A mother refused to do housework after husband said she does ‘nothing’ around the home. The results say it all

Amber Raiken
Sat, 24 June 2023


A mother refused to do housework after husband said she does ‘nothing’ around the home. The results say it all

A mother has shared how she refused to do housework for a few days, after her husband made a comment about her doing “nothing” at home.

The woman, Lindsay, posted a video to TikTok earlier this month about the remark her husband, Brian, made. “My husband made a comment that I do nothing around the house,” she wrote in the text over the footage, while looking at the camera.

She then revealed how she responded to this comment, writing: “So for two days, I really did nothing around the house.”

The short clip continued with Lindsay documenting what happened when she didn’t clean the home, as there were toys on the floor of her kitchen, as well as dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter.

Lindsay then showed the papers all over her dining room table and a basket of dirty laundry next to her couch, which had a bunch of clothes on it. She ended her video with a picture of her bathroom, as it had clothes and towels on the floor. There was also a hair brush, straightener, bottle of mouthwash, and more skin products on the sink.

In the caption, she added: “Then I left town for a girls trip…,” before poking fun at her relationship with a marriage humour hashtag.

The video quickly went viral, as it has amassed more than 18.6m views. In the comments, many people criticised Brian for his remark and praised Lindsay for her reaction to it.

“The way I would never do anything again,” one quipped, regarding how they’d respond to Lindsay’s partner.

“I hope you had him clean it after the two days,” another added

“Where the hell do they get all the audacity,” a third wrote, referring to the woman’s husband.

Meanwhile, other people expressed their anger over the situation, with claims that Lindsay should have divorced her husband after what he’d said.

@lindsaydonnelly2

Then I left town for a girls trip… #marriagehumor♬ Karma (feat. Ice Spice) - Taylor Swift

The next day, Lindsay shared a follow-up video, in which she had a chat with her husband. After recalling how she didn’t clean the house for a few days, Lindsay also noted that her husband has “since apologised”, She then revealed to Brian that she made that TikTok video about the situation and that it quickly went viral.

She also told him about some of the comments on her initial clip, in viewers claimed that she should leave him. However, she then acknowledged that her Brian is “actually a really good husband”.

“That was just a real a**hole move to say that,” she added, referring to Brain’s remark about her doing nothing around the house. In the caption, she also added that her partner realised that this was a “real s****y thing to say”.

Speaking to People, Lindsay revealed that when she went on her “strike”, as she took a break from doing housework, she got some amusement out of the decision.

“I went out with my girlfriends the night before I made the TikTok and I was telling them how I was literally doing nothing around the house and we were all kind of laughing about it,” she said.

The mother added: “And then the next day, I’m getting ready to head out to a girl’s trip and the thought crossed my mind like, ‘I’m really just gonna leave the house like this.’ I felt so bad and it hit me that, wait, this is funny. This is a moment.”

@lindsaydonnelly2

Replying to @kris he agreed that was a real 💩 thing to say♬ original sound - Lindsay D

As she recalled that “she was kind of pissed at my husband”, she noted that she had to make a shift to her daily routine. More specifically, in order to make sure that she wasn’t doing housework, she had to unmake her daughter’s bed.

“[My daughter] was in there with me while I was making the bed,” she explained. “And then I stopped myself and said, ‘You know what?’ and unmade the bed. And she asked, ‘What are you doing?’ and I said, ‘Mommy’s not doing any housework.’”

She emphasised that she has a “good relationship” with her partner, “even in [their] weak moments”. She also encouraged viewers to stop making comments on her content about getting a divorce.

“It’s reality and comedy at the same time,” she added about her videos. “I really hope to make more content that resonates with people in a way that doesn’t make people think we should get a divorce.”

The Independent has contacted Linsday for comment.

Selma James - Global Women's Strike/ Wages for Housework/ Selma James (globalwomenstrike.net)

Selma James is an antisexist, antiracist campaigner and has fought for justice for over 50 years. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930 she became the wife of the internationally renowned West Indian Historian and political philsopher C.L.R James. In Britain during the 1960s, she became a leading activist in the movements for the rights of immigrants and people of colour. 

Selma is the author or several seminal books among them A Women's Place; Sex Race and Class; The Perspective of Winning; Wageless of the world and Women, the Unions and Work. She has lectured and led workshops all over the World and is the founder of the Wages for Housework and Care Income Now campaign.

