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Stayin' Alive by Staying at Home (updated May 21, 2021)


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It's the interior of the house that's truly impressive.  The third floor is a large open space that includes the kitchen, living room and dining room.

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We won't starve. that's for sure!

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The second floor is mostly bedrooms, each with a bathroom and TV.  This is mine:

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The ground floor is mainly a rec room with pool table, fridge and microwave:

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The Outer Banks were the site of an event that helped shape the modern  world: the first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine.  Orville and Wilbur Wright launched their plane into the air- and themselves into history- on Dec. 17, 1903, a few miles from the town of Kitty Hawk.

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By K. Shimada - photo by K. Shimada, CC BY-SA 3.0, LINK

The memorial tower sits atop a 90-foot hill.  Between 1900 and 1903, the Wright Brothers used what was then a nameless giant sand dune to train as glider pilots and improve the aerodynamics of an existing glider.  In the 1930s,  the sand dune was transformed into the current hill by covering it with dirt and planting grass to provide a firm foundation.   You can see the 60-foot tower in the background of the pic below.

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The hill on which the monument stands was named Kill Devil Hill, since the area was called Kill Devil Hills. Kitty Hawk got the credit as the site of the first flight because it was the closet town at the time from which the Wright Brothers could send a telegram announcing the successful flight.  Below is a  panoramic view taken from the top of the monument hill looking north towards Kitty Hawk.  The yellow arrow marks the spot from which the first Wright Flyer took off on that December morning in 1903.

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By RadioFan at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0,  LINK

The name "KIll Devil Hills" has an interesting origin.  According to the official version,  a ship carrying a load of New England rum ran aground in the late 1700's near a tiny settlement on the Outer Banks.  The residents looted the ship and hid the barrels of rum in the sand dunes.  The rum was said to be so harsh it could "kill the devil" and the phrase inspired the name for the area. The village of Kill Devil Hills wasn't established until the 1950s.

The landscape of the Wright Brothers National Memorial was very different in the early 1900's compared with today. The area had been a collection of dunes and sand flats without vegetation.  This is the famous photo taken a few seconds into the first flight:

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The grass and trees were added in the 1930s.  Below is the same area today, with the large boulder on the left marking the take-off point  of the first flight and the smaller boulder on the right  the landing point.IMG_1191.jpg.0c7cbaface6c27ed02f6f224ca6aa19a.jpg

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The two buildings are replicas of the hangar, workshop and living quarters of the Wright Brothers in the early 1900s.

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With Orville piloting the Wright Flyer,  the first flight lasted 12 seconds, reached an altitude of about 10 feet and traveled 120 feet.  Three more flights were attempted the same day.  The fourth flight lasted 59 seconds, peaked at about 13 feet above ground and went 852 feet.  Before it became airborne, the Wright Flyer ran along a monorail placed on the sand.

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This is the boulder that marks the take-off point:

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A life-sized sculpture consisting of seven figures and a replica of the Wright Flyer  was added to Kill Devil Hill in 2003 to commemorate the centennial of the first flight.  The sculpture portrays Orville and Wilbur Wright as well as the five other men who witnessed the first flight.

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In normal circumstances, the sculpture is interactive and people are allowed to stand next to the figures and plane, but the pandemic has made it off-limits.

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The  Visitors Center and the first flight museum has also been closed due to the pandemic, but may reopen on July 17th.  I hope it does, as that would give us a chance to see it,. We return back home on the 18th.

Even if you're not a fan of family-style beach vacations,  the Outer Banks are worth a trip just to see the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

Edited by Evil Penevil
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On the way to the Outer Banks, we stopped at an elaborate farmer's market about 40 miles from the bridge across the sound.

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It had a huge amount of local fresh produce and food items.  We stocked up for our week-long stay.

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In a separate  area, there's a food truck selling North Carolina specialties.  There's also plenty of space for eating at picnic tables as well as a bar with a singer.

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I got some of the best avocados I've ever had in my life at the Morris Farm Market.  We'll stop to get more on the way back.

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They were delicious with a sprinkling of Slap Ya Mama spice mixture!

