A.J

Kelly, my dear....everytime you turn your computer on, it gets messed up! :lol:

Nice pics mate Thats a lucky so and so in pics 5 -7.....He picked up a plank of wood that looks just like a surfboard! :lol:

definitely a con-trail...lovely pic though, worth popping into the general photography thread

Here in Penkridge, staffs, its currently 5.0 degrees, very gusty winds, currently hailing...The back edge of the front passed through about an hour ago and the temps have dropped at least 1.5 degrees since then

Oh my god!...We're in trrrrrrrrrouble!...Look! One's as big as a crater

Looking at the martian's pose, they're very photogenic and very vain I'm sorry guys and galls, I truly dont want to offend anyone, but I cant believe for one second that anyone can take this seriously, personally I think 'Sunday Sports' world war II bomber on the moon was more convincing than this!

havent my muscles & hair grown since 1988......see my earlier post...

Funny you should mention that, I had my 5 inch telescope trained at the moon last night and couldnt believe my eyes!

Alright, I admit it, it was me.....It was back in that lovely summer of 1988, snapped by a passing tourist, during my cross-dressing days on Torquay beach....I knew my past would come back to haunt me....Mystery solved B)

My big concern with this research is complacency, namely fewer stringent precautions would be put into place because the neutered virus would seem far more benign, then 'mother nature' plays one of her quirky little games, et voila, we have a mutated strain, easily transmittable, nuking a good chunk of the general populous, and before you know it, I'm dead as a dodo, and to paraphrase 'Blackadder' on my tombstone it will say 'Here lays Ajpoolshark- and he's bloody annoyed'!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7196812.stm I just read this article on 'the beeb' website and would appreciate feedback on this article...Scientists have apparently found a way to neutralize replication of the ebola virus. This of course, could be an amazing breakthrough in stopping the threat of epidemics of fatal filoviruses, but it begs the question of whether or not the necessary precautions will be put in place to ensure that this 'safe-ebola' could not make its way into the general populous and wreaking havoc..As the old saying goes...'nature finds a way' ....I , myself, am horrified at the prospect of such a virus, even in a 'neutered' form, in the hands of scientists/technicians in 'general laborotory conditions' as hinted at in the article

Good question, admittedly web research has given me contradictory info, but my best guess is that these storms could only maintain their level of potency for a short time period, as soon as upper atmospheric winds move the storm system away from the oceanic hotspot, it will be cut off from its extreme fuel source. My guess is that it would morph into a normal (but very strong) hurricane, and the longevity would depend on the normal ocean temperatures away from the epicentre (28 celcius, I believe). I think though that a series of these storms would form though, my earlier posts suggest that the hot spot could last for days, spawning one after another hypercane....This is honestly best guess stuff though, I'm no expert in this topic, just have a real fascination in it!.......would make for an interesting shipping forecast though, 'eg lundy, fastnet, 400 mbars,winds cyclonic, hypercane, force 24, seas monstrous, visibilty zilch'....

It seems to me that the H.F.E.A are attempting to play god with mother nature...Not the best idea, me thinks, because when you try and do this, Mother Nature has this knack of kicking you squarely in your privates when your back is turned, IMHO

They missed out the scenario where at the BBC Television Studios, the VTR machine goes haywire, and churns out endless repeats of the eurovision song contest on all channels...The earth is doomed!....

11.2 degrees, overcast with drizzle, winds wsw 15-20 mph, gusting 25 mph

aye its good fun!

Certainly an eye-opening web site isnt it?...sleep well! :lol:

well, according to the article and other research on this topic, it would take either an massive undersea volcanic eruption or asteroid/comet impact for this 'hypercane' to be possible, or of course global warming on an unprecedented scale, in other words, probably not in our lifetime, but one day it will happen as it has no doubt done in the past, IMO....sleep well :lol:

Hi Hannegan me old mucker, sorry about a long overdue reply-post, but if you think you've gone overboard on disaster documentaries lately, this is the one web-site you dont want to check out....lol! :lol: http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm

Its a shame that there will be no direct impact, as I for one would've been fascinated to see the immediate and after effects of such an impact on a terrestrial planet, particulary the possibility of liquid water being released from the martian permafrost, as that would have no doubt answered the myriad of questions scientists have about the chemical makeup of the martian soil.

In risking going off topic, I do disagree with your point regarding displacement of kinetic energy. IMO i, n an asteroid impact, unless the impact is a very oblique angle (say less than 20 degrees) then the energy is directly transferred into the crust, craters on the earth and more particulary on other planets show this conclusively. The simplest way of demonstrating this, is a 'newtons cradle'...the flow of energy is linear..Anyways, sorry I'm rambling off topic...I really appreciate your thoughts PP, its just a shame that there have only been two contributors to this thread, as when I read the linked article, I thought it would definitely warrant lots of input! sorry didnt catch your last post in time......The key point is that the velocity and structure of the asteroid would make it the equivelent of a knife going through butter, enrgy transfers into the crust would surely ensure the crater would remain molten for long enough to cause enough atmospheric convection to trigger a super storm....who knows?.......personally, if this impact happened, my immediate thoughts would be to put my head between my legs and kiss my backside goodbye...lol

Hi PP, thanks for your thoughts, but, (and there's always a but ..lol) ....In taking the asteroid impact generating a hypercane scenario, only superficial heat is generated by atmospheric friction, the vast majority of heat is obtained from the kinetic energy transfer when asteroid impacts with ocean, and we're talkin possibly billions of megatons of kenetic energy, the asteroid would simply vapourize on contact, forming a huge cavity all the way through the earths crust (say for arguments sake, a 10km diameter bollide, if a 10km asteroid impacted anywhere in an ocean, it would be as if the ocean wasn't there, its still impacting land) Only a small amount of impact energy is released in the form of a tsunami. According to research, the material left in the cavity would remain in a molten state for possibly days, thus sea water rushing back in to fill the cavity would simply immediatley vapourize. The superheated raising air and steam would be generated for as long as the impact cavity is molten, thus providing the fuel for the hypercane or series of hypercanes...As regards to a volcanic generation of a hypercane, the local expanse of ocean would also be heated for as long as the eruption continues, this could be days or even weeks, plenty of time for a hypercane to form In closing, I think that for this theoretical storm to form, it would more likely be from an under-sea volcanic event......I just wouldnt like to be in the firing line...lol

Ok, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Hurricane Andrew devastated the Carribean in '92, Scotland just got bashed by 100 mph winds, but these storms as bad as they were, would feel like a light summers' breeze when stood next to the 'mother of all storms'....The one storm you dont want to be caught out in.....I give you the 'Hypercane' http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg1451...-hot-water.html This is without doubt a horrifying prospect, truly a storm with global impact. It would be great to see forum members thoughts and feedback on such a storm, especially from the forecasting team.....just what would a synoptic chart for a storm like this look like!

lol... Here's another interesting link for the mother of all storms... http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg1451...-hot-water.html It certainly is an interesting subject matter even if slightly off topic.....I'll start another thread for the 'hypercane' scenario, it will be an interesting discussion!

I did a bit of research and found this amongst other web sites http://www.zetatalk.com/theword/tword09m.htm Apparently these 'hypercane' beasties can occur as as result of under volcanic activity or asteroid impact, and research has suggested that there was a huge upsurge in both land and under-sea volcanic activity around the permian/triassic period boundarys (225 million years ago) so quite possibly a series of these hypercanes would have ravaged the 'Pangean' coastlines...now that would have made for an interesting Radio 4 shipping forecast! :o