This is an educational video "Exploring The Inner Solar System Part 5 of 6", produced by the JPL and NASA. Uploaded for an introductory course on Astronomy. …
Solar Installation Course
2012 Disaster Scenarios – What Are The Terrible Events We Must Prepare To Survive?
Author: Mike Kerrigan
There are nine possible cataclysmic events for 2012 that would create disaster conditions of a scale that humanity has never experienced before. We’re talking millions, maybe billions of dead worldwide, and a breakdown of society that may take a thousand years to recover from If it ever recovers at all. But if you’re properly prepared all these scenarios are survivable. So as every good soldier knows, we need to get acquainted with the enemy, so we can figure out the best way to beat him.
Here they are in no particular order
Unrestricted Global Nuclear War There are a lot of bad guys out there these days with nuclear capability. From a survival point of view it doesn’t matter who starts it or why, because the end result is the same – global cataclysm straight from hell. So given your family survives the initial atomic blasts and their immediate effects, there are a couple of other major things to worry about – Radiation and the Nuclear Winter.
Radiation.
Atomic reactions create radio-active particles which spread out from ground zero, and when they reach high altitude are fanned out by high-level winds. The radio-active particles eventually make their way back down to earth as ‘Fall-Out’. ‘Fall-Out can cause burns and terminal radiation sickness, kill livestock and contaminate soil and the crops that are grown in it. A massive region around the Chernobyl Reactor in Russia is essentially dead ground forever, and that was just an itty-bitty reactor melt-down, not a multi-megaton airburst.
Nuclear winter.
When you’ve got a lot of massive atomic explosions at ground level, an incredible amount of dirt and debris is going to be thrown up into the atmosphere – we’re talking millions of tons of black radio-active dust swirling around ten miles high, blocking the sun from reaching the Earth’s surface. We might not see the sun again for two or three years, and without it, it’s going to get real cold and nothing’s going to grow. Huge areas of the planet will turn into dust-bowls and sand storms will blast across Europe and North America.
However there will be places mostly in the southern Hemisphere and in the North that are far enough from blast zones to escape most of the radiation and fall-out, and are protected from most of the effects of the nuclear winter. That’s where you want to you and your family want to be to maximize your chance of staying alive in 2012.
Impact from Space This is the very worst of all worst case scenarios. Whether it’s the mystery planet Nibiru, a comet or a monster asteroid, having a massive Near Earth Object (NEO) smash into the Earth is all bad. So if you’re ready to survive this you’re ready for anything! Earth has experienced major NEO strikes many times before, and the biggest of all 65 million years ago made the dinosaurs extinct, overnight. If a NEO hits land we’ll get a situation like the nuclear winter we talked about above, plus a devastating shock-wave, molten lava showers, earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions.
Not even all the atom bombs in the world going off all at once would have a millionth of the power of a NEO impacting our planet. The NEO Impact winter could last decades and plunge the Earth into a new ice-age. If a NEO lands in the ocean we’ll get multiple tsunamis many hundreds of feet high, plus giant earthquakes caused by displacement of tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust. Low-lying counties will be turned into fetid swamps, ravaged by disease.We’re likely to get very little warning of an asteroid strike – maybe only hours or even minutes because they travel so fast and are almost invisible against the blackness of space.
On the other hand we may have several months to prepare for an impact by Nibiru or a comet. Unfortunately they are the least likely objects to hit us. So what will it be like in the aftermath of a NEO impact?
Arriving at the speed several thousand miles per hour a giant SEO will have enough power on impact to fracture the Earth’s crust and splash molten lava from the core high into the atmosphere. A massive thousand degree shock-wave will also radiate outwards from Ground-Zero completely levelling trees and buildings for a hundreds of miles in every direction. In an ocean impact, seawater will combine with the lava to cause a super-heated steam blast, plus acid rain. This burning rain would continue falling for years, scouring away every living plant and contaminating all water sources (other than artesian springs in the mountains). To survive a massive NEO strike you’ll need to be far underground, and far from the point of impact to stand any chance at all. However there is still a good chance that the NEO that hits Earth will not be a giant, and that increases your chances of survival massively – as long as you’re prepared that is. Otherwise, no matter where you are, it’s time to kiss your ass goodbye.
