Comments | kettunainen: and while I'm on the topic of bad shit happening

kettunainen

and while I'm on the topic of bad shit happening

Sep 30, 2009 14:38

My dad was more than a little bit of a nutbar, so I come by it honestly. He was a new-age, born-again Christian, who was obsessed with UFOs. He had no internal filter and had little sense of what was appropriate to say to young children and what should be left for when they're a little older and less freaked out ( Read more... )

solar flares, religion, dad, 2012, doom

Comments 13

goldoyster September 30 2009, 20:22:40 UTC

You're reminding me of a friend I have, an American friend in fact, who moved here to Canada 5 or so yrs ago cause of a number of concerns. Some being political, others being of natural disasters, etc. He has since moved out to the middle of no where in Saskatchewan and is putting together a life in which he and his partner are completely self-reliant. It's pretty awesome that he's so committed. He thinks he's in the best possible place if, or according to him, when shit goes down.

kettunainen September 30 2009, 20:56:15 UTC

*nods* I've been pondering such a thing for a looong time. An acquaintance of mine just moved to PEI to homestead. Not too brilliant to be on an island, IMO, but whatever.

Saskatchewan is hard. That's where N's family homesteaded a few generations ago. But they didn't know thing one about proper soil maintenance, so when they used up all the topsoil, things just didn't go as well, and they somehow ended up in Alberta.

I'm a homesteader at heart (but have zero experience), but I'm certainly not the razor-wire, stocked ammunition sort of homesteader. There are far too many of those around.

hazelbranch September 30 2009, 21:54:39 UTC

Ugh, did I need another reason to hate flying? :p

kettunainen October 1 2009, 02:52:39 UTC

no kidding, eh?

kuaimao September 30 2009, 22:38:36 UTC

I tend to see that quote, and the beginning of Genesis, and the beginnings/endings of many other cultural myths (i.e the beginning of the Rig Veda) as someone being incredibly insightful about the way the universe probably actually began, in the Big Bang, and the way it may end, in the Big Crunch. (The heat death of the universe doesn't seem to have occured to the ancients.) Not so much apocalyptic in our time, but rather on the timescale of billions of years.

That said, if you want an incredibly well-done apocalypse narrative, check out World War Z by Max Brooks. I can lend it to you.

kettunainen October 1 2009, 02:52:07 UTC

I tend to go more with notions of different Ages/Worlds. The end of the Kali Yuga (the Fourth Age) is traditionally noted as being in about a thousand years, but some say it's ending now. For the Hopi and the Maya, the end of the Fourth World is fast approaching (2012 for the Maya).

It has been said that a Great Flood ended the Third World, which brings us to the Bible quote.

Returning to the Kali Yuga, Wiki quotes: "When flowers will be begot within flowers, and fruits within fruits, then will the Yuga come to an end. And the clouds will pour rain unseasonably when the end of the Yuga approaches."

Sounds like climate change to me, that last part.

As for how this Age will end: "The world will suffer a fiery end which will destroy all evil, and a new age, Satya Yuga, will begin."

Hmm..... fire, eh?

kettunainen October 1 2009, 15:03:02 UTC

need to make a correction: the kali yuga started in 3102 BCE and is slated to end after 432,000 years, which is more depressing than I can possibly imagine. I'm far happier with Ages/Worlds lasting about 5000 years or so. I can wrap my head around that.

And for further elucidation, the particular biblical quote from II Peter was preceded by these verses (the italicized portions are direct from the book I'm using, rather than my own emphasis):

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished..." II Peter 3:3-6 ( ... )

northbard October 1 2009, 04:02:26 UTC

Not that I'm one to nay-say apocolyptic prophecies and all ( ... )

kettunainen October 1 2009, 10:02:33 UTC

in your link, there is no mention of the cracks in the magnetosphere. The reason why the cracks are important, is because charged particles from daily solar winds are hanging out in the magnetosphere. An analogy from the article I linked to in the main post on the topic:

'During the next solar cycle, the winds are expected to carry southward-facing field lines, which connect with the magnetosphere in such a way that they provide extra charge to any plasma inside the shield.

'"You can sort of compare [the situation] to a gas stove," Raeder said.

"If you turn on the gas and you light it right away, nothing will happen-the gas stove will go on and there will be a flame.

"But if you turn on a gas stove and you don't do anything for a while and then you throw in a match, what will happen? It will say, Boom!" '

If the solar flare is like the 1989 Quebec one, then no problem (more or less). Power outage for 9 hours or so. Whatever.

But if it's more like the Coronal Mass Ejection of 1859, then things get a little more serious. This ( ... )

heraldofchaos October 1 2009, 14:29:08 UTC

Heh...

i thought of making a "end is nigh" sign just for the shits and giggles.

But when it happens i'll be too busy surviving.

heraldofchaos October 1 2009, 14:27:25 UTC

Historically speaking, we've only used electricity for about the last 120 years. so the sample size is kind of small. The most powerful flare currently recorded was in 1859 (before widespread electricity) and is only detectable by examining Greenlands ice pack ( ... )

heraldofchaos October 1 2009, 13:50:43 UTC

here, you'll love this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rg3uNrI8tE

most planes would be completely fucked as far as i know. i know alot of the military aircraft are "hardened" against EMP and Flares, but im not sure about commercial aircraft. Though knowing most Aircraft are hardened against lightning strikes is a pretty good indicator of survivability.

Besides if the electric is off when it happens, you can just turn it back on when its done.

kettunainen October 1 2009, 15:06:14 UTC

oh yeah, I've already seen that. Black Holes and Baby Universes! That's what got me started on this entire thread -- watching some of the other Michio Kaku vids on youtube. I appreciate his clarity and enthusiasm.

I can only hope that if there is a CME, then the overall loss of life is kept to something manageable.