Work absorbed my time this week, one of those weeks where every hour was tagged and I almost forgot several calls even though my electronic adjuncts tried to keep me on path.  I work with some really great people who I enjoy spending time discussing problems of society, America, industry and the world, we almost always solve most of the problems by the end of the meal. 

But after solving the world’s problems verbally I just didn’t feel like blogging…and with the iPad and the WP app there is really no excuse for that.  So I need to make another dedication to getting at least something, even its just “Mehe” or “Have some eye candy, now don’t bother me conscience’

Speaking of eye candy the series of solar eruptions have produced their usual stunning skyworks and since the cycle is 11 years, this is the first solar maximum in the age of digital photography so there are fabulous, fantastical pictures all over the web.

APOD Aurora Image

Such as this one, todays APOD eyecandy.

APOD Aurora Image

Or this one from the Jan 24th APOD.

Those were from two solar flares, the first a 3 the second a 2, there has been a near max one as well (above a 5 on the scale which is a log, scale so more than a thousand times stronger than the one that produced the image above.) Here is a bit more information.  You’ll notice that it’s from Kent (England) which is because the English, and even more the Scots see a lot of this sort of thing, the British Isles are surprisingly far north (Hudson Bay Canada sort of North.) The Aurora is a polar effect due to the Earths powerful magnetic field (which prevents this sort of thing from sterilizing the planet) the magnetic field lines plunge into the body of the world north and south, allowing the energetic particles to interact with our atmosphere, creating plasmas, immense natural neon signs.