Random News not worthy of own thread

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BaronVerde
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Sat, 28. Aug 21, 14:13

Orbiter, ancestor and trigger for realistic space simulation games like Kerbal Space Program and in itself probably the most realistic spaceflight simulation out there, has been released as an MIT licensed open source project by its maker. I haven't looked for quite a while, this may have happened some time ago already.

Unfortunately I still lack the math for such things, but am working on it.

https://github.com/orbitersim/orbiter

and

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

It is a 32 bit Windows application :roll: Of course I hope for a more modern 64 bit multi-platform fork, that would be cooooool :-)

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BaronVerde
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Tue, 14. Sep 21, 10:31

Woke up this morning to a slight seismic shock of mag 3.9 and a disturbed (or just hungry) cat and when I looked I found its epicentre to be located a few km to the southwest at a depth of 9km below where I live.

Map of current earthquakes, those of 2021/09/14 might be found when scolling down, it is a dynamic earth we're living on ;-)
https://www.ign.es/resources/sismologia ... /prox.html#

This is the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which last erupted in 1972. There is an extensive network of surveillance stations for ground movement, seismic activity, and chemical analysis of gases escaping from the ground around here. A warning though: if you guys search the internet you may find colourful depictions of catastrophies and tsunamis triggered by a giant landslide of Cumbre Vieja's western flank. These are based on a work from Ward/Day, 2001, but have been debunked meanwhile and don't reflect the current view of geologists on the matter. Though flank failures are a landscape forming element and can trigger giant tsunamis, there's no imminent danger. Just saying.

Back to the case at hand, nothing is sure by now and the experts are observing in a raised state of alarm. It looks like magma has risen and is forming (The bulk earth is solid. Period. It needs specific conditions like pressure release and fluid mixture for magma to form) at a depth where mantle and crust meet, the Moho ("Mohorovičić discontinuity"). It may find its way to the surface, which can take years, happen in short time, or not for now.

Quite generally, eruptions (if they occur) here are mostly just effusive, that is to say magma simply flows out and downhill to the sea. There may be what's called strombolian phases, explosions and gas releases, but rather nothing that would blow away a mountain top.

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Alan Phipps
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Alan Phipps » Wed, 15. Sep 21, 13:50

Environmental and climate-change activist protests are periodically blocking the very busy M25 London Orbital Motorway and causing massive and long-lasting queues of stationary private and business traffic. (Google 'Insulate Britain' if you want to know more.)

Of course, once the drivers stuck in the queues become aware of the reasons for them they will all switch their engines etc off, not slowly creep to bunch right up, and so do their bit to save the environment - won't they? :gruebel:
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Wed, 15. Sep 21, 17:09

Ok, the seismic crisis mentioned above has intensified under the Cumbre Vieja edfice, and there's a displacement of the tremors towards where I live, well directly underneath to be precise, and has risen from a depth of 11km to ~5km now. I doubt I'll sleep tonight due to the seismics shocks. There's no structural damage until now and there's still a good chance that the sauce gets stuck in the crust, but we were told to be prepared to leave should there be a rapid development. Fortunately the surveillance network is very dense and a team of volcanologists is around, so there'll be enough time to grab the poor cat and go elsewhere.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by jlehtone » Wed, 15. Sep 21, 18:24

@Alan:
This line in Good Omens was fictional, wasn't it?
Many phenomena - wars, plagues, sudden audits - have been advanced as evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man, but whenever students of demonology get together the M25 London orbital motorway is generally agreed to be among the top contenders for Exhibit A.
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BaronVerde
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Thu, 16. Sep 21, 10:45

Reporting on the current activity of Cumbre Vieja volcano: Seismic network says activity has decreased since yesterday with an ongoing series of only slight earthquakes between 10 and 1 km depth. The activity can be seen in almost realtime here: http://www.ign.es/web/resources/volcano ... arias.html. My place is inside of the area of earthquakes at the northern rim, as projected from above. I haven't felt any shocks tonight.

Deformation data of the island - the Cumbre Vieja is being lifted upwards and outwards by ~6m (data from yesterday) - point to to a formidable energy and a magma intrusion and formation of a small chamber of around 11million m³ (that's a cube with edges of 100m) at a depth of ~6-7km. Deformation is measured by differential GPS and laser ranging. Press item: https://elapuron.com/noticias/sociedad/ ... cos-magma/. That's not much, but an eruption can also not be excluded, given the energy needed to lift the island and the pressure on the reservoir.

I find it cool what a sophisticated monitoring network can do :-)

--------------
I also find it alarming that there are allways these trolls, undereducated or of ill wil, that fire off dumb messages like "this is all made up", "they don't tell us the truth", "they are just making money", and that there enough of the meek following this stupid messaging.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Hank001 » Sun, 19. Sep 21, 17:04

Since the site changed it's look and format a few years ago I was more or less shut out . Now that's all changed and though my vision is hardly any better the technology needed to see, read and participate in the site once again has me able to really appreciate how different this site is from most others out there in the cyber cosmos. I spent the last few days reading through the posts in different forums and I'm finding that overall this site is still probably one of the better sites on the web even outside of the X universe.

