Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[grumbler]

I don't care if some people want to bring their children to drag story time.  But you can't force everyone into accepting it.

No one is trying to force anyone into accepting anything.  That's not even possible. 

You can oppose politicians who seek to virtue signal by oppressing the freedoms of speech and assembly of those they think are defenseless.

[HVC]

I think there might be a funny atlantic cultural gap at work here. When I was a kid I'd see a guy in drag at least 1 or 2 times a year, mostly around Christmas time. It's standard in the UK.
Nonetheless you get nuts here aping the Americans and pretending it's something new and horrid.

Uk drag seems to be different than NA drag.  You guys dress up as old women and make vague innuendo.  NA drag tradition is more sexually explicit than the (historical) uk variety. Think less Dame Edna and more Divine. Could also be part of the translation issue across the pond.

[Valmy]

Not really. Dressing in drag for laughs is very traditional. Divine is a rather new phenomenon by comparison. I mean it is certainly a thing but not exclusionary.

[Josquius]

I think there might be a funny atlantic cultural gap at work here. When I was a kid I'd see a guy in drag at least 1 or 2 times a year, mostly around Christmas time. It's standard in the UK.
Nonetheless you get nuts here aping the Americans and pretending it's something new and horrid.

Uk drag seems to be different than NA drag.  You guys dress up as old women and make vague innuendo.  NA drag tradition is more sexually explicit than the (historical) uk variety. Think less Dame Edna and more Divine. Could also be part of the translation issue across the pond.

We have adult oriented drag acts too. Though even there I believe they come in varieties ranging from literal x rated "Where is the line where this becomes porn? I do not know" performers through to raunchy appeals to women of all ages folk- my sister is good friends with a guy who does the latter.

[crazy canuck]

I think there might be a funny atlantic cultural gap at work here. When I was a kid I'd see a guy in drag at least 1 or 2 times a year, mostly around Christmas time. It's standard in the UK.
Nonetheless you get nuts here aping the Americans and pretending it's something new and horrid.

Uk drag seems to be different than NA drag.  You guys dress up as old women and make vague innuendo.  NA drag tradition is more sexually explicit than the (historical) uk variety. Think less Dame Edna and more Divine. Could also be part of the translation issue across the pond.

Not sure about that, drag as comedy has a long tradition here.

[Syt]

Love this one. While in general it's a good sentiment (though I guess the difference in degrees is optimistic).

But note how the first picture has only bicycles and looks chaotic, while the bottom one has only cars, parked in an orderly fashion.

[DGuller]

What is a temperature of?  If it's air, then I'm not sure how trees can have more than a marginal impact on that.  Temperature of asphalt that's in the sun on top and in the shade on the bottom?  Still seems questionable.

[Jacob]

What is a temperature of?  If it's air, then I'm not sure how trees can have more than a marginal impact on that.  Temperature of asphalt that's in the sun on top and in the shade on the bottom?  Still seems questionable.

Anecdotally the temperature by my house - under a bunch of trees - feels several degrees cooler than the temperature in a shaded spot on an open field nearby. And that, again, feels several degrees cooler than a shaded spot up on the main street a few blocks away where heat is absorbed and radiated by bricks, stonework, and asphalt.

It makes sense to me as well, as stones etc absorb the energy of the sun, stores it as heat, and release that heat through radiation. Trees, on the other  hand, absorb the energy of the sun and uses it to power photosynthesis (which does release heat, but I'm guessing some of the energy is still used up).

Which is to say, while I think differences of 16 to 24 C is probably optimistic differences of 5 C seems perfectly in accordance with my observations.

... but I'll go look it up now.

[Jacob]

The EPA says:

Trees and vegetation also provide cooling through evaporation of rainfall collecting on leaves and soil. Research shows that urban forests have temperatures that are on average 2.9°F lower than unforested urban areas.

... so 1.6 C.

The website of One Tree Planted on the topic of trees and Urban Heat Islands says:

Trees and vegetation reduce surface and air temperatures by providing shade — in fact, shaded surfaces, for example, can be as much as 20–45°F cooler than unshaded areas at peak temperature. How? During the sunnier seasons, an urban tree's leaves and branches only allow about 10-30% of solar radiation to reach the area below their canopy. The rest of the solar energy is absorbed through the tree's leaves for photosynthesis — or reflected back into the atmosphere.

That's a range of 11 to 25 C for the temperatures of shaded surfaces (as opposed to air temperatures), which presumably is the kind of data used for Syt's image.

... they also say

Evapotranspiration, alone or in combination with shading, can help to reduce peak summer temperatures by an estimated 2–9°F (1–5°C).

So it sounds to me like reductions in air temperatures of 1 to 5 C (averaging 1.6 C), and reduction of surface temperatures of 11 to 25 C are perhaps accurate. But yeah, trees do not contribute to a 10 - 25 C drop in air temperatures as one might conclude from the original image.

[Josquius]

Love this one. While in general it's a good sentiment (though I guess the difference in degrees is optimistic).

But note how the first picture has only bicycles and looks chaotic, while the bottom one has only cars, parked in an orderly fashion.

Yeah. The trees are right but on everything else they've got the good and bad flipped.

[Syt]

My brother in law has an opinion on Biden's vs. Trump's foreign policy record.






Also, I've seen these posted before with Confederate statues ... but this is a new one:

[Tonitrus]

Sure, why not bring back the Czar.

[Syt]

My brother in law (red):

[Valmy]

I never have any idea what they are talking about anymore.

[Josquius]

I get the impression he is projecting without even realising he is doing it in the last post. He doesn't actually have a clue but that's what he has been told to think.