Early morning of November 17 will have a wonderful display in the sky, with a strong showing of the Leonid Meteor Shower. This year’s meteor shower will look all the more better because of no interference from the moon, as November 16 is the new moon, so the skies will be dark and even the faint meteor streaks will be visible.
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An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 has struck southeastern Peru near Bolivias’s capital of La Paz.

Map of Peru

You can see all the seismic details from the US Geological Survey here. And, click here for a map of the area.

Reuters is reporting that the quake was not felt by witnesses in the area, and there are no reports of damages or casualties.

According to NPR, the depth of this particular earthquake could help explain why it wasn’t felt more on the surface.

On Tuesday, there was an earthquake off the coast of American Samoa in the South Pacific. And earlier today there was one near the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Are all three of these quakes related?

Researchers are looking into that possibility.

Officials are keeping a watch on Hawaii’s shoreline and asking boaters there to secure their vessels after a large earthquake shook the Pacific and sent a tsunami into Pago Pago in American Samoa earlier today.

Slow motion tsunami

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a  tsunami watch for the Hawaiian Islands. You can read the details of the regional warnings, watches, and advisories here.

As a result, the city of  Honolulu has activated its Emergency Operations Center.

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Did you know that the carbon emissions caused by deforestation are greater than those caused by the entire global transportation sector?

The Nature Conservancy wants to equip you with facts like this so you can start thinking about the solutions that nature holds for slowing carbon emissions and dealing with the effects of climate change.

In fact, last week, the Nature Conservancy launched a web-based campaign that aims to inspire a movement to respond—and offer solutions— to the threat of climate change.

The campaign, called “Planet Change,” educates site visitors about:

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Created by Microsoft, the WorldWide Telescope sports a high performance Visual Experience Engine and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments.

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables your PC to function as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world. A web-based version of WorldWide Telescope is also available now, for preview. This version enables seamless guided explorations of the universe from within a web browser. It’s compatible with PC (requires Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 though) and Intel Mac OS X.

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The Perseid meteor shower is happening tonight between midnight to 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 12. It will be visible in most of North America.

Late Tuesday night is an option as well.

The Perseids are bits of debris from the Comet Swift-Tuttle. Every year around August the Earth passes through these debris streams.

“They are typically fast, bright and occasionally leave persistent trains,” says a SPACE.com Columnist. “And every once in a while, a Perseid fireball will blaze forth, bright enough to be quite spectacular and more than capable to attract attention even in bright moonlight.”

God has a show in store for tonight for those who are up or wish to stay up. Remember, to give credit where credit is due.

The best times to watch:

1. between midnight and dawn Wednesday

2. 4am-5am EST.

3. 1-2am PST

4. After daybreak in Europe.

At first I saw David Groza playing the guitar from Israel. And I was like “Woooow, that guy is amazing!” But then I saw more and more people doing the same thing from different corners of the world (and yes, I know the world doesn’t have corners)— Congo, South Africa or Ghana. That was when I already had my ears up and my eyes sticking to the screen. Then, I finally understood what was going on.

All these people sing for a cause. They sing for a change. They sing for a world with no problems, with no war. They sing to make people aware that we don’t need first class and second class citizens, that the color of our skin should be just as important as the color of our eyes …

We don’t need, no more trouble. And it looks like music is our best weapon for a change.

I don’t know about you, but Bono and the other featured musicians had a great impact on me.

What’s the one thing we all miss?

Overpopulation Facts

Population explosion is modern world’s bottleneck towards progress with each and every problem that majority of the planet faces today finding roots in the excess mouths that we need to feed.

Human population might be growing at a geometric rate, but the fact remains that the planet is not going to expand and grow new land to create space and produce resources for more individuals. In such a situation common sense demands that we bring population to a stable figure that stops putting pressure on the supply chain.

Image courtesy of adriansalamandre

Solutions …

But good news is apparently on the way with recent report released by Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute claiming that the world population is starting to reach a figure of stability. With the chaos and multitude of overpopulation problems caused in the last half century, it is about time we had some sanity around. But this by no means indicates we are out of troubled waters.

According to the report countries like Japan, Russia, Germany, and Italy will see a decline in population while nations like USA and China will see a stable population that might decline slightly in the later half of the century.

But there is an important third group of nations like Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda, which would end up doubling their population by 2050. While UN projects world population anywhere in-between 9.2 to 10.8 billion by 2050, it would be interesting to see where nations like Brazil and India rank on such a list. Because … 201 million couples across the globe today are still deprived of birth control measures making it impossible to bring order at the present rate.

For the situation to develop, we need to understand that providing family planning options, creating awareness and giving incentives is essential. While things seem just in control as of now, they could quickly and easily spiral out of control if the global community does not act soon. Time for us to wake up to the population facts and its overwhelming impact!

Source: ENN

Alex came across some beautiful images of Aurora Borealis (northern lights). They are called aurora australis In the southern hemisphere.

I thought it might be interesting to throw in some of the appearances of the aurora in mythology that I found at wikipedia.

