Open thread 1/18/22
Here’s a companion piece to the video in yesterday’s open thread:
Hey, why not sneak in a Bee Gees tune, who with 1000+ songs have one for everything? Originally released in 1975, this is a slightly later live version (and yes, I know it should be “just my dog and me):
1) Quick update on virus data. You may have seen some headlines today about “much lower new cases than a week ago”, but that information ignores the fact that over 50% of the states made no reports yesterday due to MLK Day. We should have better numbers tomorrow. One large state that did report yesterday was Georgia, now showing a 10 day decrease in new cases. GA is now at 64% of the peak for omicron, the width of the peak is 15 days. The delta peak width for the same level was 30 days. If the trend continues, the omicron came in extremely fast and may exit just as fast.
2) On the first video: continuing what I said yesterday, his is yet another attempt to try to understand the pre-400k era without having a quantum description of spacetime, and he also attempts to describe t=0. Physics will always attempt a physical description…it’s what we do. However, as with the QM measurement problem we keep running into bigger philosophical questions. There’s a substantial minority of physicists, me included, who think that the QM measurement issue, and t=0, point to larger structure of the universe that maybe is not material in the usual physics sense.
3) Bee Gees: wow, they wrote a song about a journey to the event horizon of a black hole and got a lot of the physics correct, and with a catchy tune!
Thanks Zaphod for the link to Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky several days ago. It was like entering a time machine to view those wonderful photographs of an era long past. The past is a foreign country: “they do things differently there,” wrote L.P. Hartley. Indeed they do.
Physicsguy said,
“ There is a substantial minority of physicist, me included, who think that the QM measurement issue, and t=0, point to larger structure of the universe that maybe is not material in the usual physics sense.”
That is pretty much most religions.
physicsguy:
The Bee Gees wrote so many songs over such an enormous length of time that they covered a lot of territory.
Petition to Senate to oppose radical appellate court nominee:
“President Joe Biden has nominated Nancy Abudu, a radical, political activist employed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to serve on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Abudu currently serves as the strategic litigation director for SPLC….
“…The SPLC is the well from which the American left draws to ‘prove’ that groups or people they disagree with politically are hateful.
“Abudu’s previous legal advocacy for SPLC strongly indicates she will exercise unconstitutional and liberal ideology on the federal bench.”
https://www.afa.net/activism/contact-officials/?vvsrc=%2fcampaigns%2f90745%2frespond
This morning the YouTube algorithm decided that we all might like to watch a TV Commercial which doesn’t rub pozzed excrement in our faces, doesn’t mock us, and doesn’t celebrate our planned demise:
Emirates Ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbL9QdWWJzo
This one is kind of amusing when you think about it:
HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visits New Emirates First Class Private Suite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvF6ukdEYc0
If one was this guy, flying in this private suite would actually be roughing it.
@Xylourgos:
‘The past is a foreign country: “they do things differently there,” wrote L.P. Hartley. Indeed they do.’
And I’m sure everyone here would agree with that. We’ve all been sojourners there.
Just encountered Alex Kaschuta, now a new mother living back home in Romania. She grew up watching US television and speaks English like a Valley Girl. Educated in Economics and worked in tech in London.
The unusual thing is her love of the old verities, husband, home, kids, and her fearlessness in being skeptical of the Woke world.
Here she is interviewing Rob Henderson on sex and mating https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zNkhPd_r1c&t=3073s
Here with Curtis Yarvin, aka Mencious Moldbug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qujHZ23KgI4&t=121s
I had not realized how US entertainment had spread the English language. I am working with an EE consultant in Romania who has never been out of the country who speaks English like he grew up next door.
Here is the link for the USPS sending covid tests (limit of 4 per household)
https://special.usps.com/testkits
I ordered some and will see how long it takes.
Just checked the local school district site for case numbers – on 1/11, there were 369 students and staff with C19 (1.35%). They closed the schools on the 14th due to staffing issues but the report published that day had 831 (3.02%). On 1/18, there are 576 (2.09%) with C19. The district also shares the cases per school. The closest high and middle schools had fast rise then a slower drop over the three reports. The elementary school is still increasing. Unfortunately, the district had to close their testing site due to lack of tests. The local university (about 2 miles from me) has 442 or 2.9% active cases.
I use the school numbers as a better indicator of illness than the state or even county numbers since those are the families that are in the same stores that I go to. School district is Edmond OK, the university is U of Central OK.
I know people who have a young child (often vaxxed) come down with C19 and the parents don’t, though they do take precautions. My doctor notified us that her son came down, but the parents are negative – go figure. The doctor bought some KN95 masks and is selling them to her patients at cost. But, I also get my labs, drugs and radiology at cost. I love having a doc who is in a direct care practice…
‘The past is a foreign country: “they do things differently there,” wrote L.P. Hartley.
There is a land that only exists in my memories.
Buildings you can no longer visit filled with people you can no longer talk to.
I have no proof they were there. Only evidence.
On another topic – I signed up for email notices from my state election board. It has been helpful in reminding me of the elections that I need to go vote. But, I got a different type of email today – notification of voter registration. They use Jan 15th as the annual survey date but the data they sent compared 2020 vs 2022.
Jan. 15, 2022 Jan. 15, 2020
Republicans 1,122,582 50.6% 1,008,569 48.3%
Democrats 696,723 31.4% 738,256 35.3%
Libertarians 17,981 under 1% 11,171 under 1%
Independents 381,088 17.2% 332,111 15.9%
TOTAL 2,218,374 2,090,107
The 2020 census has OK with 3,959,353 people with 76% over the age of 18 (or 3,009,108). So, only 73.7% of the adults are registered. It will be interesting to see the next annual report. But, I also know some people who are registered Ds because they always been Ds, but they are very conservative so they vote for the Rs – AKA Blue Dog Ds.
I think the major population growth has been in OKC and Tulsa and they are in the largest counties, population wise. So the redistricting is moving some population sections towards the more rural parts of the state. The map is interesting, but is still reasonable. Who knows what will be approved in the end.
@Dick Illyes:
Alex is pretty good! Asks intelligent questions and isn’t a blatant E-Thot grifter.
Zaphod Kek of Approval.
If you like her, you might like some of these:
https://findmyfrens.net/
Danke Zaphod
Speaking of Curtis Yarvin / Moldbug:
https://graymirror.substack.com/p/a-new-foreign-policy-for-europe
It looks like Old Europe is taking a pass on Ukraine.
I wonder what Putin has on Biden and how he will use it.