In America, because we have not listened to the scientists, have fallen
behind other countries who have listened to them and used masks, social
distancing, testing, and contact tracing to control the virus. Hence, Taiwan
can have a normal baseball season, but we can’t start ours with fans in the
stands, and even now 11 of the Marlins are sick.
Why?
35 comments:
It is an election year.
I would call the impact on pro sports the silver lining of the virus. Good riddance.
To the point, the masks were collateral damage to how badly things were done initially (and no, not just Trump). The arbitrary nature of some of the initial lockdowns didnt help, such as lawn and garden centers being banned while alcohol and weed shops were kept open. Prisons were emptied of actual criminals to protect them from the virus, and then store owners and "social distance violators" started getting arrested. Meanwhile the original prisoners often got arrested again after committing more crimes against innocent people. Horrible optics, at best.
Fauci lied about the effectiveness of masks so people wouldnt buy them and deprive the medical community that needed them. What else might government officials lie about to get the desired results? They already proved they would.
People protesting because they didnt want to lose their businesses or jobs were heavily criticized, mocked, and dismissed because of the risk of spreading the virus, while Floyd protests were celebrated by the same people. Even had a memo signed by health professionals endorsing the protests. One can have sympathy for a cause over another without being a complete hypocrite about the virus, but government and media figures failed to do so.
People protesting wearing masks may be idiotic, but both Democrats and Republicans and their sundry media allies were idiotic and displayed glaring hypocrisy in their responses. Their authority and credibility are shot. They deserve no trust.
It's all a plot to prevent the Orioles from pulling off the greatest upset in sports history by winning the 2020 pennant, which... ah, heck! It coulda happened, ya know...
Starhopper,
You need to get some fresh air. You're going Covid-crazy :-)
I'm looking for a good deal on a computerized telescope. I hear you can't see Neptune without that option. Any suggestions?
I am not the right person to ask about computerized telescopes, since I am basically a Luddite and my telescopes are all hand driven - noting electronic or computerized on them at all. I find things the old fashioned way, by star hopping (and thus my screen name).
But whoever told you that you can't find Neptune without a computer doesn't know what he's talking about. I've observed Neptune more times than I can count, and I've never had the least trouble finding it. In fact, I once got lucky and found it in about 30 seconds! (I'll never do that again.)
By the way, Uranus and Neptune are amongst my favorite targets out there. Uranus looks like a tiny Granny Smith apple (green), and Neptune is an electric blue - like a tropical fish.
There seems to be a lot of options beyond just refractor and reflector. I always thought that reflector was best.
It seems they can range from $200 to $3000 if you look up the top rated ones. This one is $400: https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21049-PowerSeeker-127EQ-Telescope/dp/B0007UQNKY/ref=sr_1_8?crid=3Q40KOTXCERML&dchild=1&keywords=telescopes+for+astronomy+beginners&qid=1596077282&refinements=p_72%3A1248879011&rnid=1248877011&s=photo&sprefix=te%2Caps%2C233&sr=1-8"
Good deal or no?
There is no such thing as a "best" telescope. They're like cars. What do you want to do with it? For planetary or lunar observation, nothing beats a refractor. The images are diamond sharp, and fine detail simply jumps out at you. For Deep Sky objects (things outside our solar system), you get the best bang for your buck with a reflector. You get more aperture for your money, and that's what counts when looking at nebulae and galaxies. More aperture means fainter objects are more visible.
My own interests lie mostly within the solar system, so I've invested my limited funds on the best refractors I could afford. My "best" scope is a 102mm Staellarvue carbon fiber refractor with an assortment of Televue eyepieces. Fully assembled (Manfroto tripod, Universal Astronomics mount, Stellarvue telescope and diagonal, and Televue eyepieces, plus a few other odds and ends), the whole thing comes to about 4000 dollars. I have friends in my astronomy club who have spent 60,000 dollars (or more!) on their scopes (and others who have spent 300 dollars). It all depends on what you want to do.
What do you lose with a reflector with a largeist aperture when viewing the planets? If you can view the solar system just as well with a reflector as a refractor and also view the galaxies, why not go with a reflector?
A reflector has two huge advantages - cost and light gathering power. (It's why we call them "light buckets".)
c
My 102mm (4 inch) refractor set me back 2000 dollars, just for the tube. For that amount of money, I could have bought a 12 inch reflector. (A 12 inch refractor would likely cost millions of dollars, and anyway, no one is making them.) And by the magic of pi radius squared, you'll see that the light gathering power of a 12 inch reflector is almost 40 times that of a 4 inch refractor, which means you'll see objects 40 times as faint. So if you're looking for faint galaxies millions of light years away, a reflector is better - way better.
A refractor has two huge advantages - quality of image and ease of handling. My view of the Moon and planets is super sharp, with very fine detail. (Galaxies and nebulae have no fine detail, so you don't need the precision a refractor gives you.) The other advantage is set up and tear down time. (Before the pandemic), when we'd all go out for a star party, I would be set up in 5 minutes, while some of my friends with reflectors could take up to an hour to be ready. Same for tear down time at the end of a night. Also, mirrors need to be collimated and must either warm up or cool down to the ambient temperature before they're ready for prime time. They're just a lot "fussier". You have to be willing to tinker to get the best use out of them.
