Coolish, but still damp.
Wednesday was sunny with a nice breeze, but still saturated. I really need to have the pool cover and liner dry out so I can put them away for the season.
Several of the friends and neighbors I’ve offered the new freezer to mentioned that they just got one. That’s good news that they are thinking ahead. A bit worrisome that so many people are concerned enough to take steps, from the point of view that what society as a whole expects, we usually get. Heartening though that they are acting. I may just add it to the garage.
Since I was out today, I thought I’d stop at the grocery store and pick up my OTC allergy meds (have to do it in person, thanks meth heads.) While I was there I might as well buy some fruit and veg, since I can pick it out myself, and I might as well walk the aisles and see what inventory looks like, maybe fill some gaps…… long story cut mercifully shorter, I spent $400 on groceries and an hour and a half. They had prime sirloin for $5/pound. Buy a spiral slice ham, get a free turkey. Pasta in stock. The soda I like on the shelf. Milk, breads, eggs, cream, all the staples I’d be buying in a day or two anyway….. and some canned veg varieties I hadn’t seen before.
Got my allergy meds too.
Home today so I’ll do stuff here.
Oh, and daughter one is ready for orthodontia. Joy. We’ll be writing some checks for that…
Thanks for the suggestions for monitoring her web traffic. Time for me to do some learning. I really thought I’d have a couple more years before issues like this arose. That seems to be the story of 2020 though.
Spent some time at my buddy’s store. Every ten minutes someone stuck their head in the door and asked about ammo. Word up, the proprietor of your local is VERY TIRED of having people shout at him from the door about ammo. If you are looking for some, driving from store to store, shouting in the door, and inevitably being told NO! isn’t going to get you any. This is where those relationships you built in meatspace for the last couple of years pay off. Oh, you didn’t do that? ammoseek.com is your best bet, from what I hear online. And sign up for everyone’s enewsletter and special mailings so if they do get stock in, you’ll hear about it. All of my buddy’s suppliers are out of everything and they are not encouraging about stuff coming back into stock. You may be going into what’s coming with what you already have.
This is why we prep. This is why you put a couple back for friends who might need something later, if you have the chance and the means. This is also why “Meatspace Baby!” got the traction it did last year. The online discounter isn’t going to hold a box under the counter for you. The mom and pop you’ve been buying from for the last couple of years might. It applies to anything that might be in short supply, meds, seeds, chicks, you name it. Jane down at the co-op who’s been helping you with gardening advice is much more likely to have what you need or know who does than some chinese reseller online. Just saying. On the other hand, it isn’t necessarily too late. Work the network you already have. It may turn out that we’re all preppers now, and the guys at the Rotary Club are more switched on than you expected. Be circumspect though. Hard times ARE coming, and there will be predators as well.
Stack what you can. Go out and talk to someone.
nick
While I was there I might as well buy some fruit and veg, since I can pick it out myself, and I might as well walk the aisles and see what inventory looks like, maybe fill some gaps……
Our local HEB started the pandemic under remodel. It is hard to say whether the odd stock levels and shelf locations are due to any shortages or just the staff not wanting to move more inventory than necessary.
The store is an old Albertsons, one of several in the area which HEB bought out in the last 20 years. My wife thinks that the goal is to move the store to being one of the high end units, but the management got cheap with the floors, simply lifting the linoleum and doing a jiffy polish of the concrete underneath, regardless of what was there. The end result is the store looks filthy.
If HEB has ambitions in other parts of The South, management needs to take a field trip to see what Publix in Florida does with old Albertsons as that chain gears up for the upcoming clash with Wegman’s in VA, NC, or, rumored, Orlando. Publix lost out on Whole Foods … for now … and has capital to invest, but I’ll be the first to admit the chain is fast becoming like The Borg in Florida.
@Nick – If you fly through Tampa for the holiday, medical grade coffee is available at La Teresita on Columbus about 10 minutes from the rental car pavilion exit. The counter service is 24 hours Friday/Saturday/Sunday. The Columbia’s restaurant brands in the Southwest terminal at TIA offer decent Cafe con Leche, but La Teresita is better according to my wife.
And find an Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza. Sigh. I need a trip to Florida.
It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it…
— I’m sure their coverage was completely unbiased, no matter what their politics or financial situation…
n
It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it…
Look for Dr. Dina Minning’s name to pop up. She is marred to Alan Grayson, former outspoken Prog Congressman from Florida, and was a frequent commentator on MSNBC early in the pandemic.
