Watched the eclipse, out here in N.TX. had 60′s temperature wise, clear sky, so I watched it go all red and now there’s just a munchie out of the bottom and it’s white again. New beginnings, and it’s about time.

Snow and drizzle in Chicago this morning with solid cloud cover. Guess the sky god doesn’t like us. Either that, or he’s too busy with that Kinect game.

Top o’ th’ mornin’ to ya. The phrase “Newt Gingrich’s g-string” has changed me forever.

Eat the Elite

In other news, I hope you all got a chance to see the lunar eclipse.

Nah, it was snowing here (still is) so I hope to see it on replay tonight.

Good morning, pups. Today we’ve got Brooks, solo. Bobo has produced a thing called “The Arduous Community,” in which he babbles that a visit with a teacher of Torah study groups and classes in Jewish thought sheds light on how this country neglects the promise of adult education. Bobo, honey, howzabout we teach the children first? That way they’ll be prepared enough for adult education.

Here he is.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got a variety of bagels with cream cheese this morning. Now I’m going to go and ponder in the kitchen, going over every bite of Christmas dinner to make absoposolutely sure that I’ve got everything I need. After today I don’t even want to think about going to the store… Have a great day.

The Earth casts a curved shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse. That’s 1 way even ancient people could guess that the Earth is spherical.

Freezing and cloudy in WNY. Otherwise, great for eclipse viewing.

MSFT (admirably) spends about 15% of revenue on R&D, but this is what they come up with?

Edit: The Holder DOJ as a Get Out of Jail card for corrupt congresscritters (most of them Republican).

When is his visit to a Madrasah scheduled?

If I recall Bobo’s bio correctly he went to Hebrew school for years, so I’m sure he felt perfectly at home discussing Torah and Talmud. At least he doesn’t beat us about the head and shoulders with his piety, the way The Pasty Little Putz does. (Converts can be SUCH a trial…) As far as investigating a faith other than his own? I’m kinda doubting it!

Had perfect lunar eclipse viewing weather here in eastern PA. Now, if only I had been able to go back to sleep…

We had hazy clouds and fog… Just enough to obscure everything. Rats.

That’s usually how it works out for me too when it comes to celestial events — up early and nothing to look at.

I slept through it, because it was cloudy here in NW Indiana. And chilly.

Who wants to go to the strip club and put singles in Newt Gingrich’s g-string?

Sounds like fun. Especially after rubbing the singles in itching powder. I bet it improves the quality of the “dancing”.

I like the way you think!

Here in SF Bay Area it was mostly clear and upper 40s till about 1 AM, so I got to watch it through the peak. It looked like a blood orange when the fog blew in and covered it. Very glad I got to watch. Surprisingly, it was warm and wet enough for frogs to be croaking in the late night quiet.

Anybody find a good video of the lunar eclipse?

I find it immensely interesting that it hasn’t happened on a solstice since 1638.
Very portentous for the Druidic/pagan among us.

Let’s see what do i know of history around that time?
It was the middle of the Christain Inquisition, but that was waning after another 100 years. Feudalism, illiteracy, superstition was rampant. Even Kings didn’t know how to read.
Italy was a world power and the New World had just been discovered a short time before and was being brutally plundered by the Spanish Empire. Jamestown, in Virginia had just been established as a beach head in North America by the British Empire.
The puritans , who we call “pilgrims” had recently landed in MA to…ah, escape religious persecution which they then brought to the New World.
Empires all over the place. with the Dutch having just bought Manhattan for strings of beads.

And we all know what wound up happening in the New World. The indigenous were slaughtered and a new Empire arose.

I wonder is this marking the beginning of another cycle of tyranny, or the end of the old. Right now things be all gang aft angley……but what about the rise of the enlightenment in the centuries after that previous eclipse?
It;’s definitely a portent but,as always, of what?

The reason I’m focused on the New world is because the eclipse last night was mainly viewable form North America

Meanwhile is anybody interested in the new attack on Net Neutrality?
Net neutrality: US expected to ratify new rules on internet access

I was surprised that no one here picked up on it yesterday. We had quite a fight about it on HuffPO.
Most seem to believe that all Obama’s betrayals are paid for by this one bone, upon which they are chewing happily.

ABC’s video:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/lunar-eclipse-2010-takes-place-tonight/story?id=12447028

This one’s better:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/blog-post/2010/12/lunar_eclipse_live_time_lapse.html

Bloody moon

The Full Moon and Winter Solstice each occur at 1 particular moment in time. The Full Moon and Winter Solstice are separated this year by about 15 or 16 hours. There must be a Full Moon within a window 30 days wide, 15 days on each side of the Winter Solstice. A Full Moon this close to the Winter Solstice probably occurs about once in 20 or 25 years (16 hours/15 days). So you might see this 3 or 4 times in your life. However, for the Full Moon to be eclipsed and so near the Winter Solstice, is truly unusual. http://www.astro.uu.nl/~strous/AA/en/antwoorden/verduisteringen.html This source says there are 2.44 lunar eclipses per year on average, and I suppose there are 12 or 13 Full Moons in a year. Then you need to be in the right place to see it. At Greenwich, England, the Full Moon occurred at 8:14 AM, just after sunrise. So I’d guess if you were in Moscow or Baghdad, 3 hours later than Greenwich, or Tehran, 4 hours later, the Lunar Eclipse was not visible at all.