A busy two weeks

So many things happened these past two weeks.

A friend started a Facebook group called “Pandemic Positivity.” Only positive comments allowed.

Zoom social distancing evening with friends.

Students have moved online, with only a few minor glitches and only a few panic attacks. I received fewer emails than anticipated.

More videos made for student assignments.

I am adjusting to living with my wife, in the same state, and in the same house. Thank goodness her home is large.

Driving Washington County backroads to look at bluebonnets and paintbrush.

Working on putting the ohana back together after it was remodeled in January.

Purchased two domain names. Candiglancyartist.com as a site to sell her paintings. Fglancyediting.com to sell my editing services aimed primarily at academic researchers. (Thank you, Dr. Angela Eaton.)

The only thing in the news is the coronavirus and the White House idiot making misstatements. That is what the news media calls his lies.

Now to write down a list of all that I need to accomplish for my class this next week. I was going to make mental notes, but they seem to be written with invisible ink.

Small world

If anyone did not realize what a small and interconnected world it is, they should now. It has taken less than three months for Covid-19 to spread across the world. The supply chain is global. We get medicines from many countries. For example, surgical masks are supplied from many countries including France and China.

In the USA, we eat grapes from Portugal, chocolate from Africa, bananas from central America, drink coffee from south and central America, wine from Chile, and Australia, tea from India and China. I am sure you can think of more examples.

Tourism is international. Last summer in Costa Rica, we met people from the Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Canada, and England. At the university, I have students from Denmark, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, and even Texas. Go to Disneyland when it reopens if you don’t believe travel is global.

No man is an island, entire of itself (John Donne, 1624). No country is an island either.

Doldrums

Do you ever have a day that is just blah, like being stuck in the doldrums? That is the way my day is. I just can’t get going on anything, which is too bad. Today is a teaching day. My office hours are from 9 am to noon. I had three students stop by for assistance, which was a slight diversion. I can only read so much news, and then I really am depressed. My university has not prepared any contingency plan. They have scheduled a meeting tomorrow for the administrators to think about contingency plans. They are as well prepared for a pandemic as the Trump administration was, which is to say not at all. It is days like this that I think about ending my teaching career. Tomorrow will be better, and I have next week (Spring Break) to recover. As Yogi Berra, the great American zen philosopher, said, “It ain’t over until it's over,” and “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Economic effects of the coronavirus.

Think of all of the businesses that have been affected by the coronavirus. Most of the factories in China have been shut down for weeks. Any product or part that comes from China either is or will be in short supply. Some of these include toys, automobiles, soy sauce, video-game consoles, almost everything in your local Hobby Lobby and Michaels, umbrellas, baby carriages, and strollers. Even sales of Corona beer are off.

With people not traveling, any business that depends on tourism is suffering. These include airlines, hotels, restaurants, theaters, Broadway shows, taxi companies, taxi drivers, and even going to the top of the Empire State Building. Costa Rica and Italy are just two of the many countries whose economy is dependant on tourism. The economy of Hawaii and New York City depends on tourism. Tourism is a significant component of the economy of many cities and states. We had a company coming to speak at the university that canceled. The company put a freeze on all travel.

Also, with reduced or almost no shipments from China, the shipping companies are affected, not only ocean freight but companies like the USPS, UPS, and FedEx. The only parts of the economy that has not been harmed are the face mask and hand sanitizer manufacturers. Is it any surprise that the stock markets have fallen almost 20%? Are we headed to a recession? Or are we already there?

Fake News

I keep reading about fake news, misinformation, and hoaxes on the Internet created by fake people. I wondered how easy it is to create fake news on social media. So I first opened the Tor browser, which prevents people from tracing your IP address. I looked at Twitter and found that I needed an email address to create a Twitter account. So I went to Hotmail.com and created an email account using a fake name. I then went to Twitter and created an account. I can now Tweet to the White House Tweeter with no one able to identify me. I thought about creating a Facebook account or Instagram account in my new fake persona, but lost interest in the exercise. This took about five minutes. Of course, I already had the Tor browser from a previous look at the dark web. It would take a few minutes more if you needed to download the Tor browser. https://www.torproject.org/download/  You would be shocked at what you can find on the dark web.

Coronavirus

The coronavirus has been occupying the news every day. The head of the World Health Organization is reporting daily on the global spread of the disease. The US President held a conference with “experts” and pharmaceutical companies. My university canceled Spring break trips to Italy and is requiring anyone returning to the university from another country is screened for the coronavirus.

From a non-medical perspective, this appears to be similar to the flu; and yes, people still die from the flu. Those at most risk appear to be those with compromised immune systems, mostly the elderly. Since the CDC just got test kits to hospitals, I don’t think there is any way to know the extent of the problem. I suspect that it is already in the US and likely in my university. I have observed that the number of cases of the flu has dramatically increased in the last few weeks. I expect that we will all catch the coronavirus in the next months. The reason for this conclusion is that the virus can be spread before any symptoms appear and the incubation time is somewhere between two and four weeks. The experts do not know the incubation time. Stay healthy and keep your immune system secure appears to be the best advice.