Smile! It's an upside-down rainbow... but you can see there's no pot of gold at the end of this one

Seen just a handful of times this stunning phenomena is known as the 'smile in the sky.' 

Freak weather conditions created this reverse rainbow in Leicestershire where it was pictured by antique dealer William Freeman.

But while the sight looks like an upside-down rainbow, it is actually caused by light shining through tiny ice crystals in the clouds.

Shimmering: The reverse rainbow is caused by tiny ice crystals in the clouds

Rather than being caused by raindrops like normal rainbows, it is the result of freak atmospheric conditions, rarely seen outside the North and South Poles. 

This is one of only a handful of occasions where an arc has been spotted in the UK. 

And only a small group in the garden of a restaurant saw the shimmering arc for a few minutes in the sky in the early evening on Friday.

Mr Freeman, 35, who owns an antique and fine art gallery, said: 'I had just finished dinner when I went outside and saw what appeared to be an upside-down rainbow.

'Everyone was stunned - I've never seen anything like it. It was a very bizarre sight on such a lovely sunny evening with no rain.

'I grabbed my phone and took a photo but within minutes it had completely disappeared. 

'I feel very lucky to have seen this weather wonder and to have captured a picture of it.'

But unlike a rainbow, the sky has to be clear of rain and low level clouds for a circumzenithal arc to be seen.

Relatively rare in Britain, the arc only appears when sunlight shines at a specific angle through a thin veil of wispy clouds at a height of around 20,000 to 25,000 feet.

At this altitude the cirrus clouds are made of tiny ice crystals.

In reverse: The upside down rainbow is much brighter than a 'normal' rainbow (right)

Meteorologists say the clouds must be convex to the sun,with the ice particles lined up together in the right direction, to refract the light.

This results in the sunlight bouncing off the ice crystals high in the atmosphere, sending the light rays back up and bending the sunlight like a glass prism into a spectrum of colour.

The arc is generally only seen in the artic circle - and this is one of just a handful of instances where the arc has been spotted in the UK.

The 'rainbow'' is also much brighter and more concentrated than a rainfall rainbow. Rainbows are formed when sunlight is refracted in a raindrop.

But in a circumzenithal arc, the colours are in reverse order from a rainbow, with violet on the top and red at the bottom.

The arc usually vanishes quickly because the cirrus clouds containing the ice crystals shift their position.

William said: 'It was literally only there for about eight minutes before it disappeared completely. 'Everyone in the garden was starring up in the sky just admiring it. 

'Everyone in the pub was talking about it afterwards, no one had ever seen anything like it before, and I don't think I would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!'

Ice particles in high cirrus clouds occur all year round, but circumzenithal arcs are usually obscured by lower level clouds.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: 'Circumzenithal arcs are seen relatively rarely in Britain because they can only be seen at the right combination of atmospheric conditions.

'It is quite rare to see an arc as clearly as this in the UK. Visibility of these arcs can vary greatly with someone ten miles away not being able to see it.'

Read more: dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2010784


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Earth "Ringing Like a Bell" as Elenin Approaches

Earth "Ringing Like a Bell" as Elenin Approaches

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NASA studying nuclear warfare as possible cure for global warming / Scrape TV

March 1 2011

Washington, D.C. – Though the science behind the causes is certainly weak and debated, there is little doubt that global warming is happening. Whether a result of manmade events or the result of a series of natural events, or some combination of
the two, the reasons are just as important as the event itself if we have any hope of reversing the trend. With instabilities in the food chain and potential weather disasters a consequence of global warming, reversing the trend seems like something we must explore no matter the challenge.

While many solutions have been proposed – reducing CO2 emissions, rebuilding reefs – the hesitation to fundamentally alter the way in which we live our lives has put a kink in virtually all such efforts. Those obstacles are likely to only grow in the coming years as nations such as China and India start coming online in more significant ways, leading many to push for more radical solutions to the problems. Now NASA may have stumbled upon just such a solution by employing another menace that seemed to be on an unstoppable path towards the destruction of humanity, nuclear warfare. In laboratory tests the space agency showed that even regional nuclear war could reverse the trend towards warming by reducing the impact of the sun on the planet. While such an event would also bring a nuclear winter, mass famine, and years without summers, it may in fact be the only solution and bring long term benefits with short term pain.

“Our results suggest that agriculture could be severely impacted, especially in areas that are susceptible to late-spring and early-fall frosts. Examples similar to the crop failures and famines experienced following the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 could be widespread and last several years,” said researcher Luke Oman. “That said, we would see a drop in average global temperatures of about 1.25 degrees Celsius for a few years which would dramatically alter the trend towards global warming. Even ten years after the event the global temperature would be significantly lower than they are now.”

Any such conflict would also likely kill millions of people and cause radioactive fallout for decades.

