Greetings and welcome from our little tin can by the sea. Wendy and I are doing well, still surviving through the COVID-19 pandemic. I returned to work this week, after taking some time off over fourth of July. There is so much that I wish that I could change about the way my group at work does things. We are a waterfall shop that is using scrum rituals. Everyone is either too afraid or too frustrated to make suggestions to improve what we have. Every suggestion is met with skepticism and irony by leadership, further enforcing the org chart on the team. There are no team decisions - everything is led by leadership. Daily, our architect makes some vague statement without examples that we have to follow. That announcement is typically in an "email of blast" to the entire group and up two levels in management. When I see it, my mind thinks: "applaud in public; correct in private." In the big perspective, I'll try to migrate to a different group and let these folks continue their waterfall ways. There's a comet in the sky! It's visible in the evening in the west. I thank Fred Espenak for capturing it and posting it to Earth Sky's Community Photos. Over the years, comets have been portents of change, and framing the tee-pee in the foreground is very appropriate. This past week, the supreme court ruled that the eastern half of Oklahoma is reservation land. That includes the city of Tulsa! It turns out that the Indian Removal Act of 1830 granted the reservation land "in perpetuity." The forced removal of indigenous peoples from southeast US to Oklahoma became known as the "Trail of Tears" because 4,000 of the 60,000 that were relocated died from exposure, disease, or starvation. After the ruling, lawyers for the Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw tribes began hammering out agreements for governance of the people currently on reservation land, and how that will look in the future. One point of note is that this land has been exploited for oil and gas in the past, and it is currently a fracking hotspot. The tribes may sue to recoup all of the money gained by exploitation of resources on their land. Big time portents!
|
|
| Cases |
Deaths |
| Scope |
Cases |
% Inc. |
Deaths |
% Inc. |
| Worldwide |
12,674,605 |
13.0 |
563,910 |
6.5 |
| United States |
3,294,219 |
13.9 |
136,720 |
3.5 |
| Florida |
244,151 |
36.7 |
4,102 |
11.3 |
| Pinellas County |
10,596 |
37.7 |
229 |
25.1 |
Hi, my name is Steve and I've been a stupid Floridian for seven years. Maybe I should open up a "Floridians Anonymous" group. Bad, bad numbers; terrible. Quoting Dr. Anthony Fauci, "But as a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not." The numbers to the left bear this out. In Florida, it appears that our governor is planning to allow the corona virus a free run through the state. He's not alone; it appears that Texas, California, and Arizona have similar game plans. The chart of Daily Deaths for Florida shows what will happen if we continue on our present course.
The deaths will escalate, until the hospitals are saturated, then the deaths will escalate faster. We are nearly at saturation in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties (St. Pete and Tampa). Miami and Fort Lauderdale are saturated. We are already "ahead of the curve" on this predictive model. The lines that decline show scenarios where mask wearing is mandated and the easing of restrictions is rolled back. A lot of lives would be saved if we did either of these, but, instead, we do nothing. Well, we continue reopening, which I guess is something. At the city level, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale have rolled back some of the easing, closing bars, beaches, and setting restaurant occupancy to a max of 50%. In Pinellas county, we have closed up the bars and instituted mandatory face masks. The mandatory face masks appears to have a 50% adoption rate, with 0% enforcement.
I haven't been out this week, but GasBuddy tells me that the local 7/11 is selling gas for $2.04/gal. The DJIA was essentially flat, starting the week at 25996 and closing at 26074. For closings, Brooks Brothers filed for Chapter 11. The treasury released a partial list of companies that accepted "loans" as part of congress' Paycheck Protection Program. Here's a link to a
searchable database from the washington post. The number of unemployed has decreased to 18 million. However, if someone that was receiving unemployment gets a job, then is laid off again, they cannot re-apply for unemployment. Rigged system.
On the global warming front, we could hit the 1.5 degree C cap set at the Paris Accord by 2024. Another study states that if we cut CO2 emissions today, it would take another 20 years for the temperature to begin decreasing. Pink ice is being reported in the Italian Alps, which can't be good. A judge in Washington D.C. has ordered the Dakota-Access pipeline shutdown, pending an environmental review. The Lakota (Sioux) tribe score a victory.
I'm really sick to my stomach of politics, and I know that I'm facing another four months before the election. So, in the interest of fairness, I'm suspending the politics section. A note of caution to candidates - check with the artist before using their song in your campaign.
Sing hymns, make love, get high, fall dead
He'll bring his perfume to your bed
He'll charm your life 'til the cold wind blows
Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show
- John Wetton, Robert Fripp, and Richard Palmer-James, The great deceiver, Starless and Bible Black, King Crimson, 1974
Meanwhile, on New York City's 5th Avenue, directly in front of Trump Tower:
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| Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP |
