Covid Data Visualizations Courtesy Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center I have drilled down to State/Province maps and then selected Idaho: From the above we can readily visualize the impact of vaccines arriving on the scene: As vaccinations ramp up the weekly cases and deaths decline. Shortly after vaccinations level off (read covidiot anti-vaxxer hold outs) the highly contagious delta variant arrives and both cases and deaths rise exponentially. Exponential growth is particularly evident in the Weekly Deaths graph, rampaging amongst the unwashed until hospitals become overwhelmed and "Crisis Care Mode" is declared. Continuing to focus on deaths, since so many hereabouts claim they've had hangovers worse than Covid** and that people are not dying, we may further observe the following take home from the last two weeks: Week of 9/12: I'm interpreting the graph to read appox. 95 deaths. Week of 9/19: Deaths have now reached new peaks since the Covid-19 epidemic began at approx. 165. That is approx. a 60% increase in deaths in just the past week. The astute among us may note also that while the increase in new cases has begun to level off, deaths continue to rise exponentially. Perhaps stemming from our maxed out health care system? Next couple of weeks should be... "interesting"... How are things in your neck of the woods, eh? ** A certain steak house a couple towns west is even selling t-shirts proudly proclaiming thus - among other defiant alt-right slogans. Sigh.. stupid is as stupid does...

Facebook paid billions extra to the FTC to spare Zuckerberg in data suit Facebook conditioned its $5 billion payment to the Federal Trade Commission to resolve the Cambridge Analytica data leak probe on the agency dropping plans to sue Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg individually, shareholders allege in a lawsuit. In suits made public Tuesday, two groups of shareholders claimed that members of Facebook’s board allowed the company to overpay on its fine in order to protect Zuckerberg, the company’s founder and largest shareholder. The complaints, which cite internal discussions among Facebook’s board members, were filed in Delaware Court of Chancery last month. “Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and other Facebook directors agreed to authorize a multi-billion settlement with the FTC as an express quid pro quo to protect Zuckerberg from being named in the FTC’s complaint, made subject to personal liability, or even required to sit for a deposition,” one of the suits alleged. .... The Senate Commerce Committee said last week that it was opening a probe into how the company downplayed its own research on how Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram worsens mental health and body image issues for teens. (Emphasis added) Well, well, well.. Told myself I was going to take a break from this but.... surprise, surprise, surprise... Heh, not too difficult to dig dirt on FB and Zuckerfuck. All you need to do is wait a week or three. And pay attention. Pretty much proof positive (as if we needed more) that we do indeed have a two tiered justice system: One for the Aristocracy, and another for "we the sheeple". We now return you to your regularly scheduled mind numbing programming.

@toby New to me as well, I heard it on a film soundtrack (The Old Guard) and listened to it on YouTube along with some of her other tunes.

LAPD officers told to collect social media data on every civilian they stop The Los Angeles police department (LAPD) has directed its officers to collect the social media information of every civilian they interview, including individuals who are not arrested or accused of a crime, according to records shared with the Guardian. .... Surveillance concerns In 2015, the department added “social media accounts” as a line on the physical field interview cards, according to a newly unearthed memo from the previous LAPD chief, Charlie Beck. “Similar to a nickname or an alias, a person’s online persona or identity used for social media … can be highly beneficial to investigations,” he wrote. While the social media collection has gone largely unnoticed, the LAPD’s use of field interview cards has prompted controversy. Last October, prosecutors filed criminal charges against three officers in the LAPD’s metro division, accusing them of using the cards to falsely label civilians as gang members after stopping them. That unit also has a history of stopping Black drivers at disproportionately high rates, and according to the LA Times, has more frequently filled out cards for Black and Latino residents they stopped. Meanwhile, more than half of the civilians stopped by metro officers and documented in the cards were not arrested or cited, the Times reported. The fact that a department under scrutiny for racial profiling was also engaged in broad scale social media account collection is troubling, said Levinson-Waldman. Now isn't that special? Big Brother is freakin' out of control. And has been for far too long now. So much of "Land of the Free", eh?

