Saturday, July 25, 2020

Quarantine Day 130.

Last night I went to bed at 11:15, got up twice during the night, again at 6:30, finally waking/getting up at 8am.

Last night I played 4 games on Chess.com, winning 2, losing 1, and drawing 1. I was winning the 3^rd game easily, but I lost on time and in the last game I blundered my queen. My rating is now 1270.

One of my readers sent me this comment about my difficulty opening plastic bags at the grocery store.

“Go to the produce section with several bags off the roll. If the produce sections there wet down the veggies so they will rot soon after you get them home, then you are in luck. Use the water there on the packaged bags that get they spray to wet your fingers. Open several bags at a time and since they are free use more than you think you might need.”

I was in the produce section and looked but couldn’t find anything wet. Later I found a worker wearing rubber gloves who opened several bags for me.

 

The rain started here about 11:45, which probably explains why it was only 72 degrees.

Teresa beat me in parcheesi today 5 games to 3.

 

A bible conference in Colorado that threatened to sue the state over a cease-and-desist order calling for the event to be shutdown has been linked to 34 new cases of COVID-19.

The Summer Family Bible Conference, held by Andrew Wommack Ministries and Charis Bible College from June 29 to July 3, has had 15 employees and staff members test positive, along with another 15 conference attendees and four others, according to The Pikes Peak Courier.

"The event brought in 1,000 people, according to Andrew Wommack Ministries, in a building that could hold 5,000. Public health orders, however, limited events to 175 people.”

 

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute formally asked the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee to stop using the 40th president’s name and image to raise money.

The request came in response to a fundraising appeal sent from the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint effort of the Trump campaign and the RNC, offering two commemorative coins, one engraved with Reagan’s image and the other with that of President Trump to anyone who donates $45 or more for Trump’s reelection. The email was “signed” by Trump.

 

The United States recorded more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 for the fourth straight day on Friday but a top White House advisor on the pandemic said she saw signs that the worst could be past in hard-hit southern and western states.

 

In France, health officials said Friday that a recent rise in new coronavirus cases in the country has “erased” much of the headway made since the country crept out from their lockdown, The Telegraph reported.

1,130 new daily cases were reported Friday, a far cry from the mere 81 counted this time last month, and France is working to have their residents work from home as a mitigation effort.

Spain is also concerned about a potential second wave as new, localized clusters appear to spring up just a month after their lockdown ended, with cities like Barcelona experiencing spikes as its larger region, Catalonia, announced it would shutter nightclubs for two weeks to try and get a grasp of the spread.

Germany’s “second coronavirus wave is already here,” Michael Kretschmer, Saxony’s Minister President, was quoted as saying in the Rheinische Post Saturday per a Deutsche Welle translation. 

 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday that Republicans were set to roll out the next COVID-19 aid package Monday and assured there was backing from the White House after he and President Donald Trump's top aide met to salvage the $1 trillion proposal that had floundered just days before.

Mnuchin told reporters at the Capitol that extending an expiring unemployment benefit — but reducing it substantially — was a top priority for Trump. The secretary called the $600 weekly aid “ridiculous” and a disincentive for people to go back to work. He also promised a fresh round of $1,200 stimulus checks would be coming in August.

As Florida became a global epicenter of the coronavirus, Gov. Ron DeSantis held one meeting this month with his top public health official, Scott Rivkees, according to the governor's schedule. His health department has sidelined scientists, halting briefings last month with disease specialists and telling the experts there was not sufficient personnel from the state to continue participating.

 

In the absence of medical grade personal protective equipment (PPE), many of us have turned to homemade cloth masks to help stop the spread of coronavirus. But increasingly, research has shown that not all masks are created equal, and some are downright ineffective.  A new video case study produced by Australian researchers shows that in order for a homemade cloth mask to stop viral transmission, it needs to have at least two layers of fabric. In effect, if your mask has just one layer of fabric, you can safely bet that it simply doesn't work.

 

President Donald Trump on Saturday said his administration is “closely monitoring” a pair of major storms in Texas and Hawaii as the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season made landfall along the pandemic-stricken Texas coast.

 

The US has 4,040,230 ð 4,122,121 ð 4,189,625 coronavirus cases with 144,000+ ð 145,300+  ð 146,200+ deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 226,373 ð 233,541 ð 240,795 cases with 8,269 deaths.  Medellin has 10,872 ð 11,344  ð 12,168 12,933 cases, an increase of 765 from July 24^th to 25^th. Envigado has a total of 666 cases, an increase of 37 from July 24^th to 25^th.

 

Joke of the day

A judge had 3 young men in court and he said to them “We’ve had a lot of trouble with young people taking drugs and I should send all of you to prison but I’m going to give you a chance to convince other young people that they shouldn’t take drugs.”  And he gave each of them a postcard with one small circle on one end and a big circle on the other.  “Using that as a symbol I want you to convince young people that they shouldn’t take drugs.”

Six months later they were all back in court.

The judge asked the first young man “how many have you convinced?” and he replied “Eight”.

The judge said “that’s very good.  How did you do it?”

The young man said “I told them if they take drugs the heart will be the size of the small circle and if they don’t take drugs your heart will be big and strong and the size of the larger circle.”

The judge said “That’s very good.”

The judge asked the second young man “how many have you convinced?” and the young man said “Seventeen”.

The judge said “that’s very good, how did you do it?”

The young man said “I told them if they take drugs they will have just a few friends the size of the small circle but if they don’t take drugs the circle of your friends will be like the large circle.”

The judge said “that’s very good.”

The judge said to the third young man “how many have you convinced?” and the young man said “8,964”.

The judge said “that’s remarkable, how did you do it?”

The third man said “I told the young men that if you take drugs the police will catch you, you’ll go to prison and when you arrive your asshole will be the size of the small circle…”