Solar storm heads Earth's way after double sun blasts

Yahoo – AFP, Kerry Sheridan, 12 Sep 2014

The Aurora Australis is observed from the International Space Station during

a geomagnetic storm on May 29, 2010 (AFP Photo)

Washington (AFP) - Two big explosions on the surface of the sun will cause a moderate to strong geomagnetic storm on Earth in the coming days, possibly disrupting radio and satellite communications, scientists said Thursday.

The unusual storm is not likely to wreak havoc with personal electronics but may cause colorful nighttime auroras, or displays of the Northern Lights, late Friday and early Saturday.

"We don't expect any unmanageable impacts to national infrastructure from these solar events at this time but we are watching these events closely," said Thomas Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A close-up view of a moderate Sun flare of

light on August 24, 2014 (AFP Photo)

"More pleasantly, we do expect these storm levels to cause significant auroral displays across much of the northern US on Friday night," he said.

The storm began with a minor solar flare on Monday, followed by a major X-class flare -- the strongest classification -- on Wednesday at around 1745 GMT.

Both eruptions came from the same sunspot near the center of the solar disk, and both produced significant coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, of magnetized plasma headed toward Earth.

On a scale of one to five, the resulting geomagnetic storm should be "moderate to strong," rating a G2 or G3, Berger said.

"It is fairly rare for two CMEs of this magnitude to come in close succession like this," he told reporters.

"Because of this we cannot rule out higher storm levels perhaps as high as G4 or severe geomagnetic storming, particularly in the polar regions."

The National Weather Service has alerted power grid operators and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, just in case.

The strength of the storm pales in comparison to major geomagnetic storms of years past, such as the 1859 Carrington event that wiped out power across a swath of Canada.

It is also weaker than a near-miss geomagnetic storm in July 2012 that NASA scientists said could have knocked Earth's technology back at least 150 years.

That storm didn't cause mass damage because the fast-moving energized particles were not directed straight at Earth.

"The events that just occurred over the last 24 hours were Earth-directed, they are just not that big," said William Murtagh, program coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center.

"If we had a very big storm -- and this is not it -- that produced big problems with the power grid, that would be our biggest concern."

Nor is the radiation caused by these flares presently enough to raise concern for astronauts at the International Space Station, experts said.

But given the nature of CMEs with their internal magnetic fields, scientists are not yet sure exactly what will happen when they bounce off the Earth's protective shield.

"The sun just shot out a magnet that is going to interact with another magnet, the Earth's magnetic field," explained Murtagh.

"And how they couple together is going to be critical in determining how intense the geomagnetic storm is going to be."

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A short update on the energies - (Constant Companions channeled through Aisha North)


THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"... Magnetics: Always a Player in The Shift

Many things are happening with the planet at the moment. The magnetics are changing as well. The magnetics of the solar system and the sun in particular, have an influence on your weather. How many sun spots have you seen lately? What do you think about the correlation of a sun that has very few, with your earth climate?  When can you remember that in your lifetime? What does it mean? I will tell you, dear Human Beings, that it's all related to what's happening on the earth. You may not understand the correlation, but I will tell you there is a profound one. What if [astronomy hint coming next], what if sun spots were created by gravitational and other interdimensional forces caused by the orbiting planets? Has there even been a correlation made between sun spots and the positions of the planets? Too weird? The invitation is there to see the correlations.

The sun is the fulcrum of the interdimensional gravitational pull attributes of the planets around it. There is information that is interdimensional – call it a gravitational patterning, if you wish – which the sun generates every moment of the day. As the planets push and pull on the fulcrum of the solar system [effect the sun through gravity], they affect the sun's attitude. These patterns are unique every day, and they intersect the magnetic field of the earth as they are blasted from the Sun in what you would call the solar wind.

The solar wind is a magnetic heliosphere, and has very multidimensional properties. This magnetic wind strikes the earth, intersecting with the magnetic field, and you can see it! You call it the Aurora Borealis. It's one giant magnetic field [the sun] intersecting another [the earth]. Science calls this intersecting phenomena inductance. In that intersecting energy, there is a transference of the informative patterning of the sun [at that moment] to the magnetic grid of the earth. Now, it's the magnetic grid of the planet that you sit in. All of life does.

