Tag: SARS-CoV-2

Also known as COVID-19

Relax—you actually don’t need to sanitize your food

TimeHorse April 3, 2020 1 Comment

On Sunday, I posted an article about sanitizing your food after you return from grocery shopping. The thing is, the medical professional who posted the original clip went a bit overboard in terms of how sanitary he felt he needed to keep his food once retrieved from the grocery store. The truth is, not everything the doctor says in his video is strictly correct and he is no food safety expert, as has been pointed out to me. However, for the most part my textual commentary doesn’t contradict what I’m about to share and I am happy to give Dr. Don Schaffner his due:

Buckle up, readers, as it’s about to get serious! Thirty-two more tweets, seriously!

Unfortunately, the link above to my original article with take you to that video but if you haven’t hit play on the video, and just read my commentary, you should be fine. Please, trust Dr. Don!

Sometimes I roll my eyes at my fellow writers when they they try to come up with Science Fiction ideas, since I did study undergrad Physics and read a lot of science books. I feel you Dr. Don!

Here here! I already outlined most of what was right in the video in my original post. I think I may have misspoken on how to wash produce but I’ll save that commentary for later.

There’s a bit of nuance to this, but what the good Dr. Don is saying is there is a difference between a random but not yet denatured strand of viral RNA, which in itself isn’t particularly harmful—at least, not infectious—where as a live virus was not observed. As in, the crown-like outer shell of SARS-CoV-2, a.k.a. the Coronavirus, the “Crown Virus”. Without the outer shell and crown-like protrusions, the virus has no way of penetrating cells, be they eukarya, bacteria, or archaea. Note, this pathogen only infects eukaryotes, though most viruses are harmless, only infecting bacteria.

More fundamentally, though, Dr. Dan points out that the CDC Study that came up with the 17-day number for RNA was never published in a peer-review paper where the methodology and techniques used could be scrutinized and dissected. Without the process of peer review, the observation is as good as anecdotal.

This was one of my biggest beefs with the video too. I mean, it’s one thing in the winter in Lansing, MI, where the outside might already be the temperature of your freezer. But that won’t work in Florida, not by a long shot. So unless you’re gonna be like Thomas Jefferson and truck in ice from Canada to keep your food from spoiling, don’t leave your perishable food in the garage!

Exactly!

This is a very good point. One of the ways the SARS-CoV-2 deactivates is through desiccation. If the virus is in a medium that allows it to dry out, it will no longer be effective. This is why spittle from sneezing is the most dangerous.

The virus is highly communicable, to be sure, but its transmission with respect to someone with the virus touching an item on the shelf, putting it back, and then having you grab it is exceedingly unlikely. And by the time you get to it, it’s quite likely SARS-CoV-2 has already dried out and perished.

I have to agree, as different packaging materials will allow the virus to remain active long than others, and again, as state above, it’s unlikely by the time you pluck the item from the shelf that it would still have any active virus on it even if it had once.

Washing your hands before eating should be second nature anyway. As Dr, Don says, you can remove the item from the packaging, put it on a clean plate, and then wash your hands before eating and any contamination on the packaging will have been removed from the equation.

Wørd!

There are good reasons not to use soap to wash your produce and I will admit I got that wrong before. Soap dissolves cell membranes and while most produce is covered by dead epithelial cells—like those on the outer layers of your skin—and thus won’t likely cause cellular damage to your food, but if you slice the food it could spoil its flavor and if you fail to wash it all off and it gets in the nooks and crannies of your consumables, Dr. Don is right, you’re itching for a tummy ache. The oily residue soap normally removes isn’t a big issue on produce and thus a simple water bath should be sufficient for cleaning your produce.

Precisely!

Even the prescient Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis knew that hand washing wasn’t a panascia. It reduces the change of killing a mother giving birth, but even if done right, it isn’t perfect. Soap and water are great for removing both hydrophobic and hydrophilic substances from your person, but not every pathogen is removed by such reactions. SARS-CoV-2 is damaged because of its hydrophobic coating, but the same isn’t true for all toxic substances.

Indeed, human skin has many friendly microbes that help keep the skin clean and fresh. You wouldn’t want to boil those off anyway, even if you could. Love your friendly microbes. Just use soap and water to kill SARS-CoV-2. That M*th*r F*ck*r must die!

This is another good point. Not all handwashes are equal. I try to do a rather complex technique when washing my hands which I may document another day, but the long and short of it is, just rubbing your hands together isn’t enough, and even my technique isn’t one hundred percent effective.

Great point! Early food preservation in wine bottles with their tartaric acid may have worked for Napoleon’s army, but when we started using steel and aluminium cans, or even glass, we had to be very very sure everything was sterile. Watch any number of episodes from Comment C’est Fait (How It’s Made chez É-U.) to see how this is done.

