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  • If SHTF

    (I wrote this draft a year ago on April 2019.) I don’t think people will be going around trying to steal food from hoarders. People will be looting. Some people will be coordinating BBQ grills to cook all the meat that’s going to spoil. They’ll empty the supermarkets, and distribute the food. They’ll be looting…

  • I Think There’s Under Counting of Covid-19

    I took my friend to county general hospital because she had covid-19 symptoms. It looked like covid-19, but they would not give a test. She already had an appointment to get tested at a center tomorrow. They’re rationing tests, saving them for more serious cases. What the fuck? Imagine if someone walked in and was…

  • Gin and Tonic, Imperialism, and COVID-19

    Gin and Tonic, Imperialism, and COVID-19

    Gin and Tonic is a great drink, and if you look into the history, you can see hints of the current fascination with hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug (and also a lupus drug). The gin was used to make the tonic, quinine, more palatable. It was invented by the British East India Company, one of the…

  • How Long Does SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) Last on Surfaces

    In the next “normal”, we’ll have fewer plastic and steel surfaces. That’s my prediction. Coronavirus can live a long time, upwards of five days, on these smooth surfaces, but loses viability over one or two days when it’s landed on a cardboard or copper surface. It’s been shown that wooden cutting boards can kill bacteria.…

  • Village Scale Epidemic Management in Japan

    Village Scale Epidemic Management in Japan

    This paper has influenced me during this COVID-19 pandemic. It breaks past the idea of looking at epidemic policy narrowly, through the lens of science and government, but with a broader view that includes “natural, social and economic factors.” Smallpox and the Epidemiological Heritage of Modern Japan: Towards a Total History https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3143877/ The TL;DR: in…

  • First COVID-19 Post

    I’ve been obsessed with it for over a month. I’ll be copying things from my Facebook feed here, and going back in time to find early posts. This document shows some plots of the daily numbers coming out of Los Angeles County. (Comment on Sept 2024: When I wrote this in 2020, in the early…

  • I’m a Trollaholic

    I sometimes get onto these threads with a few comments, and end up writing a screed. This was with this person, Ras Lyon, who I suppose is a rasta-capitalist. @Mr. Ras Lyon Here’s what you said: “Investors and owners don’t live off of the employees, they live off of the return on the investment they…

  • How is that Asian students both international and Asian Americans are so good in college?

    I wrote this for Quora: There’s two separate groups here. You can even say three groups. International students aren’t all good at college, but the ones from poorer countries are likely to be excellent. The reason is simple: nobody who sucks at school would go overseas to a far more expensive place to attend school.…

  • California Cogged Stones: International Trade and Exchange

    I was reading Quora and it showed me an awesome article about the history of money, or more correctly, the development of debt, and the ideology of private property, and how “barter” is an ideological myth promoted by capitalists. How did the concept of money actually emerge from the “barter system”? TL;DR: the original “money”…

  • Racist Housing Policy Made Your Neighborhood

    A mega-thread on City Data about the issue. Some people are arguing that these policies weren’t racist. Let’s just say there’s some denial going on. http://www.city-data.com/forum/urban-planning/2123740-racist-housing-policy-made-your-neighborhood.html