Edited by Evil Penevil
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I'm posting this article in my thread because it's long and behind a pay wall, so many members wouldn't be able to link to it.  Stayin' at home is not a good situation for everyone.

Evil

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‘Are They Setting My Children Up for Failure?’ 
Remote Learning Widens Education Gap.

Students in Mississippi’s Jackson Public Schools district, who are predominantly Black and low income, already lagged their peers academically. Shutdowns set them back even more. 

By Tawnell D. Hobbs    | Photographs by Andrea Morales for The Wall Street Journal

July 15, 2020 11:28 am ET
 
JACKSON, Miss.—After schools shut down in March, LaKenya Bunton would get home around 7 a.m. from an overnight quality-control job at a factory, doze for a few hours, then become teacher to her 16-year-old son, Amarrius.

Her son, a rising sophomore, had received no remote-learning materials from his school and didn’t hear from most of his teachers. Ms. Bunton’s method included collecting Amarrius’s cellphone and handing him the day’s work: a packet of practice college-prep questions she printed from the internet.

“I’m educating him the best way I can,” said Ms. Bunton, a 41-year-old single mother. “I don’t want him to be behind.”

With the next academic year quickly approaching, school districts and parents everywhere are racing to figure out how to resume learning during the coronavirus pandemic—with the interruption that upended the last school year beginning to look like a longer-term disruption. Los Angeles’s school system said Monday it will start the year online, while New York City recently announced a plan to bring students back to classrooms part time. Districts have to weigh the potential public-health risks of bringing students into classrooms against the shortcomings of remote-learning programs, which schools hastily rolled out in the spring with generally dismal results.

The problems were amplified for children in the nation’s worst-performing schools, including at Jackson Public Schools, where 95% of the students are Black and just as many are considered low income. District parents say if education is the great equalizer, their children are at a growing disadvantage.

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LaKenya Bunton with her 16-year-old son, Amarrius.

These schools and their communities were already working to overcome legacies of racial inequities when the killing of George Floyd spurred national protests and broader actions to address racism. The pandemic set them even further behind.

In Jackson, like in many other districts, school officials essentially gave up on requiring remote learning last spring. In late April the district allowed children who were passing before the shutdown to skip the last two months of school and still receive an overall passing grade. Some students didn’t have internet access or parents available to help. Even some teachers couldn’t get online at home when schools closed.

Ms. Bunton and other parents said they tried to get homework packets with the rest of the year’s curriculum from their children’s schools, but were told there were none.

Jackson Schools Superintendent Errick Greene said the district was ill prepared for the pandemic. Beyond connectivity issues, Dr. Greene noted that some parents have their own challenges helping their children learn. About 28% of Jackson school parents age 25 and up had no more education than a high-school diploma, and almost 12% had less school than that, according to a five-year estimate in 2018 by the Census Bureau.

“We were caught flat-footed,” Dr. Greene said.

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Errick Greene, Jackson Public Schools superintendent, wants to teach students life skills like critical thinking, along with academics

Preliminary research suggests students nationwide will return to school in the fall with roughly 70% of learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year, and less than 50% in math, according to projections by NWEA, an Oregon-based nonprofit education-services firm. It expects a greater learning loss for minority and low-income children, who have less access to technology and whose families are more likely to be affected by the economic downturn.

About 26 million public-school students, just over half in the U.S., are considered low-income and rely on free or reduced-price meals at school.

Dr. Greene said there could be a mix of in-person and remote learning in the fall, and his goal is to make sure all students can get online and have devices to learn on. But he worries that providing laptops to students could make them vulnerable to crime.

“That puts a target on them,” he said. “I’m stunned at the number of devices and the amount of equipment we’ve lost just through burglaries” at school.

The district’s academic plan is for teachers to go right into next year’s curriculum and fill in the learning gaps along the way. Many students will start having missed about a quarter of the last school year.

Missing those months will leave some children across the country, especially those already behind, struggling to catch up, educators said. “I think of it as an academic death spiral,” said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell. “I don’t know how you do algebra without pre-algebra.”

Jackson’s 22,500 public-school students were already behind their peers academically. About 24% met Mississippi proficiency standards in math, and 27% in English language arts, or ELA, in the 2018-19 school year. Statewide, 47% met proficiency in math and about 42% in ELA.