Remember the words of François-Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire, “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.” (Perfection is the enemy of good.)

This is one point I did make in my original article. Glad to see my point is backed up by Dr. Don.

This one is simply a caveat emptor. Don’t assume a product can kill viruses. Indeed, there are many ways product makers can use language that makes it seem like it’s effective against pathogens, but unless there is peer reviewed literature to back it up, sorry, it’s not magic. It won’t protect you against SARS-CoV-2 any better than simply washing your hands.

There is something to be said for the security blanket of feeling better. But, yes, they won’t help and are no better than a simple cold-water bath.

Or for treating the fabric of your home made N95 mask.

I like using reusable bags and agree washing them like any fabric is a wise idea. If you must use disposable bags, please use ones that are recyclable or compostable.

In other words, keep your bags close but be more mindful of social distancing and that the bagger uses proper sanitary techniques. But again, the likelihood that someone with the virus has used that same checkout stand recent-enough for the virus to still be active is very likely, and most grocery stores, like Wegman’s will do their best to sanitize the checkout counter between each customer during Covidapolis.

Keeping them in your car is a good idea. I always keep my MOM’s Organic Market bag in my car so it’s ready whenever I go there.

Wash your hands!

I have indeed noticed Wegman’s doing just that. They are, IMHO, doing a great job!

Know what you want, like Low Acid Orange Juice, and head straight over. Keep those two meter buffers to keep safe!

If you can get hand sanitizer, then it’s great when there isn’t soap and water available. But when you have soap and water, always prefer that.

Done in the most complete way possible Dr. Don!

Shelter in place, y’all, and use Zoom to see a friendly face!

Much obliged Dr. Don! Happy to help promote good science, sound food handling, and how to weave a great yarn, and sew a great mask!

Bon appetit, mes amis!

Putting SARS-CoV-2 into perspective

TimeHorse April 2, 2020 No Comments

A lot is being said nowadays about how there are more cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the United States of America than in any other country, worldwide. The truth is, some countries just have more people than others. Indeed, there are only two counties with greater than a billion people and while China is likely deflating its numbers, India is just not reporting anything anyway. The third biggest nation, though, is these United States.

The United States is the biggest in the class of middle-sized countries, along with Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, and Nigeria, all with over two hundred million residents. You’d expect any of these top seven nations to have more cases than Nauru and Tuvalu, or even of France and Italy because there are much more people in these top seven countries than there are, by nature, in any of the smaller ones.

The long and short of this is that the proper way to compare infection rates is to do so relative to the population size. For instance, if the numbers are taken per million, you can see which counties are handling Covidapolis better than others. And that is exactly what the following graph shows.

SARS-CoV-2 Infections per Million per Country
This graph puts SARS-CoV-2 into perspective. A huge country like the United States or China should expect by virtue of just more people to have more cases than Italy. But when compared per million it’s clear that as of now, Italy is worse off, but we are headed there. So please, Shelter in Place, everyone!

As you can see, Italy is still ahead of the United States in terms of infections and mortality in terms of overall population size, but the United States isn’t abating and is on the road to match Italy of folks don’t properly Shelter in Place.

So please, my sapiosexual friends, just stay home.

Tesla tried to bankrupt me during Covidapolis

TimeHorse March 31, 2020 7 Comments

Recall back at the beginning of the month, I had to deal with a nearly $2,000 tyre bill from Tesla? Well, that’s not the end of the story…

After I got #CO2Fre back from Tesla, my coworker and I noticed some squeaking sounds as I would drive the car at low speeds, making turns under humid conditions. So, I made the soonest appointment available to both me and Tesla, which was today, 31 March, 2020, which is therefore going to be the topic of my 50th day in of quotidian postings.

Of course, then SARS-CoV-2 happened, and all the crazy things that came with it. I haven’t left the house since my job went to 100% telework apart from a couple outings to the grocery story and stroll inside my housing community. So, when Tesla reminded me of my appointment, it wasn’t so much that I was eager to get out (at least I don’t have to fear a physical abuser) as I was eager to finally get this over with in terms of having to deal with Tesla and a potential fault in their repair.

I got up early this morning, ready to head over to Tesla. I was, alas, so tired, I ended up locking my CAC Card. The details aren’t important, but I will just add that resetting it required a long drive to work and a long drive back just to restore access. But that had to wait until after I dropped #CO2Fre off.

Anyway, I got in #CO2Fre and noticed a software update. Not wanting to delay my appointment at the Tyson’s Corner Service Center, I headed straight over and initiated the update as I arrived.

