There is a lot of information found both in prophecies and in recent writings and articles talking about Earth Changes, usually defined as catastrophic geological events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, polar shifts, flooding, and global warming. Many point to the shifting times and the moving into the Golden Age and to 2012 being a turning point in the history of mankind. The research and sometimes channeled material presented, probably with the best of intentions, often still carries elements of our own subconscious fears but is it only fear based material or is there something to this predictions of Earth Changes?

Read more here: » Earth Changes - Will there be dramatic Geological and Political changes the coming years until 2012?

See also:

Group polarization, Group polarization - Overview, Group polarization - Developments in the study of group polarization, Group polarization - Mechanisms of polarization

Read more here: » Group polarization: Encyclopedia II - Group polarization - Developments in the study of group polarization

Study of this effect has shown that after participating in a discussion group, members tend to advocate more extreme positions and call for riskier courses of action than individuals who did not participate in any such discussion. This phenomenon was originally coined risky shift but was found to apply to more than risk, so the replacement term choice shift has been suggested. In addition, attitudes such as racial and sexual prejudice tend to be reduced (for already low-prejudice individuals) and inflated (for already high ...

See also:

Group polarization, Group polarization - Overview, Group polarization - Developments in the study of group polarization, Group polarization - Mechanisms of polarization

Read more here: » Group polarization: Encyclopedia II - Group polarization - Overview

How is the Mayan Long Count to be explained? Why did this ancient people, that were the most mathematically advanced of their day, choose to use a chronology that consisted of thirteen different periods of 144,000 days each, starting on August 11, 3114, BC and ending on December 21, AD 2012? On a more fundamental level three different types of answers have been given to this question, a materialist, a spiritual and what might be called a pseudo-spiritual, answers that are linked to different world views. In the materialist world view the astronomical, physical cycles are seen as primary to the spiritual whereas in the spiritual world view they are seen as secondary.

Read more here: » Mayan Calendar: What is driving the evolution of consciousness described by the Mayan Calendar? - II

In chemistry, the term Van der Waals force originally referred to all forms of intermolecular forces; however, in modern usage it tends to refer to intermolecular forces that deal with forces due to the polarization of molecules. Forces that deal with fixed or angle averaged dipoles (Keesom forces) and free or rotation dipoles (Debye forces) as well as shifts in electron cloud distribution (London Forces) are named after the Dutch chemist Johannes Diderik van der Waals who first documented these interactions. The Lennard-Jones potential is often used as an approximate mo ...

Including:

• Van der Waals force - London dispersion force
• Van der Waals force - Relation to the Casimir effect

Read more here: » Van der Waals force: Encyclopedia - Van der Waals force

Red states and blue states refer to those U.S. states whose residents predominantly voted for the Republican Party or Democratic Party, respectively, in U.S. elections, especially in the U.S. presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Only three states (New Mexico, Iowa, and New Hampshire) shifted parties between these two elections. In the latter contest, 31 U.S. states were "red" and 19 states were "blue", though 12 of those "red" states were "blue" as recently as 1996. Red state vs. blue state divide - Choice of ...

Including:

• Red state vs. blue state divide - Choice of Colors
• Red state vs. blue state divide - The divide
• Red state vs. blue state divide - Purple States
• Red state vs. blue state divide - Polarization
• Red state vs. blue state divide - States' Rights

Read more here: » Red state vs. blue state divide: Encyclopedia - Red state vs. blue state divide

Conservation status: Lower risk (cd) The Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus), also known as White Bear or Northern Bear, is a large bear native to the Arctic. It is the largest land carnivore species. It is the apex predator within its range. It is well-adapted to its habitat: its thick blubber and fur insulate it against the cold, its white color camouflages it from its prey, and it hunts well both on land and in the water. Polar Bear - Natural range. Including:

• Polar Bear - Natural range
• Polar Bear - Size and weight
• Polar Bear - Subspecies
• Polar Bear - Fur and skin
• Polar Bear - Hunting diet and feeding
• Polar Bear - Breeding
• Polar Bear - Phylogeny
• Polar Bear - Entertainment

Read more here: » Polar Bear: Encyclopedia - Polar Bear

Solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the Sun in relation to the earth's equator. The name is derived from Latin solstitium (from sol: "sun" and sistere: "stand still"). During the year, the position of the sun seen from earth moves North and South. When it changes direction it stands still momentarily. So solstices are those moments of the year when the sun reaches its southernmost or northernmost position, ...

