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Sunspot Activity Continues To Drop
slreboy writes "The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower. The year 2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73 percent). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008. Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87 percent)..."
I picked a good year to get licensed for ham radio. I sure get sick of hearing about how you can work Australia on a wet noodle during high Sunspot years. At least the low bands are reliable, but then again those bands require ginormous antennas. So as a consequence my house looks like some sort of martian communications test zone. I think my neighbors fear me enough not to seriously ask what's going on.
My poetry site welcomes the unusual.
The conditions on the shortwave bands seriously suck right now! I miss those "wet noodle" days that AI1P, Mr_Perl mentioned where you could work Australia with 4 watts into a mobile antenna on 20 meters and get a 589 report.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
I'm sure that back in the 1600s, you had to agree that the earth was flat to get funding as well.
The best science that money can buy isn't always the best science.
Actually, no. If at any point in recorded history, you proposed that the earth was flat, the overwhelming majority of people thought you were a nutjob.
The idea that Columbus' opponents thought the earth was flat was made up by supporters' of Darwin in the 1800's to belittle their opposition (not all of which was religious).
Columbus' opposition said that if the diameter of the earth was what they calculated it to be (which it turns out was a reasonable approximation of the actual diameter of the earth), Columbus and his crewmen would run out of fresh water before they reached East Asia. Columbus, using his own calculations, said the earth isn't that big. It turns out that Columbus got lucky, because neither side was aware that there was another land mass between Europe and Asia (there is reason to believe that there were Europeans who did know, but that is speculation).
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
They are just on the other side of the sun now.
Since sunspots produce massive magnetic fields they're influence can be detected without visual observation, allowing sunspots on the opposite side of the sun to be imaged.
http://spaceweather.com/glossary/farside.html
There are several hundred years worth of data, showing a regular 11 year cycle. Even measurements plotted monthly map to that graph.
You seem to be displaying a form of anthropomorphism towards the sun. You can't just map the lifespan of a human to the lifespan of the sun and conclude that from your perceived frame of reference, a year is the equivalent of a fraction of a second or 'blip'.
Old != Static
They sun spots have realized we were watching them and it turns out they are shy. They are just on the other side of the sun now.
Nope, we can monitor the other side of the sun, they are not there either.
This is done with Helioseismic Holography. Though there is apparently a new method being developed.
"What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?" - Doctor Who
Actually, the (less strawman) classic argument from the second law of thermo is to apply the second law to the universe. Is the universe a closed system? If so, then second law implies eventual heat death. Therefore, we should select at least 1 choice of these options:
1. Universe is not a closed system (religious types would argue this to be true, with God as the external thing affecting it)
2. Universe is of finite age (creationist types tend to go this way, which physics eventually caught up with as big bang beat out steady state theory. When steady state theory was popular, then option 1 was argued as the reason for option 2).
3. The second law is not universally true, it is simply a localized phenomena.
That's the basic form of the second law argument as I encountered it in casual conversation with actual engineers and science folks back when I was in college.
You know, I've been wondering - doesn't Sun worship really make the most sense of pretty much any religion?
Unlike Jehova, I can actually prove that the sun is the source of all life on this planet, that it nourishes and sustains me and other living things, and that the world will end because of its actions.
We like to make fun of prehistoric religions, but sometimes I think they're actually pretty rational.
National Geographic had a piece about this in 2007: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html It does seem to be compelling evidence that the global warming trend is outside the scope of human activity
every stain tells a story
Um, studies, the creators of correlation, are a hugely important part of science. They can't show causation like experiments, but they can still be used to make predictions, just like theories resulting from experiments. Climate science is just as much a science as psychology, sociology, biology, and astronomy. (I'd like to see you do an experiment to figure out planetary motion)