Althouse: At the Saturday Night Café...

February 20, 2021

At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can talk all night.

102 comments:

rcocean said...: Looking forward to a hilarious SNL episode poking fun and satirizing Biden and his many gaffes. Looking forward to the LAUGHS!; 2/20/21, 6:25 PM
rcocean said...: How does it feel?
How does it feel?
To be without a home?
Like a complete unknown?
Like a rolling stone?

Nobel Prize winning Literature. Plus 26 million Youtube videos; 2/20/21, 6:29 PM
rcocean said...: Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle-jangle morning I'll come following you.

40 million Youtube views. People love being happy. Makes you want to get up and dance!; 2/20/21, 6:32 PM
rhhardin said...: Australian ABC live doesn't seem to work on youtube. I haven't watched recently but it used to work. Is this the Facebook war with Australia?; 2/20/21, 6:35 PM
Mark said...: No. We've haven't forgotten. We haven't moved on.

Who killed the unarmed Ashli Babbitt?

More than six weeks later -- Who killed the unarmed Ashli Babbitt?

Say her name. Say his name.; 2/20/21, 6:35 PM
BillieBob Thorton said...: Received from a friend:

As reported by the CDC here are the US deaths by year and the change from the previous year
Year 2017: 2,818,503 Americans died
Year 2018: 2,839,205 American deaths (20,702 more than the previous year 2017)
Year 2019: 2,855,000 American deaths (16,300 more than the previous year 2018)
The year of the pandemic ...
Year 2020: 2,913,144 deaths (57,641 more than the previous year 2019)

BUT WAIT: There were zero deaths from Covid-19 during 2017, 2018, and 2019 and the jump in reported deaths from 2019 to 2020 was only 57,641 ???

If COVID was responsible for 400,000+ deaths in 2020. Shouldn't the 2020 number be a hell of a lot higher?

So the question becomes: How many people died OF COVID and how many died of other causes; 2/20/21, 6:44 PM
Mark said...: Speaking of killing --

I'm getting an ad right now on this page from Planned Parenthood begging for money.

This after reading a story that despite withdrawing from Title X, the group received more than $618 million in government funding in the 2019-20 year—an increase of $1.3 million from the previous year. And during that time, the number of abortions it committed increased while the handful of other services it did decreased.; 2/20/21, 6:48 PM
Carol said...: Like a rolling stone?

Ah, summer of '65. I had been thinking of when I was on the beach at Catalina, and how this song was coming out of everyone's transistor radios.

It wasn't poetry, exactly, but the session as a whole was ahead of its time.; 2/20/21, 6:55 PM
Yancey Ward said...: The correct number for 2020, BillieBob is 3,352,084.; 2/20/21, 6:55 PM
FullMoon said...: 40 million Youtube views. People love being happy. Makes you want to get up and dance!

Latest dance craze-

You move it to the left
Yeah, then you go for yourself
You move it to the right
Yeah, if it takes all night

[Verse 2]
Now baby kinda slow
With a whole lot of soul
Don't move it too fast and make it last
You know you scratch just like a monkey
Yeah, you do, real, yeah
You slide into the limbo
Yeah, how low can you go?

[Verse 3]
But oh, come on, baby
I don't want you to scuffle now
You just groove it right here to the Biden shuffle
Yeah, yeah, yeah, do the Biden shuffle
Oh, do the monkey shine
Yeah, yeah, yeah, do the Biden shuffle; 2/20/21, 7:13 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: So why the big discrepancy in reported deaths Yancey & Bille Bob?; 2/20/21, 7:23 PM
Lucien said...: Zombie “Uprising” Blindsides “Walking Dead” Team for using Live Actors:

