BREAKING: The Lincoln Project just released this devastatingly powerful ad slamming Trump for his horrific leadership in 2020. We cannot let Trump back in office. Retweet so every American sees this. pic.twitter.com/nBxApSXfLf
— Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) April 5, 2024
$20B from Green Bank to disadvantaged communities…thank you President Biden for bringing in environmental justice 💙🇺🇸https://t.co/0oUuCTIv4z#environmentaljustice #earthmonth #BidenHarris2024
— DemsabroadECCC (@DemsAbroadECCC) April 5, 2024
Because good news never goes viral on here: the final Friday prayers this Ramadan passed peacefully in Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims worshipped at Al-Aqsa over the course of the month. Spoiler actors did not succeed in provoking violence. None of this was a given. https://t.co/g9wVEKMsZq
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) April 5, 2024
Remember when people called the comics section of the newspaper ‘the funny pages’? Now we’ve got Republicans instead of strip cartoons…
Ivana’s revenge. pic.twitter.com/MAXTknraQ5
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 5, 2024
I was going to joke about people doing this and here is MTG, right on cue. https://t.co/SHgM7ZIo6P
— Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) April 5, 2024
Alexandra Petri, at the Washington Post, moves fast — “The eclipse and earthquake are omens! Portents are all around!”
Chaos! Omens! Signs! Portents! The earth quakes and the moon blots out the sun! Something is seriously awry in the country. Clearly, someone is trying to warn us of something. Clearly, we have angered God!
I am not saying, “Clearly we have angered God!” in the sense that I genuinely don’t understand science and as a consequence everything in the world frightens me, like a little baby who is not sure the sun will come back ever again. I am a member of Congress. I know that the sun will come back, because we passed a law about daylight saving time and now the sun is obligated to us…
The Earth is changing in terrifying ways and we have got to act differently, but not along the lines of speeding the transition to renewable energy. I mean in the way of, maybe we should sacrifice a goat. I am a rational woman of faith, and I think maybe we should pray hard on Monday so the moon will release the sun and not eat it.
But while we are at it, let’s examine this double standard! When the air fills with smoke and the temperature rises, you say it’s good science to say, “The scary thing that the Earth is doing right now is because mankind did something wrong,” but I say that the eclipse and the earthquake are because of sins one time and suddenly I “don’t understand basic science”?
Yes, God is punishing us. It used to be you could walk all the way across the comfortable flat of the Earth and the sun would rise and set in an orderly way. Now, the Earth is a ball hurtling through the vacuum of space. Now, we have WiFi, but should we?…
Baud
Happy to hear about Ramadan being peaceful.
NotMax
Weekend longish watch.
In a word and a half, fascinating. This Is the World’s Most Remote Infrastructure Project.
Wow. just wow.
hueyplong
It is absolutely certain that more than one Republican will make Petri’s parody MTG argument conflating climate change and eclipses, though I’m pretty sure that God’s temporary hostage-taking of the sun is actually a warning against our continuing to treat Donald Trump unfairly.
Anne Laurie
@Baud: Actually (I checked), Ramadan doesn’t end until probably Tuesday (depending on when the moon is sighted). But this is definitely the last Friday, start-the-weekend, get all the deeply religious folks in one place Friday before it ends.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Right. Friday is the Muslim holy day. Obviously, we’re never completely out of the woods, but I’m happy to have gotten past Friday.
Scout211
Some good news in Biden and Democratic fundraising.
Thor Heyerdahl
@NotMax: that was incredible. Thank you.
Geminid
@Scout211: In 2020, Biden’s campaign was poorly funded until the August convention, while Trump’s campaign was flush throughout the year. That is one big difference between this cycle and the last one.
gene108
God will keep sending more earthquakes our way until we stop living in sin, and become pious Christians like Margie Greene.
Want proof? Look at all these earthquakes attacking America and our territories, just this morning!!!
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=-27.21556,-131.30859&extent=73.77578,-58.53516&map=false
Edit: Fixed stuff
Suzanne
@gene108: Just wait until there’s an earthquake on the New Madrid fault and hits a bunch of red states. I wonder what Jewish Space Lasers lady will say then.
Geminid
@Anne Laurie: The TOI’s picture of people praying at Al-aqsa is impressive. It was taken in the afternoon I think; some of the evening photos are even more spectacular.
Frankensteinbeck
This reminds me of the “Fucking magnets, how do they work?” jokes, except Greene isn’t being taken out of context. Academically, I wonder if she believes this (probably not) or it’s just evangelical virtue signaling. That’s practically their entire religion.
gene108
@Suzanne: Jewish Space Lasers caused the earthquake, obviously.
A new prototype went haywire in a secret testing program somewhere near New Madrid, Missouri.
Geminid
@gene108: Someone posted a recent picture of Mt. Vesuvius blowing smoke rings.
Frankensteinbeck
@Scout211:
He’s been fundraising as aggressively as he’s capable of for years. I’m not sure this is going to get any better for him.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊😊😊
BretH
@rikyrah: G’day!
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin, y’all!
Baud
@rikyrah:
@Nukular Biskits:
Good morning.
Mai Naem mobile
John Fugelsang calls MTG Empty G which just seems so appropriate for the garbage she spouts.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
Is that a hint of a desire to build bridges between the Hawai’ian Islands?
