'My eyes hurt' searches spike on Google following solar eclipse

Most of TX was cloudy as London in winter.

As far as I know, they had to fall back on explaining how to build eclipse boxes during the weekend which, although cool, aren't as cool.

But honestly a % of people will instinctively and stochastically Google anything that happens to them. It's readily apparent that using AI to identify potential bioterror attacks and pandemics by looking at both medical product and prescription purchase data in aggregate, and combining it with Google searches like how Google Flu Trends worked would be an excellent public service. This is similar to how BioSTORM worked. [0]

0. https://biostorm.stanford.edu

Example: I see a squirrel nibbling at a pinecone or something. My brain literally thinks to search "squirrel diet pinecone" or "what do squirrels eat pinecone" and if I have my phone on me I search that. Otherwise I just search it when I get home.

I did an experiment where I ditched my smartphone for a year and this thought pattern went away. When I picked up the smartphone again the thought pattern came back.

It was overcast today where I live fortunately so it was basically a non event. I did however put on the cheap glasses and was surprised how poorly it fit ( like you said about side vision ).

There are a number of paper glasses made in the USA with quality solar filters that meet the ISO standard.

There are also plenty of Chinese fakes out there that will fry your eyeballs - just like fake laser goggles, which is nothing new.

That's why it's important to buy quality glasses from an authorized distributor and that means not Amazon.

The material of the frame i.e. paper vs plastic has no relation to the quality of the filters in the glasses.

Her school gave her Frey branded eclipse glasses, probably bought from this site which no longer lists them https://www.schoolspecialty.com/

They seem equal to our B&H glasses using the phone light, but it’s lacking the ISO logo (it does print the standard) nor does it have where it was made. Hopefully it’s okay, but I kind of expected schools to look for a validated distributor, and I’m not convinced this is one.

All you need is an ND filter to cut the brightness down to a fraction of what it normally is. The ND film doesn't need to be much, just not tinted.

Risking your eye sight which is supposed to last a life time to see a tiny black spot in the sky

I don't think anyone with glasses damaged their eyes, where are you getting this?

But the design of those crappy 'eclipse glasses' (with no backing at the sides to protect peripheral vision)

The light is all from one tiny source, if you're looking at it through glasses you don't need to worry about peripheral vision.

If you are worried about peripheral vision being exposed to the sun during the eclipse, why aren't you worried about it every other moment you're outside?

Slightly damaged eyesight would hardly affect evolution.