Cool and damp.
Had nice temps and clear sky yesterday, with a good breeze most of the day. A good day for all the yard work I’ve been skipping. I pruned the apple and citrus trees. Looks like it might be time to prune the grapevines. Blew a bunch of leaves out of stuff piled on the patio and the driveway. I added more soil to the windowbox that is planted with asparagus. I’ve never harvested any, it ‘runs’ too quickly and gets ‘fern-y’. Also added soil to the raised bed for the herbs.
Tried to cut the grass but the air filter in the mower was wet and completely clogged. I thought I had a spare, but couldn’t find it. If you can’t find it, you don’t have it.
The coronavirus (WuFlu) situation continues to evolve. The chinese actions don’t match their words, in that they are going all out while the numbers aren’t very terrifying. Take this seriously. Even if you didn’t get sick, what if your city was quarantined? Water filter, and rice, with stuff to add to the rice as a bare minimum….you know the drill. And if not, use the keywords on the right —————>>
Keep stacking.
n
There’s no telling what the truth is, about the Corona virus. China is not playing with open cards. The best estimates I have read – which are probably not a lot better than guessing – put the fatality rate at around 5%. That puts it in the ballpark of the worst influenza (flu) epidemics, or maybe a little higher. Which is bad, but hardly the “zombie apocalypse”. If China can keep things more-or-less under control for a few months, vaccinations will become available, which will make control a lot easier.
Ugh, I’m unmotivated today. A solid week of bad weather is incoming, which probably contributes. Also sleep deprivation. Our ancient cat has decided that my chest is her bed. She’s restless, though, so she sleeps, gets up, wanders around, comes back. Locking her out of the bedroom isn’t an option: then she howls like she’s being tortured, which is worse than being used as a mattress. Who’s the boss here, anyway?
I am wondering if China intentionally released the virus in an attempt to accomplish two things.
1. To reduce the population in their country, especially the old and weak.
2. Influence the world markets as an attempt to get back at the Trumpster and his hard bargaining trade deals. The “scare” is certainly affecting the markets.
Or it was an accident, released from a lab, or perhaps by a disgruntled employee (or slave).
If you own a cat you shouldn’t even be asking.
You don’t own cats, they own you.
The chinese response to this outbreak doesn’t seem to be consistent with a minor flu, with lower mortality than SARS and only a couple thousand out of 10s of millions, and only 80 deaths.
The chinese response DOES seem to be consistent with 90 000 infected, dead people piling up in hallways, and an ACCIDENTAL RELEASE of something really nasty from the BL-4 research lab in Wuhan.
Just my opinion.
n
(BL-4 lab in Wuhan is a fact, CDC website talks about training the staff there. They’ve also had a previous accidental release.)
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/5/18-0220_article
The map is filling in….
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/27/13/23932202-0-image-a-157_1580132117808.jpg
n
Same as I was thinking. Stopping transportation, blocking entrances and exits to cities, scanning at airports, etc. This goes way beyond a simple flu. This is something major and China knows. I suspect they are refusing to fully explain.
Or as I previously stated, it was intentional. Then perhaps got a little out of hand.
And, you don’t build one, I mean two, no FOUR emergency treatment centers with bricks and mortar if you think it’s a minor temporary problem.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7933719/Incredible-footage-shows-Chinas-1-000-bed-coronavirus-hospital-taking-shape-four-days.html
I wonder where they will get the beds and machines for each new hospital? Are there warehouses of those things just sitting idle?
n
“The meeting comes as a team of scientists following the outbreak closely announced they think more than 100,000 people have been infected already – considerably more than the official toll of around 2,800. Their estimate comes after another team of researchers in the UK and US last week predicted 350,000 could be infected in Wuhan alone by February 4.
Cases of the never-before-seen virus in China have now been confirmed in every province of China except Tibet.
Cambodia has today become the 15th country or territory outside of China to confirm the virus has spread there, and Mongolia closed its border and is refusing to let vehicles or pedestrians from China into the country.
Twenty-four deaths were reported overnight on Sunday, including that of a nine-month-old baby in Beijing, who became the youngest victim of the outbreak so far. ”
Isn’t it funny Mustache Boy’s book draft gets into the hands of the MSM just after Schiff for Brains fails in his Senate *speech*. They *finally* got tRump now!
