Giant Blob found deep within the earth...

[Stuart G]

from MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30949358/

By Jeanna Bryner

updated 53 minutes ago
Hidden beneath the U.S. West's Great Basin, scientists have spied a giant blob of rocky material dripping like honey.

The Great Basin consists of small mountain ranges separated by valleys and includes most of Nevada, the western half of Utah and portions of other nearby states.

While studying the area, John West of Arizona State University and his colleagues found evidence of a large cylindrical blob of cold material far below the surface of central Nevada. Comparison of the results with CAT scans of the inside of Earth taken by ASU's Jeff Roth suggested they had found a so-called lithospheric drip. (Earth's lithosphere comprises the crust or outer layer of Earth and the uppermost mantle.)

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, you probably thought I made this headline up..nope..according to the article..if you read it further, it is described as a "drip."..

[donco6]

1. Cold, dead Mormon hearts. n/t

[CatWoman]

2. Rush?

:)

[smirkymonkey]

20. You beat me to it!

I'm just wondering how the hell he got all the way in there?

[Duer 157099]

3. Rush visiting Cheney in his underground bunker? n/t

[rucky]

4. WE'LL ALL BE KILLDED!

[Stuart G]

5. Micheal Landon starred in the Blob...l957 oops...see addition..

Steve McQuine...l958

[Autumn Colors]

8. No, it was Steve McQueen -- see poster below (nt)

[CatWoman]

14. Landon ws in "I Was a Teenage Werewolf'

[Greyhound]

24. And, according ot Hollywood lore, he spent much of his first fortune

trying to buy up all the copies of it because he was so embarrassed by it.

[Autumn Colors]

6. Because this thread is just crying out for this.....

[Stuart G]

10. Of course..you were right.. how could I get them mixed up..nt.

[Autumn Colors]

16. I think Michael Landon was in some werewolf movie back then??

EDIT: Oops.... someone posted this up above.

Signed,
Redundant Department of Redundancy

[KansDem]

26. Check out my post below...No. 25.

A little audio to go with the visual...;)

[L0oniX]

7. I knew it would come back.

[Autumn Colors]

9. Global warming, you know. (nt)

[zbdent]

11. but then, the authorities just realized that kids had buried Rush in the sand ...

a potential catastrophe was averted when Greenpeace managed to roll him back into the ocean ...

[ColbertWatcher]

12. UFO? Area 51? n/t

[nevergiveup]

13. Gotta be Jerry Falwell

[csziggy]

15. That is so neat! But a little quibble with the article

They talk about "CAT scans" but if I remember correctly from an article a few months back in Science News or Scientific American, the geologists are actually just using similar computer programming to medical CAT scans to process historic seismic wave records to create imaging of the earth's interior. It is called Seismic Tomography:

Seismic tomography is an imaging technique that uses seismic waves generated by earthquakes and explosions to create computer-generated, three-dimensional images of Earth's interior. This is how seismologists infer the different layers in the Earth. How is this done? The time it takes for a seismic wave to arrive at a seismic station from an earthquake can be used to calculate the speed along the wave's ray path. By using first arrival times of P waves recorded by seismic stations all over the world, scientists are able to define slower or faster regions deep in the Earth. Those that come sooner travel faster. Those that come later are slowed down by something along the way. Human CAT scans (see below) are often used as an analogy.

<SNIP>
A CAT (computed axial tomography) scan animation is included because seismic tomography is often compared to CAT scans. Both techniques have an energy source (seismic tomography uses the energy generated from earthquakes; CAT scans use x-ray energy) and a receiver (seismic tomography uses seismograph stations; CAT scans use computers) that records the data.

<SNIP>
Compared to CAT scans, how does seismic tomography work?

Seismic tomography uses seismograms from thousands of local and global earthquakes to measure the speed of sound waves through the earth. With seismic tomography, the energy source is the earthquake. The earthquake sends its signal (seismic waves) to the receiver (seismograph), which records the data. Unlike an X-ray beam that shoots in one direction, the earthquake sends seismic waves in all directions, so instead of having to move the energy source around the Earth, scientists use multiple seismometers. One seismometer can only tell you that there has been an earthquake (as one X-ray can only tell you that you have bones). Many closely spaced seismometers yield three dimensional information about features below Earth's surface.

To determine how features seen at Earth's surface correlate with structural and compositional differences deep within the planet, seismologists need denser networks of seismic stations so that they are recording seismic waves that propagate through finer and finer slices of the earth beneath them. It's important to understand that tomographic techniques give a very coarse look at the subsurface.
More explanantion, diagrams and animations at: http://www.iris.edu/hq/programs/education_and_outreach/aotm/7#cat

[truedelphi]

21. Eastlund patented the technology that is now used

At various array of antennae installations, one known as HAARP, and they can handle the deeep earth tomography.

[csziggy]

35. Yes, it is just the same concept as CAT, but not the same technology

I expect the "Cat scan" comment in the article was the reporter's. The geologists likely explained the tomography to the reporter by comparing it to CAT scans. When it went 'whoosh' over the reporter's head they just wrote down "CAT scan" and left it at that.

