A bit over the top, maybe, but I was so pleased when Sandy emailed me to point out that at long last I had a visitor from New Zealand. You can see on the cluster map. Africa (yes, the whole of Africa) still looks disappointingly bare.
Tuesday, February 19
Sunday, October 21
Summons stones lost!
I found my stone on the beach, Sandy found hers on the bottom of the sea off the southern Tasmanian coast (well, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel) and Lexie found hers on the top of the Malvern Hills.
And now we have all lost them, well, not lost exactly, but we don't have them anymore.
Please, is you find a stone like this, email me and tell me where and when.
Many, many thanks.
Find out more at
The Stone Summons (ID #1063661): http://www.lulu.com/content/1063661
Order online Paperback book or download
Wednesday, October 17
Aurora Australis unleashes southern spectacle – The Mercury, 16 October
Hobart - An explosion on the Sun's surface wowed Tasmanians with a spectacular night sky .
The Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, was visible from most of the southern half of Tasmania, and it was a truly stunning spectacle.
Astronomer at University of Tasmania Mt Pleasant Observatory at Cambridge, Dr. Kit Saklat, said the lights, which were unusually active, dancing across the night sky, were caused by activity on the Sun that sent gases towards Earth.
"It's basically an explosion on the Sun which throws a cloud of gas outwards. Earth's magnetic field channels it to the north and south poles," he said.
However, some experts have cast doubt on this explanation for the fireworks show, and believe there to be some other cause. At the moment, they are not committing themselves to further explanation.
Find out more at: http://marijsak.googlepages.com/thestonesummons
The Stone Summons (ID #1063661): http://www.lulu.com/content/1063661
Tuesday, October 16
Thousands watch spectacular fireworks display (breathtaking!) – The Hastings Observer, 15th October
Hastings - Thousands of onlookers packed the the seafront on Saturday night to watch the Hastings Week annual fireworks display.
This year’s display, watched by record crowds along The Esplanade, was truly breathtaking – it was as if the sky itself was taking part, with darting lights and what may have been thunder and lightning. The Hastings Meteorological Station says there was no indication of a storm but there was unusual meteorological action.
One onlooker told The Observer: "It was a fantastic display – surely the best ever. We did wonder if it was the Northern Lights in the sky."
(Our reporter respectfully pointed out that this was unlikely, but to be sure he checked with Hastings Meteorological Station, who confirmed his opinion, but conceded there was definitely some meteorological activity going on, and they had fielded hundreds of phone calls reporting an unusually large waterspout.)
This year’s display, watched by record crowds along The Esplanade, was truly breathtaking – it was as if the sky itself was taking part, with darting lights and what may have been thunder and lightning. The Hastings Meteorological Station says there was no indication of a storm but there was unusual meteorological action.
One onlooker told The Observer: "It was a fantastic display – surely the best ever. We did wonder if it was the Northern Lights in the sky."
(Our reporter respectfully pointed out that this was unlikely, but to be sure he checked with Hastings Meteorological Station, who confirmed his opinion, but conceded there was definitely some meteorological activity going on, and they had fielded hundreds of phone calls reporting an unusually large waterspout.)
Find out more at http://marijsak.googlepages.com/thestonesummons
Order online Paperback book or download
Heavenly Firework Display may have been result of activity in Europe's most destructive seismic hotspot. – Kaθημερινη, 16 Οκτωβρίου
Athens - Skies lit up over Southern Greece and the islands, giving rise to the rumour that the Aurora Borealis was once again playing in our skies.
But meteorologist, Christos Nikolaidis, of National Observatory of Athens, Institute of Geodynamics, said that while certainly something unusual was going on, he understood the authorities were awaiting confirmation from The Seismological Laboratory, University of Athens, that in fact the display related to a localised hothouse of seismic activity.
Aurora Borealis is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name. for the north wind, Boreas.
Plutarch gave a description of the northern lights in 467 BC but it may have been a quotation from missing writings of Anaxagoras rather than his own observation: "During seventy days there was an enormous and furious figure in the sky. It was like a flaming cloud, which did not stay at its position but moved windingly and regularly, so that the glowing fragments were flying in all directions and fire was blazing as the comets do. Those fragments came loose during rushing and unexpected movements."
The northern lights occurred one to three times per decade on the horizon of ancient Greece. Altogether dozens of reliable observations of the northern lights are known from the years BC.
There are very few references to the northern lights in the Middle Ages in Europe. Every written text is more or less superstitious and often they are embellished with warlike predictions. The northern lights seen on the 3rd of March, 451 were connected to the historic defeat of Attila at Chalons-sur-Marne, in what is now France.
Often, the blood of martyrs flowing up into the sky was seen in the northern lights. Such was the case when Thomas Becket died in 1177.
Some observations of the aurora borealis in Greece found that the appearances of the phenomenon aurora borealis are not exceptionally rare. These appearances coincide with the years of maximum solar activity and especially 1–2 years after it. Except of two appearances of this phenomenon all the others were observed in Spring and Autumn or near these seasons. The most southerly geographical latitude at which at least hints of the aurora borealis have been observed in Greece is the latitude of 35 N.
But meteorologist, Christos Nikolaidis, of National Observatory of Athens, Institute of Geodynamics, said that while certainly something unusual was going on, he understood the authorities were awaiting confirmation from The Seismological Laboratory, University of Athens, that in fact the display related to a localised hothouse of seismic activity.
Aurora Borealis is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name. for the north wind, Boreas.