Something is very odd with the building of the facility. That concrete will not fully cure in less than seven days before it can be used for significant load bearing. I also question all the trac-hoes operating, must moving dirt from one location to another. If I wanted to move that much dirt out of the way of a building I would employ half a dozen D10H dozer to shove the dirt aside, not 50 trac-hoes.
Where the building plans already in place, drawn up years earlier? How will water, sewer, electricity be provided in less than 10 days? That does not even take into consideration compressed air, oxygen, suction and other items needed to support a hospital infastructure. And as was questioned earlier, where are all the needed supplies going to come from to support the patients?
Why not employ mobile medical facilities as used by the US military? Those can be setup in a few days, fully supplied and operational. Could it be that China does not have such facilities?
China is not being truthful about all that is happening with this virus, in my opinion.
Good point Ray, where is the in slab plumbing? you can bring everything else in from above but every slab I’ve ever seen has plumbing sticking up thru it….
You can put additives in concrete to make it kick off faster, and you don’t need full strength right away.
The dozer comment is right on, I noticed that too. You don’t generally get wide flat areas from the backhoes. Maybe that’s how they do it there.
My experience with chinese construction techniques is that it’s all mud and sticks under a skim coat of ‘looks good’. Or rubble and concrete.
And what’s happening in the OTHER cities in Huewi province?
n
You cannot drain sinks, tubs, showers, etc. from above. There has to be a lower drain. You don’t generally get wide flat areas from the backhoes. Track-hoes are used for digging, removing large quantities of dirt, not smoothing areas. It is difficult to get a level surface because of the articulation of the arms. I ran a back-hoe on a tractor on the farm and it was not easy to get a level surface. We always used some sort of blade on a tractor or dozer to level and smooth areas.
I think it is more sinister. Not certain what.
Yes, you can. But that fast cure impacts the overall strength of the concrete. You also have to have some way to remove the heat generated in that quick curing process. But as you said, construction techniques in China may not really care. Just wait until the next minor earthquake to rebuild.
Or it was an accident, released from a lab, or perhaps by a disgruntled employee (or slave).
The pork shortage has driven the Chinese to weird sources of protein, and even if the pork shortage wasn’t an issue, they’ll eat some weird things in the pursuit of sexual potency. I’ll go with the snake meat theory.
Compounding the problem, again, based on what I’ve observed with my in-laws, is that the medical expert in any household is the “Big Ayi”, Number One Auntie, usually aged and batsh*t crazy. I swear most of the folk medicine advice dispensed by my wife’s Big Ayi is made up, and I can’t imagine things are different in the mother country.
Of course, no one dares say that a Big Ayi is batsh*t crazy, and if everyone in the family wants to keep their share of the family racket proceeds flowing, they go along with the insanity.
Catching up. Noticed the link to Polly’s (Greta) net worth a couple days ago. 49 milllionnn smackeroonies!1!! Good start for a kid. I was nowhere near that rich as a kid:-(
Still not quite there 🙂
Yep, about 10^-57 times, or so.
Maybe a leeetle better than that.
Hey, what’s a little insanity when you’re rollin’ in it?
Backhoes! Used to bury bodies.
It’s coming out Kobe Bryant’s pilot went for the sucker hole. Killed them all out of complacency and arrogance. He probably jumped in solo ‘cause it’s Kobe. 200mph into a mountain. Nothing left.
Hey, what’s a little insanity when you’re rollin’ in it?
With my wife’s cousins, putting up with a little insanity means the 5- to 6-figure annual checks keep flowing. They all live in paid off West Coast houses, and one cousin has three houses — San Diego, San Francisco, and Issaquah (Seattle).
Kobe was dribbling down the mountain after he was pureed.
They must be slipping. I was expecting a school shooting or another gay bar massacre.
If you WANTED to hide a mass grave from, oh say, an infectious outbreak, building a hospital on top of the site would work well….
just sayin’…
n
Sort of my thought. Backhoes are used for digging, and covering. Pouring a slab of concrete over the graves is a good way to hide the misdeeds. There is little infrastructure in that concrete pad and very little steel for a building designed to hold 1,000
inmatespatients. To get that many people in that size building, plus the staff, plus the equipment, would require more than one level. I see nothing in the concrete that would provide enough support for upper levels. Steel supports for upper levels are usually put up before the concrete is poured on the ground level.But in China I suspect construction standards are substandard to downright dangerous. A few hundred lives lost in construction is acceptable.