In Bulfinch’s Mythology, Thomas Bulfinch claimed in 1855 that in Norse mythology:

The Valkyrior are warlike virgins, mounted upon horses and armed with helmets and spears. /…/ When they ride forth on their errand, their armour sheds a strange flickering light, which flashes up over the northern skies, making what men call the “aurora borealis”, or “Northern Lights”.

Pretty stunning stuff. Must be incredible to see it live.

Check out more pictures …

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For some of us, mountains are the best places for a vacation, but for others is a way of living. I’m talking about climbers that take their chances to make it “on top of the world”, conquering some of the highest mountains out there. But some are not only after heights, they’re after the most dangerous mountains. They need adrenaline, even if they have to pay with their lives and that’s why we decided to make up a list with the deadliest mountains in the world.

Image: Wikipedia

In the Northern Areas of Pakistan, Baintha Brakk or commonly known as The Ogre Mountain, definitely deserves to be mentioned here. Rises above the north side of the Biafo Glacier, one of the major glaciers of the central Karakoram, and with an elevation of 7,285m (23,901 ft) Baintha Brakk is a dangerous combination of altitude, height above local terrain, and steepness. That’s the reason why the first ascent from 1977 was only followed 24 years later, in 2001.

Image: Wikipedia

Annapurna is a 55-km long massif in Himalaya with six major peaks over 7,200 m and the 10 highest peak in the world. In Sanskrit it means “full of food”, but locals call it the Goddess of the Harvests, however there’s another reason why Anapurna is famous. Since the first ascend in 1950, it’s been climbed by 130 people out which 53 died trying. Fatality rate is close to 40% making it the most statistically dangerous mountain in the world.

Image: Wikipedia

Remember Patagonia and the stunning Los Glaciares National Park? Located close to the amazing El Chaiten close to the Argentinta – Chile border, Monte Fitz Roy – also known as Cerro Chaltén or Cerro Fitz Roy, it’s guarded on all sides by steep rock faces that make it extremely difficult from a technical point of view. Because of unpredictable weather and the relative isolation, Monte Fitz Roy has been considered the most dangerous mountain in the world for decades.

Image: Se7en Summits

Though fully covered in snow, Antarctica has mountains. And one of them, Mount Vinson, has made it to the list with the most endangered mountains in the world. Though not very high, less difficult and with a lower fatality rate than the other mountains, Vinson is an isolated place with extreme temperatures and unpredictable weather. Accidents, no matter how small, are not an option and could lead to disasters.

Image: Wikipedia

Located in Northern Pakistan and part of the Karakoram segment in the Himalayan range, K2 is the second highest mountain in the world also known as the Savage Mountain. That’s because of its ascent difficulty. One out of four people die trying to “conquer” K2 making it one of the most dangerous in the world, all these because of steep, exposed, and committing nature of all routes, because of the extreme high altitude that lacks in oxygen and the fact that it’s renowned for extreme storms that last for days.

Image : judepics

Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain peaks after Mt. Everest and K2, it translates as The Five Treasures of Snows. Because technology evolved and we now have access to better gear, fatality rates are expeCted to go down, but not on Kangchenjunga. In the recent years, 22 people out of 100 trying to win the top have died because of avalanches and and weather hazards. It’s a dangerous mountain, indeed.

Image: Wikipedia

You would have expected, the highest mountains to be he most dangerous. Well, the Eiger mountain in the Swiss Alps made it to the list as a legendary dangerous, too. The most dificult part of the Eiger is the north face which got the “nickname” of Mordwand (Murder Wall).

Image: Wikipedia

Located on the Swiss-Italian border, Matterhorn (Cervino or Cervin) is one of the most renowned mountains in the European Alps. Looking like a horn rising, it was one of the last peaks in the Alps to be conquered and not only because of its technical difficulty, the prevalence of avalanches and rockfall,but mostly because of the fear it inspired in early mountaineers. Even though these days there are fixed ropes on parts of the routes to help, several climbers die each year.

Image: Ben Tubby

Nanga Parbat is the ninth highest peak in the world and i the western anchor of the Himalayas, lying south of the Indus River in the Astore District of Pakistan. In Urdu the name means Naked Mountain but Nanga Parbat is also two nicknames that made it famouse; Killer Mountain and The Man Eater. That’s mainly because of its technical difficulty.

Image: Giant Ginko

Mount Denali is the highest mountain in North America. Also known as Mount McKinley, the 20,32 ft tall mountain is renowned for its extreme weather conditions and temperature that make it a tough ride. More than 100 climbers lost their lives trying to conquer Denali, keeping the success rate at low levels (50%).

Image: vitafluida

The highest mountain on Earth (8,848 metres – 29,029 ft), Mount Everest makes it hard for climbers to reach its top mainly because of the high altitude where temperatures dip to very low levels causing frostbites to any body parts exposed to air. Exhaustion, extreme cold, the dangers of the climb or the low level oxygen (pressure is one third of sea levels pressure), makes Mt. Everest an undeniably dangerous objective.

So are you up to the challenge? Which one would you like to conquer?