in this series is here.

The Private Empire's Social Media Hit Squads

"Front Cover" given new meaning

I. General Background

The subject of "The Private Empire" was brought up directly in a Dredd Blog series with a similar name (MOMCOM: The Private Parts, 2, 3, 4, 5).

That private empire is part of what Dredd Blog calls "epigovernment" (e.g. Epigovernment: The New Model).

The gist of it is that for a long time it has been declared, revealed, observed, and known that private factions exist that are so powerful they are described with the word "empire."

The definition of that word which applies in today's post is "An empire is a group of countries or territories that are under the control of a single entity ..." (Vocabulary.com, emphasis added), but more particularly "An empire is an unequal relationship between a core state and a periphery of one or more states controlled from the core. On the simplest level, control means military occupation or other formal political intervention, but it can also cover informal economic or cultural influence. Economic pressure by itself has frequently been enough to manipulate governments." (Ancient History Encyclopedia, emphasis added).

II. What The Private Empire Does

The book "The Private Empire" (shown in the graphic above) is about a private empire that controls governments.

This is an issue that is out in the open now:

In a recent interview with Texas Monthly magazine, Coll asserted that “reporting on Exxon was not only harder than reporting on the bin Ladens, it was harder than reporting on the CIA ... They have a culture of intimidation ... they make people nervous, they make people afraid.”

(Washington Post, book review). The book covers one private member of the entity that Dredd Blog calls Oil-Qaeda (Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment, 2, 3, 4).

The manifestation of Oil-Qaeda in the U.S. is a mixture of government and private entities, with the nickname "MOMCOM" (MOMCOM: A Mean Welfare Queen).

III. What The Private Empire Looks Like

The form taken by the various entities that compose the private empire is a corporation.

Those corporations openly declare that they are not beholden even to the most powerful nation:

"I am not an American company."

(MOMCOM: The Private Parts). Not an American company, nevertheless, the private empire epigovernment has the elected governments of various countries by the jugular vein:

"Oil is the lifeblood of America's economy"

(Petroleum Civilization: The Final Chapter (Confusing Life with Death), quoting: Dept. of Energy and Dept. of Commerce). Using the word "lifeblood" communicates the gravity of the situation quite well.

IV. The Private Empire's Inroads To Power

It does not take a brain surgeon to see how the governments have been manipulated for a century or so:

John D. Rockefeller, in his 1909 Random Reminiscences of Men and Events, recalled, "One of our greatest helpers has been the State Department. Our ambassadors and ministers and consuls have aided to push our way into new markets in the utmost corners of the world." But he left out a key explanation for the government's interest. Standard Oil was the biggest U.S. company, putting a hundred ships to sea, buying and selling oil in Latin America, Germany, and the Far East. It also operated a global intelligence system. "By 1885," according to one historian, "seventy percent of the Standard's business was overseas and it had its own network of agents through the world, and its own espionage service, to forestall the initiatives of rival companies or governments."

(American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of ..., emphasis added). The private empire, the epigovenment, when threatened, can take care of itself via its own network of agents.

But, the official government is also one of their best helpers (ibid).

V. Agents and Operatives of The Private Empire

And so we come to the use of those agents to forestall rivals, in this case "rivals" are environmental movements that understand the science of climate change.

They also understand the oil companies' responsibility for addicting civilization to their commercial product (Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment, 2, 3, 4).

One has to wonder what kind of tactics and strategies does Oil-Qaeda use, in terms of agents on the internet, to forestall those rival environmentalists?

Obvious incarnations are: supporting websites and blogs that preach denial (Scientific American, Dark Money Funds Denial).

In their book, "Oreskes and Conway write that in each case "keeping the controversy alive" by spreading doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached, was the basic strategy of those opposing action" (Merchants of Doubt, emphasis added).

Today, in this first post of this series, let's consider other internet attacks on environmentalist rivals of Oil-Qaeda.

