Rashid's Blog

Geocaching To Bring Folks to Pender?

Rashid Faridi — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:43:31 +0000

Geocaching is something I've always wanted to try but haven't really gotten started. Today, this suggestion came in my email and might be useful for Pender...

How geocaching can bring people to your church

Create an event cache, either at the church or in a local park. Create a theme for your event and pray for those whom God will bring.

NASA's Chandra Turns Up Black Hole Bonanza in Galaxy Next Door

Rashid Faridi — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:31:37 +0000

Reblogged from Science Post:

Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered an unprecedented bonanza of black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way.

Using more than 150 Chandra observations, spread over 13 years, researchers identified 26 black hole candidates, the largest number to date, in a galaxy outside our own. Many consider Andromeda to be a sister galaxy to the Milky Way.

Summer Learnin': Sustainability of Food Systems

Rashid Faridi — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:57:40 +0000

Reblogged from Food (Policy) For Thought:

I am a huge learning addict. Case in point - this blog, which gives me a good reason to go and do hours (sometimes) of research on things such as flood prevention or in vitro meat. Another favorite tool of mine to add to my knowledge and understanding of the world around me are MOOCs. The acronym stands for Massive Open Online Courses, and revolves around a simple concept: …

Microalgae: renewable biofuel source with no need for fresh water. Just give them our wastewater.

Rashid Faridi — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:18:08 +0000

Reblogged from Taking Science to the People:

Last week, I presented illustrations for yeast and a microalgal species of Chlamydomonas. Today I will expound on part of this. Ongoing research is working to identify ways to circumvent the need for fresh water, a precious commodity, and costly fertilizer to cultivate microalgae for biofuel production. These microorganisms are a rich source of oils that can be integrated into our national fuel infrastructure.

Monadnock or Inselberg:An Isolated Hill

Rashid Faridi — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:23:23 +0000

The distinctive Big Pinnacle of Pilot Mountain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monadnock or inselberg is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain.

In southern and southern-central Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a kopje, a Dutch word (“little head”) from which the Afrikaans word koppie was derived.

If the monadnock is dome-shaped and formed from granite-gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt.

Etymology

Monadnock

The name originally from Mount Monadnock in southwestern New Hampshire. It is thought to derive from the Abenaki language, from either menonadenak (“smooth mountain”) or menadena (“isolated mountain”). In this context, monadnock is used to describe a mountain that rises from an area of relatively flat and/or lower terrain. For instance, Mount Monadnock rises 2,000 feet (610 m) above its surrounding terrain and stands, at 3,165 feet (965 m), nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) higher than any mountain peak within 48 km.

Inselberg

The word inselberg is German for “island mountain”; the name was originally coined by geologist Wilhelm Bornhardt (1864–1946) in 1900 to describe the abundance of such features found in southern Africa. At this point, the term applied only to arid landscape features. However, the term inselberg has since been used to describe a broader geography and range of rock features, leading to confusion about the precise definition of the term. In a 1973 study examining the use of the term, one researcher found that the term had been used for features in savannah climates 40% of the time; arid or semi-arid climates 32% of the time, humid-subtropical and arctic 12% of the time; and 6% each for humid-tropical and Mediterranean climates. As recently as 1972, the term has been defined as “steep-sided isolated hills rising relatively abruptly above gently sloping ground.” This definition includes such features as buttes; conical hills with rectilinear sides typically found in arid regions; regolith-covered concave-convex hills; rock crests over regolith slopes; rock domes with near vertical sides; tors (koppies) formed of large boulders but with solid rock cores. Thus, the term monadnock and inselberg may not perfectly match.

Formation

Volcanic or other processes may give rise to a body of rock resistant to erosion, inside a body of softer rock such as limestone which is more susceptible to erosion. When the less resistant rock is eroded away to form a plain, the more resistant rock is left behind as an isolated mountain. The strength of the uneroded rock is often because of the tightness of its jointing. If the monadnock is dome-shaped and formed from granite-gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt.

The presence of a monadnock or inselberg typically indicates the existence of a nearby plateau or highland, or their remnants. This is especially the case for inselbergs composed of sedimentary rock, which will display the same stratigraphic units as this nearby plateau. However once exposed, the inselbergs are destroyed by marginal collapse of joint blocks and exfoliation sheets. This process leaves behind tors perched at their summits and over time a talus-bordered residual, known as a castle kopje appears.

Importance

The kopjes of Eastern Africa tend to be a refuge for life in the Serengeti of Tanzania and Kenya. Where the soil is too thin or hard to support tree life in large areas, soil trapped by kopjes can be dense with trees while the surrounding land contains only short grass. Hollows in the rock surfaces provide catchments for rainwater. Many animals have adapted to the use of kopjes, to include like lion, hyrax, and an abundance of birds and reptiles.

Source(s):Wikipedia

Mt. Monadnock (hikenorthamerica.wordpress.com)
Wave Rock (unusualplaces.org)

WiFi radiation harms trees

Rashid Faridi — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:16:32 +0000

Reblogged from This Got My Attention:

This is a follow up on a post from Political Film Blog a couple weeks ago that got my attention.

Five ninth-grade young women from Denmark recently created a science experiment that is causing a stir in the scientific community.

If you want to sprout some garden cress don't do it anywhere near your WiFi router.

I found another interesting study from almost three years ago that suggested that…

Terraced Rice Field, China

Rashid Faridi — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:06:19 +0000

Source: Green Yaatra Blog

How data revisionism hypes global warming

Rashid Faridi — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 10:46:11 +0000

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

I have now had the opportunity to study SteveF’s remarkable essay at Lucia’s Blackboard, to which Anthony kindly draws attention in his footnote to my earlier posting on the absence of statistically-significant global warming for 17 years 4 months.

SteveF’s conclusion is that once allowance has been made for three naturally-occurring influences – volcanic aerosols, the ~11-year solar cycle and the el Niño/la Niña cycles – the HadCRUt4 warming rate from 1979-1996 was six times faster than from 1997-2012.

Google Introduces Balloon-powered Internet access

Rashid Faridi — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 08:25:52 +0000

The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity—jungles, archipelagos, mountains-to name a few. There are also major cost challenges. For example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month’s income!! Thinking out of the box Google is Introducin Ballon Powered Internet.

read here

Providing Free Internet To Remote or Poor Areas Using Ballons Google-Style (traxarmstrong.com)
Google’s Project Loon tests internet delivered by balloons (digitalspy.co.uk)
Internet aases secret project (sathought.wordpress.com)
Google floats balloons for free Wi-Fi (theage.com.au)
Introducing Project Loon: Balloon-powered Internet access (googleblog.blogspot.com)

Is a secret a lie?

Rashid Faridi — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 05:29:54 +0000

Reblogged from Open Geography:

Is a secret a lie? That is, in and of itself, are secrets lies?

This thought was engendered by the events of the last week about previously classified court orders and data mining programs at the NSA, and the larger world of classified activities.

In "history of the lie" Derrida states that a lie is not an error. You can be in error about something, mistaken about it ("why did you miss the meeting at 1pm?", "