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Space Weather: Its impact on Earth & Implications for business

Lloyd's of London is the world's leading insurance market providing specialist insurance services to businesses in over 200 countries and territories. They state: "A major space weather event in the approaching solar maximum could cause widespread disruption for unprepared businesses. Lloyd's 360 Space Weather Report Produced by Lloyd's and RAL Space, aims to increase awareness of space weather as a global risk."

Click report cover image icon for executive summary only.

Download full Lloyd's Report, in .pdf format, Original copy here

Original source link below:
Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business
Lloyd's, November 2010

Glitch Sees Swiss Charged Twice for Card Payments
ABC News, 23rd January 2014
Shoppers in Switzerland must have thought they were seeing double when they checked their bank accounts this week.

A Swiss company that processes electronic payments says anyone who withdrew money or paid for something with their debit or credit card on Tuesday was charged twice. A spokesman for SIX Management AG said Thursday the glitch affected millions of cards issued by banks in Switzerland and the tiny neighboring state of Liechtenstein.

Bank of Ireland glitches affecting customer accounts
Independent News, 21st January 2014

Crowds flock to cash machine after it starts spewing out FREE notes
Around 60 people queued up at the ATM in Mansfield Woodhouse, Notts, before the fault was spotted by bosses and the cash machine put of service
The Mirror, 14th January 2014

Dozens of people flocked to a cash machine after word spread that it had started giving out free money.

The Lloyds Bank ATM in Mansfield Woodhouse, Notts, malfunctioned and began spewing out notes as customers withdrew cash yesterday morning. Around 60 people are reported to have queued up at the hole-in-the-wall as word spread of the possible windfall. [...]

The fault was spotted by bosses and the cash machine put of service around 3pm. A spokesman for Lloyds Bank said investigations had begun into how the error occurred and the group would not be able to provide details on how much cash was taken from the ATM. It is not thought that individuals who cashed in will not be pursued to reimburse the bank.

Comment: There are the usual stories of glitches (that I can't really definitely link to the recent harsh space weather), but I like stories of free money from ATM machines...

Double threat: US grid vulnerable on two fronts
CNBC News, 5th January 2014

Consensus is growing that the U.S. electricity grid is vulnerable to both hacking and physical attacks, but protecting it remains a work in progress–especially given the spending that would be necessary by financially stretched utilities.

The risks have heightened the calls for officials to address potential threats before they become reality. In November, the North American Energy Reliability Corp. staged a simulated attack on the grid; meanwhile, House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Rep. Henry Waxman, D.-Calif., flagged the grid as "not adequately protected" from either cyber or physical attacks at a hearing in December.

Comment: The listing of big power outages or blackouts worldwide is useful.... This list stops short of the massive July 2012 India power outages that some claim affected 660 million people or approx. half the population...

'Military-Style' Raid on California Power Station Spooks U.S.
Foreign Policy, 27th December 2013

When U.S. officials warn about "attacks" on electric power facilities these days, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a computer hacker trying to shut the lights off in a city with malware. But a more traditional attack on a power station in California has U.S. officials puzzled and worried about the physical security of the the electrical grid--from attackers who come in with guns blazing.

Around 1:00 AM on April 16, at least one individual (possibly two) entered two different manholes at the PG&E Metcalf power substation, southeast of San Jose, and cut fiber cables in the area around the substation. That knocked out some local 911 services, landline service to the substation, and cell phone service in the area, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Foreign Policy. The intruder(s) then fired more than 100 rounds from what two officials described as a high-powered rifle at several transformers in the facility. Ten transformers were damaged in one area of the facility, and three transformer banks -- or groups of transformers -- were hit in another, according to a PG&E spokesman.

Comment: If you check the archives, I stated quite some time ago that the U.S. military will not allow themselves to become vulnerable to the U.S. national power grid which currently is not under their control... It is obvious to me that they will try and get something done and this "dress rehearsal" using military grade weapons might only be a fact finding mission in derterming just how bothered utilities are about the issue of physical and cyber threats to the national power grid... The suspicion that this is really about highlighting the vulnerability to space weather is all part of the concern that utility companies are running the U.S. national grid on a shoestring to maximise profits and will only respond to a major crisis which of course is not good enough, especially if the crisis means the grid is destroyed... So, this strange incident has a certain logic for those who realise just how vulnerable society has become... It will be interesting to see how this develops...

reality is looming for many... Thinking positively about it not happening is not a useful strategy...

AIB customers left hanging following bank card glitch
Irish Times, 20th December 2013

NatWest victim of cyber attack after site crashes for the second time
Independent News, 6th December 2013
Royal Bank of Scotland has said its websites fell victim to a cyber attack after customers were unable to access online banking. The group's website, which includes NatWest, was down for approximately an hour this morning and yesterday night following what the bank described as a "deliberate" surge in traffic in a cyber attack.

Power outage plunges most of Venezuela into darkness
Reuters, 3rd December 2013

(Reuters) - Venezuela's second massive power outage of the year plunged much of the nation into darkness on Monday night, prompting renewed talk of sabotage from President Nicolas Maduro's government and cries of incompetence from its foes. [...]

Monday's outage appeared similar to a massive September 5 blackout that was one of the worst in the South American OPEC member's history. Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who narrowly won a presidential election this year after the death of his mentor and former leader Hugo Chavez, accused the opposition then of deliberately sabotaging the power grid to discredit him. [...]

"Be strong against this electrical war that yesterday's fascists have declared against our people," Maduro said in another address to the nation at about 11 p.m. local time.

Comment: The concept of an "electrical war" is quite interesting, especially when there are lots of more mundane reasons and excuses for power failures that will only get worse as the geomagnetic environment gets more extreme.

Compensation after Cyber Monday technical glitch hits RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank
Glitch: RBS Group customers could not pay for online purchases London Evening Standard, 3rd December 2013

Customers who were left out of pocket when they couldn't pay for online purchases due to a banking glitch are to be compensated, the Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed.

Shoppers banking with the RBS, which includes Natwest and Ulster Bank, were left high and dry on 'Cyber Monday' - the biggest online shopping day of the year - when a technical problem meant they could not pay for goods.

Online card payments could not be made between 6.30pm and 9.30pm yesterday evening due to a glitch which also affected smartphones and the banks' websites.

RBS said customers were now beginning to access their money again and apologised to customers for inconvenience caused.

Comment: Despite the terrible problems in recent years, RBS still had cash to pay huge million pound bonuses for their top people... Personally, I am amazed customers have remained loyal because the number of major disruptions to normal service. Then of course, there is the recent news that a government watchdog has accused this same banking group amongst others, of pushing healthy businesses to the wall to get hold of their assets which are then sold off at a good profit... See, Royal Bank of Scotland faces claims of 'killing off' small firms. It is amazing that the public are prepared to be involved in anyway with these particular banksters.

RBS admits decades of underinvestment after latest IT glitch
Channel News Asia, 3rd December 2013
The head of Royal Bank of Scotland admitted on Tuesday that it had failed to invest in its IT systems "for decades", after a glitch left customers of the state-rescued lender unable to access cash for three hours.

Comment: IF this banking group are not taken over which I think is the best option, contractors are going to make this a very expensive computer systems upgrade process, you can be assured of that...
RBS to push ahead with bonuses as probe nears
The size of the bonus pool at RBS will not be affected by the decision of th City watchdog to investigate allegations that the bank had deliberately pushed companies into default, say sources
Telegraph, 1st December 2013
The Royal Bank of Scotland is pressing ahead with plans to pay multi-million pound bonuses, despite the launch of a regulatory probe into its lending practices. Sources at RBS said the size of the bonus pool would not be affected by the decision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to investigate allegations that the bank had deliberately pushed companies into default.

London-based banks simulate giant cyber-attack
Phys.Org News, 12th November 2013

Dozens of London-based banks joined other financial institutions in the capital on Tuesday for a giant exercise to test their defences against a cyber-attack, officials said.

Government officials, regulators and the Bank of England oversaw the exercise, dubbed "Waking Shark II". Details of the exercise were kept secret, but sources said it tested how banks coped with a sustained attack, focusing in particular on investment banking systems.

Comment: Hmmmm.... What are they really worried about? Actually, I was quite impressed when I saw some TV news where fake computer engineers managed to obtain access and hacked directly into a computer systems network at a local bank branch in order to transfer money out... a sophisticated modern day bank robbery...

DHS, FEMA to participate in power grid drill on Nov. 13-14
Legitgov.org, 11th November 2013

DHS, FEMA to participate in power grid drill on Nov. 13-14 07 Nov 2013 National Grid will be among the participants in North American Electric Reliability Corp.'s second Grid Security Exercise, which is being referred to as Grid Ex II by those participating. Many of the specifics of the drill have not been made known to utilities and agencies involved, according to a National Grid spokesman... In addition to National Grid and other utilities, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology will be involved. [I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I believe in math. And mathematically, these f*ckers 'go live' during drills about 88 percent of the time. Ergo, heads up! *Math* is not on our side. --LRP]

Comment: I was impressed with the logic....

Walmart Website Error Allowed Customers to Buy $600 Electronics for $8.85
ABC News, 6th November 2013

Walmart has said that it has resolved an issue that was causing an online frenzy among shoppers. An apparent glitch on the company's website early this morning led to $8.85 listings for items that included computer monitors and projectors normally worth hundreds of dollars.

The country's largest retailer was selling a 24-inch high-definition Viewsonic computer monitor, an InFocus IN2124 Projector digital projectors and other products, many for $8.85. The projector is listed for $578.89 on Walmart.com and $579.99 on Newegg.com. As customers shared the deals on social media sites like Instagram, wondering if the site was hacked, products sold out in just hours.

Comment: I always expect major computer system glitches after solar flares... but bit-flips can happen at any time.

After losing verdict, Toyota settles in sudden acceleration case
LA Times, 25th October 2013

Facing the potential of paying millions of dollars in punitive damages after losing an Oklahoma sudden acceleration lawsuit, Toyota Motor Corp. quickly reached a settlement with the plaintiffs. On Thursday, an Oklahoma City jury found that faulty electronic systems in a Camry sedan caused it to accelerate out of control and crash, killing one woman and injuring another. [...]

The decision, handed down late Thursday, marked the first time that the Japanese automaker has been found responsible for sudden acceleration in one of its cars. After a brief deliberation at the end of a nearly three-week trial, the jury decided that software in the 2005 Camry's electronic throttle system was defective and caused the accident in September 2007. [...]

Toyota still faces hundreds of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits related to sudden acceleration.

Comment: Toyota still can't fix their cheap crappy car electronics that are being compromised by cosmic rays, so people are still being killed. Btw despite all the bad publicity, it's not only Toyota that have this same issue and we know that the authorities suspect cosmic rays because it's already a matter of public record.

Walmart shelves in Springhill, Mansfield, cleared in EBT glitch
KSLA News, 14th October 2013

MANSFIELD, LA (KSLA) - Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.

The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, "It was worse than any black Friday" that he's ever seen.

Comment: 2 hours of mayhem... but Walmart must be to blame for not imposing a sensible limit. The rumours of a U.S. governmenr default must be a severe worry for many on benefits. Also, America Would Be Consumed With Mass Rioting And Looting If Food Stamp Program Stops Functioning

Ark. woman awakes to $4 trillion bank balance
KSLA News, 3rd October 2013

The Fort Smith woman awoke Tuesday and saw that her online bank balance was at $4,040,404,040,404.04 - or more than $4 trillion. Layes says she thought it was either her lucky day - or that someone was going to get in trouble.

She contacted her local BancorpSouth branch and the mistake was quickly corrected. BancorpSouth tells the Southwest Times Record (http://bit.ly/GB58oa ) that a "system display issue" caused inaccurately high account balances for some online customers. The problem has since been corrected

Comment: This glitch affected other accounts too...

Access restored for food stamp users, Xerox says
USA Today, 12th October 2013

People in 17 states found themselves unable to buy groceries with their food stamp debit-style cards Saturday after a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. Xerox announced late in the evening that access had been restored for users in the 17 states affected by the outage, hours after the first problems were reported.

"Re-starting the EBT system required time to ensure service was back at full functionality," spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said in an email. [...] Mississippi Department of Human Services director Rickey Berry confirmed that Xerox, the state's EBT vendor, had computer problems. He said he had been told by midafternoon that the problems were being fixed.

"I know there are a lot of mad people," Berry said.

Weekend Attacks on Arkansas' Electric Grid Leave 10,000 Without Power; 'YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED U.S.'
Forbes, 7th October 2013

More than 10,000 people in Arkansas were dumped into a blackout Sunday following an attack on that state's electric grid, the FBI said today, the third such attack in recent weeks. In August, a major transmission line in the region, around Cabot, Ark., was deliberately cut.

The FBI said that two power poles had been intentionally cut in Lonoke County on Sunday, resulting in the outage. "Though we remain confident that we will identify the person or persons responsible for these incidents," the FBI said in a press release, "we are enlisting the public's help to be our eyes and ears. We take threats to our power grid very seriously."

The FBI said it would pay a $25,000 reward for information about the attacks. And for good reason. The FBI suspects these attacks are linked with a third incident in September.

Comment: I think this series of attacks is unrelated to the government power down drill in mid November because 10,000 people losing their power is not what the government is worried about... The fear is 100 million upwards losing their power for extended periods and fried transformers that cannot be replaced quickly.

FIERY EXPLOSIONS ROCK NSA DATA CENTER
Next News Network, 8th October 2013

BLUFFDALE, UTAH – Massive electrical surges at a data storage facility for the National Security Agency have led to the destruction of hugely expensive machinery and delayed its opening for a year, officials revealed Tuesday.

In the past 10 months alone, the facility has experienced 13 electrical surges, which officials describe as "a flash of lightning inside a 2-foot box." The melting metal that results from the fiery explosions causes the circuits to fail and prevents NSA workers from using the computers. A spokeswoman for the NSA insists, despite no clear culprit for the explosions, that the issues "have been mitigated."

Comment: Hmmmm.... I presume the high and mighty that chose this location had never heard of geomagnetically induced currents or GICS.... Too bad... Presumably this facility was located on an energy node for esoteric reasons, but in the extreme geomagnetic conditions on this planet that we are now experiencing, this site is not such a great location for computers... I can tell them for free that they should expect this to get worse, far worse... The signs of the times are evident for anyone who can engage brain and process the relevant information that is readily available. Also more at the Wall Street Journal: Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center

$2 Billion NSA spy center is going up in flames Fiscal Times, 8th October 2013

Who is going to believe that a contractor could not work out the electrical capacity requirements for this computer system? That is a total red herring...

Pilots in Asiana Crash Report Throttle Glitch
Claim contradicts results of U.S. probe, which failed to reveal mechanical or electrical errors Time, 8th October 2013

Asiana Airlines pilots involved in a deadly San Francisco plane crash earlier this year have told investigators that the failure of an automated speed-control system played a major role in the accident.

The pilots said that the auto-throttles disconnected without warning before the twin-engine jet slowed dramatically and hit a sea wall near a runway at San Francisco's international airport, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

This account differs from the safety board's preliminary findings, which did not uncover any mechanical or electrical problems with the Boeing 777 prior to impact. Air safety officials previously said the pilots may have failed to activate the auto-throttle correctly, but Asiana maintenance logs detail a number of "uncommanded auto-throttle disconnects."

Comment: Hmmmm.... I would say that no electronics can be completely shielded from cosmic rays... Based on what we have been told here, I imagine there will be a confession in the near future from engineers that this was not pilot error.

Blackout, New on Channel 4 9pm, Mon 9 Sept 2013
Ch4 News, September 2013

Feature-length 'What-If' drama exploring the effects of a devastating cyber-attack on Britain's national electricity grid. Based on expert advice and meticulous research, Blackout combines real user-generated footage, alongside fictional scenes, CCTV archive and news reports to build a terrifyingly realistic account of Britain being plunged into darkness.

The film plots the days following a nationwide power cut, as experienced by a cast of ordinary characters struggling to feed and protect themselves and their families. These eyewitness accounts reveal the disastrous impact of a prolonged blackout on hospitals, law and order, transport, and our food and water supplies.

The programme casts members of the public from user-generated footage, weaving real-life archive with scripted drama to tell the story of how Britain could descend into chaos and anarchy without power.

Comment: 10th Septemmber 2013: I watched this 'What-If' drama and it was totally realistic in depicting the hoardes of clueless, superficial and trite living on the edge of anarchy at the best of times... There was absolutely nothing to argue about, the drama was realistically terrifying, terrifying and terrifying. Actually, the cause of the blackout explained as an act of warfare EMP event by enemies is obviously an excuse to get government and military support for funding and actions, because we know in reality, that only space weather could deliver this type of knockout blow. I have seen no claims that a Carrington level Category 5 geomagnetic storm could burn out the whole national UK grid at the same time, BUT engineers have stated that this could happen in the United States due to their poorly maintained antiquated system... The United States is a super power with super weapons but no decent knickers basic infrastructure.... The chickens are surely coming home to roost for a nation with an ethos of greed.

[Yet Another] Glitch hits Nasdaq system at center of trading outage
Reuters, 5th September 2013

Blackout, New on Channel 4 9pm, Mon 9 Sept 2013
Ch4 News, September 2013

http://www.expatshield.com/
http://johnlewis.ie/watching-iplayer-outside-the-uk/

HSBC customers hit by IT glitch
Branch and telephone banking systems crashed over the weekend, with reports of problems online today. News, 2nd September 2013

HSBC customers are having difficulty accessing banking services after a weekend of disruption that saw the bank's computer systems fail. HSBC's in-branch IT systems went down on Saturday, leaving customers unable to access banking services such as opening new accounts, applying for loans or transferring funds in branch.

Customers were also unable to access telephone banking services for several hours. The technical glitches did not appear to be fully resolved this morning, with some users having trouble accessing HSBC's website. A holding page said: "We are sorry that our website is currently unavailable, please try again later". An HSBC spokesman said the bank had an "internal browser issue" on Saturday that caused the disruption.

Comment: Bank computer systems are getting hit again and again and again... but how many are getting the message?

Homeland Security's Napolitano says major cyber attack, severe weather await her successor
Washington Bureau, 27th August 2013

Janet Napolitano has some advice for her successor at the Department of Homeland Security: "You will need a large bottle of Advil."

Napolitano gave her farewell address as Homeland Security secretary this morning at the National Press Club. She's leaving to become president of the University of California system. Napolitano spent most of her speech touting her agency's accomplishments during her tenure. [...]

More interesting was her "open letter" to her as-yet-unnamed successor. Besides making sure he or she is well-stocked with pain relievers, the next Homeland Security security will need to be prepared for terrorist attacks, more severe weather events due to climate change, and budget challenges, she said.

Plus, you can count on America being hit with a major cyber attack that will seriously disrupt the economy, she said.

Comment: I actually don't want to agree with conspiracy theorists, but the politicians are not helping..... Simply, I don't think it's a good idea to ignore this type of serious warning coming from a top government official.

NASA Alert: America Blackout & Grid Shutdown 2013 [VIDEO]
Investment Watch Blog, 1st September 2013
"Comet Ison Solar Flare emp electric grid down janet Napolitano warns of unprecedented event"

Comment: Watch this series of video clips on the first YouTube link! The revelation that we had a near miss from a Carrington level Category 5 geomagnetic storm in July 2012 and the upcoming U.S. government grid power down drill in November 2013 (probably due to fears concerning Comet ISON triggering a massive CME), informs us that our technological society is now playing Russian roulette with the Sun. Btw, we are facing space climate change, so this kind of event is coming. It is not a matter of if, it is when, just like all the various space weather reports, scientists, engineers and government officials claim has to be expected. Unfortunately, world controllers might have decided there is not much they can do and instead prefer to engineer some chaos – rather like a controlled demolition – to remain in control. From my perspective, there is still very little interest in the mainstream concerning the future of humanity, so best of luck if you are interested in survival.

Eurex Restarts Trading After Technical Glitch
Wall Street Journal, 26th August 2013

A glitch in time synchronization caused German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse AG's Eurex Exchange arm to halt trading for slightly more than an hour early Monday, the latest in a thread of technical issues at global exchanges.

The Eurex derivatives trading market was halted at 0620 GMT, 20 minutes after trading started, "in order to protect the integrity of the market," Deutsche Boerse said. "An incorrect time synchronization within the ...

Comment: Time synchronization.... A GPS fail? GPS is used for timestamping in computer systems... See also Eurex Derivatives Exchange Suffers Outage Due To Glitch In Time Synchronization

Power Grid Down Drill To Be Conducted By US Government
Off The GridNews, 28th August 2013

Power grid vulnerabilities are finally garnering some attention by government officials.

An electrical grid joint drill simulation is being planned in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Thousands of utility workers, FBI agents, anti-terrorism experts, governmental agencies, and more than 150 private businesses are involved in the November power grid drill.

The downed power grid simulation will reportedly focus on both physical and cyber attacks. The antiquated electrical system in the United States has been one of the most neglected pieces of integral infrastructure.[...]

The disaster drill is being described as a crisis practice unlike anything the real power grid has ever experienced. The GridEX II drill Nov. 13-14 will focus primarily on how governments will react if the electrical grid fails and, for instance, the food supply chain collapses.

Comment: THIS IS IMPORTANT.... THIS IS IMPORTANT....THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Finally, all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.... As I have already stated before, the timing of November 2013 for this drill is to make sure that personnel are in place and aware of what they need to do in the event that Comet ISON causes a massive solar blowout. Check out the archives for previous comments, (use google search on the Home page or Archives Menu). We have seen tiny comets cause huge CMEs, but Comet ISON is in another league and we can guage just how electrically active it is when it flies by Mars. If we see huge electrical discharges between Mars and Comet ISON (like McCanney says might happen), then it will be time to start panicking especially for those in the United States who have no survival preparations and are worried. BY THE WAY, IGNORE THE HYPE FROM CONSPIRACY THEORISTS. THE GOVERNMENT MAY MAKE THE DECISION TO POWER DOWN THE GRID ANYWAY TO SAVE IT FROM BEING COMPLELELY DESTROYED... THE US GRID IS ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE BECAUSE IT IS ANTIQUATED, SO THIS ACTION COULD AMOUNT TO TAKING NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS. OTHERWISE IT IS TAKING THE RISK OF THE GRID BEING PARTIALLY OR COMPLETELY DESTROYED AND A HUNDRED MILLION PLUS PEOPLE DYING WITHIN 2 YEARS. THIS IS NOT HYPE, WE ARE FACING A POSSIBLE MEGA DISASTER.

As Worries Over the Power Grid Rise, a Drill Will Simulate a Knockout Blow
New York Times, 17th August 2013

31st August 2013: Update

What if the U.S. government already know that in the event of a knockout blow [category 5 geomagnetic storm] they can't save the national power grid? A Carrington level event means the national power grid gets destroyed in lots of different locations at once and no matter what they do there is going to be severe consequenes... Over the years I have pointed out the concern about worsening space weather, the facts are evident, but I think Comet ISON is literally a trigger. We are facing a potential mega disaster because the Sun is blowing out huge CMEs when any tiny comet approaches, but Comet ISON is already considered to not be a normal comet and the lack of clear images from astronomical sources is also an issue, see this excellent website, Comet ISON News. It is interesting that those involved in the disinformation campaigns that promoted non-issue comets like Comet Elenin are now fairly quiet. Presumably these people were paid to cry wolf but it's almost like they don't realise that they have been played... What can you say about people who are so stupid? The U.S. government realise there is a huge risk but most people are just too wrapped up in trivialities to understand the issues. Nothing has changed, scientists say a Carrington level event is inevitable and there is a 12 percent chance of Earth experiencing an enormous megaflare erupting from the Sun in the next decade but they also state they are not taking into account long-term space climate change... My work has been about providing the proof that we are seeing dramatic change being driven by the new cosmic environment... Previous civilisations have been destroyed by cosmic conflagrations and humanity are at the next make or break point... Sigh....

2 Canadian warships collide en route to Hawaii
HMCS Algonquin and HMCS Protecteur were conducting towing exercises with officer of the watch trainees CBC News, 31st August 2013

Two Canadian warships are returning to port in Esquimalt, B.C. today after colliding during training exercises while en route to Hawaii.

Officer of the watch trainees on the ships were in the midst of towing exercises, which require close-quarters manoeuvring, when the collision occurred at around 11 a.m. PT Friday morning.

No one was hurt, but the HMCS Algonquin sustained significant damage to her port side hangar while HMCS Protecteur sustained damage of a lesser degree to her bow. Navy Lt. Paul Pendergast, spokesman for Maritime Forces Pacific, called the collision "an unfortunate accident" and a "rare event."

Comment: Is this just an example of sheer incompetence or another GPS/Navigational fail to add to all the other similar incidents?

Nasdaq admits partial blame for trading freeze
BBC News, 29th August 2013

The company behind the Nasdaq has admitted partial responsibility for a three-hour freeze in trading on the tech stock exchange last week. But Nasdaq OMX also pointed the finger at rivals NYSE Euronext, blaming them for overwhelming Nasdaq's systems.

NYSE's Arca system sent "a stream of inaccurate symbols", and cut out over 20 times, swamping Nasdaq's computers. Nasdaq was "deeply disappointed" that its back-up systems failed to handle the data volume. NYSE made no comment.

Comment: So what caused "a stream of inaccurate symbols"?!? I still think this incident was caused by cosmic rays causing bit-flips and as we know, corrupted data and hardware can go unnoticed or completely foul up computer systems. Hence, I agree with the assessment. This is a programming failure because the error was not picked up immediately and dealt with due to poor program testing... I know about software testing because I have been a software analyst in the past. BUT THE BACKUP SYSTEM FAIL DESERVES SOMEONE TO BE FIRED AT THE VERY LEAST. FFS... THIS IS THE NASDAQ TRADING PLATFORM..

CBOE Futures Exchange Hit With Data Glitch
System Recovers After Temporary Delay of Quotes
WSJ News, 27th August 2013
CBOE Holdings Inc., operator of the largest U.S. options exchange by trading volume, alerted traders to problems with some market-data services early Tuesday, according to notices on the exchange operator's website, before all issues were fully resolved by about 1 p.m. Eastern time.

Amazon glitch hits Instagram and AirBnB
Websites suffer outages and slowdowns after Amazon web server runs into problems
Guardian, 26th August 2013

Goldman puts four on leave after glitch
CNBC News, 26th August 2013

Back to the 19th century': Mysterious techno breakdown hits Gitmo 9/11 tribunal
RT News, 24th August 2013

Defense lawyers for Guantanamo detainees asked the judge in the military tribunal on Friday to suspend pretrial hearings as mysterious computer glitches are just the latest technological setbacks to complicate the legal proceedings.

Defense lawyers for Guantanamo detainees asked the military tribunal judge to suspend pretrial hearings as mysterious computer glitches have made their job a 'hot mess' forcing some of them to draft motions with pen and paper.

"We're basically put back in the 19th century," Army Major Jason Wright, who represents the alleged mastermind of the terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, said on Friday, as quoted by Reuters. "It takes about five to 10 times what it would normally take to do defense functions."

Defense lawyers for five Guantanamo detainees said email correspondences they sent were never received, investigative records that took years to compile had disappeared and external monitors were unable to access their internet searches. Even the prosecuting and defense teams had been given access to each other's files.

Comment: I think this appears to be electromagnetic sabotage. Thanks R. v. Straaten for the tip.

Crisis of market confidence after Nasdaq shutdown
USA Today, 23rd August 2013

Nasdaq in Fresh Market Failure
Wall St Journal, 22nd August 2013

Nasdaq trading halted due to technical issue
Yahoo News, 22nd August 2013

Nasdaq said on Thursday it was halting trading in all securities until further notice due to a problem affecting quote dissemination. Dozens of publicly traded companies, including high-profile companies such as Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook (FB), were showing their shares halted. The Nasdaq status message was time stamped at 12:14:03 ET.

A spokesman for the SEC said, "We are monitoring the situation and are inclose contact with the exchanges." The Nasdaq (NDAQ) options markets also issued a "system update" saying they were recommending firms route all open orders elsewhere.

Comment: Wow.... Processor issue, see All Nasdaq markets halting trading due to processor issue. Check out my archives, I have been going on and on about the unreliability of computer systems and the continuous stock market "glitches"....This is major...Update: NASDAQ IN COMPLETE UNPRECEDENTED SHUTDOWN I have been calling this for years now.... How many people really understand the implications of Space Weather effecting virtually everything on this planet? Well you will if you have been following this blog.... Bullseye!

Goldman trading glitch could cost more than $100 million
CNBC News, 20th August 2013
Goldman Sachs experienced a trading glitch Tuesday that resulted in a large number of erroneous single stock and ETF options trades. Many of the trades may wind up being erased but the error could still cost the firm upwards of $100 million, according to a person familiar with the situation.

"The exchanges are working to resolve the issue," a Goldman spokesman said in a statement. "Neither the risk nor the potential loss is material to the financial condition of the firm." [...] The botched trades occurred when Goldman's internal computer system that helps to determine where to price options mistakenly ended up sending orders

Comment: These trading glitches just keep on coming.... I imagine many of the super rich think they are immune to changes in the cosmic environment... Well, they are not as cosmic rays changing bits and bytes (bit-flips) is a fact of computing life that we can only expect to get worse... Are Intel busy selling their cosmic ray detector on a chip? I don't know... Update: Goldman assessing fallout from options trading glitch

Russian sunbathers throw in the towel as 550-tonne military hovercraft blunders ashore
Metro News, 21st August 2013

If you thought people who played loud music at the beach were annoying, spare a thought for these startled sunbathers. Holidaymakers enjoying the peace on this white sandy beach in Russia leapt to attention when a monster military hovercraft made an unexpected appearance.

Witnesses reported a 'terrible roar' and 'big waves' as the 550-tonne war craft charged up the shore. They then watched open-mouthed as paratroopers started to disembark and demand they roll up their towels and move on.

A spokesman for the Russian defence ministry told the tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that the 60m (200ft) vessel was on a tactical mission in an area owned by the military. 'Docking at the beach is normal,' was the spokesman's rather matter-of-fact response to questions. 'What people were doing at the beach on the territory of the military (base) is unclear.'

But the newspaper pointed out that the base the ministry referred to was in Khmelevka, several kilometres from the beach in Mechnikovo, near Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.

Comment: I am calling this as another really embarrassing GPS/navigational fail.... An absolute classic... Incredible...

