Cool and damp. [51F and 92%RH at 9am]
Yesterday was clear and beautiful. Today the national forecast is for rain in Houston. We’ll see, I hope not.
I may grab the kids and go buy more masks. Amazon is sold out of some brands and styles already. China is panicking. I might be able to make a bit of money, and provide a public service. . .
I’m not panicked yet, and don’t want anyone to do so, BUT if this takes off it will do so very quickly. It will appear as if it is suddenly everywhere at once. Act now, beat the rush. For me, when it starts to spread from a “returner” to people here by person to person contact, I will look hard at pulling up the drawbridge. Until then, I’m upping my readiness as much as I can. If we start to see cases that don’t involve a “returner” at all, then it’s crunch time.
Think about child care, work situation, food, etc if this gets bad and congregating gets banned and the schools close. Make any preparations you can that won’t commit you to something irrevocable if it doesn’t go to hell. Start your ‘battle space preparation’ with any significant others.
Pray it’s a non-event.
nick
We watched the first episode of Picard last night. I think the show has potential and am looking forward to see more.
I may grab the kids and go buy more masks. Amazon is sold out of some brands and styles already. China is panicking. I might be able to make a bit of money, and provide a public service. . .
This situation plays right into the weird Chinese thing I’ve observed in my in-laws and others — if something is in demand, say masks, then they want will want whatever the item/good/service that is sought just to be subtly “in our face” to people who don’t have the same thing. If the person without the item could die, that makes the desire to possess it even stronger.
The behavior is why I believe the pandemics quickly get out of control there. After all this is over, I have no doubt that authorities will find warehouses full of unused supplies.
I know there is a Chinese word for it, but I simply call it “You Ain’t Got No Ice Cream”, based on the old Eddie Murphy sketch.
The other thing that works against them is that any manufacturing line in China eventually starts to cut corners. I’ll bet there are Mainlanders here scouring the country for any 3M or other quality masks/gowns/gloves they can get their hands on right now, but I’d be surprised if the stuff even left the country.
“You Ain’t Got No Ice Cream”. If things get really out of control, “You Aint’ Got No Ice Cream, Whitey”.
I lived it for four years in WA State. You’d better believe the tech execs in the family got off on the fact that I remained unemployed while my wife treated their dopey kids every tie one got the sniffles.
We watched the first episode of Picard last night. I think the show has potential and am looking forward to see more.
Be sure to watch the “Short Treks” if you haven’t already. “The Escape Artist”, directed by Rainn Wilson, rocks.
The current TV Trek production team turns out some wildly uneven stuff, but, if you’re patient, you’ll see some really cool moments, especially when they’re reaching back to the beginning of the franchise with Pike and Number One.
I don’t think TV Trek would have survived another year if Anson Mount hadn’t nailed the role of Pike on the last season of “Discovery”, especially the moment when his character’s future was revealed and locked as fixed.
Ironically, TV Trek is on the rise at the same moment “Doctor Who” is about to go over a cliff, both in terms of ratings and creatively. The revived “Doctor Who” contributed to the Paramount execs’ decision to kill off “Enterprise” early and end over two decades of continuous production on the lot fifteen years ago.
Today is cookie delivery day for the GS troops, I’m going to have 300+ cases of cookies in my living room… Or rather the wife and kids are. I’m planning to stay out of the way.
I don’t see a lot of change in the reporting of what I’ll be calling the WuFlu from now on. We’ll see if the name catches on. Of course the ACTUAL situation continues to evolve….
“China’s president Xi Jinping warns killer coronavirus is accelerating as doctor dies and US evacuates its citizens from hotspot Wuhan after death toll jumps to 41 with 1,281 cases and 56 million on lockdown ” –those are some big increases
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7928063/Wuhan-doctor-dies-nine-days-contracting-deadly-coronavirus-battled-save-patients.html
Time to get dressed and get some kids fed.
n
Today is cookie delivery day for the GS troops, I’m going to have 300+ cases of cookies in my living room… Or rather the wife and kids are. I’m planning to stay out of the way.
300 cases or 300 boxes?
One corner of our living room is filled, but we only took on 400 boxes.
We told our daughter that this is the last year with the current troop unless they see a leadership change. The current person in charge is the X-er female type who must always be “the smartest person in the room”, and it is even starting to grate on the kids.
I’ve always been bothered by the troop leader’s seemingly p-whipped husband constantly tagging along with the girls, even on trips out to Camp Texlake, which require special arrangements just so he can use the restroom.
Dude, wild women and parties … or the Baby Yoda show. Geeky still beats creepy.
Yes, he was fantastic. The classic Trek hero type. Not so great in “Inhumans”, but that wasn’t his fault.
Currently in Frisco (they hate that name so of course I use it) for the weekend. Busy Friday night. Right downtown on Market and a busy resturant. Did not see one person with a mask. Odd to my thinking. I avoided close contact as much as I could.
300 CASES. Two minivans full. Ladies are coming by all morning to get their kid’s pile o cookies.
There is the equivalent of a 4 foot high wall along my entire driveway of cases….
n
Ahh, SF.
DecayedWreck reminded me of an incomprehensible contradiction the friends of the Earth seemed to have overlooked, and one which is especially relevant in light of WuFlu.
WTF is with the “automatic” faucets in the restrooms at SFO? You wave your hands around and if you’re lucky enough to engage the doohickey you get about 5 seconds of water flowing at a rate equivalent to an aging cat with kidney disease.
The whole friggin’ point is thrown under the bus. But we conserve water.
