Nationally new active cases continue downwards. However, all previous instances of these curves follow a Gaussian distribution and the omicron is no exception. I’ve been able to fit the new active cases curve very well with a Gaussian function which allows me to extrapolate out. The curve is starting to deviate from “falling like a rock” to a more exponential tail. In a week it will be down from the current 175k to about 93k. But it won’t get to pre-omicron level until a month from now. Serious cases continue down both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of active cases now at 0.06%. Really an amazing number which means 99.94% of cases are not serious.
State level: GA looking good in that the 7 day avg deaths is now over a week showing decline. CT continues to confound as cases now at 14% of peak and have been dropping for 24 days straight, yet deaths still at around 34/day. The weekend data showed a small drop, but until the rest of week passes I’m not sure if CT is finally showing signs of decrease. Same thing going on with CO, deaths stuck at 37/day rolling average while cases down to 34% of peak over a 2 week period. Maybe next week a decline??
My free test kits arrived yesterday. They spent about 8 hours sitting in the mailbox where it was around 20 degrees, so probably worthless. I’m thinking about just selling them to some of my more hypochondriacal coworkers.
Blogroll update needed:
Roger Simon left PJ Media quite a few years ago now.
Marisa: lots of the blogs on the blogroll either don’t exist any more or haven’t been updated in many years. Which is kind of sad but makes me thankful for the bloggers still plugging away. I wonder if there are more or fewer of them now.
Not sure where the title comes from. Though a gris-gris is supposedly a voodoo talisman.
France may drop the testing requirement to come in. I sure hope so because I am headed to France end of March. Wonder if the airlines will drop requirement if the countries drop them. Now, lets get rid of masks on planes.
Can something be “off topic” on an Open Thread?? anyway….
Based on a mention (anniversary of the Challenger disaster) over at Ethics Alarms last week, Jack noted that the the video “Challenger, The Last Flight” was a pretty even telling of the story and worth watching. I took the chance.
It turns out to be what the NetFlix calls a limited series (at least 5 episodes; I just finished #4) and I find it fascinating. It deals with the history of the shuttle system and features all kinds of interviews with various participants– NASA mgmt, M-T management and engineers, families of astronauts, and actual news clips. So far, it is well done by my assessment, although it is becoming more upsetting as more of the decision making is revealed. it garners only 2 1/2 stars, but don’t let that dissuade you.
Now, lets get rid of masks on planes.
I was contemplating seeing a new movie in a theater. But it would mean over 2 hours in a mask. Hmmm. On the other hand, maybe if I go to a matinee and sit in the back of a nearly empty theater I can take the %$*&# thing off and no one will notice.
I found this amusing, perhaps you might too.
Movies and TV shows featuring SEALs and secret agents have lot to answer for.
How many different excuses can you make, how may lies can you tell?
Below is former Navy SEAL Don Shipley and his wife Diane listing the top 50 excuses they come up with, and the lies that phony SEALs tell.
Barry Meislin–To repeat a recent notable quote, “At this point what does it matter?
That is, unless all of these revelations lead to steps being taken, in every State, to make sure that this cheating cannot happen again. If that is the result of keeping 2020 election fraud as a continual topic of news reports, great.
But, otherwise, realistically speaking, reporting on how bad and blatant the fraudulent election actions were, and on instances in individual States is not going to result (much as I would like it) in the reversal of the election and Biden and Harris kicked out of the White House to be replaced by Trump.
I was just reading about the moves the Trudeau government is starting to take against the truckers. Looks very ominous. I’m a bit surprised the police are so on-board with the totalitarian nature of the orders. I guess the the police in Canada are a slightly different animal than in the US. The next 3-4 days are going to be “interesting” as the government takes an increasingly hard line. With some of the noise coming from the Ds, the left, and the media in the US, they are obviously quite concerned about blowback here also. Will images of violence directed at the truckers by the government be a spark igniting an inferno around the world? I could see that happening.
For any Heinlein fans here (I know you’re there)…I just put up a review of his ‘Tunnel in the Sky’
My favourite Dire Straits song…except for perhaps my other favourite Dire Straits song.
