At noon, local time Monday (10 p.m. ET Sunday), the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker’s “vertical torpedo” sub broke the surface of the western Pacific, some 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Guam.

After a descent that took roughly two and a half hours, Cameron spent about three hours conducting the first manned scientific exploration of Challenger Deep.

For his return trip, Cameron experienced a faster-than-expected, roughly 70-minute ascent, which he described as a “heckuva ride.”

Bobbing in the open ocean, his custom-designed sub, the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, was spotted by helicopter and plucked from the Pacific by a research ship’s crane.

The expedition was designed so that Cameron could spend up to six hours collecting samples and video at the bottom of the trench. But his mission was cut short due in part to a hydraulic fluid leak that coated the window of the sub’s “pilot sphere,” obscuring his view.

“I lost hydraulics toward the latter part of dive, and I was unable to use the manipulator arm,” Cameron said this morning during a post-dive press conference held aboard the Octopus, a yacht owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a longtime Cameron friend. (Allen was on the scene for the historic dive and posted live updates of the event on Twitter from aboard his yacht, which provided backup support for the mission.)

Considering the daunting task of sending humans into the deep, such technical glitches are to be expected, Cameron emphasized: “It’s a prototype vehicle, so it’s gonna take time to iron out the bugs.

“The important thing is that we have a vehicle that’s a robust platform—it gets us there safely, the lights work, the cameras work, and hopefully next time the hydraulics will work.”

And although he wasn’t able to capture as many samples on this first dive as science teams might have been hoping for, “that just means I gotta go back and get some more,” said Cameron, also a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence.

In fact, he and sub co-designer Ron Allum, managing director of the Australia-based Acheron Project research and design company, already have more dives planned in the coming weeks as part of the DEEPSEA CHALLENGE project, a partnership with the National Geographic Society and Rolex. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

“I see this as the beginning … of opening up this frontier to science and really understanding these deep places,” Cameron said.

Little Life Found in the Deepest Place on Earth

Aboard the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, Cameron had a host of tools at his disposal, including a sediment sampler, a robotic claw, and temperature, salinity, and pressure gauges. (See pictures of Cameron’s sub.)

The sub is also outfitted with multiple 3-D cameras and an 8-foot (2.5-meter) tower of LEDs.

But in part due to the hydraulics leak and a host of lost thrusters, Cameron wasn’t able to capture any biological samples, and an attempted sediment core sample was only partially retrieved.

“I didn’t see big jellyfish and big anemones like I saw [during test dives] at the New Britain Trench,” off Papua New Guinea, Cameron said. (See “Giant ‘Amoebas’ Found in Deepest Place on Earth.”)

At Challenger Deep “I landed on a very soft, almost gelatinous flat plain. Once I got my bearings, I drove across it for quite a distance … and finally worked my way up the slope.”

The whole time, Cameron said, he didn’t see any fish, or any living creatures more than an inch (2.5 centimeters) long: “The only free swimmers I saw were small amphipods”—shrimplike bottom-feeders that appear to be common across most marine environments.

“When I was in the New Britain Trench a couple weeks ago, the bottom was covered in the tracks of small animals, which gave it an eggshell appearance,” he added.

“But when I came to Challenger Deep, the bottom was completely featureless. I had this idea that life would adapt to the deep … but I don’t think we’re seeing that.”

Still, the science team is hopeful that the small sample Cameron took of the trench’s sediments, along with the sub’s constantly whirring cameras, will provide some new insight into the remote underwater realm. (Video: how sound revealed that Challenger Deep is the deepest spot in the ocean.)

The mud, they say, could contain exotic species of microbial life that may not only advance our understanding of the deep ocean but also help in the search for extraterrestrial life.

For instance, scientists think Jupiter’s moon Europa could harbor a global ocean beneath its thick shell of ice—an ocean that, like Challenger Deep, would be lightless, near freezing, and home to areas of intense pressure. (See “Could Jupiter Moon Harbor Fish-Size Life?”)

Deep Dive was Like a Trip to Another Planet

Until Cameron’s dive, the only manned Challenger Deep expedition was a mission that took place in 1960, when retired U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh and late Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard descended in the Navy submersible Trieste.

Climbing into the cockpit of DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, Cameron said he was “intimately aware of the design of the vehicle … and I felt we’d done the engineering right.

“When the hatch closed, I felt the vehicle around me was able to withstand the pressure. There may be butterflies in your stomach beforehand, but once you’re inside the sub, the excitement of going someplace [few have] been before takes over … the adrenaline takes over, and the fear really goes away.”

Cameron also had to overcome the sheer physical experience of the dive—the 57-year-old explorer was crammed into the sub’s 43-inch-wide (109-centimeter-wide) pilot sphere, which itself was loaded up with navigation controls, cameras, and other electronics.

“I wind up packed in like a Mercury astronaut, if you will,” Cameron said. (Video: how the sub sphere protects Cameron.)

