abqtommy
abqtommy's JournalHere's my take on what I saw shopping at WalMart this week. I usually shop on Tuesday and
Friday but his week I went on Wednesday and Saturday/today. Usually I check our mail at our post office box on Friday but I did that today, too.
From what I saw this week it looks like the hoarding spike has begin to level out. This week I've been able to buy things that I haven't been able to the few weeks before, like a 4-pound jar of peanut butter, Oscar Meyer sliced oven-roasted turkey lunch meat and A&W Diet Cream Soda. I actually saw one store worker stocking large packs of toilet paper and there was more liquid dish soap on the shelves. There was an abundance of bread on the shelves that were bare previously. So things are looking better.
I tried to maintain my distance from people I met going about my shopping. At the check-out everybody was maintaining their 6-foot distance so we're doing our part. I got into a conversation with the man in front of me. I told him that I thought I've already had the virus and he told me that he's worried since he hasn't been able to contact two of his sisters. We all have a story but we're doing the best we can.
I always have my home-made disinfectant wipes with me and I use them liberally. (Put some paper napkins in a one-gallon storage bag and douse well with 91% rubbing alcohol.) I use them when I get a cart in the parking lot and when I wipe down my groceries after I get out and put them in my car and of course rub down my hands. I have some spray disinfectant left over from when sewage backed up in our apartment so I use that too on my clothes.
Stay safe, everyone!
Why the humble meat pie defines Australia: from BBC-Travel...
"Even the tiniest of Australian country towns has at least one bakery, selling everything from the classic steak and pepper to more avant-garde versions like an eggs Benedict pie.
By Penny Watson
27 March 2020
As an Australian school kid, the best day of the week was Friday. It marked the start of the weekend, sure, but it was also “lunch order” day, when, instead of the usual cheese sandwich, we’d get to order from the tuck shop. On this day, we’d forgo our lunch boxes and instead pop a dollar note in a brown paper bag with our order written steadfastly on it:
Penny Watson
Grade 1b
1 meat pie (with sauce please)
Thank you
The bag would then be placed in a basket at the front of the classroom, and returned containing said pie, steaming hot, with tomato sauce oozing from a hole in the top.
The meat pie is one of Australia’s most iconic foods, along with Vegemite and pavlova."
more at link: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200326-why-the-humble-meat-pie-defines-australia
This article caught my eye since 1) I enjoy food and 2) I've enjoyed Cornish Pastys in Upper Michigan
and Italian Calzone in many places. (the topic of stuffed pastry desserts is a topic for another
op) Enjoy!
How a lab in Sask. that focuses on animals became Canada's $23M hope for a COVID-19 vaccine
from the CBC website:
"In the global race to find a COVID-19 vaccine, the federal government announced Monday it is pumping $23 million into an academic research lab in Saskatchewan.
The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization - International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) at the University of Saskatchewan started as a modest veterinary lab in 1975. But it has evolved into a world class facility that the Trudeau government is betting can develop a vaccine to stop the pandemic.
The Saskatoon lab already has a head start. It has been working on coronavirus vaccines, primarily for animals, for four decades, including successful vaccines for cattle and pigs."
more at link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-covid-19-vido-intervac-saskatchewan-vaccine-1.5508114
It's good to know that progress is being made in the search for COVID-19 solutions.
Spring in blossom, from Reuters Pictures Of The Week...a pleasant distraction from COVID-19.
"Cherry, peach and almond trees bloom in springtime around the world.
Sunday, March 22, 2020".
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/spring-in-blossom-idUSRTS36XBF
Japanese flu drug 'clearly effective' in treating coronavirus, says China. From The Guardian...
3-18-20
"Medical authorities in China have said a drug used in Japan to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients, Japanese media said on Wednesday.
Zhang Xinmin, an official at China’s science and technology ministry, said favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, had produced encouraging outcomes in clinical trials in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 340 patients.
“It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Zhang told reporters on Tuesday.
Patients who were given the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after becoming positive, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug, public broadcaster NHK said."
more at link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/japanese-flu-drug-clearly-effective-in-treating-coronavirus-says-china
It's good to see more encouraging treatment news each day...
This very real physical attack seen at a Biden rally... A few days ago I mentioned in a reply
on another thread about an attack I had heard/read about. At that time I didn't have a link to the report that I saw but now I do. It's good to know that some demonstrators are willing to embrace
violence...
On Monday, 3-9-20, there was a Biden rally in Detroit. Here is an excerpt from a Politico report:
"Protests at a raucous Joe Biden rally Monday night grew unruly at times, including one prolonged scuffle that knocked a senior Biden aide to the floor of a high school gymnasium."
snip
"Minutes later, a larger group of pro-Green New Deal demonstrators began shouting over Biden’s remarks and waving signs. But as staff members tried moving the group along, Biden senior aide Symone Sanders was hit on the head with an iPad and knocked down. Video of the incident shows her popping right back up; she was reportedly doing fine afterward. Last week, on Super Tuesday, Sanders charged on stage as a protester approached Biden and his wife, Jill, as he spoke in Los Angeles."
Stay safe everyone!
more at link: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/10/joe-biden-detroit-protests-sanders-124874
Oh wotta day! This morning I was looking forward to our usual relaxing Sunday but due to
a couple of people driving recklessly in our building parking area we lost electric power around
1:30 PM And power wasn't restored until 10:40 PM. Then after that it took about a half hour for our cable tv/internet to become operational. I'm either too addicted to The Interwebs or too old or probably
both but all is well now.
