Hi Michael,
You’re actually mixing 2 different cycles. The sunspot cycle, which is responsible for the majority of solar flares, is scheduled to hit maxima in about 2010 or 2011 (I forget which year). The last maxima, in the late 1990’s, (it’s an 11 year cycle) were responsible for wide ranging outages of cell phones, satellite feeds and even power outages. Sunspots are relatively cool spots on the suns surface. When they collapse the result in solar prominences or flares (for the larger sun spots). This results in the release on massive proton ejecta, which then wreaks havoc with electrical systems on earth (providing we are in the way of the ejecta). It’s also responsible for the aurora (the proton hitting oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere). Considering how much more dependent we are now of delicate electronics like computers, 2010-2011 is going to be an interesting time.
There is another cycle, a 40-year cycle for the total energy output of the sun. This cycle is currently near it’s maximum. A Canadian solar physicist released a paper the other week stating proof that all the global warming effects (which in reality amounts to a mean temperature increase on 0.5 degrees worldwide) are due to this 40-year cycle. I haven’t read his paper yet, so I’m a little skeptical. Not that the global warming effects are due to the cycle, but that he has found a way to separate this cycle from the other possible variables.
As an interesting side note, the South Africans were complaining about the low turnout for the Al Gore Live Earth concerts due to snow and unseasonably cold weather. You just can’t rely on that global warming.
However, I do like blaming things on the cows if I can. It gets the PETA people really agitated.
If you cut it to small you can always nail another piece on the end, but if you cut it to big... then what the hell you gonna do?
Steven