Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Signs of Spring...


36 comments:

  1. Coronavirus: What this crisis reveals about US - and its president https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52012049

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  2. Perspective...

    California has 2229 cases of corona virus and 42 deaths. That’s a 1.9% death rate.

    Massachusetts has 777 case and 9 deaths. That’s a 1.2% death rate.

    Ohio has 564 cases and 8 deaths. That’s a 1.4% death rate.

    Illinois has 1285 cases and 12 deaths. That’s a .9% death rate.

    New York has 25,665 cases and 210 deaths. That’s a .8% death rate.

    Vermont has 95 cases and 7 deaths. That’s a 7.4% death rate!

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    1. listener--the Vermont death rate (as currently reported) is inflated by the fact the virus got into a nursing home early on--just like in Washington, although (as I recall) not so bad. And more importantly, it means there must be a lot of undetected cases. New York has the lowest death rate of the states you list because they have done more tests per capita than South Korea; but they still surely haven't detected them all. It looks like the death rate is converging on a fraction of one percent--but that still means a LOT of people, because the disease is so virulent.

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    2. It was sounding pretty good till we got to Vermont. *grimace*

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    3. Yeah. It feels really sad, and sure make one stay home!!

      Today's numbers are:

      123 cases, 8 deaths. That means our death rate is down to 6.5%. Still highest in the nation.

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    4. Oh boy, listener--you're really in the exponential phase. We may have beat it here; currently up to 18 cases, no hospitalizations so far as have been announced, and no deaths. But government agencies, hospitals, etc. are doing everything they can to prepare. Ditto stores.

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  3. Ohio 704 COVID cases, 10 deaths.

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  4. Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance [Click]

    New York state has 10 times the COVID-19 cases California has. Why? [Click] “… in the first week of March, California and New York were neck and neck on cases of COVID-19 … But over the past week, New York case counts have doubled every few days, and the state now has 10 times the cases California does: 25,000 to 2,500.”

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  5. Dems vs. Repubs on Coronavirus. [Click] I really am seriously considering that Republicans and Republican-leaning states may suffer far worse than Dems and Democratic-leaning states. And if they do, how will that affect their votes?


    State GOP spent $100k to qualify Montana Green Party for the ballot
    [Click]

    “My focus is just dealing with this crisis right now. I haven’t thought about any more debates. I think we’ve had enough debates. I think we should get on with this.”
    — Joe Biden, quoted by ABC News, when asked if there should be more Democratic presidential debates.

    Does that sound to anyone else like he’s trying to hide?

    New Biden SuperPac ad [Click] Pretty good; in times past it could have been a classic.

    A new Morning Consult poll finds 74% of voters support a national quarantine, limiting activity except essential trips such as to the grocery store and the pharmacy.

    NYC morgues near capacity, DHS briefing warns [Click] This is going to be REAL bad. I expect that the political post-mortem is going to be unsparing.

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    1. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott today finally gave the Stay at Home order. Nothing at all changes for us, since we've been doing exactly this for weeks!

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    2. If I were Biden, I wouldn't want to debate Bernie either...which goes to show which of them is presidential material.

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  6. New Forecast Shows Democrats Winning Electoral College [Click] But what will the turnout be? About Rachel Bitecofer [Click] A REALLY LONG READ. Seems worth it.

    WaPo: Market for Medical Supplies Descends Into Chaos [Click]

    From politicalwire.com:
    Trump’s Business Cannot Receive Stimulus Funds
    Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N) tells Politico he secured a provision in the economic stimulus agreement “that will prohibit businesses controlled by the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, and heads of Executive Departments from receiving loans or investments from Treasury programs.” But of course Trump will say his businesses are controlled by his sons. Various notes on the bill here. [Click]

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    1. Clarification of first headline:

      New Forecast Shows Democrats Winning Electoral College [Click] But what will the turnout be? A REALLY LONG READ. Seems worth it. About Rachel Bitecofer [Click]

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  7. One more case of coronavirus confirmed in Fresno County, for a total of 9. Still no hospitalizations or deaths. Fingers crossed that it is grinding to a stop hereabouts.