😉
Nukular Biskits
@Frankensteinbeck:
I really wish media outlets in this country would commit actual acts of journalism and start asking Republicans if they agree with assertions like that … and then follow up by asking “Why do you believe this?”
In MTG’s case, I doubt she truly believes that claptrap but cynically thought she could monopolize on it to gin up support from the rubes. And, in that case, she was right.
RepubAnon
@Nukular Biskits: Obviously, the earthquake was God’s way or telling the American people to stop giving AntiChrist Trump special treatment in his many legal problems and lock him up pending trial.
hueyplong
@Nukular Biskits: The GOPer merely says “I haven’t seen that” and the person with the microphone drops the subject. Et voila, the rubes get their MTG signal with the customary zero cost in awkward explanations to rational people.
Baud
@RepubAnon:
That’s how I read it.
Chief Oshkosh
@Nukular Biskits: Agreed. If any Democrat anywhere spouted off with Dark Ages pablum like Empty Garbage did, there would be nonstop coverage by the majors and the minors, from The Malicious Mouse all the way to the local high school’s (probably better) newspaper, with those Nice Polite Republican ladies in their radio koffee klatsch in between.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Just look at how we treated Marianne Williamson.
Nukular Biskits
@RepubAnon:
I’d really like to see serious people start offering that as a wise-ass response to the bleatings of yahoos like MTG.
NutmegAgain
I’ll just throw this tidbit of chum out there–I’m kind of surprised I haven’t seen it before. It turns out that Aileen Cannon is, wait for it,an immigrant! Seems she was born in Columbia (Cali) and came to the US with her family. Myself, I couldn’t care less of course–even good for her?. But the team she plays for seems to really, really detest immigrants, notably those from south of the border.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Are you saying RepubAnon is not a serious person?
Nukular Biskits
@hueyplong:
Bingo!
And that is one of my pet peeves; i.e., the so-called “librul” media in this country refuses to follow up/confront “conservative” Republicans with questions designed to truly out their beliefs.
This is also why, IMHO, Republicans up and down the ladder refuse to hold public events where the citizenry can actually pose those questions themselves … they don’t want to take the chance of having their hypocrisy/bigotry/callousness make it on mike and/or video.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Baud, you’re operating on several levels above me this morning. Full disclosure: Had too many beers last night and haven’t finished my first cup of coffee yet.
Are you referring tongue-in-cheek to the ubiquitous “anonymous Republican” source(s) employed (in more ways than one) by our failing media?
dmsilev
@Scout211:
That’s being …generous to Trump. He’s raising a lot of money, the problem is that it’s all going to him and his legal fees, not to his campaign.
sab
@NutmegAgain: Colombia not Columbia, but good point. otherwise.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
I’m referring to the person you replied to in your comment.
Spanky
@RepubAnon: “Planet Earth demands a sacrifice, and that must be Donald Trump.”
Ken
@gene108: Clearly the problem is the geologists have all those seismometers. If we took them away, we’d never hear about most of these quakes since they’re barely perceptible.
Betty
@NutmegAgain: So is Elon Musk. His brother claims they were illegal immigrants. Ivana Trump also declared in her autobiography that she came to the US illegally. They don’t care about hypocrisy.
RevRick
@Suzanne: You mean the 1811 earthquake with a 8.2 magnitude that rang church bells in Boston?
Raven
My uncle called the funnies “the jokes”!
mrmoshpotato
@gene108: I wish to subscribe to your newsletter (and wish a sinkhole would swallow this honking car alarm.)
sab
Is any front pager planning an eclipse post? I don’t think any of them live in the path, but blogmaster and Anne Laurie might get a partial eclipse.
Sister in law wanted us at her house. I did not want that but she is lovely so I couldn’t say no. But apparently cancelled, so we can be at home adjacent to a 1000 acre metropark. The local zoo predicts the coyotes will howl.
ETA My guess is our dog and five cats will sleep through it. I want to go up the street to the metropark.
Mousebumples
@sab: No idea. I’m in the partial eclipse range and got a message from my kids’ school/daycare that they’d keep kids inside during the eclipse time.
I think I have a meeting during most of the peak eclipse time. Anyone know if I can safely look outside when it’s not the moment of total eclipse? Or do I need the special glasses, etc.?
StringOnAStick
@Betty: The Musks and Melanie are all white, so they simply can’t be illegal immigrants. Logic, man.
sab
@Mousebumples: Our newspaper says poke a hole in an index card and have another piece of plain white paper as a projection screen, and you can see the whole thing that way. I did that for the partial eclipse years (15?) ago and that worked fine.
ETA I am not very trusting, and if you get fake eclipse glasses you end up blind.
StringOnAStick
@Mousebumples: You can look at anything except the sun without the special glasses. They’re keeping the kids inside because once one kid notices that the sun looks funny, they’ll all look directly at it and that’s very bad for eyeballs and their vision.
Princess
Just heard on the radio about a couple that was driving from San Diego to Texas to see the eclipse, but have decided to drive yo the astronomy park in Lac Megantic in Quebec instead because of the weather.
I wonder if they realize it’s still winter in Lac Megantic. Hope they packed layers.