Home made blueberry pie. Oh my!

Another hiker found buried under rocks. A group of hikers located Morell's body on Saturday in the White Tail Peak area after first noticing a piece of hiking equipment on the trail. McQuillan said the hikers were aware of the search efforts and a closer look of the area revealed Morell's body beneath what appeared to be a rock slide in an area that had been previously searched. https://forums.redpointuniversity.com/topic/410/missing-people-found-and-not-found/4

If anyone wants to augment their vintage gear collection, I will be in Yosemite Valley early October with a large collection of 1960's and 70's iron. I am selling bout half of my substantial pin rack.

@Moose said in Random Photo Thread: Is the lack of ascents more a function of remoteness, or rainfall? That's impressive looking! Partly remoteness. After all, it is over 30 miles from the city -- who could possibly contemplate that distance without quivering in fear! I suppose you could also say partly rainfall. After all, it does rain here in the winter, and snow at higher elevations. So there are probably only about six months of the year when that peak, and others like it, are reasonable objectives. No, the real reason is simply an overwhelming number of incredible peaks and an underwhelming number of local climbers. Well, that combined with a different kind of remoteness than you were probably thinking of. Once you are here, getting to all those incredible peaks and walls is relatively straightforward. Might take a day, with a bit of bushwhacking, but nothing much different from a trip into the North Cascades. It's the "once you are here" part that is the barrier. You can be in Yosemite within a couple of hours of leaving the Bay Area. The mountains here are a lot closer to Vancouver than Yosemite is to the Bay Area, but... Well, yeah everyone in Vancouver only wants to pile onto the already-crowded rock at Squamish, or maybe do some alpine climbing in nearby areas well described in guidebooks. Getting here takes a minimum of six hours, and the guidebook only covers a very few things. But, anytime you want to try something beyond the guidebook, let me know. (Uh, as in I can give you some beta or connect you with someone who will give you some beta, not as in "I will charge up unclimbed alpine faces with you.")

@neebee My sis-in-law has tentative plans for a trip east this Fall to visit Anna at Westpoint. That is New York though and I am uncertain as to details for other eastern sea board states. Another possibility: One of my neighbors is a "hauler". I do not know him well but I visit with him briefly fairly often on my walks and he seems like a good guy. I feel like he'd be trustworthy. Older, retired man. Unfortunately, his wife got Alzheimers and memory care facilities are expensive so he's back to hauling with his F350 diesel dually. Just left for a New York run. Too bad you're about a week too late to piggy back on that one. I think it will be about another week before he's back, iirc. Would you like me to make inquiries when he returns?

The family, that was all found, dead, and their dog, on the path... this was so very terrible, for them... so far-- there is no new info?? Do any of you know of danger from mines/polluted air? or-- bad water in yosemite area, this year? thank you all...

from two days, ago... i got the huge sunflower, that it was on, too!! hugs, have missed you all... i love the pics, here... thank you all... going to see them, later... busy busy busy-- but a GOOD busy...

