Warning: Solar Superstorm could Destroy Earth at any moment

Warning: Solar Superstorm could Destroy Earth at any moment

It is “only a matter of time” before a catastrophic eruption on the surface of the sun hurtles towards the planet with devastating consequences.

The Earth could be the target of an explosion equivalent to “10 billion Hiroshima bombs exploding at the same time”.

It has emerged crisis meetings have been held to discuss how to limit the damage of solar superstorms which present a “long-lasting” threat to all forms of life.

Scientists warn communication systems will be crippled, vital services such as transport, sanitation and medicine will close, and loss of power will plunge the planet into darkness.

Ashley Dale, member of international task force SolarMAX set up to identify the risks of a solar storm, said: “Without power, people would struggle to fuel their cars at petrol stations, get money from cash dispensers or pay online.

“Water and sewage systems would be affected too, meaning that health epidemics in urbanised areas would quickly take a grip, with diseases we thought we had left behind centuries ago soon returning.”

The warning comes as Britain is experiencing one of the hottest summers on record. Scientists have warned of "highly unusual activity" on the surface of the sun which has already sent smaller solar flares spiralling towards earth.

Solar storms are triggered when coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun tear into the earths magnetic field ripping it apart.

This triggers huge surges of electrical currents which lead to widespread power outages and destroy machinery which use electricity.

Mr Dale, currently writing a doctorate on aerospace engineering at Bristol University, said it is only a “matter of time” before a violent solar storm smashes into Earth.

He warned the planet is facing a repeat of the devastating solar superstorm of 1859 - dubbed the Carrington Event after English astronomer Richard Carrington.

Carrington spotted a solar flare before terrifying fireballs hurtled across the atmosphere making people think it was the end of the world.

Reports followed of sparks showering from telegraph machines, out of control fires and electrical operators being injured.

Around 10^22 kJ of energy catapulted around a trillion kilos of charged particles towards the Earth at speeds of up to 1,900 miles per second.
Mr Dale said a solar superstorm could cause around £1.5 TRILLION of damage across the globe, wiping out communication systems and transport networks.

He said: “We have begun to realise these superstorms are large enough to cause serious damage and they happen quite often relatively speaking.

“It is only now, when we are so dependant on technology, that we are so vulnerable, and one is overdue by about five years.

“We are looking at a major major event, it sounds like scaremongering but we’re not, there are very serious implications.”

Its impact on civilised life was relatively small as there was less reliance on electronics, a similar event now would be nothing short of catastrophic.

In the journal Physics World Mr Dale claims an event which will have a serious impact on the world is inevitable.

NASA scientists say Carrington-level event happens every 150 years with the next one currently five years overdue.

The likelihood of one occurring in the next decade is as high as 12 per cent, they added.

Scientists from SolarMAX gathered at the International Space University in France where they concluded advanced space-weather forecasting is the best solution.
This would give around a week’s notice of where and when solar storms will take place and exactly how bad they will be,

When the warning is given vulnerable power lines will be switched off, satellites re-orientated in space and planes will be grounded.

Mr Dale said: “As a species, we have never been more vulnerable to the volatile mood of our nearest star, but it is well within our ability, skill and expertise as humans to protect ourselves.”

The warning from scientists will send shivers down the spine of astronomers who told of the recent Blood Moon which was said to prophesise a huge event that could strike down mankind.

The total lunar eclipse that turned the moon a dark blood red in April this year was said to be a 'sign' from God and fulfilled a prophecy foretold in the bible, a church claimed.

Pastor John Hagee, whose book Four Blood Moons sparked worldwide interest in the phenomenon, said it was now too late for mankind to prevent a 'huge' event that would change humanity forever.

Android 5.0 is Lemon Cake What Do You Think?

A new Android L developer preview image hints at what could be the name of Google’s new Android 5.0 update – as well as its official number.

What’s in a name?

A lot, if you’re Google picking out just the right dessert name to follow KitKat.

KitKat was a “sweet” surprise (pun intended!) that took the tech world by storm. Everyone was expecting “Key Lime Pie,” but Google had a secret surprise ready.

