Stuff & Things

I want to help my local businesses but it is so easy to order stuff on line and not hassle to drive into town!

1dave said: I want to help my local businesses but it is so easy to order stuff on line and not hassle to drive into town!

I have also found that if a brick and mortar store no longer carries what I want, the web does, and it is delivered to my door. Fast.


... almost every pair of shoes I own has been purchased online. Local stores carry few few of my shoe size.

Especially a local store owner with an ax to grind.

Heel spurs and university and that makes him a chicken shit draft Dodger?

Be careful; chicken shit has a way of biting back someday.

Well. he is half Scottish. . .

I'm slightly familiar with the stock market and very familiar with the so-called "human-caused" global warming/climate change controversy. I think you may have interposed "Milankovitch" with "Kondratiev" cycles. Milankovich was the Serbian genius who worked out long-term precession and obliquity patterns affecting the polar ice caps. Kondratiev Waves are theoretical 50-year economic cycles in capitalist countries. There's a big difference!

Electromagneic polar shifts leave records in rocks. That's how geologists worked out the cause of plate tectonics by using shift data to show the movement of plates on both sides of the Mid-Atlantic Rift. This quote from NASA goes into more detail.

"Sediment cores taken from deep ocean floors can tell scientists about magnetic polarity shifts, providing a direct link between magnetic field activity and the fossil record. The Earth's magnetic field determines the magnetization of lava as it is laid down on the ocean floor on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Rift where the North American and European continental plates are spreading apart. As the lava solidifies, it creates a record of the orientation of past magnetic fields much like a tape recorder records sound.

"The last time that Earth's poles flipped in a major reversal was about 780,000 years ago, in what scientists call the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal. The fossil record shows no drastic changes in plant or animal life. Deep ocean sediment cores from this period also indicate no changes in glacial activity, based on the amount of oxygen isotopes in the cores. This is also proof that a polarity reversal would not affect the rotation axis of Earth, as the planet's rotation axis tilt has a significant effect on climate and glaciation and any change would be evident in the glacial record.

"Earth's polarity is not a constant. Unlike a classic bar magnet, or the decorative magnets on your refrigerator, the matter governing Earth's magnetic field moves around. Geophysicists are pretty sure that the reason Earth has a magnetic field is because its solid iron core is surrounded by a fluid ocean of hot, liquid metal. This process can also be modeled with supercomputers. Ours is, without hyperbole, a dynamic planet. The flow of liquid iron in Earth's core creates electric currents, which in turn create the magnetic field. So while parts of Earth's outer core are too deep for scientists to measure directly, we can infer movement in the core by observing changes in the magnetic field. The magnetic north pole has been creeping northward – by more than 600 miles (1,100 km) – since the early 19th century, when explorers first located it precisely. It is moving faster now, actually, as scientists estimate the pole is migrating northward about 40 miles per year, as opposed to about 10 miles per year in the early 20th century.

"Another doomsday hypothesis about a geomagnetic flip plays up fears about incoming solar activity. This suggestion mistakenly assumes that a pole reversal would momentarily leave Earth without the magnetic field that protects us from solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun. But, while Earth's magnetic field can indeed weaken and strengthen over time, there is no indication that it has ever disappeared completely. A weaker field would certainly lead to a small increase in solar radiation on Earth – as well as a beautiful display of aurora at lower latitudes - but nothing deadly. Moreover, even with a weakened magnetic field, Earth's thick atmosphere also offers protection against the sun's incoming particles.

"The science shows that magnetic pole reversal is – in terms of geologic time scales – a common occurrence that happens gradually over millennia. While the conditions that cause polarity reversals are not entirely predictable – the north pole's movement could subtly change direction, for instance – there is nothing in the millions of years of geologic record to suggest that any of the 2012 doomsday scenarios connected to a pole reversal should be taken seriously. A reversal might, however, be good business for magnetic compass manufacturers."