The “Walking Dead” production team has come under fire for using living actors to portray dead characters. “They never did the spadework needed to reach out to actors in the vivi-diverse (V-D) community” said a spokes . . . person (the vivi-diverse find the term “dead” to be denigrating, and are hurt and traumatized by the use of Necrophobic slurs like “corpse” and “Cadaver”). We’re here to stand up not only for ourselves but for the entire LGBTQV-D community, because the oppression of one of us intersects with the intersection of all of us. Supporters, some waving signs that said “Dissection is Violence” and “Defund Med Schools” turned their ire on the TV show after gathering outside the home of the local Coroner. Two were shown holding hands and wearing matching “You’re dead to Me” T-shirts.
“A lot of people carry misconceived stereotyped beliefs about us, such as that we stick pins in dolls, or drink chicken blood – which is disgusting – and then, because of our close association with Caribbean culture, there is a large cohort of Zombies of Color (ZOC) who bear the double burden of black-zombiness.” "They are trying to erase our dead-experience."
“Our goal is to decompose the matrix of Necrophobia in which we have been buried for so long and drive a stake through the heart of Necrophobia.” More radical zombies indicted capitalism itself, saying : “To the big corporations, we’re just another demographic of consumers”.
The V-D community has been riven , though, by the issue of the “trans-dead” – biologically living people who nevertheless identify as dead. One old school “knuckle-dragging” zombie explained “if you’re breathin’, you have a pulse, you got brain-waves, you ain’t dead, simple as that.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot claimed that her city was in the vanguard of the V-D rights movement, staing “I’m proud to say that here in Chicago we have led the country in V-D voting for decades”.
Meanwhile TV executives issued a blanket apology to “all those, dead or living, or non-binary, who we might have offended by hiring living actors; but really, it’s required in the SAG/AFTRA CBA”.; 2/20/21, 7:27 PM
gilbar said...: The California Department of Public Health is prioritizing cannabis workers over some other essential workers for vaccination.

The state’s latest vaccination guidelines say medical marijuana workers are in Phase 1A, the same top slot as frontline health care workers. Teachers and law enforcement officers are placed a step lower, in Phase 1B.

makes sense (or, maybe sinse?), right?
I mean, Other than elected officials, WHO is More Important; than dope dealers?
What else would Cali do? Waste the vaccines, on old people? NAH!; 2/20/21, 7:47 PM
Yancey Ward said...: My number comes from the CDC's provisional death totals all cause mortality for 2020.

See the yearly tab to go to the right page. It is possible the lower number is a non-provisional one from the CDC, but I don't know where you would find such a number, but in any case the provisional one is going to be the right one anyway for "all cause".; 2/20/21, 8:03 PM
Narr said...: So I can move to California and identify as a medical marijuana worker and jump the line?

We got above freezing today for the first time in over a week; it's the fourth-worst snowstorm in our recorded history, and it's obvious that most of the whipper-snappers around here (<50 y.o.) have never driven in snow or ice. Still lots of snow on the side streets.

The top crust in places is hard enough that our 20-pound dackel doesn't even break through---good ground pressure p.s.i. of paw!

Narr
No real walks until tomorrow; 2/20/21, 8:07 PM
rehajm said...: They're dead...and they vote!; 2/20/21, 8:10 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "and it's obvious that most of the whipper-snappers around here (<50 y.o.) have never driven in snow or ice. Still lots of snow on the side streets."

I lived in Atlanta during the March Blizzard of 1993. We only got about 4 inches of snow that morning, but I went out later that afternoon to the lab, and Briarcliff Rd had cars slid off of the shoulders about every 100 feet from where I lived just south of the beltway all the way to Emory University. It was hilarious.; 2/20/21, 8:12 PM
rehajm said...: Australian ABC live doesn't seem to work on youtube. I haven't watched recently but it used to work. Is this the Facebook war with Australia?

I don't know if it's the SnapFace wars. I can still watch ABC with a VPN...; 2/20/21, 8:13 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Youtube temporarily shut down my favorite chess video channel today because the videos contained comments like "black threatens" and "white must attack".

Of course, chess is a racist game- white always gets the first move and wins more of the games at all levels of play- if that ain't white privilege, I don't know what is.; 2/20/21, 8:20 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Ok, puzzle time. This one I remember from a book on problem solving from 25 years ago.

You sell flour by the pound- you sell 1 pound or 2 pounds, but not 1.5 pounds. To weigh out the flour for your customers you have an old fashioned two sided balance where you use standardized counterweights. To illustrate what I am talking about- to weigh out 1 pound of flour you put a standard 1 pound weight on one side and then add flour until the scale balances for the two sides. You have a limit of 40 pounds of flour per transaction.

Here is the question: what is the fewest number of counterweights that you need to weigh out all the integer weights between 1 and 40 pounds? What are the weights of each of these counterweights?; 2/20/21, 8:34 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I will check back in around 11 CST to see who wins the prize for being the first correct answer. If you already know the solution, you can say so, but don't spoil the fun for those trying to figure it out.; 2/20/21, 8:37 PM
effinayright said...: I'll give you a more concise version of the Biden Shuffle:

you stand in one place,

and move your bowels.; 2/20/21, 8:42 PM
JML said...: We just watched "I Care A Lot" on Netflix. Well, we actually did a fast forward the last 30 minutes. It had become insufferable. Spoiler Alert! It was satisfying seeing the protagonist (Pike) shot in the chest at the end of the movie. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes give it good ratings - something around 81, but the viewer' ratings were in the 30s. Critics loved it because it was "A searing swipe at late-stage capitalism, I Care A Lot is an exhilarating pitch black comedy with a wicked performance from Rosamund Pike." Had I seen that before we started watching the movie I would not have put it on. It was bad all around. And there was nothing funny about it. I do not recommend this movie.; 2/20/21, 8:46 PM
effinayright said...: BillieBob Thorton said...
Received from a friend:

As reported by the CDC here are the US deaths by year and the change from the previous year
Year 2017: 2,818,503 Americans died
Year 2018: 2,839,205 American deaths (20,702 more than the previous year 2017)
Year 2019: 2,855,000 American deaths (16,300 more than the previous year 2018)
The year of the pandemic ...
Year 2020: 2,913,144 deaths (57,641 more than the previous year 2019)

BUT WAIT: There were zero deaths from Covid-19 during 2017, 2018, and 2019 and the jump in reported deaths from 2019 to 2020 was only 57,641 ???

If COVID was responsible for 400,000+ deaths in 2020. Shouldn't the 2020 number be a hell of a lot higher?

So the question becomes: How many people died OF COVID and how many died of other causes

*************ask your friend what his sources are. Then tell us.; 2/20/21, 8:51 PM
D. said...: "Critics loved it because" they are political commissars trying to sell propaganda to the rubes.; 2/20/21, 8:53 PM
Whiskeybum said...: Good Grammar rule for Feb. 20:

If we've told you once, we've told you a thousand times: avoid hyperbole.; 2/20/21, 8:54 PM
mandrewa said...: 6 weights: 20 lbs, 10 lbs, 5 lbs, 3 lbs, 2 lbs, 1 lb

20, 10, 5, 2, 2, and 1 would also work but 20, 10, 5, 3, 2, and 1 is preferable because it means a single counterweight can be used for 3 lbs which might be an amount frequently bought.

This seems obvious, so that probably means I'm wrong.; 2/20/21, 9:01 PM
JML said...: D. said...
"Critics loved it because" they are political commissars trying to sell propaganda to the rubes.

Agreed.; 2/20/21, 9:04 PM
effinayright said...: Yancey Ward said...
I will check back in around 11 CST to see who wins the prize for being the first correct answer. If you already know the solution, you can say so, but don't spoil the fun for those trying to figure it out.
**********

Do you require "one weighing" for all forty pounds?

If not, then you need weights of 1,2, 3, and 4 pounds. Put all those weights on the scale and you have ten pounds. Do that 4 times to get a weight of 40 pounds. If you want any integer less than forty, then use various combinations of the weights.

Nine= 4 +3 +2. Etc.

Eighteen = 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10. Then 4 + 3 +1 = 8.

etc.

I want my prize to be in bitcoin.; 2/20/21, 9:05 PM
narciso said...: Rosamunde pike is usually good in most everything then again she was in that revisionist entebbe film as well as doom; 2/20/21, 9:08 PM
narciso said...: Try again

https://malwarwickonbooks.com/alternate-history-of-the-space-race/; 2/20/21, 9:09 PM
narciso said...: Pope che dismisses cardinal sarah; 2/20/21, 9:11 PM
walter said...: So...a couple young women dressed up as grandmas to get the majix vax.
Grans?; 2/20/21, 9:14 PM
mandrewa said...: Narr said, "The top crust in places is hard enough that our 20-pound dackel doesn't even break through---good ground pressure p.s.i. of paw!"

The top crust where I was walking today was so hard that in some places I couldn't break through even when I was trying!

It's difficult to go up a hill when it gets like that. It was so slick and so hard in some spots that I had to lie down and reach out with hand to grab a rock or a branch to pull myself upward.; 2/20/21, 9:16 PM
Fritz said...: 1 lb, 40 times.; 2/20/21, 9:24 PM
Narr said...: YW, Atlanta has steeper terrain than Memphis does--not that I know the place that well. I spent a week in about 1980 at the Emory library learning to do Medline searches for our AUSP graduate department and clinic library, and didn't get too far from campus . . . Also one long weekend at the Underground complex (wargame con) in that early 80s era.

It must be even worse there when it snows a few inches, than it is here.

My wife finally watched "Hud" last night, due to her idol Hugeones playing Paul Newman making the movie "Hud." I think. Anyway, I had never watched the whole thing through my own self. Neither one of us was very impressed.

