Monday - June 15, 2020

Mulch this

Messing about in the gardens this afternoon. We weeded everything over the weekend, then watered. Put in 35 annuals. Then watered the next day. Then I watered again today. We’re sort of having a drought. So I went and got a car load of mulch, in the condo association approved black color. Because Black Mulch Matters.

Anyway, a quarter ton of mulch later, and I’m about 2/3 done. I’ll need another dozen bags to do the upper garden, which I also have to trim, turn over, fertilize, prepare the center section for all the iris bulbs we’re getting this coming weekend. Then more watering, and then the mulch. At least that area is sort of self-mulching because it’s somewhat under a bunch of junk pine trees, which drop needles, sap, cones, and buds all the time. Which makes it suck to park under them, but it is what it is. It’s going to be a righteous pain to do that center section, working with a pickaxe, a giant crowbar and a sledgehammer to break up the soil, sift out the rocks, and then upgrade the dirt by mixing in probably 500lb of top quality topsoil. I use the good stuff from Pussyville. Oops, Puseyville. I left a path down the middle of that area when I built a garden there 5 years ago. It took an entire pallet of bags of topsoil - a couple of yards worth - and a lot of hard work to replace all the fill gravel with good soil. I swore I’d never do that again, but I’ve got bulbs in the front and back areas, annuals up by the curb, and massive day lilies along the north side. So where else am I going to put a couple dozen irises?

I’m going to figure out how to make or buy a small cold frame, so that next year I can start stuff from seeds. The price of everything has gone up tremendously, and I can’t afford to drop $4 on a pom-pom marigold, when a pack of seeds is $3.49 and will grow dozens of them. 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/15/2020 at 05:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Gardens and plants •  
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Yu Have Got To Be Kidding Me

How do you even start a post with a face palm and a double eye roll?   

Beijing is battling an Ƣexplosive outbreak” of the coronavirus, with health authorities reporting 36 new local infections in the city in one day – all linked to a food market.

As scientists try to track how the latest outbreak in Beijing emerged, the capital and neighbouring regions have stepped up emergency measures, including renewing lockdowns.

The capital has had 79 new local cases since last Thursday, all of which are linked to the Xinfadi wholesale market in the city’s southwestern district of Fengtai.

Covering 112 hectares, the centre is the biggest of its kind in Asia and supplies food to northern provinces.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Monday afternoon that the situation was very serious.

“Beijing is facing explosive and concentrated outbreaks even though the national epidemic has basically been blocked,” Wu said.

Naturally they blame those damn foreigners.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/15/2020 at 12:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • pandemic and epidemic diseases • Pandemic Pandemonium •  
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   Friday - June 12, 2020

One Bridge To Rule Them All

4th largest seaport in Russia brought to a halt because of rail bridge collapse
Just one rail line connects Murmansk to rest of Russia

I was going to post on this a week or so ago, but figured, eh, it’s just one little bridge. I didn’t know it was the only bridge on the only set of tracks into this Scandinavian port city. After decades of overuse - more than 1,000 boxcars a day - it gave out. Efforts to repair it failed. And now the city is on it’s knees. It wasn’t even that big a bridge, only 420 feet long, with a support pier in the middle. Glorious Soviet Project #418, lasted 90 years. Buh bye. Murmansk is on the Kola Peninsula, just east of Finland. The bridge is about 6 miles south of the city.

[ June 2 ] Russian Railways has halted passenger and cargo rail transport between the northern port of Murmansk and the rest of Russia after the collapse of the only railway bridge linking the two, the national rail company said on Tuesday.

The foundations of the bridge across the river Kola were washed away by rapidly melting snow and strong flows of water on Saturday, and the bridge gave way on Monday, the Emergencies Ministry said. No-one was hurt during the incident, officials added.

“This route is the only one, so a temporary ban has been imposed on the loading of all goods to the Murmansk transport hub after the damage to the bridge,” Russian Railways told Reuters.

The region’s governor, Andrey Chibis, said authorities aimed to link Murmansk back up to the nationwide railway network this month and that they were accelerating existing plans to build a new bridge, the TASS news agency reported.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles probes into serious crimes, said it had opened a criminal investigation into what it said was a suspected violation of transport safety. It gave no further details.

The Murmansk Commercial Seaport, which is owned by coal mining company SUEK, handled turnover of 17.6 million tonnes of coal last year. Coal is transported by rail to the port for export.