The Jackson school district is the largest low-performing district in the state with the highest child-poverty rate in the nation. About 43% of Black children in Mississippi lived in poverty in 2018, defined as a family of four with an annual income below $25,465, while 14% of white children did, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center.

Nearly all of Jackson’s students rely on free- and reduced-school lunch. Many live in neighborhoods with abandoned houses. About a third have no computers or cannot get on the internet at home.

In recent panels led by the district, most participating teachers and parents said they preferred to have in-person and remote-learning options.

Jasmine Grant is among those without internet at home. Her 10-year-old son, Javonta Eubanks, spent much of his time during the shutdown playing with a remote-controlled car outside their modest home.

Ms. Grant, a 29-year-old single mother, reads to her son and has him read to her, but he didn’t understand work provided by his school and she didn’t have time to help him while working a full-time cleaning job in the next city, she said. Javonta is learning disabled and has already been held back a year.

Her 8-year-old daughter, Jamya Eubanks, largely finished the academic year on her own with school work packets. She made the occasional visit to her grandmother’s house, where there is internet, to check in with teachers.

“It’s frustrating, but they’re my kids and I’m going to do my best,” Ms. Grant said. Still, she’s hesitant to send her children back to school in the fall, fearing they could catch Covid-19.

 
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Jasmine Grant with her 10-year-old son, Javonta Eubanks.

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Jamya Eubanks largely finished the school year on her own.

When Dr. Greene took over as schools superintendent in late 2018, the district’s state performance grade was an F. It has long been noted for underperformance and narrowly avoided a state takeover in 2017.

The district’s overall grade rose to a D in the 2018-19 school year. Dr. Greene said the rise reflected gains made before he rolled out a five-year strategic plan to improve the schools, which includes adding prekindergarten seats and ensuring a certified teacher in every classroom. Nine of the district’s 52 schools have the top A rating for student achievement, student growth and other academic measures.

In a recent video to the school community, the superintendent spoke about Mr. Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, whose killings have sparked protests around the country. Combined with the pandemic, he said, communities have had to deal with the “frustration of having to experience these multiple traumas all at once.”

Dr. Greene said that had given him a renewed awareness of the responsibility to educate students beyond math and literacy skills, by teaching them life skills like critical thinking and good communication.

He spoke about the challenges he faces as a Black man, and how he recently found himself actively working to be less threatening on a recent jog in his neighborhood—he smiled more and made sure to wave at passersby. He said he wants to prepare students to be leaders in creating a more just society.

 
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The athletic fields at Forest Hill High School in May.

Falling behind academically is a top reason why students drop out of school, according to the National Dropout Prevention Center, based in South Carolina.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

What should schools do to help students catch up when they return in the fall? Join the conversation below.

The Jackson school district had a graduation rate of 75% in 2019, lower than the state average of 85%. About one in four students were considered chronically absent, meaning the student missed 10% or more of their school days.

Ms. Bunton grew up in Jackson and attended its public schools. She has high hopes for Amarrius, who she says is headstrong for his age and not shy to give an opinion. He dreams of being a veterinarian, when he’s not playing basketball or videogames.

Ms. Bunton said she is using the current civil-rights movement as a teachable moment for her son and recently took him to a rally against racial injustice in downtown Jackson. She said he was quiet, having never experienced such a gathering.

His school, Forest Hill High School, is one of the worst performing in the state, with an F rating. About 11% of Amarrius’s schoolmates scored proficient in math and 16% in English language arts in the latest state exam. Half were chronically absent.

In their brick home in a quiet court, Ms. Bunton displays a “2020 Vision Board” in her living room with messages such as “Dream it. Believe. Own it.” Nearby is a short religious paperback she wrote and self-published, titled “One Day at a Time.”

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Amarrius Bunton holds a vision board he worked on with his mother.

She likes having the inspiration around her son, who complained of boredom under the shutdown. Days before the school year ended, he said that it felt like it was already over back in March, then corrected himself.

“I still got to go through her,” he said of his mother’s lessons.

