15% Pledge

Aurora James, founder of “sustainable retail” store Brother Vellies in Brooklyn, New York launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge on May 31, 2020. A “You asked how you can help. This is your opportunity.” social media campaign aimed at large market share retailers in America. The likes of Whole Foods, Home Depot, Target, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barnes and Noble. In total, calling on ten mega retailers to rethink business strategies and marketing to include 15% of shelf space allotted to black owned enterprises. Why 15%? Approximately 15% of U.S. citizens are black. All ten declined,  preferring to focus on their own “racial diversity measures.”

https://www.15percentpledge.org/pledge

Fifteen percent pledge momentum blossomed without help from corporate behemoths. In June Sephora stood in line, followed by Vogue magazine and countless online fashion, health and wellness retailers. Make no mistake, fifteen percent is building steam. Fair enough, but am I the only one who sees misplaced red flags?

Fact – racism is rampant, black Americans are twice as likely to contract coronavirus than their white neighbors, 40% of businesses closed due to COVID-19 were owned by black Americans, compared to 32% Latino and 16% white businesses. Awareness, dialogue, equality are fine and dandy, but it’s a slippery slope when these initiatives serve as feel good substitutes for fundamental change.

The fifteen percent pledge is a band aid. White participants mean well, they’re pleased with themselves, subscribe to social media trends of the moment. Fifteen percent pledges are a marketing banner. Sales spike with every law enforcement murder of a black citizen, fall when protest subsides. Sure, a handful of black entrepreneurs might benefit in the short term, but how does that combat racism?

Blacks don’t want fifteen percent pledges, they want equal rights. They want equal opportunity based on merit, not skin tone. Those with red hair, freckled white skin and green eyes are no different from persons with tightly curled locks and dark pigmentation. Latino or South Asian citizens aren’t privy to fifteen percent pledge initiatives, so why blacks? Why not aboriginal citizens or non-Christian immigrants? Sigh.

 

Freakishly Disturbing On So Many Levels

Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle’s speech at the RNC is freakishly disturbing on so many levels. If inclined – treat yourself to two minutes of caps lock shouting, botox injected horror, alarming propaganda and Trump family circus hubris. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Is That a Half Moon?

In astronomy there’s no such thing as a half-moon. Only quarters, be it first or last quarter of a lunar month.

What appears as a half moon is actually one of the Moon’s quarter phases. Tonight (August 25, 2020) marks a first quarter moon. Viewed from anywhere on Earth, it appears at sunset, sets after midnight. Gazing skyward we see half a moon pie, What you’re seeing is half the moon’s day-side, but only a quarter of the whole moon. Measured from one new moon to the next, it’s one quarter around its orbit of Earth. Reason why there are no half moons in astronomy.

First quarter moons are characterized by “Lunar X and V”, specific locations illuminated by sunlight. A spectacle known as pareidolia.

“Lunar X and Lunar V appear when the moon is near its 1st quarter phase. They aren’t really Xs and Vs on the moon. They’re just high areas, catching sunlight, creating an example of pareidolia on the moon. Aqilla Othman in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, caught them both in May 2017. Notice that he caught Lunar X and Lunar V.”

“Tom Wildoner wrote: “One of my favorite areas to photograph on the moon near the 1st quarter! I captured this view of the sun lighting up the mountain range called Montes Apenninus. The moon was casting a nice shadow on the back side of the mountains. This mountain range is about 370 miles (600 km) long with some of the peaks rising as high as 3.1 miles (5 km).””

Click here to see animation. As seen from the north side of the moon’s orbital plane, the Earth rotates counterclockwise on its rotational axis, and the moon revolves counterclockwise around Earth. The terminators of the Earth and moon align at first and last quarter moons, and only the near half of the moon’s day side is visible from Earth.

1st quarter moon is August 25

U.S. Election Day Asteroid Hysteria

Trust internet jibber-jabber to spark cosmic hysteria. Armageddon click bait drools over any opportunity to create viral asteroid calamity. Today it’s asteroid 2018 VP1, a 2 meter rock with 0.4% chance of entering our atmosphere on November 2nd.

First identified on November 3,  2018 at Palomar Observatory in California at a distance of 450,000 Km from Earth,  2018 VP1 was observed for 12.9 days. It hasn’t been seen since. NASA scientists at JPL Horizons used distance, angle and speed to calculate a two year orbit. Pipsqueak 2018 VP1 is expected to return on or about November 3, 2020. A lot can happen in two years after only 12.9 days of observation, enter LOV, the line of variation. LOV dictates orbital swing from direct impact to unremarkable pass-by 3.7 million Km away.  Either way,  2018 VP1 doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Too small to classify as a PHA (potentially hazardous asteroid), so small that atmosphere would fry it long before surface contact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_VP1

I’m all for cosmic awareness, delight in media coverage off all things space. That said, few things frost me more than doomsday internet froth promoting cosmic annihilation.

