COVID-19 updates

[armand]

Not really, it's quite a beautiful town and once home of one of the pioneering pharmaceutical companies, Upjohn.  They did a lot of pioneering research in antibiotics and came up with the prednisone dose pack for various infections.  I've been there a couple of times and it's quite photogenic.  Pfizer purchased Upjohn some years ago and manufactures and packages some pharmaceuticals.

It punches about its weight for sure but it remains a small city and I'm ok with it.

Pfizer is a big employer still but the local mammoth is Stryker. It probably funds an interesting concept of giving back to the community, Kalamazoo Promise.

[armand]

Who knew thoughts and prayers work for something else besides shootings: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/03/21/coronavirus-whitmer-updates-order-assemblies-exempt-churches-penalty/2885395001/?fbclid=IwAR2Lk2bLEuOpz_IwBENh5AlSszQJurSK-C6oYgzbPhWwYsdpZpBw12DEotE

[LesPalenik]

I don't know about you, but Eastern Canada is sounding nice right now, especially the place below. 

An island in a lake on a 2nd island in a 2nd lake on 3rd island sounds like a great place to hide out.

Not only that, but also Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence river.

Canada has also the largest lake in the world - Lake Superior, and the largest island on an inland lake - Manitoulin Island (2766 sq km or 1068 sq. mi) in Lake Huron. In the Thousand Islands area, there are 1684 islands. To be counted as a real island there, the emergent land must be at least 1 square meter in size and support a minimum of two living trees. Some of the islands with a little cabin there are not much larger than that.

Then there is Georgian Bay, a large body of water in Lake Huron. Georgian Bay is almost as big as Lake Ontario. A friend of mine has a house on one decent sized island there, about ten kilometers from the mainland. The island is occupied by several summer residences and a few black bears.

[armand]

Not only that, but also Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence river.

Canada has also the largest lake in the world - Lake Superior, and the largest island on an inland lake - Manitoulin Island (2766 sq km or 1068 sq. mi) in Lake Huron. In the Thousand Islands area, there are 1684 islands. To be counted as a real island there, the emergent land must be at least 1 square meter in size and support a minimum of two living trees. Some of the islands with a little cabin there are not much larger than that.

Then there is Georgian Bay, a large body of water in Lake Huron. Georgian Bay is almost as big as Lake Ontario. A friend of mine has a house on one decent sized island there, about ten kilometers from the mainland. The island is occupied by several summer residences and a few black bears.

In the interest of being accurate, Canada has a part of Lake Superior. After all Isle Royale belongs to the US.
I drove around Lake Huron from Toronto to Sault Ste Marie, very nice area. I would like to revisit those shores, quite scenic.

[Rob C]

Not only that, but also Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence river.

Canada has also the largest lake in the world - Lake Superior, and the largest island on an inland lake - Manitoulin Island (2766 sq km or 1068 sq. mi) in Lake Huron. In the Thousand Islands area, there are 1684 islands. To be counted as a real island there, the emergent land must be at least 1 square meter in size and support a minimum of two living trees. Some of the islands with a little cabin there are not much larger than that.

Then there is Georgian Bay, a large body of water in Lake Huron. Georgian Bay is almost as big as Lake Ontario. A friend of mine has a house on one decent sized island there, about ten kilometers from the mainland. The island is occupied by several summer residences and a few black bears.

Hmmm.... in the current clime I think I'd keep the bears but not the other residences. As long as the virus doesn't strike, living alone has its plusses. But, if one needs help, then that's a different thing altogether.

[Robert Roaldi]

In the interest of being accurate, Canada has a part of Lake Superior. After all Isle Royale belongs to the US.
I drove around Lake Huron from Toronto to Sault Ste Marie, very nice area. I would like to revisit those shores, quite scenic.

This is off-topic I guess, but both northern and southern Georgian Bay are scenic places to visit. The northern loop is much more rugged, quite a few provincial parks with day access permits that are not expensive. There are many maintained trails, and also campgrounds if you're into that. Plan on 4-5 days for each leg. The ferry ride from Manitoulin to Tobermory is fun, complete with a lecture about the underwater geology of the area when I took it.

[armand]

This is off-topic I guess, but both northern and southern Georgian Bay are scenic places to visit. The northern loop is much more rugged, quite a few provincial parks with day access permits that are not expensive. There are many maintained trails, and also campgrounds if you're into that. Plan on 4-5 days for each leg. The ferry ride from Manitoulin to Tobermory is fun, complete with a lecture about the underwater geology of the area when I took it.

I didn't have much time when I was there but even from the car it looked good enough to make me want to come back. I should probably get to the Michigan's side of Huron too, besides Mackinaw Island I didn't see it despite being in Michigan for almost 7 years now. I heard it's a good place to kayak also.

[Robert Roaldi]

I didn't have much time when I was there but even from the car it looked good enough to make me want to come back. I should probably get to the Michigan's side of Huron too, besides Mackinaw Island I didn't see it despite being in Michigan for almost 7 years now. I heard it's a good place to kayak also.

I'm not a water sports enthusiast but I'm told that Georgian Bay has calm waters, and the area around Tobermory is popular with scuba divers.