When the shutdown started on March 16, Ms. Bunton said that her son only regularly heard from one of his teachers and that homework packages weren’t available, either online or through physically picking them up.

On April 9, she asked on a district Facebook post if students would receive work packages like a neighboring district. She didn’t receive a response.

The Jackson school district said there was confusion early on but packages were eventually made available at all schools.

Melissa Cole, who has four children in Jackson schools, said inconsistent messages from the district, such as not really knowing what was due and when during most of the shutdown, made learning difficult. “Are they setting my children up for failure?” she said.

She noted the district sent a questionnaire to parents shortly after the shutdown to find out what technology parents needed at home, but parents never heard back about it. Dr. Greene said the survey only received about a 13% response rate, so other methods were used to determine that around 30% of families in the district had device or connectivity issues.

Dr. Greene is counting on stimulus money to help pay for an influx of technology in the fall, and is working with IT teams and law enforcement on security protocols to prevent thefts. He said better technology will improve the remote-learning experience, though it won’t be as good as students interacting in person with teachers.

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About 11% of Amarrius Bunton’s schoolmates at Forest Hill High School scored proficient in math.

Mississippi State Superintendent of Education Carey M. Wright backs Dr. Greene’s plan to launch right into next year’s curriculum, without trying to make up for lost time from March to May. “If you start there, children will never catch up,” Dr. Wright said. “Teachers will know the skills they have to fill in.”

Dr. Wright also expects remote work to be required and graded next school year. “We can’t keep saying, ‘Do your best and we’ll sort of, kind of give you a grade,’ ” she said.

Ms. Bunton’s concerns for Amarrius went beyond academics. At Forest Hill, guns on campus and fights between students have been issues over the years. In 2016, the state auditor’s office didn’t complete its review there, citing safety concerns.

Early in the school year, Ms. Bunton got a text from her son asking her to pick him up after someone brought a gun onto school grounds. She raced over in her car, joining other parents, and said she waited for three hours for a lockdown to lift to get him.

Amarrius isn’t planning on going back. He just learned he was accepted to a free 22-week military academy residential program elsewhere in the state that will help him earn a high-school diploma or equivalent. He wants to take the military entrance exam afterward to join the U.S. Marines, although he still hopes to be a veterinarian one day. His mother supports his plan.

“I fear for his safety,” she said. “I don’t think he’d get the proper education that he needs here.”

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Amarrius Bunton shooting hoops in his driveway.

Write to Tawnell D. Hobbs at [email protected]

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Can anyone spot the ship in this pic?

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It's under the yellow arrow.

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A closer view ...

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And as close as I could get with my lens ...

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Does anyone know what type of ship it is?  My guess would be it's some sort of U.S. Navy vessel, but that's only a guess.  However, I can't see any markings on it or any armament.

Evi

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4 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

Can anyone spot the ship in this pic?

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It's under the yellow arrow.

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A closer view ...

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And as close as I could get with my lens ...

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Does anyone know what type of ship it is?  My guess would be it's some sort of U.S. Navy vessel, but that's only a guess.  However, I can't see any markings on it or any armament.

Evi

Resupply  / oil tanker navy vessel.

Without Google or google image.

 

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Before we had to cancel plans for a large-scale reunion due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been a fair amount of discussion within family circles about having "recapture childhood memories" as the theme of the reunion. My relatives tend to be quite nostalgic.  The idea was to do some of the things we enjoyed as children and introduce younger relatives to old-fashioned,  non-digital ways of having fun.

That included playing miniature golf and a trip to a candy store.  My nieces were determined to live up to at least part of the spirit of the reunion and we set off one evening in search of both.  We visited four miniature golf places- much more elaborate than in my and their childhood days- but all were full of mini-golfers, with long lines of people waiting to play.  No way in hell we'd stand in line to play miniature golf, so we skipped Jurassic Putt, Lost Treasure Golf, Mutiny Bay Adventure Golf and Frisco Mini Golf & Go Karts.

Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf (Kill Devil Hills) - 2020 ...

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However, we hit the jackpot when it came to a candy store.  Sugar Kingdom was the biggest and fanciest I can recall seeing.

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I couldn't help but think you much Thai girls would have loved this store with its whimsical shapes and colors and well as the emphasis on sweet stuff and teddy bears.