[ June 3 ] The bridge across the Kola River was built in 1930 and upgraded in 2014. This week, the aging piece of infrastructure did not withstand the quickly rising river waters and collapsed.

Engineers had discovered ruptures in one of the bridge pillars already late last week and rail transportation had been halted. But restoration works did not succeed and major parts of the bridge on Monday afternoon fell into the river.

The result is a major blow to transport connections to the far northern Russian city.

“Yes, the wagons are standing. Murmansk is closed,” a source in a local company told news agency Interfax.  The Russian Railways that operates the route has now reportedly halted all transportation to Murmansk.

The situation has created a major headache for both industry and population in the region. A major share of all goods that are transported to the Arctic city comes by rail and thousands of people use train as preferred means of transportation.

Murmansk declares State of Emergency

The state of emergency was declared on the 11th June and will last until the railway connection to the City of Murmansk is restored, regional authorities inform.

Companies in the region are now seriously feeling pain. The Murmansk Seaport, the 4th biggest in the country, normally handles about 1000 rail wagons per day, and the biggest regional companies, among them Nornickel, Eurochem and Phosagro, all depend on both shipping and rail transportation.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2020 at 10:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Bridges • Russia •  
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CHAZ This

“Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably Priced Love! And a Hard-Boiled Egg!”

Seattle Occupiers Become Instant Criminal State When Gangsta Takes Over

When last we left CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle—which wants you to know that it is not the U.S.A.—its residents had suffered a major setback. Homeless people CHAZ invited over for dinner swiped all their food.

CHAZ is a secessionist urban micro-state with no farms or ranches (they’re vegan anyway) so it cannot feed itself.

It’s also firmly against the police. One of its demands to Seattle’s mayor is to defund the police or resign.

Power abhors a vacuum. Into the vacuum created by the absence of law enforcement in CHAZ has stepped a warlord.

It all started with graffiti. It ended with a struggle for power, not against The Man, but a man who could whip the behind of every other man around. Such is feudalism. Now CHAZ has an unaccountable force that they don’t want to call the police because they’re against police. And whatever this crew is, they’re not police. Their warlord’s name is Raz Simone, and according to CHAZ insiders he and his crew are “self-appointed, heavily armed, has indicated their intention to police the area, and has engaged in the use of force.” OceanBliss guesses Raz has assumed power because “he has all the guns.” Mao couldn’t have said it better himself. CHAZ’s Great Leap Forward is really a pretty big step backward.

Well, if any of the beta soyboys inside survive this, it might just change their outlook. Their wonderful revolution lasted less than 48 hours before the criminals took it over. Well no kidding. Obviously they learned nothing from the Occupy DC fiasco. The real world is a lot tougher than when you took over the Dean’s office back in college to protest some nonsense or other. 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2020 at 09:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Stoopid-People • Typical White People: Stupid, Evil, Willfully Blind •  
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Biden: The Sofa King Of Stupid

Biden: Floyd Death More Important Then MLK Assassination

“Even Dr. King’s assassination did not have the worldwide impact that George Floyd’s death did,” Biden said with a mask dangling from his ear.

“Because just like television changed the civil rights movement for the better when they saw Bull Connor’s dogs ripping the clothes off of elderly black women who were trying to go to church, and fire hoses ripping the skin off of young kids,” he said.

Bull Connor was a Democrat and Commissioner of Public Safety for Birmingham, Alabama.

“That — all those folks around the country who didn’t have any black populations heard about this, but they didn’t believe it, but they saw it, it was impossible for them to close their eyes,” Biden continued.

“Well, what happened to George Floyd, now you’ve got how many people around the country? Millions of cell phones, it’s changed the way everybody’s looking at this,” he said. “Look at the millions of people marching around the world.”

I know I’ll be voting for a candidate who can’t organize a thought or express himself coherently. Tops on my list.

Yes, the speed and width of communication is ten thousand times faster than it was 52 years ago. Gosh, ya think? But the mindless knee jerk impulse is just as strong in our politicians. So is the sense of right and wrong in our society, although so many seem to deny it.

