You think you're just tuning in to the news, but really, you're setting yourself up for an ulcer.
If it's not North Korea moving a missile onto a launch pad-- oh, and by the way, it is, today-- then it's a more impersonal, distant threat of doom: Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months.
This is suddenly "news" because a report was released this week, but scientists have known for a while that a large surge of magnetic energy from the sun could disable technologically advanced (and dependent) societies. (Funny how the news does that. Something emerges as a "big story" for a week or two, and then it disappears from discussion as abruptly as it came.)
And then there's the scenario played out in this recently published novel. (It's about an EMP that disintegrates the modern world-- yet another potentially apocalyptic event that we hear about from time to time. It's the Y2K scare all over again-- only worse.)
Sometimes, you wonder why you bother getting out of bed in the morning!
P.S. If you're interested, this article, which was published last year, has more information about the 1859 solar storm that put telegraphs out of commission (and the possible implications of future storms). Auroras were visible as far south as the Caribbean. (Wow!) "People could read the newspaper by their crimson and green light. Gold miners in the Rocky Mountains woke up and ate breakfast at 1 a.m., thinking the sun had risen on a cloudy day."