Avise la fin
Lots of airports have that problem. Even worse are the hand towel dispensers that eject 4 inches of thin paper towel after 5-10 seconds of hand waving. Like anyone can dry hands that were properly washed with 4 inches of paper towel.
I use the hand sanitizer, where available.
When moving house I found a crate of stuff I bought in the last pandemic scare. Two gross face masks, case of latex gloves and disinfectant gel, and misc.. I thought about tossing it but as it didn’t weigh much I packed it in the van. Now I am glad I did. Here is very rural OK I feel fairly secure but we do need to visit the “big city” (pop 250k) to do shopping so best to be prepared.
When moving house I found a crate of stuff I bought in the last pandemic scare. Two gross face masks, case of latex gloves and disinfectant gel, and misc.. I thought about tossing it but as it didn’t weigh much I packed it in the van. Now I am glad I did. Here is very rural OK I feel fairly secure but we do need to visit the “big city” (pop 250k) to do shopping so best to be prepared.
Among other things, the last pandemic scare ended Hibiclens being easily available at Costco. I know the CVS generic equivalent doesn’t work like the brand — learned that in Chicago last Spring.
Over The Hedge: the new stars
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/01/25
Oh wow, no freaking way all those could could be as bright as stars, right ?
Local Kung Flu news: one of our neighbors, a Chinese guy, just returned from a visit home to Wuhan a week ago. Lovely! And his mother is one of my mother-in-law’s friends and they visit back and forth all the time. Lovely! I’m not particularly worried, but it’s something to keep an eye on. And, according to my wife, he and the family are not exactly being shunned but they’re not exactly being welcomed either. I suggested that maybe they should just self-quarantine for a week, just in case, but apparently that’s not happening and why would I even suggest that. Just throwing crazy ideas out, maybe that attitude contributes to the explosive spread of disease in the PRC. Lovely!
“Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to St. Greta: Go to college and study economics before lecturing us.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/01/23/treasury-secretary-to-greta-go-to-college-and-study-economics-before-lecturing-us/
They need to go after the parrot’s owner too.
Should she study Economics or Thermodynamics? Perhaps both?
Alright, I got another 60 boxes of 20 and now I’m thinking about how many I can fit in a DHL box to Hong Kong…. I’ll set my paypal to accept HKD and start raking in the do re mi….
I wonder if this guy is actually selling any masks, they are the same ones I paid $2.50 a box for…
https://www.amazon.com/Sperian-Respiratory-Protection-Particulate-695-14110451/dp/B00462E5FY/?tag=ttgnet-20
n
Should she study Economics or Thermodynamics? Perhaps both?
Yes.
this is growing pretty quickly.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/56-million-chinese-lockdown-virus-spreads-australia-malaysia
First death in Shanghai.
n
She should study theology and myth…..
n
Um, does anyone looking at this map think that all those cases outside China are because the patient zeros had contact with just the 4000 identified or suspected cases?
Bueller?
The infection must be widespread for people from all those disparate places to have come in contact with it.. Really widespread. Article.
And look at how they’re building the barricades to enforce the travel ban… those are not just some sawhorses, that’s when you want to close a road. For a long time. Article.
n
With 4000 cases, “Hong Kong has declared the outbreak of a new virus an emergency and will close primary and secondary schools for two more weeks after the Lunar New Year holiday (pictured Hong Kong International Airport today)”
I know many of you guys and gals have kids. How would this affect your life and work?
Get ready, this isn’t what it has been reported as.
n
(just look at how quickly the number of infected doubled, and think of the economic damage cancelling all those events will cause, that wasn’t something done lightly.)
Should she study Economics or Thermodynamics? Perhaps both?
Epistemology.
To channel Donald Rumsfeld, there are things she doesn’t know she doesn’t know.
oh, little china girl, oh oh oh oooh….
I’m slow, I just got your title. Pretty good song by David Bowie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YC3sTbAPcU
His Space Oddity video was freaky by a mile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo
His Ziggy Stardust concert had the freak bursting the end off the meter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qrOvBuWJ-c
And what was the deal with the spiders ???????????
And that there is a 1/4 inch of stage makeup. MTV used to show a three hour video of his 1972 ? concert with the makeup session lasting 10 to 20 minutes. Maybe an hour.
They need to go after the parrot’s owner too.
Martyr. God help us all the day someone puts a bullet in the child.
re Kung Flu: Yes, it’s much worse than is being reported. Most likely it won’t be another Spanish Flu, with 100,000,000 dead, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
re epistemology, I cannot in good conscience advise anyone to pay for an education in any field of philosophy, not unless they’re a member of the idle rich and looking for a way to fill their time. Philosophy, like almost the entirety of the schools of Humanities, should be no more than hobbies for the vast majority of the population, and only a fool would go deeply into debt to pay for a hobby.
Oh, wait #1: Darling Greta is now rich and we’d all be better off if she were to shut up and be idle. Go study philosophy, Sweetie.
Oh, wait #2: It seems we have a surfeit of fools, considering the number of people who went deeply into debt to pay for their History and English Lit degrees.
As for economics, ignore the self-serving hype coming from professors of economics. They claim that economics teaches you to weigh costs and benefits and to look at the big picture but that’s not what I see in practice. Microeconomics might train that habit but macroeconomics is all about planning a national or global economy and that’s what economics graduates focus on, in my experience. Greta, and everyone else, would be better off studying engineering. If they can handle the math and don’t wash out before the end of the first year they’ll learn that engineering is all about trade-offs and conformance to actual, measurable physical reality rather than pie-in-the-sky dreams.