NIGHT BARMAN - GREENLAB / 4.TH DIMENSION (HVPSM 4.9)

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I present tonight the soundtrack ''4.th Dimension'' performed by GREENLAB an Italian Blues/Dance band to discover with the following report made on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

GreenLab

è un progetto nato dal connubio artistico di quattro musicisti e produttori provenienti da differenti ambiti musicali: Simone Galgano (tastiere), Federico Mazzoli (basso), Roberto Leprotti (batteria e programmazione) e Domenico Canzoniero (chitarra,tastiere). Il risultato di questa collaborazione si manifesta attraverso il sound eclettico, ritmiche Trip Hop, sonorità sound track con atmosfere fantasiose e suoni spaziali. In una parola sola, Space Funk.

Marzo 2008 — E’ On Line il sito dei GreenLab all’indirizzo Web : www.greenlabmusic.com

Marzo 2008 — Uscita Album “ECHOSYSTEM” prodotto da Ricky Rinaldi per One Eyed Fish Records. Pubblicato da IRMA Records e presentato al MIDEM 2008 di Cannes (Fr).

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AAA PRESS IMAGES - WORLD NEWS / TELESCOPE SNAPS MOST DISTANT OBJECT

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Far from Earth, astronomers have found new objects. Let's discover more informations with this report made on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

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Evidence of star birth within a cloud of primordial gas has given astronomers a glimpse of a previously unknown mode of galaxy formation. The cloud, known as the Leo Ring, appears to lack the dark matter and heavy elements normally found in galaxies today. The unexpected discovery comes thanks to instruments aboard NASAs Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft which are sensitive to the ultraviolet radiation emitted by newly formed stars.

Telescope snaps most distant object

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers tracking a mysterious blast of energy called a gamma ray burst said on Tuesday they had snapped a photograph of the most distant object in the universe -- a smudge 13 billion light-years away.

Hawaii's Gemini Observatory caught the image earlier this month after a satellite first detected the burst.

"Our infrared observations from Gemini immediately suggested that this was an unusually distant burst, these images were the smoking gun," said Edo Berger of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Distortions in the light signature of the object show it is 13 billion years old -- at the speed of light, 13 billion light-years away. A light-year is 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

This makes it easily the most distant object ever seen by humanity, Berger said.

Gamma-ray bursts are luminous explosions that mostly occur when massive stars run out of fuel and begin collapsing into either a black hole or a neutron star.

"I have been chasing gamma-ray bursts for a decade, trying to find such a spectacular event," said Berger. "We now have the first direct proof that the young universe was teeming with exploding stars and newly-born black holes only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang," he said.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Bill Trott)

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AAA PRESS IMAGES - WORLD NEWS / YOUNGEST & LOWEST MASS DWARFS DISCOVERED

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Astronomers Discover Youngest and Lowest Mass Dwarfs

Written by Nancy Atkinson

Astronomers have found three brown dwarfs with estimated masses of less than 10 times that of Jupiter, making them among the youngest and lowest mass sub-stellar objects detected in the solar neighborhood to date. “There has been some controversy about identifying young, low mass brown dwarfs in this region,” said Andrew Burgess, one of the astronomers who used the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to find the objects. “The fact that we have detected three candidate low-mass dwarfs towards IC 348 supports the finding that these really are very young objects.”

A team of astronomers from the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de l’Observatoire de Grenoble (LAOG), France made the discovery, and Burgess presented their findings at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science at the University of Hertfordshire.

The dwarfs were found in a star forming region named IC 348, which lies almost 1000 light years away, towards the constellation of Perseus. This cluster is approximately 3 million years old – extremely young compared to our 4.5 billion year old Sun – which makes it a good location in order to search for the lowest mass brown dwarfs. The dwarfs are isolated in space, which means that they are not orbiting a star, although they are gravitationally bound to IC 348. Their atmospheres all show evidence of methane absorption which was used to select and identify these young objects.

IC 348, the star-forming region where the brown dwarfs were discovered. Image credit: Adam Block and Tim Puckett

The team set out to find a population of these brown dwarfs in order to help theoreticians develop more accurate models for the distribution of mass in a newly-formed population, from high mass stars to brown dwarfs, which is needed to test current star formation theories. The discovery of the dwarfs in IC 348 has allowed them to set new limits on the lowest mass objects.

An object of a similar mass was discovered in 2002, but some groups have argued that it is an older, cooler brown dwarf in the foreground coinciding with the line of sight.

”Finding three candidate low-mass dwarfs towards IC 348 backs up predictions for how many low-mass objects develop in a new population of stars. Brown dwarfs cool with age and current models estimate that their surfaces are approximately 900-1000 degrees Kelvin (about 600-700 degrees Celsius). That’s extremely cool for objects that have just formed, which implies that they have the lowest masses of any of this type of object that we’ve seen to date,” said Burgess.

Source: RAS

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HISTORIUM OBSERVATORIUM - THE LONG WAVES OF TIME

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The Long Waves of Time

When analyzing Quincy Wright’s (1965) data on frequency and intensity of warfare among the Western countries, we noticed a cycle, superimposed on the cycle of wars, wars with periodicity of about 200 - 300 years. Comparing this cycle with the cycle typical of the Chinese wars, both cycles showed similar periodicity for the time intervals when, in China, the Confucius philosophy was predominant. Several researchers, independently analyzing Quincy Wright’s (1965) data on frequency and intensity of warfare have also observed this ‘long wave’ cycle, identified by Denton and Phillips in Some Patterns in the History of Violence (1968) as likely caused by

an action-reaction process in political philosophy, taken in the broad sense to include the general attitude of the elites toward the ‘correct’ society, a cycle of profound changes, heralding a new epoch.

Search for the Long Waves of Time

To outline tentative contours of this cycle, we had first to choose the anchor points of our time scale, our best guess being the closing centuries of the Roman Empire, from about 275 to 476, and at the other pole the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989, marking the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Hypothesizing a sine wave with amplitude of about 200 years, the long wave cycle of wars would have about eight inflection points. As the religion dominated most of the history of the West, the religious and secular epitomes are not meant in an absolute, but in a relative sense.

Epoch / Duration / Turning Points / Roman Empire, Secular

Rise of Christianity (275-476, Religious)

201

Fall of Rome (476)

Saeculum Obscurum (476-696, Secular)

220

Venerable Bede (696)

Carolingian Reformation (696 - 896, Religious)

200

Cadaver Synod (896)

Age of Byzantium (896 - 1096, Secular)

200

The First Crusade (1096)

Age of Crusades (1096 - 1291, Religious)

195

Fall of Acre (1291), Black Death (1350)

Renaissance (1350 - 1550, Secular)

200

Diet of Worms (1521), Council of Trent (1545), Death Penalty for Heresy (1550)

Reformation (1550 - 1789, Religious)

239

French Revolution (1789)

Age of Enlightenment (1789-1989, Secular)

200

Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)
Resurgence of Religion, Religious

Rise of Christianity

Emperor Constantinus. Enhanced image from a Roman coin.