Detected 6 Hours After the Fact

On August 16, 2020 undetected asteroid 2020 QG swept past Earth at a distance of 2,900 Km. Described as “truck size” ( 20 feet, 3-6 meters across ), traveling at 12.4 Km per second, 2020 QG approached from a sunward direction. Reason why astronomers didn’t see it until six hours later. Despite post event assurance there was never any danger, it’s sobering to ponder fragility of our existence. Asteroid 2020 QG now holds the record for closest “known” asteroid to pass without an Earth strike.

View larger. | This illustration shows asteroid 2020 QG’s trajectory bending during its close approach to Earth. The asteroid is the closest known nonimpacting asteroid ever detected. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech.

View larger. | The blue ball in the lower left of this image represents Earth. The curved green arrow represents asteroid 2020 QG, whose orbit was changed by its near-Earth encounter on Sunday. The tick marks on the green line represent 30-minute intervals. You can see that this asteroid was really zooming past! Image via Minor Planet Center.

Truck-sized asteroid swept within 2,000 miles on Sunday

Science admits “gaps” in detection of sunward approaching asteroids. Current telescopes can only detect asteroids at night. When identified, orbit is calculated to determine potential for a future collision. Rather clunky if you ask me. NASA is in early stage development of a telescope to detect asteroids and comets coming from the Sun’s direction. If all goes well and funding remains in place, the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission could be operational by 2025.

For now all we can do is hope incoming sunward objects aren’t pesky enough to unleash calamity.

Trumpster Support For Stella Immanuel

Trumpster? What’s that you say? Clearly I refer to garbage Trump scavenges from conspiracy’s dumpster. Case in point Dr. Stella Immanuel, Houston doctor advocating Hydroxychloroquine as cure for COVID-19 , championing use of the drug in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on July 27th as part of the Frontline Doctor’s Summit. 14 million viral views later, including Twitter endorsements from Trump and Trump Jr. as “must watch”, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter deleted her content for promoting unsubstantiated healthcare advice. When asked why he retweeted Immanuel, Trump replied –

“I thought she was very impressive in the sense that from where she came, I don’t know which country she comes from, but she’s said that she’s had tremendous success with hundreds of patients,” the president said. “And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”

WTF? Seriously, how lame is that? Typical Trumpster fire – pounce on any and all corroborating rhetoric, feign juvenile innocence when it bites him in the ass.

Who is Stella Immanuel? Forgive me a Wiki link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Immanuel Impatient viewers read on –

Stella Immanuel has run the Fire Power Ministries in Houston, Texas, since 2002. A Facebook bio reads in part,  “prophet of God to the nations.”. “Her attitude toward demonic forces has been described as cut-throat, a warrior to the core.” Immanuel is also a “wealth transfer coach.” Immanuel believes “you can be saved anointed, fire brand and wealthy too.”. It gets better. Snippets of Immanuel wisdom culled from Fire Power Ministry sermons –

“She has claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.

“She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, saying: ‘They’re using all kinds of DNA, even alien DNA, to treat people.’

“In a 2015 sermon she declared that the Illuminati are promoting a plan hatched by ‘a witch’ to destroy the world using abortion, gay marriage, and children’s toys. …

“ ‘There are people that are ruling this nation that are not even human,’ Immanuel said, before launching into a conversation she had with a ‘reptilian spirit’ she described as ‘half-human, half-ET.’ … “

“And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her” – Donald Trump. https://www.newsweek.com/stella-immanuel-doubles-down-covid-cure-claim-trump-tweet-1521232

 

American History According To Trump

Worst Year of Your Life? Really?

A recent poll conducted by Leger Marketing in partnership with the Association for Canadian Studies asked – “Up until now, is 2020 the worst year you have ever lived?” 50% of Canadians, 58% of Americans answered yes, 2020 is the worst year of my life. Canadians and Americans, 41 and 46 percent respectively cited death of a loved one as reason. (Not specific to COVID-19), followed by stress, anxiety and future uncertainty at 41% for both countries.

Sure, it’s been tough. Took some time to adjust, adapt and digest, but worst year of my life? Not even close.

Pessimism flourished along geographic and demographic lines. 62% of respondents living in southern U.S. states declared 2020 worst year of their life. In Canada 56% of those aged 18-54 declared 2020 the worst, compared to 47% over 55.

https://nationalpost.com/news/half-of-canadians-say-2020-has-been-the-worst-year-of-their-lives-with-younger-people-more-pessimistic-poll

In my mind, 2020 as worst year of life represents collective misappropriation of frustration. Worst year of life internalizes external circumstance, it creates dismay rather than sparking unity. Worst year of life is a personal declaration, it’s lonely and depressing. Granted, I speak from a Canadian perspective. ( 121,00 cases, 9,004 deaths compared to 5.15 million cases, 164,000 deaths in America ). That said, cause and effect can be debilitating, or it can facilitate a fundamental shift in perspective – reevaluation of priorities leading to social awareness, empathy, government foibles and personal responsibility. Is that so bad?

