Good Bye 2008

Can't believe that another year is coming to an end... good bye 2008 and looking forward for a fabulous 2009. Happy new year to all...

The biggest news maker this year i would say was 'global warming' almost all the news papers / channels spoke about it atleast .. giving us evidence of the same. There was skeptics who did not believe that it was our CO2 that was doing that damage... Telegraph's Christopher believes the same...here is the article

Last Updated: 1:51PM GMT 30 Dec 2008

As Christopher Booker says in his review of 2008, temperatures have been dropping in a wholly unpredicted way over the past year. Last winter, the northern hemisphere saw its greatest snow cover since 1966, which in the northern US states and Canada was dubbed the "winter from hell". This winter looks set to be even worse.

The earth was hotter 1,000 years ago

Evidence from all over the world indicates that the earth was hotter 1,000 years ago than it is today. Research shows that temperatures were higher in what is known as the Mediaeval Warming period than they were in the 1990s. The earth's surface temperature is not at record levels

According to Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies analysis of surface air temperature measurements, the meteorological December 2007 to November 2008 was the coolest year since 2000. Their data has also shown that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s but the 1930s.

Ice is not disappearing

Arctic website Crysophere Today reported that Arctic ice volume was 500,000 sq km greater than this time last year. Additionally, Antarctic sea-ice this year reached its highest level since satellite records began in 1979. Polar bear numbers are also at record levels.

Himalayan glaciers A report by the UN Environment Program this year claimed that the cause of melting glaciers in the Himalayas was not global warming but the local warming effect of a vast "atmospheric brown cloud" over that region, made up of soot particles from Asia's dramatically increased burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

Temperatures are still dropping

Nasa satellite readings on global temperatures from the University of Alabama show that August was the fourth month this year when temperatures fell below their 30-year average, ie since satellite records began. November 2008 in the USA was only the 39th warmest since records began 113 years ago.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/4029837/Global-warming-Reasons-why-it-might-not-actually-exist.html

ensuring a safe netherland

ET

i have been reading about probes doing rounds and finding ideal zone for extra terrestrial life. Now what is this ideal zone or the so -called comfort zone.

1. The temperature is just right

2. Oxygen is optimum

3. Water is present and a few other things.

Now i would believe that, these are the conditions for earth like creatures to exist, but why are scientist bent upon looking at these places for ET????

Their make might as well be completely different and they may not need oxygen but something else to survive.... they may not need sunlight or i do not know.... these probes which cost so much could probably be used to find an alternative home for humans but not as a means to find ET's

Am sure people at places like NASA have thought about this long back... but for some reason we keep getting news like this one

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/titanmethane.html

all said lets invest more on our dear earth... and make it a better place to live