That "tinkering" issue is why I always recommend that novice stargazers start out with a refractor as their first scope. I've seen too many people get discouraged by all the effort needed to properly use a reflector, and give up after only a few times out. Their fancy new telescope then becomes a very expensive dust magnet, taking up space in someone's garage or spare room.
Yikes! My memory is failing me. I just went to the Stellarvue website, and discovered that my 102mm scope didn't cost 2 thousand dollars, but 3. In my defense, I bought it about 6 years ago, so that cost has long been sunk.
Oh, and by the way, a properly cared for telescope never loses its value. I once had a 135mm scope which was simply too big for me when I moved out of my house into an apartment. I had owned it 4 years, and sold it for the exact price I had originally bought it at.
Thanks for the review. I can tinker as long as it's cheaper.
I liked the song a lot. But I'm still gonna by a reflector ;-)
OP
"Why"
Donald John Trump.
America is suffering from the Trump Virus, brought to us by the ignorant Red State Minority.
Yes the CDC lied. The CDC boss is Donald John Trump.
Trump attacked us all with lies and ignorant superstitious denials, at a time when integrity of intelligent rational leadership was and continues to be so very much in need, but Trump does not have any such thing to offer, since he is a narcissistic ignorant criminal only.
STILL gonna by a reflector!
I used to have a bumper sticker that read "My refractor is smarter than your Newtonian" (another term for reflector).
Ha!
Star-watcher Wars!
Herman Cain Died Of Covid-19
Why?
Donald John Trump.
Trump led the way with all his viciously narcissistic anti-safety propaganda, intentionally spreading grotesque lies that sent our country into a economic and health disaster.
Herman Cain followed, like the gangster in the White House, flagrantly disregarding all logic and reason, making a virus somehow a political issue, showing his bravado by shunning basic safety measures.
Now Herman Cain is dead, lead to his death by Donald John Trump.
Trump has slaughtered Americans coast to coast, and cost us trillions. That's what happens when you vote for an incompetent criminal incapable of sound leadership.
And don't tell me you aren't going to vote because nobody represents your views. Of course nobody represents your views. There are 320,000,000 Americans. It is impossible to elect any person to represent all those views.
Life presents choices. You don't get to choose from choices that are not on the table.
Some countries didn’t lock down and didn’t mandate masks and the virus did little damage. Why? An equally interesting question.
Sweden was one of the countries. I believe South Korea is another. The damage done is a relative metric by which we can compare. In Sweden you’d think the death/million would be WAY higher than others that locked down hard. Yeah it’s toward the top of the list, but again, relatively speaking it’s not orders of magnitude higher. Why? And then there’s S. Korea with a very low death/million. Why? It’s an interesting question.
Man you are really having trouble with that word 'by'. Should be 'buy'. :-)
I stand buy my spelling;-)
SteveK
" And then there’s S. Korea with a very low death/million. Why?"
Because they are not led by the incompetent criminal killer, Donald John Trump.
So, they listened to the scientists early on. They took the problem seriously right away, instead of lying about it and telling idiotic stories about how it would just go away in the next months, like the scum in the whitehouse did.
South Korea implemented an aggressive campaign of testing. The government made huge numbers of tests available to all for free. That way people who were contagious but did not otherwise know it would go into quarantine and prevent spreading the virus.
Makes sense right? Not to Trump and his tobacco spittle knuckle dragger fans, you know, the minority ignorant asses in the Red States that elected our second disaster president in 16 years, the same way they elected the first disaster president in recent history.
South Koreans wore masks early. They did not take it as some moronic sign of independence to spread viruses and expose themselves to viruses. They protected themselves and other.
They did not have a Trump CDC to lie to them about masks.
Masks and distancing will have a blunting effect but there’s no stopping the virus unless you isolate 100%. There’s dozens of reasons why the virus spread more quickly in one place and more slowly in another. Pinning everything on Trump or some people not wearing masks are the kind of things morons tend to say.
“Its results may not be orders of magnitude worse than other countries but that is not a criteria I would wish to use to advocate for copying their response.”
I would advocate it 100% considering the other problems a hard lockdown creates.
@bmiller
Buy the way, I don’t think your sow bad at spelling
😉
SteveK,
Some countries didn’t lock down and didn’t mandate masks and the virus did little damage. Why? An equally interesting question.
Which countries would those be? If you were going to say "Sweden", you've fallen behind on the news.
"Only the die hard Trumpsters are still fighting against the use of masks."
And the crazies. But wait... I'm being redundant.
“you’ve fallen behind on the news”
Yeah, Sweden’s daily death numbers look worse than ever. /s
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/
We finally agree
If you catch Covid then one of these 2 things happened. I can’t think of a 3rd option but maybe someone else can. Neither option is good if you’re a leftist or a Karen.
1) The official protocol failed: masks, distancing and hand wash proved to be ineffective at stopping the virus.
2) You failed: you behaved irresponsibly and put people at risk by not wearing a mask, not distancing or not washing your hands.
The third option is that none of these preventative measures are (and never claimed to be) 100% effective in every case. Their value is in reducing the overall level and frequency of infection for the population as a whole - not for a specific individual.
If you follow all safety rules on the road, you are less likely to get in an accident... but you can still be unlucky.
#3: Someone intentionally gave you the virus.
"Someone intentionally gave you the virus."
Yes! Seeing all the videos of people intentionally coughing on people or even rubbing their runny noses on people's sleeves (MAGA hatters all), I can well believe that.
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