Melting Himalayan Ice Threatens Half a Billion in India, China and Southeast Asia

From Denny: Once frozen glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and the fear is they will overrun the small pools and lakes created to end up flooding the populated areas downhill. All these increasing melt waters sit at the top of a valley held back only by an unstable dam of small rocks and ice. There has already been some dangerous flooding.

The hope is to create a way to harness this water for energy consumption for the impoverished villages. But that takes money and it will require outside monies to help make true their dream. Until then, this poor area of the world is in peril and on their own to solve a massive climate change problem: melting glaciers.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Funny Miss Speak Known as Malapropisms

From Denny: The following is a fun excerpt from Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets. For the full post, go here.

*** Those funny slips of the tongue that come out weird and ridiculous!

From Denny: OK, we have all done it at one time or another. The key to good communication and understanding with others is to, well, avoid those slips of the tongue – or brain – whichever the case may be and speak something that comes out as absolutely weird and ridiculous nonsense.

What’s a malapropism? It’s one of those Freudian nuisances that have long plagued humanity – and politicians. We will get to that in a moment. A malapropism is really the unintentional use of a wrong word or strings of words into a phrase (compounding the problem) that causes confusion with the listeners as to what you truly meant to utter.

OK, so it’s unintentional and a humorous misuse or distortion of the word or phrase. A malapropism is especially effective because though it sounds a lot like the intended word so that it ends up ludicrously wrong in the context! What’s worse is if you make a habit of talking like this.



Some typographer having fun: I Shot the Serif ---- sheriff

A quick bit of history trivia for you on the origin of the word malapropism… OK, all you show-offs quit waving your hands because you already know the answer. Malapropism came into our language a few centuries ago from the pen of writer Richard Sheridan. His character, Mrs. Malaprop, was known for these speech antics in his 1775 play named The Rivals.

Here are some of her fun malapropisms and the correct word follows. If want to study how to write malapropisms this is a great example of how to write them:

"...promise to forget this fellow - to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory." -------------- obliterate

"O, he will dissolve my mystery!" ------- resolve

"He is the very pine-apple of politeness!" ------- pinnacle

"I have since laid Sir Anthony's preposition before her;" ------- proposition

"Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree." -------- hysterics

"I hope you will represent her to the captain as an object not altogether illegible." ------- eligible

"...she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying." ------- comprehend

"...she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile." ------- alligator

"I am sorry to say, Sir Anthony, that my affluence over my niece is very small." ------- influence

"Why, murder's the matter! slaughter's the matter! killing's the matter! - but he can tell you the perpendiculars." ------- particulars

"Nay, no delusions to the past - Lydia is convinced;" ------- allusions

"...behold, this very day, I have interceded another letter from the fellow;" ------- intercepted

"I thought she had persisted from corresponding with him;" ------- desisted

"His physiognomy so grammatical!" ------- phraseology

"I am sure I have done everything in my power since I exploded the affair;" ------- exposed

"I am sorry to say, she seems resolved to decline every particle that I enjoin her." ------- article

"...if ever you betray what you are entrusted with... you forfeit my malevolence for ever..." ------- benevolence

"Your being Sir Anthony's son, captain, would itself be a sufficient accommodation;" ------- recommendation

"Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!" -------- reprehend/apprehend, oracular/vernacular, derangement/arrangement, epitaphs/epithets



*** For the full post of funny malapropisms - that my British friends call Colemanballs after a sports announcer prone to slips of the tongue - and the examples of former President Bush in all his Miss Speak glory, video of short clips included, visit Cheeky Quote Day at The Social Poets, go here.





*** Fun and intriguing informative science articles written in my usual cheeky voice:

Check Out Cosmic Generator Producing Energy at Rate of 100K Suns

Slamming Low-Ride Satellite Maps Earths Magnetic Field

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Check Out Cosmic Generator Producing Energy at Rate of 100K Suns

Photo from NASA

From Denny: We all remember that exploding supernova we saw on Earth a while ago and it sure was spectacular. Well, OK, maybe you and I - and about a million other ancestors - were not there to witness it in person.

