The images are jaw-dropping. Dozens of vehicles plunged well over a hundred feet when a massive section of an elevated/suspension bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy. The death toll continues to grow (currently 35); and incredibly there were/are actual survivors being pulled from vehicles. The bridge was built in 1967, and there was a very bad storm at the time of the collapse. An eye witness stated he saw a direct lightning strike on the support tower just prior to the moment of failure.
(Via Daily Mail) At least 35 people have been killed ‘including a baby’ and dozens more are feared dead after a huge 260ft section of a highway bridge collapsed during a fierce storm in the Italian city of Genoa.
Cars fell hundreds of feet along with tonnes of twisted steel and concrete debris into a river, railroad tracks and an industrial zone below when the Morandi bridge gave way at 11.30am local time.
Officials fear ‘dozens’ are dead in what is being described as ‘an immense tragedy.’ There are reports that a baby is among the victims and that two people died in their homes when the giant structure collapsed.
Amid ‘apocalyptic’ scenes, up to 35 cars and three heavy trucks cascaded into the valley below as they were making their way over the bridge.
One witness said he saw the 50-year-old structure ‘wobbling’ minutes before it gave way and another said they saw it being struck by lightning just before it crumbled. (read more)
QUESTION: Do you think that quantum computing will really change the world and is it feasible in our lifetime?
FD
REPLY: Quantum Computing is the first real change in computer science. Traditional computers encode information in bits which are essentially magnets that store a charge and that created the binary code of 1 and 0. Therefore, 8 magnets form a bit and thus the letter A would be 01000001. You can store the entire alphabet in these bits.
Quantum computers, on the other hand, work entirely different. They are based on qubits, which operate according to two key principles of quantum physics: superposition and entanglement. The superposition means that each qubit can represent both a 1 and a 0 at the same time. Entanglement means that qubits in a superposition can be correlated with each other, which means that whether the state of one is actually a 1 or a 0 can depends entirely upon the state of another. Using these two principles, qubits can act in a more complex yet sophisticated manner. This enables quantum computers to function in ways that allow them to solve difficult problems that are inflexible or difficult utilizing today’s computers.
Whether it is actually possible to solve is one of the greatest mysteries of life and not fully recognizable just yet. There are experiments being conducted to see if they can solve problems that would be impossible with standard coding. Will they change the world? It is possible, but not yet. Socrates was designed with standard computer binary structures. However, in order to work out some of the most difficult complex structures, it required creating a derivative of this principle of superposition and entanglement but artificially creating this quantum structure.
For example, this is a photo of a giant honey mushroom, located in Oregon, which is 2400 years old. It is actually all connected by a root system that stretches 3 miles. This is the LARGEST living organism on the planet. On the surface, you would assume they are all separate and individual. However, they are all connected and form part of the same organism. It is this same complex structure that connects all of us. Although we are independent on one level, we react and respond also collectively — the panic herd syndrome. Any attempt to forecast a single economy fails because it excludes the trends in all others.
Complexity is fascinating. It is all about how we approach it
Four of the twelve Thai schoolboys were rescued by divers in part one of an exhaustive international effort. The remaining boys will have to wait until oxygen tanks are replaced and equipment resupplied along the underwater system for the next attempt.
According to local officials it is expected to take at least 10 hours to re-stage the rescue equipment before attempting round #2 of the rescue. Each rescue team takes another 6 hours to navigate and guide the boys through a 4,000 meter long underwater labyrinth. There are more than 90 divers working on the rescue mission including 50 international divers from around the world.
CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – Four of 12 Thai schoolboys were rescued from a flooded cave on Sunday in a daring and dangerous operation to save the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks.
The operation to rescue the remaining eight boys – some as young as 11 and weak swimmers – and the coach was called off at nightfall until Monday to give the divers time to replenish oxygen supplies and ensure all preparations were complete.
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit guided the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on Friday.
“Today was the best day, the best situation in terms of the weather, the health of the boys, our water management for our rescue effort,” the head of the rescue operation, Narongsak Osottanakorn, told a news conference.
“Today we managed to rescue and send back four children to Chiang Rai Prachanukrua Hospital safely.”
