Comments on: Open thread 12/31/21 https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/ A blog about political change, among other things Sat, 01 Jan 2022 04:30:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 By: AesopFan https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598494 Sat, 01 Jan 2022 04:30:33 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598494 For all our resident philosophers —

https://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/IMG_5053.jpeg?w=960&ssl=1

https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/11/IMG_5038.jpeg?w=750&ssl=1

Happy New Year!

Home Free – Auld Lang Syne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFcSfqYqHs4

]]> By: huxley https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598454 Sat, 01 Jan 2022 01:27:46 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598454 Re: Graphs gone vertical.

Zaphod:

Mmm yeah.

Tonight I discovered a favorite Firesign Theatre line has been appropriated for fortune cookies…
__________________________

A power so great, it can only be used for Good or Evil!
— Firesign Theatre, “The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra”
__________________________

Happy New Year to Everyone!

May you use your powers wisely.

]]> By: Zaphod https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598429 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 23:35:18 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598429 Happy New Year All!

Om: Shall I open a fortune cookie just for you?

Re Covid:

After all the fun and games in the various dysfunctional states in dysfunctional Australia, their graph has gone vertical in the last fortnight:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/australia/

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598395 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 21:56:09 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598395 “cases” will just keep going up, up, and away when in reality actual cases are decreasing.

‘Cases’ have been going up in Britain for seven months. Doesn’t move the needle much. Cases recorded by day increased by 46,000 between 27 May and 12 December. Daily deaths increased by about 90 from 15 June to 30 December. The peak in the death toll was reached on 8 November at 170, or the equivalent of about 830 per day over here. There have been two periods over here when the toll was that low: a five week run in June and July 2020 and an 18 week run from April to August of 2021. The current daily death toll in Britain is 80% below what it was last year at this time.

]]> By: physicsguy https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598389 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 21:35:12 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598389 Art Deco, all true about South Africa. My concern is that with the madness of testing, “cases” will just keep going up, up, and away when in reality actual cases are decreasing.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598376 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 20:40:12 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598376 Sorry to jump in here, but what I’m seeing in the covid data is amazing. To quote Maverick from Top Gun, “We’re going vertical!!”

See the South African data. What goes up comes down very quickly. The case count has gone half way to zero in 15 days. Also, from November 17 to December 12, the seven-day moving average of case counts increased by 19,000. from December 5 to December 30, the seven-day moving average of daily deaths increased by 35. The ratio is around 0.002. The Netherlands had a similar ratio, around about 0.003; the case count there has fallen off more slowly – 40% of the way to zero in 33 days. Not calculated yet in regard to Britain, where case counts are still increasing; the case counts their began to increase around 10 November, but the death counts are still declining.

]]> By: Baceseras https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598372 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 20:12:04 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598372 I don’t know if wiki article about Auld lang syne cites this version of it. I think you’ll enjoy it.

]]> By: Kate https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598340 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 17:27:15 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598340 Happy New Year! Let’s hope the political landscape will be improving.

]]> By: Rufus T. Firefly https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598319 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 15:39:41 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598319 Happy New Year Om(?), and all the other neophiles who congregate here!

]]> By: Rufus T. Firefly https://thenewneo.com/2021/12/31/open-thread-12-31-21/#comment-2598318 Fri, 31 Dec 2021 15:38:22 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=113292#comment-2598318 “Auld Lang Syne” has its place. It’s handy to have a short song steeped in tradition to sing when the clock strikes midnight. But my favorite New Year’s song is Frank Loesser’s, “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

It’s one of my favorite winter Holiday songs period. Great, great song. Female singers seem to especially like singing it.

wikipedia again:

… written in 1947 by Frank Loesser as an independent song. It was first recorded by Margaret Whiting in 1947 and first charted for The Orioles, peaking at No. 9 on Billboard’s Best-Selling Retail Rhythm & Blues chart in December 1949… Although it is typically performed in December, that was not the composer’s intent… his daughter Susan Loesser explains that “the singer, madly in love, is making a (possibly rash) commitment far into the future. (“Maybe it’s much too early in the game. Ah, but I thought I’d ask you just the same–What are you doing New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?”) It always annoyed my father when the song was sung during the holidays”.

]]>