Arrived at Tesla, March 2020
I arrived at Tesla a little past 08:00 for my schedule appointment to resolve a squeaking in my steering and suspension, mainly observed in highly humid weather. What are those signs, covering the windows? © 2020, Jeffrey C. Jacobs.

I arrived at Tesla a little after my 08:00 appointment and spotted some interesting signs on the windows. After waiting a bit for folks to pass, keeping a social distance from anyone, I made my way over to the door.

Use the QRCode to Login
Sorry this picture is blurry as I took it from inside a ziplock bag. But you can see the notes on the windows advising customers to scan the QR Code and fill out the form to register their arrival. © 2020, Jeffrey C. Jacobs

The signed contains a QR Code that I could scan with my phone in order to check into my appointment. I scanned the code and opened the web page associated with it. The page contained a list of questions: who I was, why I was there, and did I have an appointment. I filled it out and got a message saying I should wait for a call to confirm my appointment.

Tesla Service Registration Complete
Registration for service was easy as cake. Just fill in your name and your reason and if you have an appointment and they’ll call you when they’re ready.

I went back to #CO2Fre; the software was still updating. I got the call and we agreed to leave the car where it was. I got some Uber credits but had a ride home already and so used that to get home, then get a ride to work to fix my CAC, and then back home again. Phew.

Then I got a text from Tesla saying they sent me over an estimate and said I needed to replace some tyres. Are you freaking kidding me!? Didn’t I just drop almost $2,000 on tyres at the beginning of the month!?

Needless to say, I was not amused.

Tesla Service Estimate, Inflated Estimate, March 2020
When I got this in my mail, I was shocked. I took the car in, after waiting 3 weeks for a follow appointment to the tyre replacement at the beginning of March, to resolve a squeaking issue with my tyres and front suspension. I thought it’s be just, at most, $100 to do the diagnosis, only to be sent this behemoth of a bill for just over $2,000. Having just paid almost that amount at the beginning of the month and facing a 1 week suspension in addition to docked pay, I could never in a million years afford this estimate and I complained to Tesla until I was blue in the face. Not shown is the $84 in tax and the total of $2,043.75. Oy, gevalt!

Looking over the estimate I saw they recommended replacing all four tyres! Seriously? I had just replaced two rims at the beginning of the month, but, as I looked over my meticulous history of tyre replacements, it turns out I replaced a tyre just three months ago on 3 January 2020, and another on 4 November 2019. Both tyres were relatively new and there could be no possible way they could both be so worn to need replacing. It was bad enough the other two tyres were April and May of last year, but some of the tyres were less than six months old!

Looking over the costs, not only were they charging me for four tyres, but they were also charging me for a $160 Tyre Setting and a $302.25 Tyre Alignment, for a total of $1946.25 in tyre repairs! That would have been a total of $9,647.95 on tyres for 42,695 miles of driving over 19½ months!

It took a number of texts for me to get through to Tesla. I was quite frank. I didn’t agree to any tyre replacement and demanded they generate a new invoice for me without the tyre replacements. Furthermore, if they though my tyres were showing wear, I demanded they show my the tread depth to prove they had wear given one tyre was just three months old, and another only five. Thankfully, the obliged.

Tesla Service Estimate, without Tyres, March 2020
After many irate texts, they agreed to remove the tyres from the invoice which made it a manageable $97.50. I did ask them for Tread Depth readings though, just to verify that maybe some of the tyres needed replacing.

The new invoice was quite reasonable. Less than $100 for a diagnostic check which so far turned up nothing. I agreed to that and then my service advisor sent me photos of the tyres with the tread measurements.

  • This Tyre Tread is nearly perfect at 8/32"
    This Tyre Tread is nearly perfect at 8/32″
  • This Tyre Tread is almost perfect at nearly 8/32"
    This Tyre Tread is almost perfect at nearly 8/32″
  • This Tyre Tread is close to 6/32"
    This Tyre Tread is close to 6/32″
  • This Tyre Tread is pretty bad at only 5/32"
    This Tyre Tread is pretty bad at only 5/32″

Clearly, two tyres were at around 8/32 inch depth, which is pretty nearly as good as new. The other two hovered around 5/32 and I agreed they probably should be replaced. I therefore agreed to a new invoice where only those two more worn tyres would be replaced. Tesla kindly obliged.

Tesla Service Estimate (Revised), March 2020
This is the revised service estimate for the two low-tread 5/38 depth tyre replacements. Not included is the $42 tax, which was the perfect answer to this issue, for a total of $939.50.

Although the cost jumped to nearly $1,000, I agreed to it as the best course of action. They dropped the wheel setting and alignment which also lowered the cost quite a bit. I’m hoping I can get the alignment done elsewhere when the Covidapolis is over. It still brings my total lifetime tyre costs to $8543.70, with seven tyres and seven rims, but it’s much better than $9,647.95!

