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Submission + - Hunga Tonga Eruption Put Over 50 Billion Kilograms of Water Into Stratosphere (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In January this year, an undersea volcano in Tonga produced a massive eruption, the largest so far this century. The mixing of hot volcanic material and cool ocean water created an explosion that sent an atmospheric shockwave across the planet and triggered a tsunami that devastated local communities and reached as far as Japan. The only part of the crater's rim that extended above water was reduced in size and separated into two islands. A plume of material was blasted straight through the stratosphere and into the mesosphere, over 50 km above the Earth's surface. We've taken a good look at a number of past volcanic eruptions and studied how they influence the climate. But those eruptions (most notably that of Mount Pinatubo) all came from volcanoes on land. Hunga Tonga may be the largest eruption we've ever documented that took place under water, and the eruption plume contained unusual amounts of water vapor—so much of it that it actually got in the way of satellite observations at some wavelengths. Now, researchers have used weather balloon data to reconstruct the plume and follow its progress during two circuits around the globe.

Your vocabulary word of the day is radiosonde, which is a small instrument package and transmitter that can be carried into the atmosphere by a weather balloon. There are networks of sites where radiosondes are launched as part of weather forecasting services; the most relevant ones for Hunga Tonga are in Fiji and Eastern Australia. A balloon from Fiji was the first to take instruments into the eruption plume, doing so less than 24 hours after Hunga Tonga exploded. That radiosonde saw increasing levels of water as it climbed through the stratosphere from 19 to 28 kilometers of altitude. The water levels had reached the highest yet measured at the top of that range when the balloon burst, bringing an end to the measurements. But shortly after, the plume started showing up along the east coast of Australia, which again registered very high levels of water vapor. Again, water reached to 28 km in altitude but gradually settled to lower heights over the next 24 hours.

The striking thing was how much of it there was. Compared to normal background levels of stratospheric water vapor, these radiosondes were registering 580 times as much water even two days after the eruption, after the plume had some time to spread out. There was so much there that it still stood out as the plume drifted over South America. The researchers were able to track it for a total of six weeks, following it as it spread out while circling the Earth twice. Using some of these readings, the researchers estimated the total volume of the water vapor plume and then used the levels of water present to come up with a total amount of water put into the stratosphere by the eruption. They came up with 50 billion kilograms. And that's a low estimate, because, as mentioned above, there was still water above the altitudes where some of the measurements stopped.

Submission + - Navy Says All UFO Videos Classified, Releasing Them 'Will Harm National Security (vice.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Navy says that releasing any additional UFO videos would “harm national security” and told a government transparency website that all of the government’s UFO videos are classified information. In a Freedom of Information Act request response, the Navy told government transparency site The Black Vault that any public dissemination of new UFO videos “will harm national security as it may provide adversaries valuable information regarding Department of Defense/Navy operations, vulnerabilities, and/or capabilities. No portions of the videos can be segregated for release.”

The Black Vault was seeking all videos “with the designation of ‘unidentified aerial phenomena.’” This is an interesting response from the Navy because, often, military agencies will issue a so-called GLOMAR response, where they neither confirm nor deny that the records (in this case videos) exist, and refuse to say anything more. In this response, the Navy is admitting that it has more videos, and also gives a rationale for releasing three previous UFO videos.

“While three UAP videos were released in the past, the facts specific to those three videos are unique in that those videos were initially released via unofficial channels before official release,” it said. “Those events were discussed extensively in the public domain; in fact, major news outlets conducted specials on these events. Given the amount of information in the public domain regarding these encounters, it was possible to release the files without further damage to national security."

