United States Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Conservaties believe that the natural rights enumerated above are paramount to any and all laws, orders, and rulings of the U.S. government. The pandemic raises the question though of whether the right to liberty, which appears to be translated by most as meaning the right to do anything they want, stands above the right to life.
Ironic isn’t it, that as we begin to witness another series of SCOTUS confirmation hearings, we are witnessing this very debate in which Republicans insist that the right to life is paramount over the liberty of a woman to choose what to do with her body. No matter then the hypocrisy of these same Republicans insisting their right to liberty is paramount over everyone else’s right to life. Well, if you seek the common denominator you might find there really isn’t any hypocricy.
Here We Go Again Michigan
It seems logical to me that the number of cases of COVID-19 will increase as the weather gets colder in the northern United States causing people to spend more time indoors without good ventilation. A report over the weekend appears to provide the statistical evidence, the R0, or rate of infection, has jumped to 1.12, you want it to be below 1. Daily new cases per 100,000 people is 11.7, a number above 10 is considered high. The good news is that ICU occupancy is low so for now hospitals appear to be capable of meeting demand, but an increase in the rate of spread increases the probability of people with pre-existing conditions who catch the virus need hospitalization. Lending further support to the “colder weather” theory is the fact that the new Michigan outbreak is in the Upper Peninsula.
Given the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision that the Governor has over-stepped her authority with her efforts to contain the disease and the Republican party’s preference to not issue mandates, it is likely the spread will increase unless citizens self comply or take county and city health orders seriously. I expect the State Legislature to pass legislation to prevent counties and cities from issuing their own health orders.
HP and Lenovo have both recently announced new Chromebook Enterprise devices, the significance of which is that I imagine they will be the first to be able to run Windows apps.
HP unveils the first-ever Chromebook with AMD C-series processors
Hidden color
Last year I was in the motherland to see fall colors, this year I need to watch for the color around my house.
Zeynep Tufekci’s report in The Atlantic, This Overlooked Variable Is the Key to the Pandemic, is an important read. I think a big contributor to the problems in the United States is a “not invented here” mindset. Rather than waiting on a vaccine I wish we would be rapidly distributing low cost rapid tests.
“Journalism isn’t a profession. It’s not even a trade. It’s a business. It’s a market-making function. When journalism can’t make money, it survives on the patronage of those it’s covering.”
It is an argument along the lines of Camus’s “we must imagine Sisyphus happy”
A change in leadership will help, but many more people are contributing to our decline than Donald Trump.
Google’s new custom Assistant shortcuts is an interesting enhancement that I just learned is on my Pixel 4a. One of the recommended shortcuts uses the Accuweather app but when I try to use it the assistant says there isn’t an app for that shortcut. I hope that this evolves in to something as powerful as Siri shortcuts.
“They also explain that cortisone reduces hyaluronan production, which is why dexamethasone and other steroids can ameliorate symptoms and save the lives of patients experiencing severe COVID-19 complications.” – Doctors discovered a terrifying new coronavirus symptom that’s killing patients
Might explain why Trump was given dexamethasone.
TP-Link’s Kasa smart plugs might be the most useful home automation tech that you can buy and right now you can buy a four pack for $27.
Outlines, Wikis, and Wisdom
I have a great deal of respect for the people who layed the foundation of the computer technology I use today, people like Steve Wozniak, Dan Bricklin, Ward Cunningham, and Dave Winer. I follow Ward and Dave the closest because they actively write and because I use their work every day.
I am struck by the similarities and differences between Ward and Dave’s work. Ward created wiki, which is a tool he created to write and share pattern languages. Wiki’s emphasis is on easy writing and hyperlinking, which I think was the intended purpose of the Web. Dave also created writing tools, the outliner and blogs, that simplify publishing of writing on the Internet and he also created RSS to make it easier for one to keep up with the writing on the Internet. Dave’s original work is the conceptual basis for my stream while Ward’s original work provides the tools for my garden.
I like outlines and find that I really like Federated Wiki and today I realized that the similarity between them is that both provide context to writing but in different ways. Outlines are hiearchical while Federated Wiki has a lineup that shows context between source and destination links in a horizontal and linear fashion. I think this ability to easily see context and connections is also why I like Roam and use it for my private notes.
I am not sure that this matters much to others, but I think there is a relationship between context and history. History is the context of our lives and I think a great deal of our problems come from a failure to see meaning or to see what is really happening because we fail to know the context. Part of the problem may be that it’s too difficult to find the context of history, that’s where tools like oultliners might help, and because it is so difficult few people really take the time to seek out and understand context.
Context is needed for true understanding, knowledge, and thus wisdom and today there is a huge deficiency of wisdom.
Pairagraph is an interesting site, with an interesting starting dialog about whether America is in decline that Om Malik is participating in. I find my reaction is less about whether or not I agree with Om as much as the fact that he appears to associate Amercia’s not decline with wealth. Fixation on wealth as a measure of success is a uniquely human problem that is becoming more problematic, particularly for the United States. Should freedom and liberty be defined in wealth terms?
As to the site… why couldn’t the dialog occur between two people writing on their own blogs?
Another note about the Fossil Gen 5 watches, they don’t have the two dedicated hardware buttons of the prior models which I use and which I found to be a differentiater between it and other brands. Consequently I am now likely to consider other brands.
I am keeping an eye on the latest Wear OS watch announcements Fossil announced their new Gen 5E line, which I recommend people do not buy. The Gen 5E still uses the Qualcomm 3100 chip while there is a newer and better chip, the Qualcomm 4100 now available. I am waiting for a watch running the Qualcomm 4100 before I replace my Fossil Sport.
The same people who are convinced that the media and Democrats are making COVID-19 more than it is are the same people convinced that U.S. elections are highly corrupt. They call out as propaganda that which they do not want to hear nor accept but don’t apply the same criteria against those of their own tribe. When it comes to elections, start with a fact that the people currently in office do not want high voter turnouts, while everyone should be embarrassed that nearly half of Americans do not vote.
Not All Styluses Make The Same Point
The Lenovo USI Stylus arrived today, giving me the first chance to try a Universal Stylus Initiative digital pen. Historically, digital pens only work with the tablets made by the manufacturer of the pen, and the pens are not portable between tablets. USI is a protocol intended to enable one to use a pen across multiple tablets. Thus, the Lenovo stylus I just got is supposed to not only work with the Lenovo Duet, but other tablets and notebook computers that support USI.
Unfortunately, I don’t have another device that supports USI, but I can say that the stylus I received just worked with the Duet once I got the pen powered up, there was no pairing process. The problem that I have with this stylus is that its tip is too big and round and so writing with it is like writing with a used medium tip marker rather than like a fine point pen. The tip on the Apple Pencil and Microsoft Surface Pen is much more like a pencil or pen so that what you write on the screen does not look like big fat characters.
The upside to the Lenovo USI is that it only cost me $31, which is considerabily cheaper than the Apple Pencil. However, even if it is cheap, the fact that one cannot really write digital ink that approximates a fine tip pen will hinder its usefullness.
I am thinking that the state of COVID-19 in the United States may be less of a failure of leadership than we want to think. Imagine if this happened while Obama were President. Yes, the response would be more efficient, like hospital supplies would be better managed, but I think the people refusing to do the right things now, like wearing masks and social distancing, would refuse to do them with Obama as President.The same Republican Governors and state legislatures would do the same thing they are doing now.
In many ways the U.S. response to COVID-19 is the same as how respond to mass shootings, no matter where they occur. We are trapped in a selfish, individualistic mindset fueled by capitalists and religious and taken advantage of by the power brokers.
I get a lot of packages delivered to our house and I find UPS is the best delivery service in terms of provide me ways to be notified about the delivery status. On the morning of delivery I get a link to a live map that shows the delivery truck in relation to our house, so that I can narrow down when I can expect the package to be delivered.
It is possible that Trump will recover well from his bout with COVID-19, which will then result with his supporters declaring, “see, no worse than the flu!” We must not obsess on how this affects Trump personally and focus on how it spreads and affects others. Trump and those directly in his orbit do not care about others, and apparently people who should know better, like college professors and presidents, as if in an abusive relationship, are too intimidated to stand for themselves.
Chris Christie, for the sake of your family and your own life, stop hanging out with President Trump!
The purpose of wearing a mask is so that one may not spread the virus to others. Because Trump has demonstrated he does not care at all for others, anyone coming in close physical contact with him is putting their life in danger. This act alone is a violation of Trumps oath of office, but since grown ups who identify Republican were incapable of standing up to him and removing him from office when they had the chance, they get to suffer the consequences. (Republicans, when will you face the fact that Trump is not one of you and doesn’t care about you?)
Isolate Trump in the White House until after the election. No more tax dollars spent on him to spread the virus around. No more press conferences. No rallies. Enough is enough.