Here's how it looked on the Union Terrace:
Here's how that strip of lakeshore looks in good times:
That's from June 7, 2013 (when fewer students are in town than the end of April). Notice the picnic tables. They're not there today — now that they're regarded as vectors of disease and not places to stretch out and absorb sunlight.
Here's a pic from May 2, 2010:
Note the iconic tables and chairs that are gone today.
I walked through the terrace and up State Street and back. No trouble keeping my distance from anyone. I think I saw about 200 people along the way. At one point, I thought about writing this blog post and telling you that I did not see one person wearing a mask, but then I saw a young man in a mask. He was skateboarding. Was the mask ironic?
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74 comments:
The Man in the Ironic Mask.
Here's how that strip of lakeshore looks in good time:
Especially if I can sit at one of those tables with a bikini-clad girl on top and eat a hoggie.
Not only ironic it is compulsory which is orders of importance higher. Dem governors are MUCH better Hitlers than Trump!
"Click on the image to see the official "dos" and "dont's"..."
I am astounded by the number of signs related to the virus seen just about everywhere. I'm sure it was a godsend for printers and such but what an enormous waste of money and resources, both in materials and labor. Think of all the other businesses, particularly the non-essential ones, who won't be getting those needed dollars now. Or ever.
Ironically, I find it unsanitary and unseemly to stretch out one’s body on a public table where people eat, and I thought that long before covid.
I've spent considerable time in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Some of those countries (especially Japan) have a tradition of wearing masks frequently. I would say in Tokyo or Osaka before all of this 1 in 10 would be wearing a mask. It's not abnormal over there for men or women (but women wear them more frequently...Japanese women are very self-conscious of their mouths).
Maybe it will become a new normal. When Asia coughs, the West gets sick.
A neighbor in St Paul had a couple of those iconic chairs in his back yard. I asked if he was a Badger, and he had no idea what I was talking about. The chairs came with the house.
No need to wear a mask outdoors unless you’re paranoid about people getting too close to you. I never wear a mask on my walks outside and I’m not concerned about people passing me on our road, it’s wide enough to feel comfortable.
For those of you with expertise in constitutional law, what are the traditional limitations on the states' police powers? Do they have to avoid unduly burdening rights in light of the state's interest involved, does there have to be some rational basis for particular aspects of the powers exercised, does the state need to have any evidence or articulable rationale for what it does, or is it allowed to do anything that isn't arbitrary and capricious?
Looks better without all the bums.
Skateboarding without a mask can kill you.
Has everyone seen the rt.live/ website, just a few states with an R 0 above one now.
"now that they're regarded as vectors of disease and not places to stretch out and absorb sunlight."
Picnic tables as vectors of disease, out in the sunlight no less: in retrospect, that will be counted as yet another sign of The Panic of 2020, when pseudo-science became the new superstition.
Stocked up on frozen meats at UW Provisions for our tiny little freezer this morning. About half the customers were wearing masks, half not. I feel stupid in mine, but I've got leukemia, so…
Shows that Madison is inhabited by Eloi...
Nice photos! Where's all the sick people?
If you go into a bank without a mask, they'll shoot you.
How sad that we allowed our governments scare us to the point were we don't even feel safe enjoying the sunshine. Everyone crawl into their little holes until the experts say you can come out.
I really do like those brightly colored chairs at Union Plaza. I was there when my oldest girl lived in Madison.
@PM,
"If you go into a bank without a mask, they'll shoot you."
Heh! Early thread winner!
OTOH I went to Home Depot in CA yesterday and it was hard to find a place to park.
Home Depot parking lot was full here in Sacramento yesterday.
https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1254935902855606274?s=20
Original Mike:
The masks are to stop the wearers from spreading illness to others, not for protection from infection. No one is likely to catch leukemia if you don't wear a mask. Hope you recover quickly & without nasty sequelae.
This brings back great memories of getting shitfaced at the Rathskeller, drinking Spaten Optimator out of gigantic paper cups. I think they banned those giant cups shortly thereafter.
Thistlerose: I echo your sentiments. I find it even more repulsive that people feel it necessary to report "bad" behavior; those that have interpreted the "stay home" orders as a form of martial law. Compulsive statists.
Andrew said...Skateboarding without a mask can kill you.
--
Better airflow than the guy in Jersey who crashed his car wearing an N95 too long.