If you like riding trains, this is a fun day trip and not that far away http://www.agawatrain.com.

[Alan Klein]

So when you get your job back after this is over, assuming you do,  your salary won't be worth anything as the American dollar's value won't be worth anything.  Neither will my Social Security and Pension checks or savings or 401K.  Pumping money into the economy is just going to create inflation.  Currency quantity is suppose to follow production not be created when production is going down.  That just makes it worthless.  Republican politicians are just as bad as Democrat politicians.  They may save the patient but kill the economy. 

I still wonder if this all part of China's plan to become the reserve currency of the world.

Virus aid bill includes $3,000 for families, $4 trillion liquidity for Fed: Mnuchin
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-mnuchin/virus-aid-bill-includes-3000-for-families-4-trillion-liquidity-for-fed-mnuchin-idUSKBN2190LL

[LesPalenik]

In the interest of being accurate, Canada has a part of Lake Superior. After all Isle Royale belongs to the US.
I drove around Lake Huron from Toronto to Sault Ste Marie, very nice area. I would like to revisit those shores, quite scenic.

Isle Royale used to have a healthy herd of woodland caribou, but one winter a pack of wolves moved in over an ice bridge, and they gradually killed all caribou.

Three years ago, I drove from Toronto through Michigan to Sault Ste Marie and caught beautiful sunset scenes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. From Ste Sault Marie, I drove north to the Lake Superior Park which is an amazing area, and then returned to Toronto on the Canadian side. A few years before that, I drove solo to the north shore of Lake Superior and documented it on my blog: https://advantica.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/drive-to-lake-superior/

[armand]

Isle Royale used to have a healthy herd of woodland caribou, but one winter a pack of wolves moved in over an ice bridge, and they gradually killed all caribou.

Three years ago, I drove from Toronto through Michigan to Sault Ste Marie and caught beautiful sunset scenes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. From Ste Sault Marie, I drove north to the Lake Superior Park which is an amazing area, and then returned to Toronto on the Canadian side. A few years before that, I drove solo to the north shore of Lake Superior and documented it on my blog: https://advantica.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/drive-to-lake-superior/

I think your info is inaccurate:
https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/wolves.htm
https://www.npca.org/advocacy/37-wolves-at-isle-royale

[LesPalenik]

I'm not a water sports enthusiast but I'm told that Georgian Bay has calm waters, and the area around Tobermory is popular with scuba divers.

If you like riding trains, this is a fun day trip and not that far away http://www.agawatrain.com.

Robert, I know Georgian Bay quite well. The southern side (around Tobermory) is very different from the northern side. Tobermory has very clear (and cold) water and it is popular with hikers, beach lovers (rocky beaches) and divers. The east side of the Tobermory Peninsula has calmer water, protected from the prevailing west winds.

However, IMO, the most scenic part is the northeastern part between Parry Sound and Killarney. In calm water, this area with many islands and protected coves is an absolute pleasure for paddling, especially in the morning, but usually by the afternoon the west winds create large waves and whitecaps which can be difficult and dangerous for paddling, so you have to carefully choose a calm time period with low winds. On one occasion, I drove the 400km distance from Toronto to Killarney only to find the winds and waves too dangerous for paddling to the islands, and had to change my plans to interior hiking.
 
Here are some of my images from the Georgian Bay area: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/les-palenik?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=188486

[Robert Roaldi]

So when you get your job back after this is over, assuming you do,  your salary won't be worth anything as the American dollar's value won't be worth anything.  Neither will my Social Security and Pension checks or savings or 401K.  Pumping money into the economy is just going to create inflation.  Currency quantity is suppose to follow production not be created when production is going down.  That just makes it worthless.  Republican politicians are just as bad as Democrat politicians.  They may save the patient but kill the economy. 

I still wonder if this all part of China's plan to become the reserve currency of the world.

Virus aid bill includes $3,000 for families, $4 trillion liquidity for Fed: Mnuchin
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-mnuchin/virus-aid-bill-includes-3000-for-families-4-trillion-liquidity-for-fed-mnuchin-idUSKBN2190LL

For fun the other day I travelled down a couple of wild-ride interweb rabbit holes. In one, they blamed the outbreak on the Chinese who developed the virus and unleashed it to destroy the American economy, despite the fact that they want/need American buyers of their exports. In another rabbit hole, they blamed the outbreak on special USA government labs that produced the virus to decimate the Chinese economy, despite the fact that they would also harm themselves. There were reasons given by both camps why they decided to proceed despite the collateral self-damage, but I didn't read any of that because I haven't finished building my Faraday cage yet and only read that kind of stuff when I'm safely inside it.

In the world of physics, an electron and a positron (aka anti-electron) pair will annihilate each other in a flash of "light". If the interweb were like physics, those two groups would meet up and disappear. But the interweb isn't like that, instead both groups grow in size. I wonder if they are as big in number as the flat earth believers. I would like to see a large Venn diagram of all these groups to see how much they overlap.

