Posts tagged nuclear
22 Boom – Fall TV Special 2013 – Episode 69
Oct 7th
For 22 Boom’s Fall TV Special of 2013 we bring you some great videos that go along with the season, including Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Theatrical Costumes Etc. Costume Shop, Predictions about the future, the Boulder Cemetery Spirit Walk, the Boulder Mall Crawl, plus Jann visit the Boulder Hometown Fair and talks with Police at the Annual Starlite Classic Car Show, more news about suntans and nuclear power, then a movie trailer of Warm Bodies a film about a zombie that falls in love. Then in our technology section we visit with Jane Lewis at the Boulder Chamber of Commerce to learn about some upcoming events this Fall, Robert Reich talks to us about Start Up companies and his New Tech Meetup events, and we wrap up the show with our Boulder Channel 1 presentation at the New Tech Meetup.
Videos in this Episode
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22 Boom Intro -
Fall TV Special -
Michael Jackson – Thriller -
Fall TV Special -
Theatrical Costumes Etc… and Trendy Boutique -
World News 1 – Predictions -
Fall TV Special -
Spirit Walk in the Columbia Cemetery -
Boulder Mall Crawl -
Starlite Classic Car Show at the Boulder Hometown Festival -
Fall TV Special -
World News 1 – Suntans and Nuclear Power -
Warm Bodies – Movie Trailer -
Boulder Chamber Fall Events 2013 -
Robert Reich Interview – Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup -
Boulder Channel 1 Presents at Boulder New Tech Meetup -
Outro
CU study: 66 million years ago, an asteroid turned Earth into a crispy critter
Mar 27th
A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth’s species, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
Led by Douglas Robertson of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, the team used models that show the collision would have vaporized huge amounts of rock that were then blown high above Earth’s atmosphere. The re-entering ejected material would have heated the upper atmosphere enough to glow red for several hours at roughly 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit — about the temperature of an oven broiler element — killing every living thing not sheltered underground or underwater.
The CU-led team developed an alternate explanation for the fact that there is little charcoal found at the Cretaceous-Paleogene, or K-Pg, boundary some 66 million years ago when the asteroid struck Earth and the cataclysmic fires are believed to have occurred. The CU researchers found that similar studies had corrected their data for changing sedimentation rates. When the charcoal data were corrected for the same changing sedimentation rates they show an excess of charcoal, not a deficiency, Robertson said.
“Our data show the conditions back then are consistent with widespread fires across the planet,” said Robertson, a research scientist at CIRES, which is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Those conditions resulted in 100 percent extinction rates for about 80 percent of all life on Earth.”
A paper on the subject was published online this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Co-authors on the study include CIRES Interim Director William Lewis, CU Professor Brian Toon of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences department and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Peter Sheehan of the Milwaukee Public Museum in Wisconsin.
Geological evidence indicates the asteroid collided with Earth about 66 million years ago and carved the Chicxulub crater in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that is more than 110 miles in diameter. In 2010, experts from 33 institutions worldwide issued a report that concluded the impact at Chicxulub triggered mass extinctions, including dinosaurs, at the K-Pg boundary.
The conditions leading to the global firestorm were set up by the vaporization of rock following the impact, which condensed into sand-grain-sized spheres as they rose above the atmosphere. As the ejected material re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, it dumped enough heat in the upper atmosphere to trigger an infrared “heat pulse” so hot it caused the sky to glow red for several hours, even though part of the radiation was blocked from Earth by the falling material, he said.
But there was enough infrared radiation from the upper atmosphere that reached Earth’s surface to create searing conditions that likely ignited tinder, including dead leaves and pine needles. If a person was on Earth back then, it would have been like sitting in a broiler oven for two or three hours, said Robertson.
The amount of energy created by the infrared radiation the day of the asteroid-Earth collision is mind-boggling, said Robertson. “It’s likely that the total amount of infrared heat was equal to a 1 megaton bomb exploding every four miles over the entire Earth.”
A 1-megaton hydrogen bomb has about the same explosive power as 80 Hiroshima-type nuclear bombs, he said. The asteroid-Earth collision is thought to have generated about 100 million megatons of energy, said Robertson.
Some researchers have suggested that a layer of soot found at the K-Pg boundary layer roughly 66 million years ago was created by the impact itself. But Robertson and his colleagues calculated that the amount of soot was too high to have been created during the massive impact event and was consistent with the amount that would be expected from global fires.
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Vote Polis, Proud to Be a Boulderite By Scott Hatfield
Oct 31st
By Scott Hatfield
For too long, our Rep in CD 2 has downplayed their connections to Boulder even though Boulder County might make up 55% of the voters. We now have a Congressman who is proud to be from Boulder and to represent our values. Folks here should appreciate being embraced rather than shrugged and support Polis at the polls. Jared Polis grew up in the City of Boulder and was extremely well known in town personally even before running for Congress.
Jared Polis formed his core values protesting Rocky Flats with his parents while growing up. Given his stated priority for the morality of stopping an ever escalating nuclear arms race, there is a reasonable expectation that he cares about the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) more than most Democratic Reps. The NPT has been the cornerstone of foreign policy for many nations, not just the USA and Russia. The NPT obliges its signatories to work in good faith toward a nuclear weapon free world as well as guaranteeing the right to nuclear energy and uranium enrichment. As the President has stated, that includes Iran. While knowing and publicly stating that Iran is not attempting to produce a nuclear weapon and simultaneously beating the drums of war over the guaranteed right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, elements in the USA and Israel could be more interested in undermining the NPT. The nuclear weapons industrial complex is very powerful and wants its profits back. We need a Congressman who can stand up to these entrenched interests. A strong NPT makes the world a safer place for all nations.
Education has been a cornerstone of Jared’s priorities for a long time as well. He was on the Colorado School Board for 6 years and founded five schools. His work to get more kids headed to college should serve the University of Colorado and its role in Boulder well. He believes that education is the single most meaningful investment America can make in its economic future and in its people. Having the University here in town puts the role of the educational system into great prominence locally.
Jared Polis also prides himself on being a champion for environmental issues which has been a CD 2 legacy.
Scott Hatfield has been a member of the Central Committee of the Colorado Democratic Party and the Executive Committee of the Boulder Democratic Party since 1996.