Equinox Eclipse

[oloriel]

BRITISH MEDIA: Friday will bring Europe the most exciting astronomical event of the millennium so far! Celebrate with us and SEE THE SUN SMILE!

GERMAN MEDIA: Kids might look into the sun without protection and GO BLIND FOREVER! Schools should cancel recess and pull down blinds until DANGER HAS PASSED! Also, we have actually no idea whether our electric grid can handle the extreme voltage swings of sudden nationwide sunlessness/ sudden nationwide sun-back-ness! There might be blackouts! ALL IN ALL LET'S JUST HOPE FRIDAY'S GOING TO BE REALLY CLOUDY!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The NEW German angst. Taking the joy out of everything since, oh, I don't actually know, but back when we had our last major eclipse, it was still considered a reason for party. And us kids were just told NOT TO LOOK INTO THE SUN WITHOUT SPECIAL ECLIPSE GLASSES, and we sort of listened? But clearly, that was so 1999 and would never work today.

Mind you, back in 1999 the eclipse was hyped for several months before the event, so everybody and their dog had plenty of time to get eclipse glasses and to grasp the idea that even a partially covered sun can still make you blind. This year, the first little notes trickled in on Monday. So clearly, there was NO TIME TO PREPARE! (~This morning's unprecedented solar eclipse is no cause for alarm!~)

(I still have my eclipse glasses from 1999. I WANT TO SEE THE SUN SMILE, DAMNIT.)

Comments

[independence1776]

That does sound rather like a mess. At least there were plans. (I wouldn't put it past my government-- local, state, or national-- to give lipservice to planning and not actually doing it.)

Heh. We may have the land and sunlight but I really doubt it'll happen anytime soon. Electric power here is state by state, and maybe city by city and county by county, and I think they're privately owned (maybe). I'm not quite sure how it works, but there's a lot of companies around here. It's not a federal level thing at all. And what makes a well-functioning and balanced system even less likely is that there's the large number of people who appear to think that "going green" is surrendering to the Liberal Environmentalist Agenda. Add in that my state is one of the largest producers of coal for the US, and anything that even hints at taking away those jobs is a political minefield.