Roman Emperor Aurelianus (r. 270-275) was the last Roman emperor who ruled the strong and united empire with the Sun God as the principal deity. After his assassination in 275, the rise of Christianity gained momentum and accelerated. In 313 Emperor Constantine mandated Christianity the official state religion and in 330 moved the capital of the Roman Empire to the Nova Roma, later renamed Constantinople (present Istanbul). Soon after Christianity became the state religion, Constantine legislated that

participation in pagan services is punishable by death.

Emperor Julian (361-363).

About 50 years later, Emperor Julian, called by his friends the Philosopher and by the Christians the Apostate, attempted to restore the classic Roman heritage. Julian shared with Celsus the major objections of the Romans against the Christians of which the central was that by transferring their primary allegiance from the ancestors to the God,
Christians are weakening the most sacred of all social bonds,
the bond between parents and their children.

Emperor Julian is the protagonist of Gore Vidal's book Julian (1964) describing his life and times. Emperor Julian's books, beautifully written, include the Hymn to the King Helios, Letter to a Priest where Julian outlines a strategy for restoration of classic Roman religion, and Against the Galileans, describing many of the appalling aspects of Christianity. Emperor Julian was assassinated in 363 by a fanatic Christian.

During this epoch, Agorius Praetextatus (320-384) was one of the leaders of the Gentile intellectual movement in an increasingly Christian late imperial Rome. In the face of the Christian juggernaut, Praetextatus, his wife Pauline, and a circle of friends including writers Symmachus and Macrobius, fought the battle for the Roman classic religion and ideals. After Praetextatus death in 384, St. Jerome rejoiced that Praetextatus is now in hell.

In 476, Germanic warrior and king of Italy, Odoacer, deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last western Roman emperor. During this period, the frequency of warfare was high, as waves of invasions by Franks, Goths, and Vandals partitioned and finally overwhelmed the Western Roman Empire.


Saeculum Obscurum

Page from Boethius’ Consolation Philosophiae (Ghent, 1485), depiction Boethius’ dreamy image of Philosophy as a beautiful girl.

Caesar Baronius, head librarian of the Vatican Library, coined the term Saeculum Obscurum in his Annales ecclesiastici (1588). However, these Dark Ages were enlightened at the beginning by Anicius Boethius (480-524) and at the end by Venerable Bede (672-735).

Seventeen years after Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, invited Odoacer to a banquet where he had him assassinated. Theodoric became Odoacer's successor as a king of Italy.

Theodoric began to suspect that certain of his nobles were plotting with the emperor in Constantinople to overthrow his government, and Albinus, an ex-consul and friend of Boethius’ was charged with treason. Boethius, at that time Theodoric's Magister Officiorum, Master of the Palace defended Albinus in court, was himself accused of being part of the plot, imprisoned at Ticinum in northern Italy and later executed. During his imprisonment, Boethius, wrote his Consolation Philosophiae.

Boethius is often called ‘the last of the Romans, the first of the Scholastics.’ as he translated Aristotle and Euclid (Geometria Euclidis a Boethio in Latinum translata) into Latin and these translations were used by scholastic philosophers 600 years later..

As the Roman Empire was disintegrating, Vandals occupied its North Africa provinces, Goths expanded their control to Spain, and Franks settled in Gaul (France) and parts of Germany.

Carolingian Reformation

At the early years of the Carolingian Age, the lucid writings of Venerable Bede’s (672-735) and his followers provide insight into the general obscurity of these times. Venerable Bede’s (672-735) wrote on various topics, such as history (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), orthography, grammar, and theology. Bede also composed a summary of the works of Roman naturalists. Bede’s legacy was continued by Alcuin (c.735-804), the intellectual successor of Bede, who established a school at Aix-la-Chapelle with the classical curriculum of the medieval education: the seven liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Alcuin’s students, such as Rhabanus Maurus, known for his poetry and De arte grammatica, carried Bede’s legacy into the interior of Europe.

Charlemagne (r. 774-814)

The Carolingian Reformation proper commences with the ascent of Charlemagne (r. 774-814) who established the Holy Roman Empire in 800. The atmosphere of Charlemagne’s times was told by Emmanuel Roidis in his 1866 novel Pope Joan. In 1960, the Roidis' book was made into a movie by Lawrence Durrell. Joan was a female Pope who ruled the church between the pontificates of Leo IV (847-855) and Benedict III (855-858). Her name was expurgated from the Vatican records and the resulting gap was filled by the extension of the actual reigns of the adjacent popes. Joan studied in Athens and after her arrival to Rome she disguised herself as a male to get a job as a papal notary. After the death of Leo IV she was elected Pope. During a papal procession, she gave birth to a child. Her enraged entourage stoned both Joan and her newborn child to death.

Historians of religious bent credit Charlemagne with great political, religious, and humanitarian vision. Other historians describe Charlemagne as religious fanatic. Bernard Bachrac characterizes Charlemagne as

'a gluttonous and superstitious illiterate, or semiliterate,
who had a considerable capacity for brutality.
His accomplishments were due mostly to the ruthlessness
with which he treated any opponents.'

During the times of Charlemagne, the Byzantine Empire was rocked by the Great Iconoclasm Controversy. The Old Testament forbids making images (thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image), however, the New Testament does not reiterate this prohibition. In Greek, eikono-klasmos means image-breaking. This controversy between Iconoclasts and Iconolaters was among the early manifestations of the Old-New Testament doctrinal differences that later came into prominence during the Protestant Reformation. Charlemagne got involved when the Byzantine Empress Irene asked the hand of Charlemagne’s daughter for her son. Charlemagne at first agreed, but when he learned that Irene does not support the Iconoclasts, he broke the engagement.

Saxony, 782

The alienation of the European people from their native cultures was accelerated during the times of Charlemagne and presaged what happened to the native people of the Americas and their indigenous cultures following the voyages of Columbus. Charlemagne's crusade against 'heathens' took place in the course of his Thirty Years' War (774-804) during which most of the indigenous cultures of Europe disappeared. The violence and atrocities of Charlemagne's Thirty Years' War include the executions of thousands who refused to convert to Christianity and resulted in deaths of about a half and in some regions close to two thirds of the pre-war population. During Charlemagne's Thirty Years' War, people who refused to be converted were executed. These executions took place in recurring waves, reaching its peak in 782 when Charlemagne executed in a single day over 4,000 Saxons who refused to convert to Christianity. During his campaigns against Saxony, in his conversations transcribed by his biographer Eginhard, Charlemagne often repeated that

'Saxony must be Christianized, or wiped out.'

During Charlemagne's Thirty Year's War, most of the Western Europe was converted to Christianity. Charlemagne, who signed documents as Carolus, Rex and Sacerdot, the King and the Priest, maintained a close collusion of the secular and ecclesiastical powers. Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope Leo III as the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 and was canonized in 1165. The end of the Charlemagne’s Empire can be characterized by the Cadaver Synod (896), the bizarre trial of Pope Formosus.

The frequency of warfare during this period was high. Charlemagne's empire rested almost entirely on the force and after his death and a prolonged civil war, the empire was divided (887) among his heirs into three areas, roughly corresponding to present France, Germany, and Italy, marking the end of this epoch.