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Salt water taffy, which doesn't actually have seawater as an ingredient, was a childhood favorite  of my nieces.  The shop had about fifty different varieties ...

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including Maple Bacon...

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I had never much liked mini-golf even as a kid, so I wasn't disappointed we didn't play.  The visit to the candy store was more in keeping with my pleasure childhood memories.

Evil

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My nieces's dog liked the beach but not the ocean.  She would "stand sentinel" at the edge of the surf without going into the water.

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Because the dog stood motionless for long stretches of time and worn a harness,  some people thought she was a life-saving dog!  She was popular with the girls.

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This dog played fetch for about a hour straight.  It loved swimming in the surf.

Evil

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This is an interesting commentary on U.S. efforts to develop an anti-corona vaccine.

Evil

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This time frame of months rather than years poses many problems. A strategy of focusing on only the fastest methods may, in the end, yield no successful candidates. With funding concentrated on faster development, slower-to-develop solutions have been shunned. The priority must be to fund a balanced portfolio of vaccine prospects that may take longer to develop.

The vaccine for tuberculosis took 13 years, rotavirus 15 years, and chickenpox 28 years. Clearly with Covid-19, which has already had devastating economic and social consequences, that would be too long. The world has not seen a pandemic of this scale since the 1918 flu. This time around, scientists are armed with advanced methods, including genetic and viral vector prospects for vaccine development. Nevertheless, Dr. Gregory Poland, a leading vaccinologist at the Mayo Clinic, warns that the U.S. is in a “hare and tortoise” race that is not over until a vaccine is proven safe, effective, and scalable.

At face value, Operation Ward Speed carries a sense of national pride and has the potential to bring the pandemic to an end. The nationalistic element that shuns international cooperation, however, is particularly alarming. Washington has repeatedly made numerous missteps in its faltering battle against Covid-19. The most fateful one was perhaps the lost month between February and March 2020, during which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attempted to develop its own coronavirus test despite the availability of a German-designed test that had been used over 250,000 times worldwide. There is no reason to believe the same mistake will not occur again. 

As of this writing, researchers around the world are developing over 155 Covid-19 vaccines. Most of them belong to one of four types: genetic, viral vector, protein-based, and whole virus. Operation Warp Speed selected a portfolio of eight vaccines: four of them are viral vector (developed by Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Merck, and Vaxart), three are genetic (being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which refused federal funding; Moderna; and Inovio), and one is protein-based (developed by Novavax). 

Why is there no support for whole virus vaccines? The short answer is that they are antithetical to “warp speed.” 

Whole virus vaccines use a mature technology that has been licensed for commercial use for over 70 years. Once verified as safe and effective, they can be produced with existing manufacturing facilities around the world and administered with minimal technical hurdles. The catch? Developing whole virus vaccines can take many years because scientists need to find an ideal amount of virus that protects individuals without making them sick. The fastest record of developing a whole virus vaccine is for mumps, which took four years. Therefore, “warp speed” is creating warped incentives: it RULES out those whole virus vaccines judged too slow to develop.

Because Operation Warp Speed has a prespecified deadline, it becomes clear why seven of the eight U.S.-funded vaccines are viral vector and genetic candidates. These two types are fast-moving in the development process, and if proven successful in Phase III clinical trials, have some chance of meeting the January 2021 deadline. However, no genetic vaccine has been approved for human use, and viral vector vaccines have been used for animals and in some cases proven safe for human use, but yet to be determined to be effective. 

Without any proven track record, there is a real possibility that none of these candidates will make it, especially under this artificially short time frame. The CEO of Merck, Ken Frazier, has said promising a vaccine by the end of 2020 is a “grave disservice to the public.” Even if one of the seven fast-track vaccines turns out to be safe and effective, scaling up volume and distribution will be a huge challenge. Viral vector vaccines face significant manufacturing hurdles, given the need for building new vaccine production facilities. Genetic vaccines have their own challenges, which include requiring very different delivery systems and stringent cold-chain handling requirements.