As for this year’s Android L update? We don’t know.

A look at the Android L developer preview, however, provides what many believe could be the clue as to what Google looks to name as the next Android update.

The evidence comes from the Android Developer blog, where the site provides information regarding the Android L developer look into what aesthetic changes can be expected in the new update. Among them, is a Google Hangouts notification with the timestamp of 5:30PM and the text from a guy named Daniel that says, “I’m bringing my homemade lemon cake.”

It’s been said in the past that, whenever Google intends to provide a clue as to the new OS update name, it drops hints and traces within developer previews. In the following Nexus 5 image, for example, Google took the picture with a time of 4:40 at the top right of the Nexus 5 screen. When Google announced the Nexus 5 last October, the Android OS update was called "Android 4.4 KitKat."

Cellphones a Bacterial and Environmental Sensors?

Cellphones actually reflect the personal microbial world of their owners and may be used as bacterial and environmental sensors, scientists say.
Researchers from the University of Oregon focused on the personal microbiome - the collection of microorganisms on items regularly worn or carried by a person.

Researchers sequenced microbes from the dominant-hand index fingers and thumbs of 17 subjects and from the touchscreens of their smartphones.

The study found smartphones closely resembled the microbiome sampled from their owner's finger, with 82 percent of the most common bacteria on participants' fingers also found on their phones.

Women were found to be more closely connected, microbiologically speaking, to their phones than were men, researchers said.

Although men and women were both statistically similar to their own phones, the relationship was stronger for women than for men.

The most commonly found bacteria were from three genera that are ubiquitous on and in humans: Streptococcus, which is commonly found in the mouth, and Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium, both common skin residents.

The analyses focused on categorising whole microbial communities rather than identifying pathogens.

The findings emerged from sequences representing more than 7,000 different types of bacteria found in the 51 samples taken from fingers and phones.

"This project was a proof-of-concept to see if our favourite and most closely held possessions microbially resemble us," said lead author James F Meadow, a postdoctoral researcher in the Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon.

"We are ultimately interested in the possibility of using personal effects as a non-invasive way to monitor our health and our contact with the surrounding environment," he said.

Future uses could include real-time sequencing technology to screen the smartphones of health-care workers and hospital visitors, rather than the people themselves, for possible exposure to pathogens that could be carried into or out of a medical facility.

Also, phones are ubiquitous and come into direct contact with so much of a person's environment that they might also be valuable for analysing exposure to "biological threats or unusual sources of environmental microbes that don't necessarily end up integrated into our human microbiome," researchers said.

The findings also present opportunities for future scientific use, as phones could be used for easy and non-invasive sampling in large-scale microbial studies, they said.

Amazon's Appstore for Android can save BlackBerry?

Jack Wallen examines a new deal between BlackBerry and Amazon. Will this one final push help save BlackBerry?


In a very strange move, Amazon recently opened up their entire Android app catalog for BlackBerry users. That's right! In a new licensing deal, Amazon will allow the BlackBerry 10.3 (due out this fall... yes, BlackBerry is still releasing devices) access to over 250,000 apps. This major move does two things:

1. Frees up BlackBerry to focus on business-centric apps
2. Gets the non-business BlackBerry users access to casual apps

To me, there's a slight disconnect here. Are there casual BlackBerry users? My guess is no. BlackBerry only continues on because of business users who frequently travel overseas and holdovers who fear change (or there's that one app they can't do without). BlackBerry is set to release a new piece of hardware, but isn't it a little too late?

Three years ago, this would have been a completely different, and possibly game-changing, headline. Now? Not so much. The idea here is that BlackBerry isn't failing -- it's failed. The company is holding onto the hopes that adding the Amazon Android catalog will not only help to retain their current miniscule user base, but attract new users who left because of what can only be seen as "app drought." Sure, BlackBerry had solid business tools, but beyond that... there isn't much else. When you add to this some fairly unimpressive hardware, then you have the recipe for what ailed the company.