Ken
@Mousebumples: Depends what you mean by “look outside”. Never look at the sun without the special glasses. Otherwise there’s no problem with looking around at how the lighting and shadows change.
If the trees have leafed out, their shadows can get interesting. The tiny gaps between leaves form dozens of pinhole cameras, so you get a lot of little images of the crescent sun.
sab
Last partial eclipse the birds went absolutely silent. It was remarkable. I had never realized how much noise they make on a daily basis.
StringOnAStick
I was standing at the top of Grand Targhee ski resort for the total eclipse in 2017. Not only did it get very cold, it was great to look West and see the edge of the moon’s shadow rolling across the flat plain towards us as the time of totality was passing. Walking back down the trail to the base of the ski area, every bit of dappled shade through leaves was showing the waning partial eclipse, like the suggestion yesterday to hold a colander and look at the shadows each hole casts on the ground.
mrmoshpotato
@Mousebumples: You can safely look outside, just don’t go stare at the Sun. :)
sab
@Ken: Agree. If you look anywhere but directly at the sun you will be fine. I have seen two partial eclipses and that is what I did. They are slightly eery.
Spanky
@sab: Yup, the birds will go to roost. The temperature will also drop maybe 10 degrees or so. And (he said hopefully) the convective cooling will dissipate some types of cloud.
I’m going to my cousin’s west of Cleveland. She said it’s already a zoo there, between the NCAA BBall tournament and the eclipse. We’ll be about 10 miles off the centerline, so hoping the clouds clear out by then.
lowtechcyclist
We will be in Defiance, OH for the eclipse; we should get about a minute and a half of totality. We’re on our way to the airport right now, flying to Detroit then driving to Ohio.
Spanky
@sab: When we were in Nebraska in 2017 I noticed the light got very metallic once the sun was about 95% covered. Like we were standing under stadium lights. Eerie indeed.
Torrey
Since the thread has turned into an interesting and fruitful discussion about the eclipse, it’s obviously time for me to completely miss the ongoing thread and yammer a bit about something completely different. So here goes.
I haven’t always been impressed with the Lincoln Project’s ads, but the one at the top of the post is, IMO, solid. I particularly like the fact that the implied line of reasoning in the ad about who is a Trump adherent. By showing the insurrectionists as the voice-over says “followers,” the ad by implication locates the line between Trump followers and the audience by identifying the Trump followers specifically as violent rioters. This allows the intended audience (likely to include people who voted for Trump before as well as non-Trump voters who would normally vote R) to self-identify as not in the category of “Trump followers.” It’s well done, and I like the shift at the end directing the viewer to focus on the future.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
I’ll wave in your general direction!
RevRick
As I said in a post yesterday, MTG is voicing the Evangelical garbage theology of “Repent, or else!” Repentance has to do with how we think, what we assume to be true, but isn’t. The Jesus, whom Marge claims to worship, preached good news of liberation from all forms of oppression, including that which we impose upon ourselves. But Evangelicals like to preach “Hell fire and damnation,” which is totally based on fear. Which is completely the opposite of what Jesus taught.
sab
@Spanky: Lol. Cleveland really let itself get overbooked on events this week. My office does tax prep and most of us told the boss No we are not coming to work that day.
I still am laughing that Caitlin Clark says she loves Cleveland because it is a bigger Des Moines. Probably not the image they were planning to project.
Spanky
@lowtechcyclist: Hopefully you’ll have time to do so. Protip: don’t try to do too much during totality, only a few quick pictures, if that. Just try to soak it in.
It’s actually more of a lizard brain experience than most people expect.
FastEdD
I wonder how many playlists are being made about the eclipse. I imagine a radio station could time the music to end right when it is over, just like they do with fireworks. I was on a sunset cruise in Maui last year and they timed the music to end right when the sun dipped under the horizon-it was actually pretty cool.
Spanky
@sab: “Dear IRS, Sorry my taxes are late this year. It was the eclipse!”
Spanky
@FastEdD: Wonder if anyone remembers Cat Stevens’ “Moon Shadow”.
Tony Jay
@sab:
And draw the eye of an angry God? It’s like you love earthquakes!
sab
@RevRick: I know you have your own congragation, but I really value your comments here. I fell off church attending when I fell into the eldercare vortex.
Spanky
@RevRick: Yeah, but the hellfire and damnation schtick is better for donations.
sab
@Spanky: Our cutoff was March 15. We busted our asses the second half of March. If you bring your stuff in in April you deserve to file late.
Cutoff meaning promise to meet the deadline. We still accept returns
RevRick
I remember my first partial eclipse when I was 13 years old. My cousin and I were with my parents on a tent camping trip that eventually took us to Yellowstone. But at the time we were having lunch at a picnic area in Chamberlin, South Dakota along the Missouri River. It began to get dark and the birds began singing their settling in for the night songs. Since we were sitting beneath a tree we could see the crescents caused by the leaves dancing around the picnic table.
Mai Naem mobile
@NutmegAgain: iIRC Cannon’s mom was Cuban. Cubans consider themselves special. I had a Puerto Rican client who could not stand Cubans because he thought they were full of themselves. . There’s a whole colorism thing with Latinos/Hispanics whatever term you want to use. I used to work with a woman a light skinned 3rd generation Mexican American who was really proud of her Castillian roots because I guess she thought the decreased melanin made her a better person. Its not just a hispanic thing, South Asians have a similar thing going on as well.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Torrey: I think the Jan 6 footage is useful in reminding people of what happened and how bad it was. Even though we all saw it, I know I was shocked all over again when the Jan 5 committee showed it. I’d sort of muted it in my brain.
