No Longer the World's Slowest Blog
Not-so-Occasional Comments on Life, Death and Many Things in Between by Laurie Mann
Wednesday, November 02, 2022
If You Submitted an Absentee Ballot in Pennsylvania (Old information unfortunately)
Wednesday, February 02, 2022
The Downfall of Google (or Alphabet)
Source Forge encourages people to write reviews of software products. While I was once a strong Google evangelist, I'm not anymore, so I reviewed Google.:
"Google is now a paid-ad search, not a data search"
Pros: It used to be very useful and still can be at times. Google used to base its catalog on relevant data found in the Web site, and this is still true in some subject areas.
Cons: Paid ads and Wikipedia references can dominate search results in some subject areas and are sometimes irrelevant to the search. Google is practically useless for finding travel information. Sites like Tripadvisor and booking.com buy so many ads for so many tourist sites, a casual user might think the only way to visit certain areas is to go through third party sites.
Overall: For the last few years, Google has been putting paid ads and Wikpedia over actual search results. While I have been a daily user of Google for over 20 years, I'm going to use other search engines in the future. Google search results page should have three columns - one for actual results based on page content, one for ad-based results and one for Wikipedia.
Thursday, October 07, 2021
Why Do Anti-Science People Even Want to Go to Science Fiction Conventions?
I don’t understand why anti-science people even want to attend science fiction conventions that have rules dictated by science to prevent illnesses.
Take the way Con Suites have changed over the last decade or so -- the food handling & distribution rules have gotten stricter. As a result, less Norovirus and the like spreading at cons over the last few years.
And I won't even remind people that by the late '80s, a bowl of condoms was generally available in many Con Suites. Why? Because science learned that you were less likely to get AIDS and other such diseases if you used condoms when you had sex. And most fans understood what that meant.
Now, conventions are starting to reopen with strict rules about vaccinations and masking. I’ve worn masks up to 10 hours a day while working on movies/TV shows - it didn’t kill me. There haven’t been major COVID-19 outbreaks lately on any movie/TV production as masking rules are strict & most people are vaxxed.
As cons reopen, they’re trying to not spread a potentially deadly disease. I will only go to cons with strict rules so long as COVID-19 is so active. We had hoped to go to Capclave last week but had a family funeral to attend. Capclave was about 2/3rds its regular size, but the people who attended seemed to have a good time despite the masking requirement.
We have started to go to movies and concerts again, but we always wear M95 masks in theaters.
We hope to take our first European cruise next year, on Viking, which has strict rules about vaccinations and masking. Most current cruisers report that most of Europe is open, most areas require masks in public and many require some sort of vaccination card. That makes the cruise and touristing sound very safe.
COVID-19 proves you can’t fight science - science always wins.
Found a science-based graphic from the summer of 2020 that shows wearing masks does not reduce the oxygen you breathe in. This was done by Dr. Megan Hall who had treated many COVID-19 patients and tried to reassure them with facts about masking:
2022.01.07. Things have changed some since I wrote this with the rise of the very transmissible Omicron variant. Luckily, most people who've had 3 shots of any vaccine tend to have something that's more like a mild cold or fever - so we're getting more transmission but less severe illness and fewer deaths among vaccinated people. Not sure if TV shows/movies are generally in production. In mid-December, just as Omicron was getting more common, we went to the World Science Fiction Convention in DC, a convention that required people be vaxxed and masked. About 2,500 people attended (we think - they never did announce a real number). The weather was mostly very nice so people could open their windows and congregate on balconies. We heard about 30 people developed breakthrough infections after the convention, most fairly mild.
