outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

Here's the kind of thing that drives me up the wall. CNN is all over Trump, non-stop, for rushing into a reopening--good, no problem with that, that's necessary. But they're also all over him, non-stop, for the unemployment numbers; you can't really have it both ways. More realistic would be to keep up with the former, and instead harp on providing relief so people can stay at home--that would at least be consistent.

One Thing All Cable News Channels have in Common. It Will Shock You.

The lack of preparation and response by the Trump administration made the job losses far worse than they could have been. I don't think it's inconsistent to criticize him on both counts.

Even if you think the US should take more stringent shut down measures, the unemployment numbers are indeed a problem because the federal government has only done the barest minimum to support people through a massive yet predictable loss of jobs.

Agree on both counts, and if CNN took the time to frame everything that way, that'd be fine. But they really don't--it's more like a barrage of screaming "Worst economy since the depression" headlines, and, when yesterday's jobs report came out, there was an undercurrent of shock at how bad it was. Really? Shocked?

Well yeah CNN is garbage. Avoid cable news like the uh plague

clemenza i find bob somerby's "daily howler" to be powerfully trenchant on the question of "what changed between then and now?" be advised though that i've never found anyone else who shares my opinion, he's been at it for about two decades so there's an almost overwhelming amount to read, and there's very little sunshine in his world view. he was a philosophy major at harvard and college buddy of al gore, 5th grade teacher in baltimore, political stand-up comic, and one of the first political bloggers.

Thanks, I'll take a look at that.

By the way, I realize I'm going on about something--the 24/7 panic mode in the media--that is hardly new. I'm just feeling it more acutely during this than ever before. Felt it a little during 9/11, but I had the cushion of being in Canada.

Cable news is not a good source of information probably.

sigh.

Dr. Anthony Fauci now going into “modified quarantine” after being in close proximity with the White House staffer who was positive, @jaketapper reports. Fauci joins CDC’s Dr. Robert Redfield and FDA’s Dr. Stephen Hahn who are also in quarantine as a result.

— Alexander Marquardt (@MarquardtA) May 10, 2020

Kind of a chilling article, I worry about this stuff a lot more than hostile AI taking over the world:

https://www.vox.com/2020/5/1/21243148/why-some-labs-work-on-making-viruses-deadlier-and-why-they-should-stop

clemenza, I have the same feeling you do sometimes about that stuff, the coverage does seem a lot more incendiary and unhelpful than it *should* be, but I think a lot of it comes from growing up with old school cbc news, which truly was what tv news should be. I hate to encourage current crits of them, and yet, it’s not what it was.

I think a lot of it comes from growing up with old school cbc news, which truly was what tv news should be

i would like to see this! the closet thing i knew growing up was the macneil/lehrer newshour, which i found boring as a kid and then missed when both of them were gone.

The one thing I'm mad at myself for not pointing out sooner to that Woodstock douche is by Woodstock, there was already a vaccine. Actually was a vaccine after the first wave

xps: Honestly, I only wish I could pay $0.70/mo in carrier fees to CNN without paying $2/mo in carrier fees to Fox News. I haven't had cable since I left my parent's home, and it's not like there's any lack of news competing for my attention...

the macneil/lehrer newshour

the newshour does a pretty good job, considering its limited budget when compared to cable and broadcast network news, or a newspaper-of-record like NYT or WaPo, but its reliance on filling much of its allotted time by interviewing experts to act as explainers is a weakness as well as a strength. Actual reportage is very rare.

Yeah, I agree. But sadly, that’s the best I can think of for American network/public television. I was trying to think of what we have that can stand up to my idea of whatlevel-headed straightforward CBC news from a few decades ago

damn Sanpaku, i wasn't aware of this. sad

I feel like the American 60 minutes is still good. Idk they’re probably doing something awful I don’t perceive

I didn't watch a lot of CBC news, Kim--for me, it'd probably be memories of staid old Cronkite growing up. Anyway, it's not like I don't get reeled in by the very thing I'm complaining about; I've posted about murder hornets four or five times this week.

won't someone think of the killer bees

I'm rooting for the killer bees to kill the murder hornets, then I want Godzilla to kill them all.

this Plandemic/Mikovits shit is the most successful disinfo/propaganda campaign I've ever seen.

i had to stop watching CNN because it seems to be all Cuomo all the time now

tbf i only started watching CNN like two months ago when the pandemic hit so maybe it's always been like this

There’s was an idiot parade in melbourne this weekend and depressingly, but expectedly, the plod didn’t arrest and fine as many people for breaching social distancing as they did at the asylum seekers rights protest a few weeks back (where isolation was maintained by doing it in cars)

Took a trip to the burbs to buy and deliver groceries to the gf's parents this morning and there was an old white guy in the parking lot protesting the SIP and yelling right wing talking points. I yelled at him to stop being such a selfish baby and shut the fuck up and go home. A few other people in the parking lot applauded but it didn't seem to phase him. hopefully if enough people react the same way he can be shamed into confining his bullshit to social media.

only 750 new deaths reported in the US, the lowest single day total since late March. 20,000 new cases also the lowest new case total since around the same time period.

