Once again, let’s welcome back Randall Munroe and xkcd:
Actually, this isn’t sciencey at all. I remember hearing some religious pundit telling us eclipses were proof of god, because the perfect match of sun and moon sizes could only be done by an intelligent being – coincidences just can’t happen. Eclipses are god’s gift to humans, which explains why so many older cultures would freak out when they occurred. And why they usually occur in tiny patches out over the middle of an ocean, and why they’re not always a perfect match, and so on…
But yeah, the number of stupid questions that can be asked in the media is almost as high as Yahoo Answers. Insofar as rare occurrences go, this has the opportunity to be a lot more informative than any sporting event or motion picture, especially when coupled with someone knowledgeable on hand, but it’s pretty straightforward otherwise.
And it promises to be chaotic on the roads, anywhere near the band of totality. Be warned.
It’s a little late for this – your plans should already be made if you intend to view the eclipse – but this site is a great resource, and this one will help in photographing. Sorry, I could have been more on this, but you’ve been seeing the number of posts I’ve been making (outside of featuring Jim’s pics,) so, you know…