Technical glitch in IOB's core banking system hits service
The Hindu Business Line, 19th August 2013
Chennai, Aug. 19: A technical snag in Indian Overseas Bank's core banking system (CBS) on Monday affected services across the country. According to M. Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, following a usual maintenance work, a complex technical malfunction cropped up in the system that restrained banking services to its customers. While the transactions were carried out on the basis of account holders' Saturday balance in some branches across the country, the bank's ATM network could not transact any business on Monday.

Prison Computer 'Glitch' Blamed for Opening Cell Doors in Maximum-Security Wing
Wired News, 16th August 2013

Florida prison officials say a computer "glitch" may be to blame for opening all of the doors at a maximum security wing simultaneously, setting prisoners free and allowing gang members to pursue a rival with weapons.

But a surveillance video released this week (see above) suggests that the doors may have been opened intentionally – either by a staff member or remotely by someone else inside or outside the prison who triggered a "group release" button in the computerized system. The video raises the possibility that some prisoners knew in advance that the doors were going to open.

It's the second time in two months that all of the doors in the wing opened at once, officials say, raising questions about whether the first incident was a trial-run to see how long it would take guards to respond.[...]

But a trio of security researchers – John Strauchs, Teague Newman, and Tiffany Rad – say that many prison systems have vulnerabilities that can be exploited remotely by hackers or accomplices from inside or outside a prison. They have examined systems at a number of facilities and two years ago presented their findings at the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas.

Some of the vulnerabilities exist in the architecture and configuration of the systems, causing them to be accessible via the internet. Other vulnerabilities exist in the programmable logic controllers that are used to control not only prison doors, but surveillance cameras and other prison systems. Many PLCs use Ladder Logic programming and a communications protocol that have no security protections built into them. There are also vulnerabilities in the Windows-based desktop machines that are used to monitor and program the PLCs. Anyone who gains access to these computers can control the PLCs and the operations they monitor, the researchers say.

Comment: This is a long report about various incidents and includes what happened at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Maryland that I previously noted April 2013. The article implies that jail-door hacking could be very possible, but my interest is whether these systems can be hacked by ambient electromagnetic signals now that Earth's geomagnetic environment has become more extreme.

Huge flood wave threatens major Russian Far East cities as region is hit by cyclones
The Siberian Times, 16th August 2013

At least 30,000 homes are hit by flooding in Amur region, with Vladimir Putin ordering more emergency aid to stricken people. A section of the world famous Trans Siberian Railway was closed on Thursday on the route linking capital Moscow with Vladivostok. Flood water washed away some of the stone ballast supporting the track in Amur region after a nearby river reached a 'critical level, said a Russian Railways statement. Both Amur and Khabarovsk regions are devastated by record deluges which have caused rivers to break their banks, forcing residents to abandon their homes and threatening disease.

Chinese Stocks Swing Wildly After Trading Glitch
Wall St Journal, 16th August 2013
Chinese shares swung wildly Friday after a trading glitch at a local brokerage sent shares of the benchmark index surging 5.6% in the space of just a few minutes before stocks ended lower on the day. Traders said an accidental "fat-finger" trade was to blame. A spokesman from the China Securities Regulatory Commission said "sizeable" buy orders from brokers at midsize firm Everbright Securities caused the jump in shares. Everbright said it suffered an internal trading error and would conduct an investigation. The Shanghai exchange suspended the company's stock. [...] Everbright Securities said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange there were problems in the arbitrage system of its proprietary trading. It didn't return calls for comment.

Comment: I am not convinced about the fat-finger excuse at all, this could be another cosmic ray induced software/hardware computer error. Computer sytems are not infallible and talk of investor confidence being shaken is now a common refrain.

10 Years After Blackout, US Grid Faces New Threats
Epoch Times, 10th August 2013

On the ten-year anniversary of the nation's largest blackout, the U.S. electrical grid is better managed and more flexible but remains vulnerable. Among potential problems are increasingly extreme weather, cybersecurity threats, and stress caused by shifts in where and how power is produced.

Many worry the grid isn't fully prepared for the new and emerging challenges, even though an analysis conducted for The Associated Press shows maintenance spending has steadily increased since North America's largest blackout.

Xerox scanners/photocopiers randomly alter numbers in scanned documents
David Kriesel, 7th August 2013

In this article I present in which way scanners / copiers of the Xerox WorkCentre Line randomly alter written numbers in pages that are scanned. This is not an OCR problem (as we switched off OCR on purpose), it is a lot worse – patches of the pixel data are randomly replaced in a very subtle and dangerous way: The scanned images look correct at first glance, even though numbers may actually be incorrect. Without a fuss, this may cause scenarios like:

Incorrect invoices
Construction plans with incorrect numbers (as will be shown later in the article) even though they look right
Other incorrect construction plans, for example for bridges (danger of life may be the result!)
Incorrect metering of medicine, even worse, I think.

To make things even more worse: The copiers in question are the common Xerox WorkCentres, and Xerox seemed to be unaware of the issue until we found out about it last Wednesday. Whats more, not only one different WorkCentre model seems to be affected, as we tested at least two with this issue (Xerox WorkCentre 7535 and 7556). Additionally, the current software release, as installed by xerox support, did not solve the issue, thus, the issue existed on the very old release we had installed, as well as on a very new one. The error has been confirmed by a xerox rental firm in the meantime, and Xerox is investigating as well, so it does not seem to be some dumb handling error or something similar (if I was thinking this, I of course would not publish it here).

Comment: This is absolutely incredible.... I don't think a simple "fix" is the issue here... This might not just be a problem for Xerox either...

Glitch hits NAB online, mobile banking
Second of big four to have issues in a week.
IT News, 5th August 2013

A number of National Australia Bank customers have been unable to access online and mobile banking this morning after the bank suffered what appears to a server error. [...] NAB is four years into a multibillion dollar, ten-year technology transformation to replace its legacy mainframe systems, developed in the 1950s.

NAB was forced to take its payments systems offline a few weeks ago after a technology glitch halted the processing of payments for around 12 hours. It did not reveal what caused that glitch. The bank is the second of the big four in the past week to suffer an online banking outage.

Westpac's online and mobile services were down for two days late last week. The bank was able to restore services on Thursday night but online and mobile banking went down again for a second full day on Friday. It denied rumours of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack being behind the outage but is yet to provide the cause.

Comment: It does seem high profile major computer systems that people expect to be working 24/7 are becoming much more unreliable...

M&G accounting glitch hits 32,000 investors
The UK's biggest bond fund manager has admitted messing up income payments to thousands of investors.
Telegraph, 1st August 2013
Fund giant M&G has apologised for paying incorrect income to thousands of investors in one of its most popular funds.

The mis-payments began in May when M&G overpayed unit holders of the High Yield Corporate Bond Fund. To rectify this mistake the investment house took back the overpayments in July - but failed to let its investors know.

Comment: Did they really think nobody would notice?

Thousands of businesses hit by Streamline glitch
Businesses across the country have been left out of pocket as a result of technical problems at the UK's largest payment processing businesses, which is partly owned by Royal Bank of Scotland.
Telegraph, 31st July 2013

Streamline, which handles half of all face-to-face card transactions in Britain, said it was investigating as a "high priority" problems with payments made between Friday and Sunday, after businesses reported missing payments.

In a statement on the company's helpline, Streamline said it was aware of the issue and was trying to work out what had gone wrong.

A spokesman for Streamline said: "We are aware of a technical issue which has meant that some customers have not received settlement for transactions processed between 26-28 July as expected. We are looking into the issue as a matter of urgency and will be communicating with customers as soon as we have more information. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Comment: This same type of problem has been happening around the world, so maybe there is something systemic going on.

Railways boss denies safety problems
The Local (Switzerland) News, 31st July 2013

Investigators said on Tuesday a signalling failure or one of the two drivers ignoring a signal was the likeliest cause of the crash.

"I'd like to stress that we are investing 50 million francs in 1,700 safety signals between now and 2016," Meyer told Tages-Anzeiger. "But to bring our signaling up to the highest level of the European Train Control System (ETCS) we would need 2 billion francs."

"Our goal is that by 2035 our networks should be fitted with the ETCS. We are currently installing this safety system on the Gotthard railway line between Mattstetten and Rothrist and in the Lötschberg tunnel," Meyer said. The CEO conceded that the signalling system in operation at Granges-pres-Marnand dated from 1958.

Investigators probe cause of fatal train crash
The Local (Switzerland) News, 30th July 2013
Swiss investigators have pointed to signal-jumping as the likely cause of ahead-on train collision that killed a driver and injured 25 other people.[...] Sauterel said the assumption was that one of the trains had left the station too early, ignoring signals.

Comment: As regular blog readers will know, I have pointed out that railway signals can be affected by space weather induced problems. Yes, there have been a lot of recent major railway incidents (see list below), but I decided to wait until it was reported there was some kind of issue with signalling and it looks like something strange happened in Switzerland. Yes, it is very easy to blame a driver jumping a signal but the signal could have been wrong and there has already been tacit acknowlegement that there may have been a signalling failure. Anyway, here is a repeat of the warnings from Lloyds of London.

Executive Summary

5. Space weather can also disrupt pipelines and railway signals

It can cause problems such as corrosion on pipelines and incorrect signal settings on railways. Again, there are means to mitigate these effects, but they usually require keeping back-up systems, which adds to operational costs.

Rail transport
[...] Looking to the future, emerging train control technologies, such as the European Train Control System,61 rely on communications links based on mobile phone technology and are therefore potentially vulnerable to interference from solar radio bursts. These links enable trains to report their speed and position to control centres and for those centres to transmit movement authorities to trains. Interference from radio bursts could break those control links and bring railway movement to a halt. This would severely disrupt railway schedules. Currently, these new control technologies are largely deployed as trials on selected lines, and most train routes still use physical signalling systems. We would therefore expect limited impact in the coming solar maximum of 2012 to 2015, but these control systems are likely to be more widespread by the following solar maximum (around 2024), so the risk could be higher. Developers and potential users of this technology will need to monitor space weather problems on the existing trial systems and look for solutions to reduce the long-term impact.

Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business
Lloyd's of London, November 2010

Recent Railway Incidents

– July 24, 79 people killed in the Spain's worst train accident in decades
– July 12, 2013: Six people are killed and nearly 200 injured just south of Paris when four cars slide off the tracks as a passenger train speeds through the small French town of Bretigny-sur-Orge.
– April 22, 2012: A woman dies of injuries a day after two trains collide head-on in Amsterdam. At least 16 people are seriously injured.
– April 13, 2012: Three people are killed and 13 injured in a train crash near Frankfurt when two trains collide and derail.
– March 3, 2012: Two trains collide head-on in southern Poland, killing at least eight people and injuring around 50.

Hacker who made ATMs spit out cash dies in Calif.
My Fox News, 26th July 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A prominent hacker who discovered a way to have ATMs spit out cash and was set to deliver a talk about hacking pacemakers and other wireless implantable medical devices has died in San Francisco, authorities and his employer said.

Barnaby Jack died at his home in San Francisco Thursday, although the cause of death is still under investigation, San Francisco Deputy Coroner Kris Barbrich said.

Jack, who was in his mid-30s, was scheduled to speak on Aug. 1 at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. The headline of his talk was, "Implantable Medical Devices: Hacking Humans," according to a synopsis on the Black Hat conference website.

Comment: It can't be a surprise to many that this hacker was killed, when will people learn that advertising major news is not always the best idea.... Whatever, due to the publicity surrounding this suspicious death, there will be lots more novices trying to repeat the ATM trick... I don't think too many will be bothered about learning how to hack pacemakers.

Five Costa Concordia staff convicted over shipwreck in Italy
Italian court sentences cruise liner employees for manslaughter and negligence over sinking of cruise liner off Giglio
Guardian, 20th July 2013

An Italian court has convicted five people of manslaughter and negligence over the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner that left 32 people dead. [...]

Prosecutors allege that Schettino lost control of the 114,500-tonne ship after hitting a rock as he skirted the shoreline of Giglio in a "salute" to a retired cruise line commodore. Schettino has denied the charges and insisted that the rock was not on nautical maps.

The reef sliced a 70-metre-long (230ft) gash in the hull and seawater rushed in, causing the ship to capsize.

Comment: At the time I wondered if this was a problem with navigational systems being wrong. Well, nothing has changed my mind about this possibility. No captain, a fool or otherwise, would navigate a large ship towards marked rocks unless he was not where he thought he was....

PayPal accidentally makes man a QUADRILLIONAIRE after transferring $92,233,720,368,547,800 into his account
Daily Mail, 17th July 2013

* Chris Reynolds left shocked after opening his monthly-statement
* 'I just felt like a million bucks' he said

As a regular PayPal customer, Chris Reynolds spends no more than $100 a month. So when the 56-year-old checked his balance with the online money-transfer company recently, it was something of a surprise for him to be told he was a quadrillionaire - making him the world's richest man. Mr Reynolds, from Delaware County, opened his monthly-statement by email on Friday to discover that his balance was a whopping $92,233,720,368,547,800.

UK flights affected by computer problems
Flights in southern England have suffered delays because of air traffic control computer problems.
BBC News, 9th July 2013

Nats, the national air traffic control body, said UK airspace was not shut, nor were all flights in and out of the UK suspended - as one airport had said.

Nats said operations were returning to normal following technical work carried out at its Swanwick, Southampton, control centre. Contingency plans had been put in place to minimise disruption, it added.

Nats provides air traffic navigation services to aircraft flying through UK controlled airspace and at several UK and international airports. Its website said it handled 7,086 flights on Monday. Jersey Airport had tweeted just after 10:00 BST on Tuesday that the computer failure at Swanwick had "resulted in the temporary suspension of all flights in and out of UK air space."

In an update 25 minutes later, the airport said there was "once again movement in UK skies. However, some delays may result."

Comment: The computer glitches, that I think are being caused by the increase in cosmic rays, are most notable when computer systems used by banks, stock markets and airlines/air traffic control breakdown and it is becoming obvious that things are getting worse. Thanks to A. Rowicki for the tip.

Wiping Out Bank Accounts
Prioritizing Cyber, Nuclear Capabilities
Armed With Science, 7th July 2013

Malicious cyberattacks are quickly becoming a defining security challenge "for our time, for all our institutions," said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

"They are putting America's economic and technological advantages and our industrial base at risk," the secretary added. "And they threaten our critical infrastructure."

Hagel noted some now-familiar defense challenges in the cyber realm: attacks are invisible, hard to track to their source, and potentially can be classified as either criminal activity or acts of war.

"Attribution is not impossible, but it is not as simple as identifying a navy sailing across the ocean or an army crossing a border to attack you," Hagel said. "This is a fundamentally different, more insidious kind of threat than we've ever seen – one that carries with it a great risk of miscalculation and mistake."

Comment: I changed the headline to something most people can appreciate... Well, I treat this kind of article from a military source in exactly the same way as the articles on an EMP strike. I think the real issue is dealing with the increasing impact of space weather and for computer systems that means the general increase in cosmic rays. Yes, real cyber attacks are real, but so are cosmic rays corrupting computer software and hardware. So, as I continue to document examples, we are seeing plenty of disruption now.

Ready.gov – Space Weather
Ready.gov, April 2012

The term "space weather" refers to the variable conditions on the sun and in space that can influence the performance of technology we use on Earth. Extreme space weather could potentially cause damage to critical infrastructure – especially the electric grid – highlighting the importance of being prepared.

In order to protect people and systems that might be at risk from space weather effects, we need to understand the causes of space weather.

The sun is the main source of space weather. Sudden bursts of plasma and magnetic field structures from the sun's atmosphere called coronal mass ejections (CME) together with sudden bursts of radiation, or solar flares, all cause space weather effects here on Earth.

Space weather can produce electromagnetic fields that induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines, and even causing wide-spread blackouts. Severe space weather also produces solar energetic particles, which can damage satellites used for commercial communications, global positioning, intelligence gathering, and weather forecasting.

Comment: This is affectively a Ready.gov advice sheet on Space Weather.. For the naysayers, solar storms are nothing new, but it is the fact that the transmitting properties of space have changed and therefore if we get huge solar coronal mass ejections coming our way, then they will have a bigger impact. This is combined with the issues that Earth's magnetosphere (magnetic shielding) is less affective. Earth's magnetic shield has "cracks" in it as well as sometimes there are massive breaches where the magnetic field affectively disappears on the daylight side. What this means is the planet can be "zapped" by large large flows of charged particles from the Sun (BIG electrical shocks) and if this is too severe there is a danger of national power grids being knocked out. Of course on a personal level, every single brain on the planet is also getting some big shocks too as the big and small shocks are detected by human brains that are wired into the environmental Schumann Resonances - but there are other environmental signals that humans can pick up that are not so beneficial. I wrote about this in my book Tuning the Diamonds: Electromagnetism & Spirtual Evolution and nothing has changed in my analysis. Now, we only have more revelations from the space agencies about geomagnetic conditions getting worse and worse. The planet is now regularly ringing like a bell with spacequakes.

Best of the Blog - Space Weather, Electronics
& Electromagnetic Chaos Archive

ICBC customers lose cool over glitch
China.org News, 24th June 2013

A system glitch suffered by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China paralyzed its over-the-counter, ATM and online trading in several cities in the country yesterday, sparking talk that it has run out of money before the bank issued a clarification later.

"Now the system has recovered and all services are back to normal. ICBC is deeply sorry about the inconvenience it has brought to the customers," the bank said.

The glitch had caused several of its customers to leave angry messages on ICBC's official page on Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter-like service, after they failed to draw or transfer their money from their ICBC accounts yesterday morning.

Ferry damaged hitting dock in Harwich
BBC News, 22nd June 2013

A lifeboat has been launched after a ferry carrying 400 people struck the dock in Harwich, Essex, as it berthed. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the Sirena Seaways vessel listing to its port side in Parkeston Quay after the accident.

Eric Chalmers, who is at the scene, said the ferry was "only just" upright in the water. Essex Fire and Rescue Service said no-one was trapped and there had been no injuries but the vessel had suffered damage below the water line.

Comment: Another major navigational fail.... Dare I repeat my usual stance that GPS is unreliable....

Sirena Seaways ferry damaged hitting Harwich dock [PHOTOS]
BBC News, 22nd June 2013
Eyewitness Chris Vincent said the ship was coming in at "quite some speed" -- Gert Jakobsen, vice-president of communications for DFDS, said it was "difficult to say" why the ship had struck the quayside. "There might have been some wind, we don't know why, but it hit the quay," he said.

250 Southwest Airlines flights cancelled or delayed nationwide after system outage
Chicago Sun Times, 22nd June 2013

About 250 Southwest Airlines flights were cancelled or delayed nationwide after a system-wide outage prevented flights from departing.

The outage did not affect flights in the air, but forced Southwest Airlines to keep planes grounded, the airline said on its Twitter feed late Friday. The problem, which started about 11 p.m. Friday, was resolved about two hours later.

Comment: At this moment, some work needs to be done to assess the reason why so many airlines are having problems with their computer systems.... Yes, I do explain there is a problem with cosmic rays corrupting computer hardware and software and those with the biggest banks of computers will get hit and get the publicity because of the impact when things go wrong, but location (height above sea level etc) and IT management are also important to consider...

The Stock Exchange of Thailand's online trading system collapsed
The Nation, 21st June 2013

The Stock Exchange of Thailand's online trading system collapsed at 4.10pm, leaving some orders unsettled. SET President Charamporn Jotikasthira told Krungthep Turakij today that the system should be recovered by 7.30pm today, when the night trading session for futures will start. He attributed the collapse to the malfunction of computer hardware. Settrade, which oversees the system, announced that the system has been successfully fixed. "The SET and brokerage houses have in place the damage-prevention system. Yet, this is beyond our control as two hardware equipment malfunctioned at the same time," he said.

Comment: I changed the headline to reflect the severity of the problem... these stock market computer system failures just keep on coming... but it looks like there was some kind of recovery plan in place as one would expect.

GPS Leads Woman Onto Railroad Tracks, Minivan Destroyed
Breitbart News, 20th June 2013

BELMONT, Mass. – A woman and her two children, ages 7 and 10, narrowly escaped serious injury when a train smashed into their minivan after a GPS device led the driver onto MBTA train tracks Tuesday night.

The woman was driving southbound on Brighton Street shortly before 9 p.m. when the GPS device directed her to make a right turn which placed her vehicle directly onto railroad tracks. Apparently the woman was unable to drive off the tracks, forcing her to flee the vehicle with her children.

Comment: I am starting to think the numbers of these GPS stories suggests there is a bad combination of factors operating. We have a certain percentage of people who routinely refuse to think for themselves and are susceptible to being hypnotised whilst listening for the next sat-nav command. Once they are in automatic mode they will obey absolutely any command no matter how ridiculous...

Blast hits midtown Manhattan
RT News, 16th June 2013

A massive explosion has rocked Manhattan, few blocks away from the UN headquarters. Police and firefighters are at the scene. Initial reports suggest that an underground transformer exploded setting nearby cars on fire.

Comment: These transformer fires happen quite frequently these days. Presumably, this is caused by a combination of stray electrical currents and bad maintenance. GICS (geomagnetically induced currents) are much more of a problem now due to worsening space weather conditions. See archives for previous comments.

Why do Transformers Explode?
Transformer Protector Corp Flashback!
"A one-year research project led to the discovery of 730 transformer explosions in the USA only Click for document #5. Many experts anticipate that the number of failures will increase significantly in the near future, from 1% in 2001 to 2% in 2008 Click for document #17. In addition, the shorter lifetime of new transformers will sharply increase above this rate after 2008 Click for document #18."
I picked this up originally in May 2011 when there was a bout of transformer fires. These website has since been updated and evidence of these reports might be harder to find.
Pavement explosion rise 'worrying'
BBC News, 17th June 2013
Londoners could be at risk of serious injury after a large increase in the number of exploding pavements. The Health and Safety Executive says it is worried by the rise in blasts across the capital over the past year. UK Power Networks, the company which distributes electricity across London, claims its system is actually safe.

Comment: I have been saying this has become a problem, I am vindicated yet again!

US warns of cyberattacks targeting medical devices
RT News, 14th June 2013

The FDA is warning that implanted medical devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, are often connected to networks that are vulnerable to cyber attacks that could shut down or manipulate the machinery.

Hackers with malicious intentions could introduce malware into the equipment, thereby gaining access to configure settings in medical devices or hospital networks, the Food and Drug Administration said in a warning sent to hospitals, medical device manufacturers, user facilities, and biomedical engineers.

"Over the past year, we've become increasingly aware of cyber security vulnerabilities in incidents that have been reported to us," William Maisel, deputy director for science at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, told Reuters. "Hundreds of medical devices have been affected, involving dozens of manufacturers."

Comment: I don't believe this story, secure encryption is available and that is why the US government has to take major companies to secret courts to get them to hand over data.. So, anyone who understands the implications of space weather and the ensuing geomagnetic chaos as I have been documenting on my News of the Imbalance Blog will realise there is good reason for warning people about medical devices being hacked. If authorities can't even keep jail locks from unopening what else do you think is going to happen? See archives, Best of the Blog - Space Weather, Electronics & Electromagnetic Chaos . Btw it is not all bad, I have received one email informing me that a pacemaker had naturally re-charged itself...

Garage-door glitch: Army radio technology locks out Georgia homeowners
Washington Times, 11th June 2013

Fort Gordon in Georgia is getting a new military radio upgrade – and area residents aren't happy. They report a side effect of the system upgrade is leaving them locked out of their garages.

Apparently, the military's radio system is jamming remote-control garage-door-opener signals, The Associated Press reported.

Reports of the stopped-up garages began filtering in to military personnel last week, the Augusta Chronicle reported. That's coincidentally the time that Fort Gordon started upgrading its land-to-mobile radios to a 390 megahertz bandwidth – the same frequency used by remote controllers for garage doors, AP said.

The lockout has hit nearly 500 residents, who brought their concerns to their garage-door dealer, Overhead Door Co. of Augusta.

Comment: How can this be caused by a military upgrade when it means the military must be using a frequency that is used to open garage doors? This is not the first example of the exact same issue so maybe a proper explanation is required.

ICICI Bank glitch hits customers, shoppers
They could not withdraw money or shop for hours on Sunday
The Hindu, 10th June 2013
ICICI bank customers found themselves left high and dry for a while here on Sunday afternoon when they could neither withdraw money from the ATMs nor swipe their cards for transactions while shopping. [...] When contacted, ICICI sources said that a 13-minute technical glitch due to a snapping of a switch on Sunday afternoon led to failure of ICICI ATMs in the city.

Comment: So, here in India, the technical staff can provide the details immediately about what went wrong, but this ability is rare elsewhere around the globe....

Beer fridge causes mobile network outage
Daily Caller, 6th June 2013

An Australian man's faulty beer fridge is being blamed for blackouts in the mobile network in multiple neighborhoods. "I'm amazed something like that could knock out part of the network," fridge owner Craig Reynolds told the Herald Sun last weekend.

The interference, spread throughout the town of Wangaratta, is believed to have been caused by the fridge's emissions of unusual electrical signals. Engineers from Australian telecom company Telstra report that any electric signal of a large enough strength can generate radio frequency noise that causes blackouts.

Comment: I had some difficulty believing this story was genuine, but there are other versions of this story with extra details, see Isn't It A Pain When Your Beer Fridge Knocks Out The Entire Neighborhood's Cell Network? [The Consumerist] & Fridge fault causes Telstra mobile network blackouts [Herald Sun] Update: Beer cans can be used to boost wi-fi signals, see archives.

NYSE Euronext markets back on line after glitch
Boston.com, 6th June 2013

PARIS (AP) – Trading on a number of European exchanges started about an hour late Thursday after a problem with NYSE Euronext's systems prevented customers from placing orders. Exchanges in Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and Amsterdam were affected by the unexplained glitch.

But NYSE Euronext spokeswoman Caroline Tourrier said all trading was normal by around 10:00 a.m. CET (0800 GMT) and that the New York exchange should not be affected when it opens. Tourrier said the company still could not say what caused the glitch and that investigations were ongoing.

Comment: Also at Bloomberg.com, Euronext Glitch Delays Trading From Paris to Amsterdam. Well, there are even complaints that traders expected better reliability from the Twitter website which was down Tuesday Twitter's outage stakes grow as stock traders lose social factor , but its like there is a high level of delusion concerning the reliability of computer systems where the facts are stray cosmic rays are regularly bringing down computer systems and there is a limit to what can be done to minimise the impact. At the moment, Intel's cosmic ray detectors on a chip don't seem to be in widespread use even though they should be.

Three faces Ofcom probe following 3G data outage
The Inquirer, 5th June 2013

UK MOBILE OPERATOR Three is in talks with Ofcom following its 3G data outage on Tuesday, which saw subscribers left without access to the web. That's according to Sky News, which has heard from UK watchdog Ofcom that it has contacted the mobile operator over the outage.

This outage saw Three users unable to access the web on Tuesday, but the operator managed to restore its 3G services. By midday, the network's data services were back up and running in London, although despite promising that all would be resumed by the afternoon, full service was not restored until Tuesday evening.

Comment: Again, no immediate explanation offered but hopefully an enquiry will eventually provide answers.

Westpac's banking system hit by overnight glitch [NZ]
New Zealand Herald, 5th June 2013

A glitch in Westpac's banking system caused processing delays overnight, frustrating a number of customers.

Several customers voiced dissatisfaction on the bank's Facebook page, with many complaining they hadn't received wages or other payments overnight as expected.

A bank spokesman said the problem was solved before the start of the business day, and he apologised to any customers who were inconvenienced.

Comment: Somebody is lying or how could customers notice there was a problem and complain? Even if there was a problem, a backout and restart overnight should in effect be invisible to bank customers. I worked in IT in the financial sector so I know how it works.

Debit card glitch hits Capital G customers
Royal Gazette, 5th June 2013
Capital G has issued a statement explaining a technical glitch affecting customers using their credit and debit cards abroad. The bank's chief banking officer Bob Wilson said yesterday: "We are aware that some Capital G customers requesting cash withdrawals from international ATMs or attempting point of sale transactions abroad may currently be experiencing issues with the use of their Capital G credit and debit cards.

Comment: I need more technical info to make a call here, but this should not be happening...

STV [Scottish TV] apologises after glitch blanks out screens
Herald Scotland, 4th June 2013

STV viewers were dismayed tonight after the channel went off air shortly before a flagship referendum documentary was to be shown.

Viewers reported the channel cutting out during the Scottish news programme at around 6.30pm on some networks including Sky and FreeSat.

However, the broadcaster's programmes stayed on screen for viewers watching via the Freeview service. An STV spokesman said the glitch was linked to a network transmission issue on some platforms.

Comment: Long TV outages seem to be quite rare...

Axa customers hit by pensions glitch
Thousands of pension customers with Axa Wealth saw their monthly payments taken early as the result of an IT glitch.
Telegraph, 3rd June 2013

Six thousand Axa Wealth customers had their monthly pension contributions incorrectly taken from their bank account last Wednesday as the result of a computer glitch. All those affected were reimbursed on Friday, and a Axa spokesman told Telegraph Money that if customers had incurred any bank fees as a result of the mistake, it would reimburse them.

The company stressed that customers did not need to take any action – the payment will be taken on the correct day as usual and the issue had been resolved. The pension provider is writing to all its customers with details of the glitch and has set up a phone line to answer any queries concerning the incident.

Comment: I see this as bad for society as trust in computer systems is being steadily eroded.

RBS apologise as app glitch locked customers out of their accounts for the second time this month
Herald Scotland, 31st May 2013
Royal Bank of Scotland customers faced more frustration today as they struggled to check their money using the bank's mobile phone app.
RBS just can't seem to get their computer systems straight. I admit, this is not just about space weather, this is mainly really poor management...

OSE president to lose pay for glitch
Japan Times, 23rd May 2013
OSAKA – The Osaka Securities Exchange said Wednesday it will cut the monthly pay of its president, Motoharu Fujikura, by 30 percent for one month over a system problem that forced it to suspend derivatives trading in March.

Couple's £163,000 mobile phone bill shock
BBC News, 22nd May 2013

An electrician and his wife had a shock when they received a mobile phone bill for £163,000, then fought for months to have the debt cleared.

For 15 years, Alan and Carolyn Mazkouri, from Swansea, had a business deal with Orange for 10 phones. They told the BBC's Watchdog programme that they normally had a bill for £300 a month, before the shock demand came in September. [...] The bill suggested that Mr Mazkouri's phone had downloaded data by dialling up the internet every 20 minutes for three weeks.

Comment: So... did Orange really expect this couple to pay the bill?

Italy deaths as Genoa ship hits control tower
BBC News, 8th May 2013

At least four people have died and several more are missing after a container ship crashed into a control tower in the Italian port of Genoa.The Jolly Nero smashed into the concrete and glass tower late at night, reducing it to rubble. Three people were reported to have been trapped inside a lift that fell into the water as the tower collapsed. [...]