[Robert Roaldi]

Robert, I know Georgian Bay quite well. The southern side (around Tobermory) is very different from the northern side. Tobermory has very clear (and cold) water and it is popular with hikers, beach lovers (rocky beaches) and divers. The east side of the Tobermory Peninsula has calmer water, protected from the prevailing west winds.

However, IMO, the most scenic part is the northeastern part between Parry Sound and Killarney. In calm water, this area with many islands and protected coves is an absolute pleasure for paddling, especially in the morning, but usually by the afternoon the west winds create large waves and whitecaps which can be difficult and dangerous for paddling, so you have to carefully choose a calm time period with low winds. On one occasion, I drove the 400km distance from Toronto to Killarney only to find the winds and waves too dangerous for paddling to the islands, and had to change my plans to interior hiking.
 
Here are some of my images from the Georgian Bay area: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/les-palenik?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=188486

Thank you, beautiful work. We were in Sudbury, North Bay, Parry Sound, Killarney and Killbear parks last autumn. The weather did not cooperate and I wasn't happy with my most of my pics but posted them anyway (https://robertroaldi.zenfolio.com/p419962670). My wife is a painter and we were there mostly to get raw material for her. We only spent one afternoon in Killarney and another in Kilbear. I had been to North Bay and Parry Sound a few times in a previous life when I did a lot of marshalling at car rallies, when I spent a lot of time down MNR gravel roads fighting off insects with a stopwatch in my hand.

A friend from Sudbury told me that there was a group of students from Killarney village at his high school. The poor kids spent 90 min each way to school every day, and much longer in winter. That must be a long white knuckle ride down a deserted winter road during a Georgian Bay lake effect blizzard.

[armand]

It's called folie a plusieurs, once they go down that path they lose perspective because the people/places they frequent share similar thoughts, and when they hear something contradictory they are very good at excuses on why the others are wrong.

[armand]

For fun the other day I travelled down a couple of wild-ride interweb rabbit holes. In one, they blamed the outbreak on the Chinese who developed the virus and unleashed it to destroy the American economy, despite the fact that they want/need American buyers of their exports. In another rabbit hole, they blamed the outbreak on special USA government labs that produced the virus to decimate the Chinese economy, despite the fact that they would also harm themselves. There were reasons given by both camps why they decided to proceed despite the collateral self-damage, but I didn't read any of that because I haven't finished building my Faraday cage yet and only read that kind of stuff when I'm safely inside it.

In the world of physics, an electron and a positron (aka anti-electron) pair will annihilate each other in a flash of "light". If the interweb were like physics, those two groups would meet up and disappear. But the interweb isn't like that, instead both groups grow in size. I wonder if they are as big in number as the flat earth believers. I would like to see a large Venn diagram of all these groups to see how much they overlap.

It's called folie a plusieurs, once they go down that path they lose perspective because the people/places they frequent share similar thoughts, and when they hear something contradictory they are very good at excuses on why the others are wrong.

[LesPalenik]

I think your info is inaccurate:
https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/wolves.htm
https://www.npca.org/advocacy/37-wolves-at-isle-royale

which part of the info is inaccurate?

AFAIK, all caribou on Isle Royale have been killed by the wolves in the last century, which eventually led also to the demise of the wolves. The last caribou was seen on the island in 1925. However, in the recent years, the moose moved in and prospered, but that is an entirely different animal. In the recent years, the U.S. National Park Service tried to reintroduce wolves to the island from Minnesota and Ontario, with mixed results. It seems that the latest attempts to bring in the wolves from Canadian Michipicoten island were more successful, most likely because those wolves are larger and used to harsher conditions and moose hunting.

[armand]

which part of the info is inaccurate?

AFAIK, all caribou on Isle Royale have been killed by the wolves in the last century, which eventually led also to the demise of the wolves. The last caribou was seen on the island in 1925. However, in the recent years, the moose moved in and prospered, but that is an entirely different animal. In the recent years, the U.S. National Park Service tried to reintroduce wolves to the island from Minnesota and Ontario, with mixed results. It seems that the latest attempts to bring in the wolves from Canadian Michipicoten island were more successful, most likely because those wolves are larger and used to harsher conditions and moose hunting.

When I read it in my mind it sounded like a recent event and caribou=moose if I don't refresh my knowledge on the subject on a regular basis 

[Robert Roaldi]

It's called folie a plusieurs, once they go down that path they lose perspective because the people/places they frequent share similar thoughts, and when they hear something contradictory they are very good at excuses on why the others are wrong.

Merci. "Folie à plusieurs", mon épouse aimera bien ça.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I don’t know or care why you do this. Is this how you truly are inside? I could have gone to big cities and bigger hospitals but there is always a compromise, Miami was actually my other main offer when I chose Kalamazoo and that despite having family there. I recall that when you had no job in Chicago you were more humble, but it appears memory is short.

I had this topic closed for half an hour because of the crap and then I thought maybe others will benefit. I was wrong, there are those few who just can’t control themselves.

Gee, man, relax.

Between Chicago and Miami, I spent a year and and a half in Warsaw, Indiana, so-called Orthopaedics Capital of the world, working for Johnson & Johnson. If anything, the comment was self-deprecating, given that Warsaw is about 1/5 of the Kalamazoo size.