MY advice to you is to write a letter to Santa in 2012 asking for books. So, when the solar flares fry some satelites,power grids and other communication systems, you open up one of those books and immerse yourself into the old ways of escapism.

Otherwise,you'd be left with lighting a candle and casting shadows on the wall with your hands.

yeap, we are all going to die. old news

It could indeed paralyse the Earth in 2013. Although it's just as likely to occur tomorrow. Or in 2018 or 2150 .....

Just as sooner or later supervolcano will erupt, and sooner or later a big asteroid will hit the earth, so sooner or later a big CME will hit the Earth. Okay, the later maybe more likely in any given century but at least nowadays we will have forewarning and hopefully be able to react (by switching off power grids temporarily) so that it causes the minimum of disprution.

with so much reliance on technology these days it would come as a massive organisational shock to most people. As we essentially have the technology in orbit to provide advance warning of a solar flare (albeit only days) it would be a major effort to prepare both practically and physiologically. when you think about it most people would be in a blind panic, every function of society would be at melting point. I don't think it's a simple as lighting a candle and reading a book. The european 'ash cloud' that grounded aircraft earlier this year caused massive disruption and that imo is pale in comparison to an event like this.

Unfortunately, this is really only the case if you were to start the Solar Cycle when it was scheduled to. The previous Cycle had an excessively long lull at the end, with sunspots of Solar Cycle 24 not beginning to form until late 2009. If you were to begin the Cycle then, you would expect the maximum to be in early-mid 2015. Sorry, 2012ers.