'Utterly shocked'

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but Genoa's Il Secolo XIX newspaper quoted the Jolly Nero's captain as saying that two engines appeared to have failed and "we lost control of the ship". The head of the Genoa Port Authority, Luigi Merlo, told the newspaper: "It's very difficult to explain how this could have happened because the ship should not have been where it was."

Comment: Hmmm.... Maybe, someone was looking at a navigational device rather than actually using lookouts to do visual sightings... As I keep saying, due to space weather, GPS is not reliable anymore, so these major ships, cargo ships, tankers and submarine accidents will keep happening until the message gets through, see archives Best of the Blog - Space Weather, Electronics & Electromagnetic Chaos .

27,000 Atmos Energy customers overcharged 10x by billing glitch
Dallas Morning News, 6th May 2013

About 27,000 Atmos Energy customers have been mistakenly charged ten times the amount of their bill because of a billing glitch. The mistake happened to customers who have their bill automatically deducted from their checking accounts or credit cards, company spokeswoman Jennifer Ryan said.

The mistake caused headaches for customers who unexpectedly found themselves overdrawn through no fault of their own. "I was drafted $646.40 instead of $64.64," complained Melissa Alexander of Fort Worth on the company's website. "I AM NOT A HAPPY CAMPER!!" Alexander said later she contacted her bank immediately but the funds will be tied up until Atmos corrects the error.

India BlackBerry services back to normal after outage by FP Staff May 6, 2013First Post News, 6th May 2013
BlackBerry services which faced an outage in India and some other parts of the world are finally functioning normally. A 3 May tweet from the company's official handle read, "All BlackBerry services are returning to normal levels. Apologies to any customers who experienced issues earlier. ^DH"

NYSE MKT Hits Trading Glitch
24/7 Wall St, 2nd May 2013
Trading at the NYSE Euronext's NYSE MKT exchange was halted briefly today. What is important here is not that the trading halt barely last two minutes, but that more than 400 symbols were temporarily unavailable for trading. This is not a miniature flash crash but an unavailable crash for electronic traders.

Windstream voice outages mostly resolved; technology upgrade blamed
Fierce Telecom, 2nd May 2013

Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) reported Wednesday evening that the majority of the network outages that left business customers across as many as 23 states without voice service have been fixed, though isolated issues remain.

The telco said on its support page that while "There may still be some isolated issues our team is working aggressively to remedy." The outage was due to a technology upgrade on various parts of its long-distance network, the carrier said. It did not reveal the voice vendor that performed the upgrade.

"Unfortunately, after the new technology was subjected to mass volume, this newly upgraded system began performing erratically," Windstream said on its support site. "We have subsequently reverted to the prior configuration."

Comment: Maybe, as geomagnetic conditions on this planet worsen, there is a need for more honesty concerning the reliability of phone/mobile network & internet services. As all operators are facing the same issues, the general public should at least have access to inderpendent databases that informs people about the cause of faults that last more than half an hour and whether it is space weather related.

Windstream suffers voice network outage across several states
Fierce Telecom, 29th April 2013
Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) reports that it is suffering a "widespread" outage on its voice network, an issue that's affecting the ability of customers in several states to make long-distance and toll free calls. The number of customers affected is not known at this time. The telco said on its website that the outage occurred around 11:30 a.m. EDT. In addition to long-distance and toll-free voice services, the telco said on its Facebook page that the outage is affecting its ability to receive inbound calls to its support centers and that it is "investigating reports that local inbound and outbound calling also may be disrupted for some customers."
UPDATED: Optus network outage causes disruptions in Sydney Customers affected for several peak morning hours
ARN News, 30th April 2013
Some Sydney-based Optus Business customers on the Evolve network experienced lengthy outages this morning due to a failure on the telecommunications provider's end. Optus has confirmed a "hardware issue impacted a router in an Optus exchange" in Ultimo. While the telco said it caused "intermittent dropouts," the outage experienced by IDG Communications, the publisher of ARN, lasted for about four hours between 05:00 and 09:00 this morning. During that period, the network was only available for very brief periods before going under once more.
AT&T Network Outage Frustrates Hundreds of Alaska Customers
KTUU News, 30th April 2013
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An AT&T network outage was reportedly fixed within an hour Tuesday afternoon, however GCI and Alaska Communications customers were reporting service disruptions due to the issue. Andy Colley with AT&T Corporate Communications said a "network link went down around 4:52 p.m. Alaska time and was repaired around 5:45 p.m. Alaska time." Customers may have experienced block calls during the outage.

ASX website hit by glitch
The Herald News, 30th April 2013

The website of the Australian Securities Exchange is down this morning due to a "technical glitch".

The asx.com.au site has been displaying only a limited menu with no up-to-date market data as of about 9.30 on Tuesday morning. A spokesman for the ASX said although the site was experiencing technical difficulties, "the dynamic information that goes out to market is going out as normal". [...]

ASX systems have suffered "glitches" in the past, with two high profile outages in 2011, one halting trade for four hours.

Comment: Obviously, this is NOT a major problem but it does not inspire confidence because the number of financial exchanges around the world experiencing "technical glitches" is creating a crisis of confidence with investors.

Glitch unlocks Montgomery County jail doors
Washington Post, 27th April 2013

About 500 locks on cell doors simultaneously opened inside Montgomery County's main jail early Saturday, prompting officials to declare a security emergency that included posting about 20 police cars on the perimeter of the facility near Clarksburg.

No inmates tried to escape and the locks were reset, said Arthur Wallenstein, director of the county's Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. Wallenstein said the cell-door locks also disengaged Tuesday before being reset. "It's definitely a problem," he said. "We must find the source of it."

County maintenance workers and outside contractors were in the jail Saturday working on the system to find a permanent fix for the doors, Wallenstein said. The doors are part of an electronic system guided by computer programs and corrections officers.

Comment: Now, that is what I call a glitch! Well, I think this story in itself should be enough to remove any doubt that electronics that require a stable geomagnetic environment are occasionally unreliable. I hope these same electronic locks are not used at banks etc but I bet they are....

CBOE works to contain fallout from glitch
Market Watch, 27th April 2013

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) – Senior executives of the Chicago Board Options Exchange were on Friday working to contain the fallout from a software glitch that delayed trading on Thursday and left U.S. markets without critical hedging tools.

Analysts estimate the episode could have cost parent CBOE Holdings Inc. (US:CBOE) some $700,000 in lost revenue, and its share of U.S. options trading dipped below its recent average as clients continued to assess the impact of what the company described as a "systems issue." [...]

CBOE, the largest U.S. stock-options exchange in terms of trading, failed to open for trading Thursday because of an "an internal systems issue" that prevented its computers from validating some orders, and sending reports back to traders. Trading opened about 3 1/2 hours late, leaving investors frustrated and traders milling about CBOE's Chicago pits.

Thursday's breakdown left banks, asset managers and other investors unable to deal in heavily traded options on major stock indexes and CBOE's own Volatility Index, or VIX. Those contracts are available solely on the CBOE.

Comment: Hmmm.... the high profile computer system fails just keep coming and the reason is OBVIOUS if you understand the problem we now have with space weather and cosmic rays. This failure seems to have caused another major upset for traders,my opinion is based on the amount of high profile media coverage.

Nationwide BS suffers IT glitch as customers take to social networks to complain they are locked out of online banking
Thisismoney.co.uk, 23rd April 2013

Nationwide Building Society has been hit by 'technical difficulties' meaning millions of customers cannot access online and mobile banking – while some reports suggest cash machines are not working either.

On Nationwide's website this afternoon, a message reads: 'We're sorry to have to tell you that our online bank is unavailable. We are making every effort to restore service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause you.'

A Nationwide spokesman said: 'We are currently experiencing an IT issue that is affecting services including our online bank. [...] The glitch has seen scores of customers complain on social networking website Twitter – including businesses who are unable to take payments. :

Comment: Twitter complaints here. Well, we had some some minor C-Class flares have been observed around Sunspot 1726 today and yesterday but the flurry of high profile computer glitches is quite impressive. See sidebar for the latest x-ray flux data over the last few days.

Chicago Board Options Exchange
Market Watch, 25th April 2013
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) – Trading resumed at the biggest U.S. options exchange by volume after being delayed by several hours Thursday because of system problems.
Jeddah port cargo services suspended following glitch
Arab News, 24th April 2013
Cargo services were disrupted at the Jeddah Islamic Port due to a technical fault in the electronic exchange system, informed sources said. The port authorities did not comment on the issue or on its impact on cargo activity of the port. Hani Al-Trabulsi, a cargo dealer at the port, said the system stopped working a few days back and the outgoing and transit cargo services were suspended with the exception of goods that had already been entered prior to the technical glitch.

Comment: Another random cosmic ray hit with a significant impact
NZX back up after technical glitch - New Zealand
NZ Herald News, 23rd April 2013
The NZX is now back in operation after a technical glitch this morning kept investors in the dark with no market announcements being published on the stock exchange operator's website and Reuters and Bloomberg services not showing trading action.

The stock exchange did not publish any new market announcements on its public website throughout the morning, due to technical issues though trading was open, an NZX spokeswoman said.

It was unclear whether that was behind Reuters and Bloomberg terminals not showing any trading action, and if that extends to IRESS products. In a formal announcement at 11am, the NZX confirmed it was currently experiencing difficulty with its market data feed.
Apple's iCloud services again hit by global outage
Apple Insider, 23rd April 2013
The iCloud suite of services experienced an outage Tuesday morning, marking yet another period of downtime for Apple's cloud-based operations.

The outage appeared to affect a number of iCloud-based services, including Mail, Find My iPhone, and Find My Friends. Users attempting to log in to iCloud.com were also met with a "Connection Error" message that explained that "iCloud encountered an error while trying to connect to the server."

The issues appeared to be worldwide as of Tuesday morning, as readers from around the globe reached out to AppleInsider to detail their own issues. Despite the multitude of issues, Apple's iCloud System Status website claimed that all iCloud services were online and operational. No downtime was noted by the company.
- Patent: Cosmic ray detectors for integrated circuit chips US 7309866 B2
  Patent Services, June 2004 Flashback!
  The normal background radiation environment on the surface of the earth has ionizing components that sometimes affects the reliability of semiconductor integrated circuit chips, such as memory chips used in computers. [...]
  
  Cosmic particles in the form of neutrons or protons can collide randomly with silicon nuclei in the chip and fragment some of them, producing alpha-particles and other secondary particles, including the recoiling nucleus. [...]
  
  Cosmic ray induced computer crashes have occurred and are expected to increase with frequency as devices (for example, transistors) decrease in size in chips. This problem is projected to become a major limiter of computer reliability in the next decade. Various approaches have been suggested to eliminate or reduce the number of soft errors due to cosmic ray interactions in chips.
  
  Comment: I believe the issue of cosmic rays becoming more and more of a problem is not just related to a decrease in chip size but more related to an increase in cosmic rays. As NASA have informed the world, cosmic rays are at an all time high and are expected to increase because the shielding our solar system and planet are both simultaneously weakening, see archives for more info.
- Cosmic threat to tomorrow's computers
  ZDNet.co.uk, 5th February 2008 Flashback!
  "...cosmic rays of the sort pouring down to Earth from exploding galaxies, neutron stars and other energetic events. These are largely shielded by the atmosphere, but more than enough get through to sea level to cause problems. Engagingly, this also means that SER goes up with altitude - you'll get five times as many just 2,600 feet above sea level, and if you're living in Denver (5,280 feet ASL) expect ten times as many.
  
  Cosmic rays are now the biggest source of soft errors - and they're common enough that on average, a gigabyte of RAM will have one soft error every couple of weeks."
- Intel plans to tackle cosmic ray threat
  BBC News, 8th April 2008 Flashback!
  Computer processor manufacturer Intel have revealed details of a patent for protecting future generations of computers from the growing threat of cosmic rays.
  
  The company has designed an on-chip cosmic ray detector to try to cope with the particles, which originate in space before sporadically entering the Earth's atmosphere and going through everything they encounter. Because the operation of computers is through charged particles, the unpredictable hits from the rays are problematic, potentially causing the system to crash.
  
  "What happens is if a cosmic ray causes a collision inside the silicon chip, that releases lots of charged particles," Intel's senior scientist Eric Hannah told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme. "All our logic is based on charge, so it gets interference."

SGX Checks Derivatives Trading Glitch to Protect Cash Cow
Business Week News, 18th April 2013

Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX), operator of Southeast Asia's biggest bourse, said it's reviewing procedures after derivatives trading was delayed by a computer breakdown last week, sending investors to alternate venues.

The three-hour delay, caused by a faulty system-monitoring process, sent investors to Osaka to buy and sell Japanese index contracts on April 9. The disruption in the bourse's fastest- growing business, happened as the company plans to roll out new products amid record derivatives trading.

Comment: The high roillers are starting to lose some serious money due to unreliable computers systems... I need to check if the Intel cosmic ray detector on a chip is too expensive for the average derivatives trading exchange...

American Airlines passengers still backed up after glitch
NBC News, 17th April 2013
Flight cancellations and delays continued to bedevil American Airlines customers on Wednesday -- a day after a major glitch crippled the carrier's reservation system, leading to the grounding of its fleet for several hours. "These computer system can get hung up waiting for data. If it never gets it, the system can get overloaded and leads to a shutdown," said Dr. Bill Curtis, chief scientist at CAST, a software analysis firm.

Comment: This seems to happen quite frequently with airlines and I presume there must be huge banks of vulnerable servers in bad locations....
Metromover reopens after technical glitch
Miami Herald, 18th April 2013
Miami's automated Metromover train failed to open for service during the rush Thursday morning because of a "technical issue." But by midday Thursday transit officials had managed to restore service to all stations. [...]

The service is periodically disrupted by computer glitches, which some experts blame on the complexity of the system.

New Zealand's largest bank hit by technical glitch
Otago Daily Times, 16th April 2013

New Zealand's largest bank has been hit by a technical glitch today, holding up overnight payments and leaving customers unable to access internet banking. ANZ Bank said it was working to fix an outage affecting ANZ Internet Banking, ANZ goMoney for Android and iBank. "Our IT team are looking into this now and hope to have these services back up and running soon," it said in a Facebook announcement.

Many government websites down due to glitch in NIC server [INDIA]
Economic Times, 16th April 2013
NEW DELHI: Websites of various ministries and state-run departments are down since late morning today due to a technical glitch in the server of NIC, the agency which handles IT functions of the government. "There was a UPS (interruptible power supply) failure at 1130 hours (at NIC control room) and the sites will be restored within a few hours of the failure," Department of Information Technology Secretary J Satyanarayana said.

Minor Glitch Stops Unit 5 of Bulgaria's Nuclear Plant
novinite.com, 15th April 2013

All survive after jet lands in sea off Bali Indonesia
BBC News, 13th April 2013

A passenger jet has ended up in the sea off the Indonesian island of Bali after missing an airport runway but everyone aboard survived.

Fifteen people were taken to hospital after the crash, which involved an Indonesian Lion Air plane carrying 101 passengers and seven crew.

Photos posted on Twitter show a jet with a cracked fuselage sitting in water near rocks, with dinghies nearby.

Comment: Was this a satellite navigation fail? It sounds like there was not much room for failure... Well, I don't care whether authorities want to blame the pilots. In a chaotic Geomagnetic/EM environment with military spokesmen and others screaming about the problems with GPS and associated navigation systems (see archives), generating regular reports of billion dollar submarines and tankers crashing, we all have a right to wonder. I don't know if there are solutions to fixing the problem of inaccurate navigational data, but at the moment, space weather is roiling the ionosphere and the result is there will be more major incidents where locational precision is vital. Whatever, I would like to congratulate the pilots that nobody died when the plane hit the water.

TSB Bank glitch sees details sent to wrong customers [NZ]
TV NZ News, 12th April 2013

PSA: Weird Glitch Caused A Bunch Of Disney Games To Temporarily Appear Free On The Play Store, Prices Back To Normal Now
Android Police, 9th April 2013

Earlier this morning, something strange happened. A handful of paid Disney games – including Where's My Water?, Temple Run: Brave, and Wreck-it Ralph, among others – suddenly showed up as free in the Play Store. Naturally, stories started popping up in the Android world that a bunch of fairly popular games were suddenly available without charge for no apparent reason. Perhaps Disney decided that it was time to give some titles away – but that didn't make much sense, as the "lite" versions of most titles were still present alongside their formerly-paid counterparts. Turns out it was just a glitch, and the games are once again donning their original $0.99 price tags. Disney isn't entirely sure what happened.

Comment: Computers are getting randomly hit by cosmic rays and some are getting lucky... More: a selection of the latest computer system glitches.

Aflac's computer glitch affects ¥1.8 billion in insurance deals
Japan Times, 6th April 2013
Glitch hits Apple's iMessage, Facetime
PC World, 9th April 2013
Apple's iMessage and Facetime messaging systems were hit with a glitch Tuesday that took the services offline for several hours. The problems for both services began shortly after noon Pacific TimeTuesday and continued until after 5 p.m. PT, according to Apple. iMessage is an instant messaging service and Facetime is a video calling service.
Singapore Exchange Says Derivatives Trading Resumes After Glitch
Bloomberg News, 9th April 2013
Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX), the operator of Southeast Asia's biggest stock market, said it resolved a technical glitch that delayed the trading of derivatives until 10:45 a.m. local time.
Software glitch stings punters - $30 million
Harness Link, 10th April 2013

Dutch internet banking problems due to a cyber attack
Dutch News, 6th April 2013

Friday's internet banking problems at a string of Dutch banks were caused by a cyber attack, the Dutch banking association NVB said.

Both the internet banking system iDEAL and ING bank were out of action for several hours because of the attack on Friday afternoon. It was not a hack and internet banking security was not compromised, Nos television quoted NVB as saying.

Comment: I was sent another 4 links concerning Dutch internet banking problems but I have concluded that any DDos attacks are a smokescreen as hackers and computer geeks would have advertised this through the popular media sites like Twitter and Facebook when the problems first started and not after the event. Here are the Dutch links, ttp://www.nu.nl/internet/3390585/storingen-bij-banken-cyberaanval.html, http://www.nu.nl/internet/390806/ing-doet-aangifte-van-cyberaanval.html, http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/21455696/__Cyberaanval_op_ING_gestopt__.html, http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/21455621/__OM_begint_onderzoek___.html.

Another Fail For Dutch Banks: Big trouble with iDeal
telegraaf.nl, 5th April 2013

iDeal suffers a major failure which makes it a good number of banks is not possible to internet banking. That said a spokeswoman Currence, the company behind iDeal. The cause of the failure is not known.

Google Translation+: According to Currence, customers of ING and SNS Bank cannot pay via PayPal. This has affected five or six other banks on the receiving side so in effect, nobody can pay via PayPal. It is not known when the problems will be solved. Two days after ING payments had been shut down due to a major fault, the app and the site for online banking the bank are once again inaccessible. On social media, hundreds of people are complaining about the new jam. They can not currently transfer money over the internet. Via Twitter, ING has admitted fault.

Comment: I have been sent another set of two Dutch links, this is the original Dutch version of this article, link 1. I don't know anything about Dutch banking but this will be of great interest to Dutch blog followers after I have been making claims for years about computer systems becoming more vulnerable in the worsening cosmic environment. Thanks to E. Pierau for the links. See below for an update:

Several banks affected by disturbances
Nu.nl, 5th April 2013
Google Translation+: On Friday, several Dutch banks suffered a major failure. There are still problems with ING, but by 15.00 the other banks which were affected by Ideal-interference, was solved by nce 15.00 solved.

Clients of ING may still have problems logging in, as a spokesman said some clients might have difficulty with internet banking. [...]

The problems at ING may occur both on the website and in the applications. What causes the disturbance, it is not yet known. A spokesman for the bank suggests however that the problems have nothing to do with the failure on Wednesday .

Comment: Here is the original Dutch version Link 2.

Dutch bank ING's online customers find wrong balance in accounts
Reuters, 3rd April 2013

(Reuters) - Dutch bank ING was inundated with complaints from retail and business customers in the Netherlands on Wednesday because their online accounts showed incorrect balances.

ING said that it had a problem with processing payments on Tuesday night and that balances online appeared incorrect even though the actual balances in the accounts were not affected. It said the problem was not caused by computer hacking.

Angry customers complained by phone, on social media and in person at bank branches. ING said that it did not know how many customers had been affected.

Separately, rival Dutch lender Rabobank said that it also had problems with its online banking on Wednesday. Rabobank's problems, which were unrelated to those at ING, prevented customers from requesting loans online.

Comment: Thanks to E. Pierau, I was sent two Dutch links (link 1 & link 2) about two different Dutch banks suffering from major computer glitches. This Reuters articles mentions both but, apparently, the ING glitch was much more serious. The Dutch article (Google translation) Big trouble at ING internet banking states this is the fifth failure in ten days at ING. Since there have been so many similar failures in recent times, I can't be specific but I am suspicious that it might be space weather related. It is hard to be sure when banks usually refuse to be truthful about the cause of computer system failures, see archives for previous comments on this matter. More below:

ING internet banking in chaos after 'mysterious' withdrawals
Dutch News, 3rd April 2013
Financial services group ING is grappling with a major internet banking breakdown which has led to thousands of people being unable to use their direct debit cards.

In some cases, people have 'lost' thousands of euros from their accounts because of the fault while others have thousands of euros too much, Nos television reported.

Even account holders who are not allowed to overdraw have discovered their counts are deep in the red because of double bookings. Some people say long queues built up in supermarkets as people found they were unable to pay.

Comment: The chaos is only just beginning...

Glitch hits on-line banking yet again [Ireland]
Herald News, 3rd April 2013
CUSTOMERS of two major Irish banks were unable to access their accounts online yesterday. People seeking to log on to their accounts at AIB and Permanent TSB were faced with notices from the banks warning them of technical problems. Customers were unable to make money transfers or to pay bills. [...] The glitch that hit Permanent TSB knocked out online banking and the banks' telephone services. "It lasted for an hour but the problems were resolved and all services are back as normal," said a spokesman.

'Glitch' and long waits frustrate Service Ontario customers
mississauga.com, 3rd April 2013

ONTARIO – Thousands of Ontarians were left frustrated by computer problems at Service Ontario offices across the province yesterday, with many standing in line for hours only to walk away. Blaming a "complex" problem with the Service Ontario information technology system, transactions for driver's licences, vehicle registrations and health cards have "either slowed down or are not getting through," said Jenna Mannone, spokeswoman for Harinder Takhar, the minister of government services.

Comment: Canada can expect to get lots and lots of computer failures due its northern latitude and thus likelihood of computer hardware and software being corrupted by cosmic rays...

Computer glitch paralyzes Montreal metro system for an hour [Canada]
CTV News, 2nd April 2013
MONTREAL–For the second time in three weeks, Montreal's entire metro system came to a halt on Tuesday afternoon due to a computer glitch. Service was interrupted on all four lines of the metro just after 6 p.m. The outage lasted about an hour.

Comment: These transport system failures for trains and metros are also quite common these days...

RBS fixes mobile app after glitch locks out customers
Royal Bank of Scotland, the state-owned lender, has fixed its latest technical glitch which left NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank customers locked out of the bank's mobile app for hours on Friday.
Telegraph, 28th March 2013

"All our mobile banking applications are now running normally. We apologise again for the inconvenience caused to our customers," the bank said. The glitch prevented people from logging on using the mobile app, customers were still able to use all the bank's services online, at ATMs and branches.

Comment: The banking technical fails just keep coming, but RBS really does seem to have some issues...

Apple iPhone users urged to upgrade software after glitch leads to bill shock
news.com.au, 28th March 2013

AUSTRALIAN phone carriers have warned iPhone users to update their smartphone software after paying out en masse for excessive data downloads reportedly caused by Apple software faults.

All three major phone carriers yesterday confirmed a wave of complaints and bill shock following the launch of the iPhone 5 in Australia, with another more recent fault draining data for some iPhone email users.

The original fault, which affected only some iOS 6 iPhone users, delivered unexpectedly heavy mobile data use as the phones incorrectly appeared to be using a wi-fi connection when they were not.

Comment: This is a much more detailed report Apple customers slugged by software bug. Apple iPhones are automatically switching from wi-fi to 3G and 4G networks and the phone companies are making a killing...

Food stamp glitch angers shoppers, grocers
Standard Speaker, 26th March 2013

Last Sunday was a bad day for grocery shopping. In some stores, angry customers barked at cashiers and abandoned shopping carts full of food while stock workers scrambled to return ice cream and frozen dinners to the freezers before they thawed, all on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

"It was a total mess," said Tom Baseski, owner of Thomas' Market in Kingston. The food stamps program, which eligible members now use with a state-issued debit card, was supposed to be offline across Pennsylvania from 11 p.m. Saturday until noon on Sunday while the Department of Welfare

Comment: Another Electronic Benefit Transfer card (EBT) computer systems upgrade fail...

Officials investigate cause behind massive earth-split in Brazil
Extinction Protocol, 26th March 2013

BRAZIL – The cause of massive land collapse in Brazil is being investigated. The prosecutor Douglas Roberto Ribeiro de Magalhaes Chegury is investigating the cause of environmental disasters in the cities of Santo Domingo and Campos Belos, Goias in the Northeast. Since yesterday (14/3), surveys are being carried out by the technical-skills expert prosecutors in places, where geological disasters, were generated by the collapse of land. [...] According to Chegury, in early February, shortly after becoming aware of the environmental disaster in the Serra Geral, which divides the states of Goiás, Tocantins and Bahia; the civil investigation was initiated due to public outcry.

Comment: Nothing in the mainstream media...

Software glitch WIPES OUT listings of 10,000 eBay sellers
The Register, 22nd March 2013

eBay has confessed to The Register that a software bug destroyed the listings of 10,000 merchants in Britain, the US, Germany and Australia.

The online tat bazaar said it was restoring the listings, but it was unable to tell us if traders would be able to recover their sales histories - an important component for eBay sellers, who build trust with customers by showing how they had previously sold items on the site.

Comment: Due to the severity of space weather and the degradation of Earth's magnetosphere (external magnetic field and cosmic shielding), I predict that the computer glitches are going to just keep on coming. It will be interesting to watch how IT professionals cope and eventually the reaction of the masses when they finally wake up and realise just how precarious things have become for our societies heavily reliant on technology. Regardless, surely there must be some backups somewhere even if they are little out of date?

Debenhams price glitch accidentally gives 99% off
AOL Money News, 22nd March 2013

Bargain hunters, trawling the web in the small hours this morning, stumbled across a price glitch on the Debenhams website, which left them offering 99% off all Land's End clothing. This meant a coat worth £90 was priced at just 72p.

The site was overwhelmed with orders and crashed at 4.30am. It has since been closed for 'essential maintenance'. So will the orders be honoured? [...]

Nowadays most companies have small print on their websites to make it clear that a contact of sale is not complete just because you have made an order and a payment has gone through. Instead they tend to specify that an order is deemed to have been made when the goods are dispatched.

Comment: You really have to wonder about how major companies are allowing these "human errors" to be generated and then go undetected...

JPMorgan Chase glitch displays customers as zero
Were bank's systems hacked, customers ask
Computer World UK News, 19th March 2013

Customers of JPMorgan Chase reported seeing zero balances in their accounts both online and on mobile, and speculated that the bank's systems had been hacked into.

The bank however clarified late Monday that it was having a technology problem regarding customers' balance information that it was working to resolve.

"Almost had a heart attack... Haven't checked my balance in a little bit but it read zero. Gotta be an early April Fool joke or something," wrote one user on Twitter. Some others suggested that the bank's systems may have been hacked.

"It has nothing to do with the cyber threats - it's an internal issue. We are very sorry to our customers for the inconvenience," the bank said in a statement.

Comment: Hmmm... Another bank having a computer system meltdown... It just keeps on happening...

Verizon Wireless Software Glitch Has Customers Paying Twice The Price
TriState News, 18th March 2013
Some Verizon Wireless customers might notice a big difference in this month's phone bill paying nearly twice the price. The company says a software glitch is to blame in some Midwest states, but they ensure customer's will get every dime back after this mistake. A store manager explains what Verizon plans to do about it.

Comment: After big solar flares and CMEs, there are always more reports of glitches but there is always a constant stream of reports that are due to the background flux of cosmic rays.

Second computer glitch shuts down NASA Mars rover
Reuters News, 18th March 2013
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 18 - The Mars rover Curiosity has had a second computer glitch, extending an unplanned work break for the NASA robot that discovered the first life-friendly chemistry beyond Earth, scientists said on Monday. Engineers had hoped to resume Curiosity science operations on Monday following a problem with the rover's main computer two weeks ago.

Comment: I think both recent Mars rover shut downs have been associated with large CME blasts which should be expected as Mars has virtually no intrinsic magnetic field and a thin atmosphere so there is little or no protection from the effects of severe space weather.

SingTel blames SMS outage on software glitch
ZD Net, 18th March 2013

Summary: Telco restores SMS services nearly half a day after disruption on Sunday evening, which it blames on an "isolated software glitch".

SingTel has fully restored its various SMS services following an outage which lasted nearly half a day. On Sunday evening, some of the Singapore telco's customers could not send nor receive SMS. Many of the took to the company's Facebook page to air their complaints.

"Some customers may have experienced intermittent difficulties in sending and receiving SMS from approximately 10.30pm Sunday. Our engineers worked through the night to restore sending and receiving capabilities for postpaid and prepaid customers by 6.10am Monday," a SingTel spokesperson told ZDNet.

The incident follows a more serious outage affecting M1 customers in January, where customer could not access services for voice and data. M1 blamed the disruption on a power fault triggered by one of its vendors during an upgrade of equipment. Services were fully restored only after 64 hours.

Comment: The last outage was 64 hours... that's impressive! See previous comments that explain how space weather is a major cause of disruption for mobile phone services.

SmarTone glitch hits clients again

Comment:

Woman facing charges after computer glitch over pays her $10K
WTAQ News, 17th March 2013

CONOMOWOC, WI (WTAQ) - An apparent computer glitch resulted in a worker at Stein Garden Center in the City of Oconomowoc getting 10 times the pay she was owed.

Forty-seven year old Lynda G. Johnson was paid at a rate of $88.25 an hour, instead of the $8.25 she was supposed to get. She was overpaid by $10,000. The company discovered the error about a month after Johnson quit last May.