Just thought I'd toss that in! :wink:
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Mailo » Sun, 19. Sep 21, 20:07

Oh damn ... I hope you are ok, BaronVerde?
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Mon, 20. Sep 21, 17:27

@Mailo thank you for asking !


I am ok. The first vent opened some 500m directly up from my house. Since we were all prepared with a grab bag and information where to fly to, nobody went missing until now ! I read about isolated respiratory problems from sulphur dioxide, but no lasting injury. Those might have been nosy people hesitating too long while filming with their cell phones. May house is gone, but that's relatively minor as i have another place were i can live temporarily and it is was fully insured. I already spoke with the insurance company and they signalled cooperation.

What's worse are my Spanish neighbour's losses, many of them (several hundred, but the number is rising as the lava runs to the sea in a relatively densely populated area) have lost their livelihood and subsistence. On one side, Jose and family had their carpenter's workshop that's gone. An elder couple, he worked as a haulier until a few years ago, have lost their home. Tomas y family, retired electrical engineer, owner of a vineyard and maker of a nice wine without any added chemistry, will not find their property again. And I do not know if they all had insurance, specifically the haulier can hardly afford the cost with his small retirement pay.

Around 5500 people had to evacuated, but this number is likely to rise as the lava continues.

This really makes one cry. Will do a big donation to the animal shelter for their work, their already had problems from a previous wildfire this year in which many a property was lost (>50 houses).

One politician was already accused of pathetically and cynically rubbing their hands over the expected push to tourism, but most of them focus on giving people a perspective for the future.

Am underway, won't be in here too often in the coming days, and the whole eruption is still evolving.

Thanks again for asking !
A friendly and really sad Green Baron

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Mailo » Mon, 20. Sep 21, 18:19

BaronVerde wrote:
Mon, 20. Sep 21, 17:27
@Mailo thank you for asking !


I am ok. The first vent opened some 500m directly up from my house. Since we were all prepared with a grab bag and information where to fly to, nobody went missing until now ! I read about isolated respiratory problems from sulphur dioxide, but no lasting injury. Those might have been nosy people hesitating too long while filming with their cell phones. May house is gone, but that's relatively minor as i have another place were i can live temporarily and it is was fully insured. I already spoke with the insurance company and they signalled cooperation.

What's worse are my Spanish neighbour's losses, many of them (several hundred, but the number is rising as the lava runs to the sea in a relatively densely populated area) have lost their livelihood and subsistence. On one side, Jose and family had their carpenter's workshop that's gone. An elder couple, he worked as a haulier until a few years ago, have lost their home. Tomas y family, retired electrical engineer, owner of a vineyard and maker of a nice wine without any added chemistry, will not find their property again. And I do not know if they all had insurance, specifically the haulier can hardly afford the cost with his small retirement pay.

Around 5500 people had to evacuated, but this number is likely to rise as the lava continues.

This really makes one cry. Will do a big donation to the animal shelter for their work, their already had problems from a previous wildfire this year in which many a property was lost (>50 houses).

One politician was already accused of pathetically and cynically rubbing their hands over the expected push to tourism, but most of them focus on giving people a perspective for the future.

Am underway, won't be in here too often in the coming days, and the whole eruption is still evolving.

Thanks again for asking !
A friendly and really sad Green Baron
Puh, that's about as close as it can get, 500m from an active volcano vent :o Thanks for giving an update, I was rather worried there for a bit. Good for you that you are insured, but of course terrible for your neighbours if they lost their livelihood. I hope they could at least save mementos.
And of course politicians are the same no matter where you go.
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Mon, 20. Sep 21, 23:00

This is me reporting in from a hotel. I bought a ferry ticket and am idle a few days waiting for the ship to leave the island because I will take the car with me until the situation is cleared, which may take weeks or months.

Based on a drone video shown to me by a policeman I said my house is gone. This was fake news, it is surrounded by two lave flows that razed my neighbourhood, the property of the people I mentioned above, but it still exists, at least slightly damaged from fractures from the seismic shocks it had when I left.

But to illustrate the dramatic scenes people here are experience: Imagine a volcanic vent opens right in between living space and housings, its roaring, here's the moment the ninth vent goes oft, prompting more evacuations, right in the middle of a populated are. These vents open with a shock and develop over minutes to hours into slightly explosive fountains and effusive lave outflows with toxic fumes and cinder thrown up up to 300m

https://rtvc.es/ultima-hora-la-apertura ... -la-palma/

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by greypanther » Tue, 21. Sep 21, 21:20

BaronVerde wrote:
Mon, 20. Sep 21, 23:00
This is me reporting in from a hotel. I bought a ferry ticket and am idle a few days waiting for the ship to leave the island because I will take the car with me until the situation is cleared, which may take weeks or months.
Good to hear you are OK and that there have been no fatalities. :)

I am curious though reading the above... If you don't mind me asking, where will you go now? Also, will you go back to the island once it has all stopped? I ask in particular, after seeing one " expert, " saying there could be much more to come.