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    1. Oops--that should be 19 cases in Fresno County now. Freudian slip, I suppose.

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  8. Emotional Intelligence in this time of crisis
    by Marc Brackett

    About 10 years ago, I was suffering from acid reflux and blamed it on work stress. When I went to my doctor, he said, “Welcome to the professor’s life.” Then he said, “Take some Prilosec for the heartburn, and I’ll prescribe you some anti-anxiety medication to alleviate the stress.”

    But I wondered whether medicating my stress was the right decision. Was my problem truly anxiety, or was it something else? How could the director of a center for emotional intelligence not be aware of his own feelings? Just because I knew the science didn’t mean I was practicing it.

    So I asked myself a few questions: What was I really feeling? What might I have been reacting to?

    Was I stressed? Stress is a response to adverse or very demanding circumstances. That wasn’t my problem. I was able to get all of my work done pretty well.

    Was I anxious? Anxiety is worry about future uncertainty and the inability to control what will happen to you. That wasn’t my issue.

    Perhaps I was feeling pressure? Pressure is when you perceive that something at stake is dependent on your performance. Nope. That wasn’t it, either.

    Finally, I realized I was “stressed” because I was taking on too many commitments. I was fully booked from early morning until late at night (including squeezing in a yoga class most evenings). I had no time to breathe—I was overwhelmed!

    Naming my actual feeling was liberating. Why? Because it clarified the situation and gave me a path forward. The only way I’d feel less stress was to take things off my plate.

    When I cut back a little on my work obligations and scheduled downtime in the evenings with my family, my stress levels and acid problems subsided.

    As our lives are upended by the coronavirus, understanding our feelings is more important than ever.

    Don’t assume the first word you or your child comes up with to describe a feeling is the accurate one.

    Do ask questions to better understand and label your feelings. Identifying them—without judgment—helps you express and regulate them, which leads to healthier relationships and greater well-being. Here are more tips for managing emotions in these uncertain times.

    With the wisdom of emotion and gratitude,
    Marc

    Marc Brackett, the author of Permission to Feel, is the founder and director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center of Yale University.

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    1. So what I've been feeling is anxiety. But the uncertainly is to some extent decreasing. As of today, my July-August trip to New Zealand is off: The scheduled World Science Fiction Convention will be 100% on-line. I've just sent an email cancelling the hotel reservation, although I still need to cancel the airline ticket.

      Also today the tiny theoretical possibility that I might attend a convention in the Twin Cities over Easter weekend went away. When I went to cancel my hotel reservation I discovered that had already happened. Amtrak web site is not finding my reservation and the bus web site provides no way to change/cancel reservations -- sent an email. June, August, and later conventions still seem to be on track.

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    2. Listener, thanks for the article. Do you have the link for where it says, "Here are more tips..."? Better yet, do you have a link for the article itself so I can share it in my FB group?

      Bill, I'm glad you won't be traveling. I don't suppose it would be possible to make reservations or whatever for WorldCon online at this late date, would it? This would be my only opportunity to attend WorldCon...

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    3. Not a late date at all -- Worldcon is scheduled for late July. Online memberships aren't yet available, but they will be.

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    4. Cat, I think he was referring to what he had just expounded on, but I'm not sure. There was no link in the article.

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  9. A clip of Bernie from Twitter:

    Bernie clip - Click

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    1. Thanks, cat--I needed that.

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    2. Yes, Bernie is good for the soul.

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    3. I got around to watching this rather late, but it was really wonderful. Thank you, listener. And I kept thinking, "Where is Biden?" Maybe I'm just not paying attention, but the only thing I have heard of him doing is trying to tell the Governor of Florida what to do.

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  10. The President Is Trapped [Click] Hmmmmm….will he be carted off to the looney bin before the election? Or before the inauguration?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. It has to get through the House, though; and any member of the House can force the entire House to travel back to DC to do it.

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