--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bronte Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Wow! That IS news! I'm no scientist but it sounds pretty freaky indeed! I don't find it unsettling though. If it's true that the planet is moving into a new age, and all of us with it, this could be part of the transformation of matter. I wonder why it's happening?
So do the physicists! It's one thing to read about them finding some weird discrepancy in the rotation of a quasar, or that one of the universal constants isn't quite adding up, but this thing with the kilogram is happening right here on earth. > I've read other places that the earth is slowing losing its magnetism (nothing mainstream here, but private "unapproved" scientists have been saying so). Maybe that's related to the kilogram thing somehow. But why would it be affecting only that single kilogram measure? Why would it be "drifting apart" from the others? Actually, that the earth is losing its magnetic field *is* mainstream; see this article on CNN.com from 2003: http://tinyurl.com/yzfv Apparently the loss has been measured since 1945. The "fringe" aspect has to do with what the loss *means*. Most mainstream scientists don't think it necessarily means an imminent reversal of the poles, much less a reversal of the earth's rotation. (And if the earth's rotation were slowing down preparatory to stopping and reversing, it would be observable on a gross level because the length of a day would increase. If the reversal were going to happen in 2012, we would already be very well aware of it.) Some people think the earth is losing its magnetism because it's slowing its rotation, getting ready to stop and reverse its direction on December 21, 2012. This would not cause objects to fly off the planet, they state, because gravity holds us here, not the earth's rotation. There's some evidence in ancient texts of several cultures that suggest the earth reversing rotational direction happened in the past. For instance, one scripture (I forget from where) speaks of "the day the sun rose twice" and another describes a period when the sun rose in the west and set in the east. > > authfriend <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is downright eerie. I'm not quite sure > why I find it more unsettling than most other > "natural" mysteries that scientists are > constantly stumbling across. > > Shrinking kilogram bewilders physicists > By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer > Wed Sep 12, 5:32 PM ET > > A kilogram just isn't what it used to be. The 118-year-old cylinder > that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly > under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight [Not > weight, mass!--JS] if ever so slightly. > > Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and > Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo > appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of > dozens of copies. > > "The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and > many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, > and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he > said. "We don't really have a good hypothesis for it." > > The kilogram's uncertainty could affect even countries that don't use > the metric system it is the ultimate weight standard for the U.S. > customary system, where it equals 2.2 pounds. For scientists, the > inconstant metric constant is a nuisance, threatening calculation of > things like electricity generation. > > Read more at Yahoo News: > > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070912/ap_on_sc/shrinking_kilogram > http://tinyurl.com/yo6p9t > > The comments at Digg.com are fun: > > http://digg.com/general_sciences/Shrinking_Kilogram_Bewilders_Physicis > ts_3 > http://tinyurl.com/3492dv > > My favorite: "Ron Paul would stop this."