And I seem to recall that the reaction to Dr. King’s death was pretty strong across most of our society. 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2020 at 08:16 AM   
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Yeah, about like that

But if it stops just one mosquito, then it’s worth it!



~~~~~~~

That’s a honey of an idea. Except I’d whip up a stencil and label the boxes “Caution: Murder Hornets Inside”. 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2020 at 08:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Pandemic Pandemonium •  
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BLM

Black Looting Mayhem

Burn, Loot, and Maim?

Brown Tide Engulfs FL Walmart: $116K Worth Stolen

Roughly 200 looters stole over $100,000 worth of products from a Tampa, Florida, Walmart on the evening of May 30, according to local law enforcement.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is asking for assistance in identifying the looters, who raided the Walmart Supercenter on East Fletcher Avenue shortly after 9:00 p.m. local time.

Fox 13 reports:

The store was closed due to the police brutality protests occurring outside the University Mall, but people wielding blunt objects like hammers broke the glass entrance doors and stormed into the store.

Footage released by the sheriff’s office shows wave after wave of looters streaming through the front door — past the social-distancing reminders — and ransacking the store’s electronics section, hauling away computers, TVs, and more.

After reviewing the video, detectives believe somewhere around 200 people participated. An estimated $116,000 in merchandise and damages was reported.

“Not only is this violence completely unacceptable, it was disrespectful to the protesters who were out there that night trying to express their message in an impactful way,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “We are actively working to identify each and every one of these suspects and ask the public to provide any information they may have.”

Looting sprees have occurred across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis. Looting hotspots include New York City, Los Angeles, and St. Paul. Last week, prosecutors in Austin, Texas, charged three individuals linked to Antifa with looting a Target store.

And every one of them is on crystal clear video ( at the link above ). Let’s see if Tampa actually presses charges. Yeah right.




Elsewhere in Tampa

Protests took place on both sides of the bay, with the demonstration in Tampa turning violent overnight.

The destruction was centered around the Busch Gardens and the University Mall area. At one point, the Champs Sports store along Fowler Avenue was engulfed in flames.  That’s right across the street from the mall, where a crowd of protesters had gathered overnight.

Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said at least 40 businesses were burglarized and looted and five were set on fire. Plus, he said 27 police cars were vandalized.

Tampa police said they arrested 41 adults and juveniles throughout the night. Some of the juveniles arrested were wearing ankle bracelets. Chief Dugan said there would be a different tone on Sunday. He encouraged anyone who wants to protest peacefully to stay at home.

Hillsborough County deputies arrested an additional seven people for burglary, grand theft, battery on law enforcement officer, carrying a concealed firearm and petit theft.

Two deputies responding to the protests were injured. Both suffered minor injuries and have since been released from the hospital. 15 HCSO vehicles were also damaged during yesterday’s protests.

Doesn’t sound like an actual protest. Sounds like another chimp out crime festival. And they wonder why other people have doubts and attitudes about them?

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2020 at 07:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • CULTURE IN DECLINE •  
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   Thursday - June 11, 2020

Running The COVID Numbers Once Again

Given an average recovery time of 6 weeks for all but the most severe cases, nearly all the people who tested positive before April 30 should be well by now. That’s 118,652 as of April 30. Total cases so far is 165,346, which implies 46,694 active cases, of which a bit more than 21% are in LTC and not out in public. Call it 30,000 net “public” cases, with 1512 of those in hospital. So 28,500 at large. State population is 8.9 million. Under a third of one percent, 1 in 300, and hopefully they’re staying mostly at home.

By the end of April we had about 608 cases in the county.  My point here is that nearly all of the patients identified on or before April 30 are either already recovered or dead. ( Second standard deviation (SD = 1.5 weeks; mean of 3.5+1.5+1.5 = 6.5) covers 95%, so call it 92% recovered as of now. )

1028 total according to today’s reports, with 383 in LTC. 37%. That leaves 420 cases since then. Running with the 37% LTC number leaves 63% in public, 265. April 30 was 6 weeks ago, so it’s fair to assume that at least half of those patients since then have already recovered. Down to 133. Which isn’t really that much, given the size of the county and the 125,000 population. So it’s time to ease up, right?

Small update: prison data shows 3141 cases, of which 2363 are inmates. So that takes the state “at large” number 28,500 down to 26,317 and drops the public cases total to 0.29%, 1 in 338.

Statewide, 34,799 cases of the 165,346 have been at LTC. 21%.  6,327 deaths at LTC of the total 12,337 deaths in the state. 51%.

