Dean, this is actually a telling indictment on the level of scientific understanding of much of the adult population of the USA – and of Australia (we certainly aren’t any better)… Too many lay people hear only “eclipse” and their singular (and Pavlovian) response is “look-at-eclipse-go-blind.” This is exactly why folk in this cohort can be fooled to think any sort of nonsense about climate science, immunisation, vitamins, and the panoply of other woo fields so readily swallowed by the ignorati.

And courtesy of Drs Dunning and Kruger these people can be understood to bask unphased in the self-confident delusions of their own apparent intellectual/educational adequacies. If only that delusion could be broken and they made to perceive their deeply flawed understandings. I’m sure though that this is prohibited by an undiscovered law of thermodynamics akin to entropy – Teh Stupid overall can only ever increase, even if small pockets can be reduced in size with the input of much work…

[Oo, just noticed the new edit function!

“Click to Edit – 3 minutes and 37 seconds”

I like that it’s set on a timer – that’s an elegant solution to the reservations I expressed a couple fo weeks ago.

Sweet!]

Tyor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8

I have not the slightest idea of who or what Corey and Hart are so I guess I feel your feelings. On the other hand, neither one of us is dead.

It would have been funnier if he convinced an entire viewing area worth of people to wander around at night with welders’ masks on!

On another light note: I gave a class a small probability simulation project for a few extra credit points. I received a text from one student:

“Is the fact that Corey and Hart only produce sunglasses at night important in this assignment?”

It made me feel old.

It would have been funnier if he convinced an entire viewing area worth of people to wander around at night with welders’ masks on!

True. We already have a large percentage of people who believe immigration is out of control and autism is the result of vaccination, so it’s a reasonable bet some there are locals dim enough to be convinced to do that.

It would have been funnier if he convinced an entire viewing area worth of people to wander around at night with welders’ masks on!

The environment in the larger sense is largely irrelevant to many people in the U. S. and probably other developed countries. Various climate-controlled (or at least moderated) buildings and vehicles are mostly where the majority of people are to be found. It takes an effort to reconnect with the world outside.

I believe you said that you also referenced the SciAm article about the flower-faced snouters of the Hi-Yi-Yi Archipelago, when I happened to mention it a few years ago.

FWIW & its probly too late already but still – an actual astronomical article on it here :

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-to-watch-this-weekends-total-lunar-eclipse-the-last-one-for-two-years