Minning attempted to run for the seat in Congress which Grayson gave up to run for Little Marco’s seat in the Senate, but was humiliated early in the primaries.
Subbing again today. Arts teacher. I am her first choice. She is on a two week quarantine so I have her class Tuesday through Thursday of next week. I have commitments on Monday. No school on Friday which is the normal pattern as it is all virtual on Fridays.
Out of 300 students 80 of them are out on quarantine. None of them have tested positive, not a single one. But they may have had close contact with someone who may have had close contact with someone who’s distant relative tested positive. And in TN the family tree doesn’t branch much so all 80 could have been because of one person.
On the -70 degree storage requirement of the Pfizer COVID vaccine, the article @Lynn linked yesterday said:
Not really. As I said the other day, the Warp Speed people have been working with the military and the major freight/package carriers to work out delivery plans. If you read the article, the vaccine will come in 1000 to 5000 dose container that can be refilled with dry ice and it can keep the doses for 25 days. They can be kept refrigerated for 5 days after thawing. The plan I would come up with is to have a hub and spoke delivery system – keep it at hubs in the containers and/or freezers. Have appointments made in an area for administration, deliver enough doses there. This kind of thing is already done for some medical supplies that have short shelf life. It’s just scale.
And there is this:
I will give the Trump administration full credit for doing what appears to be a great job with Operation Warp Speed. I had sent emails to my reps in the Senate and House to encourage exactly what they are doing to accelerate the process by parallelizing as much as possible.
An interesting article on who should get the vaccine first.
https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-vaccine-super-spreaders/
The approach the article examines is, by the admission of the mathematicians that worked it out, perhaps not the best for a pandemic that has an age-skewed IFR. But it is an intriguing approach.
Historically, they don’t do a great job at vetting any of this. So, you can walk up and lie about any medical condition to make yourself “high risk” and get the vaccine early. It’s happened with flu shots a few times where there were shortages for whatever reason so “at risk” people were the only ones allowed to get it. They then leave it to the honor system.
It’s notable that so much of Star Trek has seeped into popular culture. I sometimes wonder if that’s where the delusions of the left come from: no money, abundance for all, peace & diversity. Someone needs to break the news that Wishing don’t Make it So.
No, but the coming re-education camps will bring you knuckle draggers into line!
I remember a scene from ST:DS9 where Sisko is talking about “we work for work’s pleasure/fulfillment alone.” LOL! Did you ever notice the lack of “shovel level” droids in ST? Somebody/thing still has to shovel the shit. I guess Hew-Mons in the future are still as dumb as today. As far as money, I remember Ensign “Dickhead” Crusher talking about using up all of his “transporter” credits one semester. No Credits, No Service! Sounds suspiciously like money to me. and Riker player poker with credits. Plenty of other episodes of ST talking about credits.
LET THE HEALING BEGIN WITH STAR TREK AS THE NEW UTOPIAN DREAM!
Yuuup, they kicked knuckle dragger Thomas Edison out of public school for being uneducable.
BF Skinner wrote some Utopian sci-fi novel with that theme. Damned if I can remember the title. Odd book; he was the father of behaviorist psychology and thought you could moderate society by a selective application of conditional rewards. Of course, he never mentioned who was doling those out…
LOL! Fauci is squawking about “the pandemic won’t last because of vaccines.” I guess lockdowns and social distancing are ending in 2021. The ChiComms don’t need no stinkin’ vaccine. They appear to be back to normal. Even in Wuhan. Plenty of picks from Wuhan with no masks or social distancing. Does anyone believe the ChiComms eliminated COVID just like that? They be lying about their numbers.
Did you ever notice the lack of “shovel level” droids in ST?
Discovery has addressed that this season with Jett Reno’s “kid” robots becoming more numerous, including being featured in the opening credits. Still, there isn’t much in the way of exposition regarding the development. I suspect this season of Discovery has been edited in post, similar to “Picard”, to avoid upsetting fans with more controversial choices from the production team.
The meltdown of movie “Star Wars” was probably behind the “Picard” decision, but “Discovery” may be influenced by the choice made by Fox/Disney TV to delay the next season of “The Orville” on Hulu following the hiring of Brannon Braga and, recently, Jonathan Frakes making noise about wanting to be in front of the camera on that series after being featured in “Picard”.