VI. The Private Empire Gets A Little Help From Its Friends

Remembering that the private empire can influence various government activities, let's take a look at an activity that fits today's subject matter quite well:

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

(Guardian). Remember that the U.S. military is one of the members of MOMCOM ("military oil media complex"), which is one of the "greatest helpers" of the private empire.

Using its own agents and/or government hired private contractors, or even military personnel, the private empire attacks environmental sites of all kinds through its agents (cf. Mocking America - 3).

A. One Observed Strategy

Recall what Steven Coll, the author of the book shown at the top of this post, said about the private empire, "They have a culture of intimidation ... they make people nervous, they make people afraid" (see Section II above, @Washington Post book review).

That is one of their main stratagems.

B. One Observed Tactic

I have noticed one tactic within that stratagem, which is a tactic designed to generate discussions of "committing suicide as a way of helping the Earth, the environment, Gaia, because it will diminish the population, and thereby save the world" (paraphrased).

It actually means "kill the enemies of Oil-Qaeda by persuading them to kill themselves."

There are websites (e.g. Church of Euthanasia) which encourage suicide, evangelizing by way of zealots who frequent environmental and climate change sites to spread the private empire's message:

******* Says:
******************
.
Looking forward to war, famine, and pestilence.
.
Just sitting on this runaway train, staring out the window, with a cat on my lap.

The Voluntary Extinction Movement
“…thou shalt not procreate.”

The Church of Euthanasia
“Save the planet, kill yourself.”

I am not going to mention the specific site where that sordid message was posted, because, there are many such sites where that sordid message is posted incessantly by agents of the merchants of doubt.

The point and the important question is: how does that promote the private empire's attack on its environmental rivals?

The answer is: by promoting illegal activity on any site the agents of the private empire is targeting.

They do so hoping they can eventually accuse the site owners or operators of enabling illegal activity and thereby at least discredit those site owners or operators.

It is in accord with the nature of "intimidation ... they make people nervous, they make people afraid" by devious means and methods.

Don't forget, they have been at this for over a hundred years now.

C. Promoting Suicide Is Illegal

Here is a brief look at some of the relevant statutes:

California: "Every person who deliberately aids, or advises, or encourages another to commit suicide, is guilty of a felony."

Illinois: "A person commits the offense of inducement to commit suicide when he or she does either of the following: Coerces another to commit suicide and the other person commits or attempts to commit suicide as a direct result of the coercion, and he or she exercises substantial control over the other person through (i) control of the other person’s physical location or circumstances; (ii) use of psychological pressure; or (iii) use of actual or ostensible religious, political, social, philosophical or other principles."

Iowa: "A person commits a class “C” felony if the person intentionally or knowingly assists, solicits, or incites another person to commit or attempt to commit suicide."

Louisiana: "Criminal assistance to suicide is: The intentional advising or encouraging of another person to commit suicide."

Maine: "A person is guilty of aiding or soliciting suicide if he intentionally aids or solicits another to commit suicide, and the other commits or attempts suicide."

Minnesota: "Aiding suicide: Whoever intentionally advises, encourages, or assists another in taking the other’s own life may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 15 years or to payment of a fine of not more than $30,000, or both."

Mississippi: "A person who willfully, or in any manner, advises, encourages, abets, or assists another person to take, or in taking, the latter’s life, or in attempting to take the latter’s life, is guilty of felony."

New Hampshire: "A person is guilty of causing or aiding suicide if he purposely aids or solicits another to commit suicide."

N. Dakota: "Any person who intentionally or knowingly aids, abets, facilitates, solicits, or incites another person to commit suicide ... is guilty of a class C felony."

S. Dakota: "Any person who intentionally in any manner advises, encourages, abets, or assists another person in taking or in attempting to take his or her own life is guilty of a Class 6 felony."

Texas: "A person commits an offense if, with intent to promote or assist the commission of suicide by another."

(Assisted Suicide Laws in the United States). If you want to read some articles about this dynamic, here are a few:

Articles:
Is it a crime to "encourage suicide"?
Huffpo on Melchert-Dinkel

Melchert-Dinkel No, Encouraging Suicide From Your Computer Is Not Free Speech, Court Rules

Teen Faces Charges For Encouraging Friend To Commit Suicide: Cops

Cases:
Melchert-dinkel (William Francis Melchert-Dinkel, Wikipedia).

