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[Criptfeind]

I plan to be a symbiotic world spanning hive mind by that point.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You stay the hell away from Chiron. I called that alien god planet way before you did.

[Cotes]

"The World will end. Any day now..."
 -Humanity, 10000 BC - 2010 AD

...And you know the bastards will live to see the Sun blow up.

[PTTG??]

You stay the hell away from Chiron. I called that alien god planet way before you did.

I for one plan to be dead.

[alway]

So.... Anyone see any aurora yet?

[Solifuge]

Heading out to check.

And just in case, I'm wearing sunglasses. 

[alway]

Heading out to check.

And just in case, I'm wearing sunglasses. 

It's been 20 minutes, with no return of Solifuge. I think at this point it is safe to assume all on the surface have been cleansed by flaming hot plasma from the nearby star. Close the vaults and seal the blast doors; there will be no more survivors now.

[Solifuge]

I'll miss that bastard.


...Oh wait.

But yeah, I'm technically far enough north to have the potential to see Aurora, but there was so much light all around I couldn't find a spot that I could really even see the stars, much less a faint colored glow in the sky. Found a neat little perch by the lake near my house, and got a good 12 mosquito bites though.

[alway]

Been reading up in the mean time:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/03/4808408-can-you-see-the-northern-lights
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/Aurora/index.html
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/index.html

At this point, Canadians should be seeing it.

[Il Palazzo]

This whole "lights in the sky, come and look" thing reminds me of "Day of the Triffids".

[RedKing]

3) The Olmec and the Long Count Calendar:
The oldest image we have of a Long Count calendar date, from approximately 36 BCE, was found at Chiapia del Corzo. This would place the creation of this record during the declining years of the Olmec civilization. The calendar itself was obviously created before this time, since the date referenced it, and thus may have predated the Olmec, though we have no evidence to suggest that any civilizations predated the Olmec in the region. If you're interested in Olmec history, and are old-fashioned, you could pick up a textbook on the subject.

Yeah...see, not to nitpick but the Olmecs are generally dated to have ended about 400 BCE. So while the Olmecs *might* have invented the Long Calendar, the fact that the oldest calendar artifact postdates the civilization itself calls that into serious question.

I think a more interesting tack for all this is: what it is psychologically in humans that we get so worked up about the somewhat arbitrary end of a calendrical period? I still remember Y2K and kinda having one foot in the party and one foot in the "OMG THE SKY IS FALLING GET AN AXE AND LOOT".

[Cotes]

I think a more interesting tack for all this is: what it is psychologically in humans that we get so worked up about the somewhat arbitrary end of a calendrical period?

Apocalypse fetish and a brain big enough to be almost creatively stupid?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You know how you get that feeling that someone is watching you when you know no one is around? ^{_{It's because I am.}} It's because of your natural survival instict going haywire to make sure you're on guard from potental threats, real or imagined. Now that we have a world-spanning society that knows a good deal about our universe, we have further understanding of existential theats. Thus, we become paranoid about them as well. We have done so since the dawn of civilization, but now we know without doubt that there are things that could wipe out our species on a fluke. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[RedKing]

Back on topic, NASA has released a color-enhanced photo of the flare.

Spoiler: Preety lights.... (click to show/hide)

In a related tangent, apparently the biggest flare in known history was in 1859. They saw aurorae as far south as the Caribbean, and supposedly "telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed. Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire. Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies." 

[MetalSlimeHunt]

"Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies." 

I bet that scared the shit out of them. I wonder if it created any spontanious endtime cults that then died a few days later?