All posts by Nathan Ruffing

All, Comfort and Convenience Plagues

Disease History, Urbanization, and Coronavirus Origination Theory

1 Comment
This post is the notes for the theory. For the anthropogenic coronaviruses origin theory, click here.

A Brief Recent History of Humans Sharing Fluids, Disease Prevention and Urbanization

Cities have always been harbingers of disease. Bubonic Plague flowed from relatively urban China to relatively rural Europe. Smallpox flowed from urbanized European settlers to rural American natives. Most of the worst diseases require sharing of fluids to develop and spread – but we figured that out so we prevented sharing fluids – except exhaled breath. Result: We now share a lot more exhaled breath than ever before, and I mean A LOT, for the first time in history.

1 AD: total world population 300 million

1000 AD: total world population 310 million

1347-1351: Black Death reaches Europe from Asia via Crimea on rat fleas on the silk road.

1492: Europe discovers the Americas – along with smallpox

1500: total world population 500 million

1796: Smallpox vaccine demonstrated. Cities grow.

1800: total world population 978 million

1850: John Snow connected Cholera to sewage. Humans stop drinking sewage. Cities grow.

1850: World urban population still under 1 billion.

1881: Carlos Finlay identifies mosquitoes as a disease vector. Cities grow.

1914: first home with air conditioning. Windows closed all summer.

1928: Penicillin isolated as the first antibiotic. Cities grow.

1928: World urban population still under 1 billion.

1950: World urban population reaches ~1 billion

1970s: energy crisis. Buildings tighten-up for efficiency. Exhaled breath trapped inside on a global scale.

1976: Legionella bacteria identified as a human pathogen after an outbreak. Click here for outbreak description. Later linked in some cases to water-cooled air conditioner cooling towers. ***Interesting, but mostly unrelated to novel coronaviruses: 1. not novel, 2. not viruses, 3. Not even human to human transmissible.

1978: smallpox eradicated by global vaccination campaign. Cities grow.

1980: World urban population 1.74 billion

1981: HIV discovered, a sexually-transmitted virus

1990: World urban population 2.27 billion

2000: World urban population 2.85 billion

2003: SARS-CoV-1 emerges, a new virus that infects the lungs and causes respiratory disease.

2010: World urban population 3.57 billion

2012: MERS-CoV emerges, another lung virus causing respiratory disease

2019: SARS-CoV-2 emerges, human lungs again, third time now.

2019: World urban population 4.27 billion

Exhaled Breath Sharing, a New Breeding Ground

The three most recent viruses to develop that infect humans have been respiratory viruses. ALL THREE. The three new viruses in just the last 20 years are lung viruses.

The story is simple. Humans figure out how to sanitize drinking water, avoid mosquitoes, kill bacteria, and vaccinate, but it enables us to breathe so much of each other’s exhaled air that viruses have found a new “primordial soup” in which to breed and evolve.

New respiratory viruses will continue to develop until we let the air out, open the windows, go outside, breathe fresh air.

Bats and camels may have coronaviruses and pass to humans sometimes, yes, but does it make the news when animals catch respiratory viruses from humans? Hell no, not until they can write the news. Are bats and camels gathering in artificial air-tight spaces by the billions? No again. Who is? Humans are. I believe the transmission goes both ways, but the primary virus development is the other way around. HUMANS are developing lung viruses with billions of us indoors breathing each other’s exhaled air, then bats and camels catch them from us.

The terms “exhaled breath sewage,” “exhaled breath sanitation,” “building ventilation factor,” etc. may be the buzz phrases of our generation.

In our minds, viruses must come from the wild. They must come from fetid bat caves and mangy camel hair. Most disease still does, but the newest breeding ground, the newest “virus wild” is the ocean of air among the concrete jungles and towering steel / glass aquariums into which humans exhale and trap 6 liters per minute of living breath each. Air is a fluid. We share the fluid, much more than any other animal. Like any shared fluid, it can make us sick.

Humans domesticate cows, cows become the second species by biomass living on Earth (second only to humans). Humans domesticate coronaviruses, coronaviruses run amok.

The Solution … ?

  • Update building codes to require massive ventilation, filtering, and sanitation of the indoor air – WORLDWIDE.
  • Ventilate public transit.
  • End air conditioning.
  • Everybody physical distance. Worldwide. All the time. Forever.

