Selfsufficientish.com

"Since the sun's last upheaval caused worldwide disruption and destruction in 1859 ..." tells us everything, I think. The telegraph service (still quite young) was disabled - principally because it used very long cables making very efficient aerials - yes, but nothing stopped Dickens publishing "A Tale of Two Cities", nor Blondin crossing Niagara on a tightrope. And the usual spate of mid-19th century wars carried on as if nothing had happened.

But what the hell - why should a journalist bother with basic research and the ... errr ... truth?

Mike

This story's been doing the rounds for a while. It's really hard to find anything about it on the NASA website, but I think this 2009 conference might be the origin of the story: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/ap ... torms.html