When making investment decisions, risks are reduced by investing in a balanced portfolio of stocks. Investing in Covid-19 vaccines with remarkably uncertain safety, effectiveness, and scalability should follow the same logic. Unfortunately, Operation Warp Speed is now betting on vaccines built with unproven technologies, which is highly risky. This strategy lacks diversification and does not combat the underlying risk because these methods share a common set of uncertainties. The sheer number of unknowns calls for a more prudent portfolio selection, one that involves a balanced portfolio to prepare for the unexpected.

Dr. Anthony Fauci and his scientific colleagues consider a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine “an absolute necessity.” Yet this federally funded program is creating warped incentives for vaccine development. In fact, some fear that Washington may declare victory prematurely without fully understanding the side effects of the chosen vaccine. It is important for policy makers in Washington to realize that vaccination success, much like that in coronavirus testing, requires more than a speedy development process. Failure in any stage—verification, delivery, or administration—can mean failure of the entire effort. 

To win the vaccine race, diversifying the portfolio should be a mandate. Haste may indeed make waste.
 

Tinglong Dai is an associate professor of operations management and business analytics at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. Christopher S. Tang is a University Distinguished Professor and Edward W. Carter chair in business administration at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

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What do you think of Sports Illustrated's move to use big women as swimsuit models?  She's on Bali in Indonesia right now.  Go for it, Thai Spice!

There's also a burkini-wearing model in the link.

Evil

Sports Illustrated’s ‘curviest model ever’ talks ‘life-changing’ swimsuit shoot

July 24, 2020 | 6:05pm

 

Model Hunter McGrady — deemed Sports Illustrated’s “curviest model ever” — has taken to Instagram to share her joy in being featured in the mag’s 2020 Swimsuit Edition, which hit newsstands Tuesday.

“I have been so excited for this shoot to be released,” McGrady, 27, shared. “This trip was life changing and was so special to experience with the most special team. Sports Illustrated has given me so much and created so many incredible opportunities for me and I will forever be grateful. Every time the magazine comes out it is a ‘pinch me’ moment.”

The plus-size model is appearing in the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue for the fourth time, calling her latest experience shooting in Bali “magical.”

“One of my favorite shots from this shoot. Magical place, magical team, magical time,” she wrote beside a picture of herself rocking a sexy black swimsuit.

Sports.JPG

Days before the the 2020 issue hit the stands, McGrady posted a sneak peek on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself wearing high-waisted bottoms and a bell-sleeve bikini top. She also hopes the artful shots will encourage women with similar body types to love the skin they’re in.   “I always know I’m going to get killer, beautiful shots with SI but most importantly I know that the woman who for so long hasn’t seen her body represented will hopefully feel seen, heard, and understood.”

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43 minutes ago, Evil Penevil said:

What do you think of Sports Illustrated's move to use big women as swimsuit models?  She's on Bali in Indonesia right now.  Go for it, Thai Spice!

There's also a burkini-wearing model in the link.

Evil

Sports Illustrated’s ‘curviest model ever’ talks ‘life-changing’ swimsuit shoot

July 24, 2020 | 6:05pm

 

Model Hunter McGrady — deemed Sports Illustrated’s “curviest model ever” — has taken to Instagram to share her joy in being featured in the mag’s 2020 Swimsuit Edition, which hit newsstands Tuesday.

“I have been so excited for this shoot to be released,” McGrady, 27, shared. “This trip was life changing and was so special to experience with the most special team. Sports Illustrated has given me so much and created so many incredible opportunities for me and I will forever be grateful. Every time the magazine comes out it is a ‘pinch me’ moment.”

The plus-size model is appearing in the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue for the fourth time, calling her latest experience shooting in Bali “magical.”

“One of my favorite shots from this shoot. Magical place, magical team, magical time,” she wrote beside a picture of herself rocking a sexy black swimsuit.

Sports.JPG

Days before the the 2020 issue hit the stands, McGrady posted a sneak peek on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself wearing high-waisted bottoms and a bell-sleeve bikini top. She also hopes the artful shots will encourage women with similar body types to love the skin they’re in.   “I always know I’m going to get killer, beautiful shots with SI but most importantly I know that the woman who for so long hasn’t seen her body represented will hopefully feel seen, heard, and understood.”

