It's A Sun Fart!

"What were you doing at 7:56 PM on Valentine's Day?"

Whatever it was, it probably wasn't nearly as dramatic as the sun above. Evidently, there was a large coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun's southern hemisphere, resulting in an X-Class solar flare. The 'gas' of charged particles and radiation blasted toward the earth at 560 miles per second, and started interfering with radio transmission in southern China as early as Monday. Impact from the solar flare is expected to continue through today. Radio transmissions, satellite communications and power grids around the world are vulnerable to this storm.

Some potential damage estimates are as high as Two Trillion Dollars in the U.S. alone. (Damn. So much for my tax refund.)

So I'm sitting here this morning trying to remember the last time I had a good old fashioned CME. I guess I won't share that story. Let's just say it was ... oh, let's just not say! (But it wasn't a billion miles wide.)

In a way, it's kind of awesome. The power of it all, the frailty of life on earth when looked at from a cosmic perspective, the way events like this dwarf any political, environmental or social problems we can think of here. Not even global warming is a match for a well timed sun fart.

In a way, events like this remind us that each day is a gift - not just for each of us individually, but for the planet as a whole. We really need to spend a lot more of this time-gift loving each other instead of criticizing, helping each other instead of fighting and enjoying each other instead of hating. Life is too short, too precious and too fragile to live the way our society lives.

And in a way, it reminds me to have a sense of humor. There's no arguing with the end of the world if and when its time comes. And I can think of a zillion and three really funny jokes to put here. I'm sure you can think of them too, so take a minute and enjoy each one.