http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141205124357.htm

As California finally experiences the arrival of a rain-bearing Pineapple Express this week, two climate scientists from the University of Minnesota and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have shown that the drought of 2012-2014 has been the worst in 1,200 years.

Daniel Griffin, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota, and Kevin Anchukaitis, an assistant scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, asked the question, "How unusual is the ongoing California drought?" Watching the severity of the California drought intensify since last autumn, they wondered how it would eventually compare to other extreme droughts throughout the state's history.

To answer those questions, Griffin and Anchukaitis collected new tree-ring samples from blue oak trees in southern and central California. "California's old blue oaks are as close to nature's rain gauges as we get," says Griffin. "They thrive in some of California's driest environments." These trees are particularly sensitive to moisture changes and their tree rings display moisture fluctuations vividly.

As soon as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released climate data for the summer of 2014, the two scientists sprang into action. Using their blue oak data, they reconstructed rainfall back to the 13th century. They also calculated the severity of the drought by combining NOAA's estimates of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), an index of soil moisture variability, with the existing North American Drought Atlas, a spatial tree-ring based reconstruction of drought developed by scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. These resources together provided complementary data on rainfall and soil moisture over the past millennium. Griffin and Anchukaitis found that while the current period of low precipitation is not unusual in California's history, these rainfall deficits combined with sustained record high temperatures created the current multiyear severe water shortages. "While it is precipitation that sets the rhythm of California drought, temperature weighs in on the pitch," says Anchukaitis.

"We were genuinely surprised at the result," says Griffin, a NOAA Climate & Global Change Fellow and former WHOI postdoctoral scholar. "This is California--drought happens. Time and again, the most common result in tree-ring studies is that drought episodes in the past were more extreme than those of more recent eras. This time, however, the result was different." While there is good evidence of past sustained, multi-decadal droughts or so-called "megadroughts"' in California, the authors say those past episodes were probably punctuated by occasional wet years, even if the cumulative effect over decades was one of overall drying. The current short-term drought appears to be worse than any previous span of consecutive years of drought without reprieve.

Tree rings are a valuable data source when tracking historical climate, weather and natural disaster trends. Floods, fires, drought and other elements that can affect growing conditions are reflected in the development of tree rings, and since each ring represents one year the samples collected from centuries-old trees are a virtual timeline that extend beyond the historical record in North America.

So what are the implications? The research indicates that natural climate system variability is compounded by human-caused climate change and that "hot" droughts such as the current one are likely to occur again in the future. California is the world's 8th largest economy and the source of a substantial amount of U.S. produce. Surface water supply shortages there have impacts well beyond the state's borders.

With an exceptionally wet winter, parts of California might emerge from the drought this year. "But there is no doubt," cautions Anchukaitis, "that we are entering a new era where human-wrought changes to the climate system will become important for determining the severity of droughts and their consequences for coupled human and natural systems."

Shit. Last research indicated it was 400 years. Still fucking terrible.

Holy shit. I thought I was in Serious.

Shame on all of you. Who gives a fuck what kinds of weird things people are into? You don't deserve to be poisoned because you yank it to anthropomorphic foxes.

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/kennesaw-mosque-vote-ban/

A small Georgia city has voted to ban an Islamic group from renting a retail space to open a temporary mosque in the city, even after the landlord agreed to the deal.

The City Council of Kennesaw, a city of about 30,000 people in north Georgia, ultimately voted down the Muslim group’s request 4-1.

The issue has engendered a lot of tension in the town, and from critics outside of it. To give you a small idea of the intensity of the attitudes at play, here’s the video’s description from the man who recorded this week’s City Council vote: “The scumbag lawyer for the terrorist org. says he will sue... good luck with that.”

Attorney Doug Dillard called the decision unconstitutional and “a blatant attack on First Amendment rights." He says the group will continue to fight and is strongly considering a federal lawsuit against the city.

Anti-Muslim protesters stood outside the meeting with signs such as “Ban Islam” and “Islam Wants No Peace!” but the issue of religion didn’t actually come up in the meeting itself.

Another great victory for freedom!

*sigh*

Do you guys enjoy effects as much as I do? I've been playing for about 15 years, and I've had hundreds of peals over that time. Some really cool ones, some really weird ones.

One of my favorite pedals that had was the Lightfoot Labs Goatkeeper, and it was a ton of fun. Some beautiful tremolo sounds.


I also had a WMD Geiger Counter. Really nasty, dirty sounds that were super tweakable. It was fun, but I couldn't find anywhere to use it, musically


Have you had anything fun?

Can you put a candy cane in his lil mouth? :3

I tried.

lol

Spoiler

*swoon*

What exactly is economic liberty? The freedom to conduct business however you want?

No wonder he's going to die.

This is why I didn't want this in the the Flood.

Fuck off, asshole.

Sucks. The title seems unnecessary and borderline bait worthy though.

It works for me.

If God was the loving creator he's supposed to be, why did he create things like cancer and kill his loyal followers? That's a pretty fucked up thing to do, and absolutely not something that someone "loving" would do.

...k

Depends how many times you've flipped the coin.

The more number of times you've flipped the coin, the closer it comes to 50/50

Duh.

Quote from: Mad Max on December 05, 2014, 11:45:16 AM

Quote from: bang bang on December 05, 2014, 11:44:38 AM

Quote from: Mad Max on December 05, 2014, 11:39:08 AM

lol iphones

Yeah, it totally matters what phones others use.   

if you don't want stupid fucking comments about your problem, don't post it in the flood. Post it in Septagon if you need help.

I expect idiots like yourself not to post stupid comments. There's no reason this should be in sep7agon. Aside from a few idiots posting I'm sure it'll be seen and the issue will be fixed.

ooo. ouch.

lol iphones

>implying you're not door