Francisco 2.0

TIL that the Concorde was used in 1973 to "chase" a total eclipse across Africa for 73 minutes for science:

Um, hi. So, you gonna keep logs of what everyone's favorite fetish website to visit using the VPN is?

Took some test photos at noon today. Used a 10 stop ND filter on a 70-200 and 100-500 lens. Couple taken with a tripod, couple without. Shutter speeds varied. Now, let's hope the cloud cover isn't a thing on Monday:

A Lifetime Achievement award. Given to a person who was a Democrat a decade ago:

Meanwhile, on Twitter/Tiktok and whatnot. What could possibly go wrong: https://gizmodo.com/conspiracy-theorists-say-stare-at-eclipse-1851387594

Was thinking of this thread today, and how it related to the (very) small K12 that I and my siblings attended. Dad had a small business in town, and it was a block or so from the HS principal's home. The principal would drive to his house each day for lunch (he lived a mile or so from the school) and back. If I fucked up or skipped in the morning, he'd stop by dad's business and tell him about it. If I fucked up or skipped in the afternoon, he'd stop by dad's business and tell him about it. I never had a chance. And neither did my sister. He retired after my sister graduated, and the new principal didn't live close to the school, or drive anywhere for lunch. The new principal did things differently. When my brother fucked up, he would send home a notice. Dad didn't like getting the notices in the mail; he wanted to deal with whatever it was that day. One day, dad received a notice (my brother fucked up a lot) and that was enough. He gathered up the small pile of notices, drove to the high school and asked to meet with the principal. He explained he was tired of getting the notices in the mail, and asked how this could stop. The principal told him that he had to do this because my brother was a fuckup. Dad agreed that my brother was a fuckup, but he said he didn't want to see the notices any longer. When the principal started to protest; dad simply told him to do whatever he wanted to my brother and not to bother letting him know what he did. The principal smiled, said he understood and that was that. For the rest of my brother's sophomore year and his remaining years, we have no idea what the principal did to my brother. My brother has said life was hell on him at times, however.

There's a lot of ills in public education, but most of them are inflicted by (or can be traced to) decisions made by the government of the state in which they reside. Absolutely, there are outstanding private schools---but the whole rush for vouchers nationwide (especially in red states) has created a booming private school ecosystem where it's just a money grab without accountability, but "school choice". Private schools can be great, but for that whole private thing (fuck the special needs kids or the handicapped and bus them? fuck you, get them here yourself). But the other hidden feature of private schools: no accountability on attendance, testing, whatnot. I'd be interested to know if privates have higher chronic absenteeism as well; I'm guessing that some of the privates really don't give a shit, because they have the money in hand anyway. My kids attend a smallish public school (almost 3000 students K-12). Going off of their district state report card, the district averaged 90% daily attendance for the 2022-23 school year, all grades combined. Looking back to the 18-19 school year, the attendance averaged 91% daily, so Covid really didn't make a large difference. It's an interesting study; chronic absenteeism spans all ethnicities, economic groups, etc but in the kids district, there aren't a lot of wealthy families. I'm of the mindset that in a small bedroom community where everyone has to work to get by, the kids have to attend school. And one factor that will increase school attendance---participation in extracurricular activities. Obviously, you can't force students to participate, but those districts that have a high percentage of students who do participate in all likelihood have a lower chronic absenteeism rate.

I'm not going to say this is a great scene, or even a great movie (hell, I've not watched the movie yet, but I intend to now). But jeeeeezus:

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/04/01/trump-media-plunges

Opened at 59.83 today. 51.17 50.79 50.59 49.10 48.58 45.26

NM

https://lawandcrime.com/uncategorized/rudy-giuliani-begs-bankruptcy-court-to-let-him-keep-his-florida-condo-so-he-can-keep-podcasting-to-pay-creditors/ Rudy Giuliani begs bankruptcy court to let him keep his Florida condo so he can keep podcasting to pay creditors

https://jalopnik.com/teslas-quality-control-is-so-bad-customers-are-taking-d-1851369990\

https://jalopnik.com/senator-ted-cruz-forces-amendment-into-faa-bill-to-give-1851372324

Looking forward to the State of Texas forcing users to prove their age to use Twitter. I'm imagining the amount of concern that this will create:

Counterpoint: Hunter Biden

Yep. But I didn't get a cute butterfly decal for the backglass of my SUV.