“This model shows very clearly, above everything else, that human actions can have an impact on the environment. We’ve seen this happen before and it’s clear that if we have an impact on changing the environment one way, we are able to change it in a positive way,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “The biggest danger with using something like nuclear conflict to reverse the trend is that we don’t resolve the underlying cause. While it would certainly give us a bit of breathing room it would resolve the situations that caused the problem in the first place. That would mean that global warming would start again, that we will have done no favours for future generations in the long term.”

It’s thought most likely that such a conflict would occur between India and Pakistan.

“Of course that may not really matter. By that stage much of humanity could very well be irradiated freaks and totally immune to the effects of global warming. Most radioactive mutation results in arms growing out of heads and not some kind of really rad superpower so we really can’t bank on such a plan to help our children in the long term,” continued Poe. “In the long term we would probably be better off trying to find a less explosive solution to the problem. It may work in the short term but it might be better to find a different long term plan.”

It’s not clear what the solution to radioactive monsters might be.

Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent

From: NASA studying nuclear warfare as possible cure for global warming / Scrape TV - The World on your side

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'Shoot on sight' orders in Karachi

As death toll mounts to more than 60, provincial official issues shoot-at-sight orders in Pakistan's largest city.

Police in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, have ordered shoot on sight after more than 60 people were killed in street violence in the last three days. "We have issued orders to the security forces to shoot anyone involved in violence on the spot," Sharjeel Memon, the provincial information minister, told the Reuters news agency on Friday. "In addition to the police and Rangers, another 1,000 personnel of the Frontier Constabulary will be deployed in the city to control the violence," he said. Saud Mirza, the Karachi police chief, said 63 people have died in the violence so far, with around 150 injured. Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistan prime minister, appealed for peace on Friday, calling for the country to unite against the city's violence. Shops and fuel stations were shut and public transport idled after Karachi's main political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which resigned from the federal government last week, called for a day of mourning. The violence, which broke out in Orangi Town, later spread to Lyari, Baldia Town, Site and Gulshan-i-Iqbal areas. Tyres burnt Shooting could be heard in several areas on Friday, and in some spots residents burned tyres and threw stones at the few passing vehicles on the street. At least 10 passengers were killed and 20 others injured on Wednesday when armed men opened fire on two buses in the port city, officials said. The fresh wave of violence in the city began on Tuesday. Karachi, home to more than 18 million people, has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. A recent report from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 1,138 people were killed in Karachi in the first six months of 2011, of whom 490 were victims of political, ethnic and sectarian violence. The US embassy in Islamabad released a statement from Cameron Munter, the US ambassador to Pakistan, condemning the violence. "We call on all parties to refrain from further violence and work toward a peaceful resolution of differences," the statement read. According to officials, Karachi contributes 68 per cent of the government's total revenue and 25 per cent of country's GDP. From: 'Shoot on sight' orders in Karachi - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English

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Bahrainis get set for nationwide rallies

Bahrain's main opposition group al-Wafeq has called for a new massive nationwide protest despite warnings by the regime's Interior Ministry against such moves.

The opposition bloc is currently in talks with the ruler of Bahrain in a bid to ease wide-spread tensions in the country.

However, the bloc has announced that it will press for a UN intervention if the dialogue fails. It has also expressed doubts that the so-called 'national dialogue' would lead to a resolution of many outstanding issues, such as the persisting suppression, arrest and torture of anti-government protesters as well as the continuing military trials of civilians by the al-Khalifa regime.

Only the leaders from two of the opposition groups, al-Wafeq and al-Waad, are participating in the negotiations as other opposition leaders remain in custody.

According to Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, there are currently over 1,000 political detainees, including medical staff, inside the country.

Meanwhile, al-Wafeq called for new protests on Friday across the country. Earlier, however, the Interior Ministry warned that it will quash any kind of protest gathering, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Anti-regime protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February, demanding an end to the rule of al-Khalifa dynasty which has instituted despotic governance, discriminations, and suppression of any dissent. The US-backed regime has met the popular protests with a brutal crackdown, killing dozens and arresting hundreds.

In March, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed some 1,500 military forces to Bahrain to help the government crush the nationwide protests. Yet, the protests have only grown more popular.

A number of those killed by the regime have lost their lives under torture by the Saudi-backed forces of the Bahraini state.

The Persian Gulf kingdom was founded by the British monarchy and is currently being protected by the US, which is desperately trying to maintain a dominant role in the Middle East region, amid a growing wave of popular uprisings against the US and its sponsored dictators in the strategic and oil-rich region.

Bahrain also hosts the huge military installation of the US Fifth Fleet navy base off the Persian Gulf waters, which holds some 30 warships, including two aircraft carriers, used to patrol the strategic waterway as well as the Red sea, the Arabian Sea and the east coast of Africa. Ever since the UK fleet left the island nearly half a century ago, the American fleet has been used to resupply US warships. It also shares commander headquarters with US Central Command naval forces .

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from: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188124.html


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Bahraini doctors, nurses charged for helping injured protesters

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Youtube blocked homemade Revolution video in Germany

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