Somehow this was in the Politics section of Bloomberg. I worry that people in the US are forgetting (or being led to forget) that there is a terrible worldwide pandemic going on. The rest of the world is responding while US numbers keep rising.
J. J. Redick Podcast with Michael Lewis
New Orleans Pelicans player J. j. Redick has a popular podcast. I’m not much of a podcast guy but his latest episode with author Michael Lewis is pretty good.
The Old Man and the Three with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter
Episode 15: Michael Lewis (featuring Duncan Robinson)
What Is Happening Here
WordPress has a new editor that is challenging me. I especially miss the old Google Photos interface. Android also updated. The icons and fonts now come in two sizes:. Too Big and Too Small. Night mode seems to be on all day long and I cant seem to get my old keyboard back. Had my first Zoom call. Used my Raspberry Pi 4 and a decade old Logitech USB camera. Not a complete success. Refrigerator broke yesterday. Ordered a new one but it will be here in a month. We hope. On the bright side internet is stable. Still making ramen, saw a snake in a tree, got an exercise bike. Walked around the deserted Domain. Making some cat5 connectors, converting my old home phone wires to ethernet.
Logging and Plotting
Been having internet problems lately. I would usually wait until things got bad and then do network traces with MTR and point out where the problem was. Would also text neighbors to see if they were also down (they always were) just to verify that it wasn’t just my own home wiring or equipment.
Not getting much traction with Spectrum, I started logging network data to see exactly when and how bad the latency problems were. I even used a dedicated, wired, Raspberry Pi Zero to make sure the numbers weren’t wobbly due to wifi or other software running on my host.
The end result is two smallish but powerful logging and plotting programs I have shared on GitHub. The Logger is actually similar to an industrial strength tool I wrote for a large bank that was deployed on thousands of production servers. Enjoy.
Wall Street and Main Street, Again
A good read that explains what is going on in the US economy. The US Federal Reserve rescued the financial system, as it should. Congress, however, is balking on a similar rescue for Main Street. This resistance is coming from the Republican side, which normally would not surprise me, but there is a big election going on. I suppose it does not seem to be hurting their election chances much. Do people understand what is going on here?
High Blood Pressure and COVID-19
There is a lot of misinformation about COVID-19 treatments out there. I don’t want to contribute to it, but this seems reputable. I still wonder where the research and data analysis is on this sort of thing.
A bit of a personal story. Back in Feburary and old friend contacted me about a serious illness he had contracted in China at the end of 2019. COVID-19 was already in the news but wasn’t yet a US story. He isnt a medical professional but a very smart and well-connected fellow. He believed that he had COVID-19 and that his high blood pressure medication had saved his life. He wasn’t clear on the details and I wasn’t (and still am not) keen on experimenting with such things. I took his note mostly as a warning as to the seriousness of COVID-19. It isnt clear that his own severe illness wasn’t just a function of his HBP condition or that HBP meds would help people with COVID-19 in any case. A good read for anyone looking to stay informed. I googled and there are lots of similar research publications on this topic.
A supercomputer found a promising theory about why COVID-19 cases go downhill fast. It even explains the bizarre range of symptoms.
Louisiana Oil Industry Tax Breaks
This stuff is so stupid it boggles the mind. This isnt a very mobile industry. They need to be where the oil is. The state should hold all the cards here. I suppose it is just simple corruption. I tell people that if south Louisiana were it’s own country it would be one of the richest in the world. I suppose it could still be corrupt and filled with poverty and environmental damage.
Louisiana’s Amendment 5 Wants To Exempt Big Oil From Paying Property Taxes Forever While Making Taxpayers Foot The Bill
Nazi P.O.W.s in Texas
I remember my grandmother telling me about Italian prisoners of war in south Louisiana during WW iI. They would go visit the prisoners and write letters back to their families for them. Ran across this article about German prisoners in Texas during WW II. Could have been a better article, but worth a read. From Timeline via Medium.
Even Nazi prisoners of war in Texas were shocked at how black people were treated in the South
In Texas, some of the Germans actually befriended Americans of all colors
Tylenol and Risk Taking
Found this interesting. I have noticed slight mood altering effects of common over the counter pain medicines over the years but thought it was just my imagination.
