REAL NUMBERS: Coronavirus Update: 13,989 Cases, 304 Deaths
Archive for 2020
February 1, 2020
IT’S THE SECRET TO EVERYTHING: Mathematicians Solve an Enduring ’42’ Problem Using Planetary Supercomputer.
YESTERDAY AT THE LAW SCHOOL, WE HAD A MEMORIAL FOR OUR DECEASED STUDENT, AARON MOORE. Many InstaPundit readers were kind enough to donate to the GoFundMe page for his funeral in North Carolina. Numerous friends and relatives made a point of telling me that they very much appreciated this, and so I do.
THE WORD “BILLIONAIRE” MIGHT BE YOUR FIRST CLUE: Michael Moore goes berserk on DNC: Why are they changing the rules to let billionaire Mike Bloomberg into the debates? Also, they’re busy rigging things against Bernie, as one does.
Related: Do FEC Records Prove Michael Bloomberg Bought His Way onto the Democrats’ Debate Stage?
UPDATE: From the comments: “Mike Bloomberg is Lori Loughlin of the DNC.”
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE GWOT: Alleged Al-Qaeda Terrorist Leader Arrested In Phoenix On Murder Charges.
And as an update to yesterday’s news: Trump appears to confirm killing of al Qaeda leader in Yemen via retweet.
MAYBE IT WILL BE WHEN IT HAPPENS, BUT IT HASN’T ACTUALLY HAPPENED YET: Yes, Trump’s Acquittal Is Real, And It’s Spectacular.
Related: Dem leaders signal they won’t accept Trump acquittal as legitimate. BFD, they’ve never even accepted his election as legitimate. They only consider any process legitimate when they win. Because they’re horrible, garbage people and bad Americans.
Meanwhile, a harsh-but-fair assessment seen on Facebook:
Plus:
GOOD: Trump Will Attack ‘Rising Force of Socialism’ During His State of the Union Speech.
Related: Nigel Farage “confirms he’ll be at the State of the Union speech next week. ‘I’m a foreigner, but I’m very well known there,’ he explains.”
Heh, indeed.™
TAMARA KEEL: Making the Case to Sling Up for Home Defense.
OKAY, THIS IS GETTING WEIRD: China reports outbreak of deadly bird flu among chickens in Hunan province, close to coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan. First the swine flu, then the coronavirus, now this? “The H5N1 avian flu virus, often called bird flu, causes severe respiratory disease in birds and is contagious to humans. The virus was first detected in 1996 in geese in China and is especially deadly for poultry. It is possible, but difficult, to transmit bird flu from person to person, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).” So possibly a public health problem, but mostly an agricultural and food supply problem at present.
Is Xi going to face seven more plagues before it’s over? At least it won’t be hard to persuade the Chinese to just eat the frogs.
SPACEX MAYBE, BOEING NO. House legislators want to hand NASA’s human spaceflight program over to Boeing. I assume this is a way to pump cash into Boeing, which is currently facing an existential financial crisis. But Boeing hasn’t exactly been covering itself with glory.
DISPATCHES FROM TV’S STONE KNIVES AND BEARSKINS ERA: The first Super Bowl was broadcast on two networks, but you’re not allowed to watch it today.
BREXIT: EU LOSES A MEMBER, COMMONWEALTH GAINS ONE. Maldives rejoins the Commonwealth – an hour after Brexit.
EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF “AND:” Does the Coronavirus Outbreak Tell Us That China Is Bad or Evil?
THE HOUSING PRICE OF LIBERALISM: For the Third Year in a Row, California Legislators Have Killed a Promising Housing Reform Bill.
(Classical reference in headline.)
YOU MEAN LIKE THEY HAVE IN VENEZUELA? Car-Free Streets Are Coming to America. “Following the lead of European cities, San Francisco and New York City have banned private cars on two of their busiest roads.” Blue progressive cities: Where bums are allowed to crap on the sidewalk, but citizens aren’t allowed to drive on the streets.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Created Equal Lets Thomas Skewer The Left, Biden And More.
I LOVE THIS: Students demanded divestment from fossil fuels, a professor offered to turn off the gas heating. “It is all too easy to request others to do things that carry no personal cost to yourself. The question is whether you and others are prepared to make personal sacrifices to achieve the goals of environmental improvement”
The student organizer’s response: “This is an inappropriate and flippant response by the bursar to what we were hoping would be a mature discussion. It’s January and it would be borderline dangerous to switch off the central heating.”
Point made. Though I’d give the students a pass if they were calling for investment in nuclear instead, which of course they weren’t because shut up.
LOOKS LIKE THE CHANGE HAPPENED RIGHT AS THE BOOMERS GOT OLD ENOUGH TO VOTE, NATCH: Investigating dynamics of democratic elections using physics theory.
CORONAVIRUS: First case of coronavirus confirmed in Massachusetts: DPH.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): A Boston friend emails: “They aren’t saying, but wild guess, he’s one of the 25,000 Chinese nationals enrolled in Boston-area universities, who all just came back from winter break, and he’s just the first. Stay tuned for the dorm outbreak.” That’s plausible, but let’s hope it’s wrong. And let’s also hope that the stats we’re seeing about mortality are correct.
IT’S A RIDDLE WRAPPED IN A MYSTERY INSIDE AN ENIGMA; BUT PERHAPS THERE IS A KEY: ‘It’s a war zone:’ why is a generation of rappers dying young?
INSERT JURASSIC PARK REFERENCE HERE: Scientists develop new way to extract, analyze DNA from museum specimens.