Autumnal Equinox 2023
By Robert Ellison.
Fall starts at 06:60 on September 23 UTC. Autumn if you're British. Spring if you're Australian. Rendered in Catfood Earth.
PHX SAF
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, June 7, 2025.
Google Pixel 6 Pro 19mm f3.5 1/464s ISO30
AA3770
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(Published to the Fediverse as: PHX SAF #photo #plane #phx #saf PHX SAF )
SFO PHX
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, June 7, 2025.
Google Pixel 6 Pro 19mm f3.5 1/546s ISO30
AA2016
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(Published to the Fediverse as: SFO PHX #photo #plane #sfo #phx SFO PHX )
Bubbles
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, June 7, 2025.
Google Pixel 6 Pro 19mm f3.5 1/250s ISO33
Somebody was blowing huge bubbles at Ocean Beach. This photo shows them drifting over the Great Highway near Sutro Heights.
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Bubbles #photo #bubbles #sanfrancisco Photo of some large bubbles over the Great Highway in San Francisco, California. )
Murphy Windmill
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, June 7, 2025.
Google Pixel 6 Pro 7mm f1.9 1/2,500s ISO44
One of two windmills in the Golden Gate Park near Ocean Beach. This was the largest in the world when it was built in 1908, but it was obsolete five years later in 1913 and replaced by electric pumps. The windmills were installed to irrigate the park. The Murphy Windmill pumped 40,000 gallons a day.
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Murphy Windmill #photo #sanfrancisco #goldengatepark #windmill Photo of the Murphy Windmill in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. )
Sunset #12
By Robert Ellison.
4K Time Lapse of sunset over the Pacific shot from San Francisco.
I made this with a Sony A7C, 40mm F2.5 G and a GR-120QD slider. It's taken a while to work with this combo as Sony decided to omit a wired shutter trigger from the A7C. It took a long time to come to terms with this - surely I just had the wrong cable or settings, but no, it doesn't support this super basic function. In case you're struggling with this Hypoxic sells a bluetooth to 2.5mm adapter, although it's actually the other way round - the 2.5mm port causes the bluetooth shutter to activate. It's a little baroque as you're working with a camera (and battery), a slider (and battery) and an adapter (tiny coin battery and no idea how much power is left...). It works though.
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Sunset #12 #timelapse #video #sunset #pacific #4k #slider Sunset #12 )
Does America Need A Third Party (Again)
By Robert Ellison.
Open to Debate just released a podcast about the need (or not) for more parties in American politics: Does America Need A Third Party.
Andrew Yang argued in favor. In fact he thinks the right number is probably five - break the democrats in half, break the republicans in half and throw in his Forward party. There is a great case for the first four of these - see this WaPo article from last year. I've suggested forcibly breaking them up, antitrust style. Another approach would be term limits for parties. Yang is growing on me. Reforming the electoral system is a much better platform than universal basic income.
Daniel DiSalvo argued against the motion. Actually he mostly just said that even if everything is broken nothing is going to change so why bother. I think that's 99% right, but not really in the spirit of a debate.
Open to Debate is a rebrand of Intelligence Squared US, which debated the same issue in 2021. In that case the status quo won the day, probably as it was defended by PJ O'Rourke, however the actual vote was 50% more parties and 40% keeping two. Unfortunately I don't know who won this time because Open to Debate has given up on the competitive format and even spirited questioning. You have some back and forth, and some carefully chosen and curated questions like a Biden presser. The original (UK) Intelligence Squared seems to have given up on the big issues and puts out Burgundy vs Bordeaux and people with a book release to plug. Canada is the only real hope right now with the Munk Debates.
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Does America Need A Third Party (Again) #politics #political reform Discussion of the debate between Andrew Yang and Daniel DiSalvo on the need for more political parties in the US. )
Reviews for September 2023
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, September 22, 2023.
Spoilers!
Movies
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Very nearly skipped this as the Crystal Skull installment was atrocious. The dial is the Antikythera mechanism which is cool, although it's a toddler proofed version with a very different function than the original. The film's heart is in the right place and it's much closer to the originals, but the CGI young Indie kind of sinks it. Harrison Ford is showing his age but better than any plausible replacement (definite Joe Biden vibes) and I wish they'd stuck with that. Instead there is a lot of flashback to fake young Indie which would make for an impressive demo but doesn't work in a major movie. Maybe the technology will get there one day, or maybe we should hand the baton on to a new generation of heros (again with Joe Biden parallels).
Operation Napoleon
Fun Icelandic thriller about a Nazi plane that crashed with a mysterious cargo.
Music
America
Haunting music and video by London Grammar. Keeps growing on me.
Podcasts
FiveThirtyEight Politics
In the run up to Trump's first election I started listening to the NPR Politics Podcast. It was hard to keep up, and the opening with the hour and minute where the content would still be relevant was on the nose. It's since got tired, and they unfortunately switched to a daily update which doesn't have much depth. Safe to say if I'm listening to a politics podcast I know the headlines already. Luckily I also started listening to FiveThirtyEight Politics. Nate Silver might be gone, but it's still great, diving into nerdy detail on the tiniest little thing. This goes to the top of my queue each time it's published, mostly twice a week at the moment.
Intrigue Burning Sun
Disturbing reporting on K-Pop, rape and the Koran legal system.
Intrigue Mayday
A dead British soldier, the White Helmets and fake chemical attacks in Syria.
Intrigue Tunnel 29
Yes I will be listening to the entire back catalogue of Intrigue this month. Tunnel 29 is the story of a tunnel under the Berlin wall. It's the best from Intrigue so far.
TV
Good Omens Season 2
The archangel Gabriel shows up naked at Aziraphale's bookshop, hijinks ensue. Great sequel.
Kaleidoscope
In principle Kaleidoscope is very clever because you can watch most of the episodes in any order, and Netflix says that everyone gets a random shuffle. In practice though it's a heist and so you already know every detail, only the specific macguffins and flourishes need to be added. I enjoyed it.
Special Ops Lioness Season 1
A little soapy. I'd rather watch Jack Ryan and Grey's Anatomy separately rather than mashed up together like an experimental ice cream flavor. Has its moments though.
(All images included with ITHCWY reviews are the property of their respective owners and are used to illustrate reviews only.)
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Wave
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, June 7, 2025.
SONY DSC-RX10M4 220mm f4.0 1/2,000s ISO100
A nicely lit wave at Fort Funston (GGNRA) in San Francisco.
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Wave #photo #wave #fortfunston #sanfrancisco #pacific Photo of a beautifully lit wave at Fort Funston, San Francisco, California. )
Global Cloud Cover 48 Hour Video Updated Hourly
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Sunday, February 23, 2025.
The video below shows the past 48 hours of global cloud cover, 6 frames per second. It's HD so view full screen to get the most detail. The video is updated hourly.
The source is the Global IR product from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center. I process their image to be equirectangular instead of spherical mercator (full details here) and then generate a video.
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Global Cloud Cover 48 Hour Video Updated Hourly #etc #clouds #satellite #earth #h5v Video showing 48 hours of global infrared cloud cover in HD, updated hourly. )
