RING OF FIRE SOLAR ECLIPSE--TODAY! On May 9-10, the Moon will pass directly in front of the sun over the South Pacific, producing a "ring of fire" solar eclipse. At greatest eclipse, more than 95% of the sun's surface will be covered. The Coca-Cola Space Science Center is hosting a live webcast of the event from Australia! Tune in on May 9th beginning at 5 pm EDT. More:animation, map,details.
MAGNETIC ACTIVITY: A ragged, dynamic filament of magnetism is dancing along the sun's southwestern limb today. It is so large, more than 250,000 km from end to end, that amateur astronomers are able to see it in great detail using backyard solar telescopes. John Stetson sends this snapshot from Falmouth, Maine:
The magnetic underpinnings of this arching prominence may be connected to nearby sunspot AR1736, which is itself unstable and poses a threat for M-class solar flares. If the anchor is unstable, the overlying structure could collapse. Observers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor the southwestern limb for developments.
Solar wind speed: 451.5 km/sec density: 3.4 protons/cm3explanation | more dataUpdated: Today at 0037 UT
X-ray Solar Flares 6-hr max: C9 2316 UT May09 24-hr: C9 2316 UT May09 explanation | more dataUpdated: Today at: 2359 UT
Near Earth Asteroids
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.
On May 10, 2013 there were 1397 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.
Source: SpaceWeather.com
The GOES X-ray Flux plot contains 5 minute averages of solar X-ray output in the 1-8 Angstrom (0.1-0.8 nm) and 0.5-4.0 Angstrom (0.05-0.4 nm) passbands. Data from the SWPC Primary and Secondary GOES X-ray satellites are shown. Some data dropouts from the Primary satellite will occur during satellite eclipses.
SWPC X-ray alerts are issued at the M5 (5x10E-5 Watts/m2) and X1 (1x10E-4 Watts/m2) levels, based upon 1-minute data. Large X-ray bursts cause short wave fades for HF propagation paths through the sunlit hemisphere. Some large flares are accompanied by strong solar radio bursts that may interfere with satellite downlinks.
There's no disturbing lack of faith among Kickstarter supporters.
After all, a crowdfunded project to construct the Death Star that was launched less than a week ago already has nearly 1,500 backers and an astonishing $364,772 in pledges.
Well, the Rebels aren't taking that threat sitting down. A rival Kickstarter campaign to build X-wing fighters has just taken off. Its goal is to build one of the famous spaceships from "Star Wars" and then more.
"If George Lucas produced 'Star Wars IV, A New Hope,' for $11,000,000 we figure we can finance a prototype of an X-Wing and train a pilot," organizer Simon Kwan, a product designer in Shanghai, writes on the campaign page.
"One update we'd like to include for our updated X-Wing is iPhone and Siri integration."
The stretch goal is to build a squadron of X-wings for $4,485,672,683, the worldwide box office take of all the films in the franchise, according to The Numbers, a film sales tracking site.
A further goal is "13 million Galactic Standard Credits: A Class YT-1300 Freighter (heavily modified) and a crew consisting of a Corellian smuggler and a Wookie co-pilot."
Tech Crunch, however, politely points out that such credits have been estimated at only 62 cents, making the Falcon cost only $8 million, which is of course less than the campaign's basic goal.
Details, details. What matters is we get an X-wing built, stat!
At least then we'll have a chance of countering a real threat to our planet: asteroids.
Sci-Fi fans pushing for the creation of a Star Wars inspired “Death Star” have raised almost US$400,000 on a fundraising site to make it happen. It comes after Washington turned down a petition for its construction, citing astronomical costs.
Undeterred by Washington’s lack of enthusiasm, supporters of the proposed Death Star have generated an account on Kickstarter – a funding platform for creative projects, which asks for direct financial support from others in order to bring an idea to life.
The open source Death Star page is initially aiming to raise 20,000,000 pounds ($31.5 million). The money would be used to design more “detailed plans and enough chicken wire to protect reactor exhaust ports.”
It may seem like a lot of money, but it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the Death Star’s estimated construction cost of 543 quadrillion pounds ($850 quadrillion), which was quoted by the US government.
Backers of Kickstarter projects usually receive a reward for pledging their money – and the Death Star project is offering its own set of incentives.
The prize is rather modest for those who pledge 1 pound ($1.58) or more. According to the Kickstarter page, they receive only “our thanks and the knowledge that we’re one step closer to a safer planet.”
However, more generous spenders receive a more impressive reward. Those who pledge 10 pounds or more are promised to have their name “etched onto the underneath of one of the MSE-6-series repair droids used on the finished station.”