Meadehouse should swing by some hospitals with that cam.
I saw a boy riding a push scooter pretty fast down a steep driveway yesterday. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, gloves, or knee/elbow pads, but he was wearing a paper mask. It would be a shame if he wiped out in a pile of Covid.
Re: the picnic tables -- evidence is of course still lacking, but the picture I'm getting now is that the main transmission vector isn't "fomites" deposited on surfaces, or aerosolised virus, but rather, virus carried in airborne droplets. That suggests to me that obsessive handwashing and spraying packages and home surfaces with disinfectant have not actually been all that effective in controlling disease spread (I still carry around Purell in my pocket when I go outside though).
Masks any time you're talking loudly or huffing and puffing, on the other hand, seem even more important to me now. Just walking outside in a gentle breeze -- probably doesn't matter much. Droplets aren't being projected with much force, etc. The skateboarder, though, it makes sense for him to wear the mask in case he is an asymptomatic carrier.
Sadly, the empty pictures will be what the Milwaukee festival grounds by Lake Michigan will look like all summer. Summerfest moved to September, but according to Evers’ five steps, I don’t know how it can happen. Perhaps the DNC’s presence will for a hypocritical open. German and Irish Fests cancelled. The economic impact is going to hurt.
Well…except for the nurses. They’re just swimming in the adulation, fire truck parades, and line dancing videos.
Thanks for the tip on rt.live JB. Just showed it to me wife.
Interesting to see NY, NJ, Connecticut all below 1.0 now. Only states above 1.0 seem to be those that came late to the party.
Those saying we need to stay locked down for months are knuckleheads.
Wince said ... "Especially if I can sit at one of those tables with a bikini-clad girl on top and eat a hoggie.(sic)"
You shouldn't call those girls that! And I suspect eating them in public might get you in trouble (or at least in some widespread [ha!] videos).
I get the feeling that Madison wanting to open up its revenue influx via UW will be the ok to go date. I don’t see Madison passing up on a fall’s revenue. Shut down Badger Football games? Keep students home another semester? All that yummy borrowed gravy. As soon as Madison and Dane County want the money to flow in again, the dangers of the virus will disappear.
It'll be too late for Milwaukee though.
"now that they're regarded as vectors of disease and not places to stretch out and absorb sunlight."
“Picnic tables as vectors of disease, out in the sunlight no less: in retrospect, that will be counted as yet another sign of The Panic of 2020, when pseudo-science became the new superstition.”
As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no evidence that UV radiation, from the sun here, do not rapidly kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A lot of people are assuming that this coronavirus, like others, is very susceptible to UV light. For one thing, it is being heavily utilized to sterilize a lot of things of this virus right now. But somehow UV from the sun isn’t going to do the same thing to this virus that manufactured UV is regularly depended upon to do? Ridiculous.
Taken today. Now all those people are dead. Don't leave your house!
How many of the Wisconsin cases were acquired through outdoor contact?
Has the government even asked that question, let alone answered it?
Isn't that an important question?
If someone can point me to one documented case of outdoor transmission of the disease, I would appreciate it. The studies I've seen identify indoor and public transit exposure as the only mechanisms of transmission.
Face masks and social distancing outdoors is pointless.
It's nice to look back on better times, like when some people actually believed we were on an exponential rocket ship to 11 million dead. Good times.
Meanwhile, in the real world:
"Chief Executive Guillaume Faury warned Monday the company was "bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed.” Faury also told Airbus’ 135,000 staff to prepare for possible deep job cuts and warned that its survival was at stake without immediate action."
"TripAdvisor (TRIP) - Get Report, the travel review platform, announced Tuesday it was laying off 900 employees, or about 25% of its global workforce, in response to the coronavirus pandemic."
More "marginal businesses." Serves'm right. Who likes travel anyway? Stay home, like Althouse told you. And ef the airlines -- they are polluters.
Back Bench Baldwin wants investigation into Trump promoting Hydroxychloroquine.
gov Edict re-opens parks.
BH: "somehow UV from the sun isn’t going to do the same thing to this virus that manufactured UV is regularly depended upon to do? Ridiculous."
This also illustrates the larger issue with the alarmism of the past two months: the notion that This Time Is Different, and therefore everything we know about the evolution of epidemics and the development of herd immunity and the weaknesses of coronaviruses is somehow not relevant. We just don't know! Therefore we must do the maximally destructive thing! The alarmist shifting of the burden of proof is one one mark of the insanity epidemic.