Get woke, go broke.
Or in this case, go for broke, double down and re-up her contract….
https://cosmicbook.news/doctor-who-worse-ratings-31-years
“Sunday’s episode of Doctor Who is also the eighth least-watched episode of the entire run which kicked off in 1963, and the lowest watched of the new series.
The numbers for Doctor Who have gone down consistently with each new episode as the series has lost near one million viewers since the debut episode for Season 12 on New Year’s Day.”
n
Or in this case, go for broke, double down and re-up her contract….
AT&T cut a deal with the BBC for streaming rights, and that probably saved the jobs of everyone at “Doctor Woke”. Merch sales are non existent, and the writers p*ssed off Amazon last year, costing the BBC the previous streaming deal.
The ratings for Sunday’s episode won’t end up terrible after overnights and DVR are factored into the calculation because the producers brought in John Barrowman in a surprise guest appearance. The sequence looked rushed, however, as if it had been shot within the last week and inserted.
John Barrowman did not have any scenes with Jodie Whitaker.
Ironically, John Barrowman, an openly gay actor playing a character, Captain Jack, with a nebulous sexual preference is hugely popular with the non-Woke fan base *because he’s a good actor who is entertaining to watch* (imagine), but calling him in was a sign of desperation.
I’ve seen rumors of other surprise guest appearances, specifically David Tennant’s, which I hope are not true.
What upset the “Doctor Who” fans? One Doctor Woke wasn’t enough so on Sunday, they doubled down with a “woman of color” playing a lost incarnation whose place in the character’s timeline remains undisclosed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iMCrJPD8VY
How does one get into such a deal? Asking for a friend.
On second thought, if it is what I suspect, never mind. Even my friend wouldn’t be interested.
You have friends? Or just singular?
Regarding construction standards, I was in China in 1990. I saw a multistorey concrete parking structure under construction. The pillars and beams were poured about four levels, about half of finished elevation. The amount of rebar and the thickness of the structural members were impressive. I asked our guide, and he said earthquakes were common in the area, so the construction needed to be resistant. Looked stout to me. I am not a civil engineer, but I sometimes play one. 😉
chinese response to this outbreak doesn’t seem to be consistent with a minor flu
Same as I was thinking. Stopping transportation, blocking entrances and exits to cities, scanning at airports, etc. This goes way beyond a simple flu. This is something major and China knows. I suspect they are refusing to fully explain.
Or as I previously stated, it was intentional. Then perhaps got a little out of hand.
A 5% fatality rate is nothing to sneeze at. Especially with a one week incubation period.
I have often maintained that if 10% of the population is sick or infirmed, the other 90% will spend 100% of their time taking care of them. Sounds like China is going to test that theory out. Maybe us too.
I have two friends, but only one was interested.
Get woke, go broke.
Or in this case, go for broke, double down and re-up her contract….
https://cosmicbook.news/doctor-who-worse-ratings-31-years
“Sunday’s episode of Doctor Who is also the eighth least-watched episode of the entire run which kicked off in 1963, and the lowest watched of the new series.
The numbers for Doctor Who have gone down consistently with each new episode as the series has lost near one million viewers since the debut episode for Season 12 on New Year’s Day.”
I did not know that Dr. Who even had a million viewers …
From the CDC call today– link to transcript
“Update (1150ET): Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the Director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), spoke on behalf of the CDC. During the press conference, she said that the US had identified 110 people who are under observation and being tested for the virus. While 5 cases have already been identified in the US, another 32 have definitively tested negative.”
–they are in 26 states now
n
By my standards that makes you popular.
That’s two more than I have, or want.
Ten or more years ago I did a cost-benefit analysis of having friends. At least for the people I considered friends at the time, the bottom line was grossly in the red. I let them drift away, didn’t bother to replace them, and haven’t missed them.
Looking again at the video from the hospital construction site, there are some dozers, and you can see plumbing stub ups…
n
I did not know that Dr. Who even had a million viewers …
3-4 million in the UK every week is typical as of late, and that’s a 30 year low. Ten years ago, at the end of Matt Smith’s first season as lead, IIRC, 65% of the TV sets in the country tuned in to see the opening of “The Pandorica”.
The UK viewers do not pay the bills, however, and that’s why it is a problem for viewership to fall off in the US and other overseas markets. Even BBC America has to pay the parent BBC for the rights to broadcast the show.
