Category Archives: Science And Society

It’s About Time

If this is true, it means that all restrictions about being outside are counterproductive, in that people aren’t getting enough vitamin D, which is apparently prophylactic. You know, like Adolf Whitmer’s dictate that you can be in a boat as long as it doesn’t have a motor, or being able to surf but not swim. It probably also means that sporting events are safe if not in enclosed environments. If it takes more than two hours or so, movie theaters are probably OK as well, and so are restaurants.

The cases of prolonged exposure we’re seeing are nursing homes (thanks, Andy and governor of Pennsylvania!) and factories, particularly meat packing, where people are at close quarters for long periods of time.

[Update a few minutes later]

This also explains high rates of infection aboard naval vessels, but because sailors tend to be young and healthy, also why most haven’t gotten sick. It also means that it was dumb of NASA to restrict viewing at the Cape of the upcoming crew launch next week. It’s probably perfectly safe to gather on the beaches and causeway.

Why Hospitals Are In Trouble

The current conventional wisdom is that they’re hurting because of the ban on “elective” procedures, but it turns out that most admissions are caused by the entertainment industry (restaurants and bars). Shut down all the purveyors of alcohol and food poisoning, and the beds are empty.

Patricia cut my hair last weekend with a Wahl electric clipper that I’d bought for ten bucks at Ross years ago, but we’d never used. She overdid it, and I look like I’m ready for boot camp, but she’d probably do better with practice and learning how to use it. I’ve heard Jesse Watters describe how his wife had learned to cook, and now I’m wondering how many of us will go back to paying other people to cut our hair and cook for us, now that we’ve figured out we can actually do it ourselves? Of course, I’ve never been a big restaurant goer, for reasons I’ve discussed several times here: the cost, and the nutrition. I’ve probably been affected by this as little as anyone.

Facemasks

Pose serious health risk to the healthy.

It’s definitely a bad idea to exercise wearing one.

The infuriating thing about this is the inability of some people to understand that there are no risk-free actions, or to accuse people who think that destroying the economy is sort of a bad idea of wanting grandma to die. They act like children.

[Update early afternoon]

The uncertainties of mask use demand that no one be forced to wear them.

A Rant On The Sociopolitical Madness

…from Lileks:

I think a lot of people who lived their lives in a quivering state of imminent ecological collapse-panic have moved those emotions from that box into this one, and feel energized because the dread now seems even more imminent, and they have Science! on their side, and their enemies are all the right enemies, and this time they can make a difference. And it requires nothing.

I could get the Wuhan Virus (I call it that to push back against Newthink that insists the smart people call it the European Virus) and I could die. I know that. I keep that in mind all the time when I leave the house, and gather my tools and shields, and mind my actions with care, for the same reason I signal a lane change on an empty highway. You never know what’s in your blind spot

.

RTHT.