I realize the Biden campaign wants to point forward but I still think the insurrection footage will be a useful piece.
mrmoshpotato
@sab:
Cleveland! Bigger than Des Moines!
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Sorry. Little too slow but spinning up. LOL!
RevRick
@sab: I’m retired, but I fill in pulpits for pastors on vacation or in interims. I’m filling in on Earth Sunday at the church my wife and I belong to.
TBone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: me too. We should flog them with it like a cat ‘o nine tails. They all knew and they should be repeatedly reminded just how wrong they all are.
schrodingers_cat
@Mai Naem mobile: In India there is a huge market for fairness creams. Colorism is usually directed more at women than men
Lighter skin is equated with beauty. Look at most of the leading ladies of Indian cinema.
sab
@mrmoshpotato: Well, it is! Plus a world class orchestra and a world class art museum and a beach on a great lake. Also too the chain of metroparks and the Rock and Roll Museum (soon to be much better now that Jann whatshisface is gone.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: And all the black women I know make a point of getting a bit of sun every day so as not to lose their color.
Matt McIrvin
@Mousebumples: Just don’t look at the Sun. The only thing that makes eclipses more dangerous to your eyes than the Sun usually is is that (1) people want to look at them, and (2) immediately before and after totality, it might not hurt enough to warn you to look away, but there is still a damaging amount of light, so you have to *know* to look away.
During the period of totality in a total eclipse, it’s actually fine to look at the Sun, but the danger there is that you might not time it just right and keep looking after totality ends.
The projection method is a cool and safe way to observe partial eclipses, and if there are trees, you may not even need any equipment. Look at the shadow of a tree on the ground and you’ll see many little crescents.
mrmoshpotato
@sab: You forgot Great Lakes Brewing Company. :) 🍻
Mai Naem mobile
@Torrey: i remember reading somewhere that the Lincoln Project ads weren’t particularly effective during 2020 but I think part of their shtick is to wind up TFG. That probably important for for this cycle so that Americans can be reminded on how kray kray TFG is.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Hollywood definitely seems to prefer lighter skinned black women. Even before western colonialism, lighter skin meant that you didn’t have to be out in the sun, so denoted relatively exalted economic status
Upper castes tend to be lighter skinned (not always true though).
Jeffro
Dan Balz, channeling his inner Broder pretty hard here (but still noting one important thing: No Labels didn’t work ’cause the threat from trumpov is too great):
No Labels
Had to Pass On Ratfucking Joe Biden Because The Danger From Trumpov Is Too Greatcould not face down polarization, trump.(fixed)
Q: if the “moderates” are worried about electing trumpov…doesn’t that almost by definition mean that a) the best place for the moderates to go is with Biden, and b) that trumpov & his cult are the true radicals? Dan my man, you’re SO. CLOSE. to getting it.
Anyway…
(gives example of Ross Perot in 1992…not my idea of ‘charismatic’, but YMMV)
Hmm so half of the Ds are now “liberal”, while three-quarters of the Rs are now “conservative” and that’s ‘similar’…hmm…anyway, go on…
Keep in mind that all of this is new information…for normies. =)
*as President Biden and the Democrats are the clear choice for “centrists” and “moderates” (you’re welcome, Dan!)
Mai Naem mobile
@schrodingers_cat: yes and the ‘fair’ skin creams have steroids which actually damage your skin with long term use.
Melancholy Jaques
@sab:
Years ago, when I was in Des Moines for the Iowa caucuses, I thought the place was a smaller Cleveland. No lake, but the same vibe. No doubt, if I’d mentioned this to the locals, they would have objected.
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I used to go to marches on Washington during the Vietnam War, and most of us were very respectful of where we were and what it stood for. Same for the Civil Rights marches. Very respectful.
We need to be repeatedly reminded how different the January 6 march/protest/riot was. We as Americans have a long history of marches on Washington. This one was not a bit like all the others.
cmorenc
@Spanky:
A good analogy is really good sex. Pictures of the event don’t come anywhere remotely near conveying the actual experience. I’ve seen two total eclipses and one annular that was so near to a true total eclipse as to get almost as dark during the maxima except for Bailey’s beads poking out. Yes, take a quick snapshot or two – but NOT at the expense of spending most of the imminent approach to and during totality fumbling with your photo/video equipment rather than watching with your own eyeballs and absorbing the sheer profundity of the spectacle.
RaflW
@NotMax: The Faroe Islands are on my top-10 to-do list. My BF thinks that’s weird, but I am drawn to these starkly beautiful places. Greenland, Antartica, etc.
Jeffro
Also: I mentioned this last night, but if RFK Jr wants to run on a platform of being anti-vax and pro-J6 insurrectionists, he’s more than welcome.
LOVE it! “Here, let me clarify the offensive, pro-trumpov thing that I said…by reaffirming that I am definitely pro-trumpov on this issue”
schrodingers_cat
@Mai Naem mobile: I have never used one but I do know that they are very popular. Girls admonished not to go out in the sun or drink coffee since they are little. A home remedy is a face pack made of besan (chickpea flour + turmeric + water). God it smells awful. My aunt used to slather it on her face every weekend.
