Good evening, 919 Gang. Good news: the sun recovered from
the eclipse, and the experts say it will reappear tomorrow.
ANNE KRUEGER wrote:
Here
in Sun Valley, Idaho, the total solar eclipse was as amazing as promised.
Totality was at 11:30 a.m. and in the minutes leading up, the air started
cooling as the sky slowly darkened. Through our eclipse glasses, we could see
the sun was becoming an increasingly small sliver behind the moon. When
totality occurred, we could take off our glasses and look at the sun directly.
Crickets started chirping and the horse that our hosts own began moving to the
part of the barn where he goes to sleep.
It
was a spectacular and incredibly moving experience that exceeded all of the
hype. I had read in the New York Times beforehand that it wasn’t worth trying
to photograph the eclipse unless you have special equipment. They recommended
recording your reactions instead, so I set up my iPhone on a tripod and turned
on the video as the eclipse was occurring. You can see it here:
The
only problem, I’ve discovered, is that now that I’ve seen one total eclipse, I
want to see more. I am now an umpbrahile, and I want to travel wherever I have
to go to see another.
A final note on the solar eclipse. I did stay at home, watching coverage on local news stations. About the time it was to occur in our area, I saw some neighbors outside their homes, so I too went outside. We live very close to the high school, so I could hear music and someone making an announcement at the stadium. It seems all the high school students were gathering in the bleachers. As the countdown to the eclipse "totality" began it got strangely quiet, then the cicadas began chirping, and our neighborhood street lights came on, but most thrilling to me was the collective cheer of the students as the sky got very dark. About two minutes later it was over. Already the excitement builds for another eclipse that will take place in 2024, in Carbondale, Ill.
WELTON
JONES writes:
Eclipse? Big deal.
We sat out on the bedroom deck all
Monday morning and watched traffic passing below. Not only did we notice no
change in the sun that the clouds drifting by don't routinely cause, but we saw
no evidence anybody driving by had any interest in the heavens at all. A couple
of guys working in our garden weren't sure what we meant by eclipse. So we took
this picture with a colander I brought up from the kitchen and called it a day.
Not nearly as elaborate or artistic as Don Bartletti, this shows maybe even
more images.
I guess this eclipse fell into the old
tradition of heavenly phenomena which are grossly over-hyped and almost
inevitably disappointing. I mean there was an entire special section in the New
York Times anticipating this brief moment in the sky, but the world around me
had to be nudged to register any reaction.
File it away with the comets and
meteor showers and get on with life, say I.
REX SALMON writes:
For
about two hours today, America was devoted to a celestial celebration called
Moon Passover.
WALT BARANGER
writes:
Here I am at right in Douglas, Wyo.,
with my granddaughter Callie and some friends from Denver. Pretty cool.
DON BARTLETTI writes:
Unable to find the eclipse glasses we used
on Palomar Mt. in 1991, my wife Diana chose to stay home – and to look 180°
away from today’s Great American Eclipse of 2017. Diana punched a star pattern of holes in
cardboard and I pin-pricked aluminum foil to project the repeated shape of the
60% eclipsed sun. From 10:30-10:45 am
the landscape was noticeably dimmer, like twilight with short shadows. Birds began to tweet and in the distance and
hounds began to howl.
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JAY JOHNSON writes:
Jack, thanks for injecting a debatable topic into the
919 gang conversation. Regarding
"settled science" and "overwhelming scientific consensus"
... science is never settled (Newtonian vs. Einsteinian physics) and most
scientific research (scientifically speaking) is BS.
I submit for your consideration one funny and two
serious examples, the latter two from the BBC and Phys.org, a leading
science-research-technology news site.
Stay skeptical, my friends.
REBER: Einstein’s
greatest conflict was with Niels Bohr, an argument that lasted from the late
1920s until Einstein’s death in 1955. No, their topic wasn’t something that
could destroy life on earth, but it was a gigantic topic all those years. The
point I am making is that while Einstein and Bohr were 180 on the subject of
quantum mechanics, they were fast friends. They made their arguments at the
Solvang Conferences and in published papers, but they stayed respectful of each
other. No name-calling, no sarcasm. Their weapons were facts. The day Bohrs
died, on his blackboard there was a drawing Einstein had sent, offered as proof
that Bohrs was wrong. Bohrs did not fire back an angry response. At his death
he was working on a response built by facts and logic. The situation I see
today is there is no Einstein or Bohrs or anyone else of stature to deny
mankind’s role in climate change. So whom do I believe, the amazing consensus
of science or people such as John Coleman or the Oklahoma congressman who said
climate change could not happen because God would not allow it?