Comment: Back in June 2012, compulsive gambler Ronald Page took out $1.5 million in 17 days at an ATM and frittered it all away before the bank noticed. Consequently, a judge only gave him 15 months because of the gambling addiction and the fact the judge thought it was the bank's fault for allowing it to happen. As computers become less reliable due to interference from cosmic rays corrupting data files, it will be interesting to see how these cases are resolved.

Key Fobs Mysteriously Being Disabled In Suburban Parking Lot
CBS Local Chicago News, 12th March 2013

Something strange is happening in a Tinley Park strip mall lot. CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports the mystery has left investigators puzzled, and dozens of people without a working car. [...]

A strange force is leaving some shoppers stranded; their car key fobs powerless to unlock and even start their vehicles. "It actually happened to my mom over the weekend and it didn't work for her either," said Ken Hopman. Asked if he thought was weird, Hopman said, "Yeah."

Joe Karchesky thinks so, too. Last weekend, his wife's key fob went kaput outside the Kohl's. She was locked out. "I went out there with the other key fob thinking that they key fob was dead, the battery was dead, and so we got the other one and I brought it out there and there was nothing," said Karchesky. Until it was towed away. Just outside the parking lot – problem solved.

Comment: Long termers will know that I have picked up these kind of stories about failing electronics in the past and they seem to be related to local energy 'hot spots', but now we are watching to see if these electronic glitches become widespread.

BUPA glitch sees credit cards charged multiple times
Health fund's SNAFU not so good for members' financial health
The Register, 7th March 2013

Health insurer Bupa has charged some of its members three or more times their fortnightly premium, after a software glitch saw multiple payments debited to credit card accounts.

Reg readers have confirmed that BUPA's Australian operations charged their credit cards three or more times in February, in some cases resulting in them exceeding their credit card limits.

Bupa issued a canned statement to The Reg in which it says "We experienced a minor system-based error in early February that resulted in a very small proportion of members having an additional deduction – and in very rare instances several deductions – charged to either their American Express or Diners Club credit card." "We contacted members impacted and refunded any money that was over-charged as quickly as possible."

Comment: Since we have another glitch where a major company refuses to explain the nature of the error, my usual stance is to assume that a cosmic ray caused a bit-flip. I think software was corrupted because there was not a full blown meltdown that would occur for a hardware failure. See archives, for many similar stories.

RBS and Natwest apologise after SECOND computer meltdown means customers are unable to withdraw cash
Customers took to micro-blogging site Twitter to voice their anger over technical problems
The Independent, 7th March 2013

The RBS banking group has been forced to apologise for the second time in just nine months after technical problems left customers unable to access accounts or withdraw money.

Customers began reporting problems with online banking, phone banking, cash withdrawals and debit card payments at around 2200 GMT on Wednesday evening.

Customers took to micro-blogging site Twitter to voice their anger over technical problems. RBS said all services had been returned to normal by 0100 GMT today but some customers still could not access their accounts.

Comment: As I have explained on this blog ad infinitum, computer glitches are getting more frequent.... Instead of complaints, people need to understand the issues associated with space weather and then develop new strategies for how to cope with the quickly changing geomagnetic conditions on this planet. What are people waiting for? Complete catastrophe? See archives June 2012 concerning the major trauma caused by this bank group's complete meltdown of banking services, Best of the Blog - Space Weather, Electronics & Electromagnetic Chaos .

RBS To Compensate Customers Hit By IT Glitch
Sky News, 7th March 2013
RBS has blamed a "hardware fault" for a glitch that meant customers were unable to use their accounts online or withdraw cash for several hours. The technical problems, which started on Wednesday evening, came less than a year after RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank customers were hit by a major computer issue.

Comment: A cosmic ray causing a bit-flip?

RBS FX Platform Suffers Technical Glitch
Fox News Business, 7th March 2013
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's (RBS) foreign exchange trading platform suffered a technical glitch during Asian trading hours Thursday, a spokeswoman for the bank said. An institutional client of the bank said the issue affected some of its price feeds for up to eight hours.

NASA loses communication with Space Station
CNN News, 19th February 2013

CNN) -- NASA lost communication with the International Space Station on Tuesday and has established only sporadic connections since, according to NASA spokesman Josh Byerly. The space agency says it is currently only able to communicate every 90 minutes when the facility passes over ground stations in Russia. The station, which is carrying one American astronaut and two

Comment: Hmmm... There are reports the outage was for 3 hours, see also Space Station Astronauts Lose NASA Radio Link for 2 Hours

Facebook glitch temporarily breaks the web
Techspot, 8th February 2013

Yesterday, an untold number of Internet surfers experienced a glitch which abruptly redirected them from the sanctuary of their favorite websites to a Facebook error page. Websites essentially taken down by this snafu included Hulu, Lifehacker, Washington Post, ESPN, CNN, NBC, Kickstarter and plenty of others -- basically any site who dares to integrate Facebook Connect. [...]

According to Cnet, Facebook Connect was broken between roughly 4:15 pm and 4:40 pm PST. Cnet also notes that around the time this problem began, Alex Wilhelm from The Next Web tweeted, "Reading article. Dragged from two diff sites to Facebook, which displays what appears to be a permissions error. Wa?"

A Facebook spokesperson issued a statement which acknowledged the issue, stating that the social networking company quickly resolved the issue and Facebook Connect is once again nominal.

Presumably, Facebook will do absolutely everything within its power to prevent another issue of this magnitude; however, the bug does present an opportunity for website owners to step back, big-picture style, and re-evaluate the growing trend of social network integration.

Comment: I suppose we are reminded about the madness of the crowds and what happens when people and resources are all too localised...

Bank of India shares tumble due to technical glitch at NSE
IBN Live, 5th February 2013

Mumbai: Shares in Bank of India make a sharp fall before quickly recovering in what some traders describe as a "freak" trade. Trading at Rs 336.65, down 1.2 per cent, Bank of India shares suddenly fell to Rs 314, down 7.8 per cent on the day, at around 12:20 pm IST. The shares, however, recover to Rs 337.35.

On February 1, shares of Tata Motors and Ultratech Cement fell as much as 10 per cent due to a technology glitch at Religare Capital that caused "unintended transactions", the brokerage said.

Comment: Another stock market glitch...

Georgia man guns down immigrant after GPS sends him to wrong driveway
Raw Story, 29th January 2013

A 69-year-old war veteran and former missionary was arrested over the weekend on the suspicion of killing a 22-year-old Cuban immigrant who mistakenly arrived in his driveway because of faulty GPS directions.

Gwinnett County jail records obtained by The Atlanta Journal Constitution indicated that Phillip Walker Sailors was charged on Sunday with the murder of Rodrigo Abad Diaz.

Friends who were in the car with Diaz told WSB-TV that they were trying to pick up a friend on the way to ice skating on Saturday but their GPS directed them to the wrong address. The friends said that they waited in the driveway for a few minutes before Sailors emerged from the house and fired a gun into the air.

Comment: What can you say when mentanlly ill people in a gun culture have the ability to shoot first before bothering to ask questions...

M1's switch glitch frustrates customers [Singapore]
Today Online, 16th January 2013

SINGAPORE - An outage to one of M1's mobile network switches led to a loss of 3G mobile services for nearly all of yesterday, leading thousands to express their anger on M1's Facebook page while the telco scrambled to restore services. M1 - which was still working to resolve the issue at press time - first posted a statement about mobile services being affected on its Facebook page at about 6am yesterday.

A power incident at its network centre during a transmission equipment upgrade at 3am had set off the gas suppression and water sprinkler systems, "which, in turn, caused an outage to one of our mobile network switches", M1 said. This led to a loss of 3G coverage for some customers in the south-western parts of Singapore, namely West Coast, Jurong and Tuas.

Although M1 said 2G services were not affected, some customers told TODAY that they did not have 2G coverage either and others were unable to make or receive voice calls and text messages. Some customers in northern parts of Singapore like Ang Mo Kio and Woodlands reported loss of services as well. M1 was unable to estimate the number of users affected as coverage had not been fully restored. By press time, thousands of M1 customers had expressed their dissatisfaction on its Facebook page, with one post generating over 2,100 comments.

Comment: As I keep saying, people need to get use to this. Poor mobile phone services will be the new norm for a variety of space weather related reasons, see previous comments.

Phone Location Glitch Makes Las Vegas Man Really, Really Popular
New York Magazine, 15th January 2013
Wayne Dobson, a 59-year-old retiree from Las Vegas, has had a lot of new visitors recently, owing to a glitch in cell-phone-locating technology – like Apple's "Find My iPhone" feature – that has wrongly directed people looking for their lost phones to his front door. The glitch, which seems to be limited to Sprint customers, has made a living hell of Dobson's quiet existence. Now angry phone users accost him at all hours of the night, demanding that he return their stolen property.
Computer glitch causes huge flight delays at Pearson
The Star, 10th January 2013
A computer glitch caused significant flight delays at Toronto's Pearson International Airport Thursday evening. Nav Canada, the country's air navigation services provider, was fixing a flight planning system failure, which created a huge backlog of delays for incoming and departing flights, said spokesperson Ron Singer.
Birth certificate computer glitch puts wrong name for father on document Computer glitch at Pa. Department of Health puts wrong name on birth documents.
The Morning Call, 15th January 2013
– Who's your daddy?

For about 500 new Pennsylvania families, that's more than a mere schoolyard taunt. It's a real-life headache, courtesy of a computer glitch that caused birth certificates to be printed with a key piece of information utterly incorrect – the name of the new dad.

The erroneous birth records were sent out this month by the Division of Vital Records at the state Department of Health, which was switching to a new computer system, agency spokeswoman Holli Senior said Tuesday.

Comment: The issue is not computer glitches, it's the dramatic escalation of these glitches and computer systems becoming more and more unreliable due to increased levels of cosmic rays (Earth's poor cosmic shielding problem) corrupting hardware and software.

Vodafone glitch hits overseas BlackBerry users
The Globe and Mail, 11th January 2013

Computer glitch prompted $1 billion emergency loan to Memphis bank in 2010
Commercial Appeal, 3rd January 2013
A government computer glitch led the Federal Reserve to make a $1.02 billion emergency loan to Memphis-based First Tennessee Bank two years ago. The loan was repaid within two days and was all but forgotten until the Federal Reserve on Dec. 28 revealed First Tennessee owner First Horizon National Corp. was the single largest borrower in late 2010 from its emergency fund.

Comment: This could be true or it could just be another funny financial transaction....

LSE's Regulatory News Service Resumes Operation Following Glitch
Bloomberg News, 3rd January 2013

London Stock Exchange Group Plc's Regulatory News Service resumed operation after a technical issue that disrupted dissemination of company information to investors and traders.

Mark Wisken, an RNS executive at LSE, described it "connectivity issue." RNS didn't publish any release between 5 a.m. and 8:36 a.m. in London yesterday, the first trading day of 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The service carries almost 175,000 statements each year via data vendors such as Thomson Reuters Corp. and Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News. LSE says it features more than 70 percent of price-sensitive U.K. announcements. Companies and public-relations agencies pay to publish releases.

The disruption yesterday came as LSE was considering charging banks and brokers for the service. Data providers already pay to redistribute it.

Comment: Hmmm... these major financial computer systems are getting more and more unreliable as some have started to notice....

Glitch hits Telecom cellphones (NZ)
stuff.co.nz, 2nd January 2013

Thousands of Telecom mobile phone customers in the South Island are having problems with cellphone reception. Telecom says it is aware of the problem but a spokesman said he was unsure when the fault would be fixed.

The widespread problem manifests itself in strange ways, with callers sounding as if they are under water or as if an alien life form is attempting to make contact. Spokesman Richard Irvine said the fault had been traced to a failing element in the network serving a large portion of the South Island.

He was unsure what specific component was faulty, but said it was a piece of infrastructure such as a server. The problem had developed over the past week and was probably exacerbated by increased network traffic as people called and texted family and friends over the New Year holiday. "We want to apologise to people for the problems that they're having," Irvine said.

Comment: This would just be another report of another mobile phone network failing under the new cosmic conditions but this report provides us with the novelty of "callers sounding as if they are under water or as if an alien life form is attempting to make contact." That sounds like fun....

Disaster for Lloyds TSB customers on New Year's Eve as technical glitch renders cashpoints and debit cards out of action
Daily Mail, 31st December 2012

* Credit in customers' accounts also appeared to have been wiped out
* Lloyds claimed the problems were resolved in an hour
* Latest glitch caps a calamitous year for Lloyds which was forced to set aside £1.4bn in compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance

The New Year's celebrations got off to a terrible start for many Lloyds customers who were unable to get their money out of cash machines or pay by card.

Gremlins in the state-backed lender's computer systems left many stranded without money as they prepared for the biggest night out of the year.

Revellers also received a nasty shock when the credit in their current accounts appeared to have been wiped out. The problems, which kicked off from 4pm, affected those with Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland and Halifax bank accounts. Halifax and Bank of Scotland are both part of the Lloyds banking group, which has 22million current account customers and received a £20billion bail out during the financial crisis.

Comment: I keep reading about people who angrily state they will take their custom elsewhere but ALL the banks and building societies have the same issues with highly vulnerable computer systems due to spaceweather and specifically cosmic rays.... The biggest banks have the additional problem of old legacy systems that require extra effort and expertise to maintain. For more info, see the blog archives Best of the Blog Space Weather, Electronics & Electromagnetic Chaos.

NYSE Trading Glitch Caps Year of Snafus for Exchanges
Wall Street Journal, 31st December 2012

Rival exchanges briefly stopped sending orders to the New York Stock Exchange as the Big Board experienced trading problems with more than two dozen stocks Monday.

The glitch, which was quickly resolved, came in the last hour of trading in a year that has been marked by technological glitches large and small.

Comment: The NYSE in trouble again....

TOP STORIES 2012: The Year of the Glitch
Traders Magazine, 26th December 2012
There's a good chance the date Aug. 1, 2012, will be burned into the collective memories of stock trading executives just as much as May 6, 2010. That was the day Knight Capital Group unintentionally built up a gross position of $7 billion in just 40 minutes as it lost control of one of its algorithms at the New York Stock Exchange. The market maker lost $440 million getting out of those trades, pushing it to the brink of collapse. [...]

Knight's gone-wild algorithm was the fourth prominent software glitch of the year and the straw that broke the Securities and Exchange Commission's back. [...] The Knight fiasco followed the Nasdaq-Facebook fiasco in May, which itself followed the BATS Global Markets fiasco in March, which itself followed the Ronin Capital fiasco in February. (See Traders Magazine, September, for details.)

Why so many glitches all of a sudden? Were there, in fact, more than usual? Or has the media simply been more vigilant in covering computer-generated trading errors since the flash crash?

Comment: The question of 'Why so many glitches all of a sudden?' is what I have been trying to explain on this blog because it is not just trading platforms and banking systems, our modern technology infrastructure is now vulnerable to spaceweather and specifically cosmic rays and new solutions are required. For more info, see the blog archives Best of the Blog Space Weather, Electronics & Electromagnetic Chaos.

Thousands without power in Austin area
KVUE News, 28th December 2012

"AUSTIN -- Crews are working to restore power to thousands of Austin residents. Austin Energy says up to a record 50 pole fires sparked overnight due to dirt and moisture on equipment, causing power outages for about 5,000 customers. As of 9:30 a.m. about 3,000 people were without power.

"The rash of fires is the result of a lack of rain over a long period of time," Ed Clark with Austin Energy said in a statement. "Dirt and dust builds up on the small devices (called insulators) that connect power lines to power poles. Misty conditions such as those experienced overnight can cause the dirt and dust to track across the insulator providing a pathway for electricity to move from the power line to the pole."

Comment: Poles lighting up like candles again... Yes, I did say before that this was St Elmo's fire, see previous comments....

TMX resolves glitch that caused data freeze, affected some stock prices
Global News, 12th December 2012
TORONTO - The owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange says it has fixed a technical that had temporarily affected how traders saw some real-time numbers. The TMX Group Ltd. (TSX:X), which operates the TSX, says systems are back to operating normally after the setback. Wednesday's glitch had caused both the headline S&P/TSX composite index numbers, as well as some specific stock prices to be displayed incorrectly through some sources, including on the TSX website.

Australian police warn Apple maps 'could kill': Users looking for city directed to barren outback more than 40 miles away
Daily Mail, 10th December 2012

* Users searching for the city of Mildura found themselves directed to the middle of the Murray-Sunset National Park
* They ended up in an area with no nearby water supplies and no mobile network where temperatures can reach 46C
* Some motorists were stranded for up to 24 hours and were forced to walk long distances before they were able to call for help

Police in Australia today warned drivers with iPhones not to navigate with Apple Maps after users looking for one city found themselves in barren outback more than 40 miles away.

Motorists following the much-criticised mapping service to the city of Mildura in the country's south-east ended up in the middle of the nearby Murray-Sunset National Park.

With no nearby water supplies and temperatures in the park reaching as high as 46C, police warned the mapping error had the potential to be 'life-threatening'.

Comment: In the future, people are going to die in droves because they refuse to engage brain and think.... Please see my previous comments on GPS and satellite navigation, poor quality Apple Maps is not really the issue...

Apple Maps Glitch in Australia Shows Why We Have To Stop Blindly Following GPS Navigators

Texas: Power Pole Fires Leave Thousands Without Power Thursday
KWTX-TV News 10, 6th December 2012

WACO (December 6, 2012)-Power poles in as many as five Central Texas counties were burning Thursday morning and authorities were trying to find out why. A Department of Public Safety communications officer said power poles in Hill, Falls, Bell, Williamson and McLennan counties mysteriously began bursting into flames at about 4 a.m. Thursday.

He said the fires that had been reported were burning at the tops of the poles, some involving transformers. Various power company representatives had been dispatched to survey the damage and several fire departments were sent to douse the flames. One power company technician told a News 10 reporter near McGregor that the fires likely were caused by a build up of dust on transformers that shorted out due to low-lying fog. [...]

As many as 30 power poles were burning in one area of Hill County, just off Interstate 35 at mile marker 361. As many as 20 poles were reported burning in Bynum east of Hillsboro and and others in the Aquilla area where some customers were without power.

There were poles on fire along Highway 6 near Falls County roads 112 and 113 that had forced closure of Highway 6 and had stopped trains along an adjacent railroad line for about an hour but traffic was moving normally by about 5:45 a.m. Some limited power outages were reported in the area around Perry, just north of Marlin.

Comment: Read the story, because there were many more than 50 transformers/poles on fire! This reminds me of the concern about dust in the atmosphere causing explosions... Also see archives for astronomers' estimates of the amount of cosmic dust entering our atmosphere.... Is there a link with the mystery tremors also causing consternation in Texas? It is really is getting hard to keep up with the EM chaos in the environment.

Dust Causes Explosions, And Apparently Nanodust Causes Mega-Explosions
Popular Science, 15th February 2012

Texas: BTU Responds to 5 Power Pole Fires Monday Night
KBTX News, 3rd May 2012
More than 70 BTU customers lost service for a few hours after power poles began to spark and catch fire. Dust and a little bit of rain caused the problems.

BTU linemen were staying busy Monday night responding to power pole fires across their service area, including here at South College Avenue and Dodge Street in Bryan. [...] "Very unusual for us to have five pole top fires in one night ," said Dan Wilkerson, Bryan Texas Utilities General Manager.[...]

"The form of either dust and on the coast salt builds up on insulators and when there's just enough light rain the two mix together and make a mud that is conductive and it will conduct electricity down to the pole or the cross arm and catch them on fire," Wilkerson said. [...]

With more than 100,000 poles in the BTU system, Wilkerson said a good rain is needed to fix the problem and says light rain, mist and fog causes the most problems. "I've never seen sparks shoot from a power line. I've never seen it personally so it was a little shocking, a little surprising," Foster said. [...] Four refineries along the coast also experienced power pole fires last week.

Comment: So multiple poles lighting up has happened before, the issue now is the scale of this electromagnetic phenomenon and presumably something in the environment is causing ignition. This could be quickly fluctuating geomagnetic fields, or a combination of geological or atmospheric effects... I now wonder if this also explains St Elmo's fire when it is seen on tall spires....

SaskTel 'glitch' slaps customers with $100,000 cellphone bills
Globe & Mail, 5th December 2012
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. is blaming a technology glitch for a billing error that slapped some wireless customers with incorrect charges as high as $100,000. The provincially owned telco, more commonly known as SaskTel, said roughly 9,000 of its more than 600,000 wireless customers were affected by the billing mistake, which occurred late last month.

Cargo ship feared lost after collision off Dutch coast
BBC News, 5th December 2012
Dutch coastguards are mounting a major rescue operation in the North Sea after a cargo ship is reported to have sunk after a collision. The accident took place around 100km (60 miles) off the coast of Rotterdam.

A coastguard spokesman said helicopters were winching the 24 crew members of the Baltic Ace to safety. Three lifeboats and two helicopters are assisting the rescue, and two naval frigates are also reported to be heading for the scene.

Comment: Another GPS fail? Apparently, earlier today two planes came within 15 seconds of a mid air collision by Amsterdam airport.... I have no link for this... More: Search continues for seven missing crew members after cargo ship collides with another vessel in North Sea

Nasdaq Glitch Caused Index Derivatives Halt in Sweden
Wall Street Journal, 30th November 2012

A computer error caused Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.'s (NDAQ) system to wildly overstate the size of an order for Swedish stock-index futures, prompting the exchange operator to close index futures and options trading on its Stockholm market Wednesday, a spokesman for the exchange said Friday.

The glitch was resolved in a couple of hours, the spokesman said, and involved a relatively obscure product, but it was the latest in a series of technical problems that have rattled investors. Critics say such incidents highlight vulnerabilities of the increasingly fast–and complex–global markets.

On Wednesday, a trader entered an order to buy or sell six OMX30 futures contracts expiring in December. Because of a "bug" in Nasdaq's system that disseminates information to customers' trading applications, the order showed up as 4.2 billion contracts instead, the spokesman said.

Comment: A bug? Really? What about a bit-flip instead? Well, as a critic, I will say that space weather in the form of cosmic rays corrupting computer hardware and software is highlighting the vulnerabilities of the increasingly fast–and complex–global markets....

Japan's new nuclear-proof robot gets stage fright
Yahoo News, 21st November 2012

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - A Japanese robot designed to withstand high levels of radiation and extreme heat at damaged nuclear plants such as Fukushima froze on Wednesday on its first public demonstration.

Despite being home to the largest number of industrial robots in the world, Japan did not have a device capable of entering the damaged Fukushima nuclear facility after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.Instead, Japan brought in U.S. robots to survey the extent of the damage inside the reactor buildings.

Toshiba Corp unveiled Japan's own nuclear-proof robot on Wednesday, a four-legged device able to carry up to 20 kg of equipment and capable of lifting itself up if it falls over on uneven surfaces and amid debris. During the demonstration, the robot experienced a case of stage fright. The shuffling Tetrapod locked up and suddenly froze after it tried to balance itself, forcing technicians to carry it away.

Comment: Hilarious... More comment at Energy News.

Software 'glitches' are not acceptable. Learn from aviation
Tech World News, 20th November 2012

The term "glitch" is often used to describe an error in software, but the word itself undermines the severity of such errors, according to open source software company Adacore.

Only this year, a so-called software glitch was responsible for a substantial IT failure at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which meant that millions of customers could not gain access to funds in their bank accounts. Events from the Wall Street Crash to Toyota's brake failings in 2009 have also been attributed to software glitches – trivialising the problem and implying that it can be reasoned away.

According to Robert Dewar, president and CEO of AdaCore, however, there is no excuse for these outages. In the world of aviation, where failure is not an option, software glitches simply do not happen. Speaking to Techworld, Dewar said that the banking sector can learn a great deal from ultra-paranoid industries like aviation, which use highly reliable programming languages such as Ada in their application development. [...]

Ultimately, writing more reliable code will cut down on errors and reduce the risk of costly outages in most industry sectors. Before this can happen, however, people have to stop accepting that "glitches" are trivial and start demanding better software. "You wouldn't excuse the crash of a jumbo jet by labelling it a glitch, so why the failing of a banking application?" he concluded.

Comment: This article is all sales pitch but anyone who reads my blog will know that this article is not exactly accurate.... In the world of aviation, the specialists all know that at typical cruising altitude cosmic radiation is approx. 300 times more of an issue for electronics than at ground level. ["At normal aircraft cruising altitudes the radiation is several hundred times the ground level intensity and at 60000 feet a factor three higher again." Source: ESA Space Weather Net: Effects on Spacecraft & Aircraft Electronics (1998) But since frequent fliers are being given new warnings about high levels of cosmic radiation, it must be assumed that space weather especially during geomagnetic storms is now far higher...] So, software is created where everything is done in triplicate --literally -- and radiation hardened microelectronics are used to try and ensure software that controls flight data is not being corrupted by cosmic rays. However, with the onset of severe space weather that is still not good enough and engineers are having to work out how to make aviation software, especially autopilot systems even more reliable. Here, it seems this article provides us with another flicker of hope as it seems a few more people engage brains and try to improve the chances against our modern technological world collapsing....

Engineers investigate effects of space weather on airliners
The Engineer, 11th October 2012

EBT System Crashes In 10 States: Millions Unable to Use Their Food Stamp Cards
The Daily Sheeple, 17th November 2012

The Electronic Benefits Transfer system managed by JP Morgan Chase crashed on Friday, leaving millions of recipients of the benefits in ten states without a way to put food on the table. Bank officials said that the outage affected EBT recipients in Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky, Connecticut, West Virginia, Delaware. It also hit the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Florida's Department of Children and Families said that some 3.6 million people were unable to access their benefits when the system crashed. According to JP Morgan, a technical glitch was responsible for the outage.

Credit cards, debit cards and other forms of electronic money transfer and processing were not affected. A bank spokesman for JP Morgan would not elaborate on the cause of the glitch. Service for frustrated EBT residents was restored after about 6 hours on Friday.

Comment: Most commentators predict rioting and looting if this system goes down for an extended period of time... JP Morgan will not comment, but I have explained that an increase in cosmic rays is causing computer systems to crash more often... Remember, in 2004, an Intel representative stated "we are living on borrowed time...."

The Classified Report DHS Doesn't Want You To See: "The Electric Power Delivery System… Could Be Severely Damaged By A Small Number of Well-Informed Attackers"
SHTFplan.com, 15th November 2012

In 2007 the National Academy of Sciences completed an extensive review of the national power grid infrastructure in a 164 page report titled Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System. In it the NAS detailed a wide array of physical, personnel and cyber vulnerabilities that could pose a significant risk to the national security of the United States.

Even though the report was originally written for public release, notes Madison Ruppert of End the Lie, the entire document was almost immediately classified by the Department of Homeland Security and hasn't seen the light of day until this week. That release came after five years of committee reviews, reversals, deliberations and pressure from the Academy itself.

The contents of the report make it clear why DHS wanted to keep it out of public view, as it illustrates severe deficiencies within the whole of the national power grid infrastructure.

Comment: This is essential reading especially after the fiasco in New York. Here is another important excerpt:

A terrorist attack on the power system would lack the dramatic impact of the attacks in New York, Madrid, or London. It would not immediately kill many people or make for spectacular television footage of bloody destruction. But if it were carried out in a carefully planned way, by people who knew what they were doing, it could deny large regions of the country access to bulk system power for weeks or even months. An event of this magnitude and duration could lead to turmoil, widespread public fear, and an image of helplessness that would play directly into the hands of the terrorists. If such large extended outages were to occur during times of extreme weather, they could also result in hundreds or even thousands of deaths due to heat stress or extended exposure to extreme cold. [...]

Full Report: National Academy of Sciences

Well, as this article points out, the Department of Homeland Security have sat on this report for five years, so none of the proactive measures recommended by the report have been taken. But then one of the nightmare scenarios occurred when New York got hit by an extreme weather event... The DHS fully expects "hundreds or even thousands of deaths due to heat stress or extended exposure to extreme cold." I expect there to be trouble as people find out about this report...

United Airlines has another large computer outage
Third major computer outage since June
Wavy.com, 14th November 2012

NEW YORK (AP) – Thousands of United Airlines passengers around the globe are stranded at airports and on planes after another computer outage at the world's largest carrier.

This is at least the third major computer outage for the Chicago-based airline since June. [...]

In a subsequent phone call with The Associated Press, Franck added: "Why is there a total system failure on a beautiful day? What happened to the backup and the backup to backup?"

United Continental Holdings Inc. spokesman Charles Hobart said the airline was aware of a computer issue affecting some of its flights and was working to resolve it.

Comment: I have explained a few times that airports are vulnerable due to their location at energy vortexes that I think were good for communications, but this is now a major problem in a celestial deluge.... The clue I had was orbs making a nuisance of themselves at airports...

LIPA chief Michael Hervey resigns
Newsday, 13th November 2012

LIPA chief operating officer Michael Hervey has resigned, according to Long Island Power Authority chairman Howard E. Steinberg. The resignation is effective at the end of the year.

Hervey had become a target for an outpouring of anger at LIPA from a range of critics, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and residents who had been without power for more than two weeks after superstorm Sandy

Comment: I can only imagine that Hervey was getting some nasty emails see, Class action filed against LIPA, but he has been spared from getting punched in the face by some ignorant hobbitt... See Suspect arrested in utility worker's assault. Well, in the future there is a risk that national grids will go down and stay down, but most are oblivious to this possibility and the consequences of life in the aftermath.

NYSE Trading Glitch Hits 216 Securities, Zaps Half Of Average Trading Volume
Forbes, 12th November 2012

The New York Stock Exchange suffered an outage in a new matching system that caused its share of Monday's trading volumes to fall by about 50%. The trading glitch affected 216 securities including JPMorgan Chase, Deere, CVS, and Schlumberger, but didn't really throw off equity markets, which closed the day basically flat.

A voracious arms race to make financial markets faster has made them technologically more complex and, at the same time, seems to have increased the number of blunders, glitches, and mistakes that undermine not only the markets themselves, but investors' confidence in the system. [...]

Trading glitches have increased in frequency over the last few years, zapping investor confidence on markets and their infrastructure.

Comment: Incredible....Well, things are now looking very bad, but I have been explaining what was obvious to me... NASA tells us that cosmic rays are at an all time high and expected to get far higher and the European Space Agency (ESA) tells us that Earth's magnetosphere (external magnetic field) is like a sieve so it is inevitable that we can expect computers and electronics to be affected by bit-flips as more cosmic rays corrupt computer and networks and turn on/off bits and bytes with dire consequences... Please see archives for my comments ad infinitum on the continuing problem of "glitches" affecting computer systems and especially affecting stockmarkets around the world in recent months.... Best of the Blog - Space Weather & Electromagnetic Chaos .