Now we give you information we've given you before: The Merkabah. That is to say, your DNA imprint - the field around you - receives the magnetic grid's sun information, and the instructions within that field are passed right to the DNA, which is also magnetic. I have just given you the magnetic transmission chain that you think is esoteric. It's not. It's hard science. But to think that the interdimensional, magnetic and gravitational attributes of the solar system are going to your DNA is very esoteric. Some call it astrology. The truth is that it's for humanity, and also for Gaia! For remember that it is the earth that is part of the magnetic chain of information to your cellular structure [the Magnetic Grid]. It tells it when to do what it does. It's all related. So how related are you to Gaia? How much do you address this consciousness? ..."

"The Energy of the Future" (2) - Dec 7, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version) - New

“… Akashic Acuity

So we have established that you are moving into this new radiation, and we have established that it intersects the sun. The sun blasts your magnetic field with it (via the solar wind) and the magnetic field talks to your DNA. Suddenly, there is the potential some of your DNA is being unlocked. The attributes of unlocking Akashic acuity will help you to remember who you've been. Now, with this remembrance comes energy - not about who you were, but rather it gives you the energy of what you did. I don't mean physically; I mean energetically and mentally. Old souls carry with them experience. When you look into the eyes of a child, you're going to see wisdom just waiting to break out. Dear ones, these children are different. They are not going to go through what you did! They have a whole new set of issues, and most of their issues are trying to navigate the old issues you create for them!

There's something we brought up in a former channelling called the wisdom factor. Now, the wisdom factor is caused by Akashic acuity. After living Human life over and over, you start remembering the wisdom that you have gained through these past lifetimes. You don't necessarily remember who you were, but rather the fact that you were at all and the experiences you had. Imagine a child coming into the planet knowing how to read? Imagine a child coming into the planet knowing not to touch something hot? Where did it come from? You're going to see more of this, and a feeling of "been there, done that".

Akashic acuity is remembrance of experience during past lifetimes. As the child grows, that remembrance becomes pure wisdom. As the child starts to awaken and the pineal opens, something else happens. The grid starts talking to the child through the DNA, and in the grid is also the information from the time capsules we spoke about in past channellings. The time capsules start feeding the planet with increased wisdom and knowledge. You don't have to reincarnate to awaken even further! Akashic acuity means suddenly Humans know more than other children have in the past - much more.

Fast Tracking

This is the plan, and it's a fast-track system, an energy system for planetary ascension. It's going to take a long time to implement, dear ones, but it's beginning right now. You're going to see marginal evidence of this beginning to happen in 2015, 2016, 2017. You're going to see it slightly in many places. These energies take a long time to mature, and they're not all going to happen fast and instantaneous. Some of you are going to be convinced that the world is going through a dark place and you're all going with it. This is because you don't see the changes for what they are, and you don't understand what is really happening. We've said it before, that when you shine a lot of light in a dark place, the things that were always in the dark object. That's what you're seeing now, and you'll see more of it. These dark things were always there, but they just didn't have the light on them that you're placing on them now.  …”

Ozone problem on course for fix by mid-century: UN

Yahoo – AFP, Richard Ingham, 10 Sep 2014

In their first review in four years, the UN says Earth's damaged ozone layer is "well

 on track" for recovery to a benchmark level by mid-century (AFP Photo/Frederic J. Brown)

Paris (AFP) - In some rare good news for the environment, the UN on Wednesday said Earth's damaged ozone layer was "well on track" for recovery by mid-century, although fixing it over Antarctica would take longer.

In their first review in four years on Earth's vital shield, UN agencies said a 1987 treaty to protect the ozone layer was so successful it was indirectly adding to problems in another area -- global warming.

Without the landmark Montreal Protocol, two million extra cases of skin cancer would have occurred each year by 2030 and levels of ozone-damaging compounds could have increased tenfold by 2050, the report said.