Constantinople, the Queen of Cities

The Age of Byzantium

This era spans a time period following the end of the Carolingian Dynasty and the First Crusade. Among the best loved literary heritage of the Byzantine Empire is the Pentateuch of the Harlequin romance novels (Callimachos and Chrysorrhoe, Belthandros and Chrysantza, Lybistros and Rhodamme, Imberios and Margarona, Florios and Platziaflora) where the girl is kidnapped by a monster or a foreign king and her boyfriend gets involved in combating supernatural or magical forces before they are together again to live happily ever after.

This was also the age of Vikings. The Vikings came from the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and Denmark) and settled in Island and Ireland. and Russia. The Swedish Vikings mainly traveled east, into Russia, and sailed down the Volga River. From the south, Byzantium was sending missionaries to its northern Slavic neighbors who, aside of religion, were also promoting literacy and were bringing with them a modicum of classical Greek and Roman learning.

Crusades

pho black

This period is demarcated by the First Crusade (1096) and by the fall of Acre (1291), the last of the fortresses crusaders erected in the Middle East. During the First Crusade, Jerusalem was conquered at the cost of more than 60,000 lives;

'there was such a carnage that our people were wading ankle-deep in the blood of our foes.
Happily and crying for joy our people marched to our Savior's tomb, to honor it and to pay off our debt of gratitude.'

The crusades ended when religious fervor was replaced by disinterest and doubts about God's will to liberate the Holy Land. The times of crusades are undoubtedly the epoch of high military activity. This period marks the apex of Church power and closest association of spiritual and secular powers in Europe.

Renaissance

The key event fomenting the transition from the age of Crusades to the Renaissance was the Black Death epidemic of plague. The Black Death was a devastating pandemic that struck Europe in the years 1347–1350, killing up to a third of Europe's population, an estimated 34 million people. A series of contemporaneous plague epidemics also occurred across large portions of Asia and the Middle East, indicating that the European outbreak was actually part of a Eurasian pandemic. The Christian church lost spiritual authority and prestige, as the church promised cures and treatment, but did not make good at these promises. The scope of this disaster turned explanations such as “that it is God’s will” into platitudes.” People wanted cures, but the priests and bishops didn't have any; most of them fled as the others who could. People prayed to God, but God either did not listen or perhaps there was not any, leaving people angry and disillusioned as it dawned on many that the religion is nothing else but a gigantic fraud hoisted on the gullible and trusting. After the Black Death passed, Boccaccio wrote his Decameron and the life returned to normal and was probably best depicted by the Limbourg brothers in their Tres Riches Heures, painted between 1412 and 1416. During its Golden Age, Francois Villon wrote his poetry, Sandro Botticelli illustrated Dante's La Divina Comedia, and painted his Madonnas.

Danse Macabre

Reformation

Luther(1483-1546) posted his theses in 1517

Calvin (1509-1564), returned to Geneva in 1541

The Renaissance of the classical learning of Greeks and Romans with its stress on humanism and reason was opposed by the Protestant Reformation. The Age of Reformation has two distinct periods, the Spanish Century and the Time of Royal France. Reformation coincided with the times of witch burning. Although the witch-hunts occurred sporadically from about 1450’s, they emerged as a major social event in 1500’s, reaching their height around the times of the Thirty Years' War, when witch trials became ubiquitous throughout Western Europe and spread to the American colonies. The upsurge in witch burning during these years reflected the heightened tensions between Protestants and Catholics, as each side of this religious controversy was convinced that the opposing side was inspired by the devil. The witch burning ceased around the time of the French Revolution

During Reformation religious conflicts escalated and culminated during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). There was widespread interest in the occult, magic, horoscopes, and astrology.

Isabella of Spain (1451-1504)

The Spanish Century (1525 -1648)


The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella is best known for their sponsorship of Columbus' voyage in 1492. This marked the beginning of the Spanish Empire. In the remaining 24 years of their reign, exploration and exploitation of the West Indies expanded and accelerated. Upon Ferdinand’s death in 1516, the Spanish crown went to their grandson, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles V (1500-1558). By inheritance, he became the ruler of Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Hungary, Netherlands, and parts of Italy and France. Moreover, Charles V's Spanish subjects conquered vast territories in Central and South America. No other Emperor has ruled so vast a region. Charles’ heraldic coat-of-arms bore the inscription plus ultra (always further) and his conquistadores referred to their sovereign as the ruler of the world.

Columbus Flagship Santa Maria

Heralding the Century of Spain is the Columbus voyage to the West Indies. Columbus ships Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria sailed from Spain in 1492 and Pinta and Nina returned in 1493.Vicente Pinzón who had been the captain of Niña on Columbus' first voyage, left Spain in 1499, explored the coast of Brazil, discovered the Amazon River, and returned to Spain in 1500. Pinzón voyage is a prototype of many expeditions that followed Columbus 1492 westward sailing.

Among Emperor Charles V explorers were - Hernan Cortes who defeated the Aztecs in Mexico; Francisco Pizzaro who conquered the Inca kingdom in Peru; Francisco Coronado, who searched for the fabled Seven Golden Cities of Cibola and found the Grand Canyon instead; and Ferdinand Magellan whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the world. Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with five ships in 1519 of which one, Victoria, arrived in Spain in 1522, three years after leaving.

Emperor Charles V (1500-1558)

Luther greeted Charles’ election as the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire with great enthusiasm. He wrote that ‘God gave us as our head a young person of noble blood and evoke in our hearts great, good hope’ and wanted to enlist Charles' support to fight the papacy: 'Magnificent Emperor Charles, Christian nobles, devoted to Christ, how long are you going to suffer the devil’s voice of the papal Antichrist?’ However, Charles did not let himself be swayed by his personal antipathy to the Pope into an inimical stance to the papacy. Charles and Luther are the embodiments of the great Catholic-Protestant controversy. Shortly after Charles’ election, they faced each other at the Diet of Worms (1521). Luther summarized his position and ended that

‘Here I stand, my conscience tied to the word of God.’

Charles replied that he will not hesitate

'to stake my kingdom, my realms, my friends, body and blood,
life and soul’ to defend the unity of Christians.

Luther departed Worms for Wartburg and continued his campaign promoting Protestant ideas. Charles was forced by other pressing matters to leave Germany and did not return for many years. During this time, Luther's teachings took hold in Germany and spread to the other states of Europe. Charles was preoccupied by the war with France, the Turkish invasions culminating in the 1529 siege of Vienna, the corsairs who threatened the Spanish shipping in the Mediterranean, and by the matters of his growing overseas empire. Charles underestimated Luther. He thought his problems with Protestantism would fade when Luther and Henry VIII died in 1546. However, in 1551 the German Protestant princes allied with France against Charles and forced a war during which Charles nearly lost his life. He narrowly escaped and found refugee in the Alpine city of Villach. The war was concluded by the Peace of Augsburg granting the German princes the right to choose either Catholicism or Protestantism and to determine the religious character of their territory: cuius regio, eius religio.

However, the Emperor’s troubles were just beginning. In 1555 Cardinal Caraffa was elected the Pope Paul IV. Before his election, for a whole generation, Cardinal Caraffa used the Inquisition to terrorize Italy. About himself he said that

'I have never conferred a favor on a human being.'