I was hooked on his style hearing Sultans of Swing. Not to change the subject but happened upon this last week. Tommy Bolin. Iowa. Died in 75 or 76, did 1 album with deep purple. Great guitarist, good singer, the original jazz fusion rock guitarist as he played with Billy Cobham prior.
Viva Frei….hes been live streaming all week……..cops are letting guys with gas cans go wherever. At least 2 i saw today on there.
DButkus,
I saw Bolin back in my undergrad days at Univ. of Colorado when he was with Zephyr. I still have that Zephyr LP in my collection; though all boxed up and buried until we get into our new house late this year sometime.
John Guilfoyle:
The entire Alchemy album is especially fine, I think. This song isn’t mentioned by people as often as many of the others, but it’s got a wonderful melancholy film noir vibe.
Knopfler has the most beautiful guitar sound I’ve ever heard.
Suggest viewing Challenger (based on above review) to my spouse:
“We know the ending.”
47 years, and he still makes me laugh.
It’s interesting that the Biden regime is now attempting to “Recalculate” the Covid hospitalization numbers to make a distinction between “with” and “because of”. This has been a problem for almost 2 years, but of course it wasn’t politically desirable for the Dem-Media-Complex to address it… until now.
Did you catch this? One salient feature (apart from their indifference to abuse of process and their subscription to mendacious media / establishment narratives) is that not one of them is a current office holder and not one lists an affiliation which would lead you to believe they’re currently doing anything useful.
DButkus & physicsguy:
In a comment thread about Dire Straits, it’s surprisingly not off-topic to hear an appreciation of Tommy Bolin, one of the best guitarists of that era. Live shows were amazing. I too had a copy of the Zephyr album. Tommy Bolin was from Sioux City, Iowa, where I grew up. He’s buried there; I haven’t been back.
Just watched a good portion of Viva Frei livestream. Very uplifting to see and hear all those people around the protest. But also emphasizes the dread I feel is in the making if the government reacts as they are broadcasting. One small optimistic note, David did mention briefly in passing that some police are smiling and winking at the protestors, so maybe some of the police will not cross the violence line.
David Foster, above @1:06 PM, I enjoyed your review of “Tunnel in the Sky”. Now, of course, I am going to have to find a copy and reread it!
Interesting piece on San Francisco with Megyn Kelly and David Sacks. That Bill Ayres interview with Kelly on Fox years ago is pretty amazing and this was the man who raised Boudin.
I have friends who will be near Oberammergau, Germany this summer and the husband wants to attend the passion play, as their trip coincides with one of the few times in his lifetime it will be performed. His wife gave the same reason as yours for having no interest in sitting through the show.
Has any outlet or person reflected on the impact of the foundation that Obamacare might have created for the current insanity found in our “care” facilities? E.g. Ivermectin bad, Hydroxychloroquine bad, keep them home suffering until its time to die then hospitalize them…
Did it create the paths for $’s to flow that seem to be inspiration for action vs. do no harm?
physicsguy,
Like you I have an ominous/or possibly optimistic gut feeling about the trucker convoy protest in Canada. I have a sense it could be something huge, even worldwide. Like Solidarnosc in Poland.
Art Deco:
Well that looked like the current list of all the paid subscribers to National Review.
Making grift great again is their motto.
My feel-good guitar song of the day, Spider-Gris.
TommyJay:
That’s some smooth guitar powerdrive!
Here’s some “Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya” from Dr. John in his “Night Tripper” period. New Orleans R&B meets 60s psychedelia.
Nothing like it.
FWIW, Rolling Stone consistently puts this album into its 500 Best Album list.
One of my favorites, first read it when I was a juvenile. Took me altogether too long to grok “stobor” 🙂
@David Foster:
Thanks for recommendation. Haven’t read.
The Heinlein Juvenile made an impression on me at that age was Citizen of the Galaxy. Ironic title given my later views on Cosmopolitanism.
@Chuck:
Greetings, Fellow Grokker.
I read Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” in the summer after 7th grade and I went through a period of wishing my beatnik mother would send me to a military academy.
I got over it.
BTW I think Paul Verhoeven’s wacked adaptation of “Troopers” to the screen was inspired, sly and underrated.