D. Promoting Murder by Deception Is Also Illegal

The Private Empire, like many businesses (The Deceit Business), incessantly carries on a campaign of deliberate deception:

Internal fossil fuel industry memos reveal decades of disinformation — a deliberate campaign to deceive the public that continues even today.

For nearly three decades, many of the world's largest fossil fuel companies have knowingly worked to deceive the public about the realities and risks of climate change.

Their deceptive tactics are now highlighted in this set of seven "deception dossiers"—collections of internal company and trade association documents that have either been leaked to the public, come to light through lawsuits, or been disclosed through Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests.

Each collection provides an illuminating inside look at this coordinated campaign of deception, an effort underwritten by ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell, Peabody Energy, and other members of the fossil fuel industry.

(Union of Concerned Scientists: The climate deception dossiers). It is the essence of depraved heart murder (Oil-Qaeda & MOMCOM Conspire To Commit Depraved-Heart Murder).

VII. Conclusion

Resisting Oil-Qaeda is not only an endeavor requiring vigilant research on the scientific issues, it also requires watching out for the agents of the private empire who will be sent to infiltrate, attack, and discredit in one way or another.

Stick to the science and the facts, all you who endeavor to do good to all people, by uncovering the grave danger which Oil-Qaeda presents to civilization (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

The next post in this series is here.

Petroleum Civilization: The Final Chapter (Confusing Life with Death) - 4

See Video 2 below (click to enlarge)

The word "civilization" can conjure up several meanings.

Like the blind men around the elephant (describing what an elephant is, based on their particular location around the elephant), people express a concept of civilization from a particular location based on their experience.

For example, when asked what he thought about western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi replied that he thought it would be a good idea.

When anyone asked Arnold Toynbee about civilization, he saw it in terms of something with a capacity for perpetuity, but for some reason that potential perpetuity never manifested:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). Suicide is the "death of choice" for civilizations that Toynbee studied as a historian.

I see civilization as Toynbee did (What Do You Mean - World Civilization?, 2;
Confusing "Civilization" With "Species").

At least in the sense that civilization is capable of perpetuity beyond the lifetime of its biological makers, and that a civilization is also subject to extinction.

What I am focusing on is the factor that has been the single-most consistent behavioral characteristic of civilizations up to the present one.

As Toynbee pointed out, that single-most consistent behavioral characteristic of civilizations, up to the present one, is death by suicide.

The label "Industrial Civilization" refers to the revolution which began circa 1750 through circa 1850, when it began to morph into "Industrial Civilization II" (see Wikipedia).

Circa the second decade of the 20th Century, Industrial Civilization II began to morph into what I call our present incarnation of civilization: "Petroleum Civilization."

In the first two phases civilization was not addicted to petroleum nor was it said of them "Oil is the lifeblood of America's economy" as it is now (Petroleum Civilization: The Final Chapter (Confusing Life with Death), 2, 3).

The morph into Petroleum Civilization was inspired by the need to have "bigger, faster, and more destructive" weapons of mass destruction, along with a fear induced by the religious notion of Armageddon (The Universal Smedley - 2).

With Petroleum Civilization now facing extinction, the scientists of today realize that the "lifeblood" is actually "deathblood."

Thus, once again another civilization is facing another suicide (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and/or mass-murder (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1).

A recent piece came out in Aeon concerning the "rise and fall" of historian Arnold Toynbee:

He was an expert in world civilisations who made the cover of Time magazine in 1947, praised for writing ‘the most provocative work of historical theory… since Karl Marx’s Capital’. But in September 1921, long before he was the most famous historian in the world, a young Englishman named Arnold Toynbee boarded the Orient Express in Constantinople, bound for London.
...
What are the humanities for at such moments, when we’re so sure of ourselves and our capacity to remake the world? Toynbee wrestled with this question for decades. He was as curious as anyone about the latest discoveries and innovations, but he rejected the notion that science could explain or improve everything. And his thoughtful criticism of technology reminds us that poets and historians, artists and scholars must be proud, vocal champions of the humanities as a moral project – especially at moments of breakneck scientific progress. Fluent in the language of crisis and decline, casting about for ways to defend ourselves, today’s humanists could use a little inspiration. We need our spines stiffened. Toynbee might be a man to do it.

