Home » Open thread 1/5/22

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Open thread 1/5/22 — 30 Comments

  1. Quick note as Georgia updated their data. Cases now 2x what they were for both delta and alpha. What is striking is that the deaths are very low and trending down. 14 day average deaths is 5 compared to 112 for delta at peak… 4.4%!

    Now contrast with Connecticut where deaths just surpassed the delta wave and now at 50% of the peak alpha with a 2 week average of 15. And, Georgia has 3x the population. Climate? Policies? I have no clue what is the cause of the striking difference between the two states.

  2. I see via Instapundit that JWST has fully deployed the sunshield, which is amazing. Here is why I wasn’t amazed before, but now am: “Along the way, there are up to 344 single-point failures, deployments without any backups that must execute as designed or else they could jeopardize the entire mission.” They built a multi-billion dollar device with 344 single point failures. That’s insane and far from what I would call over-engineering. They got lucky, despite a few of those single point failure failing previously.

    They still need to calibrate all the mirrors and hit the L2 mark. Each of those tasks still have many failure points, but in the latter, they have some margin which is being maximized.

  3. Now contrast with Connecticut where deaths just surpassed the delta wave and now at 50% of the peak alpha with a 2 week average of 15. And, Georgia has 3x the population. Climate? Policies? I have no clue what is the cause of the striking difference between the two states.

    The Delta wave skipped Connecticut. The seven-day moving average of deaths in Connecticut as of 4 January 2022 is 12 deaths. As of 4 January 2021, it was 38 deaths.

  4. TJ. The pandemic will end when testing is stopped and only deaths due to Covid, not with Covid, are reported by age group. People will look at those numbers, shrug their shoulders and go back to living a normal life. Until then the little dictators inside the convinced progressives will be given free rein and they will constantly try to control us.

  5. I didn’t see any pants in the video. Speaking of clothing and not seeing any, did you hear Ted Cruz today? I guess nobody told him. As a Texan who often voted for the guy, I know he said similar stuff on his podcast, but he lost me today.

  6. The Romans invaded Britain and saw the Brits wearing pants. They held them in disgust. Yet 150-200 years later, they were wearing them too.

  7. Art Deco, I don’t believe that’s true. In the data I’ve kept since day 1, CT shows a definite delta wave along with an wave of death coincident. And your numbers for the Januarys just shows the deaths from the alpha compared to the current omicron.

  8. physicsguy, Vitamin D deficiency in the cloudy New England woods? Here in NC, as you know, cases are skyrocketing but deaths are not, and it’s been two weeks since the case rate went vertical.

  9. Something about this entire last couple weeks seems really strange. The ‘cases, cases, cases’ have never gone up this fast and then at the same time so many of the fear porn cheerleaders are going the other way.

    Here in WA they say the cases are going up, up, up but yet I am not aware of anybody at this moment that has tested positive which has not been the case in the other surges.

    Weird mixed signals all around.

  10. So King Jay of WA just announced he is not imposing any new restrictions but instead is going to give out a bunch of tests and masks.

    It’s becoming rather obvious that these idiots have figured it out and know that all they have to do is wait about 2-4 weeks and then magically (for like the fifth or is it sixth time?) the ‘cases’ will rapidly fall.

    Then when that happens he will say all his tests and masks were the reason guaranteeing that will be the same approach in April and August and November when all this happens again (with lesser ‘cases’ each time).

  11. Art Deco, I don’t believe that’s true.

    Complain to the people at Worldometers.

  12. @Leland:

    You’ll cop more flack, but you’re right. It’s Engineering, Jim… but not as we know it.

    They’ve gone and built another Space Shuttle. The glass half full part is that it doesn’t fly humans and they won’t keep rolling the dice launching a bunch of these space telescopes.

  13. HK Government just banned all passenger flights from Australia (and a bunch of other places including UK and USA) for at least a fortnight.

    Still the 21 days’ hotel quarantine for everywhere else.

    Can’t quite make up my mind how many months of vacation on a Thai beach would set me up to ride out 21 days of solitary on the return leg.

  14. What verminous, cowardly, subversive, moral scum.

    Raffensperger says the process was illegal but the ballots were not; and besides they are going to subpoena a source to testify, but it’s all good anyway because in the future yada yada yada …

    Yeah and they are going to make it illegal for non-citizens to vote too.

    https://wlos.com/news/nation-world/georgia-opens-investigation-into-ballot-harvesting-claims

    I mean, do you really want to save the cucks and the liberal grandmas from the fires they have lit?

  15. Re: KEF Speakers

    Zaphod:

    (1) What are the two cylindrical pieces of foam for? There’s a vague tiny diagram indicating that something cylindrical might be stuffed into the back of the speaker. The foam pieces also are cut so an inner cylinder can be removed.

    (2) Where do you land on the speaker grille question? To grille or not to grille. Naturally I balked at the $20 per expense.

  16. @Huxley:

    1) For a guy who named his home NAS device ‘Besserwisser’ (‘Know-it-all’), it’s going to really pain me to take a pass here. I can guess that those bits of foam are there to give you multiple options in tuning the port on the back of each enclosure to get the acoustic effect you desire… or to help you match the speakers up with the room — e.g. if circumstances force you to put them close to a rear wall. But I don’t know definitively, I’m sorry. Might be worth googling for some YouTube or blog discussion of your speaker model. There might be a better downloadable manual available than the one came in the box, too.

    I’ve never owned speakers came with these foam cylinders. This includes the LSX ones I’ve got now. And they are ported on the back. One big difference is that the LSX speakers are *active* so they have an app which permits messing with room tuning using DSP.

    2) I’ve never used speaker grilles. I like looking at what’s behind them. Great to have if small children and cats are in the picture. Otherwise can’t do you any good. Probably not much harm in them.

  17. Zaphod:

    Sounds reasonable. Might be too esoteric an adjustment for my untutored ears.

    Thanks.

  18. @Huxley:

    Since your speakers are on your work table and easily accessible, no harm in trying those foam bung things out and seeing if you like what you hear.

  19. Zaphod:

    Well, maybe, sure. No harm and all that.

    Though I suspect it’ll be like my attempts to locate the notes of resin, oil, cereal and pine reputed to reside in my current single malt.

  20. @Huxley:

    Try Lagavulin 16. If you can’t taste and smell iodine, salt spray, and wind-blown dried sheep shit.. then go get a Covid test!

    If you’re looking for resin, I’m sure our friend Xylourgos could suggest something guaranteed to please.

    BTW what Single Malt be that?

  21. Zaphod:

    I could taste the peat in Lagavulin … or what I imagine peat to taste like. Earthy and aromatic. Enjoyed it. But mostly when gifted by others, I’ll admit. I did buy a bottle for the friend who introduced me to it.

    New single malt is Jura 10 on an Instapundit recommendation for quality and price. I’m saving money on my current diet and indulging myself on the occasions I can. But price is still an issue.

    I’m Scottish on grandmother McLennan’s side.

  22. @Huxley:

    I don’t know that I’ve ever tried Jura. Remember seeing it in bottle shops in my early 20s when was just learning about Single Malts and it having one of the more unusual for the time bottle shapes. Must make a note to have a go.

    First one I ever tried was Bowmore 12 and have had a thing for the Islay malts ever since. First impressions matter!

    If you get a chance, you should try Kavalan — a new single malt from Taiwan of all places… Seriously.

    Talking about Kavalan reminds me that the same Japanese barman who introduced me to it also got me into this:

    https://www.provencewinezine.com/marc-a-spirit-for-people-who-like-it-rough/

    Sounds a bit iffy… but it’s not bad at all. Definitely a drink where the dose is the poison.

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