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Solar Wind to Reach Earth In Few Days, Spark Auroral Activity
A dark coronal hole at the Sun center was captured in extreme ultraviolet light by National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) solar dynamics observatory on Jan. 10.
NASA
A dark coronoal hole at the Sun center was captured in extreme ultraviolet light by National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) solar dynamics observatory. As the Sun continues to rotate, the high speed solar wind particles blowing from this hole will likely reach Earth in a few days and may spark some auroral activity.
Coronal holes are areas of the Sun’s surface that are the source of open magnetic field lines that head way out into space. They are also the source regions of the fast solar wind, which is characterized by a relatively steady speed of about 800 kilometers per second.
As the Sun continues to rotate, the high speed solar wind particles blowing from this hole will likely reach Earth in a few days and may spark some auroral activity, according to NASA.
Here, the solar dynamics observatory detected a giant solar filament that became unstable and erupted from the far side of the Sun. A filament is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun’s surface, often in a loop shape. Some filaments break apart and give rise to coronal mass ejections.
Prediction: Read more…
Report: heavy growth in biometrics
The research firm MarketsandMarkets has released a new study of the biometrics marketplace that projects a heavy growth rate over the next four years. Advances in Biometric Technologies and Market Analysis breaks down the various modes of biometrics such as fingerprint, iris and facial and by regions such as North America, Asia and Europe.
Specifically, the report projects a compound annual growth rate of 21.6% between 2010 and 2015 which would result in a marketplace worth over $11 billion.
While the mode projected to have the largest share of the marketplace in 2015 is still fingerprint biometrics with a 19% growth rate, iris, vein and facial biometrics are expected to close their respective gaps with growth rates of 27.5%, 25.4% and 24.2%. Majority of the reasoning the authors are using for the expected booms in the marketplace are due to growing concerns for national security and the need for ID programs to deal with such concerns
1180 new snowfall records set in the USA this past week
It’s been a very busy week for snow and also for lowest max temperature, thanks to our El Nino induced weather patterns, while the Pacific Northwest is seeing warmer conditions, the southeast and eastern US gets lots of snow thanks to the pattern.
click for interactive source
Haiti: A year after the quake, waiting to rebuild
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The man’s body lay face down, his white dress shirt shining like wax in the sun, as he was unearthed in the ruins of a Port-au-Prince restaurant a year after the earthquake.
The bodies still being found in the rubble are a sign of how far Haiti must go to recover from a disaster that left the capital in ruins and is estimated to have killed more than 230,000 people.
In the days after the Jan. 12, 2010 disaster, volunteers and hundreds of aid groups flocked in with food, water and first aid that saved countless lives. But the effort to rebuild has been dwarfed by the extent of the need and a lack of leadership — both in Haiti and internationally.
President Rene Preval did not speak publicly for days after the quake, and many observers have criticized him for not spearheading a coherent reconstruction effort, or making the hard policy decisions needed to rebuild.
Still, advocacy groups also blame the Haitian government’s weakness on an international community that is not keeping its pledge of support.
“The international community has not done enough to support good governance and effective leadership in Haiti,” the aid group Oxfam said in a recent report. “Aid agencies continue to bypass local and national authorities in the delivery of assistance, while donors are not coordinating their actions or adequately consulting the Haitian people.”
Street markets were soon up and running after the quake and Port-au-Prince’s traffic is worse than ever. On Tuesday, Preval, his wife and other officials lay flowers at symbolic black crosses marking a mass grave outside the capital where hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims are buried.
But from the barren hillside, the destruction is clearly visible. The slogan “build back better,” touted by former President Bill Clinton and others, remains an unfulfilled promise.
Less than 5 percent of the debris has been cleared, leaving enough to fill dump trucks parked bumper to bumper halfway around the world. In the broken building where the dead man was discovered last week, workers hired to clear rubble by hand found two other people’s Read more…
Empty Store Shelves Coming to America
The National Inflation Association today issued a warning to all Americans that empty store shelves will likely be coming to America as a result of government price controls during the upcoming hyperinflationary crisis. This morning, NIA released a video preview of what hyperinflation will look like in the U.S. This extremely important must see video is now available on NIA’s video page.
NIA’s six-minute video released today goes into detail about an event that took place just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in May of this year. This story was widely ignored by the nationwide mainstream media, but NIA believes it was one of the most important news events of the first half of 2010. Although this particular crisis in Boston was due to decaying infrastructure, NIA believes a currency crisis will lead to the same type of panic on a nationwide basis.
NIA hopes that this video serves as a wake-up call for Americans to take the necessary steps to prepare for hyperinflation and become educated about the U.S. economy. In Zimbabwe during hyperinflation, Zimbabweans were forced to transact in gold and silver. It’s only a matter of time before the U.S. dollar becomes worthless and the only Americans with wealth will be those who own Read more…
Snow in 49 states including Hawaii
The idea of 50 states with snow is so strange that the federal office that collects weather statistics doesn’t keep track of that number and can’t say whether it has ever happened. The office can’t even say whether 49 out of 50 has ever taken place before.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – According to national news sources, it is snowing in 49 states across the country including Hawaii where snow has fallen atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island.
