Are We Doomed? How the Movement of the Magnetic North Pole to Russia Will Affect You

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Earlier, scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British Geological Survey updated the coordinates of the Magnetic North Pole, saying it was gradually leaving the Canadian Arctic behind and moving toward Russian Siberia at a rate of over 55 kilometres per year, up from less than 15 kilometres in the year 2000.

Navigation Systems

More than anything, the shift of the Magnetic North Pole affects navigation systems containing magnetic compasses. While modern smartphones, vehicles, ships, and airliners are connected to satellite-based navigation systems, like GPS and GLONASS, their receivers don’t provide a sense of direction, rather, only a person or vehicle’s fixed location. As a result, navigation systems’ use magnetic compasses, or magnetometers, to provide an accurate estimate of the direction a phone, vehicle, ship, or plane is pointing in using what’s known as declination… the difference between true north and the direction of the compass. If the mathematically expected location of the Magnetic North Pole is wrong, navigation equipment will be off kilter.

For this reason, the recently announced update to the World Magnetic Model, the mathematical foundation for navigation which allows magnetic north to be precisely fixed, is crucial, and couldn’t have come a moment too soon. Accounting for the shift in the pole’s location is particularly important in areas above the 55th Parallel, which covers northern Canada, Scandinavia, and much of Russia. For most civilian purposes in Western Europe and North America, British Geological Survey geophysicist Ciaran Beggan told National Geographic:

The changes would be relatively minor. The average user isn’t going to be overly affected by this unless they happen to be trekking around the high Arctic.

However, militaries, commercial airlines, search and rescue ships and aircraft, NASA, and other agencies and groups relying on precision navigation in the high north should find the update helpful.

Bird and Fish Migration Patterns

Over time, especially, in a scenario where Earth reverses polarity and the magnetic poles swap places, the moving of the Magnetic North Pole will affect animals, birds, and sea life that use the polls’ magnetic fields for navigation. While scientists expect them to recover, the shift may result in scenarios of birds falling out of the sky en masse, and fish dying off in large numbers. While most scientists believe this shift won’t lead to any catastrophic mass extinctions, the scenes may be frightening, looking something like the pictures of thousands of dead birds and fish in Arkansas in 2011, which some scientists thought may have been related to animals’ sensitivity to changes in the Earth’s magnetic field.

Magnetic Field Shielding Earth?

A more serious possible consequence of the “tug of war” between magnetic field patches in northern Canada and Siberia, which some scientists say is causing the accelerated movement of the Magnetic North Pole, is its potential to weaken the magnetic shield sparing earth from deadly solar and cosmic radiation. This could lead to increased rates of cancer in humans, or harm man-made infrastructure projects, such as power grids. However, scientists say that even in the scenario of a flip of the North and South Poles, which they don’t expect to happen anytime soon, the shift would take place slowly, taking as much as a thousand years to complete. Hopefully, this would help mitigate its effects.

5 February 2019

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/world/201902051072151565-magnetic-north-pole-shift-implications/

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Future Weapon and More: What Russia’s Railgun Can Really Do

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A team of Russian scientists successfully tested the country’s first railgun, which relies on electromagnetic forces and not explosives or propellant. According to experts at a branch of the Institute of High Temperatures in Shatura, just outside Moscow, the railgun can fire shells at an incredibly fast speed of 3 kilometres per second, which is enough to cut through any type of armour existing today. During the latest test, a 15-gramme plastic cylinder fired by the railgun went through an aluminium plate several centimetres thick. Electromagnetic conductors instead of gunpowder or explosives power Railguns, allowing them to inflict major damage. While many countries are already betting on the railgun as a future weapon, Russia is also considering other more peaceful applications, such as ferrying cargoes to the International Space Station. During a recent test in Shatura, the railgun fired a projectile at the speed of 3 kilometres per second, which is about half of what booster rockets need to overcome gravity to enter Earth orbit. Shatura Institute Director Aleksei Shurpov told Zvezda TV:

The railgun is a big boost to our study of high energy physics as we’re now ready to build apparatuses working at speeds exceeding 4.5 kilometres per second.

