Free Republic

According to researchers at EMPact America, an organization dedicated to studying and preparing for the possibility of large-scale electro magnetic pulse threats that can destroy our modern day electrical infrastructure, the earth came dangerously close to a serious destabilization event. A couple of weeks ago the sun emitted a massive CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that, had it been earth-directed, would likely have wiped out critical portions of the world’s power grid and sent developed nations back to the stone age within a matter of seconds. ‘The world escaped an EMP catastrophe,’ Henry Cooper, who now heads High Frontier, a group...

Damn. We've seen us some solar eruption videos in our day, but this here's a sight to behold. We've got some incredible photo and video for you here, so pay attention — you don't want to miss any of this. Up top you'll find some downright gorgeous footage of a coronal mass ejection (a roiling whip of plasma, hurled from an active region on the Sun). It was shot by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory during an intense solar storm on August 31. Down below we've featured a series of still images from the explosion, and first up is one that...

The Sun has unleashed its most powerful eruption of 2013 so far. The solar flare - a sudden release of radiation - peaked at 1705 BST on Monday, and was associated with a huge eruption of matter. When these eruptions reach Earth, they can interfere with electronic systems in satellites and those on the ground. Nasa said this solar explosion - known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) - was not directed at Earth, but it could pass several US spacecraft. The event on Monday was classified as an "X-class" flare - the most intense type - with a designation...

On March 15, 2013, at 2:54 a.m. EDT, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later and affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and ESA/NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 900 miles per second, which is a fairly fast speed for CMEs. Historically, CMEs at this speed have...

Poor management decisions by MF Global's former CEO Jon Corzine triggered the brokerage firm's collapse, while lax protections for customer funds contributed to the loss of an estimated $1.6 billion of customer money, U.S. congressional investigators have determined.

A NASA-sponsored researcher at the University of Iowa has developed a way for spacecraft to hunt down hidden magnetic portals in the vicinity of Earth. These portals link the magnetic field of our planet to that of the sun. Excellent video on the science of our magnetosphere and how we are just learning about field reversal that open and close between earth and the sun.

A flurry of solar activity in early March dumped enough heat in Earth's upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years. The heat has since dissipated, but there's more to come as the solar cycle intensifies. At 2:16 minutes into the video it very clearly says that the CO2 is one of the most efficient coolants in the atmosphere and that it reflected 95% of the radiation back into outer space. This entire series of videos is excellent.

This week, traders at the CME walked off the floor to protest policies that some see benefiting the big traders.   Other walk offs have happened in the history of exchanges around the world. I recall one in France, London, and Australia respectively. In this day and age of computerized trading, if the floor traders quit, there are others that will make a market. They are slitting their own throat.However, in the options market, it’s a bit different. Options have not made the jump to the screen yet. (Remember, we are talking futures, not stock options). The pit has cheaper...

Auroras may dazzle more people than usual this weekend as Earth receives a glancing blow from an enormous solar outburst that erupted on Jan. 19. The outburst, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), was detected by sun-watching satellites. Researchers at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute predict that auroras should be visible from Seattle, Des Moines, Chicago, and Cleveland, to Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia Saturday and Sunday nights, weather permitting. ... Space Weather Center forecasters say they expect the encounter to generate a weak geomagnetic disturbance beginning around 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Sunday Jan. 22 and lasting...

This is a true story, it just hasn’t happened yet. “I’m hungry grandma Kay” Abbie cried “When are we going to eat”? “I don’t know sweetie, I’m hungry too” Kay replied. Abbie just stood there in the living room in her bulky coat and boots swaying back and forth with her head hanging down and weeping softly. She was skin and bones, Kay knew she wouldn’t last much longer. After 3 weeks there had been nothing to eat anywhere and now, only 6 weeks after the lights went out, they were starving. “Grandma, remember when I told you my friend...

Is a giant, cloaked spaceship orbiting around Mercury? That's been the speculation from some corners aftera camera onboard NASA's STEREO spacecraft caught a wave of electronically charged material shooting out from the sun and hitting Mercury. Theorists have seized on the images captured from the "coronal mass ejection" (CME) last week as suggestive of alien life hanging out in our own cosmic backyard. Specifically, the solar flare washing over Mercury appears to hit another object of comparable size. "It's cylindrical on either side and has a shape in the middle. It definitely looks like a ship to me, and very...