Ironically, I find it unsanitary and unseemly to stretch out one’s body on a public table where people eat, and I thought that long before covid.
No kidding, what's up with that?
"insanity epidemic."
Now that actually did grow exponentially. I wish we could develop antibodies for that.
Inga: "No need to wear a mask outdoors unless you’re paranoid about people getting too close to you."
LOL
Unless you are at a Open Up Our Economy Rally.
In which case you are a confederate flag waving/racist killer.
Ryan said...
This brings back great memories of getting shitfaced at the Rathskeller, drinking Spaten Optimator out of gigantic paper cups. I think they banned those giant cups shortly thereafter.
Those weren't paper cups -- they were popcorn buckets (jumbo size)!
Watch out for Optimator. I think it is 8.9% or so. I have a funny story about my wife drinking 2 one-liter steins at Octoberfest 10 years ago, when we both were unaware of what Optimator was. Well, it's funny now.
Those coin op scopes are..VECTORS!
The human mortality rate has remained steady.
At 100%.
Note the iconic tables and chairs that are gone today.
Iconic outdoor furniture. It's creeping Dadaism, I tell you.
Creeping Dadaism -- which explains what happened. As usual, what starts as Dada ends as Conceptual. What we have here is the 4-33 of lounging in the sun and enjoying a Coke.
Nobody does symbolic irony like Skateboarders.
Life of virus in aerosol form or on a surface in heat and humidity is very limited. you can probably bring out the lakeside chairs and tables again.
Trump "promotes" HCQ. When did this happen? What is the meaning of "promote" in this context? Trump never told anyone to take HCQ. Nor did he "tout" its benefits. He said he heard good things, and MAYBE we should give it a try but qualified that he was saying that from a layman's perspective. He got vast supplies of HCQ in case it works. His only real point?
He wanted drugs that *COULD* help be used to fight CV-19 - if that's all we had. No time for 2 year studies. People are dying. Who can disagree?
“The alarmist shifting of the burden of proof is one one mark of the insanity epidemic.”
I think that is what global warming people misunderstand. Since there are an infinite number of asteroids in the universe, there are an infinite number of disasters for earth, Yet money is finite, so by the precautionary principle I should spend a finite number of dollars on an infinite number of disasters, so, at the limit, I spend 0 dollars each on a infinite number of potential disasters. The precautionary principle just tells me I don’t have enough money to save earth from everything bad. This forces alarmists to try to get you to focus only on their pet potential disaster.
Went do doctor and was given a mask. Surprised I wasn't forced to take temperature. Instead, just asked questions. Did I have this symptom that symptom, etc.
“How sad that we allowed our governments scare us to the point were we don't even feel safe enjoying the sunshine. “
You don’t live in Wisconsin is my guess. We don’t get much of that here, sadly.
Our dear leader has put out another decree.
On Friday many State Parks will reopen, but with special conditions.
Enjoy, my plebes!!
Note the iconic tables and chairs that are gone today.
...Oh, those are special? Look uncomfortable.
I walked through the terrace and up State Street and back. No trouble keeping my distance from anyone. I think I saw about 200 people along the way. At one point, I thought about writing this blog post and telling you that I did not see one person wearing a mask, but then I saw a young man in a mask. He was skateboarding. Was the mask ironic?
...Iconic. More so than the Paddy O'Furniture.
"This brings back great memories of getting shitfaced at the Rathskeller, drinking Spaten Optimator out of gigantic paper cups. I think they banned those giant cups shortly thereafter.
Those weren't paper cups -- they were popcorn buckets (jumbo size)! "
Oh, yeah, I remember those! Popcorn buckets is right. The bar opened about 10am (not that I'd have any way of knowing that…)
Blogger Gusty Winds said...
I get the feeling that Madison wanting to open up its revenue influx via UW will be the ok to go date. I don’t see Madison passing up on a fall’s revenue. Shut down Badger Football games? Keep students home another semester? All that yummy borrowed gravy. As soon as Madison and Dane County want the money to flow in again, the dangers of the virus will disappear.
We’ve already signed, for year 2 of my soon to be UDub seniors’ house next to camp Randall. I really hope they run next year as normal. House has been vacant for more than a month already.