Computer glitch forces reactor shutdown
Standard Speaker, 11th November 2012

SALEM TWP. - One of the two nuclear reactors at PPL's Susquehanna plant near Berwick was shut down early Friday because a computer system that controls the reactor's water level was not functioning properly.

Operators and federal regulators are investigating the cause of the computer problems at Unit 2, according to a press release from the company, which said the reactor remained in "a safe condition."

U.S. nuclear spokesman Neil Sheehan said operators manually shut down the reactor at 1:18 a.m. by inserting control rods after monitors showed lowered water levels in two systems: one that circulates water inside the reactor to maintain safe temperatures and another that channels water through the reactor to produce steam to drive turbines. "There were no releases of radiation, no complications, no danger to plant workers or the public," Sheehan said.

He said Unit 2 will remain offline until the cause of the computer malfunction is found and corrected. "Now it's a matter of diagnosing what the problem is with the digital control system," Sheehan said.

Comment: Is this yet another cosmic ray hit?

Levitt: Subpar NYSE backup plan 'very unfortunate'
New Mexico Business Weekly, 30th October 2012

[...] In the face of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Oct. 30 that for the New York Stock Exchange to go down for two days " ... without an adequate back-up plan is very, very unfortunate." The comments came from Arthur Levitt in a Bloomberg Radio interview. [...]

According to a Bloomberg News report, the NYSE Euronext closed markets across every asset class Monday and Tuesday – the first time since 1888 that it has closed for consecutive days due to weather. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. also shut down. U.S. stock markets plan to reopen today.

Levitt said the reputation of the NYSE will suffer due to the events.

. "People look to the New York Stock Exchange as being the symbol of American capitalism ... To see the New York Stock Exchange crippled is a body blow that will really shake the image of that institution for a long time to come."

Comment: Terrible.... In other reports Levitt says:

Levitt said that the NYSE should have moved operations to a location "far away" from New York during the storm. "If you're going to have a stock exchange, it should have a backup facility of some sort so that regional events don't cause its closure," said Levitt, who is a Bloomberg LP board member and an adviser to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. "This should not happen to the world's most prominent exchange."
Source: NYSE's Closing to 'Shake Image' for Exchange, Levitt Says

Quite frankly, I think Levitt is right.... Folk need to take planetary upheaval and the need for disaster recovery a little bit more seriously...

NYSE Floor Traders Struggling With Internet, Cell Service
Business Week, 30th October 2012
The New York Stock Exchange (NYX) opened on time by running on backup power from generators following the longest weather-related shutdown in more than a century. Brokers on the NYSE floor experienced limited Internet and mobile-phone connections while still being able to trade from the exchange.

Trading went "very smoothly, everything opened fairly quickly," Duncan Niederauer, the chief executive officer of NYSE Euronext, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Matt Miller. "Participation has been a lot more active than we thought," he said. "For some it was business as usual, for some they were using their backup site."

Comment: Even the NYSE is forced to open running on backup generators, no internet, no terminals, poor or non existent wi-fi and mobile-phone connections..... That is almost like going back 100 years...
UPDATE: NYSE Traders Will Experience Spotty Cell Phone, Wireless Internet Service
Business Insider, 31st October 2012
UPDATE: Cell phone usage is pretty spotty for all of us down here in lower Manhattan right now. Also, some of the internet connections are kind of slow, so if people use that for some of their data feeds, that's slow.

ORIGINAL: Bloomberg TV reporter Alix Steel was just down at the NYSE, and she said that although the floor is open today, traders will still face a nasty inconvenience left over from Hurricane Sandy

But the real problem is right now there is no Verizon service or wifi in the exchange. The exchange itself is up and running, but the guys are basically trading blind. Their Bloomberg terminals are down. They don't have internet access. One trader told me there's not going to be that much action going on down on the floor today.

Comment: This is really not very good at all...

Problems at Five Nuke Plants
Yahoo News, 30th October 2012

The nation's oldest nuclear plant declared an alert and a second plant just 40 miles from New York City was forced to shut down power as five different nuke plants in Hurricane Sandy's path experienced problems during the storm.

Indian Point in Buchanan, New York, on the Hudson River north of New York City, automatically shut power to its unit 3 on Monday night "as a result of an electrical grid disturbance," according to Entergy, the plant's operator.

The connection between the generator and the offsite grid was lost, and the unit is designed to shut down to protect itself from electrical damage. Entergy said there was no release of radioactivity, no damage to equipment, and no threat to the public health.

Comment: This is overwhelming.... There are various reports available at Energy News Link.

Massive Flooding Damages Several NYC Data Centers
datacenterknowledge.com, 30th October 2012

Flooding from Hurricane Sandy has hobbled two data center buildings in Lower Manhattan, taking out diesel fuel pumps used to refuel generators. A third building at 121 Varick is also reported to be without power. There were also reports of outages for some tenants at a major data hub at 111 8th Avenue, and many other New York area facilities were running on generator power amid widespread utility outages.

Comment: Well, it seems that disaster management plans were inadequate against the overwhelming force of Frankenstorm Sandy. Yahoo News reports: "NEW YORK (AP) – Several popular media websites in the New York area are inaccessible after a massive storm knocked out power to much of the city. The Huffington Post website is down. So are gossip site Gawker and the blog Mediaite. Major news sites including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal appear to be operating." Power outages black out popular websites

NYU hospital to investigate power outage that forced mass evacuation
Apparently unanticipated generator failure sparked exodus of hundreds of critically-ill patients at height of superstorm Sandy
Guardian, 30th October 2012

New York University hospital has launched an investigation into the double power outage which sparked the evacuation of more than 200 patients, including critically ill newborn babies, at the height of Monday night's superstorm. [...] Despite forecasts of a storm surge of up to 11ft, NYU did not anticipate heavy flooding and decided not to evacuate all patients before Sandy hit – in contrast to its handling of tropical storm Irene in August last year. In fact, the surge hit almost 14ft, flooding much of lower Manhattan and cutting power almost everywhere below 39th Street.

At a press conference late Monday night, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was unable to hide his anger at the failure, telling reporters that the hospital had assured officials that its back-up systems had been tested. Dr Andrew Brotman, senior vice-president and vice-dean for clinical affairs and strategy at the hospital, told CNN that between 7 and 7.45pm on Monday the hospital's basement, lower floors, and elevator shafts filled with 10 to 12 feet of water and the hospital lost power. "Things went downhill very, very rapidly and very unexpectedly," Brotman said. "The flooding was just unprecedented."

Comment: Terrible.... I am quite stunned by the details provided here... Well, even the backup generators for nuclear power plants in the United States are often poorly maintained and often don't work when required, (see archives for details). Quite frankly, people need to start taking disaster management a bit more seriously...

Pic of nurse carrying a Neonatal Intensive Care baby in her arms as they both are evacuated from NYU Hospital. Heroes.
inagist.com, 30th October 2012
Down 9 flights of stairs too... This website has lots and lots of interesting tweets, not all are factually correct....

Power grid upgrades may cause blackouts, warns Braess's paradox
PhysOrg.com, 23rd October 2012
(Phys.org)–In order to meet increasing energy demands, power companies have the option of adding new power lines to the existing grid. But in a new study, researchers have found that, contrary to common intuition, adding certain new power lines may cause power outages across the grid due to desynchronization. This finding is an example of Braess's paradox, which was originally discovered in traffic networks to show that adding a road to a congested traffic network may counterintuitively increase overall driving time. This study is the first time that Braess's paradox has been found in oscillator networks.

Glitch leaves Go Card users out of pocket
Sydney Morning Herald, 23rd October 2012

The international company responsible for TransLink's smartcard ticketing technology was left red-faced after a technical glitch saw more than 2800 Go Card customers charged for trips they never took. [...]

"This arose as a result of an operator error during a security upgrade for the system," he said. "The remainder of the live Go Card system was operating normally during the time of the top-up issue."

But one of the customers referred to Cubic by TransLink told brisbanetimes.com.au that the fault had resulted in almost $1000 in false recharges billed to his account.

The man, who did not wish to be named, provided banking records which showed TransLink Brisbane made 24 $40 charges against his credit card over a period of four days, though each transaction was subsequently matched by a refund.

Amazon Cloud Goes Down Again, Breaks Foursquare and Others
Wired News, 22nd October 2012

"The cloud is cool. But it's not always there. That's what some Amazon customers learned today after another outage on Amazon's cloud computing platform knocked off several popular websites offline."

So, in this geomagnetic environment, I think any online business, needs to realise that being online 24/7 will be impossible regardless of whether the entire back office infrastructure is being supported elsewhere aka "cloud" or not. The real issue is complete infrastructure breakdowns that last for days on end...

Nasdaq Teams Up With Amazon To Offer Cloud Storage Services
Trefis, 26th September 2012
Nasdaq OMX (NASDAQ:NDAQ) has entered a partnership with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to allow brokers in the U.S. to store trade information on the latter's cloud network using a platform called FinQloud. [1] The platform will allow investors to keep track of financial data that they are required to maintain and will also help them save money as it uses a pay per gigabyte fee structure. Users will only have to pay for storage capacity used, thus saving on storage costs that they would have incurred had they used their own systems. [2]

Although some customers might be skeptical of the offering given the recent software glitches that have plagued Nasdaq's systems, the company insists that it will maintain strict vigilance to ensure that it meets the "stringent operational and regulatory security requirements of the financial services industry and to protect data integrity."

Comment: Gotcha! Well, I think this is some proof that "the recent software glitches that have plagued Nasdaq's systems" have been caused by cosmic rays corrupting software because this is tacitly being acknowledged here as a marketing strategy for why brokers should move data onto servers that are being better monitored for data integrity... NASA warned about cosmic rays being at an all time space-age high and were set to reach new heights, but few paid any attention (except for Intel who were tipped off early), but data servers are being corrupted so often now, this is now providing one headache after another... This was very obviously going to happen and as the Intel patent for cosmic ray detectors on a chip explained in 2004, "We are living on borrowed time."

Email glitch hits Batelco customers
Gulf Daily News, 18th October 2012
Clients who subscribe to the company's fixed Internet Protocol (IP) addresses were allocated new addresses overnight. Problems were first detected at around 5am and continued for several hours before reportedly being resolved in the afternoon, according to one IT expert monitoring the disruption.

They said mail servers would have been unable to receive or send emails and locally-hosted websites would have also been affected. "At some stage during the night, fixed IP addresses on Batelco's ADSL lines in Bahrain were changed to different dynamic IP addresses," they said.

Aug. 1 stock trading fiasco costs Knight $604M
USA Today, 17th October 2012

The Knight Capital Group trading firm said it lost $764.3 million in the third quarter because of a software glitch that flooded the stock market with trades one day in August, causing dozens of stocks to fluctuate wildly. Knight said Wednesday that the software glitch cost it $461.1 million in financial losses. The company also took a charge of $143 million to reflect its weaker brand and competitive position after the episode.

Union: Radio Glitch Delayed Yonkers Firefighters
Yonkers Daily Voice, 17th October 2012
YONKERS, N.Y. – An "unprecedented" breakdown of the Yonkers Fire Department's radio equipment likely delayed firefighters' response time to a Wednesday afternoon fire by several minutes, the union president said. [...] A spokesperson for Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said the city has launched an investigation into the communication breakdown. She said it may have been caused by a power surge that knocked out the system almost simultaneously as the dispatch call went out.

Glitches hit ANZ banking systems [Au]
The Age News, 16th October 2012
ANZ's banking system was hit by a series of glitches this afternoon which tied up its phone and internet banking for nearly an hour in total. The bank said that the problems that had halted its ATMs, eftpos, internet banking, mobile banking apps and call centres had been resolved as of 2.10pm (AEDT) this afternoon. Internet banking customers may still experience delays due to a backlog of orders, however.

New Rules for Meteorite Hunters
Discovery News, 15th October 2012

Navy submarine, Aegis cruiser collide during routine operations; no injuries, damage unclear
Washington Post, 13th October 2012

NORFOLK, Va. – The Pentagon said late Saturday that it is investigating why a Navy submarine collided with an Aegis cruiser off the East Coast.

The U.S. Fleet Forces Command said in a news release that the submarine USS Montpelier and the Aegis cruiser USS San Jacinto collided at about 3:30 p.m. during routine operations. No one was injured, and the extent of any damage to the vessels was not clear Saturday evening, said Lt. Commander Brian Badura of the Fleet Forces Command.

Comment: We already know the answer... GPS sometimes is worse than useless as it can be tens of metres off... The last big collision was in August 2012 when a guided missile destroyer collided with a Japanese-owned oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday morning, see archives. These collisions are certainly not rare events.

O2 Says Sorry After Millions Hit By Outage
The phone network says it was left red-faced after another major outage problem affects more than two million of its customers.
Sky News, 13th October 2012

[...] The problem began when one of O2's network nodes, which help connect and manage traffic, failed at lunchtime. O2 issued a statement saying the fault had been identified and fixed on Friday afternoon, but admitted the problems were still being experienced into the evening.

The company said it is trying to discover the cause of the glitch, but said it was the not the same fault that led to widespread connection issues in July, when some customers had a 24-hour service outage. The company had only just recovered from a separate problem that began on Thursday, involving people unable to make calls or use data with some 2G phones.

O2 said it had had a problem with its 2G service in northwest Scotland, and anyone with a 2G phone would not be able to use it for calls, texts, email, or the internet. [...]

He blamed the disruption on a "piece of network hardware which manages the registration of handsets" and insisted such an issue was extremely rare.

Comment: Another bit-flip caused by a cosmic ray? There was even a similar technical glitch at Qatar Telecom (Qtel) that caused a brief yet major disruption too....

Millions suffer as O2 network stumbles
BBC News, 12th October 2012

Millions of customers on O2's mobile network have reported having trouble making calls. O2 said about 10% of its 22 million customers had suffered an intermittent service since 12:00 GMT on Friday.

On its network status page, O2 said some phone numbers across the UK were not working, but it was not the same technical fault that cut millions of customers off in July 2012. The operator added it hoped to resolve the fault before early Friday evening.

Comment: Again....

Engineers investigate effects of space weather on airliners
The Engineer, 11th October 2012

Engineers at Qinetiq are investigating the effects of geomagnetic storms and space weather on commercial airliners with a view to developing mitigating technology solutions. The company is conducting commissioned research into the phenomenon, developing sensors for advanced warning and designing novel system architectures with better tolerances.

The increase in microelectronics systems in aircraft in the past few decades means that they are potentially more vulnerable to geomagnetic events originating from space. The main threat to aircraft systems specifically is from neutrons that are created in the atmosphere through the collision of space phenomenon such as solar flares with the Earth's magnetic field.

'Think of what's happening as being rather like the Large Hadron Collider going on all the time at the top of the atmosphere,' Keith Ryden, senior consultant on space environments and effects, told The Engineer. 'They [the neutrons] are very penetrating because they're not charged and they go through the aircraft and into equipment. If they reach a silicon device, because they're travelling so fast, basically a nuclear reaction happens inside the silicon that causes a certain quantity of charge to be developed.'[Oh really....]

Studies have shown that at a very fundamental level this can lead to so-called 'bit flips' where a 1 changes to a 0 and a 0 to a 1 in various locations.

This can have a variety of unpredictable consequences but there is evidence to suggest that autopilot systems are particularly vulnerable. During a Qantas Airbus 330-303 flight in Australia in 2008, the autopilot dived twice without warning due to scrambled data, injuring 122 crew and passengers, 13 seriously. Subsequent investigations suggested it could have been a 'single-event effect' in the computer caused by geomagnetic activity.

Comment: This is a very useful article (and technical enough) explaining that there is a growing awareness that microelectronics in airplanes are becoming very vulnerable to space weather and backs up the assertions that I have been making for years now... Finally we have got the truth about what happened to the Qantas Airbus 330-303 flight in Australia in 2008, when 122 people were hurt and 13 seriously hurt when the plane took two unexpected nosedives, see archives. It seems that engineers are not bothering with the stupid excuse of laptops causing electromagnetic interference (EMI), rather we get a much more serious explanation of neutrons from space causing nuclear reactions in electronics...

Bill shock: customer charged $14,766,481,895,641,556.00
Sydney Morning Herald, 11th October 2012

A Frenchwoman who received a telephone bill for an amount equivalent to nearly 6000 times the country's annual economic output has had the real amount she owed waived - after finally convincing the company they must have made a mistake.

Solenne San Jose, from Pessac in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, could not believe her eyes when she opened the bill to discover she was being asked to pay €11,721,000,000,000,000 ($14,766,481,895,641,556.00) to close her account.

"There were so many zeroes I couldn't even work out how much it was," she said. Ms San Jose's alarm mounted when operators at Bouygues Telecom told her they could not amend the computer-generated statement or stop the balance from being debited from her bank account.

Comment: Oh well, soon it is going to be very obvious that computer software and hardware are being corrupted much more often by cosmic rays flipping bits and bytes.

ASIC says it will investigate ASX technical glitch
Business Spectator, 10th October 2012

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has launched an investigation into a technical glitch at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that prevented important company announcements from being released to the market for nearly four hours on Tuesday, according to The Australian Financial Review.

On Tuesday, the ASX stopped publishing company news from 1211 AEDT, and the problem forced investors to trade blind for nearly four hours until being fixed at 1556 AEDT, only minutes before the market closed for the day.

In a statement, the ASX said a database application issue had prevented the release of information to the market, but the issue was not related to the trading platform. [...]

It marks the second time in less than a year that the ASX has been hit with a serious technical issue. Last October 27, the stock market was closed completely for four hours due to a computer meltdown.

Comment: Yet, another computer/networking glitch at a stockmarket....this is incredible...

Arctic probe into solar storm sat-nav disruption
BBC News, 10th October 2012

Scientists in the Arctic have launched an urgent investigation into how solar storms can disrupt sat-nav.

Studies have revealed how space weather can cut the accuracy of GPS by tens of metres. Flares from the Sun interact with the upper atmosphere and can distort the signals from global positioning satellites. The research is pressing because rapid warming is attracting more vessels, tourists and mining operators. The project is under way at a remote observatory on a windswept mountainside in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the High Arctic. [....]

Professor Lorentzen said: "If you have a very large solar storm, you can get a distortion of up to tens of metres. "It's absolutely important to understand why this is happening so that if we know that we have a solar storm, then we might be able to predict the deviation or accuracy of the GPS signal in the future."

This matters as the retreat of Arctic ice opens up the region to new activities including oil drilling, shipping and tourism - all of which require highly accurate navigation especially for search and rescue. But signal distortion has also been observed at much lower latitudes during solar storms so may have more widespread implications.

Comment: Apparently, this is now urgent.... We have been given some good information as the military used to have GPS accurate to within 1 metre, but now that can be out by 300% even without a geomagnetic storm where it seems the distortion is "up to tens of metres...." Presumably things are now desperate.... Well, since 2004 when I realised that space weather was delivering evolutionary change, I realised what was going to happen, it was extremely obvious to me... But, I have been very much on my own as very few really understand even basic physics. Furthermore, even fewer understand the ancient warnings that our planet has been subjected to cosmic deluges many times in the past. Please see below and archives for previous warnings about GPS from military sources and information concerning the massive impact on our modern technological infrastructure.

Flashback!
Comment: In an article for the Air Force Times, Schwartz warns against dependence on GPS, dated 23rd January 2010, and it seems there has been a major change of heart about the military use of GPS. This is a new dispensation, dependency on GPS accuracy is now a thing of the past.
The Air Force's top uniformed leader thinks the military is too dependent on global positioning and must develop an alternative to the navigation system to reduce its vulnerability to enemies.

Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz delivered his warning about the government's satellite constellation Jan. 20 at a national security conference in Washington but also assured his fellow defense leaders that Air Force scientists are working to develop other navigational technologies.

"Global positioning has transformed an entire universe of war-fighting capability. Our dependence on precision navigation in time will continue to grow," Schwartz said in the opening address to the conference, sponsored by the Institute of Foreign Policy and Tufts University's Fletcher School. "It seemed critical to me that the joint force reduce its dependence on GPS aid." [...] Schwartz told the audience he fears reliance on GPS could paralyze operations if an enemy blocked the GPS datalink or – even worse – programmed U.S. satellites to send the wrong coordinates.

"Our operations cannot grind to a halt for a degraded or denied system," he said. "Our reliance on information technologies, for example, is very well known."

Schwartz warns against dependence on GPS,
Air Force Times, 23rd January 2010
I have already quoted from the Lloyds Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business report already once this week, but I will repeat it again, hopefully after the recent media focus on space weather in the last few weeks, I believe there must be some new website visitors who would be interested to understand the implications of what is happening. Thus we read:
Businesses should avoid reliance on satellite navigation as the sole source of position data.

"The major risk is the potential to lose the satellite navigation signal completely. We expect that disturbed space weather conditions will become much more common in the period from 2012 to 2015 due to increasing solar activity. Therefore it is likely users will experience a loss of signal more often. In such cases, we may expect major position errors to arise, perhaps comparable to those caused by the transmission of competing radio signals, known as jamming. For example, a recent jamming test in the UK showed position errors of up to 20km. Businesses should avoid reliance on satellite navigation as the sole source of position data. It is essential to have a second system that uses a different technology. A good example is the enhanced-LORAN navigation systems, such as that now being deployed in the UK."

Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business
Lloyd's of London, November 2010
Please do not be fooled, space weather IS the biggest enemy to Military operations and hence the encouragement to start learning how to do without, hence the need for military exercises. Space weather is cosmic energies frying satellites and swamping our planet, it is clear that things are getting far worse, as there has been some interesting examples of major technological failures, see archives, but please note: I have been listing biological failures too for quite some time.

S.Africa's JSE says trade halted due to glitch
The Africa Report, 9th October 2012
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) said on Tuesday that trade had been halted on Africa's biggest stock market due to a system glitch. A spokeswoman for bourse operator JSE Ltd said the bourse was investigating the cause of the error. The exchange has been plagued by system troubles in the past.

Electromagnetic Interference/Capability testing and structural dynamics testing completed for LDCM
Space Daily, 10th October 2012

Orbital Sciences Corporation recently completed Electromagnetic Interference/Capability (EMI/EMC) testing and structural dynamics testing of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite.

Pictured above, engineers at Orbital's Satellite Manufacturing Facility in Gilbert, Ariz. place the satellite on the vibration table to perform the side-to-side X-axis vibration test to ensure the spacecraft can survive its rocket ride into space.

The satellite is currently being prepared to enter thermal vacuum testing during which the satellite will be operated in a chamber that simulates the vacuum and temperature extremes of space.

Comment: Not that long ago, it was taught that space was a cold dark vacuum where nothing much happened, but something has changed in recent decades. Today, Earth satellites have to be able to deal with massive electrical shocks from charged sub-atomic particles flowing at speed through the near Earth cosmic environment... Yes, space might be a near vacuum, but when trillions of tonnes of sub-atomic particles are moving at up to 2 millions per hour and sometimes faster, due to coronal mass ejections from the sun, then that is enough to cause major problems for Earth based satellites.

4,000 tons of shells explode in Central Russia, leave mushroom cloud-like plume of smoke (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
RT News, 9th October 2012

Lloyds, Co-Op Fix IT Glitches
Tech Week Wurope, 8th October 2012
Two separate technical issues left Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Co-Operative customers unable to withdraw cash

Glitch wipes nearly $60bn off Indian stock index
Latest error 'exacerbated by high-frequency trading'
The Guardian, 5th October 2012

India's main share index plunged 16% within minutes on Friday in a so-called "flash crash" – the latest in a series of market glitches that have shaken confidence in global financial markets.

India's National Stock Exchange (NSE) was forced to halt trading for 15 minutes, after a brokerage placed 59 wrong orders, triggering a sell-off that wiped nearly $60bn off the value of the country's biggest companies.

The orders were cancelled and stocks recovered, with India's Nifty index closing down 0.8% on the day. But the event will concentrate the minds of regulators concerned about the impact of trading technology on the stability of markets. [...]

Joseph Saluzzi, co-founder of US agency broker Themis Trading, said: "We look at it as minor earthquakes and what they build up to is one much bigger earthquake, which could be an entire global market breakdown."

The NSE blamed Friday's crash on human error but Saluzzi said that was highly unlikely. "There is no human being in the world that can take down the stock market by 16%. This is typical spin."

Comment: Just wow...... I imagine that confidence in high speed electronic trading is also crashing.... so, if this is not human error, what exactly is going on?

Glitches Halt Some NYSE Liffe Trading
Wall St Journal, 5th October 2012

LONDON–A glitch halted commodities trading on the NYSE Liffe exchanges in London and Paris on two separate occasions Friday, following a similar disruption earlier this week.

The glitches are testing the nerves of some in the commodities market and potentially could undermine confidence in the company's technological systems, an analyst said.

"The exchange has reached the limit of what they can get away with as this has happened twice in a row," said Edward George, head of soft-commodity research at Ecobank. "Should these issues occur for a third time over the next few weeks, it could undermine confidence ...

Virgin Australia plane vanished from radar
News.com.au, 5th October 2012

* Virgin Australia plane lost by air traffic control
* Went off the radar for 30 minutes on busy route
* The plane was flying from Sydney to Brisbane

HOW can a packed passenger plane disappear from the radar for over 30 minutes along one of the busiest flight routes in Australia? An investigation has been launched to find out just how this happened last Friday on a Virgin Australia flight.

Comment: Since radar is now an established technology (mid 1940s onwards), I can only presume atmospheric conditions were such that the plane was surrounded by a type of energy that makes it invisible to radar. The same type of energy that is making asteroids difficult to see in space even with radar.

Qantas emergency as cabin fills with smoke
News.com.au, 5th October 2012

A QANTAS plane that left Sydney bound for Germany has made an emergency landing in Darwin after an unusual smell filled the cabin. There were 305 passengers on board the Boeing 747 when it made its unscheduled stop at Darwin Airport late on Thursday.

They are being put up in hotels while engineers investigate what was described by one passenger as a burning smell. [...] Jim Macnamara wrote: "Electrical fire on Qantas QF5 to Singapore over NT. Landed safely in Darwin. Stranded. But welcome Terra firma."

Comment: Another incident of a funny burning smell inside a plane, but this time we are told there was an electrical fire which we know can be caused by stray electromagnetic currents.

The latest trading glitch: Kraft
The Buzz, 3rd October 2012

Computer glitch causes Melb traffic gridlock [AU]
ABC World Today, 3rd October 2012

"SAMANTHA DONOVON: The computer failure has forced the closure of Melbourne's Burnley and Domain tunnels, bringing traffic to a standstill on many crucial routes. Safety systems have shut down and electronic traffic signs are frozen.

Citylink's infrastructure manager, Warren Gourley, says communication between control computers and the incident management system has inexplicably broken down. But he doesn't believe the private operator's systems have been hacked"

Comment: Glitch, glitch, glitch.... Just a reminder that the rise in cosmic rays is corrupting more electronics and thus is affecting life on Earth... The tunnels were closed for 11 hours....

Belfast traffic lights glitch lead to major disruption
BBC News, 4th October 2012

Technical glitch caused 911 outage for Indiana
WDRB 41 Louisville - News, 1st October
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Residents in several Indiana counties were not able to call 911 this morning. INdigital Telecom says service was out from 4am to 9am. That's five hours of not being able to call 911 directly. [...]

Ndigital says a core router located in Fort Wayne went out of service, but didn't indicate it failed. When the router restarted, it did not connect to the network and had to be restored manually. 911 service was fully operational at 9 Monday morning. James Goldman, the President of the Board of County Commissioners for Harrison County says, "In technology today, in all the electronics involved, sometimes things happen.

Canadian Internet Provider Rogers Experiencing Major, Prolonged Outage [Update: It's Back!]
Tech Crunch, 29th September 2012
"Canadian wireless and internet provider Rogers is currently experiencing a widespread, continued outage of services on both its cellular and cable home internet data networks, according to various user reports. Rogers is the second-largest internet provider in Canada by subscriber count, and the largest cellphone provider with somewhere around 10 million mobile customers."
Over five hours, but no explanation offered.... there could be a link with the latest blast from the sun, see data provided above.

Radar anomalies picked up on the Australian BOM network – September 27, 2012
The Watchers, 27th September 2012

Comment: It seems that weather radars are picking up large bubbles of plasma leaking into Earth's atmosphere from space. Scintillation is nothing new but pesumably the magnitude of the problem is an issue.

Shop's misery as credit card glitch holds up payment for more than £2,000 of business
Barnet Today, 24th September 2012

A HIGH BARNET trader has told of his frustration after a banking software glitch left him more than £2,000 out of pocket.

Steven Goorwich, who owns camping store Cover, in Barnet High Street, described his horror at discovering that a credit card terminal provided by HSBC had failed to accept five days' worth of payments.

The problems began on Tuesday August 21 when Cover's only credit card terminal refused to accept certain credit and debit cards.

After contacting the bank's help desk, Mr Goorwich was told that HSBC had been suffering software difficulties.

Comment: Hmmm.... The issue is not just about one shopkeeper, as the article states, "HSBC had been suffering software difficulties".... It really makes you wonder what the true extent of computer glitches are and whether anyone is paying attention and keeping note of trends.

Asda computer glitch leads to rush on groceries after system dishes out valuable money off vouchers
Daily Mail, 22nd September 2012

Shoppers are grabbing huge discounts on their groceries after a glitch with an Asda computer system meant it wrongly dished out valuable money off vouchers.

The supermarket operates the Asda Price Guarantee (APG), which promises to refund the difference if customers could have bought the same basket of goods more cheaply at a rival.

Customers who use the system punch the details of their purchases into the APG website and, if a rival store is cheaper, they are awarded vouchers to the value of the difference.

Comment: Well, I have been told that the real problem with all these glitches is too many underqualified people getting jobs as computer specialists, but they don't know enough about computing to know what they are doing.... I resisted this idea for a long time but the major computer screw-ups keep coming and I can't keep blaming this on bit-flips.... or can I?

'I've made £8,670 off Asda in four weeks': Professional shoppers exploit glitch to cash in on supermarket's price guarantee
This is Money, 24th September 2012

BlackBerry Hit by Service Outage
Wall Street Journal, 21st September 2012

LONDON–Research In Motion Ltd. suffered another setback Friday as a new round of service problems hit users of its BlackBerry device, less than a year after a network outage knocked out handsets around the world.

The timing of the latest setback couldn't be worse for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company, coming on the day that rival Apple Inc.'s latest incarnation of the iPhone was delivered to customers around the globe.

For several hours before service was restored, customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa couldn't send or receive emails. In a statement, RIM apologized to customers who had been affected. "We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally," it said. The company didn't provide a reason for the malfunction.

