Special thanks to HMCS FMF ret for offering the above moon photo for use on this post. Taking photos of the moon and other astronomy related subjects is a new hobby that he picked up. This is one of his photos.
Speaking of the moon, someone downloaded a video taken by a satellite observing the moon. By lowering the brightness, and increasing contrast, the video creator exposed a different perspective. The longer you watch the video, the more ground features you’ll notice:
Happy Hump Day TAH! Time for your own topics.
Hoping that you guys enjoyed your celebrations yesterday. Roasted turkey and ham yesterday, no need to worry about what to prepare for today. Spray leftovers with water, microwave, and presto, just like it came from the oven.
Looks like we had some fun on one of the threads yesterday as well, hoping the recipient of our wisdom takes our advice to heart.
Merry Christmas This Aint Hell!
You guys come up with the themes and focus for this thread. In the meantime, here are some Christmas/Holiday music that was performed during the Medieval Period and the Renaissance:
Medieval Carol “Gaudete”:
Artist: London Cello Orchestra, The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Geoffrey Simon
Album: A Cello Christmas
Personent Hodie:
https://youtu.be/zTz_rcolwyA
MUSIC: Andrea Alonso / Celtic Song – A Celtic Christmas CD
As I Lay on Yoolis Night|English Medieval Christmas Song:
Artist: Martin Best Ensemble, The
Album: Christmas Medieval Music
Over an hour of medieval Christmas music; Medieval Carols, Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly:
Various artists listed under video.
Have fun this Christmas, enjoy the visits, gifts, feasts and drinking, but be safe and don’t be a stranger here. Knock yourself silly with enjoyment and posting.
Another Weekend Open Thread, and on the road again. So here comes another tune, this time from Oz.
DH has written quite a bit here about his lovely Soviet spouse – so this one seems appropriate. But Dave . . . let the late Michael Hutchence do the singing, OK? (smile)
Yeah, the video portion seems quite dated and overdone. Remember: it was made circa 1990, and still had a huge “80s-hangover” at the time. (smile)
Happy Hump-day TAH! Halfway through the week before Christmas! You guys decide the topics for this thread.
In the meantime, the above photo is from NASA’s Juno mission, capturing a portion of Jupiter’s cloud cover…. A natural work of Art. You could look at more of their photos here.
If you guys haven’t heard the sounds of Mars yet, you could listen to the actual video with earphones. Here’s a video of the sounds of Mars, amplified:
If you set foot in a shopping mall during the holiday season, you’re all but guaranteed to see the festively adorned pavilion marking the presence of everyone’s favorite jolly old elf. If you celebrate Christmas, the sight probably conjures up memories of sitting on Santa’s lap yourself as a child. But now that you’re a grown-up, you may find yourself wondering what it’s like to be the other person in that scenario.
Listening to the requests of small children, all while embodying the spirit of Christmas, might sound like a delightful way to make some extra cash—or it may sound like an utter nightmare. Either way, any mall Santa will tell you that the job is far more than just throwing on a red suit. Mall Santas-to-be often go through a rigorous training process, learning the ins and outs of North Pole etiquette.
And, of course, Santa needs a suit before he can start taking Christmas requests. While many mall Santas are provided with the iconic red getup, some must provide their own, Vox reports. And those suits, especially custom-made ones, can cost upward of a thousand dollars—and real-looking white beards cost a pretty penny, too.
Does the salary make up for those expenditures? Well, according to GOBankingRates, Santa’s salary itself can vary quite a bit. The median hourly rate for a mall Santa is $30, but rates can be as low as $12 or as high as a whopping $75. That can add up to an annual take of around $7,000 to $10,000. And then there’s something of a “Santa elite”—people who are deeply passionate about the job and return to it year after year. These distinguished Kringles, who may progress from mall jobs to higher-profile appearances at corporate events and private parties, can rake in as much as $20,000 every year.
But even the smaller paychecks for mall Santas average higher than the hourly take for most other seasonal jobs. GOBankingRates reports that the average hourly rate for seasonal jobs is just $10, with Santa earning more than the norm.
What all Santas can agree on, though, is that it’s not a job you do for the money. You take on the mantle of Santa Claus because you love the holiday season and want to spread Christmas cheer. The money is just icing on the milk and cookies. Read on for the full list of surprising things your mall Santa won’t tell you.
Read about it here:Santa’s salary: How much does Father Christmas get paid?
Feeling a bit “devilish” today. So for the WOT, I thought I’d provide some appropriate theme music.
Here ya go.
Happy Hump Day This Aint Hell! Going to mix things up today and include comments and news from beyond Democratic Underground.
