Monthly Archives: May 2020

no way out

Former Commerce Secretary Robert Reich on yesterday’s livestream from Democrats Abroad UK. Some notes: – Reich says we’re at a once in a hundred years crisis, a “triple barreled emergency” of “pandemic, econom[ic collapse], and racism and its consequences.”– Calls … Continue reading

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not premier league, learned league

Red alert, day 76. Lockdown, day 66. Some days I’m really fine with lockdown – the introvert cry of, “I’ve been preparing my whole life for this!” – and some days I feel buried alive. This was one of the … Continue reading

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panic don’t panic

Red alert, day 75. Lockdown, day 65. Private Eye is doing a good job of covering the pandemic these days, not a surprise for the last investigations-focused news organ left. (Cleverly camouflaged with the cover and center section of humor … Continue reading

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partial explanations

Red alert, day 74. Lockdown, day 64. More of Warren Weaver, this time on scientific explanation. Many of us have thought the following, for example when reading bad wall texts in science museums, but Weaver, with the confidence of the … Continue reading

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polarity problems

Red alert, day 73. Lockdown, day 63. Here’s a more durable excerpt from the autobiography of Warren Weaver, the science administrator discussed yesterday. Relevant to studies of qualia and evaluation/Appraisal: [I have had a lifelong curiosity] about the magnitude of … Continue reading

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the concord of discord

My lifetime official science fiction convention attendance is probably fewer than 20 events, including three Worldcons, a couple of Readercons, several Finncons and one Eastercon, as well as free single-day cons and day memberships elsewhere. Now I’ve attended two online … Continue reading

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scene of change

Red alert, day 72. Lockdown, day 62. I continue to note the counts for each day in a notebook, and they are still alarming. Marscon (January, Virginia) now takes the prize for farthest-off cancellation. The house cleanout in 2018 unearthed … Continue reading

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tell me more

Red alert, day 71. Lockdown, day 61. Friday of spring Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, Helluntai weekend in Finland [1] and Memorial Day weekend in the US. Today I met T in the park for a chat again. There … Continue reading

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stand still, stay silent

Red alert, day 59. Lockdown, day 49. Stand Still Stay Silent is of course a webcomic. Finally a simple, population-normalized graph has made it onto social media. It is possibly dodgy, depending on how much we trust the reported figures, … Continue reading

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6 May Wed

Red alert, day 55. Lockdown, day 45.  // Suffolk has 936 (+40) confirmed cases in today’s figures, neighboring Essex has 2320 (+76, about 2X Suffolk population) cases and Tower Hamlets has 591 (+5, about 0.5X Suffolk population) confirmed cases as … Continue reading

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