The Daily Populous

Friday March 22nd, 2019 day edition

image for A solar storm hits Earth this week, pushing northern lights south

After a prolonged quiet period, the sun let off an explosion Wednesday when a new sunspot fired a small solar flare lasting over an hour.

All those particles colliding with Earth's magnetic field could turn up the range and the intensity of the aurora, also known as the northern and southern lights.

Aurora are caused by particles from the sun that are constantly flowing toward our planet, but a CME delivers an extra large helping that can really amp up the display.

One of the most helpful metaphors for understanding the difference between a solar flare and a CME comes from NASA, which uses the example of a firing cannon.

"The flare is like the muzzle flash, which can be seen anywhere in the vicinity.

As solar storms go, this one is relatively mild.

Given our dramatically increased dependence on electromagnetically based communications today, the repeat of such an event could devastate a lot of our infrastructure. »

Brexit: Petition to remain in the EU hits 3 million signatures

Authored by euronews.com

A British petition to revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU has gathered more than three million signatures in under two days.

"The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is 'the will of the people'," reads the petition on the UK parliament website.

The petition was so successful that the page on the British parliament's website crashed for several hours on Thursday morning. »

UPDATE: Elephants Who Appeared To Mourn Their Human Friend Remain Protected

Authored by cbc.ca

Today, the elephants are "completely wild and doing fine" according to Graham Spence, Anthony's brother-in-law and co-author of three books.

Dylan is also continuing his father's legacy with another wildlife project in a rural area called Camperdown outside Durban, South Africa.

In April, the University of KwaZulu-Natal's College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science posthumously awarded Lawrence an honorary Doctor of Science degree. »

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez receives so many death threats her staff performs visitor risk assessments

Authored by independent.co.uk

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has received death threats frequently enough that her staff “stiffens” every time someone knocks on the door of her office.

“I can’t go anywhere in public and just be a person without a lot of people watching everything I do.”.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Show all 15 left Created with Sketch. »

Study finds that low-quality sleep can lead to procrastination, especially among people who naturally struggle with self-regulation – Solving Procrastination

Authored by solvingprocrastination.com

Prior studies have also shown that some people are naturally better at self-regulating their behavior than others.

The relationship between sleep quality and procrastination is moderated by trait self-control, meaning that individuals who naturally struggle with self-control are more strongly impacted by low-quality sleep.

Accordingly, one way to reduce the likelihood that you will procrastinate, especially if you are naturally prone to doing so, is to ensure that you get good-quality sleep. »