That said, my mad wife who has always been fascinated by volcanoes, wants me to book us a flight out there! :o ( It's OK, I have told her they are not allowing flights, due to the risk from the ash... :roll: )
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Wed, 22. Sep 21, 10:51

@graypanther: The situation is getting more desperate every day. Politician scum is still letting tourists in while thousands do not know where to go. People are getting impatient, even angry. I am myself desperately searching a hole to live in, and I can pay. I kindly ask you, do not come here ! Go to Iceland or Hawai'i when there is activity, I believe in Iceland there still is.

Also, this here may be just the beginning of a longer eruptive phase. Will give you all a full write up including geological background because I have studied geology, but this will take weeks, at least.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by greypanther » Wed, 22. Sep 21, 22:16

BaronVerde wrote:
Wed, 22. Sep 21, 10:51
Politician scum
About sums them all up, my grandma always said they all piss in the same pot! True too and I struggle to think of a single one, anywhere, that I have any real respect for.

I am sorry if my slightly tongue in cheek comment was misinterpreted, I in no way would consider travelling to a disaster zone, if I had nothing to offer in the way of help. If my wife would want to see a volcano to such an extent, I would take her to Sicily and Etna.

I too have studied geology, not to the highest level, ( A level, ) intended to study at Cambourne School of Mines. Until I sort of came off the tracks, as it were...

Hope you get lucky and get sorted soonest, take care and stay safe. :)
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by BaronVerde » Wed, 22. Sep 21, 23:33

Thank you, @greypanther, for the clarification.

When I wrote the answer I only knew that I had to leave the hotel tomorrow because of tourist reservations. Meanwhile I found a place, though at the side of a main road. They have evacuated another hotel to make room for some of the lost, and are constructing housing. I admire the Chinese for building hospitals on the green meadows in hours. It is 'only' 6 or 7,000 people here, not 100,000, who were displaced.

That's cool what you say, so you probably know a whole lot about hot-spot volcanism and that this is actually something one can film and nothing cataclysmic, like over a subduction zone or from a magma chamber exposed to seawater. Yet, when a vent opens 500m from your house cracked by seismic shocks, after days of anxious waiting, that's quite impressive. Still several times a day I see people crying, though no human lives where lost.

Seriously, Iceland or Hawai'i are the places where you should take your wife for a glimpse of an active volcano. Problem with volcanoes is, they are either harmless strombolian or hawaian, and you can watch the lava fountains, or they are cataclysmic and one must be so far away to survive that they aren't that impressive any more.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by felter » Thu, 23. Sep 21, 04:17

Volcanos are pretty X2 sagt Bussi auf Bauch things, they just don't do what you want them to do when you want them to do their thing, as Tom Scott found out when he tried to do be a volcano tourist with Mount Fagradalsfjall. They expected that Volcano to just erupt for a week or two, it is still going 6 months after its first eruption with no signs of letting up, unless you are Tom Scott paying it a visit.
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by clakclak » Mon, 27. Sep 21, 11:18

Berlins citizens voted yesterday to expropriate any real estate agency that owns 3000 or more flats in the city. They hope to stop rents from rising this way.

Expropriations so far have mostly been used when new roads needed to be build or when a village was in the way of a coal mine. This would be the first time that they are used to combat rising rents.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/be ... 021-09-27/
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by mr.WHO » Mon, 27. Sep 21, 16:13

clakclak wrote:
Mon, 27. Sep 21, 11:18
Berlins citizens voted yesterday to expropriate any real estate agency that owns 3000 or more flats in the city. They hope to stop rents from rising this way.
Question - what would prevent every real estate agency to break into smaller subsidiaries below 3000 each?

If you own 3000+ properties, I'm quite sure they can afford some additional paperwork.
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 27. Sep 21, 17:19

I suspect the investigations might be similar to say those for the monopoly legislation where the authorities look for similar or associated ownership involvements. Of course some bodies might be better at hiding their administrative and financial traces than others.
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by clakclak » Mon, 27. Sep 21, 21:13

mr.WHO wrote:
Mon, 27. Sep 21, 16:13
clakclak wrote:
Mon, 27. Sep 21, 11:18
Berlins citizens voted yesterday to expropriate any real estate agency that owns 3000 or more flats in the city. They hope to stop rents from rising this way.
Question - what would prevent every real estate agency to break into smaller subsidiaries below 3000 each?

If you own 3000+ properties, I'm quite sure they can afford some additional paperwork.
Nothing from what I can tell. But that will most likely lead to people getting even more aggrivated. I was in Berlin not to long ago and the amount of hate against companies like Deutsche Wohnen is impressive.

But sure, this was a non binding referendum to begin with and I am sure there are many legal loopholes.
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