storm

If you aren't completely sick of the "Gangnam Style" phenomenon, there's a new video entry vying for your affection. This one features a light show that would draw attention and eyeballs even if you plunked it down in the heart of Las Vegas.

The ambitious choreographed LED display comes to us from a Christmas light-obsessed guy named John Storms in Texas. Last year, Storms built a display that danced to the Angry Birds theme.… Read more

If you've been eyeing a high-end, hand-built gaming PC, today might be the day to pull the trigger. Here's a selection of the Cyber Monday deals available from the dedicated PC vendors.

Alienware Alienware's high-end desktops aren't as competitive as they used to be, but its laptops and budget-price desktops still have some appeal.

You'll find Alienware's best deals on its highest-end hardware. The M14x and M18x laptops, and the Aurora gaming desktop all offer discounts of above $400. The best deal of that bunch is the M14x, with a starting price of $2,… Read more

That awkward moment when your Twitter feed shifts from hurricane booze sarcasm to genuine fear. #sandy

As someone writing on the West Coast, it's easy to feel at once a bit detached about Hurricane Sandy and deeply concerned for friends and family -- and everyone else -- stuck in the path of that once-in-a-generation natural disaster bearing down on the East Coast.

But for those hunkering down in places like New York City, Sandy represents real personal consequences -- and it would be natural to assume that those who've spent days nervously waiting to see if the hurricane is for real aren't laughing about it now that they're in the thick of it.

Yet, a quick look at Twitter today reveals that at least as many people have been tweeting quips about the storm as have been expressing real worry. The real question, though, seemed to be: How might the mood change once Sandy hit land and anticipation was replaced by the reality of being in the middle of a major natural disaster that's actively wreaking havoc? … Read more

With the smartphone increasingly becoming the lifeline for any household, keeping it alive is more important than ever.

But with Hurricane Sandy barreling its way across the East Coast, thousands of homes face the prospect of losing power for several days. That's bad news for power-hungry smartphones, many of which can barely last a day with normal use.

Fear not. CNET has compiled this handy smartphone survival guide to make the most out of your phone's battery. If a power outage hits, you'll know exactly what to do to ensure you remain connected. … Read more

Secretly, I want to carry a superhero costume with me at all times. I want to be able to step into a phone booth (if they exist anymore) and step out as the Masked Avenger. For $492, my fantasy could come true with the AI Riders on the Storm down jacket.

The jacket sounds pretty much like a regular coat with specs that include a two-way zipper and down stuffing. Look up, though, and things start to get weird. It has a detachable hood with built-in bug-eyed goggles that zip together right up the middle. Freaky, man. … Read more

Astronomers have captured images of a solar tornado five times as wide as Earth, providing clues into how solar storms form.

Scientists at Aberystwyth University presented a movie of a solar twister yesterday at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester, England. The images were collected last September by a telescope on NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) satellite, which tracks variations in the sun to help predict space weather.

Solar tornadoes occur when super-heated gases get sucked up from sun and spiral towards its atmosphere. Along the way, these gases, traveling at about 185,000 miles per hour, drag magnetic … Read more

At a time of increasing solar storms, researchers have released images of how these solar outbursts affect the protective magnetic shield around the Earth.

The Southwest Research Institute yesterday published visualizations that show how powerful solar storms temporarily compress the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth.

Studying the impact of solar storms on the magnetosphere provides insight into how satellites could be affected. The sun is entering a period of peak activity where more coronal mass ejections of high-energy particles from the sun are expected in the year ahead.

Southwest Research Institute researchers collected data from two NASA spacecraft -- … Read more

A spectacular show of auroras could be visible over the next couple of days as far south as Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and Washington State in the U.S. as well as parts of the U.K., New Zealand, and Iceland, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

These auroras are being caused by a solar flare that burst off the sun last night causing a massive solar storm of charged particles to hurtle toward Earth and crash into the planet's magnetic field. When the particles hit Earth's protective shell they light up the atmosphere wherever they … Read more

A massive solar storm is hurtling toward Earth, threatening to disrupt communications, GPS, power grids, and airline flights.

A solar flare last night (see video below) created a coronal mass ejection, or the release of a burst of charged particles, from the sun's atmosphere. The storm--the largest in five years--is expected to rain a torrent of charged particles on the Earth early tomorrow morning, mostly in northern areas, according to forecasters at the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center.

The storm, which has produced a radiation event that rated an S3, or strong, designation on the NOAA's … Read more