A non-related-to-my-routine side-note ;)

I've been hearing a lot of talk about these big solar/electromagnetic storms (EMP, damaging to electronics, etc.) the sun is going to be putting off in the next couple of years.  People... there's a relatively simple fix to this that you can use to protect your own electronics.  Now, your average individual isn't going to go and make a 'safe room' or 'safe box' the size of their basement, so maybe you won't be able to save everything... but you can make decent sized protective vault for anything of real importance (say your laptop and cell phone.)  Now they won't be protected while you use them, and perhaps some genius scientist will come up with something along the way that's far simpler and more effective... but until then... follow this simple explanation ;)
OK, it's called a Faraday cage.  Michael Faraday came up with the mathematical idea and original design... hence the term Faraday cage and not some other person's last name cage.  Simply put, you need a container, a simple cardboard box will work just fine.  Some copper tape and some duct tape.  You can use copper mesh (perhaps other metals as well, screens of sorts) but I know copper works very well.  Put a layer of duct tape around the box on all sides.  Then wrap the box in the copper tape in the same way - completely encasing the box with no gaps in tape... overlaps are OK.  Another layer of duct tape to finish it.  Now, if you want added peace of mind, go ahead and wrap another layer of the copper tape and then another layer of duct tape.  This process can be completed as many times as you like and each new layer will stop more and more of those pesky solar EM waves.  If you need proof it works, toss your cell phone into it, close the box, and try calling your phone.  If it rings, you have gaps (or the flaps of the box closing is throwing you off, for which there is a simple remedy.  Repeat the whole process on a second box that can slide inside the first one and fit snugly.  Put your phone in one box, put the open end of the box into the other box and call your phone again.  If it still rings, you were either sloppy and have gaps in the copper tape wrappings or you need more layers.  Now I know this is long and drawn out, and there are ways to improve the design (like placing a copper mesh, like a copper screen of sorts, between layers of copper tape and duct tape,) but this is just to show that there are options in protecting our electronic/communications/etc. networks.  I'm quite certain the government has already put systems and units similar to this (with more professional finishes, I'm sure) into place around their own important data storage devices.  Frankly, entire buildings could be built with built-in Faraday cages - Large, tightly woven copper meshes layered between sheets of solid copper with the cement/brick/whatever the building's made out of built around them.
Mythbuster actually showed a very simple Faraday cage and its effectiveness.  Shipment containers, the large trailers some truckers pull that look like big steel red, green, blue, whatever colored boxes that go onto container liners to ship overseas - They make excellent Faraday cages and are even more effective with an added mesh of copper along the interior walls/ceiling/floor.  OK, enough of my ranting... really off this time.