When something dies in the universe it usually has a spectacular Hollywood styled funeral show production. There was such a showy production in the constellation Taurus back in 1054 A.D. of a supernova.

Why is this almost thousand year old cosmic funeral show so important today? Turns out an actor left behind from the showy production is speaking up and yelling into the universe. Its a super dense object otherwise known as a neutron star.

This neutron star is quite the chip off the old block and is a real show-off. To get our attention this star is spewing out a magnificent blizzard of high energy particles and expanding the debris field. Since Earthlings just have to name everything - a family tradition handed down from our ancient ancestor Adam of the duo commonly known as "Adam and Eve" - we settled on the name of the Crab Nebula.

This honking huge Crab Nebula ranks as a cosmic icon because it is one of the most studied objects in our sky. The above photo is really a composite of X-ray, optical and infrared images from three of NASA's Great Observatories.

Why is the Chandra X-ray image in blue so small? Mainly because the little gremlins, AKA energizer bunny electrons, that send out the X-rays also are the track stars of the energy kingdom. They move far faster than their slower electron cousins sending out optical and infrared light and so the energy dissipates quicker.

The other colors in the photo are from the Hubble Space Telescope whose optical images are shown in yellow and red. The Spitzer Space Telescope infrared image is depicted in purple.

This showy Crab Nebula is pumping out the energy of 100,000 suns, so colossal that it boggles the mind. What we all could do with that energy here on Earth if we could figure out a way to tap into this powerful cosmic generator. Any ideas?

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Catch Up on Funny Posts at Dennys Funny Quotes 1 Dec 2009

What'd ya say? I'm so smart? But are you sure about that?

From Denny: OK, so I've been slacking off for the holidays... :) What can I say? I've been in a "food coma"? Nice try; Thanksgiving Day was last week... My only defense would be that food comas take a long time from which to recover, uh, ok, equally lame...

This morning I've been working on Dennys Funny Quotes ever since I found out Blogger only backs up posts. Sweet. All those category lists which took hours and hours to build are basically toast so I've been creating posts of all my categories.

For a grin today take a look at what I've rounded up so far:

Funny Retirement Quotes

Funny Friendship Quotes

Funny Ironic Humor Quotes

Funny Crazy Cat Quotes

Funny Quotes About Quotations

Funny Cooking Quotes

Funny Conan OBrien Quotes

Funny Jay Leno Quotes

Funny Inspirational Quotes

*** Try not to dine too much you might end up in a funny quotes coma! Save room in your mind tummy for tomorrow's Cheeky Quote Day! :)

Slamming Low-Ride Satellite Maps Earths Magnetic Field

Photo of Ion-propelled Gradiometer, the GOCE satellite

From Denny: The European Space Agency have been busy boys and girls, James Bond style. These guys are serious about mapping the Earth's magnetic field. The whole point of this exercise is to better understand the planet's natural processes.

They threw up a satellite about six months ago and it is just now fully calibrated and sending back data. Earth's magnetic field has the tiniest of variations so it is necessary to carefully calibrate this satellite to record accurately. Even the Russians did their satellite version back in March called the Gravity field and steady state Ocean Circulation Explorer.

OK, so we all know about gravity. But did you know that even though gravity exists everywhere on the planet it varies and is not distributed evenly across the surface?

What can cause slight changes to this gravitational force? Try mountain ranges, ocean trenches, even the density variations within the Earth's crust and mantle. Then there is also the fact the Earth's rotation can affect gravity variations.

Why is this so important? We have to gain more knowledge about these changes so we can accurately measure ocean circulation and sea levels. After all, climate change may be here to stay for a number of generations. We must study all we can in order to possess the information to know how to anticipate what happens next and how best to prepare for it.



This is a mock-up example of what the gravitational map will look like. It represents the Earth's gravity distribution with an accuracy and spacial resolution never before achieved. ESA


You have to take your hat off to these persevering scientists for the job they did. They figured out how to precisely measure gravitational fluctuations for as much as 160 miles up!

