Brian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024 Not quite that long but it will be nearly four and a half minutes in part of Mexico! There's an area in the US which will be in totality for both the one this week AND the one in 2024.

You imagine persecution just as you imagine fatalism. You are still young, though, so perhaps you will outgrow this phase.

Have you considered Mo Pai?

http://nerdist.com/the-lab-where-lightning-always-strikes-the-same-place/

Here's something I wrote earlier today for another audience but I thought I'd share it here (BTW, the totality in Franklin was just over 2.5 minutes): So... Yesterday was "eclipse day." My home was in the 99% zone but I had been told by a friend who traveled halfway across the country to see the last one in the US that the difference between partial and total is like, pardon the pun, night and day. I put in a vacation request moths ago and studied the map. I wouldn't have to go far to reach totality but many of the roads around me are narrow two-lane roads which twist through the mountains with little to no shoulder and we were expecting tremendous crowds. I chose to take a divided highway to minimize the chance of complete gridlock and selected the town of Franklin, NC, in the Nantahala National Forest. I also decided to play it safe, since I was alone, and I planned to stop in a fast-food joint's parking lot right outside of downtown. The crowd which descended on Franklin was roughly three times larger than the town's population and it wasn't one of the most popular destinations! I knew traffic was going to be awful so I left WAY early and had nearly three hours to wait, by design. Even so, traffic started to back up about halfway there and I was relieved when it became apparent most of them were heading towards Sylva and points South of there. Things thinned out after the road split there and it was smooth sailing on into Franklin. I got something to eat (as much to justify sitting in their parking lot and using their restroom as anything) and then did a lot of sitting in stillness. As the partial eclipse approached, I maintained that "shifted" State and began looking for a few seconds periodically. More significantly, though, I was "listening" to the energy patterns. Until a few minutes before the totality began, I was popping on my glasses and checking the progress only a few seconds at a time. I then put my glasses on and watched constantly for maybe ten minutes -- about five or so leading up to totality, taking the glasses off and watching through totality and then putting them back off to watch the beginning of the transition out. At that point, I hopped in my car and hit the road to beat the worst of the crowd getting back out. Yes, the sun's energy was intense and strange. Something I hadn't expected, though, was the interplay between Heaven and Earth! Beginning a few minutes before totality, I started noticing a low frequency vibration -- more like an oscillation. The eclipse caused a shift in the balance between these two elemental forces (for lack of a better phrase) and it was like a spring bouncing or string vibrating in a musical instrument. It got slightly more intense but was most fascinating was that it became more complex -- more frequencies and higher harmonics being added in. During the totality, you can look directly at the sun and see the corona around it. At that point, it was like an immense energetic chord being played as Heaven and Earth sought equilibrium during this rapid transition between day and night and back again. Even more quickly than it began, the harmonics rapidly started diminishing and fading as the sun emerged and day returned. Words cannot describe the experience. I hope others had the opportunity to experience totality, too!

http://www.pari.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Eclipses-BHayward-2017.pdf

I'm neither allinone nor a flat-earther but... https://flatearthscienceandbible.com/2017/08/18/flat-earth-solar-eclipse-why-the-2017-solar-eclipse-proves-the-flat-earth/ EDIT: The TL:DR version is, ignore physics and geometry and simply say the globe model doesn't make sense.

I picked option 1 because it seemed the closest. Not everything which seems like an illness is, and not every illness needs to be treated, and not every treatment cures the illness, and not everyone wants to be cured. I try to listen and use my best judgement, I try to do no harm even though that sometimes appears to be not trying to help, and I try to remember that I don't have the wisdom to know all the right changes to be made -- and I don't really have the authority to inject my own choices and energy into everyone's and everything's concerns. I am reminded of Chapter 29 of the Dao De Jing:

pivot

A quote to stay on topic: Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Spent a week in a town just outside of Madrid, actually...

You were supposed to close your eyes, I think.

Clearly, adults in cultures around the world and throughout time take a perverse thrill in scaring little kids.

Dillsboro was my "Plan B" if 441 was too crowded. Truly amazing! I was floored by the energetic phenomena I experienced, too. I may write about that in the next day or two.

That was just spectacular.

I am in Franklin now -- totality here will last about two minutes.

I'm told by friends who have chased these things that the difference between near-total and total is... ummmm... like night and day.

I don't. Several co-workers have really nice cameras and have solar filters so I'll wait to see their photos. My house is in the 99% zone but I drove SW to near the centerline of totality.

Appalachian State University has the Mountaineers as team name. Many years ago, a group of student researchers set out to document what it really means to be a "mountaineer" so they began seeking out and asking old-timers from deep in the hollars. One of them paused a moment (and probably spat a little baccy juice, although I am just speculating) and said, "Weeel... Jes be yosef." Today, Yosef is the mascot's name. (My undergraduate Alma Mater)

I think such a thread should be focused on discussing a single work or series because it will otherwise devolve into a "what about this one?" sort of thing.

There are several Heinlein fans here, BTW. I think Number of the Beast tied it all together (in a fun and over-the-top kind of way...)

My favorite fictional series ever. On web forums where anonymity is needed, I sometimes use "Miles Teg."

Field.

Inconceivable.