Hugeone is also starring in "SAS:Red Notice" adapted from a book by former SAS man Andy McNabb. Her Brit friend had to send her a pbk from there, as he has no American publisher apparently. A terrorist plot to blow up the Chunnell, in the Clancy vein.

Narr
They've made the bad guy a girl, it seems; 2/20/21, 9:27 PM
The Godfather said...: Speaking of driving in the snow . . . . I grew up in Connecticut, and the winter after I got my driver's licence my folks sent me out to the NW part of the State after every snow storm to learn how to drive on snow-covered roads, how to get out of a snow bank, etc. I learned well. Years later when I lived in Washington, DC, there was a surprise snow storm; the busses were barely running, the Metro hadn't been built, and somehow a neighbor and I managed to catch a cab to take us home. I was a little worried, because the cabbie was a Black guy, and I figured he was probably from the South and didn't know how to drive in the snow any better than DC drivers. No, he explained, he grew up in Minnesota, and let me show you how to get up that big hill we're coming to! That brother knew how to drive! (Is "brother" racist these days?); 2/20/21, 9:29 PM
Mr Wibble said...: Here is the question: what is the fewest number of counterweights that you need to weigh out all the integer weights between 1 and 40 pounds? What are the weights of each of these counterweights?

I'm going to assume that you mean 40 pounds as one unit, instead of breaking it up into multiple smaller amounts.

7 weights: 1 lb, 2 lbs, 3 lbs, 5 lbs, 2x10 lbs, 25 lbs.

1, 2, 3, 3+1=4, 5, 5+1=6, 5+2=7, 5+3=8, 5+3+1=10,
Two ten pound weights gives you any number between 10 and 30.
the twenty-five pound weight gives you any number between 25 and 56.; 2/20/21, 9:31 PM
Mr Wibble said...: Crap,

5+3+1 = 9, not 10. But the point remains.; 2/20/21, 9:32 PM
narciso said...: Sam heughan from outlander?; 2/20/21, 9:33 PM
narciso said...: Mcnab was the technical adviser on heat (very good) and miami vice (the less said)

There doesnt seem that sort of gender swap according to imdb; 2/20/21, 9:37 PM
narciso said...: A russian villain droll and antonov, how unoriginal i named one character in my novella pechorin,; 2/20/21, 9:47 PM
Mark said...: A single one-pound weight.

Plus 39 one-pound bags of flour on the counter-balance side.; 2/20/21, 9:51 PM
Mr Wibble said...: Nevermind, got it down to six weights.

1,2,3,7,14,28; 2/20/21, 9:51 PM
Ken B said...: 1,3,9,27 seems to work.

Can use weights on both sides is the trick; 2/20/21, 9:52 PM
Ken B said...: Powers of 3; 2/20/21, 9:53 PM
DavidUW said...: The interesting question for deaths will be how many fewer than expected we get in the year or 2 after the pandemic to see how many life years lost there were. If, to take an extreme, deaths dropped to around 2.5m over the next 12 months then nearly all people the ‘Rona killed were on deaths door anyway and would have likely died in the next year.

And then we would have destroyed the economy and thrown hundreds of millions around the world into poverty, and ruined sports and schools all for a few million old people who were sickly and ready to die anyway.; 2/20/21, 9:54 PM
Mr Wibble said...: Shit, I didn't even think of that. You win.; 2/20/21, 9:57 PM
Ken B said...: I don’t believe in a 3 weight solution, but I wonder if there is a second 4 weight solution. My guess is you need a 1 lb weight, but it’s only a guess.; 2/20/21, 9:58 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: "Can use weights on both sides is the trick"

I had thought of that, but didn't bother to actually try to figure it out further.; 2/20/21, 10:02 PM
CStanley said...: I thought of the 2 weight concept too but had only gotten down to 5 weights (1, 3, 5, 10, 30).

Good work, Ken.; 2/20/21, 10:05 PM
WK said...: Total death numbers. Between Cuomo hiding numbers, Florida web analyst updates, individual reporting or non reporting at state and county levels, media reporting - not sure I’d trust any numbers from most any source. Would even ask for signature verification on death certificates. They are just numbers on web pages and in spreadsheets. My best guess is 3 million plus/minus 1.5 million.; 2/20/21, 10:18 PM
Ralph L said...: How will you subtract the increased overdose and suicide deaths we keep hearing about?; 2/20/21, 10:30 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: walter said...

So...a couple young women dressed up as grandmas to get the majix vax.
Grans?

Yeah, but this is the 21st century and it was young women, so you know they dressed up as sexy grans.; 2/20/21, 10:33 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: DavidUW said...

