21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Woman admits she had sex with a dolphin as part of NASA-funded scientific study.
President McAfee could not be reached for comment.
Archive for 2020
April 4, 2020
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Hollywood’s ‘Trump Is Hitler’ Argument Even More Pathetic Now. The current crisis reveals how badly far-left celebrities embarrassed themselves.
The entire [Insert Republican Leader] is Hitler canard isn’t new. It even included President Ronald Reagan, who apparently was Hitler-like according to Democratic Rep. William Clay of Missouri.
Reagan? The entire [Insert Republican Leader] is Hitler canard goes back at least to Coolidge.
YES. NEXT QUESTION? Are Anti-Gunners Exploiting COVID-19 Outbreak To Trample The 2nd Amendment?
THINGS SEEM TO BE FALLING SHORT OF THE MODELS: “There are 15,905 people currently hospitalized. Cuomo said two-thirds of hospitalized patients have been discharged, and the total number of hospitalizations dipped yesterday.” The numbers in New York are bad, but don’t seem to be going as predicted.
If this holds up, it’s great news, except for the models.
Plus, Florida:
Well, NYC is dense and relies on public transport in a way no other US city does. In addition, it’s north and Florida is south — so if seasonality is going to slow down spread it’s going to hit NYC later.
Or these are artifacts of reporting problems and don’t mean anything. Stay tuned. If the Wuhan coronavirus were to turn out to be seasonal, that would be huge news, though of course the 1918 flu was seasonal and came roaring back in the fall.
But note that something similar happened with Ebola: “New Ebola cases in Liberia, where streets were littered with the dead just a few months ago, now number in the single digits, according to the World Health Organization. In neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, the other two nations in the Ebola hot zone, new cases have fallen sharply in the last month, dropping to fewer than 100 in a week at the end of January — a level not seen in the region since June. . . . Experts are trying to understand how the disease, which has defied the ominous predictions of the world’s top infectious disease researchers, appears to be extinguishing itself with surprising swiftness. In September, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had projected that, by Jan. 20, the outbreak could reach 1.4 million cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone, but by that date only 21,797 were recorded in all three countries. While many have emphasized the enormous assistance hauled into the region by the United States and international organizations, there is strong evidence, especially here in Monrovia, that the biggest change came from the precautions taken by residents themselves.”
Perhaps people change behavior more swiftly than models take into account.
Meanwhile, there’s this, which I would like to be true: Covid-19: four fifths of cases are asymptomatic, China figures indicate. But that’s a much higher number than other figures I’ve seen.
Related: Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis.
All models are wrong; some models are useful.
UPDATE: From the comments: “I suspect we are seeing the impact of the much less strict voluntary measures that were taken well before the harsh lockdowns went into effect. It may turn out that washing hands was enough to stop this thing after all. Then again, maybe not. We are far from done with this and it will be about 30sec after it ends before everyone starts cherrypicking data to prove that their position was right all along.” Well, that last prediction is spot-on for sure.
ANOTHER UPDATE: How close are the latest Alabama coronavirus numbers to previous projections? “The total number of cases and deaths has fallen short of what was projected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. IHME has sought to forecast, with advanced metrics, the amount of hospital beds needed to treat COVID-19 and the daily totals of deaths resulting from the virus.”
HERE IN KNOXVILLE, THE HOSPITALS ARE THE EMPTIEST THEY’VE BEEN AT THE MOMENT: Hope, exhaustion, fear: Health workers in quiet areas prep for COVID-19 chaos while colleagues in other cities rush in. I doubt that’ll last, though I certainly hope it does. The 1918 Flu hit Knoxville very late — so late that some people thought we had some sort of immunity or protection — but when it finally got here it hit hard, like everywhere else.
A GUIDE TO STATE CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWNS.
And some concurrent thoughts from Iowahawk:
Related: In West Virginia, Monongalia County Health Department restricts liquor sales to state residents: “In a press release, the health department cited Pennsylvania, whose governor closed liquor stores last month, because of its proximity to Monongalia County and north central West Virginia and its higher rate of coronavirus infection.”
Fortunately, pockets of sanity still prevail: Rebellion: ‘This Is Not Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia Where You Are Asked For Your Papers!’ Says Maine Sheriff.
DISPATCHES FROM THE MANCHURIAN MEDIA: China Is Reopening Its Wet Markets. That’s Good.
(Classical reference in headline.)
IN SOCIALIST VENEZUELA, BISMARCK SINKS YOU! Venezuelan warship shoots, rams into German cruise vessel before sinking.