Solar Flares The sun is an enormous atomic reactor in the sky. Every now and then extra intense reactions in the sun’s atmosphere occur and solar energy spears out into space. That’s a Solar Flare. Small Solar Flares are detected by astronomers all the time and usually don’t affect us, because our atmosphere safely absorbs and deflects the extra radiation. But, if 2012 means a giant Solar Flare, the Earth’s surface and everything on it could be barbequed in minutes by radiation spread across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. We’d have enough warning to get into bunkers, but only if they were very close by. How bad it will be for your family also depends whether it occurs in the night or day – you definitely don’t want to be outside at noon when a doomsday flare bursts overhead.
The good news is it’s relatively easy to build a shelter that will absorb almost all the energy of a Solar Flare, even a giant one, so surviving the event isn’t necessarily the hard part. The real challenge will be staying alive afterwards in what’s left of the world outside your shelter.
Super Volcano Eruption Mount St Helens or Pinatubo are nothing compared to the dormant super volcano that forms Yellowstone National Park. An eruption there would kill millions and render a large portion of central North America uninhabitable. The rest of the world would suffer too from the enormous cloud of volcanic ash thrown up into the atmosphere, creating yet another nuclear winter scenario. However Yellowstone is just one location where super volcanoes are lurking ready to erupt, on land and under the ocean.
A monster undersea eruption would be even more deadly, triggering a super tsunami that would travel all around the world, wiping out entire countries as it goes, drowning millions and millions of people within hours. For most people in coastal areas, even low lying places inland, there would be no escape. However those families smart enough or just plain lucky enough to be in non-volcanic areas, on solid ground at over 1000 feet in elevation, will be in better shape – but for how long?
Earthquake It’s not a question of when ‘the big one’ will happen, but where and when. Major displacements of many of the world’s biggest tectonic plates are well overdue – including California’s mighty San Andreas Fault, which would kill millions in LA and along the West Coast.
The Indonesian Tsunami of Christmas 2005 killed over one hundred thousand people – drowned or crushed by falling buildings and tumbling debris, or dying later of disease and starvation. If you saw the footage of the FBI carpark during the Samoa Tsunami in 2009 you’ll take Tsunamis very seriously – and that was only 3 feet high!
I guess it’s pretty obvious where you want to be to avoid a giant Tsunami? Up very high, far away from the sea. The trouble is, with this scenario like most of the others, the disaster itself is not the only threat – you need to be prepared to deal with other people who’ve survived, but haven’t prepared for it like you have. Most of them will be desperate, and will want what you’ve got.
Super Virus or Bacteria The biggest killers in recorded history have been diseases. The Black Plague of the 14th Century was an incurable bacteria spread by fleas living on rats. In some European towns up to 90% of the population was wiped out. Overall in the 100 years of the Black Plague, 30% of the population of Europe died. And much more recently, within living memory in fact, the Influenza Pandemic of 1919 killed tens of millions all over the world.
New disease threats are arising all the time. We’ve handled Bird Flu and Swine Flu pretty well, but will 2012 be the year when the next real plague arrives. International air travel virtually guarantees its almost instant global spread, especially to people living in big, overcrowded cities.
And that’s the clue to survival in this scenario. Fit, healthy families who live in remote rural areas in clean, warm houses and have absolutely minimal contact with the outside world, should be feeling pretty good about their chances.
Polar Reversal Polar Reversal where the magnetic field of the Earth swaps ends is a fact. It happens every 400,000 years or so, but what causes it is still unknown. Polar Reversal could be due to the influence of an undiscovered Black Hole nearby in space, or a massive sudden upsurge in electro-magnetic activity on the sun.
Some 2012 experts believe a Polar Reversal will cause the Earth to start spinning in the opposite direction – a horrifying scenario resulting in massive electrical storms, tsunamis and earthquakes in every corner of the earth. Again the smart money is on surviving underground in the mountains. And preferably ancient mountains made of solid rock like the mighty Appalachians.
Black Hole in Space We touched on this scenario before, but now we’ll get more specific. A Black Hole is what’s left over when a giant dying star collapses into a very dense ball of Matter – a ball much smaller than our Moon. This stuff is so dense that a matchbox full of Black Hole Matter would weigh countless thousands of tons. And the thing is that it still has the massive gravitational pull of the huge star whose death created it. In fact, its gravity is so strong that it can swallow up anything within millions of miles – it even pulls in light (which is why they are called Black Holes, because not even light can escape them).
A Black Hole suddenly appearing in space, even within several Light-Years of Earth would pull our entire solar system towards it, throwing the orbit of every planet out of kilter. We could collide with Venus, Mars or the Moon. Or the combined gravitational pull of the Black hole aligned with Jupiter and Saturn could rip us away from warmth of the sun, or send us plunging towards it. Either way, the surface of the Earth would quickly become uninhabitable. The only place to survive would be underground in caves or bunkers.
