Mount Everest Isn’t (Necessarily) the Tallest Mountain in the World

We’ve all heard that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. It’s definitely tall: a smidge over 29,000 feet (or a smidge under 9,000 meters), or 20 times as tall as the Empire State Building. But you could actually make the case that other mountains in the world are taller. It all depends on how you measure mountain height.

— Read on curiosity.com/topics/mount-everest-isnt-necessarily-the-tallest-mountain-in-the-world-curiosity

Interesting

How Did People Know the Earth Rotates Before Space Travel?

You’re on a giant sphere 8,000 miles (12,700 kilometers) in diameter that spins at about 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) per hour as it orbits the sun at 67,000 miles (107,000 kilometers) per hour. But you can’t tell by looking. To you, it feels like you live on a flat, motionless plane where the sun and stars move overhead but you stay safe and stationary. It took us centuries of scientific research to break ourselves out of that pleasant illusion, and we did it all before the first spacecraft ever left the atmosphere. How? Human ingenuity. In the case of learning that the Earth rotates, that ingenuity came from a 32-year-old medical school dropout.

— Read on curiosity.com/topics/how-did-people-know-the-earth-rotates-before-space-travel-curiosity

Climate Change – More than Global Warming | Armstrong Economics

There is a lot more to Climate Change than the dire predictions that we will be eating each other by now. The Sahara Desert was once lush and green. Then the weather systems shifted and the once fertile land turns to desert. The Sphinx is believed to have the face of Khafra of the 4th dynasty during the Old Kingdom which was carved perhaps around 2500BC. Some believe that the Sphinx predates the Egyptians and was actually a lion because there appear to be what some claim are water erosion marks. If true, then the original Sphinx may have existed even as far back as 10,000BC when a Lion would have faced the constellation, Leo. We do know that the Sahara was lush and tropical perhaps as late as 6,000 years ago. Curiously, this is about the length of recorded history. The stories of Noah seem to predate this period of recorded history and might have been linked to dramatic climate change. The story of Noah was even celebrated in Anatolia (modern Turkey) on the coinage of the Roman Empire. The weather has been changing in the desert. It is now in bloom once again. Indeed, there have been recent discoveries which confirm that the Arabian Peninsula was once a lush place. Tuthmosis IV was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century BC. The dream Tuthmosis IV took place when he was a prince. He dreamt that he stopped to rest in the shadow of the Sphinx during a hunting expedition in the desert. While asleep, the Sphinx spoke to him, saying that he would become king if he cleared away the sand that all but buried the Sphinx. When he became king, Tuthmosis IV cleared the sand and erected a stele that tells the story of his dream. There have been elephant tusks discovered and scientists have also uncovered 10,000 ancient lake and river beds across the Arabian Peninsula. All of this confirms that the climate was very different. What we do know is that the tropical belt has been moving northward once again. It was previously over the Sahara about 6,000 years ago. There are also cave drawings showing abundant wildlife in the Sahara. The question that arises is that the climate change we are witnessing is certainly not caused by humans. It has happened before many times. It is getting colder in the northern regions and what was desert is starting to bloom. What we do know is that Northern Africa was invaded by the Sea People who were probably Greeks forced to flee because of Climate Change. Perhaps we are witnessing similar events over the next 20 years of the dryer and colder weather in the north which compels many to flee to the south.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/climate/climate-change-more-than-global-warming/

5 Issues Science Hasn’t Settled Yet

Given how frequently we cover stories about science, it’s probably not surprising that a lot of us here at Curiosity feel a real affinity toward people who made scientific discovery their career. Can you imagine what it must feel like to answer a giant question about the universe with absolute certainty? Well, it turns out there’s a lot less certainty than we sometimes assume. Here are a few of our favorite scientific ambiguities, flip-flops, and raging debates.

