the sun is driving us nuts

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This is nearly as good an explanation as space lizards.

Rollercoaster financial markets and the worst riots Britain has seen in decades have made it quite a week for a time of year that is usually so dead the newspapers are filled with "silly season" tales of amusing pet antics.

Everyone is pointing fingers — at blundering politicians, hooded thugs, disaffected youths, bumbling police and greedy bankers — but could the cause for all the madness really be the star at the centre of our solar system?

There isn't a lot of evidence pointing to little green men involving themselves in Earthly affairs, but the sun has been throwing bursts of highly charged particles into space in a phenomenon known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs.

But, whatever, I really think we need to pull out of it.

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