Submission + - 'What we now know they lied': how big oil companies betrayed us all (theguardian.com)

Submitted by XXongo
XXongo writes: The Frontline series The Power of Big Oil looks at how the oil industry successfully set up a campaign to discredit climate science and targetting individual politicians to vote against measures to curb climate change. Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel reflects on his part in killing US ratification of the Kyoto climate treaty, after a vigorous campaign by big oil to mischaracterise the Kyoto protocol as a threat to jobs and the economy while falsely claiming that China and India could go on polluting to their heart’s content. The resolution effectively put a block on US ratification of any climate treaty ever since. A quarter of a century later, Hagel acknowledges that the vote was wrong, and blames the oil industry for malignly claiming the science of climate change was not proved when companies such as Exxon and Shell already knew otherwise from their own research. “What we now know about some of these large oil companies’ positions: they lied. And yes, I was misled. They had evidence in their own institutions that countered what they were saying publicly. I mean they, lied,” he told the documentary-makers.

Comment If your device has an app... (Score 1) 285

by coach_jl (#62207909) Attached to: 'Google Is Forcing Me To Dump a Perfectly Good Phone'
Yes it does have to run the latest OS. Which is frustrating because it is not Apple's requirement, but that of the device that uses iOS apps for configuration.

I have a few devices using a apps for the configuration. Great easy interface and experience that I am familiar with.

But the app is being kept up-to-date with the latest OS, so I have to keep the OS up-to-date to use the product that requires an app to configure.

Because the is auto-downloaded to when there is a new version (security feature) but the latest app won't work. Rinse repeat.

Comment Read up on the U.S. Marine Corps (Score 2, Insightful) 109

by coach_jl (#61718375) Attached to: Climate Change is Making Hurricanes Worse
You have a very strange understanding of how U.S. Marines work. They will give their lives for this country and the people in it, regardless of the beliefs of those people. The don't beat people just because the don't agree with them.


And this is like the nth time you have posted this, so find a different schtick.

Comment Re: Perhaps it is time (Score 1) 168

No shoes, no shirt, no service.

This is not infringing on your rights to not wear shoes, it means you have to wear shoes in our place of business.

Facebook is not infringing on your rights, because you can have any conversation you want. Just not on Facebook.

It is also saying we aren't going to engage in certain conversations. Which is their right as a business, whose service you are using.

Submission + - SPAM: On-Premises Dining Linked To COVID-19 Spread

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: Mandating masks was associated with a decrease in daily COVID-19 case and death growth rates within 20 days of implementation. Allowing on-premises restaurant dining was associated with an increase in daily COVID-19 case growth rates 41–100 days after implementation and an increase in daily death growth rates 61–100 days after implementation.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Voting Technology Company Files $2.7 Billion Lawsuit Against Fox News And Others

Submitted by hcs_$reboot
hcs_$reboot writes: Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation and three of its popular anchors are the targets of a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed on Thursday by Smartmatic, a company that became a prominent subject of discredited theories about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. In its 276-page complaint, Smartmatic argues that Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell “created a story about Smartmatic” and that “Fox joined the conspiracy to defame and disparage Smartmatic and its election technology and software.” Smartmatic, which provided services for the 2020 election in only one county, filed its suit in the tense aftermath of a vote that Mr. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly and falsely described as rigged or stolen.
Asked for comment, Powell said in a statement, "I have not received notice or a copy of this alleged lawsuit. However, your characterization of the claims shows that this is just another political maneuver motivated by the radical left that has no basis in fact or law."

Comment Re:mad scramble (Score 2, Insightful) 94

by coach_jl (#60809274) Attached to: Senate Votes To Advance Nomination of Trump FCC Nominee
My dad has diabetes, a manageable condition that would allow him a reasonably healthy life for several more years. He is 81, which is old but both of his parents were in their 90s when they died.

The disease that put my father in the hospital for a month was not diabetes, it was COVID. He lost over 100 pounds during his stay in the hospital.

He is now having memory issues. OK he is 81 that's normal you say. But a month ago, he knew he didn't have a dog at home, now he thinks he does.

Yes co-morbidity is an issue, but not the issue. Blaming my dad's diabetes is like saying asthma patients that they died from asthma not smoke-inhalation after a fire.

Also, it is one of those really insensitive things people say when the problem doesn't directly affect them.

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