The rescuers needed at least 10 hours to prepare for their next operation, involving about 90 divers in total, 50 of them from foreign countries, he said.
A helicopter flew the four boys to the nearby city of Chiang Rai, where they were taken by ambulance to the hospital. (read more)
QUESTION: Hey Marty,
Thanks for all your insight the last few years on what the models are projecting for volcanic & seismic activity. As usual, you’re on the money. The forecast of events laying out to 2032 is really starting to add up in their interconnectivity. God help us all.
My question is regarding the mid-Atlantic ridge and the US East Coast continental shelf faults. We all know you chose Tampa over the Florida Atlantic Coast; should we be concerned about tsunamis & seismic activity along the eastern seaboard?
As always, thanks for everything you do. You’re my hero.
Cheers,
DP ANSWER: That is actually a very good question. The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History have ALL taken place around the Pacific Rim of Fire – not in the Atlantic. Ideally, the next big one is interestingly due in 2021. The modern big quakes around the Pacific Rim have been:
1906 — San Francisco, California, Magnitude: 8. About 3,000 people died from the earthquake, on the San Andreas Fault, and resulting fire.
1923 — Tokyo, Japan, Magnitude: 7.9. One of the world’s most destructive earthquakes, more than 142,000 people died from collapsing buildings and the resulting firestorm. The quake also resulted in enormous tsunami waves.
1960 — Chile, Magnitude: 9.5. The largest earthquake ever recorded, the 1960 quake in Chile killed more than 1,600 people, with many of the deaths resulting from tsunamis. Waves reached 38 feet (11.5 meters) and carried debris as far as 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) inland.
1970 — Peru, Magnitude: 7.9. Approximately 66,000 people died, many from collapsed buildings and a post-earthquake avalanche.
2004 — Indonesia, Magnitude: 9.1. The third largest earthquake in the world in this century, the quake killed more than 227,000 people. Powerful tsunami waves crisscrossed the Indian Ocean and ravaged 12 Asian countries.
2011 — Japan, Magnitude: 9.0
When we turn to the Atlantic, there is a different problem altogether. I remember experiencing my first earthquake when I was probably the 4.5 quake of May 12, 1964, that hit Lancaster, Pa. I woke up and first though boy that was a loud train. Then I realized I did not live near a train track. When I came down in the morning the press was all talking about the earthquake that hit the area outside of Philadelphia. That was not in the ocean.
What we must understand about the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is that there may be a greater risk of tsunami events than major earthquakes. The continental slope is the topographic boundary between the continent and the ocean basin. It is a complex feature. What people do not generally understand is that relatively minor earthquakes can set off a tsunami. The greater risks are in the north from Newfound down to just below New Jersey. A relatively minor offshore earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or above could cause submarine avalanches that then generate tsunami events with waves higher than 26 feet (8 meters). The underwater canyons and bays could focus these waves and make them even much larger all from minor events.
Back in 1929, there was a 7.2-magnitude earthquake off the southern coast of Newfoundland that caused a large underwater landslide. It was that landslide that created a large wave that rushed ashore and killed some 28 people on the island. However, the waves were at first about 26 feet high until they reached the narrow inlets. This compressed all the energy causing the tsunami to grow to 43 feet (13 m). That was absolutely devastating.
There is evidence that at least a 12-foot tsunami wave hit Manhattan around 300BC. Geological experts reported that this ancient tsunami dumped sediment, shells and marine fossils across the region inland that date back to 300BC. Tsunami waves are rare events in the Atlantic. One theory is that a New York tsunami may have been triggered by an asteroid. However, no crater has ever been discovered. It is far more likely that an earthquake simply triggered an avalanche.
Historically, New York City has been hit by large earthquakes over the 5 scale about once a century. There was a 5.2-magnitude quake that shook New York City back in 1737 and another of the same severity hit on August 10th, 1884 with tremors being felt from Maine to Virginia. I have been in New York City for at least two earthquakes that I remember. They were minor but enough that you felt them. One I recall was in 1981 and one around 2002. The biggest hit on an 18-year cycle in 2010, but that was only a 3.2 measurement. There is a small fault that runs down 125th Street. That is the one that produced the tremors of 1981. It is also believed that this is the source of the big one that hit in 1737. Curiously, the next big one is due in 2031. That could reach a 7.2 level or so.
