4.11.2020

Please don't feed the trolls

As reported by the Associated Press and numerous newspapers…

U.S. surpasses Italy for most confirmed deaths with more than 20,000

OK, that is seriously bad news and I don't mean to make light of it but Italy is a little country that lives in a boot and has not much more than 6 million people in it, while the U.S. has upwards of 320 million and lives, well, here. So really.


4.10.2020

Chocolate will survive

Bunnies to the rescue as virus hits Belgian chocolatiers

Some producers, like Persoone's famed The Chocolate Line, offer Easter eggs or bunnies in medical masks, while the country's top virologist has jokingly granted a lockdown pass to the "essential" furry workers traditionally supposed to bring kids their Easter eggs.


Read the full story

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"Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning."

Chicago's Rush University Medical System was designed for a pandemic - The Washington Post


Nothing much blooming yet, but we get by

4.09.2020

And who needs the 4th Amendment anyway?

Big Data Is Helping Us Fight The Coronavirus — But At What Cost To Our Privacy? | FiveThirtyEight

But against a backdrop of debate between civil liberties and public health, we also need to be asking where the line is digitally: How much surveillance is acceptable in the service of the greater good?


(Not to mention the Magna Carta.)

Dig it up, woohoo!

Trump signs order encouraging US to mine the moon

The moon's water ice and other natural resources can be mined and used by the United States, according to a new executive order signed by President Trump.


No word on who gets the green cheese.

Randy Newman - Stay Away

4.08.2020

A chip off the old block-in-law

Jared Kushner planning national coronavirus tracking system

"This story makes no sense and is completely false. The White House gets many unsolicited random proposals on a variety of topics, but Jared has no knowledge of this proposal or the people mentioned in this article who may have submitted it," he said in a statement to Politico.


And, BTW, NO to the national tracking system.

I've heard of packing up troubles (in your old kit bag)…

Airbnb is reeling from the coronavirus fallout 

"Airbnb needs to rest this problem before it becomes a larger and more expensive problem for them to solve," Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, told Salvador. 

…and leaving your worries (on the doorstep) but resting your problems is a whole new dimension to me.

But thanks for playing

4.07.2020

There's always hope

Still, maybe better than burning witches

Coronavirus Case Counts Are Meaningless* | FiveThirtyEight

Great idea!

Google owner is stamping out mosquitoes in California | The Independent


Bacteria-laden mosquitoes. What could possibly go wrong?

Also, what does it mean, "only the females generally bite"? This is something we'd really like to know.

So she got fired for not doing her job…

Or not not doing her job? Or not?

I am so, so confused. I think I'll knock of not working early today, and take a nap.

Stephanie Grisham out as White House press secretary after eight months during which she held no regular press briefings

Grisham has worked closely with first lady Melania Trump and will now become her chief of staff and spokeswoman, the White House announced Tuesday. This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Read in The Washington Post: https://apple.news/AzlevqvxSQAiG8wleGA9AOA


Shared from Apple News

And speaking of the palace nitwits…

Acting Navy secretary apologizes for calling ousted USS Theodore Roosevelt skipper 'stupid' - U.S. - Stripes

Off to see the Wizard

Worried that $2 trillion law wasn't enough, Trump and congressional leaders converge on need for new coronavirus economic package - The Washington Post


It's getting downright Oz-like, this coronafever; the palace nitwits still haven't figured out what to do with the last $2 trillion and already they're talking about more. Maybe the idea is, if we just say MONEY loudly enough all our problems will go away. 

Somebody still working

4.06.2020

Seen in the tattoo parlor window

(And yes, we have a tattoo parlor. What do you think this is, some tiny…oh, wait.)

And just thought to mention that now?

Clap your hands if you believe.

"Executives from 3M and Honeywell told US officials that the Chinese government in January began blocking exports of N95 respirators, booties, gloves and other supplies produced by their factories in China, according to a senior White House official."

4.05.2020

The Demise of The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain - Wikipedia


Shortly after forming, and after a couple of meetings and after Pile was deposed as president for showing alarming competence by preventing a disaster involving a soup tureen, the club was quickly forced to close.

According to the book's sequel (The Return of Heroic Failures), after receiving 20,000 applications when The Book of Heroic Failures was published, Pile closed the club in 1979, declaring "Even as failures, we failed"


Because why not?