Sure, this scene was fan service, but there would have been hell to pay if Riker wasn’t in the finale of “Picard” backing up his friend, even in Kurtzman Trek. Not spoilery — that was edited out — and, again, no one was surprised about what happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EArdkwUyWa0
From what I’ve seen of him lately he’d be front, right, left and center camera! 🙂 Seems like a nice guy and I’m probably the only one I know who enjoyed the Thunderbirds movie.
“Trump Tweets: Dominion Deleted 2.7 Million Trump Votes Nationwide, Data Analysis Finds 221,000 PA Votes Switched From Trump To Biden”
https://100percentfedup.com/trump-tweets-dominion-deleted-2-7-million-trump-votes-nationwide-data-analysis-finds-221000-pa-votes-switched-from-trump-to-biden/
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1326926226888544256
““REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.””
If these are true then this is a huge freaking mess. And Trump will be retaking his oath on Jan 20, 2021.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
The underlying assumption is that energy is effectively unlimited, except in battle scenes. 😛
Interesting that the uber-capitalist Ferengi are depicted as grasping, ugly trolls, too.
Interesting that the uber-capitalist Ferengi are depicted as grasping, ugly trolls, too.
The Ferengi storylines on DS9 were much deeper, revealing a complex decision making process behind the course of their civilization going to extreme capitalism, something we noticed over the course of the last nine months, rewatching the reruns.
Quark in particular was really good at killing other humanoids when pressed, particularly the Jem Hadar, supposedly among the most effective soldiers in the galaxy. The other Ferengi weren’t bad with guns either.
No one should confuse Ira Stephen Behr (DS9 showrunner) for a conservative apologist for capitalism. Go watch the “What We Left Behind” documentary.
ST wasn’t at all consistent about no money. See “Mudd’s Women” in TOS, Gold Pressed Latnium in ST:TNG and ST:DS9.
And a little thought reveals how it can’t possible be money free. I want a starship! Or that plot of land. There has to be limits to what you can have, what energy you can expend.
Ridiculous!
I always thought of the Ferengi as the Jews of ST. That may say more about me than them, IDC (much more polite than DILIGAF). They certainly play into the stereotypes. Except for the ears, they look like any number of cartoon drawings from the islamic world.
One of the reasons I still haven’t bothered to watch Avatar is my understanding that they guy is working to get his legs back. Any civilization with enough energy to move a starship and go to other planets does not have a shortage of things like prosthesis or repairs.
That was the howler in Hunger Games too, the society can turn energy into matter, but they have people starving?
n
(yes you can CHOOSE not to, but that’s a different level of callous evil than is shown.)
Who would have guessed that dilithium crystals came from unicorn farts?
Spent some time at my buddy’s store. Every ten minutes someone stuck their head in the door and asked about ammo. Word up, the proprietor of your local is VERY TIRED of having people shout at him from the door about ammo. If you are looking for some, driving from store to store, shouting in the door, and inevitably being told NO! isn’t going to get you any. This is where those relationships you built in meatspace for the last couple of years pay off. Oh, you didn’t do that? ammoseek.com is your best bet, from what I hear online. And sign up for everyone’s enewsletter and special mailings so if they do get stock in, you’ll hear about it. All of my buddy’s suppliers are out of everything and they are not encouraging about stuff coming back into stock. You may be going into what’s coming with what you already have.
All of the ammo manufacturers in the USA are making more ammo for the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. The first thing that the Trumper had to do in office was buy $200 billion of ammo since Obola and Beijing Joe could not be bothered to buy any ammo for the EIGHT YEARS they were in office. Obola and Beijing Joe shot all of the ammo up in their ceaseless wars and then refused to buy any more, waiting for the magic ammo fairy to supply some more.
“Biden Informed Of Pfizer’s Vaccine News Before Government Health Officials”
https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/12/biden-informed-of-pfizers-vaccine-news-before-government-health-officials/
Can you say “collusion” ?
I knew you could.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
LMFAO! Tubby the Tuba! Counselor “Fcuk tRump” Troi must need a hoist to get Riker’s carcass off her.
Breaking Cat News: A Fragile Artisan Tart
https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2020/11/12
No !
“Science Fiction’s Very First “Year’s Best” Anthology” by James Davis Nicoll
https://www.tor.com/2020/11/12/science-fictions-very-first-years-best-anthology/
Neat ! I had no idea that anthologies went that far back. I think I read my first anthology in 1973 or 1974. Maybe from the Science Fiction Book Club.
