The big solar eclipse is coming up. Are you planning on watching ? I expect I will try to catch a glimpse, although I doubt I stand and watch the whole event. I haven't purchased my " eclipse " glasses yet. I chuckle when I hear that, sorry can't help it. I'm just scratching my head that the media feels it such a necessity to warn us of staring at the sun. Really, do they believe that there are that many people that are so stupid ! Look, every stare directly into the sun ? Not for long, I didn't think so. Ah, geez why do we wear sunglasses ? I guess we just want to be fashionable right ? It wouldn't be that we want to shield our eyes from the sun would it ? No, we put our sunglasses on so we can stare directly into the sun ! Well, we do if we want to watch a total eclipse of the sun. Hey, you could do that with a welders helmet too. Yeah, I have one and will take a look through that for thirty seconds or so. What I mean is, how long do you have to look at something to see it ? The moon will travel across the face of the sun. The only real thing to see is when it reaches totality, that's pretty cool. But at totality you can look at it without any glasses because the sun is blocked ! Duh. When the moons moves past the sun, the light will shine again and hurt your eyes. When your eyes are bothered by the light, look away !
I confess I had to look up the year as I couldn't recall it. But in was 1963 that a total eclipse of the sun occurred and was visible on the eastern end of Long Island. We didn't have any such thing as " solar glasses " that could be purchased. I do remember we were taught how to safely view the eclipse. It involved using a shoe box, a small mirror, and a white piece of paper. That's right, instead of being told to buy a set of glasses we were taught how to build a device of our own. Imagine that, instead of the government, radio, television, social media and everyone else telling us if you stare directly into sun you will go blind, they taught us how to do that safely: without buying anything ! That's right, it wasn't a money making opportunity, it was an educational one. Truth be told all us kids back in '63 knew that staring into the sun hurt your eyes. we really didn't need to be told that. We also knew that hot things were, well hot and would burn you, no warning label required. But that was in a different America, when most of us had common sense anyway. The stating and/or publication of the obvious wasn't considered " educated " or " progressive. " We knew stuff like, you shouldn't call each other names, you shouldn't hate people, and mostly that if you do any of that, you would be held accountable. Yup, back then it didn't matter a hoot what had happened to your great great grandparents, you had to deal with today. But I digress.
Well, truth is we were told to not stare at the sun. Everyone surely listened because I have never heard of a single case of someone getting their eyes burned out from staring at the sun ! Not one, I tell you. Imagine meeting a blind person and you asking, what happened. I watched the eclipse without my glasses on. I have heard that there people out there selling " fake " glasses. You have to be careful I guess. I'm thinking I will know right away if they don't work. My eyes will bother me. I'll just look away when that happens. It's kinda like getting your hand to close to a fire, you have a tendency to pull back. I wonder of they have put warning signs up by the campfires yet, warning fire can be hot and burn you ! I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Won't be long before the weather turns and we will get those warnings, it's cold outside, keeping us informed. Ya gotta love it.
I confess I had to look up the year as I couldn't recall it. But in was 1963 that a total eclipse of the sun occurred and was visible on the eastern end of Long Island. We didn't have any such thing as " solar glasses " that could be purchased. I do remember we were taught how to safely view the eclipse. It involved using a shoe box, a small mirror, and a white piece of paper. That's right, instead of being told to buy a set of glasses we were taught how to build a device of our own. Imagine that, instead of the government, radio, television, social media and everyone else telling us if you stare directly into sun you will go blind, they taught us how to do that safely: without buying anything ! That's right, it wasn't a money making opportunity, it was an educational one. Truth be told all us kids back in '63 knew that staring into the sun hurt your eyes. we really didn't need to be told that. We also knew that hot things were, well hot and would burn you, no warning label required. But that was in a different America, when most of us had common sense anyway. The stating and/or publication of the obvious wasn't considered " educated " or " progressive. " We knew stuff like, you shouldn't call each other names, you shouldn't hate people, and mostly that if you do any of that, you would be held accountable. Yup, back then it didn't matter a hoot what had happened to your great great grandparents, you had to deal with today. But I digress.
Well, truth is we were told to not stare at the sun. Everyone surely listened because I have never heard of a single case of someone getting their eyes burned out from staring at the sun ! Not one, I tell you. Imagine meeting a blind person and you asking, what happened. I watched the eclipse without my glasses on. I have heard that there people out there selling " fake " glasses. You have to be careful I guess. I'm thinking I will know right away if they don't work. My eyes will bother me. I'll just look away when that happens. It's kinda like getting your hand to close to a fire, you have a tendency to pull back. I wonder of they have put warning signs up by the campfires yet, warning fire can be hot and burn you ! I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Won't be long before the weather turns and we will get those warnings, it's cold outside, keeping us informed. Ya gotta love it.
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