Step into the spotlight for too long and you might forget what the sun feels like.
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Hey I'm Ken, sketch artist, art, civil rights, equality & science enthusiast live blogging his interests. New Yorker from uptown Manhattan, originating from the Dominican Republic.
A starry view from a forest of giant Sequoia trees in the Yosemite National park, California. Sequoias are among the largest and tallest trees on Earth.
They grow to an average height of 50-85 m and 6-8 m in diameter. Record trees have been measured to be about 95 m (311 ft) in height and 17 m (57 ft) in diameter. The oldest known Giant Sequoia is 3500 years old and many of the largest are over 2000 years old. — Babak Tafreshi
I can’t be the only one worrying “what about the TREES look what happened to the TREES”. Like shit man look :/ peep the before and after (top 4 is before bottom 4 is after), it’s heart breaking.
Singapore’s Supertree-Powered Gardens By the Bay.
“One of the largest horticultural attractions in the world, Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, opens to the public Friday, June 29, 2012 offering a unique fusion of nature and technology.
Since we last reported on the project’s most distinctive element — 18 giant solar-powered, plant-growing “Supertrees” — UK-based landscape architects Grant Associates have released some stunning photos of the £500 million complex.”
[Photo Credit: Photos 1-3: © Craig Sheppard / Grant Associates. Photo 4: © Robert Such / Grant Associates. Photo 5: Jackerbie/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Photo 6: © Munshi Ahmed.]
![Vast Cosmic Event Leaves Record In Ancient Trees
The wooden hearts of two cedar trees hold a 1200-year-old cosmic mystery – evidence of an unexplained event that rocked our planet in the 8th century.
Cosmic rays are subatomic particles that tear through space. When they reach Earth they react with the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, producing new particles. One of these – carbon-14 – is taken up by trees during photosynthesis and is “fixed” in the tree’s annual growth ring.
Fusa Miyake at Nagoya University, Japan, and his colleagues examined the carbon-14 content of two Japanese cedar trees and were surprised to find that there was a 1.2 per cent increase in the amount of the isotope between AD 774 and 775. The typical annual variation is just 0.05 per cent.
Miyake also found an increase in the carbon-14 record of North American and European trees around that time, as well as an increase in the isotope beryllium-10 in Antarctic ice cores – another isotope produced by cosmic rays.
What cosmic event led to the ray boost? A supernova would do it, but Miyake points out that such an event would have left a visible trace in today’s sky. It could have been a solar flare – but only if the flare was more energetic than any discovered so far.
[Full Article]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m55wgxcert1qbn5m1o1_500.jpg)
Vast Cosmic Event Leaves Record In Ancient Trees
The wooden hearts of two cedar trees hold a 1200-year-old cosmic mystery – evidence of an unexplained event that rocked our planet in the 8th century.
Cosmic rays are subatomic particles that tear through space. When they reach Earth they react with the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, producing new particles. One of these – carbon-14 – is taken up by trees during photosynthesis and is “fixed” in the tree’s annual growth ring.
Fusa Miyake at Nagoya University, Japan, and his colleagues examined the carbon-14 content of two Japanese cedar trees and were surprised to find that there was a 1.2 per cent increase in the amount of the isotope between AD 774 and 775. The typical annual variation is just 0.05 per cent.
Miyake also found an increase in the carbon-14 record of North American and European trees around that time, as well as an increase in the isotope beryllium-10 in Antarctic ice cores – another isotope produced by cosmic rays.
What cosmic event led to the ray boost? A supernova would do it, but Miyake points out that such an event would have left a visible trace in today’s sky. It could have been a solar flare – but only if the flare was more energetic than any discovered so far.
Let’s Pretend
Enchanted Forest II by *Blinck
Weed facts: One acre of hemp will produce as much paper as four acres of trees.
A real shame our government prefers to expend the trees despite there being safer means of filling our already dangerous consumption. There are more logically expendable plants such as hemp we can use, it just seems environmentally right to go about it this way. If we can create huge hemp farms that are better at meeting our vicious consumption cycles it seems like a no-brainer to want to go about it the most rational way, which would be going for the resource that is not only easy and cheap to produce from, but also as quality if not better than trees. Aside from the the other obvious gem, that we, well, we breathe, and so.. we need trees around. Why can’t we have more scientific literacy in congress now not later? :/ make my brain hurt sometimes.
Some geo-engineers believe we can generate almost-instant forests by dropping ‘tree bombs’ from a plane. The bombs would be packed full of seedlings that are dispersed after they explode on the ground. It may sound outlandish, but this is one idea that has garnered some credibility because it successfully regenerated mangrove forests after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Weed facts: One acre of hemp will produce as much paper as four acres of trees.
A real shame our government prefers to expend the trees despite there being safer means of filling our already dangerous consumption. There are more logically expendable plants such as hemp we can use, it just seems environmentally right to go about it this way. If we can create huge hemp farms that are better at meeting our vicious consumption cycles it seems like a no-brainer to want to go about it the most rational way, which would be going for the resource that is not only easy and cheap to produce from, but also as quality if not better than trees. Aside from the the other obvious gem, that we, well, we breathe, and so.. we need trees around. Why can’t we have more scientific literacy in congress now not later? :/ make my brain hurt sometimes.
Did you know that 20% of American children have never climbed a tree? The UN says that because many young people are urbanized and alienated from nature, they may not realize the value of protecting natural ecosystems and species.
Lightning from thunderhead at Hall’s Creek
© David Miller/DMI
Whisper of the Wind
Credit: Dave Brosha
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