Without a fresh round of tax incentives, two iconic Illinois companies might soon be on the move. The companies -- Sears Holdings and CME Group -- are the latest in a series of Illinois firms to threaten departure after the state temporarily raised corporate taxes earlier this year. Sears Holdings, which has 6,100 employees at its corporate headquarters and operates both K-Mart and Sears stores, is looking for its current package of tax incentives to be extended. ... The stakes are high. Earlier this year, Caterpillar threatened to leave Illinois, an announcement that sparked something of a relocation competition among...

The most important news announcement of the day was not anything to came out of Cannes (as nothing did), nor from Greece (the merry go round farce there continues unabated). No, it was a brief paragraph distributed by the CME long after everyone had gone home, and was already on their 3rd drink. It is critical, because not only is this announcement a direct consequence of what happened with MF Global several days ago, but because also it confirms one of our biggest concerns: systemic liquidity is non-existanet. We confirmed interbank liquidity in Europe was at an all time low...

Enlarge Image Watch out! A new forecast model simulates the approach of a coronal mass ejection (boomerang of color) to Earth (green dot) that would trigger a solar storm. Credit: Space Weather Prediction Center/NOAA It took a while, but space physicists who predict immense balls of solar debris smashing into Earth have finally caught up with their brethren who forecast terrestrial weather. Rather than simply relying on rules of thumb, space weather forecasters have begun running a computer model that actually simulates the development of conditions between the sun and Earth. They're following the lead of atmospheric weather forecasters,...

Just after hitting a new all time high of above $1815 in spot gold, the CME immediately sent out a notice to members advising that gold margins for Tier 1 members were increasing by 22% for both initial and maintenance positions, from $4,500 to $5,500. Unfortunately for the CME, this predetermined move was telegraphed to the market weeks ago, and with rumor 57 out of 22 finally turning out correct, this latest move only managed to push gold down modestly, and at last check was once again trading above $1,800. Just like all central bank interventions, which now have a...

A 49-year-old Libertyville man who was employed as a senior software engineer with the Chicago-based CME Group has been charged with stealing trade secrets, officials said. Chunlai Yang was arrested Friday morning by FBI agents at the CME office located at 550 W. Washington St. and was charged with one count of theft of trade secrets, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Chicago. Yang had been employed with CME since 2000 and was responsible for writing computer code, officials said. The company started monitoring his computer activity in May of this year and discovered thousands...

States: The company that owns Chicago's two largest futures exchanges is thinking about moving operations out of state to flee oppressive business taxes. Worried about climate change? How about the business climate? The days when Chicago was the "hog butcher to the world" have long since passed, replaced by its role as a leading financial trading center that is home to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, also known as the Merc, and the Chicago Board of Trade. On Wednesday, Terence Duffy, chairman of CME Group Inc., which owns the two institutions as well as the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Chief...

Just in case the broad speculator public did not get the message earlier this week after the CME lowered ES margins, just in time for the market to sell off and send realized vol surging (while of course ignoring plunging vol in gold, silver and all other commodities), the CME has completed the "paint by Rahmian numbers" puzzle, and has made clear which other asset class has the investment "go ahead" by the administration. As of a few minutes ago, the initial and outright margins for 10Y and 30 Y Treasury Bond Futures, 10 Year On The Runs, 7 Year...

Nobody could have foreseen this. Nobody. At this point there is nothing left to comment on what is a concerted action to "mitigate" any and all risk in the commodity market but could as well be classified as executive order 6102.5. While we were joking before that soon one will have to post more cash than an silver contract is worth, we are now forced to reevaluate this sarcasm.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A wave of charged plasma particles from a huge solar eruption has glanced off the Earth's northern pole, lighting up auroras and disrupting some radio communications, a NASA scientist said. But the Earth appears to have escaped a widespread geomagnetic storm, with the effects confined to the northern latitudes, possibly reaching down into Norway and Canada. "There can be sporadic outages based on particular small-scale events," said Dean Persnell, project scientist at NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory at Goddard Space Flight Center. He told AFP the official forecast is "for generally quiet conditions today, perhaps some minor storming...