No one is wearing masks in our grocery store. Not even the clerks now. Although they are still sanitizing the conveyor belts for groceries and handing you a Lysol wipe on the way out.
Unless you are in New York CITY, wall to wall, elbow to elbow, groin to butt in the subways, why should you wear a mask when walking around outside. Strolling along the waterfront, sitting on the grass in a park.
This idea that we have to wrap ourselves in bubble wrap, stay inside, never go anyplace is totally insane.
If you truly want "herd immunity" you don't isolate ALL the cows from each other. Everyone is supposed to get the "bug" to build immunity. The obviously ill cows ARE isolated in a separate part of the pasture or...culled.
Nice one, tcrosse.
Calypso Facto: Wince’s use of the term “hoggie” reminded me of Titus.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/04/ultraviolet-blood-irradiation-the-cure-that-time-forgot/
The disease is ostensibly Gaia's Choice, Her Choice.. However, Catastrophic Climate change is certified anthroopogenic. Progress to the distant past or an apocalyptic future.
Went for a walk on a local trail in the woods. The acreage is part wildlife sanctuary, part county greenspace, part MA State forest. I did not wear, nor was I carrying, a mask. Pretty much by myself until a guy (older judging by hair color) came up behind me on his bicycle and scooted by. How ah ya? said I. Well, and you?, said he.
A bit later a couple, male and female, judging by their clothes and hair they were late 20's, early 30's, approached from the other direction. Once they saw me they pulled out their masks and put them on. I stepped aside the trail in order to give them the recommended 6' plus. How ah ya? said I. Mmfff, mffff, ou?, said they.
Typical April day in these parts, cool, high 40's, overcast, light breeze. Quite a nice walk.
In Ulster County, NY, where I live, the fatality rate among those who’ve tested positive is 1.8%. 24 fatalities out of a populace of 184,000.
Obviously, the infection rate is many multiples that of those tested, since only people who have serious symptoms seek out testing. So, I think I can state with some assurance that the fatality rate is well under 1/2 of 1% of those infected.
So, we’ve shut down the entire county for no good reason.
https://issuesinsights.com/2020/04/28/if-coronavirus-threats-so-great-whys-u-s-overall-death-rate-down/
Total US death rate lower than normal.
I believe that means 11 million people are dead from Viet Nam stuff, or something.
It is always the or something that gets people like Ken B.
"On Friday many State Parks will reopen, but with special conditions."
But of course. People are starting to ignore those "Cower in Place" orders, so it's time to get out in front of things while making sure everybody understands who thinks they're in charge.
walter said...
Back Bench Baldwin wants investigation into Trump promoting Hydroxychloroquine.
Nevada Doctors suing the governor for prohibiting Hydroxychloroquine, preventing them from properly treating their patients.
Q: does this virus permeate the body through circulating blood or travel along mucosa?
To be present in aerosol expectoration suggest mucosa to me
Shouting Thomas In Ulster County, NY, where I live, the fatality rate among those who’ve tested positive is 1.8%. 24 fatalities out of a populace of 184,000.
The County where I live 180,000 people 3 THREE deaths. .01666%
Zero cases and ZERO deaths in the two surrounding counties.
This is a farce. A tragedy. A disaster that will affect the whole country for at least a decade to recover from this insanity and economic destruction.
This idea that we have to wrap ourselves in bubble wrap, stay inside, never go anyplace is totally insane.
Full body condom. Also, this may be an HIV-like virus passed, transmitted through the anal sphincter.
This is what pandemic madness is. There is no reason to shut society down for the fucking flu.
Alex said...
This is what pandemic madness is. There is no reason to shut society down for the fucking flu.
4/28/20, 10:18 PM
But it's not the flu! It's maybe more communicable than the flu. And the symptoms are not the same. If you have symptoms. Sometimes the symptoms are different. Maybe.
And it is deadlier than the flu! Well maybe.
But it is NOT THE FLU!
"Blogger Dust Bunny Queen said...
Shouting Thomas In Ulster County, NY, where I live, the fatality rate among those who’ve tested positive is 1.8%. 24 fatalities out of a populace of 184,000."
But they are only testing people who have doctors who have said that they might have covid-19 and authorized a test.
If people get the virus, and do not bother to go to the doctor because their symptoms are non-existent or slight, they will never be tested. The real IFR is certainly lower than 1.8%.
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