Published on 5 Jun 2015 : SmithsonianNMAI
Produced for the exhibition "The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire" (http://americanindian.si.edu/inkaroad/), on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., through June 1, 2018.

Every year, local communities on either side of the Apurimac River Canyon use traditional Inka engineering techniques to rebuild the Q'eswachaka Bridge. The old bridge is taken down and the new bridge is built in only three days. The bridge has been rebuilt in this same location continually since the time of the Inka.

This video is narrated by John Ochsendorf, professor of civil engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and produced by Noonday Films.

On Sunday night, Sept. 27th, the supermoon passed through the shadow of Earth, producing a total lunar eclipse visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. "It was one of the darkest lunar eclipses I have ever seen," reports Kevin R. Witman, who sends this picture from Cochranville, Pennsylvania:

Other observers (see the gallery) also remarked on the darker hue of this lunar eclipse, compared to others in recent years. What caused the change? Atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colorado offers one reason: "Supermoon eclipses should be a bit darker. Because of its closeness to Earth, a supermoon passes deeper into the shadow of our planet."

Working independently, Steve Albers of NOAA and Helio Vital of REA/Brazil have suggested another reason: aerosols in the atmosphere.  "Earth's stratosphere is no longer completely clean of volcanic ashes," says Vital. "In fact, lingering aerosols from the explosion of Calbuco, five months ago, may be to blame for that excessive darkening."

Calbuco is a volcano in Chile. After it erupted in April 2015, colorful sunsets were observed around the southern hemisphere for months. Recently, Albers has noted an increase in purple and yellow sunsets around his home town, Boulder CO, and elsewhere. These are telltale colors of volcanic exhaust.  "A thin veneer of aerosols from Calbuco may have now spread to the northern hemisphere," Albers says. "In addition, we could be seeing the effects of residual smoke from forest fires at high altitudes, or the general increase in sulfate pollution that has been documented on a global basis."

Richard Keen, who is a leading expert on volcanic aerosols and lunar eclipses, says "the Sept. 27th eclipse was about 0.5 magnitudes darker than expected for a clear stratosphere. A slight layer of aerosols in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere might explain this. Also, the Moon passed through the southern part of Earth's shadow, so southern hemisphere aerosols (such as those produced by Calbuco) would have greater effect."     www.spaceweather.com

“Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something - and it is only such love that can know freedom.”

“Those who desire to understand, who are looking to find that which is eternal, without beginning and end, will walk together with greater intensity, will be a danger to everything which is unessential, to unrealities, to shadows. They will concentrate. They will become the flame, because they understand.”

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

“Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.”

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

For the first time, NASA has confirmed the existence of liquid water on the surface of Mars, according to new research announced Monday. The finding stems from data and analysis by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has verified that dark, seasonal streaks that have appeared on Mars' surface come from briny water flows.

In early 2014, Dr. Christopher Holloman's team of researchers at The Ohio State University Statistical Consulting Service was able to construct a model that exhibited very strong agreement between solar magnetism patterns and the occurrence of large earthquakes.

Dr. Holloman warned that formal testing of the model can only be performed by examining its performance over the next few years, but that the agreement was sufficient to suggest that a relationship likely exists between solar polar fields, or magnetic fields associated with the north and south poles of the sun, and large earthquakes. Now we have a subsequent event that appears to comport with the initial study.

"This type of confirmation is merely the first step, but it is certainly a positive one," notes lead author Ben Davidson of SpaceWeatherNews LLC, "we were already in the process of investigating large seismic events since the end-date of our initial study when the Chile disaster occurred, and we hope to have further publications covering those events in more detail in 2016." The second paper was submitted by Davidson alone, and was restricted to analysis of the Chile earthquake in order to accompany the initial study.

"The most striking aspect of the model is that it is, for the most part, relatively simple," says Dr. Holloman. "The patterns observed in the solar magnetic fields aren't the result of applying some obscure mathematical functions. The algorithm is based on things like peaks and troughs in solar cycles or the absolute strength of one of the poles at a particular time. Such simple models are more often predictive than more complex models."

The relationship described here "may be linked to the electrical connections between the Earth and the Sun," according to Dr. Kongpop U-yen. "After looking at the complete data set, it is not difficult for anyone to see that there is a connection. To be sure we did not fool ourselves, we back up this finding using verifiable statistical analysis." The scientific field has been making a move to integrate electromagnetic and electrostatic elements into the general discourse, and the team believes that these papers fall in that same vein of progress.

The studies also suggest that interplanetary magnetic fields associated with lower-latitude coronal holes, especially those attached to polar coronal hole structures, may also provide avenues for further study, along with alternative ways to monitor this field activity, such as the intensity of the solar wind associated with the coronal holes. Commenting further on the simplicity of the algorithm, Davidson notes, "We look at extremes in magnetism and reversal of polarity - it is actually quite simple."

