As I promised on Saturday, here is some footage of the total lunar eclipse as seen from Ljubljana. It is actually a piece (if you can call it that since I improvised it) for the Firm™ so it is in Slovene, but still…
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Camera: El Presidente™, music: Michael Jakcson, Thirller
OK, so it wasn’t all that spectacular 😀 But it was much more fun looking at it during the actual event. Which reminds me… I might post some footage of 1999 total solar eclipse. That was much more fun 🙂
During a total lunar eclipse the Moon turns red (source)
Tonight at 22.30 CET spectators from whole of Europe, Africa, South America, and eastern parts of the US and Canada will be able to observe a total lunar eclipse.
Contratry to a total solar eclipse which is an extremely rare event and last only minutes, a total lunar eclipse is much more frequent and lasts considerably longer. While tonight’s eclipse will start at 2230 hours with a partial eclipse, the total eclipse will start at 23.44 and will last for more than an hour, with the Moon exiting Earth’s shadow at 00.58 on Sunday.
The moon will not become completely invisible, but will rather turn red, because some light will be filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere and will reach lunar surface.
The weather forecast for tonight is extremely good, with clear weather and temperatures around 10 degrees Celsius, so you will have great conditions to observe this astronomical event. And if you feel like taking a picture or two, here are some tips.
Zoot suit – gotta get me one of those! 😀
From March 16 to 18, Ljubljana will be hosting the first ever swing festival on Slovenw grounds. The festival will include 16 hours of workshops, done in two levels, three evenings of parties, live music and last but not the least – a lot of fun and dance. The festival is hosted by the SweetSwing Society and you can find more info here
Highly recommended! 😀
Britney Spears before she shaved her head
The good thing about having a flatmate is that you can get drunk as a skunk without the need to check into a rehab.
There…. I’m off to nurse my hangover….
Shhhh… Must you comment so loudly????
So, the oscars were given away… I case you missed it or live in an inconvenient time zone (which is the case, I’m sad to say, of most of the readers of this blog), here are some clips for you to enjoy.
Forrest Whithaker won an oscar for Best actor in a leading role for The Last King of Scotland
Helen Mirren picks up an oscar for best actress in a leading role for The Queen. Some stupid ass voiceover is present because someone made a screen capture.
Host Ellen DeGeneres wants a to have her picture taken with Marty Scorsese.
Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton (remember them from Something’s Gotta Give?) give away an oscar for the best picture (The Departed). Unfortunatelly with Spanish commentary.
Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas give away an oscar for best director to Marty Scorsese.
My favourite… Al Gore getting an oscar for best feature documentary and – with a little help from Leo Di Paprico – teasing people about running for the White House
Melissa Etheridge picks up an oscar for “I Need to Wake Up“, best original song
Since I couldn’t find this years intro, here’s the last year’s with The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart hosting
A little souvenir by Billy Crystal from 10 years ago – can you imagine that it’s been that long sicne the English Patient?
The Prez allegedly insulted these people while visiting Ambrus in late December 06 (source)
Slovenia is apparently regressing into a post-communist state. Yes, it is not a mistake. We are regressing. We’ve had the privilige of jumping from a relatively liberal socialist state/republic to a relatively inconspicious democratic market economy. The phase in between is called “a post-communist state“.
I fell a slight addition to the rather inadequate definition of post-communism by Wiki is necesary: On a political level, a government of a post-communist state often uses all means necesary to remove its political oponents. Since a post-communist government’s file rouge is actually anti-communism (in all its forms and manners) it often employs exactly the same methods as its counterpart in communist times.
Well then… After successfully removing Mitja Gaspari, the Prime Minister’s henchmen went after Janša’s current arch-rival. The President of the Republic of Slovenia. A never-before-heard-of group calling itself “Citizens’ Initiative – Stop Communist Mafia” has filed charges against Janez Drnovšek for allegedly abusing his powers – amongst other things, granting clemency to Danilo Kovačič and for offending religious feelings of the people of Ambrus
Am I the only one seeing a pattern emerging? First dig up some suspicious looking papers (if none exist, fabricate!), then make sure they get into the hands of “your” journalists, create a media frenzy and make as many people as you can throw mud at your target.
Or to put in the now-legendary words of former president Milan Kučan, when – some 10+ year ago – he described tactics of Janez Janša: “First comes discreditation, followed by elimination – physical, if necesary”
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out, what’s happening. Janša is shaping this country according to his own image. He is enacting “Ordnung und Disziplin” as he sees fit. The only real obstacle is the President, who is up for reelection in the autumn and what we are seeing are the first steps of yet another character assasination. And although the Prez is still somewhat undecided on whether to run again or not, the smart money is on him running again should attacks on him persist, if only out of stubborness.
Luckily, the President is slightly more protected than the Governor, so Drle was quick to respond.
I just wonder… Who’s next?
Music clips used: Hop Marinka (Atomik Harmonik), Sirni & Mesni (Ali En), Bela Simfonija (Zoran Predin); Special Guest Stars: Sonja, Nina and Sašo; Video shot and edited by Pengovsky
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…
When I was just a kid we all had our skiing idols. Naturally, probably the most idolized skier in Slovenia was Bojan Križaj, the “blonde bringer of happines”, who found his arch rival in Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark. The fact that they both used Slovene made Elan skis only added to rivalry. Every self-respecting Slovene boy wanted to be Bojan Križaj and he more often than not likened his childhood arch-enemy to Ingermar Stenmark.
Almost simultaneously Mateja Svet equaled Bojan Križaj in women’s alpine skiing putting Slovenia (well, Yugoslavia) next to world’s skiing superpowers. Her rival was Switzerland’s Vreni Schneider, who (like Stenmark) all-in-all won more titles and medals than her Slovene coutnerpart, but it was Kiržaj’s and Svet’s successes that made history
And if you’re wondering, where is “Bojan Križaj” in this video… Behind the camera, of course :))))