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Report: Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months
Fox News ^ | January 08, 2009 | Robert Roy Britt

Posted on 01/08/2009 4:57:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

A new study from the National Academy of Sciences outlines grim possibilities on Earth for a worst-case scenario solar storm.

Damage to power grids and other communications systems could be catastrophic, the scientists conclude, with effects leading to a potential loss of governmental control of the situation.

The prediction is based in part on major solar storm in 1859 caused telegraph wires to short out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires.

It was perhaps the worst in the past 200 years, according to the new study, and with the advent of modern power grids and satellites, much more is at risk.

"A contemporary repetition of the [1859] event would cause significantly more extensive (and possibly catastrophic) social and economic disruptions," the researchers conclude.

When the sun is in the active phase of its 11-year cycle, it can unleash powerful magnetic storms that disable satellites, threaten astronaut safety, and even disrupt communication systems on Earth.

The worst storms can knock out power grids by inducing currents that melt transformers.

Modern power grids are so interconnected that a big space storm — the type expected to occur about once a century — could cause a cascade of failures that would sweep across the United States, cutting power to 130 million people or more in this country alone, the new report concludes.

Such widespread power outages, though expected to be a rare possibility, would affect other vital systems.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; economy; obama; solarflares
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To: mark3681

“Cycle 24 is late and that’s why it’s getting so cold all around the world”
“Well, if the sun is anything like my wife...”
- - -
Is your wife late?
Uh-oh!


61 posted on 01/08/2009 6:04:15 PM PST by Repeal The 17th
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To: Repeal The 17th

“Is your wife late?”

Always.


62 posted on 01/08/2009 6:05:57 PM PST by mark3681
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To: fanfan

The term “people” does not include freepers, who are much better informed than the rest of the sheep ^_^


63 posted on 01/08/2009 6:11:08 PM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: Tarpon
The term “people” does not include freepers, who are much better informed than the rest of the sheep ^_^

LOL, I stand corrected.

64 posted on 01/08/2009 6:13:04 PM PST by fanfan (Update on Constitutional Crisis in Canada.....Click user name)
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To: AFreeBird

It’s more believable that those amazing works were done on an etch-a-sketch than those other perfectly straight diagonal roof lines.


65 posted on 01/08/2009 6:13:57 PM PST by ETL (Smoking gun evidence on ALL the ObamaRat-commie connections at my newly revised FR Home/About page)
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To: ETL
It’s more believable that those amazing works were done on an etch-a-sketch than those other perfectly straight diagonal roof lines.

Aww, we got an Art Critic here now :)

Anyways, as soon as the Earthquake hits, the Etch-A-Sketch picture will fade quickly before disappearing completely ... then nobody will care if the lines are(were?) perfectly straight or not! After all, this is a gloom-and-doom thread, isn't it ???

/laughs

66 posted on 01/08/2009 6:22:33 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Been to MENSA meetings.

I can promise you there is no one there looking like that.

67 posted on 01/08/2009 6:34:48 PM PST by justlurking (The only remedy for a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.)
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To: Waco
In the 60’s there was lot of debate over tying all the power grids together, naturally the libs were all for it.

Yep, that concept worked out well ...

Northeast Blackout of 1965

New York City blackout of 1977

Northeast Blackout of 2003

68 posted on 01/08/2009 6:38:29 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Billthedrill

“Screw these guys - I can FReep in the dark”!

Oh, well said, LOL. That should be a tagline for someone.

Love it.


69 posted on 01/08/2009 6:44:36 PM PST by alarm rider ("Father, let me dedicate all this year to thee". Lawrence Tuttiett (1825-1897))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

While the sun is in a lull now, activity can flare up at any moment...

That’s almost what it says on a box of Preparation-H


70 posted on 01/08/2009 6:48:49 PM PST by UglyinLA
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Wow. I still remember when all of those planes fell out of the sky when 2000 arrived.
71 posted on 01/08/2009 6:52:44 PM PST by ditto h
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To: Pylon

>>Don’t worry, the Yellowstone volcano will kill us all first.

LOL

I love an optimist


72 posted on 01/08/2009 6:57:22 PM PST by Taffini (Mr. Pippin and Mr. Waffles do not approve)
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To: Pylon

>>Don’t worry, the Yellowstone volcano will kill us all first.

LOL

I love an optimist


73 posted on 01/08/2009 6:57:40 PM PST by Taffini (Mr. Pippin and Mr. Waffles do not approve)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
STOP ANTHROPOGENIC SOLAR FLARING NOW!

All those SUV alternators and AC generators at power plants have added to the earth's magnetic balance, and that is forcing the sun to create more, and more powerful, flares.

If we don't ban SUVs and coal plants NOW, it then becomes a race of whether we cook from AGW, or are flared to death by ASFs!

This message brought to you by Luddites For Bare Survival (L4BS)

74 posted on 01/08/2009 6:57:40 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Islam: a Satanically Transmitted Disease, spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus.)
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To: MarkeyD
It always bugged me when on Star Trek they would be having space battles, and the control panels on the bridge would just spontaneously combust.

You thisnk that's bad?

They had to completely rewire the poor submarine, Seaview, every week on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.


75 posted on 01/08/2009 7:11:03 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Islam: a Satanically Transmitted Disease, spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus.)
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Comment #76 Removed by Moderator

To: ETL
So whatever obtuse (straight) lines in those pictures don't compare? Take note again of the stadium in the background of the second pic.

As for the diagonals, doable, but very tedious. And no, I don't, would never have, the patience to do one.

Oddly enough, there are those that do. Go figure.

77 posted on 01/08/2009 7:13:52 PM PST by AFreeBird
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To: justlurking

I could join tomorrow, but I hear it’s Nerd Central.


78 posted on 01/08/2009 7:17:15 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet ("Don't confuse what you got a right to do with what's right to do." Bill Bennett)
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To: cyborg

my wife keeps my beeber in a box on her night stand


79 posted on 01/08/2009 7:20:24 PM PST by al baby (Hi mom Mr. Obama, are you aware that Sarah Palin took on her own partyÂ’s establishment in Alaska a)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Does this mean we put on extra SUN BLOCK for our annual trip to Disney World????!!!!


80 posted on 01/08/2009 7:29:32 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo (Worshipping @ the Feet of "W": A Basic Anathema To The Spirt & Tradition of Basic, Core CONSERVATISM)
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