That is why I read Science News and Scientific American for my technology and science news and not regular newspapers!

[truedelphi]

36. It's not just reporters, but even in the court room.

Judges whose main area of expertise is schmoozing so that they get appointed to their position, end up ruling on technology matters and other things and they have no idea of whether the Prosecuting or Defense side of things is stating the truth.

[csziggy]

39. Our country is shockingly ignorant in science - no wonder when the scientific method

Is not taught or taught improperly. That is why the fight for teaching evolution is important.

I had a college freshman biology teacher whose explanation of evolution was basically Lamarckism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism). When I objected, he got pissed at me. Fortunately, I was able to ace the tests with the answers he wanted and got an 'A' but that is the only professor I ever turned in a bad review of.

[truedelphi]

41. No one tells the high school kid, excited about getting into the college of their choice,

That they better know how to contact the Head of a Department when it ends up the student knows more than the teacher.

In high school, I was taught French by a nun educated at the Sorbonne. And when
I went on to study French in college, a teacher started marking all my idiomatic phrases as being incorrect. So from then on, whenever I wrote something for that class, it had to be something from a text book, so when it was marked wrong, I could go to the teacher and point to say, page 93, sentence 14 and say, "Why is this phrase written like this here." My failing grade would be reversed, but that teacher hated me! And I ended up with a C in the course.

But Lamarckism from a biology teacher! How much damage did this person do before their career ended?

[csziggy]

45. I learned very early if I wanted to get by without hassles to just give the teacher what they wanted

And pass the course. Of course, it dampened my respect for the teachers and damaged my ability to get the most out of my courses. High school and college were just obstacles I had to get through to get a job rather than the rich learning experiences they should have been for a slightly above average student.

Let's see - a fifth grade English teacher who sent me to the principle for having finished the assigned reading and reading a different book during reading period.

A seventh grade English teacher who told me that a two volume collection of the complete Sherlock Holmes would count as two six weeks' reading, then gave me an 'F' in reading when I did a second book report on the "same book" - I wrote the first report about the early Holmes stories and the second about the later and contrasted the changes in the characters and tone of the stories as Doyle tired of writing them and tried to kill off Holmes.

The World History teacher in tenth grade that only taught history as a progression from Mesopotamia -> Egypt -> Greece -> Rome -> Europe -> England -> America -> United States. As far as he was concerned nothing happened outside those areas during the periods he taught. China pretty much didn't exist in his universe until it was 'discovered' by Marco Polo. Nothing happened in Africa other than Egyptian history (and he was the only African-American teacher I had until I got to college!), no mention of Russia or Eastern Europe until the Soviet Union began to impact the US after WWII. India? He might as well have never heard of it. I asked him a few questions about things, but ended up just testing to his level of knowledge. Easy 'A' - he took all his test questions out of the text book. Oddly enough, that was the only class I ever had someone want to cheat off me. I laughed at them.

The Lamarckian Biology professor - that was 1971 - I asked him how inherited traits work with dominant and recessive genes. He had no clue. I knew more genetics than he did - I had studied color inheritance in horses for fun.

And all of this was 40 years ago, approximately. No wonder teachers today don't know much - they are a generation or two after the bad teachers I had. No to say I didn't have some good teachers - the best taught us how to learn on our own, because they knew damn well we'd need it!

[Echo In Light]

17. *

[proteus_lives]

42. Such an awesome movie!

[11 Bravo]

18. Limbaugh has a basement?

[Stuart G]

32. no,,,, Limbaugh is a miserable excuse for a basement, one that

is filthy, excrement coated and as ugly as one can get.
My humble apologies to all basements that are logged in here.

[Uncle Joe]

19. I wonder if this drip was caused by a large meteor strike?

What's left of the meteor is sinking in to the mantle causing the drip.

[jbnow]

30. I'm wondering about that drip too (jokes aside) nt

[KittyWampus]

37. combination of pressure and temperature and mineral deposits reacting to those external

conditions?

[Uncle Joe]

38. Yes. n/t

[undeterred]

22. Karl Rove's bowel movement?

[Donnachaidh]

23. umm, he IS a bowel movement. n/t

[KansDem]

25. Time to pull up this nifty, little gem...

The Blob 1958 opening tune

Ahhh, good music is timeless...:D

[hfojvt]

27. is it the 'ancient enemy'

Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms yo!

[Echo In Light]

29. Dude!

[proteus_lives]

43. +1!

I thought about that when I read the header!

:rofl:

[jmondine]

28. Now we know where Cheney's secret bunker is

[pleah]

31. Oh, NOOOOOO!

:yoiks:

[Vinca]

33. Who buried Rove??

:rofl:

[Sebastian Doyle]

44. John Lennon?

Oh nevermind.... he buried Paul.

[uppityperson]

34. GOP headquarters? Very intersting thing there, thanks for posting this

[jberryhill]

40. Ah, Good, I've Been Wondering Where I Left That

Just leave it there. I'll pick it up next time I'm out that way.

And thanks.