Monday OT: 12/21/20 is the Winter Solstice
Setting Orange, The Aftermath 63, 3186 YOLD
And let us not forget 13.0.8.2.2 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)
Winter Solstice at Swan Lake Flat
In the Northern Hemisphere, December 21 is the shortest day of the year and is the first day of astronomical winter. In the Southern Hemisphere, December 21 is the longest day of the year and marks the summer solstice.
This year there will be an awesome conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Such conjunctions, between the two largest planets, are called "great conjunctions". This year's "Great Conjuction" will be the closest since 1623 and will appear as one huge bright star. Conjunctions of this specific pair of planets only happen every 20 years, so hope for cloudless skies.
Many astrologers and some priests are predicting global change of one type or another up to and including the end of the world as we know it.
Other people are reviving the "End of the World Because Mayan Calendar" hoax, alleging that some fiddle involving various conversions, especially to Gregorian introduced systemic errors such that the correct date wasn't 2012 but is 2021. This is all based on a complete misunderstanding of the Mayan Calendar, aided and abetted by the Spanish Imperialist Slaver Conquerors, one of whom found the calendar to be a fun puzzle and with virtually no knowledge of their culture, history or calendar created some "codices" from which many false conclusions have been made. A summary of the debunking of this silliness may be found here: https://earthsky.org/human-world/david-stuart-on-the-mayan-calendar-and-... among other places. In 2012, or, if you believe the Gregorian date fiddle, 2021, the long count calendar turned a page, that is all. That calendar will still be counting off days until long after the sun has gone nova.
So, should you party like there's no tomorrow? Of course you should, because there isn't, because tomorrow never comes ...
'cause as a matter of fact, as we discovered in the train, tomorrow never happens, it's all the same fucking day, man.
~~ Janis Joplin
At any rate at and after dusk, look to the west. There is plentiful information online, which a search for "Great Conjunction" should turn up. Here's a link to one site:
(https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/great-jupiter-saturn-conjuncti...)
Alternatively, you can start with https://skyandtelescope.org/ and then pick "observing" and "tools". Observing gets you, among other things this weeks sky -( https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-decembe... )
Tools will get you both of the following, once you launch them
https://skyandtelescope.org/interactive-sky-chart/
https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/plugins/observing-tools/almanac/a...
Important - Please Note:
Today is: National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day That's MEMORIAL, you know, as in "in memoriam" and so many other phrases and usages. They are as good as dead already, or at least dead to all of us, to society, and to the political classes and ruling elites. Alas poor nameless Homeless Persons, I knew them, Horatio. Alas indeed.
On this day in history:
1620 – The Mayflower's cargo of "Pilgrim" Colonists landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock
1826 – Colonists in Nacogdoches Mexico (Tejas) declared their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.
1844 – The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers commenced business at its cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.
1879 – Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House premiered
1907 – The Chilean Army massacred at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in Iquique, Chile
1913 – The first crossword puzzle, was published in the New York World.
1919 – Emma Goldman was deported to Russia.
1937 – Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered
1965 – The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted. Well, it does have a nice ring to it
1968 – Apollo 8 was launched and put its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
1988 – The first flight of Antonov An-225 Mriya, the largest aircraft in the world.
Born this day in:
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry
Also
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.
