The Half Darkness of a Partial Eclipse in San Diego

It’s not the blocking of the sun that's really a big deal, it’s what happens to life forms on the planet when things get freaky up above.

You can keep the kids home from school on Monday. April 8. Or hide them in a closet if homeschooled. About 54% of the sun will disappear behind the moon in our area during mid-day.  Spooky stuff, to be sure.

In a 115 mile wideband stretching from Texas to upstate New York the entire sun will be hidden for about 4 minutes which, as eclipses go, is a long time. If you feel a sudden urge to travel to any part of the country in the path of totality, don’t.

Hotels are booked, and are charging many times their normal rates. Some shithole in Mississippi is charging $606 a night. The New York Times found a Super8 in Illinois charging $949 a night. 

AirBnB’s along the way are also fully booked, according to the map below currently circulating on the internet. And besides, now that those places are having to play by the rules, those quaint guest houses are not much of a bargain these days.

The weather for much of the eclipsed country will be cloudy, which will leave viewers hoping for a partially/fully covered disk peering through the gray skies.

It’s not the blocking of the sun that's really a big deal, it’s what happens to life forms on the planet when things get freaky up above.

In San Diego, the darkness will begin to creep across the bottom of the sun at 10:03 a.m. Peak time will be at 11:11 a.m. ,and it will be all over at 12:23 p.m. 

As I’m writing this, my weather app says the clouds will part locally just in time on Monday.  You should take this forecast with a grain of salt, as it’s entirely possible that the deep state wants people to be looking up as the lizard ships from outer space descend.

There are alternatives to freezing your but off (I’m sorry, but temps in the 60s are cold to geezers like myself).  Balboa Park’s Fleet Science Center will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the day of the eclipse, offering a group experience complete with knowledgeable commentary. Those already in the upper strata of science lovers with bucks to spare, aka the Luminary Society, will be able to attend a meet and greet with visiting astronomers while enjoying complimentary coffee, pastries, refreshments and solar eclipse glasses.

NASA will provide a livestream of the eclipse, and it will be shown on the Fleet's IMAX screen. Tickets must be purchased for this experience.

Each of the 37 San Diego Public Library locations have received a limited supply of solar eclipse-viewing glasses to be distributed to the public. While you won’t need a library card to get the specs, they are in very short supply and there will be a limit of two pairs of glasses per household. 

Many local libraries are hosting their own free events leading up to, during, or after the total eclipse. Personally, I think the Solar Eclipse Dance Party at the College-Rolando Library sounds fun.

If you want to have the eclipse experience while eating overstuffed Oreos from your Lazy Boy, ABC and National Geographic are airing "Eclipse Across America," a two-hour special beginning at 11 a.m. local time. Find it at ABC News Live, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Disney+, Hulu and network social media platforms.

I would be remiss if there wasn’t a warning somewhere in this essay telling the public to NOT DIRECTLY LOOK AT THE SUN during the eclipse. I tried the colander trick during the last eclipse and was rewarded with multiple images cast on a outside wall of my home

A solar eclipse wouldn’t be worth savoring if you didn’t spice it up with conspiracy theories found on the internet. 

Via Syfy.com::

• Some video creators on YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms have reported that the April 8 eclipse’s path of totality will pass over six to eight towns called Nineveh. A nebulous connection to a biblical town of the same name is given as support that this means… something.

• Other claims have focused on the crossover between the 2017 and 2024 paths of totality. The total solar eclipse of 2017 traced a path southeast from Oregon to South Carolina. The upcoming 2024 eclipse will cut a northeast path from Texas to Maine, and the two paths will intersect near St. Louis, which some people are latching onto. One TikTok video with nearly 10 million views claims “This has never happened in the United States. We have never had two solar eclipse paths cross over one town.” The video then goes on to wonder if giants might wake up in a nearby national park.

• Lastly, a particular brand of conspiracy theory suggests that the eclipse will bring mayhem and destruction. They predict the collapse of power grids and communications systems along the path of totality in the days leading up to and following the eclipse. Depending on where you’re getting your news, the April 8 total solar eclipse is either an exciting once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event or the beginning of the end times.

Right-wing outlets like InfoWars and The Gateway Pundit are fanning fears with out-of-context and outrageous stories. "CONVERGENCE: The Solar Eclipse, CERN, Lucifer, The Vatican, And Reptilian Venom Peptides," read one headline on InfoWars Thursday. Another asked, "Are Globalists Using The April 8th Eclipse For An Occult Ritual?" Meanwhile, a poll ran on the Alex Jones-operated site asking about the possibility of a "planned false flag."

Real scientists are planning some real observations during the eclipse. NASA will be launching before, during, and after rockets to better understand “how the Earth’s upper atmosphere is impacted when a section of the planet is darkened.” The launches are part of the Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) project. The name alone should be kindle for a conspiracy theory or three.