“…putting up with a little insanity means the 5- to 6-figure annual checks keep flowing.”
How does one get into such a deal? Asking for a friend.
On second thought, if it is what I suspect, never mind. Even my friend wouldn’t be interested.
As I’ve written before here about my in-laws, the true cost of anything you receive from them is your immortal soul.
We’ve never taken significant money from my in-laws, even when my wife was in school, and I wrote all the checks for our wedding.
Some friends come with benefits. 😉
Yeah, I thought so. There were people like that where I grew up. Stay clear.
What could possibly go wrong.
https://www.ktva.com/story/41616471/us-evacuation-flight-from-epicenter-of-coronavirus-outbreak-to-stop-in-anchorage
Even without this, Anchorage fits a number of the criteria Greg threw out yesterday / day before.
——-
Last night, The congregation behind my daughters school voted to close the school at the end of this school year. There were a lot of maddening half truths at the meeting. Sometimes humans suck. I’ve been anticipating this and have a half formed notion to either form a new school (shockingly little red tape in Alaska) which will be financially difficult but could be viable, or move en masse to the same school to reduce the pain for the kids.
There are perhaps 6 private schools in Anchorage, capacity for about 2,000 kids. One fewer, even as small as we were, is a big deal from my primarily libertarian mindset and an enormous loss of freedom.
The secular schools run 14k-20k annually, the religious $6k-$11k, with congregations funding the real costs. Part of what killed this school was bringing the teachers salaries into line with the wages and benefits dictated by WELS, including a $22k annual housing benefit on top of salary. Plus the stupid apathy of Church leadership.
Sorry to hear that, Jenny. As a product of Catholic schools, with just enough time in a government school to know the difference, I can easily sense your frustration over the coming loss. I can only imagine what things are like today. My hat’s off to Nick, Ray, and others who do what they can to improve things.
Last night, The congregation behind my daughters school voted to close the school at the end of this school year. There were a lot of maddening half truths at the meeting. Sometimes humans suck. I’ve been anticipating this and have a half formed notion to either form a new school (shockingly little red tape in Alaska) which will be financially difficult but could be viable, or move en masse to the same school to reduce the pain for the kids.
Is the congregation getting smaller ? 90% of the Christian congregations in the USA are getting smaller. And their populations are rapidly aging. An aging population means more people on fixed income.
Who is WELS ? Ah, Lutherans. Definitely getting smaller.
http://welspnw.weebly.com/alaska.html
And the teacher wage increases were mandated by people running the Lutheran church. Not good.
Our church is autonomous. Works better that way for us. No mandates from a mysterious authority. God’s mandates are more than enough.
“Kobe Bryant’s helicopter pilot was given ‘special clearance to fly at or below 2,500 feet in dangerous weather conditions’ – relying only on his eyesight rather than instruments before the crash”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7934407/Helicopter-crashed-killing-Kobe-8-circled-15-minutes-Burbank.html
And no copilot ? One pilot and eight passengers, big chopper.
Flying at 184 mph under VFR in dense fog ?
That is a big debris field.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
I doubt China is worried about their own population: they have that under control. They started with their one-child policy, which conveniently extended itself since many peasants drowned their girls. Now, with their social rating system, people will comply with government policy or become non-people.
Much of the rest of Asia is overpopulated, but stable. The place to worry about is Africa. African population is exploding.. This is already causing plenty of problems. Look at the number of children in that graph. If we think African economic migrants are a problem now, just wait a few years…
China is entering Africa for the long term. If China’s government is cold-blooded enough, they might try to solve the overpopulation problem before it gets any farther out of hand.
I went back to the AT&T store to pay my DirecTV bill again this afternoon. When they told me last week that I could not pay with a check, I left. I failed to ask if I could pay with cash. Turns out, yes, I could pay with cash.
It took three of them and ten minutes to pay my cash and get six pages of receipts. Unreal. AT&T is dead.
I just signed up for a Discover card. Hopefully I will get past this nightmare by having two credit cards. If, my MasterCard ever comes back to life.
I just got called by the Social Security Administration and had my social security number suspended due to suspicious activity. I hit one to speak with the representative and some woman popped up with a horrible Alabama accent with a nasty VOIP squeal. I laughed for a minute and then hung up while she was asking me for my info.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/12/what-social-security-scam-sounds
“If China’s government is cold-blooded enough, they might try to solve the overpopulation problem before it gets any farther out of hand. ”
–the chinese are xenophobic racists, who believe the darker your skin, the lower your class and worth. They’d depopulate africa in a heartbeat.