Both papers will be published in the upcoming issue of New Concepts in Global Tectonics available October 5th, 2015, and discussion of solar-triggered earthquakes will be part of Observing the Frontier in Pittsburgh, PA on October 17 and 18, 2015.

This weekend's full Moon is a "supermoon," as much as 50,000 km closer to Earth than other full Moons of the year. Rising in the east at sunset, the swollen disk will look extremely beautiful... because it is going to be eclipsed. On Sunday evening, Sept. 27th, the supermoon will pass through the shadow of Earth, turning the lunar disk a cosmic shade of red. Click here to view an animation of the eclipse and to find out when to look:

What makes the eclipsed Moon turn red? A quick trip to the Moon provides the answer: Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside down, completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is underway.

You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it's not. The rim of the planet looks like it is on fire. As you scan your eye around Earth's circumference, you're seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once. This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth's shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb.

Red isn't the only color. Sharp-eyed observers might also spot some turquoise, shown here in a photo taken by Jens Hackman during an eclipse in March of 2007:

Its source is ozone. Atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colorado explains: "During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the moon passes through the stratosphere where it is reddened by scattering. However, light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer." This can be seen, he says, as a soft blue fringe around the red core of Earth's shadow.

To catch the turquoise on Sept. 27-28, he advises, "look during the first and last minutes of totality. The turquoise rim is best seen in binoculars or a small telescope."
www.spaceweather.com

For reasons researchers don't fully understand, auroras love equinoxes. At this time of year even a gentle gust of solar wind can spark a bright display. Tomorrow, Sept.23rd, is the northern autumnal equinox. Perfect timing: a CME is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 23rd. The impact will probably be weak, but on the first night of autumn, weak may be strong enough. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for equinox auroras.    www.spaceweather.com

A profound conversation from the 1981 movie “My Dinner with Andre” that is more applicable today than it was then. Let this blow your mind. The truth is out there! Grab it!

Zen Gardner http://www.zengardner.com

Spiritual Common Sense :
From Kryon Live Channel, "Soul Journeying, Part 2" March 2014 in Auckland, NZ

You're walking around feeling small. Why is that? Why do you humble yourself before God?

Now, I just got in trouble, didn't I? You are told that being humble before God is a good thing! However, if you are a piece of God, why are you humbling yourself before yourself? Does this information make sense to you?

It's time to use evolving Spiritual common sense. If you are a piece of creation, you don't have to bow to yourself.   

~ KRYON, through Lee Carroll

The moment a dry river bed fills with water in a drought stricken district of India has been filmed by an ecstatic local.

Crowds of people scream with delight as water surges downstream in the video posted to Facebook on September 8 by Bmd Fayaz.  Dusty ground is quickly replaced by swirling pools of water, the first time the Kalavapalli River in Anantapur has been full in 20 years according to Mr Fayaz.

The district of Anantapur is regularly drought affected and records on average less than 34 rainy days a year according to the India Meteorological Department.  The dry conditions at Anantapur were so dire in August of this year that villagers had taken to placing traditional drought stones called karavu rallu in a bid to bring rain, the Deccan Chronicle reports.

Mr Range Gowda, an 85-year-old farmer, said the drought stones were moved in a bullock cart to the outskirts of a nearby village to encourage rain to the region.   World News

“The solution to the problem of the day is the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity within.”

“I first believed without any hesitation in the existence of the soul, and then I wondered about the secret of its nature. I persevered and strove in search of the soul, and found at last that I myself was the cover over my own soul. I realized that that in me which believed and that in me that wondered, that which was found at last, was no other than my soul. I thanked the darkness that brought me to the light, and I valued this veil that prepared for me the vision in which I saw myself reflected, the vision produced in the mirror of my soul.

Divine sound is the cause of all manifestation. The knower of the mystery of sound knows the mystery of the whole universe.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
http://riverbankoftruth.com/2013/03/26/the-solution-by-hazrat-inayat-khan/

Freya Noble : Daily Mail, UK : 17 Sep 2015

Ms Malcolm said this was not the only interesting interaction she had with whales recently. Last Saturday we were 'mugged' by the biggest group of humpbacks I have ever seen, who were happy to play with us for a while.'

What expert Geoff Ross told Daily Mail Australia to see a seal riding on a whale was extremely unusual, and only knew of one other case. 'It's very very rare, I've only heard of one of other occurrence and that was a seal that had climbed up on a whale to escape a killer whale,' he said.

A 90-percent intact steppe mammoth skeleton dating back 126,000 years has been discovered in northern Russia. The find could mean the species existed for much longer than previously thought. It is the first steppe mammoth to be found in Yakutia in Northern Russia. It's in better condition than the five other skeletons discovered in other parts of Russia. Although scientists estimated the animal's height as a little below average at just over 3 meters, the male specimen had giant tusks - each 2.5 meters long and weighing 75 kilos.

