A solar 'superstorm' is coming and we'll only get 30-minute warning

A solar 'superstorm' is coming and we'll only get 30-minute warning


A solar "superstorm" could knock out Earth's communications satellites, cause dangerous power surges in the national grid and disrupt crucial navigation aids and aircraft avionics, a major report has found.

It is inevitable that an extreme solar storm – caused by the Sun ejecting billions of tonnes of highly-energetic matter travelling at a million miles an hour – will hit the Earth at some time in the near future, but it is impossible to predict more than about 30 minutes before it actually happens, a team of engineers has warned.
Solar superstorms are estimated to occur once every 100 or 200 years, with the last one hitting the Earth in 1859.
Although none has occurred in the space age, we are far more vulnerable now than a century ago because of the ubiquity of modern electronics, they said.
"The general consensus is that a solar superstorm is inevitable, a matter not of 'if' but 'when?'," says a report into extreme space weather by a group of experts at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.
In the past half century, there have been a number of "near misses" when an explosive "coronal mass ejection" of energetic matter from the Sun has been flung into space, narrowly bypassing the Earth.
In 1989 a relatively minor solar storm knocked out several key electrical transformers in the Canadian national grid, causing major power blackouts.
Similar solar storms significantly increased atmospheric radiation levels in 1956, 1972, 1989 and 2003, the experts found.
Professor Paul Cannon, who chaired the academy's working group on solar storms, said that the Government should set up a space weather board to oversee measures aimed at minimising the impact of solar storms.
"A solar superstorm will be a challenge but not cataclysmic. The two challenges for government are the wide spectrum of technologies affected today and the emergence of unexpected vulnerabilities as technology evolves," he said.
"Our message is, 'Don't panic, but do prepare'. A solar superstorm will happen one day and we need to be ready for it.
"Many steps have already been taken to minimise the impact of solar storms on current technology… We anticipate that the UK can further minimise the impact," he added.
Minor solar storms hit the Earth on a regular basis, but these are far less powerful than the 1859 event named after the British astronomer Richard Carrington, which was the last true solar superstorm.
A similar event today would put severe strain the electricity grid, where transformers are particular vulnerable to power surges, as well as degrading the performance of satellites, GPS navigation, aviation and possibly the mobile phone network, particularly the new 4G network, which relies on GPS satellites for timing information.
"Satellites are certainly in the front line of a superstorm. They are part of our infrastructure and we have concerns about their survival in a solar superstorm," said Keith Ryden, a space engineer at Surrey University.

Source:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-solar-superstorm-is-coming-and-well-only-get-30minute-warning-8484058.html



 

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150-Foot Asteroid To Pass Very Close To Earth

150-foot asteroid will buzz Earth, no need to duck

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A 150-foot-wide asteroid will come remarkably close to Earth next week, even closer than high-flying communication and weather satellites. It will be the nearest known flyby for an object of this size.

But don't worry. Scientists promise the megarock will be at least 17,100 miles away when it zips past next Friday.

"No Earth impact is possible," Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said Thursday.

Even the chance of an asteroid-satellite run-in is extremely remote, Yeomans and other scientists noted. A few hundred satellites orbit at 22,300 miles, higher than the asteroid's path, although operators are being warned about the incoming object for tracking purposes.
"No one has raised a red flag, nor will they," Yeomans told reporters. "I certainly don't anticipate any problems whatsoever."
Impossible to see with the naked eye, the asteroid is considered small as these things go. By contrast, the one that took out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was 6 miles wide.
Yet Asteroid 2012 DA14, as it's known for its discovery date, still could pack a wallop.
If it impacted Earth — which it won't, scientists were quick to add Thursday — it would release the energy equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and wipe out 750 square miles. That's what happened in Siberia in 1908, when forest land around the Tunguska River was flattened by a slightly smaller asteroid that exploded about five miles above ground.

The likelihood of something this size striking Earth is once in every 1,200 years. A close, harmless encounter like this is thought to occur every 40 years.