Charles opposed Caraffa's papal nomination; however he was elected in spite of the emperor. Pope Paul IV relations with England had been disastrous. This inquisitor-turned-pope stripped Queen's Mary's Cardinal Pole of his office and ordered him to come to Rome to face Inquisition. Upon the death of Mary and Pole, he called Elizabeth 'illegitimate' and rejected her claim to the crown. As the Emperor Charles V opposed his nomination, Caraffa was consumed by hatred and declared crusade on Spain. Under the General Duque de Alba the Spanish Armed Forces prevailed, but Charles gave up. The idea that he, who had his whole life striven for Pax Christianitatis, would become a target of a Crusade was too much for him to bear.

Phillip II (1527-1598)

Ferdinand I (1503-1564)

He transferred the rule of his Spanish dominions to his son, Philip II, his German dominions to his brother, Ferdinand I, and retired to a comfortable mansion adjacent to the monastery of San Yuste. There, surrounded by his collection of paintings, he listened to music and constructed mechanical clocks and automata. Charles died on September 21, 1558; 45 years after Vasco de Balboa saw the waves of the Pacific Ocean, heralding his eventful reign of struggle, discovery, and adventure.

Phillip was six years older than Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603). During their times, the Spanish and British Empires were engaged in a continuous struggle for world dominance, fueled on the personal side by Elizabeth’s rejection of Philip’s offer to marry her.

In 1529, Ferdinand repelled the Ottoman armies at the Siege of Vienna. In 1547 the Bohemian Protestant nobles rebelled against Ferdinand when he ordered the Bohemian army against the German Protestants, but Ferdinand prevailed and continued his life-long struggle against the tide of Protestantism. Among Ferdinand's successors were Rudolf II (1552-1612), patron of Tycho de Brahe and Johannes Kepler and Ferdinand II (1578-1637) who suppressed the second rebellion of the Bohemian Protestants in 1618 that initiated the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

Among the significant writings of this era are Johannes Kepler’s Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596), Astronomia Nova (1609) and Harmonices Mundi (1619) Keplers had to move from city to a city, as his mother was accused of witchcraft and in continuous danger of being apprehended and burned at the stake. Kepler was excluded from the Lutheran church and did not convert to Catholicism either. He lost his teaching post at Graz due to his lack of religious beliefs and moved to Prague to work with the Danish astronomer, Tycho de Brahe at the court of the Emperor Rudolf II. After Tycho died in 1601, Kepler inherited his post as Imperial Mathematician. Using the data that Tycho de Brahe had collected, Kepler discovered that the orbit of the planet Mars was not a circle, but an ellipse, with one focus located at the center of the Sun. Johannes Kepler also discovered the basic principles of integral calculus, used logarithms in his calculations before Napier, explained that tides are caused by the Moon, discovered that Sun rotates about its axis, explained the role of both eyes in depth perception, investigated the formation of pictures with a pin hole camera, designed eyeglasses for near- and far-sightedness, coined the word satellite.

The Century of France (1648-1789)

The Encyclopedists Denis Diderot (1713-1784)

The Philosophers Voltaire (1694-1778)

The peace of Westphalia (1648) ending the Thirty Years' War heralded the century of France. French philosophers provided the theoretical, philosophical, and legal foundations of the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 that stopped the Witch Trials and ended the Burning Times Epoch. The torture was abolished and the burning stakes were extinguished.

The ideas of France's scholars, Denis Diderot, Claude Helvetius, Marquis de Condorcet, Julien Offroy de La Mettrie asserting that the understanding of human affairs and human destiny will come from science and natural philosophy, were widely accepted. Denis Diderot edited the famous Encyclopedia, promoting a materialistic view of the universe. Voltaire opposed the intolerance of Christianity and Cesare Beccaria protested the oppressive legal justice system.

Louis IV, Roi-Soleil Louis XV, le Bien Aime Louis XVI, le Dernier (r. 1643-1715) (r. 1715-1774) (r. 1774-1792)

The reign of Louis XIV, France's Sun King, a picturesque age so well described by Alexandre Dumas in his historical novels. In 1683, Louis broke the religious hold of Protestants on France by revoking the Edict of Nantes.

Louis XV's best known mistress was Marquise "Reinette" de Pompadour. She spent her adolescence in Catholic convent. At the age of nine, she was told by a fortuneteller that she would win the heart of a king, which she did at the age of 22, when she was invited to a royal mask ball at Versailles. There were eight identically costumed figures one of them being the king. Reinette, dressed as Goddess Diana, chose to dance with one of them which turned out being the king. They became friends and later lovers. When the king lost the battle at Rosbach, she consoled him with au reste, après nous, le déluge.

Louis XVI married at the age of 15 Marie Antoinette, Princess of Bohemia, daughter of the Empress of Austria Maria Theresa. Louis supported the philosophers of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, earning animosity of the British, who together with a faction of dissatisfied French nobles continued to undermine his authority. In 1792 France was proclaimed a republic. Louis XVI was executed the following year, as was his wife Marie Antoinette. Louis was executed on charges of treason, Marie Antoinette, among others, on fraudulent charges of child molestation. They were 38 years old. In 1973, Marie Antoinette was serialized as one of the main characters of the best-selling shojo manga The Rose of Versailles, later adapted into an anime series by Japanese television.

The Age of Enlightenment

The age of Enlightenment consists of two distinct periods, that of 19th and 20 Centuries. The end of the Age of Enlightenment was likely presaged by the fall of the Soviet Union, followed by trends and events that resulted in the restoration of torture at the beginning of the 21st Century.

Typical cover of Verne's books

Decades preceding the onset of the World War I mark the time when this epoch reached its apex. It was the time of Jules Verne (Cinq semaines en ballon, L’île mysterieuse), Alexandre Dumas (Le comte de Monte Cristo), Victor Hugo (Les misérables), Emile Zola (Nana), Honore de Balzac (Le Père Goriot), Stendhal (Le rouge et le noir), Stéphane Mallarmé (Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard), Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire (Les fleurs du mal). If one author could characterize the decades preceding the World War I, it may be Anatole France.

The age of enlightenment was secular. Among the writers on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum are

Honoré de Balzac Cesare Beccaria Jeremy Bentham Auguste Comte Denis Diderot Alexandre Dumas

Anatole France Edward Gibbon André Gide Victor Hugo David Hume Karl Marx

François Rabelais Alfred Rosenberg Jean-Paul Sartre Voltaire Émile Zola

Resurgence of Religion

The balance of power, the result of WW II, was disturbed with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. History suggests that imbalance of power leads initially to a series of small wars, an escalation of violence, and the increased probability of a major military conflict. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the world has destabilized. The threat of mutual annihilation that kept the superpowers at bay for the last half century has receded. Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, in the Summer of 1993, there appeared in Foreign Affairs a study by Harvard University Professor Samuel P. Huntington called the Clash of the Civilizations. According to Huntington, the next major conflict is likely to be conflict where the West will face the Islamic world and confront the Confucian states of the Far East. To alter this course of events, envisioned by Huntington, would involve concerted effort of those who prefer a global community where peaceful conflict resolutions have precedence over the violent ones.

