Who cares about the after party? I'm going for the whole "it could be our last night together" with the most attractive female I can find! And then score again at the after partyRacecarlock said:
Priorities mate.
Magnetised solar flares and the Mayan Apocalypse
- Thread starter Jailbird408
- Start date
Priorities mate.
Freaking planetary magnetic fields, how do they work?
(There's an answer to that, by the way. It involves your horrifying radiation explosions being turned into Northern Lights.)
(There's an answer to that, by the way. It involves your horrifying radiation explosions being turned into Northern Lights.)
'sigh'Jailbird408 said:
No. It happens all the damned time. We have our own magnetic field which affords some measure of shielding, solar flares are extremely common.
Non-scientists also say you can eat sugar to cure cancer, Justin Bieber is a talented singer and that we should all eat natural foodstuffs which cost 10x more than equally natural foodstuffs that omit the word natural. They're idiots.
Just, please go read up on the whole 2012 thing, it's not a prophecy, the world will not end, nothing will change. It never does.
If I'm wrong I'll buy you a cookie.
The Mayans never predicted the world to end in 2012 - shock horror - one site had a calender that ended in 2012 which some asshat 'archaeologist' decided it meant that they thought the world would end then. However other Mayan sites have calenders that go beyond 2012.
Though the sun is working up into a strong phase of activity, it's about all you got right, sorry to say.
Though the sun is working up into a strong phase of activity, it's about all you got right, sorry to say.
No?Jailbird408 said:
Even asusming that was sorta true, people have been EMP hardening their important stuff since slightly after it was discovered that initiating a nuclear device causes a localised EMP.
Now, it's not the doomsday thing of popular culture, but if you are near enough to the point of initiaion (and far away enough not to be destroyed by it, or armoured enough to survive), it's worthwhile being protected.
Apparently, since a lot of civilian equipment gets made by companies that make military hardware, almost by accident, alot of civilian gear is EMP hardened.
I sympathise.McMullen said:
Awww man, that would mean filling in a load of forms, I hate filling in forms its just so tedious and boring. However if this apocalypse erases all my debt, then I for one welcome the end of days...Jailbird408 said:
Fertro said:
...Or a big ass party.Racecarlock said:
We've been hit by the strongest storms the sun can dish out, there's nothing happening in 2012 that didn't happen at the last solar maximum.
This has been insisted by scientists, stop listening to the idiots who think Planet X is going to swoop by and rip earth apart/the poles will shift and earth will turn the other way, the sun will hit us with a solar mass ejection.
We have stations monitoring the sun, they already correct for anything and our atmosphere has been hit hard already. Actually a few days ago we were hit with a big storm that caused some radio silence and had planes diverted from the north and south pole. Did you even notice it? Of course not.
This has been insisted by scientists, stop listening to the idiots who think Planet X is going to swoop by and rip earth apart/the poles will shift and earth will turn the other way, the sun will hit us with a solar mass ejection.
We have stations monitoring the sun, they already correct for anything and our atmosphere has been hit hard already. Actually a few days ago we were hit with a big storm that caused some radio silence and had planes diverted from the north and south pole. Did you even notice it? Of course not.
Worst case situation a lot of satellites crash; which sucks and all but its not the end of the world.
Now there was a one such solar flare in the 1859 which took out all the telegraph lines; now thats the kind of storm that could cause some havoc, but still not the end of the world.
Oh and of course storms of this size are very rare.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
Now there was a one such solar flare in the 1859 which took out all the telegraph lines; now thats the kind of storm that could cause some havoc, but still not the end of the world.
Oh and of course storms of this size are very rare.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
Personally in light of this new, clearly scientific based knowledge, we should all go into a paranoid rage, build secret underground solar flare shelters in our gardens (if you live in a flat/apartment, sorry it's the end for you) and ship all important electronic equipment down there and hide.
Failing that, go to the Winchester, grab a nice cold pint and wait until this whole thing blows over.
Failing that, go to the Winchester, grab a nice cold pint and wait until this whole thing blows over.
>Ummm... whatJailbird408 said:
Okay on the assumption that the energy emitted by a solar flare would have enough energy to remagnetise any magnetically stored data in any storage device.
We would then have to take into account the use of optically stored data.
Then we would have to take into account the fact that most computers are in metal boxes.
then we would have to note that it would also affect solid stated devices.
Then we would also have to take into account that the Earth is a rather thick object for electro-magnetic radiation to penetrate.