I supported 5 flights of the spacecraft I worked on. One unmanned and four manned. Two of the manned flights were the first flight of the Challenger and the last flight of the Challenger. The other two manned flights were classified and I have no mission patch for them.
I read everything Heinlein wrote; chalk it up to misspent youth. Got over it, no there there IMO.
All a bit of a bore at this stage except for looking at how different management styles and population attitudes/temperaments might or might not get different outcomes.
Covid deaths in these locales have been miniscule to date.
David Goldman fisks grifting broken record Cassandra Gordon Chang:
All the countries of East Asia have low COVID rates and deaths no matter what their policies, and there is evidence that the real reason is genetically-mediated immunity in those populations. See this.
Fascinating insights into how your decadent and frankly insane ruling class sees the world:
“A formerly secret 2013 Pentagon report, The Strategic Consequences of Chinese Racism: A Strategic Asymmetry for the United States, argues “China is a racist superpower.” It makes for eye-opening reading on how both the Chinese people and the American deep state think.
This book-length paper, which was posted online as the result of Freedom of Information Act litigation and then discovered by Twitter user @s_decatur, is by an author whose name remains redacted. But we know for sure that it was commissioned by the legendary nonagenarian strategist Andrew Marshall.
This shadowy mandarin started his career as a machinist in Detroit during WWII, then joined the RAND Corporation in 1949 to do Dr. Strangelove-like nuclear war planning. Henry Kissinger brought him into the Nixon White House and in 1973 Defense Secretary James Schlesinger created the enigmatic Office of Net Assessment for Marshall to think deep thoughts like a terrestrial Hari Seldon about the future of superpower rivalries….
.
.
(Lots of Zaphod redacted GloboHomo nonsense about Diversity being Your Strength and Steve Sailer’s droll commentary on these moronic assertions.)
.
.
…As The Strategic Consequences of Chinese Racism makes plain, the great Chinese advantage over both the United States and Russia is that it’s less of an empire and more of a nation-state.
In summary, it’s not clear whether the wily Marshall intended this document more as a guide to how to exploit China’s faults or as a disguised warning of America’s increasing self-destructiveness.”
@ david foster > Heinlein fans: “I just put up a review of his ‘Tunnel in the Sky’”
Good summary and analysis. I am curious about why you chose to review such an old book, good though it is.
I don’t remember when I last read the book, as one of our kids made off with my entire Heinlein collection a couple of years ago, but I first read it in the sixties, not long after publication (1955), along with all of his juvies. Trivia note: that was the same year as the publication of “Lord of the Flies,” which is rather surprising. I’m sure that was not intentional. We were shown the movie of LotF in high school, and, if we had been snowflakes back then, I would definitely have been traumatized by it.
The Heinlein books as a group do hold up well in terms of action, but seem a bit more preachy than kids are interested in now. However, judging from the response to Jordan Peterson, maybe the modern buckos aren’t averse to some common-sense moral suasion.
But JP’s lobsters seem to be more of a piece with Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” than RAH’s apparently more realistic vision.
“In 1965, there was a real incident in which a group of students (only boys) was stranded on an island for a prolonged period of time. The events that unfolded were closer to those in Tunnel in the Sky than to those in the Golding book. Although these students all knew each other prior to the stranding, which may have been a significant point.”
I read the linked article at the Guardian some time ago, and noted at the time one of the particulars that might have made a difference in the outcomes of the real life and the Golding book: the boys were all from a Christian boarding school (even if they did steal the boat for their adventure). The boys in Golding’s book may have been nominally Christian (I don’t remember), but I suspect that’s not the same ethical backgrounding the Tongans had.
From another story, interviewing one of them:
“We were very happy, but the first thing we did, we say a prayer, thank God for what he brought us to,” he said.
FWIW, I never enjoyed Heinlein’s “adult” books other than “Stranger in a Strange Land” and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
@ Rufus > “I have friends who will be near Oberammergau, Germany this summer and the husband wants to attend the passion play”
AesopSpouse and I were fortunate to see the play about 20 years ago, on a group tour that also included giving concerts in several churches in Germany, including where Bach was baptized (“concerts” only loosely speaking; we got permission to set up and sing during the normal open times, but there were no formal performances).