Really? What do we do?

Maybe the old Miasma theory has come true, we humans have made it so.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL?end=2019&start=1960&view=chart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population

Search EBSRS3

All, Comfort and Convenience Plagues, Rage and Frenzy Politics

Some Clarity on Masks

1 Comment

If it is not worth the risk without a mask, then it is not worth the risk with a mask.

What I Would Do in Order of Importance
  1. Lose excess weight. We have known about this virus for more than six months now and we have known about the comorbidities the entire time. Diets. No sugar. Less excess carbs. Smaller portions. That’s it. Not easy, but straightforward and effective – with or without a virus. Care about yourself.
  2. Be outside. And by the way, you might lose weight outside. Not always possible, not necessarily easy, but the most effective.
  3. Open the windows. Turn on a fan. Make the indoors as much like outdoors as possible. Fresh air. Not easy, but effective. One person can infect your whole family in an enclosed house – or not, your choice.
    • What about winter you say? We will see when we get there. Currently it is July so we are lucky we can be outside.
  4. Pay attention to what “physical distance” means. It is about your exhaled breath. The virus is invisible and odorless, but imagine second-hand smoke. Outdoors, you are probably alright. Indoors, it could be the guy on the far end of the other room choking you out. Pay attention. Not so difficult, and fairly effective.
  5. Masks in hospitals, on public transit, airplanes. Mandatory. Done. Boom. No problem.
  6. Mandate that businesses post whether they do not allow masks, allow masks, or require masks. Sure, for the rest of my life if it makes you feel better. Businesses, decide and post it, go. Dictate it, DeWine.
  7. Require masks everywhere? Magic false-sense-of-security face underwear that make you feel comfortable in virus-polluted recirculated-air-conditioned places going wherever you want without thinking? Easy, yes. Effective? Maybe, probably not very.
    • An encroachment on rights? Yes. It is. Comparing “you must cover your face to operate” to “you must wash your hands and follow sanitation codes” is an unproductive affront to personal dignity. It is offensive to my basic beliefs. Mandating face covering is a big deal and you better be doing everything else right before I am happy about it. We are not even close.

This is going to continue until we face the first 5 items on this list. Pretending #7 is the answer because it is easy just makes it worse.

Note: unlike the entire rest of my blog, there is swearing in this post. I’ve been driven to it.

Governments across the United States have taken away the right for businesses to operate with their full face showing. Most business owners and employees must wear face coverings to operate. That happened. Boom. Just like that. Some people seem to love it. Many people see it as a civic courtesy. Many people see it as a serious encroachment on rights. Either way, it happened.

Here is some discussion that should occur.

Probable COVID-19 Spreaders from Most Spread to Least

Severe Spreaders
  • Hospitals
  • Public transit
  • Bars and clubs
  • Call centers
  • Collective care – like nursing homes
  • Prisons
  • Meat packing facilities and other high density work environments
  • Cities in general

I will gladly wear a mask in a hospital or on public transit. Not only are they high-density and indoors, but they also are not social places. We don’t want to be there anyway. Who wants to be in a hospital? Nobody, that’s who. Wearing a mask there doesn’t take anything away. Likewise public transit. Subway cars weren’t designed jam-packed so people could socialize with their full open face spitting on each other from three inches.

Moderate Spreaders
  • Restaurants
  • Retail Stores
  • Office space – so much time here, 8 hours +
  • Basically anywhere indoors where the air is trapped – along with trapped exhaled breath aerosols!
  • Possibly a park on a no-wind day in the shade might make this list if you have a concert jam-packed with drunk people. Maybe, but I doubt even the worst conditions outdoors would come close to being indoors.
  • Wherever everybody goes when they close parks and beaches
Probably Practically Fucking Zero Spread

I try to avoid swearing here but in this case I think we need to jump-start the old common sense neurons.

  • Parks
  • Beaches
  • Parks and beaches on a breezy day especially in the sun
  • Especially beaches. They are breezy and sunny.
  • Passing someone on the street or sidewalk
  • Anywhere outdoors
Guaranteed Zero Spread
  • Somebody in their yard doing yard work

Can you believe I even wrote that? I’m actually not 100% convinced this happened but I heard the governor of Michigan essentially tried to put the whole state on house arrest for like a day until various Sheriffs called bullshit. I also heard Mike DeWine said something about mandatory masks, which I believe but he backed off.

