SUPERIOR PLACES ON THE GLOBE - PART 2

AURORA  BOREALIS SEEN IN NORWAY

AURORA BOREALIS or the Northern Lights is an affect of the Solar Flares the Sun emits.   We are currently over five years of the eleven-year cycle and now entering the 24^th  Cycle.  This peaks in 2013 and 2014. Solar Flares sends electromagnetic fields that are disruptive to our planet, the possibility of the ability to  wipe out a lot of our electronic civilization.

Some scientists say there is actually a correlation between the rise and fall of solar activity and the human consciousness. There has also been concern in what way our Suns' abnormal behavior can influence human health. The Sun's activity as it interacts with the Earths magnetic field, effects extensive changes in human beings perspectives, moods, emotions and behavioral patterns.

Alexander Chizhevsky, the Russian biophysicist who founded  Heliobiology (study of the sun’s effect on biology) proposed that human history is influenced by the eleven-year peaks in sunspot activity, triggering humans en masse to act upon existing grievances and complaints through revolts, revolutions, civil wars and wars between nations.

Chizhevsky  analyzed sunspot records comparing them to riots, revolutions, battles and war in Russia and seventy-one other countries for the period 500 BCE to 1922 CE. This is known as historiometry. He findings was  influenced by the eleven-year peaks in sunspot activity, triggering humans en masse to act upon existing grievances and complaints through revolts, revolutions, civil wars and wars between nations.

Professor Raymond Wheeler, from the University of Kansas, expanded on Chishevsky's work by studying violence during 1913; measuring the time between battles and severity. These findings were compared with the suns 11 year sunspot cycle.

The results showed that as the sun cycle peaked, there was a rise in human unrest, uprisings, rebellions, revolutions, and wars between nations. As the magnetic fields intensified, the reaction within the human brain was a mixture of deadly emotional tantrums and unadulterated killing sprees.

Chronology of recent times  of the sun’s intensification follows the pattern:

2001 the solar cycle 22  at the sun’s maximum there was 9/11, Iraq invading Kuwait and the US entering the first battle against Saddam Hussein.

2011 -  2012, the flares are expected to endure toward their maximum. As this incredible activity is being witnessed, we are assured that more wars, toppling countries and populations will be displaced

Entering the 24^th cycle , we will experiencing more unrest. NASA and other space agencies worldwide have warned about it. The cycle is predicted to be extreme, violent, unpredictable, and may even affect Earth’s technology.

 Solar Cycle 24 has begun.

Expected to surge as much as 50 times more than the record-breaking solar cycle 23—that saw X-flares produced stronger than ever recorded. Monster cycle 24 will reach maximum intensity from 2011 and peaks in 2014.

It’s the worst possible solar cycle at the worst possible time.

So while it is smooth activity before the intensity begins again, lets go to where these sun flares manage to enter the earth’s atmosphere show casing the most spectacular sky. The effect of seeing the Aurora Borealis takes your breath away.   It is seen in Norway, Finland, mainly in the Northern skies. 

So before world chaos becomes too difficult to circumnavigate to the Northern Skies, I decided that before I died seeing the Auroras can make my life complete.  Last weekend was my jaunt into flowing multi-colored auroras helping to  illuminate a busy sky above Tromsø, Norway. Although Auroras might first appear to be moonlit clouds, they only add light to the sky and do not block background stars from view. Called the Northern Lights in the northern hemisphere, Auroras are caused by collisions between charged particles from the magnetosphere and air molecules high in the Earth's atmosphere. If viewed from space, auroras can be seen to glow in X-ray and ultraviolet light as well.  Predictable auroras might occur a few days after a powerful powerful magnetic event has been seen on the Sun 

Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford University, predicted that by December 2013 there should be what is termed a “solar flip” – a “complete field reversal” of the sun’s polar magnetic fields. The predictions were backed up this week by fellow observers at the Wilcox Observatory who have recorded “an increase in cosmic rays, sunspots and solar flares… an increase in solar activity that has resulted in those at high latitudes on Earth seeing more of the beautiful auroras, or northern lights.” 

I went on a cruise around the island of Tromsø in the evening.  Magical can only be described in the dead of the night amongst the safe and calm waters with beautiful views of the city, mountains, fjords.  The Northern Lights almost God like in its presence changed my skeptical belief in the supreme being. The different locations we visited on this cruise provide different views of the sky .  Seeing the northern lights sky together with 24 other strangers on this boat, sipping hot glug (spiced wine) wrapped up in fleece jackets, I felt as if I was transported nearer to the Creator.   The bond that joined the 24 souls together on an unimaginable trip to heaven can only be captured once, magically.