Only something like this, won in court/SCOTUS, will get tRump a recount. Otherwise it is President HARRIS/plugs in 2021. I’m looking more at the GA runoff to see how much money the ProgLibTurds are flying in. The Redumbos lose one of those and it is Game Over, Man, Game Over! I can see the Camel walking into the Senate and smugly giving a thumbs up or down.
“Biden ‘Science’ Advisor Calls For 4-6 Week Nationwide Lockdown To Avoid “COVID Hell””
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/biden-science-advisor-calls-4-6-week-lockdown-avoid-covid-hell
Me thinks that there is not much science in this guy.
P.S. It is about starving the Kulaks. “President Biden to starve the Kulaks”
https://gunfreezone.net/president-biden-to-starve-the-kulaks/
In other words, punishing the people who supported Trump. A Kulak was a peasant in Russia with more than 8 acres of land who hired helpers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak
I’m traveling faster than light. I am working on a COVID vaccine and the project is part of the Warp Speed program. We have been told when talking with vendors (regarding shipping priority) or other clients (regarding pushing out due dates) to mention “Warp Speed”. Those words exactly. Yesterday we were told we have a rating DO-HR which might mean more to some of you ex-military guys. I’ve been told (too busy too really investigate, yet) that it falls under the Defense Production Act.
Before you ask, no, I’m not the guy that developed the vaccine. Vaccines are big projects with hundreds of scientists involved and I’m just one cog on the development wheel at the CRO (contract research organization) where I work. I have been assigned to develop a test for one manufacturing related impurity to make sure that it is at safely low levels.
“Biden is getting the band back together”
https://gunfreezone.net/biden-is-getting-the-band-back-together/
“It is a list of all the worst people, including some old Obama stooges, to ever work in the DC swamp.”
On the -70 degree storage requirement of the Pfizer COVID vaccine, the article @Lynn linked yesterday said:
Typical freezers don’t get that cold, making distribution of this vaccine a logistical nightmare.
Not really. As I said the other day, the Warp Speed people have been working with the military and the major freight/package carriers to work out delivery plans. If you read the article, the vaccine will come in 1000 to 5000 dose container that can be refilled with dry ice and it can keep the doses for 25 days. They can be kept refrigerated for 5 days after thawing. The plan I would come up with is to have a hub and spoke delivery system – keep it at hubs in the containers and/or freezers. Have appointments made in an area for administration, deliver enough doses there. This kind of thing is already done for some medical supplies that have short shelf life. It’s just scale.
Cool ! Just what I wanted to know, the vaccine will last for five days with refrigeration after being kept with super cooling at -70 C (-94 F).
And yes, I have to admit that Operation Warp Speed seems to have been much more successful than I thought. I figured that we would not have a vaccine ever.
Of course, being a conspiracy nut, will the vaccine work on the new COVIDs developed by the Chinese / Dum-bro-crat consortium to be dumped on the world ?
Only if you can certify and prove that you voted as a democrat in the last election.
Of course they already know how you voted and those records will be released to the companies administering the vaccine.
Yeah, DS9 did a lot of Ferengi stories.
The economy’s finances behind and supporting the Federation’s (government) Star Fleet (military) is mostly ignored in all the Treks. The exceptions like Sisko’s family restaurant or Picard’s winery aren’t fleshed out, in terms of their resource allocation/finances. Going to a restaurant at all must be to socialize and appreciate hand prepared food as an art when a just as tasty meal is available from any nearby replicator. DS9’s Promenade with Quark’s bar and the tailor’s shop are concessions implying rents, but rarely delved into. DS9 implied Fereganar, the planet, as being a fairly harsh place and, IMO, unfettered capitalism is the most efficient way to deal with scarcity. Still, not a big focus for the writers.
As the stories are about the military’s operations on self sufficient vessels that makes it easy to ignore the finances. In any public service job, all the resources are taken as a given, instead of a recognition that such resources had to be vampired first somehow from a productive economy.
I also think that now, today, we Americans of all political stripes, but especially leftists, have been so prosperous for so long without understanding where our relative abundance comes from that we’re cruisin’ for a brusin’ that none will enjoy.
Trek TV and movies repeatedly say “Star Fleet is not military”. I just rewatched one of the *new* movies and Scotty specifically says that. Although, a space ship brimming with phasers and photon torpedoes that are frequently used, screams MILITARY to me.
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. 🙂 Ask the Klingons, Romulans, Dominion, etc.
