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Showing posts from January, 2008

Solar Cycle 24 Has Begun

For anyone geeky enough to care, NOAA is reporting that Solar Cycle 24 has begun (as of Jan 4th). This means that solar activity (storms, flares, wind etc.) is now on the up-swing. The solar activity maximum is expected around 2011/2012. For anyone that doesn't know solar storms can seriously mess with our little planet by disrupting satellite communications, power grids ( MTL 1989 ), etc. For all the latest greatest on astronomical events which might affect us check out spaceweather.com .

I hate the Forward button - One Day Gas Boycotts

Well it's a New Year so I'm going to start with a new rant. I hate the forward button, I understand it's place in the evolution of email etc. but it seems that the only time I hear from certain relatives is when they're taken in by a stupid forward/chain email they got. This time of year there seems to be a reoccurring one suggesting that people should refrain from purchasing gas on a particular day. You know the email, I'm sure you've seen it. Basically it states that if everyone refuses to buy gas on a certain date it will cost the oil/gas companies so many 10s of millions to billions of dollars. Here's a few reasons why these forwards/chain mails are complete stupidity. The calculations are always wrong. 1) Yes, there are ~33.3million Canadians, but guess what? NOT ALL OF THEM DRIVE. Even if we assume the entire population between 15 and 64 drives that's only ~23million. Now what happens to that ~23million if we remove say 10% for public transit, 10%