2012
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@solo said:
Is the clock ticking on the end of the world? Or the end of the world as we know it?
The end of the world as we know it,
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Pbacot, I presume if the poles flip, we most probably die so we needn't worry about our hard discs.
I know how the job situation feels, I am in a similar situation.
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Personaly I do not believe much will come of this, I do see the 'Hair' soundtrack's 'Age of Aquarius' getting mucho airtime, I see the Y2K bug guys with another get rich quick scheme by preying on our tech fears as they did nine years ago. I see Hollywood and Bollywood making tons of money with a spate of new disaster movies, I see a rise in freaks with dire predictions on morning tv shows and late night varieties. I see the Dow woes being blamed on doom fears, I see a great business opertunity in personal bomb/storm shelters and generators.
..and I see us once again watching Australia as we did at the millenium for any signs of disaster (sorry guys you and Fiji are once again in the front row of the end of the world)
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Most of people live in sin, so the end of the world is foreseeable.
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But will the poles flip on the Red,Green or Blue Axis? and has someone got a ruby to flip us back?
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I read up on this a few years ago. It is due to happen soon, but soon could be 2000 years from now....or it could be in 3 years. One sure sign apparently is that the magnetic field weakens to almost nothing over the course of a few thousand years beforehand. It has, in fact been doing this...and lost about 5% over the last century. The solar radiation bit is usually overstated by the doom mongers. The earth's magnetic field doesn't shield us from such radiation, it merely diverts it to the poles. It's the atmosphere that does the shielding and that's likely to be unaffected. Scientists have found no evidence of mass extinctions at the time of previous reversals. The Aurora could appear anywhere on the Earth's surface though, quite randomly.
Minimum effects would be all animals that use the magnetic field for navigation would be thoroughly confused and GPS would be up the Swannee for the duration of the process. Apparently this can vary from a few weeks to several thousand years. There may also be some unwelcome weather and perhaps seismic events, but it's not generally believed they would be of a Doomsday type severity. There, that ought to take your mind off things for a bit.
Genuinely sorry to hear of the employment troubles, guys. -
you know what sucks? i graduate out of high school in 2012
meh ill just give up now and have as much fun as i can
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whoa jon.
that wouldn't happen. what you're describing is some sort of axis mangling.. we'd have to get hit by a pretty damn big comet (moon?) for that to occur but we'd definitely be insta-dead then.[edit] ok, just pulling quotes off the interweb here but....
@unknownuser said:
"The magnetic field is one of the most fundamental features of the Earth," Singer told LiveScience. "But it's still one of the biggest enigmas in science. Why [the flip] happens is something people have been chasing for more than a hundred years."
When the next reversal comes, it probably won't inflict much damage to life on Earth, Singer said.
Though we could expect a slight increase in damaging cosmic radiation, which is usually repelled by the magnetic field, it shouldn't be enough to cause serious harm.
And though magnetic north and south poles will switch spots, the seasons and other cycles on the planet are primarily due to Earth's position relative to the sun, which wouldn't change significantly.
All in all, the flip is nothing that our planet hasn't faced many times before.
"The magnetic field has reversed itself hundreds, if not thousands, of times," Singer said. "Right now, the axial dipole is waning in strength, so we might experience a field reversal in the next two millennia if it continues to weaken at the current rate."
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@pbacot said:
Regardless of how it happens, I've often wondered if the Earth's magnetic field flip can affect the magnetic properties of materials, such as hard drives,magnetic tape, and magnets in various apparatus. Any theories on this?
they way science can see the poles have switched before (and when) is from volcanic rock.. certain minerals in the lava orient themselves according to the magnetic field.. once the lava hardens, they are locked in that position even if the poles switch again..
that said, i don't think any of the things you mentioned are in tune with our current north and south poles (ie-flip a hard drive upside down and nothing happens) so i would have to say their data will remain intact if the poles flip..
they probably wouldn't survive if some sort of strong magnetic force were applied to them but i really don't know if that would happen or not upon a pole flip.oops --
@unknownuser said:
and magnets in various apparatus
if 'various apparatus' includes a compass then yes, it will definitely be affected.
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I think you are playing it down a bit Alan. IF it happens, then most plantlife is screwed as where was cold becomes hot and vice versa. No more rainforests, no more us.
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Ok Jeff, but I still prefer my unfounded cataclysmic prediction to the view of an actual scientist.
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You could still get that Jon...if a confused herd of migrating wildebeeste decide to migrate straight through your front room while you're watching TV.
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Wake up brothers
"I am calling for an 'Intellectual Revolution'. I ask American citizens to free their minds from the tyranny of 'Dumb Think.' This is a revolution about thinking - not manning the barricades. It's about brain power - not brute force."
change of minds for the upcoming 2012
salud
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thread from the old times :
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=4096and + information about 2012 :
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The new trailer is now available, looks great so far.
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Wow...finally, the answer to all our problems, big and small! (And looks like a cool movie too :`)
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Another triumph from Roland Emmerich. . ..The world's most sensitive and subtle Director. He gives a whole new meaning to over-the-top. That movie makes "Titanic" look like a Bergman film.
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Wikipedia on magnetic pole shifting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal
Last time it happened was 780,000 years ago. I barely remember it happening but is surely the reason for my knee pain.
Geologists have found it is random, some periods as long as 10 million years between reversal, some periods 2x in 50,000 years.
The magnetic pole is presently 11 degrees off the axis and heading northwest, slowly, towards Siberia. We may experience a compass use surcharge from some enterprising Russians in a few decades.
Not much real danger coming in three years from crossing the glactic plain but it sure makes for good science fiction - that movie trailer looks great.
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Whatever else happens, I bet New York gets it in the neck again. It seems to in every other global catastrophe movie....tsunamis, big freeze, meteorites, comets, aliens with attitude.....
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Oh of course. Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, all these guys, love to destroy icons, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building the White House.
By the way, how can an Aircraft carrier do a roll over ontop of the white house when RE already blew it up in ID4?
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