Bucky
Bucky's JournalWe're gonna look back on the 2010s as a golden age in America
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/01/cormac-mccarthys-ex-wife-pulled-gun-out-her-vagina-while-arguing-about-aliens/356822/Packin' heat
Cormac McCarthy's Ex-Wife Pulled a Gun Out of Her Vagina During an Argument About Aliens
According to the Albuquerque Journal, McCarthy, reportedly stormed out during a fight over extraterrestrial life with her unnamed boyfriend and then returned with a plan for vengeance. The police report describes how she went to her bedroom, dressed up in lingerie, put the gun in a place no guns should go, then somehow performed an unspecified sex act with the gun insider her. Naturally, that was just a prelude to pulling the gun out, pointing it at her boyfriend, and asking the presumably rhetorical question "Who is crazy, you or me?"
There, now that's a thing you didn't know.
Cautious optimism
Covid19 mortality counts have gone down the last three weeks in a row. Not by much, but this is the week's start date, number of deaths, and weekly change since mid-March
Mar 15 - 317
Mar 22 - 2,380 +651%
Mar 29 - 7,630 +221%
Apr 05 - 13,678 + 79%
Apr 12 - 15,269 + 12%
Apr 19 - 14,925 -2%
Apr 26 - 13,188 -12%
May 03 - 12,593 -5%
May 10 - 3,388 {pending}
Trump's gone too far now... trying to politicize cute puppies!! This will make you so mad!
Dream a little
Secret message to trolls, We Ar Wininge!!1!!!
Do you ever find yourself watching a news report on a Trump Twitter meltdown...
...and realize you don't know if they're talking about the meltdown you vaguely heard about last night, the really big meltdown from the day before, or if it's a brand new meltdown from earlier today that you missed because you at work or doing house chores?
I mean, I'm not expected to keep up with all this, right? I'm having enough trouble working from home and not coughing on my neighbors.
HEALTH AFFAIRS (online mag): Covid19 "infection fatality rate" is 1.3%
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00455HEALTH AFFAIRS > AHEAD OF PRINT
Estimating The Infection Fatality Rate Among Symptomatic COVID-19 Cases In The United States
by Anirban Basu
MAY 07, 2020
ABSTRACT
Knowing the infection fatality rate (IFR) of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 infections is essential for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data through April 20, 2020, we fit a statistical model to COVID-19 case fatality rates over time at the US county level to estimate the COVID-19 IFR among symptomatic cases (IFR-S) as time goes to infinity. The IFR-S in the US was estimated to be 1.3% (95% central credible interval: 0.6% to 2.1%). County-specific rates varied from 0.5% to 3.6%. The overall IFR for COVID-19 should be lower when we account for cases that remain and recover without symptoms. When used with other estimating approaches, our model and our estimates can help disease and policy modelers to obtain more accurate predictions for the epidemiology of the disease and the impact of alternative policy levers to contain this pandemic.
Editors Note: This Fast Track "Ahead Of Print" article is the accepted version of the peer-reviewed manuscript. The final edited version will appear in an upcoming issue of Health Affairs.
See full articles for details--there's a lot of mathy stuff in there I don't pretend to grasp. However, this is hopeful news, based on the number of infections that don't get reported because their lack of severity allows some cases to go unreported or even undetected. Of course a highly infectious disease that a huge number of people may get will still exact a devastating cost if it "only" kills at a 1.3% rate. But this is a serious downtick from earlier estimates of 3-4% mortality rates.
The historical roots Ammon Bundy's Covid19 militaristic apocalypse
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/175390Great perspective and a short read
COVID-19 and the White Horse Prophecy: The Theology of Ammon Bundy
by Betsy Gaines Quammen
What makes the US singular in the world are the rebellions springing up to protest stay-at-home orders put into place to protect us from the unspooling spread of disease. Agitators against such orders range from Ammon Bundy and his supporters in Idaho and Utah to various armed militia groups, like the Proud Boys in Michigan. Many protestors believe restrictions are noxious violations of liberty that keep us from barbershops, bars, diners and our jobs. Others believe that the disease is a ploy with an ultimate goal to steal away rights. And then there are some inclined to believe in religious prophecy amidst pestilence; as in God setting the stage for big, transformative actionthink the Book of Revelation. Bundy believes all of this.
An urgent source of inspiration in all of Bundys rebellion is a murky piece of Mormon apocrypha known as the White Horse Prophecy. This historical hangover helps explain his resistance to social-distancing constraints amid a pandemic: Hes drawn to the image of the White Horse in a final defense of the United States Constitution. His agitation is a religious rite inspired by the first prophet of his religion, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bundy has said, regarding his ongoing anti-government rebellion, that our Constitution was being violated. That it was hanging by a threada clear allusion to the language of the White Horse Prophecy.
The White Horse Prophecy was supposedly uttered by Mormon prophet Joseph Smith in 1843 to two witnesses, Theodore Turley and Edwin Rushton...
The full article is worth a read, if you find gun-toting American crazies interesting. I didn't realize before this that Bundy was a Mormon, let alone that he was a militarized adherent to a twisted version of Mormon mythology that is officially rejected by the church.
WH Memo Directs Everyone To Wear Masks When Entering West Wing
Source: Talking Points Memo
WASHINGTON (AP) White House memo directs everyone to wear masks when entering West Wing, following virus scares close to president.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wh-memo-directs-everyone-to-wear-masks-when-entering-west-wing
These people are idiots. 4 months into the pandemic and they still don't understand that if you wear a mask it doesn't protect you. Masks are there to protect other people. If you take the mask off the second you step inside, you're still a danger everyone in the office.
I finally checked to see why I hadn't got my stimulus check from the IRS
They told me my stimulus would go out on May the 15th. What the hell? Other people got theirs already. I want to be stimulated... and I want to be stimulated right NOW!!
damn
guess I'll have to just stimulate myself
====
But seriously, why are they going out so slowly? Is this an alphabetical thing? If you've already gotten your stim, what letter of the alphabet is your last initial?
Profile Information
Name: Mister ReaGender: Male
Hometown: Houston
Home country: Moon
Current location: afk
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 54,087