And then we would have destroyed the economy and thrown hundreds of millions around the world into poverty, and ruined sports and schools all for a few million old people who were sickly and ready to die anyway.

You've got it backwards. We didn't shut down the economy over the number of people who died in spite of the shutdown. We shut down the economy over the people who would have died had we not shut down the economy. Of course we have no way to know what that number is, so everyone is free to choose the number that proves they were right all along. ( I know I was ); 2/20/21, 10:39 PM
chickelit said...: And then we would have destroyed the economy and thrown hundreds of millions around the world into poverty, and ruined sports and schools all for a few million old people who were sickly and ready to die anyway.

But didn't sports need to die? Aren't sports just vestigial cis-paternalism? And didn't the airline industry need to die? Weren't they just CO2 spewers? So what if airline travel remains just something for the privileged who at least they pay carbon offsets. And if the old white folks would just die off, it could usher in a new age of POC advantage bolstered by their savings.; 2/20/21, 10:43 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: I can beat anyone's snow driving stories. I was stuck in the Great Gridlock in Raleigh, NC, Jan 19, 2005. Took 6 hours to make what was normally a 50 minute commute. All over 1 inch of snow.; 2/20/21, 10:43 PM
Mutaman said...: AOC has raised three million dollars for Texas!!!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/aoc-raises-2m-texas-relief-heads-houston-after-blasting-cruz-n1258389?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma; 2/20/21, 10:45 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Ken wins the prize. If you put the weights on only one side of the balance, then you need powers of two weights- 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 but you can weigh flour up to 63 pounds. It reduces to a counting problem using binary when the weights go on only one side, but when you put them on both sides, it becomes ternary numbering system where the digits are 1, 0, -1. If you want to go beyond 40, then you need to add one weight 81 pounds which allows you to "count" to 121, and so forth.

The book, I think was called "Lateral Thinking"- it was just a collection of brain-teasers where the solutions required you to look for the non-obvious. I bought it as a paperback when I was a post -doc at Emory in the early 90s. Great book. I will post other problems I remember from it in the subsequent nights. This was one of the easier problems in the book as I remember it. Some of them I had encountered in the past, so already knew the soltuion, but I remember the pleasure I got from this one when I had the "Aha!" moment of using both sides of the balance. I won't tell you how long it took me. That I take to the grave.; 2/20/21, 10:49 PM
Ralph L said...: Southern snow is slipperier than yankee snow. Plus there's often ice/freezing rain involved.; 2/20/21, 10:51 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Yeah, Texas wasted billions on green energy, ended up in a disaster, and the proponent for additional green energy policies thinks 3 million dollars makes it all good. Brilliant thinking!; 2/20/21, 10:52 PM
Ken B said...: Found on Twitter:
“ What gets me the most about this genderwang madness is the lies.

It’s all lies.

The people lying know it’s all lies.

The people supporting the liars know it’s all lies.

Yet you have to go along with and repeat all of the lies, or else you’re a hateful bigoted terf.”

The whole entire point is to get you to go along with a lie. That’s the main goal of propaganda, to make you *complicit*, so that you know longer see yourself as truthful.; 2/20/21, 10:53 PM
Ken B said...: YW: “ it becomes ternary numbering system where the digits are 1, 0, -1. “

Ah, what a nice way to show it. Doing the calculations I could see the powers of three thing, and counting backwards, but I didn’t see this nice little ternary.; 2/20/21, 10:56 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: URBAN DICTIONARY FEB 17 WORD OF THE DAY

"This post will age terribly"

2021 won't be bad, nothing bad will happen. biden will be the best president in human history, all traces of covid including the mutations will be gone. karens and antivaxers will no longer exist. your life will get better.

lets hope that "This post will age terribly" won't; 2/20/21, 11:03 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I gave you guys a harder version of this problem than I had. The original problem included the information of how many weights you needed, all I had to do was figure out what the weights were.; 2/20/21, 11:05 PM
Yancey Ward said...: The way I arrived at the solution was realizing my frustrating answers were counting binary- once I made that connection is when I got the aha moment.; 2/20/21, 11:09 PM
Yancey Ward said...: So, how long before we get the "I do PCP or meth for work life balance"?; 2/20/21, 11:13 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: When i go thru airport security they ask me to lower my mask so they can identify me. I thought of a tweet: how many grandmas does the TSA kill everyday because of that dangerous identification rule?
If i could be less serious though, what if what we need is masking our entire body, ala burkas in Afghanistan? How many problems would that solve? Age old solutions, for age old problems.; 2/20/21, 11:29 PM
Mutaman said...: "Yeah, Texas wasted billions on green energy, ended up in a disaster, and the proponent for additional green energy policies thinks 3 million dollars makes it all good. Brilliant thinking!"