COVID-19 is a cautionary tale, how humanity responds defines our future. Unexpected, devastating, inconvenient, sobering, contentious, political, alarming, needlessly fatal – yes. Worst year of our lives? Only if its lesson eludes you.

Chinese Take-Out Ponder

Once upon a time I’d jump at suggestion of ordering Chinese take-out. Chinese food of my youth, small town 1960’s take-out was much like Wonder bread or Tang, novel for its homogenized predictability. Special fried rice with baby shrimp and bright green peas, beef and broccoli, lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork smothered in artificial red dye stickiness. Fresh, satisfying indulgence reserved for special occasions.

I grew up, moved away, left Chinese take-out nostalgia behind. Try as I might it never tasted as good again, I could take it or leave it. Given a choice, Chinese take-out wouldn’t evoke enthusiasm. It just wasn’t the same. My first pregnancy came with inexplicable aversion to the smell of Five Spice, sight of BBQ Duck displayed in Chinese market windows. Both produced involuntary gagging. Go figure? If my husband craved Chinese, he ate it for lunch at work.

Three pregnancies and ten years later I caved to Chinese take-out pressure. My family loved it, me not so much. Certainly nothing special about it. Special fried rice contained tiny canned shrimp, dry garlic ribs were nothing but bone and gristle. WTF? Last straw arrived late one stormy night when a co-worker and I happened upon back alley horror. Driving to the office after a catering gig we took a short cut up an alley close to the shop. It was pouring rain, a screen door flapped in the wind, six pigeons with clipped wings scattered out the swinging door followed by a frantic cook attempting to corral them. Oh hell no! Remind me not to order from that Chinese restaurant.

Repeated story to another co-worker. You think that’s bad. she replied. Seems her brother works for the gas company. They got a call to attend a mall food court for suspected gas leak. On arrival they investigated service corridor, determined gas odor came from back room of Chinese restaurant. Gained access, discovered employees blow torching hair off dead rats. Double, oh hell no! That was five years ago.

A few days ago my husband really wanted Chinese take-out. Far from thrilled, I took one for the team. Suffice to say it didn’t go well. Five items for $84, are you kidding me? Greasy fried rice with 4 shrimp and 7 peas, sweet and sour pork sans pork under generous clumps of fried batter, soggy lemon chicken coated in thick layers of raw at the centre dough. Nothing to do but laugh, vow not to go there again.

Chinese take-out can live in childhood memories. Grown up Notes is done.

Priorities USA

Watch this ad (it’s only 30 seconds) produced by Priorities USA, largest Democratic PAC (political action committee), translation high value donor acquisitions in support of electing a Democratic president. By law, Priorities USA is legally prohibited from coordinating with candidates on their campaigns. As are Republican PACs Lincoln Project, America FIRST and so on. Political action committees can’t contribute money directly to politicians, what they can do is spend untold millions on advertising. We’ve all seen their ads, blah, blah, blah “paid for by” this, that or the other brand of concerned citizens.

Lead MSNBC story on Rachel Maddow tonight featured controversy surrounding this ad. According to Maddow it was the first of its kind to air on TV way back in March, airing predominantly in swing states – Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

 

 

Trump blew his comb-over, threatening to sue any television station airing the ad. Trouble is, State law in all but Wisconsin levy penalties and court costs against parties who waste court time, be it frivolous, harassment, for personal gain or plain old nonsense. What’s a Trump to do? Sue a tiny independent station in northern Wisconsin, duh! That’ll teach media not to mess with Trump. Sweet mercy, what a fool. Priorities USA immediately countered with deep pocket expansion of air time specific to this ad.

Here’s the thing, why splice together out of context Trump-bites for dramatic effect? What’s the point of giving Trump media attention when he calls bullshit on the above? Why create content where sites like PolitiFact (linked below) can shred it to pieces with “well yes, he said that but at different times and context”? All it does is piss him off. It’s like tossing an arsonist stranded in torrential rain with five gallons of gasoline, waterproof matches.

Trump is incompetent enough without giving him reason to toss a fit. There’s more than enough Trumpish zingers to go around without resorting to spliced jibber-jabber. Priorities USA, time for you and your kind to smarten up. Let Republican super PACs play dirty, all Democrats have to do is air unadulterated content. It’s not as if Trump absurdity is hard to find.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/mar/27/ad-watch-priorities-usa-trumps-coronavirus-respons/

In closing, acting like a four year old is not presidential Mr. Trump.