Random Comments/Stream of Consciousness Thread

[mae]

In this season of giving, please take a look at this. As if we needed more evidence that the New York Post is trash, but the fact that our medical workers feel the need to turn to sex work in order to support themselves is mind blowing:



https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-laur...her-livelihood

Just an update for anyone interested, her GFM is now over $80K and she put out this op-ed:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices...-b1775264.html

[Randall Flagg]

My wife went all out this year. Since everyone is forbidden from gatherings etc, at least a family can drive around and look at lights.

[Merlin1958]

Nice, El Jefe. Real nice!!!! As is our tradition (in Arizona) the family and I went on our tour of spectacular Xmas light shows. The was a couple that were actually featured on that TV show. One entire neighborhood (maybe 75 homes) sported decorations in an ongoing theme and coler scheme.

I gotta say that your display would certainly rank high on our list! Awesome job!!

[webstar1000]

My wife went all out this year. Since everyone is forbidden from gatherings etc, at least a family can drive around and look at lights.

Thats your house!!!!!!!!!! WOWOWOWOWWOW

[herbertwest]

A few days ago, I got a bit stressed. Suddenly.



I am a good friend with a famous french writers (it's easy to find which in my collection thread - warning : americans don't know him even though he sold 35 millions books), which quite often ask me some advice on some stories he works on... and i've been lucky to be in his thanking notes in his last few books. Which is pretty cool !

Especially cool since he's my favorite author after King, and I first talked to him about 15 years ago because I did some extensive research about his books and essays. And have talked regularly ever since.

In september, a belgium publisher released a small chapbook about Stephen King. And I contacted them to suggest the idea to write an essay about the other author. Which they were quite pleased with the idea. So I worked on an essay for a couple of weeks. Nothing extravagant as they only release 5000 words essays.
But I was pretttty stressed when I got my friend on the phone, last week. And I heard him saying that "it was not good". I made him repeat as I wasn't sure because of the phone signal... and after making him repeat couple of times, I realised he said it was quite good.


And today, he sent me an email back about it, and he was pretty cool if it.

That definitely was a rollercoaster !

[Randall Flagg]

Does the general public understand the length of time it will take for 75% of the population to receive 2 doses of the vaccine?
I hear dates like late March or April for California. That's IMO impossible. California has 39,780,000 people. 75% of that is ~30 million people. That's sixty million doses delivered and then sixty million vaccinations administered. In one year (365 days) that is 164,383 doses EVERY single day, 7 days a week for a year.
I just don't see the capacity to give that many shots.



Am I somehow miscalculating?

[Iwritecode]

Does the general public understand the length of time it will take for 75% of the population to receive 2 doses of the vaccine?
I hear dates like late March or April for California. That's IMO impossible. California has 39,780,000 people. 75% of that is ~30 million people. That's sixty million doses delivered and then sixty million vaccinations administered. In one year (365 days) that is 164,383 doses EVERY single day, 7 days a week for a year.
I just don't see the capacity to give that many shots.



Am I somehow miscalculating?

Short answer: No, they do not.

I'm thinking we are looking at least at 12 more months before we get anywhere close. If not longer because of the number of people that will continue to refuse to get it.

[Ari_Racing]

Very good, J! I can imagine the first thought after you missheard him :S

[George at C-Springs]

Anybody get out and observe tonight? Atmospherics just sucked here and of course the camera mount wouldn't work with the 7.5 mm eyepiece so I had to go handheld; this is literally the only shot where I could even get ring separation on Saturn. Photo cropped and enhanced in Lightroom. It looked better through the scope but couldn't even make out Jupiter's bands. My son observed from when it was first visible at twilight until it disappeared below the peak of the house across the street, then he jumped around to Mars, the Moon, and the Pleiades. That's him in the second photo. Scope was an Orion XT10i Dobsonian.

I was surprised that we could see the two planets separately with the naked eye, thought they'd be so close that they might appear as one but nope, obvious spacing between the two. Yes, I know it wasn't an occultation but I still expected ... a little more. So yeah, a bit disappointed. When I was a kid back in the 70's sometime there was a winter where Venus completely outshone everything in the morning December sky, it was so incredibly bright and beautiful that I remember it to this day 45ish years later; now that was something to see.

[amd013]

Anybody get out and observe tonight? Atmospherics just sucked here and of course the camera mount wouldn't work with the 7.5 mm eyepiece so I had to go handheld; this is literally the only shot where I could even get ring separation on Saturn. Photo cropped and enhanced in Lightroom. It looked better through the scope but couldn't even make out Jupiter's bands. My son observed from when it was first visible at twilight until it disappeared below the peak of the house across the street, then he jumped around to Mars, the Moon, and the Pleiades. That's him in the second photo. Scope was an Orion XT10i Dobsonian.

