Satellite Temperature

 

NetFlix Report about FACEBOOK that EVERYONE Needs to Watch

We tweet, we like, and we share— but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? 

Biggest Scams in Higher Education

After Certificate programs, Master’s Degrees Are the Second Biggest Scam in Higher Education

Adapted from:  https://slate.com/business/2021/07/masters-degrees-debt-loans-worth-it.html?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a troubling exposé on the crushing debt burdens that students accumulate while pursuing master’s degrees at elite universities in fields like drama and film, where the job prospects are limited and the chances of making enough to repay their debt are slim.

For colleges and universities, master’s degrees have essentially become an enormous moneymaking scheme, 

The line between for-profit and nonprofit education has been utterly blurred. There are, of course, good programs as well as bad ones, but when you scope out, there is clearly a systemic problem.

The Power of a Moonrise

The solemnity, enormity, and power of this moonrise video struck me. Sunrises are beautiful, but something about a moonrise is empowering -- a haunting, we are coming, a proper perspective on 2020, and this too will pass -- and energizing.

A few facts (thank you Astronomy Club):

(a) Full moon on July 31, 2015; Byron Bay lighthouse at the northern tip of New South Wales, Australia.

(b) Realtime (not timelapse)! From the time the edge of the moon is first visible until it clears the horizon is a little over two minutes, and the lighthouse flashes at 15-second intervals.

(c) The photographer was nearly two miles west of the lighthouse, but if the photographer had been 100 feet north or south, no part of the lighthouse or its base would have been silhouetted during the moonrise.

(d) The next nearest eastern landmass is more than 4000 miles away - a little north of Valparaiso, Chile.

Music in this video

Song : Hallelujah

Artist : Pentatonix

Writers : Leonard Cohen

James Randi

Most of you know of James Randi.

Here is an “In memoriam” that you might find to be interesting reading.

https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/01/the-amazing-life-and-legacy-of-james-the-amazing-randi/

Trump's Insurrection

It will be interesting to see what happens “the day after.” Will Republicans finally root out the Faustian opportunists like Cruz? Likely not.

Trump has made me a cynic. 81 million people think he is a hero.81 million people can’t separate fact from fiction. That has not changed and that is what is really scary.

There will be a bunch of BS speech-making by Republicans. And then they’ll go back to their true hypocritical selves. Most of them have no moral compass. They will go on the search for the next group of crazies they think can thrust them into power. I suspect the Democrats aren’t much different.

Trump’s thrust into politics was based on a lie and a conspiracy theory. He never changed. He never pretended to be anything other than his true self. Only America changed. Yesterday was America’s Krystalnacht.

Having a sitting President incite an insurrection is a first we should hope is never repeated. Yesterday seemed like a scene right out of the past popular program “24.”