Then we also have to make sure that it is within the right selection of frequencies.
and finally Light is electro-magnetic radiation, so are microwave, radiowaves, x-rays and gamma rays.
Sereusly it's a little bit of a stretch. Solar flares happen all the time. So do sun spots and none of them ever do anything to even the satalites up in High earth Orbit. And these satalites all are without the luxury of a large magnetic field "bending" large amounts of cosmic-radiation to start with.
What we really need to be worried about is a super nova within a few hundred light-years of Sol.
I find it annoying that it's against the rules to just post a picture.
Especially when there's text on the picture.
Especially when there's text on the picture.
Okay, I triple-checked the posts made, and the official NASA.gov site, and I'm pretty sure I'm both correct and FIRST in pointing out that exactly what OP is worried about happened early last week. Seriously.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News012312-M8.7.html
And I quote: "The coronal mass ejection CME collided with Earth's magnetic field a little after 10 AM ET on January 24, 2012. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has categorized the resulting storm as "strong" -- or S3 (with S5 being the highest) -- storm."
Yeah, we were okay after that one, so, no big deal for now. My only real concern is how common the S4/S5 CMEs are.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News012312-M8.7.html
And I quote: "The coronal mass ejection CME collided with Earth's magnetic field a little after 10 AM ET on January 24, 2012. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has categorized the resulting storm as "strong" -- or S3 (with S5 being the highest) -- storm."
Yeah, we were okay after that one, so, no big deal for now. My only real concern is how common the S4/S5 CMEs are.
I would like to point out that the Mayan calender does not say when the apocalypse comes, it simply shows the end of an age. Although solar flares I hear could create a world wide EMP that would destroy all electronics and ending the world as we know it but it'd have to be a pretty big one for that to happen.
Although im not much of a beliver in the 2012-doomsday-scare myself, its funny to see some people here comment with absolute certainty on how the sun's gonna behave when the scientific community itself admits they really dont know much of how solar flares, or the sun for that matter, works in detail. There has been massive solar flares in earth's history that if it would hit todays hyper-electric society would cause some serious mayhem.
Will it hit in December 2012? Utterly most likely not, mis-interpreting the maya-calender in this aspect is a little like seeing the word "doom" behind your french toast and think that's a clear sign that France will cease to exist soon. Or a cheese doodle in the shape of Jesus and see it as a sign that his return is imminent.
And it also wont erase all data, or mean the end of the world. But one primary problem, I belive, is that it would fry power supply rather then information. Components in power plants that are really hard to replace would be destroyed if not they're not shut off in time, so my theory is that there'd be major power issues around the planet for some time, which could cause havoc.
But I think(but dont know) the chances for such a thing happening within our lifetime is fairly small. There's all kinds of bad stuff that could happen. Asteroids, Super Nova radiation, super-volcanoes, Iphones gaining self-awareness and going SKYNET on our arses.
All horrible but all very unlikely, except maybe the final example.
If one wants a likely "oh noes!"-scenario, look at global warming. Of course, global warming IS happening(despite what some really thick-headed oil executives are telling you), but at a much slower rate then these other more awesome "insta-kill" end-of-the-world scenarios. So maybe its not as interesting. Or as a certain scientist said: "Humans are built to react to imminent threats we can directly see. Threats that are on the horizon and are not directly visible, we dont care much about, generally."
Will it hit in December 2012? Utterly most likely not, mis-interpreting the maya-calender in this aspect is a little like seeing the word "doom" behind your french toast and think that's a clear sign that France will cease to exist soon. Or a cheese doodle in the shape of Jesus and see it as a sign that his return is imminent.
And it also wont erase all data, or mean the end of the world. But one primary problem, I belive, is that it would fry power supply rather then information. Components in power plants that are really hard to replace would be destroyed if not they're not shut off in time, so my theory is that there'd be major power issues around the planet for some time, which could cause havoc.
But I think(but dont know) the chances for such a thing happening within our lifetime is fairly small. There's all kinds of bad stuff that could happen. Asteroids, Super Nova radiation, super-volcanoes, Iphones gaining self-awareness and going SKYNET on our arses.
All horrible but all very unlikely, except maybe the final example.
If one wants a likely "oh noes!"-scenario, look at global warming. Of course, global warming IS happening(despite what some really thick-headed oil executives are telling you), but at a much slower rate then these other more awesome "insta-kill" end-of-the-world scenarios. So maybe its not as interesting. Or as a certain scientist said: "Humans are built to react to imminent threats we can directly see. Threats that are on the horizon and are not directly visible, we dont care much about, generally."
