this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Today I Learned (TIL)

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[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 53 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Nearly missed means it hit?

[–] Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org 31 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That’s a fun little language nuance. Narrowly or barely would be better, physically describing the distance of the miss is uncommon.

It was a near miss though, as in “close call”.

[–] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 42 points 2 years ago

The nuance is that "near miss" and "nearly miss" mean exact opposites.

"Near miss" means it almost hits, but actually misses.

"Nearly miss" means it almost misses, but it actually hits.

They just messed up the phrase.

[–] Chaser@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago

It missed in a near fashion

[–] netwren@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago

Dude so the Mayans and all the Nostradamus hooplah could've coincidentally occurred with that solar storm?! Ya'll remember that right?

[–] Rhaedas@kbin.social 30 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A Carrington event level impact will be quite a disaster, and it's only a matter of time. But if that's not bad enough for you, look up Miyake events. Seemingly far more devastating in what it could do to a technological society, and we don't know what the source is. Doesn't seem to be the Sun as it doesn't line up with other things. And we're within the time range for another one, given when the last few ones were based on evidence.

[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 2 years ago

new fear unlocked

[–] Nawor3565@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

One of these hit Earth in the late 1800's, and it was wild. Telegraph lines were setting on fire and people would get shocked just from touching the telegraphs. And that was when we had just barely started to wrap the world in conductive wire, if this happened now we would be majorly screwed.

[–] SandbagTiara2816@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Would we? I remember reading Ted Koppel’s book Lights Out a few years ago, but I’d assume that utilities, grid operators, and governments have been making efforts to improve grid resilience

[–] scarecrow365@reddthat.com 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

God bless the Eastern Interconnection lol

[–] Rhaedas@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago

Being proactive for risks that are small for the near term is expensive, and not very profitable for the shareholders.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

My power goes out every hurricane which is at least once a year.

[–] o0joshua0o@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Plot twist: it did hit in 2012. Any survivors had their consciousnesses uploaded to simulation.

[–] Numpty@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 years ago

That would explain a lot.. things seemed normal until about 2013...

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

uploaded by who

[–] STUPIDVIPGUY@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

Dammit. We need a good solar flare to remind us what's real and what isn't