Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

This fight is for everything.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Books are my comfort food!

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

When I was faster i was always behind.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    They said the best one to watch is Alaska since they’ll have 21 hours of sunlight to observe the transit.

  2. 2.

    redshirt

    Not for Boston. :(

    On the other hand, in the “Signs and Omens” category, surely this is good news for John McCain!

  6. 6.

    Baud

    It’s comforting to contemplate a universe that doesn’t care about election results.

    Thanks, M.

  14. 14.

    piratedan

    watching the Mt. Wilson observatory feed from California atm, no sound, just pikchurs, linked to it from the link helpfully provided earlier

  17. 17.

    Splitting Image

    I’m watching the feed from Keck observatory. They seem to be cutting away from the view less often than some of the others.

    Keck feed

  22. 22.

    S. cerevisiae

    I just caught it using my spotting scope projecting on white cardboard, gave me a nice picture and I could even see the same sunspots as the webcam. Be careful not to let your scope heat up. I was really surprised how well this method works.

  33. 33.

    slag

    @shortstop: If you haven’t yet read The Age of Wonder, I recommend! It discusses that voyage among other scientific pursuits of the time. It’s very entertaining up until it gets to discussing Humphry Davy (about half-way in) where, I think, it lacks inspiring narrative. Very much worth reading nonetheless.

    Thanks for this post, mistermix!

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    Because I work with geeks, we all piled outside to try and see it — one person had a welder’s mask and a couple of the guys set up a pinhole camera.

    I do like my office.

  35. 35.

    Viva BrisVegas

    How many astronomical events are responsible for creating a nation?

    One, this one.

  36. 36.

    g

    I tried looking through a welder’s mask but couldn’t see the black spot on the sun’s disc.

    A pinhole camera image is just too small and fuzzy to see the dot. Wah.

  41. 41.

    RossInDetroit

    @Gromit:

    That’s what I did and I got surprisingly good images. As well as the planet I could spot 3 sunspots. Had I known I would be home today I’d have used a ground glass screen, bigger optics and a shroud to get better images. Oh well. Next time…

  43. 43.

    redshirt

    How cruel! First, the tease: At about 1920EDT the sun came out – I saw sun on the ground and raced outside with my solar glasses. But alas! There were just enough wispy clouds to prevent me from seeing Venus. Then the clouds came back.

    Then, near sunset, the clouds opened up suddenly – blue sky everywhere. EXCEPT for right over the sunset. I waited, and hoped, then nope: Gone.

    Curse you Apollo!

  50. 50.

    Maude

    I follow some astronauts on Twitter and they were really excited about the transit. NASA likes people and shares everything it can.

  52. 52.

    Gromit

    @RossInDetroit:

    That’s what I did and I got surprisingly good images. As well as the planet I could spot 3 sunspots. Had I known I would be home today I’d have used a ground glass screen, bigger optics and a shroud to get better images. Oh well. Next time…

    Yeah, I could see those three big sun spots too. We’re you looking at around 7:00 eastern time?

  54. 54.

    slag

    @Splitting Image: You’d think the people at Keck would realize that, even when the questions they get are answered by others, they should still answer them for the lazy asses at home who may be curious but aren’t bothering to read their Facebook page.

  56. 56.

    anonymoose

    @redshirt:

    Yup, I got a video of Venus ingressing across the limb, then changed to my DSLR and took about an hours worth of shots 5s apart. I’m copying them all from my laptop, will probably get a timelapse video up on YT sometime soon.

  57. 57.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    This would have been a perfect post to title “There’s a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today.”

    Metrosexual Black AbeJ wouldn’t have missed it.

  58. 58.

    Warren Terra

    I am insisting on calling it a venereal eclipse.

    It was pretty neat to see it. The best was seeing it directly through the foil glasses our Astronomy department was handing out; they also had telescopes, both foiled fancy ones for viewing directly and simple telescopes projecting onto pieces of paper, but it was the direct view that was the most impressive.

  62. 62.

    Bill Arnold

    Had two two minute partial gaps in raincloud cover. Had a (short focal length refractor) telescope with solar filter in the car in case the clouds opened up, so saw the initial ingress (plus a few minutes) at about 6:10 PM and then about a 1/6 of the way across an hour later. Shared with one bystander.

  64. 64.

    Royston Vasey

    f*ck, f*ck and double f*ck

    It’s been raining here in Wellington, New Zealand all freaking day. No chance of ever seeing the Transit.

    *grumble*

  65. 65.

    Raka

    A once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event occurs, and everyone on earth runs out to observe. HAVE NONE OF YOU READ “DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS”?!

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