March 10, 2016

Photos of today’s eclipse over Indonesia

More at link:
http://earthsky.org/todays-image/todays-eclipse-over-indonesia?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=05ea983b0e-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-05ea983b0e-394533365

March 9, 2016

Or is this simply the beginning of the end for your candidate?

January 18, 2016

It’s time to fix it later.

When we fought for and passed the PPACA (Obamacare) we did so screaming pass it now, fix it later. Well, we’re just a couple of years into it and we desperately need to fix it! 19 million more have been insured, yet 29 million remain uninsured. The 29 million uninsured are those that can least afford it and are getting fucked on their federal taxes for it. Most of those 29 million probably don’t even have the means to cover a copay, let alone a means to make a monthly payment.

Some of the 19 million newly covered under the PPACA are eternally grateful. They had insurance, paid in for decades, only to be dropped when tragedy hit. Those people were helped in ways many will never understand. However, it’s not the majority. The majority of newly covered have a barebones, slightly better than nothing, insurance plan. Those in that majority can’t even afford to use that plan. They pay in every week and get nothing in return because they can’t afford the copay.

It’s time to fix it later and we need to realize the FACT that we can’t fix a for profit system. We cannot fix a system where a company is allowed to take 20% while providing zero care or benefit. We cannot fix a system that allows unchecked pharmaceutical profits. We cannot fix a system that leaves our hospital system as a for profit industry. We cannot fix a system that makes us consumers. We must become patients.

If even one person in our country cannot be guaranteed healthcare, not emergency care, but healthcare, then we all fail. We need to be more important than greed.

Build single payer now, scrap the PPACA once we’ve built it. We can spend trillions for pointless wars, we can find trillions for our own healthcare.

January 13, 2016

I dared to hope for change in 2008

I dared to hope for change in 2008 and we made it.

If we compare the last 7 years to the previous 30, we made some good and some significant change. Obama can't take credit for all the great changes and he can be burdened with some of the negative changes.

We did get change though.

One of the areas we did not make any serious movement was balancing income inequality.

I get it, we all have a personal list of issues and absolute needs. BLM, gender equality, LGBT rights, healthcare..... the list to pick from is endless.

For me, economic equality hits the top of the list. Money can't make you happy, but I would love to see you live without it.

All of our needs and desires simply get EASIER when we have financial stability. When we get a fair wage for our hard work. When we can step away from that precipice by at least a couple of months of down time. All of our other needs get easier to achieve when we're not living under the threat of poverty.

So, I'm supporting Bernie Sanders for President. We've made some change, now it's time to redouble the efforts. To focus on the disgusting income inequality we suffer.

Let's balance the economic scales. While we do so, we'll gain the stamina, the resources, the safety to do everything else we want and need.

What's on your list? What do you want that having a strong economy and income equality can't help us build?

Bernie 2016. It's just too important to settle for the status quo. We need to continue change.

January 12, 2016

Comet Catalina’s closest point to Earth

UPDATE JANUARY 7, 2016: Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) will pass nearest to Earth at a very safe distance on January 17, 2016. At its closest, the comet will be some 68 million miles (110 million km) from Earth. That’s very, very far away – hundreds of times farther than the moon’s distance. Still, it’s fun to think of this cosmic visitor sweeping past, as it heads out of our solar system. The comet isn’t visible to the eye alone, but binoculars should reveal it as a small fuzzy patch of light in your predawn sky. Try looking a few hours before sunrise. In the coming week, the comet is coming near on the sky’s dome to the stars that form the Big Dipper. If you received a telescope or binoculars for Christmas, this comet would make a fantastic target. Current brightness estimates put Comet Catalina at a magnitude 6.2 to 6.4, just below the level for viewing with the unaided eye, but visible in binoculars, and a fine object for a small telescope. Notice the illustrations above and below, and you’ll see how easy it will be to find Comet Catalina this month!

When and where should I begin to look? The comet has been in our predawn sky throughout this past month. Its brightness has been pretty steady. As the New Year begins, it will gradually become a night sky object.

The comet was closest to the sun on November 15, so it is moving away from the sun now. But it’s still drawing closer to the Earth. On January 17, 2016, Comet Catalina will be at its closest point to Earth, about some 68 million miles (110 million km) away. That’s in contrast to the moon’s distance of about a quarter million miles … so you can see the comet is coming nowhere near us. Still, as it passes closest to Earth during mid-January, we might see the comet appearing a bit brighter than now.

By all reports, Comet Catalina has never risen above magnitude 6, the limit of visibility to the unaided eye. But it has hovered just below that limit. The moon was full on December 25, meaning its light is flooding the predawn sky now. But the moon will be waning, becoming smaller in our sky, in the weeks ahead. If you go to a location far from city lights – say, beginning around New Year’s, when the moon is waning in the predawn sky, you might be able to sweep with your binoculars and find the comet.