Selma's most recent book Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race and Class and Caring for People and Planet is steeped in the tradition of Marx. She draws on half a century of organizing across sectors, struggles and national boundaries with others in the Wages for Housework Campaign and the Global Women’s Strike, an autonomous network of women, men, and other genders that agree with their perspective. There is one continuum between the care and protection of people and of the planet: both must be a priority, beginning with a care income for everyone doing this vital work. This book makes the powerful argument that the climate justice movement can draw on all the movements’ people have formed to refuse their particular exploitation, to destroy the capitalist hierarchy that is destroying the world. Our time is now.

Antiracism, anti-discrimination and the justice work we do for ourselves and with others are at the heart of Selma James' campaigning.

https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/collections/wages-for-housework-archive

Wages for Housework Archive - Bishopsgate Institute 

In March 1972, at the Women's Liberation conference in Manchester, England, Selma James put forward Wages for Housework for the first time.

https://files.libcom.org/files/sex-race-class-2012imp.pdf

Sex, Race and Class - Libcom.or 

Brooklyn's Selma James is the founder of the International. Wages for Housework Campaign and coordinator of the. Global Women's Strike.

https://www.reimaginerpe.org/files/19-2.james_.pdf

Women's Work - Reimagine! 

By Selma James. Women's Work he Wages for Housework Campaign has always spelled out the connection between the unwaged and invisible.

https://thecommoner.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-commoner-15.pdf

the-commoner-15.pdf 

Book and Cover Design: James Lindenschmidt ... and Selma James, The Power of Women and the Subversion ... Also the demand for Wages For Housework con-.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Power_of_Women_Vol_1_No._1.pdf

File:Power of Women Vol 1 No. 1.pdf - Wikimedia Commons 

Mar 1, 2022 ... Power of Women Collective, Wages for Housework, Falling Wall Press, Selma James et.al. LicensingEdit. w:en:Creative Commons attribution share ...

https://spheres-journal.org/contribution/every-moment-of-our-reproduction-as-a-moment-of-struggle-the-new-york-wages-for-housework-archive

The New York Wages for Housework Archive – spheres 

Mar 12, 2020 ... ... Silvia Federici, Brigitte Galtier, and Selma James. In effect, what the Wages for Housework (WfH) campaign intended to do was become a ...

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/international-womens-day-wages-housework-care-selma-james-a9385351.html

I founded the Wages for Housework campaign in 1972 

Mar 8, 2020 ... Forget basic income, those who care for people and the planet deserve to be recognised for the unpaid work they already do. Selma James.

BY JOSEPH D’SOUZA, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 06/17/23 

A portrait of Mahsa Amini is held during a rally calling for regime change in Iran following the death of Amini, a young woman who died after being arrested in Tehran by Iran’s notorious “morality police,” in Washington, on Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

This year, we have witnessed perhaps the most significant protests against the Iranian regime since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In response, the bloodthirst of the Mullahs has been on full display. 

Despite this, Iranian women continue to protest for the basic right to wear the hijab — or not. Though the world may ignore the plight of these women as the news cycle moves on, as it always seems to do, these protests persist. And so do the consequences. 

Iranian women face daily threats of violence. More than 90 girls’ schools across Iran have suffered from apparent poisonings. Last month, Iran put on trial the brave women reporters who visited Mahsa Amini — the woman whose death sparked the protests —  in prison and told the whole world what the regime had done to her. 

But where are the voices of the feminists in the West today? Where are the cries of the champions of human rights? Where are the women’s rights advocates calling for justice for Iranian women? Where are all the media headlines giving them the attention they deserve? Where are our leaders around the world drawing their red lines?

Don’t Iranian women deserve equal justice as much as anyone else? Rarely have we seen such desperate bravery, and rarely have we seen such global indifference. The hallmark of this era may very well be the absence of outrage when women are repeatedly abused by societal power structures.  

As a human rights activist, I have watched movements emerge for decades. I’ve witnessed many horrors. But rarely have I been as disheartened as I am watching the global indifference to the plight of the women and girls of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Their story matters as much to me as women who are repeatedly sexually harassed and abused in my homeland here in India. 

There should be no greater shame on the leaders in Washington, D.C., who profess concern for Iran’s long-suffering people, but who seem to be on the path again — as in 2009 — of ultimately abandoning them to their abusers. For those who struggle for justice and human rights, the U.S. is increasingly being found to be an unreliable ally. 

I am even more disheartened by the silence of Muslim leaders outside of Iran. 

