"The first meteor shower of spring, known as the Lyrid meteor shower, will present a night skywatching show beginning on Sunday evening and peaking on Wednesday night… Late evening and early morning hours based on your location, between midnight and 4 a.m to 5 a.m. local time, may be the best time to see shooting stars, or meteors that burn up in our atmosphere, according to the American Meteor Society."
"As a freelance photographer, I had been returning to the now-submerged island on assignments for almost a decade, since the vulnerable island was hit by the 2010 BP oil spill. PJ Hahn, former director of Coastal Zone Management for Plaquemines Parish, and I had to find the location using GPS coordinates, maneuvering over what looked like a sandbar on the boat's depth finder."
"A vast region of the western United States, extending from California, Arizona and New Mexico north to Oregon and Idaho, is in the grips of the first climate change-induced megadrought observed in the past 1,200 years, a study shows. The finding means the phenomenon is no longer a threat for millions to worry about in the future, but is already here… The megadrought has emerged while thirsty, expanding cities are on a collision course with the water demands of farmers and with environmental interests, posing nightmare scenarios for water managers in fast-growing states." In 2015 they predicted a 35 year megadrought starting around 2050. Then they decided to see if it was already here, which they found it already had started in 2000. We're boned. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"Experts say this outbreak may be the biggest source of Internet misinformation ... ever… Life Kit wants to help. Here's a comic to help you sharpen your misinformation Spidey senses…"
On the Media podcast with "President Trump has continued to push the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19, even though scientists say more research is needed to prove that it is safe and effective. But how'd we get here in the first place? Julia Carrie Wong is a reporter for The Guardian who has traced how a misleading, flawed study from France has become a widely-cited piece of evidence by media personalities on Fox and elsewhere."
"The federal agency that oversees nursing homes announced new transparency measures Sunday requiring the disclosure of coronavirus cases to patients' families and public health officials." Finally. Fortunately the facility we use has been very forthcoming with us families (one of the reasons we chose it). Also another reason why you want to have strong living wills and healthcare powers of attorney (and a durable power of attorney) with people you trust.
"In some parts of the U.S., the desperate need to slow the spread of the coronavirus is coming into conflict with the scramble to find more hospital beds… Nonetheless, some of the largest states are now ordering nursing homes to accept patients who have been discharged from the hospital but are still recovering from COVID-19." Bad idea.
"But now, many hospital workers on the front lines in the metro area have been sounding the alarm that a different piece of lifesaving equipment is in short supply and high demand: dialysis machines." While the initial concern was respiratory illnesses, we're learning this bugger is affecting a lot of other systems in the body as well.
"Boris Johnson has told colleagues his concerns that relaxing lockdown measures too soon could lead to a second outbreak of coronavirus… He is thought to have told Mr Raab and other officials via video that stopping a second peak was his priority."
"Health care workers on Sunday faced off against protesters calling for an end to Colorado’s coronavirus stay-at-home order."
"First daughter and senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump offered a suggestion for bored Americans to do during the COVID-19 shutdowns… She suggested people, 'try making shadow puppets from Henry Bursill's recently unearthed 1860's book of engraving.'" That went over as well as you'd suspect.
"CNN contacted 10 California hospitals identified by Musk in the partial list of recipients he posted on Thursday. Of the four hospitals that responded, all said they had received bilevel positive airway pressure (biPAP) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines — devices that can aid breathing and be used for sleep apnea. None had received ventilators." Billionaire engineering mastermind doesn't understand the difference between ventilators and BiPAP/CPAP machines. And while, yes, we do use BiPAP in the hospital they are 1) less complicated, 2) less expensive, and 3) not the same thing as a ventilator.
"Celebrity psychologist Phil McGraw, known to his TV viewers as 'Dr. Phil,' argued for reopening the economy on Fox News, rattling off a string of statistics about other causes of death that don’t require statewide shutdowns… McGraw’s figures were not all accurate, however, and the comparisons he drew with the novel coronavirus weren't apples-to-apples." Fuck 'Doctor' Phil.
"But a little-known military task force charged with evacuating Washington has already been activated, a task force charged with the most sensitive government mission of "securing" Washington in the face of attackers, foreign and domestic—and if necessary, moving White House and other key government offices to alternate locations." Totally not worrying at all.
"As the coronavirus death toll tops 40,000 in the United States, President Donald Trump said some governors were taking lockdown restrictions too far and expressed support for protesters demanding a return to work… Trump's criticism of states' handling of the crisis on Sunday came amid a debate over which jurisdiction the burden of testing for the virus — crucial to reopening the economy — falls."
Th only way we're going to get out of this before a vaccine is developed (if it can be developed) is large-scale testing. "It took roughly three weeks to sort out the failed test kits, far longer than the CDC had anticipated. Along the way, regulators would discover the lab producing the test kits was contaminated, likely causing the tests to malfunction, according to a senior administration official." On the long series of failures getting a testing scheme up and running. And while there's been progress recently, it's still nowhere near the levels of testing we need. And then there's the worry about the accuracy of the tests.
"In recent weeks, the United States has seen the first rollout of blood tests for coronavirus antibodies, widely heralded as crucial tools to assess the reach of the pandemic in the United States, restart the economy and reintegrate society… But for all their promise, the tests — intended to signal whether people may have built immunity to the virus — are already raising alarms."
"Consumer and manufacturing reports for March showed the hit to the economy from the coronavirus was even swifter and deeper in the early weeks of the shutdown than expected."
"Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that he thinks the United States economy will bounce back to the position it was in before the coronavirus pandemic in a matter of 'months,' a sunny prediction at odds with many economists who see the US as entering a historic economic downturn." Uh, sure, Bob.
Were did all the money go? "Shake Shack plans to return a $10 million loan it received under an emergency small business rescue program, amid a growing backlash against big businesses that got the money before $350 billion in funding lapsed last week… The burger chain was just one of several large restaurant operators and publicly traded companies that secured tens of millions of dollars in 'Paycheck Protection Program' loans before the Trump administration announced Thursday that the funding was exhausted because of huge demand."
"United Airlines on Monday reported a $2.1 billion loss for first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic drove travel demand down to the lowest level in decades."
"Sir Richard Branson has warned that airline Virgin Atlantic needs government support to survive… The boss of the Virgin Group said he was not asking for a handout, but a commercial loan, believed to be £500m."
How's that OPEC+ (with Russia) working out? "U.S. crude prices plunged to their lowest level in more than 20 years on Monday as traders continue to fret over a slump in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. The price of the nearest oil futures contract, which expires Tuesday, was the hardest hit, detaching from later month futures contracts with a drop of more than 30%. This suggests that traders believe there could be a recovery in later months."
"Nova Scotia authorities have begun investigating the shooting of a gunman who may have been disguised as a police officer and went on 12-hour rampage that left 16 people dead in a small town."
"For the second time in four days, a U.S. surveillance aircraft flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea was intercepted by a Russian fighter jet, the Navy said Sunday. A U.S. Navy P-8A aircraft was intercepted twice by a Russian SU-35, and the second incident was deemed 'unsafe and unprofessional,' the Navy said in statement." Hey, guys, I thought we were friends here. Note, these kinds of activities were several times a week during the Cold War, there's even that scene in Top Gun that glorifies it.
"The square in the heart of Tel Aviv was measured and carefully marked off. Every two meters, an X designated a spot where someone could stand under Israel's social distancing guidelines. Protest organizers marked 2,800 spots for protesters to stand Sunday evening. In the end, organizers say twice as many people showed up to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with many people standing on the surrounding streets."
"President Trump's guidelines for 'reopening' the country put the onus on governors across the nation. After the president falsely claimed he had "total" authority over the states regarding when to reopen, he is now set up, politically, to take the credit if all goes well and to blame the governors if something goes wrong."
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