On my birthday, the third largest solar flare ever recorded occured and today the the 2 tons of "coronal mass ejection" will hit the earth. Fun! Apparently the effects will include satellite and cellular disruption and aurora borealis type events in the Southern hemisphere.

View from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope which shows light from a specific type of iron ion formed at 1.5 million degrees Kelvin. Taken at 11:12 UTC. Given the size of the sun, that white spot is pretty big. Image courtesy of the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory

On a possibly related note, my CS370 exam sucked ass.