It is not well known that Abraham Lincoln was very interested
in 

parapsychology and seances in his later years. Another person in
the White 

House was fond of seances as well, Eleanor Roosevelt. She has reported
to 

have become friends with Abraham Lincoln through her many seances
over the 

years.

     Harry Truman once wrote about the maids
in the White House were very 

disturbed at seeing what they thought was Lincoln’s ghost. On one
occasion 

Truman was trying to work, but was repeatedly disturbed by constant
knocking 

at his office door. He commented to a friend “I think it must have
been 

Lincoln’s ghost walking down the hall.”

     When a reporter asked Roslyn Carter about
the Lincoln ghost, she refused 

to comment. But, when Jacqueline Kennedy was asked she stated she
felt 

Lincoln’s presence many times, and “took great comfort in it”.

      Lincoln’s son Willie has also been
seen in the Grant and Taft 

administrations. He died in the White House when Lincoln was President.

      Many speculate that Lincoln’s spirit
stays on in the White House 

because of the trauma he indured while in office. Others feel Lincoln
appears 

in times of crisis in America.

The ice shelves in Canada have lost a huge amount of ice
this year—ice which had been in place for thousands of
years. Now almost one-fourth of it is gone. BBC News quotes
researcher Derek Mueller as saying, “These changes are
irreversible under the present climate.”

Northern Greenland was so far north in the Arctic that
scientists thought it might not experience global warming, but
now satellites show a giant crack—7 miles long and half a mile
wide in a glacier there that seems to be spreading. Also, an
11-square-mile chunk has fallen off another large glacier in
the area. This could raise the sea level,
drowning
the country. It could also be dangerous
in other
ways.

In Yahoo News, Seth Borenstein quotes researcher Waleed
Abdalati as saying, “[The crack] could go back for miles and
miles and there’s no real mechanism to stop it.”

As the weather changes, birds are moving north. A variety of
bird
species are extending their breeding ranges to the north, a
pattern that adds to concerns about climate change. We may
soon not hear the birdsongs we’re so familiar with.

When researchers studied 83 species of birds that have
traditionally bred in New York State and compared their data
with data collected in the early 1980s, they discovered that
many species have moved North—some by almost 40 miles.

Researcher Benjamin Zuckerberg says, “What you begin to
see is a systematic pattern of these species moving
northward as we would predict with regional warming.”

Ecologist William Porter says, “There are a wide spectrum of
changes that are occurring and those changes are occurring
in a relatively short amount of time. We’re not talking
centuries, we’re talking decades…Whether [these changes]
are good or bad, whether they should be addressed, whether
we should adapt to them, whether we should try to mitigate
some of this, those are questions that really, rightfully,
belong in the political arena.”

Joey Bergamine, 19, who is
preparing for a re-trial in Fayetteville, N.C., on a DUI charge
stemming from a July 2007 incident, will argue that he should have been
advised of his right to have a lawyer present when his father kicked
open his bedroom door hours after the incident to help police officers
who had come to question him. Joey’s father is the police chief of
Fayetteville, and Joey’s lawyer said entering a locked room, as well as
the subsequent interrogation, constituted “police” action and not
“parental” action, and since his dad failed to “Mirandize” him, the
charge should be dismissed.

A small, newly-discovered asteroid named 2008 TC3 is
approaching Earth and chances are good that it will hit.
Measuring only a few meters across, the space rock poses no
threat to people or structures on the ground, but it should
create a spectacular fireball, releasing about a kiloton of
energy as it disintegrates and explodes in the high
atmosphere above northern Sudan. However, it should be
noted that the asteroid has just been discovered. Had it been
thirty meters across instead of three, it would have been a
catastrophe, and one with
very little
warning.

Actually I prefer magazines, to books, guess I am too impatient to make it thru a book !!
   

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Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky make their first public appearance as husband and wife as they leave their New York apartment
today. The newlyweds walked out hand in hand as they showed off their
wedding bands after a night of partying. They are thought to be leaving
to go on honeymoon as they get in a stretch limo, along with Beth’s bulldog, Bianca. Boxes containing wedding gifts, including bride and groom teddy bears were loaded into the vehicle before they got in.

The winter of 2007-2008
proved to be exceptionally cold and stormy in the northern hemisphere,
contrary to global warming models. By contrast, the summer of 2007 was
one of the warmest ever recorded in the high arctic. This warming led
to a massive melt of polar sea ice, and concern that the Greenland ice
sheet was becoming unstable. The 2007-2008 winter weather was
particularly harsh in Afghanistan and in the central United States.


In Afghanistan as in many other areas of the planet, record snowfalls
were recorded, and many people were left isolated for extended periods.
Some suffered frostbite, others died in this region, despite the fact
that it is accustomed to cold winters. Similarly, the heaviest snowfall
in at least 50 years caused billions of dollars of damage in China. The
central United States endured an off-the-charts record number of
tornados for the winter season, with hundreds of deaths and property
damage across ten states measured in the billions of dollars.


At the same time, there appears to be a major and unexpected change
taking place on the sun. Specifically, despite the appearance of a
high-latitude reverse polarity sunspot on December 14, 2007, the sun,
as of February, remained devoid of the sunspots that would signal the
beginning of the next solar maximum. Normally, the appearance of such a
sunspot signals the beginning of a period of higher solar activity, and
NASA scientists had predicted in 2005 that the 2008-2011 solar max
would be one of the most intense on record.


The last time the sun went into ‘hibernation’ began in approximately
1250, and lasted, with cyclic changes, into the mid 18th century. There
was an apparent overall decline in solar output lasting for four
centuries, followed by conditions similar to those that had been
present prior to 1250, when there were four clearly defined seasons in
the planet’s temperate zones, which has been true again since around
1750.


