Today is Tuesday, 21st May 2013

Posts Tagged ‘Decipher’


Effects of Solar storms

In Decipher I mentioned the 1989 power blackout of part of the electric grid in Canada caused by a solar storm.

If you’re interested in learning more about this real event Astrobiology Magazine has a great new piece on it.



New use for C60 – plumbing

Who knew?

Turns out buckyballs may help to stop water pipes from clogging.

Microscopic particles of carbon known as buckyballs may be able to keep the nation’s water pipes clear in the same way clot-busting drugs prevent arteries from clogging up.



China rattles her saber at the US Navy

It begins.

The Obama administration vowed Monday to keep up military surveillance in waters off China and protested to China about what it called harassment of an American ship doing that work last week. The Pentagon charged that a Chinese intelligence gathering vessel and four others “shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close” to the USNS Impeccable surveillance ship in the South China Sea on Sunday, then threw obstacles in the water as it tried to leave. In an odd twist, the unarmed Impeccable, which is operated for the Navy by civilian mariners, turned fire hoses on one vessel that came within 50 feet of it. The Chinese crew stripped to their underwear, then closed to within 25 feet. A Pentagon spokesman called that “immature” and said the Chinese behaved recklessly and in violation of international law.



Another part of Decipher starts coming true

Decipher begins with the notion that oil supplies will be so tight by 2012 that nations will begin fighting over the reserves in Antarctica. Hardly a rocket science prediction. In the book of course I chose America and China, but based on real transcripts, I outlined the Antarctic Treaty at the beginning noting that several nations had staked claims over the years. The story begins just off the Ross Ice Shelf, where territorial claims are murky.




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