— Read on curiosity.com/topics/5-issues-science-hasnt-settled-yet-curiosity

Global Cooling is Real – Major Temperature Low 2046? | Armstrong Economics

While NASA has now confirmed that the outer atmosphere is getting cooler, it seems desperately insane for people to keep denying the possibility the Global Cooling is taking place rather than Global Warming when the former brings famine and the latter brings economic expansion as civilizations rise. The rise of Rome was due to global warming as was the case after the Dark Age when they call that the Medieval Warming Period which was 950 to 1300AD. The concern from just a technical model perspective is that the warming period we have had post-1600 and the low of the Little Ice Age has not exceeded that of the Medieval Warming Period. If we simply look at this chart from a technical perspective, it appears more that we are in a grand downtrend for the past 6,000 years. This is deeply concerning for we tend to have these periods where civilization turns downward. It would be very nice if we just had authoritative research funded to explore Global Cooling to save society rather than this nonsense of Global Warming just to raise money for politicians who NEVER get enough. In Australia, with one week from summer, it is still snowing on Victoria. In fact, one of the top NASA scientists has broken camp and warned that the surface temperature of the sun has collapsed so much, he fears a new Ice Age is upon us. Meanwhile, this has been the COLDEST Thanksgiving in 150 years! What we must understand is this has gone beyond just breaking records for one-day events. This time around, it’s not just the severity of the cold that’s getting to people. It’s also the DURATION! The most reliable computer model projections have shown that the Arctic air has moved all the way down into Texas. Indeed, here in Tampa, the temperature is about 10 degrees below normal at times. The decline in the energy output of the sun has been far more rapid than most expected. This could perhaps be a warning sign that we will make a new lower low or retest the low temperatures on a sustained basis that match the Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age marked a period of cool summers and bitterly cold winters to New England. There was the Great Snow of 1717, which buried houses and resulted in having to organize search parties that were even lost while looking for buried survivors. Them there was the fame Cold Friday of 1810. People actually died in their homes as the temperature suddenly plummeted more than 60 degrees in less than a day. It was years later when Henry David Thoreau’s mother recalled how dishes froze as fast as they were washed even right next to the fire. The Post Office even issued commemorative stamps in 1976 noting that winter event. Washington and his troops suffered more in Morristown, N.J., during the Hard Winter of 1779-80. Violent snowstorms had battered the Northeast, and both Boston and New York harbors were completely frozen over. The weather made it impossible to bring supplies to the men, many of whom had no coats or even shoes. They couldn’t even eat for days at a time. The soldiers finally mutinied in early May, though an officer persuaded them to abandon their rebellion. Just as the weather had defeated Napoleon, weather nearly defeated the American Revolution. If this trend continues during the next winter, then we have exceeded any short-term reactionary trend and the weather appears poised to continue to get colder going into the distant future. Socrates was projecting that the peak on this cycle aligned with the ECM 2015.75. This is a Longitudinal Cycle, not Transverse. That means peak to bottom varies. This short-term wave should be a 13-year decline from 2015 making it 2028 initially. After that, if we see colder winters beyond 2028, then the next low will be with the peak in the ECM 2032. There is a SERIOUS RISK that we are looking at the final low coming in during the period of 2046.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/climate/global-cooling-is-real-major-temperature-low-2046/

An inconvenient truth

Self-Driving Cars Have to Decide Whether Passengers or Pedestrians Are More Important

You may have heard that self-driving cars are safer than cars with human drivers. And that’s probably true. Still, as driverless vehicles inch closer and closer to the country’s freeways and side streets, we’ll probably hear more and more about AI-controlled vehicles getting into deadly accidents. Even a perfect driver can’t avoid every accident. So if a self-driving car finds itself in a situation where a deadly accident is inevitable, how should it make a decision to minimize the damage?

— Read on curiosity.com/topics/self-driving-cars-have-to-decide-whether-passengers-or-pedestrians-are-more-important-curiosity

Moral dilemma

NASA’s First Asteroid-Sampling Spacecraft Is About to Reach Its Destination. Here’s What’s Next

A NASA spacecraft is on a rendezvous with history. The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft is on final approach to asteroid Bennu for a December 3 arrival, when it will enter the asteroid’s orbit. Next comes an incredible 18 months of preparations for the spacecraft to make its date with history: landing on the rock itself in order to pick up a sample to send back to Earth. Here’s why that’s exciting.

— Read on curiosity.com/topics/nasas-first-asteroid-sampling-spacecraft-is-about-to-reach-its-destination-heres-whats-next-curiosity

5 Body Parts You May Not Know You Have

You know the lyrics to “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” You also know you’ve got a heart, a liver, a stomach, and a brain. You might even know the names of most of your bones and muscles. But for most of us, the human body is just so complex that a few of the minor characters get forgotten. Here are five important body parts you probably didn’t know you have.

— Read on curiosity.com/topics/5-body-parts-you-may-not-know-you-have-curiosity