Current Events / Opinions in Science

CAD Outsourcing: Leveraging Expertise & Experience of Trained Architects

nobody@vox.com(Building Information Modeling) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:03:00 -0800

Before the advent of the personal computer (PC), conventional paper and pen were used manually to prepare and draw the building design projects. It was the only option for architectural drawing and design. This was changed soon with the advent of the desktop computer, which gave rise to Computer Aided Design (CAD). Changes can be incorporated now in a jiffy without having to redo the whole drawing, which was earlier a tiresome process.

Now with CAD outsourcing services, you need not to fear even the data loss or damage to any of your drawings. It is gaining popularity as time aheads. This booming outsourcing services industry, which is at your doorstep generates computerized CAD drawings and designs in 2D & 3D models. With the CAD outsourcing you can now leverage the expertise and experience of trained and highly skilled architects, designers, engineers, and technicians. You can even take advantage of the significant technological and infrastructure investments made by your CAD outsourcing services provider. CAD outsourcing has emerged as a viable option for organizations looking to outsource knowledge and skill intensive tasks in order to save on cost and time, improve productivity and to take on more projects with the existing infrastructure and workforce.

Architecture outsourcing has found its utility for architectural design drafting services, architectural CAD documentation services, engineering CAD services and in the building industry. CAD services can be utilized for architectural as well as engineering projects. CAD services are a combination of hardware & software which caters to architects, engineers and consultants in the real estate & manufacturing industry globally.

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2010 Situation Grows Difficult for Dems...

nobody@vox.com(Wilford Tibbetts) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:50:55 -0800

Senator-Chris-Dodd-001

My first blog post of the New Year is a political one. I was hoping to have finished reading Terry Pratchett's, The Color of Magic and writing a review about that, but I haven't finished it yet, and this story is rather important, politically.

But first, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and had a blast on New Year's as the ball dropped!

Okay, back to the politics. I hope my next blog post is a novel review. lol...

So, here it is. The article is from the Associated Press - via Yahoo News:

