Facts matter: Northern Lights not created by research program

Much of the U.S. was treated to a recent show as the Northern Lights were visible after solar flares set off geomagnetic storms last weekend. There were also some reports of power grid irregularities and decreased function of communications and GPS systems.

Although people across the globe witnessed the phenomenon, and many posted photos online, some social media users claimed it never happened.

“Solar flares don't exist because the Sun isn't a ball of fire in space that throws off violent bursts of energy. The Sun is just a light. The 'geomagnetic storms’ are caused by HAARP. Stop falling for the nonsense,” read a May 10 Facebook post.

But that is false, according to USA Today. Solar flares were discovered more than 150 years ago. The flares, bursts of high-energy radiation emitted from the sun, shoot plasma and charged particles into Earth’s atmosphere, causing geomagnetic storms and creating auroras in the sky.

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, a research program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks that studies Earth’s ionosphere, did not create the lights.

The fake post includes information that HAARP was working on a research campaign May 8-10. But program officials said that was a coincidence as the project was scheduled more than a month before the first prediction of the solar storms.

“The HAARP scientific experiments were in no way linked to the solar storm or high auroral activity seen around the globe,” Jessica Matthews, the group’s director, said in a statement.

Scott McIntosh, deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told USA Today the post claiming the storms were faked is “total and utter nonsense.”

Biden off on inflation claim

President Joe Biden, during a CNN interview earlier this month, claimed he has done great work to improve the economy even though he started his term in a hole.

“No president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9% when I came to office, 9%,” Biden said in the May 8 interview.

But Biden is way off on this claim, according to The Associated Press. Inflation was nowhere near 9% when he took over. In January 2021, inflation was at 1.4%.

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the year before Biden took office, inflation began at 2.5% but dropped as low as 0.1% five months later. It then began a steady increase that peaked in June 2022 at 9.1%

Inflation is currently at 3.4%, according to data released this month.

Trump didn’t miss trial for a rally

Former President Donald Trump is attending his criminal trial, in which he’s accused of falsifying business records, on each day the court is in session.

A recent post implied that Trump is setting the court schedule.

“The judge is totally fine with Trump missing his trial for his rally. Lying about why you’re missing court is okay as long as you’re Trump,” read a May 7 social media post.

But this claim is misleading, according to USA Today. Trump has not been skipping court to hold a rally. The former president’s rallies and events have been scheduled on weekends and days off from the trial. The court has regularly taken Wednesdays off.

Trump has been present for all of the court proceedings, including the May 7 session.

Judge Juan Merchan has changed the schedule to accommodate requests from those involved, including a decision to not hold court on May 17 so Trump could attend his son Barron’s high school graduation.

All Starbucks cups aren’t the same size

A video making the rounds on social media claims all three sizes of coffee cups offered by the beverage chain Starbucks hold the same amount of liquid.

“You might think it’s some kind of trick — and it is — but it’s not a magic trick. It’s a marketing trick. And Starbucks gets all the credit.” a person in the video says as they pour coffee from one cup to another.

In the clip, the person takes a tall cup of coffee, which is Starbucks’ small size, and pours it into an empty grande, or medium, cup and the liquid fills it to the brim. He then pours the contents into a venti, or large, cup and it again fills to the brim.

But this is not accurate, according to PolitiFact. The cups actually do hold different amounts of liquid. Starbucks says its tall cup holds 12 ounces, the grande holds 16 ounces and the venti holds 20 ounces.

PolitiFact conducted its own test with the three sizes of cups. When water from a full-to-the-brim tall cup was poured into the grande cup, there was room at the top. And similarly, when water from the tall cup was poured into a venti cup, there was even more room above the water line.

It’s unclear how the person in the video made it appear the cups contain the same amount, PolitiFact said.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.