During that four hundred year period, seasonal change declined, and
there were many years without real summers. The extremely cold and
rainy years of 1315-1317 resulted in what remains the worst famine that
has been recorded in Europe.


Prior to 1250, glacial retreat and other warming signs were present,
but they were not as extreme as they are now, and the amount of methane
in the atmosphere was just beginning to rise, as melting permafrost
released this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Once solar output
began to decline, methane dropped. Carbon dioxide levels had remained
relatively stable during the period, only beginning to rise with the
advent of the industrial revolution in the 18th century, when a pattern
of air pollution similar to that generated by the Roman Empire in the
2nd through the 4th centuries returned. By the 19th Century, the carbon
dioxide profile of earth’s atmosphere began to appear more like what
has been measured at the climax of previous interglacials.


At present, the gas profile of the atmosphere is similar to that which
appears at the end of interglacials, and it is possible that, if
another period of reduced solar output is in the offing, a new ice age
could begin, following a pattern similar to that predicted in the book
Superstorm. In the past, increased solar output has led to the retreat
of glaciers, exposing millions of square miles of previously frozen
soils to thawing, with the result that massive quantities of methane
have entered the atmosphere, resulting in even higher temperatures and,
in the end, the appearance of another interglacial period of relatively
warm weather. During this period, greenhouse gasses have at first
declined, then risen again as continued increases in solar output have
resulted in high arctic heating.


Then, when solar output suddenly drops again, a period of extremely
violent weather has followed, culminating in a winter of very extensive
snowfall over the northern hemisphere, followed by a summer where the
combination of the increased reflectivity of the snowpack and reduced
solar output causes the snow to fail to melt, with the result that the
next winter brings more snow, and another ice age commences.


During a period of glaciation, the planet’s reflectivity, or albedo,
rises so high that increases in solar output are apparently not enough
to prevent further cooling and more glacial expansion. However, the
trapping of so much water in the glaciers eventually leads to the end
of further snowfall and a gradual decline in albedo as the ice-cover
ages. In the end, a point comes when increased solar output starts to
melt the ice.


At present, the question of what the sun will do over the next few
years is of overwhelming importance in understanding how humanity might
most usefully minimize the effects of what appears to be a period of
sudden climate change that is rapidly gaining momentum.


Already, one effect of the extraordinarily disturbed weather earth has
been experiencing in recent years has been a decline in food supplies,
especially wheat, and subsequent dramatic rises in price, and the
possibility of radically altered growing seasons are upon us, and are
an immediate threat to the welfare of the species.


Massive storms are already upon us, and the whole northern temperate
zone is at continuous risk of destructive weather. No matter what
happens to the sun, it is probable that the central States will
experience many seasons of dangerous weather from now on, and
destruction due to tornadic windstorms and blizzards is apt to rise
dramatically and continuously. If global warming continues, these
storms will gradually taper off because the temperature differential
between the troposphere and the stratosphere will decline. Over the
hurricane seasons of 2006 and 2007, the decline in hurricanes was a
result of this effect. However, if solar output does become, very harsh
weather and serious crop failures will be the inevitable result,
including a resumption of hurricanes.


Unfortunately, the recordation of solar activity is too new and our
understanding of the way stars work too limited to enable us to be
certain of what is happening. This is why, just a few months ago, an
enormous solar maximum was being predicted, and it is not clear why it
has not materialized. In addition, the connection between the solar
cycle and solar output is not well understood. All we know is that,
between 1650 and 1770, when the Little Ice Age was at its most intense,
almost no sunspots were recorded.


At present, there is a general human migration northward, as
populations from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America press into
more prosperous northern economies, and the developed world, which
mostly clusters in the northern temperate region of the planet,
struggles with issues of immigration. However, if the planet becomes
colder, that trend will reverse, and quite suddenly, as the most
exposed northern populations begin a southward migration that could
become desperate.


Planetary emission of greenhouse gasses is a powerful influence on both
weather and, on a larger scale, climate, and it is when greenhouses gas
levels are high and solar output drops that ice ages start. There is no
way to predict such an outcome at this time, but if the next solar max
does not take place, and solar activity remains low, this will become a
possibility, along with the less radical outcome of another ‘little ice
age.’ If the sun does return to normal output levels, runaway global
warming will resume.


There has probably never been a time in recorded history that so many
unknowns have converged when the species was so vulnerable to any
substantial climate change at all. No matter how it unfolds, the fact
remains that we are in the early years of a period of sudden climate
change, and, with the decline in agricultural yields and the increase
in severe weather worldwide, already feeling its effects.


Previously, this section of the Unknowncountry.com website has
recommended that users accept the Canadian Prime Ministers challenge to
reduce their personal output of greenhouse gasses. At present, there
are many new ways of doing this, both on a personal level and on a
larger scale. It is clear that there are going to be significant
changes in resource usage patterns that will lead to emissions
reduction in the west. This will not take place in India and China,
with the result that the net effect of human efforts to conserve will
probably be nil.


Unfortunately, neither China nor India has a sufficiently high level of
governmental organization to regulate their new industrial sectors, let
alone induce them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. No matter how
co-operative these governments are, until their societies develop a
good deal further, their efforts will not be effective.


What concerned individuals can most usefully do is to watch the weather
for changes that may affect them, and plan accordingly both in the
short and medium terms. Short term planning would involve being
prepared for heavy weather in areas where it is most likely to occur.
Medium term planning might involve the creation of useful personal
gardens, the putting by of food, and possibly a move south after two or
three successive failed summers, should that occur. Long term planning
is not a meaningful option at this time.


Of course, reducing greenhouse gas emissions should continue to be a
priority, in order to do whatever possible to blunt the weather
extremes that are beginning to prove so damaging to human welfare.

• Security
• Seeing people who passed over
• Price of gas

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