Update – 15 July 2020, DeWhiner said something arbitrary about masks. I’m not sure what. Good luck with that guvnah. Man up and tell people to open their windows in July.

Where do masks fit in on this list? Probably nowhere. Indoors, does wearing masks prevent spread of virus breath to the people around you? Very little. Outdoors, are you going to transfer enough exhaled virus breath floating in the wind with UV light sanitizing each little droplet on the way? No way. Not now. Not ever. Breathe free people.

Do masks provide a false sense of security? Oh yeah. Magic masks and everybody back to work! When the virus goes away, is it because everybody was wearing masks? If I post a sign in my yard, “no elephants” and no elephants show up, was it because of the sign? (not my joke, I copied because I love it) When the virus persists for another two years with no reliable vaccine and the media loses interest, did the virus really go away? I bet the masks will.

Some Options Besides Instant Dictation

Hey DeWine, pay attention. Copy this to your teleprompter and regurgitate it.

  • Publicize a risk list like above and repeat it. Let people manage their own risk. They are better at it than the government.
  • Require that businesses post whether they require masks or not. Let businesses decide what they do, make them post the decision, and let the people decide. If somebody is going to tell me to wear a mask, it better at least be the owner of the building or business. Mike DeWine sure as hell has not earned the right to tell me or any business that. AND TO BE CLEAR, do not even try comparing this to banning indoor smoking. My exhaled breath is not a completely optional carcinogenic fire specifically designed to create poisonous smoke. If that thought even crossed your mind, do ten push-ups and read a book.
  • Establish guidelines on delivering food to the elderly and at-risk. Organize helping out.

Some Illustrations

Farts

Ever smelled a fart outdoors? If you did, it would have probably made your eyes water indoors.

COVID-19 (the virus, I know it’s called SARS-CoV-2) is carried in the aerosols of our exhaled breath. Did you know that we exhale 6 liters of breath per minute? Can you imagine farting at 6 liters per minute? Yeah, it would clear a room and it still wouldn’t smell outside.

Does underwear stop a fart from smelling?

Onions

Did you know that viruses can enter through our eyes? Ever chopped an onion – or been in a room where someone is chopping an onion? Your eyes watering is you catching the virus – indoors.

Aerosols

Watch some virus aerosol videos on YouTube.

Fog a Mirror

Can you fog a mirror? You can spread a virus.

Lose Weight

When you lose weight, most of the mass exits your body in your exhaled breath. Carbon dioxide doesn’t make people sick, but it is one more thing contained in breath that we don’t perceive.

Peeing in a Pool

I’m peeing in your pool, but don’t worry I’ve got my shorts on they filter the pee.

Said someone about to be banned from a pool.

Second-Hand Smoke

Yeah go ahead and smoke inside here – so long as they’re filtered cigarettes. They’re filtered cigarettes, right?

Said nobody ever.

Breath Volume

We exhale 6 liters of air per minute. That is a lot. It is enough to fill a room as it disperses.

Search EBSRS3

All, Rage and Frenzy Politics

Buy and Hold … and Ignore

Somebody in New York has a data project that correlates market news articles to future market moves / short-term volatility. Somebody knows the strength of this correlation and they place their bets accordingly. If the correlation is strong enough, then they are creating the news stories. If it is weak, they are ignoring the news.

What is the cause-effect relationship among news, market moves, and actual events?

Some Cause-Effect Possibilities

A.

1. Something happens.
2. News reports it.
3. Market moves.

B.

1. News reports something.
2. Something else happens in reaction.
3. Market moves.

C.

1. Market moves by wild mob.
2. News reports mostly random speculation / is along for the wild ride.
3. Hedge funds win and lose along with the rest of us, just more in a more complex way.

D.

1. The largest market players have incorporated creating news into their big data market-controlling strategy.
2. Big money / big data analysis creates news stories that create profitable market moves.
3. Market reacts with short-term volatility, biggest hedge funds profit.

