NOAA released its prediction for sunspot cycle 24 this past Friday, May 8 - - normally a droll affair, attended by few and hardly worthy of politics. No more. Like eveything else coming out of Washington, D.C., this NOAA report has a "spin" attached, in the form of a sensationalized tale of solar-storm damage. Well, NOAA is a Federal government agency, and the Federal government these days operates on the basis of crisis!!!, be it real, imagined, or manufactured.