My county of Hunterdon is seeing 0 to 3 new cases per day.

I finally found the state numbers for the prisons, including the women’s prison here in my Union Township, although COVID testing sites were destroyed by rioting.

UPDATE: Thank you nice numbers lady at the county
Inmates and residents at the state run institutions in the county count as part of the local COVID numbers. Staff only counts if they happen to live in the county.

This changes my numbers, but in a good way. There are 199 inmates and residents at the two facilities in our township. There have been 230 cases in our township since this all began. Which means just 31 “public” cases since February, from a population of 5500. 0.56%.  The next township over ... every single one of their cases is in “Boys Town”, aka Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility. Every. Single. One.

Governor Murphy’s One Size Fits All re-opening plan is faulty. Ok, it’s excessively cautious. Going county by county, or even town by town, would make things much better much faster for almost no risk. And Hunterdon County has been one of the least impacted counties in the state this whole time.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/11/2020 at 08:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • pandemic and epidemic diseases • Tyrants and Dictators •  
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   Wednesday - June 10, 2020

Nice Catch

Still, it’s just a drop in the bucket

US Coast Guard Seizes 15 Tons Of Cocaine And Weed Since April

I guess they weren’t on lockdown one bit.

Nearly 15 tons of drugs seized by the U.S. Coast Guard, at an estimated value of $408 million, were offloaded Tuesday at Port Everglades.

About 23,000 pounds of cocaine and approximately 6,900 pounds of marijuana were confiscated in international waters off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America, and in the Caribbean Sea. Four Coast Guard cutters and two U.S. Navy ships combined for 11 separate seizures aboard suspected drug-smuggling vessels since April 1.

“We continue to take the fight to the drug cartels and make an impact on these criminal organizations who spread this poison on our streets,” said Capt. Jeffrey Randall, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter James.

Four Coast Guard cutters and two U.S. Navy ships combined for 11 separate seizures aboard suspected drug smuggling vessels, since April 1.

Samples of the drugs will be kept for evidence to prosecute the smugglers, the Coast Guard said, but the bulk of it will be given to federal authorities to be destroyed per standard procedure.

The Coast Guard said it has seized more than 1 million pounds of cocaine in international waters over the past three years.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2020 at 09:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Latin-America • Military •  
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The Current Global Disaster That Didn’t Make The News At All

MAJOR PETROLEUM SPILL OF NEARLY 3/4 MILLION GALLONS

The Taymyr Penninsula is in northern central Russia along the Arctic Ocean. It is between 1200 and 1700 miles east of Finland and about 1600 miles west of Alaska. This is one of the more remote and inhospitable places on the planet.

Norilsk is a mining and industrial city in the southwest end of the peninsula. What isn’t mines is boggy swamp, when it isn’t frozen solid by the 8 months long brutal winter.

At the Norilsk-Taymyr Energy Company there, a massive spill of diesel fuel from their giant storage tanks has released more than 21,000 tons of diesel fuel into the local waterways and across the tundra. That’s at least 600,000 gallons.

And there’s no way to clean it up right now. They can try and contain it, but actual removal won’t happen for months until things freeze up again.

Perhaps the leaking tanks are right here: 69.329191, 88.251773 (decimal map ref).

There is not a lot of precise information available, but it doesn’t look like the diesel could get into the Artic Ocean from there. No, it will just destroy several of the few bog lakes on the whole peninsula.

Large territories of rivers, streams and tundra lands are covered by more than 20 thousands tons of diesel oil from a reservoir owned by company Nornickel. The catastrophe was reported to the authorities only two days after the spill and nobody really knows how to clean up.

A thick layer of diesel oil now covers more than 20 km of rivers around the installations of the Norilsk-Taymyr Energy Company. Practically all rivers and affluent creeks are filled up by oil products, leader of Russia’s Federal Environmental Control Service (Rosprirodnadzor) says after a visit on site.

Water samples show several tens of thousands times higher concentrations of oil products than the maximum allowed level, Svetlana Radionova told President Vladimir Putin in an online video meeting on Wednesday.

According to Radionova, about 6,000 tons of diesel oil has spilled into the tundra and another about 15,000 tons have ended up in the local waterways.

A layer of diesel oil as thick as 20 cm is found by the oil booms put out on the local river about 20 km away from the site of the accident, the leader of Rosprirodnadzor says. [ 6” thick 14 miles away ]

“We are now identifying damage and potential consequences for the waters, as well as the soil,” she explained to the President.
Reported after 2 days