A is the ostensible assumption. D is the most cynical. I suspect it is pretty close to option C really, but I don’t know. We as outsiders do not know the answer and I suspect the real answer is a combination. As usual, it depends!

On Market “News”

  1. Misinformation is as bad as lack of information.
  2. The question, “what are reporters saying,” yields infinite random information of unknown value – and therefore zero value.
  3. Speculation is free. The only incentive for someone selling news is to say something alarming and attention-grabbing.
  4. The question, “where are people actually putting their money,” yields better information. However, the average outsider investor can only know where the money really went after it happens.

Where Should I Put My Money?

Short-term, only the most inside people know “real” value of individual investments. No single individual knows the “real” value of every individual stock, hence the “market.”

Long-term, there is a strong incentive by all major parties for the market to go up. This applies to value creation by companies as well as the more cynical policy setting by governments. Therefore buy-and-hold works. Ride the bandwagon!

If you can, put your money right in front of you where it can enhance your own value creation / attention / effort. In other words, put your money where you are the “insider.” If you can, be the insider.

But I’m Curious What’s Happening

Okay, then do not ask the question, “What is the news saying about the market.”

Instead start with the question, “Where has the market gone?” This at least starts you off by knowing where people actually have placed their collective substantive opinion.

All

Who’s Who of Electrical Engineering, and Physics, and Science

1564-1642: Galileo Galilei, Italian, father of observational astronomy, phases of Venus, Jupiter’s satellites, observed Saturn’s rings

1596-1650: René Decartes, French, philosopher, logical method

1623-1662: Blaise Pascal, French, fluid dynamics

1629-1695: Christiaan Huygens, Dutch, Saturn’s rings, pendulum clock

1642-1727: Isaac Newton, published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687

1646-1716: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, French, differential and integral calculus, especially modern conventional notation

1700-1782: Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss, fluid mechanics, probability, statistics

1745 – 1827: Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta, Italian, the battery

1766-1844: John Dalton, English, chemist, physicist, meteorologist, atomic theory of chemistry

1775 – 1836: André-Marie Ampère, solenoid & electrical telegraph

1776-1856: Amedeo Avogadro, Italian, equal volumes of gases under equal pressure and temperature contain equal numbers of molecules

1777 – 1851: Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish, electromagnetism

1789 – 1854: Georg Ohm, German, direct relationship between voltage and current

1791 – 1867: Michael Faraday, English, various, electric motor

1824-1907: William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, thermodynamics, measurement of absolute zero temperature.

1831 – 1879: James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish, electromagnetic radiation

1846 – 1914: George Westinghouse, American, AC electric power

1847 – 1931: Thomas Edison, American, light bulb, various, DC electric power

1856 – 1943: Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American, AC electric power

1879-1955: Albert Einstein, physicist. Born in Germany. 1895 moved to Switzerland. 1896-1901 stateless. 1901 obtained Swiss citizenship. 1905 wrote the Annus Mirabilis papers. 1907-1915 developed general relativity. 1933 cancelled trip to Germany forever and renounced his citizenship at German consulate in Antwerp. 1939 sent the Einstein-Szilárd letter to FDR. 1940 settled in the US and became a US citizen.

All

Master of Energy Engineering

First Term

Power Systems

Power Electronics

Mechanical Drive Systems

Numerical Methods in Energy Sciences

Nuclear Energy: Basic Aspects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=233&v=UlYClniDFkM&feature=emb_logo 

Integrated Problem Solving in Energy

Second Term

Electrical Drives; Advanced Topics in Electrical Machines, Including Implementation Aspects

Power Systems Calculations

Energy Markets and Regulation

Energy Economics

Renewable Energy

Smart Distribution Systems

Energy Challenges

Thermal Systems

Integrated Project in Energy

2nd Year

 

All, Travel

Foreign Film Night!

FFN is an effort to get some culture from around the world – and have an excuse to hang out on Wednesday night. Subtitled, never dubbed.

Upcoming Film Ideas

The Black Book – Dutch

The Wind Rises – Japanese, heart-wrenching WW1

More Studio Ghibli

More French, they have been good.

Das Boot – German

More Zhang Yimou – Chinese director who has been banned multiple times in China.

Wolf Warrior Two – recent Chinese propaganda movie.

