OPEN THREAD 20200115

Open Thread 1 Minute

Basically, all legal free speech is allowed. We will assist the authorities in dealing with illegal speech. You are each other’s moderators. Have fun. And don’t forget to MAGA at nuclear levels.

Citizen U

Day 70 – YTTERBIUM.

Published by Wolf Moon

Published

22 thoughts on “OPEN THREAD 20200115”

  1. Ytterbium is the fourth and last rare earth element named for Ytterby, Sweden. Like many other rare earths, it was “discovered” once spectroscopy became popular in the 1870s. The actual metal wasn’t isolated until 1953. With a melting point of 824C and a boiling point of 1196C, ytterbium has the smallest liquid range of all the metals — something to keep in mind if a clumsy friend is melting some, considering how unhealthy it can be around boiling metals.

    Worldwide production of ytterbium is only about 50 tonnes per year, essentially because nobody knows what to do with it. Besides its use in academia, it can be used in 1030nm Yb:YAG lasers (which nobody knows what to do with) and can be used as a dopant to improve various characteristics of stainless steel. One place it seems to uniquely excel is for atomic clocks — “Ytterbium clocks hold the record for stability with ticks stable to within less than two parts in 1 quintillion (2×10^−18).”

    Ytterbium is the penultimate lanthanide, if we can Just. Keep. Going…..

    Of course, since it’s a lanthanide rare earth, we get the usual “found with others, hard to separate, mischmetal…..” stuff.

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      1. It’s like… anti-music.

        It takes everything that is glorious about classic rock, and… desecrates it, lol!

        More than any other song that immediately comes to mind, “Safety Dance” represents everything that went horribly wrong with music in the 1980s 😁

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          1. Did you have to re-enter your info to post ?
            If so, try “liking” now (if you want)
            You might also try accessing the u-tree from your “reader”.
            I have problems with this site too and I don’t know why.

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              1. If I’m on the Q tree, at the top of the screen towards the left is “reader”.
                I click on that, other word press post pop up.
                If I click on one of those, that post pops up.
                If I click on that post title, a new window (tab? opens up with that post.
                For some reason, the U tree won’t let me like or post without entering my info.
                But if I go back a step (tab?), I can like and comment.
                Only happens on U Tree.

                Liked by 1 person

  7. Right.

    And a joke for those who like text and not links —

    A young lady is at a toy collectors’ convention and stops at a booth that has Barbies from various eras. She’s intrigued by some of the past versions — “how much is that surfer Barbie?” — and the vendor replies, “Surfer Barbie is $90.”

    “How about that moonwalking Barbie?” “Moonwalking Barbie is $90.”

    The same goes for “Barbie goes to the Gym”, “Barbie goes to the ball”, “Barbie goes shopping”, “Barbie goes to the beach”, and “Barbie goes nightclubbing” — they’re all $90.

    Then she asks the vendor — “what about that one, ‘Divorced Barbie’?” “Oh, that one is $1650.” Startled, she asks, “why is divorced Barbie so much more than all the others?”

    “Well, you see, that’s because it comes with Ken’s house, Ken’s car, Ken’s boat, Ken’s furniture…..”

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  8. Wolf, this one is a little too spicy for the other site. Ideally I would prefer to discuss these issues more openly without getting railroaded into side discussions. Instead I’ll just tack this up here.

    JANUARY 15, 2020
    ‘The Two Popes’ Is Pure Propaganda
    SEAN FITZPATRICK
    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/the-two-popes-is-pure-propaganda

    “The Netflix original follows the mode of the liberal media, presenting imagined interactions and conversations between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis (when he was Cardinal Bergoglio) that further an agenda that is bent on denouncing the Catholic Church with slick cinematography. Its central flaw in pursuing this end is that the film tries to define these popes—these men—as though it were drawing from the determinations of history and its scholars.”

    “Aside from its theological errors and narrative inaccuracies, the one problem with The Two Popes is that it is fiction that will be taken by most as historical fact.”