The bulk of the solar system's asteroids are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and remain stable there for billions of years. Some occasionally pop out, though, into Earth's neighborhood
The closest approach of this one will occur next Friday afternoon, Eastern time, over Indonesia.
There won't be much of a show. The asteroid will zip by at 17,400 mph. That's roughly eight times faster than a bullet from a high-speed rifle.
The asteroid will be invisible to the naked eye and even with binoculars and telescopes will appear as a small point of light. The prime viewing locations will be in Asia, Australia and eastern Europe.
Observers in the U.S. can pretty much forget it. Astronomers using NASA's deep-space antenna in California's Mojave Desert will have to wait eight hours after the closest approach to capture radar images.
Scientists welcome whatever pictures they get. The asteroid offers a unique opportunity to observe something this big and close, and any new knowledge will help if and when another killer asteroid is headed Earth's way.
The close approach also highlights the need to keep track of what's out there, if for no other reason than to protect the planet.
NASA's current count of near-Earth objects: just short of 10,000, the result of a concentrated effort for the past 15 years. That's thought to represent less than 10 percent of the objects out there.
No one has ruled out a serious Earth impact, although the probability is said to be extremely low.
"We don't have all the money in the world to do this kind of work" for tracking and potentially deflecting asteroids, said Lindley Johnson, an executive with the Near-Earth Object observations program in Washington.
Indeed, when asked about NASA's plans to send astronauts to an asteroid in the decades ahead, as outlined a few years ago by President Barack Obama, Johnson said the space agency is looking at a number of options for human explorations.
One of the more immediate steps, planned for 2016, is the launch of a spacecraft to fly to a much bigger asteroid, collect samples and return them to Earth in 2023.
As for Asteroid 2012 DA14 — discovered last year by astronomers in Spain — scientists suspect it's made of silicate rock, but aren't sure. Its shape and precise size also are mysteries.
What they do know with certainty:
"This object's orbit is so well known that there's no chance of a collision," Yeomans repeated during Thursday's news conference.
Its close approach, in fact, will alter its orbit around the sun in such a way as to keep it out of Earth's neighborhood, at least in the foreseeable future, Yeomans said.
Johnson anticipates no "sky is falling thing" related to next week's flyby.
He and other scientists urged journalists to keep the close encounter in perspective.
"Space rocks hit the Earth's atmosphere on a daily basis. Basketball-size objects come in daily. Volkswagen-size objects come in every couple of weeks," Yeomans said.
The grand total of stuff hitting the atmosphere every day? "About 100 tons," according to Yeoman, though most of it arrives harmlessly as sand-sized particles.

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/150-foot-asteroid-buzz-earth-no-duck-192322385.html




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How to Make a Solar Still to Purify Water Project

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Sources:
http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/solar-purify-water-project/

http://newskillsforsurvival.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-to-make-solar-still-make-your-own.html



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Mexican Teenagers Killed with Fast and Furious Weapons

Confirmed: Weapons from Fast and Furious were used to gun down teenagers at a birthday party in Mexico in January 2010.

As news breaks that 57 more Fast and Furious weapons have been found in Mexico, it is also being confirmed that some of those weapons were used to slaughter 14 Mexican teenagers and wound 12 more near Ciudad Juarez.
According to reports, a group of armed commandos parked outside a birthday party attended by high school and college students on January 30, 2010, and opened fire with some of the weapons which had been smuggled across the border during the Fast and Furious operation.
The deaths magnify the already gut-wrenching news of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's death by a man armed with Fast and Furious weapons in December 2010. The slaughter of the teenagers also draws renewed attention to the hundreds of Mexican citizens who have been confirmed dead by weapons from Fast and Furious over the last two years.
Is this blood on Attorney General Eric Holder's hands?

Source:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/01/Blood-On-Holder-s-Hands-Mexican-Teenagers-Killed-With-Fast-and-Furious-Weapons

6 Clues Your Ankle is Broken, Not Sprained

by James Hubbard, MD, MPH
Sometimes it’s not that easy to tell a sprain from a broken ankle.
Just this past year, a seventyish-year-old woman came limping into the clinic where I was working to have her ankle checked. Seemed she had twisted it a couple of weeks before and her husband was going to keep nagging her until she came in.
The X-rays revealed a break. A pretty bad one at that. She couldn’t believe it. I don’t know if she was more upset that she was going to need a cast and crutches or she’d have to acknowledge that her husband was right.
Many people come to the clinic convinced they have a break or just as sure it’s just a sprain. Often they end up being wrong. It’s not so easy for doctors to tell either. Fortunately we have the benefit of X-rays. But what if getting an X-ray is impossible? What can tip you off that it’s a sprain or a broken ankle? And why does it matter?

Well, why it matters is easy. If it’s broken, you must be much more careful to stabilize the ankle. Make it so the ankle won’t move. And if it’s any break other than the fibula (the littler of the two leg bones), then you shouldn’t bear a lot of weight on it because, again, the bone fragments could move around, not allowing healing.

The Ottawa Ankle Rules

Years ago, some docs in Canada, trying to cut down on the amount of X-rays done for ankles (Canada must not have as many malpractice suits as we do in the U.S.), came up with a set of guidelines to tell a break from a sprain. It’s called the Ottawa Ankle Rules. The rules aren’t perfect, but many studies since have shown over and over that these guidelines can reliably predict about 95 percent of breaks. They do, however, tend to overdiagnose (predict a fracture that turns out to be a sprain).
The bad news is that studies have also shown that if nonmedical people try to use the guidelines and make predictions they’re not nearly as accurate. So don’t use these to keep from getting your injured ankle checked out when a clinic actually is available. But maybe they can help a little if there ever comes a time when you can’t get expert medical help right away.
Next, the rules.

