Wet and cool.
Rained most of last night. We had just over an inch total for the day at 11pm and it was still coming down fairly hard.
I’ll be at school doing the Fifth grade classes. We’re going to do the same thing again as the Fifth graders haven’t seen this activity before. Saved me coming up with something new yesterday evening too.
I got a funny email the other day. It was from Basecamp, the online project management and collaboration site that was all “web 2.0”. It let me know that my account was going to be deleted for inactivity. So I logged in. It has been 10 1/2 YEARS since I used their site. That’s a long time to carry an inactive account 🙂 they are still there though, and still look about the same as they did. Their emphasis was on simplicity and limited features.
It made me feel old. I’ve been using AOL longer than some of the teachers at the kids’ school have been alive.
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Speaking of being alive, the chinese coronavirus is here in the US, and spreading throughout the world. No way they get this genie back in the bottle. This bears close watching. It’s pretty lethal and they say it already mutated. If you haven’t made preps to stay home and wait for it to burn out, you might want to stack some food and necessities. If it takes off, you will NOT want to be around people. I figure we’ve got a week, if it’s bad and takes off, before the panic starts. Maybe two weeks or a bit longer if it takes a while for the deaths to start. Not kidding, and not fun.
Go out and buy some food. And face masks are gonna disappear from the shelves pretty dang quick.
nick
If a new disease springs up in your country and spreads to the rest of the world, you might just be a third-world shithole.
Oh, and FIRST POST!!!!
You miss-spelled “frist”.
And stupid spell-check corrected my intentional spelling.
If the disease becomes rampant, a vaccine is developed, I wonder how the anti-vaccine crowd will respond. Or maybe THEY just become extinct.
Hmmm, speaking of extinction, I wonder how one could get the bug in the congressional chambers? Asking for a friend.
If a new disease springs up in your country and spreads to the rest of the world, you might just be a third-world shithole.
Vantucky (Vencouver, WA, USA)! God help us if the next WA case pops up in that part of the state.
I already had a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card for life regarding our Vantucky Exodus once the Measles pandemic hit. Then, the very office where my wife worked turned out to be one of the hot zones.
(Yes, “pandemic” qualifies if you consider Hawaii as separate from the North American continent.)
The website for my wife’s former employer has a banner at the top of their web page this morning indicating that they are experiencing high call volumes, suggesting booking appointments through their MyChart system. Things that make you say “Hmmmm”.
https://tvc.org/
The clinic is the de facto health department for Clark County, WA since the actual health department is practically non existent.
UPDATE: Driving in to work this morning, the San Antonio Clear Channel talk station was reporting that Coronovirus originated with people eating snakes (yummy) from one seafood market in Wuxan. Dunno if that is accurate or not. This is the station which created the “gas shortage” post Harvey in Texas a couple of years ago.
xkcd: Solar System Changes
https://www.xkcd.com/2258/
Wow. Randall is living large today.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2258:_Solar_System_Changes
“A DirecTV Satellite May Explode Due to Battery Malfunction”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-directv-satellite-may-explode-due-to-battery-malfunction
“‘Significant and irreversible thermal damage’ means any attempt to recharge the batteries onboard the Spaceway-1 satellite could result in the cells bursting.”
Oops.
The Earth may look like the used and thrown away world in the WALL-E Pixar movie some day.
Home from school.
Everything went well today. I brought my rocks (from the geology session) home too.
————–
Um, I don’t want to be an alarmist, but…
“
China On Edge Of Chaos: “7 Cities, 23 Million People Under Quarantine”
by Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/23/2020 – 11:38
7 Chinese cities, around 23 million people, effectively under quarantine
Multiple cases across the world – from Scotland to Singapore and USA
634 Infected (according to Chinese officials), 647 including cases outside China.
18 Dead (following 1st death outside Wuhan)
WHO says “not the time to declare a global health emergency”
“Make no mistake: This is an emergency in China,” Tedros said. “But it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one.””
Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark. I’m headed out to get gas and some other stuff.
n
Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark. I’m headed out to get gas and some other stuff.
If I still lived in Vantucky, I would check to see if all the normally-absent fathers were home at the Mainland Chinese bugout pads in my neighborhood. Pretty typical — mom, kids, and parents stashed in a quiet West Coast neighborhood the US close to a decent airport while dad continued to put money in the bank leveraging the output of slave labor back home.