Florida is the only state without fresh snow.
This shot of the mountain was submitted by Adrel Vicente via our Connect Now photos on Jan. 8.
Submit your photos at Hawaiinewsnow.com
Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states
After big snow and ice events in the Southeast, Plains, and Midwest this week, 49 out of the 50 states currently have snow on the ground – yes, even Hawaii, where snow falls in Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea all winter.
The only state that has avoided this icy blast is Florida. Does that make you want to go on a nice, warm vacation to the Sunshine State? You’re not alone.
Put another way, that means snow is present in 69.4 percent of the lower 48, which is more than double than December. This is extremely unusual, though it’s hard to put a date on when this last happened because records aren’t kept on this kind of event.
The National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center combines ground reports and images from satellites in space to determine how much of the country is covered in snow. That’s what you see in the image above. The images tell how deep and widespread the snow is, and that’s important not only for images like this one, but also for computer weather models, which use the data to generate accurate forecasts. Such forecasts were very useful in predicting this week’s winter storms.
Gold Could Have Seen Its 2011 Low
Gold could have already seen it’s low for the year when it dipped to $1,353/oz Friday, before rebounding after the weaker-than-expected U.S. non-farm payrolls data. “With the U.S. economy recovering slower than expected, and worries over (sovereign debt problems in) the euro-zone back on the front line, it seems that we have seen the year low,” says MKS Finance. Spot gold is at $1,371.20/oz, up $1.40 since Friday’s New York close.
World’s Richest Man Enters the Silver Market
Here’s some juicy stock market RAW to kick off 2011 – Carlos Slim Helú, the world’s richest man is looking to enter the silver market in a big way.
And that big way, according to KingWorldNews, is a bid for Fresnillo, the Mexican based mining company that is poised to become the world’s biggest silver producer.
Northeast Braces for Powerful Snowstorm That Paralyzed South
A major snowstorm that paralyzed much of the South is expected to hit the Northeast on Tuesday, possibly dumping more than a foot of snow in regions still digging out from recent storms.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for New York City from Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon, calling for the city and its suburbs to get between 6 and 12 inches. Forecasters also predicted up to 8 inches in Philadelphia, while parts of Massachusetts could see 18 inches.
The storm will produce near-blizzard conditions with frigid temperatures, MyFoxBoston.com reports, and is expected to fall heavily, at a rate of 1 to 3 inches an hour. The Weather Channel also reports that storm systems from the South and Midwest are expected to merge.
The wintry blast, which pounded the South on Sunday and Monday, sent cars sliding off the road, emptied grocery shelves and had officials nervously watching ice-laden powerlines and tree limbs.
Snow ranging from several inches to more than a foot blanketed states from Louisiana to the Carolinas — a region where many cities have only a handful of snowplows, if any. And more misery was on the way: The snow began turning to freezing rain in numerous areas, and low temperatures threatened to turn roads that may have thawed icy overnight.
“I had God with me this morning!” Yolanda Hill, manager of a Shell station north of Columbia, S.C., said of her drive to work. “I drove in the middle of the street, but, hey, I’m here.”
Freezing rain followed the snow in many spots, turning major highways into ice rinks and coating pine trees and power lines.
“If you’re off the main roads, it’s a skating rink, Read more…
The Future of Food Riots
This is a map of the countries in which there have been food riots
If all the food in the world were shared out evenly, there would be enough to go around.
That has been true for centuries now: if food was scarce, the problem was that it wasn’t in the right place, but there was no global shortage. However, that will not be true much longer.
The food riots began in Algeria more than a week ago, and they are going to spread. During the last global food shortage in 2008, there was serious rioting in Mexico, Indonesia, and Egypt. We may expect to see that again this time, only bigger and more widespread.
Most people in these countries live in a cash economy, and a large proportion live in cities. They buy their food, they don’t grow it.
That makes them very vulnerable, because they have to eat almost as much as people in rich countries do, but their incomes are much lower.
The poor, urban multitudes in these countries (including China and India) spend up to half of their income on food, compared to only about 10 percent in the rich countries. When food prices soar, these people quickly find that they simply lack the money to go on feeding themselves and their children properly—and food prices now are at an all-time high.
“We are entering a danger territory,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, chief economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization, on January 5.
The price of a basket of cereals, oils, dairy, meat, and sugar that reflects global consumption patterns has risen steadily for six months. It has just broken through the previous record, set during the last food panic in June 2008.
“There is still room for prices to go up much higher,” Abbassian added, “if, for example, the dry conditions in Read more…
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