Conflicting information about the sun. What is it doing?

I'm confused. I recently heard that the the US National Solar Observatory reported that the sun has entered into the lowest state of solar minimum in a century, maybe even the last 400 years and could last a few years. However, what happened to all the stuff NASA are supposed to have said about there being huge solar flares and massive solar activity that would effect the earth in 2011/2012?. How can there be such conflicting information? Do our scientists have any idea either way? Is the sun active or not?