SUPERIOR PLACES ON THE GLOBE - PART 1

I am in South Africa to observe a commercial on a skin care product. 

Why South Africa? 

The light is really “real” here.   When shooting on film, there are many lens filters, but these days with the Red Epic, hardly necessary to dim a light or increase the vibrancy – Cape Town has the rays and density to filter any lens.   This is its specialty.

The team flew in from the West whereas I flew from the East  riding the equator and then heading south to Johannesburg.    A quick turn around and on the horizon Table Top Mountain majestically draws nearer.  

Cape Town, besides its distinctive wine is also widely known among movie-makers for its clear “light” unclouded by sea mist, ozone layers, or city pollution.   It is as if the hues are taken from a color palate making the sea a deep blue, the grass an emerald green, the sky at sunrise, a stunning orange bursting through the horizon.  

Looking out to sea, sipping the South Africa’s Hamilton’s best prize chardonnay, I am experiencing the sun setting  with its intensity of  caramel  orange disappearing second by second.  This is definitely what DP’s talk about  (Director of Photography) if you didn’t already know.      It’s the thinnest spot of the Ozone hole. The King Protea’s pink petals were shockingly pink, the emerald green grass, so bright like a spilled can of paint.  The sapphire blue sea, implied incalculable depth, suggested God was involved in creating this planet.  It is us humans, that have spoilt global beauty with our pollution requiring a movie crew to fly all the way from America to South Africa for its “light” so real – difficult to capture anywhere else.

 

                                       Smoking: The double volcano on the island of Ambrym in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu.

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I am here in Vanuatu to plunge myself in volcanic mud and drink their elixir called Kava

The short 3½ hour flight from Auckland on Air Vanuatu’s 737-300 illustrated the narrow scope in my mind of the vastness of  the Pacific ocean.  Freaked out by the smallness of me and my 737, however this feeling never surfaces when travelling over land mass; the finite of the ground below serves to make me more part of the earth.  

The breezy tropical hot wind whips the ocean salt as I step out of the aircraft in Port Vila, Vanuatu.   Déjà vu is what hits me, and I am transported to a very happy time in similar atmosphere several decades ago.

The mud and elixir specifically found in Ambrym island, is yet another 60 minute flight from Port Vila to Ambrym  on a Turbo Prop.  An eight seater, my team were the only people on the flight, this equally small aircraft unnerved me just a tad.    The short grassy runway and the little shack was the airport.   Our guide, Samuel was there, waving to take us to the guest house.  This is so “way out” of what I am used to and very apprehensive of being stuck in this extremely small dot in the middle of the Pacific.  The village children smiled and waved, clad in shorts, we must have appeared strange, with backpacks, cameras with odd-looking shoes. 

My trip to Mt. Marum will need the assistance of Samuel and John, our expert guide. Ambrym is an amazing volcanic island in the centre of the of Vanuatu archipelago, when Ambrym blew up a thousand years ago, it ejected 25 cubic kilometres of earth into the atmosphere. When the eruption ended, these vents sealed up, but left very distinctive crater shapes called maars, in the landscape. These are the black half moon and circular shapes in the diagram.

After a long and arduous trek, we were able to see Mt. Marum boiling underneath.  The site of the lava is surreal.  Watching liquid rock boil as if in a large natural pot is intense. Every few seconds an explosion and a burst of lava spews into the air. The stench of the gases is incredibly putrid.   The view is amazing and being one with nature makes faith in God’s creation all the more real.

Back to base camp I decided to immerse my body in  volcanic mud to increase the magnesium in my 5ft 1inch frame.   For example, did you know that the presence of Magnesium in the bloodstream and cellular fluids is necessary for more than three hundred different metabolic functions?   

I plunged and emerged feeling totally  and inexplicably renewed.   

Now for the Kava.

Kava comes from the root of the yaqona (piper methysticum) bush, a relative of the pepper plant. The root is ground up and then strained with water into a large wooden communal bowl (or sometimes a plastic bucket, depending on what you have on hand). Simple preparation for a simple drink.  Kava Does NOT Taste Good, in fact it is similar to drinking a bowl of dirty water, like mud, bitter, peppery mud.   My mouth was numb and although offered a second cup, I declined.   Body relaxed, mind relaxed, I am renewed from the depth of the earth.