Open thread 12/5/23
I took this photo yesterday when a saw a rare cloud formation called cloud iridescence. That Wiki link says it’s a common phenomenon, but most other sites say it’s rare or relatively rare. Go figure.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
Beautiful photo!
Put me in the “common” camp. I see this in clouds quite often.
Watched video of some woman who is the head of some U.N. division, department or committee. She was explaining to a reporter that we should not speak of rapes, baby killings or other atrocities in Israel on October 7th until there are legal proceedings where the U.N. can adjudicate the evidence.
Is there a single American who would agree to any tax money going to the United Nations? Aside from Americans who actually work for or in the United Nations I can’t imagine anyone who would agree to paying taxes to support it.
So why do we support it?
Nice! I’d say it’s reasonably common for those of us who are perpetually looking up in the sky.
Looks a bit like a “sun dog” (halo of sunlight reflected/refracted by ice crystals in high cirrus). Nice!
As for UN: I understand that a UN employee (in the UNRWA) has been found to have harbored a hostage seized by Hamas on 10/7. I guess the terror bosses wanted to subcontract the work of running the virtual prisons in which these poor people have been held for about 2 months and counting.
Given this corruption/infiltration by the terrorists of one of the most important (and I imagine one of the most heavily-funded) agencies within the UN, why exactly should we ever give the UN one more dime? At least, unless and until it is steam-cleaned?
And in other news, “Israeli Security Minister: We Are Approving ‘Up to 3,000’ Gun License Applications A Day” https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2023/12/04/israeli-security-minister-we-are-approving-up-to-3000-gun-license-applications-day/
I tell ya, the Israelis are getting tougher and tougher. Still waiting for the “flaming torch” stage of Zechariah 12:6…
RE: the UN and Hamas
UN workers in Gaza knew for years that Hamas was building tunnels for military purposes under hospitals or mosques or wherever.
The UN did nothing about this.
And much of the money needed to build these tunnels and to buy military hardware came from the UN.
Why the USA sends even one penny of OUR money to the UN is simply baffling.
Yep folks, the USA provides its share of our tax dollars to this organization.
Perhaps I find it baffling because I did not graduate from Harvard or Oxford.
I am just not smart enough to understand.
Speaking of my stupidity, I also do not understand why our govt. thinks sending a few BILLION $$$$ to Iran is a good idea.
What does our govt. expect from Iran?
Do the highly educated morons in our govt or in our State Dept (another federal agency that should be shrunk by 95% ins size) think this will cause Iran to behave??
Here is a better idea; the world “community” – at the behest of the USA – should just give Iran the Sudetenland to achieve “peace in our time.”
I checked Wiki on “sun dog” and it turns out I have been misusing the term. It’s in the same family of ice-refracted sunlight phenomena, but it’s specifically a pair of bright spots on either side of the sun itself (at 22 degrees). The spots may or may not be iridescent.
I wondered about the large number of Thai workers taken hostage by Hamas. I thought it was just so many workers in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But, now there is this PBS report on some of the Thai workers returning to Thailand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-sfcAuY3lc
I don’t know how to start the video at a certain spot; but, move ahead to about the 2:30 mark and hear the one worker state that the Hamas fighters called out to them in Thai!
Hamas assassins spoke in Thai?
Thai isn’t exactly a common language learned around the world. So, this tells me Hamas must have learned Thai with the intention of targeting the Thai workers specifically.
I think as time goes on we will learn more about the extensive planning that Hamas put into this “invasions of Assassins” – and hope that we learn to not underestimate the level of their hate.
This is such a slick scam and, it appears, it may be legal.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr2Q6Kq844E
Neo – I don’t know if you’ve seen this. Today’s MOTUS blog post has a link to Gerard: http://www.michellesmirror.com/2023/12/brain-worms-mondegreens-and-hook.html
And his piece, in turn, has a link back to you.
News that the Israeli government has suppressed information about a recent unexplained rise in homosexual rape is expected to be condemned by Pete Buttigieg, US Secretary of Transportation (https://tinyurl.com/dj2jm78f). So far, Buttigieg’s office has offered no comment, beyond an off-the-record demand for transparency.
Great photo. With two fairly rapidly growing cataracts, I am beginning to see halos around headlights not only at night but during the day. I look forward to how the world will look post-surgeries, in late December and early January.
Eichmann learned yiddish for that very purpose
https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/jemaah-islamiyah
I capture iridescent in my cloud videos somewhat often. Sun dogs maybe once or twice a year.
Miguel cervantes:
For a native German-speaker, learning Yiddish would be very easy.
I think rather than rare, it’s rarely caught. It’s dependent on cloud position, conformation, the angle of the sunlight, and probably moisture content, so it can’t be a long lasting effect. I’ve seen it once, at least.
Another rare one my brother took a pic of is a sky filled with round cotton balls. Row upon row of them.
Kate, we’re on a similar path. I had cataract surgery on my left eye in November and on my right this morning. I can tell that my vision is going to be so much better — but it isn’t yet. Because of some peculiarities in my vision, I’ll still need glasses, though much less strong than the thick lenses I’ve been wearing all my life. But the old ones don’t work any more, and I can’t have new ones until after my eyes finish healing, maybe by late January. Meanwhile, I can’t quite see anything clearly, no glasses really work and I’m in a weird temporary limbo.
But I don’t say that to discourage you, just to report my particular experience. Yours will probably be different. Just from the improvement that has already taken place, I can tell that my corrected vision will be better than anything I’ve ever had. Here’s hoping that will be true for you, too!
In another thread I gave the optimistic case for the opportunities which UFO Disclosure could open up for humanity.
The pessimistic case would be, for instance, that some NHIs are friendly and helpful, but of the several different species of NHIs likely present here on Earth, a different and antagonistic group of NHIs are not disposed to be friendly to humanity and, if the unfriendly NHIs have the upper hand among what could be several different competing species of NHIs—each with it’s own approach and objectives, humanity could find itself a oppressed people, helpless in the face of whatever such hostile NHIs might want to do.
Thanks, Mrs. Whatsit. I don’t think I have any complicating factors, but of course I’ll find out how this goes. I do expect to have a couple of odd weeks between the two surgeries, with one eye very good and one still blurry. Some people tell me they aren’t bothered much by this. My brother said he had to put a patch over the eye that hadn’t been done yet because he was too disoriented. I’ll take a picture of myself as a pirate with an eyepatch for my granddaughter if it comes to that.
I hope your healing will continue well.
I’ve always called these sundogs, and I find them to be fairly common. You have to be looking at the sky at the right time of day, and clouds–not too heavy–must be present, so maybe that’s why some people never have a chance to see them. Seeing sundogs or “iridescent clouds” always makes my day!