Plus, I got a software update.

Tesla OS 2020.12.1
The morning of my drop-off I noticed there was a software update. I set it going when I got to the dealership and it was done by the time I got home.

I’m not happy that it will take me a month an a half to pay for this repair as I sink further into debt, but mainly I miss driving #CO2Fre. Die SARS-CoV-2, die!

Until next time, I’ll be cruising on a cloud.

Sheltered in Place with a Domestic Abuser?

TimeHorse March 30, 2020 4 Comments

One of my absolute biggest concerns with SARS-CoV-2 and the new Shelter in Place order from Governors Ralph Northam and Larry Hogan. Virginia Executive Order 55, and the similar executive order in Maryland, is that what’s being asked is that victims of domestic abuse are required to stay at their primary residence with the abuser who is sequestered with her (or him).

Okay, let me be frank, domestic abuse is mainly a problem women suffer from some very bad men. And Domestic Abuse can be both physical and psychological/emotional. Mainly, what I mean here is physical abuse and most physical abuse is, as I said, committed by men against women. This needs to stop!

As for emotional abuse, trust me, some men suffer from this as well as women and although emotional abuse must always take a lower priority to physical abuse, the women and men who are being psychologically abused are nonetheless equally forced into a situation where normally, an abuser would be away at work for most of the day, he is now home 24/7.

Physical abuse is thus my greatest concern by far, as physical abuse can be deadly. This is why I’m focusing on that. Please, ladies, know that you’re not alone. If your husband or live-in boyfriend is threatening you or hurting you or you’re in any way in danger, please, find a safe place and call the Domestic Abuse hotline: 1-800-799-7233 or text LOVEIS to 22522. They are aware of the dangers the Shelter in Place orders will cause and they can help.

1980x540-COVID19-POST_Website-Banner-2
The Domestic Abuse Hotline statement on SARS-CoV-2. They’re here to help. If you’re in trouble and afraid, please give them a call.

There are people who care. There are people who can help. Stay safe my lady friends!

Low Acid Orange Juice, Finally!

Grocery Shopping during Covidapolis

TimeHorse March 29, 2020 1 Comment

After a week unable to leave my house apart from a walk around the community, I was finally allowed to go grocery shopping. With the confirmation that Wegman’s, Dulles had Low Acid Orange Juice, I was able to go there at 08:00 this morning and pick up the OJ and a few other items I’d needed.

The thing is, in the age of Covidapolis, you can’t just bring groceries into your house. You need to assume all your groceries may be vectors for SARS-CoV-2 to enter your home! You need to have a staging area for your groceries, and an area you will consider sanitized.

Each item then must be sanitized either by washing with soap and water, like every fruit and vegetable, or wiped down with a cleaning sheet like Clorox wipes. Remove items from containers if the items inside also have wrapping. The idea is the outer container may be contaminated, but the inner container has probably been untouched long enough for any virus to have died. For items that don’t have inner containers, only outer containers, like bread, take the bread out of its packaging and place it in an adequate storage container from your cabinets, which should already be virus free.

Of course, nobody explains this better than Dr. Jeffrey VanWingen, MD. He was kind enough to provide these and other instructions on his youtube channel, a video for which he’s received over two hundred thousand likes. Excellent work, doctor!

Finally, after the OJ was sufficiently cleaned, it was ready to be welcomed into my home and stored in my fridge. Mission accomplished, for real this time!

Low Acid Orange Juice, Finally!
I finally obtained some low acid orange juice. I had been over a week since I had been able to drink vitamin-C packed OJ so I’m so relieved to finally be able to partake again. But notice the sanatizing wipes next to it? It needs to be sanitized before it goes into the fridge. © 2020, Jeffrey C. Jacobs

Ah, the sweet taste of victory! Bon Appetit, mes amis!

Update 2020-04-03: It turns out most of what was said in the video is exaggerated; I posted an update with respect to handling your groceries. And please, don’t wash your produce with soap, only cold water. Please head on over there and let Dr. Don tell it like it is.

How to make your own Surgical Mask

TimeHorse March 27, 2020 3 Comments

What follows is a series of TikTok videos my dear friend Lena Volkova demonstrated on her account. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find a way to remove the cranky, white border around the videos to keep it in line with the esthetique with the site, its theme, and the official category of this post as Cosplay. Nonetheless, I feel this is important so f’d up CSS be damned! We need to stop SARS-CoV-2! So, without further à Deux, here is her A/B Reusable Mask Tutorial: A Mask with a Pocket for Filtration Media Such as a Surgical or N95 Mask.!

Pretreat the Fabric

This is part of a larger effort to help those out in need.

