Massive Solar Storm Headed Toward Earth

The sun erupted on Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth between 1am and 5am EST on Thursday March 8, 2012 (2pm and 6pm Singapore time), according to forecasters at the United States government's Space Weather Prediction Center.


More information available at:

CNET
The Straits Times

Quake moved Earth's axis

The Chilean quake shifted the Earth's axis by even more than the 9.1-magnitude temblor off Indonesia that set off the deadly tsunami in Asia in 2004, Gross worked out. — PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON - THE powerful earthquake that shook Chile on Saturday probably shifted the Earth's axis and made days slightly shorter, a Nasa scientist said.

Dr Richard Gross, a research scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, calculated that the planet's axis would have shifted by 8cm during the 8.8 magnitude quake, Nasa said in a statement.

Earth days are 24 hours long because that's the amount of time it takes the planet to make one full rotation on its axis, so shifting the axis would affect rotation.
If, indeed, the planet's axis did shift by eight centimeters during the Chilean quake, days would have shortened by 1.26 microseconds, Dr Gross calculated. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second, so there is no need to adjust watches just yet.

The Chilean quake shifted the Earth's axis by even more than the 9.1-magnitude temblor off Indonesia that set off the deadly tsunami in Asia in 2004, Dr Gross worked out.

That's partly because the faultline responsible for the earthquake in Chile 'dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake' and is more effective at moving Earth's mass vertically and shifting the planet's axis. The 2004 quake in Asia caused the Earth to move by around 7cm and chopped an estimated 6.8 microseconds off the length of a day, Nasa said. — AFP

Saving the Earth is Difficult

Go green. Use fan rather than air-con. Save the earth!

This is easier said than done. For the last two nights, I have been without air-con because it was down, and I have not been sleeping well, very much like a panda with dark rings around my eyes at this time.

In reality, all of us have grown too dependent on conveniences offered by the world, and this dependency has come to the point of no return. We cannot live without conveniences, and all the more so with global warming, because it is quite impossible to do anything enthusiastically without the comfort of air-conditioning these days. Green proponents have suggested slowing down the process by taking actions to go eco-friendly, but in reality, it is quite impossible. What can we really do or how much can we do to save the earth by going eco-friendly?

Take Singapore for example. Once a month, the supermarkets do away with plastic bags, and business is NO longer as usual. This is by no means the fault of consumers. While the green proponents suggest consumers to do away with plastic bags, they appear to forget that near each HDB rubbish chute is a sign that states, 'Please bag your waste before throwing'. How can anybody expect consumers to do away with plastic bags if they are expected to put their waste into plastic bags before throwing down the rubbish chute? Unless someone can offer a better alternative or a solution, propositions to quit using plastic bags are of no use to anyone.

Maybe you have something to say about this? Let me know what you think. Share your thoughts here.