If you look at NYC closing, you will notice that the skyscrapers are clustered. This seems to be the most overlooked aspect of New York City with people assuming that it’s just all about Wall Street. Not True! Skyscrapers clearly dominate the Manhattan skyline, but they are actually clustered in two distinct areas. Downtown is home to the Financial District. Midtown includes the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Park Avenue and Times Square. The reason is the surface bedrock over much of New York City provides solid anchorage to support the high buildings. Although there are two areas of this strong bedrock at or close to the surface, there is a valley in between where the building heights are noticeably lower.
In fact, the entire region south of 30th Street is where the bedrock begins to drop down and by the time your reach Washington Square, it is well below the surface. In reality, Manhattan has a valley in the center between midtown and Wall Street that would be underwater if it were not filled in with debris from various periods which may include the ancient tsunami. That is why there are no skyscrapers between the two regions.
Manhattan has NUMEROUS faults running through it and there as frequent earthquake activity on them. However, this activity is very small so people do not notice. However, there may be a risk of a larger scale earthquake that we are unable to define lacking the data before 1700. Still, New York City metropolitan is ranked as moderate on the risk scale. However, because of the density and the age of many buildings constructed of brick, a moderate earthquake would have considerable consequences in terms of public safety and economic impact more so than many other places. A 5.0-magnitude earthquake today like that of 1884 or 1737, would be far more significant given the density and construction concerns.
Therefore, the risk of an offshore earthquake that causes an avalanche on the ridge would produce a tsunami. On the other hand, there are earthquake faults in Manhattan that are numerous and the density combined with poor construction from brick increase the risk to Manhattan with just a 5+ earthquake.
Believe it or not, mussels in Seattle are testing positive for opioids. Mussels are what are known as “filter feeders” since they absorb food from their surrounding environment. The problem that is surfacing is demonstrating the difference between “pollution” and “climate change,” which so many people assume are the same thing. Mussels absorb also all contaminants from their environment into their tissues. Scientists in Seattle used cages to transplant clean mussels from an aquaculture source to 18 urbanized locations around Puget Sound. After a few months, they recovered the mussels from the urban waters and tested them.
In three of the 18 locations they selected, the mussels shockingly tested positive for trace amounts of oxycodone. It seems the mussels are getting high. What is happening is that humans are ingesting opioids and excreting traces of the drugs into the toilet. Those chemicals in turn then end up in wastewater because not all contaminants can be filtered out of wastewater. Then the city ejects the wastewater into Puget Sound and we end up getting the sea life high.
You might want to avoid “fresh” catches around major cities.
COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong; It is really getting bad here in Hawaii. Thank you for your writings on volcanos. It helped me convince my family to move to another island. There was a very loud explosion. That was simultaneous with a fairly large earthquake here we felt everywhere. It really keeps getting worse.
Thank you
REPLY: Yes, it was a 5.4 quake which is something you will feel in the entire region. The ash reached 10,000 feet high. No, it is not over yet. Because of the type of this volcano sitting on top of a hot spot, it is strikingly different than most. The sudden eruption throwing ash now into the sky is concerning for this has been a volcano that continuously has had activity. It is now in a phase of higher volatility from a cyclical perspective.
Once again, the more volcanic activity that erupts from 2018 onward will cool the climate and set the tone for the commodity rally into 2024 that our model is projecting.
Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted with the most violent volcanic eruption in more than a century. People have been buried alive in the ash like Pompey. The eruption so far took place on Sunday and lasted for 16 and a half hours. The eruption reached 14,763 feet of ash thrown into the air. This is one of the more spectacular photos taken with lightning posted by Gloria Garces. You can see a brief video of the eruption captured by satellites at the NOAA.
So far, we have three volcanoes now all erupting here in 2018 around the Pacific Rim of Fire. As previously warned, the more volcanos that erupt now contribute to the decline in temperature and this will help set the stage for the commodity rally coming in the years ahead. Nature is incredibly linked to cyclical behavior.
