ddawson100

sflagel said:

Please stop calling a blurred background "bokeh". Bokeh is a very specific technique that converts light sources in the background into round spots, a blurred background is just depth-of-field.

Seriously. Thanks, Phil. I'm confused why we all suddenly started having to use the fancy (and imprecise) term.

kingofsomewherehot said:

My version of a "line" will be sitting on my back porch with a glass of scotch waiting for brown santa to ring my doorbell.  

"brown Santa"...I'm dying

Don't feed the trolls, people. Just click the Ignore option. While mods may not have that freedom, the rest of us who just came for comments and conversation do. 

suddenly newton said:

To any ornithologist: how do dimming of lights reduce the risk that migratory birds will strike the side of buildings? It seems counterintuitive. The reason buildings and other tall structures are lit at night (either entirely or with those flashing red marker lights) is so aircraft won't hit them.

Not an ornithologist so maybe not qualified to answer your question but intriguing enough. Apparently:

"The reasons are not entirely understood, but nocturnal migrants often navigate by the stars and illuminated windows and other night lights often divert them from their original flight paths, especially in low-ceiling or foggy conditions."

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/why-do-migratory-birds-crash-into-buildings-at-night-and-how-can-people-prevent-it-from-happening/ and the site for the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors https://www.birdmonitors.net/

SpamSandwich said:

tzm41 said:

Why do I feel the main theme of the "tax reform" is to put heavier burden on the middle class and give more cut to the big corporates? That doesn't seem very good to me.

What is proposed doesn’t support your feeling. Middle class and small business owners would see large cuts.

I haven't seen any interpretation of the (so far vague) proposals suggesting large cuts for the middle class.

From WashPo:

According to President Trump, there's one overriding reason America needs tax cuts: They’ll get the economy humming. “It's called a middle class miracle,” Trump said at the end of September.

But here's the catch: The White House says the U.S. economy is going to be vastly better off after slashing taxes, but just about everyone else says the impacts will be modest, especially for the middle class.

This isn’t a liberal versus conservative debate. This is a White House and top GOP leaders versus pretty much everyone else debate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/09/goldman-sachs-predicts-dinky-boost-from-trumps-tax-cuts/?utm_term=.b8f47327f727

It's possible there are other ways to read the general plans that this administration has floated.