The reality is that Islam, like all other religions, must contend with modern times and the unstoppable human quest for fundamental rights and human dignity. With global communications, increased education and the freedom to engage on a global scale, citizens cannot be kept in the dark about what happens in other parts of the world. In a world where everyone knows everything that’s going on, religious leaders must face their own reckoning, which will come sooner than expected when they fail to bring reformation in their own culture. 

Muslim leaders worldwide must speak up.

These issues are religious as well. Nowhere in the world’s major religions, including Islam, is the quest for fundamental rights and freedom left to God alone, and in no religion are expressions for fundamental human rights viewed as acts against God. 

Women in the West have rightly asserted their own dignity and rights for decades. Can those same women not raise their voices louder in support of Iranian women and their quest for the same rights and dignity?

They must forcefully call on their governments to not only speak up but to take action on behalf of Iranian women. Tweets are not enough. They don’t create justice, tolerance, harmony and human rights. 

Ultimately, we must take hope in the human spirit. Human dignity can never be suppressed indefinitely. One way or another, the Iranian regime as it is currently constituted will fail unless there is reform.

When it does, it will be women who played a crucial role in their liberation. Those women should not feel alone. To the extent they wish to be consistent with their own values, and the judgment of history, women in the West must stand by them in their quest for justice. It matters now more than ever.

Archbishop Joseph D’Souza is the founder of Dignity Freedom Network, an organization that advocates for and delivers humanitarian aid to the marginalized and outcastes of South Asia. He is the archbishop of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India and serves as the president of the All India Christian Council.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Support Continues To Grow For 

Iranian Students Defying Hijab

The guarded entrance to Tehran's University of Arts, June 18, 2023

Monday, 06/19/2023
Author: Maryam Sinaee

Various civic and popular organizations in Iran are joining the chorus of support for students in Tehran who have been staging protests against stricter hijab.

Support for defiance of stricter hijab by students who staged a sit-in against wearing a hood-like head covering Wednesday and condemnation of violence against them is growing.

Students in several other universities across the country and various social and political groups have expressed solidarity with the students at University of Art in Tehran.

A statement released by a group of Tehran University students Saturday told the authorities that "the policy of maximum repression” they have adopted in universities will ultimately fail “like other forms of repression” used against Iranian people.

Protesting students at the University of Art and their supporters released a short statement Sunday, which addressing the authorities, said students had “nothing to tell them except one word: NO!” and insisted that they would continue “to fight for freedom”.

Male and female plainclothes agents abducted at least ten students from the campus on Saturday and took them to an unknown location without any interference from police special forces who were present around the university. Student sources said all but two of the detained students were freed Sunday.

Students had been protesting new rules that require women to wear a pullover headscarf with stitched front (called Maghna’e in Iran) which is like a nun’s coif, completely covering the head and the neck. Failing to comply, the university has said, would result in suspension.

According to the popular Telegram channel of the National Student Unions Council, at about 2:30 am Thursday, Hamzeh Borzouei attacked a group of about fifty students who had begun a sit-in protest.

Iranian Writers’ Association in a statement published Friday supported the students’ action and said authorities and those who carry out their orders of repression will be responsible for any harm to the students.

In recent months, security and intelligence organs have increased pressure on students for hijab, presumably to stop the growth of the anti-compulsory hijab movement in universities across the country and suspended dozens of students.

In June Sepideh Rashno, a 29-year-old anti-compulsory hijab activist, said in an Instagram post that Al-Zahra University of Tehran had suspended her for two semesters. Rashno was tortured in detention into making a televised “confession” and condemning other activists as well as expressing regret for her confrontation with a hijab enforcer on a city bus in July last year and posting a video of the incident on social media.

Authorities have also been trying to isolate artists who supported the Woman, Life, Freedom movement or defied hijab rules.

Entekhab news website Saturday published the image of a letter from an official regulating the film industry, Habib Ilbeigi, to the chairman of film producers’ union in which filmmakers are ordered not to employ actors and others who have defied the hijab “or personally face the consequences” including refusal of a screening permit.

Police chief, Ahmad-Reza Radan, said earlier this week that the government of President Ebrahim Raisi has approved extra funds to install more hijab surveillance cameras and that four special task groups have been launched to continue the war against hijab rebellion including one that will monitor social media platforms to identify those who publish photos of themselves without hijab.

Anti-hijab and anti-regime protests erupted in Iran in September 2022 after Mahsa Amini, a young woman was arrested in the street by the notorious ‘morality police’ and received fatal head injuries during here detention and later died in hospital.