We shall skip the politard daily and cut right to the heart of the matter, eh? A dying patient? Can the surgeon be summoned in time? If so, will they possess the requisite courage and skill? Hmmm.... inquiring minds are curious... “This is a lose-lose”: Drought, wildfires complicate ... California water plans An incendiary political question at any time, changes to the system put in place under former President Donald Trump would be sure to set off a political storm during a punishing drought that has cut some farms' water deliveries to zero. "None of the options for the federal government in this drought would be anything but controversial," said Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit think tank that analyzes California policies. "This is a lose-lose; whatever you do, it's going to be highly controversial with someone." At the heart of the fight is the Trump administration's rewrite of endangered species rules, which limit the amount of water that can be pumped from the state's water hub in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Central Valley farms. Trump used California's water wars as a political cudgel, blaming environmental protections for agriculture's water woes during one of his campaign-style rallies in the conservative Central Valley, and tapping the lobbyist for the state's most powerful agricultural district, David Bernhardt, to be his Interior secretary. Green groups are desperate to overturn the Trump-era rules and want the Interior Department to craft new, far more protective ones. They say the administration's decision to leave the contentious Trump-era rules in place for months does not jibe with Biden's efforts to cast himself as an environmental champion, and could lead to the extinction of endangered salmon. But the powerful Central Valley agricultural interests that benefited from those Trump policies are praising Biden's "deliberate" approach. In other words.... Politardics are per usual.... We're fsck'd... Edit: Uhhmmm... but what about salmon and other anadromous fisheries sport and fishermen lobbies? Well, I can speak from experiences as a fisheries biologist that they are dwarfed by Big Ag. So what, will we, as humans do to preserve that upon which our very existence relies? Turns out... not much. Greed sure does lead to short sightedness in the extreme, eh? The Biden administration’s Bureau of Reclamation has taken some steps to stave off the effects of the drought on fish and other species, like reducing water flows for power generation at Shasta Dam to preserve cold water for later in the season when fish need it to keep their eggs cool. However, environmental groups say the administration should have gone further in cutting water deliveries to agricultural customers, pointing to the deaths of adult salmon caused by rising water temperatures in May and June. And Reclamation's plan to manage the Sacramento River still predicts more than four-fifths of this year's eggs will die due to high water temperatures. "It seems like the Bureau of Reclamation is operating exactly the same as if Donald Trump was still the president and all those terrible appointees were still in place," said Bob Wright, a lawyer representing environmental groups in water litigation. "As far as the Bureau of Reclamation and what they're doing with water, there's been no change." Oh, smell, guess there is only one thing left to do, eh? Happy RTT! Wear 'em if ya' got 'em!

@WyoRockMan said in Where Is This ?: @toby Devil's Tower is correct. Here's Catherine Destivelle climbing "El Matador" (Picture 1). Perhaps the finest stemming pitch around....I'm glad there isn't video, and especially audio, of my attempt. CD-El Matador Holy, holy, guacamole!! Somehow I'd missed viewing the above linked vid. Mea culpa! Awesome sauce, indeed! Although... I remember pretty much being on paved roads when I was there. Must not have been in too an adventurous a mood at the time?

Hummingbird in flight stop action Ooohh, la, la!! I dig these little mason jar feeders. Nectar should be changed at least twice a week and these puppies are sized just right. I have a few strategically located around the yard. Not too shabby for a little pocket travel camera. Pretty zoomed here and, iirc, shooting at something like 1/2000s. Could definitely use a few more megapixels.

@toby Yeah...makes sense to call it. Unfortunately, the thought that you can talk sense into a good percentage of the population about vaccination is pretty well gone. It's gonna be a longer haul than we thought it'd be.

LOL! I make coffee...AND I climb! I'm like a super hero! (And you are always welcome down here, if they let your kind over the border again...)

@Tobia A bit more subdued this year due to temps well in excess of 100 degrees these past several days but a few mortars are still boomin'.... Kids are grown and gone and there are large lots w/dry weeds and such hereabouts so I don't blow much up nowadays but definitely had our share of the fun in years gone past.

Mark Powell was my Meteorology Teacher at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. He truly was a character, he made learning fun! I will never forget his shouting out a date and pointing at a student and saying "Solstice, or Equinox?" He was a classic!!

Happy Father's Day 2021! This is a great Father's Day remembrance. Deserves a replay... Sorry, no train wreck jell-o cake. Steaks, bakers and lemon meringue pie are on the menu.

There are cacti around, but you rarely use them for holds. Actually Joshua Tree has a lot more spines. The wide crack above was unclimbed before I did it. Working man's 5.11 and 5 stars "Siete Pecados Capitales" (7 deadly sins)