I was wondering, since the Earth’s magnetic field has flipped previously (here, here, here and recently here), my question was, would we see evidence of it as it happens? The Wired article comments that for a previous fast-flip “Anyone carrying a compass would have seen its measurements skew by about a degree a week”. That would be something to see, leave a compass lying level for a couple of weeks and see it skew by a couple of degress after a while.

Would we see birds lost, no longer able to navigate because the magnetite in the beaks of some species would throw them off?

Would we as humans feel it? We may not consciously be able to perceive the magnetic field but our nervous system, our brain runs on electricity? Could it throw off our own internal compass? And what of compass makers? Won’t someone think of the compass makers.

“The last reversal happened 740,000 years ago” and some believe that we are due, if not overdue another one soon. But how soon is soon?

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I wonder who will get this?

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I’ve been back from the States for a couple of days now, I’ve relaxed, decompressed and finally managed to process all my pictures. 

I managed to complete five tasks while I was away, I’m quite chuffed with that.

Here’s what I managed to clear off in August:

• 36 – Visit America again
• 41 – Fire a sig
• 42 – Fire an assault rifle of any kind
• 89 – Visit the Tom Ford Shop in New York
• 92 – All Calvin Klein underwear

Don’t worry, there are no pics of my undies, this time

As I said, I’m pretty chuffed that I managed to clear five items off my list in a short space of time. I need to sit down and recalculate my list and work out what to do next.

Here are pictures from task 36.

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Well that was a hell of a lot of fun. Yesterday when I was supposed to be at the conference I decided to skip it and visited Champion Arms in Kent, Washington. It took a little while, especially after I missed the bus stop and had to walk for two miles through an industrial estate in blazing sun. But yeah, that was certainly worth it.

The guys there were great, very helpful gave me good advice, but funnily enough no instructions other than, “here’s where the ammo goes, here’s the safety, you good??” 

So I fired a 9mm to begin with a Ruger SR9 , first shot and I had a huge grin on my face. The I went through a whole bunch including a Glock, a Sig Sauer P226, some other ones which I can’t remember.

After a lot of fun and a good 300 rounds of ammo, I went back to the counter and asked the guy to suggest something interesting for me. He ducked under the counter and came back up with a huge hand cannon. A Colt Trooper, a .357 magnum. Of course, I had to have a try. Man, what can I say, that thing can kick. It’s a revolver so it explodes out the sides and that takes you by surprise. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I was pulling the trigger, certainly not that. KABOOM! Holy shit.. I wish I could have taken better pictures while I was in the range but it was way too dark.

The last thing I had a shot of was an AR-57 rifle. Apparently it’s the type SWAT uses so I guess that means I can check off Task 42 – Fire an Assault Rifle too Ooooh, it’s a two’fer

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Finally made it in to Seattle last night about 5pm PST, which I think was about midnight UK time. The flights were ok, very long, quite boring. Actually the flight across the Atlantic wasn’t too bad as the screens had maps to watch and I quite enjoyed that. The flight from Newark to Seattle didn’t have that and for some reason that flight seemed even longer. Noise cancelling headphones are real life gifts from the gods, amazing on the plane, they manage to cut out all the noise and I found that quite relaxing.

The flight to Seattle did appear to have live tv though which was interesting, directTV I think it was, looks almost exactly like SKY tv from the UK.

Getting into the city from the airport was easy too with the new light railway from the airport right into the city centre, something Glasgow desperately needs.

I did seem to have a problem going through immigration in Newark, for some reason my fingerprints didn’t read right and I was taken upstairs for “Soft processing” Eep. With only 70 minutes to transfer I was a little bit concerned about it, but I was dually processed, grabbed my bag ( which was on it’s lonesome going round the conveyor belt), dropped it off with the rapid transfer belt and ran upstairs. Right back up to the security check. 

With time ticking away, it was off with the belt, boots, watch, pull the laptop out. Somehow I managed to get a lighter through the security search, twice.

So now it’s 6:30am, and its apparently the same temperature as it is at lunchtime in Glasgow, I’ve had an espresso from the amazing doughnut shop next door. I hate US money, I must have looked quite retarded trying to work out how to pay for a $1.82 coffee with the change I had. 

While I’m talking about that, what is the deal with prices not having the tax built into the price. I find that annoying and confusing and slightly embarrassing when they just stare at me looking for the rest of the money.

Anyhow, I’m up, caffinated and ready to run about the city like a mad one.

While I’m writing this, I can check off another task from my list, number 36, Visit America again.

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