Simply random stuff

[Sonik Wiz]

I live only a couple of miles from Lebanon, NJ.
Our town is right in the middle of the epicenter and all the aftershocks.
Tomorrow I will be touring a school with my daughter that is in the path of totality.
Last week while visiting my mother in Florida, I went for a walk and was about 10 feet from an alligator before I realized it was just off the path.
What the heck is going on?!

Earthquakes happen all the time. In 2023, a total of 1,712 earthquakes with magnitude of five or more were recorded worldwide as of December that year.

Eclipses are not random, they follow strict mathematical rules and can be predicted centuries before they happen,. NASA has a site listing eclipses and their paths until the year 3000.

I imagine if you visit Florida anywhere other than Disney World you might see a random alligator around marshes or swamps.

Me thinks it's just regular programming for "Mother Nature".

 

[jimfisheye]

Eclipses were known and predicted since BCE at least. The Antikythera mechanism is a mechanical "computer" from 200 BCE that was sold to rich people that could track eclipses along with all kinds of celestial activity. (The best guess is it was more a novelty device opposed to some kind of navigation aid.) The discovery dialed back the dates we thought this level of tech was happening by 1600 years or something.

Closest viewing to me in 20 years and the weather says cloudy.

 

[esimms86]

It seems a bit ridiculous to pay that for a 4 to 5 minute experience. Although some of us have shelled out big bucks for a hotel just to get a little...well, use your imagination.

Never underestimate the power of FOMO. I have a friend here in Massachusetts who is flying to Arkansas today to watch the eclipse tomorrow, then traveling on to visit New Orleans for the first time. He also flew to Nebraska in 2017 to see the last eclipse visible in the US. He’s a single guy with a lucrative self owned business with zero employees and he also inherited somewhere between $7-800,000 in 2020, so he can easily afford to do whatever he wants. Nonetheless, I’ve always found such choices to be extreme and wasteful. I also expect that he’d find my expenditures on a surround system and recordings to be pretty insane. For the record, I have a modest system by QQ and home theater standards.

 

[GOS]

I saw totality in 2017, down in southern Illinois. Count me as one who found the experience, nearly out of body somehow. I may drive 2 hours south to try to see it again. Our forecast for Monday is partly cloudy, which might still work.

 

[JohnN]

 

[ar surround]

Never underestimate the power of FOMO. I have a friend here in Massachusetts who is flying to Arkansas today to watch the eclipse tomorrow, then traveling on to visit New Orleans for the first time. He also flew to Nebraska in 2017 to see the last eclipse visible in the US. He’s a single guy with a lucrative self owned business with zero employees and he also inherited somewhere between $7-800,000 in 2020, so he can easily afford to do whatever he wants. Nonetheless, I’ve always found such choices to be extreme and wasteful. I also expect that he’d find my expenditures on a surround system and recordings to be pretty insane. For the record, I have a modest system by QQ and home theater standards.

But we can’t actually look at the eclipse without going blind. Special glasses that black out everything are needed. However it should be cool perhaps to see the reaction of birds and animals as it happens.

Now, feeling the full force of that moderate earthquake (we are near the epicenter) was quite an experience. No travel required and free to boot.

 

[ar surround]

I saw totality in 2017, down in southern Illinois. Count me as one who found the experience, nearly out of body somehow. I may drive 2 hours south to try to see it again. Our forecast for Monday is partly cloudy, which might still work.

How did you watch it? Did you see the full corona?

 

[JohnN]

But we can’t actually look at the eclipse without going blind. Special glasses that black out everything are needed. However it should be cool perhaps to see the reaction of birds and animals as it happens.

Now, feeling the full force of that moderate earthquake (we are near the epicenter) was quite an experience. No travel required and free to boot.

You travelled...

 

[Simon A]

Speaking of earthquakes, here'a clip from the recent one in Taiwan. Pretty crazy. Boulder crushing cars as they're trying to avoid being hit.

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

You know what's painful? When you have to scan artwork because it's not online. You know what's MORE painful? The artwork is a nightmare to scan because it's humongous and shiny and metallic.

 

[jimfisheye]

Haha. Yeah, what happened with artwork?!
We can include an encyclopedia sized document now if we want since it's just a digital file. Fancy pdf documents and all. So what are many people doing? Giving a single square "front cover" image and that's it!
What the heck?!

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

Haha. Yeah, what happened with artwork?!
We can include an encyclopedia sized document now if we want since it's just a digital file. Fancy pdf documents and all. So what are many people doing? Giving a single square "front cover" image and that's it!
What the heck?!

I personally only care about the front cover image but for a lot of older stuff, the image isn't available online or if it is, it's really low resolution.

Non-standard packaging is where I run into trouble with when scanning! Makes my head hurt. This one comes in a suitcase.

 

[mlrocker]

anybody want some cool gear for their man cave?

 

[esimms86]

anybody want some cool gear for their man cave?View attachment 104230

Guitars like that aren't exactly given away Frehley.

 

[ar surround]

Guitars like that aren't exactly given away Frehley.

Yet another witty Simmsism.

 

[esimms86]

Yet another witty Simmsism.

Low hanging fruit in this particular case.

 

[ar surround]

But we can’t actually look at the eclipse without going blind. Special glasses that black out everything are needed. However it should be cool perhaps to see the reaction of birds and animals as it happens.

I saw totality in 2017, down in southern Illinois. Count me as one who found the experience, nearly out of body somehow. I may drive 2 hours south to try to see it again. Our forecast for Monday is partly cloudy, which might still work.

I just read that you don’t need the protective glasses when the eclipse is in totality. Is that true?

 

[Quadmon]

You never want to hear “Oops” when you’re getting a vasectomy. I did.

My doctor said “Gotcha”!

 

[Bill B]

I just read that you don’t need the protective glasses when the eclipse is in totality. Is that true?

Yes that is true. You just can't look at it.
You don't need protective glasses ever as long as you don't look at the sun.

 

[Tres Discrete]

Earthquakes happen all the time. In 2023, a total of 1,712 earthquakes with magnitude of five or more were recorded worldwide as of December that year.

Eclipses are not random, they follow strict mathematical rules and can be predicted centuries before they happen,. NASA has a site listing eclipses and their paths until the year 3000.

I imagine if you visit Florida anywhere other than Disney World you might see a random alligator around marshes or swamps.

Me thinks it's just regular programming for "Mother Nature".

…and we are once again reminded that it does not all revolve around us…contrary to our usual thought process