magnetic poles

"Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.”

“We choose truth over facts.”--Biden

Went to a meeting of the lithotripter company last night. Their numbers are declining as laser therapy increases its appeal for stone disease. There is also the demographics: Older physicians are less comfortable in adapting new technologies and stay with the sound therapy--but those people are retiring and being replaced by laser advocates. Finally there is the political disruption. Some physicians are leaving their homes and moving away from political trouble. For example, every single physician using the lithotripter has left the state of Illinois because of taxation or safety concerns..

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said the United States may have to eliminate private car ownership to combat climate change during MSNBC's climate forum at Georgetown University Thursday morning. 
The Constitution is really in these people's way.

Panel Of Third Graders To Dictate Nation's Climate Change Policy (Babylon Bee headline)

Yemen’s Houthi fighters last weekend claimed they were responsible for a crippling blow to Saudi Arabian oil production using drones and cruise missiles. Missles that caused millions of dollars of damage to the Saudi oil industry can cost up to $15,000 each to build, and the drones that fighters in Yemen use cost as little as $45 per strike. So does this mean we can't bomb Iran?

Astonishing chart:


North America "has lost" nearly 3 billion birds since 1970, a study said Thursday, which also found significant population declines among hundreds of bird species, including those once considered plentiful. Overall, bird populations in the United States and Canada have declined by 29% in the past 50 years, according to the study, which authors say is a sign of a widespread ecological crisis.
So...kill the cats!

On the evening of September 20, 1777, near Paoli, Pennsylvania, General Charles Grey and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launch a surprise attack on a small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General Anthony Wayne in what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre. Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, Grey ordered his troops to empty their muskets and to use only bayonets or swords to attack the sleeping Americans under the cover of darkness. With the help of a Loyalist spy who provided a secret password and led them to the camp, General Grey and the British launched the successful attack on the unsuspecting men of the Pennsylvania regiment, stabbing them to death as they slept. It was also alleged that the British soldiers took no prisoners during the attack, stabbing or setting fire to those who tried to surrender. Before it was over, nearly 200 Americans were killed or wounded. The Paoli Massacre became a rallying cry for the Americans against British atrocities for the rest of the Revolutionary War.
(history.com)

                    Magnetic Poles

Many times over the planet’s history, Earth’s magnetic poles 
have reversed, meaning that sometimes a compass pointing 
north will be aimed at Antarctica rather than the Arctic. 
Powered by the machinations of the planet’s spinning iron 
core, this process of geomagnetic reversal has been doing
this without much fanfare for eons.

The magnetic fingerprints locked into ancient rocks show 
that over the last 20 million years, magnetic north and 
south have flipped roughly every 200,000 to 300,000 
years (this rate has not been constant over the planet’s 
lifetime, though). The last of these major reversals 
occurred about 780,000 years ago, although the Poles 
do wander around in between these larger flips.

Because the planet’s magnetic field helps shield us from
damaging solar and cosmic radiation, a protracted flip
means Earth might be slightly less protected from harmful
space rays for a longer  time.  

The only major, noticeable effect that’s guaranteed to occur
when the polar flop is finished is that your compass needle
will tell you that North is in Antarctica and South is
somewhere near Canada. This will make the names
of the American continents temporarily confusing (at least,
on a geologic time scale) but it’ll make for a good story in
classrooms.Another interesting consequence will be that 
animals that use Earth’s magnetic field for navigation—
including birds, salmon, and sea turtles—could get lost 
during their routine journeys. Eventually they will sort this out--
or so these guys say.
(some sources)