Friday, September 17, 2021
An Attempt to Talk Sense to Republican Legislators in Pennsylvania
Sunday, July 18, 2021
The Importance of Evelyn Gold...and a Rant
Sunday, May 30, 2021
Never Forget the Senators Who Voted Against the Capitol Insurrection Commission
I am still angry over the #SeditionCaucus. I'm angrier over the Senators who voted down a Congressional Commision to investigate the 1/6 Capitol Insurrection. Never forget that these people did not believe we should have a formal investigation over a group of Trumpists whose behavior led to the deaths of multiple people on the grounds of the Capitol & caused millions of dollars in damage to the building:
NAYs ---35
Barrasso (R-WY)
Boozman (R-AR)
Capito (R-WV)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Cramer (R-ND)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hagerty (R-TN)
Hawley (R-MO)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Lummis (R-WY)
Marshall (R-KS)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Rubio (R-FL)
Scott (R-FL)
Scott (R-SC)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Tuberville (R-AL)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)
Not Voting - 11
Blackburn (R-TN)
Blunt (R-MO)
Braun (R-IN)
Burr (R-NC)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Murray (D-WA)
Risch (R-ID)
Rounds (R-SD)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sinema (D-AZ)
Toomey (R-PA)
As awful as the people who voted against the comission are, the people who were too cowardly to show up and vote were even worse. I have never seen a vote where 11 senators did not show up in recent times. And for people like Sinema and Toomey to say "I couldn't be there but I would have voted yes." is way beyond hypocritical.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Letter to Senator Toomey Regarding the COVID-19 Relief Bill
Dear Senator Toomey
I appreciate that three times this year, you have voted your conscience rather than follow Republican dogma. Please do something to help the average Pennsylvanian more than your support of the Trump "detax-the-rich" tax bill did in 2017 - vote FOR the COVID-19 relief bill. The stimulus payments are very important to the unemployed and the under-employed. Any stimulus we get will go to our local food bank and other charities because we know how much the money is needed by so many.
There have been many complaints about the move to have the over-indebted college graduates' college loan debt forgiven or reduced. A $15 minimum wage would help graduates with loans and minimum jobs to pay off more of their loans. It would lift millions of families out of poverty the way that Reganomics never did.
It's your choice. Can you vote your conscience one more time?
Laurie Mann
Pittsburgh, PA
Thursday, January 07, 2021
Never Forget the Sedition Caucus
These people continued to question the right of states to certify their own elections after Trump's domestic terrorists invaded the Capitol on 1/6/21. When Congress reconvened after the terrorists left the Capitol (and only about 50 of them were arrested despite the damage and bringing weapons to the Capitol), they continued with their "The election was fraudulent for Biden" mantra. But, by 3:45am on 1/7/21, the votes cast were acknowledged by Congress and Joe Biden's election to the presidency was formally certified.
But it's important to never forget who encouraged "the election was fraudulent for Biden" lie beyond Trump - many Congressional Republicans. Most of them want support by Trump Cultists in the future. Trump Cultists are not going away. But, even though many Republicans voted for Trump, I don't think all Trump voters are Trump cultists. [[3/17 note: And, in fact, over 100,000 Republicans have left the party since the Capitol Insurrection]] Which means, in a few months or years, these people may see that aligning themselves with Trump may not get them elected. They may claim that they really didn't stand with Trump. These people absolutely engaged in the seditious act of denying the reality of an election. These members of Congress should never be elected to any office in the future by any rational voter:
And, never forget the Senators who voted against Capitol Insurrection Commission, and those who couldn't be bothered to vote at all.
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
COVID-19 Spread After 9/22 Trump Rally in Moon Township, PA, Part 3
How many of his own voters does a maskless, crowded, shoutfest called a Trump rally sicken or even kill?
Three weeks ago, Trump had large rally in Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. A few thousand attended from western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio & the panhandle of West Virginia.
So far, there's no evidence that #COVID has increased much in these areas:
Sadly, Pennsylvania "turned orange" in its COVID-19 outbreak over the last few weeks, probably mostly due to the Penn State Surge. It has been yellow most of the year, and Allegheny county is still yellow.
October 13 map
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Buy a "Science Always Wins" shirt!
Thursday, October 01, 2020
COVID-19 Spread After 9/22 Trump Rally in Moon Township, PA, Part 2
How many of his own voters does a maskless, crowded, shoutfest called a Trump rally sicken or even kill?
A week ago, Trump had large rally in Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. A few thousand attended from western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio & the panhandle of West Virginia.
So far, there's no evidence that #COVID has increased much in these areas:
COVID-19 spreads gradually. It can take a couple of days to a couple of weeks for the number of cases to increase by much. Here's are detailed Allegheny County maps for 9/23 and 9/30:
So far, there's no evidence that COVID-19 has increased much in the Allegheny County as a result of Trump's recent maskless rally. Which is good so far. Will double-check again next week.