And
if I’m wrong? I still win, because the struggle against climate change is
making the world a better place. For starters, think of the advantages of
getting off fossil fuels.
JIM OKERBLOM writes:
Fred Dickey is right about one thing: I am angry. I think
he should be, too. People like John Coleman-- supposed "experts" who
question scientific research and conclusions absent the expertise for doing so
(as Walt Baranger illustrated in his post) -- are con men. I see no reason to
suffer fools like Coleman gladly, as Rex seemed to, when it comes to this
issue. He and others like him are among the reasons for the embarrassment of
the U.S. joining Syria and Nicaragua, and not the rest of the world, in at
least trying to address something I believe is vitally important. For me,
that's worthy of anger, passion, as well as some sarcasm. (Anything less is
boring at this stage.) If that's too heavy-handed for you, Fred, it's OK by me.
I would bet we disagree on a lots of things. And thanks for reposting most of
my post. Not often you get two bites at the 911 apple! (No attack, unless this
is one and I don't see it.)
ARTHUR SALM
writes:
I wonder how many 919ers fell for the "eclipse"
hoax. Astronomers, always looking for ways to cheat the public, announced that
the moon was going to block out the sun. Just how dumb do they think we are?
Pretty dumb, and I guess they're right about that; I predict that some people
were so taken in that they actually believe that they "saw" the
"event." (Some of those reporting are paid government/science
stooges, of course.)
Oh, just give us all a break. Half freezing to death in
their "observatories"? More like, laughing their asses off (at us!)
in their mountaintop discos. And climate scientists bobbing around for months
on those clanking, oily, diesel-fumed research vessels (***cough***
yachts ***cough***) in Antarctica (***cough*** Aruba ***cough***)?
Please.
Well, my eyes have been opened. Just a few weeks ago
I had a cavity filled, and the dentist wanted to inject me with -- and, of
course, charge me for -- an "anesthetic." It'll kill the pain, he
said. Right. And who came up with "anesthetics"? Scientists.
Working, no doubt, on grant money. I wasn't born yesterday, and when I
walked out of that place I had money in my pocket.
Still, it's easy to understand why scientists are so
corrupt. Who wouldn't opt for an easy ride through college -- organic chemistry
and advanced calculus are well-known gut courses -- in return for 1) a life of
60-hour weeks subverting the very subject you've devoted your life to, 2) the
thrilling give-and-take of faculty politics, and 3) the luxury of a
middle-class lifestyle?
It was SO refreshing to see Tom Gable put those dishonest
bloodsuckers in their place. "Scientists have their own agendas," he
shrewdly points out "They collude. They apply for grants to pursue areas
of personal interest. Funding drives the research. They report data they want
to report and withhold data they don't want to report." Truth to power!
Science. What a racket.
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Thank you, Pat Flynn. Your words made me smile. I truly enjoyed my years in the newsroom, first starting out in the general pool, and then being a news assistant to the Metro Desk. The day to day responsibilities and tasks were fine, but it was really everyone I worked with that made the memories I cherish. It has been 11 years since we uprooted from San Diego, and now as my husband's Navy career is closing in on retirement, we are semi-settled in the Midwest (he is stationed at the Boeing-St. Louis facility). I will try to contribute a little more often. I've always been on the quiet side, observing more than being verbal, but now I always encourage my boys that they should never be too shy to speak up in their classes and share their ideas. It has always stuck with me that I failed a social studies unit in 9th grade because verbal participation was a huge part of the grade, and I felt so intimidated by my classmates that I barely said two sentences. I'm sure glad the 919 Gang is not graded.
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ROGER CONLEE
writes:
The San Diego Festival of Books is this Saturday at Liberty
Station from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s
sponsored by the Union-Tribune and KPBS.
Scores of authors from all genres will be at the McMillan Events Center,
discussing and signing books. I’ll be
part of a panel called “From Battlefield to Bookshelves” starting at 12:40
p.m. I hope you’ll be able to
attend.
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MICHAEL CAVNA
writes:
Ross Levinsohn named new publisher and CEO of Los Angeles
Times as top editors ousted - LA Times
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