Global Flooding The Bible tells us that Noah had 100 years warning of the Great Flood and used his time to prepare for it, building the ark and collecting animals. We will not have the luxury of so much time to get ready if another great flood is going to engulf the world in 2012. Around 60% of the world’s population live in areas that would be totally submerged by a flood of only 20 feet high. That’s almost three billion people threatened with being drowned. The panic as they all try to get to higher ground simultaneously is almost unimaginable. And for most of them higher ground will be beyond their reach.
Already the threat of Global Warming and the gradually rising sea levels that will come with it has lead a lot of people to think about the consequences for them and their loved ones if this scenario comes to pass. However a flood in 2012 would come much more suddenly – accompanied by massive hurricanes with hundred mile per hour winds and days of unrelenting torrential rain. Roads will be made impassable within hours. Remember Hurricane Katrina? This will be 1000 times worse.
So what could cause the next Great Flood? The most likely scenario is a near miss by Planet Nibiru. If Nibiru passes between the Earth and the Sun, its gravitational pull could upset the Earth’s orbit pulling us closer to the sun, resulting in a rapid increase in air and sea temperatures. The warmer conditions would mean much faster evaporation of water into the atmosphere.
At the same time Nibiru’s near miss would accelerate the speed that the earth spins, causing the Jet Stream (high altitude winds) to speed up as well. And as anyone who knows their weather can tell you, when rapidly rising, hot moisture-laden air and the Jet Stream meet you get one thing – Super Storms. And here’s the thing, we won’t get just one Super Storm. We’ll get hundreds all over the world, with rain like no one has ever seen before, maybe not even Noah.
But that’s not all. Even folks living on a lot of the Earth’s higher ground won’t be safe. Widespread catastrophic landslides would come hand in hand with the 2012 Great Flood. Sodden hillsides would give way without warning and plunge to the valleys below, carrying with them whole cities. In recent years landslides have killed countless thousands in South America and China.
The Alaskan Tsunami of 1963 was caused by landslide triggered by an earthquake. The end wall of a fjord collapsed into the water, sending a wave over 1000 feet high towards the ocean, obliterating everything in its path.
Of course the survival solution to this final scenario is pretty clear. Be in mountain areas where the high slopes are primarily made from solid, stable rock, and make sure to stay out of the valleys, which due to the heavy rain will rapidly become raging torrents.
OK so that’s the bad news. Now let’s see what we can do about helping your family to survive the worst 2012 can throw at you.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/2012-disaster-scenarios-what-are-the-terrible-events-we-must-prepare-to-survive-1827807.html
About the Author
Colonel Mike Kerrigan a Special Forces survival expert has put together ‘The Ultimate 2012 Family Survival Manual’ which contains all the information you need to keep your family alive in 2012 no matter what comes your way. And it’s free with the 2012 Official Countdown. Get it before time runs out.
Just looking for some general tips on living greener, things such as solar panels, etc, that won’t cost a lot to implement? Of course, solar panels cost a fortune, but it’s an example. Thanks!
Hey Jenny,
I actually just responded to another question of yours too a few minutes ago. I’ve been reviewing “green” manuals lately and found something called “Earth4Energy” – It’s a great guide with detailed information on how to build your own solar and wind power. You can check out my full review of it @ http://renewable-energy-info.com/ – Best of luck to ya!
Does anybody know if there are any courses for solar panel installation, and/or what trades you need for this position?
hey buddy no need to go for a course or so whenever u buy a solar panel a manually comes with it with complete information on how to install a solar panel and you can always go for do it yourself things search on Google you will find the installation way however i can give a basic idea about the same like there would be two major setps one is electrically installation and second is manual also you need to know that you are going for a roof mounted panel or a ground mounted one so for starting Installing a solar panel power station is very easy. There are just a few steps you need to know. First read the information on the solar panels. The information you will require is the maximum wattage, voltage, and amps or amperes.
A solar power system will require solar panels, voltage regulator, and batteries. The most common systems are 12 and 24 volt systems. The voltage regulator needs to be rated above the maximum voltage and current(amps) of the combined solar panels. The batteries will need to be deep cycle and when combined have the capacity to provide the amp hours needed for your situation.
How to Electrically Install your Solar Panels
Each solar panel will be wired to each other in parallel if you have more then one. When you wire in parallel the amps(current) from each panel will add to the total sum of current, but the total voltage stays the same. The voltage must match the rest of your system. For example, if your are using 12 volt solar panels you must be using 12 volt batteries and voltage regulator. Voltage regulator must be rated above maximum voltage and current(amps).