Thankfully my mother didn’t care about this fairness stuff.
TBone
@sab: it was an incursion, an invasion, an insurrection despite the incompetence and incompleteness (is that a word?). AND it is ongoing! It should be clearly and repeatedly depicted by lots of truth telling about all of the actions behind it (as well as the telling inaction by certain participants) that day continuing to the present.
Jeffro
@NotMax: very, very cool! Mrs. Fro and I are actually planning to visit the Faroes before next year is out. =)
same here!
sab
@Melancholy Jaques: Good point. I don’t get out much but my older sister the art historian does, and there are a lot of moderately cool cities in the Midwest that are not quite Chicago but are still cool.
I just watched the first episode of Elspeth and I loved it, but I was furious about them projecting the lawyer from Chicago as an utter naive nitwit. I live in a hick town and accept myself as a midwestern hick.
All the Chicagoans I have ever met are as big city sophisticated as any urban people from anywhere in the world.
sab
@mrmoshpotato: Burning River Beer. One of my favorites.
Mr. Bemused Senior
So, you’re a substitute preacher.
Mousebumples
Thanks to everyone for the eclipse suggestions. I might be stuck in my windowless basement office for most of it, but maybe I’ll look at some shadows outside. No leaves on trees yet that I can see, but I do have some blossoming daffodils. 😊
sab
@Melancholy Jaques: I still love and buy t-shirts from Raygun, the sophisticated midwestern t-shirt company. I hope the decline of the Iowa Caucuses doesn’t hurt them too badly.
RaflW
@Frankensteinbeck: Observing and reporting that Trump is struggling to fundraise would not be “balanced” journalism, as bothsides kabuki must be obeyed.
narya
For folks in Chicago, the public libraries have eclipse glasses for free! They’re not really “glasses”–no sidepieces–but you’ll be able to hold them up to your eyes.
I saw the last one in a place where we experienced totality, and it was so very cool (anthropologically as well, though that’s another story). I’m not traveling for this one, but I also think seeing >90% totality will be extremely cool.
RaflW
@NutmegAgain: If you fled a left wing regime (Cuba, Colombia) or, say, a potato famine, you’re good in the Republican club. Also helps that Cannon doesn’t really look that different from Cocaine Jr’s fiancée Kimberly.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
@Mai Naem mobile:
I remember seeing ads for these products in magazines when I visited India.
Skin lightening creams used to be relatively popular in black communities in America.
That, along with hair straightener products with caustic chemicals.
lashonharangue
@narya: I am in Mazatlán hoping to see my first totality. Weather forecast is iffy.
sab
@narya: As I said above, Chicago is midwestern but not unsophisticated. A true second city.
sab
@Brachiator: My dad’s nurse’s aide has seen women’s hair burst into flame under the dryers.
sab
@lashonharangue: Even with cloud cover it will get very dark.
sab
@RaflW: When my family fled a potato famine the Republican party was not anti government. We got a land-grant farm and my great grandfather and his brothers went to college at a landgrant university.
The Republican Party helped them, Irish immigrants, get their start in the world.That party is not the modern party.
Brachiator
@NutmegAgain:
There are immigrants who follow all the rules, fill out all the paperwork, and wait years to legally enter the US. These people do not detest immigrants from South of the border, but they sometimes intensely resent the fact that some immigrants are allowed to break the rules, and that liberals seem to bend over backwards to aid these people, but do little to reform immigration policies.
Obviously it is a complicated issue, and some of those frustrated with the process ignore Republican obstructionism.
But it is unfair and inaccurate to imply that these people are all hypocrites or racist.
ETA. I tend to be for open borders and believe that if you get here you belong here, but this view is not a vote winner.
schrodingers_cat
OT Art/drafting/drawing question: Has any BJer used a lead holder? Do you have any recommendations? What size lead do you prefer.
Thanks.
Betty Cracker
My favorite eclipse viewing technique is to look at the shadows cast through a colander. We have an old-fashioned metal one with round holes (probably belonged to one of our grandmas) that I used for the partial (in my area) 2017 eclipse. But as noted in a prior comment, all the shadows get weird, colander or no!
sab
@schrodingers_cat: I always thought Indians’ color was geographic. Farther south darker color. Is that right. Not that I much care.
The local Indians on my street turned out to be Guyanans from India who see themselves as Guyanan-Americans and not Indians at all. Took me twenty years to figure that out. Maybe talk to people, even when your grumpy grandpa and their grumpy grandpa discourage communication
ETA But the music they blast is Indian. I love walking up our street past their house when everyone is visiting.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: The legal immigration system while hard for everyone is slower than molasses if you happen to be among the countries that currently sends a lot of immigrants like India, China and Mexico.
The biggest bottleneck is getting the Green Card. Most Americans know little about the current immigration system.
db11
@NotMax: Thanks for sharing that link. Amazing project(s) and spectacular
landscapeseascape.Perfect documentary for lazy Saturday morning viewing.
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: There used to be a freckle remover cream when I was a kid. Probably just as dangerous.