Recovery to a benchmark level of 1980

 "is expected to occur before mid-century in

 mid-latitudes and the Arctic, and somewhat

 later for the Antarctic ozone hole," the UN 

report said (AFP Photo/Vanderlei Almeida)

The pact had also averted ultra-violet damage to human eyesight and to plants and animals, it said.

"The Earth's protective ozone layer is well on track to recovery in the next few decades," the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.

Recovery to a benchmark level of 1980 "is expected to occur before mid-century in mid-latitudes and the Arctic, and somewhat later for the Antarctic ozone hole," their report said, standing by estimates made in 2010.

UNEP chief Achim Steiner hailed the Montreal Protocol, which set a timetable for scrapping chemicals that deplete the ozone, as "one of the most successful environmental treaties" in history.

"However, the challenges that we face are still huge. The success of the Montreal Protocol should encourage further action not only on the protection and recovery of the ozone layer but also on climate."

Ozone is a three-atom molecule of oxygen. In the stratosphere, a layer of the atmosphere that lies at between 10 and 50 kilometres (six to 32 miles) in altitude, it is a natural shield for life on Earth's surface.

It filters out harmful ultra-violet light from the Sun that can cause sunburn, cataracts and skin cancer and damage vegetation.

Its thinning -- the "ozone hole" -- is caused by extreme cold temperatures at high altitude but also by man-made chlorine compounds, such as coolants in air conditioners and refrigerators, insulation foams and propellants in hair sprays.

Most of these substances, notably chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons, are being phased out on schedule under the Protocol, which has been ratified by all 197 UN members.

Although it said the news for the ozone layer was generally good, the 110-page report, authored by 300 scientists, also warned of potential pitfalls.

It pointed to an ozone-eroding compound, carbon tetrachloride, whose production continues to rise, even though it is covered by the treaty.

Measured atmospheric levels of this substance are "much larger" than production and usage figures that countries have reported over the last decade, the report said.

And it also pointed to man-made nitrous oxide (N2O) -- a precursor of an ozone-gobbling gas, nitric oxide (NO) -- which is not covered by the Protocol.

N2O emissions mainly result from natural activity by soil bacteria, but around a third come from human activity, such as fertilisers, fossil fuels, livestock manure and industry.

Tackling these emissions "will become more important" as CFC levels decline, the report said.

Heat-trapping substitute

Many CFCs are also greenhouse gases -- according to the report, action under the Protocol saved the equivalent about 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually in 2010.

Without the landmark Montreal Protocol,

 a 1987 treaty to protect the ozone layer,

 two million extra cases of skin cancer 

would have occurred each year by 

2030 (AFP Photo/Valery Hache)

The problem is that industries have substituted CFCs for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which do not attack the ozone layer but can also be powerful trappers of solar heat.

At present, HFC emissions are the equivalent of about 500 million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide.

But they are rising at a rate of about seven percent per year, and could reach up to 8.8 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent annually by 2050, close to that of the peak of 9.5 billion tonnes reached by CFCs in the late 1980s.

Safer substitutes that are less effective greenhouse gases do exist. Bringing these into production would "essentially" wipe out HFC's contribution to climate change, the UN experts said.

"International action on the ozone layer is a major environmental success story," said Michel Jarraud, the WMO's secretary general.

"This should encourage us to discourage us to display the same level of urgency and unity to tackle the even greater challenge of climate change."

Blind and leading the band: Jose plays hot jazz piano at nine years old

Bolivian boy Jose Andre Montanho impresses audiences with his brand of jazz despite being only nine – and blind

theguardian.com, Reuters in La Paz, Sunday 7 September 2014

Blind nine-year-old jazz pianist Jose Andre Montanho shows his skills.

With his dancing fingers and slick rhythm Jose Andre Montanho has become a rising star in Latin America’s music scene – not least because he’s blind and just nine years old.

At the young age of four the Bolivian boy from the colonial city of Totora picked up the drums with astonishing proficiency and quickly moved on to the piano. By age five he had formed a jazz trio.