Yancy cleverly determined that 10 years ago AOC, parachuted into Texas to put up windmills under cover of night. i love the GOP blaming this crisis on “green energy,” despite holding nearly every statewide office in Texas for decades.

Texas should harness the energy generated by the right wingers' irrational racial and misogynistic hatred of AOC.

Yancy should post less and use that free time to read a book.; 2/20/21, 11:29 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "Yancy cleverly determined that 10 years ago AOC, parachuted into Texas to put up windmills under cover of night."

Yeah, that is exactly what my comment said. Sheesh, you can't even read, can you, Mutaman.; 2/20/21, 11:35 PM
narciso said...: Forget it yancey its all acme.; 2/20/21, 11:48 PM
Crazy World said...: Carol 6:55 so many Catalina memories, and the beat goes on...sorta; 2/20/21, 11:51 PM
J. Farmer said...: @DavidUW:

If, to take an extreme, deaths dropped to around 2.5m over the next 12 months then nearly all people the ‘Rona killed were on deaths door anyway and would have likely died in the next year.

And then we would have destroyed the economy and thrown hundreds of millions around the world into poverty, and ruined sports and schools all for a few million old people who were sickly and ready to die anyway.

There are a few problems with this. One, you can't blame people for not knowing what couldn't be known at the time. There wasn't a right answer then. There was a mystery and a necessity to make decisions with limited information. Second, that point-of-view betrays a rather callous regard for the elderly Why don't we just deny care to people we determine are "sickly and ready to die anyway"? You could call them death panels.; 2/21/21, 12:04 AM
sachinkds said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/21/21, 12:13 AM
sachinkds said...: Thanks for the information. Also mashu kama rikdu

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Best Free Keyword Research Tools For Seo; 2/21/21, 12:19 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: "irrational racial and misogynistic hatred of AOC"

Yep, you nailed it. Has nothing at all to do with a barmaid determining national energy policy or anything.; 2/21/21, 12:38 AM
Mr Wibble said...: One, you can't blame people for not knowing what couldn't be known at the time. There wasn't a right answer then. There was a mystery and a necessity to make decisions with limited information.

All leaders make mistakes. Good leaders adapt to changing circumstances and upon assessment of the situation. Bad leaders either freeze, or double down.

I'm sure that early on Western leaders were being told by their intel agencies that the Chinese were in an uproar and behaving much like what you'd expect if a bioweapon got loose and they were trying to cover it up. In that situation, and with some of the confused early reports about the virus, the decision to impose lockdowns can be defended, at least in the short term. The utter failure of basically every public institution to use those first two months to adapt and develop a mitigation plan is the true disgrace and the true failure of leadership.; 2/21/21, 1:45 AM
Lawrence Person said...: A Californian moves to Texas...; 2/21/21, 1:57 AM
Mutaman said...: "Yep, you nailed it. Has nothing at all to do with a barmaid determining national energy policy or anything. "

As opposed to a guy who can't get a loan from a NYC bank running the country for four years? How'd that work out for you Sparky?; 2/21/21, 2:11 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Mr. Wibble:

The utter failure of basically every public institution to use those first two months to adapt and develop a mitigation plan is the true disgrace and the true failure of leadership.

I agree. In a cohesive society, you would expect an external threat to increase social cohesion and cooperation. But in our divided, dysfunctional society, it becomes just another topic for everyone to finger-point, scapegoat, and scream at each other about.

A terrific book on the subject of leadership is A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman. Of particular interest is the third chapter, "Data Junkyards and Data Junkies: The Fallacy of Expertise".; 2/21/21, 2:34 AM
Mr. Forward said...: “How'd that work out for you Sparky?” Mutaman
I tripled my net worth. What did you do? Sleep through the greatest economy ever? Hide?; 2/21/21, 3:35 AM
mandrewa said...: WK said, "My best guess is 3 million plus/minus 1.5 million."

As Yancey Ward points out there were 3,352,084 deaths from all causes in 2020 and 2,854,838 in 2019 (source: CDC).

Unlike most of the numbers that we have about Covid-19, these are accurate numbers.

The difference is 497,246. Or we could just call it 0.5 million.

From that we need to subtract the number of people that died because of lack of medical care due to people not being treated or being afraid to go to the hospital. Unfortunately that will be a matter of opinion.