Our galaxy's black hole not as sleepy as thought: astronomers

NASA / ESA / A. van der Hoeven

Agence France-Presse
June 21, 2023,

The supermassive black hole lurking at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy is not as dormant as had been thought, a new study shows.

The slumbering giant woke up around 200 years ago to gobble up some nearby cosmic objects before going back to sleep, according to the study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

NASA's IXPE space observatory spotted an x-ray echo of this powerful resurgence of activity, the researchers said.

The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* -- abbreviated to Sgr A* -- is four million times more massive than the Sun. It sits 27,000 light years from Earth at the centre of the Milky Way's spiral.

Last year astronomers revealed the first-ever image of the black hole -- or rather, the glowing ring of gas that surrounds its blackness.

Sgr A* has "always been seen as a dormant black hole," said Frederic Marin, a researcher at France's Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory and the study's first author.

Most supermassive black holes squatting at the middle of their galaxies go dormant after swallowing up all the nearby matter.

"Imagine a bear going into hibernation after devouring everything around it," Marin told AFP.

But the international team of researchers discovered that at around the end of the 19th century, Sgr A* came out of its slumber and consumed any gas and dust unlucky enough to be within its reach.

The feeding frenzy lasted from several months to a year, before the beast went back into hibernation.

Million times brighter

When it was active, the black hole was "at least a million times brighter than it is today," Marin said.

Its awakening was noticable because nearby galactic molecular clouds started giving off vastly more x-ray light.

The surge in x-ray light was as "if a single glow-worm hidden in a forest suddenly became as bright as the Sun," French research agency CNRS said in a statement.

Astronomers using NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) space observatory managed to track the x-ray light and found that it pointed straight back at Sgr A*.

The black hole "emitted an echo of its past activity, which we managed to observe for the first time," Marin said.

The pull of gravity from black holes is so intense that nothing can escape, including light.

But when matter is sucked beyond the black hole's final boundary, known as the event horizon, it emits a massive amount of heat and light before disappearing into the darkness.

Exactly what caused Sgr A* to briefly emerge from its dormant state remains unclear. Could a star or cloud of gas and dust have ventured too close?


The astronomers hope that further observations from the IXPE observatory will help them better understand what happened -- and perhaps reveal more about the origin of supermassive black holes, which remains shrouded in mystery.

© 2023 AFP

Solar maximum could hit us harder and sooner than we thought. How dangerous will the sun's chaotic peak be?


Harry Baker
Sat, June 24, 2023 

LONG READ

This image shows how the sun's appearance changes between solar maximum (on the left) and solar minimum (on the right).

An image of the sun split in half. The left side shows the sun during solar maximum, where its is more fiery and chaotic, and the right side shows the star during solar minimum, when it is more calm and smooth

From a distance, the sun may seem calm and steady. But zoom in, and our home star is actually in a perpetual state of flux, transforming over time from a uniform sea of fire to a chaotic jumble of warped plasma and back again in a recurring cycle.

Every 11 years or so, the sun's magnetic field gets tangled up like a ball of tightly wound rubber bands until it eventually snaps and completely flips — turning the north pole into the south pole and vice versa. In the lead-up to this gargantuan reversal, the sun amps up its activity: belching out fiery blobs of plasma, growing dark planet-size spots and emitting streams of powerful radiation.

This period of increased activity, known as solar maximum, is also a potentially perilous time for Earth, which gets bombarded by solar storms that can disrupt communications, damage power infrastructure, harm some living creatures (including astronauts) and send satellites plummeting toward the planet.

And some scientists think the next solar maximum may be coming sooner — and be much more powerful — than we thought.

Originally, scientists predicted that the current solar cycle would peak in 2025. But a bumper crop of sunspots, solar storms and rare solar phenomena suggest solar maximum could arrive by the end of this year at the earliest — and several experts told Live Science we are poorly prepared.

Related: 10 signs the sun is gearing up for its explosive peak — the solar maximum
What causes the solar cycle?

Approximately every 11 years, the sun goes from a low point in solar activity, known as solar minimum, to solar maximum and back again. It's not clear exactly why the sun's cycles last this long, but astronomers have noted the pattern ever since the first, aptly named Solar Cycle 1, which occurred between 1755 and 1766. The current cycle, Solar Cycle 25, officially began in December 2019, according to NASA.

So what causes our home star's fluctuation? "It all comes down to the sun's magnetic field," Alex James, a solar physicist at University College London in the U.K., told Live Science.

At solar minimum, the sun's magnetic field is strong and organized, with two clear poles like a normal dipole magnet, James said. The magnetic field acts as a "giant forcefield" that contains the sun's superheated plasma, or ionized gas, close to the surface, suppressing solar activity, he added.

