NASA Explains Sprites And A TikTok Shopping Spiral

A glowing red “jellyfish” above a thunderstorm looks like sci‑fi until you hear the science. We start with a simple birthday fitness win—standing up from the floor without using hands—and follow that thread of intentional choices into the sky, where NASA explains sprites: rare, vermilion flashes that bloom 50 miles up and vanish in milliseconds. The images echo Stranger Things, but the truth is better than fiction—a peek at the upper atmosphere’s hidden electrical theater and how storms can spark beauty we rarely see.

From awe to impulse, we pivot into a candid look at TikTok Shop and the way shopping now lives inside the same stream as entertainment. Ten billion dollars of U.S. spend this year hints at a bigger shift: when video, social proof, and one-tap checkout erase the pause between wanting and buying. We unpack FOMO across generations, why buy-now-pay-later stretches small choices into long-term debt, and how to rebuild healthy friction with simple guardrails—separating watch from buy, adding a 24-hour list, and removing autofill to invite reflection back into the process.

We wrap with a lighter tradition that still carries weight: favorite Christmas movies. Miracle on 34th Street, Love Actually, The Holiday—stories that help us measure what matters and remind us that belief, community, and restraint can coexist. Come for the strange red lightning and stay for the practical toolkit against the scroll-to-cart spiral. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves space or struggles with impulse buys, and drop a review with your top holiday film—we’re reading every pick.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:44 Turning 59 And A Fitness Test
• 1:55 Setting Up Two Stories
• 2:09 NASA’s “Red Jellyfish” Explained
• 5:48 Space Command In Huntsville Aside
• 6:20 Inside The Sprite Phenomenon
• 10:04 TikTok Shop And Overspending
• 12:03 Host’s Favorite Holiday Classics