“When you first close the hatch, all these electronics are dumping heat into the sphere.” Since the Mariana Trench lies near the Equator, surface temperatures are high, and the inside of the sub’s cockpit “gets very hot right away—it’s like a sauna inside.

“But as you start descending, the sub goes very fast. I’m screaming down, and in just a few minutes I’m in water that’s 36 degrees Fahrenheit [2.2 degrees Celsius].

“All of sudden my feet are freezing, the back of my head is freezing, but the middle part of my body is still warm,” he said.

Then, “literally within a minute or two I’m out of sunlight, and you’re in total darkness for most of this dive, so the sub gets very cold, and you have to put on warm clothing. … The walls have condensation all over them and I’m constantly getting dripped on by cold water.”

Despite the physical challenges, Cameron seemed in awe of what he’d experienced in the remote ocean depths.

“This is a vast frontier down there that’s going to take us a while to understand,” he said. “The impression to me was it’s very lunar, very isolated. I felt as if, in the space of one day, I’d gone to another planet and come back.”

Hoping for Gifts From the Ocean

According to biological oceanographer Lisa Levin, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, the DEEPSEA CHALLENGE program’s potential for generating public interest in deep-ocean science is just as important as anything Cameron might have discovered.

“I consider Cameron to be doing for the trenches what Jacques Cousteau did for the ocean many decades ago,” Levin, who’s part of the team but didn’t participate in the seagoing expedition, said in a previous interview with National Geographic News.

At a time of fast-shrinking funds for undersea research, Levin said, “what scientists need is the public support to be able to continue exploration and research of the deep ocean.”

Perhaps referring to his friend’s most recent movie, expedition physician Joe MacInnis called Cameron a real-world “avatar.”

Cameron was “down there on behalf of everybody else on this planet,” MacInnis said. “There are seven billion people who can’t go, and he can. And he’s aware of that.”

Camron added, “Every time you dive, you hope you’ll see something new—some new species. Sometimes the ocean gives you a gift, sometimes it doesn’t.

“But I call this dive just the first phase. We prove that the vehicle works, and hopefully bring some real science back.” By Victoria Jaggard, National Geographic News

In the air

All flights operating from Dubai International Airport and Abu Dhabi were unaffected by yesterday’s sandy conditions. An Etihad spokesman said all its flights were operating normally from Abu Dhabi. In Dubai, a spokesman for Emirates told Gulf News yesterday that its flights were operating according to schedule and were unaffected by the climatic conditions. And a spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said its flights were operating normally.

Behind the wheel

Blowing dust and gusty winds can make for difficult driving conditions. At all times, drivers should exercise caution and adjust according to the road conditions. If your visibility is limited, slow down. Use your hazard lights to keep your vehicle visible and give other vehicles plenty of room. It’s also advisable to drive with your headlights on. Remember that gusty winds can make lighter vehicles swerve or move suddenly. Give plenty of notice of your intent by signalling, avoid making any sudden moves, and be prepared for surprises such as debris blown about by the winds.

Under the hood

Blowing sand can clog your air filter and affect your engine’s performance. In extreme instances, blowing sand can also enter your fuel and brake lines, causing mechanical failure or worse. You should ensure that your air filter is changed regularly — at the same time as your engine oil is changed. After a dust storm, remove the filter and de-sand it by hitting it off your vehicle in much the same way as a carpet is beaten. Make sure your hoses are secure and their clips are tight. And top up your washer fluid levels.

Travelling: A class act

Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) said schools have the flexibility to do what they deem necessary in adverse weather. “At the start of the academic year, schools submit a calendar to KHDA that complies with the stipulated 175 school days per academic year. If there is a change in the calendar… schools are obliged to keep the KHDA informed,” Mohammad Darwish at the KHDA said. Schools can call a day off if need be and then make up for the lost time and lessons in subsequent days or weeks, he added.

Food for thought

Staff at restaurants are advising customers to sit inside as it’s “unpleasant” outside and many have closed their outdoor areas. A spokesperson for Pierchic at Al Qasr, Dubai said: “Tables are not set outside… It’s extremely windy, gusty and sandy. Our usual views have been spoiled.” The restaurants facing the beach at JBR Walk have taken a similar decision. “Due to the weather conditions, we have closed outdoor terrace seating in all our ten restaurants today,” said Mohammad Bu Ziadi at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray yesterday.

On the job

Work on most construction sites in the country went on as usual, even as the sandstorm reduced visibility drastically.Companies said they have taken extra precautions for the safety of workers, but many labourers seemed far from impressed. “We are working today as usual because there is not much difficulty in carrying out work normally, only the visibility level is a little low,” said a project manager at Bin Belailah Construction. “If it gets worse and it affects any of our workers then we might stop work anytime.”

It’s not just dust

Dust is generally categorised as coarse, fine or very fine. Coarse dust generally only reaches the inside of the nose, mouth or throat. Fine dust can get much deeper into the sensitive regions of the respiratory tract and lungs. These smaller dust particles have a greater potential to cause serious harm to your health. Particles in dust storms tend to be coarse and do not pose a serious health threat to most people. But people with pre-existing breathing-related problems such as asthma and emphysema may be at risk.