Not my idea of curvy, I would probably use another adjective to describe her....

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In another thread, some videos were posted of "Karens,"  obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people's behaviors.  In these days of gender equality,  an Internet campaign has begun to name the male equivalent of Karen. Strangely enough, and against all odds, the male name that has emerged as the favorite is Gabor!   Check out the article below from The New York Post.  I could hardly believe my eyes!   :EvilLaugh1:

Evil

 

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‘Gabor’ leads in search for what to call male ‘Karens’

July 27, 2020 | 9:13am

The internet is struggling to come up with the perfect male equivalent of “Karen” — the slang term for an entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white woman.

Surprisingly, the current favorite is Gabor, the name of a Hungarian expatriate in Thailand who's infamous for his entitled attitude towards the  local populace.  For years he has bragged on the Internet about underpaying Thai women for sexual services while harshly berating other foreigners who take a more generous approach.

Hundreds of email votes by Thai women who have been cheated and abused by him have overwhelmingly propelled Gabor into first place, said the organizers of one Internet poll.

The quest to find a male equivalent started after “San Francisco Karen” (aka Lisa Alexander, the CEO of a San Francisco-based skin care company) and her boyfriend, wealth manager Robert Larkin, harassed James Juanillo for stenciling “Black Lives Matter” on his own property last week.

Twitter user @USMCLiberal set off a firestorm when he tweeted out to his 62,000 followers: “I think the male version of a ‘Karen’ should be a ‘Jeremy’. Anyone object — besides Jeremy?”

People were not in love with the idea, as @Daeg420 noted: “Jeremy is too chill to be a karen … I would say that Bret seems to embody privilege and rage.”

Jason, Scott and Tucker got a few votes, as did “Dwight, but spelled, D’white,” an idea started by @VAVoter2020.

Another tweeter, @mamgonefishing, suggested, I think it should be ‘Todd’. Just ask George Carlin” and linked to Carlin’s epic sketch rant that starts: “I’m getting really sick of guys named Todd.”

And then there was the suggestion from @HumanRainDelay1, who suggested “Brandon,” linking to “conservative activist” Brandon Straka’s epic twitter tantrum after he was kicked off an American Airlines flight for refusing to wear a mask.

So who should it be? Tweet us your decision at @nypost with the hashtag #MaleKaren.

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3 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

In another thread, some videos were posted of "Karens,"  obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people's behaviors.  In these days of gender equality,  an Internet campaign has begun to name the male equivalent of Karen. Strangely enough, and against all odds, the male name that has emerged as the favorite is Gabor!   Check out the article below from The New York Post.  I could hardly believe my eyes!   :EvilLaugh1:

Evil

 

NY POST.JPG

LIVING

 

‘Gabor’ leads in search for what to call male ‘Karens’

 

 

I thought Kevin was a Karen with knuts.

 

That US idiot's disease has hit Australia or at least Melbourne where mask wearing when in public has become compulsory.

So now we have Karens and Kevins, although mainly Karens at this stage,  saying that requiring them to wear a mask is against the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. No you can't ask them what medical condition they have which prevents them from wearing a mask, to do so would be a breach of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The quote of "it's against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" is so pat they no doubt got it off some conspiracy nut or anti-vaxxer website.

If you hear it being used just ask them "under what article".

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be found here

https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

 

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9 hours ago, fygjam said:

The quote of "it's against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" is so pat they no doubt got it off some conspiracy nut or anti-vaxxer website.

The "Bunnings Karen" video has attracted a lot of attention in the U.S. and gone viral.  You can read about it and see all the videos in this article in the Daily Mail:  'Bunnings Karen' unmasked: Woman who was arrested after confronting staff at a Melbourne hardware store is a sales consultant who prides herself on quality 'customer service'

It seems she is the Australian equivalent of U.S. crackpots who call themselves "sovereign citizens."  I don't want to get too political in this thread, but "sovereign citizens"  use very flawed reasoning  to justify defiance of local laws. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an admirable statement on human rights, but it isn't binding on Australia or any other country.  Even when a country signs a binding international treaty,  that doesn't give its citizens the right to break local law.

Evil

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