In the past week, NASA has released spectacular photos of sunspot 953. This might lead the uninformed to believe that there is significant sunspot activity at this time, but in fact the last days of April 2007 heralded the end of a solar cycle and a 14-month low in the number of active sunspots.
In fact, the last time sunspot activity was similarly low was February of 2006, the same month in which the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98, a ferry en route from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, burst into flames and sank in the Red Sea, killing more than 1000 of the nearly 1400 on board.
According to Wikipedia, “The number of sunspots has been found to correlate with the intensity of solar radiation over the period - since 1979 - when satellite measurements of radiation are available. Since sunspots are dark it might be expected that more sunspots lead to less solar radiation. However, the surrounding areas are brighter and the overall effect is that more sunspots means a brighter sun.” Likewise, fewer sunspots mean a decrease in solar activity — which also means a weakening in the sun’s effect on the Earth’s magnetic field.
Any schoolchild can tell you that steel, the primary material used in the construction of Oakland’s freeway connector, is magnetic, and thus attracted by the sun’s magnetism. Obviously, it logically follows that steel is heavier during times of low solar activity. In fact, Scientists have known since the early 1800s that the sun’s magnetism has a measurable effect on the weight of magnetic metals such as iron and steel. When hundreds of tons of steel are subjected to the stress of high-temperature fires, this effect becomes significant.
Ferries such as the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 are also comprised primarily of steel. Furthermore, the ferry was reported to have had several modifications, including the addition of two passenger decks and the widening of cargo decks. These additions would have added to the ferry’s weight, explaining why it did not sink during earlier periods of lower sunspot activity.
With the Al-Salaam ferry, as with the 4/29 disaster, there are many discrepancies in both official and eyewitness reports:
- The actual number of passengers and crew that were aboard the ferry has never been officially established. The numbers quoted by the head of the Al-Salaam Group — the shadow corporation that controls the Al-Salaam Maritime Transport Company — do not match those reported by the Egyptian government. Even government officials could not agree on the same figure.
- It is believed that most of the passengers were Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia, but other sources claim that some passengers were Islamic religious pilgrims returning from Mecca. Who would want to sink a ferry full of Islamic religious pilgrims? I do not mean to imply that Israel has a secret energy weapon program which can control the sun, but the Israeli ambassador refuses to deny it.
- Surviving crew members reported that the ferry’s drainage pumps were not working. Because of this, the water used to fight the fire collected in the ship’s hull and contributed to its sinking — and that they believed that the ferry might not have sunk if this had not been the case. Was it sabotage? If anyone knows the truth, they have never revealed it — or perhaps they have been silenced by those who wish to conceal the facts.
I believe that the 4/29 attack and the sinking of the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 ferry are connected — and that they were timed to cause the maximum possible destruction. While I cannot speak openly for fear of retribution, I felt it was my responsibility to place this information in the hands of those courageous enough to report it to the public.
