The Sicatoka

Regarding reporting: ”88 new cases!” — Ohhhh-kaaaayyy .... 1. They are not “new”. Testing just found them. Testing is a lagging indicator. (And speaking as a guy who’s done a lot of engineering testing, if test finds it, it’s too late. It’s already there and the money is spent, and you’ll spend even more to fix it.) 2. 88? How many tests were done? If that’s 88 for 88, gulp. If that’s 88 of 88,000,000 tests, yawn. (<— PS - that’s about the rate of leprosy cases in the US annually, yes, like Biblical lepers.) 3. Sample bias. We’re testing folks suspected. You’re starting with a biased sample set. You’re going to have more “finds”. Think of it this way, if you know fastball is coming you’re going to sit on the fastball and have a better at bat. Anecdote time: About 20 years ago I had reason to deal with media over a civil matter. I then learned that most media are not all that inquisitive or up on Civics 101, nor are they STEM minded. (I had to explain to a reporter what the ND Century Code is!) After consulting with my personal press advisor (PCM), I came to the conclusion that I (and you) should believe about half of what you see or read in the news. The raw data will more than likely be correct; however, the context or understanding of what it means will be questionable at best. And to ask them to explain why “percent daily positive” is more of a key stat than the raw “daily positives” number would be asking too much.

I’d love to see a chart of elevators and escalators per square mile compared to Covid cases per square mile. Like I said a while back, the story of this will end up being dense populations, ... and dense populations.

https://nypost.com/2020/05/16/why-life-went-on-as-normal-during-the-killer-pandemic-of-1969/

1. As we say here frequently, we don’t have all the data yet, and it keeps changing. Please stand by. 2. If this was a hostile act, it would be biological warfare and under international standards a nuclear response is in play. (Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear the same category of warfare weapons.) Dare I gently say I’d call to permanently sterilize the wet markets.

Batting practice Home Run King 2020.

I miss it on the playing surface more and more each day.

< drops snarky comment about women's hockey > < flees for exit >

Source

< Cynicism Alert! > They got us all to stay home for a month. Now they have us all wearing masks, the sillier the better. Next, will they have us all ... (Oh PCM ... where have you gone ... )

But the choice between staying home indefinitely and returning to business as usual now is a false one. Risk is not binary.

I see folks saying ‘restart’ being told to “lick a doorknob” aka practice what you preach, take the risk. Should folks saying ‘stay locked down’ be told to quit their jobs and then jailed for stepping foot outside?

“ ... find a cure.” It’s right over there by the cure for the common cold.

The second round of Covid-19 problems won’t be the virus. It will be an economic, social, and mental health based pandemic that will make the first round look like the sniffles.

A vastly under appreciated bass riff I must say (and I do, speaking as a guy who’s held a long neck for a few minutes or so).

I need antibodies Antibodies not flu Everybody needs antibodies, oh yeah I need antibodies Hey what about you We all need antibodies, hey Another report, another two weeks burned It's the distance keeps us insane But when the data leads to wallow We do it all again, all again, yah I need antibodies Antibodies not flu Everybody needs antibodies, oh yeah I need antibodies Hey what about you We all need antibodies, hey Apologies to Bryan Adams and his song “Somebody”.

If X says open up they are just doing it for stock market and wealthy. If Y says open up they are looking out for the ultra poor. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-05-11/more-than-a-billion-people-escaped-poverty-in-the-last-20-years-the-coronavirus-could-erase-those-gains?_amp=true&__twitter_impression=true

He needs somebody, somebody like you. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/12/bryan-adams-attacks-china-coronavirus

But believe it or not, the legal authority exists, and has been used in the past (by James Earl Carter). https://www.reuters.com/article/us-united-states-china-debt-breakingview/breakingviews-america-could-actually-shirk-its-debts-to-china-idUSKBN22G05Q

I did not say default. I said void US debt held by China. And there's a difference: one is can't pay; one is won't pay. Keep paying the rest. The world would see the difference. Heck, the world would probably follow suit.

No. When I say make them pay I mean make them pay. China holds about $1.3 trillion (with a T) of US sovereign debt. I say void all that paper: Void all US debt held by China. Tell them they can use it for toilet paper, because that's all it's worth now. If they don't like it, well, they've already de facto started an economic war. If China wants to go next level, let them start that also. We'll finish that too. (Let the first Trident D-5 "party favor" land on Wuhan.)

It's been that way for over a decade.

“The news comes amid rising sentiment that China should be held financially responsible for the pandemic.“ Blame the arsonists. And make them pay.

German magazine Der Spiegel is reporting the China government conspired with WHO to delay reporting the problem by four to six weeks. https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/09/china-who-coronavirus-coverup-germany/ “The BND’s verdict is harsh: At least four, if not six, weeks have been lost in Beijing’s information policy in the fight against the virus,” Der Spiegel reported. (BND is German intelligence.)

Why are we blaming the firefighters? Blame the arsonists. (Yeah, I’m looking at you and your policies Beijing.)

I see maybe three 50+ in that video. What I see is a bunch of potential asymptomatic carriers (who’ll never go symptomatic) that’ll build herd immunity.