Shortly after the Fall of the New York Twin Towers on November 11, 2001, there appeared in Pacific News (March 6, 2002) a sequel to Huntington's Clash of the Civilizations by Yu Bin, Professor of political science at Ohio's Wittenberg University. Called the Clash of the Uncivilized, the Yu Bin's article is excerpted as follows:

September 11, 2001 unleashed the most uncivilized part of every major religion in the world. Islamic fundamentalists, Jewish hard-liners and Christian right-wingers are plunging themselves into holy wars of their own definition and making. President Bush determined to settle unfinished business with Saddam Hussein, regardless of disagreement with allies, guaranteed backlash against the United States. This, coupled with the widely held perception of American indifference toward Palestinian suffering, has made America morally hypocritical in the eyes of many. This is strategically destabilizing for a highly interdependent, fragile world system. In Europe, this global surge of uncivilized clashes has given rise to both anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic momentum. Extremist conservative forces are running the show in much of the world, and the silence, impotence and disappearance of moderate forces globally has contributed to the current malaise

It is still possible to tame this uncivilized beast before it consumes us all. The world needs to address this increasingly dangerous situation not just with smart bombs, but also with political wisdom, meaningful diplomacy, patience, fairness and generosity. Such an effort would make the United States a power to be respected, not just feared.

The end of the world

Thomas Long (2000) in his Medieval New England Apocalypse relates the story of the runaway bestseller The Day of Doom (1662) by a Puritan preacher, Michael Wigglesworth. The Day of Doom is a description of Judgment Day. The book (a lengthy poem) begins:

Still was the night, serene and bright,

when all men sleeping lay;

Calm was the season, and carnal reason

thought so it would last for ay.

The depiction of a nocturnal serenity is interrupted by a gigantic earthquake followed by a tsunami. All the living and the dead are assembled before the Judge for their ultimate trial. The damned are dispatched to their punishments of endless misery in a fiery lake filled with sulfur, including the unbaptized infants. This Wigglesworth justifies by the Puritan notions (inherited from St. Augustine) of predestination and the necessity of grace. The trial reflects the prevalence of legal imagery in a dream vision that inspired Wigglesworth book. Puritans believed that they were living on the cusp between the Old Age and the New, between the City of Man and the City of God and imagined that the institution of the New Jerusalem would bring about the Second Coming of Christ.

A similar argument was advanced by Pope Urban II when instigating the First Crusade. An eye witness, abbot of Nogent, Guilbert, recorded that Urban

'emphasized the sanctity of the Holy Land, which must be in Christian possession
so that prophecies about the end of the world could be fulfilled.'

As George Monbiot observes,

In the United States, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion: Jesus will return to Earth when the Third Temple will be rebuilt. The legions of the antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. The Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity, and the Messiah will return to Earth. The true believers are now seeking to bring all this about. American pollsters estimate that about 33% of Republicans belong to churches or movements which subscribe to these teachings. And among them are some of the most powerful men in America. So here we have a major political constituency - representing much of the current president's core vote - in the most powerful nation on Earth, which is actively seeking to provoke a new world war.
'

...and beyond

A reader on the Amazon's Internet site recently wrote:

No religion is responsible for more bloodshed and suffering than the monotheistic religions. The ascendancy of Christianity and Judaism ushered in a dark Age for the West./ Both religions have given birth to a society based primarily upon lies and ignorance where the independent thinking is under relentless attacks. Christianity and Judaism are now poised to deliver humanity back to the age of the Crusades.

The onset of the contemporary era is indelibly marked by the collusion of secular and religious powers, something our founding fathers feared the most. As observed above, the closest parallel to this era seems to be the age of crusades. At that time, the military superior West invested significant effort to alter the religious character of the Middle East. After the initial military victories, crusaders embattled themselves on a strip of land bordered by in a chain of fortresses called the Outremer.

As most invaders throughout the history who did not merge with the local population, they were ultimately forced out. Killed one by one, they left in 1291. This military adventure lasted 195 years and its cost was about 20 million lives.

References

Brault, G. J. (1986) The French-Canadian Heritage in New England. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Denton, F.H., & Phillips, W. (1968). Some patterns in the history of violence. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 12, 182-195.
Huntington, S.P. (1996) The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Krus, D. J. & Blackman, H. S. (1980). Time-scale factor as related to theories of societal change. Psychological Reports, 46, 95-102 (Request reprint).
Long, T.L. (2000) Medieval New England Apocalypse. International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (England), July 2000)
Makridakis, S., & Wheelwright, S.C. (1978) Interactive forecasting: univariate and multivariate methods. San Francisco: Holden-Day.
Moyal, J.E. (1949) The distribution of wars in time. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 112, 446-458.
Richardson, L.F. (1960) Statistics of deadly quarrels. Pacific Grove, CA: Boxwood Press.
Shayegan, D. (1996) Le choc des civilisations. Esprit (4, 96).
Wigglesworth, M. (1662) The Day of Doom. In Seventeenth-Century American Poetry. Harrison T. Meserole, ed. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1968, 55-113.
Wright, Q. (1965) A study of war. (2nd ed.) Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

• Document courtesy www.visualstatistics.net
  

SPORTS ONLINE - THE AMERICA'S CUP HISTORY 1851 - 2007 IN 100 IMAGES / VALENCIA PRE-REGATTAS 2009

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The Cup itself is an ornate silver-plated Britannia metal bottomless ewer, designed and crafted in 1848 by Garrard & Co. The trophy is inscribed with names of the yachts that competed in the regatta’s matches. Bases matching the silver cup were added in 1958 and 2003 to accommodate more names. The cup is one of three or six that were made as off-the-shelf trophies. Sir Henry Paget, the Marquess of Anglesey bought one and donated it for the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 1851 Annual Regatta around the Isle of Wight. It was originally known by the Squadron as the “Royal Yacht Squadron Cup” or the “RYS Cup for One Hundred Sovereigns”. The Cup subsequently became known as the “One Hundred Guinea(s) Cup”, by the American syndicate that won it. As time went by, the Cup was also referred to as the “Queen’s Cup”, the “America Cup”, and the “America’s Cup”. Today, the trophy is officially known as the America’s Cup and affectionately called the “Auld Mug” by the sailing community.

The regatta’s origins date back to August 22, 1851 when the 30.86 m schooner-yacht America, owned by a syndicate that represented the New York Yacht Club, raced 15 yachts representing the Royal Yacht Squadron around the Isle of Wight. America won by 8 minutes. Apocryphally, Queen Victoria asked who was second; the answer famously was:“Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second”

The surviving members of the syndicate which owned the America donated the Cup through a Deed of Gift (written in 1852) to the New York Yacht Club on July 8, 1857. The trophy would be held in trust as a “challenge” trophy to promote friendly competition among nations.

The Start of the Challenges

Stung by this blow to the contemporary perceptions of invincible British sea power, a succession of British syndicates attempted to win back the cup, but the New York Yacht Club remained unbeaten for 25 challenges over 113 years, the longest winning streak in the history of sport. Matches were held in the vicinity of New York City from 1870 to 1920, which includes the “Herreshoff Period” between 1893 and 1920, when cup defenders were designed by Nathanael Herreshoff. From 1930 to 1983, the races were sailed off Newport, Rhode Island for the rest of the NYYC’s reign.

