Arnaud Chulliat—geophysicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris—says that there's a mysterious magnetic plume that is pushing the north pole at an increasing speed. The plume comes from deep in the Earth's core, says Chulliat, which is believed to be made of iron, with molten rock spinning around like a dynamo. This is what creates Earth's magnetic field. I have to admit that these theories sound a lot more logic that my theory of a malfunction in the giant sphere that powers our home planet—the one full of gargantuan unobtanium-powered machines created by Atlantis' scientists in 20,000BC—but whatever.

Meanwhile, regular scientists have evidence that the Earth's magnetic field flips every 300,000 years. The problem here is that 780,000 years have passed since the last polarity change, which means that a new shift could be imminent. There's proof that the field's strength is falling down at a very fast rate over the last two hundred years, a fact that has lead some experts to believe it could disappear completely over the next 1,000 years before it flips. Other boffins believe that this is just a fluctuation in the field.

If the first theory finally happens, the whole process will have catastrophic consequences to human civilization and nature. Without a magnetic field, nothing will protect us against space radiation. The weather will go completely gaga, and the Sun will fry all our communications and navigation services, not to talk about all of us. At the same time, countless migrational species will get lost, affecting food chains and causing mayhem through the entire planet.

Fun, huh? But fret not, my dear Earthlings, as this may not be related to the acceleration of the pole movement. We only know two things for sure: First, the magnetic north pole has been moving since it was first recorded. Around 1904 it was moving northeastward at 9 miles a year, accelerating in 1989 until it reached its current 34 to 37 miles a year speed in 2007. Chulliat says that it's difficult to forecast when the pole will arrive to Russia, if it finally does. Second, they need to adjust the maps orientation.

Whatever the case is, this is yet another reminder that life may be even shorter than it already is, so stop surfing the web now, go out, and enjoy it. [National Geographic]

Areas suffering from deforestation (including illegal logging) can be analyzed and detected instantly, with Google's ultra-fast satellite imagery-processors turning out reports that could be handed over to the government or anti-forestation groups. Normally it'd take several days for that sort of report to be processed, but as Google's invested so much in Google Earth, and it's high-speed servers, they're the perfect company to help tackle the growing problem. [Fast Company]

Along with the custom maps, the update brings more languages and better performance. Anyone managed to get the update yet? [Google Lat Long Blog]

Click on the image to see the high resolution

So simple, that little blue thing. So lost in the blackness of the Void of Nothingness.

This unique perspective of Earth was taken by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on board Rosetta, from 393,327 miles (633,000 kilometers) on 12 November 2009 at 13:28 CET. The image—which form by three exposures under orange, green, and blue filters—shows the South Pole at a resolution of 12 kilometer per pixel.

Rosetta is coming back home for the last time, to take the impulse necessary to reach the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. When it reaches it in 2014, Rosetta will first study the comment flying alongside, then it will attempt to set its mechanic feet on it. For that it will use the Philae lander that it carries along its decade-long trip around the Solar System.

Philae will drill holes into the comet to study its nucleus in search for life's building blocks, and it will land on firing two harpoons to avoid bouncing off its surface. That's will be when Captain Ahab—the mission controller back in Earth—laughs like a maniac, and Starbuck shakes his head in despair. [ESA]

As you can see in my highly detailed diagram, Obama wants to use a climate degenerating replic—I don't have any idea what im talking about. The truth, according to the AP, is that the smog shooter was called an "extreme last resort," but Obama is looking at radical measures to ensure we don't all broil at 500 degrees for 35-40 minutes. CO2-absorbing artificial trees were also listed as a possible way to fight The Warming.

While the above ideas may not be the most realistic, it is interesting that we're looking to climate engineering (or geoengineering) to directly control the larger climate trends. Maybe we'll someday control the weather...or just say screw it and move into domes. [AP via BreitBart]

The outer transparent, crystal globe represents Earth, bearing outlines of the continents and oceans. The inner sphere shows at all times the exact position of Sun, Moon and fixed stars in relation to any location on Earth. So it's not really a whole universe, but you get the idea. Rotating at the speed of a real day, one revolution takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. Separate Sun and Moon hands rotate once in 24 hours indicating which parts of the Earth is illuminated by each celestial body. Finally, a DRAGON hand moves with the signs of the zodiac. Dragons, people! Now I really want this thing.

After you get past the astrological drool factor, a standard clock on the front panel of the mahogany case indicates the hours and minutes. The Earth clock comes in a limited edition of 99 pieces. [Ulysses Nardin via DVICE]

Radio-synced to Google Earth, the team tracked the package as it soared 885 feet per minute into the sky, taking shots on a periodic timer. The balloon eventually failed around 100,000 before the system parachuted to the ground.

(We paraphrased. If you read the entire account over on the students' page, you'll appreciate details like the team running out of laptop batteries to track the experiment and knocking on neighborhood doors for access power. It's basically got all of the good-hearted excitement of a Disney movie, but it might be topped by these cuter teddy bear astronauts.)

The students were able to recover the package that landed about 6 miles from the launch site., but it was only after they tentatively extracted the SD card sitting safely inside that they discovered the fantastic fruits of their labor. [Project Page via Telegraph and boingboing]

Even while it's all black, in the video you can see the Earth rising over the Moon's surface and hiding the Sun at the same time. It must be lonely for Selene up there, but boy, what a view. [JAXA]

What if "the earth itself is already encoded with someone else's data, and that, down there in crustal formations of rock, crystalline archives shimmer"?

