Did anyone catch the Fox news saying "Its been confirmed the Earth's magnetic poles are shifting toward Russia.? Has anyone noticed how far the Jet Stream is dipping farther South than usual.? Tampa intl. airport has recalibrated most of its compass's to properly land planes.!
And for those that don't believe it just search for "Pole reversal" or "magnetic pole shifts" What do you think is to
come when 12/21/2012 arrives and even greater magnetic pull is exerted on the Earth..
Comments ... #
I'm not worried. I still have my Y2K bunker full of MREs.
FOX NEWS?! OMG, -FOX NEWS said this? My God, it must be true!
/sarcasm
posted by OhioKimono on Jan 08, 2011 at 04:37:33 pm #
I'm also waiting with baited breath for MadJack to find this thread.
posted by OhioKimono on Jan 08, 2011 at 04:43:10 pm #
It is sort of true...the poles are shifting (they are always shifting) toward Russia at 40 miles PER YEAR.
The north magnetic pole has been shifting towards Russia for the better part of a century at least, and if the drift continues at its current speed and direction it will make it there... in another 50 years or so.
The jet stream is being pushed farther south by the unusual presence of arctic high pressure systems, and is unrelated to the earth's magnetic field.
What do I think will come on 12/21/12? I think the Mayans will have to hang up a new calendar, just like we do every year; and has nothing to do with "magnetic pull" being exerted on the Earth, mainly because the Earth generates the field, it isn't "pulled" by it, whatever that means.
posted by prairieson on Jan 08, 2011 at 05:08:15 pm # 1 person liked this
Together with the recent bird and fish deaths, might be signs of the end of the world, as the Mayan's predicted in 2012, lol.
Not one to trust media hype, I went and looked up some real info from more creditable sources:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/29dec_magneticfield.html
For those would like to know facts beyond media sensation.
posted by OhioKimono on Jan 09, 2011 at 01:26:06 am # 1 person liked this
Tampa just has to paint new numbers on their runways. Their compasses are fine.
Runway number changes are fairly common. Bowling Green's runway changed from 9 and 27 to 10 and 28 just a few years ago.
IIRC, runway numbers don't really change, they're referred to with regards to the traffic direction of the aircraft. An eastbound aircraft would be using "runway 09" and a westbound aircraft oriented on the same runway would be using "runway 27".
posted by prairieson on Jan 09, 2011 at 05:27:20 am #
As I mentioned above, runway number changes happen more often than people realize.
The airport where I started flying in Zanesville changed their crosswind runway from 15/33 to 16/34 about 12 years ago. BG's runway changed from 9/27 to 10/28 about 6 years ago. Cleveland and Houston Intercontinental changed theirs 10 years ago. Those are a few that I could think of off of the top of my head. There are many, many more.
Runways are named by rounding to the nearest 10 degrees on the compass and dropping the last zero.
For example, at TOL our main runway is Runway 25. The precise heading for the strip of pavement is 253.7 degrees. Round to the nearest 10 degrees (250) and drop the trailing zero (25).
If the magnetic North pole moves enough that the precise heading of the runway changes to anything 255 degrees or more, and the runway would be renamed to Runway 26. Conversely, if the heading changes to anything 244.9 or less, it would be changed to Runway 24. As long as it stays between 245 and 254.9 degrees, it'll stay as it is.
posted by micah on Jan 09, 2011 at 12:49:27 pm # 1 person liked this
My mistake, Micah, I misread your post...my reply regarding your post was a non sequitur.
posted by prairieson on Jan 09, 2011 at 01:20:46 pm #
No worries. Aviation is the one subject that I (and my limited skill set -- ATC at TOL) get to be an authority on. :-)
The whole "12/21/12" thing makes me chuckle a bit.
The strange thing about the Mayan calendar is, A. it's incredibly accurate. and B. It's starting date precedes the Mayans themselves.
Why would a people capable of such precision create a calendar that pre-dates them?
Lots of fascinating mysteries in the world. I wonder if we'll ever solve some of them?
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