The accident took place in the morning of the 29th of May, but was reported to the authorities only on the 31st of May. Neither the Norilsk-Taymyr Energy Company, nor its mother company Nornickel had published any official information about the spill until 3rd June, and the regional authorities in the Krasnoyarsk Kray put out a small notice only on that same day, at the same time as regional Governor Aleksandr Uss was ordered to report to the President.

Big clean-up after the catastrophe, but spilled oil will be removed from Taymyr tundra only next winter

Thousands of tons of spilled diesel oil are being pumped into special containers placed along affected rivers and creeks. The substances will be removed from the desolate area only after the tundra freezes next winter.
...
Nornickel must cover the full cost for restoring nature in the area, Putin underlined to Nornickel CEO and majority owner Potanin.

“The owners are obliged to fully liquidate the pollution of soil and waters, ” Putin underlined and added that a comprehensive compensation scheme for restoration of bio diversity and nature in the area will have to come in place.

He also made clear that the Russian General Prosector and the Investigative Committee will study the case carefully to find reasons and assess damage.

“We will pay whatever it costs,” Potanin responded. He added that he believes the price for the clean-up will amount to “ten billion rubles, and more.”

Nornickel fully owns the Norilsk-Taymyr Energy Company, and manages the huge industrial facilities of city Norilsk and the surrounding Taymyr tundra. Nornickel from before has a dubious environmental reputation. Air pollution around the company’s industrial plants in Norilsk and in the Kola Peninsula is among the worst in Russia.

Russian authorities were long at odds over how to clean up the vast volumes of harmful substances from the remote and vulnerable Arctic nature.

Burning was first considered to be the best alternative way to get rid of the oil products. But that alternative has now been abandoned.

Instead, a big number of special containers are being flown into the area and placed along the worst affected rivers and streams. Spilled oil is now pumped into the reservoir tanks.

Russian Inspectors: Drain the other tanks before we have another accident!!

According to Rosprirodnadzor, the environmental catastrophe happened after the concrete foundation on which the reservoir rests began to sink. Following the sinking, the bottom of the reservoir detached from its walls whereupon the diesel oil spilled into the surroundings.

On site are another four similar reservoirs, three of which are in operation. They are now a major subject of concern for the environmental inspectors in the area.

In a letter addressed to the Norilsk Taymyr Energy Company, the environmental watchdog now warns that the remaining reservoirs could ultimately get the same fate as the first collapsed tank.

The reservoirs might together hold more than 60,000 tons of fuel oil.

The control authority proposes that the company pumps all the diesel fuel out of the reservoirs and that it carefully studies the technical condition of the facilities.

The work must be completed by 9th August this year, the letter explains.
Hard clean-up

The major spill happened on the 29th May, but is believed to have been reported to the authorities only on the 31st May. Clean-up operations are now in full swing with more 650 people and 250 equipment items involved, Nornickel informs.

And of course all this happened because of ... wait for it ... Global Warming. Things got warmer, the permafrost softened up, foundations built on them sunk, oil tanks on those foundations split open. Climate change is real there, and across much of northern Russia. It’s why they’re opening all those LNG facilities in the west, and why so many freeze dried mammoths are being found in the east.

The reservoir facilities in Norilsk hold only a tiny fraction of the volumes of oil and oil products stored across the Russian Arctic. A lion’s share of Russia’s oil production is made in the country’s north and storage facilities, pipelines and terminals are stretched across the vast region.

Potentially, similar spills like the one in Norilsk could soon happen in numerous places across the region, including in nearby oil-rich Khanti-Mansiisk area, Yamal-Nenets Autonmous Okrug, Komi Republic and Nenets AO.

Looks like it’s time for Russia to clean up it’s act. Literally.

And this massive spill isn’t even a blip on the news radar here or in Europe. Because protests. And COVID. And politics.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2020 at 08:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Disasters • Environment • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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They Took It, Make Them Keep It

Antifa takes over 6 blocks of Seattle, sets up “Capital Hill Autonomous Zone”

Homeless people eat all their food. Radical leader admits to being a serial abuser, quits.

Such planning, such leadership. How brave, how daring. What a bunch of foolish infants.

After police vacated buildings, Antifa established what is being called the Seattle Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, and began self-governing within the six-block space, only to reportedly have homeless people steal their food supply and their leader step down and threaten to kill themself after admitting to being a “serial abuser” on Twitter.

Yesterday the establishment of the autonomous zone was reported widely on social media, with Andy Ngo writing that the mayor “is allowing a dangerous situation to fester,” and that “Antifa set up barricades to create a border. Calling for volunteers to provide armed guard.”