To put this in perspective about a year ago we had lighting strike the main transformer that serves our building and we were without power then for 24 hours. So today wasn't so bad, right? I guess not. But during the outage I talked to a neighbor who was using his tablet to keep caught up. So now I'm going
to check that option out. I can't stand being left out and without... 
A comparison between Mad Cow Disease and COVID-19, just for perspective...
I agree that COVID-19 is bad. But there's a lot of information about survivability and that's good.
I previously posted about the hazards of tropical diseases* and just a few minutes ago I was thinking
about other world health alerts I'm familiar with. I came up with Mad Cow Disease that causes the
variant Creutzfeld-Jakob-Disease**. There aren't any incidence maps but lots of chilling information.
* https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213035502
** https://healthresearchfunding.org/18-profound-mad-cow-disease-statistics/
Excerpt: (much more at link** above)
"18 Profound Mad Cow Disease Statistics
Mad Cow Disease is one of the few transmissible diseases that can affect humans, although direct transmission isn’t possible. It is a fatal brain disease and is known to cause the variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, which causes the same symptoms and end result. It is spread through the recycling of cow carcasses back into the livestock’s food supply. The bones are ground up to create protein and then this is fed to the cow. In cows and humans, the disease causes deficits in movement, behavioral changes, and memory disturbances.
Statistics About Mad Cow Disease
1. Eating the muscle tissue of a cow infected does not cause an increased risk of CJD development. It comes from eating the spinal, nervous, or brain tissues of an infected animal.
2. About 85% of the cases of human CJD are considered sporadic, with no known cause behind the development.
3. The number of people who have died because of CJD in the United States: 4.
4. Only four cows in the US have ever been known to be infected with Mad Cow Disease.
5. The number of cases of Mad Cow Disease that have been reported in Canada: 19.
6. In Great Britain, it is believed that over 180,000 cattle have been infected and destroyed because of Mad Cow Disease.
7. The prions that cause Mad Cow Disease are extremely hardy, able to survive in heat that exceeds 1,700F.
8. In 2011, there were only 29 cases of the disease reported around the world, which is a 99% decrease from the record high of 37k cases in 1992.
9. Milk and milk products are not believed to pose any risk for transmitting mad cow disease to humans.
10. The first person to develop symptoms of what turned out to be CJD became ill in January 1994.
11. Symptoms typically don’t start showing up until several years after infection, sometimes taking nearly a decade to appear.
12. By October 2010, a total of 222 definite and probable variant CJD cases had been reported worldwide in residents of 12 countries.
13. Almost five million cattle have been slaughtered to stop the spread of Mad Cow Disease.
14. Mad Cow Disease is sometimes thought to be a variant of a similar disease that affects sheep called Scrapie.
15. In 2010, only 11 infected cattle were registered in the United Kingdom.
16. There are two identified strains of Mad Cow Disease and the atypical strain is believed to occur spontaneously, as it appeared to do in the fourth US case of the disease.
17. In Canada, the chances of a cow having this disease are 3 to 8 per 1 million livestock.
18. In the United States, the chances of an infected cow being in any given herd: 0.167 per 1 million."
When I lived in Wisconsin in1997-2005 there were news reports about deer hunters that came down
with CJD because they were eating the brains from the deer they killed. I don't have a link for that
but it's an illustration of how stupid people can be.
So we survived CJD, except for those people that didn't. The CJD cauused widespread economic harm with many animals killed to prevent the spread of it.
We can survive COVID-19 with what we know now and the odds of that will improve as more new information comes out. Don't be afraid. Take actions to guarantee survival. Don't be stupid. All this
is always good advice!
Sophia Loren: 'Female directors don't yell'/ BBC Online article/see link*
I enjoyed this article since Sophia Loren is one of my favorite actresses. I first became aware of her when I was 7 years old, way back in 1956...
*
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51750210?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world&link_location=live-reporting-story
Guardian interview with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, 2-20 2020...
I enjoy seeing the Guardian interviews, especially this one that reminds me of watching these guys on tv when I was a child.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2020/feb/20/love-and-free-food-mel-brooks-and-carl-reiner-share-the-secrets-of-their-70-year-friendship
"Every evening, Mel Brooks leaves his home in Santa Monica, gets in his car and stares down Los Angeles’ notorious rush-hour traffic to go to Carl Reiner’s house in Beverly Hills. There, the two comedy icons do what they like to do most these days: chat, eat dinner together and watch the long-running quiz show Jeopardy!
“This is a great place because I got friendship, love and free food. Free eats are very important, you know,” says Brooks, as we wait for Reiner in his den. His voice is a little raspier than it once was, but that signature puckishness is fully intact.
Brooks knows this home well because Reiner, 97, has lived in it for 60 years. Gene Kelly used to be his neighbour; Kirk Douglas, 103, until last month, lived close by. Brooks – a mere whippersnapper of 93 – remembers when Reiner moved in because their friendship predates the house: they have been best friends for 70 years.
“Robbie used to sit on the stairs, looking through the banisters, watching us do the 2000 Year Old Man. I’d say, ‘You should be sleeping!’ but he’d just sit there,” says Brooks. (Robbie is better known to those outside the inner Reiner circle as the film director Rob Reiner, Carl’s oldest child and still a baby at 72.)
more at link
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