We've had another in a series of early springs this week, with last Sunday being the big, beach-going, park-sitting height of it. Mark Zuckerberg couldn't resist coming out to prove he does, really, have friends. And all the frisbee-tossers and gay boys were fast to rip their shirts off in the sun. Today will be another clear and balmy day, hitting the mid-60s at least (though it may be warmer in the Mission or Dogpatch, and even warmer tomorrow), so perhaps not a shirt-ripping-off kind of day, but it will also be a day of a major solar storm, featuring some of the biggest flares shooting off the molten surface of the sun that observers have seen in five years.

"Don't panic!" says a lady at NASA, but nevertheless a big wave of charged particles are blasting the earth right now, causing flights to be re-routed, GPS systems to crash, and power grids to fail. But no, it's not harmful at all. And the Northern Lights should be extra intense and pretty tonight.