Joe Nation
Joe Nation's JournalComets have historically been considered omens and we laugh at the thought
Though frequently beautiful, comets traditionally have stricken terror as often as they have generated wonder as they arc across the sky during their passages around the Sun. Astrologers interpreted the sudden appearances of the glowing visitors as ill omens presaging famine, flood or the death of kings. Even as recently as the 1910 appearance of Halley's Comet, entrepreneurs did a brisk business selling gas masks to people who feared Earth's passage through the comet's tail.
In the 4th century B.C., the Greek philosopher Aristotle concluded that comets were some kind of emission from Earth that rose into the sky. The heavens, he maintained, were perfect and orderly; a phenomenon as unexpected and erratic as a comet surely could not be part of the celestial vault. In 1577, Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe carefully examined the positions of a comet and the Moon against the star background Using observations of the comet made at the same time from two different locations, Tycho noted that both observers saw the comet nearly in the same location with respect to the background stars. If the comet was closer than the moon, this would not have been the case. This so-called parallax effect can be demonstrated if you hold up a finger and look at it while closing one eye and then the other. Tycho concluded that the comet was at least six times farther away than the moon.
A hundred years later, the English physicist Isaac Newton established that a comet appearing in 1680 followed a nearly parabolic orbit. The English astronomer Edmond Halley used Newton's method to study the orbits of two dozen documented cometary visits. The orbits of three comets seen in 1531, 1607 and 1682 were so similar that he concluded they in fact were appearances of a single comet wheeling around the Sun in a closed ellipse every 75 years or so. He successfully predicted the next visit in 1758-9, and the comet thereafter bore his name.
http://solarviews.com/eng/comethistory.htm
Ancient people believed that a comet foretold something bad for the most part and we know that the appearance of a comet is merely a celestial object circling our own sun with no relationship to anything going on here on Earth. It would just be superstition to believe that a comet could impact political fortunes or failed crops or any other aspect of our lives other than giving us a nice show every so often. So then how come we have this out of control pandemic with the worst possible leader in the history of this country and suddenly this comet shows up? This kind of stuff only lends credence to the superstitious among us. And I find myself avoiding these superstitious people because it is hard to imagine a worse situation in the country, and, a comet showing up just to creep us out.
What did those ancient people know anyway.
This pandemic is an opportunity to do an education makeover.
The United States has an outdated, agrarian inspired educational system. In 1900, just under 40 percent of the total US population lived on farms, and 60 percent lived in rural areas. Today, the respective figures are only about 1 percent and 20 percent. So why do schools have 9 months of classes and 3 months of summer vacation? Because the summer months used to be set aside for farm kids to work the family farm and then return to the classroom in the winter months. It made sense for the population over a century ago but does it really make any sense today?
Right now, we have a rare opportunity change education for the next century and beyond. I suggest that we change the learning experience to more suit the needs of our society while we find ourselves being force to adapt to the new reality of COVID-19. But what would that change look like?
If it were mine to change, I would have school year-round in 8 week units. The first six weeks of each 8 week period would be devoted mainly to one area of education such as math, science, or history allowing more in depth exploration of the subjects. The last 2 week would be school breaks that would give the children time to process and unpack the knowledge that they have accumulated during the first 6 weeks and move onto the next unit. Each child would have to pass all 6 units to advance to the next "grade" or more accurately, the next level. No more holding back the eager learners just because some kids needed extra time to learn the subject matter. Nobody falls behind a full year for not passing a single unit nor do they advance just because they put the time in. The traditional cohort of 4th graders for example, would evolve into a classroom of students that would be together for the 6 weeks and then a new group would be assembled for the next unit in the learning series with a random or structured group.
The childcare consideration is the thought that most people latch onto right away. We would certainly have to alter the way we work and utilize childcare but that is hardily insurmountable and could easily be structured more appropriately to the type of society we live in today than the one we lived in over 100 years ago.
You could still have two weeks off for various holidays and summer activities. Family vacations would still happen. More eLearning would be an integral part of the learning process as we see happening today already. This is my opinion of what we need to do to change the educational experience and right now is the window we have to do it.
What are your ideas?
Voting in Illinois is a State Holiday this year and vote-by-mail is extended
Pritzker signs vote-by-mail expansion, declares Election Day a state holiday
By Jerry Nowicki
Capitol News Illinois
jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com
Updated 6/16/2020 8:23 PM
SPRINGFIELD -- Anyone who cast a ballot in the last three years or who registered to vote or changed addresses after the March primary will be sent an application to vote by mail in the Nov. 3 election.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill expanding the program Tuesday. In a news release, Pritzker's office said the program is aimed at ensuring "safe and active participation in the 2020 general election during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic."
The measure also expands early voting hours at permanent polling places and makes Election Day a state holiday.
Local election authorities must mail or email the applications to voters who cast a ballot in the 2018 general election, the 2019 consolidated election or the 2020 general primary election, as well as to voters who registered or changed addresses after the March primary. Any eligible voter who submits an application by Oct. 1 will receive their ballot by Oct 6.
"Sending vote-by-mail applications to residents who have participated in recent elections will allow more people to exercise that right from the safety of their own homes and help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our communities," Pritzker said in the release.