Of course, not being involved in the community beyond possibly the schools, those living in the bugout pads around me probably aren’t aware that Vantucky’s healthcare infrastrcture already proved itself unable to deal with a relatively minor pandemic adequatly with the Measles cases last year.
On second thought, maybe pandemic wasn’t among the potential problems back home they had considered.
Our local Chinese Community has canceled all Chinese New Year and other public activities activities “because” of the coronavirus. I believe it is more worry about some sort of protest and/or demonstration against the Chinese Community. There is a large Chinese Community in WA State going back to the beginnings of the transcontinental railroads.
Don’t believe any governments’ line regarding the spread of the coronavirus.
I was going to head over to the Habitat ReStore and by several cases of masks but got caught up in the stuff I had to do first. I’m headed there tomorrow am. I’ve got masks, cases really, but now I want more. The numbers and countries are changing at a rate that is very alarming to me.
I was going to head over to the Habitat ReStore and by several cases of masks but got caught up in the stuff I had to do first. I’m headed there tomorrow am. I’ve got masks, cases really, but now I want more. The numbers and countries are changing at a rate that is very alarming to me.
TAMU?
What kills me is that the academics should be aware of the situation and where they’ve traveled in the last month. If I had just returned from that part of China and started running a fever, I would have been in the doctor’s office ASAP.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article239576813.html
Living in a remote area of Texas is no guarantee of avoiding pandemic anymore. Taylor has a semi-hush hush detention center for processing Chinese illegals, and I’m sure there are others around. What mayor wouldn’t want a Federal payroll in town?
It may already be close to you guys in Texas:
Student at Texas A&M University being treated for suspected case of novel coronavirus
Thanks to Drudge Report
It may already be close to you guys in Texas:
Student at Texas A&M University being treated for suspected case of novel coronavirus
Lovely, the snake flu is already here in Texas.
Speaking of critter flus:
Near the end of my active duty Army hitch, probably 1987, I had to sit through yet another HIV/AIDS training class. This one had me (a First Lieutenant), a Major or LTC, and three junior enlisted, PFC or thereabouts, up in the first row. This was, I think, the third mandatory HIV/AIDS training I’d had to attend in under a year and a half, in addition to AIDS being covered in the broader disease threat briefings before going overseas for my other job, and there was nothing new being presented so I was bored and irritated and possessed of no more fucks to give than I normally had.*
At the end of the training the (very short and grossly overweight) woman asked if there were any questions. Lieutenant Zerofuckstogive asked, “HIV is mostly sexually transmitted, right?” Mm-hmm. “And HIV originated in green monkeys, right?” Mm-hmm. “So how did HIV get from monkeys to humans?” One of the privates started to giggle, then all three froze in terror because a field-grade officer was right behind them. What they didn’t see was the LT with a butter-won’t-melt-in-my-mouth smile and the Major/LTC practically convulsing as he tried not to laugh out loud. Meanwhile, the trainer was stammering out one incomplete explanation after another, ending with “Probably a monkey bit a human.” I call that day a success.
* You’d think that an Army officer who’d joined the Army for no reason other than patriotism would, in fact, be possessed of at least a minimal number of fucks to give. Well, after seeing bumbling incompetence, bullying, and self-serving corruption among senior officers, documents highly classified solely to protect even more senior officers and Special Executive Service civilians from embarrassment, and no national interest served by the great expense in blood and treasure, the fucks were worn mighty thin. Also, I was one of those officers who aren’t punctilious about the niceties of protocol and who are less than outstanding in ordinary troop units, but who pull off miracles if a senior officer is savvy enough to give a difficult job and then get out of the way. My “day job” bosses thought I walked on water and my “moonlighting” boss said I was welcome to work with his A team any time.
Meanwhile, the trainer was stammering out one incomplete explanation after another, ending with “Probably a monkey bit a human.” I call that day a success.
They always cover with the “monkey bit a human” story. Everyone knows the truth.
“Everybody knows sheep lie.”
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7920787/Chinese-coronavirus-Q-know-virus-far.html
I wonder what the sand monkeys will catch from camels. Asking for a friend.
In other, less pandemic-y news, “Picard” isn’t screwed up like the “Star Wars” movies.
Note I wrote *movies*. Dave Filoni has done a decent job with “Star Wars” TV.
OTOH, if the purpose of “Rise of Skywalker” was to sell theme park tickets, I think The Mouse has succeeded beyond all expectations. The success of the Baby Yoda show probably helped, however.
99 out of 100 who try camels prefer women. (snark)
Aye yi yi!
n’n