The CDC reports that 12% of the population claim to have avoided urgent or emergency care during the pandemic.

Another way to look at that would be to ask what the normal death rate is from the big killers, things like heart disease and cancer. Then estimate how many people are treated normally for these things. And then compare to how many people were treated for these during 2020. And then estimate how many have died from lack of treatment.

This could be a huge correction. But it's hard to prove.

I hope everyone gets the point that there is absolutely no way that between 4.5 and 1.5 million people died from Covid-19 in 2020.; 2/21/21, 3:54 AM
mandrewa said...: J. Farmer said, "In a cohesive society, you would expect an external threat to increase social cohesion and cooperation. But in our divided, dysfunctional society, it becomes just another topic for everyone to finger-point, scapegoat, and scream at each other about."

Yes. It is really bad.

But it could be worse. We could be China, which has a lot of social cohesion, and which could have easily, and probably did, let the virus run unchecked through its population. Those deaths can be hidden by a government that controls all the information. Even if you live in China -- or I should say especially if you live in China -- how would you know how many people died from it?

We know a lot more about this virus now than we did a year ago. And we know enough to know that China's claims about what happened there don't make sense.; 2/21/21, 4:06 AM
Mutaman said...: "I tripled my net worth."

Sure you did,sure did everyone. That's why Trump has a 38% favorability rating.All those folks who got rich.; 2/21/21, 7:10 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Strangely, we have had two friends/relatives move from San Francisco to New Jersey in the past few weeks.

Things must be bad in SF if even NJ looks like a step up.; 2/21/21, 7:25 AM
walter said...: Flood the country with "migrants", increase the minimum wage, increase taxes, increase cost of energy, radically increase debt, create "equity" regulations, bow to teacher's unions, go from America First to America meh.
It's a PLAN!; 2/21/21, 8:18 AM
WK said...: I hope everyone gets the point that there is absolutely no way that between 4.5 and 1.5 million people died from Covid-19 in 2020.

Sorry for not being more clear. That was a total deaths range. Point I was trying to make is that govt/agency/state/bloggers numbers used will all be difficult to verify and cherry picked to make whatever point they want to make. Few example, having 0 “regular” flu deaths this year certainly impacted the total death count.; 2/21/21, 8:36 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Just got around to reading the news article about Carole King's 'Tapestry' at 50 years. James Taylor gets in a little political dig:

""In a funny way, it was almost like Obama's first presidential run, when he sprinted through the campaign so quickly that the Republican dirt machine didn't get him in their sights," says Taylor, whose early success alongside King would propel the two of them half a century later to performances at Biden's presidential inauguration. "People didn't get a chance to say, 'Oh Carole, she doesn't really have a singer's voice.' Or, 'She's a mother.' Or, 'She's from Brooklyn.'"

...as opposed to Trump's 2016 run when the newsies were silent about dirt, real and imagined, until he had a lock on the nomination?; 2/21/21, 8:50 AM
J. Farmer said...: @mandrewa:

But it could be worse. We could be China...We know a lot more about this virus now than we did a year ago. And we know enough to know that China's claims about what happened there don't make sense.

So, in response to a major social and political problem facing our country, where you live and have some influence, you'd prefer to focus on the social and political problems facing another country, where you don't live and don't have influence. IF we can't fix our own society's problems, we sure as hell can't fix another society's.

Sure, it could "be worse." But that shouldn't stop us from trying to make it be better.; 2/21/21, 8:50 AM
walter said...: Will Kerry bring JT along for cool tunes while battling CAGW?; 2/21/21, 8:57 AM
Doug said...: JML - we watched "I Care a Lot", too. Emblematic of the cesspool that the film industry has become. And as bad as the movie was, the ending was unbelievably worse. How on earth did a project like this get greenlighted?

Grrl power. lesbian love. The movie sucked loud enough to wake the neighbors.; 2/21/21, 9:05 AM
Doug said...: NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
I can beat anyone's snow driving stories. I was stuck in the Great Gridlock in Raleigh, NC, Jan 19, 2005. Took 6 hours to make what was normally a 50 minute commute. All over 1 inch of snow.

Wasn't a bridge going out of town that wasn't a sheet ice. I slept in my daughter's NC State campus apartment that night, rather than try to travel to my house 45 minutes east. And did the Wake County School system hear about it for getting little kids stuck in the cold in school buses for hours!; 2/21/21, 9:15 AM
walter said...: Update re Team Clipboard:
https://nypost.com/2021/02/17/los-angeles-schools-axing-cops-for-school-climate-coaches/
"The coaches “will provide students with an advocate on campus who is trained and focused on implementing positive school culture and climate,” a school report said.