By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

WASHINGTON – An already difficult situation for Democrats in Congress is worsening as the 2010 political season opens.
To minimize expected losses in next fall's election, President Barack Obama's party is testing a line of attack that resurrects George W. Bush as a boogeyman and castigates Republicans as cozy with Wall Street.
Four House Democrats from swing districts have recently chosen not to seek re-election, bringing to 11 the number of retirements that could leave Democratic-held seats vulnerable to Republicans. More Democratic retirements are expected.
Over the holiday break, another Democrat, freshman Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama, defected to the GOP. "I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt," said Griffith, who voted against Democrats' three biggest initiatives in 2009: health care, financial regulation and reducing global warming.
In the Senate, at least four Democrats — including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and five-term Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd — are in serious trouble. The party could also lose its grip on seats Obama held in Illinois and Vice President Joe Biden long occupied in Delaware.
Going into 2010, Democrats held a 257-178 majority in the House and an effective 60-40 majority in the Senate, including two independents who align themselves with Democrats.
But they face an incumbent-hostile electorate worried about a 10 percent unemployment rate, weary of wars and angry at politicians of all stripes. Many independents who backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008 have turned away. Republicans, meanwhile, are energized and united in opposing Obama's policies.
The one thing that heartens Democrats is that voters also don't think much of the GOP, which is bleeding backers, lacking a leader and facing a conservative revolt.
House Democrats began an ad campaign in December assailing Republicans for opposing legislation restructuring federal financial rules and recalling the final days of the Bush presidency, when the economy tanked.
"Remember? We all know we should never let this happen again," the ad says. It lays into Republicans for voting "to let Wall Street continue the same risky practices that crippled retirement accounts and left taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion."
Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who heads the House Democrats' campaign arm, said his party wants to remind voters who was on their side at a difficult time. "The Republican Party in Washington today is no different than the Republican Party that ran the Congress before," he said.
But that was three years ago. Democrats have been in control since, and Bush is long gone. This is Obama's country now. Democrats tried to use Bush against Republican Chris Christie in the New Jersey governor's race in November — and Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine still lost.
A top Democratic priority is minimizing losses among nearly four dozen seats the party now holds from moderate-to-conservative districts that Republican John McCain won in the 2008 presidential race. The most vulnerable in that group include Democratic Reps. Mary Jo Kilroy in Ohio, Harry Teague in New Mexico, Frank Kratovil in Maryland, Tom Perriello in Virginia and Travis Childers in Mississippi.
Reps. Bart Gordon and John Tanner, both of Tennessee, were in that group until they chose to retire. So was Griffith, before he switched to the GOP. Retirement announcements from Reps. Dennis Moore of Kansas and Brian Baird of Washington put two more Democratic seats in swing-voting districts on the GOP's target list.
Democrats insist that Gordon, Tanner, Moore and Baird are leaving for personal reasons and are not the first ripple in a wave of retirements akin to 1994 when 28 Democrats chose not to run, and Republicans won control in part by winning 22 of those seats.
Republicans don't agree.
"Democrats are beginning to see the writing on the wall, and instead of choosing to fight in a difficult political environment, they are taking a pass and opting for retirement," said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the House GOP's campaign arm.
The GOP will be defending at least a dozen open seats because of retirements, with several lawmakers leaving the House to run for higher office.
The situation for Democrats in the Senate is nearly as grim.
Democrats crowed after six Senate Republicans — four from swing states Florida, Ohio, Missouri and New Hampshire and two from GOP-leaning Kansas and Kentucky — announced retirements.
Spirited GOP challenges are now expected in all six states, and Republicans say they are optimistic they retain the seats. An emboldened GOP also is looking to put a pair of senior Senate Democrats our of office.
Reid, who is seeking a fifth term, is faring poorly in surveys in a hypothetical matchup with Nevada GOP chairwoman Sue Lowden, one of several Republicans competing for chance to challenge him.
Dodd, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee chairman who has taken heat for a discounted VIP mortgage loan he got from a subprime lender, has been consistently behind potential GOP challenger Rob Simmons in Connecticut polls. Simmons, a former House member, has his own challenger in World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon, who also is seeking the Republican nomination for Dodd's seat.
Also vulnerable are Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a moderate Democrat in GOP-leaning Arkansas, and Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado, who was appointed when Ken Salazar became Obama's interior secretary.
Republicans have high hopes for picking up Senate seats in Illinois and Delaware that were held by the president and vice president, respectively. Neither of their appointed successors is seeking election to the seats.
Early polling shows GOP Rep. Mark Kirk leading among Republican candidates in Illinois. Veteran GOP Rep. and former two-term Gov. Mike Castle is running in Delaware. Biden's son, Democratic state Attorney General Beau Biden, is considering whether to challenge Castle.

So, the Dems are worried. They should be, and so should the Republicans. People are pissed at a government that spends too much and bailing out bastards who shouldn't be. I hope this coming Mid-Term Election both parties reap what they have sown.

Until next time...

-Wil

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The Climate Change Debate

nobody@vox.com(WannabeTesla) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:06:06 -0800

Thanks for this one, PZ.

Climate Change Debate

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Scientists Discover Earth-like Planet...

nobody@vox.com(Wilford Tibbetts) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:47:53 -0800

Star-Cluster-001

AFP is reporting that scientists have discovered an Earth-like, water-rich planet. This planet is a bit larger than our own and is approximately 42 light-years away.

How freaking awesome is this, eh? Now if only we could send people out to explore this new world. What would we find? Hell, who would we find? I mean, I know it's warmer than Earth, according to the scientists, but we have species who can live in the coldest and hottests places on Earth and survive. So why not there, right?

Can you imagine the potential diversity of life on this new planet? Would they have intelligent life? Would they be larger than Humans? Or smaller? Would they walk on land? Or swim in their vast seas? So many questions, and little we can do to answer them at this time, unfortunately. Here is the article:

PARIS (AFP) – Astronomers have discovered a new Earth-like planet that is larger than our own and may be more than half covered with water, according to a study published Wednesday in the science journal Nature.
The so-called "super Earth" is about 42 light years away in another solar system and has a radius nearly 2.7 times larger than that of our planet, according to the study by the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.
The discovery of the planet, called GJ 1214b, represents a "major step forward" in the search for worlds similar to the Earth, added the University of California's Geoffrey Marcy in a commentary also in Nature.
The "newfound world" is too hot to sustain life as we know it, said the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in a statement.
Its density suggests however it "is composed of about three-fourths water and other ices and one fourth-rock," it said. "There are also tantalising hints that the planet has a gaseous atmosphere."
Its temperature is estimated at between 280 and 120 degrees Celsius (536 and 248 degrees Fahrenheit) with its host star about one-fifth the size of the Sun, according to the scientists.
"Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld," says Zachory Berta, a graduate student who first spotted hints of the planet's presence.
"It is much smaller, cooler and more Earthlike than any other known exoplanet," he said in the statement.
An exoplanet is one outside of our solar system.
Berta said some of the water would likely be in crystalline form that exists at pressures greater than 20,000 times Earth's sea-level atmosphere.
Its temperature is much lower than that on the only similar discovery, called CoRoT-7b, which revolves around a star that is much hotter, the scientists say.
The CoRoT-7b has a density close to that of the Earth (5.5 grammes per cubic centimetre) and seems to be rocky, while the new discovery appears to be much less dense (1.9 g/cm3).
"To keep the planet's density that low requires that it contains large amounts of water," said Marcy. "It must contain a huge amount of water, roughly 50 percent by mass."
The "wild card" is the make-up of the gases on the planet, he said.
The planet orbits every 38 hours around a small, faint star that was first spotted by eight ground-based telescopes no larger than those used by amateur astronomers, the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre said.
Its relative closeness makes its possible to study it to determine its atmosphere.
"That will make it the first super Earth with a confirmed atmosphere -- even though that atmosphere probably won't be hospitable to life as we know it," said David Charbonneau who heads the research team.

Okay, so the atmosphere wouldn't support humanity without a suit, but still, life is quite adaptable and this world appears to have the necessary ingredients for life. Even if it's barely a single cell.

Until next time...

-Wil

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Un-naturally funny

nobody@vox.com(John) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:20:52 -0800

The New York Times turned me onto this guy - a PhD who decided he'd rather do stand up.

Powerpoint Comedy

Enjoy!

John

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Send a Lantern to Copenhagen!

nobody@vox.com(Emmi) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:22:44 -0800

Garden lantern

The World Wildlife Fund has a lovely site where you can send a lantern to Copenhagen to show your support for the environment! It's free and it only takes about ten seconds. You get to choose the color and shape of the lantern!

It's just in time for the caribou - the trend in colder climates of snow melting and re-freezing means that they can't reach their primary food, lichen under the thick layer of ice. Hopefully we can reverse the trend.

I've had some great conversations with my Vox buddies about the concept of scientific consensus. There seems to be this mythology that Consensus among scientists means bullying around anyone who disagrees with their theories. First and foremost, it's important to understand that theories are proven explanations of natural phenomenon; unlike a hypothesis, which is an unproven statement.

Consensus is not formed by a gaggle of secretive researchers. It's not about hiding data or being snobby. Consensus is a synthesis of the data. There has been no single mind-blowing study that proves global warming theory all by itself. Each scientist presents their humble piece of data to contribute to the larger puzzle. As an example, these 3 articles:

Coral bleaching, ocean warming and ocean acidification

Cyclone activity in the North Atlantic

More increases in cyclone activity

These articles discuss global warming in the context of coral bleaching, ocean warming and acidification, and cyclone activity. They have no connection to East Anglia or Climategate. Notice in the Methods section: each article has dozens of references to data which is prone to error.

Each article mentions the pitfalls and shortcomings of the study. This assures that the data gleaned from each study can be filtered out and only the good parts used: to make a small contribuiton to the larger picture of global warming. This synthesis of the data forms the consensus within the scientific community.

Please give the articles at least a scan, if you're interested in understanding how this global warming theory has been formed, in part. Most exciting for me, the general public is bandying about words like "ice coring" and "tree ring data". After the holidays I'm hoping to post some fun stuff about how the research is conducted and the complexities of synthesizing the data.

And check out the multicultural demonstrations in Copenhagen!!

Saving the planet: Protests in Copenhagen over climate action

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Maine Wind-Power Test Sites Chosen...

nobody@vox.com(Wilford Tibbetts) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:27:15 -0800

Wind-Turbine-001

WLBZ2-NBC posted an article online that Maine will soon have test sites for wind turbine generators. If successful, it has the potential to power not only Maine, but much of New England, as well. It is going to be interesting to see where this ends up.