Connect the output from the solar panels to a properly rated regulator, solar panel voltage regulators are rated by maximum voltage and amps, that will shut off the current flow to the batteries once the batteries are sufficiently charged there by preventing damage to the batteries.
The way that you figure the rating needed for the regulator is by adding the maximum amps for each solar panel, this should be listed on the solar panel, and if they are 12 volt panels and they are connected in parallel then max voltage should be around 22 volts. It’s the amperes that is most importance when choosing a regulator. For example, a 50 watt 12 volt solar panel will give you around 3.5 amps max output, your voltage regulator needs to be at least rated above this vcalue. Any less and your going to cook the regulator and possible damage your batteries.
Solar panels are very sturdy, it’s hard to damage them electrically. On the other hand it’s very easy to damage the regulator and batteries. Batteries can explode if connected wrong, so be carefully when working with batteries. Positive to positive and negative to negative.
hope this will help you
Planets are in solar systems, solar systems are in galaxies, and galaxies are in the universe, so what is the universe in? How can something just be here? A theory of mine is mabey the universe is God. Perhaps it is a living thing. Since nothing on earth will ever know the true answers all I can do is speculate. I personally don’t think the answers will be found by math, which was created by humans.
“The universe is nothing more than an atom of a larger thing. An atom in your fingernail could hold an entire universe in itself.”
You got that from animal hour didn’t you? When i first heard that I thought, “cool” but then I thought about it just a little harder and realized that obviously isn’t possible and if it was, what would happen when the life form our universe is an atom of dies or whatever it is part of is destroyed?
The universe means, literally, everything that exists. Asking what exists beyond the universe is like asking what continents exist outside the Earth. If we can use reason to divine it’s existence, then it is part of the universe.
People of course speculate. Anything not of this universe is termed “supernatural”. And because the supernatural can not be falsified (proven wrong), then it is not a truly scientific question. So your calling the universe ‘God’ (a philosophical thought that has existed for decades. Google “pantheism”) is purely arbitrary, faith based, unfalsifiable, and thus, not proper scientifically.
As far as knowledge, the acquisition of knowledge and search for the truth has always been sketchy, but it is hypothesized that when we unlock the secrets of consciousness, we will finally have an objective standard for the truth, and that will change our society in profound ways. Possibly, we are on the verge of understanding consciousness, as neuroscientists delve further and further into the brain, unlocking mystery after mystery, we may eventually have a full understanding of how our brain creates ideas, and we can gauge which ideas have a proper base, and which do not.
And your comment about math is conceptually wrong on so many levels it’s hard to count. Man didn’t ‘invent’ mathematics anymore than he ‘invented’ electricity (Electrons have always existed, Man simply discovered them and their uses).
Einstein once wrote that “Mathematics is the language with which God wrote the universe”. Of course Einstein was being metaphorical about God, but the point is that 2 + 2 = 4, no matter how many people are counting.
Even Descartes, who coined the term “I think, therefore I am” and who couldn’t be convinced that anything in the universe except his own conscious mind existed, believed that conceptual mathematics were the only universal constant, the only thing man could truly trust as existing.
I CAN’ T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOLAR WINDS AND SOLAR STORMS. AND WHAT STARTS A SOLAR STORM/WIND
The solar wind is the stream of particles and radiation continously emitted by the Sun and affects bodies in orbit around it. For example the solar wind produces magnetic and radio interactions with the Van Allen belts around the Earth.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/sun/wind.html
It might also be used to propel a giant sail as a means of interplanetary travel some day.
http://www.electric-sailing.com/
The Sun is a very agitated body, with massive and rapidly changing magnetic fields and mass and radiation movements which can lead to violent eruptions and mass and radiation emmissions called solar storms. Coronal mass ejections can throw out tens of thousands of tons of matter in minutes, accompanied by severely increased levels of emmitted radiation. Increased material and radiation loss from storms of course adds to the solar wind, but the massively increased emmissions during storms can mess up comminications on Earth and even shut down power stations.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/14apr_3dcme.htm . . . . .
http://solar.physics.montana.edu/press/WashPost/Horizon/196l-031099-idx.html . . . . .
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,478024,00.html . . . . . .
Using the sea as an analogy, the solar wind is the like normal series of waves and swells ever present on the oceans. Seismic storms from earhquakes and volcanos generate the giant waves and tsunamis that wreak havoc where they reach land just as the massive radiation levels of solar storms do when they reach the magnetic and electrical fields around a planet like Earth.
