You little tike you ;-)
Just so long as you park your bike appropriately ......

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

What is the red belt.

Gary is referring to the Republican states which reopened dangerously.

And they are very rusty red as wiggo surmised.

Well thanks to our southern state and the security company/companies involved with the quarantine facilities down there we've become the 73rd country to pass 10,000 reported cases with those who escaped that state before the border lockdown are now spreading the virus around this and other states. :-(

The worst part of all this is that some Victorians are still trying to escape their state by any means possible even though they know that they're breaking current laws and many have been arrested with the latest of these trying the old freight train trick, but how many have made it?

Four alleged stowaways arrested in Adelaide on freight train from Melbourne.

I really can't understand how some can be so inconsiderate of others. :-(

An interesting report.

Far more likely, they say, that the virus picked up its notable features while circulating, undetected, in humans or animals for months or years before the outbreak.
“We very carefully considered a potential link to the lab - we did not dismiss this possibility out of hand,” the paper’s lead author Kristian Andersen, a professor of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in the US tells me.
“And it is clear - all the available data is fully consistent with a natural history of Sars-CoV-2. There is no scientific data showing any link to the lab.

Wuhan - City of silence

Since our lastest outrage here there has been a few changes in the lists as the world's total reported cases approaches 13.5 million and deaths pass 581,000.

Well the U.S. is still leading the way passing 3.5 million cases and fast approaching 140,000 deaths with Brazil coming in next fast approaching 2 million cases and 75,000 deaths while India is only a couple of days away from becoming the 3rd country to pass 1 million cases and though they've only reported just over 24,000 deaths this total in reality is likely 8-10 times greater as most deaths over there occur in the home and are cremated by the family within 24 hours of death. Russia is still holding well onto 4th place, and then things change.

First up there's the new members to the 300,000+ case club with Peru (5th), Chile (6th), Mexico (7th) and Spain is now down to 8th spot, but South Africa (9th) will join that club by the end of today's count and then the U.K. rounds out the top 10.


Iran (11th) and Pakistan (12th) have pushed Italy back to 13th spot and is now in Saudi Arabia's sights. Turkey (15th) and Germany (16th) in days will come under thread by Bangladesh while France (18th) is also in the same position with Colombia closing in fast and Canada is going to have to surrender 20th place to Argentina before the day is out.

Sweden has now been shoved back down to 27th place and the only country that they're likely to pass now is China which is now down to 24th, though Israel is on the climb again making it back into 43rd spot.

Meanwhile Japan is now down to 56th spot, South Korea's down to 65th, Australia currently 72nd (even with the south of the border problem) and New Zealand is now just 1 spot away from its ranking by population in 125th place while Vietnam is all the way down to 160th spot now.

Now to the death listings, the U.S., Brazil and the U.K. still make up the top 3 in total deaths with Mexico displacing Italy from 4th place while France and Spain come in next. India now comes in at 8th spot officially (but could be as high as the U.S.'s unofficially though we'll never know the true number there) with Iran and Peru rounding out the top 10. :-(

Thanks Wiggo - I was suffering withdrawal symptoms ;-)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Too much BS about Sweden in media worldwide that we cannot handle the pandemic and that we don't have any lockdown. Actually we have a lockdown but for some reason foreign media ignore that fact!
Well then, how could this happen?
Why Sweden Succeeded in “Flattening the Curve” and New York Failed.
https://fee.org/articles/why-sweden-succeeded-in-flattening-the-curve-and-new-york-failed/?fbclid=IwAR31o6DrraqpFBmvR94gaVLiuLtcWPQUIHxbSHBwrCadIeuzfnRYbp6lZEc

A tube carriage on the London Circle line was visited by the graffiti artist Banksy and his corona-inspired work "If you do not mask, you do not get" and "I get lockdown, but I get up again" with sneezing mice, which would inspire Londoners to use face masks in public transport.
However, the metro company Transport for London treated the work like any other graffiti and the paintings were removed when Banksy posted the video about its creation at Instagram.
Previous works by Banksy have been sold at auction for £13 million .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F39fwE3madg

... sneezing mice, which would inspire Londoners to use face masks in public transport.

Excellent! Excellently graphic!!

However, the metro company Transport for London treated the work like any other graffiti and the paintings were removed...