Maine - at least here in Eastern Maine - is already powered by hydroelectricity, but offering alternatives would be a great idea. I just hope that it isn't the government doing the offering. Private enterprises should be allowed to buy rights to start the wind turbines ane compete with Bangor Hydro and other energy companies in Maine and New England. Here is the article:

Ken Christian, Information Center Content Manager.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Maine officials have identified locations of three offshore wind-power test sites that would be the first of their kind in the nation and could unlock the door to huge reserves of energy.
The administration of Gov. John Baldacci announced Tuesday that the sites will be near Boon Island off York in southern Maine, near Damariscove Island south of Boothbay Harbor, and south of Monhegan Island off Port Clyde.

UMaine Professor Habib Dagher says the test windmills will appear in 2011.

Dagher said winds off Maine's shores have a potential to produce the equivalent of 149 nuclear plants.

Gov. John Baldacci called the offshore test the first of its kind in the country and said, "This is where the future lies."

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

This would be so damned cool. Hope this pans out. Maine could use the income - and power - generated from this endeavor.

Until next time...

-Wil

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Nelson & Cook's Logs Yield Climate Clues

nobody@vox.com(Wilford Tibbetts) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:48:24 -0800

Admiral-Sir-Horatio-Nelson-001

Was combing through an e-mail conference I frequent and found something interesting. In one of the e-mails an article was posted from the Times Online - a paper from the United Kingdom.

In that article is stated that scientists in Great Britain were reading through logs of ship Captain's from the 1600's to about the 1750's. In it, it states as a reminder that a small ice-age - also known as The Little Ice-Age - occured between about 1600 to about 1850. Among the logs reviewed were those of Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson - which is to your left - and Captain James Cook, one of the most famous explorers of that age - I will post a pic of his portrait below. To see their ships, HMS Victory, commanded by Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar - and Captain Cook's first ship - HMS Resolution. You can view them in my photo section to the right of the main page. Here is the first article:

Records kept by Nelson and Cook are shedding light on climate change by Jonathan Leake
Britain's great seafaring tradition is to provide a unique insight into modern climate change, thanks to thousands of Royal Navy logbooks that have survived from the 17th century onwards.

The logbooks kept by every naval ship, ranging from Nelson’s Victory and Cook’s Endeavour down to the humblest frigate, are emerging as one of the world’s best sources for long-term weather data. The discovery has been made by a group of British academics and Met Office scientists who are seeking new ways to plot historic changes in climate.
“This is a treasure trove,” said Dr Sam Willis, a maritime historian and author who is affiliated with Exeter University’s Centre for Maritime Historical Studies.
“Ships’ officers recorded air pressure, wind strength, air and sea temperature and other weather conditions. From those records scientists can build a detailed picture of past weather and climate.”
A preliminary study of 6,000 logbooks has produced results that raise questions about climate change theories. One paper, published by Dr Dennis Wheeler, a Sunderland University geographer, in the journal The Holocene, details a surge in the frequency of summer storms over Britain in the 1680s and 1690s.
Many scientists believe storms are a consequence of global warming, but these were the coldest decades of the so-called Little Ice Age that hit Europe from about 1600 to 1850.
Wheeler and his colleagues have since won European Union funding to extend this research to 1750. This shows that during the 1730s, Europe underwent a period of rapid warming similar to that recorded recently – and which must have had natural origins.
Hints of such changes are already known from British records, but Wheeler has found they affected much of the north Atlantic too, and he has traced some of the underlying weather systems that caused it. His research will be published in the journal Climatic Change.
The ships’ logs have also shed light on extreme weather events such as hurricanes. It is commonly believed that hurricanes form in the eastern Atlantic and track westwards, so scientists were shocked in 2005 when Hurricane Vince instead moved northeast to hit southern Spain and Portugal.
Many interpreted this as a consequence of climate change; but Wheeler, along with colleagues at the University of Madrid, used old ships’ logs to show that this had also happened in 1842, when a hurricane followed the same trajectory into Andalusia.
The potential of Royal Navy ships’ logs to offer new insights into historic climate change was spotted by Wheeler after he began researching weather conditions during famous naval battles. Later, as global warming moved up the scientific agenda, he and others realised that the same data could shed light on historic climate change.
He said: “British archives contain more than 100,000 Royal Navy logbooks from around 1670 to 1850 alone. They are a stunning resource.”
Most of these earlier documents contain verbal descriptions of weather rather than numerical data, because ships lacked the instruments to take numerical readings. However, Wheeler and his colleagues found early Royal Navy officers recorded weather in consistent language.
“It means we can deduce numerical values for wind strength and direction, temperature and rainfall,” he said. The information will ultimately contribute to the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmos-phere Data Set, a global database maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a US government agency.
Wheeler makes clear he has no doubts about modern human-induced climate change. He said: “Global warming is a reality, but what our data shows is that climate science is complex and that it is wrong to take particular events and link them to CO2 emissions. These records will give us a much clearer picture of what is really happening.”
The Met Office has also set up a project, part-funded by Defra, the environment ministry, to study 900 logbooks kept by the East India Company on voyages between Europe and the Far East between 1780 and 1840. Its vessels carried thermometers and barometers so the data is of higher quality.
Faced with logs taken over so many voyages, the researchers have had to be selective. One of the most avid recorders of such data was Nelson himself, whose personal logbook records the air pressure and other readings he took up to several times daily.
Explorers with a weather eye
Britain’s explorers left vital records of weather around the world
— Robert FitzRoy was captain of HMS Beagle on two expeditions in the 1820s and 1830s. Charles Darwin was his passenger
— Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s voyages took him to the Arctic, the East and West Indies and the Mediterranean before his death at Trafalgar in 1805
— Captain James Cook mapped much of Canada and the Pacific in the 1760s and 1770s.