With 49 days to go, the project currently has 1,473 backers – 968 of whom are in line to have their name etched into Death Star history. Thus far, the project has raised 240,816 pounds ($380,392) of its first goal.
It’s a low-risk situation for supporters, because unless the entire goal amount is reached backers don’t have to pay a penny.
And if the idea seems a little too ‘out there’ to be taken seriously, that’s because it is.
“The main challenge is assuring Kickstarter that this is a joke and not a serious project. As proof, the goal has been set high enough to make successful funding almost impossible,” the page reads underneath the project’s ‘Risks and Challenges’ section.
The Kickstarter project comes after the US government rejected a petition to create the Death Star, giving three reasons why the project wasn’t viable:
• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850 quadrillion.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
The response was authored by Paul Shawcross, who oversees the science and space departments at the White House, and was titled, 'This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For.'
Washington had to respond to the petition, which was posted on the White House’s ‘We the People’ website. The US previously vowed to give an official response to any petition generating 25,000 signatures or more – including those lobbying for Death Star construction. The petition received 34,435 signatures. The signature threshold for petitions has since been raised to 100,000, making it more difficult to receive a response from the administration.
Open-source Death Star project launched on Kickstarter
Now that the U.S. government has wimped out on building a Death Star, a Kickstarter project has emerged to raise funds to construct the deadly spaceship using open-source hardware and software.
The Angry Birds Death Star is a lot easier to get ahold of.
(Credit: Rovio)
"Star Wars" fans don't like taking "no" for an answer. The White House may have denied a petition to build a Death Star, but that hasn't stopped Dark Side wannabes from taking matters into their own hands. There's now a Kickstarter project gathering funds to build an open-source Death Star.
The project has a modest initial goal of just $30 million. That will fund initial plans and the massive amount of chicken wire needed to protect the reactor exhaust ports. The first stretch goal is where things get more serious. If the project raises $850,000,000,000,000,000, then work will begin on the actual construction. OK, that's a mighty big "if," but a geek can dream, right?
In a bid to keep costs down, the Death Star will be constructed with only open-source hardware and software. That means the plans would be available to anyone who wants to build a Death Star of their very own. I'm pretty sure there's an alternate universe somewhere where every person has their own open-source Death Star. It's probably the same universe where Spock has a goatee.
Death Star - visionary project rejected by the Obama administration.
The office of the US President has rejected a popular public petition to construct a Death Star due to a high construction cost of $850 quadrillion, a major design flaw and the fact that “the Administration does not support blowing up planets.”
The proposal to construct the Star Wars-inspired space station-cum-death ray was lodged in November last year through We the People, a recently-implemented system that allows ordinary Americans to petition the government with any request, providing it gets enough popular support.
The authors promised that building the Death Star would “spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.”
The petition has collected 34,435 signatures, well above the 25,000 threshold that necessitates a response from the White House.
But despite endorsement from the public, the government has been reluctant to make the necessary investment in the pioneering space platform.
Titled ‘This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For’ and authored by Paul Shawcross, who oversees science and space departments at the White House, the official response gives three reasons for why the project isn’t viable:
• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
Instead, Shawcross calls for Americans to revel in the existence of the rather more modest International Space Station, which although impressive, does not possess a death ray, or in fact weapons of any sort.
This is not the only time We the People has been used to push forward unlikely proposals. Recent petitions have called for British TV interviewer Piers Morgan to be deported for his gun control stance (more than 100,000 signatures) for Texas to secede (more than 120,000 signatories) and to recount the presidential election, which 68,000 petitioners claim Barack Obama won through a combination of fraud and administrative error.
(we appologize that we could not get this all on one post. The formating had issues that caused problems that could not be figured out.)
Coroner is dead! What did he know? by Fred Brownbill.
We hear today of yet another very strange death in the saga of the sudden death of Andrew Breitbart, a man I was shocked had a sudden major heart attack and died. You all know he was an investigative jounalist with no fear and bought real news, truth and breaking stories via his website, Breitbart News.
Many of these stories and breaking news articles did not show this regime of Barack Hussein Obama in very favorable light, nor many of the agencies that he supported like planned parenthood etc. He gained many enemies for these exposés, and though relatively young but fit, while out walking at night, suffered a sudden and major heart attack and died. The coroner who did the autopsy, Michael Cormier from the Los Angeles County Coroners Office, told us about the heart attack in his released report, but there has always been an air of uncertainty especially among those of us that knew Breitbart.
Now, according to the Los Angeles Times, the coroner who was 61, was taken to the Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank from his North Hollywood home and was in tremendous pain and vomiting before he died. The hospital staff had suspicions about his death and notified the Los Angeles police department. Foul play has not been ruled out and it appears that Cormier died from poisoning. His deputy coroner has performed his autopsy but the results have not been released as they say they are waiting for toxicology results.