One of the most famous and determined challengers was Scottish tea baron Sir Thomas Lipton. Between 1899 and 1930 he mounted five challenges, all in yachts named Shamrock, two of which were designed by William Fife. One of Lipton’s motivations for making so many challenges was the publicity that racing generated for his Lipton Tea company, though his original entry was at the personal request of the Prince of Wales in hopes of repairing trans-Atlantic ill-will generated by the contentious earlier challenger, Lord Dunraven, who had accused the NYYC of cheating. Lipton was preparing for his sixth challenge when he died in 1931. The yachts used during the Lipton era were very large sailing sloops; for example, Shamrock V, which is still sailing today, measures 120 feet (36 m) long.

• Follow the history on en.wikipedia.org

Discover now more informations about the next edition in 2010 located in Valencia with the following report made on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

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Valencia to host 2009 America’s Cup pre-regattas

01-04-2009

The 33rd America’s Cup event authority, AC Management, today signed a Host Venue agreement with the Valencian Municipality and Regional Government for the Spanish city of Valencia to hold two America’s Cup pre-regattas, the first from the 10-19 July and the second in October.

Should the pending litigation concerning the future of the 33rd America’s Cup be resolved in favour of the multi-challenger event as proposed by the Defender, Alinghi and the Challenger of Record, Club Náutico Español de Vela, these two regattas will be part of the 33rd America’s Cup, with the Match scheduled for 2010.

The Defender and the Challengers will meet off Malvarrosa Beach with the ACC Version 5.0 yachts in just three months time for a combination of fleet and match racing much like the highly successful Acts held in the lead up to the 32nd America’s Cup.

ACM representative, Lucien Masmejan, commented on the announcement: “Valencia hosted one of the best events in the history of the America’s Cup last time round and we have every confidence in them doing it again. We are really looking forward to getting on with some America’s Cup racing, and I know I echo the desire of all of the teams.”

Rita Barberá, Mayor of Valencia, was delighted: “I think it is a great agreement, an agreement of hope, pride and excitement.” She added: “My will is to host the 33rd America’s Cup and the pre-regattas in Valencia because if we study the return and the impact of the 32nd America’s Cup on the region, we see that the economic data is very positive – not only for the international exposure of the city but also for the economic benefit on the Valencian economy.”

Other news

Alinghi and Club Náutico Español de Vela held the sixth Competitor Meeting yesterday in Valencia with the entered teams and discussions centered on base allocation and plans for Version 5.0 yacht allocation during the two 33rd America’s Cup pre-regattas, the first of which begins on 10 July in Valencia. The group of teams, having worked on the document for the past months, decided to publish the Competition Regulations for the 33rd America’s Cup this week.

The next 33rd America’s Cup Competitor Meeting is on 28 April.

• Read more on 33rd.americascup.com

PICTURES MAKER - HAPPY EASTER IN 33 PICTURES / DEATH & REBIRTH OF NATURAL LIFE

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I present today this diaporama made of 42 pictures called ''Feliz Páscoa'' from the portuguese words meaning Happy Easter.

Easter is a period of time when Earth faces Sun 12 hours a day in both hemispheres (North & South).

Until June North Hemispher enters by the movement of it axe in a warm summer with longer days instead of South entering then in a cold winter with shorter days.

In September the earth will face one more time Sun 12 hours a day and then South Hemispher will also have it Easter until December, inverting the process of longer days for the south and shorter days for the north.

Easter period is linked with the Equinoxes which exists since billions of years on planet Earth, but 3000 years ago religions and various valuated orders inspired by the Death/Rebirth process of the Nature spread theirs stories about Moses first and later Jesus to control spiritualy the people's mind and bring millions of persons to believe in their establishment and Easter as a religious celebration of the death and rebirth of the son of God...

• Learn more with this message about Easter Celebration

Easter is a grand festival of Christians and is celebrated to honor the resurrection of Lord Jesus, the son of mother Mary. It is a festivity of happiness and joy, as it was in the Easter springtime when people had witnessed Jesus' return to life. Thus, it becomes all the more obvious to have a bumper Easter celebration. It is interesting to learn as to how is Easter celebrated all over. Read further to gather information about celebrating Easter festival…

Here are some ideas regarding Easter celebration:

• To commemorate this special festival Easter, candles are lit.
• In the morning time, men and women dressed up in their special Easter outfits go to the church and offer prayers.
• Houses are decorated with beautiful lilies.
• Easter bunnies make a place for themselves in splendid Easter baskets.
• Special dishes are prepared in the honor of Lord Jesus. Easter lamb occupies a commanding position on the dining table.
• At certain places, carnivals take place, where parades form the major attraction. In these parades, people wearing special costumes can be spotted. Mardi Gras parade held in North America is famous.
• As a part of Easter customs, Easter egg painting competitions are held. Beautifully ornamented Easter eggs are stocked in the gift galleries. Also Easter eggs sail smoothly in the yummy Easter menu. Easter egg hunt is the favorite kids' fun time activity.
• There is a trend of having bonfire arrangement on the Easter eve in Europe.
• As a part of special Easter Sunday feast, people eat hot cross buns and kids enjoy their jellybeans.

Document courtesy www.indobase.com

Discover now more informations about Death & Rebirth of Natural Life with the following report made on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

Pictures courtesy - Zuke696

This is part 1 of a 5 part episode. To watch the full show go to my channel (Zuke696) then go to my Playlist, find the show then click Play All.

Episode 4: Extinction & Rebirth: There was a moment in Earth's history, about 250 million years ago, when all life nearly disappeared from the planet. Scientists now believe the cause was an eruption of the Earth's molten core that triggered global climate change. The resulting drop in oxygen levels allowed dinosaurs to rise to supremacy because of their respiratory systems. But in the Earth's continuing cycle of Extinction and Rebirth, they too would suffer a catastrophic end some 150 million years later. The gargantuan creatures through life and death and chronicles the early rise of the mammal as the dominant creature on the planet.

• Read more on www.youtube.com

See also

• Osiris-Dionysus
• Mystery religion
• Descent to the underworld
• List of virgin births
• Resurrection
• Sparagmos

HISTORIUM OBSERVATORIUM - PRE-COLUMBIAN CIVILIZATION IN 55 IMAGES / THE INCA EMPIRE

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The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents. While technically referring to the era before Christopher Columbus, in practice the term usually includes the history of American indigenous cultures until they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or even centuries after Columbus' initial landing.

Pre-Columbian is used especially often in the context of the great indigenous civilizations of the Americas, such as those of Mesoamerica (the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacano, the Zapotec, the Mixtec, the Aztec, and the Maya) and the Andes (Inca, Moche, Chibcha, Cañaris).

Many pre-Columbian civilizations established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and are known only through archaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya, had their own written records. However, most Europeans of the time largely viewed such texts as heretical, and much was destroyed in Christian pyres. Only a few hidden documents remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.

According to both indigenous American and European accounts and documents, American civilizations at the time of European encounter possessed many impressive accomplishments. For instance, the Aztecs built one of the most impressive cities in the world, Tenochtitlan, the ancient site of Mexico City, with an estimated population of 200,000. American civilizations also displayed impressive accomplishments in astronomy and mathematics.