"The skeleton was discovered in an anatomical position and was extracted mostly intact. Even the smaller bones of the feet were complete. It lacked the right hind leg. Evidently it had been torn off during the mammoth's lifetime," says Yevgeny Mashchenko, senior research scientist at the Paleontological Institute in Moscow. Locals found the remains of the animal on the bank of the river Suola in the Sakha Republic, Russia's coldest region. As the bank thaws it erodes and yields a mix of sand and ice, where many specimens have been discovered over the years. This find is unique, however.

It is believed that steppe mammoths lived in Siberia during the Pleistocene era some 600,000-370,000 years ago and were ancestors of the more commonly found woolly mammoths. But this skeleton appears much newer at about 126,000 years old. 
"It is thought that during the mid-Pleistocene period, the climate in Yakutia was relatively warm. However this skeleton was buried during permafrost. Apart from that, we discovered traces of animals near the skeleton that were previously thought to have lived in the area much later. How does that go together with a warm climate?" asks Albert Protopopov from the Sakha Academy of Science. "Next year we plan to start larger scale research in the area," he said.

In comparison to the more common woolly mammoth, the steppe mammoth was taller and the length of its body shorter. On average they were 4 meters tall and weighed up to 10 tons. Earlier this year scientists found the remains of a steppe mammoth in the Perm region. They have only managed to pull out 50 bones so far due to difficult conditions on the site. The team hopes to resume the dig next summer. Other cases of steppe mammoth skeletons discovered in good condition include one in Serbia, where a female specimen was found with 90 percent of its bones, and in England, where an 85-percent complete male mammoth skeleton was found.

The research, which is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed magazine, so far has been presented as a record breaking invention. "The current record, held by NASA's HiPEP system, allows 9600 (+/- 200) seconds of specific impulse," the newspaper wrote. "However, results recorded by the Neumann Drive have been as high as 14,690 (+/- 2000), with even conservative results performing well above NASA's best."

NASA's variation of the ion thruster (High Power Electric Propulsion, or HiPEP) was ground-tested in 2003 and was intended to be used on a mission of Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, that was canceled in 2005. The concept behind HiPEP is quite simple: The gas xenon is given an electrical charge or ionized. It is then electrically accelerated to a speed of about 30 km/second. When xenon ions are emitted at high speed, for example, as exhaust from a spacecraft, they push the spacecraft in the opposite direction. The ultimate speed a spacecraft can reach using ion thrust depends upon how much propellant it carries.

Neumann's variation of the engine however uses metal as fuel, which is struck by electric arcs to produce ions that are focused by a magnetic nozzle. While magnesium allegedly showed the best results, Neumann's drive can utilize a number of different metals, giving the drive a competitive advantage over similar technologies in terms of cost savings. "NASA's HiPEP runs on Xenon gas, while the Neumann Drive can be powered on a number of different metals, the most efficient tested so far being magnesium," the paper explains. "As it runs on metals commonly found in space junk, it could potentially be fueled by recycling exhausted satellites, repurposing them into fresh fuel."

Neumann is now seeking to patent the technology he has developed with Professors David McKenzie and Marcela Bilek. The team is expected to present their research at the 15th Australian Space Research Conference late this month.

A group of volunteers from Vashon Island, Washington, have managed to rescue two missing dogs, with the sole reason being that one of the canines stayed for a week near its trapped friend and scouted for help. One of the dogs, which are said to be "inseparable," guarded the other after it fell into a cistern filled with water, hidden deep in the woods. Tillie, a reddish setter, left Phoebe, a basset hound, for no more than 10 minutes each day only to seek help and then run back to her friend. "For nearly a week Tillie stayed by her side with the exception of the few minutes of each day when she went for help,"Vashon Island Pet Protectors, a non-profit organization that deals with the specific type of emergencies in the area, wrote on their Facebook page.

The best buds went for a walk on September 7 when the front door of the house they lived in happened to be open since there was a party, the dog owner B.J. Duft told ABC News. "Tillie would never leave even if the gate was left open, but she's best friends with Phoebe, and so when Phoebe follows her little Basset Hound nose, Tillie always goes with her to make sure she's OK," Duft explained.

The dogs had been lost for a week until Amy Carey of VIPP, which had helped the owner with searching, received a call from a local resident September 14, who said he may have spotted the reddish dog on his property. It had turned up there several times but rushed back to the woods before the caller could do anything to help. "It turned out the dog was Tillie trying to get help for Phoebe, who had gotten stuck,"Carey said, ABC News reports. The search group quickly located the missing friends with one of them sitting on a pile of concrete rubble at the bottom the cistern and the other lying not so far away.

Vets said that both dogs, despite having been cold and hungry for a week, are perfectly fine. They came back home to a "hamburger" grand dinner, hung out on a couch, and then got some long-needed sleep, the owner said.

"A round of applause to the awesome and amazing Miss Tillie. A true friend and a humbling example of the power of love,"Carey concluded in the Facebook post.