Captain Cook's weather reports from Discovery and Resolution, made at noon each day on his voyages to unknown lands, William Bligh’s Bounty and 300 other vessels are being transcribed and digitised.
The project will allow climatologists to trace weather patterns and climate change .
The log books, stored in the National Archives at Kew, contain a unique and highly accurate account of temperature, ice formation, air pressure and wind speed and direction in remote locations all over the world.
Now the UK Colonial Registers and Royal Navy Logbooks project, a partnership that includes the Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of Sunderland, is making all the logs available online.
The weather reports are being charted to allow instant comparisons between past observations and current conditions.
Dennis Wheeler, the project leader and a climatologist, told The Times: "Reading these logs gives me a growing respect for the navigation skills of these captains and officers. The lives of everyone on board often depended on the accuracy of their observations.
“Their conscientious and remarkably detailed reporting has given us an invaluable data resource which fills huge gaps in our knowledge about the history of the climate.”
Victorian logs being digitised under the project include those from the Beagle, the ship that carried the young Charles Darwin on a five-year expedition around the world.
A fully searchable version of the logs will be available on the National Archives website next year.

Hmm... Interesting information, no? Could it be that this has all happened before, and will happen again - even without blaming Humanity for the end of the world? Sorry for the Battlestar Galactica reference, but it sure seems to fit, doesn't it?

With the revelation that previous "evidence" may not be entirely accurate, this should come in quite handy in gathering the data once more. This time, preferably, without an organization who is for one point of view over another. It seems to me that one good thing has come out of the leaked e-mails regarding "global warming". It will allow us all to look at the supposed "hard science" regarding "global warming" - er, sorry, that's "climate change" now. Convenient how they slipped a name change in there, eh?

Anywho, I look forward to the coming years - and with any luck, decades - of new research on the matter. Maybe we'll finally begin to hear the truth about all this "climate change" mumbo-jumbo.

As always, I look forward to your comments. Until next time...