If his ample musical talent – unmatched by many skilled musicians two or three times his age – wasn’t already enough, the fact that Jose is blind adds to his strikingly impressive resume.

Now he regularly performs across Bolivia and further afield.

“I’ve already been to Brazil and to Lima. I’m also playing in other municipalities such as La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. I’m already famous because I travel a lot,” he said.

On Friday night Jose wowed crowds at the La Paz’s annual jazz festival. “It’s really going to inspire me [playing the jazz festival]. I love jazz. I listen to it a lot and I love it,” he said a few hours before taking to the stage.

Apart from being able to play any jazz song in the book with alarming ease and style, the Bolivian child prodigy has well-rounded musical taste and isn’t limited to jazz.

Jazz singer Vero Perez spoke of his playing style.

“The most interesting thing about Jose Andre is that he plays in such a way that he shows other musicians how jazz music really is which is to be completely free, and improvise and to play with the musicians that you are with. You might be playing one note and then he will change it. You really have to be ready to play with him this serious game that is jazz,” she said.

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"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) 

"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

... I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy..

When you come back, dear one, everything you know will be in your DNA and be on top [available]. You're not going to have to go through what you did before. As soon as you decide to look around and open the door [metaphor for free choice to awaken], everything you've learned this time around will be right there.

This is the attribute of what you would call "a child of new consciousness," which you have labeled with a color - indigo. The child remembers who they are. They are conceptual, and you believe they have to be taught from scratch! Hardly! They remember! Do you understand what is taking place? We told you this last time, but we want to review something with you: The animal on the prairie drops its calf and within hours, the calf is up, running with the herd. Did you know that the calf instantly knows who its enemies are, what water to drink that doesn't smell right, and what berries to eat that are not poison? Where did that come from? How did that infant animal know these things? The answer is that this information was biologically inherited. You call it instinct. But when you have a Human baby - nothing! It doesn't know anything but that it's hungry. It requires 20 years of teaching! Aren't you tired of that? Did you ever think about why the animals have so much knowledge to begin with and you have so little? Does that seem correct for the top of the evolutionary ladder? It's time for that to change.

You're starting to see it, even with the indigos. They come in knowing. That's why they're so impatient. You're trying to teach them things they already know instinctively. Just like the calf on the prairie, they come in knowing. Some of them try to teach you. That doesn't always go well. That was question three...."

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"..... DNA - A Quantum Force 

Now we get to the core truth, don't we? So I will tell you. The ninety percent of DNA which is quantum, is filled with information, both esoteric and timeless. It is a quantum blueprint for everything you are and have been since you arrived on the planet the first time. DNA contains instruction sets for your life; everything from your full Akashic Record - every single lifetime you have had - to the benevolent creator's fingerprint within the seeds of creation itself. Every single talent you ever had is there, even if you don't have any of those today... the record is there. Every predisposition of weakness and strength are there. Biologically, every single instruction to every single stem cell is there. . ..."

"..... DNA is a Dynamic Molecule, not a static one.

Humanity is stuck in the 3D portion of their biological thinking. In your 3-D life, you simply accept the chemistry you're given. You act as though the three percent gene producing part is all there is. You believe it is a chemical protocol that is unchangeable and simply "you." You don't see it for the way it's designed. It's dynamic and always has been. It's not set, but will continue to simply repeat what it does unless there is another quantum influence on it.

Therefore you live with the 3 percent as though it were all there is, and since it just "came with your body" and seems to control everything, you never talk to it. Many of you come in with pre-dispositions based upon the karma which is put upon you from your past lives. You don't come in clean [without karmic energy]. Instead, you arrive with pre-dispositions, fears and phobias. Some are positive. Perhaps you come in as a prodigy continuing your last life... the 8-year-old who can paint like a master and do brushstrokes that take 30 years to develop. What does that tell you about what must be in the DNA?