If everyone on the planet were to step on one side of a giant balance scale, and all the bacteria on Earth were to be placed on the other side, we’d shoot violently upward. That’s because all the bacteria on Earth combined are about 1,166 times more massive than all the humans.
Comparisons to other categories of life similarly demonstrate how very, very small we are. As a sweeping new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds, in a census sorting all the life on Earth by weight (measured in gigatons of carbon, the signature element of life on Earth), we make up less than 1 percent of life.
There are an estimated 550 gigatons of carbon of life in the world. A gigaton is equal to a billion metric tons. A metric ton is 1,000 kilograms, or about 2,200 pounds.
We’re talking in huge, huge, mind-boggling terms here.
So, using the new data in PNAS, we tried to visualize the weight of all life on Earth to get a sense of the scale of it all.
All life on Earth, in one chart
What you’ll see below is a kind of tower of life. Each large block of this tower represents a gigaton of life, and the blocks are grouped into broad kingdoms. There are the protists (think microscopic life like amoebae), archaea (single-celled organisms somewhat similar to bacteria), fungi (mushrooms and other types of fungus), bacteria (you’re familiar with these, right?), plants, and animals.
As you can see, plants dominate our world. If the tower of life were an office building, plants would be the main tenants, taking up dozens of floors. Comparatively, all the animals in the world — seen in gray in the tower — are like a single retail shop (a trendy one, to be sure) on the ground floor.
And if we zoom in on all animal life, we again see how insignificant humans are compared to everyone else in the kingdom. Arthropods (insects) outweigh us by a factor of 17. Even the mollusks (think clams) weigh more.
What’s missing from this chart is just as important
Yet despite our small biomass among animals, we’ve had an overwhelmingly huge impact on the planet. The chart above represents a massive amount of life. But it doesn’t show what’s gone missing since the human population took off.
The authors of the PNAS article estimate that the mass of wild land mammals is seven times lower than it was before humans arrived (keep in mind it’s difficult to estimate the exact history of the number of animals on Earth). Similarly, marine mammals, including whales, are a fifth of the weight they used to be because we’ve hunted so many to near extinction.
And though plants are still the dominant form of life on Earth, the scientists suspect there used to be approximately twice as many of them — before humanity started clearing forests to make way for agriculture and our civilization.
The census in the PNAS paper isn’t perfect. Though remote sensing, satellites, and huge efforts to study the distribution of life in the ocean make it easier than ever to come up with estimates, the authors admit there’s still a lot of uncertainty. But we do need a baseline understanding of the distribution of life on Earth. Millions of acres of forests are still lost every year. Animals are going extinct 1,000 to 10,000 faster than you’d expect if no humans lived on Earth. Sixty percent of primate species, our closest relatives on the tree of life, are threatened with extinction.
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Did you run a model on Florida hurricanes before you moved there?
KE
ANSWER: Of course. First of all, I chose Tampa area because it is the least impacted area. The local joke here is that the people say the Indian gods protect the area. This is where the Seminole Indians set up. They apparently also figured out this was the least impacted area. Nevertheless, I also ran models on tropical storms and hurricanes for Florida as a whole. The data I found went back to 1851. There have been 53 hurricanes since then into 2017. Divide that out to see what the average is and you get 3.132. Pretty close to Pi. This is just hurricanes excluding the lesser tropical storms.
If I include the 200 tropical storms since 1851 into 2017, the average comes out to about half Pi – 1.524. Then you filer it all out with volatility and intensity, as we should be going into a period of more storms per year into 2020.
There will always be earthquakes, volcanoes, storms and all sorts of disasters around the world. Most of us will not be personally injured by such events. However, knowing where they take place more commonly allows you to avoid higher probabilities. So Tampa was simply far better than Miami, which is sinking gradually anyway and the traffic is way too much. I figured I would spend 20% of the balance of my life in traffic jams. No thanks! So disclosing the risks enables us to prepare wisely. It also interesting to see nature at its cyclical bes
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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