Funny that with all the chinese in africa there aren’t any cases there yet.
n
At my church AT&T called and wants to replace my modem with one that provides digital voice. We are currently on copper because we have an old PBX that requires copper. I don’t know if the new modem will provide the copper output that the PBX requires. A new PBX, and the dozen phones, is completely out of the question due to finance issues. I don’t know if AT&T is going to force the issue. I will find out Wednesday when I talk with them.
I get those almost daily, either for me or my wife. I press “1” to talk with someone. I then lead them on as long as possible, sounding completely distressed and clueless. After a period of time when I am no longer amused I tell them that I am from the FBI and have kept them on the line to allow a trace of their number and have determined their location. A warrant will be issued. Gets rid of them.
Exactly the same with the Japanese.
Now it’s in Germany–
On the plus side, we now know that you CAN evacuate a city of 5 million people, you just tell them that you will be instituting a quarantine, trapping them with a deadly virus and no food…..
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7934457/Deserted-Wuhan-tourist-films-streets-Chinese-coronavirus-epicentre.html
The mayor said 5 million may have left before the quarantine went into effect.
n
At my church AT&T called and wants to replace my modem with one that provides digital voice. We are currently on copper because we have an old PBX that requires copper. I don’t know if the new modem will provide the copper output that the PBX requires. A new PBX, and the dozen phones, is completely out of the question due to finance issues. I don’t know if AT&T is going to force the issue. I will find out Wednesday when I talk with them.
Yeah, AT&T hates that copper. I pay a mint for mine, but I’ve never had a copper voice line fail, even during two Cat 2 hurricanes in FL. Depending on your state, the regulation isn’t nearly as tight on the digital services.
It took three of them and ten minutes to pay my cash and get six pages of receipts. Unreal. AT&T is dead.
The corporate stores are unionized, even in Texas. Randall and Stankey broke the union a decade ago — with Steve Jobs help — but a lot of Midwest and California are closed shop states so both sides will go through the motions.
Once the company gets over the hump of paying for it, the Warner Bros. catalog will be the cash cow financing The Death Star’s stupidity. Give it a couple of years and all of the studio’s TV shows will be back on Netflix.
–the chinese are xenophobic racists, who believe the darker your skin, the lower your class and worth. They’d depopulate africa in a heartbeat.
My wife’s Chinese relatives are fond of the word “colored”. One cousin almost wet himself one evening when he dropped the term once he realized that the big white redneck (me) was in the room and heard it.
Wanna see something really fun and messed up? Google for the history of “Darlie” toothpaste. I regularly saw it on the shelves in Orlando’s Little Saigon area with the original name and logo up until the early 90s.
This chart looks f’ing crazy. What’s the mortality rate for this infection?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wuhan-mayor-offers-resign-coronavirus-death-toll-accelerates-supply-shortages
n
That’s freaking vertical in a day or two.
granted, part of this is an artifact of getting definitive tests done, and better access to testing, but oh jebus look out.
This chart looks f’ing crazy. What’s the mortality rate for this infection?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wuhan-mayor-offers-resign-coronavirus-death-toll-accelerates-supply-shortages
n
That’s freaking vertical in a day or two.
granted, part of this is an artifact of getting definitive tests done, and better access to testing, but oh jebus look out.
They stopped faking the numbers. Now we are seeing the real numbers.
And I suspect the people of Wuhan starting scattering to the four winds weeks ago. Maybe a month ago. Snake Flu reputedly has a one week incubation time with no symptoms.
“They stopped faking the numbers. ”
–still fake but they have to start moving toward reality, because if there are thousands dead, that WILL come out.
n
One of my auction contacts told me today that they just sold a whole truckload of N95 masks to some guy who will be shipping them to China/hong kong/etc.
$110K. He said they’d been trying to sell the truckload for 5 years. Made their money today….
n
Jeez, really Avast?
Fer pete’s sake.
n
Jeez, really Avast?
When the price is free …
I’ve been experimenting with Fedora Silverblue off and on over the past few months. I find the restrictions too limiting at present, but the OS design combined with secure boot is an interesting security concept.
$110K. He said they’d been trying to sell the truckload for 5 years. Made their money today….
That’s a lot of ice cream. 🙂