Reply to: Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDXXII

[NickFitz]

• The Magnetic Field Is Shifting. The Poles May Flip. This Could Get Bad. - Alanna Mitchell summarises her forthcoming book The Spinning Magnet: "We know that the poles have changed places hundreds of times, most recently 780,000 years ago. We also know that when they flip next time, the consequences for the electrical and electronic infrastructure that runs modern civilization will be dire. The question is when that will happen."

NatGeo have a "Don't Panic!" article in response to this, though of course they could be in the pay of Big Magnet: No, We're Not All Doomed by Earth's Magnetic Field Flip

[d000hg]

I don't think the whole shebang hauls it way round bodily by 180 degrees, as you may be mentally envisaging it, so there's a possibly problematic time when the poles are at or near the equator and those bad particles are getting through in equatorial and temperate latitudes while this is going on.

What actually happens is that new "poles" spring up, possibly several. Initially these are weak, and the overall magnetic field "messy", but over time they gradually build in strength and eventually two new polar opposites predominate. Meanwhile the present poles weaken and falter until they subside entirely.

Yeah, I viewed it more like the field collapsing and re-growing, like falling through itself, rather than rotating. It seems like it just goes all wibbly-wobbly for a bit

[OwlHoot]

Great links this week!

On the poles - I have read about this before but what I haven't seen is an idea how long pole-reversal takes? In geological terms the poles 'flip' as the geological records show... but how long could we be without a strong and stable Tory leader magnetic field to repel nasty particles?

I don't think the whole shebang hauls it way round bodily by 180 degrees, as you may be mentally envisaging it, so there's a possibly problematic time when the poles are at or near the equator and those bad particles are getting through in equatorial and temperate latitudes while this is going on.

What actually happens is that new "poles" spring up, possibly several. Initially these are weak, and the overall magnetic field "messy", but over time they gradually build in strength and eventually two new polar opposites predominate. Meanwhile the present poles weaken and falter until they subside entirely.

[WTFH]

Great links this week!

On the poles - I have read about this before but what I haven't seen is an idea how long pole-reversal takes? In geological terms the poles 'flip' as the geological records show... but how long could we be without a strong and stable Tory leader magnetic field to repel nasty particles?

Allegedly between 1,000 and 20,000 years:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...magnetic-flip/

My question about the concerns is: How many of mankind's modern magnetic-based directional systems are absolute, and how many are relative?
Yes, where a magnetic-based location is overlayed on a map (e.g. car sat nav) which is designed with the magnetic co-ordinates as key, then there'll be an issue, but if you have an aircraft, it is dialling in waypoints, not based on a "map", but on relative magnetic locations

[d000hg]

Great links this week!

On the poles - I have read about this before but what I haven't seen is an idea how long pole-reversal takes? In geological terms the poles 'flip' as the geological records show... but how long could we be without a strong and stable Tory leader magnetic field to repel nasty particles?

[woohoo]

I was thinking about the midges thing. It'd be like the scene in Aliens with the autoturrets, the lasers would probably burn out then the humans would be sucked dry in "punishment".

I may have too much time on my hands today...

I did briefly think about a robot arm with a some kind of device to either swat or suck in a bitey fly. It would sit next to you when you are outside and just kill the bitey thing. But robot arms are really slow unless you pay tens of thousands.

The misses told me to go and make something else that would make us rich. She isn't a visionary like me.

[craig1]

I would pay to watch that, I hate midges, flies and bitey things.

I was thinking about the midges thing. It'd be like the scene in Aliens with the autoturrets, the lasers would probably burn out then the humans would be sucked dry in "punishment".

I may have too much time on my hands today...

[OwlHoot]

I would pay to watch that, I hate midges, flies and bitey things.

They're good food for bats though. (Found a hibernating bat in one of my bedrooms last weekend! )

So based on my last visit to Scotland, I assume there are about as many bats there as snakes in Ireland

[woohoo]

Could you imagine the fun of having that built and seeing your first mosquito zapped? Imagine the tears of joy if you installed one by a Scottish loch and watched it massacre a swarm of midges?

I would pay to watch that, I hate midges, flies and bitey things.

[craig1]

I seem to have come across a lot of science- and technology-related stuff this week, which will at least keep a certain orang-utan happy

• Your Candy Wrappers are Listening - Very cool, if rather unnerving, technique for carrying out audio surveillance: "The first time Abe Davis coaxed intelligible speech from a silent video of a bag of crab chips (an impassioned recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) he could hardly believe it was possible. Davis is a Ph.D. candidate at MIT, and his group’s image processing algorithm can turn everyday objects into visual microphones—deciphering the tiny vibrations they undergo as captured on video."
  
  

Happy invoicing!

I'm an IEEE member and the Spectrum mag is a must-read for me when it comes out. It often has articles that are adult professional versions of the type of stuff we saw on Tomorrow's World, they just grab your attention and make engineers want to go "I want a go at making that!"

My all-time favourite IEEE Spectrum article is Backyard Star Wars.

Could you imagine the fun of having that built and seeing your first mosquito zapped? Imagine the tears of joy if you installed one by a Scottish loch and watched it massacre a swarm of midges?

[quackhandle]

Good links. I remember SQL Slammer. My last permy job, I'd patched all the hosts on a shared SQL Box or the ones that paid us to do that. SP3a I think.

Many of the clients were "It's all right, we'll look after our servers, don't need to pay you to do that.

Queue Slammer worm...

Client "Erm, our databases are not working. Nothing is working."

Me: "Oh. I thought you were patching them yourselves, so you didn't pay us to do it. Do you have backups?"

Client:..................................



I did have a chuckle.

qh

[BR14]

Thank you Nick, you deserve a

"WOO HOO"

oh and good tip about MetaFilter, especially enjoyed the article on unicode one letter domains, I was quite close to getting my wallet out.

is THAT where all those moths came from???

[woohoo]

Thank you Nick, you deserve a

"WOO HOO"

oh and good tip about MetaFilter, especially enjoyed the article on unicode one letter domains, I was quite close to getting my wallet out.

[PhiltheGreek]

"The Poles May Flip"

They'll probably go after the Germans first though, we should be ok.

[NickFitz]

Linking to yourself on Monday Links?

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