Including:

• Solstice - Behaviour of the sun
• Solstice - June solstice
• Solstice - December solstice

Read more here: » Solstice: Encyclopedia - Solstice

Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air, and the means (together with the ocean circulation, which is smaller [1]) by which heat is distributed on the surface of the Earth. The large-scale structure of the atmospheric circulation varies from year to year but the basic structure remains fairly constant. However, individual weather systems - midlatitude depressions, or tropical convective cells - occur "randomly", and it is accepted that weather cannot be predicted beyond a fairly short limit: perhaps a month i ...

Including:

• Atmospheric circulation - Latitudinal circulation features
• Atmospheric circulation - Hadley cell
• Atmospheric circulation - Polar cell
• Atmospheric circulation - Ferrel cell
• Atmospheric circulation - Longitudinal circulation features
• Atmospheric circulation - Walker circulation

Read more here: » Atmospheric circulation: Encyclopedia - Atmospheric circulation

In mathematics, the cube root (∛) of a number is a number which, when cubed (multiplied by itself and then multiplied by itself again), gives back the original number. For example, the cube root of 8 is 2, because 2 × 2 × 2 = 8, or: The cube root operation is associative with exponentiation and distributive with multiplication and division, but is not associative or distributive with addition or subtraction. Cube root - Formal definition. Formally, the cube root of a real or ...

Including:

• Cube root - Formal definition
• Cube root - Cube root on standard calculator
• Cube root - Why this method works

Read more here: » Cube root: Encyclopedia - Cube root

Alfred Lothar Wegener (Berlin, November 1, 1880 – Greenland, November 2 or 3, 1930) was a German interdisciplinary scientist who had early training in astronomy. (Ph.D., University of Berlin, 1905). He became interested in the new discipline of meteorology and as a record-holding balloonist himself, pioneered the use of weather balloons to track air masses. His lectures became a standard textbook in meteorology, The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere. Wegener was part of several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation, when the existence of a jet stream itself was highly con ...

Including:

• Alfred Wegener - Awards and honors

Read more here: » Alfred Wegener: Encyclopedia - Alfred Wegener

The analogue (or analog) switch is an electronic component that behaves in a similar way to a relay, but has no moving parts. The switching element is normally a MOSFET, which is a type of transistor. The control input to the switch is a standard CMOS or TTL logic input, which is shifted by internal circuitry to a suitable voltage for switching the MOSFET. The result is that a logic 0 on the control input causes the MOSFET to have a high resistance, so that the switch is off, and a logic 1 on the input causes the MOSFET ...

Read more here: » Analogue switch: Encyclopedia - Analogue switch

A chemical bond is the physical phenomenon of chemical substances being held together by electrons or by electrostatic forces. Classically, strong chemical bonds are found in molecules, crystals or in solid metal and they organize the atoms in ordered structures. Weak chemical bonds are classically explained to be effects of polarity, or the lack of it, of strong bonds. In theory, all bonds can be explained by quantum theory, but in practice, chemical bonds are divided in several categories. Simplifications of quantum theory ha ...

Including:

• Chemical bond - Bonds in chemical formulas
• Chemical bond - Strong chemical bonds
• Chemical bond - Ionic bond
• Chemical bond - Polar covalent bond
• Chemical bond - Covalent bond
• Chemical bond - Other strong bonds
• Chemical bond - Coordinate covalent bond
• Chemical bond - Polyatomic ions
• Chemical bond - Banana bond
• Chemical bond - Chemical bonds involving more than two atoms
• Chemical bond - Aromatic bond
• Chemical bond - Metallic bond
• Chemical bond - Weak chemical bonds
• Chemical bond - Dipole-dipole interactions
• Chemical bond - Hydrogen bond
• Chemical bond - Induced dipole interactions
• Chemical bond - Van der Waals forces
• Chemical bond - Electrons in chemical bonds
• Chemical bond - Limitations of valence bond theory

Read more here: » Chemical bond: Encyclopedia - Chemical bond

The term "culture war" (sometimes pluralized as "the culture wars") has been used to describe ideologically-driven and often strident confrontations typical of American public culture and politics since the 1960s, but especially beginning in the 1980s. The term evokes the 19th-century German Kulturkampf. Culture war - Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America 1991. The expression gained wide use with the 1991 publication of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Daviso ...

Including:

• Culture war - Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America 1991
• Culture war - Buchanan's 1992 speech
• Culture war - Fourth Turning 1996
• Culture war - Campus culture wars
• Culture war - After 9/11
• Culture war - Battleground issues in the culture wars

Read more here: » Culture war: Encyclopedia - Culture war

The velocity of an object is simply its speed in a particular direction. Note that both speed and direction are required to define a velocity, since velocity is a vector. Velocity - Explanation. The velocity (v) is a physical quantity of an object's motion. A change in an object's velocity can therefore arise from either a change in its speed or in its direction. For example an aeroplane that is circling at a constant speed of 200km/h is changing its velocity because it is contin ...

Including:

• Velocity - Explanation
• Velocity - Formal description
• Velocity - Polar coordinates

Read more here: » Velocity: Encyclopedia - Velocity

The climate (ancient Greek: κλίμα) is the weather averaged over a long period of time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) glossary definition is: Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the “average weather”, or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization ...

Including:

• Climate - Climate vs weather
• Climate - Climate determinants
• Climate - Climate indices
• Climate - Classifications
• Climate - Historical climates
• Climate - National climates
• Climate - Notes

Read more here: » Climate: Encyclopedia - Climate

(5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC - other millennia) 4th millennium BC - Events. Sumerian city of Ur in Mesopotamia (40th century BC); Sumerian hegemony in Mesopotamia, with the invention of writing, base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, the wheel, and the potter's wheel, 4000–2000 BCE. Naqada culture on the Nile, 4000–3000 BC. Epoch of the modern Hebrew Calendar occurred on 7 October 3761 BC. < ...

Including:

• 4th millennium BC - Events
• 4th millennium BC - Cultures
• 4th millennium BC - Environmental changes
• 4th millennium BC - Significant persons
• 4th millennium BC - Inventions discoveries introductions
• 4th millennium BC - Centuries
• 4th millennium BC - External references

Read more here: » 4th millennium BC: Encyclopedia - 4th millennium BC

Wind is the roughly horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface. It occurs at all scales, from local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting tens of minutes to global winds resulting from solar heating of the Earth. The two major influences on the atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and th ...

Including:

• Wind - Winds by spatial scale
• Wind - Prevailing winds — the general circulation of the atmosphere
• Wind - Seasonal winds
• Wind - Synoptic winds
• Wind - Mesoscale winds
• Wind - Microscale winds
• Wind - Winds by effect
• Wind - Local winds that are tied to specific temperature distributions
• Wind - Winds that are defined by an equilibrium of physical forces
• Wind - Names for specific winds in certain regions
• Wind - Meteorological instruments to measure wind speed and/or direction

Read more here: » Wind: Encyclopedia - Wind

The wind belts and the jet streams girdling the planet are steered by three convection cells: the Hadley cell, the Ferrel cell, and the Polar cell. Note that there is not one discrete Hadley cell, for instance, but several within the equatorial zone which shift, merge, and decouple in a complicated process over time. For descriptive purposes, however, they are generally referred to in the singular. Atmospheric circulation - Hadley cell. Main articleSee also:

Atmospheric circulation, Atmospheric circulation - Latitudinal circulation features, Atmospheric circulation - Hadley cell, Atmospheric circulation - Polar cell, Atmospheric circulation - Ferrel cell, Atmospheric circulation - Longitudinal circulation features, Atmospheric circulation - Walker circulation

Read more here: » Atmospheric circulation: Encyclopedia II - Atmospheric circulation - Latitudinal circulation features

In classical physics, light is observed to take the quickest path between two points; but how does light `know where it's going'? That is, if the start and end points are known, the path that will take the shortest time can be calculated. However, when light is first emitted, the end point is not known, so how is it that light always takes the quickest path? The answer is provided by QED. Light doesn't know where it is going, and it doesn't always take the quickest path. In fact, according to QED, it takes EVERY possible path b ...

See also:

Quantum electrodynamics, Quantum electrodynamics - Physical interpretation of QED, Quantum electrodynamics - History, Quantum electrodynamics - Mathematics

Read more here: » Quantum electrodynamics: Encyclopedia II - Quantum electrodynamics - Physical interpretation of QED