29 Post Roundup at Dennys Blogs 14 Mar 2010

From Denny: Remember me? You know, the woman who was pining away, waiting for Winter to leave and Spring to come? Yeah, well, the past two weeks here in south Louisiana the tree pollen blast has forced me to practically buy stock in the Kleenex brand of nose tissues. :) With all the fun Spring has sprung on my immune system I had to dial it back and was not able to write as many posts. You know that amusing but true proverbial saying of "Politics is so ugly; it's like making sausage"? Writing this past week has not been much prettier. Lucky you that you don't have blogger video cam! :)

I started keeping up with the news headlines over at Dennys Global Politics, partly to go back and write an opinion piece, partly just to see what's out there across the media spectrum. There are mainstream stories along with the obscure you might not have noticed. The stories are excerpted yet provided with links so you can read in more detail if you prefer.

There are many awesome recipes to enjoy, along with the food video tutorials. There are a few poems and spiritual thoughts to consider. There is a science post about just how much the Chilean earthquake affected the planet, pretty scary stuff. And, of course, my total favorites: lots of rocking good humor posts with funny videos I find while checking in with my social sites. What would life be without friends?



Cartoonists Cajun Whoop A$$ on Everyone - 40 Funny Political Cartoons - 13 Mar 2010

Dennys Popular Poems Roundup 12 Mar 2010

Photo History: 1st Lady Gowns, Michelle Obama Donates Hers

St. Patricks Day Funnies and History - Cheeky Quote Day 10 Mar 2010

Photography: 16 Beautiful Creative Angel Photos

Funny Late Night Comedy Roundup - 8 March 2010

48 Post Roundup: Dennys Blogs 7 Mar 2010




Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earths Day

Step Out into the Unknown with Ease

Shoes in Church poem

A Poem to Think About When You Dream

30 Funny Creative Animal Ads




5 Super Easy Chocolate Desserts: Only 5 Ingredients

Warm Gooey Cheese Fondue 4 Cold Nights

Martha Stewarts 4 Fast Spring Recipes

Unusual Outrageous New Food: Breast Milk Cheese

Chef Mario Batalis Easy 3 Pork Saltimbocca Recipes

Check Out Statistics 4 Real Cost of Fast Food vs. Whole

Chef Jamie Oliver Discovers American Kids Dont Know Veggies



Some of my choices from the day's news, excerpted and with links to full stories, some video clips:

News Headlines Roundup 12 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 11 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 10 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 9 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 8 Mar 2010





7 Funny Quips 10 Mar 2010

13 Funny Quips 9 Mar 2010

Funny Music Video: Hilarious Organized Mayhem

Funny Video: Look, Ma! Eating with No Paws But Real Hands!

Outrageous Funny Video: Procrastination



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Scary Odd: Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earths Day

From Denny: This is a fact few of us thought about when we first heard the news of the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. It really does make us wonder about the idea of the exponential curve in relation to a longer period of time how these incidences will add up to effect the planet. What am I talking about? The Earth's day is now just a small amount shorter.

Richard Gross, and another scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, put the pencil to the math. They calculated this recent high magnitude earthquake has now shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds. In case you forgot, a microsecond is one-millionth of a second. The length of a day is the time it takes for Earth to complete one rotation: 86,400 seconds or 24 hours.

OK, so how did this earthquake accomplish this feat of shortening Earth's day? It caused the Earth to rotate faster by nudging some of its mass closer to the planet's axis. Reminds you of one of those Olympic skaters in a spin where they pull up their arms to increase the speed of the spin.

The opposite can happen too. An earthquake "can slow the rotation and lengthen the day - if it redistributes mass away from that axis," Gross said.

Can this small change be permanent? According to Gross the answer is yes. He also commented that a series of high magnitude earthquakes like this one could possible add up to make the day shorter "but these changes are very, very small."

How small are these changes? There are so small that scientists are not able to record them directly. You would be surprised how much of science is not direct but rather indirect observation and recording. Gross also stated that true observations of the length of the day are accurate to five-millionths of a second. What about his estimate? His estimate about the Chilean quake's effect is just a quarter of that span of time.


*** For more science posts like this, please visit The Soul Calendar.

*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!