This impeachment chatter is still strong among many on the left. Somehow, many think that once he’s impeached, he’s “gone”. Well, “stopbush” educates them on how the process works. The House does the impeachment proceedings and vote for or against it, it’s up to the Senate to determine if removal is warranted (trial):
Originally posted by stopbush:
As long as we’re tossing around the word “impeachment,” can we at least use the word correctly?
Impeachment in the United States is the process by which the lower house of a legislature brings charges against a civil officer of government for crimes alleged to have been committed, analogous to the bringing of an indictment by a grand jury. At the federal level, this is at the discretion of the House of Representatives.
The House impeaches the president. The Senate does not impeach the president. The Senate tries the articles of impeachment in a Senate trial.
Never mind the stories about how the Clinton folks orchestrated things to come up with a phony information sheet on then candidate Donald Trump. The collusion could very well be on the Clinton side, but don’t tell that to these folks. Nope, they appear to have already tried and convicted president Trump of collusion with the Russians to win the election:
Originally posted by JonLP24:
Trump and Republicans sold us out for dirt on Hillary Clinton or whatever their motivations. Former CIA director said a Trump Putin press conference was nothing short of treason. With everything involved it is in the spirit of treason. The betrayal especially at a key time in US-Russia relations.
Looks like we have somebody here who is going to take a different approach. Not the one that requires wearing a black mask and a black outfit, not one going online to rant, but one where somebody is going to attempt to “guide” the Trump administration from within. It seems like this person is talking about somebody else doing this, the person reporting this wouldn’t even bother trying to do things this way:
Originally posted by kennetha:
to be joining the Trump administration.
One of my colleagues at work is headed to DC to take a post in State though. I wish him well. He’s a good guy. Thinks he can teach the Trumpistas something about foreign policy. I told him he’s setting out on a fool’s errand. Put he’s near retiring and sees a last chance to help turn the Trump shit show into something tolerable.
I’d NEVER do it, even if I was ideologically inclined in that direction.
Did you guys know that This Aint Hell is declining in the rankings? No worries, one of our frequent visitors reports on how we are doing, and points out some of our shortcomings in order to hit on how we could possibly reverse our decline:
Originally posted by Cthulhu
It is astonishing that you all turn on anyone who Trimp does not like or criticizes Trump.
You all even turned against Admiral McRaven.
Cult-like behavior.
I also would not put so much effort in branding this site as a climate change denier site. Hard to recruit new veteran readers since current service members overwhelmingly believe in climate change.
It is also the official position of the Department of Defense and the Pentegon that climate change is real.
Half of the planning going on in national security is directly related to managing the consequences of climate change.
This site has dropped another 15.000 ranks globally in the last month.
Turns out climate denying is not a growth industry.
And, speaking of our local Berkeley graduate, the University of California, Berkeley, reached a settlement with those whose freedom of speech was infringed. From the Washington Examiner:
In the settlement, UC Berkeley agreed to the following terms set by YAF:
* Pay YAF $70,000.
* Rescind the unconstitutional “High-Profile Speaker Policy.”
* Rescind the viewpoint-discriminatory security fee policy.
* Abolish its heckler’s veto – protesters will no longer be able to shut down conservative expression.Under these terms, UC Berkeley will no longer be allowed to place a 3 p.m. curfew on conservative events or relegate conservative speakers to remote or inconvenient lecture halls on campus while giving left-leaning speakers access to preferred parts of campus.
According to the article, one of the things that Berkeley was doing was setting a 3 PM curfew for conservative events. Also, where they would provide desirable facilities to liberal commentators, they would provide facilities that are not always the best choice for conservative commentators. They were also charging higher security fees for conservative speakers than for liberal speakers.
Could the “me too” movement have reached the big boss?
It looks like not even God is immune to the “me too” movement. A Minnesota Professor claims that the Virgin Mary didn’t truly consent to conceiving Jesus. Even though she said, “Yes,” she “did so” on the account that God had incredible powers.
Through his tweets, this professor paints a picture of God, with his power and might, his ability to punish humanity for disobedience, as essentially impregnating a teenager.
From the Daily Mail:
‘The virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powerful deity impregnating a human teen,’ Sprankle wrote on Twitter. ‘There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario. Happy Holidays.’
And, finally, I’ll leave you guys with this video. A Muslim woman criticizing how we do things in the West.
Transcribed from the video, not precise but close:
Because many of those practices, from the west, are rooted in Christianity and the celebrations actually harm us. Now, the West is a multicultural society, it’s not like talking apples and oranges. Over there there is no right and wrong except what the government and people decide is right and what they decide is wrong. Now, if tomorrow they want to make it illegal to walk down the street wearing a hat, they can do that.
Looking forward to your thoughts. Enjoy Humpday, we are halfway to the weekend.