[T'wit]

Good. Everybody will die and we don't have to worry about global warming.

[martin_fierro]

My tinfoil hat is already calibrated. I am prepared.

[RandyRep]

Geez, the UN has to do something quick about this...

It MUST BE electro-magnetic emissions that is causing this.

I know, we could have a Sapporo treaty to reduce radio broadcasts, TV signals, telephone, garage door opener, TV remotes, wireless computer networks, electrical power plants, etc. back to year 1900 levels in order to save our planet.

Oh, wait, perhaps a better sunscreen will solve the problem?

[tubebender]

The late Emil Sepic from here in Eureka wrote a lot on this subject. While doing a google for Emil I came across This

[the invisib1e hand]

everybody hold on!

[Kirkwood]

So has the left blamed President Bush yet?

[Petronski]

If a flip did take place, it would be over the course of several thousand years, and scientists say it would likely reduce the protective ozone layer, cause glitches in satellites and electronic products, and create a flurry of navigational anomalies as compasses would "cease to be a simple means of navigation," according to Bloxham.

WTF is the point of this article?

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

How will this effect that nuke powered Lightning Gun of Eakers, and it's power ZOT?

[hole_n_one]

Meow!.......................Meow!

[Reagan is King]

If we'd only signed the Kyoto accord all this could have been prevented...

/sarcasm>

[Mike Darancette]

The UN must convene a conference and investigate the effect of electric generation and transmission on the Earth's magnetic field.

It surely must be the fault of the developed world and the USA in particular. The USA must pay and pay!

[Beck_isright]

"The consequences would be the same if a reversal takes place or the field continues to diminish, with one researcher estimating an additional 100,000 cancer cases annually as people would be subject to more of the sun's harmful rays."

Let me know the date when this is due to occur. I want to start smoking. Might as well die of lung cancer instead of skin cancer.

[WoofDog123]

"If a flip did take place, it would be over the course of several thousand years, and scientists say it would likely reduce the protective ozone layer, cause glitches in satellites and electronic products, and create a flurry of navigational anomalies as compasses would "cease to be a simple means of navigation," according to Bloxham. "

The fields simply moving around would cause aurora to appear in places they have not been seen in human history....or not more than a few times in all human history, at any rate.

[M Kehoe]

If a flip did take place, it would be over the course of several thousand years,...

At what point would the compass point west/east?

5.56mm

[txzman]

Uh, this is serious science, although absolutely no one knows the timing. Don't dismiss until you understand why the controversy started in the first place.

[yonif]

Its the Jewish hold on Earth that is causing this...../sarcasm

[CommandoFrank]

Does this mean when it gets to zero just prior to the 'flip', we'll all float off into space?

Will we have to rename the America's? (N. America will become S. America)

Where will the Northern Lights go?

Will whirl pools rotate in the other direction?

Will pigeons lose their way?

The song "North to Alaska" will no longer be valid...

[Redcloak]

So if the poles flip, does that mean shiney-side out or shiney-side in?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Is this new news?
SAGA magazine had an article about that in 1969, complete with artwork showing crashing skyscrapers.
The theory was when the poles flip for a short while the earth will have no stablizing spin so the crust, where we live, will float around like ice in water till t\he flip is complete.

[happydogdesign]

A recent episode of Nova featured this story, and basically said there may be a higher risk of cancer, but the technological advances by that time would probably be able to cope with it, and there should be lots of really cool auroras.

Excerpt:
"If all the compasses in the world started pointing south rather than north, many people might think something very strange, very unusual, and possibly very dangerous was going on. Doomsayers would have a field day proclaiming the end is nigh, while more rational persons might head straight to scientists for an explanation.

Fortunately, those scientists in the know -- paleomagnetists, to be exact -- would have a ready answer. Such reversals in the Earth's magnetic field, they'd tell you, are, roughly speaking, as common as ice ages. That is, they're terrifically infrequent by human standards, but in geologic terms they happen all the time. As the time line at right shows, hundreds of times in our planet's history the polarity of the magnetic shield ensheathing the globe has gone from "normal," our current orientation to the north, to "reversed," and back again.

The Earth is not alone in this fickleness: The sun's magnetic shield appears to reverse its polarity approximately every 11 years. Even our Milky Way galaxy is magnetized, and experts say it probably reverses its polarity as well. Moreover, while a severe weakening or disappearance of the magnetic field would lay us open to harmful radiation from the sun, there's little evidence to date that "flips" per se inflict any lasting damage (see Impact on Animals).

