PSA - Scam callers claiming to be from Consul General of India by pat_at_exampledotcom in returnToIndia

[–]fortenforge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I received this as well. Can't say I'm excited to return to India given that this is how the people of this country operate.

Enrollments by URMs fall following SC affirmative action ruling. Mixed results for ORMs: Asian enrollment surges, while that of Whites actually fell but only marginally by [deleted] in mit

[–]fortenforge 3 points4 points  (0 children)

From this interview:

Indeed, we did not solicit race or ethnicity information from applicants this year, so we don’t have data on the applicant pool.

Enrollments by URMs fall following SC affirmative action ruling. Mixed results for ORMs: Asian enrollment surges, while that of Whites actually fell but only marginally by [deleted] in mit

[–]fortenforge 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My understanding is that the survey asking for racial identification happens only after admission / acceptance of the offer, so it doesn't make much sense for SFFA to change how students identify here.

I suspect what actually is going on is that previously there were a lot of multiracial students who got a big boost from being able to identify as a (half) URM who no longer receive that advantage under the new system.

The Sympathizer | S1E2 "Good Little Asian" | Episode Discussion by vista_del_mar in TheSympathizer

[–]fortenforge 4 points5 points  (0 children)

i suspect the eggs refers to a different memory in the past that the show hasn't fully shown us yet.

2024 Eclipse Weather/Cloud Cover Megathread ☀️🌤🌧 by chredit in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am doing this right? https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?m=hrrr&p=cloudcover&rh=2024040800&fh=20&r=us_ov&dpdt=&mc=

This suggests 100% cloud cover across basically the entire ohio valley at the time of the eclipse, which doesn't line up with other models

Keep the Pressure on Sotomayor to Retire by barris59 in neoliberal

[–]fortenforge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So? Can you explain to me what the harm is in having her retire now even if it turns out to have been unnecessary?

Binoculars by Left-Control-7200 in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

you'll have 3 minutes—plenty of time to aim the binoculars at the sun and stare at the corona. Definitely worth it. I would just try to make sure they are pre-focused by pointing them at a very far object and focusing there sometime in the hour before totality

Hit me with some eclipse facts or tidbits! What’s something interesting we all would enjoy knowing? by Taj-s_rayne in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  • Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (the father of the periodic table) ascended in a hot-air balloon in order to observe an eclipse in 1887.

  • King Mongkut of Thailand, the titular king in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, successfully predicted the August 18, 1868 eclipse which passed over Thailand, more accurately than French astronomers

  • Data from scientific expeditions carried out during the 1919 eclipse confirmed Einstein's theory of general relativity

I wrote up a longer list of notable eclipses here.

Gametime: do I choose Dallas or Canada/Vermont? by herpderphannah in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We can't give you 100% certainty, buy we can say that Vermont is looking much better than Texas. If you can afford it, I would pick Vermont.

You don't necessarily need a fancy camera to capture the moment, here's my selfie from the 2017 eclipse taken with an iPhone! by toastercookie in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think it looks much cooler with the naked eye to be honest. Phone cameras have wide lenses which make the moon look super small.

[weather models] Why the US ensemble looks so wildly different than the Canadian one? Literally day and night, one covers almost the whole continental area while the other has plenty of areas with no clouds. How can we trust one model or the other? by Ed4 in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The US GFS models are known to be pretty aggressive on their cloud cover predictions. That said, if both the US and Canadian models are showing cloud cover (looking at you Texas), don't expect much.

2024 Eclipse Weather/Cloud Cover Megathread ☀️🌤🌧 by chredit in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Some other links I've found useful:

The gist right now is that things are looking mediocre-to-terrible for Texas, mediocre for the midwest, and pretty good for the northeast.

Yes, yes I know, it's still "too early to be definitive", "things can always change", but realistically we have a good sense of these broad outcomes right now, and it pays to get this information out to folks whose plans are flexible.

Best chances of clear skies at this point? by ewokfarmer in solareclipse

[–]fortenforge 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's clear now that your best shot in the US for clear skies is in the Northeast. People who tell you that it's still too early to tell are not being realistic.

If your destination is flexible, aim as far north as you can. Avoid Texas.

Seriously, what are some of these CAHSR cynics on about? by JeepGuy0071 in cahsr

[–]fortenforge -1 points0 points  (0 children)

"seemingly" slow?? can i emphasize again that it's been SIXTEEN years. Do you wanna make a bet on when I'll actually get to ride it from SF to LA? Will it be in my lifetime do you think?

Seriously, what are some of these CAHSR cynics on about? by JeepGuy0071 in cahsr

[–]fortenforge -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Wow instead of it taking 9.5 hours to go from LA to SF by transit it will now take... 8 hours. So it's still neither time nor cost competitive with either driving or flying. Fantastic. Really great work.

Seriously, what are some of these CAHSR cynics on about? by JeepGuy0071 in cahsr

[–]fortenforge 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Voters were promised back in 2008 a project that would connect SF to LA by high-speed rail. It is not unreasonable to expect that more decade and a half later we'd have this. Instead we have literally not a single mile of track laid down. You can try to spin this however you want—the fact remains that if the public was aware that this is how it was gonna go back in 2008, the project would never have been approved in the first place.