Perhaps you come in as the composer, the pianist, the prodigy, the violinist, just waiting until your hands can go on the fingerboard or can reach up and fret the notes. Perhaps you come in knowing how to play the piano, just waiting for your hands to get big enough to do what you used to do... without any lessons. How do you explain that, dear ones? The answer is that all this is contained in the dynamic quantum instruction sets of your DNA... the part you never talk to it. .."

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon, would you please tell me if Indigo Children and Star Children are the same? Can someone born in the 1960’s be an Indigo?

Answer: Dear Human, don’t get bogged within your linearity in these things. You wish to compartmentalize everything, and thereby feel more comfortable in your understanding. Know this: All children being born on the planet have strong potential to be of the Indigo consciousness. Within that group there are many parts and attributes. What you have called a “Star Child” is a type of Indigo. The same goes for the “Crystal Children.”

Years ago we identified a new breed of Human that was slowly being introduced to earth. Now they are so plentiful that many are beginning to notice and categorize them. Our admonition is NOT to, but we know that sometimes make you feel better to do so. Another name for these “Star Children” are the Interdimensional or even the Interplanetary, if you wish.

As far as the potential of those born before or during the 1960’s: The answer is yes, but with a qualification. The “pure” Indigo Children have really only been arriving slowly for the past 25 or 30 years, but there are many who have what we call an “Indigo overlay.” This is Human who fits the generalizations, but without some of the absolutes that are buried in what you call the DNA that really qualify this new Human experience.

— Kryon

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

“…. The Biggest Change...

Old soul, right before you come back into the planet, the energy is completely different at the Wind of Birth because of what has happened in the last 20 years. In this new energy past 2013, the old soul who is coming back with that spiritual library filled with spiritual purpose is comfortable with this process. He intuitively remembers very fully what he has been through. Did you hear that? This is different than the last time! This is a result of everything that has happened in these last years. You have changed the rules!

The old soul is not going to be subject to some of the energies that push and pull a younger soul. The old soul has made up his or her mind as part of the planning about what they are going to do that they could not do before within an older energy. This is only possible since they can now plan on having the spiritual jar intuitively open early in the new life. The old soul may even know this now and plan for this before the end of his/her current life, intuitively knowing about the next life during the current life. This is the difference, dear ones. It's the beginning of "intuitive spiritual logic".

We've told you in previous channels about some of the interesting differences between new Humans and ones like you, who have been born into an older energy. We've told you that the quantum DNA alterations that you have created by living many lifetimes of awakening to enlightenment and knowledge will now allow you to be a very different child in your next life. It will be a child who remembers how to read instead of one who is taught how to read; a child who can walk earlier and talk earlier, because he remembers how. This is because the bridge in the DNA is starting to be complete between what was and what is. What this means is that the DNA is starting to quantumly change into its original state of being, which is that of being far more efficient. You will see it first in the children and, dear ones, don't expect to see it in a microscope. Instead, you will have to eventually ask a sociologist to prove any of this, for it will be seen first as a change in Human behavior.

Therefore, old souls will come in as Humans who will not need to start over and be taught everything from scratch, but instead will arrive with a full load of intuitive past-life experience. As their brains develop, they may even remember who they are [old souls who have been here before]. This is the promise of the new energy, especially after 2013. You're going to see changes in some of your children and grandchildren as they arrive and grow up. The stigma of a planet that is going to be destroyed by war or by God will not be among the energies of the new ones. The promise of a planet going into new, unchartered areas of quantum discovery will be upon them. They'll need a whole new set of tools.

Who Has Gone Through This?

Oh, you have all participated in this wind. Everyone in the room has participated in this. You stood there knowing what the life lessons were and the potentials of what was next due to what had happened in previous lives. These were not mistakes, dear ones. These were the results of potentials and plans you made for your own soul.

There is no newbie here in this room [to be explained]. Not all of you listening and reading, however, are old souls in the classic sense - souls who have been here hundreds of times. But you have been here before, so this counts as one who has walked through the process many times. It's what makes you interested in this material. Did you think of that? There is great variety, however, in the understanding of this knowledge among you. It is absorbed very differently between you. Some will sleep through it and others will be spiritually awakened by it [Kryon smile]. It depends on where you are on the path you planned. Again, each path is unique. …”

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California to be first US state to ban plastic bags

Yahoo - AFP, 5 Sep 2014

Customers of Ralphs supermarket use plastic bags to carry their groceries back

home, in Glendale, California, on October 25, 2011 (AFP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

Los Angeles (AFP) - California governor Jerry Brown said he will approve a ban on single-use plastic bags, in what would make the western US state the first to outlaw them.