Preventative steps

The following precautions can protect you and minimise the adverse effects of a duststorm: Spend as little time outside as possible; avoid strenuous exercise, particularly if you suffer from asthma or a breathing-related condition; stay indoors in air-conditioned living spaces if possible; and if you develop symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing or chest pain, seek medical advice.

Warning signs

The most common ailments during a duststorm are irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. The most vulnerable are infants and young children, the elderly and people with respiratory problems or heart disease. For these people, exposure to a duststorm may trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks, cause serious breathing-related problems, or contribute to heart attacks. Prolonged exposure to dust can lead to chronic breathing and lung problems. Gulf News

Bernard Weber, founder-president of New7Wonders, congratulated the Filipinos as the 8.2-kilometer Palawan river joined the Amazon rainforest, Vietnam’s Halong Bay and Argentina’s Iguazu Falls as among the world’s new seven wonders of nature.

“When your very own President Aquino came out in support of the PPUR campaign, I knew that this country was taking the New7Wonders of Nature seriously,” said Weber. “Fans of PPUR all over the world responded to his call for action by voting in record numbers and today’s confirmation is the well-earned reward for this extraordinary display of enthusiasm.”

Aquino even sailed the river last year on board a paddleboat as he urged Filipinos to help push the Philippines’ bid for a spot in the New7Wonders of Nature.

Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn welcomed the news, saying it would help the country’s renewed campaign to boost tourism.

“This confirmation is wonderful news for Puerto Princesa, and a great example of how now it’s more fun to be in the Philippines,” said Hagedorn, in reference to the Department of Tourism’s “It’s more fun in the Philippines” slogan.

“World-wide exposure of our natural beauty on this level is critical both for tourism and for our image nationally and internationally,” he said.

The Puerto Princesa Underground River, about 50 kilometers north of Puerto Princesa City,  consists of a limestone karst mountain landscape, several large chambers containing significant formations of stalactites and stalagmites.

This navigable underground river winds through a cave before flowing directly into the West Philippine Sea. At the exit, a flawless lagoon is framed by ancient trees growing right to the water’s edge.

The campaign organized by Swiss foundation New7Wonders has attracted great interest, mobilizing celebrities including Argentinian football star Lionel Messi calling on fans to pick his home country’s Iguazu Falls.

Provisional results of the final seven were released last November 12 after a long consultation process lasting from December 2007 to July 2009, when world citizens were asked to put forward sites which they deemed were natural wonders.

More than a million votes were cast to trim the list of more than 440 contenders in over 220 countries down to a shortlist of 77.

The group was then further cut to 28 finalists by a panel of experts.

Anyone in the world was then able to vote for the final seven via telephone, text messages or Internet social networks.

Founded in 2001 by filmmaker Bernard Weber in Zurich, the foundation New7Wonders is based on the same principle on which the seven ancient wonders of the world were established. That list of seven wonders was attributed to Philon of Byzantium in ancient Greece.

New7Wonders said its aim is to create a global memory by garnering participation worldwide. INQUIRER

Today, about 50 residents on the lonely island in the South Pacific are celebrating Bounty Day – or the 222nd anniversary of the burning of HMS Bounty – along with a handful of visitors who were drawn in for the festivities.

Islanders hope the official holiday, marked with boat races and the annual burning of a miniature replica of the Bounty, will become an annual tourist-puller as they look to holidaymakers as a way to bolster a flagging economy.

Visitor numbers have dwindled since a shipping lane change slashed the once-large number of ships that would stop by Pitcairn and buy produce and island-made crafts and curios, Pitcairn Islands Study Centre director Herbert Ford told the Herald.

The island’s international image had not recovered from the 2004 sex assault trials which resulted in six islanders – including mayor Steve Christian – convicted on 35 charges.

“That’s Pitcairn’s burden to bear,” said Mr Ford, who saw the trials as “just a piece of history now”.

Rather, islanders were keen to trade on the history of their mutinous sailor-ancestors who hid themselves away from British justice in 1790, immortalised on the the screen by the 1962 Marlon Brando film Mutiny on the Bounty, as well as the relics of other vessels shipwrecked near Pitcairn.

“There’s an awful lot of interest in the Bounty story, especially in Europe,” Mr Ford said.

“For tourists, Pitcairn has the smack of adventure to it, the romantic and adventurous story of the Bounty solidly glued to it … and it’s such an isolated place that you get the idea you are going to go as far from the outside world as you possibly can.”

But with the quest for seclusion comes the long haul of getting to Pitcairn, where visitors must first fly to Papeete in Tahiti, catch a flight to Mangareva in the Gambier Islands and then spend up to 36 hours on a chartered boat. “You do have a few cruise ships going by, but these don’t quite add up to what you used to have, with a few commercial vessels in one day,” Mr Ford said.

