Sunspots
No not the kick ass Nine Inch Nails song. Apparently the sun has been producing less than expected amount of sunspots.
According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected since 1749.
Illustrating the usefulness of experts:
In 2005, a pair of astronomers from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson attempted to publish a paper in the journal Science. The pair looked at minute spectroscopic and magnetic changes in the sun. By extrapolating forward, they reached the startling result that, within 10 years, sunspots would vanish entirely. At the time, the sun was very active. Most of their peers laughed at what they considered an unsubstantiated conclusion.
The journal ultimately rejected the paper as being too controversial.
Astronomers have being studying sunspots for four hundred years. And yet they can’t predict how many sunspots will occur in the month of August. This makes me want to support legislation for reducing global warming. Scientist can’t predict a relatively simple phenomenon compared to the complexities of global warming, nevertheless we should apply austere regulations on industry anyway.
By they way, whose ready for global cooling? This was the most moderate August of my thirty years of life. It can only mean one thing: Global Cooling. We need to increase industry to increase the greenhouse affect to hold onto as much of the scant amount of heat the sun is going to be providing us. I support legislation clearing cutting down whole forests. We can’t have those damn plants converting all of our precious CO2 to oxygen. We need that CO2 to stay warm.