Today’s #COVID19 data is not good — not only are cases continuing to grow, as expected, but there are signs that that growth is accelerating. Too early to say for sure, but the last two days of reports suggest the fourth wave may have found another gear…
Today reported 625 newly confirmed cases. That’s more than double last Wednesday’s 278.
The weekly average is up to 400/day, from 233/day a week ago.
Over the last two weeks, positivity rates have nearly tripled; cases have nearly quadrupled; hospitalizations nearly doubled.
It’s just a few days of data so far, but you can see the trajectory change in our current positivity line — eerily mirroring, at a lower base, the shape of the fall wave. (Again: too early to make conclusive judgments!)
Hospitalizations lag case data, but they’re starting to rise, too — this isn’t just healthy young people getting the sniffles.
We’ll see how high this goes, but so far it’s on its way up.
Deaths lag case counts by weeks or months, so we wouldn’t expect to see any big impact from the fourth wave yet. They’re mostly flat, maybe up VERY slightly, just above record lows.
We’re seeing more than 30 new confirmed #COVID19 cases per 100,000 unvaxxed individuals in Hennepin/Ramsey right now, not far off the pace at this point in the spring 2021 wave.
Vaccination rates continue to inch upward very gradually.
This is mostly pretty ominous. You know what’s not ominous? Cats!
No one would think to condemn the genre of historical nonfiction just because there's a bunch of badly researched polemics on the shelf at Target or Barnes & Noble. The same is true for history podcasts — the problem isn't the medium, which has been used to good & ill effect.
"Ah, but some of the most popular history podcasts are of the worst historical quality," one might say. But so it has always been, in all mediums.
I've been revisiting "The Last Dance" as late-night viewing the past week, and am continually impressed by the quality of its writing as narrative nonfiction.
One key thing that struck me last night: how the documentary handles the BAD parts of Michael Jordan's story.
"The Last Dance" is overall extremely pro-Jordan — unsurprisingly since he was involved in its production. It's been criticized for how it slighted some of the NBA players Jordan came into conflict with.
But — and this is key — it's not purely hagiographic.
"The Last Dance" spawned a bunch of imitation documentaries as other athletes and celebrities tried to capture that magic for themselves. I've seen a few, and they're often not good — in part because they're TRYING to avoid controversy. TLD's director Jason Hehir knew better.
If Walz resigns as governor to become vice president, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan will become governor.
It's what happens next that gets INTERESTING. The President of the MN Senate (currently Minneapolis Democrat Bobby Joe Champion) becomes Lt. Gov....
The Minnesota Senate is currently split 33-33 between Democrats and Republicans, with one vacancy on the ballot this fall that's probably Lean D. If Champion resigns, that could lead to either a temporary Republican majority, or extended 33-33 tie, until Champion's replaced.
But it turns out that it's a murky, unsettled legal question whether Champion will HAVE to resign. Minnesota went through this issue a few years ago, when Tina Smith resigned as LG to accept a U.S. Senate appointment, and Republican Michelle Fischbach became LG.
“No principles, any methods, but no flowery language — always Yes or No, though you could only count on him if it was No.” — Clement Attlee on Stalin
“Soviet biologists were instructed to adopt the theories of the charlatan Lysenko… to disastrous effect… It is significant that Stalin left his nuclear physicists alone & never presumed to second guess *their* calculations. Stalin may well have been mad, but he was not stupid.”
“Fortunately for the West, American popular culture had an appeal that American political ineptitude could do little to tarnish.”
I finally hit on why "Hazbin Hotel" is leaving me so cold. I love a stylized sitcom about depraved souls in the afterlife struggling toward redemption: It's called "The Good Place," & while it lacked raunch, songs & art deco animation, it had sophisticated multi-layered writing.
Partly this is a difference in execution — if you hired Michael Schur to script-doctor the dialogue on "Hazbin Hotel" you'd get a much better show — but in large part it's just intent. TGP was aiming at the border between middle- and high-brow; HH is aiming at middle-low.
I see everything "Hazbin Hotel" is trying to do, and can appreciate it in an abstract sense. It's not a terrible show, it's just, like, a C+. It's competently done and has a few interesting ideas, but (4-5 episodes in) doesn't display any real verve or finesse in its writing.
You BET we polled people about #Napoleon. On the eve of a new biopic, most Americans don't know very much about Bonaparte, and what they do know, they don't especially like.
The U.S. actually has the highest rates of considering Napoleon's legacy to be "negative" of any of 8 countries YouGov polled. That includes several other countries that Napoleon actually invaded, humiliated and occupied.
What DO Americans know — or think they know — about Napoleon? Well, I regret to inform you that one of the most popular descriptors was "short," with no real difference between people who said they knew a fair bit about Napoleon and those who didn't.