Spent a couple of hours at the loca tyre store waiting for my turn. Got to chatting with the others waiting too. When the topic got around to Covid, an older woman loudly volunteered “I had the covid in March, it’s not so bad.” We asked what were her symptoms. “Didn’t have a fever or cough, not short of breath either, I was just tired.” We asked how long it went on. “Never went away, I’m still tired”. I asked when she got tested. “Never needed no test” she said angrily “Covid going round and that’s what I got”
I wonder if she counts in the state totals?
I solved the problem with my HP all-in-one 8620 not scanning to my house server. Despite an introduction date well after SMB2 and Windows 8, the 8620 is SMB1 only. At some point in the last year, a Fedora build set a default in Samba to support SMB2 at a minimum.
I set my “min protocol” value to NT1 in Samba and presto!
@Nick – If you’re still having problems talking to Samba on Mint 19.3 in your camera setup, try putting “min protocol = NT1” in the “[global]” section of /etc/samba/smb.conf.
Realize that this does make your Samba server less secure. For me, the tradeoff is worth the convenience of scanning directly to the home account on my server, but, as they say, “Your mileage may vary”. My home server is on our house LAN.
I was unpleasantly short of breath and fevered for a few days last February when Covid only lived in China (Ha!). Was tested last week to return to work, negative. Guess the last puts me on the record.
As the stories are about the military’s operations on self sufficient vessels that makes it easy to ignore the finances. In any public service job, all the resources are taken as a given, instead of a recognition that such resources had to be vampired first somehow from a productive economy.
In Star Trek Voyager, they are continuously running out of food. Nelix bargains for food all over the place for them.
ADD: One of the things about the Star Trek universe is that there was a common entity seeding all of the planets. That way we can eat food from all of the planets, otherwise our bodies would not know how to process the food.
I wonder if she counts in the state totals?
Probably not, but the numbers reporting is corrupted by politics.
My wife went in to have jaw pain checked in a cancer scare at the beginning of October. She never got tested for Covid, but she got an email from the State of Texas telling her that they received her test results.
In Florida, my sister-in-law has reserved time slots for tests twice and failed to make the appointments. Both times, she received letters from the state telling her what to do as a follow up to her having tested positive Covid according to her tests.
The groundwork is being laid for another lockdown in January.
If Abbott indulges Plugs’ lockdown, the Governor needs to be primaried in 2022. It isn’t Californians who are returning him to office with such wide margins. They voted for Lupe Valdez in 2018 and Wendy Davis before that. I still see the “Stand With Wendy” stickers on the occasonal Prius/Versa/Subaru.
(Wendy Davis lost yet another run at higher office than State Senate. Thank God.)
I also think that now, today, we Americans of all political stripes, but especially leftists, have been so prosperous for so long without understanding where our relative abundance comes from that we’re cruisin’ for a brusin’ that none will enjoy.
Food comes from the grocery store ! Where do you think it comes from, those nasty farms ?
“Judge Rules Pennsylvania Ballots Without Proof of Voter ID Can’t be Counted”
https://www.lifenews.com/2020/11/12/judge-rules-pennsylvania-ballots-without-proof-of-voter-id-cant-be-counted/
If this stands, this is big !
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
I still chuckle at the scene from Red Dawn where the Cuban/Russian guy is interogating the American and says something like, “Isn’t your son a member of the paramilitary organization known as the Boy Scouts?”
Trek TV and movies repeatedly say “Star Fleet is not military”
I still chuckle at the scene from Red Dawn where the Cuban/Russian guy is interogating the American and says something like, “Isn’t your son a member of the paramilitary organization known as the Boy Scouts?”
I love the original “Red Dawn” movie. So many sayings: “Wolverines !”, “Boys, avenge me !”, “One million starving scarecrows in Denver”.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087985/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
If this stands, this is big !
If PA requires voter ID.
Virginia only requires the voter ID card, no picture ID. That’s bad enough.
Texas and Florida are, increasingly, anomalies requiring picture ID.
I love the original “Red Dawn” movie. So many sayings: “Wolverines !”, “Boys, avenge me !”, “One million starving scarecrows in Denver”.
The “scarecrow” line courtesy of Powers Boothe. 80s movie fans have a joke that Powers Boothe and Joe Don Baker share a career with the possible exception of the cool performance in “The Guyana Tragedy”. That one is strictly Boothe, but the flick is rarely seen these days since People’s Temple was a liberal cult tragedy involving San Francisco politicians including a young Stretch Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, and the Dems dual sainted Harvey Milk/George Moscone.