I despised having freckles because other kids teased me, but the ones on my face went away sometime during my teens. I thought it was very strange when I realized they were gone.
Bill Arnold
@Spanky:
Annie Dillard:, famous essay:
Total Eclipse
Some excellent writing about her personal intense experience. It is worth the day trip for those near a cloud-free area on April 8. But even if it’s a partial eclipse, go outside and look at the crescent shadows.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Geography plays a part as does caste and waves of outsiders coming to India. From the Central Asian nomads 5000 years ago to Europeans 500 years ago.
ETA: I have given this example before, my great grandfather was very dark (several shades darker than Obama) and my great grandma could have passed for white, she was light skinned and had hazel/green eyes. Their children (they had 11) are practically every shade known to human kind. Oh and they were the same caste.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: I am glad you got citizenship. My brother in law from China thinks he is safe on a green card but I worry.
Another Scott
@Ken: You can do the same thing with your fingers – spread them apart and cross your hands to make a grid with your fingers and look at the shadows. No leaves required.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: I remember a few years back when the current Indian government turned 50 NPR tried to make a big deal of it and the Indian they asked said ” You do realize we are an ancient country?”
Jeffro
uh oh GOP – some of your own people are speaking up about how Putin owns y’all
GOP Rep McCaul’s comments on the GOP and Russia cause a stir. Follow the money, reporters!
Sounds good (except for the ‘almost’ part)
Keep talking, Putin-Uninfected Republicans! Your country needs to hear more about all of this.
sab
@Bill Arnold: Didn’t she write Brokeback Mountain?
Soprano2
I’m within an hour and a half of totality, but I don’t want to drive there because I don’t want to leave hubby that long and I don’t think he could make that trip comfortably. We’ll probably have something like 97 or 98 percent totality here, so that’ll have to be good enough. If hubby were 100% I’d definitely be going over there. One warning – someone I know who went north of here to see the one in 2017 said the trip there was easy, but leaving was nuts. She said it was 20 mph on I-44 the whole way back. I guess everyone left all at once.
Captain C
@Mousebumples:
100% need the special glasses. Even a sliver of direct sunlight will fry your eyes.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Amazing what passes for “moderate” and “radical” these days, huh?
People outside of FL have the luxury nowadays of never hearing the whiny, aggrieved and adenoidal voice of failed GOP candidate Ron DeSantis, but I heard a clip yesterday of him reacting to the successful ballot initiatives on abortion rights and recreational marijuana, both of which are polling well. DeSantis mewled, “Once people find out how radical these proposals are, they’ll reject them.”
Hopefully voters will recognize the actual radicals on the ballot and reject them.
sab
@sab: and the cooking smells!!
SteveinPHX
@NotMax: Don’t know if you’ll see this reply, but many thanks. I am amazed. Having worked in some large nuclear power plants, both operating & under construction (I pushed paper, not a jackhammer), these tunnels are one impressive project!
And then there is the ongoing operation & maintenance. Impressive.
sab
@sab: Sorry, that was Annie Proulx (excuse my mis-spelling).
sab
@Captain C: Silly. We glance at the sun every day.
mrmoshpotato
@sab: I’m partial to the Nosferatu seasonal.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: I would advise him to apply for citizenship right now.
Melancholy Jaques
@sab:
Re: Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire. I recently rewatched the last two seasons of West Wing. Brought back memories and gave me a feeling of Thank God we moved Iowa and New Hampshire off the front line.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
Could probably sing it from memory!
sab
@Soprano2: That is what I am expecting. Okay traffic in, horrible traffic out. Why I told my boss I am staying home.
I want to hear coyotes howl, not watch Canada geese sleep on the roof.
Baud
@Jeffro:
What part of “Better Russian than Democrat” was ambiguous?
narya
@sab: It’s very weird for me. I grew up on the east coast, and despite having lived here for more than half my life, still do not feel midwestern at all. When I was in NYC recently, I was reminded that styles grow/hit there YEARS before they make it to the midwest (not that I am the least bit stylish). It’s a different vibe, which I suppose could just be the different character any city has.
narya
@Soprano2: Same here. It took forever to get home last time, such that we originally had hotel reservations for Sunday AND Monday nights (we’ve since bailed on that plan).
Viva BrisVegas
Totality and 99% totality are two completely different things. If you can get to totality, do so. It’s worth the effort.
sab
@narya: I am old, but my uncle’s wife ( the best person I ever met in my whole life) moved to Cleveland from NYC in the 1950s. She lived here but she could not shake off her NYC sophistication or accent. Every present she ever gave me (except for that white leather studded belt) was the best present I ever received. But more importantly was her presence. She was lovely and amazing and simply always nice.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: They are both right. India with its current boundaries is a relatively new geographic construct but as a civilization it has existed for a very long time.
hueyplong
@Baud: There was, for a while, some ambiguity as to what percentage of GOPers were that way, but that ambiguity has dissipated.
A corollary is that the new “I was just following orders” is a lame assertion that doing their job was impossible due to anonymous threats from their own kind. So following orders of a sort.
topclimber
There was talk earlier of Chris Christie’s clout. Maybe an endorsement of Andy Kim on behalf of the Republic could mean something still in Jersey. A long shot at redemption for a good ole bully.
sab
@narya: I grew up in the South: North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida, but I always felt Midwestern, even when my accent was wrong. My people were Ohioans, so when I finally got here I felt at home.
