The New York Times On Earth's Magnetic Flip-Flop

TolkiEinstein writes "The New York Times reports that, relatively speaking, compasses may soon point South. It's long been known that Earth flips magnetically every half-million years or so, and, with the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent [less than] its strength of 150 years ago, many geologists feel a flip is coming up. Computer simulations also suggest that the current state of the magnetic field is indicative of an upcoming flip. Though it would take hundreds of years to complete, the impact on life may be significant but not catastrophic, including phenomena such as power-outages, satellite malfunctions and disruptions in the rhythmic functions of some animals such as loggerhead turtles. The EU plans to launch a trio of satellites in 2009 to assume polar orbits & monitor the field." (Cross your fingers for some nice solar wind.) Update: 07/13 17:02 GMT by T : Note: the summary here originally misstated the Times' article; the field 's strength has decreased 10-15 percent, rather than to 10-15 percent.

Bush's fault

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure this is Bush's fault, somehow, according to the left. I'm waiting for Peter Jennings to blame this one on Bush.

I for one..

[caston]

I for one welcome myself as part of the new Australian overlords...

Turtles

[Lord_Dweomer]

"and disruptions in the rhythmic functions of some animals such as loggerhead turtles. "

Could they have possibly picked a more random animal for that example?

And won't someone please think of the turtles?!?!?!?!?!

In Other News

[deutschemonte]

Dr. Evil has launched several satellites to orbit the polls to harness the energy of the magnetic flop and create a death ray capable of destroying mankind.

All to extort the wealthiest nations on the planet for...one MILLION dollars.

magnetic disks

[psyklopz]

I had my homework al done, but the magnetic poles flipped and wiped my harddrive...

Re:I for one..

[Anonymous Coward]

Yay! We won't be at the "arse end of the world" any more (to quote former PM, Paul Keating)

flapper's delight

[Anonymous Coward]

Flip to the flop and the beat don't stop.

Re:Hollywood Blockbuster?

[Flyboy Connor]

And of course in true Hollywood fashion they'll toss science out of the window for the sake of a better film.

Rephrase this: "...for the sake of more special effects."

Donate Fridge Magnets Now!

[G4from128k]

What if we all donated spare refrigerator magnets, magnets from old hard disks, etc. and carefully arranged them at the north and south poles. These giant piles would hold the poles in place. Perhaps a lucky chain letter spam from Bill Gates would help get people to donate magnets to the cause.

Re:Turtles

[kfg]

Could they have possibly picked a more random animal for that example?

You're just more interested in the effect this will have on the CPIP. If there were a LTIP you'd think of the turtles a bit more yourself.

KFG

This would be good but

[orin]

This would be good for Australia. No longer "down under" ... finally "on top".

Re:Mayan Calendar ends in 2012, coincidence ???

[kfg]

As The southern hemisphere has its winter during our summer,
I am wondering if the seasons will flip flop as well ???

If it takes the physical poles along with it, yes.

KFG

Like in Rand McNally?

[BearJ]

Does this mean we'll all have to walk on our hands, and hamburgers will eat people?

Re:Donate Fridge Magnets Now!

[Scarblac]

Just be careful to cut them in half first, sending the north half to the north pole and vice versa, because otherwise it wouldn't work of course.

Re:Bush's fault

[AndroidCat]

Why hasn't the government tried to get internation agreement for a Kyoto Accord on magnetism? We have to start cutting down on world-wide use of magets immediately! :)

Re:Bush's fault? No...

[N Monkey]

I blame it on too many people walking around wearing tin foil hats.

He'll have to add this one to his "Axis of evil."

[b0r0din]

"After careful consultation with my administration's junk scientists, we have expanded our Axis of Evil to include the earth's axis as well. This rogue, um, thingy is responsible for the destruction of...does this thing say turtles? But...we don't care about...oh...anyway, this rogue "magnetic thingy" can only be stopped by drilling in the Alaskan oil reserves, therefore stopping all magnetism from happening. These weapons of magnetic disruption must be stopped at all costs."

I knew a magnetic Pole once

[CFD339]

Evana Kiniski -- it was amazing. you couldn't take your eyes off her. She had huge....tracts of land.

flushing ?

[TTL0]

the impact on life may be significant

i wonder if toilets will flush counter-clockwise ?

Re:Hollywood Blockbuster?

[AndroidCat]

in true Hollywood fashion they'll toss science out of the window for the sake of a better film.

Yeah, when they head to the north magnetic pole to fix it and meet Santa Claus, they'll totally ignore that Santa Claus is at the north physical pole! Luckly they'll stop the reversal with two seconds left on the clock.

Kerry's going to win the election, obviously

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a sign.

Kerry's done so many flip-flops, once he gets elected the whole damn earth is gonna do one....

What about Santa?

[SkreamNet]

Has anyone thought of his relocation???

poles?

[Anonymous Coward]

what's all this bs about poles?
the world is flat dammit!
it was proven by christian philosophers
thousands of years ago.

Ok, who did it?

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a big "DO NOT PUSH" sign right next to the degauss button!

Re:Bush's fault? No...

[WormholeFiend]

you laugh at them now, but they'll be the only ones protecting their brains when the magnetic poles stop protecting us from deadly radiation.

Re:Donate Fridge Magnets Now!

[wwwrun]

Stop! Don't! You can't just go around creating monopoles like that. The physicists will be baying for blood!

Re:magnetic disks

[Arngautr]

try turning your hard drive around...what happens?

Re:Time for the editor to RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

Just REDUCED by 10-15 percent? Aw man, I crapped my pants for nuthin'.

Re:Bush's fault

[bcattwoo]

While everyone knows that this is actually the work of Arctic-based terrorists!

Re:Worldwide Aurora

[freqres]

Their penetration isn't that great on solids/liquids

Hey, I'm made up of mostly solids/liquids so I should be okay then? Or are the internal combustible gasses what I should worry about?

Re:Remember "Core"?

[confused one]

Please don't repeat this to anyone else; so, you don't look like a fool. Oops, too late (as millions of /.'ers read your post)

Thank God

[teebo80]

I'm not a loggerhead turtle

Ob Jack Handy -like quote

[southpolesammy]

"I hope that when the Earth's magnetic fields flip and new north poles are created, that one happens to be at my house. That way, I can tell my kids that we live at the North Pole, and that Santa lives upstairs and really does see you when you're sleeping and know when you're awake."

Bizarro World

[Odin's Raven]

So once the poles finish reversing, will I have to hack my GPS receiver and invert its display to make its compass point to the new "North" pole?

And will we have to switch around all the highway signs so that I-95 North heads towards Mexico and I-95 South leads to Canda?

And will we have to rename North and South Dakota, North and South Carolina, etc?

The hell with the loggerhead turtles, I've got serious questions that need to be answered! :-)

CRTs will be obsolete

[xyote]

if they weren't already. What most people don't know is that CRT monitors come in northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere models due to the the effect of the vertical component of the magnetic field on the electron beam in the CRT.

Same reason there are northern and southern hemisphere compasses except it's a needle balancing issue. In the northern hemisphere, the "north" end of the needle gets pulled down, and it gets pulled up in the southern hemisphere. There are global compasses that work by allowing you to readjust the balance or by using a gimbaled disk magnet.

Speed 4. Compass Crazy

[Libertarian_Geek]

Hero: "If that compass (mounted to the mountain) changes direction by 180 degrees, we're all going to blow up!"
Floozie: " But won't that take, like, hundreds of years."
Cue the "exciting music" Hero: "Can't you see, we only have a few hundred years to defuse the bomb!!!!! or everyone within 1 acre of this part of the mountain is doomed!!!.

Re:In Other News

[Anonymous Coward]

Spelled poles "polls" like an idiot...
Failed in attempt to create logical connection between story and tired cultural reference...
A Mike Myers fan, which implies absolute stupidity...

Yes, must be slashdot.

Re:Worldwide Aurora

[D-Cypell]

IANACG (Comedic Genius) but I dont think he was being very serious with the sunblock remark anway.

However, just incase (and to prevent poor Taco from lawsuits when the apocolypse comes!)...

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the event of any kind of massive breakdown of the earth's radiation defenses, sublock with not be sufficient. This will be made abundandly clear by the sudden vaporizing effect you will feel on your body.

There you go... that should prevent the panic buying!

Re:Hope we don't get irradiated...

[Sepper]

And a whole lot of floppies and backup tapes erased...

Please, not another pro-Kerry article!

[prisoner-of-enigma]

I know the New York Times is a blatantly left-slanted, Democrat-loving publication, but referring to John Kerry as "magnetic" is just too much.

Oh well, at least they did have the decency to call him what he really is: a flip-flop.

Moderators: Laugh. It's called political humor.

Re:Loss of atmosphere

[Eccles]

There are, of course, a host of other factors that influence climate - for example, episodes of warming related to methane releases.

[Indignant look] Well it wasn't me...

Re:Worldwide Aurora

[simcop2387]

(this raises an intresting question - the increased particles from the sun might have resulted in more mutations and sparked those evolutionary giant leaps? - so this may be a good thing in the long run).

as long as it doesn't result in those damn Morlocks, we don't have enough caves for them!

Re:magnetic disks

[Mr. Bad Example]

> try turning your hard drive around...what happens?

It makes this kind of "screeee" sound. Is that bad?

It's everyone's fault!

[mveloso]

You know, it was the first Bush administration that caused this by failing to insert large, autonomous dynamos into the earth's crust. This would have stabilized the magnetic shift by generating huge electromagnetic fields.

Likewise, by killing the Texan supercollider the government stopped all research into magnetic field movements. This research would not only have helped in our understanding of magnetic fields, but would also have helped in the current War on Terror by providing valuable information on how subatomic particles can affect semi-psychotic behaviors.

And by ignoring the Kyoto protocols, the US has selfishly allowed its atmosphere to heat up, no doubt affecting the internal stability of the Earth's iron core, making the situation worse.

Plus, clear-cut logging no doubt has caused rotational differentials across the US and the world (due to less air resistence), placing undue stress on the earth's core.

Lastly, by killing millions, if not billions, of creatures, modern civilization has hastened the onset of this problem by robbing the world of counterbalancing "life" or "female" energy, energy that would have counteracted the obviously "male" and "destructive" magnetic shift.

Man...

[CFBMoo1]

The east coast and west coast rappers will be all messed up once the flip occures and north is south. What does happen to east and west, seriously?

The Giant Binary Switch

[ActionAL]

Earth's pole is just gonna perform a binary switch in order to signify to aliens that it's time to invade.