Past Films with Rating (out of 4 Stars)

Parasite – 3.5 stars for South Korea. Everybody liked it. Funny and dark.

Dostana – 2.5 stars for Bollywood. Funny and entertaining.

Der Untergang – 3 star for the Germans. Film about the final months of Hitler. Includes famously-memed scene of Hitler ranting to his generals.

Coco avant Chanel – 3.5 stars for the French. Another great French film. The life of Gabrielle Chanel.

The Resistance Banker – 3.5 stars for the Dutch. WW2 Amsterdam Resistance finance.

Mongol – 4 stars for the Russians / Kazaks. About the rise of Ghengis Khan

Amélie – 4 stars for the French. Chick flick, but good.

Spirited Away – 3 wild stars for the Japanese, Studio Ghibli

Bullhead – 1 star for the Belgians. Traumatic scene not outweighed by the movie quality.

Edge of Democracy – documentary about Brazilian politics. Re-watch in person to keep track of characters. Where did the footage come from??

Man of the Year – 2 stars for the Brazilians. Nate’s favorite to learn Portuguese.

The Bird Cage – 3.5 stars for the French.

Force Majeure – 3 stars for the Swedish. Interesting. Deep? Funny?

The Farewell – 3 stars. Pretend Grandma isn’t dying. Chinese culture.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon – 3.5 stars, Chinese.

La Sombra y La Tierra – 2.5 stars for the Colombians.

Dangal – 3.5 stars for the Indians for female wrestling!

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night –

Ratatouille – not really foreign but takes place in Paris. Watched for kids present.

Princess Mononoke

Hero – 3.5 stars for Zhang Yimou.

Raise the Red Lanterns – 3.5 stars, Delaware Hayes classic for Zhang Yimou.

To Live – Nate’s favorite Zhang Yimou. 4 stars. What a period in history for the Chinese.

The Fall of the American Empire –

All, News Organized

Energy News

1 Comment

All news here.

KU Leuven

Leuven Sustainable Earth

Energyville,sustainable energy tech in Genk

Vito, sustainability in Flanders research

KU Leuven Nieuws Interdisciplinariteit

News

IEEE

IEEE Smart Grid

IEEE CommSoc Publications

IEEE PELS Education

IEEE Spectrum Magazine

Electrek: Electrek is a news and commentary site that is tracking, analyzing, and breaking news on the transition from fossil-fuel transport to electric transport.

European Institute of Innovation & Technology News

EIT InnoEnergy Facebook

EIT InnoEnergy LinkedIn

Energy Foundation Blog

European Battery Alliance News

Events

IEEE Columbus Ohio

IEEE Smart Grid events page

IEEE Comm Soc events, search “smart grid” and “power line”

International Conference on Smart Grid

European Energy Innovation Events

Companies and Links

IEEE Learning Network

EDP Open Data

InnoEnergy Online Courses

InnoEnergy Top 10 Innovators Reports

All, News Organized

Rage and Frenzy News Report

5-Star and 4-Star Sources

Local Delaware, Ohio

Main Street Delaware

Delaware Gazette

Northwest Neighborhood Association

Delaware County Historical Society

Delaware Music Academy

Delaware County

Delaware County Parks

Delaware County Sheriff

City of Delaware

DACC

Delaware City Schools

Delaware Township

DMA Events

Ostrander

Buckeye Valley Schools

Olentangy Schools

Union County Ohio

Concord Township

Scioto Township

Millcreek Township

Central Ohio Real Estate News, including Housing Report by Columbus Realtors

Stats I’d like to see monthly:

State

Ohio

Ohio Realtors Home Sales Statistics

Market

S&P 500 Index, 5-star. The index is the news. It is a number set by market money. All the indexes are 5-star by default.

Hussman Funds Market Comment, 5-star. Market opinion, and stated as such. Consistent message.

Nate’s Stuff, 5-star!!

NathanRuffing.com Big News, only the absolute biggest stories of our lives

Check out my friends’ websites, they’re cool.

Rage and Frenzy Politics here on Nate’s Blog

Sports

Chess

Sports Events 2020 – wow everything that isn’t happening.

Search Delaware Hayes Pacers

COVID-19 and Epidemiology in General

I consider this paper to be worth more than everything else written on COVID-19, combined. Literally.

Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, 5-star book, written in 2017. A must-read. It reads like it was written before the COVID-19 outbreak.

CIDRAP podcast, 5-star. Michael Osterholm does his job and reports the science.

Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), 4-star source. Nearly 5-star. Highly relevant. Scientific. Critical when necessary.

Deaths data table from the CDC. 5-star data table. US government statistics are usually consistent and honest. COVID-19 cases are difficult to count and classify. Deaths are more straightforward. The last 7 years average annual flu deaths for the US is ~41,000. Reference. The reason the CDC doesn’t compare average past flu and pneumonia death data to COVID-19 is because they don’t have reliable weekly past flu and pneumonia data, only estimates.

EUROMOMO is the EU equivalent.

China

The Fall and Rise of China, 5-star lecture series. Covers the Opium Wars through 2010. Absolute must-listen to understand China.

The following “Chinese” are not the same. We must know the difference!
  • The CCP
  • China the country
  • Chinese people in China
  • Chinese people in America who will return to China
  • Chinese-American immigrants
  • Americans with Chinese heritage
  • Americans who look Asian

The CCP’s Website: 5-star propaganda. Whatever it says is what the CCP is saying. It is in Chinese of course, but you can paste the link into Google Translate and see it in English.

Current news on China? I lack a good source! Anybody?? Shoot me an e-mail. I’m open to suggestions.

Racial Issues

Keys to Black Wealth: here is a great black movement.

I will listen to black people on black people. Martin Luther King Jr. speeches are timeless. Malcolm X speeches are shocking but interesting and well-spoken. Muhammad Ali was controversial,  and he was a “draft dodger” but he appears to me to have been bravely speaking his mind, not a coward. I like Thomas Sowell and Larry Elder, you may not. Suggestions?

Internet Free Speech and Privacy

SpreadPrivacy.com: DuckDuckGo is dedicated to privacy and they have a privacy blog. No star rating yet, but I have been using the DuckDuckGo search engine for a long time.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) blog: no rating yet. EFF produces Privacy Badger, a browser plugin – very easy to install – that blocks most tracking and shows you which sites are tracking.

Politics

Bovada sports gambling, unfortunately you can’t see the odds anymore without signing up, but if you can find the odds they are accurate. 5-star, is popular in the US and offers odds on political races. Better than the polls. Money is on the line, so their goal is to report the odds as they actually are.

MoFreedomFoundation: 4-star. Rob is the most politically-biased 4-star source on this page. Rob is a one-man polemicist show with consistent message and historical background. Though biased, he makes no bones about it. He is there to state his opinion. I watched almost all his videos from 2016 through 2019 and they remain relevant. Disagree with him? Go ahead, start a video series then! That’s what he did!

Star Rating System

5-star: Near perfect source. Totally unbiased, well cited, self-regulating. I have never found misinformation. Gold standard of information. Often says, “we don’t know …” when they don’t know. Often very boring, require a long time to understand. Demonstrates conscious and consistent attempt to be objective. When there is opinion, clearly labeled as such. Science and statistics used responsibly. Usually reserved for individual stories rather than sources because one must always be wary.

4-star: Great source. No consistent bias, but some misinformation and bias rarely. If opinion, clearly stated as opinion and supported by cited 5 star sources. Consistent, independent, individual opinion makers often receive 4 stars even if biased if they identify as opinion and consistently reveal their sources.

3-star: Usually good information. Information selected with some consistent political bias. Often more entertaining than 4 or 5 star sources.

2-star: clear bias with thin attempt to conceal. Information usually true, but heavily selected to fit a narrative. Often appear to be attempting to create newsworthy thought rather than objectively reporting news or stating opinion. Sources often receive 2 stars rather than 1 star, ironically, because so many people follow these sources that they become news. Often quote science and statistics in a weak superficial manner to support their narrative.

1-star: comical and entertaining. If reality is ridiculous, as it sometimes can be, 1 star sources will be the first to report. 90% of the information reads like historical fiction. Conspiracy theories abound.

3-Star, 2-Star and 1-Star Sources with Explanation

These sources can be useful, but should combine to less than 10% of your information unless you just want entertainment, want a quick explanation of a current “thought” movement, are starting a search for a “4-star plus” source, or you are preparing for war for some reason.