~~ Frank Vincent Zappa
1401 – Masaccio, painter
1603 – Roger Williams, colonist, founded the Colony of Rhode Island
1728 – Hermann Raupach, harpsichord player and composer (
1795 – Leopold von Ranke, historian, author, and academic
1803 – Achille Vianelli, painter and academic
1805 – Thomas Graham, chemist and academic
1815 – Thomas Couture, painter and educator
1843 – Thomas Bracken, journalist, poet, and politician
1866 – Maud Gonne, political activist
1868 – George W. Fuller, chemist and engineer
1872 – Trevor Kincaid, zoologist and academic
1872 – Albert Payson Terhune, journalist and author
1876 – Jack Lang, lawyer and politician
1878 – Jan Lukasiewicz, mathematician and philosopher
1884 – María Cadilla, writer, educator, women's rights activist
1889 – Sewall Wright, geneticist and biologist
1890 – Hermann Joseph Muller, geneticist and biologist
1978 – Shaun Morgan, musician, singer, and guitarist
1892 – Rebecca West, journalist and author
1905 – Anthony Powell, author
1905 – Käte Fenchel, mathematician
1914 – Frank Fenner, microbiologist and virologist
1915 – Werner von Trapp, singer
1917 – Heinrich Böll, novelist and short story writer,
1920 – Alicia Alonso, ballerina and choreographer, founded the Cuban National Ballet
1920 – Adele Goldstine, computer programmer
1922 – Cécile DeWitt-Morette, mathematician and physicist
1937 – Jane Fonda, actress, producer, and activist
1940 – Frank Zappa, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1943 – Albert Lee, guitarist and songwriter
1944 – Michael Tilson Thomas, pianist, composer, and conductor
1946 – Carl Wilson, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1947 – Paco de Lucía, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1978 – Shaun Morgan, musician, singer, and guitarist
1950 – Lillebjørn Nilsen, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1953 – András Schiff, pianist and conductor
1953 – Betty Wright, singer,and songwriter
1955 – Kazuyuki Sekiguchi, singer, songwriter, and bass player
1961 – Ryuji Sasai, bass player and composer
1971 – Matthieu Chedid, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
Died this day in:
“Nothing is so indecent that it cannot be said to another person if the proper words are used to convey it.”
~~ Giovanni Boccaccio
1375 – Giovanni Boccaccio, author and poet
1824 – James Parkinson, physician and paleontologist
1933 – Knud Rasmussen, anthropologist and explorer
1937 – Violette Neatley Anderson, judge
1940 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist and short story writer
1964 – Carl Van Vechten, author and photographer
1965 – Claude Champagne, violinist, pianist, and composer
1992 – Albert King, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
2009 – Edwin G. Krebs, biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
2017 – Bruce McCandless II, first untethered spacewalker
Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Sanghamitta Day (Theravada Buddhism)
Yule in the Northern Hemisphere (Neopagan Wheel of the Year)
ribbon candy day
first day of winter
national short story day
national hamburger day
national french fried shrimp day
national look at the bright side day
National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day
humbug day
don't make your bed day
short girl appreciation day
several more
Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies 
Hamburger Day
Look at the Bright Side Day
Frank Zappa
Hermann Raupach
Frank Zappa
Albert Lee
Paco de Lucía
Betty Wright
Albert King
It's an open thread, so do your thing
Comments
Oh Happy Day !!
Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets
Good morning Philly; thanks for the art and music.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning Philly; thanks for the art and music.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning, el ~~
Happy Solstice! A joyous day as we officially move into air signs - Jupiter and Saturn meeting up in Aquarius will have dramatic changes on our society moving forward. Pluto remaining in Capricorn will continue with the tearing down of structures that no longer work for us (our government, for one). Once Pluto moves into Aquarius in 2024-2025, we will see true movement into the unity consciousness that we are beginning to enter into today. So much to look forward to!
Enjoy the day and exude the love you hold in your being!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good morning RA. Thanks for the uplifting viewpoint.
meanwhile:
is to be expected because it is the Kali Yuga, which doesn't end until 2025.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
If 2 planets, millions of miles apart,
align and look like 1 big one, I hope it changes the universe.
Meanwhile, my usual and customary issues with home repair continue.
I had my septic tank pumped out. Was told I needed to replace it. Then, I had to cut down a large elm and dig up the roots that cracked the tank. Then, a fence had to come down in order to remove the tree. Then, wild hogs had access to my yard. Then, the plumbing needed to be marginally reconfigured. Then, the repair broke several pipes and they had to be repaired. Then, we discovered the fence removal was botched and the fence has to be rebuilt. Then, we discovered the repaired plumbing wasn't vented properly, and it has to be repaired. Then, the holidays come, no repairmen in sight.
I am going to look at the alignment, hope I somehow get all inspired to believe things will forever be different and better. If I get my plumbing vented and the fence put up, I can then get a better attitude about some positive change in our existence. At least to the extent of sweet air outside and inside my home.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
sounds like a SNAFU
Nothing like life in the country. It is always something!
I hope everyone has a great solstice, and the coming of the light lifts spirits.
