The largest solar storm since 2005 is now in progress, causing fluctuations on the power grid and disruptions to the Global Positioning System. But worst thing is the ongoing strong solar proton storm—ranking S3 on a 5-level scale—which is in full rage now and gradually increasing because of this Coronal Mass Ejection impact.
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Correlation or Causation?
I just saw this interesting series of charts over on Business Week (click image to view full-size). It just goes to show that you really can force data to give you the answers you want. All you need is one leading question, and 2 simple charts, and voila you can pretty much prove anything.
Correlation may not imply causation, but it sure can help us insinuate it.
It’s pretty scary really… this simple exercise shows humorous examples of how this technique can be used to manipulate data, but how often is it used in the media or political campaigns to confuse or brainwash? A truly worrying example of how data can be used for evil.
I was the 79,831,672,428th person to have lived since history began
Ain’t that something? Also, when I was born there were only 4.9 billion people on Earth. Just over 25 years later we’re about to hit 7 billion! Just look at the chart below (via an interactive graphic on BBC News) and see how fast the world’s population has increased over the last century alone!
Truly scary stuff! And there’s more. While I was on the site playing with all the interactive parts, the final stat they reveal is the amount the population has grown since you’ve been on the site. In my case it was +1,327 people!
Arrested Development is coming back!
I know we’ve all been hurt before by this rumour, but just yesterday the show’s creator officially confirmed that there will in fact be a mini-series before the movie is released next year! All the cast is completely on-board and will move around their schedules to accommodate the show’s ‘return’.
I really can’t say how happy this makes me! I know it’s not a full return to TV, but it didn’t feel right how the series ended, so I’m so glad the original cast and crew are so passionate about coming back the project!
I can’t wait!
View full story at The Mary Sue
Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and government building codes (The headline you will not read today)
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Japan’s infrastructure is uniquely prepared to deal with earthquakes, and this has no doubt helped to lessen the damage suffered throughout the country, mainly in cities such as Tokyo. Unfortunately, much of the infrastructure is not tsunami proof and most of the damage caused will likely be due to the torrent of water flowing over the land. (via @daveewing) UPDATE: New York Times has just published an article with this very headline. Kudos to them! |
A massive 8.9-magnitude quake hit northeast Japan on Friday, causing dozens of deaths, more than 80 fires, and a 10-meter (33-ft) tsunami along parts of the country’s coastline. Homes were swept away and damage is extensive. As more images of this historic event become available, they will be added.
Japan’s 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Triggers Tsunami
This is just one of the many videos of the devastation that has hit Japan in the past 24 hours. Absolutely heartbreaking.
TV pictures show a vast wall of water carrying debris and even fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the north-east Japanese city of Sendai, which has a population of 1 million
Follow live updates on The Guardian and BBC News
(via The Guardian)
Japanese Earthquake
Japan is very dear to my heart, and my thoughts go out to all in the country who are dealing with the earthquake and tsunami today. I hope all of my friends who are out there right now are safe.
気を付けてください
For those who don’t know, an earthquake of magnitude 8.9 has hit Japan causing a huge tsunami to devastate the NE coastline. Only 6 earthquakes in history have been worse in magnitude than the one that hit Japan today.
For live updates and footage please follow:
Keep a look out guys! Hopefully if there are reports you can see them further south, and the skies are clear, I may go and camp out on a hill and see if I can see them
The possibility of seeing the Northern Lights in Scotland on Thursday and Friday night has increased after the sun unleashed a giant solar flare. Scientists said the burst of radiation and magnetic energy could also disrupt communications equipment. The phenomenon is caused by charged gas particles that flow away from the Sun as a “solar wind” interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field.
Related: Solar Flare Eruptions Set to Reach Earth via BBC News
Infographic of the Day: Pollution Atlas
This detailed atlas by The Guardian takes a look at CO2 emissions and displays a country’s size by the amount of carbon dioxide it produces. As you can see the African continent appears to be significantly smaller compared to it’s actual size, whereas China and the US dominate the map (unsurprisingly!)
The map, is produced by Guardian graphic artists Mark McCormick and Paul Scruton. It shows a picture of a world where established economies have large - but declining - carbon emissions. While the new economic giant economies are growing rapidly. This newly-released data is from 2009 - the latest available.
The data is interesting and it is a clever way of viewing so much information, but my only criticism is that countries that emit smaller amounts of CO2, a fair number in Africa and South America, do not have their names alongside their circle. When using circles to represent data, you will always come across the issue of displaying labels when the circle gets small. Here, I’m a little disappointed to see, that country labels were merely just left off. Now, I’m not particularly familiar with the location of specific middle African countries, so when curious about which countries in Africa produce small amounts of CO2 I had to use the table at the bottom to cross reference the data… a very large table with very small text…
I like the graphic, I think it gets the point across well, I guess I just would have liked to have seen a cool way of displaying the country labels… maybe making it interactive would have helped here…
