Didn’t even think about that. That is a bummer, but a lot cheaper nonetheless.

I’m not much of a movie theater person. It has to be something special for me to go see a movie. I’ve never seen a movie more than once in a theater. This will be a movie that I will go see at least three times.

Big trouble in little China.

Ego.

Such a beautiful country! Although I’ve only been there during the summer. I know the winters can be rough.

Hey doesn’t Phil Mickelson play golf there?

Ego is a huge human weakness. People struggle hard to admit they are wrong. This is especially true if they are committed to an idea that happens to be wrong. They would rather distort their own reality than admit they were wrong and try to grow from the experience. Once nice thing about being a scientist is we get lots of critical feedback from one another and we learn to admit when we are incorrect. However, even we are not immune. I know of one scientist who ruined their career committing to an idea that was wrong.

While I’m not specifically a climate scientist, I have degrees in atmospheric science, which include a PhD so I understand climate change better than most. The most frustrating part of informing people about this very real threat is how well the propaganda from the fossil fuel companies worked. We have known for 100 years about this and have solid evidence since the satellite era (1979-present). I can explain not only that climate change is real but also it is human caused and I can prove it mathematically on a white board in about 15 minutes to a laymen person (it isn’t hard). But despite the fact they believe in math (I ask them in the beginning just to be sure), they are skeptical of mathematical results. They know more than me, the scientist, because they watched a YouTube video this one time saying that it isn’t real. I’m honestly glad I don’t work in climate science because I can’t imagine how aggravating it can be.

We do. Do you not recall all the “thoughts and prayers” after each incident?

The theoretical limit for a solar flare is very high. These are called super flares. However, they are exceptionally rare and tend to occur in younger, larger stars than our sun. That said, it isn’t impossible for one to occur, and if a massive flare were to occur, the flare wouldn’t be the worst part. Simply put, a solar flare is magnetic energy being launched from the surface of the sun in the form of photons or particles of light. While this would create radio blackouts, satellite drag, and phenomenal aurora, it wouldn’t have a significant impact on Earth’s surface (except for the satellite issues). The real danger is the coronal mass ejection that would follow. A coronal mass ejection is protons, neutrons, alpha particles, and electrons being launched at insane speeds off the Sun’s surface. Because these particles are charged, they can impact our electric grid. And in an extreme case could, in theory, destroy it through massive electrical ground level enhancements. These enhancements would primary occur at higher latitudes because the charged particles would follow Earth’s magnetic field lines toward the poles, but could easily disrupt electric grids northward/southward of 30 degrees. That would mean most of Europe, America, much of Asia, Australia, half of South America and Africa all without power. Obvious chaos would ensue. The good news is governments are aware of this risk and have begun taking preventive mechanisms to prevent such a catastrophic failure. The other piece of good news is this type of event is very rare. The likelihood of it happening in anyone’s given lifetime is extremely low.

Yes and no. Starlink’s loss rate has to do with their two step launch process. For cost reasons, they launch a bunch of satellites to an initial altitude of much lower than LEO, typically between 200-300 km. At these altitudes, satellite drag is high and gets higher with solar activity. Then they use fuel to propel them into their operational orbit. This worked fine during solar minimum when space weather activity is low. However, as we approach solar max, this method will continue to cause more losses because of higher space weather activity. The February, 2022 incident when they lost 38 satellites was due to a moderate geomagnetic storm should have been a wake up call. That storm wasn’t even that big. If they continue to launch using this method over the next few years as we reach solar max, they will continue to lose more satellites.

Good question! Scientists have estimated the solar flare that occurred prior to the Carrington event might have at around an X-45 (Elvidge et al, 2018). I believe that this was the first flare ever recorded, but as you mentioned, we obviously we didn’t have modern detectors back then for measurement.

Heliophysicst here. This is not true. The flare that hit Earth on December 14th was an X-2.6 flare. While this is a large flare and the largest of the current solar maximum, it is nowhere near the largest ever recorded. The largest was on November 4th, 2003 (referred to as part of the Halloween storms), which was so strong it actually saturated the detectors. It was measured at an X-28, which is more than two orders of magnitude larger than Thursdays, but was estimated to be much larger than that.

How many PGA golfers lined up to join LIV golf sponsored by the Saudi regime? Last year this was Phil Mickelson simping for the Saudi government saying: “I certainly do not condone human rights violations. And addressing what happened to Jamal Khashoggi is awful. But I have seen the good that game of golf has done throughout history. And I really believe that LIV can be good for the game of golf as well.’’

Money trumps morals.

This is quite literally Orwell’s “1984” where they encouraged children to turn in their parents for thought crimes.

Agreed. Given the fallout of Russia exiting the grain deal, which disproportionately affects Africa, I expected less than 17. However, maybe the hope for securing a grain deal is part of the allure for some of the heads of state attending.

Great to hear, but still 17 too many.