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phdhorn

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Everything posted by phdhorn

  1. Nah, I don't give them that much credit. I think the "they said" is a bogus part of this, that they were reacting to the national sentiment, not setting a precedent. I think that a ton of people across the country either never really paid attention to them, or stopped more or less completely some months ago. Granted, when they lifted this, a bunch of people who might listen to them de-masked, but I think a much larger majority saw it as "well, if the acolytes feel like they have the green light, then I can rip off the s.o.b. without hassle." More like most people don't listen to them but react to them lifting their own curtain. I agree with you that once they said take 'em off, everyone would be done with them, but more that they won't feel hassled to take them off, not that they believe the CDC. And this seems to be exactly what happened today when I was in HEB, which (I guess) still has a "masks recommended or required" or something. But at least 40% of the people in the store weren't wearing masks. I took mine off and shopped. No one said a word, and I passed at least 3-4 HEB employees, including 2-3 bigger wigs (managers). They didn't seem to care now, either.
  2. Acc. to this graph (which doesn't account for a worse April), about 1.5% of American able workers were receiving unemployment in March, 2021. Now, about 4.1% of them are. That's a helluva lot more than .001%. There's still a lot more people receiving unemployment now (over double the amount) than when this started. Not even close. (Sorry about the weirdness, I ripped off a screenshot without accepting cookies). And, ff course the free money ("benefits") is the primary cause of the unemployment gap (which, as posted just above, is nowhere near where it was in Feb. 2020). A few excerpts: The largest business lobbying group in America on Friday blamed a $300-per-week federal jobless benefit for enticing Americans to stay at home and April’s far-weaker-than-expected jobs report. “One step policymakers should take now is ending the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit,” the lobbying group added. “Based on the Chamber’s analysis, the $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working." https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/us-chamber-of-commerce-rips-300-jobless-benefit-calls-for-repeal.html The only other factor cited is concern by people about looking for work due to fears of getting sick. But the labor force participation has increased by .2% over the last month, which means that more people are now looking - but not taking. I.e. they're passing over lower paying jobs (i.e. restaurants) for stuff like grocery and retail. This is probably why the job numbers shot up in March of this year - all those jobs were sucked up, and now you have the lowest paying ones that no one want. And certainly getting unemployment equal to or more than what people make in the restaurant industry will keep them home, at least for awhile. There is no doubt whatsoever that the benefits have played a huge, huge part in the slowdown. Hell, Joey Boy mentioned it in his speech last week "Please don't stay on unemployment!"). It's a fact. And my wife and I have been out to eat and for at least the last 5-6 times in a row, the service was way, way worse than normal. And clearly, without doubt, although the restaurants we've been in were far from crowded (in a few cases, almost crickets), it was totally obvious that they were barely staffed - 1-2 waitpeople in a room that usually has 5-6. And in one case they plainly told me that they only have "one cook working" tonight. Stuff like that.
  3. Forcefield won out today, storms crept up right on our cusp but just stayed south of us. But it would be a shocker even for me if we didn't get a large dose of rain over the next 4 days. Big low coming in, moving slow, lots to trigger heavy rain in the state. Starts Sunday but really picks up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday is the big one it looks like.
  4. Looks like a complex of rain is moving up into us from SAT and points SW. Forcefield is really trying to knock it back, not quite succeeding. Good chance to get wet, my guess isn't too much, but enough to make puddles. This will hit around 4 or so. The complex is definitely picking up, not fizzling, so I'm expecting a few hours of light/moderate showers. Tomorrow a better chance, and strong storms possibly. Tuesday is particularly of note for severe weather. Better than "yeah, whatever" chance of a pretty wet workweek coming up. Don't think Sunday will be severe but could get rainy, esp. later in the day. Be back probably tomorrow early, or not, if nothing is up.
