UMF NETWORKS

Nuclear weapons: Explosion over Bikini Atoll Photograph: U.S. Department of Energy-Nevada/Corbis

Latest data on how many nuclear weapons there are in the world shows that – even with some being dismantled – there are still 23,574. So between the US, Russian, China, North Korea and the other nuclear powers, we can be destroyed many times over
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Counting nuclear weapons is a bit like counting votes – a lot depends on who is doing the counting, and how.

The disarmament treaty currently being negotiated between the US and Russia applies to deployed strategic warheads, along with their delivery systems, but that leaves out most of the weapons both countries are sitting on.

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On Sept. 2, 1859, an incredible storm of charged particles sent by the sun slammed into Earth’s atmosphere, overpowered it, and caused havoc on the ground. Telegraph wires, the high-tech stuff of the time, suddenly shorted out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires. Colorful aurora, normally visible only in polar regions, were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii.

Earth’s magnetic field normally protects the surface of the planet from some storms. In 1859, the planet’s defenses were totally overwhelmed. Over the past decade, similar but less powerful storms have likewise busted through, giving scientists insight into what will eventually happen again.

The outlook is not rosy.

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http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/08/late-great-les-pauls-gibson-coded-rocks-genes/

the clock is ticking.. less then a month to go..

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