this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Electrocuted as in they received injuries from an electric shock.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Google and the Oxford dictionary disagree.

Definition of electrocution: injure or kill by electric shock

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

Execute to death, of course

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Iirc it's only electrocution if you die

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Google and the Oxford dictionary disagree.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

[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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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." 😌

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

And life goes on...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't know and I wanna. What's so bad about it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

It's the Internet, so I assume buttholes.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Don't look directly at the solar flair

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

If the solar flare approaches you, do not engage with it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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