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The preexisting conditions of the coronavirus pandemic

October 18, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Over on Ars Technica, a link to an essay summarizing the data found in a new report from the Global Burden of Disease project based at the University of Washington – An enormous new data set peers into the health of the world’s population before 2020. Adam Rogers, wired.com – 10/18/2020, 4:07 AM Try to … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, IT Failures, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: cardiovascular disease, Coronavirus, coronavirus pandemic, essential workers, Global Burden of Disease, metabolic disorders, pandemic, people of color, poor, report, risk factors

Inside the Hidden World of Legacy IT Systems

October 17, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Inside the Hidden World of Legacy IT SystemsHow and why we spend trillions to keep old software going By Robert N. Charette IEEE Spectrum

Posted in: Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Politics, Science, Thinking about Tagged: air traffic control, COBOL, COBOL programmers, computer systems, government administration, IRS, IRS computer systems, IT products, IT services, IT systems, legacy IT systems, power grids, telecommunications services, unemployment claims, wastewater treatment plants

Post-COVID-19 Sequelae

October 13, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Post-COVID-19 sequelae Date: Fri 31 Jul 2020 13:30 EDT Source: Science [abridged, edited] [se·que·la /s??kwel?/ noun Medicine plural a condition which is the consequence of a previous disease or injury. “the long-term sequelae of infection”] [AA’s] neuroscience lab reopened last month [June 2020] without her. Life for the 38-year-old is a pale shadow of what … [Read more…]

Posted in: Pandemic, Science, Thinking about Tagged: COVID-19, disease, illness, long-hauler, pneumonia, SARS, SARS-CoV-2, sequelae, Survivor studies, virus

Zohar Studios

September 19, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Two articles have popped up about an exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco called “Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, The Lost Years.” The first link was from the intrepid New York Review of Books Daily blog; Zohar Studios’: An Invented Artist’s Lively Inventions by J. Hoberman and the second link is from … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, Science, Thinking about Tagged: cadmium bromide, camera, CJM, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Daguerreian Society, daguerreotype, darkroom, doppelgänger, Kodak 110 camera, potassium iodide, Shimmel Zohar, silver nitrate., Stephen Berkman, wet-collodion process

Hanford Has a Radioactive Capsule Problem

September 17, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Over at IEEE Spectrum, another in-depth article on problems at the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington state. This essay deals with problems found in the “nearly 2,000 capsules of highly radioactive cesium and strontium” kept in a facility known as “Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF).” “Built in 1973, the facility is well beyond its … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Nuclear Industry, Politics, Science, Thinking about Tagged: cesium, DOE, Hanford, Kennewick, Office of Environmental Management, Oregon, Pasco, Portland, Radioactive, Richland, strontium, Tri-City Development Council, TRIDEC, Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility, WESF

The Habituation of Horror

September 11, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Ed Yong writes in the Atlantic about America Is Trapped in a Pandemic Spiral and ends with this: 9. The Habituation of Horror The U.S. might stop treating the pandemic as the emergency that it is. Daily tragedy might become ambient noise. The desire for normality might render the unthinkable normal. Like poverty and racism, … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Ethical and green living, Feminism, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: changing climate, COVID-19, extinctions, False Dichotomies, Magical Thinking, mass incarceration, Normality, police brutality, poverty, racism, school shootings, sexual harassment

How a Plan to Save the Power System Disappeared

August 30, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

A federal lab found a way to modernize the grid, reduce reliance on coal, and save consumers billions. Then Trump appointees blocked it. The Atlantic Story by Peter Fairley

Posted in: Climate Change, Ethical and green living, Finanace, Future of Work, Politics, Science, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: 2018, Aaron Bloom, Alex Fitzsimmons, carbon policy, carbon pricing, Catherine “Katie” Jereza, Cathy Tripodi, Charles Koch, climate change, climate change deniers, coal, coal-industry, DOE, Interconnections Seam Study, Jereza, Joshua Novacheck, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL, Paris climate-change agreement, power grids, power plants, Power System, Rick Perry, Seams, Secretary of Energy, The Grid, Tom Sloan, Tripodi, Trump administration, U.S. Department of Energy

Peter V. Tytell, a Typewriter Whisperer, Is Dead at 74

August 18, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

From the August 18, 2020 New York Times: Peter V. Tytell, a Typewriter Whisperer, Is Dead at 74 Raised in his parents’ typewriter repair shop, he became renowned for his ability to help resolve disputes over documents’ authenticity. Peter V. Tytell, whose knowledge of the intricacies of typewriters, shaped amid the Olivettis, Underwoods and Royals … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, Obituaries, Science, Sea Stories, Thinking about, This Day in History Tagged: analysis, document, examiner, forensic, forensic document examiner, handwriting analysis, paper, paper and handwriting analysis, typewriter, typewritten

Free Your Mind … And Your Ass Will Follow

July 24, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

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.

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Modern Music, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: “Billy Bass” Nelson, Bernie Worrell, Black, counterculture, Detroit, Eddie Hazel, Funkadelic, George Clinton, Joe Meek, Lee Perry, LSD, Miles Davis, Motown, Parliament, Parliaments, Tawl Ross, Tiki Fulwood

Three Doctor visits

June 17, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In the past week, I’ve been to three newly “reopened” medical offices for appointments, and all of them screened me with a COVID-19 questionnaire and temperature checks. None of them asked me my age nor any questions about any health risks such as diabetes, obesity, or the like. Because “this infection is a grave threat … [Read more…]

Posted in: Obituaries, Pandemic, Science, Thinking about Tagged: COVID-19, questionnaire
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