More info at link:
http://earthsky.org/space/comet-catalina-c2013-us10-november-december-january-2015-2016?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=b796b980fb-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-b796b980fb-394533365

January 2, 2016

Quadrantids meteor shower this weekend.

Midnight Sunday to Dawn Monday.



http://earthsky.org/tonight/quadrantid-meteor-shower-before-dawn-in-early-january?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=7a80087e7f-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-7a80087e7f-394533365

The annual Quadrantid shower is nominally active during the first week of January, and is best seen from northerly latitudes. However, peak activity lasts less than a day. So you need to be on the night side of Earth when this shower exhibits its relatively short peak to witness the Quadrantids. In 2016, we don’t expect the waning crescent moon to seriously obtrude on this meteor shower. So if you’re game, try watching between midnight and dawn on January 4.

This meteor shower favors the Northern Hemisphere. That’s because its radiant point – the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to radiate – is far to the north on the sky’s dome.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is capable of matching the meteor rates of the better known August Perseid and December Geminid showers. It has been known to produce up to 50-100 or more meteors per hour in a dark sky.

So why isn’t the Quadrantid shower as celebrated as the Perseid and Geminid showers? It’s because the Quadrantid shower has a narrow peak that lasts for only a few hours. If you miss the peak – which is easy to do – you won’t see many meteors.

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-quadrantid-meteor-shower

Below is an image that displays who might have the ability to catch this brief yet spectacular shower. This year we're right in the ideal window.


Good luck everyone. Sadly rain and clouds are in my forecast, but I'm still posting hoping others might catch this shower.

October 29, 2015

Hillary Who?

I have NEVER heard that. I didn't hear it in 2007/08 and I haven't heard it yet in this election cycle. There are very few people in the US that don't know Hillary Clinton. She has a worldwide presence and is known by nearly everyone.

However, I've heard "Bernie who?" hundreds of times. I'll likely hear it thousands of times by the time the primaries come into full swing.

There is no plateau right now. The polls are essentially meaningless right now. Hillary has a set number of voters firmly in her camp and that's it. There are few if any undecideds for her to shift her way.

Bernie on the other hand has millions yet to get to know him. He has millions struggling day to day that need to hear his message and will embrace his platform as soon as they hear it.

We've just started this election. GOTV, get out the message, and stay positive.

An easy thing to do is to print and hand out flyers. Many can be found here:

http://feelthebern.org/

Scroll to the bottom of the page for pdf downloads of flyers you can hand out. I find them to be a big hit at the drive thru window.

(Thanks and credit to Retrowire for the link)

Bernie 2016. We have voters to find and get motivated.

October 17, 2015

Hillary Clinton's Take on Banks Won't Hold Up (Taibbi)

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/hillary-clintons-take-on-banks-wont-hold-up-20151014


A few observations:

First, it's definitive now that Hillary has no intention of reinstating Glass-Steagall. Cooper gave her a prime opportunity Tuesday night to announce otherwise, stories have filtered out of her campaign that she has no plans along those lines, and she's explicitly stated that she wants to find a "different way" to reduce risk.

The second and probably more important observation is about Hillary's rhetorical choices.

Hillary, like her close advisor Barney Frank, has been pushing an idea that banks aren't at the root of any financial instability problem. Last night, she pointed a finger instead at "shadow banking," non-bank actors like AIG, and a dead investment bank in Lehman Brothers. (Interesting she didn't mention a still-viable investment bank like Goldman, Sachs, which has hosted her expensive speaking engagements.)


more at link

October 13, 2015

Confrontation With Black Partygoers Leads to Gang Charges for White Group

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/us/confederate-flag-supporters-georgia-indicted-clash-black-partygoers.html?_r=0

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — In an unusual legal maneuver, the district attorney in this suburb of Atlanta said Monday that he had won indictments against 15 supporters of the Confederate battle flag, accusing them of violating the state’s anti-street-gang statute during a confrontation with black partygoers in July.

Prosecutors say that members of the group, which calls itself Respect the Flag, threatened a group of blacks attending an outdoor birthday party on July 25. A cellphone video of part of the episode shows several white men driving away from the party in a convoy of pickup trucks with the Confederate battle flag and other banners, including American flags, fluttering from the truck beds.

The partygoers contend that members of the flag group yelled racial slurs and displayed a crowbar, a knife and either a rifle or a shotgun, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group in Montgomery, Ala., that is representing some of the accusers.

The Douglas County district attorney, Brian Fortner, a white Republican elected to the office in 2014, announced the indictments in a news conference Monday morning. Each of the 15 was indicted on one count of making terroristic threats and a second count of unlawfully participating in “criminal gang activity.”

More at link, including a video.