If you’re planning on helping out with making surgical face masks, you need to pretreat and disinfect your fabrics prior to sewing.

To pretreat fabrics:
    • Prepare a cold water bath to soak your fabric.
        ■ 100% cotton is preferable for masks.
    • You can add two tablespoons of salt for dye runoff.
        ■ This is optional.
    • Add one cup of distilled, white vinegar to your cold water bath.
        ■ Vinegar works both as a color stabilizer and disinfectant.
    • Add your fabric to the bath and let saturate thoroughly.
    • Set your timer and let it soak for thirty minutes.
    • Rinse with cold water and let air dry.

@lena.volkova
@lena.volkova

Sewing your own surgical masks. Part 1 — pretreating fabric. This is part of a larger effort to help out those in need. ##coronavirus ##helpers

♬ Hold On – Moguai,Cheat Codes

Of course, first you need to find some fabric you have lying around. Perhaps some old, cotton clothes or linen sheets you could sacrifice? Either way, this pretreatment step is important as it helps keep the color from bleeding while in use and of course disinfects.

Patterning

The pattern for this A/B Mask style mask and instructions can be found on craftpassion.com.

    • Start by folding your fabric—you need to cut two of each fabric (inner and outer layer).
        ■ This is easy if the fabric is folded onto itself.
    • Using your pattern, measure out an additional one inch from the sides.
    • And three eighths around the rest of the mask.
    • Cut your fabric—this is your outer layer.
    • The inner layer is a half-inch shorter on the side than the outer layer.
        ■ Use your outer layer as a template to measure.
    • Cut out your inner layer fabric.
        ■ Set it aside.

@lena.volkova
@lena.volkova

Part 2 — A/B reusable mask turtorial: patterning. This mask has a pocket for filtration media such as a surgical or N95 mask ##coronavirus ##helper

♬ You – Petit Biscuit

For those wondering, the Face Mask Pattern can be found here.

Assembly, Part 1

    • Separate your fabrics, but keep the layers together as a pair.
    • Finish the raw edge that is curved.
        ■ This will face the inside pocket and needs to be secured.
    • Any overlocking or zigzag stitch will do.
        ■ You don’t need a serger.
    • With the right side facing inward, pin together and sew along the curved edge.
        ■ Use a quarter-inch seam allowance.
    • Do this for both inner and outer layers.
    • Open your fabric, then flatten the finished edges onto the fabric and sew the finished edges onto the fabric.
    • Align the inner and outer layers.
    • Fold the side edge of the inner layer onto itself twice—you’re rolling in the raw edge.
        ■ Pin in place.

@lena.volkova
@lena.volkova

Part 3 — A/B reusable mask turtorial: assembly. This mask has a pocket for filtration media such as a surgical or N95 mask ##coronavirus ##helper

♬ Classical – Piano Classics: Masters of Relaxing Solo Piano Music

I’ll be honest, I keep thinking about investing in a sewing machine. I know at Nova Labs, I could borrow one of their machines, but I’m nervous about doing seamwork in a public space. Plus, I need to find some decent patterns to so—like an A/B Surgical Mask!

Assembly, Part 2

    • Sew the roll into place along the inward edge of the roll.
    • With the right sides of the fabric facing together, align the layers and sew the top and bottom edges together.
    • Clip the curved edge of the fabric where both layers meet.
        ■ It should be approximately a quarter-inch inward.
    • Turn the mask inside out.
    • Roll the raw top and bottom edges inward onto itself to cover the raw edge.
        ■ Pin in place.
    • Do the same for the side edges.
        ■ There should be approximately a half-inch of fabric remaining on both sides.
    • Sew into place along the inner edge.

@lena.volkova
@lena.volkova

Part 4 — A/B reusable mask turtorial: assembly 2. This mask has a pocket for filtration media such as a surgical or N95 mask ##coronavirus ##helper

♬ Classical – Classical Chill Out

Remember to leave those sewing margins! You’re almost done.

Finishing

    • Fold the side flap inward, under the inner layer pocket.
    • Sew in place—both sides.
    • Insert your filter medium—cloth, a surgical mask, or an N95 mask.
    • Make sure the nose wire aligns with the nose part of the mask.
    • If using elastic, take a sixteen-inch length of one sixteenth elastic cord.
        ■ There’s a tolerance of plus or minus one to two inches for sizing.
    • Feed it through the channels you made in the sides, and secure it with a double knot.
        ■ Hide the channels.
    • To wear: Hold the mask in one hand and slip the bottom elastic over your head, followed by the top.
    • Adjust accordingly to endure a proper fit.
    • To wash: hot water, like scrubs.
        ■ Can be autoclaved.
        ■ Remove media as appropriate.
        ■ Sanitize elastic as appropriate.