Lawmakers passed the bill late last Friday, and it now only requires Brown's signature to pass into law. The governor must do so before the end of September.

"I probably will sign it, yes," Democratic veteran Brown said late Thursday during a televised debate with his Republican election rival Neel Kashkari, who is trailing badly in opinion polls.

California governor Jerry Brown speaks 

during a press conference in San Francisco, 

California, on January 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Justin Sullivan)

"In fact, I'll tell you why I'm going to sign it: there are about 50 cities with their own plastic bag ban, and that's causing a lot of confusion," he said, cited by the Los Angeles Times and other media.

He added: "This is a compromise .. It's taking into account the needs of the environment, and the needs of the economy and the needs of the grocers."

Under the Californian legislation, single-use plastic bags would disappear from grocery stores and pharmacies from July 1, 2015, and then from convenience and liquor stores from July 1, 2016.

The bill would allow stores to charge 10 cents for paper or reusable bags. Similar bans, backed by environmentalists, are already in place in cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco.

A ban is opposed by Republicans who say it would be too much government meddling for small and medium sized businesses, and by bag manufacturers who fear job losses.

Kashkari -- who latest polls indicate trails by 50 percent to 34 percent for the November 4 gubernatorial post -- said he opposes the legislation.

"No chance would I sign that bill," he said in Thursday's debate.

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Airlines struggle to serve sustainability

Airlines around the world are trying to reduce their ecological footprint by serving locally-produced and sustainable food. While the trend appears to be growing, experts say more needs to be done.

Deutsche Welle, 3 Sep 2014

Consumer awareness and demand are driving the food industry in industrialized countries toward sustainability - locally sourced food and waste reduction are among the top trends for restaurants in 2014, according to a US restaurant association survey. Demand for regional and organic food continues to increase in Europe, including in Germany.

Despite ever more organic bistros sprouting up, it is still not standard practice to serve sustainable or locally-sourced food on airline flights. But this is starting to change.

"Increasingly, customers want to know where their food is from and how it's been sourced," explains Sinead Ferguson, a menu design manager for British Airways. "So we've embraced this."

Sustainability taking off

In the UK, one percent of all food transport is done by plane, but it accounts for 11 percent of carbon emissions, according to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs statistics. By using food grown locally that doesn’t have to be flown to the airport before being served to passengers, airlines can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced.

Airline meals typically come with
plenty of packaging

Today, cookies served on British Airways flights come from an organic bakery located on the Scottish island of Mull. The fish, tea and coffee served are sustainably sourced, and the airline says its bottled water comes in packaging that is entirely renewable.

In October 2012, China Airlines began labeling food on flights from Taipei to Frankfurt with its respective carbon footprint, becoming the world’s first airline to do so. The carbon footprints are calculated by the Taiwan-based Industrial Technology Research Institute. Items such as the "Authentic Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup" for business class passengers and "Plain Omelette with Mini Sausage and Hash Brown" meal for economy class range from between 0.43 and 3.52 kilograms (one to 7.76 pounds) of equivalent carbon dioxide emissions per meal.

Another airline using sustainable food and beverages is KLM. "We want to set the standard for sustainable aviation," says Roel Verwiel from KLM. "Instead of getting the chicken [on our flights] from South America or Thailand, we've replaced that by locally-sourced chicken."

And Bobbie Egan from Alaska Airlines says that utensils on the US carrier's flights are compostable - and the airline's coffee mugs are made from recycled water bottles.

Coming back down to earth

But despite these projects, Simon Heppner - founder of the Sustainable Restaurant Association - says airlines still have a way to go before being truly sustainable in the food and drinks they serve.