I know 3-day averages more indicative than 1-day, but this is a significant reduction. I don't have a lot of faith that this will continue cos of states like Georgia, but I hope I'm wrong.

xpost even if it didn't phase him, good on you for doing that. and nice to see other people applauded rather than booing you, which indicates not everybody is a complete moron.

Canada's daily cases have really stabilized too and are starting to move down.

http://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/canada/

Half of that anomalous spike on May 3 had to do with some delayed reporting. This is the week where there's a lot of gradual reopening, though, so fingers crossed.

this Plandemic/Mikovits shit is the most successful disinfo/propaganda campaign I've ever seen.

Massively signal-boosted into old-person Facebook by QAnon groups per some disinfo person on Twitter

I really love how the selling point is "it got banned from YouTube 5 times!! Come find out what **they** don't want you to know!!" as if the entire fuckin YouTube corporation is in on it

i've somehow avoided seeing anyone share it

me neither, though I've seen tons of people reference the thing

I know 3-day averages more indicative than 1-day, but this is a significant reduction.

The 7-day average (which better solves the weekend/weekday reporting lags) currently showing -7.55% downtrend... which is good, but nowhere near great. Tuesday will show a much clearer indication of what happened Fri-Mon.

this is an interesting page for looking at international comparisons over time -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51235105

in singapore they have robot dogs who will find you if you're not standing 2 metres apart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viuR7N6E2LA

Death rate per 100,000 people in the UK is 47. In my area it's 120.

A few news stories of note:

https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/natasha-daly-national-geographic.php

Daly has debunked claims about a new and glorious presence of ducks in the fountains in Rome (they are there, but they always were), peacocks in India (again, they live there), dolphins swimming through Venice (the photos in question were actually taken in Sardinia), deer on an Indian highway (it’s Japan, and the photo is years old).

“Conservationists say that, actually, we’ve changed ecosystems on earth to the point where they can’t recover without our assistance and help,” she said. “So to have that sort of mindset that we just need to do nothing, it almost undermines the really real and important work that conservationists do.”

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfw1r9xyXVA9CjeMP2V8xr1ZszLr4ZgCOtHB7kLTzPaGrXd9A/viewform?mc_cid=611c522843

Have you lost someone to coronavirus or do you work with victims' families? Help us remember New Yorkers felled by COVID-19. Share their story with THE CITY.

Violence in Germany by anti-quarantine protestors against the media
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-anger-foments-violence-against-journalists/a-53383927

A crew from the TV broadcaster ZDF had finished filming a so-called Hygiene Demonstration on May 1 for the satirical "Heute Show" ("Today Show") when it was set upon by some 15 hooded people, possibly with malice aforethought. Several members of the crew were injured, some severely. According to media reports, the attackers used metal bars and cudgels.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/health/coronavirus-plague-pandemic-history.html

In Florence, wrote Giovanni Boccaccio, “No more respect was accorded to dead people than would nowadays be accorded to dead goats.” Some hid in their homes. Others refused to accept the threat. Their way of coping, Boccaccio wrote, was to “drink heavily, enjoy life to the full, go round singing and merrymaking, and gratify all of one’s cravings when the opportunity emerged, and shrug the whole thing off as one enormous joke.”

speaking of plagues in italy, anyone who hasn't read the LRB article about 1629 in florence really should:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/lrb-conversations/four-hundred-years-of-quarantine

there is a podcast episode with the author here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/lrb-conversations/four-hundred-years-of-quarantine

How would I explain to the robot dog that I'm standing close to my wife, with whom I also sleep?

very respectfully

oh cool, Black Mirror episode is here

also ED 209 will be patrolling the streets

very good, short article on how this could play out.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/health/coronavirus-pandemic-curve-scenarios.html

lmao @ the idea that “herd immunity” could have ever been mentioned as a strategy. look at the graph. it will take years and years to even get to 55%.

WATCH: Protesters calling for gyms to reopen in Florida are doing squats and push-ups outside the Clearwater courthouse https://t.co/3BVzxHQPEJ #Florida #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/3cjgQ6kaM8

— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) May 11, 2020

Clearwater, home of the sea org

imagine having a customer base that is so dedicated that they gather together in dangerous conditions outside of your place of business to do the thing that they want to pay you to do inside of your building, if it only it were less dangerous

it's like standing outside of a Cold Stone eating homemade ice cream and demanding to be let inside so you can pay them for ice cream