The project was named after the Egyptian god of chaos. “This campaign is named Apophis [another name for Apep] after the cosmic world serpent from ancient Egyptian cosmology. The serpent pursues the sun god Ra, and every so often, nearly consumes the sun disc, resulting in an eclipse,” according to NASA.

AND…CERN’s biggest and most potent particle accelerator in the world will smash protons together Monday, hoping to find unseen particles (dark matter) covertly causing the cosmos to expand, according to the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

There is something special about the feeling you get during a (even a partial) solar eclipse. At least I felt it the last time I experienced one. I will be open to the possibility again, especially since the next eclipses over our region won’t be for another two decades.

Many writers have felt motivated by the moon casting its shadow our way, but the essay that sticks with me was written by Ann Dillard, and published in the August 8, 2017 by the Atlantic as an excerpt from The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New.

• It began with no ado. It was odd that such a well advertised public event should have no starting gun, no overture, no introductory speaker. I should have known right then that I was out of my depth. Without pause or preamble, silent as orbits, a piece of the sun went away. We looked at it through welders’ goggles. A piece of the sun was missing; in its place we saw empty sky.

• I had seen a partial eclipse in 1970. A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane. Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it. During a partial eclipse the sky does not darken—not even when 94 percent of the sun is hidden. Nor does the sun, seen colorless through protective devices, seem terribly strange. We have all seen a sliver of light in the sky; we have all seen the crescent moon by day. However, during a partial eclipse the air does indeed get cold, precisely as if someone were standing between you and the fire. And blackbirds do fly back to their roosts. I had seen a partial eclipse before, and here was another.

• What you see in an eclipse is entirely different from what you know. It is especially different for those of us whose grasp of astronomy is so frail that, given a flashlight, a grapefruit, two oranges, and 15 years, we still could not figure out which way to set the clocks for daylight saving time. Usually it is a bit of a trick to keep your knowledge from blinding you. But during an eclipse it is easy. What you see is much more convincing than any wild-eyed theory you may know.

Image Explanation:  Here is what the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse. The shadow of the Moon can be seen darkening part of Earth. This shadow moved across the Earth at nearly 2000 kilometers per hour. Only observers near the center of the dark circle see a total solar eclipse - others see a partial eclipse where only part of the Sun appears blocked by the Moon. This spectacular picture of the 1999 August 11 solar eclipse was one of the last ever taken from the Mir space station. The two bright spots that appear on the upper left are thought to be Jupiter and Saturn. 

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Friday’s Other Stories of Note

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General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement by Cory Doctorow at Pluralistic

• Writing for *The Examination*, Sasha Chavkin, Anjali Tsui, Caitlin Gilbert and Anahad O'Connor describe the way that some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations have hijacked a movement where fat people and their allies fight stigma and shame and used it to peddle the lie that their heavily processed, high-calorie food is good for you.

• It's a surreal tale. They describe a speech by Amy Cohn, General Mills’ senior manager for nutrition, to an audience at a dietitian's conference, where Cohn "denounced the media for 'pointing the finger at processed foods' and making consumers feel ashamed of their choices." This is some next-level nihilism: rather than railing against the harmful stigma against fat people, Cohn wants us to fight the stigma against *Cocoa Puffs*.

• This message isn't confined to industry conferences. Dietitians with large Tiktok followings like Cara Harbstreet then carry the message out to the public. In Harbstreet's video promoting Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, she says, "I will always advocate for fearlessly nourishing meals, including cereal...Because everyone deserves to enjoy food without judgment, especially kids":

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Bailey takes on San Diego GOP shenanigans via San Diego Rostra ~ Letter complaining about a move to change the party endorsement from Andrew Hayes to Carl DeMaio in the D75 Assembly race. (h/t Ken Stone)

• Republicans pride themselves on adherence to and the equal application of laws for our society and rules for our Party. 

• Unfortunately, I am writing to inform you that Chairwoman Paula Whitsell of the Republican Party of San Diego County (“RPSDC”) is abusing her power as Chair to circumvent Party rules and past precedent to steal the 75th Assembly District Endorsement from Andrew Hayes. 

• On June 5, 2023, the Republican Executive Committee interviewed Jack Fernandes and Andrew Hayes for endorsement consideration of the 75th Assembly District. On June 12, 2023, the Republican Central Committee voted overwhelmingly to endorse Andrew Hayes. Carl DeMaio was a member of the Executive Committee and Central Committee at that time and was well aware of the endorsement process and rules, but decided to not pursue the Party’s endorsement. 

• Historically, the Party’s endorsement always remains with the candidate through the General Election, and the endorsement of Andrew Hayes was no different. 

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No Labels has no candidates, no campaign, no nothin' By Kaley Joy Grey at Daily Kos

• Well, well, well. It seems that No Labels has no future. At least, not in the 2024 presidential election.

• The supposedly centrist, supposedly bipartisan group that tried desperately to find someone—literally, anyone—to run on a “unity” ticket against President Joe Biden is admitting defeat, according to The Wall Street Journal.

• “No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down,” said Nancy Jacobson, founder and CEO of No Labels, in a statement.