It’s well worth the visit.
Get masks from one of the places that recognize the cloth ones are useless for anything other than Covid Theater. We love ours. Unless you get up close and personal (within the 6 foot limit), an observer can’t really tell that they are totally porous and easy to breathe through.
You don’t need to convince me that Race is a Thing 🙂
The article you link is interesting. I wonder though whether much of the relative immunity isn’t also more recent. Anyone who comes out here from the West to live will tend to get sicker than normal during the first one or two winters and springs as their bodies don’t have much immunity to the local viruses in circulation.
While Covid doesn’t seem to be much of a problem in East Asia, it’s certainly cut a swathe through the Slavs.
Still.. our mutual race obsessions aside (heh), there are likely lifestyle components. One thing notable here is just how sprightly and energetic and thin old people tend to be… You just don’t see the same number of shambling metabolic syndrome ravaged wrecks one sees all over the West. Sadly also don’t see too many children.
Just in case any of you made it through the past 24 hours without wanting to bang your head against the wall and scream:
Gee, came out of the Wuhan lab and mostly kills the old round eyes. Nothing to see not even a clue, why could that be? Make the world safe for the people of Z.
AesopFan, thanks for the link. I haven’t worn a mask for at least a year but bought one of these in case The Science tells us we need to again.
Zaphod: Does this mean future wars will also have to be net zero or we won’t participate?
Now the US Army is truly the big Green Machine. The woke way of war.
Zaphod:
The article doesn’t prove that “race is a thing” in the sense that many if not most people – including you – use the term “race.” Race is a shorthand for a group that tends to have average levels of a group of traits that society has deemed classifiable. For example, the epicanthic fold in the eye is extremely common in Asian (traditionally Mongoloid race) people but not universal, and there are groups (Vietnamese, for example) within it who don’t often have it. In addition, there are white (“Caucasoid,” traditionally) groups such as Finns who exhibit a lot of it. So even though it’s generally considered a hallmark of a certain race, that’s only based on its average occurrence in the racial group.
Each group is made of a cluster of these traits that are found on average more often in that group, and the traits were chosen long ago and are more visually based and geographically based than anything else. A trait like resistance to disease is the same, and is probably based on geography. On average, Asians in a certain area were apparently, over time, exposed to certain diseases and therefore have more resistance to them. In similar fashion, sickle cell trait or thalassemia trait (which I have) are distributed around the world in a certain fashion, much greater in certain groups, and in the case of the traits conferring some protection against malaria.
None of that has anything to do with whether current or past racial classifications really represent distinct entities, or what other traits a member of a group might possess, and what it tells you about a certain individual member of a group.
Zaphod:
And yet, life expectancy in China and Vietnam is lower than in the US. In Japan and South Korea it’s higher.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
Nope. Too fast.
The 40 years also.
The usual Tuesday covid update:
Nationally new active cases continue downwards. However, all previous instances of these curves follow a Gaussian distribution and the omicron is no exception. I’ve been able to fit the new active cases curve very well with a Gaussian function which allows me to extrapolate out. The curve is starting to deviate from “falling like a rock” to a more exponential tail. In a week it will be down from the current 175k to about 93k. But it won’t get to pre-omicron level until a month from now. Serious cases continue down both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of active cases now at 0.06%. Really an amazing number which means 99.94% of cases are not serious.
State level: GA looking good in that the 7 day avg deaths is now over a week showing decline. CT continues to confound as cases now at 14% of peak and have been dropping for 24 days straight, yet deaths still at around 34/day. The weekend data showed a small drop, but until the rest of week passes I’m not sure if CT is finally showing signs of decrease. Same thing going on with CO, deaths stuck at 37/day rolling average while cases down to 34% of peak over a 2 week period. Maybe next week a decline??
My free test kits arrived yesterday. They spent about 8 hours sitting in the mailbox where it was around 20 degrees, so probably worthless. I’m thinking about just selling them to some of my more hypochondriacal coworkers.
Blogroll update needed:
Roger Simon left PJ Media quite a few years ago now.