No food, no ability to control their space, no cops, no services. No shit.

I think the best course of action is to wall them off for a few months. After turning off the water, gas, and electricity tonight. And shutting down the cell phone towers in the area.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2020 at 03:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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This slightly makes sense

If this virus came from animals to begin with, then maybe animal medicine can cure it. Or maybe not.

A drug used to treat an infectious disease in cats effectively stopped the replication of the pandemic coronavirus in laboratory tests, according to Chinese researchers.

The findings come just weeks after the American developer of the feline medicine announced that it had applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency approval to start clinical trials of the drug on humans.

In a non-peer-review paper posted on the preprint server bioRxiv on Sunday, researchers led by Professor Zhang Shuyang at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences said that computer modelling and laboratory experiments suggested that the medication called GC376 was “a relatively effective and safe drug candidate”.

The drug binds to an important enzyme of Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease Covid-19, according to the study.

The enzyme, called Mpro, breaks down big proteins into amino acids and the virus uses these amino acids as building blocks. Without Mpro, the virus cannot make copies of itself.

The Chinese scientists found that the drug could easily enter cells infected by the novel coronavirus and inhibit viral production.

It required only a dose of very low concentration to achieve maximum effect, “showing an excellent safety profile”, the researchers said.

GC376 was developed by Anivive Lifesciences, a biotech company based in Long Beach, California, and has been used to treat kittens suffering the feline infectious peritonitis, a fetal disease that is caused by a coronavirus that does not infect humans.

We did hear that the tigers in the zoo caught COVID from their people. And have heard that house cats can catch it too. Apparently so can ferrets, and now mink. But it’s only in the Netherlands that humans have caught it from animals. Other than the Wuhan wet market, naturally.

Dutch mink cull starts as coronavirus spreads to 10th farm

Dutch mink farms have begun a government-ordered cull amid concern that animals infected with coronavirus could transmit the illness to humans.

Infected mink have been found on 10 Dutch farms where the ferret-like animals are bred for their fur, according to the country’s Food & Wares Authority.

“All mink breeding farms where there is an infection will be cleared, and farms where there are no infections won’t be,” said spokeswoman Frederique Hermie.

The government ordered the cull of 10,000 mink on Wednesday after determining that affected farms could act as a long-term reservoir of disease.

Dutch mink were first infected with coronavirus by their handlers in April. In May, the government identified two cases in which humans had been infected by sick animals — the only animal-to-human transmissions known since the global outbreak began in China.

The Dutch mink farms were set to be shut down in a couple of years anyway. Because PETA.

Too bad that kitty meds don’t work on minks. Or do they? Has anyone tried?

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2020 at 03:23 PM   
Filed Under: • pandemic and epidemic diseases •  
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bread or flowers?

Tempted to make another loaf, but I have weeding to do. And it’s getting hot out!

Hmm, maybe make something slow rising, and then get out the garden gloves. Has to be done.

This seems to be the year of the calibrachoa (ka libra co ah). It spreads well, with lots of little flowers all season long. So far the deer haven’t nibbled them. So far. 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2020 at 10:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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   Tuesday - June 09, 2020

Memories and other junk

I started this post about 12 hours ago but the day got in the way. Mr. Busy, that’s me. Riiight.

So I forget completely what I was going to post about. Maybe it was something in these links?

WHO: pandemic getting worse (as it hits the malaria zones down around the equator)

Urges Nazi level surveillance. Yeah, that’ll work.

A clearly frustrated World Health Organization (W.H.O.) warned Monday the global Chinese coronavirus pandemic was “worsening” not receding, telling countries loosening lockdowns to observe active surveillance and tracing of infected populations.

The W.H.O. issued its warning as Moscow emerged from its strict coronavirus lockdown. With more than 485,000 cases, Russia has the third-highest number of confirmed infections after the United States and Brazil.

As other large parts of Europe, along with Asia and the United States reopen, the W.H.O. reported a record number of new coronavirus cases globally, using that as evidence for its warning calls for countries to keep their lockdown gains secure.

Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some 136,000 cases had been reported in the previous 24 hours, “the most in a single day so far,” with the majority of them in the Americas and South Asia.

I wonder if everyone else on the planet is as fed up with the WHO as I am? I won’t be fooled again, thanks anyway.