Thanks for the OT el
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Well, at least there is no ambient light
in my neck of the woods, so I will be able to get a good view of the alignment.
My assistant just called in sick with a bad toothache, so I will have 4 appointments and a court appearance and be 3 places at once.
Solstice! Hell, yeah!
I am glad that many people do feel hopeful. I hope they are right.
We are sky watchers, and do look forward to nature's light show tonight.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning otc. Sounds like a lot of grief and hassle
which, according to some, is the natural state of things. A seeming corollary to Finagle's law(s) is that
. Though there are many statements and expressions of Finagle's great wisdom, I prefer:
The universe tends toward maximum perversity at all points in time and space.
Good luck with today and tonight.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Here's just another example
of how authorities in the medical/scientific/"higher education" communities discredit themselves.
https://www.propublica.org/article/only-seven-of-stanfords-first-5-000-v...
Is it any wonder people don't trust what they say anymore.
Then there is this lovely story about an new strain and increased virulence. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/21/pers-d21.html
I am going to engage in the mundane occupation of baking food gifts to be subsequently distributed to my small circle of people. I plan to immerse my surroundings in the best music I can and not worry about anything all day. Tonight I will look up at the sky just a bit after sunset. To the west. Thanks to all for all the sky watching links over the past several months. Hope we all get a great clear-sky night.
Food gifts rank right up there as the best!
I am preparing a gift deed from parents to son, consisting of 15 acres. I told him that he needs to plant corn and peas, and bring me some. He said he would.
Not a bad way to start the day or the week!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Very nice gift
, he can plant the three sisters: corn, beans, squash. You can do quite a bit with three acres.
Good morning rand. It wasn;'t a faulty algorithm, it was
business as usual at Stganfoo, a culture of privilege steeped in privilege since its inception.
The distribution of baked goods is a wonderful pastime (and tradition).
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
RHIP n/t
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Even Sarah Palin gets it now! So where are all our progressives?
I’d like to hear Democrats come out for pardoning Julian Assange.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sarah+palin+julian+assange&ia=web
Good morning lot. If by "our progressives" you mean
x such that x is a Democrat (big D) and a progressive and not in name only, I think you are approaching some sort of oxymoron.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The overlap between Dem party pols and truly progressive
policies — such as opposing war and monopoly capitalism, or prioritizing the needs of US citizens over the demands of foreign regimes for ever more lavish subsidies — verges on zero, nil, null, nada, the empty set. All too true, how could I forget?
Pointing out facts about people’s actual behavior is not “hatred” / “hate speech,” unless one is deliberately trying to twist things.
AOC was asked about Assange and she fumbled
She said that there are some considerations with him, but didn’t elaborate. I think the intercept has the story. Kudos for Palin for speaking up for him. Come on Trump do it.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
morning el
et al
Woo hoo! Happy Solstice. Welcome Age of Aquarius. Tear it down Kali. Rip it asunder, please. Ecocide aside, may all beings be happy. Om.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
Good morning magi. Yes to all that, and Happy Solstice
to you too.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The unsocial media kills people's serenity
too many fears all around. Just saying.
What is so social about the social media, if they cause so many unsocial behavior?
It's like "social disease" or it actually is one
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Good afternoon mimi, thanks for reading.
perhaps "social" as in afternoon social as inkaffee klatch as in gossip and trivia.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches
is the full name. I lived there over a dozen years, even went to SFA University.I saw this town mentioned in the 'on this day' part of the essay and thought I'd share this story.
"The Marx Brothers might never have been the Marx Brothers had a Nacogdoches mule not upstaged them during their appearance in this building on Main Street in Nacogdoches. Then an opera house, it's now an art gallery
"So, the year is 1907, and you're part of a full house gathered on a Saturday afternoon to hear a New York musical troupe called the Four Nightingales. Your little town by this time is on the southern vaudeville circuit, so you're accustomed to seeing plays, melodrama, magic shows and musical acts. Some folks you know - not you, of course - have even taken in the occasional burlesque show at the opera house.
On this particular afternoon, the curtain opens onto a cramped stage, and four young men wearing sailor suits, white straw hats, clip-on bow ties and paper lapel roses break into a popular song. Accompanying themselves on guitar, mandolin and violin, they offer up a few more numbers in four-part harmony, a dramatic reading or two and then - uh-oh, you find yourself stifling a yawn."
