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The Sun Has First Spotless Month Since 1913
radioweather writes "August 2008 has made solar history. As of 00 UTC September 1st 2008 (5PM PST)
we just witnessed the
first spotless calendar month since June 1913.This was determined according
to sunspot
data from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center, which goes back to 1749.
In the 95 years since 1913, we've had quite an active sun, but activity has been
declining in the last few years. The sun today is a nearly featureless sphere and has been spotless for 42
days total, but this is the first full calendar month since 1913 for a spotless
sun. And there are other indicators of the sun being in a funk. Australia's
space weather agency recently revised their solar cycle 24 forecast, pushing the
expected date for a ramping up of
cycle 24 sunspots into the future by six months."
As one of the links above indicate, there was a "sunspeck" reported August 21/22, though. Reader MikeyTheK adds a link to a story at Daily Tech on the spotless record.
...George W. Bush's fault.
This is George Bush's fault, of course. His failed environmental policies have damaged the Sun.
"Proof that the continents were immobile in their positions. Well, not so much proof as that it was just so totally OBVIOUS that continents couldn't move, and that "continental drift" was a crackpot theory."
Continental drift theory still hasn't actually been conclusively proven either.
Doesn't seem to stop people from believing there are no WMDs in Iraq. "I can't find any, therefore none exist!"
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Why is everyone missing the obvious? The greenhouse gasses on earth are actually CAUSING the lack of sunspots! Don't you see? Not only will greenhouse gasses destroy our planet, they will destroy our solar system, our galaxy...and beyond. More proof of the terrible consequences of driving SUVs and using air conditioning.
Please don't use "umm" or "err" or "erm".
Wow. This is flamebait? Some Democrat moderator needs to stop abusing his/her mod points.
It's election season. Expect Republican / Libertarian-leaning posts to be heavily downmodded.
Don't blame bush, it is your own doing, plastic bottles, big engine cars, dependency on fossil fuel. What more evidence do we need!
Oh nice, I can hardly wait. All the christians dissapear? I wonder how many weeks it'll take for war/crime to halve. Itd still be better if it took all the religious though. And to make this post not entirely flamebait let me point out that pretty much half the wars in the last 3000years were caused by christianity. And christianity correlates strongly to poor morals. http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/correlation-of-christian-ethics-social-ills-knocks-advocates-fromknees-to-backside/2005/10/03/1128191653994.html