Gravity is closest to the Earth's surface so this cool satellite needed to be as close to the surface as it could. The next problem they faced was the instrumentation on the GOCE satellite had to be stable to measure accurately. What that means is that the ideal situation is for GOCE to be placed in an environment that has as little aerial drag as possible. OK, no aerial drag is what they truly desire but we all know engineers and scientists are actually romantic dreamers of the perfect utopia.

Well, the GOCE team must have had some second-born children in the crowd who knew how to make realistic compromises to get the most bang for their buck. This satellite is like a sleek new aerodynamic car and the propulsion system on this baby is so unique it makes it possible for the satellite to orbit at 158 miles above the Earth. That's lower than most Earth observation satellites. The beauty of this is that at 158 miles above the Earth eliminates most of the aerial drag.

As you have guessed by now, this GOCE satellite is a slamming low-ride, so low it is riding on the very fringes of our atmosphere. The sleek aerodynamic design helps the satellite to polish off any remaining air for drag yet that still isn't enough. It seems like there is always "just one more thing, by the way..."

Ratcheting it up to the next issue they had to resolve was the satellite had to be capable of remaining stable while, are you ready for this? free fall. At this high altitude if the air interferes even a little bit then the data could be wildly skewed - and the mission is so screwed.

Never fear, your favorite creative engineer was here to the rescue. These guys are always thinking. The GOCE satellite was outfitted with the latest sexy space fashionista's trend of the electric ion propulsion engine as thruster. This ion thruster is like a nanny, ready to protect and provide a nudge or two with its thrusters whenever the satellite encounters any drag on the space playground.

So, how long did it take these guys to calibrate this sensitive drama queen of a satellite? Try months! The team started the satellite in a 170 mile orbit above the Earth and gently teased her down to the 158 mile level.

The team is also lucky right now that this project is not experiencing any solar activity, giving perfect atmospheric conditions for the gravity mapping. With the good luck of the lack of solar activity it turns out the initial data coming in to the team has turned out to be even more accurate than they hoped. Read that as geeks gone wild, partying and dancing on their monitors. It's a good day to be a scientist, saving humanity...

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5 Funny Thanksgiving Quotes, Photos

Trash-talking turkeys just passing the time until someone took them seriously... Photo by stevevoght @ flickr from another of my funny posts: 21 Funny Thanksgiving Fighting Turkey Photos

From Denny: I found some hilarious Thanksgiving Day quotes along with a few smart jokes and LOL holiday poems for this week's Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets blog. Click on the links below for the full post of funnies and the Obama Turkey Pardon Preparation Video. Here's a sampling taste to get you started on your holiday grinning, enjoy!

Quotes

* If you count all your assets, you always show a profit. ~ Robert Quillen

* Here I am 5 o'clock in the morning stuffing bread crumbs up a dead bird's butt. - Roseanne Barr

* It was dramatic to watch my grandmother decapitate a turkey with an ax the day before Thanksgiving. Nowadays the expense of hiring grandmothers for the ax work would probably qualify all turkeys so honored with 'gourmet' status. - Russell Baker

* Thanksgiving is America's national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty. ~ Michael Dresser

* I love Thanksgiving turkey. It's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts. ~ Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

*** For more funny holiday quotes, holiday jokes and hilarious poems, the Obama funny video about his first act of turkey pardoning (wonder if it's name is Cheney???) and great holiday recipe links, check out The Social Poets and Cheeky Quote Day, go here.

*** Thanks for visiting and come back often for a grin! :)

Video: How Weird Would Earth Look with Saturns Rings?

From Denny: This was a curious video I ran across today on Digg. Someone decided to do an artist's rendering of what Earth might look like if we had the rings of Saturn. It's a bit disorienting, amusing and even eerily beautiful to see the images of various cities around the world with how the rings would look in their skyline.

If our night skies looked different all these centuries can you imagine how our religions and mythology stories might have taken a far different track from this astronomical influence?

Take a look at this wonderful video:



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