Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The willow is too close to the house.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

We still have time to mess this up!

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / I Has Questions, and I Hope You Has Answers

I Has Questions, and I Hope You Has Answers

by | 52 Comments

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The clouds are out so I could not see the stars, and Walt and I were talking and I vaguely remember an iPad commercial that had an app that if you held it up the to sky, it would tell you what constellations you should (or are) seeing.

Walt wanted to know if any of you had heard of a tree identification app. Walt seemed to remember an app where you could take a picture of a leaf and it would tell you the tree.

Then again, these could be bourbon induced fever dreams.

*** UPDATE ***

Holy hell, Star Walk is cool. I know, welcome to 2009 or whatever, but this is just awesome. Plus, I settled some arguments and I was right about the stars we were seeing.

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  7. 7.

    Funkula

    Due to the last line, I’m imagining this conversation taking place between two guys who are drunk off their asses, and it’s HILARIOUS.

  9. 9.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @? Martin: have you managed to get that to accurately identify anything? I tried a version of it on leaves I already knew, and it couldn’t identify them.

  10. 10.

    ? Martin

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: Yeah, actually we have. It can be pretty hit or miss though depending on species.

    I should add – it couldn’t recognize anything indigenous to the southwest. Only things that are pretty broadly national. IIRC, it really only has east coast, or possibly northeast trees in the system. So it can pick up my apple tree but not the melaleuca.

  11. 11.

    Punchy

    Whats the app where you take a picture of a hottie and it tells you if they’re fake or real?

  15. 15.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    For Android users, there is a (free) app that will do at least some of what Star Walk does, called Google Sky Map. It will at least show you the positions of objects in the sky.

  20. 20.

    ? Martin

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: As am I. Not many apple trees here in the OC.Thankfully it’s a self-pollinator so it’s a good producer. But the app picked it up quite nicely along with the oak near my house. Should work pretty well where John lives. (and it is just the northeast for now)

  24. 24.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @? Martin: from your link above, I found that the version I had used before was an iPhone version. Maybe the ipad one will work better.

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    One of my cats seems to be ill. She’s lost weight and is a bit shaky, and is not as obnoxious as she usually is. We are painting the house and she drank some of the paint water a few days ago, but seemed to be okay afterward, but now I’m getting concerned. Vet tomorrow.

  26. 26.

    eemom

    if any of you had heard of a tree identification app. Walt seemed to remember an app where you could take a picture of a leaf and it would tell you the tree.

    omfg.

    Cole, the time has come for you to STOP showing off the fact that no matter what random shit pops into your head at no matter what hour of the day or night, you can post it here, and an army of ready willing and able sycophants will lap it right up.

    Srsly. Have you at long last sir, no sense of decency?

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    So apparently I turned our new TV off incorrectly last night and it was still on this morning. No picture, because it further turns out that I turned off the cable box by mistake.

    I’ll say this for our old tube TV, at least you didn’t have to press three different buttons to turn the goddamned thing off.

  37. 37.

    Suzanne

    @Yatsuno: Ugh. SHIT. I had a kitty that I had to put down because she was in kidney failure. I still miss the hell out of my Nico.

  38. 38.

    Jerzy Russian

    I remember when I was a kid I had to use a book (by H. A. Rey) to figure out which stars were which.

  39. 39.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Yatsuno: @Suzanne: We had one weight loss case that ended up being kidney problems, one that was thyroid. But you never know. Usually as long as they’re eating and drinking and peeing and pooping, nothing’s dire.

  40. 40.

    The Bobs

    I’m shocked to find that Apple users need a program to identify stars in the night sky. Try taking your eyes off the screen for a while.

    The actual stars and sky are what is cool, the software is just software.

  41. 41.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @The Bobs: you are stupid. Everyone has to learn about the night sky from somewhere. Did you just absorb it out of the air?

  43. 43.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne: You should be able to sync the TV and cable box so that you only need to turn on the cable box. Look at whatever guide you have for the cable box remote.

  44. 44.

    donnah

    Sky Walk is one of the first apps I bought. It’s more than a constellation ID, it’s a collection of stunning photos and facts about space. I have always loved stargazing, and this makes it easier to identify and map the stars.

    It’s fun!

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jerzy Russian: “The Stars: A New Way To See Them.” That’s a classic. Rey’s fancy constellation diagrams lean a bit too much on dim stars that most kids won’t be able to see unless they go out to the country, but they’re a great spur to the imagination.

  50. 50.

    Geeno

    @FlipYrWhig: My 17 year old tabby just developed thyroid problems this past year. Losing weight, dehydration, frequent intestinal blockages (due to the dehydration), but it took a few months before the problem finally showed up in his blood work.
    The medicine is doing wonders. He doesn’t mind it in his food and he’s putting some weight back on.

  52. 52.

    David Brooks (not that one)

    I hope you also saw Saturn, fairly low in the south.

    Windows Phone has SkyMap, with some pretty cool features.

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