They will use “effective de-escalation strategies” while “building positive relationships and elevating student voice, eliminating racial disproportionality in school discipline practices, and understanding and addressing implicit bias,” the report said.

The cuts amount to 28 percent of the police department’s staff, and defied “significant opposition” among parents and staff, the force said.

“Make no mistake, this will impact student and staff safety,” warned Rob Taylor, the president of L.A.’s School Police Management Association."; 2/21/21, 9:42 AM
mandrewa said...: "So, in response to a major social and political problem facing our country, where you live and have some influence, you'd prefer to focus on the social and political problems facing another country, where you don't live and don't have influence."

Many people seem to think that China handled this well. I think that's total crap. And I'm going to speak out against China every chance I get.

And you are the one that raised the issue of social cohesion. I do think it's a big issue by the way. I agree with you on that.

But China is an extremely social cohesive society and I think the idea that they handled this well is a huge lie. But a lot of people believe that lie.

By the way, I've never been clear exactly about what it is that you are advocating for, J. Farmer.

And as for me and what I've done, if you could look back at what I have said on this forum, I had a lot of specific things to say about what we should do. And looking back, most of those things that I said and advocated for, I still stand by.

So I tried. But do I feel a bit guilty? Could I have tried harder. Yes, I could have.

Did any thing that I said make a difference? I don't know.

I also think that the left in general played a destructive role in this epidemic. They delighted in it in many ways and I think they've killed a lot of people and impoverished a lot of lives. I'm not going to stop saying that. I think it's important to bear witness.; 2/21/21, 9:48 AM
CStanley said...: I can beat anyone's snow driving stories. I was stuck in the Great Gridlock in Raleigh, NC, Jan 19, 2005. Took 6 hours to make what was normally a 50 minute commute.

Along with lots of other Atlantans, I can beat that.Well, my husband can actually- I had a loaner small sedan with crappy tires and couldn’t get out of our neighborhood so I abandoned the car and called and asked him to pick up our daughter from the church preschool at noon.

It was 10 pm before they made it home. He too had one stretch that he couldn’t drive and had to walk the last 1/2 mile to the church and then carry our then 4-year old piggyback to the car. He was driving a Toyota 4 runner with 4 wheel drive and good tires but was mainly concerned on that last hill because multiple cars were sliding down right in front of him.

Snowmaggedon, 2014. What some people don’t realize is the temp dropped that morning so the roads were still warm and the initial precipitation melted and then refrozen so the roads were incredibly slick. Add in the lack of experience and preparation (lots of people drive cars without 4 wheel drive, no snow tires, city doesn’t treat the roads) and the hilly terrain. The forecasters had bungled the timing so schools were open and had to close early, sending everyone out onto the roads at the same time for a “perfect storm.”

It’s not all about the amount of precipitation.; 2/21/21, 9:53 AM
CStanley said...: YW: “ it becomes ternary numbering system where the digits are 1, 0, -1. “

Very interesting! I don’t think in math language but can usually understand it.

My line of reasoning was to think of using subtraction as well as addition, so I started playing around with that. Since I had only reduced it to 5 weights I figured it could go lower and realized I had been sticking mainly to multiples of 5 so I needed to get outside that box but was too tired to keep working at it.; 2/21/21, 10:02 AM
Mr. Forward said...: Measuring from Election Day 2016 to Election Day 2020, the S&P is up 57%, the Nasdaq is up 115% and Dow is up 38%.; 2/21/21, 10:06 AM
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Benefits Of Saraswati Mantra; 2/21/21, 11:36 AM
Narr said...: I was told there would be no math!

Narr
I was too tired even to think about it; 2/21/21, 11:42 AM
walter said...: Some amazing announcements came about riiiight after the selection.; 2/21/21, 11:43 AM
Rusty said...: "Texas should harness the energy generated by the right wingers' irrational racial and misogynistic hatred of AOC."
First of all "stupid" isn't a race or sex. Further. If AOC didn't have the power of congress behind her most people would feel sorry for her. But she acts like a bully.
If you need any more of these things explained to you please don't hesitate to ask.; 2/21/21, 12:15 PM
RobinGoodfellow said...: “ Here is the question: what is the fewest number of counterweights that you need to weigh out all the integer weights between 1 and 40 pounds? What are the weights of each of these counterweights?”

Six?

-40
-20
-10
-5
-2
-1

To weigh 4 pounds just put a 5 on one side and the 1 with the flour.; 2/21/21, 10:23 PM