lazarus

Soi Thaniya, Bangkok

California Dreamin'

Chantaburi coast

Yellow-faced Bumble Bee

Sounds about right... ...“some conservatives are denying and repressing fear, but that doesn’t mean they are cool cucumbers. Fears of economic devastation (and the anger by conservative activists in Michigan and elsewhere) may even reflect displacement of the fear. For all we know, (those) who are explicitly denying the problem are experiencing (even) more stress and anxiety than those who are not.”

Control, control, control... "Thailand’s National Security Council (NSC) on Thursday called for a one-month extension to the emergency rule currently enforced against the COVID-19 pandemic." https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/05/21/security-agency-calls-for-1-month-extension-to-emergency-rule/

Bangkok local...

Easy problem to solve...

Problems with 're-opening' on the other side of the pond, too... Infections force Ford Motor to suspend production at two reopened plants. "Ford Motor, which restarted its North American assembly plants this week, said on Wednesday that it stopped production temporarily at two plants in Chicago and Dearborn, Mich., after employees tested positive for the coronavirus..."

555...

Could this be the real issue (for some) about choosing to not wear a mask in crowded public places? - - - The strange conflation of masks and masculinity https://theweek.com/articles/914223/strange-conflation-masks-masculinity "...The advice of wearing a mask in public to limit COVID-19's spread may be the most innocuous of the standard retinue of mitigation efforts: It doesn't interfere with our work or limit our movement, keep us from worship or separate us from extended family. In many places, you can get a mask for free. And as it reassures strangers we're acting responsibly, masking is a step, however counterintuitive, toward normalcy. Yet since masks became widely used, they acquired symbolic meaning for their skeptics. Among those skeptics is R.R. Reno, the editor of the conservative religious journal First Things, who argued masking signals unmanly cowardice.."

Wear a mask. Be a man. Or,...be a dead hamster. HKU hamster research shows masks effective in preventing Covid-19 transmission https://fightcovid19.hku.hk/hku-hamster-research-shows-masks-effective-in-preventing-covid-19-transmission/ Tests on hamsters showed wearing surgical masks can significantly reduce the non-contact transmission of the deadly Covid-19 virus, especially when masks were worn by infected individuals, according to a study led by HKU infectious disease expert Prof Yuen Kwok-yung. The study, released on Sunday, shed light on an ongoing heated debate on whether wearing masks would help prevent the transmission of the deadly coronavirus. In each set of the experiment, hamsters were separated in two groups and placed in two cages, with one of the groups infected with Covid-19. In the first experiment, no surgical masks were placed between the two cages. In the second one, a surgical mask was placed closer to the healthy hamsters. In the third experiment, the mask was placed closer to the infected, as if the healthy ones or the infected were wearing masks. With no partition in between the cages, two-thirds of the healthy hamsters were infected a week later. In the following two experiments with masks in between, the infection rates were lowered to one-third and one-sixth respectively. Yuen urged the public to keep wearing masks with crowds in the public and in enclosed indoor areas despite the hot weather to help contain the invisible transmission.

Las Vegas is OPEN..! But...there is a 'catch'... 😞 DEALS: https://www.vegashotelspecial.com/index.php/category/holidays/memorial-day/ . . . Crazy cheap rooms available for Memorial Day in Vegas, still no casino reopening date https://www.sfgate.com/travel/slideshow/Las-Vegas-reopen-and-hotels-are-cheap-202486.php

Red-tailed Hawk in full attack mode -- 'death from above'

Science. Believe it or not... Paper: Universal Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic: SEIR and Agent Based Models, Empirical Validation, Policy Recommendations https://arxiv.org/pdf/2004.13553.pdf

Catholic churches are an important part of the COVID-19 puzzle. Lots of people close together with their mouths open -- praying, singing, drinking wine, eating god wafers... Crazy shit. Just another 'plague'...most will survive, some will not.

Bought a box of masks the other day at my local cannabis shop. Good deal. (Wish the weed had been...) I wear them filter side out. That way whatever comes your way is filtered. Good for allergy season here...less hay fever when out & about...it's windy. Masks are required in public places (shops, etc.), and when social distancing is problematic. Easy, really.

There's one on the corner of Sathorn Rd & Silom Soi Convent. Also one down on the river, I think. Soi Convent has a big Catholic girls school, a Carmelite Convent & BNH Hospital (my kid was born there)... I believe there was an early French settlement here -- still a few FR restaurants (Indigo). Has become 'spendy trendy' in the last decade. Most likely all re-opening right about now.

United States COVID-19 Score -- 92,188 Dead as of 19 May, 2020 Fighting the virus -- controlling contacts -- has become a political issue...right vs. left. Not to be discussed on here, of course. Social distancing and masks have proven to be an effective deterrent. However, with new infections held in relative check people want to resume "normal" life. No one knows if there will be a significant national spike in new infections. Still very hard to gauge as testing is limited. . . . Two Americas: Lockdown Left vs. Re-open Right https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/05/15/two_americas_lockdown_left_vs_re-open_right_143212.html