Comment: Hmmm.... We await a technical explanation fot this latest setback but Apple have been having troubles too this week with their cloud computing Imessage service and poor app performance (see below) also described as a fiasco and 'epic fail'. See Apple Maps is An Epic Fail ¦ NBCNews.com , for a sardonic description of complaints... Update: servers hit again, see below:

RIM's servers are back up – for now
Know Your Mobile, 21st September 2012
"BlackBerry maker RIM had a spot of bad luck earlier today when its servers went down for the second time in 12 months, causing service outages for users. Now, it seems, things are back to normal.

RIM has issued a statement, saying: 'Our apologies to any customers impacted by the BlackBerry service issue today. We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally.'"

Comment: Only going down for a couple of hours is quite good compared to the previous 4 day outage that became a mega-diaster for BlackBerry maker RIM. The way things are going, servers crashing on a regular basis will become the norm until computer hardware being radiation hardened (rad-hard) becomes standard...

Apple map glitch relocates Dublin Airport to farm
BBC News, 21st September 2012

A technical glitch on Apple's mapping software led to some confusion as to where Dublin airport is located.

The capital's airport is situated on the north side about six miles outside the capital. But on the iOS 6 map application its position is given as a farm in Dundrum, three miles south of the city.

Airfield is a 35-acre estate which sits in the Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter's constituency. The error led him to issue a statement.

Comment: The reports about this failed launch are quite hilarious... Whatever, it seems there, might have been some very poor testing of a new software product but we can't keep using testing as an excuse, as a map of a whole town in water can't just be about poor programming... Well, we know for a fact that the use of standard GPS and satellite navigation systems is problematic... Google Maps was introduced without much of a problem, so this has led me to be consider once again, the general climate of glitches associated with mobile phone products and services.... Basically, it really makes you wonder how long it will take for society as a whole to face some reality.... The military are already well aware and made it public knowledge that there are major issues with standard GPS and satellite navigation systems due to space weather... Whatever, I am amazed by how bad the failings of major companies that are highly reliant on technology are becoming...

New Apple maps app under fire from users
BBC News, 20th September 2012

"Lilo and Stitch" Has a Glitch as Disney Shows Sex Film
Big Cartoon News, 19th September 2012

The man and woman having sex on a Disney Channel sure weren't Lilo or Stitch. [...] The video was so explicit that neither the Disney Channel nor FOX Carolina, which reported the story, are allowed to air it. An information page from the movie that Brown recorded made it clear that it was 2002's "Lilo and Stitch," and that it was rated PG. "I've been in the TV industry for 15 years, and I've never once seen that," said David Guttey, a contractor for Dish Network, who examined Brown's receiver. "It kind of had me astonished."

Comment: It's not the first time in recent years this has happened, but this is a Disney channel that was affected. Satellite interefernce is a well known problem (see the article below that gives a good tutorial on the subject), but I would have thought there would have been some programming in the system somewhere that automatically moved on to something suitable for children if a main signal was lost.... This is seriously terrible.

Satellite Interference: Tech To The Rescue
Sat Magazine, June 2008
Focus: Tackling Satellite Interference
Mil Sat Magazine, December 2011
"Satellite interference is a huge problem in this industry and affects a whole plethora of different users across various sectors of this extremely diversified business. The military is no exception and is the one area where fixing the problem of satellite interference is the most crucial, as it can, and often does, jeopardize vital operations." [...]

What Interference?

The problem of interference is widespread and it stems from the phenomenal amount of media and data streaming up to satellites. With so many satellites orbiting our planet, (and more to come!) the first thing that a user, or a system, must do is point it at the right one. With orbital spacing as close as 1.5 degrees, mistakes are often made using flyaway or mobile terminals. As important is the frequency at which the user transmits to the satellite; this has to be correct. In addition, the power at which the signal is transmitted is often forgotten, yet an important factor: Too low and it's too weak, too high and it often shows up on small antenna systems as adjacent satellite interference. This delicate setup, as a consequence, is therefore, inherently prone to human and equipment error.

The effect of interference is naturally a loss or degradation of signal, which in a military environment means a potential loss of communications, something, which everyone working in that environment is keen to avoid.

AT&T U-Verse Computer Glitch Opens Account For Dead Man
The Consumerist, 12th September 2012
Back in February, a St. Louis man's father passed away. But that didn't stop the folks at AT&T U-Verse from somehow opening a new account five months for the deceased five months after he'd died -- all because he'd once inquired about service at some point in the past.

When the late man's son noticed the U-Verse bill in July, he saw that the balance was $0.00, so at least his father's ghost wasn't running up bills he couldn't pay.

Comment: This is an interesting variation on the computer glitch theme...

GoDaddy Outage Was Due to Technical Glitch, Not Attack
Wired.com News, 11th September 2012

GoDaddy says technical issues, not a hacker attack, knocked it offline yesterday.

"The service outage was not caused by external influences. It was not a 'hack' and it was not a denial of service attack (DDoS)," interim CEO Scott Wagner said in an e-mailed statement. "We have determined the service outage was due to a series of internal network events that corrupted router data tables."

The outage knocked internet services offline for a large number of GoDaddy customers between about 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Pacific yesterday. The outage was so bad that at one point GoDaddy had to turn to competitor VeriSign to restore service to its GoDaddy.com domain, which was also knocked offline.

An anonymous hacker claimed responsibility for the attack, but according to Wagner's statement, that claim was bogus.

Comment: Go Daddy, describes itself as the world's largest web hosting company and hosts 53 million domain names, but according to twitter it was down for about 6 hours... that is a lot of small business owners losing money whilst the sites are down... Well, because this is a company run by technicians we get told the truth for a change and the fault was corrupted router data tables. I think that could only have been caused by EM interference in the form of a cosmic ray... Cosmic energy is now flooding the planet so an increase in computer system outages was highly predictable. Intel declared in 2004 that "we are living on borrowed time" because they were tipped off that there was serious changes taking place in our solar system. Most likely we can point to the solar wind that used to be called our cosmic 'bullet proof vest'. Well, if you want to compare cosmic rays to bullets, the dramatically flagging solar wind in the mid 1990s and onwards means that we don't have much serious protection these days as Earth's magnetic field is flakey and our atmosphere alone is not good enough to stop all galactic cosmic rays.

Gmail Outage: First GoDaddy, Now Gmail is Down for Some Users Today [Report]
Inside Boston News, 11th September 2012

Knight hires IBM as consultant to look into trading glitch
Reuters, 11th September 2012
Well I think it is very obvious that technical staff have told management to %&*/%!%? and as the problem was outside of their control so the technically ignorant top tier have gone running to IBM who will charge a small fortune to tell them the completely obvious, but at least IBM can be expected to provide some proof. I eagerly await a suitable public announcement of the results.

Another day, another bank glitch: ANZ customers offline
Sydney Morning Herald, 7th September 2012

In the third online outage at a major bank this week, ANZ has confirmed that 5000 large corporate client users of its web-based cash management service have been unable to view their balances for two days.

The error with the ANZ Transactive system was blamed on a "technical glitch" that prevented customers from seeing their accounts or conducting transactions online. [...]

The glitch marks the third such interruption to services at a big-four bank or subsidiary, this week.

National Australia Bank's internet banking system was offline for hours on Wednesday, frustrating customers who could not access their accounts. Also this week, CBA-backed CommSec said as many as 9000 clients may have had their share dividends diverted to the wrong accounts.

The faults come as Australia's banks race to upgrade their creaky technology to support the needs of customers who increasingly conduct transactions through mobile phones and online rather than by visiting bank branches.

The Reserve Bank, for its part, is pushing the banks to improve the overall speed and stability of their processing systems.

Comment: People are demanding more services for their mobile phones, but this technology is extremely vulnerable to space weather.... What's more, senior U.S military have already declared that GPS is now unreliable, but this is necessary to sync phones with network coverage. So, the general populace is still generally unaware that the arrival of new cosmic conditions is now affecting the reliability of critical technological infrastructure (radio and satellite communications, computers, GPS, power grids, pipelines etc) used to maintain our modern technological world. We have to do business differently on this planet or watch our modern technology become useless, it's up to us.

UK's FSA wants banks to detail IT backup plans: FT
Reuters News, 4th September 2012

(Reuters) - Britain's financial regulator has sent letters to the nine largest banks and building societies in the UK requesting details of their IT contingency plans, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

The Financial Services Authority wants the main high street banks to detail their efforts to prevent a software glitch like the one that hit Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) in June, rendering the bank unable to process payments for clients.

The letter, sent by two senior FSA executives, also demands the names of senior managers who could be held personally responsible if information technology systems experience problems.

They also requested that each bank submit a written account of what had been done to "to ensure the overall resilience of critical infrastructure and banking processes" and what contingency plans were in place to restore service "within an acceptable timeframe" if a failure did occur, the FT said

Comment: Quite frankly, I have been appalled by the terrible IT related stories I have come across in the last few months.... There is no excuse, things need to be a whole lot better to prevent a complete meltdown, especially if we experience a major outburst of solar cosmic rays called a Ground Level Enhancement (GLE) event, at a time when the Earth's magnetic field has disappeared on the daylight side....

'Confidence in banks has been rocked by IT glitch'
Belfast Telegraph, 4th September 2012
Hmmm..... I predict it won't just be the banks that will suffer from a credibility issue as computer systems become very glitchy due to the increase in cosmic rays...

Technical glitch hits customers at Northern Bank
Belfast Telegraph, 4th September 2012
More than 350,000 Northern Bank transactions were hit by a glitch yesterday following a minor incident, the company said. The problem was detected at 8.40am and resolved just over two hours later, with operations back to normal by 10.42am. A Northern Bank spokesman confirmed 289,000 debit transactions and 65,000 credit transactions were affected.

Comment: I am only highlighting certain types of glitches based on an arbitary public annoyance factor, but there are lots of incidents being reported around the world...

MARTA working to fix glitch, remains cash-only
11alive.com, 4th September 2012

"ATLANTA -- After working through the weekend, MARTA said Monday their Breeze payment machines are still not able to take debit or credit payments. They won't be fixed when commuters go back to work Tuesday.

It's a glitch that started on Friday and looks to continue into the work week, because MARTA officials said they don't know the cause of the problem."

Card glitch leads to $2m mistake
Trinidad Express Newspapers, 3rd September 2012
A GLITCH in the system created a $2 million mistake at the Ministry of People and Social Development.

On Saturday, hundreds of recipients of the Targeted Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCTP) visited the supermarket expecting their usual monthly balance, but instead received double the amount.

Comment: The English is difficult to understand, but it is clear that a payment file, was processed twice. That is a poor IT failure because this mistake should have been made impossible to make.

Computer glitch sparks Metrolink meltdown
Manchester Evening News, 3rd September 2012

Greater Manchester's entire tram service was suspended for half an hour after a server fault in the control room at the Metrolink depot in Queens Road.

The problem struck at around 8.30pm on Monday. A message on the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) website said: "Due to a server fault in the control room at Queens Road Metrolink depot, all services are temporaily suspended.

"We are attemtiong to rectify the fault and will get back to you with more information as soon as possible. Metrolink would like to apologise for the inconvenience this may cause." A spokesperson for TfGM said it was not safe to run the tram network while the computer problem persisted.

Comment: Another computer server failure... but I am impressed the problem was fixed in 40 minutes....but it makes me wonder whether it was luck or simply it was a fault that was easy to detect and rectify...

Asda charges customers FIVE TIMES for their online shopping order and must now repay hundreds
This is Money, 31st August 2012

Asda has apologised to customers and refunded hundreds of pounds after charging them as much five times for their internet shopping orders.

One customer was charged £790 for a £140 shopping order and will now have to wait five days for a refund.

A power cut yesterday in the U.S. at parent company Wallmart's office caused a computer glitch in its systems, leading to the error. [...]

A spokesman from Asda said that it was an isolated incident but that it has installed further precautionary measures to prevent it from happening again.

This is the second time that Asda's payment system has been subject to a glitch. Some customers were charged twice for their online shopping in July last

Comment: A power cut? To the best of my knowledge, I can't see a process for how one financial transaction could be repeated five times... However, I can see that some kind of EM interference (like lightning) that caused a power cut and also managed to corrupt some computer hardware. It is certainly interesting just how often computer batch programs are hicupping and deducting too much cash from people's accounts... Since the annoyance factor is high, how this can happen and go undetected is quite an enigma...

Computer glitch blamed for 580 delayed flights
North Jersey, 30th August 2012

CHICAGO – United Airlines said a piece of computer hardware was behind the technology meltdown that delayed 580 flights and shut down its website for more than two hours.

The outage on Tuesday prevented workers from boarding passengers on time. United passengers reported long lines in the airline's hubs in Newark, San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. It also caused nine cancellations.

The problem was a piece of hardware in a data center that failed to communicate properly with other computer equipment, said Megan McCarthy, a spokeswoman for United Continental Holdings Inc. A backup system failed to take over for the troubled hardware.

Comment: Hmmm... so we get a real explanation for a change, but despite the backup failure and the hassle, this outage lasted only two hours... I think this is another example of a cosmic ray induced computer network failure.

Computer Outage Briefly Halts United Flights In Bay Area & Across Nation
CBS SF News, 28th August 2012
In the last few weeks, computer glitches have affected universities, government agencies, airlines, emergency services, stock markets, computer software suppliers (Apple & Microsoft), telecommunications & mobile phone networks, but things have to get far worse for most to take any notice and to start querying what is going on....

UAE exchange bureau blames unpaid wages on computer glitch
The National, 29th August 2012
Computer system still busted....

Brokers braced for another day of likely trouble
The Jakarta Post, 28th August 2012

"This was because the IDX had switched to the emergency system, given the main system was not running," he said.

Satrio added that due to the problem, securities started trading only at 10 a.m. when the problem waned, but halted once more at 10:15 a.m. when connection "died out again".

Comment: So.... IDX HAD exactly the same problem as Knight Capital, because we are told: "The IDX system had suffered a glitch in 2009 as well, when a large security house flooded the trading system with orders."

IDX Dismisses BUMI-Related Rumors on Trading System Error
Indonesia Today, 28th August 2012
"JAKARTA (Indonesia Today) - The management of Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) dismissed speculations surrounding hackers and brokers of Bumi Resources (BUMI) behind disruptions of trading system on Monday (August 27)."

IDX Returns to Normal Trading
Indonesia Today, 28th August 2012

Update: IT Glitch Disrupts Indonesian Stock Trading
Jakarta Globe, 27th August 2012

The Indonesian stock exchange delayed trading on Monday after almost a third of its members failed to connect to the bourse's system.

Trading resumed about 1:30 p.m. according to Samsul Hidayat, the bourse's director of trading and membership, but was suspended again at 3:30 p.m., or half an hour before the market close.

The benchmark Jakarta Composite Index rose by just 0.01 percent, closing at 4,145.88. Only 664,000 shares were traded based on data from Bloomberg, a miniscule amount compared to the average 4.4 billion shares traded daily on the IDX this year.

Comment: Terrible.... even the backup system failed... Oh well, major financial institutions continue to suffer from technical "glitches", but there is a background of lots of less high profile computer system failures... Well, it can't be much longer now for those on the merry-go-round to wake up to our new cosmic reality... According to Reuters, this disaster is not over, see below:

Indonesia stock exchange struggles to resume Tuesday
Reuters News, 27th August 2012
Aug 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia's stock exchange has not decided yet whether trading will resume on Tuesday after technical problems that hampered the market in Southeast Asia's biggest economy on Monday.

Officials at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) were testing a "disaster recovery" system and working late into the night to try to decide whether trading will function, sources at the exchange told Reuters.
OK, I realised what would happen (read the 2006 version of my book), but I am still amazed at how quickly the break-down of our modern technological world is taking place...

Stuck accelerator takes woman on ride over 110 mph
CBS News, 24th August 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Iowa woman whose accelerator got stuck as she drove up Interstate 35 in Missouri managed to control the vehicle even as speeds topped 110 mph and she was forced to the median several times to avoid other drivers, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

Patrol spokesman Sheldon Lyon praised Lauri Ulvestad, 47, of Ames, Iowa, for not crashing her 2011 Kia Sorento as she weaved through traffic and a construction zone with no way to slow down.

Comment: It is a fact that car electronics are being affected by cosmic rays... for more background info, see the link below and archives.

Cars vs. cosmic rays
Cosmic Log NBC News, 2nd April 2010

Two years ago, Intel senior scientist Eric Hannah said it was just a matter of time before the cosmic-ray problem started affecting cars. "It's strange, but this is the reality we're moving into as we get smaller and smaller circuits," he told the BBC.

Toyota problems were mechanical, study says
SF Chronicle, 9th February 2011
Unintended acceleration in Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles was rooted in mechanical flaws rather than electronic defects, a U.S. investigation found.

NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday that a 10-month probe of defects that led to recalls of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide found no electronic causes. Safety advocates and some lawmakers had pointed to electrical faults as a reason for the reports about the world's largest automaker. [...]

"What most likely happened was pedal misapplication," he said. "The driver stepped on the gas rather than the brake or in addition to the brake."

So.... Toyota still thinks that drivers don't know the difference between the brake and the accelerator pedal.... Unless NASA used a particle accelerator like those at CERN, then it is difficult to know what they could have done to replicate high speed sub-atomic particles from cosmic ray showers hitting car electronics at ground level.

Microsoft Fixes Windows Phone Marketplace Glitch, Resumes Publishing Apps
Mobile Apps, 19th August 2012
"According to Microsoft, a changeover in the back-end infrastructure for the app store was behind the issue. On Thursday, Aug. 16, Marketplace chief Todd Brix said the "hiccup" has been addressed."

Comment: The use of the word "changeover" suggests that I might be right about a cosmic ray causing a bit flip, as this "changeover" took two days to find and presumably a piece of hardware that was hosting some operating system software had to be replaced...

Microsoft Windows Phone Dev Center Glitch Fixed
Eweek, 18th August 2012

For two days, new Windows Phone apps couldn't be published to the site after a site upgrade caused a glitch. The problems are now resolved, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft has apparently repaired a "hiccup" with its newly rebuilt Windows Phone Dev Center that prevented the publishing of new phone apps to the site for about two days.

App publishing was temporarily put on hold during the glitch, which was originally reported Aug. 14 in a post by Microsoft's Todd Brix on The Windows Phone Developer Blog.

In an Aug. 16 update, Brix announced that the problem was related to digital certificates and was finally resolved.

Comment: It really makes you wonder.... Not even Microsoft can get away with a high profile launch without problems with hardware/software... I imagine that there would have been the normal testing and everything would have been signed off before the due date and everything would have been good to go but then no doubt, there was some cosmic rain and then bam! Why would Microsoft allow this to happen unless it was due to circumstances beyond their control? This is not just another software bug that needs a 'fix'.... This is a quote from my book because it is becoming very relevant:

"Now, in the New Energy, car manufacturers have to allow for stray cosmic rays, specifically neutrons from space, interfering with car electronics. As one media report explained, "Neutron-induced firm errors have progressed from being a nuisance to being a significant problem" [44]. With the poor state of Earth's magnetosphere, it has become apparent that Earth's atmosphere cannot provide adequate shielding from high energy cosmic rays which are suspected as being the primary of interference in car electronics. This possibility was brought to light by a "concerned scientist" who sent a email tip-off to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) [45]. The message read:
For reasons I am unable to disclose, I am anonymously submitting several publically available scientific papers that discuss the possibility of cosmic rays disrupting electronics at sea level, essentially flipping a bit from one to zero, or vice versa. This phenomenon is a 'soft' error that is not detectable except through redundant electronic and communication systems. The scientific community refers to such occurrences as 'Single Event Upsets,' or SEUs. The reason SEUs are now relevant to the automotive industry is because electronics have gotten smaller and the required voltage levels have dropped significantly, therefore making electronics more susceptible to cosmic radiation."

Tuning the Diamonds: Electromagnetism & Spiritual Evolution (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012)

It is no secret that authorities suspect cheap electronics in Toyota cars were being fried by cosmic rays to the extent that many accidents were caused and people died. (While Toyota has received most of the attention, other car makers have had software-related incidents.) In March 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported: Now, Even NASA Is Involved in Toyota Crisis , and the only reason for NASA to be involved is to provide data that either proves or disproves the notion that cosmic rays are causing problems in the electronics used for computer technology in cars. Now, there seems to be an acceleration and it has become noticeable because large computer installations belonging to high profile financial institutions are being hit. It is no secret that NASA have informed the world that they are expecting cosmic rays to go up another 30% above the current high in the near future, see Cosmic Rays Hit Space Age High! The European Space Agency ESA) have told us straight that the Earth's magnetic field has major rifts and occasionally disappears on the daylight side see, Multiple rifts in Earth's magnetic shield. Therefore, we don't have to speculate, scientists already know that cosmic rays are a problem and even Intel have informed us that "we are living on borrowed time" a quote that appears on the patent for a cosmic ray detector on a chip.... Our modern technological world is highly reliant on computer technology and electronics and they are becoming more and more unreliable due to a major celestial deluge.... My main reasons for pointing this is out is that we must acknowledge that various sources that includes indigenous groups and Mayan Elders, warned about cosmic changes, but it seems before I wrote my book in 2006, very few had integrated enough science and metaphysics to make a link with Space Weather and the dramatically changing cosmic conditions that will force massive evolutionary change on Earth.

Technical glitch: Hundreds of UAE workers without Eid salaries
Exchange house, which pays workers under government's Wage Protection Solution system, closes outlets
Star Online, 18th August 2012

Hundreds of employees across the UAE [United Emirates] are stranded without their salaries ahead of Eid Al Fitr tomorrow after a money exchange that handles their payments suffered technical problems and is unable to process the payments.

The workers get paid through the exchange under the government's Wage Protection Solution system. Workers have been visiting the exchange's offices in several of the emirates, only to be greeted with downed shutters. The workers affected belong to several companies that process their payments through the exchange. [...]

Says one employer who pays his workers through the WPS system and this exchange: "For the last five days, I am reading this board – 'Closed Due to System Problems'.

"We have deposited the workers' salary for the month of August on August 3, 2012, and normally it takes two or three days to dispense the salary. Even after fifteen days, salaries are not paid," said Manohar, an Indian manager of an automobile trading firm in Sharjah.

According to eye-witnesses, a team from Dubai Police had reached the money exchange's head office located in Deira, Dubai, this morning. "I came here because I did not get a normal email alert that the payment has been cleared. All their branches in Sharjah remain closed.

"The company's junior staff are available in the office, but they are unable to handle the problem. They say the system is down and they cannot do anything," says another customer.

Comment: How ironic, the wage protection scheme run by the government has failed..... but these days, is two weeks long enough to fix a computer problem? The Royal bank of Scotland group that included Natwest and Ulster bank took longer than that to sort out all their customers' accounts.... Quite frankly, if it was only hundreds of people being affected, I hardly think that would be enough to make international news, but it says here there has been an issue for 15 days and the police were sent to see what was happening.... Whatever, there are a lot of computer "glitches" occuring, but those that involved people not getting paid and continued issues with unreliability, takes us nearer to the point of mass realisation that something rather fundamental is happening...

Mapco Gas Station Debit Card Glitch Falsely Charges Outlandish Amounts For Gas Fill-Ups (VIDEO)
Huffington Post, 16th July 2012
Ray Crockett was recently charged more than $84,000 for what was supposed to be a $30 tank of gas. The ordeal left Crockett frozen out of his hopelessly overdrawn Citibank account and with a measly $100 Visa gift card from Mapco to get him through the weekend. Citi has since credited Crockett's account, according to ABC News. But the drama has all but subsided. A NewsChannel 5 investigation revealed at least 16 other Mapco customers have recently been hit with five-figure gas bills after visiting the gas station.
This is where 'glitch' can easily be an euphemism for 'fraud'...

Port Columbus glitch blamed on transformer 6 inbound flights sent elsewhere after lights along runway go out
Dispatch News, 16th August 2012
There are a lot of transformer fire incidents reported in the United states at the moment, but I would like to see some statistics and a clear trend. Use Google news and keywords transformer + fire to pick up details.

Knight rises as firm reportedly finds trade glitch
Marketwatch, 14th August 2012

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) – Knight Capital Group Inc. shares shook off early session losses on Tuesday afternoon to end 5.3% higher following a televised report suggesting that the firm has discovered what triggered a more than $400 million trading loss earlier this month.

Bloomberg TV reported Tuesday that Knight Capital KCG +5.28% determined that outdated software was accidentally triggered when new software was loaded onto Knight's system.

The old software glitch multiplied the firm's stock orders by 1,000, the report said.

Comment: For reasons I have already explained concerning software maintenance and upgrades, there is no way on Earth that a multiplication factor of 1,000 went unnoticed by any normal testing procedures especially on just one algorithm, when we are told.... "You've got 13 exchanges, 50 dark pools, brokers that internalize client orders at their own desks and thousands of algorithms pumping orders in milliseconds..." But, the story of 'outdated software' is just plain bizarre... Are Knight Capital seriously expecting us to believe that multiplying the firm's stock orders by 1,000 was normal practice? But if that is true, then that creates other issues..... Quite frankly, a cosmic ray flipping a bit (bit-flip) is much more believable....

Computer glitch leaves police unable to talk with dispatchers
My San Antonio News, 13th August 2012

A computer hardware malfunction that left San Antonio Police Department dispatchers unable to hear officers' radio transmissions has been fixed, but diagnostic testing on the system continues, city officials said. Sunday afternoon the problem with the radios lasted about 20 minutes, but similar difficulties with communication occurred nightly last week. During the time the channels were down, dispatchers weren't able to hear the officers, which was a problem if they needed help or wanted to pass on information about suspects or victims.

Comment: Some glitches are more of an issue than others....

American stars miss Olympics closing ceremony due to TV glitch
Hollywood News, 12th August 2012
I suppose this is the only way that some will be interested in space weather as technology becomes more unreliable and eventually even the most superficial want to know why....

Blood bank national computer glitch upsets pathologists
News.com.au, 14th August 2012
I changed the headline to make it more headline worthy.... Hmmm... I am interested in the computer glitches that really matter and it seems that the escalation of major problems is ongoing.

Navy: U.S. destroyer collides with oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz
CNN News, 12th August 2012

(CNN) -- The U.S. Navy said its guided missile destroyer collided with a Japanese-owned oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday morning.

No one was injured in the collision that occurred about 1 a.m. local time when the USS Porter collided with the Panamanian-flagged bulk oil tanker M/V Otowasan, the Navy said in a statement.

The Navy did not provide details about the collision, saying only the accident was not related to combat. It said the incident is under investigation

Comment: Hmmm.... Landbased (Loran C) and/or satellite navigation systems screwed up? Well, it is difficult making a call here because it is public knowledge that GPS is no longer totally reliable, but Loran C is often only described as an inferior system used by mariners or as a backup land-based alternative to GPS and other satellite navigation systems. Some sources claim that the current LORAN system has been phased out in the United States and Canada, but we do know for sure that the US military now rely on a more sophisticated version of GPS, I don't know what systems other militaries are relying on. Whatever, the U.S. Navy's guided missile destroyer collided with a Japanese-owned oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and there must have been total reliance on a navigation system that failed..... bigtime. If you look in the archives this is becoming a common occurence. I also detailed the issue of failing GPS in my ebook What is Space Weather?. My interest is that stormy geomagnetic conditions affect humans as well as satellite navigation systems.

Woman is left £27,000 in debt after her new Orange pay as you go mobile withdraws £20 from her bank account every TEN MINUTES
Daily Mail, 9th August 2012

A holidaymaker was left £27,000 in debt after mobile phone company Orange extracted £120 an hour from her account for almost a week.

Anne Roberts was horrified to discover NatWest had repeatedly allowed the funds to be taken after she purchased a £20 pay-as-you-go phone while holidaying in Wales.

A technical blip meant Orange had been withdrawing £20.49p from Ms Roberts' account every ten minutes since she bought it. [...]

Mrs Roberts claimed other customers had suffered the same problem, with one person being overdrawn by £39,000.

Comment: Wow....

First Time Ever in South Africa: Snow in All 9 Provinces
News 24, 8th August 2012

As Glitches Mount, Cyber Safety Net for Businesses Shrinks
CNBC News, 9th August 2012

It is shaping up to be the year of the glitch. Days after the massive software failure which nearly put Knight Capital Group out of business, exchanges in Tokyo and Spain were forced to suspend some trading due to glitches, while a software bug caused Southwest Airlines to charge online customers several times over for the same flight.

The problems are raising a red flag about system risks resulting from software upgrades, but there are few security products or insurance coverage to protect businesses from glitch-related losses.

"These incidents are certainly a wakeup call for software quality at these organizations," says Eric Baize, senior director of the product security office at RSA, a division of EMC.

Comment: Comprehensive cyber insurance is a damn good idea, as we seem to have lots of new infestations of software bugs..... However, for those who are more informed, we don't know just how bad and how quickly the impact of space weather will take hold.... as Intel declared in 2004, we have been "living on borrowed time..." Unfortunately, the ignorance about what is happening to our world is breathtaking...

Globe blames Sun system glitch for interconnection problems
ABS-CBN News, 9th August 2012
MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom, the second largest telecommunications company in the country, said its subscribers are having difficulty connecting to subscribers of rival Sun Cellular due to a glitch in the latter's system.

In a statement, the company said Globe and TM subscribers may have been encountering problems making and receiving voice calls, as well as sending and receiving text messages from Sun subscribers.

"Initial investigation shows a glitch in the interconnection facility of the Cellular Mobile Telephone System of Sun Cellular. Globe and Sun engineers working to restore the Sun-Globe interconnect to its normal level," Globe said, in a statement.
Oh yes, mobile phone networks are getting very glitchy too these days.....

Flying high: El Al to honor cheap tickets to Israel from glitch
JTA News, 9th August 2012

Metro still investigating glitch that led all trains to be halted; problem could happen again
Washington Post, 16th July 2012

HYATTSVILLE, Md. – Metro officials say they still don't know what caused a software program tracking trains to shut down twice over the weekend, and it's possible it could happen again. All trains on the Washington-area transit network were halted for a half-hour each time the system failed.

Dave Kubicek (koo-bih-CHECK), Metro's deputy general manager for operations, says the computer system vendor and Metro engineers and maintenance staffers are working around the clock to figure out what caused the problem. He says he can't be sure it won't happen again. [...]

The glitch did not affect Metro's signaling system, which ensures that trains maintain enough space between them. But it affected Metro's ability to see where trains were on the lines.

Comment: Reading through the Lloyd's of London, Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business report I saw something that I had not noted before. It says there is a new dependence on mobile phone technology but it is a fact that there are now many recent examples where this technology is now failing and even whole networks brought down.