NOW A WITNESS TO BREITBART'S DEATH VANISHES
A private investigator has been unable to find the only eyewitness to the sudden death of media innovator and conservative activist Andrew Breitbart.
The apparent disappearance of Christopher Lasseter, who says he saw Breitbart drop to
the sidewalk in front of a restaurant, adds to the mystery surrounding Breitbart’s march 1 death.
On the day the Los Angeles County coroner released Breitbart’s autopsy report, a photographic technician at the coroner’s office died suddenly of suspicious causes.
In addition, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., just three weeks before Breitbart’s death – where he promised to unveil “damning” new video evidence of Barack Obama’s radical past that would change the election – Breitbart gave WND details of his upcoming revelations.He claimed to WND that he had a video showing radical Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and Barack Obama at Harvard planning revolution in the United States. But the video, aired just after he died, was of Obama introducing a radical Harvard professor, and the general response was flat.Filmmaker Steve Bannon, appointed executive chairman of the Breitbart News Network after Breitbart’s death, has insisted to WND that the media mogul died of natural causes and to suggest anything else is irresponsible.
“Breitbart had an enlarged heart,” Bannon told WND. “He had been hospitalized for the problem last year and told to lose weight that he did not lose.”Bannon, formerly a Breitbart News Network board member, told WND that for months prior to his death, Breitbart had been working overtime to finalize a refinancing of his news agency.
“He died of natural causes,” Bannon said. “The family wants the matter put to rest, and WND is beginning to irritate me suspecting foul play.”
In addition to Bannon, Laurence Solov, formerly president and chief operating officer, was elevated after Breitbart’s death. Solov took Breitbart’s place as CEO.An eyewitness disappearsAfter recruiting the assistance of private investigators, WND found that Lasseter, the 26-year-old witness who saw Breitbart drop dead, is no longer residing at his last known address in California... He was unsure Lasseter was still residing at the address and considered it possible that Lasseter had moved.On March 1, Crime File News reported Lasseter was walking his dog in Brentwood, Calif., when he saw Breitbart cross the street from the Brentwood Restaurant.Breitbart was walking without apparent distress when he stepped on the curb “and fell like a sack of potatoes,” Lasseter said.He noted that Breitbart’s skin color was bright red, which is not typically associated with heart attack victims.Paul Huebl, who writes for Crime File News, reported April 22 that he interviewed Lasseter and added the detail that the witness was disturbed by Breitbart’s color.As a former Army medic, Huebl knew that most heart attack victims turned blue.Coroner’s assistant diesOn April 20, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Craig Harvey released the autopsy report on Breitbart, listing the cause of death as heart failure resulting from an enlarged heart and some heart disease.Harvey noted no prescription or illegal drugs were detected and only a small amount of alcohol was found in Breitbart’s system at the time of death.While the coroner concluded no foul play was suspected, his report made no attempt to explain why Lasseter observed Breitbart’s skin was “bright red” at time of his death....
Anonymous re-hacks US Sentencing site into video game Asteroids
Summary: The U.S. Sentencing Commission website has been hacked a second time. A code distributed by Anonymous "Operation Last Resort" turns ussc.gov into a game of Asteroids.
January 28, 2013
The U.S. Sentencing Commission website has been hacked again and a code distributed by Anonymous "Operation Last Resort" turns ussc.gov into a playable video game.
Visitors enter the code, and then the website that sets guidelines for sentencing in United States Federal courts becomes "Asteroids."
Shooting away at the ussc.gov webpage reveals an image of Anonymous.
The trademark Anonymous "Guy Fawkes" face is comprised of white text saying, "We do not forgive. We do not forget."
Update Sunday, January 27, 11pm PST: the ussc.gov website has been offline intermittently, ostensibly due to high traffic. Anonymous Operation Last Resort tweeted the Asteroids hack can be "played" on yet another U.S. government website: "Backup gaming site while USSC.gov is down miep.uscourts.gov" (the U.S. Probation Office for the state of Michigan). This suggests, in this writer's opinion, that Anonymous has background control of multiple U.S. government websites - and after the antics this weekend, the group likely has had this access for a while and they are playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the United States Department of Justice.
Hacktivist group Anonymous began its "Operation Last Resort" Friday night by hacking the U.S. Sentencing Commission website in the name of suicide victim Aaron Swatrz, demanding reform in the U.S. justice system.
The government website was pulled offline and restored by Saturday. Now, on Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Sentencing Commission website appears to have been compromised a second time, severely, wherein a code being issued by Operation Last Resort and other Anonymous social media accounts turns ussc.gov into a game of Asteroids.
