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Erroneous About the Eclipse

Paul Jacob on the eclipse of popular knowledge of astronomy

The View is not something to audit on a regular basis. It may decrease IQ. Nevertheless, we may have to defend Sunny Hostin for her silly ramblings on eclipses, cicadas, earthquakes, TDS and The Rapture. 

I’m not sure. She sure seemed to be saying that the recent eclipse and climate change were integrally related.

But the banter of the women was so light-hearted that maybe we shouldn’t hold her to high standards.

Besides, Whoopi was there to provide rational pedantry — no matter how inaccurate she was. (Contra Ms. Goldberg, there are thousands of cicada species, and you may respectably pronounce the word in a variety of ways). It could be that Sunny was merely trying to be funny about the Sun.

As the man said at the end of Chinatown, “Forget it, it’s The View.”

But how hopeless was Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s little lecture to the students at Booker T. Washington High School? She was instructing the students and taking credit for their “opportunity” to go outside and see the eclipse.

“A Full Moon is that complete, rounded circle which is made up mostly of gases,” she mis-explained, “and that’s why the question is why or how could we as humans live on the Moon? Are the gases such that we could do that?”

Well, no, the Moon is not mostly composed of gases. It possesses the scantest of atmospheres, but does have water — or so I last read.

Even eclipsing The View, sending embarrassing, ultra-ignorant politicians to teach astronomy in the inner cities is — Lunacy!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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5 replies on “Erroneous About the Eclipse”

Politicians from each of the major parties are often ignorant, witless spokesmodels. Those politicians who have competent handlers and who conform to what those handlers advise are not usually exposed for what they are. The Democrats have the added advantage that the mainstream of the media will provide cover for them; the Republicans have the added disadvantage that, even when they say fundamentally reasonable things, their remarks will be misconstrued as foolish or as wicked by the mainstream of the media whenever possible.

Sheila Jackson Lee’s nonsense about Luna will go down the Memory Hole. Ted Stevens’ metaphor about the Internet has been ridiculed as if intended as literal for nearly two decades.

Meanwhile, I note that, months ago, a friend who is an astronomer said that prime numbers were simply a mathematic curiosity, with no scientific significance. I responded that the life-cycles of cicadæ have evolved to take a prime number of years, because those lengths thwart predators. Cicadæ of varieties have cycles of different prime numbers.

And, in this context, we see that the energence of cicadæ of two specific varieties at the same time occurs over cycles whose length is the product of their two prime numbers; &c. For example, the thirteen-year cicadæ and the seventeen-year cicadæ emerge at the same time once every 221 years. Those two varieties will emerge at the same time as the five-year cicadæ once every 1,105 years.

If Sheila Jackson Lee has skills I don’t know what they are. Her oratory to me has always just been irritating. I shouldn’t even call it oratory. In her defense, the sun is mostly made of gases. Does that help?

Even eclipsing The View, sending embarrassing, ultra-ignorant politicians to teach astronomy in the inner cities is — Lunacy!

Lunacy! Very apropos.

Hard to imagine that Rep Jackson-Lee has represented Houston, home of the Johnson Space Center, and has such a poor understanding of our basic astro-physical world.
Or, maybe not

I am wondering if rep. hank johnson is of the belief that if we go to the moon and leave too much material on it’s surface, that it might come crashing down and collide with the Earth?

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