Where they persist, the societies and cultures which are descended from these civilizations may now be substantively different in form from that of the original. However, many of these peoples and their descendants still uphold various traditions and practices which relate back to these earlier times, even if combined with those that were more recently adopted.

• Document courtesy en.wikipedia.org

Discover now more informations about the Inca Empire with the following report made on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

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THE INCA EMPIRE

Conquering South America's western edge, the Incas ruled three distintic geographic regions that Spanish soldier-chronicler Pedro Cieza de León termed uninhabitable : rainless coastal deserts, mountain ranges towering more than 22,000 feet, and steamy rain forests. On slopes rising four vertical miles, climates in the empires varied from tropical to polar. In scattered areas on this slopes, at both high and low elevation, the Incas terraced and irrigated the land and produced abundant food for the twelve million or more subjects. A 10,000-mile network of roads, some as wide as 24 feet, knitted together the Incas' domain. Paralel trunk lines-connected by lateral roads tracing river valleys-followed coast and highlands. Four main highways entered Cuzco, the heart of the empire.

GOLD, to the Incas, was "the sweat of the sun," and SILVER " the tears of the moon."

Their love for precious metals was esthetic, for neither Incas nor their subjects needed to buy anything. Twelvw million or more worshipful people rendered abundant tribute to the Incas and paid their taxes in work: a billion man-hours a year to build temples, fortresses, agricultural terraces, and roads- all for the grandeur of the realm.

" The riches that were gathered in the city of Cuzco alone, as capital and court of the Empire, were amazing and incredible," a priest penned more than four centuries ago, " for therein were many big gold houses and enormous palaces of dead kings with all the inmaginable treasure that each amased in life; and he who began to reign did not touch the state and wealth of his predecessor but... built a new palace and acquired for himself silver and gold and all the rest...."

Cuzco became the richest city in the New World. Chiefs and governors , made presents to the Inca, when they visited his court and when he went to their lands, while touring his kingdom. This wealth grew daily, for provinces were many and others were continually being brought to obedience.

It was prohibited to remove silver and gold from Cuzco. " Nor was it spent, in things that are consumed with use," but for idols, goblets, and ornaments for the temples, the king, and great nobles. As money did not exist, rulers paid their retainers in clothing and food. Author William H. Prescott's account of imperial splendor ,persuad us, that life among the Incas - even to taking a bath - was the epitome of pleasure.

The Incas, "loved to retreat, and solace themselves with the society of their favorite concubines, wandering amidst groves and airy gardens, that shed around their soft, intoxicating odors and lulled the senses to voluptuous repose. Here, too, they loved to indulge in the luxury of their baths, replenished by streams of crystal water which were conducted through subterraneous silver channels into basins of gold."

GOLD: fiery metal esteemed by the Incas for its beauty and sought by the Spaniards for its worth. Exciting the greed of conquistadors, it brought an empire to ruin. To Incas, gold was "the sweat of the sun ," and it reflected the glory of their Sun God who, they believed, had entrusted them with its safekeeping. Gold took on value only when crafted into ceremonial articles - vessels, jewelry, figurines - or adornments for tombs and temples,. By law, all gold and silver of the realm belonged to the emperor, who used it to bedeck his palace,beautify temples, and reward loyalty. Most gold - in the form of nuggets and flakes - came from mountain rivers; Incas smelted the ore with charcoal and bellows. They learned much of the craft from artisans of the Chimu Kingdom, who created countless vessels and ornaments. Spaniards reduced such works of art into ingots, easy to transport and exchange.

From the left and down: a) Deer adorn, a Chimu religious vessel. b) Inca jug, possibly held holy drink. c) Chimu necklace, of gold and pearl. d) Rare Inca solid gold figurine - 11 inches high. e) Gold hand and arms sheathed Chimu mummy.

• Read more on www.geocities.com

PLANET EARTH - CLIMATE CHANGE IN 42 IMAGES / GLOBAL WARMING

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I present tonight this diaporama about climate change in 42 pictures to make knowledge with the problem of Global Warming on planet Earth and the emergency to find solutions to invert the process of life destruction created by our own fanatism, tyrany and unknowledge of what is surrounding us in the Universe - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

Climate Change

Climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. The European Union is committed to working constructively for a global agreement to control climate change, and is leading the way by taking ambitious action of its own.

The warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. The Earth's average surface temperature has risen by 0.76° C since 1850. Most of the warming that has occurred over the last 50 years is very likely to have been caused by human activities.

In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), published in 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that, without further action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the global average surface temperature is likely to rise by a further 1.8-4.0°C this century, and by up to 6.4°C in the worst case scenario. Even the lower end of this range would take the temperature increase since pre-industrial times above 2°C - the threshold beyond which irreversible and possibly catastrophic changes become far more likely.

Projected global warming this century is likely to trigger serious consequences for mankind and other life forms, including a rise in sea levels of between 18 and 59 cm which will endanger coastal areas and small islands, and a greater frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

	Q&A on Climate Change:
1 What makes the climate change? 2 How is climate changing and how has it changed in the past? 3 How is the climate going to change in the future? 4 What impacts of climate change have already been observed? 5 What impacts are expected in the future? 6 How do people adapt to climate change? 7 What are the current trends in greenhouse gas emissions? 8 What actions can be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? 9 How can governments create incentives for mitigation? 10 Conclusion
Provided by GreenFacts

Human activities that contribute to climate change include in particular the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture and land-use changes like deforestation. These cause emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main gas responsible for climate change, as well as of other 'greenhouse' gases. To bring climate change to a halt, global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced significantly.

The European Union has long been at the forefront of international efforts to combat climate change and has played a key role in the development of the two major treaties addressing the issue, the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, agreed in 1997.

The EU has been taking serious steps to address its own greenhouse gas emissions since the early 1990s. In 2000 the Commission launched the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP). The ECCP has led to the adoption of a wide range of new policies and measures. These include the pioneering EU Emissions Trading System, which has become the cornerstone of EU efforts to reduce emissions cost-effectively, and legislation to tackle emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases.

Monitoring data and projections indicate that the 15 countries that were EU members at the time of the EU's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 will reach their Kyoto Protocol target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This requires emissions in 2008-2012 to be 8% below 1990 levels.

However, Kyoto is only a first step and its targets expire in 2012. International negotiations are now taking place under the UNFCCC with the goal of reaching a global agreement governing action to address climate change after 2012.

In January 2007, as part of an integrated climate change and energy policy, the European Commission set out proposals and options for an ambitious global agreement in its Communication "Limiting Global Climate Change to 2 degrees Celsius: The way ahead for 2020 and beyond".

EU leaders endorsed this vision in March 2007. They committed the EU to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% of 1990 levels by 2020 provided other developed countries commit to making comparable reductions under a global agreement. And to start transforming Europe into a highly energy-efficient, low-carbon economy, they committed to cutting emissions by at least 20% independently of what other countries decide to do.

To underpin these commitments, EU leaders set three key targets to be met by 2020: a 20% reduction in energy consumption compared with projected trends; an increase to 20% in renewable energies' share of total energy consumption; and an increase to 10% in the share of petrol and diesel consumption from sustainably-produced biofuels.