It seems silly being committed to one state, but Ohio is the same size as Scotland, with twice the population. We are a presence.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@schrodingers_cat:
We sponsored an immigrant for citizenship who cared for our kids as babies. I can tell you that for most such workers that is not the process. Instead they come here “illegally” and work for years. In our case it was seven years later that her application came up and she had to leave and reenter the U.S.
The immigration lawyer who worked with us explained this in detail when we applied. I have no doubt the system is the same today. It is totally hypocritical and everyone involved knows it.
Kristine
@NotMax: Incredible—thanks for the link!
Citizen Alan
@Suzanne: God is punishing the red states for not doing enough to destroy the blue states.
Anybody remember that dumb movie The Day After Tomorrow about the environment going crazy and putting us into a new ice age? The most preposterous thing in that ridiculous movie was not a blizzard so terrible that it put all of north america into a new ice age within the space of a week. It wasn’t even Jake Gyllenhaal trying to pass himself off as a high school student.
No, the most ridiculous thing was the ending, which showed the newly installed President of the United States, who was clearly supposed to be Dick Cheney, going on TV from his new oval office in a trailer in Mexico, humbly saying that America was wrong to deny global warming and we must change our ways going forward and work together with the rest of the world to improve the environment and eliminate pollution. And I laughed my ass off at that because if anything like that happened in real life under a republican president he will would have blamed everything that happened on gays and abortion. And probably jewish weather control machines.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: I have. He won’t.
Sister Golden Bear
@Betty:
The hyprocrisy is a positive to them, since it shows they’re powerful enough they can flout the laws.
Soprano2
@sab: People go there at different times but leave all at once. It’s why I don’t park in the parking garage when we go to the symphony.
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s certainly been my experience
Chief Oshkosh
@cmorenc: So eclipse sex must be…?
BethanyAnne
I’m right in the path of totality in Arkansas. I have my glasses already and a filter for my phone should arrive tomorrow. I work from home. Hoping to get some good pics!
Citizen Alan
@Baud: What’s this we crap? Did anyone in the media ever mock Williamson the way she deserved for the nonsense she spews? I know blogs like this one did, but I don’t recall it being raised as an issue in the media, which always seem to portray her as a legitimate if long shot candidate.
Citizen Alan
@NutmegAgain: Great. So she’s aspiring to be the immigrant latina clarence thomas.
schrodingers_cat
@kalakal: But they have an unearned confidence when it comes to spouting opinions about it.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: I have two lesd holders dating back to the early 70s. Used them all the time until I figured out 5mm Pentels were a lot more convenient for everyday writing. I have no idea what brand they were.
Advice for sharpening: get a lead pointer instead of sandpaper. It’s a cylindrical sharpener with three blades. Much better results and less messy.
raven
@Brachiator: Fried, dyed and laid to the side!
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Keep working on him. I convinced at least 4 permanent residents during the Trump admin.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: He has a condo in Shanghai his whole family uses that he fears they would confiscate. He is probably right about that.
frosty
@sab: At this point I wonder if our adopted sons with naturalization certificates are safe from TFG’s deportation bullshit. Fortunately one is a cop. That should help.
Gvg
@Jeffro: When Romney said Russia was America’s most dangerous opponent to Obama (I think it was in a debate), most of us laughed at the gaffe. Now it isn’t so funny. I wonder if he was seeing stuff within his party that weren’t showing to the general public yet?
sab
@frosty: Yikes! Every time I wish Melania and Judge Cannon offloaded I think about the legitimate new citizens who do actually love our country.
Citizen Alan
@Melancholy Jaques: To be honest, I’ve often had the eerie and uncomfortable thought that fresno, california is just a gigantic version of tupelo, mississippi.
sab
@frosty: Just tell them not to text rude things to whatever current president. Otherwise they should be okay.
Brachiator
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
There are many immigrant stories. There are people who want to come here and work in the industries that they have trained for. They are not interested in taking care of gringo babies.
sab
@BethanyAnne: Please check in if we get a front page. I am so curious about south of us.
Sure Lurkalot
@narya:
My family moved from Long Island to St. Louis in 1969, when I was in 8th grade and my sister was in 10th. From floor scraping, hip hugging bell bottoms and boots to too short high pants with white socks and loafers. Sister and I were appalled, angry with dear old dad who stole us away from our friends and for all we knew, civilization itself.
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m constantly fascinated to hear about all the special privileges and money I’m supposedly receiving.
More seriously I have never met anyone outside of those who have either gone through the process or been closely involved with someone who has who has a any real grasp of what’s involved, let alone how time consuming, messy, confusing, expensive it is. And that’s before you get to the deliberate obstacles thrown in your path. Most people seem to see it as the equivalent of a passport application
And I am pretty sure I had it easier than most
RevRick
@Chief Oshkosh: Heavenly.
Bah dum pssh.
RevRick
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I prefer the term Designated Hitter.
sab
@Citizen Alan: It may be RWNJ but it isn’t Mississippi. Don’t give them things to aspire to.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Hollywood has had a problem with black women, and women of color in general.