He sees the main problem as the tight profit margins in the aviation industry, which make prioritizing sustainable food products and packaging a low priority. This is combined with the fact that airlines tend to tackle one issue of sustainability at a time.

"I think there have been lots of examples in the past couple of decades of airlines that have focused on a specific issue within sustainability," Heppner told DW. "But no one's looked at it holistically and said 'we want to push forward on all of these, and all at the same time.'"

KLM uses uses beef from "free cows"

Food waste is another issue, Heppner says. Due to international regulations, uneaten airline food and the containers they are in must be incinerated, used as fuel or disposed of in a landfill. This is done to avoid spread of nonnative animal or plant species that could harm local ecosystems.

"The reality is that everything you see on board is not able to be recycled," says Heppner.

Sharing sustainability

With the continued growth of worldwide air travel - airlines carried more than three billion passengers in 2013, according to the International Air Transport Association, with the according to the Carbon Neutral Company's roundtrip flight from Frankfurt to New York emitting more than a ton of carbon dioxide - British Airways' Ferguson says focus on sustainable food and drinks may increase in the future.

And, indeed, some German airlines are beginning to include sustainable food on their flights. Lufthansa's "Discover Slow Food" campaign, in cooperation with the sustainable food advocacy group Slow Food, served business class passengers on European flights local German specialties such as Diepholzer Moorschnucke, a breed of sheep from Lower Saxony.

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Freaky Physics Experiment May Prove Our Universe Is A Two-Dimensional Hologram

TheHuffington Post, David Freeman, Aug 29, 2014

Fermilab scientist Aaron Chou (left), project manager for the Holometer experiment, 

with Vanderbilt University graduate student Brittany Kamai peer into the device that

will test whether the universe is a 2-D hologram. | Fermilab

Everyone knows the universe exists in three dimensions, right? Maybe not. For some time now serious physicists have been pondering the seemingly absurd possibility that three-dimensional space is merely an illusion--and that we actually live in a two-dimensional "hologram."

And now scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois have launched a mind-blowing experiment to show once and for all what sort of universe we live in.

"We want to find out whether space-time is a quantum system just like matter is," Dr. Craig Hogan, director of Fermilab's Center for Particle Astrophysics, said in a written statement. "If we see something, it will completely change ideas about space we've used for thousands of years." 

According to quantum theory's uncertainty principle, it's impossible to know both the precise location and the exact velocity of a subatomic particle. If the same uncertainty principle applies to space as well as to matter, space too should have built-in fluctuations--a.k.a. "quantum jitter" or "holographic noise," according to the statement.

The 21 scientists involved in the experiment will look for the jitter with the help of an exquisitely sensitive device known as a Holometer. It produces laser beams 200,000 times brighter than a laser pointer and, with the help of an optical technique known as interferometry, measures jitter in the beams as small as a few billionths of a billionth of a meter.

A close-up of the Holometer at Fermilab.

The holometer includes two interferometers in 6-inch steel tubes about 40 meters long.
Optical systems (not shown here) in each one “recycle” laser light to create a steady,
intense laser wave. The outputs of the two photodiodes are correlated to measure 
holographic jitter.

"If we find a noise we can't get rid of, we might be detecting something fundamental about nature--a noise that is intrinsic to space-time," Dr. Aaron Chou, the experiment's lead scientist and project manager for the Holometer, said in the statement. "It's an exciting moment for physics. A positive result will open a whole new avenue of questioning about how space works."

The prospect of making a discovery that would not only defy common sense but also overturn centuries of scientific thinking has Chou thinking in philosophical, almost mystical terms.

"I have always believed that if indeed there is a creator, then the mechanism by which the world was created is not necessarily unknowable, and if we delve deeply enough we might reach some very interesting and inescapable conclusions," Chou told The Huffington Post in an email. "This topic brings up all sorts of interesting philosophical and theological questions which are perhaps better discussed over a beer or a nice cup of tea. In the meantime, we scientists have a job to do."

