Spyke

Not a solar flare but a coronal mass ejection. And while the subsequent G5 geomagnetic storm can do damage to various technological systems, it shouldn't be anything too bad.

54
lemmy.world

I just looked it up on Wikipedia.

The extreme ultraviolet and x-ray radiation from solar flares is absorbed by the daylight side of Earth's upper atmosphere, in particular the ionosphere, and does not reach the surface.

What else should I know?

48
Demereply
sopuli.xyz

You should know that this wasn't a solar flare, but a coronal mass ejection. Look that up instead. No, it's nothing too bad either. The one in 1859 was a big one and some people got electrocuted at telegraph stations, but this ain't like that.

49
Demereply
sopuli.xyz

Electrocuted as in they received injuries from an electric shock.

9
kakesreply
sh.itjust.works

I'm generally a linguistic descriptivist, but in the case of "electrocuted", I do think the distinction is worth having.

15
Demereply
sopuli.xyz

I think there's a distinction between "electrocuted" and "electrocuted to death". Same as with "stabbed" vs. "stabbed to death" or any other such verb that can, but may not necessarily result in death.

10
kakesreply
sh.itjust.works

[Edit- I'm blind, the definition I give below does include injury. However, I stand by the fact the word has changed over time, and there is at least some value in following the "old" definition.]

Per Merriam-Webster:
1: to kill or severely injure by electric shock
2: to execute (a criminal) by electricity

Now, granted, because the word is used often enough to mean "shocked", there is a "descriptivist" argument to be made that we should accept the new definition (like "literally" meaning "not literally").

While I'm generally in favour of this approach, I think the distinction here being literally life-and-death (especially when used in a workplace context) warrants some push-back against this new definition.

That said, English doesn't have language police, so you're more than free to disagree with my take, haha.

6

I'm a big fan of words being used wrong so often that they change meaning. Glad my education was largely useless.

7

The definition does include mere injury. Though it does add the qualifier "severely" so now I need to know how that dictionary defines "severe."

Also: The Internet has proven for years that the Language Police exist for all languages. Though they're more like gestapo. Hence the moniker "Grammar Nazi." 😌

4
Demereply
sopuli.xyz

Google and the Oxford dictionary disagree.

4

Google and the Oxford dictionary disagree

You mean the opinion of Google is different from that of the Oxford dictionary?

1
Demereply
sopuli.xyz

Google and the Oxford dictionary disagree.

6
Miaoureply

And Cambridge says it means to die from it.

3
oortjunkreply
sh.itjust.works

I wonder if the origin of the word was a portmanteau of electricity and execute.

Execute to death, of course

1

Could be, but there's other words with that same ending

2
feddit.de

I live in Germany, nothing happened. So this is barely news.

10
arudesaladreply
sh.itjust.works

It was visible in the uk as well, it was best seen through a camera, almost impossible to see without one

5

Ah, right, didnt know, thanks! Only heard about it afterwards

3
lemm.ee

Don't look directly at the solar flair

6

Lay down and pretend you are dead. This way the solar flare will most likely lose intrest and leave.

19

It's only 1 though. We need to talk with the sun about its flair.

It claimed it wanted to express itself, but the Crab Pulsar expresses itself every 0.8 seconds.

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You reached the end