What can the addition of the Amazon Android catalog do? Clearly, BlackBerry Enterprise is going under the assumption that 250,000 apps (a majority of which will not appeal to BlackBerry users) will bring relevance back to the device. There's a slight problem with that logic. In today's mobile market, there are two incredibly massive players: Android and iOS. They are the de facto standards by which all mobile devices are compared. Any other platform with hopes and aspirations of making any noise in the mobile market is facing some nearly insurmountable odds. Look at WebOS and the maybe-soon-to-be-possibly released Ubuntu Phone. Both platforms are staring down the barrel of major barriers to entry -- just to get noticed. BlackBerry has been assumed dead for a long time now ("long time" being relative, of course). A resurrection in this fickle market is often more challenging than a new release. When the PC, IT, and mobile communities assume you are no longer relevant, you may as well be dead and buried.

And yet, here we have the little train that could doing everything it can to remain on the tracks. I have to say, the efforts of BlackBerry are commendable. Most other companies would have given up the ghost long ago. But BlackBerry Enterprise keeps on chugging along, hoping that one day it'll make the right move to bring it back to relevance.

Is the Amazon Appstore for Android the move to resurrect what was once jokingly called Crackberry? My best guess is that it'll give it the tiniest boost of life and then, slowly, the company will drift off into the Big Nap for good.

What do you think? Is it time for BlackBerry to give up the ghost? Or will the Amazon Appstore for Android save the little company that could? Share your thoughts in the discussion thread below.

Microsoft Has Just Launched Nokia X2 Its First Android Smartphone

Nokia X2, the first Android-based smartphone made by Microsoft.

Yes, you read that right: Microsoft has just made a new Android-based handset.

It’s also still using the Nokia name at this point, despite previously saying it didn’t plan to trade on that name for long. (Evidently Microsoft’s marketing minions are still working on cooking up that “go forward” smartphone brand.)

The Nokia X2 is not the first Android device Microsoft owns, being as Redmond took over Nokia’s mobile making division in April – a move which brought the original Nokia X device under its wing. But some doubted whether Microsoft approved of Nokia’s Android experiment — and speculated that the line would be quickly culled by Redmond.

Nokia forked Android back in February to create a new smartphone platform, which it called the Nokia X Software Platform to slot in between — pricing-wise — its Series 40 based low cost Asha devices and its Windows Phone powered Lumia smartphones.

At the time Nokia described the fork as a Lumia “feeder” — with then CEO Stephen Elop saying Nokia X devices would be a Trojan horse within Google’s ecosystem by introducing first time smartphone owners to Microsoft’s services rather than Mountain View’s.

Evidently Microsoft approves of this strategy after all — since it’s now building on that experiment with a follow up device. Or at least it’s willing to give the fork a chance.

The Nokia X2 is priced at €99 before taxes and subsidies (a little up on the original Nokia X’s €89 price-tag), and has a slightly larger screen (4.3 inches vs 4 inches), along with a beefier processor (1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor vs 1GHz dual-core in the original device).

Otherwise it’s much the same fare, with the handset coming in a range of eye-popping colours and featuring Nokia’s blend of UI experiences — with a Windows Phone-esque tiles-based homescreen, combined with Nokia’s Fast Lane notifications screen, plus plentiful Microsoft (and Nokia) services preloaded, including Skype, Outlook, OneDrive, Mix Radio, Here Maps; and — of course — access to Android apps.

The X2 also supports dual-SIM — a popular feature in emerging markets where Microsoft will be hoping the Nokia X platform can better compete with other Android rivals than Windows Phone has been able to, thanks to those plentiful Android apps — and by reaching a lower price tag than entry level Lumias can.

The Nokia X2 extends the original trio of devices on the platform which were the Nokia X, X+ and XL.

Below is a Microsoft demo video of the X2:

Wondering what Nokia has been up to since handing off its mobile-making division to Microsoft? It’s also been dabbling with Android — releasing an alternative homescreen for Google’s software platform called Z Launcher just last week.

In mobile, (almost) all roads now lead to Mountain View. So finding ways to build atop Android is the order of the day for mobile players of all stripes.

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