I am going to be lost today. It seems that a series of solar flares that went off on the 15th sent a bunch of charged solar particles toward earth. They were expected to arrive late last night or early this morning.
Per the BBC (and others),
Solar flare eruptions set to reach Earth
"The waves of charged solar particles are the result of three solar flares directed at Earth in recent days, including the most powerful since 2006."
These charged particles can wreak havoc with any number of technologies. Telecommunications, TV signals, and navigation systems.
Which means, dear readers, we are in for some big problems. Especially me. Let me digress a bit...
I play golf. It's a game of yards and inches. It's a game where the distance to one's target is crucial information. When I first learned to play The Game there was only two ways to measure the distance between where the ball laid (usually behind a tree) and the place you wanted the ball to go (that large but seemingly tiny oasis called a Green): you could walk it off with approximate one yard paces or you could guess at it based on where you were from some marker or landmark point provided by the golf course. Highly inaccurate. Much like my shot making ability.
Time and technology marched on and we now have little hand-held GPS devices to determine how far the green is from behind that tree. Accurately for a change. Well, within a couple of yards anyway which is much more accurate than I used to be able to
Now I am informed that this technology may be wildly inaccurate today. Wonderful!
Forget all those people getting lost on the nation's highways and byways because they have become completely dependent on the NAV systems in their cars with the oh so pleasant female voice telling them when to turn and what to think. I am not concerned with them at all. I still use the old method (though I have a Tom Tom unit to avoid asking directions... it's a male thing) of blundering about in the general vicinity of where I wish to go.
But golf? Disrupt my golf? Bah! A plague on you, Sol, a plague!
3 comments:
Reliance is a bad thing. I played yesterday, forgot to charge my GPS unit and would have had to rely on the guessing game but for a fellow golfer in the other cart that had his. At one point I asked that fellow golfer in the other cart to give me reading just as my cart buddy (Brain Acker) pointed out that the 100 yard marker was some ten feet to my right ... :0
I understand that lightning sometimes disrupts golf as well.
If you got rid of your GPS units and those metal sticks, things would go a lot smoother on the golf field.
Jules, see upcoming post about my intimate interaction with a lightning bolt.
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