(A DVD exists, but it is total cr*p, taken directly from the VHS videotape.)
The idiot Prog husband of my wife’s WA State associate had a saying something to the effect that preppers were delusional if they thought they would “Go Wolverine” on a national government.
I think he had a point to a certain extent, but I’ve always believed that control will be achieved by the camps offering quality WiFi inside the wire — free access to Baby Yoda — and everywhere else reduced to dial Internet with the satellite and cell services restricted to government use only.
Yes. But I can’t find any source for the assertion in Trump’s tweet. The closest is the misreporting in Michigan when numbers from the machine were copied incorrectly on election night, but that wasn’t the official count. And it was corrected when a data check was run on the results that night – the extreme number of votes was spotted and they called back to get corrected numbers. Which were corrected.
If this stands, this is big !
If PA requires voter ID.
Virginia only requires the voter ID card, no picture ID. That’s bad enough.
Texas and Florida are, increasingly, anomalies requiring picture ID.
PA requires voter ID according to the article. Many, if not all, of the 2.5 million mail-in ballots did not have voter id.
“Pa. judge rules late-arriving ballots shall not be counted”
https://www.oann.com/pa-judge-rules-late-arriving-ballots-shall-not-be-counted/
“A Pennsylvania court has ruled late-arriving ballots should not be counted toward the final vote tally.”
“On Thursday a judge sided with the Trump campaign, stating that the Democrat secretary of state in Pennsylvania did not have authority to extend the deadline for mail-in ballots. The judge pointed out that only the state legislature could do such.”
Now we have a dog fight that SCOTUS can sink it’s teeth into.
If these are true then this is a huge freaking mess.
Yes. But I can’t find any source for the assertion in Trump’s tweet. The closest is the misreporting in Michigan when numbers from the machine were copied incorrectly on election night, but that wasn’t the official count. And it was corrected when a data check was run on the results that night – the extreme number of votes was spotted and they called back to get corrected numbers. Which were corrected.
We will know at the end of the Georgia hand recount.
Which, is not an actual total hand count, according to Ken Matthews on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show today. The ballots will be separated by hand into the Biden / Trump / Other piles. Then each pile will be fed into a tabulating machine with it just set to count the number of ballots.
Well……then we find out…regarding the PA votes that the judge is not allowing…
“Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics”
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/11/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics.html
“And even if it was, that overlooks the obvious problem: Kung Flu presents asymptomatically in up to 50% of cases (which is why checking for fever temperatures at building entries is like looking for elephants in trees: asinine and pointless.)”
“And yes, we know a little bit better what to do (and not to do) to care for those hardest hit by Kung Flu. Which will make about a 1-25% difference in fatalities in subsequent waves. Because those in the roughly 3% likely to die, are still going to die. So maybe now the death rate goes down from about 3% to 2.7%. (The death rate for flu, BTW, is about 0.1%, since ever. Don’t you feel better now, knowing this is only 27 times worse than flu, instead of 30 times?)”
Aesop is still sticking with his 3% chance of death if you get Covid. Ok, 2.7%. Or 0% if you get treatment like the Trumper with two experimental drugs.
And Aesop blames the spread on the Asymptomatics. And he is anti-lockdown.
“Space News Ketchup”
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2020/11/space-news-ketchup.html
“On Tuesday, November 10th, NASA completed certification of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon system, removing the last barriers to Saturday’s launch of the first operational mission to the ISS, which will carry a crew of four for a regular rotation to the Space Station, twice the crew size of the demo flight over the summer. Saturday’s 7:49 PM launch will carry NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.”
Man, SpaceX is gonna light a big one Saturday night at the Cape. I sure would like to see it. If I leave now I could just make it.
And they may fly Starship SN8 next week too. We are living in exciting times. I never knew that I was going to watch D. D. Harriman open the Solar System in my later years.
“And even if it was, that overlooks the obvious problem: Kung Flu presents asymptomatically in up to 50% of cases (which is why checking for fever temperatures at building entries is like looking for elephants in trees: asinine and pointless.)”
No, checking temperature still makes a difference protecting providers at the VA … both from patients and, scarier still, each other. My wife is home this week, but when she is in the clinic, she has a near miss at least once a week from a patient who makes it past the initial screening only to pop the therm sitting in the exam room. 100 on the forehead scan = 101-102 fever.
Wuxu Flu at the VA is supposed to go to a separate part of the building.