“In terms of tourists, on the other hand, it’s changed 100 per cent – whereas you might have once had four or five over several months, now they’re seeing four or five each month. They’d like to get that up to maybe 20 or 30 each month if they could.”

As for things to do, Mr Ford said visitors should not head to Pitcairn expecting another Hawaii or Fiji.

“Before I started the centre, I was seeing a tremendous number of newspaper pieces describing white sandy beaches and lazy islanders lying under palm trees, which was all cloud nine stuff.

“None of that applies to Pitcairn – it’s just a volcanic rocky outcrop and the biggest threat is falling off a cliff.”

Instead, Pitcairn tourism officials cite “great fishing”, quad bike tours, snorkelling, hiking and bird-watching among numerous other “fun spots” in a Pitcairn vacation package.

HIGHLIGHTS

Things to do on Pitcairn:

* Fishing: With pristine waters teeming with fresh fish, visiting fishers can head out with locals in a boat, fish off the rocks or get their catch underwater.

* Snorkelling and scuba diving: An abundance of marine life can be found around the island – especially amid the wrecks of the Cornwallis and the Bounty.

* Bird watching: The island boasts the endangered Pitcairn Island warbler, while Henderson Island, 193km away, is home to a range of birds including the flightless Henderson crake.

* Walking: The island is well signposted and offers an eco trail and unique flora and fauna along the track to local landmark Christian’s Cave. By Jamie Morton, NZ Herald

The government will be urged on Wednesday to help build a more sustainable world by putting a brake on the oil industry’s “reckless” race to the Arctic.

At a special House of Commons hearing, Greenpeace will tell ministers to reconsider their support for Cairn Energy and other companies drilling in the far north unless they attach the most stringent operating conditions.

“The reckless rush to exploit Arctic oil and the Coalition Government’s blind support for it, urgently need scrutiny, said Ruth Davis, chief policy adviser at Greenpeace.

She will make her plea at a first session since the Environmental Audit Committee of MPs decided to set up a special review called Protecting the Arctic.

“The oil industry has done all it can to avoid discussing the safety of drilling in the most inhospitable conditions on the planet, where a spill would devastate wildlife and be almost impossible to clean up,” added Davis.

The urgency of the issue has been intensified by the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the decision by Greenland and others to license offshore drilling.

The review has also been influenced by a special series published in the Guardian which showed oil was part of an unprecedented economic exploitation of an area where global warming is most visible through the receding ice caps.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party leader, who encouraged the select committee to investigate the issue as a matter of urgency, said: “I’m delighted that the Environmental Audit Committee has agreed to hold an inquiry into Protecting the Arctic. It comes at a time of increasing concern about the accelerating industrialisation of the Arctic region, and following recent eye-witness reports in the Guardian and elsewhere, will raise crucial questions about the impacts of development.”

The Arctic oil rush, is made possible as large areas of the ocean are opening up each summer as climate change causes sea-ice to melt, she explained.

This brings “unprecedented risks” to the area with the consequences of any potential oil spill likely to be catastrophic.

“At the same time, questions are being raised about how a people can survive under the pressure that comes from oil companies whose daily income can be higher than their annual budget.

“The UK government can show vital leadership on this issue, at a time when the race to carve up the Arctic is accelerating faster than our regulatory or technical capacity to manage it, by initiating a moratorium on Arctic drilling by companies registered in the UK.”

Although the UK does not have any formal jurisdiction over the Arctic, it does have strong commercial and scientific interests there. The select committee will explore how Britain could use its influence through regulation, incentives, and treaties to ensure commercialisation of the region takes full account of its impact on climate change and the environment. By Terry Macalister, The Guardian

Well, enjoy yourself while you can because, if some anonymous and long-deceased Mayan calendar-maker is to be believed, it’s the last new year you’ll ever get.

That’s right: The official countdown to the biggest blowout Ma Earth has ever seen has begun.

Unless, of course, it hasn’t.

Wishy-washy? Sure. And for that, blame a calendar created by the Mayans a few thousand years ago that, some believe, portends all sorts of apocalyptic ugliness happening on or around Dec. 21, 2012.

Sure, sure. You’re not buying any of that mystical hooey. But admit it.

It’s still kind of fun to think about, right?

No need to be embarrassed. We humans always have been suckers for a good apocalypse story. And be it a rogue asteroid heading our way, a pandemic that turns us into characters in a Stephen King novel or armies of the dead arising to turn us into not-so-happy meals, nothing gives us a tingle in that part of our brain that loves scary stuff more than thinking about how it all might end.

This most recent version of Our Coming Inescapable Doom involves what’s known as the Mayan long-count calendar. While it’s not the only calendar the Mayans used and it’s a pretty complicated piece of work — expressing a date in Mayan apparently involves smushing a half-dozen “Star Trek” star dates together — the long-count calendar is notable for one reason: On or around Dec. 21, 2012, it wraps up a 5,000-years-and-change-long cycle.

And that means … what exactly?

For some, the end of the cycle — and some, by the way, have disputed the calculations used to arrive at that date — means the beginning of a new era of peace and progress.