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"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

“… The Incredible Design - Against All Odds

But that's not all. Then they will tell you something that you cannot believe. It has to do with what you call random chance. So we're going to call this channelling, "The Quantum Factor." There is something you didn't expect that is happening all around you. In your three-dimensional reality, everything that happens on the earth seems to be in a random state. That is to say, reality responds in an expected bell-shaped curve. Common things happen more often than uncommon things. The odds take a shape of expected randomness. If you were to roll a dice over and over thousands of times, you would see a consistency of randomness that is what you call the way things work. That's what you expect. There's no bias to it.

Back to the astronomer - the astronomer is saying, "Everywhere we look, examining what you would call ‘the creating energy of the Universe', is incredibly mathematically improbable. It would be like if you rolled the dice and you got six and then six and then six, a thousand times. It is beyond the realm of randomness. It shows there had to be intelligent design." Now I'm not talking about a metaphysical person. I'm talking about an astronomer. Everywhere they look, against all odds, the Universe is benevolently designed for life. They've used the term "intelligent design." I use the term "benevolent design." And I will tell you that the energy that glues the solar systems of your galaxy together, more than 100 billion stars, is a giant quantum hand that sits upon all the galaxies of your Universe like the hand of God. It's a quantum, benevolent hand.

How can this be? It is the first of many examples we are going to give you, for this is the quantum factor, the very creator fingerprint of the Universe. It is biased in love, biased for life, biased in benevolence. Here you are, sitting on an earth that shouldn't actually exist, for the only thing that allows it to exist is intelligent design.

How long did it take for science to realize this? For them, it's a puzzle, not a divine statement. It's out of statistical probability and seems to only have been possible by design - a benevolence that is the creator energy of the Universe. Think of that. What does this mean to you? If there is a benevolence in the overall creation of the Universe allowing for life, allowing for this earth to exist, it means that other earths exist. There's life everywhere! We told you that many times. However, we sit on a very special earth - the planet that is the only planet of free choice anywhere. There's only one in every Universe, and there have been other planets of free choice before. There are also graduate planets of free choice, providing the seeds of life to other planets, which then become new planets of divine free choice.

So here you are, the creative energy in you has the wisdom of the ages. It is the wisdom of the ages of your galaxy, not of your earth. Others before you in the billions of years that this galaxy has existed have participated in other tests of consciousness. They have graduated to new levels of benevolence, passing it on to the next planet. It is a long-term event, and eventually you will do the same. In this way, you populate the galaxy with your own seeds and the seeds of those before you - seeds of divine purpose.

As you pass this benevolence, it actually shapes the next Universe and how intelligent the design will be. It has been around a long time to get to this place where physics can be shown to have an attitude. It is an attitude of benevolence. That's the big picture. Let's move to a medium one. ….”

Taiwan committed to developing renewable energy: President Ma

Want China Times, CNA 2014-09-01

Ma Ying-jeou speaks at the Youth Policy Forum in Taipei, Aug. 31.
(File photo/Fang Chun-che)

President Ma Ying-jeou reiterated Sunday that Taiwan remains committed to the development of renewable energy and will continue pursuing new energy resources.

"This is an era when people should not give up any energy options," Ma said, speaking before the national conference of the annual Youth Policy Forum held by the Ministry of Education. "Taiwan must spare no efforts to develop renewable energy," he said.

Ma added that Taiwan must determine what combination of energy resources are best for Taiwan and have the public's support.

He also said that the nation's renewable energy policy often faces a dilemma, since plans to build renewable energy-generating systems on land draw opposition from farmers, while creating sea-based power generation results in objections from fishermen.

Therefore, he has found that for a renewable energy development plan to be successful, the developer should first try to learn what local residents want and sign a mutually-beneficial agreement with local communities, Ma said.

In Taiwan, wind and solar energy are the main sources of renewable energy. The installed capacity of renewable energy-generated electricity accounted for 8.7% of the total, as of the end of 2013, according to the state-run Taiwan Power Company.

More than 300 young people attended the Sunday national conference of the Youth Policy Forum, for discussions on various issues ranging from culture, education and environmental protection to international and social matters.

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