In January 2008 the Commission proposed a major package of climate and energy-related legislative proposals to implement these commitments and targets. These are now being discussed by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, and EU leaders have expressed their wish for agreement to be reached on the package before the end of 2008.

• Read more on ec.europa.eu/environment

Discover now more informations about Global Warming with the following report made on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

Pictures courtesy - CBC

Global warming

is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the last century.^[1][A] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the twentieth century,^[1] and that natural phenomena such as solar variation and volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect afterward.^[2][3] These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies of science,^[B] including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.^[4][5]

Climate model projections summarized in the latest IPCC report indicate that global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century.^[1] The uncertainty in this estimate arises from the use of models with differing climate sensitivity, and the use of differing estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions. Some other uncertainties include how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most studies focus on the period up to 2100. However, warming is expected to continue beyond 2100, even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of the oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.^[6][7]

Increasing global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, likely including expansion of subtropical deserts.^[8] The continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice is expected, with the Arctic region being particularly affected. Other likely effects include shrinkage of the Amazon rainforest and Boreal forests, increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions and changes in agricultural yields.

Political and public debate continues regarding the appropriate response to global warming. The available options are mitigation to reduce further emissions; adaptation to reduce the damage caused by warming; and, more speculatively, geoengineering to reverse global warming. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

External links to Global Warming

Scientific

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and UN Climate Panel Report's Key Findings.
• Nature Reports Climate Change
• The UK Met Office Hadley Centre site
• NOAA's Global Warming FAQ
• Discovery of Global Warming – An extensive introduction to the topic and the history of its discovery, written by Spencer R. Weart
• Caution urged on climate 'risks'
• Impact of Livestock on Global Warming (UN Report)

Educational

• Global Climate Change: NASA's Eyes on the Earth - Climate change overviews, key indicators, multimedia and current news.
• What Is Global Warming? – Shockwave presentation from National Geographic
• The EdGCM (Educational Global Climate Modelling) Project – A free research-quality climate change simulator
• DISCOVER Satellite-based ocean and climate data since 1979 from NASA
• The Pew Center on global climate change
• Global Warming Art
• Video of a talk by Warren Washington titled "The Evolution of Global Warming Science: From Ideas to Scientific Facts"
• Best Effort Global Warming Trajectories by Harvey Lam (Princeton University), The Wolfram Demonstrations Project.

Other

• Science and Technology Sources on the Internet – Extensive commented list of Internet resources
• Union of Concerned Scientists Global Warming page
• Watch and read 'Tipping Point', Australian science documentary about effects of global warming on rare, common, and endangered wildlife
• United Nations University's 'Our World 2' Climate Change Video Briefs
• Gateway to the UN System's Work on Climate Change

• Read more on en.wikipedia.org

WORLD PASSENGER - CAFÉ PROVENÇAL RESTAURANT / CONEJO VALLEY LOS ANGELES

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Hi Passengers !

I present today this video for a visit of the magnificent Conejo Valley. A wonderful place to live, work and raise a family. Great schools, libraries, shopping and restaurants. Principal cities: Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Simi Valley, Moorpark and Oak Park.

For more than 13 years in the Conejo Valley, Café Provençal is Z French Restaurant offering Southern French Cuisine with the authentic flair of the Provence region.

Located near the Civic Arts Plaza in the Select Conejo Plaza at 2310 Thousand Oaks Blvd, it is a sensual destination that fulfills the body’s appetite for vibrant colors, enveloping perfumes, and luscious, ripe flavors. For the past several years Café Provençal has been voted” Favorite French Restaurant in the Ventura County” by Reader’s Choice, and has received many awards. Always recognized as one of the lightest cuisine in the world, we are offering seasonal menus with the latest techniques and recipes in a very special atmosphere, including some unique dishes – such as our famous Lavender Crème Brûlée! (included in the “Easy Crème Brulée” Cookbook by Debbie Puente).

The restaurant features two different menus for Lunch and Dinner. For lunch, a Formule Express three course meal is available for $15.95. The Wednesday and Thursday Deluxe Dinners offers a five course wine pairing menu for $45.00, featuring a unique creation every week with three different wines.

The restaurant is available for Private Parties, Corporate Lunches, Baby Showers…

We’ll design a specific menu adapted to your needs, bringing the entertainment (Shows and Dancing), to create the perfect and unforgettable event for your entire satisfaction.

Deliveries are available thru “Room Service” at (888) 888 6958.

The restaurant is open Monday thru Friday for lunch 11-2 PM.

Dinner is Monday thru Thursday and Sunday 5:00-9:00 PM and on Friday and Saturday 5:00-10:00 PM.

Reservations recommended Tel: (805) 496-7121

Inquire about our Full Catering Service Now Available with Custom Designed Menus

I, Serge Bonnet, owner of Café Provençal invite you to come and join us, and experience a memorable journey to the south of France, Provençe. ZAGAT RATED – Los Angeles/Ventura County 2009.

Awaiting the pleasure of serving you.

Bon Appétit.

Serge Bonnet / Restaurateur

• Read more on www.cafeprovencal.biz

Discover now the Easter lunch & Dinner provided by Café Provençal with the following report send by Serge Bonnet on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2009

Dear Customer, As we are "Springing", I would like to remind you about our Great Lunch and Dinner Specials! Lunch is available Mon-Fri 11a.m. to 2p.m. *Regular menu starting at $8.95. *"Stimulus" dishes for $10.00 each w/drink *Formule Express 3 Course with beverages for $15.95 *** **Monday Nights "Surf and Turf" $25.95 **Tuesday Nights "All you can eat Crepes" $25.95 **Wed-Thu Deluxe 5 Course w/Wines $45.00 The economy is still "stumbling" but Life must go on and Cafe Provencal needs more of your Business. I personally Thank You for our 13 Years in the Conejo Valley Sincerely, Serge

Easter Sunday April 12th 2009 11 A.M. 8 P.M. APPETIZERS Stuffed Tomato with Duck Confit Fig Mousse & Orange Vinaigrette Or Seafood Cake with Tropical Fruit Salsa, Micro greens, Saffron Infused Tartare Sauce, Sherri Tomato and Lemon Vinaigrette Or Grilled Portobello Mushroom over Spinach Salad, Feta Cheese, Bell Peppers, Red Onions, Caramelized Pecans,Champagne Vibnaigrette *** SOUP Carrot Puree with Crème Fraiche & Wasabi Caviar Or Baked Potato with Sour Cream, Green Onions and Swiss Cheese *** ENTREES Grilled Swordfish with Ginger Potato Puree, Tear Drop Tomato Concassé and Green Onions Beurre Blanc Or Crusted Prime Rib with Pink Pepper and Rosemary, Black Truffle Au Jus and Three Cheese Scallop Galette Or Steak Frites with Sauteed Spinach, Peruvian Beans and Burgundy Bearnaise Sauce *** DESSERT Coconut Flan with Chocolate Ice Cream and Melba Sauce Or Raspberry Crème Brulee with Berries Trio $ 35.00 One Complimentary "Mimosa" Champagne per person Kids are welcome

The restaurant will be open at 11 a.m. until 8p.m. for Sunday Easter

Call (805) 496 7121 for Reservation.