For others, it means The End of Life As We Know It.

For that latter view, blame, at least partly, doomsday scenarists who have attached to this reset of the Mayan calendar all sorts of dire apocalyptic events.

“It got tied in, first of all, to the conclusion that, OK, the end of the cycle means the end of the world,” said Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

However, Lindsay added, “actually, there’s nothing in Mayan religion or culture that indicates that you can’t have another cycle. So many experts are kind of dumbfounded by this.”

Then, Lindsay said, the calendar somehow became linked with such supposed havoc-causing, even apocalyptic events as the impending arrival of a mysterious — and, NASA says, nonexistent — planet into a near-Earth orbit, the alignment of the sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy and, even, some sort of reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles, any of which apparently means very bad things for Earth and its inhabitants.

“There is this kernel of truth, that the long-count calendar will end a cycle on or about Dec. 21, 2012,” Lindsay said. “But there’s no indication in Mayan culture that supports the signaling of some sort of catastrophe, let alone the end of the world. Quite contrarily, the Mayans use the end of the cycle as an occasion for celebration and beginning a new cycle.”

Count Michelene K. Bell among those who think that, while there is significance to the ending of the Mayan calendar’s cycle, there’s no reason to think the worst.

Bell, founder and publisher of In Light Times, a Las Vegas-based metaphysics journal, said the Mayan calendar and 2012 have been popular topics of discussion among readers during the past year or so. But, she added, “many of the people, unfortunately, are buying into the doomsayers.”

“It’s never been the end of the world,” Bell said, even if some “have taken it and made it into a fear-based event, and that was not what the Mayans intended.”

On the cosmic upside, “in the metaphysical world, people are noticing a higher vibration or frequency out there,” Bell noted. That’s good, because it means the beginning of an era of planetary change that, while painful, ultimately will prove beneficial.

“Most of what I hear is optimism,” said Lori Steele, general manager of The Psychic Eye Book Shop, 5835 S. Eastern Ave. “(People) think it’s more of a beginning than an end. I get a couple of doom-and-gloom people in here, but not many.”

So why all the apocalyptic talk? Because apocalypses — apocalyii? — are so fun to ponder.

People always have held “a sort of fascination” with morbid doomsday tales, said Clayton Schmit, professor of preaching and academic director of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

Stories of death, tragedy and disaster, whether they’re in film, books or real life, always have piqued our interest. “If the death of an individual is interesting, how much more interesting is the death of humanity?” Schmit said.

Our fascination with hearing about how It All Will End also “may be just kind of an existential thing,” said Felicia Campbell, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas English professor who teaches courses in the always doomsday-friendly genre of science fiction.

“In terms of existentialism, you live for the day, and the fact that death is imminent makes living more intense,” Campbell said.

A good doomsday tale also may offer a vehicle for taking a huge, nebulous, free-floating fear — nuclear war, a terrorist attack, global climate change — and turning it into a more easily focused-upon fear.

“We feel kind of helpless in the face of all these events, so maybe by watching them … it becomes more familiar,” Campbell said.

A good doomsday prediction also feeds our simple love of fantasy.

Fantasy “captures a person’s imagination and kind of takes them out of the humdrum, day-to-day mundane existence,” Lindsay said. “And even though you’re talking about a doomsday scenario, still, that’s pretty exciting, isn’t it?

“For a lot of people, it’s just a question of fantasy is better. A Dan Brown novel sells better than some dry book about the Mayan culture itself.”

A good doomsday tale also can bestow on those who buy into it “a sense of privilege,” Schmit said. “They’re the ones who seem to be on the inside, they’re the ones in the know who’ve been given a revelation about such things.”

Take, for instance, California radio evangelist Harold Camping who twice in 2011 swung and missed with his predictions that the Rapture, an event that some Christians believe will kick off the end times, would occur. (However, Schmit noted that several Bible passages say the date cannot be predicted.)

While Schmit said he “wouldn’t say that’s what motivated” Camping, “it certainly gave him his moment in the spotlight.”

So, now, a quiz: What does every doomsday prediction in recorded human history have in common?

Answer: Every single one was wrong, because … well, just look around.

Yet, a failed doomsday prediction seldom deters a truly determined believer. Even when doomsayers strike out, “they get a huge amount of publicity out of it … and really no penalty for it,” Lindsay said.

That’s because studies have shown that “our beliefs are formed through a prism of emotions,” Lindsay said. “And, yes, we reason about things, but our reasons are heavily influenced by our emotional commitment. If you are really emotionally committed to something, it becomes a critical part of your life. You’re not going to give up that belief, at least not easily.”

It’s one of the reasons conspiracy theories are so popular and so indestructible.

“Lots of times, people get angry when you give them the history or the science,” Lindsay said. “If your belief is central to your worldview, you’ll cling to it and come up with some other explanation: ‘Oh, they’re not telling you this because they don’t want people to know’ because they might panic or something.’ “

But most of the time, and for most people, savoring the potential End Of It All a mere 348 days from now represents nothing more dangerous than a reality-based thrill.

