I totally hate when this happens...

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/11/04/trains.collide.ap/

Pertinent (to me) excerpt from the article:

"Each train has an automatic control system to keep trains a safe distance from each other, Deputy General Manager for Operations James Gallagher said. Officials were looking into whether the system failed.

'The train rolled backward. Trains don't roll backward,' Gallagher said. 'There's something unusual about this event.'

Train operators can manually override the automatic braking system, but officials said that would require permission from the operations control center. Officials said they were questioning the two drivers and examining mechanical records."

They don't even know what caused their own train system to fail in a ridiculous manner.

A job for a supercomputer...

http://www.psc.edu/science/Glatzmaier/glatzmaier.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-magnetic-04a.html

Computer-generated 3-D model accounts for geological magnetic field evidence.
Model successfully explains how the magnetic field keeps regenerating instead of decaying over time, and actually accounted for periodic reversals. From what I understand, the field of the outer core appears to be the reverse of the inner. I suppose that when the field flips, the two reverse (maybe - I'm no geologist). But what gets it started up again once it goes to 0 is a question. The model seems to account for that - in the model version, the field regenerated after it zeroed out and the flip occurred.

One thought that occurred to me is that the world is a giant millworking...

For reference, a "millworking" is a magical technique in which an outer circle is set to spinning clockwise by having seated participants grab the edge of a non-physical Well and move it clockwise. The reflected Well in the Underworld spins counterclockwise. The interaction between the two creates a column of energy from the Underworld to the Overworld, with this realm being the connector. Or maybe it creates a field that loops around like Van Allen belts in the earth's magnetic field...

Hey I wonder what would happen if a ring of people at various points around the globe did a millworking that connected in with, spanned, and reflected the spirit of the earth.