GLOBAL PROBLEMS

Sun points a loaded gun at us

NASA / SDO

An “intensitygram” from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the double-barreled sunspot active region 1416 pointing toward Earth.

As solar activity builds toward an expected peak in 2013, a double-barreled sunspot has been doubling in size over the past couple of days and now has the potential to shoot significant eruptions in our direction.

It’s not certain that active region 1416 will erupt with coronal mass ejections as violent as the blasts that were thrown off by the sun late last month. But it has developed a mixed “beta-gamma” magnetic field that packs enough energy to throw off medium-scale solar flares, SpaceWeather.com reports.

“Any such eruptions this weekend would be Earth-directed as the sunspot turns to face our planet,” SpaceWeather’s Tony Phillips wrote.

Medium-size M-class flares are generally associated with the kinds of solar storms that produce enhanced auroral lights, but not huge inconveniences on Earth. It’s the X-class flares you really have to watch out for: That level of solar storming could affect radio communications as well as satellites and electrical grids if the operators of those systems aren’t careful.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have a wide array of space assets monitoring the sun, and for now all’s quiet on the solar front. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center reported some problems tracking the Advanced Composition Explorer, a satellite that plays a key role in tracking solar storms, but those problems are expected to go away as ACE’s orientation with respect to the sun improves.

NASA / ESA / SOHO / NOAA

The heart-shaped coronal mass ejection can be seen at about the 10 o’clock position on this image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

The prediction center’s Facebook page reports that on Friday, the sun threw off a slow-moving coronal mass ejection, or CME — in the shape of a heart, no less. “A preliminary model run predicts this CME will arrive, appropriately enough, on Valentine’s Day,” NOAA reports. So if you’re out with your Valentine that night, particularly in Scandinavia or Canada, watch the skies. Even if the earth doesn’t move, the aurora might glow.

Meanwhile, the sunspot region that caused all the auroral fireworks last month, known as AR1402, has moved around the far side of the sun. Solar scientists will be interested to see how that region has changed when it comes back into view. We’re still a year out from the anticipated peak in the sun’s 11-year activity cycle, so there’ll be lots of sun-watching ahead. The best ways to keep track on a daily basis is to check in with NOAA’s space weather center and SpaceWeather.com.

Research into more deadly strain of bird flu suspended over fears for potential spread

Research into more deadly strain of bird flu suspended over fears for potential spread
2012 01 23

By Meghan Keneally | DailyMail.co.uk

A group of scientists have suspended their research about a more-deadly strain of the bird flu because of massive objections to the study itself.
The scientists in question altered the strands of the H5N1 bird flu, of which there have been 600 cases and 300 fatalities since its discovery in 1997, to make an even more deadly version in hopes of learning key details about the evolution and development of pandemics.

Explosive Words: US media first to bomb Iran

America’s mainstream media is being accused of playing with fire for playing-up the prospect of war, between Iran and the West. It’s a sensitive time with the military stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz, and looming sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program. But, as Gayane Chichakyan reports, viewers in the States are repeatedly hearing how war is virtually inescapable.

The Euro Circus Continues: S&P downgrades France, Italy, Spain, 6 others

From: usatoday.com

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the government debt of France, Austria, Italy and Spain, but maintained Germany’s at the coveted “AAA” level.

The cuts, which eliminated France and Austria’s triple-A status, deal a heavy blow to the currency union’s ability to fight off a worsening debt crisis. In total, S&P cut its ratings on nine eurozone countries.

France and Austria both dropped one notch to AA+. Italy was lowered by two notches to BBB+ from A, and Spain fell to A from AA-. Portugal and Cyprus also dropped two notches. The agency also cut ratings on Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The downgrades come as crucial talks on cutting Greece’s massive debt pile appeared close to collapse Friday.

Obama Signs Defense Bill Despite “Serious Reservations” (Yeah, Right)

By Michael McAuliff | HuffingtonPost.com

Indefinite military detention of Americans became the law of the land Saturday, as President Barack Obama signed a defense bill that codified that authority, even as he said he would not use it.

The National Defense Authorization Act states how the military is to be funded, but also includes a number of controversial provisions on arresting and holding suspected terrorists, which at first drove Obama to threaten a veto.

He retreated from that threat after Congress added provisions that took the ultimate authority to detain suspects from the military’s hands and gave it to the president. Congress also clarified that civilian law enforcement agencies — such as the FBI — would still have authority to investigate terrorism and added a provision that asserts nothing in the detention measures changes current law regarding U.S. citizens.

A second Iranian nuclear facility has exploded, as diplomatic tensions rise between the West and Tehran

A second Iranian nuclear facility has exploded, as diplomatic tensions rise between the West and Tehran
2011 12 01

From: theaustralian.com

An Iranian nuclear facility has been hit by a huge explosion, the second such blast in a month, prompting speculation that Tehran’s military and atomic sites are under attack.

Medvedev threatens US over missile shield

Russia’s president said country would deploy missiles to target the shield in Europe if the US fails to provide guarantees

Russia’s president has threatened to deploy missiles to target the US missile shield in Europe if Washington fails to give a legal guarantee that it will not be aimed against country’s nuclear forces.

Column of the Day: What’s happening in Fukushima?

US: Pentagon Under Fire Over War Contracts

© Agence France-Presse
US soldiers gather near a destroyed vehicle and protect their faces from rotor wash, as their wounded comrades are airlifted by a Medevac helicopter in Kandahar on August 23. The Pentagon has wasted more than $30 billion on contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan due to shoddy management and a lack of competition, an independent inquiry said Monday

The Pentagon has wasted more than $30 billion on contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan due to shoddy management and a lack of competition, an independent inquiry said Monday.

CERN Experiment Confirms Cosmic Rays Influence Clouds – Global Warming Next?

CERN Experiment Confirms Cosmic Rays Influence Clouds – Global Warming Next?
2011 08 29

By Andrew Orlowski | TheRegister.co.uk

CERN’s 8,000 scientists may not be able to find the hypothetical Higgs boson, but they have made an important contribution to climate physics, prompting climate models to be revised.

The first results from the lab’s CLOUD (“Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets”) experiment published in Nature today confirm that cosmic rays spur the formation of clouds through ion-induced nucleation. Current thinking posits that half of the Earth’s clouds are formed through nucleation. The paper is entitled Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation.