Professor Darby Explains COVID-19

[ETA: UGH. Somehow the auto-formatting got disabled and I had to enable it again. I don't know how it happened. Should be fixed now. I hate HTML formatting - I'm not a coder - no patience for it. Also I'm not quite sure how coders avoid carpal tunnel syndrom.]

Ah, a friend from the old ATPO Board, who is a epidemologist and parasite biologist - posted a video on how the Coronavirus works. ( Professor Darby explains COVID-19 )

ETA: Here's the blog he mentions regarding up to date information on how they are battling the Coronavirus. In the Pipeline by Derek Loew. He managed to explain a few things that had been puzzling me.

1. Why some people get very mild symptoms, while others get it severely.

2. The affect of the flu shot on it.

3. How it spreads.

Fascinating, and while it's fairly simplistic - no pretty graphics, just basically a college biology professor's explanation. He does a better job of breaking it down into layman's terms than those who are using the fancy graphics.

As an aside - the difficulty with communication - is figuring out to explain something to someone who doesn't know your language. Or simplifying it. I've spent my life doing that (not always very well) - explaining things to people in layman's terms in various workplaces.

Day #125

Sometimes the days seem to blend into each other. I've realized that how I deal with anxiety and uncertainty is keeping track of what I can control, and keeping to a routine, habit, which sets up a type of normalcy, and seeking comfort in facts.

Also John Scalzi and others suggest hobbies...that they help. ( Read more... )

I've noticed that DW automatically checks "disable auto-formatting" which requires me to put HTML breaks. So I have to uncheck it. If you discover formatting issues with your posts? Make sure that "Disable Auto Formatting" is unchecked in HTML mode.

The flowers in the pic above are from Friday's walk, before the heat wave hit.

NY is making me crazy on the Census bit - I keep second-guessing whether I did it. (I did, I did it online way back in March. Honestly, I wish they sent me an email instead of just said - "Thank you for completing".)

New York vs. The Coronavirus

New York's economy has been hit hard. ( Read more... )

And of course there is a heat wave. I stayed in today because of it - yeah, we're wimps. It's only 88 degrees out - but it is 88 degrees with 80-90% humidity. Feels like walking through a sauna, after a bit, I feel dizzy and want to sit. Also I'm soaked through with sweat.



After a somewhat annoying church service via Zoom, I went back to binge-watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix. Prior to the annoying church service, I'd been enjoying listening to James Marsters read Jim Butcher's "Peace Talks". ( Read more... )

The church service annoyed me - because a really old white liberal guy felt the need to do a sermon about how Unitarians helped abolish slavery and weren't responsible for aiding and abetting it (yeah right, revision history to make yourself feel better). ( Read more... )

AVATAR: The Last Airbender was a welcome antidote to it. I'm loving this cartoon. Folks were right - it gets better as you go. You just kind of have to wade through a few lackluster episodes. This alas is true of most excellent television shows - from Buffy to The Wire. Actually I can't think of any that do not have this problem. I think it just comes with the territory?

Mother called during Last Airbender, to inform me that my brother had to rescue a wild turkey from his garden. It had flown in and couldn't get out. So he had to in and chase it out. The image of my six foot five bean pole of a brother chasing a wild turkey amused me greatly. He is having issues with critters this summer - first rabbits and chipmunks, then raccoons, now wild turkeys...serves him right for moving into their territory and setting up a garden.

Oh well...leaving you with flowers taken on one of my walks this past week, while I go off to make dinner.

(no subject)

The weekend flew by again. I'm kind of looking forward to doing ComicCon via Zoom next weekend though.

The Last Airbender is insanely good in S2, although S1 was good as well, but S2 jumps to a whole new level - making it possibly the BEST animated series I've ever seen.

They do one episode Zuko alone - which reminded me a lot the movie Shane, but with a twist, and a kind of subversive take on that classic Western trope

And there's a heavy theme of balance of elements, and how if you rely too much on one - you throw everything off. The Fire Element is set up as the villains, but as we move across the story arcs, it becomes apparent that each group has its issues. Water - where it insists on genders following traditional roles, and is too rigid in those roles, trying to separate moon (which is feminine and ruler of the tides or ying) from ocean (the tides, the force, the male, or yang) who circle each other. Then there is Earth, who is rigid in how it wishes to bury things, and its own head in the sand. Unable to appreciate the other elements, yet is powerless without them. Blind to wind and water and fire. And inhospitable.

Also the characters...Zuko, Soko, Katara, Ange, Tuff, the acrobat, the arrow fighter, and Zuko's sister, plus Zuko's uncle who is among my favorites.

I learn so much from this little series - it's so comforting. It's teaching me not to give in to hate. Or judgement. To see beyond my own prejudices.
That wiping out those who disagree is not the answer. That all things and people have a purpose and are part of the story, we can't erase them.

In short, I am loving it. And look forward to seeing it during the weekends.
I'll miss it when it is over. Hopefully I can find the sequel/spin-off Legend of Korra. According to Comic-Con Last Airbender panel there is more to come and they do have a comic spun off of it. Although I'm uncertain about a comic. Also, I'm only about ten episodes into S2. I have a ways to go, thankfully.

Culture Wars - I'm irritated with the racism and homophobia, sexism/gender politics and transphobia in our culture. But I've always been angry at it. I don't see it going away over night. There's a human tendency to be "Tribal" - to only surround oneself with people like oneself. What I like about Last Airbender - is the mag-tag group of people are not like one another at all. One is blind and an earthbender, from a wealthy family, two are from poor water tribe in the south, another is an ancient air bender, who is 12 and had been lost...and there's a monkey and a flying bison with six legs...

Diversity has always made me feel safer. My apartment complex couldn't be more diverse. My neighborhood and workplace are insanely diversified. No one is like me, no one looks like me. I'm surrounded by people who aren't - it's isolating perhaps...but also safe.