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alex51324 · 11 hours
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Frog Night is an excellent holiday! I think I missed it in my local area this year, but I might have another chance when I am Up North for the eclipse!
I had a new "oh, my family were the weird ones" moment recently: it seems no one else's family celebrated Frog Night (the first warm rainy night of spring) by going down to the local vernal pool after dark to help the amphibians safely across the road and listening to the spring peepers. (We'd then go back in daytime later on to observe the egg masses, of course.)
Apparently "Frog Night" as a holiday is a thing my mother invented and not a widely-accepted idea, which is a shame because I've been referring to it as if it was for the past 30 years.
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alex51324 · 11 hours
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🐈🐈🐟!!
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alex51324 · 11 hours
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Here's a neat map that translate state population into size
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Here's a different visualization:
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Each white dot on this map represents 7,500 people, as counted in the most recent census. Here's another version where each dot is 1000 people:
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These are from the US Census data visualization library; you can download them in high-res for free, and they're even more impressive in fullscreen size.
Among other things, electoral maps hit a lot different once you know where all the people are.
Around a third of Americans are supposedly from one of these states, and this site is majority American, so I'm curious if the percentages will line up at all.
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alex51324 · 13 hours
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There's the option I was looking for.
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alex51324 · 14 hours
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A giant amoeba absorbs some cats.
They have accepted their fates
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alex51324 · 15 hours
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"I don't need/wasn't planning to buy this, but look how cheap it is!"
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alex51324 · 19 hours
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OP, I like the cut of your jib!
Here is a free idea for anyone who gets requests for boob pics:
If your doctor has a "patient portal" website, there's a good chance that your mammogram images are in there somewhere.
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He asked what my tits look like and I sent this from my recent breast exam. He didn’t find it as funny as I did. No one appreciates my art 😔
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alex51324 · 1 day
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Got an email today with the subject “Look inside for grey seal pup news!”, and here is what it contained! 
No tummy-bouncing, but he does some great swimming and napping! 
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alex51324 · 1 day
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Okay, now I understand why they asked me the MRI catechism at least four times.
*booking an mri* what if I accidentally have a pacemaker. what if I got secret bone surgery and forgot about the pins
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alex51324 · 1 day
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Giant floof!
It's OK, giant floof, your human has brought you a yummy snack!
yak scared of pumpkin not clickbait
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alex51324 · 1 day
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11-13 for "here's your clothing budget, don't do anything stupid," but in the 6-10 range, I was consulted about clothing purchases more often than not.
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alex51324 · 2 days
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I love this animal
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here's something stupid: the catcatfish
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some quick facts:
they're nocturnal and tend to roam around while awake.
they have terrible eyesight but keen senses of smell and hearing.
their fur is short, dense, and oily to waterproof them.
they prefer a diet of mostly meat and are attracted to strong-smelling food like fish, cheese, and anything fermented.
the elongated dewclaw on each front paw is sharp, flexible, and nonretractable. it injects a venom that causes respiratory failure and cardiac arrest in prey and, in extreme doses, humans. veterenarians typically remove the dewclaw venom glands during the neuter/spay procedure.
they grow to an average of 1m and 23kg (3ft and 50lb) but can reach up to double that length and triple the weight!
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alex51324 · 2 days
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Swimming lessons!
Only a tiny little bit of tummy bounce near the end. That is a shame; I bet he is great at it! But you do get to see him being dried with a towel!
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alex51324 · 2 days
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Yeah, I admit I did have the thought, but that was before I saw that there are 6 people missing--and, now after 18 hours of searching, they are presumed dead.
The six are construction workers who were working on the bridge at the time of the crash. Two others from the work crew survived.
(And it's basically down to timing that this wasn't a mass casualty event. The crash happened at 1:30 in the morning, when traffic was fairly light; the state traffic cops had about two minutes' warning that the ship was in distress, and managed to stop traffic heading onto the bridge. If it had happened during morning rush hour, there would have been a lot more people on the bridge.)
I have a fear that the internet is going to try to make light of the Key Bridge collapse in the same way it did with the Ever Given Suez thing. And if that happens I am going to lose my damn mind. This is going to be devastating for Baltimore, a city that absolutely cannot afford to be devastated.
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alex51324 · 2 days
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Yeah, good point.