THE NEW MACBOOK AIR HAS A MUCH BETTER KEYBOARD, BUT THIS SUCKS: “The MBA only has two USB-C ports and you’ll need to use one for charging it.” WTF, Apple? Why have you gotten so stingy on ports? I’m using my 2017 Macbook Air for Zoom classes, and its two USB ports are one less than I really need for a microphone, camera, and USB-powered ringlight. I can run the ringlight off a phone charger, but that’s a kludge I shouldn’t have to resort to. And now one of them doubles as a charging port? This is BS.
THE CHILDREN’S WAR: Greta Thunberg Slams Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
It’s nice to see the kids passing the time during this troubled period by reminiscing about the good old days (before the unpleasantness arrived in March).
Speaking of which: Give Up Steak, Save the Planet.
(Classical reference in headline.)
AT AMAZON, save on sneakers, for Men and Women. Also, deals on lingerie, sleep & loungewear for women. And on Men’s Pajamas.
YOUR RECYCLABLES ARE GOING TO THE DUMP: Rising rates of contamination, among other problems, have left material processing facilities with no willing buyers. “That’s exactly what’s been happening to Baltimore County’s glass. Yet county officials are still encouraging residents to recycle the stuff, fearful that people will fall out of the recycling habit. Ritual is apparently more important than reuse.”
Why, it’s like Recycling is America’s False Religion or something. Fortunately though, fellow Insta-co-blogger John Tierney warned more enlightened readers about this – in the New York Times, no less – nearly a quarter of a century ago.
PLANET OF COPS: L.A. Mayor Wants ‘Snitches’ to Rat Out Their Neighbors… All for a ‘Reward.’
(Classical reference in headline.)
SMART: How Sewage Could Reveal True Scale of Coronavirus Outbreak. “One treatment plant can capture wastewater from more than one million people, says Gertjan Medema, a microbiologist at KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. Monitoring effluent at this scale could provide better estimates for how widespread the coronavirus is than testing, because wastewater surveillance can account for those who have not been tested and have only mild or no symptoms, says Medema, who has detected SARS-CoV-2 genetic material—viral RNA—in several treatment plants in the Netherlands. ‘Health authorities are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.’ . . . Studies have also shown that SARS-CoV-2 can appear in faeces within three days of infection, which is much sooner than the time taken for people to develop symptoms severe enough for them to seek hospital care—up to two weeks—and get an official diagnosis.”
NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: AOC reveals how COVID19 is actually really racist and proclaims that ‘COVID19 relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations.’
As foretold two weeks ago by America’s Newspaper Of Record. Mann is its editor:
PERHAPS THAT’S WHY IT’S THE CENTER — OR “EPICENTER” IF YOU’RE A JOURNALIST — OF THE EPIDEMIC: Coronavirus News: Social distancing is not happening on the NYC subway.
FASTER, PLEASE: Bandage-like coronavirus vaccine shows promising results in mice.
NEWS FROM KNOXVILLE: Coronavirus in Tennessee: Knox County confirmed cases increase to 97, total of recovered now 58. So confirmed cases increased by 4, from 93 to 97. But recovered cases increased by 8, from 50 to 58. That means that on net, active cases are down. This is what you’d expect to see on the back side of an epidemic curve, not the front. But it seems unlikely that that’s where Knox County is. We did start a lockdown relatively early, over 2 weeks ago, when there were still very few cases, so maybe that’s working. Anyway, it’s interesting and I can’t explain it any other way. As I said a while back, if you admit that you’re going to wind up locking things down eventually, it’s best to do it early, when it does the most good, rather than later when it’s just as disruptive but won’t help as much. Or, you know, it could just be a blip, but it’s a multiday blip if so, and it’s happening while testing is being significantly expanded.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Guess who is coming to Seder?
SO IF THIS DISEASE DOESN’T KILL ME, I’LL COME OUT OF QUARANTINE IN THE BEST SHAPE OF MY LIFE. The gyms are closed, but I’m working out more, for lack of anywhere else to go. I got a chinup bar — mine’s from Iron Gym and is now sold out, but it looks exactly like this one — and a set of Bowflex adjustable dumbbells. Yesterday I did 100 pushups, 4 sets of 8 full-length pullups (having to hold my legs up to do that in a doorway makes it a major ab exercise, too), walked/ran for an hour (I do intervals), then swam. I’m also doing bodyweight leg exercises like calf raises on the stairs, one-legged split squats, hamstring bridges, etc.
To be honest, I’d rather things were normal and I were just going to the gym, but this does make a nice break in my routine. Helen’s workout routine is somewhat similar, though no pullups and adding online Barre and yoga classes.
