Northern Lights and Alaska "Reality" TV

This, from the Alaska Dispatch News:

Massive sunspot could lead to aurora displays through weekend 

Sunspot region AR 2192 could be about to light up the atmosphere over Alaska. Lovers of the aurora borealis should cross their fingers and hope for clear skies.

The National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Centers says a sunspot cluster the size of Jupiter has broken out in region 2192. It's the largest sunspot in 20 years on the earth-facing side of the sun.

"If [the sunspot region] maintains this level of complexity, we still believe more X-class flares are likely, and that should continue for next six or seven days,” researcher Doug Biesecker told The Washington Post. 

CMEs -- coronal mass ejections -- from sunspots are what set the aurora to dancing across the night skies in a rainbow of colors. AR 2192 has so far been low on CMEs, but that could change.

And then there's this one. You may not be watching the Alaska-based reality shows on the Discovery channels (we don't), but one has drawn legal attention:

'Alaskan Bush People' indictments? So what? Reality TV fakers know no bounds

Reality TV as defined in the north these days is Aesop's Fables written by someone sent on a trip by questionable acid. Reality TV is the so-called "Alaskan Bush People" running around in the green light of a night-vision lens trying to confront fictional shooters in the night in the woods near Glennallen and then supposedly fleeing for their lives.

Actual reality -- which is waaay different from TV reality -- is the Bush People getting busted on charges of falsely filing for Alaska Permanent Fund Dividends. And never mind what people can get away with on that phonied up "Alaska State Troopers" show; there are some realities Alaskans take seriously. Lying about living in Alaska in order to collect a PFD is one of those realities.

This is the crime of which six members of the Brown family -- better know as simply the "Bush People" -- stand accused. A Juneau grand jury indicted chief Bush Person Billy Brown and children Amora, Snowbird, Joshua, Bam-Bam, Solomon, Gabriel and Noah on multiple counts of second-degree theft and unsworn falsification for fibbing on their PFD applications.

As if any Alaska reality TV star would ever fib. C'mon, it's not fibbing if it could be real.

Alrighty then. That's all the blogfodder I found this morning. I'm reasonably sure there will be more, later.

Thanks for stopping by, friends.