Foreign Designs

Since the latter half of the 20th century, many developed countries have worked on a new type of multi-mission electromagnetic railgun weapon capable of detecting, tracking, and engaging ballistic missiles and air and watercraft threats. The US Navy is pushing ahead with the development of its own super-powerful electromagnetic railgun to fire rounds at speeds up to Mach 7.5, which at 9,100 kilometres per hour, is more than seven times the speed of sound, with a range of about 400 kilometres. The unveiling of the prototype of the RailGun was in 2015, and in 2016, the weapon had public presentation complete with its ordnance. However, the problem with the US design is that it requires a tremendous amount of power to operate… over 25 megawatts per one shot. Another problem is that the longer the distance to the target the weaker the impact of the shot as air resistance slows the projectile down as it travels to its target.

Scientific Impact

Even though the railgun tests conducted by the Russian Institute of High Temperatures haven’t produced any military breakthroughs yet, experts already recognise them as some of this country’s major scientific achievements of the past year. Besides this, Russian scientists gave names to two new chemical elements, helped discover gravitational waves foretold by Albert Einstein, ensured consistent heating of plasma to a whopping 10 million degrees Celsius, and helped develop a vaccine to treat serious neurodegenerative conditions.

9 January 2017

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/russia/201701091049399104-russia-railgun-tests/

Editor:

Note the objective restrained tone in the article, quite unlike the arrogant boasting one finds from Anglo sources. Quite likely, the Russian and American efforts are at the same level, but the Russians are more cautious, while the Americans (as usual) are more forward, condescending, and conceited. You’d go wrong if you took both at face value… you’d rate the Russians at less than what they’re capable of and you’d rate the Americans at more than what any human could achieve realistically. Remember… the Anglo-American “culture” values winning over everything else… including morality. You’d do well never to turn your back on an Anglo… they’re stiff-necked, they refuse to listen to reason (or to others), and they’re nasty when vexed. Keep it focused and keep it together…

BMD

24 December 2014. The Shape of Things to Come? Robot Waiters in Chengdu… How Much Do You Tip These Guys?

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Who woulda thunk it… robot waiters in Chengdu (Sichuan Province) PRC… now, what’ll happen to tips? Perspirin’ minds wanna know… besides, are they programmed to give out one-liners to one-up customers when they deliver the food? Now, THAT’S in the Old School deli tradition… I guess it all depends on whether you’re in a high-class or in a high-crass establishment.

BMD

22 September 2014. American Cosmonauts Have to Go into Space on Russian Spaceships

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Art and our study of it, and faith and religion, are eternal, and as long as mankind lives, it will have a keen yearning to probe deeper into the essence of it all.

The penetration of primitive Western religious notions into our lives is a phenomenon extremely dangerous to Russian culture. A country that has given much to world culture (remember Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and many others), is transformed into a place where American scum congregate. Therefore, in this regard, one can understand the French, who protect their culture and language, and the Chinese, who decided to prevent the “Westernisation” of their society. Unfortunately, today, our culture and morality have become something of secondary importance, and all this is more and more worrying… it appears that people have lost their consciences. There’s a new “truism” in our lives… knocking out the maximum profit by any means, but that leads to the death of moral evaluation, ethical behaviour, and principled motivation for actions, without which, a healthy society can’t exist.

B V Raushenbakh

Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR

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The Soyuz TMA-14M crew is cosmonauts Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Yelena Serova, and American Barry Wilmore, who stand by a model of the Soyuz-FG rocket at the Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan. Note well that American cosmonauts have to go into space on Russian craft, as the USA wasted its money on useless wars, giveaways to the Affluent Effluent, and a bloated prison and police system (the USA is the Prison House of All the Nations by per capita count, by the way). This puts a different face on the rants of Rich Lowry, George Will, Patrick Buchanan, and Rod Dreher, doesn’t it? Americans have to ride Russian spacecraft to the cosmos so that the USA can pretend that it’s the SOLE SUPERPOWER. Now, kids, THAT’S an unmitigated crock o’ shit…

Puts a new light on “sanctions”, doesn’t it?

BMD