“You may be half-serious about it,” Lindsay said, “but if you aren’t true believers, you aren’t going to sell the house or anything like that.”

Besides, the really interesting thing about apocalypses is that they’ll probably always arrive when you’re not looking for them. “I have this personal belief that people have been predicting the end of the world since the beginning,” Steele said.

“I do think the world is changing, but I don’t think it’s ending.”

Still, do us a favor: If Dec. 21 does turn out to be a really bad day, just pretend you never read this story, OK? By John Przybys, Las Vegas Review Journal

Most people find the 2012 prophecies laughable, but that’s only because the earth, tenacious planet that it is, has managed to survive many doomsdays in the past decade.

People may think of it as an unfulfilled prophecy, but it is actually an incredible feat of survival on the earth’s part. Why, just last year, we’ve survived the apocalypse twice when Harold Camping made his two magnificently mistaken rapture predictions.

Of course, the skepticism is understandable, but you’d do well to suspend your disbelief. This year will really be the year it all ends if you go by the Mayan calendar, an ancient relic made by a long-dead civilization may be a credible source to some.

If that’s not enough to convince you that the world will end this year, well, just look around. Temperatures are rising and dropping by extremes. Polar bears are disappearing. Justin Bieber is said to have fathered a child. The signs are everywhere.

You’d best take heed and take a page from the preppers, a group of people who’ve read the signs, seen the truth, and started preparing for the catastrophic event that will alter life as we know it.

We may not know how it’s going to happen yet. It could be a stock market crash, nuclear warfare, alien invasion, coronal mass ejection, zombie apocalypse, or the coming of Bieberspawn. Whatever it is, here are preparations you and your family can do for the apocalypse that’s sure to come eventually.

Tip #1: Create a self-sustaining food farm in your backyard pool

One admirable prepper featured on a National Geographic documentary came up with the ingenious idea of turning his pool into an aquaponic farm. The most brilliant feature by far is the farm’s design, which makes sure that his tilapia colony can feed on the chicken droppings that fall from the coop—because we all love the taste of chicken-crap-fed-fish.

According to the prepper, he created this farm to lessen his dependence on electricity, which is crucial to survival in the case of a coronal mass ejection that will destroy the earth’s electric grid.

In that context, it really makes sense. But for those who don’t have backyard pools or cannot abide the taste of tilapia, another option would be to live with the Amish, or to experience a Filipino-style brownout. Either two are equally effective ways to learn how to live without power.

Tip #2: Stock up on canned goods, cup noodles, and MREs

Canned goods, cup noodles and MREs (meals-ready-to-eat, food eaten by American soldiers on the field) are the holy trinity of no-cook food.

They don’t taste half bad either. Remember not to overstock, though. Just about one cellar’s worth will be enough.

Do not forget to stock up on can openers and hot water keepers too, although when you’re on the move from looters or zombies, you might have to stick to your trusty Skyflakes, which, come to think of it, should also be on your prepper shopping list.

Tip #3: Purchase a luxury underground shelter

In most doomsday scenarios, this is really the only way you’ll survive. Food and water won’t matter when a collision with Planet X/Nibiru causes a torrent of fire to rain down from the heavens.

Lucky for us, there are a number of doomsday shelters already on the market. Those who want a no-nonsense roof over their heads can choose among some safehouses:

All these promise to provide safe and secure accommodations underneath cement-thick foundations and climate-proof ceilings.

But those who want to rough out the rapture with a touch of style might want to check out Vivos, a luxury underground safehouse placed in secure locations in the American desert.

For a co-ownership fee of only $9,950 per person you will receive a sure supply of food, fuel, materials, and a space in the Vivos community for 6 months.

Sure, it may sound like a steep price to some, but the kind people at Vivos do have a financial aid plan that allows the poorlings to pay the full amount in installments over a number of years. Because of course, even in the post-apocalyptic world, currencies, the economy, credit cards, and checks will continue to work in the same way as they do now.

Then again, for us here in the Third World, this third tip is barely an option. Doomsday shelters here are virtually non-existent, so in the case of a collision with Planet X, or any other earth-shattering catastrophe, well, to be perfectly frank, we’re good as gone, so let’s hope that the apocalypse comes in the form of something we know how to handle like EDSA traffic jams.

Sarcasm aside, for all we know, the preppers could be spot on in their beliefs, in which case, the apocalypse would be the biggest “I-told-you-so” in the post-history of mankind.

But until then, let’s focus on not letting paranoia get the better of us, and starting the New Year with optimism. By Amanda T. Lago, GMA News

A day before the voting ended yesterday night, the Philippine government mounted a “last ditch” effort through the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) by ordering all local government officials from governors down to barangay captains to urge Filipinos around the country to cast their vote for the underground river.

Agencies under the DILG, including the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, were also ordered to urge their members and linked groups to vote for the underground river.