They didn’t know what to do with people like Lena Horne or Dorothy Dandridge. They actually applied makeup to darken Horne’s skin so that movie audiences would know that she was black.
Merle Oberon passed for white and used skin lightening cream to hide her ethnicity. She was born in Mumbai, and was of mixed Indian and British parentage, but claimed that she had been born in Australia.
sab
@kalakal: Reminder: you are a Brit in FL, or a mixed citizenship (US)/UK) or something else?
Have read your comnents for years just want to know whence they came
sab
Step son just stopped buy with his dog. He works in a machine shop.Last time hugged our dog she smelled oily for a month.
narya
@Sure Lurkalot: OMG, that is too funny–but it’s exactly what I mean! I have never in my life been stylish/trendsetting, but I know it when I see it in others.
sab
@sab: She wants to meet him. Husband says No!
kalakal
@sab:
I’m the 1st and in the process of becoming the 2nd. Been here about 12 years
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: Yeah Pentel 1000 Graphgear FTW. The botanical instructor at the Smithsonian whose lecture I recently attended uses these lead holders for the fine detail.
Fake Irishman
@sab:
As native Clevelander I endorse your take on the city. I would also add that it has an excellent research university, a half dozen world-class theaters restored from the 1920s, and a solid restaurant scene.
M31
@schrodingers_cat: I love the graphgears too, have a .5 and .7mm
but I also have used the old architect’s 2mm lead holders and really like them — mostly for writing music since I can use pretty soft lead but keep it sharp easily with one of those rotating sharpeners
but I sometimes do paper crafts making polyhedron models that start by making a paper ‘net’ using compass and straightedge and with hard lead and a good point you can be extremely accurate
for drawing the 2mms would be good if you don’t mind shaping with sandpaper and the rotating sharpener but the drawing I’ve done with regular drawing pencils is just as easy
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Mumbai film industry had a fair number of Jewish folks. Some local Bene Israel Jews and some refugees from Europe.
MomSense
I won’t be in the totality zone, but my new office is in a 95% eclipse zone so I will be able to see an almost total eclipse without having to haul my ass hours north and deal with all the eclipse tourists. Tomorrow I’m going to see my DIL play with the Portland Symphony and I’m actually more excited about that. I’m a music freak – can’t help it. Music and arts are like oxygen for me.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Republicans said the exact same thing in Ohio – that the abortion and weed referendums were “too radical” – both passed easily.
My middle son was a poll worker in Toledo on Election Day and he said people were coming in and announcing they were there to vote for weed :)
I know you have a higher climb though – to 60.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: That’s different than what I used – it’s 0.5mm. Mine used a 2mm lead that had to be sharpened. Like this one.
https://www.staedtler.com/us/en/products/technical-drawing-instruments/technical-pens-drawing-ink/mars-technico-780-leadholder-m780/
Uncle Cosmo
Here’s a way you might finesse that if you have a smartphone with a timer:
Go onto one of the eclipse sites, put in your locality and read off the duration of totality in minutes and seconds. Subtract at least 5 seconds from that (10 is safer). Set up the timer for that duration, but don’t start it yet.
View the increasing eclipse via a pinhole projection, which will remain bright until second contact (when it will go out as the eclipse becomes total). Or eclipse glasses. Or have someone nearby who’s viewing through eclipse glasses give you a shout when the corona appears (which it won’t til the eclipse is total).
Immediately start the timer. Turn to view the eclipsed sun and corona and the stars in the darkness at (after)noon. Take a few quick pix of the scene, then let yourself soak in the ambiance.
When the timer alarm sounds, look away. In 5-10 seconds the sun will start to emerge from behind the moon (third contact).
Uncle Cosmo
@MomSense: Your loss, hon. As many here have already quoted Sam Clemens here that even a 95% partial eclipse is to a total eclipse as a lightning bug is to lightning.
For the duration of totality, a total solar eclipse is aruguably the most astonishing natural phenomenon most human beings will ever see.
dnfree
@Mousebumples: it’s the reverse. You can take off the glasses only for the few moments of totality. You NEED to wear them during the partial eclipse (and before and after). This is serious—people have been temporarily or permanently blinded.
Matt McIrvin
@dnfree: To be clear, though, there’s nothing wrong with just looking out the window during a partial eclipse, if you’re not looking at the Sun. That’s the problem, and it’s the same problem that it is at any other time–it’s just that the partially eclipsed Sun might mislead you into thinking it won’t damage your eyes to look directly at it, and it will.
NutmegAgain
@sab: oops! thanks for the correction
Chris Johnson
@sab: I see a problem though. When I go outside during daytime from a darker house, it’s blinding, before my eyes adjust, then when I go back inside it’s incredibly dark.
You don’t glance at the sun with dark-adjusted eyes… unless it’s a total eclipse, which is the only time you could be staring directly at any of the sun with dilated, dark-adjusted eyes.
Then if you can’t help but take it all in, and can’t tear your eyes away, boom: you’re in big eye trouble. It’s not at all the same from glancing at the sun in daylight.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: Also that when it’s dark your pupils dilate to let in more light, and though it will be dim, UV will still burn your retinas and the impulse to look away won’t be there.
Kayla Rudbek
@Soprano2: Mr Rudbek made hotel reservations for three days and we are driving back on Tuesday.
The Lodger
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Or a para-padre.