A video clip of a solar flare shooting away from the sun

But the magnetic field slowly gets tangled, with some regions becoming more magnetized than others, James said. As a result, the sun's magnetic field gradually weakens, and solar activity begins to ramp up: Plasma rises from the star's surface and forms massive magnetized horseshoes, known as coronal loops, that pepper the sun's lower atmosphere. These fiery ribbons can then snap as the sun's magnetic field realigns, releasing bright flashes of light and radiation, known as solar flares. Sometimes, flares also bring enormous, magnetized clouds of fast-moving particles, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

A few years after the maximum, the sun's magnetic field "snaps" and then completely flips. This ushers in the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new solar minimum, James said.

Related: Could a solar storm ever destroy Earth?

To determine where we are in the solar cycle, researchers monitor sunspots — darker, cooler, circular patches of our local star's surface where coronal loops form.

"Sunspots appear when strong magnetic fields poke through the surface of the sun," James said. "By looking at those sunspots we can get an idea of how strong and complex the sun's magnetic field is at that moment."

A time-lapse image of the sun showing two bands of sunspots stretched across the sun's surface

Sunspots are almost completely absent at solar minimum and increase in numbers until a peak at solar maximum, but there's a lot of variation from cycle to cycle.

"Every cycle is different," James said.

Solar Cycle 25

In April 2019, the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, which is made up of dozens of scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released its forecast for Solar Cycle 25, suggesting that the solar maximum would likely begin sometime in 2025 and would be comparable in size to the maximum of Solar Cycle 24, which peaked unusually late between mid-2014 and early 2016 and was quite weak compared with past solar maximums.

But from the beginning, the forecast seemed off. For instance, the number of observed sunspots has been much higher than predicted.

In December 2022, the sun reached an eight-year sunspot peak. And in January 2023, scientists observed more than twice as many sunspots as NASA had predicted (143 observed versus 63 estimated), with the numbers staying nearly as high over the following months. In total, the number of observed sunspots has exceeded the predicted number for 27 months in a row.

While the bounty of sunspots is a major red flag, they are not the only evidence solar maximum could be here soon.

The ghostly white lines of the sun's corona shine in the darkened sky during an eclipse

Another key indicator of solar activity is the number and intensity of solar flares. In 2022, there were fivefold more C-class and M-class solar flares than there were in 2021, and year on year, the number of the most powerful, X-class solar flares is also increasing, according to SpaceWeatherLive.com. The first half of 2023 logged more X-class flares than in all of 2022, and at least one has directly hit Earth. (Solar flare classes include A, B, C, M and X, with each class being at least 10 times more powerful than the previous one.)

Related: 10 solar storms that blew us away in 2022

Solar flares can also bring geomagnetic storms — major disturbances of Earth's magnetosphere caused by solar wind or CMEs. For instance, on March 24, a "stealth" CME hit Earth without warning and triggered the most powerful geomagnetic storm in more than six years, which created vast auroras, or northern lights, that were visible in more than 30 U.S. states. An overall increase in the number of geomagnetic storms this year has also caused the temperature in the thermosphere — the second-highest layer of Earth's atmosphere ― to reach a 20-year peak.

Rare solar phenomena also become increasingly common near solar maximum — and several have happened in recent months. On March 9, a 60,000-mile-tall (96,560 kilometers) plasma waterfall rose above and then fell back towards the sun; on Feb. 2 an enormous polar vortex, or ring of fire, swirled around the sun's north pole for more than 8 hours; and in March, a "solar tornado" raged for three days and stood taller than 14 Earths stacked on top of each other.

All this evidence suggests that the solar maximum is "going to peak earlier and it's going to peak higher than expected," James told Live Science. This opinion is shared by many other solar physicists, experts told Live Science.


A wall of fire rains down on to the sun's surface


A giant plasma plume shoots away from the sun


A tornado of fire towers above the sun's surface


A close-up image of the sun with a halo of plasma spinning around the star's north pole

The exact start to solar maximum will likely only be obvious once it has passed and solar activity decreases. However, one research group led by Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist and deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, has predicted the solar maximum could peak later this year.

Past cycles suggest the solar maximum may last for somewhere between one and two years, though scientists don't know for sure.
Potential impacts on Earth

So, the solar maximum may be coming on stronger and sooner than we anticipated. Why does that matter?