The other six New 7 Wonders of Nature, based on provisional results, were South America’s Amazon River, Vietnman’s Halong Bay, Argentina’s Iguazu Fallas, South Korea’s Jeju Island, Indonesia’s Komodo Island and South Africa’s Table Mountain.

The New7Wondres Foundation, meanwhile, clarified that “it is possible that there will be changes between the above provisional winners and the eventual finally confirmed winners.”

It said that the list released early today was “in alphabetical order” and not in any position of ranking.

The foundation said that the voting calculation is now being checked, validated and independently verified. The official New 7 Wonders of Nature will be announced early 2012, it added.

“The results will now be checked, validated and independently verified. Once the voting validation process is completed, in early 2012, New7Wonders will then work with the confirmed winners to organise the Official Inauguration events,” Bernard Weber, the foundation’s founder and president, said as he announced the provisional winners.

Weber announced that “one or more” may be erased from the list of the provisional winners.

“It may happen that one or more of the provisional winners announced today will not be confirmed during the validation process, New7Wonders will issue a media update should this happen,” he said.

Weber also commended the other participants and the people who joined the voting for the search for the new seven wonders of the world.

“I would like to thank the many champions, citizens, voluntary organisations, public bodies and governments that have helped promote the New7Wonders of Nature campaign over the past four years, starting with over 440 locations from over 220 countries and all the way to the 28 Finalist candidates from whom the New7Wonders of Nature have been chosen,” he said.

The foundation said that more than a million cast their vote since the start of the search. From 440 contenders, the list was trimmed to 220 and then to a shortlist of 77.

From 77, the number of contenders was trimmed further down to 28 and finally the seven provisional winners.

The votes were cast through text, internet and by telephone. By  Angelo L. Gutierrez, The Pinoy

As the trial opened, L’Aquila prosecutor Alfredo Rossini told reporters: “We simply want justice.”
The defendants face up to 15 years in jail. Lawyers for civil plaintiffs – who include the local council – are seeking damages of 50m euros (£45m). The civil portion of the case will be heard alongside the criminal case.
Only one of the seven defendants – who include some of Italy’s most distinguished geophysicists and members of the country’s civil protection agency – was present on the opening day of the trial, which has now been adjourned until 1 October.

“I thought it was important to be here because this is my land, and I also wanted to underline the professionalism and the quality of the other public officials,” said Bernardo De Bernardinis, former vice-president of the Civil Protection Agency’s technical department.

“I am from Abruzzo and I owe it to the people of this area.”
Killed in homes
The seven defendants were members of a government panel, the Serious Risks Commission, tasked with assessing the risks after hundreds of low-level tremors had rattled the medieval city in the months before the earthquake struck.

A week before the quake, they issued a reassuring statement, while also saying that it was not possible to predict whether a stronger quake would occur. They also recommended stricter enforcement of anti-seismic measures, particularly in building construction.

In the minutes of their meeting, held on 31 March 2009, Mr Bosci, the former president of the National Institute of Geophysics, is reported to have told the group that just because a number of small tremors had been observed, it did not mean that a major earthquake was on its way.

Mr Barberi, who headed the Serious Risks Commission, was also reported as concluding that there was “no reason to believe that a series of low-level tremors was a precursor to a larger event”.

On the night of the quake, many people remained in their homes and died because of this advice, while others who had decided to remain outside in the street survived, says the BBC’s David Willey in Rome.

Vincenzo Vittorini, a doctor who founded the 309 Martyrs association after losing his wife and daughter in the disaster, said: “No-one expected to be told the exact time of the quake. We just wanted to be warned that we were sitting on a bomb.”
The case has attracted the attention of the scientific community. Last year, more than 5,000 scientists signed an open letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in support of the defendants.
A lawyer for Mr Eva, Alfredo Biondi, said the trial was not credible.
“This is a trial which opens on very shaky foundations. You cannot put science on trial,” he said. BBC

Coral reefs are on course to become the first ecosystem that human activity will eliminate entirely from the Earth, a leading United Nations scientist claims. He says this event will occur before the end of the present century, which means that there are children already born who will live to see a world without coral.

The claim is made in a book published tomorrow, which says coral reef ecosystems are very likely to disappear this century in what would be “a new first for mankind – the ‘extinction’ of an entire ecosystem”. Its author, Professor Peter Sale, studied the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney. He currently leads a team at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

The predicted decline is mainly down to climate change and ocean acidification, though local activities such as overfishing, pollution and coastal development have also harmed the reefs. The book, Our Dying Planet, published by University of California Press, contains further alarming predictions, such as the prospect that “we risk having no reefs that resemble those of today in as little as 30 or 40 more years”.

“We’re creating a situation where the organisms that make coral reefs are becoming so compromised by what we’re doing that many of them are going to be extinct, and the others are going to be very, very rare,” Professor Sale says. “Because of that, they aren’t going to be able to do the construction which leads to the phenomenon we call a reef. We’ve wiped out a lot of species over the years. This will be the first time we’ve actually eliminated an entire ecosystem.”