Tsunamis are only dangerous when they reach the lower water depths off-shore and the nature of the wave is forced to change.
When they hit the land the waves are forced to give up their energy the full force of the waves is felt.
In mid ocean there is nothing to interact with and nothing to harm.
Likewise with radiation storms. It’s when they reach a magnetic or electrical field with which they interact that the harm is done.
Human aliens of course from other solar systems that mixed with Earthlings long ago to create different races and religions on planet Earth.
Perhaps we may be descendants from different planets, and there may be less than half of the people on Earth who are true blooded native Earthlings? Wouldn’t this explain a lot?
What do you think?
I have considered that humans on earth may advance technologically enough to be able to travel to planets in other solar systems and galaxies Since our Earth won’t be viable for human life forever, we will need to do that for humanity to survive.
. If that is so, then maybe we will find life forms similar to ours somewhere else in the universe.
And perhaps life somewhere else in the universe has already developed ahead of ours, and those people have had the technology to travel here.
A lot of solar hot water systems claim to also increase the value of your home but provide no real information regarding it. Who would determine this value or how might it be applied to the value of the home? If it does increase does this increase depreciate?
Yes of course it increases the value the real question is does it increase the value as much as it costs to install it. A smart Realtor might be your answer.
I was wondering how many solar cells you would need to power a small toy car. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about things like this, so if you could direct me to any websites or explain it, that would be great, thanks.(:
Well, first you need to figure out what your requirements are going to be, for example lets say 5v. Solar cells are cheap, these ones here are .55v http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062564. You see that metal strip up top? That is the – and on the opposite side that is the +. You need to solder some wire on both ends and that is kind of tedious if you are not familiar with soldering so you can always get one of these. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2131051 The wires are already soldered and it is in a nice little case too so it is protected.
The one I linked is 6v though and you need 5v (like I said earlier for example). Since solar panels do not give consistent power since it depends on how much light they get you would need a voltage regulator. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062599 That is a 5v voltage regulator, meaning no matter how much light the solar cell is receiving it will only put out 5v, unless it is getting less than 5v of course. So it might be a good idea to get two of those 6v solar cells and connect them in series (connect the + to – of the two cells so the voltage goes up to 12v). The amperage may be an issue but this will depend on the load requirement as well, if it is just a small motor those cells should work fine. Send me an email if you are curious how the voltage regulator is wired up. To recap:
1. Find out how much voltage/amperage your toy car is.
2. Buy solar cells for those needs.
3. Buy a voltage regulator for steady flow.
4. Profit, easy as that.
Price of Solar panels Vs Utility – is it really worth going for it?
The current wholesale price of solar panels from China is €0.46 per Watt peak (which means 32 Rupees per Watt peak).
http://www.enfsolar.com/cell-panel-prices
A typical panel is 250 Watt peaks. Which makes the panel €115 / 8000 Rupees. Of course buying small amounts locally will put up the price.
People normally install 2,000 to 4,000 Watt peaks on their home. Historically people install panels to get special tariffs and these haven’t really existed for homes in India. But the price of panels have dropped dramatically in recent years and they are starting to become cheap enough to be interesting without government subsidies, but payback will still be very long.
I want to setup solar panels to run 2 Air conditioner and simple lights. How much would be the approx cost in USD? I want to set it up India. If you’ve more idea about Indian market then thats better.
This means that what you would be powering with solar electricity are things like the refrigerator, the lights, the computer, the TV, stereo equipment, motors in things like furnace fans and the washer, etc. Let’s say that all of those things average out to 600 watts on average. Over the course of 24 hours, you need 600 watts * 24 hours = 14,400 watt-hours per day.
I know that a solar panel can generate 70 milliwatts per square inch * 5 hours = 350 milliwatt hours per day. Therefore you need about 41,000 square inches of solar panel for the house. That’s a solar panel that measures about 285 square feet (about 26 square meters). That would cost around $16,000 right now. Then, because the sun only shines part of the time, you would need to purchase a battery bank, an inverter, etc., and that often doubles the cost of the installation.
If you want to have a small room air conditioner in your bedroom, double everything.
If you want to just power 2 small air conditioners, your look at about $32,000 +installation
The solar tinting has become so dull and hazy.they are so hard to see through at this point.any suggestions would be appreciated.
Time to have the windows retinted it plastic film on the outside they have become weathered from age that is course if glass cleaner did not work.