Source:
http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2013/02/04/sprain-or-broken-ankle/

8 Surprising Anti-Gun Celebrities

8 Surprising Anti-Gun Celebrities

Hollywood’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. While its multi-million dollar movie stars cash in on shoot ‘em up thrillers and cop dramas, they openly move to restrict gun ownership in this country. When the lights turn off and the cameras stop running, these stars put down their prop house guns and pick the Brady Campaign banner. When a fortune is made on the portrayal of guns on the silver and small screen and that cash turns into donations to the anti-gun lobby, it should make every Second Amendment supporter think: Where is my money really going?Fame is a powerful weapon, and it’s hard to believe that these celebs have anti-gun leanings. But they do.

8. - Shania Twain

7. - Kevin Bacon

6. - Matt Damon

5. - Mark Wahlberg

4. - Danny DeVito

3. - Sean Connery

2. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

1. - Sylvester Stallone

Read more: http://www.gunsandammo.com/2012/02/24/8-surprising-anti-gun-celebrities/#ixzz2KDXtjXzQ

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Take a Rare Look at How Obama Decides to Send Drones to Kill Americans

Human rights advocates were floored on Monday night when NBC News published the details of an alarming Justice Department memo detailing the protocol for sending drones after United States citizens. It's not as if they hadn't suspected that the Obama administration's top secret drone attack protocol contained some unsavory details. They just didn't expect them to be so frightfully broad. The scoop by Michael Isikoff is actually startling not for the details but rather for the lack of details. It's very vague about a decision-making process that puts American lives on the line. Put simply, the government believes that a lethal drone attack against an American citizen is justified if the targets are a) "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaeda or b) "an associated force."

RELATED: Pakistani Complaints Led to New Rules for U.S. Drone Strikes

One of those two qualifiers is infinitely more worrisome than the other. Going after leaders of al Qaeda makes sense. That's what the War on Terror is all about, right? Breaking down networks of violent terrorists and keeping Americans safe. If an American happens to be caught up with al Qaeda, someone like Anwar al-Awlaki, then well… they shouldn't be surprised if they're getting chased by drones. At least that's what we've been told so far. How and why these attacks are carried out by drones is also detailed in the memo, but we'll get back to that in a second.

RELATED: How Many Times Does Al Qaeda's Number Two Need to Die?

But what does "an associated force" mean? It seems like the guy who sells the terrorists bomb supplies would probably qualify, but what about the unknowing neighbor or the hired hand? Can we just kill them too in good conscience? Quite unfortunately, the government isn't exactly sure. The memo suggests that anyone who "present[s] an 'imminent' threat of violent attack against the United States" qualifies for assassination "a lawful killing in self defense," but that "does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future." In other words, an "informed, high-level" official can order the killing of any American citizen that was "recently" involved in threatening "activities." As Isikoff points out, the memo fails to define both of those terms.

RELATED: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Drones

"This is a chilling document," said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.  "Basically, it argues that the government has the right to carry out the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen. … It recognizes some limits on the authority it sets out, but the limits are elastic and vaguely defined, and it's easy to see how they could be manipulated." We've already seen some of this vague authority in action. A couple of years ago, The New York Times provided some insight into how subjective the process of deciding when to kill and when not to kill American citizens based on a top secret memo that justified the killing of al-Awlaki. That document as well as this latest leak from the Justice Department essentially says that a lethal attack, likely by a drone, is the method of choice whenever a capture mission would put other American lives on the line. Again, the documents are very vague about where to draw the line.

RELATED: Obama to Nominate John Brennan to Run the CIA

Inevitably, this latest revelation into how the Obama administration runs the War on Terror behind closed doors leads to more questions than answers. How, for instance, do they decided when to kill non-U.S. citizens? Previous reporting on the issue says that the government considers any military-aged male to be an insurgent, so it seems like pretty much anybody in the general region of Afghanistan or Pakistan could expect to find themselves in America's crosshairs. But again, we don't know because the Obama administration is keeping it completely secret, despite years worth of calls to disclose its decision-making process.

RELATED: The C.I.A.'s Silence on Drone Strikes Is Getting Awkward

This could be the beginning of an enlightening time for those who demand answers about the government's shady drone program. On Thursday, John Brannan has his confirmation hearing where the Senate will decide whether or not he's fit to run the Central Intelligence Agency. Since he's more or less the architect of America's drone war, we're sure the Senators will have a question or two about this memo and, we hope, some memos that we haven't seen before.

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/rare-look-obama-decides-send-drones-kill-americans-031832960.html

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