Archive for 2020
April 3, 2020
TO BE HONEST, A LOT OF BRITAIN’S POPULATIONS HAVE CHANGED OVER THAT TIME PERIOD: Britain’s plankton population has changed dramatically over the last 60 years.
NUKE THE SITE FROM ORBIT — IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE: The 41 Worst People You Meet on Twitter.
DAVID HARSANYI: The FISA Scandal Is about Corruption, Not ‘Sloppiness.’ “You would think that this kind of potential abuse by the Justice Department would pique the interest of mainstream journalists. No such luck.”
CHOOSE THE FORM OF YOUR DESTRUCTOR: Trump: Schiff’s New Partisan Investigation Amid a Pandemic Will Just ‘Build Up My Poll Numbers.’
Related: Former Obama staffer David Plouffe: Trump’s going to win in November, you know.
Don’t get cocky (especially now that we’re in seriously uncharted waters), to coin an Instaphrase.
KURT LODER: These 10 Underappreciated Movies Make for the Perfect Quarantine Viewing Experience.
This is a really good list, although Tarsem’s “The Fall” left me cold. Stunning to look at, but not much there there.
SO DOES THIS MEAN THAT IMPERFECT MASKS STILL HELP BY REDUCING THE INITIAL VIRAL LOAD ON EXPOSURE? “Virus experts know that viral dose affects illness severity. In the lab, mice receiving a low dose of virus clear it and recover, while the same virus at a higher dose kills them. Dose sensitivity has been observed for every common acute viral infection that has been studied in lab animals, including coronaviruses. Humans also exhibit sensitivity to viral dose. Volunteers have allowed themselves to be exposed to low or high doses of relatively benign viruses causing colds or diarrhea. Those receiving the low doses have rarely developed visible signs of infection, while high doses have typically led to infections and more severe symptoms. . . . Low-dose infections can even engender immunity, protecting against high-dose exposures in the future.”
So even if everyone is ultimately going to be exposed, keeping the magnitude of the exposure down increases the likelihood that they’ll be asymptomatic, and later immune, without getting sick or dying. There’s your “herd immunity” strategy, of sorts.
REMEMBERING BILL WITHERS. A man who had it all, walked away, and was happy he did.
WELL, STARTING AT ZERO THERE’S NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP: Coronavirus Is ‘Opportunity of the Century’ for China to Build Trust, Economist Says. Um, What?!
NOT THE BABYLON BEE: Biden Switches to ‘Front Porch’ Campaign, Loses Porch.
PAULA BOLYARD: Should Churches Violate Shutdown Orders? The Answer Is More Complicated Than You Might Imagine.
Exit quote:
What happens when you cross the prosperity gospel with a global pandemic like the Chinese flu? This, courtesy of Howard-Browne:
This should be a time of supernatural sustenance, where what you have in your hand will multiply. And every day there will be multiplications. You look at your toilet paper and you think I’m going to run out of toilet paper, but you have another roll where that one was and you don’t know how did that even take place. Are the toilet paper rolls getting together and having families now? What is taking place? When you look again, there’s still enough. You think you’re going to run out but when you look again there’s still enough. That’s supernatural sustenance.
And, as noted above, Howard-Browne has flauted an order banning large assemblies, which is what landed him in the slammer.
Read the whole thing.
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Nancy Pelosi’s Husband Bought Up Slack, Microsoft, and Alphabet Securities.
I ALWAYS THOUGHT HE WAS A GREAT, AND SOMEWHAT UNDERRATED, TALENT: ‘Lean On Me,’ ‘Lovely Day’ singer Bill Withers dies at 81.
SO YOU’RE SAYING THERE’S AN EXPERT CONSENSUS? Malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is the most effective coronavirus treatment currently available, finds international poll of 6,000 doctors.
WHY THE USS ROOSEVELT’S CAPTAIN HAD TO BE RELIEVED:
[Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly] said that the captain’s ability to react professionally was overwhelmed by the challenge of the virus, “when acting professionally was what was needed most.” The Navy, he added, should “expect more from the commanding officers of our aircraft carriers.” The secretary didn’t suggest it was the captain who leaked the memo. Yet had Captain Crozier communicated only with his leadership, Mr. Modly said, he’d still have a job.
What struck us as particularly off in the captain’s letter was his statement: “We are not at war.” He added that “sailors do not need to die” and that “if we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.” The Navy, though, doesn’t need to be instructed on the value of its own sailors. Plus, too, under our system it’s not carrier captains who decide whether we’re at war.
The good news is that the Navy has, as it contends it would have absent a public letter, started moving crew off the Roosevelt and onto Guam. Better, by our lights, that were done with as much secrecy as possible. Even total secrecy. We may not be at war at the moment, but if our enemies find out that a weapon like the Roosevelt is lying at anchor with but a skeleton crew, as is now widely reported, who knows what could happen?
NANCY PELOSI ON 2/24: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THESE CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FEARS. “WE THINK IT’S VERY SAFE.”
STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: SpaceX’s Starship SN3 prototype collapses in pressure tank test.
AS IT SHOULD HAVE: UVA Grants Waiver, Allows National Guard Student To Continue Studies. “This is one of those stories — often rare in the legal world — where common sense prevailed. . . . But there really was no reason to have put her through any of this in the first place. As we pointed out yesterday, Columbia faced the exact same issue and celebrated the student rather than create an arbitrary 24-hour review process. Tipsters from UVA Law told us overnight that the students and faculty were more or less in lockstep in supporting Skardon’s plight. This is just one of those unfortunate situations where somewhere along the chain, someone decided to let the text overwhelm common decency.”