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alex51324 · 3 days
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It's Almost Here! North American Solar Eclipse, 2024
As I mentioned in that other post, it will be visible as at least a partial eclipse to most of North America, with the path of totality cutting a diagonal from Sinaloa, Mexico to Newfoundland, Canada, including 15 US states from Texas to Maine.
Don't be fooled by how we just had one back in October, and another one a few years ago in 2017: total solar eclipses are rare! They only happen when the Sun, Moon, and Earth line up just perfectly--and only for a small portion of the Earth's surface each time.
It's a wild coincidence that North America/the US has gotten three in such a short span of time; the last one before the recent trio was in 1979, and the next one won't be until 2044. (We do have a big partial coming to us in 2033!) The Northeastern US won't see another until the 2070's.
(Note: If you are not in North America, you can use these maps to see when your continent will have its turn!)
This eclipse is also really special in that its path of totality sweeps across a lot of heavily-populated areas. About 31 million people live within the path of totality, and millions more are expected to visit.
So, it's a pretty big deal, and now's the time to get ready!
If you live in the path of totality:
Lucky you! Look up your location on these maps to get the exact time and duration of totality.
Be ready for extra traffic & crowds--especially if you live somewhere with stuff for tourists, or a place that people outside the immediate area will have heard of.
Totality times are in the afternoon, ranging from about 1:30 in Texas to 3:30 in Maine (local times), so if you'll be at school, or at work in a setting where you can't choose your own break times, now's a good time to talk to whomever you need to. It's not unreasonable to ask to step out into the parking lot for the three minutes that people will be coming from far and wide to see--but depending on your setting, it may take some arranging ahead of time. (If you're in school, hopefully your science teachers have already thought of this, but if not, ask them. And if your science teachers are jerks, try other teachers.
If you live near the path of totality:
Try to go! As the American author Annie Dillard says, "Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane."
(Link is to the Atlantic; if you hit a paywall, the 12-foot ladder works.)
Here's a map of approximate driving distances to the path of totality, in the US (from this page).
If you're close enough to think about going, here are some Google maps with eclipse overlays for more detailed planning. (I like the Xavier Jubier one.)
Once you're inside the path of totality, anywhere you can see the sun is a valid viewing location, but if you're making a day of it and you want to find a special spot, check local visitor's bureaus or tourism offices for the area you'll be in. They'll probably have a list of parks and other places. For instance, here's what Erie, Pennsylvania has.
Seriously, If you are able to drive/have a car, live within day-trip distance of the path of totality, and can be away from work/school without losing your job/being arrested for truancy, you should go. This is a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing, and there's still loads of time to plan a day-trip.
(Note: If you aren't in day-trip distance, but now you want to go, you don't have a lot of options: hotels and flights have been full for ages. However, if you're in two-days-driving distance, you might be able to find a Sunday-night base camp, from which you can get up on Monday morning and drive several more hours to the path of totality. For instance, in Pennsylvania, there are still reasonably-priced hotel rooms to be had in State College, which is--in normal traffic--three and a half hours from Erie. (You might even be able to get a little closer than that; I just checked State College because they have a lot of hotels for the Penn State football crowds.} So if you're coming from, say, Maryland or Virginia, that could work, and there may be similar creative options for other regions. Again, if this is something that's feasible for you to do, without bankrupting yourself, getting fired, or other long-term consequences, I would strongly consider doing it!
If you live in North America, but have no way to get to the totality:
A partial eclipse is still pretty cool! And again, it'll be a while before you have another chance to see one, so it's worth it to make the time.
All of the 48 contiguous US states will be able to see some amount of eclipse. So will Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and most of Canada and the Caribbean islands, plus a little bit of South America. (Alaska and part of the Yukon are SOL, but you will have your turn in 2033!)
Use these maps to look up the time and extent of the eclipse in your location.
As of this writing, you can still get eclipse glasses here, among other places. If you run out of time to get them, check for eclipse-viewing events at local parks, libraries, etc.--they may also have some to give away ahead of time, but even if not, if you go to an event, there will almost certainly be some to share.
The plus of a partial eclipse is that you have a fairly relaxed viewing window--as much as a couple of hours, depending how far you are from the middle of the eclipse zone--rather than a standout moment that you want to make sure you're in position for.
That makes it pretty easy to get a chance to see it even if you're at work--everybody can take turns stepping outside for a look. You can share eclipse glasses, too.
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alex51324 · 3 days
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So it's like that person who puts their Halloween decorations up in August, only with murder.
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very cool but also kind of a dick move
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