NPR: 3-star. The most publicly-funded US news source. Their bias sometimes goes both ways, so difficult to pin them on one side. Government funded. Though unbiased, they just aren’t that good. Very connected to US universities. My personal peeve is that their necessity to interview the “downtrodden” turns into endless whining and complaining.

BBC News: 4-star or 3-star. Very connected to the British government, but I usually find their stories dispassionate and concise. They must support the British government but English culture is popular – I believe – because the English value truth and transparency.

Joe Rogan, 3-star, is a great source of sources. Joe Rogan often interviews great sources and you can go directly to his interviewees as your source.

US Mainstream Media: 2-star.

Search Thomas Jefferson quotes on newspapers and you will know exactly what I think about mainstream media. The most useful thing the mainstream media has done in my lifetime is help name this post.

Fox News, 2-star.

CNN, 2-star.

New York Times, 2-star.

MSNBC, 2-star.

Washington Post, 2-star.

Their stories are based in truth but they immediately spin them. They sprinkle in just enough truth and “science” to make you feel smart and informed. However, they pick only sources that drive their agenda and usually the most shocking and enraging sources possible. Watching just one side yields a very skewed world view. Watching both sides yields an extreme view that the two sides hate each other and one side is right or the answer is in the middle. None of these things are true. The “right answer” or “solution” appears neither in the battle between these “two sides” nor in the middle. No link here because of the crippling number of ads on their sites. As an American, their bias is pretty easy to pick out but as a foreigner you might just be confused by the chaos.

US Presidential Election 2020

Compelling Trump victory factors

  • Incumbent
  • Strong economy / jobs … (?)
  • Weak Democrat candidates
  • Trump is social media leader.
  • COVID-19 emphasizes social media.
  • Trump picking up minority votes?
  • Bernie splitting Democrat vote, complicating things.
  • Media is so negative, Democrats happy to passively allow Trump to remain in hot seat. Not excited about getting slammed with Biden in charge.

Compelling Democrat victory factors

  • Anybody but Hillary could have beaten Trump in 2016. Hillary was only candidate bad enough Trump could beat
  • Anti-Trump base is energetic and will vote
  • Trump support base is complacent.
  • Trump barely won in 2016, lost popular vote.
  • COVID-19 killing “Trump’s” economy. Bad for incumbent.
  • Media is so negative, Trump supporters will be happy to see Democrat return to hot seat. Tired of constant berating.

Twitter, link goes to your Twitter home. Twitter is news by default depending on who you follow. If enough people think it’s news, they’re right. Get it off your chest. Participate. … Update: I don’t know, even good sources turn to trash on Twitter.

DrudgeReport, 1-star, collection of the newest and most alarming stories by link from around the web. Unvetted. Everything that anybody is saying. Entertaining.

World Economic Forum: Pro-globalization. I’m not familiar enough to rate.

List of definitely un-reliable sources without links: New York Post, Intellihub, Breitbart, …

2020 Archive

Coronavirus 2020 back-story and reading

1918 Flu Pandemic book

2002-2003, SARS

2012 first case, MERS virus

2017: Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, book

24 Jan 2020 Medical Report on Coronavirus including comparison to others like SARS and MERS

COVID-19

Raw Data

Ohio Data

All, English Lessons

English Lesson 12: Music Lyrics

Let’s learn the English:

Have you ever?

Have you ever been?

Have you yet?

Yes, I already did.

with music lyrics.

Step 1: Find good music.

Search YouTube for music and add the word “lyrics.”

For example, search, “have you ever lyrics” on YouTube. You find:

Step 2: Find the English text.

Google, DuckDuckGo, or search AZLyrics for the sing lyrics.

For example, you find:

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brandy/haveyouever.html

Step 3: What does it mean??

Now, copy-paste the text into Google Translate. Learn the whole meaning of the song in your own language!

Step 4: Repeat!

If you like the music, repeat, practice, and learn… in English only!

Some More English Music to Learn

have you ever been

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/patsycline/haveyoueverbeenlonelyhaveyoueverbeenblue.html

haven’t met you yet

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaelbuble/haventmetyouyet.html

already

https://youtu.be/MFG8OAHn65c

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/kellyclarkson/alreadygone.html

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eagles/alreadygone.html