Solar Superstorm Could ‘Wipe Out the Internet’ for Weeks or Months, Scientist Says
Professor Peter Becker is working with a team whose goal is to create an early warning system for dangerous solar activity that could damage critical technology.
We may marvel at the Northern Lights, but that same solar storm energy could one day create what one researcher described as an "internet apocalypse."
"The internet has come of age during a time when the sun has been relatively quiet, and now it's entering a more active time," said Professor Peter Becker of George Mason University. "It's the first time in human history that there's been an intersection of increased solar activity with our dependence on the internet and our global economic dependence on the internet."
Becker is the lead investigator on a project with the school and the Naval Research Laboratory to create an early warning system.
"There have been a lot of (solar) flares," Becker said. "Flares are when the sun brightens, and we see the radiation, and that's kind of the muzzle flash. And then the cannon shot is the coronal mass ejection (CME). So, we can see the flash, but then the coronal mass ejection can go off in some random direction in space, but we can tell when they're actually going to head towards Earth. And that gives us about 18 hours of warning, maybe 24 hours of warning, before those particles actually get to Earth and start messing with Earth's magnetic field."
Large blobs of plasma, or superheated matter, fly through space in a CME. A percentage hit the Earth, which distorts our planet's magnetic field. That third prong on the electric plug, which usually gives excess electrical charges a safe place to go, becomes "like a big electrical circuit."
It has happened before
It has happened before. Becker points to the Carrington Event in 1859. That was the last time a CME reached Earth.
"It actually took out the telegraph system, sparks were literally flying off the telegraph lines," Becker said. "Some operators got electrocuted because the wires ended up carrying high voltage, which they were never supposed to do, but the magnetic field variations became so strong it almost became a generator system and drove these currents down telegraph wires."
The heavy-duty wires of the telegraph were robust compared to the fragile electronics of today, he said.
🔗Source: Fox Weather
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Police in Winona Minnesota are stunned after every single one of their Flock cameras were suddenly removed in a single night.
According to the police department, all 8 of the town's cameras were cut down and hauled away.
Police are asking for the public's help to identify the individual, but the public has been responding with comments such as:
"The Flock cameras tore themselves down"
"Whoever did it, was fishing with me"
"Whoever it was, was at Bible study with me"
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Nearly 20,000 people are publicly vouching for a man accused of cutting down Flock cameras in a small West Virginia town.
People commented:
"He was saving my neighbor's dog from a fire all day, couldn't be him."
"This man is innocent. I saw him serving at a soup kitchen."
-"Couldn't be him. He was helping me replace the roof on a homeless shelter."
The man, Wesley Jackson, has pleaded Not Guilty.
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US diesel crack surpasses $100 a barrel for the first time on supply disruptions
... and the supply of refined fuels is already nearly exhausted. A hard landing is visible ahead, for farmers, for trucking, and ... well, for everything that requires food (people) and energy (the entire economy).
These are very likely the final days of relative normalcy during which to prepare. Get ready.
🌾 🌍 🚜 JPMorgan warns a massive global food supply crisis could begin next year as fertilizer shortages tighten agricultural supply.
JPMorgan is the latest institutional research desk to warn that the next global food crisis may already be taking shape, driven by what its analysts describe as the "Five Ws": War, Weather, Warehousing, Water, and Waste.
In a new report titled Food Security Is National Security: A Compounding Storm, a team led by London-based senior global economist Nora Szentivanyi warned that disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and the emergence of a potentially historic El Niño could weaken crop yields, constrain agricultural production, and keep food inflation elevated through the first half of 2027.
"Successive shocks since COVID have compounded, eroding food production capacity and keeping food price pressures elevated into 2027," Szentivanyi said, warning that "this is not a short-lived shock; it has reduced the likelihood of near-term disinflation, and the food ...