    “This problem centers on the way in which The Two Popes disparages Benedict XVI, making him emblematic of all that is wrong with the Catholic Church. The film presents him as a radical: an old man clothed in capes, incurably fixed on forgotten principles of a forgotten world—principles that no longer apply to the “real world.” What it misses is the type of radical that Pope Benedict XVI really was: a wise man clothed in Christ, inspiringly fixed on the roots, radix, of the world—principles that fundamentally apply to the real world. The Two Popes portrays Benedict as a radical in the prevalent negative sense of the word, that is, fanatical and refusing to depart from tradition to affect reform. This latter is the role given to Pope Francis.”

    “Despite the doddering portrayal of Pope Benedict in The Two Popes, he will be remembered by Catholics as radical in the truest sense of the word, devoted to a return to tradition to affect reform. The Two Popes pushes the message that to be a traditionalist is to be stuck in the past. Benedict XVI rejoiced in the past, however, and drove it down deep, like a plow, to cultivate the arid areas of the vineyard; it is a very different way of “making a mess”, to use Pope Francis’s words. Pope Benedict was a radical pope because he clung to the roots of the Faith—and this was his genius, which The Two Popes mistakenly brands as “closed-mindedness.” There is the modern radicalism of change, and then there is the ancient radicalism of holding the line. These two popes embody both, and the film The Two Popes promotes the first of these.”

    “The Two Popes does not merely take artistic liberty to make a point. It takes artistic license to make propaganda. It is odd that the Vatican permitted an enormous billboard for The Two Popes to appear on one of its buildings since the film may not only cause many to believe that its intentional inventions are true but may also color what history—or at least certain historians—will conclude concerning the two popes.”

    I really like the way Sean discussed Benedict here: “radical in the truest sense of the word, devoted to a return to tradition to affect reform”.

    There is a reason that Evangelicals have long felt an affinity with Benedict, and more strongly with John Paul II. Evangelicals have long felt the desire for the Roman church to remain true to the faith rather than pursue power, or the worldly reforms that take it away from the faith given by Christ to the apostles.

    Part of the challenge of propaganda is that who sets the frame wins the contest. Netflix is obviously arrogant betting that they can set the frame and 99% of viewers won’t question it. I don’t give Netflix that much credit for their influence – and maybe that’s wrong on my part but I think they are too big for their britches and have an outsized opinion of their importance and influence. I thought killing of the arrogant Blockbuster would be good but Netflix’ arrogance knows no bounds by comparison. Still I know many people who subscribe to Netflix even though they don’t believe this garbage, and talk about movies and TV shows they’ve watched, including to the neglect of spiritual fellowship.

    This has a strong parallel in the mis-framing of the events of the Reformation era – which comes out more visibly when this same publication talks about events like the UMC split. The propagandists portray Luther as the radical who makes a mess and wrecks destruction with the Protestants (a pejorative itself used for framing – “Reformed” or “Evangelical” are preferred for describing the churches that bow in humility to the authority of scripture) as the Roman church staunchly defends the tradition of the church and upholds the faith. It’s a cute story but it’s all in the framing – propaganda works its best when it is simple, not when it reflects the complex realities of history.

    By contrast Evangelicals recognize that much like Benedict, Luther (and others who preceded him, he was in no way innovative or unique in history) was remarkably faithful in “cultivating”. His devoted pursuit of tradition brought him back to the traditions of the Apostles which had long been regarded as canon, the most ancient and best preserved traditions of Apostolic teaching recorded by those who had directly encountered Christ incarnate, not abrogated by the teachings of others decades or centuries after the fact.

    Francis has and is betraying the church. Evangelicals see this, even though some of the Evangelical Left and the Soros-funded Big Evangelicalism (and their Professional Christians including Galli’s “Evangelical Elite”) are bribed to be his cheerleaders. Yet it sounds as if Netflix prefers to portray him as a savior – who carries a false gospel. The same rotten fruit comes from the same diseased corrupt tree – Netflix, Francis, and Big Eva.

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    1. I saw an advertisement for this thing, in Spanish, as I was picking up a to-go order at a Mexican restaurant. In Spanish, the title is “Los Dos Papas”. Being in a restaurant, however, I first interpreted “papas” as in “papas fritas” — “potatoes” — and I was wondering what the big deal would be about them and why a motorcycle-riding clergyman would be involved.

      Note that this would have been the correct interpretation if the title had been “Las Dos Papas”.

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