An article from The New Atlantis.  I’m not familiar with this journal so I did a quick check.  It is described as conservative and even Luddite.  It does seem to be a well researched and written article.  The take aways are that COVID-19 is now the leading cause of death in the US and in NYC responsible for more deaths than all other causes combined.  And this happened very quickly, in a matter of a few short weeks.  Anyone who thinks re-opening the economy or getting back to “normal” is a good idea at this point probably hasn’t seen (or understood) this data.  A graph and a link to the article:

Not Like the Flu, Not Like Car Crashes, Not Like…

It’s about the spike.

The word apocalypse is actually a Greek word meaning a revealing or uncovering.

apocalypse (əˈpɒkəlɪps)

1. a prophetic disclosure or revelation

2. an event of great importance, violence, etc, like the events described in the Apocalypse

[C13: from Late Latin apocalypsis, from Greek apokalupsis, from apokaluptein to disclose, from apo- + kaluptein to hide]

We Are Living in a Failed State

The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken.

Was playing around in a recent post with a heart rate / oxygen level meter.  Turns out oxygen levels could be an important indicator for COVID-19.  An early symptom is very low oxygen levels without the usual symptoms.

The Infection That’s Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients

Read recently that the mathematician John Conway had passed away.  I spent lots of time at a certain point in my life playing his game of “life“.  Not the board game, but the cellular automata simulation.  One of these simple things that gets complex (and interesting) quickly.  The cause of death was not disclosed in the first article I read after his passing, but Scientific American, where he had a long professional relationship with Martin Gardner, states his cause of death as COVID-19.

Remembering Mathematical Magician John Conway

His creative and influential ideas spilled over into quantum physics, philosophy and computer science

Not many subjects are not only so misunderstood but filled with so many emotional, and often contradictory, explanations.  A good posting from Collaborative Fund on how this all really works.  On a related note, it does matter what you go into debt for.  Taking out a loan to buy a long term asset like a house is much, much different from, say, taking out a loan because you lost big in Vegas.

Who Pays For This?

From Just Security:

Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic and U.S. Response

Suppose to pick up some sandwiches for lunch.  Told I needed a mask to go out.  Heard you could make one out of a sock.  I have a sock!  Scissors didn’t work so well so I went with my handy Shin knife.  Excellent.

Looks like some sort of alien jock strap.  Doesn’t fit so well.  Might have to try a version 2.0.  Except I don’t have any more unpaired socks.  Need to think about this one.

Had a cheap spatula that I used for years that finally broke. Had a (surprisingly) hard  time finding a good replacement.  Found this one at a professional restaurant supply house.  Almost perfect, except form the curved edge. Hey!  I can fix that!

Wife got a blood oxygen monitor.  Held my breath to see if I could get it into the 80s.  Couldn’t get below 93, but I didn’t try too hard.  Would be embarrassed to pass out and hit my head or something.  Maybe work on getting the heart rate lower.  Made it to the low 70s.

A good one from the New York Times by Mimi Swartz.  At the end she mentions our local grocery chain, HEB.  I can’t think of a business I’m have ever run across that seems to be so well run.  I know people who have worked for them, and with them as vendors and have heard nothing but praise. They seem to be way ahead of everyone on pandemic preparedness. Too bad more companies (and governments) can’t operate this way.

Texas Republicans Have Spectacularly Failed the Coronavirus Test

I’m hearing some calls and even organized protests to “re-open” the US economy.  A short article with some simple math about the situation in the UK.  It’s pretty much the same as for the US.  Multiply by about 5 to get comparable US numbers.  Cut to the chase for people who don’t want to read: about 3m dead.  This is from a professor of infectious diseases at Harvard.

No matter how you crunch the numbers, this pandemic is only just getting started