“Retail Chains Abandon Manhattan: ‘It’s Unsustainable’” (NYT): Of Ark Restaurants’ five Manhattan restaurants, only two have reopened, while its properties in Florida — where the virus … | Continue reading
I have been asking Harvard undergraduates how their online learning experience was. “Terrible,” was a typical response. “I stopped watching after a month or so.” I asked a m… | Continue reading
From Karen the Harvard professor: I know every family is doing something different in terms of house rules with Covid, but I’m curious to know what those who are pregnant or with newborn are asking… | Continue reading
Our national strategy for dealing with a virus that attacks fat people has been to order everyone to stay home and make trips to the fridge every 15 minutes since mid-March. Since our coronapanic l… | Continue reading
If you want to know how much profit there is in the non-profit world… a friend who works at Partners told me that the enterprise will be spending more than $100 million to rebrand back to wha… | Continue reading
Posted by various Facebook Shutdown Karens: Certainly this is potentially relevant for elementary school children whose parents are 82-year-olds with underlying health conditions (Maskachusetts sta… | Continue reading
Hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists will gather starting today in Sturgis, South Dakota. SD was the only state that did not attempt to lock its residents down (though unionized schoolteachers we… | Continue reading
Some Deplorables were having a private discussion regarding “Activist Teachers Say It’s Not Safe To Go Back To Work, While Many Attend Mass Protests”. Deplorable 1: Protesting is awesom… | Continue reading
Back in March, I wondered “Why do we care about COVID-19 deaths more than driving-related deaths?” and closed with What is the answer? Why do we accept that hundreds of thousands of Ame… | Continue reading
A comment on “Power of the Media to Shape Coronaplague Beliefs” (June 29): Brett Arron, MDIt is amazing that people are willing to dismiss the NYT reports while ignoring data evaluation… | Continue reading
Yesterday was August 4, 2020, the date on which the IMHE prophecies were supposed to be proven out. Let’s see how the reality compared to the June 10 prediction. In “Wicked Brazilians w… | Continue reading
When there is a massive explosion in the middle of a city of more than 2 million people, you might expect people around the world to be interested. Certainly that was true in 1917 when, despite Wor… | Continue reading
“Most California Schools Unlikely To Open In Fall Under New State Rules” (NPR): Most California schools may remain closed when the academic year begins in the fall, according to new sta… | Continue reading
“Signaling virtuous victimhood as indicators of Dark Triad personalities.” (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, full text available): The cry that one is a victim of injustice… | Continue reading
In early June I posted “Karen’s Mask Law Compliance Update (Boston to Minneapolis and back)” (this trip plus a trip to the local supermarket would now be illegal under the new Maskachus… | Continue reading
A friend of a friend is a Ph.D. psychologist… I had to take a class yesterday on “Racial and Community Violence” in order to renew my license to practice. There were only three ar… | Continue reading
A Facebook Mask Karen (his profile picture is at least 50 percent face covering) highlighted “Coronavirus creates election worker shortage ahead of November” (Politico): “Local el… | Continue reading
The Boston Red Sox are playing in Fenway Park again, but fans aren’t allowed into the stadium. After the jihad of 9/11, the major league sports teams were able to realize their dream of block… | Continue reading
“America Needs Refugees” (NYT): The statute became the basis for the successful resettlement of more than three million refugees escaping violence and persecution. The country can take … | Continue reading
Americans have spent months at home, lounging in sweats and stretchy shorts while watching television and/or playing with their phones. Our heroes get off the sofa only for periodic dives into the … | Continue reading
Unionized American school teachers refuse to work unless they can be guaranteed not to get coronaplague from the students. Words are not going to soothe these concerned souls. “School closure… | Continue reading
John Lewis, a Civil Rights leader of the 1960s who became a Member of Congress, died two weeks ago. I hope it is not too soon to wonder whether he was actually working against the interests of the … | Continue reading
A friend’s Facebook post from July 23: NASA today added Inclusion to its set of core values, reminding me, again, why this is the best place to work in government.Inclusion – NASA is committe… | Continue reading
Good news from the Department of Correlation DOES Equal Causation: if we keep our schools closed, coronavirus will go away and leave us alone. From the maximally prestigious JAMA: “Associatio… | Continue reading
