Tuesday 20 November 2007

You know what?

I'm becoming very convinced that conservation of energy is applying here. The sun seems almost black at times, hell sometimes it's blacker than the sky, which makes so little sense it hurts my head, but the increase in neutrrinos says to me that this is science, or at least scientific magic.

So I'm going to stick my neck out and say conservation of energy probably applies. What does that mean? I don't know yet, but I'm betting it'll be a useful assumption.

Monday 19 November 2007

My mate Fenrir has a blog now.

www.shufflingtowarddestiny.blogspot.com

BTW:
That hydroponics thing he's doing? Yeah, I'm pretty sure, he was already looking into that before the Darkness came.

Wanted to grow some very special plants.

But now it looks like all plants might be special enough to count. Wish I could manage that hydroponics thing.

Oh, on the Neutrino front: A nonymous source (but not one I'm at liberty to divulge to you) has convincingly revealed to me that the levels of neutrinos detected quintupled after the dark sun event. At first it was thought it might be a coincidence, but that doesn't seem all the likely to me, don't you agree?

Tuesday 13 November 2007

A new theory from the Timecube guy

I really have no news at the moment, so I thought I share with you this piece from the TimeCube guy:

In evil oneism sun was seen as one object, timecube revealed suns 4-ness, but was not believed by the educated ignorant. Now sun has achieved oneness, and we suffer as a result.
The evil's of oneism are made clear by this dark development.


etc. The rest can be found at http://timecube.com/darkening

but if you value your sanity, you may not want to click that link.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

A little more information from an anonymous source

Anonymous even as far as I'm concerned, it was sent to my uni email account from a random hotmail address. I'm replying to the guy/gal, but I don't know how trustworthy this data is. Still, I feel it's worth passing on:

The glaciers in the artic and antartic circles look set to begin melting soon. The worlds temperature has been becoming FAR more uniform.

London could be in trouble. As could many other areas.

Sunday 4 November 2007

Last Post From London

The Halloween party went well. I pulled a bloke at midnight, but after that, well, the world wasn't ending, so I slowed down. Still, I've been hanging with him for the past few days though, and thus haven't had much time to research the neutrino issue.

Once I'm back in Bristol tonight or tmoz, I'll put some more thought into it. I fully intend to be back in London soon though :-)

Wednesday 31 October 2007

Party Like There's No Tomorrow

In a year where things have gone from normal to ab, in a very short time, Halloween is a rather important holiday.

Some people really do feel like the world will end tonight. Personally I kinda doubt it, but just in case, I'm gonna go to a rave and party like it will.

Well, not quite exactly like it will* but close.

Hope you have a good night too.


*I won't be spending any time crying on the floor, or calling my parents to say goodbye

Tuesday 30 October 2007

Something to chew on.

In my last lecture on friday, my lecturer let slip something that intrigued me: in explaining the Solar Neutrino problem, she happened to mention the Canadian Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in the past tense. Turns out, it closed in december of last year anyway.

This fails to explain why she caught herself after this however, trying to rephrase. I've been unable to find any information for contacting researchers associated with the Super-Kamiokande collaboration, but I suspect none-the-less that something neutrino related is occurring.

Anyone who knows any japanese reading this is urged to attempt some form of chain of contact with those researchers, they may not be allowed to give away their findings, but a bit of investigation could be useful. Contact the Japanese media. The media worldwide seem to be reporting more now that the newness has died down, and sanity has appeared to return.

Wednesday 24 October 2007

God Bless Reading Week.

Along with an early start for Bristol came an early reading week. I'm heading home next week, although not completely divorcing myself from my Bristonian friends, my new mate Daniel actually lives quite close to me back in Londinium.

In other news: A group of "vampires" (AKA emo-goths in my book) have been exclaiming around Bristol about how cool it is that they don't have to fear the sun anymore.

Seriously: YOU'RE NOT UNDEAD, YOU'RE JUST PALE. Sunburn and turning to dust are too very different things.

Saturday 20 October 2007

The News Since I've Been Gone.

I've been catching up over the past two days (between lectures!*)on the news that has come over the airways since I vanished.

  • Darkpox hitting the UK, Texas, Alabama, New York and Brazil were each noted by people in those countries/states. The mentions outside the immediate area weren't very noticeable given the other news. The Brazil case is not fully under control, but US military and doctors are being called in to stem the spread.
  • The energy recieved from the Sun is fluctuating, not hugely, but it's definitely fluctuating, and differently on different parts of the world. The burning sun that burnt an oil tanker in the south pacific has made a lot of news, despite it being, according to an analysis of the observed radiation pattern, only one of many such bursts.
  • Riots started in Paris when the sun went even darker than usual, and quite red. France has been placed under full Martial Law. Which, for France, is quite surprising.**
  • The war in Iraq has not been mentioned. Apart from when they say about troops from their being redeployed to other areas. I think it's been kind've overshadowed.
I'll see what more I can find out that isn't actually known to you all anyway.

*I mean, it's a bit of a WTF that they're insisting I come in for things right after all that's happened to me. I wouldn't attend, but I do actually want to learn, and they're checking attendance for tutorials and shite.
**Normally France is only ruled by the German military.

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Escape From Captivity

Well, you learn something new every day. Especially when you're locked up in quarantine in a university building. Without, for bullshit reasons, internet or phone connections.

The new thing I learnt on Tuesday the ninth of October was that if the Department of Health can get the agreement of the Department of Defense, you can find yourself in a sealed, quarantined, room VERY rapidly. With absolutely no explanation given.

The new thing I learnt on the 10th was that, unlike prisoners, quarantined persons do not have the right to contact the outside world.

The new thing I learnt on the 11th was that my late friend Talatu is now known as Patient Zero.

The new thing I learnt on the 12th was that, while the disease (which they referred to as Darkpox) has an incubation period of several weeks* it can be tested for after just one.

The new thing I learnt on the 13th was that the whir of a fan in the ventilation system can be extremely worrying when you know that even outside the room you're in, there's a building full of people who may be infected with a horrifying disease.**

The new thing I learnt on the 14th was a rather interesting explanation of string theory. But I won't go into that here, it'd take too long, and nothing seemed that relevant honestly.

The new thing I learnt on the 15th was that needles and exams make a scary combination. When you add in life-or-death situations, there will be panic attacks.

The new thing I learnt on the 16th was an odd take on the nature of infinity in mathematics and physics, concentrating on the differences between zero and an infintesimal.

The new thing I learnt on the 17th was that I probably wasn't going to die just yet, but one of those I'd been boarded with might be. He was taken out for further testing, and we were all seperated.

The new things I learnt today are: I'm not infected AND lying in a room with nothing to do can be extremely exhausting at times.

I'm going to sleep.



*Which may explain the idea of an "infectious vaccine". The people being given it were already infected, and the vaccine simply triggered the effect.
**I very rapidly blanked out the possibility that I might be an infectee. There's paranoia and then there's just plain depression.

Sunday 7 October 2007

News from Africa/Happy Birthday to me!

Alright, today is my birthday, and a good (if dim) day it is indeed. I've recieved news from my mates african family. In nigeria this plague is going down quite badly, they have a vaccine, ut there's also an infectious vaccine, so no-one's really sure if it's safe to take it.

Rumours suggest that the plague started in several medical facilities. It's a plague based on smallpox, but significantly more airborne.

In lighter news, one of my favourite comics finally got around to address the issue of the dark sun. It's an interesting strip, and it's true, the people of this world seem to have somewhat collapsed since the Dark Sun came. I don't konw. All I do know is I was out too late last night to stay up now, I just had to let you know about the phonecall that awoke me.

Saturday 29 September 2007

Update: Sorry for the lack of activity

Apologies for the lack of activity, but the feeling of fresher's week has carried on quite a bit. And I haven't really had much to tell you. However, my professor got back today, and I managed to find him in his office earlier. Apparently* the dark sun has been shown to give the same rates of water evaporation as the old one did. This may be due to a spike in the radiation levels at some higher-than visible wavelength, or maybe a lower one. Studies are under way to pinpoint the issue.

No news from africa, although I hear there's a student in a friends History class whose family are african, so I'm gonna see if any of their contacts know anything. It's not simple.



*Although, given the subject matter, he may be lying

Sunday 23 September 2007

Intriguing. And happy anyway.

Apparently my astronomy lecture tomorrow morning is cancelled because my professor has been called to a discussion with government officials on the Dark Sun issue. I was chatting to him about it earlier this week, and he mentioned that the stars do seem to be dimmer on some frequencies, in some cases. It sounds like Earth-shielding, but not a simple sort. I look forward to learning more.

Anyway, I'm happy not to have a 9am lecture :-D

Saturday 22 September 2007

Sorry for the lack of updates.

My apologies for the lack of updates since I started this place, it's just that once fresher's week started I came to a realisation: You're not meant to put childish things behind you until AFTER fresher's week.

So I went on a hiatus, and my lack of internet access at home meant I didn't post at all. Anyway, enough about me; well not quite, there is the fact that my physics textbook is a new edition, almost 2000 pages long AND with an online section too, but on to the Dark Sun news.

Not really much to tell that you won't have seen on the other news media. Except this: The news on Africa is downplaying things, something fucked is up with the diseases down there. If you're not in an infected area, flee like fuck. If you're near an infected area, I suggest killing yourself, do not try to run, you might just kill us all. I highly doubt that whatever is going on there is natural, but I also find the ideas of things like Lycanthropy being involved somewhat unlikely. Most likely, the Powers That Be (or a subset) decided that as the Earth can't support us all anymore; so they're getting rid of the people they don't value.

I guess I should be thankful that the powers that do this value the educated and free. But I still think it's a really bad move.

Thursday 13 September 2007

I'm going to Bristol

Your loyal blog-writer is making his way to university.

It's odd, apparently Bristol's normally one of the last places to take students up, but this year it's earlier for some reason. Not a Dark-Sun reason though, the sun didn't darken until after this was sorted out.

Still, this oddity may mean I don't get internet access again for slightly longer than would otherwise be the case. Don't worry though, I'll be back and posting more info ASAP.

Tuesday 11 September 2007

High coastal winds with you guys too? Yeah, thought so.

You may have noticed, if you're near the coast, that the news is reporting high winds right at the coast. I know this because it's not just your coast like they're implying, it's EVERY coast.

This is due to the somewhat noticeable temperature drop over the past few days. As the sea is still warm, the air above it is warmer than above land, causing high winds on the coasts.
Whether the problem is gonna get better or worse, I don't know yet, but it's been causing some problems. Not many examples on gale-force-winds AFAIK, but then, who'd be reporting them?

This post (כ) Kingreaper: Too busy preparing to go (and partying like it's the end of the world) to fully analyse.

Monday 10 September 2007

What should we be afraid of?

You know, looking into the sort of cooling we should be expecting from the decrease in incident light from the sun has got me caught up in a spiral of anxiety. There are far too many potential problems from this change in the sun to really deal with, and we have no idea what else about the world may change at instant.

No wonder the media are being a voice of calm.* Excited people, they buy newspapers. Angry people, they make news. But people who realise that this may indicate the sun is about to go supernova,** they kill the messenger. Well, maybe not deliberately, but riots aren't good for business, and if the world doesn't end the news companies would rather still be in business.***

If the sun doesn't go nova, we've got crop failures worldwide, of course. Not just due to decreasing sunlight, but have you noticed how clear the skies have been the past two days? Evaporation is powered by sunlight. And hell, no-one seems to know how fast the temperatures should be changing, but when the icecaps start moving outwards, we're sure gonna know about it.

Renovating the sahara desert has never been more important.

I'm not looking forward to the riots when the common people actually realise this shit.


*You didn't think there was something weird about that? Seriously, it's never happened before.
**Yeah, I know, our sun would only go nova, but most people don't even know what a nova is, let alone the difference between it and a supernova.
***Sometimes companies look a little too like living things for my liking. I mean, do you look after your skin cells? Would you really like to be one of the cells of some corporate hyperorganism?
I think this whole thing is bringing out my inner paranoiac.

Shouldn't The Dark Sun be cooling us?

I don't know if you've noticed, but while it's certainly been reasonably brisk, we don't seem to be freezing quite yet. Given the decrease in light levels, shouldn't we be cooling down rather more than this?

Sunday 9 September 2007

An australian connection

Just a quick update here: I've confirmed, through some friends, that people on the day-side (or at least australia) DID see the sun go out entirely for several seconds before the dim sun came on. No stars were seen during this time either, although that may be simply due to lack of time for eyes to adjust.

And now I'm gonna crash out. More tomorrow perhaps, though I've gotta prepare for getting to uni.

A quick reality check.

About my last post, Neo* reminded me of something: It'd be hard to tell with the naked eye is the stars were dimmer, and a shield of the Earth could cover the satellites.

I'll be looking up some astronomers to find out about what's actually going on with the stars. Keep 'em peeled.


*A friend of mine, not the character from the movie.

Shielding the Earth darkens the Sun?

I feel like exploring one of the more likely possibilities first: That someone has placed some sort of shield around the Earth that is preventing the suns rays reaching us. But first a quick proviso: This post is based on the belief "absence of expected evidence is evidence of absence"; not everyone admits to agreeing with this, but people still seem to assume that an inability to see money means you haven't given it to them.
I believe the fact that satellite transmissions haven't been reported as weakening, nor the stars as dimming* means these things haven't happened.
So, if an Earth-borne shield is actually the cause of the dark sun, it is curiously specific, It is blocking only the Sun's light, not other light passing through the same point in a different direction.
The technology to do this is even more implausibly advanced than even basic forcefields seem, so if we're dealing with technology it's likely that whoever's running it is capable of shielding themselves from any attacks, and quite possibly of making themself invisible. Of course, if it's being done with magic, well, we really can't guess at what's going on.


*In fact, due to low cloud cover, the stars have been more visible than usual.

Saturday 8 September 2007

Who caused The Dark Sun

Even this soon after it happened, theories abound as to just what's going on with the sun, but there's one thing all good scientists* have agreed on: it isn't natural.** It may not be supernatural, but it's certainly extranatural.***
This event wasn't caused by something, it was caused by someone. The question isn't "What?" it's "Who?" "Why?" and "How?"

Who?
  • A secret superadvanced organisation
  • Aliens
  • People with access to magic
  • Terrorists with access to magic
  • Vampires with access to magic
Why?
  • Accidental
  • A simple way of modifying the Earth's biosphere
  • Attempting to conserve Sol's energy
  • To threaten the world powers
  • To avoid severe sunburn problems
How?
  • A side-effect of an FTL probe
  • A side-effect of investigating Sols structure
  • Some form of shield around the sun
  • Some sort of advanced shield around Earth
  • Increased internal solar reflection
  • Magic
I'll try and explore these possibilities tomorrow, or soon at least. Well, it'll be tomorrow if the sun rises, and if not I suppose it'll still be today only less so.

*No, I haven't asked all good scientists, hell I haven't asked any: I'm still right
**Provided, of course, you use a definition of natural which excludes sentient beings.
***Interesting that "extra" means more, and "super" means better version of, but neither meaning applies here.

Qualifications on The Dark Sun

Some of you may be wondering why you should listen to me* on the issue of The Dark Sun. The simple answer: The Blogosphere is made up mostly of people who're too shocked and scared by this change in reality to really talk about it.** As for the establishment press; well let's just say; I've never been one to believe conspiracy theories, but I've also never been one to question whether the sun that rises tomorrow will be the one that set yesterday. Clearly it's time for me to reassess my beliefs.
As a corollary to that, I advise you not just to listen to me, I'm on google software,*** they could subvert this blog at any instant; hell for all you know it's astroturf to begin with. No, don't stick to me and those I link, make your own contacts. But check in here to hear what I know, and believe what rings true.
*No, I don't intend to podcast: some idioms are somewhat out of place online. Although, this isn't a new problem, I mean "do you read me" is never used for written things.
** Okay, so maybe I should give them a little more time, but even those who've commented don't seem to be entirely taking it seriously enough.
***Maybe I shouldn't be, but Google would know about this anyway, and honestly, if they're the ones hiding something the internet is a lost battle.

This is the first blog of the rest of your life

Hello, and welcome to Blogging Under The Dark Sun: Your source for news and views* on the strangest crisis to strike the Earth since a T-rex was left in charge of a nuclear arsenal with the dead-mans-switch at the back of the console.
Those of you who followed me here from my livejournal are probably wondering why I've left it. It's simple really; something about the world is fundamentally broken, just as I'm going off to university; the time for childish things has passed.**
The goth image I maintained over there was only fun so long as there was nothing worth being depressed over; as long as the vampires, werewolves, etc. were just a joke.
Now that I'm not sure of all that, it's not fun anymore. Those of you who stay with me here will be getting something much more real. Don't worry though, it'll still be good fun.

*well, just the one really. View that is, not just the one new, that'd make this a pretty pointless blog.
**And, let's be honest, this blog's name is much cooler.***
***I know I'm contradicting myself, I just don't care.