Upon visiting ussc.gov and entering enter Konami code (with cursor keys) ↑↑↓↓←→←→ (up up, down down, left right left right) then keys B, A and "Enter" - the page becomes a playable version of the old Atari game, Asteroids.
Visitors can use their keyboard to shoot away at the U.S. Sentencing Commission website.
Blasting away at the text on the website using the keys CAEK ("repeat for NyanCat powers"), player points tally in a score box in the bottom right of the screen, while the government website page and text begin to shrink.
As the "player" gets points by shooting the U.S. Sentencing Commission website, underneath a dark image of Anonymous is revealed.
This is the second time the website has been attacked and defaced in a hack that involves public participation.
Anonymous apparently still somehow has control of the website in some way, despite the last efforts by the U.S. government to clean up the attacks.
The link to the Javascript is embedded in the ussc.gov page, but the script is hosted on a p
ublic Google URL.
The website has actually been publicly attacked three times this weekend ...
The U.S. Sentencing Commission sets guidelines for sentencing in United States Federal courts, and Anonymous stated it had chosen the website for symbolic reasons.
Previously on the defaced ussc.gov website Anonymous cited the recent suicide of hacktivist Aaron Swartz as a "line that has been crossed."
Visionary internet activist Aaron Swartz found dead; was this brilliant internet revolutionary 'taken out? Sunday, January 13, 2013 byMike Adams
Adding to the list of mysterious deaths that have happened over the last few days, internet visionary and brilliant internet activist Aaron Swartz was found dead yesterday. Swartz, only 26 years old, was the co-founder of Reddit.com, the co-creator of RSS technology, and the key activist who achieved a stunning defeat of the freedom-crushing SOPA / PIPA bills in the U.S. Congress.
Swartz was found dead yesterday, and the official story is that he committed suicide. But Swartz himself would have wanted us to question the official story and dig deeper.
After all, his own website, Demand Progress, questions the "PROTECT-IP" act, the insanity of George Bush's Patriot Act, the censorship of free speech by Facebook, the financial scams of Goldman Sachs, the internet kill switch and much more...
Swartz was targeted by the system
Below, watch this important video in which Swartz describes the decentralization of information on a free internet. Swartz fully understood the power of setting information free, and this is exactly the opposite of what the corporate-government-industrial-complex wants, which is the monopolization and centralization of power. ... Like all truth-tellers, Swartz was branded an enemy by the system. For the act of downloading thousands of academic articles from MIT (yes, academic papers), he was hounded by the FBI, arrested and charged with crimes that could have earned him up to 50 years in prison.
From the charges that were leveled against him for the relatively mild offense of downloading academic papers, it's very clear that somebody powerful was out to destroy him.
Apparently they did just that.
Who benefits from the death of Aaron Swartz? Who benefits? Hollywood and all its tyrannical copyright-pushing maniacs who want to criminalize anyone who downloads a movie off the internet.
The MPAA, in other words. That's the Motion Picture Association of America. Former U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd is the key lobbyist representing the MPAA. He's now the chairperson and CEO of the MPAA, which has a long history of operating much like a mafia organization in its use of threats and mafia-style intimidation tactics.
In fact, if the MPAA joined with the RIAA (recording industry association), it would create the MAFIAA, jokes one website. See also www.MafiaaFire.com
Would this mafia pay good money to have Aaron Swartz killed? (Are you kidding me? Do I even have to answer this question?)
Mysterious deaths of people who question government now becoming more frequent The official explanation is that Swartz "hanged himself" with a rope in his own apartment. I'm certain that sooner or later additional information will come out about how he also knocked out his own teeth and beat himself badly before hanging himself, because that's the way these "suicides" of activists usually turn out.
Swartz's death is just one of many mysterious deaths that have recently taken place. Just a few days ago, a celebrated rifle manufacturer named John Noveske was killed in a mysterious car crash -- not long after posting details of all the school shooters who were taking psychiatric drugs.
Another prominent internet technology pioneer committed "suicide" just over a year ago. Ilya Zhitomirskiy co-created Diaspora, the so-called 'Facebook-killer' technology that created a free, decentralized technology system that posed a severe threat to the data-mining monopoly of Facebook.
It has also been reported and confirmed that radio host Alex Jones was stalked by gun-toting goons while in New York to appear on CNN. They tried to force him into some sort of altercation, but he escaped by hailing a cab and fleeing the area.
The next day, CNN guests announced live on the air that Piers Morgan should shoot Alex Jones with an AR-15, and they even threatened Alex's children with a thinly-veiled comment about "I hope his children don't die."
Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com
source: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html