Marisa: lots of the blogs on the blogroll either don’t exist any more or haven’t been updated in many years. Which is kind of sad but makes me thankful for the bloggers still plugging away. I wonder if there are more or fewer of them now.
https://californiaexaminer.net/russian-athletes-argue-that-food-at-beijing-winter-olympics-is-inedible/
Have a gander at what Xi hospitality looks like.
My feel-good guitar song of the day, Spider-Gris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZfPyrhp5Bw
Not sure where the title comes from. Though a gris-gris is supposedly a voodoo talisman.
France may drop the testing requirement to come in. I sure hope so because I am headed to France end of March. Wonder if the airlines will drop requirement if the countries drop them. Now, lets get rid of masks on planes.
Can something be “off topic” on an Open Thread?? anyway….
Based on a mention (anniversary of the Challenger disaster) over at Ethics Alarms last week, Jack noted that the the video “Challenger, The Last Flight” was a pretty even telling of the story and worth watching. I took the chance.
It turns out to be what the NetFlix calls a limited series (at least 5 episodes; I just finished #4) and I find it fascinating. It deals with the history of the shuttle system and features all kinds of interviews with various participants– NASA mgmt, M-T management and engineers, families of astronauts, and actual news clips. So far, it is well done by my assessment, although it is becoming more upsetting as more of the decision making is revealed. it garners only 2 1/2 stars, but don’t let that dissuade you.
Now, lets get rid of masks on planes.
I was contemplating seeing a new movie in a theater. But it would mean over 2 hours in a mask. Hmmm. On the other hand, maybe if I go to a matinee and sit in the back of a nearly empty theater I can take the %$*&# thing off and no one will notice.
I found this amusing, perhaps you might too.
Movies and TV shows featuring SEALs and secret agents have lot to answer for.
How many different excuses can you make, how may lies can you tell?
Below is former Navy SEAL Don Shipley and his wife Diane listing the top 50 excuses they come up with, and the lies that phony SEALs tell.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE6P-m7zB6w
More information oozing out regarding those “uncontested” 2020 elections, this time from AZ.
“Arizona state lawmaker introduces resolution to decertify 2020 election in three counties.
“The lawmaker wrote that “the 2020 General Election is irredeemably compromised.”
https://justthenews.com/government/state-houses/arizona-state-lawmaker-introduces-resolution-decertify-2020-election-three
Barry Meislin–To repeat a recent notable quote, “At this point what does it matter?
That is, unless all of these revelations lead to steps being taken, in every State, to make sure that this cheating cannot happen again. If that is the result of keeping 2020 election fraud as a continual topic of news reports, great.
But, otherwise, realistically speaking, reporting on how bad and blatant the fraudulent election actions were, and on instances in individual States is not going to result (much as I would like it) in the reversal of the election and Biden and Harris kicked out of the White House to be replaced by Trump.
I was just reading about the moves the Trudeau government is starting to take against the truckers. Looks very ominous. I’m a bit surprised the police are so on-board with the totalitarian nature of the orders. I guess the the police in Canada are a slightly different animal than in the US. The next 3-4 days are going to be “interesting” as the government takes an increasingly hard line. With some of the noise coming from the Ds, the left, and the media in the US, they are obviously quite concerned about blowback here also. Will images of violence directed at the truckers by the government be a spark igniting an inferno around the world? I could see that happening.
For any Heinlein fans here (I know you’re there)…I just put up a review of his ‘Tunnel in the Sky’
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/67200.html
My favourite Dire Straits song…except for perhaps my other favourite Dire Straits song.
I was hooked on his style hearing Sultans of Swing. Not to change the subject but happened upon this last week. Tommy Bolin. Iowa. Died in 75 or 76, did 1 album with deep purple. Great guitarist, good singer, the original jazz fusion rock guitarist as he played with Billy Cobham prior.
https://youtu.be/6Bd6jpSaVMU
as far as the Canadian convoy check out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3tlFgwZzmE
Viva Frei….hes been live streaming all week……..cops are letting guys with gas cans go wherever. At least 2 i saw today on there.
