I sort of do that. I remove my glasses when I’m being photographed formally, but not when people randomly take my picture.
Then again, I usually wear contacts.
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I think this possibly was meant for the Space Exploration thread?
I suppose it is technically space exploration, since Earth is in space…
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Thread:
Lotsa nifty stuff, a fair bit (but not all) of it medical/biology themed.
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Neat. And a little gruesome.
Just last night I noticed an ad for her book, The Butchering Art (seen in the background) in a recent issue of SciAm.
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Just watching the “Deserts” episode of Planet Earth II. Shows just how scary some feathered creatures can be.
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From r/libertarian…
I live just outside DC, and have a lot of furloughed friends. But have any of you seen any negative signs of the shutdown?
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As someone following the space program, it’s pushing back the sign-offs needed for the first Commercial Crew test launch. But, from Canada, that’s about all I’ve seen so far.
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It’s always good to remember that birbs are dinosaurs!
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My sister and her husband are both furloughed but should get paid when it is resolved.
I know on one of the last shutdowns it really screwed up some projects she was on as she was supposed to fly out to the west coast and had to deal with all the last minute cancellations.
Last I knew they could weather no paychecks for a while. But if it goes on too long, my sister will retire while furloughed, so I’m sure that will be interesting paperwork.
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Yeah, the Feds don’t do anything. Let’s just shut it down completely. /s
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My interaction with the federal government is limited to me writing them quarterly checks, and them helping with my Obamacare premiums.
So far, nothing has changed for me. I assume they won’t have a problem cashing the check I send this month.
Except emotionally, I feel really bad for the low income folks on furlough. I’ve got a cushion these days, but I spent most of my adult life in really precarious financial situations, so I know from experience that the stress of this must be incredible. Beyond the logistics of income loss, the emotional stress of being a pawn for rich assholes (who give no fucks about your suffering) has got to be intense, and I don’t even know for sure how that feels.
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My wife uses a site called NextDoor … it’s a community bbs, basically. And there’s a woman nearby who is throwing a fit about a pothole on the GW Parkway (which is federal land). She’s hit it twice now. You’d think she’d remember not to hit it again, but our two congressmen have responded to her, and left messages for the appropriate people, but the pothole crew won’t be fixing it until the government reopens.
And I know that the US Park Service closed the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in western Virginia … all 469 miles of it. It’s also parkland. Closed.
The last long shutdown closed the park where I run, but it’s open this time. None of the bathrooms in the park are open, and it looks like private individuals are keeping the trash cans empty and the trails free of debris. I cleared a fallen branch myself, but I would have done that anyway, government closure or not.
I talked to one guy I know who works for the USDA, and he’s coping with the shutdown better than he expected. He got paid just before the shutdown happened, but it looks like he’ll be dipping into savings to keep getting by the longer it goes on.
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Fucking libertarians. I’m not even in the US, but I know if the government stays shut down:
- the air traffic controllers are going to have to stop doing their jobs voluntarily and find other employment
- more parks will have to close
- any paperwork which is not 100% automated will start to mount up
- anyone with something halfway through a bureaucratic process will start to feel impacts
The reason why it’s been kind of quiet so far is it’s only 7 January. As everyone gets back into full gear for work, the issues will accumulate.
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r/MildlyInteresting that they used Bill Murray and Groundhog Day for the meme.
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Medical device manufacturers tend to get a little antsy when the FDA is closed down and reviews are put on hold. Things like that will build up, but its hard to say whether it will move any of the toxic orange mold in the White House to do anything.
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Scientists on fellowships aren’t getting paid. Graduate students with external committee members in the USDA, USGS can’t do their prelim exams (which means they can’t finish their MS). Several friends can’t publish research since they have collaborators who are federal scientists. A couple folks I know are “non-essential” at the CDC, and can’t ship out strains for research in industry and universities.
But hey, did anyone really need vaccines, medicine, and environment?
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