The answer primarily depends on whether solar storms barrel into Earth, Tzu-Wei Fang, a researcher at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center who was not part of the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, told Live Science. To hit Earth, solar storms must be pointing in the right direction at the right time. Increases in solar activity make this more likely but don't guarantee the planet will be slammed with more storms, she added.

But if a solar storm does hit, it can ionize Earth's upper atmosphere and fuel radio and satellite blackouts. Big storms that block the planet's connections to satellites can temporarily wipe out long-range radio and GPS systems for up to half the planet, Fang said. On its own, that is just a minor inconvenience, but if a lengthy blackout coincided with a major disaster, such as an earthquake or tsunami, the results could be catastrophic, she added.

Strong solar storms can also generate ground-based electrical currents that can damage metallic infrastructure, including older power grids and rail lines, Fang said.

Airplane passengers may also be walloped by higher levels of radiation during solar storms, although it's not clear if the doses would be high enough to have any health impacts, Fang said. However, such spikes in radiation would be much more significant for astronauts onboard spacecraft, such as the International Space Station or the upcoming Artemis mission to the moon. As a result, "future missions should factor solar cycles into consideration," she added.

Related: Could a powerful solar storm wipe out the internet?

Past research has also revealed that geomagnetic storms can disrupt the migrations of gray whales and other animals that rely on the Earth's magnetic field lines to navigate, such as sea turtles and some birds, which can have disastrous consequences.

Fuzzy pink aurora lights stretch across the horizon as seen from an airplane

An ionized upper atmosphere also becomes denser, which can create additional drag for Earth-orbiting satellites. This extra drag can push satellites into each other or force them out of orbit. For instance, In February 2022, 40 of SpaceX's Starlink satellites burned up in Earth's atmosphere when they plummeted to Earth during a geomagnetic storm the day after they were launched.

And the number of satellites has exponentially increased compared with past solar cycles, Fang said. Most are operated by commercial companies that rarely factor space weather into satellite design or launch schedules, she added.

"Companies want to launch satellites as soon as they can to make sure they don't delay rocket launches," Fang said. "Sometimes it's better for them to launch a group and lose half than not launch at all." This all raises the risks of major collisions or deorbiting satellites during the solar maximum, she added.

The chances of a once-in-a-century superstorm, such as the Carrington Event in 1859, also slightly increase during solar maximum, Fang said. While a long shot, such a storm could cause trillions of dollars' worth of damage and majorly impact everyday life, she added.

Humans can do little to shield ourselves from a direct solar storm hit, but we can prepare for them by altering satellite trajectories, grounding planes and identifying vulnerable infrastructure, Fang said. As a result, more accurate solar weather forecasts are needed to help us prepare for the worst, she added
Why were the forecasts wrong?

If so many clues point to solar maximum being stronger and earlier than predicted, why didn't scientists see it coming? Part of the problem is the way the prediction panels come up with their forecasts, Scott McIntosh told Live Science.

NASA and NOAA's models have barely changed in the last 30 years, "but the science has," McIntosh said. The models use data from past solar cycles such as sunspot number and cycle length, but do not fully account for each cycle's individual progression, he added.

Related: When will the sun explode?

"It's kind of like a big game of pin the tail on the donkey," McIntosh said, where the "donkey" is the upcoming solar maximum and the prediction panel has blindfolded themselves by not using all available methods at their disposal.

McIntosh and colleagues have proposed an alternative way to predict the strength of an upcoming solar maximum: so-called "solar terminators," which occur right at the end of each solar minimum after the sun's magnetic field has already flipped.

During solar minimum, a localized magnetic field, which is left behind from the sun's magnetic-field flip, surrounds the sun's equator. This localized field prevents the sun's main magnetic field from growing stronger and getting tangled up, meaning the localized field essentially acts like a handbrake preventing solar activity from increasing.

But suddenly and without warning, this localized field disappears, releasing the brake and enabling solar activity to ramp up. This drastic change is what the team dubbed solar cycle termination events, or terminators. (Because solar terminators occur at the exact moment solar minimums end, they occur after each solar cycle has officially begun.)

Looking back over centuries of data, the team identified 14 individual solar terminators that preceded the start of solar maximums. The researchers noticed that the timing of these terminators correlates with the strength of the subsequent solar peaks. (The early years of data are sparse, so the team couldn't identify solar terminators in every cycle.)

A complicated graph with black red and blue lines. The graph shows how solar terminator events influence the solar maximum.