DButkus,
I saw Bolin back in my undergrad days at Univ. of Colorado when he was with Zephyr. I still have that Zephyr LP in my collection; though all boxed up and buried until we get into our new house late this year sometime.
John Guilfoyle:
The entire Alchemy album is especially fine, I think. This song isn’t mentioned by people as often as many of the others, but it’s got a wonderful melancholy film noir vibe.
Knopfler has the most beautiful guitar sound I’ve ever heard.
Suggest viewing Challenger (based on above review) to my spouse:
“We know the ending.”
47 years, and he still makes me laugh.
It’s interesting that the Biden regime is now attempting to “Recalculate” the Covid hospitalization numbers to make a distinction between “with” and “because of”. This has been a problem for almost 2 years, but of course it wasn’t politically desirable for the Dem-Media-Complex to address it… until now.
And of also the Science Has Changed with regards to masks.
Obviously they’re worried about their polling.
https://renewamericamovement.com/statement-of-republican-leaders-and-former-officials-on-the-rncs-censure-of-representatives-cheney-and-kinzinger/
Did you catch this? One salient feature (apart from their indifference to abuse of process and their subscription to mendacious media / establishment narratives) is that not one of them is a current office holder and not one lists an affiliation which would lead you to believe they’re currently doing anything useful.
DButkus & physicsguy:
In a comment thread about Dire Straits, it’s surprisingly not off-topic to hear an appreciation of Tommy Bolin, one of the best guitarists of that era. Live shows were amazing. I too had a copy of the Zephyr album. Tommy Bolin was from Sioux City, Iowa, where I grew up. He’s buried there; I haven’t been back.
Just watched a good portion of Viva Frei livestream. Very uplifting to see and hear all those people around the protest. But also emphasizes the dread I feel is in the making if the government reacts as they are broadcasting. One small optimistic note, David did mention briefly in passing that some police are smiling and winking at the protestors, so maybe some of the police will not cross the violence line.
David Foster, above @1:06 PM, I enjoyed your review of “Tunnel in the Sky”. Now, of course, I am going to have to find a copy and reread it!
Interesting piece on San Francisco with Megyn Kelly and David Sacks. That Bill Ayres interview with Kelly on Fox years ago is pretty amazing and this was the man who raised Boudin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQgBriIm8GA
Another Mike,
I recommend Bill Whittle’s, “Apollo 11 What we Saw.”
https://billwhittle.com/apollo-11-what-we-saw-with-bill-whittle-trailer/
Lee,
I have friends who will be near Oberammergau, Germany this summer and the husband wants to attend the passion play, as their trip coincides with one of the few times in his lifetime it will be performed. His wife gave the same reason as yours for having no interest in sitting through the show.
Has any outlet or person reflected on the impact of the foundation that Obamacare might have created for the current insanity found in our “care” facilities? E.g. Ivermectin bad, Hydroxychloroquine bad, keep them home suffering until its time to die then hospitalize them…
Did it create the paths for $’s to flow that seem to be inspiration for action vs. do no harm?
physicsguy,
Like you I have an ominous/or possibly optimistic gut feeling about the trucker convoy protest in Canada. I have a sense it could be something huge, even worldwide. Like Solidarnosc in Poland.
Art Deco:
Well that looked like the current list of all the paid subscribers to National Review.
Making grift great again is their motto.
My feel-good guitar song of the day, Spider-Gris.
TommyJay:
That’s some smooth guitar powerdrive!
Here’s some “Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya” from Dr. John in his “Night Tripper” period. New Orleans R&B meets 60s psychedelia.
Nothing like it.
FWIW, Rolling Stone consistently puts this album into its 500 Best Album list.
–“Dr. John – Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4J8VrprrGE
Clock Stopped Twice a Day Department:
Well said, Art Deco and Om!
‘Tunnel in the Sky’
One of my favorites, first read it when I was a juvenile. Took me altogether too long to grok “stobor” 🙂
@David Foster:
Thanks for recommendation. Haven’t read.
The Heinlein Juvenile made an impression on me at that age was Citizen of the Galaxy. Ironic title given my later views on Cosmopolitanism.
@Chuck:
Greetings, Fellow Grokker.
