and now that whole thing too that comes to mind is the prediction of o  
the world is going to end in 2012, again, ,not likely to happen.  you  
know sometimew I wonder, where in blazes do they get these predictions  
from, because logicly, you would have to have a source that would  
cause you to make a prediction of sourts I'd think, given the way that  
it's being predicted, the volosity, ,and the fear as one can easily  
document that it is putting others in.  I wonder how many of you have  
had the question of, are the predictions worth reading, or is there  
some tactic to get us to fear.  the way I look at it is this, think  
what you may, but if half the predictions that people came up with  
were logical, they'd have happened.  Hope that sheds some light on the  
subject.
Brandon Hennis, KC0USM
skype:
Cuddleybear1986
On Feb 17, 2011, at 10:58 AM, Ron Canazzi wrote:

> Hi Martin,
>
> Good to see a bit of perspective on this issue.  In 1989, there was a
> serious issue with a sever solar storm.  But time has not stood  
> still since
> then.  More recently launched satellites have been hardened to  
> withstand
> greater solar activity.   Some though certainly not all power grids  
> have
> been strengthened against such events.  Anything is possible.  We  
> could walk
> out the door tomorrow and one of us could theoretically be hit on  
> the head
> by a meteorite large enough to kill us.  I wouldn't waste time  
> worrying
> about it.
>
> Just think of all the things predicted in the past several decades  
> that
> didn't happen.
>
> In 1970, The Late Great Planet Earth predicted  the tribulation and  
> end of
> the age by 1988; didn't happen but made Hal Lindsey several tens of  
> millions
> of dollars.
> In 1989, Father Malachi martin assured us that a blaming bolloid would
> strike the earth on or about June 28, and destroy civilization--evil  
> for its
> acceptance of homosexuality (we weren't burning them at the stake in  
> 1989)
>
> Heaven's gate, Jonestown, ETC. ETC. and so on.
>
> And then there was y2k; enough said!
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Martin McCormick" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 12:31 PM
> Subject: Solar flare and Calamities, Not So Fast!
>
>
> I read the link recently posted about the Solar flare. It is
> pretty good, but we should be careful about dire warnings. We
> have had bad Solar storms in the past and they did, in fact,
> disrupt some power and telecommunications systems but it is more
> likely to be annoying and frustrating than disastrous. Some
> Solar storms disrupt the Earth's magnetic field and make it seem
> to move around. The huge Solar storm in 1989 actually caused
> magnetic compasses in the North Sea to be off by as much as 5
> degrees which made Petrobium operations in the North Sea stop
> for a while.
>
> What can happen when the magnetic field varies is that
> long runs of wire such as telephone and electrical cables start
> to behave like generators. One would see low DC voltages at high
> currents begin to ebb and flow in the wires. It is possible to
> reach several amps of what might look like DC on the wire. The
> current would rise and fall and reverse polarity so you could
> really call it an ultra-low-frequency alternating current.
>
> A really bad thing that would not immediately be
> apparent is that electrical currents would also try to flow in
> long pipelines under ground and water and those currents would cause
> electrolysis of the metal which could eventually lead to early
> failure.
>
> As for 2012, the only Solar disturbances we can predict
> are the ones we just had. In other words, we can't predict
> individual events ten minutes from now much less a year.
>
> As for those big currents in long wires, they are more
> likely to occur in the far North and the far South as
> geomagnetic disturbances cause more disruption in Polar regions
> than they do in most of the world.
>
> The power systems that have been effected suffered
> interesting failures such as tripped breakers and maybe even the
> magnetic saturation of the iron cores in power transformers, but
> they were able to restore power eventually.
>
> I am saying, annoying and possibly expensive, yes but
> cataclysmic ending of civilization, not likely.
>
> Martin