~~~~

No more cops in LA schools, because White Supremacy. Riiight

The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), representing teachers and support staff in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), called Monday for the elimination of the 400-member police force protecting schools in the district.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the teachers’ union made the announcement at an event with Black Lives Matter leaders, and called the move a step toward dismantling “white supremacy”:

Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles said Monday they support a movement to eliminate the Los Angeles School Police Department, a force of about 400 that serves the L.A. Unified School District and accounts for about $70 million of the district’s $7.9 billion budget.

“We have to dismantle white supremacy. We must … defund the police and bring in the mental health services that our students need,” said Cecily Myart-Cruz, the incoming president of UTLA, which represents about 30,000 teachers, nurses, counselors and other staff in the school district.

The union leadership endorsement and public announcement during a labor news conference with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles bring an influential voice to what is certain to be an intense debate over school safety.

Leaders of the police union voiced dismay. School police officers are often called upon to break up fights, keep the peace in gang-ridden school districts, and deter school shootings, which have been a worry in recent years.

~~~~

No, I think this is the one. Oh yeah, this is AYFKM level BS

George Floyd’s Family Petitions United Nations to Help Disarm Police in the United States

The family of George Floyd, the black man killed while in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, has sent a letter to the globalist United Nations to ask for its help in disarming police officers in the United States of America.

The family’s legal team facilitated the letter, which was sent on Wednesday, according to NBC News:

The group sent a letter on June 3 to one of the international body’s working groups asking for support for the end of the provision of military equipment and military-type training for police, the teaching of deescalation techniques, independent prosecutions and autopsies for “extrajudicial” police killings, and more.

“When a group of people of any nation have been systemically deprived of their universal human right to life by its government for decades, it must appeal to the international community for its support and to the United Nations for its intervention,” Floyd’s family attorney Ben Crump said in a press release.

The U.N. issued a statement on May 28, three days after Floyd’s death, and included the names of other black people in the U.S. who died in police custody.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this situation has become a political ploy, striking while the iron is hot and letting no crisis go to waste. I’m not in favor of militarized police departments or federalization of those departments in this country either. That’s way too Turd Word Socialist for me. But this isn’t about that. This is yet another lever to pull to get one certain group a free ride. I mean a freer ride. This is not going to end well.

Oh, and the “defund the cops” stuff is really about getting them to stop doing all the domestic disturbance stuff, the suicide prevention, the cops in schools bit, and all the other lower level tasks. Maybe even traffic enforcement. Replace those jobs with social workers. Which will be just fine until those fools start getting their asses beat or shot when they try and go all squishy gooey on people in those situations. It ain’t gonna work, period.

~~~~

So why am I posting at all at this hour of the night? Well, we’ve had a bunch of ants in here the past couple of days. The nearly microscopic little black ones. As small as the feet on a regular small black ant. We cleaned the heck of the unit, I even steam sanitized the floors. And we’re only feeding the kittehs what they’ll eat on the spot then taking their bowls away. But still, a highway of those itsy bitsy little ants across the floor in the morning. Sugar ants I think they’re called. So I went out and got some of the liquid borax ant traps, and a can of Raid ant spray in the floral scent. Actually ... as is usually the case ... the Latin brand of spray has nearly double the amount of poisons in it, but the store didn’t have any of the new softer scented ones, and I know that the original stuff smells pretty bad. And strong. So I got the Raid, and sprayed it under several places where the ants seemed to be coming from or going to. Then blocked those places off from inquisitive cats with cardboard boxes. Just in case. So the post? Oh yeah. Scent memory. Raid Ant & Roach Floral is the scent of cheap hotel rooms. I always figured it was some kind of air freshener. Nope. But one good whiff and I placed it instantly. It’s been an awful lot of years since I spent any time in cheap hotels. Aah, youth. But the nose knows, and never forgets. I sprayed outside too, around the door and the kitchen slider. 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/09/2020 at 10:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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