-Wil

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Dems Reach Deal to Drop Public Option...

nobody@vox.com(Wilford Tibbetts) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:06:08 -0800

Senator-Reid

The Associate Press - via Yahoo News - has reported that the Democrats in Congress have reached a deal to drop the controversial "Public Option" from the Health Care reform. Here is the article:

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON – After days of secret talks, Senate Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday night to drop a government-run insurance option from sweeping health care legislation, several officials said, a concession to party moderates whose votes are critical to passage of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to provide any details at a mid-evening news conference where he told reporters a "broad agreement" had been reached between liberals and moderates on the controversial issue.
With it, he said, the end is in sight for passage of the legislation that Congress has labored over for months.
In place of a government-run plan, originally designed as a way of forcing competition on private industry, officials said the Democrats had tentatively settled on a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage. Additionally, the tentative deal calls for Medicare to be opened to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the 65-and-over population.
The officials who described the details did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss them publicly. Despite their reluctance, some senators had talked openly earlier in the day about the progress of the negotiations.
The developments followed a vote on the Senate floor earlier in the day in which abortion opponents failed to inject tougher restrictions into sweeping health care bill, and Democratic leaders labored to make sure fallout from the issue didn't hamper the drive to enact legislation. The vote was 54-45.

I'm actually quite happy about this. I don't mind there being an option so long as there are strict criteria that needs to be met before one can avail themselves of such a service. And, so long as they don't try forcing private insurances to do their bidding. We need more competition, not less.

Oh, and if we do anything of the sort, it should be when we arn't in debt up to our eyeballs. Use the money to pay down the debt, cut back a bit, even. Ya never know, it might just - you know - work. At least, that's what I've been doing with my personal debt, and you wanna know something? I'm learning far more by paying this off and cutting back than I ever did when someone else paid it for me. There's a lesson in there somewhere, I'm sure of it.

Until next time...

-Wil

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Rock science

nobody@vox.com(John) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:51:01 -0800

A couple of interesting things in the news this week about geology. First, the funny but sad one:

The "Leaning Tower" of South Padre is being demolished. What is that, you asked? The Leaning Tower of South Padre, also known as the Ocean Tower condominium [1] complex, is a 31-story tall building with neighboring parking garage that was built on South Padre Island. Padre Island (North and South) is of interest to geologists as the longest barrier island in the world. Barrier islands form from sand that is swept down the coast under the influence of tides, waves, and storms; being sand, they are unstable and do not last very long. Thus, only an idiot would build on one [1] and only a true imbecile would build a large hotel on one (or buy a condo there!).

Amusingly, the Ocean Tower began to demonstrate the foolishness of its investors even before it was finished. With only half the floors finished, it began to settle, cracking the beams and causing enough structural damage that it must be demolished. The investment firm behind the project is suing the architect and engineer for $125,000,000. Personally, I think that they should sue the county commissioners who allowed the project to go ahead, but who expects intelligence from a government employee nowadays?

And now the just plain cool one:

Scientists have calculated the time it took the Mediterranean Ocean to fill [3]; based on their calculations, it took between a few months and two years for it to go from a salt-floored basin to a water-filled one. This was known as the Zanclean flood, and it happened about five million years ago. The flood changes the geography and climate of the Mediterranean basin. It also changed the flow of water through the world's oceans. Because the water that escapes from the Mediterranean is very salty and hence is very dense, it can be tracked for thousands of miles after it leaves the Straits of Gibraltar [4] and goes into the Atlantic.
To put this into perspective, you would have to empty the equivalent of the Great Lakes every four days for two years to fill up the Mediterranean. World-wide, the sea level dropped ten meters (about thirty-three feet) when the Mediterranean filled up, and the water rose in the basin at ten meters a day for two years. The waterfall from the deluge stretched more than a hundred miles long, was more than two miles wide, and spilled more water every second than 11,000 Niagara Falls. Now that is entertainment!

John

[1] Please, oh please! follow the link so you can see "real estate speak" at its most amusing!

[2] Yes, Galveston, I'm speaking to you!

[3] What? You thought it had always been there? Heck, no! The Med was formed after Pangaea broke apart and two of the pieces (Africa and Europe) crashed back together. When they came together, they enclosed part of the Tethys Sea and formed a mountain range running from the Alps to Iraq. The enclosed basin had more evaporation than rainfall, and so the water levels dropped, forming salt deposits. As the pieces continued to move, they formed the Straits of Gibraltar which was a low-lying place that allowed water to trickle through until it wore down enough to become a flood.

[4] Interestingly, the Straits of Gibraltar are one of the few places in the world with a steady dual-layer flow system. At the surface, water flows out from the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As it circulates to the east, water evaporates, increasing the salinity. The denser but warmer water sinks and flows out into the Atlantic along the bottom of the Straits. So which direction the water flows depends on what depth you are at!

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