It might sound as if scientists have all the answers regarding magnetic reversals. But actually they know very little about them. Basic questions haunt researchers: What physical processes within the Earth trigger reversals? Why do the durations and frequencies of both normal and reversed states seem random? Why is there such a disproportionately long normal period between about 121 and 83 million years ago? Why does the reversal rate, at least during the past 160 million years, appear to peak around 12 million years ago?

All these questions remain unanswered, though experts like Dennis Kent, the Rutgers University geologist who supplied NOVA with updated figures for the time line, are hard at work trying to answer them. In the meantime, not to worry. Reversals happen on average only about once every 250,000 years, and they take hundreds if not thousands of years to complete.

Even the weakening currently under way may be a false alarm. The field often gets very weak, then bounces back, never having flipped. As Ron Merrill, a magnetic-field specialist at the University of Washington remarked when asked whether we're in for a reversal: "Ask me in 10,000 years, I'll give you a better answer." So hang on to your compass. For the foreseeable future, it should work as advertised.--Peter Tyson"

[Waco]

"If all the compasses started pointing south...." Hmm maybe that's the reason for all the dumbing down in school. These kids can barely tell time, much less read a compass!!! Hic!

[isom35]

the poles are gonna flip me off? I say "up yours, poles!"

[streetpreacher]

What did Bush know and when did he know it?!!

[Landru]

"Earth's magnetic poles on verge of flipping"

Maybe that explains the behavior of the Republicans.

...since they've already flipped.

[hosepipe]

Yeah yeah and the skys falling and prez Bush will O.K and pass the biggest socialist entitlement project in 40 years...lies ,... lies all of it...

I ain't buying it...

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

The real questions are :

When this happens will we all fall down ?
Should we wear knee and elbow pads ?
Should we lower the water to 6 iches deep in the fishtank ?
Will my CD player skip ?
Should safeguards be set in place inside toilets nationwide so that the water keeps turning in the correct direction after this world wide shake up ?
Will my cat hunt dogs instead of mice ?
Will whitney houston reveal the crack that is whack is actually plumbers crack and thats why bobby slapped her because hes not big enough to be the plumber she needs ?

[DonQ]

The poles have previously "flipped" but not the way some of these flying saucer types have described.

The strength of the two poles can be charted as strengthening and weakening in very long waves. The evidence for this includes the orientation of iron particles in ancient mud; the proportion of uniformity in the orientation of the particles reflects the strength of the magnetic force.

Over the course of MANY thousands of years, the magnetic force diminishes (the iron particles become more random), until it seems to disappear and then reappears slowly - but with "north" and "south" reversed, and this also peaks over thousands of years, then diminishes over thousands of years, and flips again.

This is normal, and does not involve any apocalyptic events. In our lifetime - and the lifetime of our greatgrandchildren - the change in the magnetic poles will be virtually undetectable except to the most refined lab equipment.

[DBrow]

This is the only "disaster" not made into a movie.

Now, don't anyone steal my idea cuz I have been working on a screenplay about geomagnetic field flipping.

A teenager starts dating this cute girl whose Dad is a scientist, who thinks the Earth's field might flip and kill all the birds (who navigate with little bits of magnetite in their brains, the truth, you know) and then there will be an explosion of the bug population that will eat all the wheat and avocados and then we'll all die, but other scientists don't believe him, except for his rival, who is trying to steal the files from his computer, and the US Army, who wants him to stop researching the topic for secret reasons of their own.

So anyhow, the kid has an idea of how to convince everybody so they will all learn how to rub bar magnets in a certain way (everybody on Earth has to do this at the same time, so education is important but the cute girl's dad has the details worked out), but first he has to rescue the girl from the scientist who is trying to steal the files, but not get caught by the Army, who is looking for the kid and the girl and the Dad, who is hiding in a cabin.

Are you with me so far? Oh yeah, the kid has to find a car too because his dad took the keys to the kid's car because he's grounded.

I'm still working on the plot...

[MississippiMan]

UH-OH. We shoulda elected Kerry. I hear he had a plan to fix this.

MM

[Happygal]

''on the verge of flipping''

Oooh, Mother Earth is having a period. Watch out! ;-)

[John Lenin]

Physicists say the average period between pole flips is about 200,000 years, and the last one is believed to have taken place 780,000 years ago, making the next swap long overdue.

Any minute now ...

[Jonx6]

Women and minorities hardest hit!

[SunkenCiv]

Sun's rays to roast Earth as poles flip
The Observer (U.K.) ^ | 11/10/2002 | Robin McKie
Posted on 11/09/2002 5:59:37 PM PST by Pokey78
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/786012/posts