I read Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” in the summer after 7th grade and I went through a period of wishing my beatnik mother would send me to a military academy.
I got over it.
BTW I think Paul Verhoeven’s wacked adaptation of “Troopers” to the screen was inspired, sly and underrated.
I supported 5 flights of the spacecraft I worked on. One unmanned and four manned. Two of the manned flights were the first flight of the Challenger and the last flight of the Challenger. The other two manned flights were classified and I have no mission patch for them.
I read everything Heinlein wrote; chalk it up to misspent youth. Got over it, no there there IMO.
Blasphemy!
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3166328/coronavirus-hong-kong-new-cases-expected-top-1100
whoop-de-doo.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china-hong-kong-sar/
Taiwan looks as if it might have stomped another outbreak:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/taiwan/
Bit early to be sure.
And here’s Singapore:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/singapore/
All a bit of a bore at this stage except for looking at how different management styles and population attitudes/temperaments might or might not get different outcomes.
Covid deaths in these locales have been miniscule to date.
David Goldman fisks grifting broken record Cassandra Gordon Chang:
https://asiatimes.com/2022/02/us-cant-decouple-from-china-without-chinas-help/
Zaphod:
All the countries of East Asia have low COVID rates and deaths no matter what their policies, and there is evidence that the real reason is genetically-mediated immunity in those populations. See this.
Fascinating insights into how your decadent and frankly insane ruling class sees the world:
https://www.takimag.com/article/the-unicultural-edge/
“A formerly secret 2013 Pentagon report, The Strategic Consequences of Chinese Racism: A Strategic Asymmetry for the United States, argues “China is a racist superpower.” It makes for eye-opening reading on how both the Chinese people and the American deep state think.
This book-length paper, which was posted online as the result of Freedom of Information Act litigation and then discovered by Twitter user @s_decatur, is by an author whose name remains redacted. But we know for sure that it was commissioned by the legendary nonagenarian strategist Andrew Marshall.
This shadowy mandarin started his career as a machinist in Detroit during WWII, then joined the RAND Corporation in 1949 to do Dr. Strangelove-like nuclear war planning. Henry Kissinger brought him into the Nixon White House and in 1973 Defense Secretary James Schlesinger created the enigmatic Office of Net Assessment for Marshall to think deep thoughts like a terrestrial Hari Seldon about the future of superpower rivalries….
.
.
(Lots of Zaphod redacted GloboHomo nonsense about Diversity being Your Strength and Steve Sailer’s droll commentary on these moronic assertions.)
.
.
…As The Strategic Consequences of Chinese Racism makes plain, the great Chinese advantage over both the United States and Russia is that it’s less of an empire and more of a nation-state.
In summary, it’s not clear whether the wily Marshall intended this document more as a guide to how to exploit China’s faults or as a disguised warning of America’s increasing self-destructiveness.”
@ david foster > Heinlein fans: “I just put up a review of his ‘Tunnel in the Sky’”
Good summary and analysis. I am curious about why you chose to review such an old book, good though it is.
I don’t remember when I last read the book, as one of our kids made off with my entire Heinlein collection a couple of years ago, but I first read it in the sixties, not long after publication (1955), along with all of his juvies. Trivia note: that was the same year as the publication of “Lord of the Flies,” which is rather surprising. I’m sure that was not intentional. We were shown the movie of LotF in high school, and, if we had been snowflakes back then, I would definitely have been traumatized by it.
The Heinlein books as a group do hold up well in terms of action, but seem a bit more preachy than kids are interested in now. However, judging from the response to Jordan Peterson, maybe the modern buckos aren’t averse to some common-sense moral suasion.
But JP’s lobsters seem to be more of a piece with Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” than RAH’s apparently more realistic vision.
“In 1965, there was a real incident in which a group of students (only boys) was stranded on an island for a prolonged period of time. The events that unfolded were closer to those in Tunnel in the Sky than to those in the Golding book. Although these students all knew each other prior to the stranding, which may have been a significant point.”