For example, the terminator at the start of Solar Cycle 24 happened later than expected, which allowed for less magnetic field growth during Solar Cycle 24, resulting in a weaker solar maximum. But the terminator at the start of Solar Cycle 25, which occurred on Dec. 13, 2021, was earlier than expected, which the researchers took as a sign that the solar maximum would be stronger than the previous one. Ever since the 2021 terminator, solar activity has been ramping up faster than expected.

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The way Solar Cycle 25 is progressing suggests that solar terminators could be the best way of predicting future solar cycles, McIntosh said. In July 2022, NASA acknowledged the work done by McIntosh and colleagues and noted that solar activity seemed to be ramping up sooner than expected.

Still, NASA hasn't updated its 2025 forecast in light of McIntosh's data and is probably not going to incorporate terminators into future forecasts, McIntosh predicted. "I think they will just stick with their models."

Eight earthquakes in 4 weeks proves old fault exists near NC mountain town, USGS says

2023/06/16

Pictured here are the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. - DREAMSTIME/TNS

A North Carolina town was hit June 16 by its eight earthquake in just over three weeks, which means there’s an old fault line that’s now active, the U.S. Geological Survey says.

The quake was a 2.1, centered in a sparsely populated area about 2.4 miles north of West Canton.

That’s the same general area where seven previous earthquakes have been recorded since May 23, ranging from a 1.8 to a 3.2, records show.

Hundreds of witnesses have reported feeling some of the stronger quakes, but the latest had only one witness report as of midday Friday. That was filed by someone who felt weak shaking 8 miles away in the town of Clyde, the USGS says.

All the quakes originated near Chambers Mountain, north of Interstate 40.

That means there is definitely an old fault in the area, the USGS says, but experts are at a loss as to why it has suddenly become active.

They also don’t know if the “cluster” will continue or come to a sudden halt.

“Earthquakes are caused when rocks under ground move. Sometimes, we have other earthquakes when those rocks come back to some kind of equilibrium,” USGS officials told McClatchy News.

All eight earthquakes were shallow and minor in magnitude, but that’s not to say stronger quakes aren’t possible, the USGS says.

The Appalachian Mountains are not on an active tectonic plate boundary — where earthquakes are common — but the region has sporadic minor quakes linked to old fault lines, geologists say.

Those faults date back hundreds of million years — to when the Appalachians were formed — and they can occasionally become active when stress builds in spots where the rock is weak, experts say.

West Canton is about 150 miles northwest of Charlotte.

What to do in an earthquake

Earthquakes’ sudden, rapid shaking can cause fires, tsunamis, landslides or avalanches. They can happen anywhere, but they’re most common in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Puerto Rico and Washington, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

If an earthquake strikes, it’s best to protect yourself right away.

Here are tips from experts:

— If you’re in a car: Pull over and stop. Set your parking brake.

— If you’re in bed: Turn face-down and cover your head with a pillow.

— If you’re outdoors: Stay away from buildings. Don’t go inside.

— If you’re inside: Stay and don’t run outdoors. Stay away from doorways.

The best way to protect yourself during an earthquake is to drop, cover and hold on, officials say.

“Wherever you are, drop down to your hands and knees and hold onto something sturdy,” officials say.

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Magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes south of Tonga

8:18 pm today 

 

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Photo: 123RF

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck south of Tonga, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported on Sunday.

The USGS reported the quake struck at 7.16pm and recorded it as a preliminary magnitude 6.0.

The Pacific Tsunami warning centre said based on the available data, there is no tsunami threat at this stage.

The quake was at a depth of 40km, EMSC said. EMSC had first reported a magnitude of 6.1 for the earthquake.

- Reuters / RNZ

ICYMI

'Nothing comparable': Volcanic eruption caused the most intense lightning storm on record


Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
Fri, June 23, 2023 

Wow.

Last year's colossal eruption of the Hunga undersea volcano near Tonga produced the most intense lightning storm ever recorded on Earth, scientists announced in a new study published this week.

In fact, at one point during the 11-hour lightning storm, an incredible 2,600 flashes per minute were recorded.

“This eruption triggered a supercharged thunderstorm, the likes of which we’ve never seen,” said Alexa Van Eaton, a volcanologist at the United States Geological Survey, who led the study.

The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Previously, the annual lightning report from Vaisala estimated The Hunga Tonga volcano explosion generated hundreds of thousands of lightning events in just six hours, the most extreme concentration of lightning ever detected.