@lena.volkova
@lena.volkova

Part 5– Reusable A/B mask tutorial: finishing. Mask has a pouch for removable filters like surgical masks or N95 masks. ##coronavirus ##helpers

♬ Piano Piano – Piano Solo – Charlie Glass Piano Man

I never cease to be amazed as the skills and achievements of my friend Lena. I am so astonished I can call her my friend, but then she’s one of the nicest, funniest people you’re likely to meet.

Thank you Lena. Hopefully when SARS-CoV-2 abates, we can cosplay together again!

The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human

TimeHorse March 25, 2020 1 Comment

Once again, I finished this book just in time, despite starting it right after The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities. Only this time, it’s because my commute went from an hour each way to five seconds each day to nothing because I’m on Weather and Safety Leave. Again, that’s a long story that, like yesterday, I’m punting for another day. Such is life with SARS-CoV-2, but in this respect I’m quite luck and still have my health. However, it does mean without that long commute, my reading time has become a fraction of what it was. But, I made it!

Noah Strycker spins a fascinating tale of the secret lives of birds. Clearly, the author loves class Aves and is an avid birder himself. His love of all modern dinosaurs shines through. Each chapter and section is set with a distinct theme and a story that focuses one one of our fine, feathered friends and how it relates to we mammals. So, without further à Deux, let’s dive in like a bunch if timid penguins!

Corvidae are smart! I’d never heard of any creature outside of the mammals passing the Mirror Test. The fact that some Magpies can utterly blew my mind. Heckle and Jeckle would have been proud! Damn, that bird family is cleaver! And the way Nutcrackers can remember where they cached food photographically is astounding! If we leave, I bet they’re taking over!

Hummingbirds are crazy violent. But Chickens take the cake, they are hierarchical. I mean, keeping track in your ranking up to thirty birds deep. Of course, it does break down with more than thirty and there’s still the triangle problem. Who knew chickens weren’t condorcet?

Now I want to see a Snowy Owl. I can’t believe a bounty of lemmings could cause a spike in populations that could bring the bird this far south. At least Washington State loves them, a lot more than they do the Spotted Owl, though that did inspire Hedwig. On the other hand, I want to see the Albatross but the Falkland Islands are so far away and then never serve them in my local theatre. If only I could get get around like a pigeon, especially a Homing Pigeon in case I get lost.

It was fascinating to hear that dummers can keep better time than Parrots. Which is to say, a Cockatoo can keep good time, but it isn’t good at noticing a change in tempo. It makes me wonder why they’re not as coordinated as Boirds or their prototype Starlings. Parrots still may have good hearing, but one thing’s for sure, Vultures have excellent eyesight. However, only Turkey Vultures can smell you from a meter away with its great, big nostrils, though not much more.

The main takeaway for me is how similar some bird behaviors are to humans. Bowerbirds males try to impress female birds to find a mate, and humans try to impress other humans in order to get a date. The birds build little shrines, complete with vanishing perspective, and we humans buy clothes, and cars, and houses, and do sports, or just become smart by reading lots of science books. And when you get the mate, being as faithful as a Fairy Wren could mean success. Then again, female Fairy Wrens who fool around do tend to live longer? 🤔

The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human

All in all, a very entertaining book that made me think. And books that make you think are indeed the best kind of science book. And speaking of the human condition, next up, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes…

Hope to see you in person soon, my sapiosexual friends!

I Am Irate

Google ate me email

TimeHorse March 24, 2020 2 Comments

From about 2020-03-23T14:30:00Z (10:30 am, Monday) to about 2020-03-23T23:30:00Z (7:30 pm, Monday), Google was redirecting all my email and either bouncing it or deleting it.

I Am Irate
Too angry for words!

Let me repeat, google deleted or bounced my email for Nine Hours, as a part of the setup of my setup for a paid Google Apps account. The setup for these accounts are a bit weird. They require you to create a new google entity with your own company URL. Fortunately, I have multiple domains I own and maintain, including this one, TimeHorse.com.

I probably should have used my writing group domain, RestonWriters.org. After all, the whole reason I wanted to get a paid Google account is because Meetup was moving to Online-Only meetings, following the outbreak of SARS-COV-2, and I needed a tool that allowed for video conferencing.

Skype was a non-starter. For one thing, it’s great for person-to-person communications, but for group chats, it has this annoying habit of muting everyone except the current speaker and you have to wait until that speaker stops to get a word in edgewise. My understanding is WhatsApp has the same problem.

