NOVA - Magnetic Storm

Magma in core produces magnetism (unknown why). There are ppl superheating/pressurizing metals attempting to observe.

Basically, the Earth is a liquid magnet - and liquids are just that .... liquidy. So the poles move around, and sometimes you'll have bursts of positive charge appearing in the negative side, etc. When enough bursts occur, the poles start to change strength and even flip. We can see evidence of this by looking through 3 things: cooling lava, cooling clay, and sailor's comparisons of true north. Sailors compare where the compass north is to an astronomical reading and have recorded it - and through history you can see changes. Cooling is seen because after the element is headed - the substance polarizes to the earth's magnetic pull. By knowing when pots are thrown, we can see the magnitude and direction of earth's magnetism. Similarly we can see lava in stages of it being cooled to note changes. There was even a period of time (long ago) where the polarity swapped in a matter of 6 days - you would SEE the compass needle change... if one existed...

So how does this effect us? Well the polarity generates a magnetic field that protects us from the sun's radiation - it reflects it to the north/south (Aurora Borealis) and back into space. The radiation could cause significant amounts of cancer, the loss of atmosphere, etc - in fact, this is what seemed to happen to Mars. It has no poles, but lava is polarized EXCEPT where two asteroids hit it and remelted the rock. Since that rock is not polarized, then there was no field when those asteroids hit.

So when? The magnitude of the poles have dropped dramatically - fastest it's been since civilization, and the rate is increasing. However, if there IS a swap, it's not expected for thousands of years.

Read: online details

History of the iPod

• Jobbs returns to Apple
• Jobbs says you can't ask the consumer what you want... but you can create an environment where everyone gets together and brainstorms until you say "that's it! that's what we'll do!"
• Decide to do the iPod
• Napster goes down, so need a new electronic way to obtain music
• Designs iTunes
• Same day of iTunes launch, announcement of 3rd gen (windows compatable)
• Sells 1 mil songs in 5 days, 200 mil by 2004
• Now Jobbs wants to expand the iPod line so that there's a size for everyone and for everyone's wallet - this blankets the market and makes it hard for competitors to get a niche
• In Oct 2005, they market the video iPod, something that Jobbs has always said would never happen - the consumer will never get the same feel of video when you watch it on a portable screen. Conspiracy theories state that Jobbs suggests this is bad all along to deter competitors.
• Apple now has 4 iPods at 4 pricepoints, so now there's no excuse not to go with iPod when choosing an mp3 player
• in 2005 - own 75% of US mp3 player market - 32 million iPods
  
• "the reason for such a large % is they stay ahead of competitors and stay unmatched in the market"
• In sept 2006, iTunes sells song # 1.5 bil, 3 mil per day, 5th largest music retailer in the US, bigger than Tower and Sam Goody.
• "80% of Microsoft employees who own mp3 players own iPods"
• Cultish following - noone else makes fake players/phones for other companies
• The iPod system is supposed to goto 1 bil $, making iPod the only device with a $1bil side business. An iPod owner spends $100s on accessories and iTunes - that only works with iPod - ppl won't jump ship after that investment.

Watch: google video

Einstein's relativity

Was watching an old documentary about Einstein while riding BART today... (there aren't too many videos I can choose from online that I can convert to put onto my portable video player)

So here's what I learned:

Einstein accepted the fact that speed of light was a constant, so how could two observers see the same speed? well if speed = d/t, and d and speed are const, than time must be a variable.

Also, this means that time is not absolute - ie: if an observer sees two lightning strikes around him, vs a moving observer at the same point - they will not agree on the time of those lightning strikes (since one was moving).

Also, since E = mc^2, then mass has energy and energy has mass. The sun sends out 4.5 pounds of light at us per day.