SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Spam Mod: time to go?
Admins should probably take a hands-off approach when it comes to moderation. Especially, if they are regularly posting highly opinionated comments in the same forum.
No matter what, SOMEONE will question the fairness of any given decision.
The problem with the SPAM mod is that it's a -10 moderation. That causes 2 issue:
1: Mods can never fully revert it if we think it's in error since we can only ever make a post +5
2: Because it's a super-mod, now the Admins are forced to manage it. It wouldn't be such a problem if the standard was objective (e.g. only commercial). But, since it's a subjective standard there will always be disagreements.
Is this a solution in search of a problem?
We really don't see much commercial Spam. Why isn't -1 Troll sufficient for the non-commercial "Spam?" Sure, it'll slow the descent into the karma hole a bit but how quickly do we really need to demote people?
Boy Scouts Accused of "Covert Campaign to Recruit Girls"
Boy Scouts 'Exploring' Co-Ed Programming Provokes Girl Scout Ire
Girl Scouts Accuse Boy Scouts of Recruiting Girls, Souring Century-Old Friendship
Editorial: On their honor, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts should settle their boundary issues
Parents, Don’t Let Your Girls Join the Boy Scouts
Lots Of Girls Want To Join The Boy Scouts. What's The Problem With That?
I can sense film scripts being written about this.
Islam is no more inherently violent than Christianity, BUT..
Islam is no more inherently violent than Christianity, BUT..
If anyone has a basis to say otherwise it's probably Charlie Fucking Hebdo!
Which they didn't actually say, for the record.
Humble bundle BSG: and rambling.
The Humble Bundle has a bunch of BSG (classic and new) comics on sale ($15 for the bunch).
Looks interesting: i've grown kind of fond of e-comics and manga's. About the only thing i can do while mobile, (like going to Disney World) cause i ain't got no phone.
Would have loved one of the phones Ubuntu was trying to crowd fund, but it was like $600-800+, if memory serves (and it NEVER DOES, Batman), but yeah.... money.
Still saving for that computer upgrade, but Disney set me back a bit, lol.
But worth it.
Last years vacation was a staycation. Really sucked. Didn't do anything. Disney World i enjoyed even though the humidity put it up over 109 degrees.
Helllllllla enjoyed EVERY second, pretty much.
Disney really can do a good job, despite the tracky-ness of it all. You just gotta want it bad enough: and i hella needed it.
Always nice to see your kids face light up like it did when Goofy entered the room.
Trump-Faced Ecstasy Tablets Seized in Germany
Joss Whedon: "Woke Bae" No More
Joss Whedon fan site shuts down after ex-wife's critical essay
Joss Whedon's Ex-Wife Warns He's A Hypocrite 'Preaching Feminist Ideals'
Joss Whedon Is a 'Hypocrite Preaching Feminist Ideals,' Ex-Wife Kai Cole Says (Guest Blog)
Five times Joss Whedon, self-proclaimed 'woke bae', blew his feminist credentials
Also saw eclipse
Anyway, the park consists of two areas, the Teton range of mountains which goes something like 20-40 miles (30-65km) and has a impressive vertical rise (up to 6000 feet or around 1800 meters) over the second part of the park, a very level valley which runs along the entire east side of the range. There are several lakes in the valley area including the fairly large Jackson Lake of which Colter Bay is a part.
We had scouted the Grand Tetons the day before. The authorities had done a relatively good job of managing the situation. There were five areas where visitors were encouraged to go (which in theory would handle a good portion of the visitors the park was expecting to receive) and everything in the park was scheduled to open at 6am this morning (Mountain Daylight Time). It still sounded like way too many people for too small a space, but I'm not seeing what the park could do better. I guess I'll hear how things went later in news or the local Yellowstone rumor mill.
I and some friends managed to find a vantage point near the marina located there to view both the Tetons with the bay in the foreground and the sky where the Sun would be situated during the eclipse. I'd say about 200-300 other people also found this spot, so it was a bit crowded.
We got lucky, the clouds completely vacated the area around 10am and there were no clouds to interfere with our viewing from start to finish of the full eclipse period (about 3 hours in length).
One interesting aspect was the changing of the sky behind the Tetons. My digital camera didn't do it justice since it automatically adjusted for light levels, but you could see the shadow approaching from the west behind the range and later the lifting of the shadow, providing a sort of weird false dawn near the end of the eclipse.
Prior to this expedition, I had prepared some observation tools. I didn't finish the ambitious scheme I vaguely outlined in this post (ran out of time and energy), but I did come up with a nice, simple projection method (small telescope projecting normal image into a box) by which I could count six sunspots on the Sun and partially melt the plastic frames on two very cheap eyepieces of a very cheap telescope that I acquired for this purpose (when the telescope was off-center, the sunlight going through the scope was brushing the edges of the eyepiece holders). Worth the price, but not a problem that I was aware of from reading up on this sort of telescope design. I didn't bother with it at later stages of the eclipse since I had also brought solar glasses and one could observe the total eclipse itself with the naked eye.
The final interesting aspect of this was the traffic. I have never witnessed heavy traffic so purposeful as today. We must have traveled 50 miles in heavy traffic (on single lane roads) that was at or above the speed limit aside from occasional burps. That is unheard of either in Yellowstone or Grand Tetons National Parks (we started our trip in the former around 4am). Usually some animal ambles onto the road or an RV putters along at 25 MPH, putting a halt to that. Not this time.
Pics of the ecplise
I was only at like 86% coverage, but here's some pics I took during the max coverage part, plus a pic I got from a friend. The shadows in the trees was interesting...I guess when the light shines through the leaves it acts like the pinhole effect.
With filter: http://imgur.com/LgGjXye/
Tree shadow: http://imgur.com/PHQCUy1/
Nuther filter: http://imgur.com/fKm8hYb/
I think I gained weight
No wonder so many Americans are overweight: at Disney World, I was drinking all you can drink Powerade because they didn't have club soda available.
We've been drinking water in the car driving, but when you stop, it's huge amounts of food, washed down with cuke.
I rediscovered catfish at the Cracker barrel, though. Haven't had it in about 40 years: sooooo good! We used to catch perch for breakfast as kids, but the catfish was nice.
Americans love their fireworks, snacks and GUNS, if you go by their roadside advertisements.
It's been fun, but our timeline took us off the perfect eclipse viewing track. We'll still be in the US, though, so we'll see something anyways, lol. I'm going to try to video it for shits and giggles.
Almost home: going to go through Niagara Falls. Love that place.
Clowns VS Nazis in DC. What a time to be alive!
Socialist Juggalos gear up to fight pro-Trump ‘Nazis,’ and the internet is loving it
The Juggalo March on Washington, a protest against the government’s classification of Juggalos as a gang, will take place at the National Mall on Sept. 16, the same day as the pro-Trump “Mother of All Rallies.” There’s no love lost between the two sides.
