Gravity and Climate

If gravitational waves are bathing the Earth and our solar system from all directions of the universe over the billions of years of our existence ... adding subtle changes in all our gravity profiles ... and therefore causing subtle changes in the tilts and orbits of the Earth (and the rest of the solar system) ... see: Pterosaurs (Updated); one can conclude that this has caused “signal” changes in our climate ... ice ages and warming periods ... all independent of the other smaller “noise” factors that also affect our climate.

The above image is NASA’s related depiction of the gravity map or “geoid” of our current Earth. Its topology is caused by differences in rock densities, sea levels and many other things ... see: NASA Earthdata Entry. But is it also caused, to a much smaller degree, by orphan gravity ... in the form of gravitons, bathing our Earth from outer space through gravitational waves? These changes would be so small and random that they might go unnoticed from month to month ... but, over the millennia or centuries or, possibly, even decades, have a significant impact ... not just on Earth, but on our entire solar system.

And, if such exogenous changes in our gravity alters, ever so slightly, the tilt of our planet ... or shifts, ever so slightly, our orbital path around the sun ... or maybe even changes in the sun itself ... these effects on our climate might well be quite significant. Have we been ignoring these possible gravitational factors in our current carbon-based hysteria about our planet having a fever? Dear reader, I would like to suggest so.

Headlines

Manafort's prosecution's frustration with judge leads to firey clashes

Beijing blasts 'double faces' U.S. and 'will not surrender' to 'trade blackmail'

FACEBOOKAPPLEGOOGle get out of the free-speech movement ...

Report: Illegal aliens self-deporting to Canada due to Trump's crackdown

Trump: 'U.S. seeking world peace, nothing less' with Iran sanctions

Ongoing California wildfire is  now now state's largest ever in recorded history

Senate Dems circulating plans for gov't takeover of Internet ...

Early Democrat polls favor Joe Biden for 2020, Ssenate colleagues sceptical

Democrats poised to pick transgender woman for Vermont governor

U.S. and India square off on trade. This spells trouble for Modi

China tests 4,563-mph hypersonic aircraft that fires 'unstoppable' nukes

Scientists spot massive rogue planer just outside solar system

Sapient Window (Update)

"Sapient window" is a term I have used before to describe the time period when intelligent beings on a planet have the knowledge base to realize the possibility of life existing elsewhere in the universe and the scientific wherewithal to search for it ...  see: Sapient Window. In this  referenced link I estimate that, here on Earth we are now in our sapient window ... having been so for about a hundred years or so.

Being in this window, we are pouring resources into attempting then to discover life on other planets ... and to look for them contacting us and, maybe, eventually contacting them ... a naturally appealing idea. The largest radio telescope ever built ... partly to this end ... has just been activated  ... see: UK Mirror Story.  So far this search has been to no avail using other means. As full of romantic agony this search entails, it is my contention that this quest is very likely to continue to be quixotic. (Stephen Hawking disagrees ... see: CNET Story.) And my sad conclusion is simply based on three indisputable facts:

1) The likelihood that our sapient window, even were it to last for another 13 thousand years, would line up with the sapient window on some other inhabited exo-planet ... just in our galaxy alone ... is vanishingly small ... given the enormous span since the beginning of time (the Big Bang?) ... I calculate the probability of such alignments at 0,0001% (see: Are We Alone?). Even if I am off by three orders of magnitude (because of things likely being back-end loaded), there is still only a one in a thousand chance of these sapient windows matching up.

2) The vast distances ... just in the galaxy in which our solar system exists, the Milky Way, let alone the Universe, are so large that the time delays imposed on any intelligent communications pretty much negate things ... even at the speed of light. We are talking about at least tens of thousands of years between any "Hello" and our excited response. This makes any meaningful communication pragmatically impossible.

3) it has been estimated that the energy required to send a receivable message of greeting over these vast interstellar distances could be equivalent to the energy output of our sun. I kind of doubt that this is realistically doable by all but a minuscule number of exo-planets with intelligent life, if any.

Thus, I again conclude that we are on a fool's errand with our attempt to wait for the phone to ring from another exo-planet ... and our possibly responding is even nuttier. The cost benefit analysis and actual science make no rational sense to this quest. I conclude that it is all just emotional pandering by scientists looking for more grant money.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas

The world will come to an end.  That is, if you start counting the days of Christmas from the Advent (December 13^th).  So the ninth day in this sequence is December 21^st or our winter Solstice … which also just happens to be the last day of the Mayan long calendar  … see Telegraph Story ... which you also need to swallow.  Many doomsday believers do think that the Mayans knew much more than we ... and that this coming 12/21/12 will usher in the Apocalypse.  To me the fascinating aspect of the Mayan calendar was that it took into account where our solar system was relative to the Milky Way galaxy … see: Mayan Calculations … not that they necessarily knew that one was part of the other.  Fascinating stuff!.

And we are worrying about the fiscal cliff and why are these nine ladies dancing?  Poof, poof piffle!