Coral reefs are important for the immense biodiversity of their ecosystems. They contain a quarter of all marine species, despite covering only 0.1 per cent of the world’s oceans by area, and are more diverse even than the rainforests in terms of diversity per acre, or types of different phyla present.

Recent research into coral reefs’ highly diverse and unique chemical composition has found many compounds useful to the medical industry, which could be lost if present trends persist. New means of tackling cancer developed from reef ecosystems have been announced in the past few months, including a radical new treatment for leukaemia derived from a reef-dwelling sponge. Another possible application of compounds found in coral as a powerful sunblock has also been mooted.

And coral reefs are of considerable economic value to humans, both as abundant fishing resources and – often more lucratively – as tourist destinations. About 850 million people live within 100km of a reef, of which some 275 million are likely to depend on the reef ecosystems for nutrition or livelihood. Fringing reefs can also help to protect low-lying islands and coastal regions from extreme weather, absorbing waves before they reach vulnerable populations.

Carbon emissions generated by human activity, especially our heavy use of fossils fuels, are the biggest cause of the anticipated rapid decline, impacting on coral reefs in two main ways. Climate change increases ocean surface temperatures, which have already risen by 0.67C in the past century. This puts corals under enormous stress and leads to coral bleaching, where the photosynthesising algae on which the reef-building creatures depend for energy disappear. Deprived of these for even a few weeks, the corals die.

On top of this comes ocean acidification. Roughly one-third of the extra carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere is absorbed through the ocean surface, acidifying shallower waters. A more recently recognised problem in tropical reef systems, the imbalance created makes it harder for reef organisms to retrieve the minerals needed to build their carbonaceous skeletons. “If they can’t build their skeletons – or they have to put a lot more energy into building them relative to all the other things they need to do, like reproduce – it has a detrimental effect on the coral reefs,” says Paul Johnston of the University of Exeter, and founder of the UK’s Greenpeace Research Laboratories.

An important caveat to the book’s predictions is that the corals themselves – the tiny organisms largely responsible for creating reefs – may be lucky enough to survive the destruction, if past mass extinction episodes are anything to go by. “Although corals are ancient animals and have been around for hundreds of millions of years, there have been periods of reefs, and periods where there are no reefs,” explains Mark Spalding, of the US-based environmental group Nature Conservancy, and the University of Cambridge. “When climatic conditions are right they build these fantastic structures, but when they’re not they wait in the wings, in little refuges, as a rather obscure invertebrate.”

The gaps between periods in which reefs are present have been long even in geological terms, described in the book as “multimillion-year pauses”. And reef disappearance has tended to precede wider mass extinction events, offering an ominous “canary in the environmental coal mine” for the present day, according to the author. “People have been talking about current biodiversity loss as the Holocene mass extinction, meaning that the losses of species that are occurring now are in every way equivalent to the mass extinctions of the past,” Professor Sale says. “I think there is every possibility that is what we are seeing.”

About 20 per cent of global coral reefs have already been lost in the past few decades. Mass bleaching events leading to widespread coral death are a relatively recent phenomenon; though scientists have been studying coral reefs in earnest since the 1950s, mass bleaching was first observed only in 1983.

Dr Spalding, who witnessed the catastrophic 1998 mass bleaching in the Indian Ocean first-hand, says: “It was a shocking wake-up call for the world of science, and a shocking wake-up for me to be actually there as we watched literally 80 to 90 per cent of all the corals die on the reefs of the Seychelles and other islands in a few weeks.” That single event destroyed 16 per cent of the world’s coral.

But according to the book’s author: “The 1998 bleaching was spectacular because it was so extensive and so conspicuous. But there have been mass bleachings that have been global since then: 2005 was bad; 2010 was bad. The visual appearance is not nearly as severe as it was in 1998, simply because there is less coral around.”

These dramatic episodes coincide with unusual weather patterns such as El Niño, but are increasing in severity and frequency due to climate change. As such, tackling global warming is the most urgent solution advocated by the book. “If we can keep CO2 concentrations below 450 parts per million we would be able to save something resembling coral reefs,” Professor Sale says. “They wouldn’t be the coral reefs of the 1950s or 1960s, but they would be recognisably coral reefs, and they would function as reefs.” The current atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is about 390 parts per million, but few experts believe it will remain below 500 for long.

There are signs that local conservation efforts can make a difference. Alex Rogers, professor of conservation biology at Oxford University, says: “We know for certain that corals subject to low levels of stress are much more able to recover. So if you take away pressures like overfishing of coral reefs and pollution, this has profound effects on recovery. But what we’re really doing is buying time for many of these ecosystems. If climate change continues at its current rate, they will be done for eventually.”

Though not all scientists agree with the precise timescales set out by the book, the crisis is clear. “When you’re talking about the destruct-ion of an entire ecosystem within one human generation, there might be some small differences in the details – it is a dramatic image and a dramatic statement,” Professor Rogers says. “But the overall message we agree with. People are not taking on board the sheer speed of the changes we’re seeing.” By Andrew Marszal, The Independent