Just like 'proper' graffiti :-)

Previous works by Banksy have been sold at auction for £13 million . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F39fwE3madg

TfL could have replaced that carriage and then auctioned it off to a train fanatic or whoever to fund a few upgrades or fund a few "thank-yous" for the front line staff...


Where is the imagination?...

Stay safe!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Some Corona stats top 20 from today:)
Total cases/1M pop
Countries excluding a population of less then 3 million or so.
12 USA
13 Peru
15 Brazil
18 Sweden
19 Saudi Arabia
20 Belarus

Total deaths/1M pop
Countries excluding a population of less then 3 million or so.
2 Belgium
4 UK
5 Spain
6 Italy
7 Sweden
8 France
9 USA
10 Chile
11 Peru
12 Netherlands
13 Brazil
14 Ireland
16 Equador
17 Mexico

Makes you wonder. Why have so many OECD countries problem then other countries with Covid-19?

One, very simple and often overlooked, reason is that the most of the countries in the OECD have a well co-ordinated means of tracking life & death. This means that most deaths are recorded along with some information about cause of death. however in many of the poorer countries their is little or no co-ordination of the collection of death data, sadly in many cases this is because death is an "every day occurrence" in all but the very upper reaches of society.
Consider India, a country with a very large populations, somewhere around a billion, but their health care system is always running very close to totally broken, and in the "slum" areas (where a vast proportion of the population lives) it is all but non-existent, and for the most births and deaths just happen and are not recorded; little wonder that their figures are inaccurate....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Another record breaking 24hrs was had with a whopping 248,445 new cases being reported taking the total past 13.9 million and now over 592,000 deaths.

The U.S. recorded an astounding 73,388 new cases taking their tally to almost 3.7 million cases and past 141,000 deaths. :-O

Brazil has become the 2nd country to report over 2 million cases and over 76,000 deaths while India has become the 3rd country to pass 1 million cases (as explained before, no one will ever know the true extent of deaths there, though official number has passed 25,600). :-(

South Africa put in the biggest moves leap frogging past Mexico and Chile to take 6th place by cases while Saudi Arabia is now right up Italy's clacker and ready to take 13th spot off them and Colombia is positioned to do the same to France's 18th position.

Meanwhile I hope that the 3 security companies that were in charge of Victoria's quarantine facilities (MSS Security, Wilson Security and Unified Security) don't survive this pandemic as they have proven that they can't actually provide the services required by their names as Victoria has just reported 428 new cases. 😡

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/16/mcenany-science-should-not-stand-way-schools-reopening/5454168002/

'Science should not stand in the way' of schools reopening

Come again? Don't you mean science will not be allowed! (In the quest to have King Donald's coronation.)

You knew they didn't believe in global warming, now they telling you votes come before lives.

Well it now looks like #BunkerBoy is going to try and cover up what is really going on as coronavirus runs rampant around the U.S.. :-O

US coronavirus data will now bypass the CDC and go straight to the White House.

In the latest development, the New York Times reported this week the CDC has even been bypassed in its data collection, with the Trump administration ordering hospitals to send COVID-19 data directly to the White House.

Now if I was a U.S. citizen then I'd be very worried about this crazy stunt to try and keep everyone in the dark about what's really going on.

Nice. In Sweden it's called ministerial governance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministerial_governance
Why do we have a constitution to prevent this type of misbehavior? Think dictatorship:)

The reasoning behind this is to prevent government corruption and to ensure that laws and regulations are applied equally. It also incentivises the Government and Riksdag to get rid of hard-to-interpret or problematic laws and regulations. There are rare exceptions to this distinction, such as when a natural disaster or war occurs and there is a need for a shorter chain of command.

Two items;
For first time, world records 1 million coronavirus cases in 100 hours - Reuters tally

(Reuters) - Global coronavirus infections passed 14 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, marking the first time there has been a surge of 1 million cases in under 100 hours.

The first case was reported in China in early January and it took three months to reach 1 million cases. It has taken just four days to climb to 14 million cases from 13 million recorded on July 13.

COVID-19 antibody test passes first major trials in UK with 98.6% accuracy - Telegraph

(Reuters) - British ministers are making plans to distribute millions of free coronavirus antibody tests after a version backed by the UK government passed its first major trials, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday.

The fingerprick tests, which can tell within 20 minutes if a person has ever been exposed to the coronavirus, were found to be 98.6% accurate in secret human trials held in June, the newspaper reported.

It added the test was developed by the UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC), a partnership between Oxford University and leading UK diagnostics firms.

Original - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/17/exclusive-game-changing-coronavirus-antibody-test-passes-first/

Meanwhile, in a non-Trumped-up universe of indeterminate realities:


Black hole destroys corona
wrote:

'Just totally unheard of and really mind-boggling' says MIT assistant prof

From that epic anomaly, comes a rather apt comment:

Flocke Kroes
wrote:

Re: Boggle of the Day

Start with a black hole. It is black. Put a star in orbit next to it. The side of the star closest to the hole experiences more gravity and is pulled closer to the black hole. The side of the star further from the black hole experiences less gravity and moves further out. The inside track around the black hole is shorter so stuff on the inside pulls ahead. The outside track is longer so stuff falls behind. Quickly the star becomes a disk around the black hole like the rings around Saturn.

Saturn's rings are in every way on different scales from a black hole accretion disk. Saturn is a huge, a lightweight and it takes hours to days for ice to slowly orbit Saturn. Bits of Saturn's rings occasionally collide with each other. Bits of an accretion disk rub against their neighbours continuously. Lots more mass, tiny distances and everything going really fast. The friction heats the disk up till it glows. We are not talking boring red hot, sun-yellow hot or blue super giant hot. The colour for this temperature is X-rays. Enough X-rays to push stuff away from the accretion disk and limit the rate at which a black hole can grow (yes really - lumps of light pushing stellar masses away from the intense gravity near a black hole).

The black hole is still black but people talk about light 'from a black hole' when they mean light 'from an accretion disk'. No wonder people get confused and think scientists contradict themselves faster than a president.

Noone tell Trump! Or give any new words to use to his best brightest gal Kaaayyleigh...!

:-O

Stay safe!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Two items;
For first time, world records 1 million coronavirus cases in 100 hours - Reuters tally

(Reuters) - Global coronavirus infections passed 14 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, marking the first time there has been a surge of 1 million cases in under 100 hours.

The first case was reported in China in early January and it took three months to reach 1 million cases. It has taken just four days to climb to 14 million cases from 13 million recorded on July 13.

Yep... That looks like nearly unconstrained exponential...

Our lockdowns appear to be only a local temporary measure...

COVID-19 antibody test passes first major trials in UK with 98.6% accuracy - Telegraph

(Reuters) - British ministers are making plans to distribute millions of free coronavirus antibody tests after a version backed by the UK government passed its first major trials, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday.

The fingerprick tests, which can tell within 20 minutes if a person has ever been exposed to the coronavirus, were found to be 98.6% accurate in secret human trials held in June, the newspaper reported.

It added the test was developed by the UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC), a partnership between Oxford University and leading UK diagnostics firms.

Original - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/17/exclusive-game-changing-coronavirus-antibody-test-passes-first/

Thanks for that. Excellent!

Next is availability and usability by 'the masses'...

Next from that is how those results apply to asymptomatic transmission and generally to reinfection or not...?


Regardless, fantastic for such a rapid development!

Hopefully after all this, the politicians might value scientists more and be convinced that we need more science...


Stay safe!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Meanwhile, in a non-Trumped-up universe of indeterminate realities:


Black hole destroys corona
wrote:

'Just totally unheard of and really mind-boggling' says MIT assistant prof

Hmm, Quote: "“This seems to be the first time we’ve ever seen a corona first of all disappear, but then also rebuild itself, and we’re watching this in real-time,”

No, they're not watching it in real-time. 1ES 1927+654 is 100 million light years from Earth, so what they are watching now, happened 100 million years ago.

"... happened 100 million years ago."

Yikes!!!

Definitely don't mention that tidbit of Science to Trump-the-Non-Corona!!!

:-O !


(To be fair to the journalist, I read the context to be that the observations of the received EM-radiation are being followed here on Earth in 'real time' for our time here on Earth.)

((Also: Don't mention radiation!!!))


Stay safe!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Grimly, sadly, Bring Out Yer Dead:


With morgues brimming, Texas and Arizona turn to refrigerator trucks
wrote:

Every disaster has its symbols, "for COVID-19, it might just be the refrigerator truck."...

Only in the USA?

Stay safe!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)