External Documents

admin

  • Gin and Tonic, Imperialism, and COVID-19

    Gin and Tonic, Imperialism, and COVID-19

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    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

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    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

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    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

    —

    by

    admin
    in ,

    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

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    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?

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    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

    —

    by

    admin
    in ,

    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

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    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  

  • Art Spiegelman: golden age superheroes were shaped by the rise of fascism

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    Art Spiegelman in The Guardian: Created in New York by Jewish immigrants, the first comic book superheroes were mythic saviours who could combat the Nazi threat. They speak to the dark politics of our times Source: Art Spiegelman: golden age superheroes were shaped by the rise of fascism

  • Changing Emails is Hard

    —

    by

    admin
    in

    I’ve had my old address, johnk@riceball.com, for more than 20 years. I think. I don’t remember when I first established email for my own domain. I remember picking the domain out around 1998, when the first domain land rush happened. I probably set up the email on the Cyberjava servers. I don’t remember anymore. Later,…