Plutarch gave a description of the northern lights in 467 BC but it may have been a quotation from missing writings of Anaxagoras rather than his own observation: "During seventy days there was an enormous and furious figure in the sky. It was like a flaming cloud, which did not stay at its position but moved windingly and regularly, so that the glowing fragments were flying in all directions and fire was blazing as the comets do. Those fragments came loose during rushing and unexpected movements."
The northern lights occurred one to three times per decade on the horizon of ancient Greece. Altogether dozens of reliable observations of the northern lights are known from the years BC.
There are very few references to the northern lights in the Middle Ages in Europe. Every written text is more or less superstitious and often they are embellished with warlike predictions. The northern lights seen on the 3rd of March, 451 were connected to the historic defeat of Attila at Chalons-sur-Marne, in what is now France.
Often, the blood of martyrs flowing up into the sky was seen in the northern lights. Such was the case when Thomas Becket died in 1177.
Some observations of the aurora borealis in Greece found that the appearances of the phenomenon aurora borealis are not exceptionally rare. These appearances coincide with the years of maximum solar activity and especially 1–2 years after it. Except of two appearances of this phenomenon all the others were observed in Spring and Autumn or near these seasons. The most southerly geographical latitude at which at least hints of the aurora borealis have been observed in Greece is the latitude of 35 N.
For more information on this see
The Stone Summons (ID #1063661): http://www.lulu.com/content/1063661
Order online Paperback book or download
Monday, October 15
Slideshow Updated!
Heading says it all really, have added some new photos, including one of a sea urchin, under water!
Still no-one has visited from New Zealand, at least, nothing that shows, it is very strange! And no one from the whole continent of Africa.
Haven't had a lot of time lately to add much, such a lot going on, but it will soon be over.
On the other hand, the project (both projects, really) is coming to an end. I would just like to get a visitor from every continent in the world.
If you're reading this and know someone from a country not yet marked on the map of visitors, please email them, and ask them to take a peek. I will record the results here, no matter what else happens. - Σας ευχαριστούμε πάρα πολύ
Monday, September 10
Sorry, really busy!
Things have been going on, remember on my birthday, my brother Stefan and I saw this tornado. He described it to me and said something about a vortex. I had been meaning to check out this word for ages, because I had heard it earlier. I went online and I found some fascinating sites and information.
Apparently in the US (and in the old USSR) the scientists are experimenting with using weather to fight wars, and change the economy and things like that, really frightening if it is true, but I do know that a lot of what is on the Internet is based on false rumour and conspiracy theories (my brother, lots of our tutors, and my Yiayia, keep on going on about it) so I don't know whether to believe it.
But when I tried to blog some of the information I found out about vortices a couple of days ago, I got hit by a lightning ball! (Well, my PC did) Honestly, and the computer died on me. So I am not blogging about that (please note Artemis, if it was you) but just a few interesting sites I found, which might count towards a science credit - he said hopefully.
Like it says in the Business Week article "There's no shortage of such conspiracy theories on the Internet. Search for "weather warfare" on Google, and you'll get 68,000 hits." [So I just did that search, because this is a 2005 article and I wanted to see how it had grown. If you use the inverted commas to search it as a phrase, you only get 29,200 English hits - but if you just use the terms - 1,940,000 English hits - and a lot less in Greek!]
Κλιματολογικός πόλεμος
Θα ήταν δηλαδή ένα κανονικό Κλιματολογικό Όπλο (Weather Warfare), που θα προκαλούσε απότομη και μεγάλη άνοδο της θερμοκρασίας του πλανήτη μας! ...
New look for ball lightning (September 2003) - News - PhysicsWeb
Ball lightning - a slow-moving ball of light that is occasionally seen at ground level during thunderstorms - has puzzled scientists for centuries. ...physicsweb.org/articles/news/7/9/13 -
Ball lightning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ball lightning is an atmospheric phenomenon, the physical nature of which is still controversial. The term refers to reports of a glowing, floating object ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning - 69k - 30 Jul 2007
The Vortex Theory (wasn't sure if that one was going to work for reasons mentioned above)
And this one didn't work - www.weatherwars.info but I've looked at it before; you can tell what it was about! I have found a link to at least one of the items, posted elsewhere - The Tsumami Called Katrina
http://www.gaiaguys.net/weatherwar.htm
NASA Funds Weather Modification Technology
WEATHER AS A FORCE MULTIPLIER: OWNING THE WEATHER IN 2025MILITARY APPLICATIONS OF WEATHER MODIFICATION
This site has a lot of other links - http://www.freedomdomain.com/weather.html
Who Controls the Weather? - BusinessWeek
Theories about Russian agents steering Hurricane Katrina may be off base, but research into weather manipulation has been going on for decades
Weather Engineering Over North America
Wednesday, September 5
12th Birthday
When I blogged before about my birthday I was still thinking about the other things I found out, and forgot to tell you about my birthday, which was really great. I woke really early and it was already hot. I went for a swim and my Pateras came too. After breakfast at the hotel we met Stefan off the ferry, and there were friends and family all day coming with presents and food and eating all day long.
In the evening we went to the taverna. There was this huge thunderstorm and Stefan and I saw a waterspout, tornado sort of thing out in the middle of the water.
The next day we went beachcombing; it was good fun to do it with Stefan, although I like to do it on my own as well. We found sponges that looked as if they had been ripped from the floor of the ocean, loads of driftwood, mis-shapen glass, bits of china, makes you wonder where it all comes from. No treasure though, or bits of galley or other shipwrecks.
I will try and find time to post some photos - but I don't know when!
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