I read the linked article at the Guardian some time ago, and noted at the time one of the particulars that might have made a difference in the outcomes of the real life and the Golding book: the boys were all from a Christian boarding school (even if they did steal the boat for their adventure). The boys in Golding’s book may have been nominally Christian (I don’t remember), but I suspect that’s not the same ethical backgrounding the Tongans had.
https://catholicism.org/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-six-catholic-boarding-school-boys-from-tonga-marooned-on-an-island-for-15-months.html
From another story, interviewing one of them:
“We were very happy, but the first thing we did, we say a prayer, thank God for what he brought us to,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-mano-totau-survivor-story-shipwreck-tonga-boys-ata-island-peter-warner
FWIW, I never enjoyed Heinlein’s “adult” books other than “Stranger in a Strange Land” and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
@ Rufus > “I have friends who will be near Oberammergau, Germany this summer and the husband wants to attend the passion play”
AesopSpouse and I were fortunate to see the play about 20 years ago, on a group tour that also included giving concerts in several churches in Germany, including where Bach was baptized (“concerts” only loosely speaking; we got permission to set up and sing during the normal open times, but there were no formal performances).
It’s well worth the visit.
Get masks from one of the places that recognize the cloth ones are useless for anything other than Covid Theater. We love ours. Unless you get up close and personal (within the 6 foot limit), an observer can’t really tell that they are totally porous and easy to breathe through.
https://www.getunmask.com/
Still, you might want a more traditional one close at hand if someone does object.
I want one with the marquee running lights, although maybe with a different slogan. “Honk honk” seems to be trending.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/31/trump-supporter-asked-to-remove-lets-go-brandon-mask-on-flight/
@Neo:
You don’t need to convince me that Race is a Thing 🙂
The article you link is interesting. I wonder though whether much of the relative immunity isn’t also more recent. Anyone who comes out here from the West to live will tend to get sicker than normal during the first one or two winters and springs as their bodies don’t have much immunity to the local viruses in circulation.
While Covid doesn’t seem to be much of a problem in East Asia, it’s certainly cut a swathe through the Slavs.
Still.. our mutual race obsessions aside (heh), there are likely lifestyle components. One thing notable here is just how sprightly and energetic and thin old people tend to be… You just don’t see the same number of shambling metabolic syndrome ravaged wrecks one sees all over the West. Sadly also don’t see too many children.
Just in case any of you made it through the past 24 hours without wanting to bang your head against the wall and scream:
https://electrek.co/2022/02/09/the-us-army-is-going-electric-and-wants-to-be-net-zero-by-2050/
All part of the service! 🙂
Gee, came out of the Wuhan lab and mostly kills the old round eyes. Nothing to see not even a clue, why could that be? Make the world safe for the people of Z.
AesopFan, thanks for the link. I haven’t worn a mask for at least a year but bought one of these in case The Science tells us we need to again.
Zaphod: Does this mean future wars will also have to be net zero or we won’t participate?
Now the US Army is truly the big Green Machine. The woke way of war.
Zaphod:
The article doesn’t prove that “race is a thing” in the sense that many if not most people – including you – use the term “race.” Race is a shorthand for a group that tends to have average levels of a group of traits that society has deemed classifiable. For example, the epicanthic fold in the eye is extremely common in Asian (traditionally Mongoloid race) people but not universal, and there are groups (Vietnamese, for example) within it who don’t often have it. In addition, there are white (“Caucasoid,” traditionally) groups such as Finns who exhibit a lot of it. So even though it’s generally considered a hallmark of a certain race, that’s only based on its average occurrence in the racial group.
Each group is made of a cluster of these traits that are found on average more often in that group, and the traits were chosen long ago and are more visually based and geographically based than anything else. A trait like resistance to disease is the same, and is probably based on geography. On average, Asians in a certain area were apparently, over time, exposed to certain diseases and therefore have more resistance to them. In similar fashion, sickle cell trait or thalassemia trait (which I have) are distributed around the world in a certain fashion, much greater in certain groups, and in the case of the traits conferring some protection against malaria.
None of that has anything to do with whether current or past racial classifications really represent distinct entities, or what other traits a member of a group might possess, and what it tells you about a certain individual member of a group.
Zaphod:
And yet, life expectancy in China and Vietnam is lower than in the US. In Japan and South Korea it’s higher.