How COVID-19 is affecting society

[Innula Zenovka]

A timeline of the UK's shambolic response, if anyone's interested

Covid chaos: how the UK handled the coronavirus crisis

A journey through a year of announcements, U-turns, lockdowns, denials, tests – and more than 100,000 deaths

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Waiting for a story of a load of vaccine spoiled in a customs house queue at Calais.

 

[Lexxi]

No longer able to travel (and, at the moment, leave my apartment building) due to COVID, I must travel via pictures. So, was curious what Calais looked like. Apparently looks like below.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

No longer able to travel (and, at the moment, leave my apartment building) due to COVID, I must travel via pictures. So, was curious what Calais looked like. Apparently looks like below.

r/EarthPorn

r/EarthPorn: The internet's largest community of landscape photographers and Earth lovers.

www.reddit.com

 

[Free]

 

[Free]

Yes, Virginia, Santa Claus did test positive."

Sick Santa, Mrs. Claus, may have exposed 50 Georgia kids to Covid

The North Pole's most famous couple may have exposed roughly 50 children to Covid-19 in Ludowici, Georgia at a Long County Chamber of Commerce event.

www.nbcnews.com

A Santa parade and photo-op in Georgia last Thursday may have exposed up to 50 children to Covid-19 after Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus later tested positive for the virus.

 

[Sid]

French president Emmanuel Macron tests positive for coronavirus

Macron and several other European leaders who recently met him go into self-isolation

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Was the Trump administration just inept or were they flat assed evil, full on 666 and deliberately let the crisis get out of hand in order to kill off the people they perceived as those who were unwanted because of their race in America or were perceived as "free loaders" (like the elderly, handicapped and disabled)?

Don't forget they also were also explicitly trying to kill people in "Blue" states, I'm voting for "evil".

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Evernote link because paywall

 

[Ellie]

Rees Mogg is the UK version of Pence. They're obscene, over-privileged, cold & heartless bastards.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

Evernote link because paywall

I wrote to my MP about this. To my surprise I got a personal letter back, rather than the usual form-letter my previous MP used. The subject has been approved for at least one full parlimentary debate, and the number of MP's wanting to speak in that debate is considerably over-subscribed. He thought there would be further debates to follow, so this disgraceful behaviour is not being ignored by our representatives. See External Private Contractors: Government Use and Employment - Wednesday 21 October 2020 - Hansard - UK Parliament

eta: I'm not sure if that URL points to a debate that's already happened, a debate to be held, or some kind of select committee meeting - Innula will know

 

[Sid]

Rees Mogg is the UK version of Pence. They're obscene, over-privileged, cold & heartless bastards.

I don't know Pence well enough, but your discription seems to me spot on for Jacob Rees Mogg.

 

[Sid]

In North East Somerset must live a lot of jerks too (28,360 to be precise), to get that sack of sh.... elected as MP.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

I don't know Pence well enough, but your discription seems to me spot on for Jacob Rees Mogg.

Pence adds a layer of self-righteous religious bigotry and hypocrisy to the mix.

 

[Free]

Reprobates. I wish I could be so restrained in my description of *my* government leaders.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Reprobates. I wish I could be so restrained in my description of *my* government leaders.

There's something about Johnson and his cabinet that evokes rather old-fashioned terms of condemnation -- it's not that long ago that I saw either The Guardian or The Times describe him as a "scoundrel," which seems perfectly apt.

 

[Kalel]

as usual florida is battling itself... no one knows how bad it really is... desantis won't back down and would rather keep business open forcing people to work and go to school as infections count rises...and we are fighting over who gets the vaccine first.... Maybe i'll get the vaccine next christmas...

A mysterious gap in COVID-19 deaths appeared in Florida before the presidential election

An astonishing pattern has emerged in Florida’s COVID death tally — one that suggests the state manipulated a backlog of unrecorded fatalities, presenting more favorable death counts in the days leading up to the 2020…

www.sun-sentinel.com

DeSantis promises to ‘stand in the way’ if local leaders try to shut down restaurants

Despite a recent report by the White House COVID Task Force encouraging state officials to take immediate action in slowing the spread of the virus, Gov. DeSantis wants to keep Florida open for bus…

www.wfla.com

Rogue Florida Guv’s Next Pandemic Fiasco: Vaccine Rollout

States are deciding who to protect first, and some governors have their acts together better than others. Ron DeSantis is off the deep end, experts say.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[Free]

As the world quieted down in 2020, Raspberry Shakes listened

Humble Raspberry Pis helped scientists track the seismic noise people stopped making in 2020.

arstechnica.com

As COVID-19 engulfed our world, the Hollisters, a husband-wife team of Earth science educators, noticed that their Raspberry Shake registered much lower levels of activity than usual. The drop was pronounced at times when their street, a main artery to the local high school, should have been pulsing with teenagers.

[...] Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist who pays particular attention to Earth’s ubiquitous vibrations, discerned a marked decrease in high frequency noise on a permanent seismic station under his purview at the Royal Observatory of Belgium. This peculiar hush was quieter and longer than the one he’d seen during the subdued days between Christmas and New Year, and coincided with his country’s lockdown

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]