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:30

Well, hello and good morning, December 11th. My birthday. Hey, this is 59 years old. And I was working out yesterday and I decided to test myself. I was sitting on the floor with my legs crossed, you know, as the used to tell our kids when they were little crisscross applesauce. And I wanted to see if I could get up, stand up without using my hands to help. And I was able to do it. So I think I'm doing well for 59 years old. When you can sit down on the floor and get up into the standing position without using your hands to help you get up off the floor. I think I did alright. Okay. Whoop-dee-doo. 59. Woo-hoo. Oh, this is the year that okay, whatever. I only have two stories for you today. I couldn't find anything worthwhile. And not that any of this is worthwhile, but I'm trying again to find things that are not horrible things out there in the world. I want some fun, unusual things that people aren't talking about. And so let's go to NASA explains frightening red jellyfish phenomenon spotted floating above the storm. Okay, well, and they have pictures, by the way. So if you want to go see the pictures, go check it out. Uh I have the story out on my X file. They've shed light on this glowing interstellar hydra. Luminescent images of a glowing red jellyfish have sparked speculations of alien visitations, but NASA assured us that there's nothing to fear. Speaking of NASA and speaking of Space Command, guess who's coming to Huntsville to help uh inaugurate the opening? Secretary of War Pete Heckseth. I wish I could go, but I don't have access to the Arsenal anymore. And that is where it's happening is on the Arsenal here in Huntsville, Alabama. I wish I could go to it, but again, no access to the Arsenal anymore. Damn it. Alright. Um I don't know when he's gonna be here though. I didn't read that far into the into the article. Alright, back to the jellyfish. The bizarre vermilion verm vermin vermilion? I don't even know. Lights. V-E-R-M-I-L-L-I-O-N lights detailed in an X C okay, whatever. Detailed in an X formerly Twitter post. Why do they they're still doing this? They're still putting in an X in parentheses formerly Twitter post by the space agency reportedly appeared in the sky above a thundercloud. The crimson fireworks display evoked an intergalactic sea jelly or a visage from the upside down realm in the paranormal Netflix series Stranger Things, and it certainly does look like that. Some even floated the idea that it could be a celestial visitor. An Unilad reported. It does, it looks phenomenon. It does, it looks like that Stranger Things. It is crazy, these pictures. I've never seen anything like it. However, NASA has dispelled any rumors of its extra terr of course they have terrestrial provenance, noting on X that it's an extremely rare weather-related phenomenon known as a Sprite, an acronym meeting meaning Okay, here we go, with the words stratospheric perturbations resulting from intense thunderstorm electrification. That is a mouthful. This fleeting red flash above a thunderstorm cloud is one of Earth's most elusive electrical phenomena, gushed the space agency of the event, which was shot by a citizen scientist, Nicholas Eskerit of Spirit Spirit Sprentacular. All these things out there that I know nothing about. It does. Oh my gosh, look, they have the Stranger Things poster and the other picture of the real picture of it, it looks just like it. That is crazy. Um, let's see. The did I read this? Okay, yeah. Also known as red lightning, the transient luminous event is associated with extremely intense thunderstorms, which are typically only spotted using specific cameras or from space. So that that would be really something to see in person. I think I would freak out though if I saw that in real life. I would think that, oh my gosh, aliens have landed. Unlike most lightning that extends from the clouds to the ground, these bright red bolts spout up into the atmosphere. In fact, they reportedly occur about 50 miles up in the Earth's atmosphere, producing quick flashes of reddish light that only last for a few milliseconds and show up in bizarre shapes. Generally, either a jellyfish or a carrot. Mmm, now I'm hungry. Carrot. Mmm, yum. All right, moving on to our next and last topic. Um just because it's Christmas time and it's shopping and it's TikTok. TikTok shopping is latest mindless addiction as users confess to spending thousands on products I have not even used. Oh my goodness. I I have TikTok, but I rarely get on it anymore. I I would like to use it, but I don't know how to use it. And then I'm thinking, you know what? You're 59 years old, you don't need to use it. Why? What would I what would I I feel and I see these commercials on TV, and they're so wonderful, feel-good commercials about TikTok. About this, like this, for example, one of the commercials is this there's older gentleman, our age, who who just simply gives advice to younger generations, like how to tie a tie or how to whatever. And he's gone viral for that. So, you know, just what can I teach somebody? Nothing. Okay, whatever. Moving on to the to this story. And I say this too, because my daughter has mentioned TikTok shopping too. She's bought a couple of things that I know of because uh every time when I see her, she'll have something on and say, Oh, that's really cute. And she'll say, TikTok shop. At least she uses her items. Okay. TikTok isn't just feeding social media addiction, it's now enabling shopping addiction too. Between January and October, the 170 million Americans who are on TikTok spent more than 10 billion with a B dollars on TikTok shop. 10 billion, y'all. Um, so double the amount spent last year over the same time span. Sam Reddy was irritated by TikTok shop when it first started popping up in her feed a year and a half ago, but very quickly got hooked. At first it was annoying, but then with all the ads and people talking about the products, it became fear of missing out. See, I think that's a generational thing too. I was telling somebody the other day on X that I I forget what the topic was, but it was about a generational thing. Um, I forget what it was, but I think this is the fear of missing out. I think this is a generational thing too. I don't fear of missing out. I was raised before the internet. I think these fear of missing out people and stuff like that, they were raised on the internet. I was raised when we went outside and played and didn't come home till the sun went down or was going down. And we had we just we had board games, we had other things to take, you know, we actually did activities and went out and socialized. So and it was also before all this horrible crime and everything that's happening. I mean, we had crime back then too, but not like it is now in all the oh oh all the entertainment industry. No, forget it. So she's 40 years old from Baltimore, so she's only well, I was just about to say 10 years younger than me, but she's really 19. I still think I'm 50, not 59. I still think I'm 50 years old, not 59 years old. So she's actually 19 years younger than me. Good heavens. I'm old enough to be your mom. Oh, the 40-year-old from Baltimore told the post, you see people talking about an item, and so you want to get it. Inevitably, you go from watching TikTok to looking at a product. Ready makes corsets for a living, so it all started with buying corset boning on TikTok shop. But when she got hooked on little food items, it was soon buying so many trendy snacks like Dubai chocolate bars and I don't even know what that is, filicious faux noodles, that her cabinets begin to overflow. Oh my goodness. She has spent three thousand dollars in just the past six months, and at one point owed a thousand each to buy now pay later platform to a firm and Klarna. Look, I gotta confess I have the same thing with the wig problem with buying wigs that damn Klarna and the A firm pay in for, but you know it's kind of nice. Alright, anyway, I'm done buying wigs, though I'm not buying anymore. I know I've said that before, but for real, I've got too many right now. I've got plenty to wear. Okay, it's spending, I wouldn't have done otherwise, she said. You don't even realize when it's happening. That is what's so concerning. You're in the world of shopping and you're watching in the video mode, so you're not really pausing and making conscious decision to consume. There you go. That's it right there. You're watching a video, so you're not really pausing and making a conscious decision to consume. That's it. That's it right there. TikTok Shop is an integrated one-stop shop that's transforming the social media app. Okay, blah, blah, blah, blah. You can go finish reading that if you like. We need to go on to the question of the day. All right, question of the day. What is your favorite Christmas movie? I have several. Um, some of them not so traditional, like Love Actually and The Holiday. Those aren't really Christmas movies, really, not really, but they take, I think they take part, they take place in in during a Christmas time. All right, so the more traditional movies that I love, my favorite one is Miracle on 34th Street. I love that movie, and I like all the versions of it too. Every single version of it. Uh, I probably like the um oh, the one with oh gosh, I don't even not the latest one, but the one be not the latest one with Elizabeth Perkins, but the one before that. I like both of those anyway. I just like that story. I love it. Alright, we need to, I guess that's it. We're gonna need to wrap it up. Alright, gotta go. Thanks for listening.