Meetup actually suggested using Google Hangouts or Zoom. I happen to like Zoom. I use it for my regular NPVIC Grassroots strategy meetings and for Toastmasters and it’s always worked great. Zoom does support up to a hundred participants, both free and Pro. The only problem is, each of those Zoom sessions are either limited to the free forty-minute block or are using an up-to-24-hour Zoom Pro Account. Since most of my Meetups are at least an hour, breaking meeting up into forty-minute chunks would be tedious. And, at $14.99 a month, the professional account is well out of my price range.

Just before the first week of Virtual meetings began, my writing colleagues and I, including Elizabeth Hayes, who runs The Hourlings, tested both free Zoom and Google Hangout. Despite being limited to ten people, we decided on Google Hangout and I mapped it to our official Virtual Meeting URL.

Ten people worked fine for Reston Writers and for the Saturday Morning Review. The Saturday Morning Review actually worked out quite well because Meetup, despite suggesting we move to a virtual platform, still won’t let you delete the venue from your event and mark it as virtual, which, when editing events can cause some confusion. But when the Library cancelled all our events, I just deleted them all from the Meetup Calendar, and recreated them with no Venue and just announced them as occurring in Cyberspace.

Stay with me folks, I’m getting to the email…

As Sunday approached, I new ten participants wouldn’t be enough. Google Hangout would be fine for Bewie Bevy of Brainy Books and Saturday Morning Review, and likely The Science Book Club, as they all usually have fewer than ten participants for each meeting. The Hourlings, on the other hand, often had twelve, and sometimes as many as sixteen!

I new Zoom was $14.99 a month, but I read that Google App accounts could up the number of participants to twenty-five. Unfortunately my 2TB Google Drive account didn’t qualify. I had to get a Google Apps account.

And that’s where my troubles began.

At first, I could only sign up for the $12 per month account, even though I’d read it could be had for $6. Since the setup has a fortnight trial period, I didn’t worry about the financial discrepancy. I set up the account with my business email address for TimeHorse, LLC. I associated it with with that email, it connected to my Gandi Registrar, and my account was ready to go. I created a Google Hangout and assigned it to the Virtual Meeting URL, hoping it would allow twenty-five. The plan was to use it with the Hourlings to verify that fact.

It failed! We still could only get ten people into the meetup despite it being a paid account.

Unfortunately, since Monday I’ve been on Weather and Safety Leave from work because my Telework agreement was revoked, but that’s a story for another day as this post is long as it is! However, it did allow me to speak to Google and they suggested I try Google Meet. Meet was included with all Google App paid accounts, and it would allow for up to a hundred people and could be as long as I needed. Also, I could downgrade to the $6 per month account and I would still be able to use it. I thus downgraded.

We tried it with Reston Writers Review and it worked wonderfully. We had up to twelve connections simultaneously! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

At around 10:30 am, that Monday, after chatting with Google, I was examining my Google Apps account more closely. It was telling me I had one last step I needed to complete: integrate me email with Gmail.

Stop
Stop, do not pass Go. You’re done!

That’s when my troubles began. You see, what this innocuous, turn-key step says it does is it says it sets up GMail for your company. What it actually does is obliterate all the MX Records (email routing information) of your DNS (Internet routing information) Zone File (routing configuration file) on Gandi and replace it with MX Records that point to Google. The setup wizard doesn’t actually tell you this and I’m totally oblivious.

At current writing, I have 188 forwarded email addresses set up on Gandi with their MX Servers. One of those is my business email, the one Google took over and is my Google Apps login. That’s the email google set up as the official email address used in GMail. Once the GMail setup goes through and I send an email from the GMail interface to my personal email address on the timehorse.com domain.

It never arrives. All day long, I watch my email and, strangely, nothing arrives after 10:30 in the morning. I refresh and refresh, and it’s still nothing. Where have all my emails gone?

It’s not until I’m setting up for Reston Writers that I decide to contact Google about this. I’m crazy-busy setting up the Google Meet, opening up the pieces we’d be reviewing on my computer, and, simultaneously, chatting with Google, trying to figure out why I’m not receiving any email.

Eventually, Google Tech Support starts talking about MX Records and a chill runs down my spine. As you probably gathered by now, I am well versed in DNS records and Zone File manipulation. I even have a Python script which updates my DNS A Record when the IP Address for this server changes.

With trepidation, I logged into my Gandi account and saw the damage. Google had modified my Zone file and added a bunch of strange new MX Records pointing to Google. They had nuked all my Gandi Email forward since they’d redirected all email traffic to google. As google only had one account registered on the domain, timehorse.com, namely my business email address, every other email address I possessed was either being deleted or bounced by google!

Fortunately, Gandi’s Email Forwarding page provides a warning when the Zone file doesn’t point to their email server, listing the correct MX Record settings to use Gandi as the mail hosting server. I quickly commented out the Google MX Records and pasted in the Gandi MX Records around 7:30 pm, in the middle of my Reston Writers meeting.