For some insane reason, people still hide their symptoms with this bug. I can’t decide if it is wishful thinking, FOMO, or a fear that patients will eventually get boarded up in their houses like in China.
FOMO is far more dangerous than any truly asymptomatic patient.
I ordered a FLASHLIGHT from Amazon a few days ago. It’s suppose to be here tomorrow, hasn’t shipped yet. So, whatever…. Prime is doing a great job, not really.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GU556SA?tag=ttgnet-20
I don’t care about seeing where the dogs have made a mess on the carpet. I know where they do, it’s all, beyond a random barf, on the area rug in the living room.
I just want to be able to see the effing scorpions.
Perhaps a correction, I forget exactly what I said yesterday.
The overheard phone call was not for the Grooms Dinner (or whatever it’s called) but for the Wedding Rehearsal Dinner.
Anyway, his Dad is saying No, the last time cost $4500, I’m not doing #3. So they are pissed at each other.
Me? Whatever. I’ve been to two of the boy’s wedding and I was never invited to anything but the actual wedding.
Taught him to walk. His mom is still pissed about that. I had that kid walking all over the house that evening. But hey, dump him on me so y’all can go to a movie? You expected what? 🙂 Sit around and watch TV and “don’t give him any pizza”. Oh, yeah, pizza crust with some sauce? And a bit of pepperoni?
Man, SpaceX is gonna light a big one Saturday night at the Cape. I sure would like to see it. If I leave now I could just make it.
You could leave tomorrow morning and be in a hotel in Orlando by midnight. I’ve made the drive.
Just be sure to stock up on quarters for the run out to Kennedy on the Bee Line Expressway. And watch the Alabama State Patrol’s “move over” law traps: $269 with court costs.
If you’re in Orlando on Saturday afternoon, stop at the Beefy King for lunch. Be sure to get the tater tots. They close at 3PM.
The risk with going is always a scrub of the launch. What does the window look like?
Paul, try shining your new UV FLASHLIGHT between your toes. A mild case of Athlete’s Foot will fluoresce a beautiful coral color.
(yes, you needed to know that :-p )
@Lynn
“Neat ! I had no idea that anthologies went that far back. I think I read my first anthology in 1973 or 1974. Maybe from the Science Fiction Book Club.”
1949 was the earliest contemporaneous “Best of Year”. Co-editor Bleiler’s second edition (1972) checklist was a reference bible for decades. isfdb.com is a great time waster now.
Wolheim edited the “Pocket Book of Science Fiction” (Pocket Books 214) in 1943. He stands out as a notable science fiction author in his own right, and as the founder and publisher of DAW books.
Healy and McComas “Adventures In Time And Space” in 1946 was 900+ pages and had 35 stories. It is generally recognized as a top-level classic (first out, first pick?) and the first edition is worth seeking out, as the second edition trimmed 5 stories and the paperbacks were likewise incomplete.
Shortly after in 1948 was “A Treasury of Science Fiction” by Groff Conklin, who went on to do another 30 or so sf anthologies. “50 Short Science Fiction Tales” is a classic.
Peruse the two title lists and there is one name with multiple entries that may be somewhat unfamiliar: Henry Kuttner. Bradbury called him a “neglected master” in his intro to Ballantine’s “The Best of Henry Kuttner” in the mid-70’s. Recommended, but you need to find a copy of “Robots Have No Tails” (aka “The Proud Robot”) to get all the Gallegher stories.
@paul
Don’t forget the cat pee.
I loved the Years Bests. I also subscribed to Omni magazine to get the best SF short stories….
n
And the SF book club. I’ve got so many great hardbacks, but they’re book club editions and only good for reading or shredding.
SFBC:
The biggest exceptions were the “Best of” collections when this article was written in 2003:
https://www.bookthink.com/0005/05sfb.htm
Driven by fan demand, eBay results are good for Elric and Star Wars.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8942237/Portland-protester-filmed-beating-man-unconscious-sentenced-nearly-2-years-jail.html
followup
n
@drwilliams, thanks for that link. I assumed that there were NO collectible SFBC versions, and it’s nice to see that there are at least a couple, although I don’t have any of the listed volumes.
I found a paperback of James Blish’s Cities in Flight after reading a pulp copy of Jack of Eagles. The spindizzy still resonates with me… and I still have both books on the shelf, I just checked.
I read the Amber books in SFBC omnibuses, and the first several Pern trilogies. That was great value for money when I was a starving student. I was a subscriber for a long time. I don’t remember why I stopped, or exactly when, but it would have been before 1992. Some time after that, I discovered Mysterious Galaxy bookstore in San Diego and started buying signed firsts… Maybe it was when I was moving around too much and getting my mail general delivery.
