Yes, I missed my dinner engagement! LOL!

I never made it out to meet Hayley for dinner. As you guys know, the bane of my existence is time. Yesterday evening was no different; with the exception that I was not given a last minute SUPER EMERGENT task - I got to talking and completely forgot about my previous engagement! A few guys came up from the lab along with Ken and Mitch. I am at my desk trying to return an e-mail here on MySpace (see Danielle, still trying!) And they immediately asked who I was trying to piss off! One of the scientists asks me to pull up my other web page because there was an interesting comment on the global warming article.

It simply read; "you are right. Global warming is a farce. What you elude to is also correct in terms of coolness and darkness. We lose two minutes of light per day. The northern hemisphere will be in complete darkness next June. Co2 and the green house effect have impact without sunlight."

I looked up as I finished reading this aloud to our small involuntary pseudo think tank. I pull up the Farmer's Almanac and find something of interest. July 06 15th had 933 minutes of sunlight, July 16^th had 931. August 15^th had 854 minutes of daylight and August 16^th had 851 minutes of daylight! The comment on my other page was wrong! We are not losing two minutes of daylight per day; we are losing two minutes per day plus one minute per day per month! What does that mean? Not exactly 6^th grade math but it is one of those formulas you probably refused to learn in high school arguing that you will never need it.

Total change (c) = acceleration (a) / 2, times the length of time (t), squared or; c = a / 2 X t squared. Simple enough right? If not; the idea here is to solve for t (not c) the time in which this change will accumulate. We want to start from the 933 minutes and end at zero minutes to determine when daylight will end. Thus, c = 933 and we can solve for t. c=1/2 at 2 becomes t = square root of (2 X 933 / 1). Forty-three months from June of 06. Our anonymous writer was told something and ran with it. He never looked into it to determine what was and was not right. December of 09 = zero daylight hours given such raw data.

As I am working this up on the laser board in my office (this one I am keeping to go back to later next week) one of the scientists is in the liquor cabinet pouring a drink (with his back to me) and says 43 months with perpetual darkness beginning on the 16^th of December 2009, given changing weather patterns 72 hours prior in cloud covered regions of the northern hemisphere. (The man is a savant).

We start discussing this and in walks Hayley! Not pissed but not exactly happy either. In tote, two cases of Chinese carry out! LOL! She is well aware of how distracted I get and knows that sometimes I must be actively sought out. First thing out of her mouth? "Ter, you are such an ass! You wrote about me!" She breaks out the food and we all begin to eat and laugh about what I wrote; in particular her phone call that morning. More science minded at the moment than political the conversation remains on topic. All of this is new to Hayley so Ken catches her up. The look on her face was classic!

The idea here is that a snap shot is taken of the fleeting hours of daylight in the summer months after the solstice . If you stick to those numbers yes, you will see a cycle that ends in perpetual darkness. Look at it like this; if you use the same formula on a segment of time opposite of July and Aug when the days are getting longer - you will end a 43 month long cycle in perpetual daylight. Do you see how easy it is scare people because they just listen and don't think for themselves? None of us mentioned this because the flaw was obvious, Hayley though turned pale, stopped eating and started pouring a drink. I felt the need to put her at ease. In return we went online to see what the common impression was about this. Sunning! Even Rush was ranting and raving about this just yesterday. He took a call from a guy who worked up a computer simulation (which is posted online) showing perpetual darkness next summer. There were numberous blogs discounting global warming in leu of this new farce (all citing next summer as being the end of our daylight hours). They mentioned how light from the norther hemisphere 'leaks' into the southern hemisphere. Ok. Last I checked their seasons countered ours - hence SOUTHERN hemisphere. The opposite 'leaking' effects the NORTHERN hemisphere as their days shorten and ours lengthen. Really, more people should have paid attention in school! The basic rules that apply are the first to be overlooked.

Another issue is precession (the wobble of the axis). This is responsible for seasonal irregularity. One argument is that the wobble will stabilize and alter climate; no argument from me on that from a climate perspective but a huge one in terms of the northern hemisphere going dark. The tilt is 23.5 degrees which would have to shift to 45 degrees in less than a years time with no precession of the new axis to throw the northern hemisphere into perpetual darkness. (Not happening). Even with obliquity factored in, this concept is absurd at best. What we are talking about here is the north pole being (and staying) at a point of the exact opposite of the sun (some 20+ degrees in less than a years time. Should the earth shift that fast; perpetual darkness will be the least of our worries!

As this new farce gains popularity and people begin to talk about it, take them back to their Jr. High or Middle School and sit them back down in 8^th grade science for a refresher course. But then again, you can just sit back and laugh at them as I plan to do!