I like alien conspiracy, and the idea of seeding the earth for data storage instead of food harvest is interesting. The earth's drive heads would have to be supersonic jets and the latency would be hell, but don't let reality stop you from enjoying this well written fantasy post by Geoff at [BLDGBLOG]

Although there's nothing comparable—in my case, to the point of getting goosebumps—to standing in front of Las Meninas (or any of the Velazquez masterpieces, for that matter), the dark Goyas, or the Fusilamientos del Tres de Mayo, this is the closest you can get to them from anywhere in the world. In fact, you can get closerer and closerer than in front of the real thing, unless you want some Prado staff goon to hit you on the legs with a taser.

The amazing images are 14 gigapixels, 1,400 times the resolution of a 10 megapixel camera. As you can see in this video, Madpixel doesn't use any special camera, but a machine-controlled digital camera and algorithms to compensate for deformation and stitch the final result. Zooming in to see the masters' technique and the detail in the painting is just mindblowing.

[See it here (requires Google Earth) via Madpixel]

The Google Earth Blog estimates that the new New York City (captured here with Google Earth Pro) has seen an update with hundreds, if not thousands of new buildings. That wild estimate sounds right to us, as here's what the skyline looked like in January 2007:
Sure, this is just one city, but it's a sign of where Google Earth can go. Scratch that, it's a sign of where Google Earth is going. Really, really, really neat stuff (that will be a gloriously mundane commonplace in a few more years). [Google Earth Blog via CrunchGear]

What we observed was the breach in the levee. This has taken us completely by surprise. The opening was huge - four times wider than Earth itself, this kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible.

That's what Jimmy Raeder, a University of New Hampshire physicist says, but but don't fret, dear readers, because according to Marit Oieroset—Professor of the University of California at Berkeley— even while "it was growing rather fast" the hole only lasted for an hour. During that time, the amount of solar wind getting into the Earth's surface was twenty times higher than usual.

The news here is that while scientists thought that the solar breach happened when the Earth's and the sun magnetic fields were in opposite directions, the data gathered from Themis has found exactly the opposite. In other words: These people really don't have a clue! RUN TO THE SHELTERS NOW! [AP]

The 8" Celestial Globe is fairly typical during the day, spinning like any other spherical map of the Earth while providing the illusion that you care about geography and global politics. But at night, the system's built-in light sensor illuminates the globe with a map of 88 constellations. The Celestial Globe is available for $55. [Shop via Craziest Gadgets]

The webcam is trained to separate the foreground (hands) from the background (in this case, Andy's keyboard), which makes it much easier to identify different shapes made by his fingers. He can then move the cursor, click, and use two hands to perform more complex motions like stretching and pulling. He doesn't get into too much detail, partly because he has to constantly remind whoever's filming that no, this isn't magic, and no, there isn't a little person under his desk secretly making the cursor move on the screen.

The demo is really impressive for how simple Andy makes it all seem, and it'd be great to see what else he can do from this base. [MAKE]

GOCE belongs to the group that the European Space Agency classifies as Earth Explorers: five new satellites dedicated to provide a closer, more intimate look of our planet. And while CRYOSAT and SWARM look funky too—with SMOS and AEOLUS being a bit more conventional—GOCE's design seems straight out of a sci-fi movie.

GOCE
Developed to do a precise map of Earth's gravity field—with the help of onboard instrumentation and the GPS network—and also study the oceans' circulation.

CryoSat-2
It will study changes in polar ice caps and floating ice.

SMOS
Designed to measure soil moisture in land and salinity in the oceans, which will help us understand better the behavior of the oceans.

Aeolus
It will analyze wind patterns to improve weather forecasts and the understanding of atmospheric dynamics.

Swarm
This constellation of satellites will control the evolution of the Earth's geomagnetic field to help us understand Earth's interior and its climate.

I don't know what kind of substances the engineers at the European Space Agency are using, but I want a double shot. [ESA via Astroengine and Euronews]

Unfortunately for Adam, Addy, and David Bowie, however, it won't be a 24/7 Live Earth channel, but an hour-long broadcast that is going to be repeated from April 18. The film has been edited from high quality HD footage taken from the International Space Station and the shuttle.

NASA to Broadcast Earth Views in High Definition Television HOUSTON — Since humans first flew in space, nothing has captivated astronauts more than the view of home out the window of their spacecraft. In honor of Earth Day, April 22, NASA will make those views available to people here on Earth with an event highlighting imagery taken by astronauts and the science behind it.

For the first time ever, NASA Television will air a special hour-long broadcast of views of Earth taken in High Definition, or HD, by astronauts on past space shuttle and International Space Station missions.

The special HD broadcast will air between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. EDT on Friday, April 18, and replay at the same time on Monday, April 21. It will air every hour from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22.

The Friday HD broadcast will feature a silent version of the Earth views. The broadcasts on Monday and Tuesday will include a discussion of the views by Dr. Justin Wilkinson, a scientist with the Crew Earth Observations Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The footage also will air on standard NASA TV during regularly scheduled Video File broadcasts. For technical information on how to receive the special broadcast in high definition, and for NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit NASA TV.

Until that day, you will have to keep smoking your astroturf watching Flight of the Conchords reruns:

[NASA TV]