Executive Summary
5. Space weather can also disrupt pipelines and railway signals

It can cause problems such as corrosion on pipelines and incorrect signal settings on railways. Again, there are means to mitigate these effects, but they usually require keeping back-up systems, which adds to operational costs.

Rail transport
[...] Looking to the future, emerging train control technologies, such as the European Train Control System,61 rely on communications links based on mobile phone technology and are therefore potentially vulnerable to interference from solar radio bursts. These links enable trains to report their speed and position to control centres and for those centres to transmit movement authorities to trains. Interference from radio bursts could break those control links and bring railway movement to a halt. This would severely disrupt railway schedules. Currently, these new control technologies are largely deployed as trials on selected lines, and most train routes still use physical signalling systems. We would therefore expect limited impact in the coming solar maximum of 2012 to 2015, but these control systems are likely to be more widespread by the following solar maximum (around 2024), so the risk could be higher. Developers and potential users of this technology will need to monitor space weather problems on the existing trial systems and look for solutions to reduce the long-term impact.

Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business
Lloyd's of London, November 2010

El Al fare glitch spurs buying frenzy on NYC-Israel flights
USA Today,8th August 2012
"Israeli carrier El Al has not yet decided whether it will honor New York-Tel Aviv tickets that it mistakenly sold for just $330 to $400 round trip. Such tickets typically run anywhere from $1,000 to $1,600 for coach-class seats."
I was going to ignore this story until I read the glitch was thought of as "a bargain of biblical proportions" and "pregnant women even tried to book future flights for their unborn children."

Tokyo bourse hit by glitch in derivatives trading
Reuters News, 7th August 2012

(Reuters) - The Tokyo Stock Exchange halted trading in derivatives including Topix futures and Japanese government bond futures for more than an hour on Tuesday morning, suffering a glitch for the second time in six months. Trading resumed at 10.55 am Tokyo time (0155 GMT). A Tokyo Stock Exchange spokeswoman said the exchange was still investigating the problem.

Trading in Nikkei futures was not affected because they are traded on the Osaka Securities Exchange. (8697.OS) The last time the Tokyo Stock Exchange was hit by a glitch was on February 2 when cash-share trading was halted in the morning session. In that case, trading in some 240 shares and instruments was affected.

Comment: Oh, well...... I don't have enough information to be 100% sure of any explanation for why 5 stock markets (all in very different time zones and parts of the world) have had major computer related problems in the last 7/8 days. BUT, unless this is just all a coincidence (eye roll), when stockmarkets around the world fail, there is an automatic kneejerk reaction to report the news and investors and players are all anxious to find out what happened and to be reassured that it won't happen again. Yet, providing technical explanations to people without a technical background is not so easy. Since there have been so many other types of technology failures in recent weeks and months, I am wondering out loud whether we are just seeing more and more space weather related interference problems. It is a fact that Earth's shielding is deteriorating, but we dont know just how bad things are until we are officially told and often that is by an media announcement released in the dead of night and I don't always see important information straight away.... Whatever, here is a brief summary of what's happened on the borses in the last 7/8 days. First there was the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) [Bangladesh] that remained suspended Tuesday as Monday's trading could not be settled due to technical glitch in the central depository system (CDS). Knight Capital, a major Wall Street brokerage of stock trades [United States], almost went bust after a duff algorithmn entered millions of faulty trades in less than an hour on Wednesday morning. Spain's stock exchange was halted for nearly five hours earlier Monday after another duff algorithm caused trading in Madrid to stop. The Tokyo Stock Exchange halted trading in derivatives including Topix futures and Japanese government bond futures for more than an hour on Tuesday morning due to another technical glitch... At this point I would like to mention that when we had a major episode of space weather in 1989, the Toronto Stock Exchange was halted, see below:

SCIENTISTS blame an intense burst of solar activity for events which halted all trading on Toronto's stock market last month. Officials watched in disbelief as three disc drives failed in succession on what is supposed to be a 'fault-tolerant' computer system. The crash stopped trading for three hours. 'I don't know what the gods were doing to us,' said John Kane, the vice president of the exchange.
Solar storms halt stock market as computers crash
New Scientist, Magazine issue 1681, 9th September 1989

At the moment, it is very difficult to find out what is going on especially with financial institutions when 'confidence' is a mandatory requirement. Yet, as we all know after the last few months, confidence can be quickly eroded, by massive computer failures. Whatever, there seems to have been a sharp increase in major incidents and lots of nerves are now jangling.

UPDATE 1-Technical glitch stops Spanish stock trading
Reuters, 6th August 2012

* No time specified for trading to restart
* Auctions started at 0935 GMT - bourse (Adds detail)

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Trading on Spain's stock exchange was halted on Monday due to a technical problem, which technicians were investigating, a spokesman for the exchange operator BME said.

Trading was halted shortly after 0800 GMT, when the blue-chip exchange, the IBEX, was up 0.25 percent at 6,772 points.

Equity market auctions began again at 0935 GMT, but no time was specified for full trading to resume, the bourse said.

Comment: Hmmm... could be a coincidence.... but, we await more details... So far, Spain's stock exchange has been partly down for nearly 4 hours.

Spanish stock exchange halted for technical glitch
Market Watch, 6th August 2012

Algorithm Trading Responsible For Another Glitch
Benzinga, 6th August 2012
"Spain's benchmark Ibex 35 Index was halted for nearly five hours earlier Monday after a trading glitch caused trading in Madrid to stop. The Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles SA, the company that oversees the stock exchange, could not comment on the nature of the glitch and only said that trading had been halted due to a technical glitch."

US Stocks Rise; Knight Capital Gets Lifeline
NPR News, 6th August 2012

Jamaica Update: Mysterious Island wide blackout
Caribbean Hurricane Network, 6th August 2012
"The entire Island of Jamaica is without power and I doubt its Ernesto . Moderate to heavy rains are affecting some Central and Eastern parishes but I cant see how in the West where no rain or impacts the power is out.Its not quite as big as 600 million in India but Its highly unusually for the entire Island to be without power at any given time."
Elsewhere, the excuse provided is two cars crashing and bad weather.... not really a very believable scenario...

Glitch Prompts eBay to Cancel Listings and Issue Refunds
Ecommerce Bytes, 6th August 2012

Bay cancelled what's thought to be thousands of listings over the weekend after a glitch wiped out critical data from the item descriptions. eBay sent an email to those affected promising to issue double refunds to sellers who paid insertion fees and must now edit the listings to add back in the data and then relist them.

eBay sellers were initially alarmed over the weekend when some of their listings were cancelled due to supposed "Duplicate Listing" policy violations. "It is my belief that a rogue ebay employee has hacked into my account and simply ended the listings from within," one reader wrote to EcommerceBytes on Sunday, but it turned out eBay cancelled the listings because of Friday's glitch, which was reported in the EcommerceBytes Blog.

Comment: Another technical glitch.... but from the listing of related stories, Ebay seems to have lots of glitches on a regular basis....

London 2012 Olympics: Viewers unhappy at BBC reporters' methods during post-event interview
Daily Mail, 5th August 2012

BBC's 'touch-feely' presenters hit a nerve: Viewers unhappy at reporters' methods during post-event interview Britain's victories in the Olympics may have taken the nation's emotions to a new level, but viewers are unhappy that the BBC's reporters can't seem to keep their own in check.

Many have complained about over-excited 'touchy-feely' displays of congratulation or consolation from the corporation's journalists – including rubbing, stroking and patting athletes as they interview them. Most prominent has been athletics trackside reporter Phil Jones, whose tactile interviews with Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah raised eyebrows.

Comment: Actually, I noticed this too... the most hilarious coverage is the sports veterans/pundits getting over excited about Mo Farrell's win in the 10,000 metres, hysterical.... I have noted the comments here, but I think it is a general sign that many people are losing the use of their android genes. Just watch some old TV clips (1960s and older) and note presentators speaking in a mechanical drone like robots, those voices make me shiver.... something has changed, real empathic humans are back in fashion.

Southwest Airlines promo glitch charges customers for flights aplenty
CNN Blog News, 3rd August 2012

When Southwest Airlines offered a limited-time promotion on Friday to celebrate reaching three million fans on Facebook, it seems they accidentally racked up duplicate charges on the credit cards of their loyal customers. [...]

Because of being charged multiple times, sometimes upwards of 30 separate occasions, customers complained that the strain on their credit cards for the unexpected charges had a domino effect on their finances.

"I was sympathic [sic] to the situation before I actually spoke with a rep from Southwest who said, there is nothing she can do...southwest will refund the charges when they get to it and it will take 8 -10 business days before I get my money back and now I have to call customer relations to get the overlimit fees back, and I was charged interest on the $1400 on the duplicate charges and I have to pay for the long distance fees to call customer relations as they do not have a 1-800 number...SERIOUSLY?!?!? Are you freaking kidding me?" Suzanne Worrell wrote in a blazing pos

Comment: Really? The same VISA card charge was duplicated up to 30 times on a customer's credit card...... read the stories, this is unbelievable.... Oh well, I am wondering if we have no entered a new phase in the acceleration of space weather because I refuse to believe that all these financial computer "errors" are all coincidences..... Whatever, if this is going to keep up, soon there will be so many complaints that even the most obtuse will realise that something strange is going on.... I would be scrutinising the NICT magnetosphere simulation for any clues as to what is happening to Earth's shielding, but it is no longer available.....

Should every computer chip have a cosmic ray detector?
New Scientist, 7th March 2008
"But Intel thinks we may still be living on borrowed time:
"Cosmic ray induced computer crashes have occurred and are expected to increase with frequency as devices (for example, transistors) decrease in size in chips. This problem is projected to become a major limiter of computer reliability in the next decade. "
Hmmm.... So in 2004, when the patent for building cosmic ray detectors into every chip was filed, Intel must have known for quite some time that cosmic rays were a problem and the situation was expected to get far worse. Well, we do know that NASA was monitoring the flagging solar wind in the mid 1990s (and maybe long before that) and so 'those in the know' were informed early as to which way the wind was blowing... Well, even though the general public have been informed, the lack of education means the news means nothing to the majority despite the seriousness of the implications.
Intel plans to tackle cosmic ray threat
BBC News, 8th April 2008
Computer processor manufacturer Intel have revealed details of a patent for protecting future generations of computers from the growing threat of cosmic rays. The company has designed an on-chip cosmic ray detector to try to cope with the particles, which originate in space before sporadically entering the Earth's atmosphere and going through everything they encounter.

Because the operation of computers is through charged particles, the unpredictable hits from the rays are problematic, potentially causing the system to crash. The risk from cosmic rays may not be thought of as a big problem on a single computer with a single chip, as there is the potential for error only perhaps every several years. [...]

But Mr Hannah explained that on a supercomputer with 10,000 chips, there was the potential for 10 or 20 faults a week. And the risk of cosmic ray interference will only increase as chips get smaller. This is because circuits will require less charge per switch to operate. [...]

And this is potentially a problem not just for PCs and supercomputers, but anything with computer-operated parts - for example cars. "You could be going down the autobahn at 200 miles an hour and suddenly discover your anti-lock braking system doesn't work because it had a cosmic ray event," Mr Hannah said.

"It's strange, but this is the reality we're moving into as we get smaller and smaller circuits."

Comment: If you look around there is a lot of useful information on the internet, discussing which computer hardware suppliers took cosmic ray induced errors seriously. As an aside, some Toyota car owners found out the hard way that car electronics are vulnerable to cosmic rays. But, even after hundreds of accidents and some deaths, a Toyota representative claimed that drivers did not know the difference between the brake and the accelerator, see archives for more info.... I wrote about this scenario in my book Tuning the Diamonds as car electronics manufacturers, were complaining that users want reliability to the standard of a military tank but don't want to pay for the quality components needed.... Well, our cheap electronics are being fried by cosmic rays but it seems that there has been expectation that things were going to get far worse and it is now happening. Meanwhile, there is still little interest in how bioelectromagnetic humans are supposed to cope in this cosmic deluge and after my experiences in the metaphysical community, you will need to be switched on to be able to come through the trauma of dealing with the unsavoury characters you will have to deal with to find out some truth.
United States Patent: Cosmic ray detectors for integrated circuit chips

RBS IT glitch will cost bank £125m
computing.co.uk, 3rd August 2012
"The IT glitch that affected NatWest, Ulster Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will cost the RBS Group £125m, the firm has revealed. In its half-year report, RBS said that it had to provision £125m for "costs arising from the technology incident in June 2012". The incident left millions of customers unable to access their accounts, while RBS struggled to fix the issue."

Wall Street sees Knight as software risk wake-up call
Chicago Tribune, 3rd August 2012

[...] Dealers don't always do a great job of testing, said Colin Clark, a developer with Cloud Event Processing, a firm that works with big Wall Street banks and exchanges on software and technology. "They're not investing enough in testing now," Clark said, noting the pressure banks face to cut costs.

U.S. stock trading volume is 40 percent below its peak volume in 2009, according to Tabb Group, falling from an average of 12 billion trades a day to 6 million to 7 million currently. That decline has weighed on profits at firms, and strained the willingness of many to invest in unglamorous areas like testing systems, said Larry Tabb, founder of Tabb Group, a consulting firm that focuses on capital markets.

"There are fewer people minding the store, and the people in place are stretched too thin," Tabb said. But others on Wall Street dismissed the notion that dealers are not investing enough in their systems, noting that dealers spend millions on technology in part to be more efficient and reduce staffing levels.

Comment: I can hardly believe that people are talking about testing software systems as being "unglamorous"....... Surely, going bust is even more unglamorous..... Presumably, being interested in reality is too unglamorous for some too....

Knight Capital 'has 48 hours' to save itself after IT glitch causes $440m loss
Telegraph News, 3rd August 2012

Since March, a series of embarrassing technology issues, including the botched Facebook trading debut after its IPO and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets have rocked markets and shaken the confidence of investors.

"You've got 13 exchanges, 50 dark pools, brokers that internalize client orders at their own desks and thousands of algorithms pumping orders in milliseconds," said Larry Tabb, founder of Tabb Group, a financial consulting firm. "The structure just may be too complicated to work."

Comment: Please note the statement, "thousands of algorithms pumping orders in milliseconds". In this latest Information Technology (IT) fiasco, there is no evidence that there was a timestamping problem, but I want to inform. (Please note that on financial forums in the blogosphere, like Zero Hedge, there is some real cynicism about a financial broker losing lots of other people's money and these commentators have other reasons to explain Knight Capital's imminent demise...). Regardless, satellite navigation services are used for timestamping financial transactions but this is sometimes failing due to space weather roiling the ionosphere, screwing-up the total electron count and thus generating incorrect values. The US and UK military have been publicly warning for the last few years (plus other informed sources) that GPS and satellite navigation services are no longer reliable and this has got to the stage where military exercises have started without using satellite navigation services (think about the consequences of an EMP strike/massive geomagnetic blast, that cripples our satellite communications systems, thus rendering sophisticated computer controlled technologies useless). Due to all the high profile computer failures, I suspect that greedy bosses are busy firing the real brains and replacing them with 'numpties' that don't fully understand how major computer networked systems work. The reason for this belief is the sheer number of banks and stock market companies now struggling with so-called 'failed' software updates/server issues. Back in the old days (maybe 15 years ago before outsourcing to India became popular), IT staff were competent enough to maintain computer systems in good working order, so what is happening now is beyond incredible (I can hardly believe it). There are too many factors converging at once and we are heading towards disaster due to penny pinching CEOs that don't understand that our world is changing and thus leaving their companies wide open to major computer screw-ups. But more importantly, the general public are not being educated about what is happening to our world, so all people see is major service providers failing on a regular basis. From my perspective, space weather is being treated like a joke, but on a regular basis; mobile phones don't work, technologies that rely on mobile phone technology and satellite navigation systems regularly fail, bank ATMs don't always work, a few spectacular bank computer foul-ups means that customers are being impacted and in parts of the world, there seems to be more electrical transformers blowing up thus causing power outages but assessment is difficult because there are a lot of delapidated and outdated power grids failing for many different reasons. This list can be extended.... Thus, due to so many different service providers failing to provide in the usual manner, I am hoping that a few more intelligent people might start to engage brain and think about why this is all happening at the same time that they look up into the sky and see new incredible atmospheric phenomena, (electrified noctilucent clouds should at least provide some kind of hint.....). Personally, when various space agencies explain in plain language that the planet is being bombarded with cosmic radiation, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to conclude that there will be major consequeces, but it seems that too many people are dizzy from being on the merry-go-round and cannot think deeply enough to realise that our world is facing a major new challenge.

Solar storms could spark $2 trillion 'global Katrina'
The Star, 22nd February 2011
[...] "Power grids, air traffic control systems and intelligent transport systems need to be looked at," Stephan Lechner, director of the European Commission Institute for Protection and Security of the Citizen, told a weekend meeting.

"And would our financial trading places have to shut down if the accuracy of the time stamp for an electronic order was not given any more?" [...] "GPS is a critical part of almost everything we do," Thomas Bogdan, director of the Space Weather Prediction Centre in Colorado, told the session.

"Every time you go to a gas station and purchase a gallon of gas with your credit card, that's a satellite transaction taking place."

"How long can our telecommunications networks live without a time stamp" provided by GPS, Lechner asked.

"The potential vulnerability of our systems has increased," Sir John Beddington, chief scientific adviser to the British government, told the weekend meeting.

Comment: Note the concern about timestamping....

Knight Capital Gets a Lifeline
Wall Street Journal, 3rd August 2012

"Knight has blamed software installed on its system Tuesday for errors entering millions of trades in less than an hour as the market opened the next day. The errant trades were routed to the New York Stock Exchange, which on Wednesday started operating a new trading platform designed to attract trades from individual investors."

Loss Swamps Trading Firm
Knight Capital Searches for Partner as Tab for Computer Glitch Hits $440 Million
Wall Street Journal, 2nd August 2012
Knight officials blamed software installed earlier this week for causing the brokerage firm to enter millions of faulty trades in less than an hour on Wednesday morning. The orders roiled trading in almost 150 stocks and left Knight holding losing positions in many shares at the end of Wednesday's trading session. As the company's stock slid 63% on Thursday, officials sought out a potential cash injection or buyer, according to people with knowledge of the ...

'Someone has a major, major problem on their hands': Panic on Wall Street as computer glitch sparks 'out of control' surge in trading
Daily Mail, 2nd August 2012

A technical glitch at a major Wall Street brokerage of stock trades caused wild swings in a number of stocks shortly after markets opened.

The malfunction occurred at Knight Capital, one of the largest processors of stock trades.

The company said in a statement that a 'technology issue' had occurred in its market-making unit related to the routing of shares of about 150 stocks to the New York Stock Exchange. [...]

Joe Saluzzi, co-head of trading at Themis Trading told FoxBusiness.com: 'The [algorithms] went nuts this morning. Someone has a major, major problem on their hands.'

CNBC reported that such algorithms are developed by major brokerages that buy and sell stock in accordance with formulas and market situations.

Comment: Here, we are being told that a major crisis (bad enough to cause the likely demise of a major Wall Street player), was caused by some duff programming of a trading algorithm, but this implies there was insufficient testing of computer software.... Well, I just don't believe this was just another software "upgrade" and "bug" that went wrong, for all the reasons that I keep repeating..... Major computer failures that are so bad that we are hearing about them, are becoming headline news on a regular basis.... Whatever, there are now so many reports of major computer failures or "glitches" that a few media pundits have noticed and are starting to query what is really going on.......

Stock exchange glitch cost U.S. trading firm $440m in just a few minutes and could lead to its bankruptcy
Daily Mail, 3rd August 2012
'We're losing the human control in our business,' said Joe Anastasio, a founding partner of financial services consulting firm Capco who specializes in stock trading issues. 'We've been so focused on automated throughput of orders and high-volume execution with no human intervention that we have lost the human logic factor when things go wrong.' One of the problems, he said, is that millions of orders stack up overnight for automatic execution at the opening of trading, with a single error potentially creating a deluge of bad trades.

Comment: The reliance on computer technology is the issue as there are no guarantees and complete failures are possible...

Did 'Solar Storms' Cause India's Massive Blackout?
New York Times India Blog, 1st August 2012

"A big geomagnetic storm can essentially put extra electric currents into the grid," Mr. Hapgood added. "If it gets bad enough, you can have a complete failure of the power grid."

Comment: It looks like a few in the mainstream media are getting the message about the vulnerability of national power grids..... BUT the response that solar storms only induce GICS in northern latititudes IS WRONG! See archives for links to research papers concerning geomagnetically induced currents.

Explosions cut power in Auckland [NZ]
NZ Herald, 1st August 2012
"A faulting 11,000 volt cable has caused multiple explosions and a fireball at a rail overbridge on Weymouth Rd in Manurewa this morning. There are now significant traffic delays and disruptions in the Weymouth area. Weymouth Rd has been closed after a motor accident following the explosions."

Technical glitch in CDS halts trading in bourses
Financial Express, 1st August 2012
"Share trading at the both bourses -- Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) -- remained suspended Tuesday as Monday's trading could not be settled due to technical glitch in the central depository system (CDS).

Trade settlement through central depository system in the bourses was disrupted Monday due to a technical glitch in the software of the Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd (CDBL), the service provider of the electronic settlement system."
There have been other more major stock markets halted due to strange technical glitches in the last 18 months or so, but as usual, explanations have not been forth coming. I believe this is just another random strike but until there is a proper technical explanation, this is difficult for outsiders to assess. Also: Server glitch halts stock trading

Investors demand probe into CDBL's 'technical glitches'
The Financial Expres, 1st August 2012
Experts and investors stressed on proper and impartial investigation into the 'technical glitches' that occurred in the server of the CDBL (Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd) Monday, to revive all stakeholders' confidence on the electronic share transaction system.

Their comments came following the failure of the CDBL's server that compelled both the bourses to suspend the day's trading for the first time due to technical reasons Tuesday.

Earlier, technical glitches occurred several times in the server, and the authority restored the system before the trading started on the following day. But for the first time, the trading of a whole session was suspended due to technical reasons.

Power Is Restored Across India After Crippling Blackout
New York Times, 1st August 2012

But Ajit Sharan, the power secretary for Haryana, said that the central government is supposed to warn states if they are drawing excessive power from the system, and that did not happen on Tuesday or Monday, when another blackout affected a quarter of the nation's population.

"This hype that states are overdrawing is the reason for the collapse is not right," said Mr. Sharan. It is too early to say what exactly happened, he said. [...]

Power experts in the United States speculated that inattention by those manning crucial circuit breakers on India's electrical grid may have led to the blackout.

Comment: According to the New York Times, this is the biggest ever power grid failure in human history... The blame game has started.... Why are people "watching" circuit breakers? Surely this could be automated?

Pakistan blackout protests turn violent
Press TV News, 31st July 2012
"Prolonged and widespread power outage in most of Pakistan's cities during scorching summer heat has triggered violent protests in most areas of the country."
Also:

Power outages in Saudi Arabia 'hard to avoid': head of electricity agency
Al Arabiya News, 31st July 2012
"The authority is preparing an extensive study to find out causes of power outages in different parts of the Kingdom. "Causes of interruption are diverse and vary from one region to another," he added."

Notable power outages around the world
AP, 31st July 2012

India hit by second grid collapse in two days: 620 million without power in larger outage
CNN News, 31st July 2012

India suffered its second huge, crippling power failure in two days Tuesday, depriving as much as half of the vast and populous country, or up to 600 million people, of electricity and disrupting transport networks. The first power grid collapse, on Monday, was the country's worst blackout in a decade. It affected seven states in northern India that are home to more than 350 million people.

But Tuesday's failure was even larger, hitting eastern and northeastern areas as well. Both blackouts cut power in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The power companies that operate the affected electricity grids reported Tuesday's collapse on their websites. With about 1.2 billion people, India has the second-highest population of any country, behind China. [...]

Monday's grid failure struck in the early morning. Residents spent the rest of the night drenched in sweat amid humid weather, and many backup power systems had run out by daybreak. Power was partially restored after about six hours, authorities said.

Comment: Of course the backup generators are not meant to be run for more than 4 - 8 hours and so people relying on them were left bereft... Think of all the recent investment in a country that can't even manage to keep major power grids operational when it's too hot..... but, India is not alone in that respect.... see previous comments and recent articles expressing concern about space weather, and national power grids in general.

Major blackout hits northern Indian cities- 370 million powerless
Yahoo News, 30th July 2012

Northern India's power grid crashed Monday, halting hundreds of trains, forcing hospitals and airports to use backup generators and leaving 370 million people - more than the population of the United States and Canada combined - sweltering in the summer heat.

The blackout, one of the worst to hit India in a decade, highlighted the nation's inability to feed a growing hunger for energy as it strives to become a regional economic power.

The country's northern grid crashed about 2:30 a.m. because it could no longer keep up with the huge demand for power in the hot summer, officials in the state of Uttar Pradesh said.

Comment: 370 million people affected must be some kind of record.... Backup generators are essential in this country but most are only designed for 4 - 8 hours. From online reports, it seems that it took this time and longer to restore power in some regions. India's national power grid is not very robust but due to space weather, national power grids across the globe are all vulnerable in these worsening geomagnetic conditions.

Power cut causes major disruption in northern India
BBC News, 30th July 2012

MSU attracts NASA attention with computer system for space
Space Daily, 30th July 2012

Two Montana State University graduate students who are building a radiation-proof computer system for use in space have received an extra boost from NASA. Justin Hogan and Raymond Weber recently learned that their project with faculty member Brock LaMeres was one of 14 selected by NASA for development and demonstration on commercial launch vehicles in 2013 or 2014. [...]

MSU will receive anywhere from $125,000 to $500,000 to continue designing and building an "environmentally aware" computer system that will work in space even if it's bombarded by radiation or high-energy particles. Work on the project began in 2010 with a three-year, $750,000 grant LaMeres received from NASA EPSCoR.

Radiation and high energy particles can cause even shielded computers to crash or malfunction. "It's a major problem specifically for manned missions where computers aren't allowed to fail," LaMeres said.

Comment: This is good news because cheap radiation hardened computers will be needed for normal computing on Earth fairly soon....

Twitter users help jam Olympic cycling broadcast
Huffington Post, 29th July 2012

LONDON – The IOC says social media users helped cause problems for traditional broadcasters during the first big event of the London Olympics.

Because of a glitch with GPS signals on Saturday during the men's cycling road race, broadcasters were unable to provide television viewers with much information about the location and timings of riders on the 155-mile course.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams says the Olympic Broadcasting Services service was jammed by "hundreds of thousands" of people sending texts, pictures and updates to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Adams says "we should have foreseen that." The problem appeared to be solved for Sunday's women's road race.

Comment: A "glitch" with GPS signals.... I think there are two issues here, but when GPS fails, there is a breakdown due to massive volume all trying to re-calibrate locations or more correctly synchronise network operations at the same time, see previous comments related to recent mobile phone network failures.

"Mobile phone networks are often dependent on satellite navigation services for accurate timing information. This is essential to maintain synchronisation of network operation; for example, as phones move between the cells that form the heart of every provider's network.64 Therefore, network operations are at risk from space weather impacts on satellite navigation signals..." pg 17

Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business
Lloyd's of London, November 2010

2012 Olympics plane forced to land at Cambridge
BBC News, 29th July 2012

An aircraft being used for aerial shots of the 2012 Olympic Games had to make a forced landing at Cambridge Airport. The King Air B200, which was being used as an airborne relay station, had to land after suffering a loss of its electrical system.

Operators, ASL of Belgium, said the pilot had to navigate on Saturday night using only charts and a compass. ASL also said the plane's landing gear retracted and the aircraft "fell" on the runway but no-one was hurt.

Comment: This is such a strange event that I think it must be noted. We have to wait for the results of the inquiry by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch but I still think we should expect more and more strange electrical faults as the impact of space weather accelerates. Planes are at risk because they are flying into invisible currents, NASA's 'ion plumes' that can now be seen appearing on weather radar systems (see archives for more information). Furthermore, geophysisists are also producing maps of Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICS) that flow to/from the Earth at major transformers in the UK and similar efforts are being undertaken in Europe. As I have already documented there are other efforts to understand the hazards of space weather being undertaken in the UK and worldwide.

US Air Force claims to be source of mysterious cloud rings seen in skies over Hawaii
The Extinction Protocol, 27th July 2012

HONOLULU - Hawaii News Now's Facebook page was flooded Thursday afternoon with photos of mysterious looking clouds. The 'rings' were spotted above Oahu, Maui and Lanai. They looked like the common contrail or vapor trail that forms behind aircraft; however these 'trails' were circular and do not match the normal Hawaii flight patterns. Some wondered if they were part of the RIMPAC exercises or even a UFO? Here is the official statement from RIMPAC: "RIMPAC's Air Forces had a NATO AWACS aircraft flying south of Oahu, in a circular pattern; at about 29,000 feet today during the time those contrails were visible. The AWACS was controlling RIMPAC assets exercising further away from the island."

Comment: Hmmm... I think this story requires further investigation....

Twitter briefly down across much of planet
Seattlepi.com, 26th July 2012

Millions hit by new banking glitch [UK]
Millions of bank customers at Nationwide and Natwest were left unable to access cash or found they had been overcharged after severe computer problems hit two of Britain's biggest banks.
Telegraph, 26th July 2012

The IT glitches at Nationwide and Natwest come just weeks after a bungled software update left up to 12 million Natwest and RBS customers unable to pay bills or move money. Consumer groups called for savers to be compensated and said that the computer problems are proof of "widespread failure" in the banking system.

Over 700,000 customers at the Nationwide building society were told today that they had been charged twice for making purchases with their debit cards. The card transactions in question were made on Tuesday but were debited again on Wednesday, and meant that some people became overdrawn. The building society said that around 50,000 customers had had subsequent transactions declined as a result.

Meanwhile many of Natwest's 7.5 million customers were unable to use their debit cards or were unable to log on to their online bank accounts due to computer problems.