(Humanist Among Machines). In reality, the life was taken out of the lifeblood of civilization by a transfusion to lifeless energies.

In my opinion, that choice of death over life by those who had the power to do so, is the essence of each civilization that committed suicide (Oil-Qaeda & MOMCOM Conspire To Commit Depraved-Heart Murder).

Machines and their underlying technologies are not alive (The New Paradigm: The Physical Universe Is Mostly Machine - 2) even though we are substantially composed of molecular machines (ibid).

To find perpetuity, a civilization must choose life over death and must, therefore, know the difference.

The current Petroleum Civilization is not capable of that.

It extols the "virtue" of Oil-Qaeda over the common good that proceeds from the life support systems where we are now (You Are Here).

The previous post in this series is here.

---

Video 1: A 1958 video showing catastrophe from climate change was forseen:

---

Video 2: A futuristic music video "With our eyes wide open" ...

---

Gerrymandering - Geological Deceit? - 5

Iraqi Curse: "May the Bushies bring you democracy !"

This series has pointed out the plague of undemocratic gerrymandering.

In the U.S. it is being promulgated by republican legislatures around the country  (Gerrymandering - Geological Deceit?, 2, 3, 4).

It may be that the State of Arizona, of all places, has crafted a workable medicine with which to treat the gerrymander election disease.

It is a medicine that those in the GOP with the gerrymander election disease did not like.

Nevertheless, because of today's U.S. Supreme Court decision it is medicine which the GOP of Arizona now has to take.

The basic background is as follows:

Under Arizona’s Constitution, the electorate shares lawmaking authority on equal footing with the Arizona Legislature. The voters may adopt laws and constitutional amendments by ballot initiative, and they may approve or disapprove, by referendum, measures passed by the Legislature. Ariz. Const., Art. IV, pt. 1, §1. “Any law which may be enacted by the Legislature . . . may be enacted by the people under the Initiative.” Art. XXII, §14.

In 2000, Arizona voters adopted Proposition 106, an initiative aimed at the problem of gerrymandering ... removing redistricting authority from the Arizona Legislature and vesting it in an independent commission, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commissiom (AIRC).

(Arizona State Legislature v. AIRC, emphasis added). The AIRC is likely to remember all those hellfire and damnation words that the GOP used in its lawsuit against them.

A lawsuit designed to thwart the will of the people as expressed by their creation of the AIRC by their votes in a valid election.

The gist of the case is described by Justice Ginsburg as follows:

This case concerns an endeavor by Arizona voters to address the problem of partisan gerrymandering—the drawing of legislative district lines to subordinate adherents of one political party and entrench a rival party in power.¹ “[P]artisan gerrymanders,” this Court has recognized, “[are incompatible] with democratic principles.” Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U. S. 267, 292 (2004) ...
——————
1 The term “gerrymander” is a portmanteau of the last name of El-
bridge Gerry, the eighth Governor of Massachusetts, and the shape of
the electoral map he famously contorted for partisan gain, which
included one district shaped like a salamander. See E. Griffith, The
Rise and Development of the Gerrymander 16–19 (Arno ed. 1974).

(Arizona State Legislature v. AIRC). The GOP only wants to stay in power and they only sued the people's commissioners because the people were corrupted by power (wink, wink).

The GOP suers (pronounced "sewers") argued that the U.S. Constituion had a clause that says only those in power can be "The Decider" --but the Supremes said that is true because "power to the people !"

What are they going to do now,  resort to black merda (Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science - 10)?

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

---

Black Merda ("They are considered to be the first all black rock band"):

---