“How Bruins Plan to Support Black Lives Matter During National Anthems” (NBC Boston): The Bruins plan to lock arms during the playing of the Canadian and U.S. national anthems prior to … | Continue reading
With art museums closed or compromised (regulated pre-arranged visit times, masks, etc.) and art galleries damaged by the destruction of American retail, will visual artists switch to outdoor sculp… | Continue reading
From The Google: Vietnam population: 95 millionLaos population: 7 millionCambodia population: 16 million Number of deaths from Covid-19 so far among these nearly 120 million people? WHO data: 0. Pe… | Continue reading
I am hopeful that readers will notice a more responsive server as of last night. The virtual server behind this site had hit a load average of 21 while simultaneously using only 1-3 percent CPU for… | Continue reading
“Reusable Bags Allowed Again In Massachusetts Grocery Stores” (CBS): Reusable bags have been cleared to return to checkout lines in Massachusetts, with a previous ban now removed in the… | Continue reading
“Brazil’s President Bolsonaro says he tested negative for coronavirus” (NBC): The right-wing leader who previously downplayed the disease posted on social media on Saturday that h… | Continue reading
Friends have a son who had planned to head into Lincoln-Sudbury High School for 9th grade. The superintendent/principal (remarkably, the same person does both jobs in this one-school school system)… | Continue reading
Parents in the western suburbs of Boston like to talk about First World problems. The License Raj here in Maskachusetts is has allowed daycares to reopen with some limitations (boston.com). Great n… | Continue reading
In May I wondered “What happens to classical musicians in the Age of Corona?”: The audience for live classical music and opera is perilously close to the 82-year-old average age of a Co… | Continue reading
Another day, another appliance failure. It is time to replace a washing machine. The space into which this slots is kind of tight, so it would be good to stay within the 27×27″ footprint… | Continue reading
The latest from our governor: a $500/day fine for anyone returning or traveling to Maskachusetts who does not either (a) quarantine for 14 days, or (b) produce a negative Covid-19 test result from … | Continue reading
One good thing about the U.S. response to coronaplague has been allowing our low-income residents, documented and otherwise, to skip paying rent while simultaneously forbidding landlords from initi… | Continue reading
From The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World (A.J. Baime) General H. H. “Hap” Arnold, head of the army air forces, had gambled $3 billion—and his entire… | Continue reading
(Or maybe Year 0?) The epoch for a variety of calendars is the moment at which a new religion was born. For example, the Islamic calendar starts at the year that Muhammad and followers moved to Med… | Continue reading
My Facebook feed is packed with Karens expressing hatred for those who say that wearing a mask is bad for health, uncomfortable, or results in oxygen starvation. (Advantage: Sweden, since they have… | Continue reading
From a company that helps jet owners plan their trips…. A lot of countries require that the PCR test be taken within 48 hours of arrival. This is challenging for overseas travelers (like from… | Continue reading
Pilots of homebuilt, antique, and retired military aircraft would have been gathering in Oshkosh leading up to today’s official opening of EAA AirVenture. The event, of course, would have bee… | Continue reading
Perhaps due to the persistent refusal of Swedes to go into the ICU and die from Covid-19, despite two months of hysterical predictions and headlines, Florida and Texas seem to be in the news daily … | Continue reading
Top of the front page of Audible.com, July 12: Does this mean that “Trans and Nonbinary” are only half as victimized as “Black”? (Also, why couldn’t a non-Queer author… | Continue reading
What if the License Raj in a U.S. makes it illegal to operate K-12 schools once again, as was done in most states back in March? Could American rebels reboot the Irish hedge school tradition? From … | Continue reading
A recent Facebook post: (Text: “15 years ago today my then-wife demanded a divorce. I think it shocked her when I walked out of that house a few minutes later, never looking back. Much was lo… | Continue reading
In September 2009, I wrote “Health Care Reform”. Essentially the government would take the $trillions being spent on Medicare and Medicaid and put it into buying every American a reason… | Continue reading
… so they will definitely work in the general population. “Universal Masking to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Transmission—The Time Is Now” (JAMA) says masks worked in the hospital: In the l… | Continue reading
I recently spoke with two attorneys from Charlottesville, Virginia. They wanted to get tested for active coronaplague in preparation for a family reunion that included some older relatives. One is … | Continue reading