Whether Minnie (Mother to the Marx boys) was on hand in Nacogdoches that long-ago afternoon is lost to history, but her boys were hard at work making music when a man rushed up the stairs and burst through the theater doors. "MULE'S LOOSE!," he shouted, or words to that effect. Members of the audience leaped from their seats and hurried to the second-floor gallery, where they pushed and shoved and craned their necks to see what was causing the commotion on the street below. Others spilled down the staircase and out the front doors as if the building were on fire.
Maybe it was one mule that kicked a cart to pieces and was dragging it down the street or maybe it was a team of mules pulling a wagon - no one knows for sure - but there was mayhem on Main Street on a Saturday afternoon, and for the moment the matinee crowd found it more interesting than the musical offerings of the young Marx brothers. On the small stage, the befuddled boys saw their audience disappear in mid-tune. They had been upstaged by a raucous mule. Or mules."
Once the skittish animal regained his stolid mulish composure, audience members, no doubt still buzzing about the excitement, drifted back in and took their seats. The Marx brothers were miffed, particularly Julius. He began scurrying about the stage like a frenzied mule himself, pausing every few steps to pepper the audience with ad-hoc insults. "Nacogdoches is full of roaches!" he shouted. ("Roaches" was all he could think of that rhymed with Nacogdoches.) "The jackass is the finest flower of Tex-ass!"
Milton and Adolph, and presumably the non-Marx member of the group, got caught up in the frenzy of absurd insults and slapstick craziness that possessed young Julius. The jokes and Texas jibes kept coming.
A comedic hit
Groucho's son Arthur wrote decades later that the boys fully expected to be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, but that's not what happened. The audience loved it, and at that moment - or so the story goes - the Marx brothers realized they were much better comedians than they were musicians. A star, indeed a comedic constellation, was born.
The brothers were still in Nacogdoches the next day, staying at the Rutland Hotel across the street from the opera house. Groucho was on the front porch with a group of guys playing a card game called euchre, when the local constabulary showed up and arrested them for playing cards on Sunday. Groucho didn't seem to mind. "The way I played it, they shouldn't have allowed it on Saturday either," he said years later.
Maybe, also, he'd already begun to realize that something big had happened the night before. In the next few days other Texas theater managers got word of the young upstarts, and when they moved on to Denison, they got a raise to $75 a week."
And there is this
"And then there's "Duck Soup," with Groucho as Rufus T. Firefly, leader of Freedonia ("Hail, hail Freedonia, land of the brave and free!"). Did Groucho know about the real Fredonia? In 1820, Texans in and around Nacogdoches rebelled against Mexico and for six weeks were citizens of their own free state. They called it the Republic of Fredonia.
I wouldn't bet my life that Groucho got the name from Nacogdoches, but it's a fact that Fredonia Street intersects Main Street. It's just a few blocks from the opera house where he and his brothers found their real show-business calling."
(all emphasis mine)
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/native-texan/article/Ma...
Good afternoon alias, thanks for the great story, and yes I
saw what you did there
say the magic woid ...
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Fredonia
My wife did her undergraduate work at Fredonia University in New York, so I would have thought that we'd have heard all the various Marx Brothers/Fredonia stories and jokes, but yours was a new one!
Cool Yule EL and all
serene solstice
and a contemplative conjunction
Good afternoon QMS and thanks for the good wishes.
I'd give you the right ascension and declination, but I can't find my ephemeris.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
check behind your zenith
'-)
I think the Solstice Star is a sure indication
that god is throwing Jesus under the bus and now favoring pagans. Yeah!
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Good afternoon Fishtroller. I think he's just rewarding
Kepler for using math and science instead of religion to figure oout how the skies work.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
She n/t
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
Sorry, my bad. Ishtar, iirc.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Yep! Happy solstice.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Will he run again?
[video:https://youtu.be/mc9R3cRaGhw]
May be for his life?
Heh. Maybe a rematch with Hillary.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The electoral system is so revolting
I'd imagine at some point, people will stop watching.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
More Hacker News
Per the Guardian:
Wait?!? Not Russia, Russia, Russia???
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --