German photographer Martin Rietze travels around the world every year to capture the most stunning, breathtaking places on Earth, from the peaks of the Swiss Alps to the deserts of Namibia.
Rietze's specialty lies in photographing volcanoes, especially those about to erupt or actively erupting. He has (literally) written the book on the subject -- he's the author of a German volume on what he calls "extreme photography," which detail how to photograph natural phenomena, and has also published a pair of books on the geological background of volcanoes.
Hourly rate of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes associated with twin thunderstorm clusters on the morning of May 10, 2013.
Recently, while severe thunderstorms have produced hail, high winds, a few tornadoes, and local flash flooding, one could argue the most compelling stories over the last week or so have been due to lightning. Let's recount these factoids:
1) Incredible lightning rates
The map above is a screengrab of radar and lightning strikes from Friday morning, May 10, 2013. You'll notice two main clusters of thunderstorms, one from western Alabama to Louisiana and a second in central Texas.
Oftentimes things may be happening all around you that seem to be discordant, and you cannot imagine what is going on. But you must remain focused and steadfast and be able to see through and not get caught up in the mundane dramas that are constantly being perpetuated on this planet.
I have good friends who live way out in the desert in order to get away from everything. Like a lot of people nowadays, the husband is obsessed with disasters and potential catastrophes. In fact, he even has a cave on his land stocked with enough survival goodies to feed and water a small town. I lived with my friends for a few months the winter before last, and everyday, as we worked together, the husband would talk about last night's Art Bell radio show, and he even taped the most frightening shows so that I could listen to them later in the day.
Now . . . I was having some health challenges when I arrived at their place, and over a period of the next couple of months I felt my energy level going down and down. My physical discomfort was getting worse by the day.
“Many of us humans, blinded by greed, pride, and delusion, have been unable to recognize you as our Mother. That is why we have caused so much suffering to one another and have damaged your health and your beauty.”
Dear ones, we are the High Council of Orion and we come to guide and to support ALL at this time of heightening energies and shifts in frequency. As many of you are aware the moon and the increase in new earth frequencies has allowed for higher dimensional timelines to open and to become available. It is vital at this time that you do not allow your human logical mind to try to teach you that the earth is the "same" and the options and manifestation of your dreams is somehow contained, this is not TRUTH. The movement of SOUL groups across and within planet earth energetically will now be done PHYSICALLY, ALL are being aligned at this time and all are now communicating to heightened levels. Many of you may now be wondering which is dream time and which is waking life and we guide for you to allow your human vehicle to find balance. Now is not the time to allow the human logical brain to take over once more, the heart KNOWS TRUTH for the heart is seeded with TRUTH and now this must be the guiding LIGHT for ALL at this time.
There is no scientific evidence that psychiatric diagnoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are valid or useful, according to the leading body representing Britain's clinical psychologists.
In a groundbreaking move that has already prompted a fierce backlash from psychiatrists, the British Psychological Society's division of clinical psychology (DCP) will on Monday issue a statement declaring that, given the lack of evidence, it is time for a "paradigm shift" in how the issues of mental health are understood. The statement effectively casts doubt on psychiatry's predominantly biomedical model of mental distress – the idea that people are suffering from illnesses that are treatable by doctors using drugs. The DCP said its decision to speak out "reflects fundamental concerns about the development, personal impact and core assumptions of the (diagnosis) systems", used by psychiatry.
In a monumental compilation of millions of never publicly available satellite images comprising trillions of pixels of data, Google and TIME Inc. have released their Timelapse project, a stunning portrayal of nearly 30 years of satellite images, stitched together to show the Earth like it has never been seen before.
Timelapse paints a telling picture of how Earth has changed over the last 29 years offering a look at deforestation, increasing populations, expanding cities, diminishing bodies of water and other changes to the planet. Google and TIME used data obtained from more than 2 million Lansat satellite images. Orbiting the Earth once every 85 minutes since 1972, the NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey's Landsat orbiters have snapped millions of images of Earth.
Both Sydney and Canberra have woken up to dense morning fog to kick off Mother's Day. The Sydney Basin saw its most widespread thick fog of the year, as light winds combined with high moisture levels.
Sydney city had its visibility reduced down to 50 metres, while in some western suburbs it was even lower. In Sydney's north, it was a mix of smoke haze and fog due to back burning in the area over the last two days. Sydney's airport largely missed out, with light morning fog only causing minimal disruptions to flights.
Alice Springs has just had its longest run of May heat in 71 years of records. The town has reached 30 degrees on every day this May except one, when it reached 29.9. This makes it the longest string of temperatures this high since records began in 1942. The current average this May is 31 degrees, eight above the norm. The very warm days have also been accompanied by warm nights.
This morning it only dropped to 18.2 degrees, 10 degrees above average and the second warmest May night in the last decade.
Melbourne is on track to have its hottest run of May days in over a century, but wintry days are just around the corner. It was warmer than 25 degrees on both Thursday and Friday, more than eight degrees above average, making it the hottest pair of May days since 2002. The nights have also been warm, sitting at least four degrees above the normal May minimum of 10 degrees since Thursday.
Locals will be pleased to hear that the mercury is set to tip 25 degrees again today, making it three days in a row. If it gets that warm, it will be the longest run of 25 degree days in May since way back in 1866.
Ask your over-lighting Presence to lead, guide, and direct you into your intuitive intelligence.
It is time to muster up. We are being encouraged now. The crossing has taken place It is the crossing of choice points—-timelines are shifting. Time to go inside for self-reference now. Go inside where our congruency lives. Sit in the quiet, drop into the heart and bow to the light of love within.
Energize love. Be the prayer. Let your prayer pray you.
Gaze westward at dusk and early evening on May 12, 2013 to see a wondrous evening tableau. You’ll find waxing crescent moon with the dazzling planet Jupiter. If you’re looking early enough, the planet Venus is also nearby.
Ask your over-lighting Presence to lead, guide, and direct you into your intuitive intelligence.