I still have most of them.
n
I loved the Years Bests. I also subscribed to Omni magazine to get the best SF short stories….
n
And the SF book club. I’ve got so many great hardbacks, but they’re book club editions and only good for reading or shredding.
I stopped taking SFBC in 1977 when I was getting ready for college and did not have the money. I lost all but one of the SFBC books, “Dune”, in The Great Flood of 1989 of which only about 200 books out of a couple thousand survived.
I had most of my books in a wardrobe box (or 5, dont remember due to the trauma) in the garage which got a foot of flood water in it. The books wicked the water up over three foot into the box. Once wet, they were gone since most were MMPB (mass market paperbacks). I did not discover the damage until a day or two later and they were already moldy.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8942237/Portland-protester-filmed-beating-man-unconscious-sentenced-nearly-2-years-jail.html
followup
n
Marquise Love?
As Scott Adams is wont to say, the simulation is definitely messing with us. 🙁
And Weiner, “Made-off”, and Bobbit aren’t out of Central Casting?
My weekly newsletter from the Governor of Texas has this little passage….
Holy cow that would be a coup.
n
“The First VP of Color Wouldn’t Be Kamala Harris – It Was a Republican Elected Over 90 Years Ago”
https://hermancain.com/first-vp-color-wouldnt-kamala-harris-republican-elected-90-years-ago/
Neat. Doubly neat since my wife is either 1/4 or 1/2 Cherokee.
The shantytowns are growing
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8943189/Homeless-building-McMansions-LA-sidewalks.html
third world. we’re almost there.
n
@nick
I read the Amber books in SFBC omnibuses, and the first several Pern trilogies
I’ve still got mine tucked into a box in the garage, somewhere. Read them until the pages were tatters. Loved those books so much.
Alaska is headed for a hard lockdown, soon. Governor making noises today that if we don’t all STFU and wear our masks, we’re going to have to stand in the corner with dunce caps. Our interim mayor hired three code enforcers specifically to enforce masking fines ($50 per individual, $300 per business) and I don’t know what else.
Our poor country.
In happier news, the kits born Tuesday before last are making great gains. The combined weight of the seven kits was 1,200 grams tonight. Several have -nearly- opened their eyes. Doe is being a mostly good mother. She will nurse voluntarily every 16 hours. Not a convenient schedule for this human. I took her the kits at 7 Am to nurse, she hopped in happily, gave them 100 grams of milk in three minutes, hopped out. Seven roly poly happy kits. I wasn’t going to stay up until 1 AM to take them on her schedule. I took them out three hours ahead of her schedule at 10 PM. She hopped in immediately, had second thoughts, and hopped out again almost as fast. I unceremoniously dumped her back in her nest box and blocked her exit. Made her stay there for a full four minutes. Let her hop out, gave her a handful of sunflower seeds and returned her kits to the garage. Roly poly kits. Content doe munching her treat. All good.
And in a final bit of welcome news – I collected our first four eggs tonight. These are hens that hatched May 15. We got our rabbits around the same time. I’ve had multiple meals from the rabbits in the same time frame. Things to consider if you’re working on feeding your family. Granted the hens could forage more readily than the rabbits, and with six hens that’s a good 500-600 calories a day from them, steady and reliable as long as I keep them lit through the winter and they don’t get stressed. Feeding the rabbits without access to commercial pellets would be far more difficult than the hens. They can browse on woody stuff, or green stuff, but I can’t turn them loose like the chickens to feed themselves and expect them to stick around.
Anyhow.
Four eggs. It’s a good start.
Yay!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8942237/Portland-protester-filmed-beating-man-unconscious-sentenced-nearly-2-years-jail.html
followup
Portland was never truly out of control.
My weekly newsletter from the Governor of Texas has this little passage….
MEETING WITH NASDAQ AND OTHER TRADING EXCHANGES ABOUT MOVING THEIR HEADQUARTERS TO TEXAS
Holy cow that would be a coup.
The NASDAQ “floor” is actually a cluster of servers in New Jersey. If they move, it would be about some kind of communication speed advantage more than taxes or regulation.
@jenny, that’s great news and great progress!
It may seem a bit slow at times, but it’s steady, and that will get you there.
n
Did I mention I ate my first grapefruit off my tree? It was as good as commercial grown.