I was surprised that we could see the two planets separately with the naked eye, thought they'd be so close that they might appear as one but nope, obvious spacing between the two. Yes, I know it wasn't an occultation but I still expected ... a little more. So yeah, a bit disappointed. When I was a kid back in the 70's sometime there was a winter where Venus completely outshone everything in the morning December sky, it was so incredibly bright and beautiful that I remember it to this day 45ish years later; now that was something to see.

Thanks for the picks George. Really cool you can see the rings, didn't realize they would be that visible. How much magnification is that?

Tried to find it tonight, but not sure I saw it. Literally could only see the moon, and one object in the sky. I assumed that was it (or maybe mars??). It had a reddish tint to it. But it was probably 8-8:30pm by the time I knew it was happening, so based on that, plus light polution, hazy atmospher, not knowing where to look, and obstructed views, not being sure where to look, I probably missed it.

That 2nd pic is pretty cool, you can definitely tell it is two objects. Pretty cool!

[Hunchback Jack]

That’s a nice pic of the two. You did well.

[George at C-Springs]

Thanks for the picks George. Really cool you can see the rings, didn't realize they would be that visible. How much magnification is that?

Tried to find it tonight, but not sure I saw it. Literally could only see the moon, and one object in the sky. I assumed that was it (or maybe mars??). It had a reddish tint to it. But it was probably 8-8:30pm by the time I knew it was happening, so based on that, plus light polution, hazy atmospher, not knowing where to look, and obstructed views, not being sure where to look, I probably missed it.

That 2nd pic is pretty cool, you can definitely tell it is two objects. Pretty cool!

Magnification for this photo is about 159X with the 7.5mm eyepiece (254mm aperature, F/4.7, 1200mm focal length). Rings of Saturn, bands and red spot of Jupiter are easily visible on any clear night. Can see the polar caps, dust storms and surface colors on Mars too. Mercury, Venus, Neptune and Uranus are just colored balls, no surface detail. Pluto is essentialy a point of light.

So if you were looking south and up at the moon tonight right at twilight (5:15 PM), Mars was off and to the left in the east at about the same apparent altitude as the moon above the horizon. Jupiter and Saturn at that point would have been down and to the right of the moon at about a 45 degree angle towards the southwest, maybe thirty degrees or so above the horizon. We had visibilty from our house for about an hour and half, but if you had a clear line of sight it would have been visible for 2+ hours. 8 PM would have been way too late, they would have already set by then.

[herbertwest]

Incredible picture !

[Merlin1958]

Well, it's been a pretty crappy year so far, but thankfully it's about to come to an end and a new, fresh clean year is before us. Let's celebrate all who have survived it and remember those that didn't. From my family to the entire TDT.Org family I'd like to wish you all..............................

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

[Ari_Racing]

Merry Christmas!

[ICry4Oy]

Ho Ho Ho and stuff! Let's hope next year don't suck.

[Cook]

Ho Ho Ho and stuff! Let's hope next year don't suck.

Pretty sure it’s going to suck for at least a month.. but sorry to say I’m guessing more like three to six months.
I think we’re in for a huge financial crisis.
Man do I hope I’m really really wrong.

[Randall Flagg]

[St. Troy]

...visions of sugar plums danced in my head...

[ICry4Oy]

[Brian861]

Ho Ho Ho and stuff! Let's hope next year don't suck.

Pretty sure it’s going to suck for at least a month.. but sorry to say I’m guessing more like three to six months.
I think we’re in for a huge financial crisis.
Man do I hope I’m really really wrong.

Agreed. Although I think '22 is probably a more realistic outlook for things to get better. No magic reset button come 0001 on January 1.

[Johnny007]

Does the general public understand the length of time it will take for 75% of the population to receive 2 doses of the vaccine?
I hear dates like late March or April for California. That's IMO impossible. California has 39,780,000 people. 75% of that is ~30 million people. That's sixty million doses delivered and then sixty million vaccinations administered. In one year (365 days) that is 164,383 doses EVERY single day, 7 days a week for a year.
I just don't see the capacity to give that many shots.



Am I somehow miscalculating?

Lots of logistic hurdles that never seem to be mentioned -- like extra needles, alcohol swipes, transportation and storage at remote facilities, traveling to a vaccine site, waiting time at site before and after injection, number of qualified people to administer injections, and so on. Anyway, maybe in a perfect world, you could have, say, 2,000 locations with 3 different people providing 1 injection each minute. That's 36,000 vaccines an hour times 12 hours a day times 6 days a week. So after a week, CA would have vaccinated 2.6M people. So I'd guess that CA would be into their 8th or 9th month before they'd be at or near 80%. The USA has a long way to go yet. 27 days is a long time...let alone 8-9 months.

John

[Johnny007]

Many of my former girlfriends' favorite presents!

John

[Randall Flagg]

Nothing like a (big, not little) Richard in a box to please the ladies, and a few select gents.

[herbertwest]

Merry Christmas everybody !