Making Election Day a state holiday affects government offices, except election authorities; K-12 schools; and postsecondary institutions governed by the State Universities Civil Service Act. The state had already established Election Day as a holiday for state employees.
The changes were backed by the House Democratic Women's Caucus and sponsored by Rep. Kelly Burke, an Evergreen Park Democrat and Sen. Julie Morrison, a Lake Forest Democrat.
https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20200616/pritzker-signs-vote-by-mail-expansion-declares-election-day-a-state-holiday
One day, the Republicans will erect a statue of Donald Trump in a public square
Please mark your calendars. We're going to have to go tear down at least one more of those damn monuments to racism.
You can be appalled by looting, vandalism, arson, etc., but
When citizens are being murdered in the streets by the very people that are supposed to be upholding the laws, you really don't have a justice system. What you have is a Banana Republic level of corruption and not a country of laws. Maybe burning down the current system is warranted. Maybe we are too far from justice and law and order to bother with worrying about what a few protesters do at this point. Maybe we are already well beyond the point of giving a damn when we are being murdered with impunity.
I have never been mistreated by a law enforcement officer. But I am aware enough to know that once injustice begins, it won't stop at just the most vulnerable citizens. It will spread to all levels of society. We either stand together against injustice or we go down together at the hands of injustice. It is time for everyone to decide.
Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?
I'll let you know when I am allowed to leave my house without a face mask, disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, when I don't have to stand 6-feet away from everyone I meet in public, when I can see my family again, when I don't have to wash my hands 50 times a day, and when I actually have a job to leave the house for.
The one thing I can tell you is that I will leave my house on Tuesday, November 3rd come hell or high water to make sure the next 4 years don't resemble that last 4 years.
Who wants to bet we'll see Trump come out with some crappy graduation message?
I give it a day or two and Trump will try to take a wildly miscalculated swing at Obama.
Paul Field's Facebook Post
Source: Paul Field
Paul Field
April 17 at 5:09 PM
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but you need to know how silly you look if you post some variation of, "Welcome to Socialism..."
You are not seeing Socialism. What you are seeing is one of the wealthiest, geographically advantaged, productive capitalist societies in the world flounder and fail at its most basic test. Taking care of its people.
This crisis is not about the virus.
This crisis is about the massive failure of our, "Booming economy," to survive even modest challenges. It is about the market dissonance of shortages in stores, even as farmers/producers destroy unused crops and products. This crisis is about huge corporations needing an emergency bailout within days of the longest Bull Market in our history ending and despite the ability to borrow with zero percent interest rates.
This crisis is about corporatized healthcare systems being unable and ill equipped to provide basic healthcare, at the same time they post record profits. It is about crisis response depending on antiquated systems nobody remembers how to operate.
But most of all, this crisis is a direct result of the politicization of every aspect of our society for the benefit of a privileged few. The vilification of education, science, media, natural rights, rural lifestyles, urban lifestyles, charity, compassion, and virtually everything else for brief political gain has gutted our society.
What you are seeing is a quarter century of technological brilliance being reduced to a narcissistic popularity contest. You're seeing the folly of basing the health and welfare of an entire society on personal greed. You're seeing all the necessary tools, for us to shrug off this crisis, go unused while people argue over who should get the credit and profit. Even worse, you're seeing vital help withheld because recipients might not, "deserve it..."
You're seeing a lot of things nobody thought they'd ever see, but you're not seeing Socialism...
"Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves."
-- Horace Mann
Read more: https://www.facebook.com/paul.field.39
Definitely follow this man's posts.
It is time to ACT!
This is a tough, tough situation by any standard. The sad part is that we probably haven't seen the worst of it yet. If we ever needed the government to step up and take care of their citizens, the time is now. People are facing the prospect of catching a deadly disease and possibly spreading it to their families by gong to a job that isn't safe or staying home and running out of resources to even meet their most basic needs, or relying on help from both state and federal governments.
We are a wealthy country. The wealthiest country in fact. We could help the neediest people. Those left with no other choices if we only decided to open up the pharaoh's grain bins and feed the least fortunate. We should institute a massive tax on the wealthiest Americans as a temporary emergency measure and save this country from the terrible choices we have to make. Life or death isn't an exaggeration at this point. This is no time to debate economic principles or scream Socialism. It is time to act for the good of the country or admit that we don't give a damn about the least among us.
UPDATE::::Can I Make Something Perfectly Clear About Blood Donations During The COVID-19 Crisis?
**********THEY DO NOT PERFORM FREE COVID-19 TESTS WHEN YOU DONATE BLOOD!!! PERIOD!!!!****************My son works for a blood donation center and apparently has had to tell large numbers of people that giving blood does not provide you with a COVID-19 test to see if you are infected. This myth was the same myth that went around during the AIDS Crisis. If someone walks in with a potential COVID-19 symptom, the center is closed down and all employees have to shelter in place for two weeks further reducing the country's blood supply.
If someone in your family is sick and untested, or you have symptoms, stay away from blood donation centers entirely. They will simply throw your blood away anyway and you will never know. My son has already had 3 potential exposures and half of their centers have been closed down. People that want to donate in order to be tested for COVID-19 are only making the problems worse for everyone.
PLEASE! Don't be reckless and endanger everyone else.
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