Amazing facts about the eruption and lightning storm

The eruption lasted at least 11 hours, several hours longer than previously known

There were a total of 200,000 lightning flashes during the storm

The volcanic plume produced the highest-altitude lightning flashes ever measured, at some 12 to 19 miles above sea level

Lightning “surfed” giant waves that rippled through the volcanic plume

An image from footage by Japan's Himawari-8 satellite and released by the National Institute of Information and Communications (Japan) on Jan. 15, 2022 shows the volcanic eruption that provoked a tsunami in Tonga. The eruption was so intense it was heard as "loud thunder sounds" in Fiji more than 500 miles) away.

'We’ve never seen anything like that before'

High-resolution lightning data from four separate sources – never previously used all together – have now let scientists peer into the volcanic plume from the event, teasing out new phases of the eruption’s life cycle and gaining insights into the weird weather it created, the study said.

“With this eruption, we discovered that volcanic plumes can create the conditions for lightning far beyond the realm of meteorological thunderstorms we’ve previously observed,” Van Eaton said. “It turns out, volcanic eruptions can create more extreme lightning than any other kind of storm on Earth.”

According to the study, that also includes lightning that comes from supercell thunderstorms and from hurricanes.

“It wasn’t just the lightning intensity that drew us in,” Van Eaton added. She and her colleagues were also puzzled by the concentric rings of lightning, centered on the volcano, that expanded and contracted over time.

“The scale of these lightning rings blew our minds. We’ve never seen anything like that before, there’s nothing comparable in meteorological storms. Single lightning rings have been observed, but not multiples, and they’re tiny by comparison.”

More lightning info: Video shows fiery lightning strike at North Carolina motorsports company

The January 15, 2022, eruption of Tonga’s Hunga volcano produced a “supercharged” storm in the volcanic plume that had the most intense lightning ever recorded in a storm, according to a new study.
An 'explosive event'

The volcano, which is located in the southern Pacific Ocean, began erupting in December 2021, but its most explosive event did not occur until Jan. 15, 2022, Space.com said.

During the Jan. 15 eruption, it generated atmospheric shock waves, sonic booms and tsunami waves that traveled the world, according to NASA. It was the most powerful atmospheric explosion ever recorded on the planet.

At least six people died as a result of the eruption worldwide.

Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver

Violent Volcano Eruption Triggers an Ungodly Number of Lightning Flashes



Frank Landymore

FUTURISM
Sat, June 24, 2023

Zeus's Playground

The eruption of the underwater Hunga volcano in the southern Pacific Ocean produced the most intense lightning storm ever recorded.

According to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the resulting "supercharged" thunderstorm crackled with an unholy 2,600 flashes every minute at its peak, totaling nearly 200,000 flashes overall.

"This eruption triggered a supercharged thunderstorm, the likes of which we've never seen," said lead author Alexa Van Eaton, a volcanologist at the US Geographical Survey, in a statement.

If that isn't already insane enough, Van Eaton says the team observed massive lightning rings centered above the volcano, which continuously expanded and contracted.

"The scale of these lightning rings blew our minds," Van Eaton said. "We've never seen anything like that before, there's nothing comparable in meteorological storms."

Perfect Storm

Van Eaton explains that Hunga's eruption — which itself is one of the most powerful in history — blasted molten rock and volcanic ash through the ocean, sending a towering plume over 36 miles into the air. This form of eruption is called "phreatoplinian," and nothing of its kind has ever been observed with modern instruments.

On the way up, the molten material vaporized the seawater, which rose into the air and mingled with the ashy plume that continued to expand laterally after hitting its maximum height.

Now, all mixed together in a hellish brew, the collisions between the ash and the water generated incredible amounts of electricity — the ideal environment for lightning.

"With this eruption, we discovered that volcanic plumes can create the conditions for lightning far beyond the realm of meteorological thunderstorms we've previously observed," Van Eaton said. "It turns out, volcanic eruptions can create more extreme lightning than any other kind of storm on Earth."
Hell On Earth

This almighty display of power was only recorded thanks to a novel technique that combined lightning data from four different sources, using a mixture of light and radio wave sensors. Otherwise, the plume would have been too thick to penetrate.

From carefully combining the data, Van Eaton and her team observed the astonishing 192,000 lightning strikes, some originating from an "unprecedented" altitude of 19 miles.

This technique for observing the lightning strikes also proved invaluable in measuring the eruption's duration. Because the plume obstructed the volcanic vent, the researchers had to rely on lightning data to understand how long the eruptions persisted.

"The January 15 activity created volcanic plumes for at least 11 hours," Van Eaton said. "It was really only from looking at the lightning data that we were able to pull that out."