Comment: Because I worked in IT for about 10 years mostly with a large financial institution, I am really struggling with the recent crop of IT failures... I don't expect 'human error' to be provided as an excuse, as there should be procedures in place to stop human error.... [Update: I have been thinking.... This is similar to the original Natwest failure when the scheduler CA-7 was corrupted and ran for three nights before anybody noticed there was a problem... here it seems that somehow the same files were re-run to cause a duplicate batch update... and it will be interesting to see if this was caused by the same scheduling package, CA-7 which is sold to many different types of large companies that need to process large amounts of batch overnight processing... If so, the fact the duplication was not backed out on the second night because it was simply not spotted is really worrying... Besides sheer incompetence.... this raises the spectre of deliberate sabotage, (poor programming might not be sufficient because someone clever needs to hide the code, as normal testing SHOULD have eliminated the CA-7 software failing bigtime.... ) By the constant cock-ups, I am being persuaded that the standards of IT staff have dropped dramatically since my time in the IT world and I am even having wild thoughts about 'Programmers Revenge'. Maybe there is someone out there with the mentality of I can make your computer systems work or I can break them just as easily.... This could even be private or corporate sabotage....] Whatever, banks and major financial institutions and 'cloud' computing services should be able to cope with computer software and hardware 'upsets', but it seems some are regularly failing... Yes, I am explaining that space weather is now an issue (see previous comments), but I am concerned that there are too many signs that our modern technological world could completely break down due too many factors converging at once. Space weather would only act as a trigger, but I am losing confidence in the ability of people to deal with unusual circumstances.

Banks hit by technology breakdowns again: Thousands of Nationwide customers fuming as building society takes debit card purchases TWICE and more problems emerge at Natwest
Daily Mail, 26th July 2012

Technical disruptions hit 95 CBA [Commonwealth Bank] banches [Au]
Sydney Morning Herald, 25th July 2012
"An internal computer upgrade at the Commonwealth Bank has caused some disruption to services at a small number of branches. A spokesman for the bank said the computer upgrade had limited services at 95 of its more than 1000 branches across Australia. Netbank, phone banking, ATMs and EFTPOS had not been impacted by the computer glitch."
A nice vague press release... but a common theme and excuse of a computer upgrade going wrong...

Yahoo's system glitch leaves 5,698 companies fuming
Daily Bhaskar, 27th July 2012

Osaka: The last week system failure that knocked out a rental server service operated by a Yahoo Japan Corp. subsidiary has left 5,698 companies fuming. The technical glitch led to the disappearance of the data belonging to the companies including information used for their websites.

"Regrettably, we have determined that we cannot retrieve the data," Firstserver Inc. said on its website. The Osaka-based company also said it is unable to rebuild the system, while it plans to compensate for the damages.

The system failure occurred around 5 PM Wednesday when the company tried to upgrade the server system's security, it said. Firstserver has attributed the glitch to problems with its computer programming and operational procedures. The company has also lost the backup data.

Comment: I think this is very suspicious.... no backup data? I would prefer to believe this is a case of fraud than blaming incompetence or even space weather... Backing up data and sending it off-site to facilitate disaster recovery are normal procedures, if this is not being done, then the CEOs of all these companies are fools to be involved with such a Mickey Mouse outfit...

Powercut cripples Grand Cayman
RJR News, 25th July 2012
"A power outage in Grand Cayman, which started at 6:30 this morning and lasted until late afternoon, crippled the entire island Wednesday. [...] Caribbean Utilities Company, the only electricity provider on the island, said the outage was caused by a fault in one of its substations which affected the entire system."

Mysterious force blocks car remotes
azcentral.com, 24th July 2012

YONKERS, N.Y. -- A busy stretch of Yonkers Avenue has become a Bermuda Triangle for parked cars. For at least six months now, business owners here say a mysterious force has been locking people with keyless remotes out of their vehicles or preventing them from starting their engines near Yonkers and Page avenues. But the cars revive after they are pushed or towed away.

An expert hired to investigate the problem said Monday that localized radio interference is to blame for disrupting the signals sent from keyless remotes, but he still was trying to pinpoint the exact source of the signal.

"It's not a common phenomenon," said David Maxson, a radio-frequency communications specialist and owner of Isotrope in Medfield, Mass. "I only get a handful of these quirky types of complaints every year." [...]

Faulty electronics are likely to blame, he said. Keyless remotes are designed to transmit quick, intermittent signal bursts over radio frequencies shared by other low-power devices such as garage-door openers and meter readers. It appears that an malfunctioning device in the area is sending out a more powerful, continuous signal that drowns out others. Life-saving medical electronics such as pacemakers should not be affected, he said.

Comment: The source of the "more powerful, continuous signal that drowns out others" could be natural.... a local vortex or 'portal' where energy is entering or leaving the Earth. Think of our planet as hosting a geometrical grid of invisible tornadoes that act like pores breathing in cosmic energies and breathing out surplus terrestrial 'waste'.... Now, some of the bigger portals are being picked up by radar and are interfering with GPS, (NASA uses the metaphor of 'ion plumes' to confuse those who can't mentally process or think in terms of metaphors, ie they are using 'hermetic jargon'..... ) Whatever, it is interesting these reports are increasing, as this is a sure sign of the build up energies on Earth, with the increasing levels of energetic flux associated with space weather.

Rolling blackouts policy sparks anger across Egypt
Egypt Independent, 22nd July 2012
"Power cuts continued across Egypt despite promises by officials from the electricity and energy ministries that the crisis will gradually ease."

Freak pavement explosions have injured at least seven people in London [UK]
London Evening Standard, 20th July 2012

A series of pavement explosions has injured at least seven pedestrians in London in recent months, the Standard can reveal today.

One pensioner is now suing a power supply company after he was left seriously injured by an explosion under a manhole in a London street.

Details of his case have emerged just weeks after a woman pedestrian suffered 20 per cent burns in a similar freak explosion in Edgware Road.

Colin Wingate, 75, was left in a wheelchair for nearly three months after the blast blew out a manhole cover he was standing on while chatting to friends.

He contacted the Standard after reading in the paper of the ordeal of the pedestrians in Edgware Road. In May a 55-year-old woman and two other women pedestrians were injured when the pavement they were walking on blew up in an explosion apparently caused by an electrical fault.

The incident is now being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive which revealed to the Standard they know of at least three more pavement explosions which injured pedestrians in London in the past 19 months. [...] A HSE spokesperson commented: "The Health and Safety Executive is aware of a number of other incidents in the London area in recent years involving exploding utility equipment, including pit covers and electrical boxes. The majority of these incidents did not result in injury, and were attributed to electrical faults and/or gas leaks. They were investigated with UK Power Networks.

Comment: There was a spate of underground transformer vaults blowing up and manhole covers sent flying into the air, even dramatic fires and smoke pouring out of manholes in May 2011, but it seems they are still occuring in the United States (see links below). Therefore, it is interesting that there are now reports in the United Kingdom [UK] that covers about the same length of time, but a few people have been getting seriously injured... Most likely, this is occuring elsewhere in the world too... Whatever, it is most likely that electrical explosions and fires will continue as geomagnetically induced currents (GCICS) become more of an issue, see archives for previous comments and click the image icon for more information on transformer faults.

IPL: Fault sends smoke from downtown Indy manhole
Indy Star News, 15th July 2012
An underground cable in a Downtown manhole shorted out today, causing power outages to about 400 Indianapolis Power & Light customers.

At abut 3 p.m. today, Indianapolis Fire Department was called to 50 E. 16th St., where firefighters found smoke coming from a manhole. Brad Riley, spokesman for IPL, said the incident "was not a manhole explosion."

FD has investigated at least two other manhole incidents this month. Pressure from an underground cable caused a manhole lid to slide in the 300 block of Massachusetts Avenue Downtown on July 5; and a cable fault in an electrical vault caused flames to shoot up from a sidewalk grate in the first block of South Capitol Avenue on July 4.

Underground blaze knocks out power in downtown Newburyport?
The Eagle-Tribune, 23rd July 2012
"NEWBURYPORT – An Inn Street manhole cover shot 6 feet into the air yesterday around 10 a.m. yards away from a playground filled with families after an underground electrical wire from a nearby transformer caught on fire."

Satnav glitches annoy Olympic drivers
IOL Motoring, 23rd July 2012

Drivers transporting athletes and high-ranking officials in the run-up to the Games keep getting lost because of a satnav glitch.

About 4000 BMWs have been fitted with the so-called Dynamic Olympic Route System which ensures they follow the network of VIP-only routes. But drivers say the system has crashed repeatedly. [...]

One driver, who claimed the DORS system crashed on the first three days of training, said another problem was that it was reliant on receiving a strong wi-fi signal.

Comment: Of course, there are many who believe that modern wireless technology is perfect and nothing can go wrong, but this belief is held by people who are oblivious to the cosmic changes taking place on this planet.... The reliance on GPS and wi-fi in worsening geomagnetic conditions, will cause so many problems that eventually it will force many more people to wake up to the reality of space weather.

Radiation damage bigger problem in microelectronics than previously thought
Science Codex, 20th July 2012

The amount of structural damage that radiation causes in electronic materials at the atomic level may be at least ten times greater than previously thought.

That is the surprising result of a new characterization method that uses a combination of lasers and acoustic waves to provide scientists with a capability tantamount to X-ray vision: It allows them to peer through solid materials to pinpoint the size and location of detects buried deep inside with unprecedented precision.

Comment: This article explains why our cheap modern microelectronics cannot deal with too much radiation from space. Thus, with the onset of space weather, major problems like the Toyota car electronics failures and failures in airplane electronics (because we are being told categorically by world authorities that space radiation is now more of a major issue for frequent fliers and we can deduct that applies to plane electronics too as we have recent verified examples), hence the growing concern.

United Airlines $33 Flights To Hong Kong Result Of Computer Glitch
Huffington Post, 19th July 2012

NEW YORK -- It was an airfare deal too good to be true: fly first class to Hong Kong for just 4 frequent flier miles and $33 in taxes.

Clearly, it was a computer glitch. But it's also turning out to be the first major test of the Department of Transportation's new consumer protection rules prohibiting airlines from "increasing the price after the consumer completes the purchase."

On Sunday, computers at United Airlines erroneously let passengers book flights to Hong Kong – or other places in Asia connecting in Hong Kong – in exchange for 4 miles, plus government taxes. Frequent fliers quickly shared the error on blogs and online chat rooms. Some, such as Ben Schlappig who runs the site One Mile at a Time, advised people not to call the airline, saying, "there's no need to bring further attention to this pricing."

A business class seat for a flight on United to Hong Kong goes for about $8,500 or 120,000 frequent flier miles; first class costs $10,250 or 140,000 miles.

Before long, hundreds, if not thousands, of fliers – the airline won't say how many – booked trips. United eventually pulled the plug and announced it wasn't honoring tickets already sold. People could get a refund without paying a penalty or have the proper amount of miles deducted. Anyone who had already started their trip would be allowed to complete their travel.

Comment: Wow.... that is some glitch.... but seriously, I would be very surprised if this was 'human' error.... Yet, it seems that United Airlines had no procedures in place to check for ridiculous and erroneous computer software/hardware induced errors. Personally, I don't think that companies need to honour computer glitches but I think there needs to be a mandatory way of proving that there has been a 'bit flip' (due to a cosmic ray) because it seems that this is going to become much more of an issue as the geomagnetic conditions on this planet worsen and computer programs and systems are not robust enough to deal with the consequences.

Metro still investigating glitch that led all trains to be halted; problem could happen again
Washington Post, 16th July 2012

Executive Summary
5. Space weather can also disrupt pipelines and railway signals

It can cause problems such as corrosion on pipelines and incorrect signal settings on railways. Again, there are means to mitigate these effects, but they usually require keeping back-up systems, which adds to operational costs.

Rail transport
[...] Looking to the future, emerging train control technologies, such as the European Train Control System,61 rely on communications links based on mobile phone technology and are therefore potentially vulnerable to interference from solar radio bursts. These links enable trains to report their speed and position to control centres and for those centres to transmit movement authorities to trains. Interference from radio bursts could break those control links and bring railway movement to a halt. This would severely disrupt railway schedules. Currently, these new control technologies are largely deployed as trials on selected lines, and most train routes still use physical signalling systems. We would therefore expect limited impact in the coming solar maximum of 2012 to 2015, but these control systems are likely to be more widespread by the following solar maximum (around 2024), so the risk could be higher. Developers and potential users of this technology will need to monitor space weather problems on the existing trial systems and look for solutions to reduce the long-term impact. pg 16

[...] Mobile phone networks are often dependent on satellite navigation services for accurate timing information. This is essential to maintain synchronisation of network operation; for example, as phones move between the cells that form the heart of every provider's network.64 Therefore, network operations are at risk from space weather impacts on satellite navigation signals... pg 17

Space Weather, Its impact on Earth & Implications for business
Lloyd's of London, November 2010

Why are mobile networks dropping like flies?
GigaOM, 13th July 2012

[...] Why are networks suddenly conking out all over the world? It looks like global networks are developing a signaling problem – more specifically a signaling overload problem.

Details are starting to emerge about just what caused the Orange and O2 outages. Computerworld UK and Information Age separately reported that the network element at fault in both cases was the home location register, or HLR. It's not exactly the most commonly known piece of gear, but in brief the HLR acts as an anchor point to which we remain tethered as we move about the network. It stores our subscriber identities and knows what services we can access, but most importantly, it tracks each device's present location so the network knows where to direct inbound and outbound traffic.

The HLR plays its dispatch role by receiving a constant stream of signals from devices updating the database on their current locations and activities. According to Computerworld, a data glitch in an Orange HLR node generated error messages, which then multiplied as they got knocked back and forth around the network. Just because the HLR was failing, that didn't stop devices from sending out their updates. Like a million kids screaming "look at me!" from the backseat while you're trying to deal with the coffee you just spilled in your lap, smartphones kept pinging the suffering HLR creating a huge bottleneck. The end result: the whole system fails, leaving millions of handsets without their lifelines to the network core.

Comment: There a few other articles asking the exact same question of why networks are suddenly failing all over the world. My suggestion is that maybe pundits should look for a global problem.... According to a CNet report, "multiple layers of redundancy" failed due to an "exceptional situation", see, O2 apologises for screwup, admits 'multiple backups' failed. The question is: was this a unique failure or not? The explanation provided here for the O2 data glitch is too vague and 'Telco Engineer' in the comments section suggests this explanation cannot be true.... According to a 2007 NATO space weather report: "Telecommunication mobile networks working with high capacity are overloaded by extraordinary additional requests of users under space weather storm conditions." Since Space Weather causes "Interference of mobile phone radio waves with solar radio waves" and in case of solar radio bursts leads to much higher failure rates, then we have a global problem that degrades mobile phone usage and can possibly cause a whole network to fail..... We will have to see how long it takes before we can establish the true facts, but if this is space weather related, then we can expect these major network failures to continue.

Minor geomagnetic storm in progress (Kp5) as CME impacts Earth
The Watchers, 15th July 2012

O2 network 'fully restored' after 24-hour blackout
Mobile network apologises, telling its users to turn phone on and off again if they are still having problems
Guardian, 12th July 2012

O2 has said its mobile network is now fully restored after a 24-hour blackout left hundreds of thousands of its customers unable to receive calls or text messages.

The company apologised for the outage, which affected customers across the UK, and said its 2G and 3G networks for mobile data were back online.

O2 said in a statement: "Following previous updates, our tests now show that all our 2G and 3G services have been fully restored for affected customers. [...] Last week, France Telecom's Orange network offered to compensate its 26 millions users who were hit by a massive nine-hour blackout in the country.

Comment: I was sent a link to the BBC version of this story by one of my regulars with the message: "Unusual for whole network to go down for such a lengthy period, thought it might interest you Susan", (thanks Alan R), but I could not read the story there as the BBC website was down with a server error... Of course, another coincidence...

O2 apologises over 'embarrassing' network problems
Mobile operator likely to have to pay compensation to the almost 8 million customers affected by the 24-hour outage
Guardian News, 12th July 2012
"O2 has been forced to apologise to almost 8 million customers after an "embarassing" network failure led to a 24-hour blackout across the UK and Ireland.

Its chief executive,Ronan Dunne, admitted the massive outage was humiliating for the company.

The UK's second largest mobile network is now facing an investigation by telecoms regulator Ofcom into what caused the downtime and is likely to have to pay compensation to customers affected by the blackout."

Electrical fire in Calgary's Shaw building knocks out radio stations, 911 service
Vancouver Sun, 11th July 2012

. CALGARY -- An electrical fire at Shaw Communications' downtown headquarters has wiped out radio stations, internet service, 911 service in the core, cable TV service and much of city hall's phone system.

Fire crews were called early Wednesday afternoon for a two-alarm incident at Shaw Court at 630 3rd Ave. S.W. Calgary Fire spokesman Jayson Doyscher said the incident appears to be in an electrical room on the 13th floor. The building's employees were evacuated, but EMS said they were not treating any patients.

Comment: I received an email from Deborah S. in Canada with links and the message: "Living on the west coast of Canada I have noticed what seems to be an increase in unexplained power outages since the blast of multiple solar flares this July." I will admit, this is a lot of disruption all at once... There was an X1.1 flare on Friday 6th, but this was after 12 'M' flares in just six days... According to spaceweather.com, sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare today (July 12th) at 1653 UT, so there is likely to be more strange electrical fires and interference to communications etc. However, the planet gets flash fried with particles in several different ways and due to substorms, some events can occur many hours after a major event as energy reverberates around the planet... Well, we can expect many more electrical fires and explosions in the future as Earth's shielding (magnetosphere) weakens and geomagnetic storms induce large electric currents (GICS) in the ground and also in the air. (See archives for the July 2011 incident in The Netherlands where 3 tv/radio station towers had electrical fires on the same day).

Thousands lose electric power in U.S. northeast as substation goes down in fire
The Extinction Protocol, 14th July 2012

Calgary activates municipal emergency plan in wake of explosion and fire (VIDEO)
Vancouver Sun, 12th July 2012
"An explosion in an electrical room at Shaw Communications' downtown headquarters has put radio stations off the air, cut Internet service, hit hospital computers and many city and provincial government computer networks.City officials have activated the municipal emergency plan as they try to understand the magnitude of the service outages and the ramifications."

Stampede power outages not linked to rolling blackouts: Enmax
Calgary Herald News, 10th July 2012
"CALGARY – An Enmax executive says that the power issues that plagued some Stampede midway rides Monday night, including an outage that stranded close to 200 midway riders on the WestJet Skyride, had nothing to do with rolling blackouts elsewhere in the city. [...] Power supply to Calgary and parts of the province plummeted by 15 per cent yesterday after four power plants broke down unexpectedly in a matter of hours."

Computer glitch deletes German crime cases
A computer glitch at Germany's federal police headquarters deleted evidence on organised crime and terrorism cases in another embarrassing blow to the country's intelligence services. Telegraph, 9th July 2012

Comment: If you google "glitch" at Google News, there are always recent examples... That is because increasingly high levels of cosmic rays are affecting computers, but the chaos is only really just starting as Earth's magnetic shielding continues to weaken. Currently, few seem to realise that Earth is becoming an increasingly cosmic environment, hence we will continue to see computer and electronics failures until society takes space weather much more seriously. However, a computer "glitch" can be used as a convenient excuse for incompetence and foul play....

Computer glitch 'wrongly jailing young people'
ABC Sydney, 8th July 2012
"Young people who claim they have been falsely imprisoned due to a computing glitch are today launching a class action against the New South Wales Government."

Man on dole 'took £42,000 from Ulster Bank cash machine'
belfast telegraph, 7th July 2012

A man was able to remove more than £40,000 from an Ulster Bank ATM in one day in the early stages of the computer meltdown, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal. [...]

"We are aware of some customers, who for a short period, had access and chose to withdraw funds in excess of their account balance through some ATMs," the spokesman said. "We can confirm that all transactions carried out at affected ATMs were posted to customer accounts."

It is up to the bank whether they decide to pursue criminal charges against the man for theft. A PSNI spokeswoman said that officers had been called to an incident at an ATM machine on the Shankill Road around 8pm on June 22. She added: "Police liaised with the bank and the bank ATM was put out of service." [...]

As news of the Ulster Bank debacle spread, the Belfast Telegraph received early reports of cash machines malfunctioning. One Ulster Bank account holder contacted us on June 24 to say that ATMs in Armagh were issuing extra money to those using Ulster Bank cards. He added that some people were taking out thousands of pounds because accounts weren't being updated, which meant it was possible to make withdrawals over and over again if your balance was in credit.

Comment: What a joke... due to space weather (more cosmic rays affecting computers and electronics), these ATM robbery stories are set to continue....

Northampton [UK] Town centre street closed after 20 foot [deep] hole appears in the road
Northampton Chronicle and Echo, 9th July 2012
The article claims that a fire engine caused a bore hole that was 20ft deep... Either there is some new physics operating on Earth, or this claim is truly ridiculous.... I am now wondering whether we will see one of these deep holes that will be big enough for a car or lorry to fall into, appearing on a motorway in rush hour....

Banking IT 'Glitch' Reaches Germany: Deutsche Postal Bank Halts ATM Transactions
Silver Doctors, 7th July 2012

The IT 'glitch' that has entirely shut down RBS' NatWest Bank and halted ATM transactions at Russia's largest bank Sberbank, has now spread to Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Postbank.

Deutsche Postbank Friday reported its own IT glitch that has completely paralyzed its ATM's nationwide. While this entire string of 21st Century Bank Holidays has received zero MSM coverage, it is appearing more and more likely that the derivatives domino chain known as insolvency has been triggered.

Comment: Hmmmm.... In the comments, 'Tears of the Moon' disagrees that this is a liquidity issue and he provides a nice little tutorial on ATMs and ATM communication with their hosts, based on his 20 years of experience. We are also told there are regular ATM outages in France and I suspect this is a design issue associated with space weather and most likely cosmic rays flipping bits and bytes. I was unaware of problems with ATMs in Russia but in the comments, there are claims that there have also been problems in Spain alongside the well known problems in Scotland and the UK. Quite frankly, I would hazard a guess that this is an ongoing worldwide problem, cosmic rays have no boundaries....

Apple blames app glitch on rogue server
Today Online, 8th July 2012
SAN FRANCISCO - Apple has blamed a rogue App Store server for a glitch that meant popular iPhone and iPad apps including Instapaper were corrupted and rendered unusable.

The firm said that the server wrongly included a Digital Rights Management (DRM) code when the apps were downloaded, which meant they could not be opened. Apple normally uses DRM to ensure that apps work only for users who have paid for them or are authorised to use them, reported the Daily Telegraph.
Hmmm... Things are getting worse.... Maybe, I mean the excuses are getting worse.... Seriously, some techie forgot to set up the right security on a server? More Tech info: The "APP"LE Drama Continues

Computer glitch deletes German crime cases
A computer glitch at Germany's federal police headquarters deleted evidence on organised crime and terrorism cases in another embarrassing blow to the country's intelligence services. Telegraph, 9th July 2012

Comment: If you google "glitch" at Google News, there are always recent examples... That is because increasingly high levels of cosmic rays are affecting computers, but the chaos is only really just starting as Earth's magnetic shielding continues to weaken. Currently, few seem to realise that Earth is becoming an increasingly cosmic environment, hence we will continue to see computer and electronics failures until society takes space wather much more seriously. However, a computer "glitch" can be used as a convenient excuse for incompetence and foul play....

Man on dole 'took £42,000 from Ulster Bank cash machine'
belfast telegraph, 7th July 2012

Air France crash 'due to pilot and technical failings'
BBC News, 5th July 2012

Technical failure and human error led to the loss of an Air France flight over the Atlantic in June 2009 and the deaths of 228 people, according to the final report into the crash. The report by France's aviation authority, the BEA, blames the Airbus A330's ergonomics as well as inappropriate action by the pilots.

The jet disappeared in a storm while en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro. It took nearly two years for the flight recorders to be found. The BEA said that the disaster began with the malfunctioning of speed sensors known as Pitots during a period of turbulence.

Comment: The question not answered here is what 'knocked out' the speed sensors.... I would suggest the answer is electromagnetic intereference. It is a fact that NASA have got involved with the whole issue of air turbulence and therefore we can only presume that this is directly related to space weather. NASA have made it clear that planet Earth is now experiencing the new phenomenon of massive plumes of ions during space weather events. In plain language, airplanes are literally flying into massive electric discharges or currents that can fry electronics, therefore pilots need assistance because this can have serious consequences for safety. Please see links below for more details.

Strange Space Weather over Africa
NASA News, 13th November 2007
NASA To Help Aircraft Avoid Ocean Storms, Turbulence
Red Orbit News, 7th July 2009

Ulster Bank executives brief Stormont on computer failure
BBC News, 5th July 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18717547

Ulster Bank's ongoing problems are expected to be fixed by 16 July, executives have told the NI Assembly. Thousands of customers in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic are being affected by a computer failure at the bank's parent company RBS.

Senior members of the bank have been at Stormont to explain the crisis to a committee of assembly members. Jim Brown, Ulster Bank Group CEO, said next week would be the final week of any significant delays for customers.

Comment: This is apalling.... 4 weeks to fix up their databases affecting millions of bank accounts and nobody has resigned....

Ulster Bank CEO Jim Brown apologises to customers over technical crisis
RTE News, 5th July 2012

Ulster Bank counts the cost of catastrophic IT meltdown
Irish Times, 6th July 2012
Here we are presented with another version of this catastrophic IT meltdown...

NatWest customers were double-charged for personal loan repayments during IT fiasco
Daily Mail, 4th July 2012

Royal Bank of Scotland has botched customer payments for the second time in a fortnight.

Days after leaving 7.5million customers penniless or struggling to use their accounts, the state-owned bank has accidentally taken loan payments from tens of thousands of borrowers twice.

It was forced into a humiliating apology yesterday after the fresh computer error unexpectedly swiped up to £800 from NatWest and RBS customers.

Last month a fault in the bank's computers meant customers did not receive their wages or missed vital mortgage or loan payments after direct debits were not paid.

RBS said it was still investigating how many were hit by the latest problem which affected customers with personal loans. RBS has an estimated two million such customers, but said it was 'aware that a small number of personal loan payments from customers have been debited twice'.

Comment: This is incredible.... see previous comments

RBS gives more detail on IT failure train wreck
Z D Net, 2nd July 2012

Comment: The explanation from RBS / NatWest IT failure is so deliberately vague, that the author of this article suggests, "(It's important to note that a software bug or hardware failure could have caused the problem, although this is less likely than human error.)" Well, I simply cannot believe the cover story about a live update going disasterously wrong for reasons I have already explained. The standard process of testing and change management procedures, through various computer environments DEV (short for development) and then PSEUDO and LIVE is all designed to prevent major foul-ups.... One-off updates to live systems are NEVER done directly.... only through a migration of software from at least one testing environment... Whatever, we must note that however the memory was wiped, the same could happen to any computer installation processing commercial, government and military data on this planet..... The difference is how quickly IT staff respond and deal with the problem.... the RBS / NatWest IT failure has already reached legendary status in the IT Hall of Shame... beyond terrible... Update I have changed my mind because I don't have enough information about how and when CA7 batch scheduler software and the database were corrupted, a memory wipe could have happened before or during data processing..... BUT, I cannot understand why this was not a straight forward disaster recovery and reprocessing started at a point when the database and software were uncorrupted....

RBS: outsourcing not to blame for bank IT glitch
PC Pro News, 26th June 2012
"The incident has left many wondering how such a serious fault could last so long at a bank, and what the actual cause was - with reports suggesting a flawed upgrade in Computer Associates' software was the root of the problem."
Yes, there was an obvious knee-jerk reaction to blame Computer Associates and/or a poor " junior IT technician" & "'Inexperienced operative' in India..." Well, I would be amazed if Computer Associates could be blamed because the facts remain that nobody noticed there was a problem and it took three nights of batch before it was discovered.... that is incredible...

If One Storm Can Turn D.C. Dark For Several Days, What Would A Massive EMP Burst Do
The Economic Collapse, 3rd July 2012

[...] "How in the world would any of us survive in a world without electricity? In past centuries our forefathers knew how to survive in such a world, but most of us do not have the same skills or resources that they had."
The simple answer is that most people relying on the comforts of our modern technological society will die very quickly [if the power grid is mostly destroyed] but those with hard lives in poor parts of the world will most likely survive as they are not reliant on a stupid system of a centralised power grid for electricity that is now vulnerable to space weather and/or sabotage.

Fixing Power Outages: It's Complicated
Zen Haven, 4th July 2012

Amazon Blames Power, Generator Failure for Outage
PC Mag News, 3rd July 2012

Amazon this week blamed a power outage and a resulting generator failure for a Web services blackout that took down Internet firms like Instagram and Netflix on Friday night. [...] Electrical storms that blasted the East Coast on Friday night pulled the plug on some of Amazon's servers in Northern Virginia, leading to issues with what Amazon refers to as its Elastic Compute Cloud, Relational Database Service (RDS), and Elastic Beanstalk. Amazon said this week that a generator failure at one of its multiple data centers resulted in the outage.

Comment: From what I have seen and read, Amazon Cloud has had more problems in Europe, but at least this company is not frightened to explain the difficulties that they are having as their computer services are continously disrupted by the increasingly chaotic geomagnetic and electromagnetic conditions on Earth. What is interesting is that the 'Derecho' or hurricane formed over land on the East Coast is explained as an electrical storm. The electrical nature of our weather and particular phenomena like tornadoes, dust devils and hurricanes is being acknowledged by atmospheric scientists and climatologists but this is following the same trend in astronomy, astrophyiscs and cosmology as the realisation grows that we cannot ignore electromagnetic forces in the universe that are 39 orders of magnitude stronger than gravity.

NASA satellites show extent of power outages after the "derecho"
Scientific America, 12th July 2012

If One Storm Can Turn D.C. Dark For Several Days, What Would A Massive EMP Burst Do
The Economic Collapse, 3rd July 2012

NASA satellites show extent of power outages after the "derecho"
Scientific America, 12th July 2012

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Susan Joy Rennison quotes:

“Space Weather is now a fact of life.”

“We are all astronauts now!”

“We must spiritually evolve as part of the new terms & conditions for living on Earth.”

“Space Weather will force many changes in how we do business on this planet.”

NASA Press Release:

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News of the Imbalance

Best of the Blog Space Weather, Electronics & Electromagnetic Chaos

Space Weather: Its impact on Earth & Implications for business

31st August 2013: Update

Recent Railway Incidents

Best of the Blog - Space Weather, Electronics & Electromagnetic Chaos Archive

Flashback!

Susan Joy Rennison quotes:

“Space Weather is now a fact of life.”

“We are all astronauts now!”

“We must spiritually evolve as part of the new terms & conditions for living on Earth.”

“Space Weather will force many changes in how we do business on this planet.”

NASA Press Release:

“Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that's new to human history.”

“We're on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.”

White House Executive Order:

Best of the Blog - Archives Joyfire Tag Cloud

Best of the Blog
Space Weather, Electronics
& Electromagnetic Chaos

Best of the Blog - Space Weather, Electronics
& Electromagnetic Chaos Archive