Always the Optimist

I sneak peek people's reading material on the subway. While I usually have some reading material of my own (current: The Big Short by Michael Lewis), I periodically peek at what other people are reading--particularly when they're reading a paper.

This morning, I saw an article about Joseph Kony (more about this tomorrow) and the solar flares that will possibly affect our technology today. When I first heard about this news, I was really excited because I am an avid nature/space/science hobbyist (can you be a hobbyist in such an area?). This sort of thing interests me and that morning, I spent part of the morning reading about it instead of *ahem* doing what I should have been doing.

So, today I heard this news while trying to get out of bed. CBC often has great coverage on stuff like this so I checked out their website and found the newest coverage. Looks like the sun spot eruption happened on Tuesday and they were expecting the actual flare to hit Earth around 1am-5am Thursday (today). They're still waiting and nothing has glitched yet.

(on a side note, I found equally great coverage on BBC)

The reason people are generally concerned about the effects of the solar flare is because of the fact that it may or may not disrupt the technology we enjoy. When I think about people in (blind) panic, en masse, I remember the Eastern Seaboard blackout in 2003. I remember coming home from my coop in Burlington and the radio just went out. I wouldn't figure out what just happened and continued on my merry way. By the time I got home, I realized that nothing was working.

While part of me recollects the following few days of technology-free bliss, another part of me (the paranoid nutjob) imagined a zombie apocalypse (or any apocalypse, for that matter). I'd probably be the poor sucker who couldn't tell the difference and while fiddling with my radio equipment, get eaten while screaming for my life. Not a pretty picture.

Anyways, there's no need to panic since it's just a solar flare and not the end of our solar system as we know it. Though, if the sun exploded, it might just be fast and swift so there is no screaming for my life while a zombie rips out my insides and eats me alive.