  5. This one's going to be a little tougher:
  6. The guy who invented Post-It Notes died: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/05/14/us/post-it-note-spencer-silver-death-trnd/index.html
  7. Kinda like being named the winner of the Elephant Man Look-Alike Pageant.
  8. Doesn't really matter. It's not going anywhere in its present form. It'll eventually have pork, but less. Why? Joe Gandalf. Say what you want about DINO Joe, but he knows how to seize his moment, and he is doing it - and very well.
  9. Looks like they paid $5 million ransom? Bloomberg: Colonial Pipeline Paid Hackers Nearly $5 Million in Ransom. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-13/colonial-pipeline-paid-hackers-nearly-5-million-in-ransom Fucking lovely...
  10. submitted this for an online sax class I'm taking (took up the instrument for the last 5 months). This is my own arrangement and performance arrangement of the Erroll Garner standard "Misty". Bass, guitar, and sax are natural, percussion is digital stuff. Lots of fun to put together. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cS4YZ7JYYY30BfzmY0mpsvZBdTf-kyJx/view?usp=drivesdk
  11. Sweet stuff! Knopflerish emotion. Is this going to be some sort of concept album or musical play? Very soothing.
  12. I think that's illegal in Texas. Well at least parts of it anyway.
  13. Douse it with their shitty Vodka. Kills everything else.
  14. I dunno, "You try to move me off of the street and I'll raise BOTH of my armpits at you!" Would make me back off.
  15. Not bad for the CDC, actually. They even had time to pose for a photo yesterday:
  16. There's one more band coming in which seems to be holding. If it does, it'll get here around 8:30 and then that's it.
  17. It is now raining in Bee Cave as usual. Hail could be in some storm or two this evening, but I doubt it, and nothing is in anything coming in right now.
  18. Stop being a bureaucrat, get out a beer, and sit on your porch. Then it'll rain.
  19. I think the rain will prevail, but man it's like trying to take one of those 3 rolls/20 oz. steak shits, and it takes forever to finally happen. Stuff is finally gonna hit us, I think over the next hour - for starters. Severe upgraded but right now things seem fairly not-happeningish.
  20. posrep for one of my favorite movies
  21. Good chance of mostly rainy rain, not damaging rain, between lunch and dinner. Severe could pop up but the risk area is mostly north of us. Don't park it in the garage but have one ready just in the slightest chance... If we're gonna get a heapin' helpin' of hospitable rain, it's gonna be today. Sun into the rest of the week, then cloudy, rainy weekend. The rate it's going, June should be nice at least before hellfire and damnation return for the rest of the summer. =
  22. Well, mine, and (at time of publication in 2003)... - Dr. Amand Goldman, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, UTMB - Dr. Elizabeth Schmalstieg, Asst. Professor of Neurology, UTMB - Dr. Daniel H. Freeman, Professor of Biostatics, UTMB - Dr. Daniel Goldman, President of Expert Health Data Programming - Dr. Franck Schmalstieg, Professor of Pediatrics at UTMB And from what I've gathered, in the last 17 years, most medical experts have come to agree - Ken Burns also made a big deal out of the misdiagnosis in his history of the Roosevelts series. Anyway, maybe... or maybe we all just slept at a Holiday Inn last night. Here's the study which no one will read because it's got small print and a lot of terms no one understands: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/9048628_What_was_the_Cause_of_Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt's_Paralytic_Illness
  23. Well actually, he almost certainly didn't have polio. There's a 99% chance he had Guillain-Barré Syndrome. It all came to light in 2003 with an exhaustive study of his symptoms. The 1926 polio diagnosis was almost certainly wrong. They didn't really know about GBS at the time though; although it was discovered around 1859, there were so few cases that most medical people really little idea that it existed or what it symptoms were. GBS has no cure (i.e. vaccine), although it can be mitigated by a series of blood transfusions.
  24. Man, a little more of this and I'm gonna get the idea that horse racing is often a greaseball sport, run by cons. Unimaginable, I know.
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