Needless to say, I was miffed that I could not give my full attention to my writers during our weekly writing gettogether. But it’s good I finally did figure out the disastrous actions committed by Google after only nine hours, and not a day or more.

I may never know what was contained in those nine hours of lost emails. I suppose there is one blessing, though. I get too much email already and still have dozens of unread messages I’m desperately trying to catch up on. One Covidapolis, novel-length email after another from every business under the sun. STFU companies, you’re all doing the same thing and I don’t like reading the same message again, and again, and again! You have a plan, that’s all I need to know!

Maybe Google was doing me a favor?

In the end, I was able to solve the problem because I got skills and I’m available for hire!

Let Kurzgesagt explain how to Flatten the Curve

TimeHorse March 20, 2020 No Comments

I love Kurzgesagt on YouTube, and as I was thinking of a way to explain what it means to flatten the curve, I noticed that the channel had just posted an excellent video on both SARS-CoV-2 and on the best way to keep the death toll down. Simply, shelter in place, and follow the instructions in my the post I just linked to.

Overall, I don’t think every Kurzgesagt video is up to the same scientific rigor that I try to maintain for my science posts, but that’s because, like this site as a whole, it’s not entirely a science channel so I can forgive it its minor excursions into Fiction. But this time, they did an excellent job explaining how the virus works, how to keep it at bay, and how to not overwhelm the healthcare system of your nation.
Simply put, it’s another in a long list of great videos.

Enjoy.

Kurzgesagt on the Corona Virus

SARS-CoV-2

TimeHorse March 11, 2020 19 Comments

This post is about the Pandemic Novel Coronavirus discovered in 2019, commonly known as COVID-19. Unless you’ve been vacationing on Mars, you’re almost certainly aware of this latest pathogen and heard enough frightening tales about it to keep make even Michael Crichton blush.

The trouble is, what are the facts and what is misinformation from all corners of everyday life. What I want to do is instead do some research, share my sources, and give my best interpretation on what best practices should be based on all the information that’s been made available to date.

First of all, we know the Coronavirus is related to SARS and the Common Cold. It is not a novel Flu bug. For one thing, it hits similar respiratory beats that those the Cold and SARS do. Indeed, the official name given to the Novel Coronavirus by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses is SARS-CoV-2. The virus is also rather spikey, just like the Cold and SARS—Corona comes from the Latin word Coronam, meaning crown. For another, it’s the first pathogen to, within months of its discovery, to be entirely, genetically sequenced.

The virus itself is driven by a Positive-sense, Single-Stranded RNA, +ssRNA. The one of the first to decode a complete RNA sequence were the Chinese on 11 February, 2020, from a December 2019 sample. In that sample, the proteins encoded in the RNA are listed, where each letter in the sequence corresponds to a different protein. Since the Chinese sample, as of this writing 146 sequences have been decoded, though not all of them have the Protein analysis.

The beauty though is that, as we build a digital model of how the virus works, we will be able to much better adapt and derive pathways to block its effects or transmission, maybe even helping to develop a vaccine. That said, a vaccine at least a Phase 1 Clinical Trial to prove that it’s safe and non-toxic and what the right dose is among healthy individuals. Because it’s a vaccine, it’s unlikely to require Phase 2 and later trials in individuals with the condition as the vaccine is meant to be prophylactic. However, if the Phase 1 trial is small, a second trial is likely with just a larger healthy cohort. This whole process, however, will take months. With the sequences, it will be faster, but it’s not instantaneous.

From what we know about SARS, we expect the virus to mainly be transmitted from sneezing and coughing. Thus, it’s good to try to maintain a physical distance from others of about 2 meters (around 6 feet). Normally, beyond that distance, the respiratory droplets will desiccate and render the virus inert. But, some surfaces provide platforms which allow it to survive for hours or even days. Thus, it’s necessary to make sure you keep surface clean and disinfected.

Wash Your Hands!
From the Virginia Department of Health, remember to wash your hands frequently to prevent the spread of viruses.

Try to wash for at least 20 seconds, get between your fingers and rub the soap into your palms. Then rinse thoroughly and turn off the tap with your towel. Also, please wash your hands frequently—and don’t forget to moisturize to prevent them from cracking from the increased cleanliness. If a sink and fresh water isn’t available, try a 60%-alcohol sanitizer.

Consider washing after you step away from your computer or video game. Generally, after you touch anything that may have been touched by others. Also, avoid using your hands when possible. For instance, use your hips and elbows to open doors without a handle. And be mindful of where your mobile phone has been been.

The safest thing you can do is be mindful of your behavior. The western habit of shaking hands may finally become as outdated as spitting. Namaste, y’all!