In an article at www.propublica.org on August 17, the author, Marshall Allen, shows some alarming data points concerning the spread of the pandemic from Las Vegas. ProPublica used cell phone data from a weekend of people who were in Las Vegas and then traced their travels afterwards. The web of their cross contagion is shown … [Read more…]
Over on the Atlantic, James Parker writes about The Funkadelic Album That Predicted the Future The legendary band could almost blend in with other acts during the counterculture of the ’70s. But today, the group looks like a pure phenomenon.
One scathing essay and one graphic strip in the New York Review Daily which need sharing: The first is an essay from David Rothkopf: ‘The Most Ignorant and Unfit’: What Made America’s Worst Ever Leader? “Being president,” former First Lady Michelle Obama has said, “doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are.” In … [Read more…]
Meat packing plants, transmission explained Date: Fri 26 Jun 2020 18:06 CEST Source: Spiegel International [edited] If there is a paradise for SARS-CoV-2, it would probably be a slaughterhouse. Work units in meat plants are cooled to under 12 degrees Celsius [53.6 degrees Fahrenheit]. Workers stand near one another and sweat as they labor under … [Read more…]
The Guardian, again, hits the nail on the head with this spot on essay “Republicans are hypocrites. They happily ‘de-funded’ the police we actually need” by David Sirota: After two weeks of police violence and protests, Republican politicians have been pretending to have a fainting spell over the phrase “defund the police.” “There won’t be … [Read more…]
From a Mother Jones Daily newsletter by Ben Dreyfuss: June 11, 2020 Fifty-seven years ago today, noted segregationist George Wallace — then of Alabama, now of Hell—infamously stood in the schoolhouse door in an attempt to block two Black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending the University of Alabama. In response, President John … [Read more…]
In the Guardian today, June 3, 2020, is an essay on the remarks from Jane Goodall about farming practices and food habits. “If we do not do things differently, we are finished,” she said. “We can’t go on very much longer like this.” She called for people to be lifted out of poverty, pointing to … [Read more…]
JAMA Intern Med. Published online May 14, 2020 – An article discussing the difference between the statistics on influenza deaths and covid-19. Assessment of Deaths From COVID-19 and From Seasonal Influenza by Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS1; Carlos del Rio, MD ————————————————————— Comments: Daniel Goyal, MRCP, PhD | Gibraltar Health Authority I welcome this clear … [Read more…]
In the Columbia Journalism Review is an essay The bad news quietly buried during the pandemic by Zoë Beery: With the world’s attention glued to the coronavirus pandemic, news about anything else has been slipping farther and farther down the proverbial front page. But that doesn’t mean nothing’s been going on. Whether by design or … [Read more…]
I just finished reading Lillian Hellman’s Scoundrel Time and am fascinated that these events from 1951 – 1952, the HUAC hearings, have such resonance with today’s administration. Today, thieves are thick, grandstanding the operative mode, derision and bullying are the norm as they were with Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon in this era. Employing such … [Read more…]