129 Comments

sigh.... Newsom announcing Shelter in Place order for the state of California....

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yep, inevitable. SF Bay Area got it rolling, and other counties started to follow . At least he's taking decisive action.

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This was always coming. Other states will have to follow. The longer they wait, the worse it will be for them.

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it's like the walking dead...

pics of emptied out sf...

https://www.facebook.com/shelly.ross.33/posts/10219937750527788

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Follow Molly Lambert - she went on a world tour with webcams for a few tweets

https://twitter.com/mollylambert/status/1240503918599102464?s=20

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Damn, that's not a bad scenario for an IG model and a photographer to get some unique shots.

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It's like the one photographer that takes pictures in cities and removes the people.

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My new favorite show is "Due North"

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I have started watching The Expanse. Much better than I was expecting

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It is really good, quite enjoyed that show.

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the expanses is real good.

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Trump Virus update

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It's been really quiet on my street in terms of traffic. Just kids on bikes and adults out for a walk/run.

So I just went out for a drive to kinda see what's happening. Obviously, things are noticeably slower and lots of things are shut down. But a lot of things are not shut down and there are a lot of people out and about. Like 60% of normal volume, rather than what I was expecting (15-25% of normal). So I went into the Walmart grocery store to see how their stocks were. Low, but not wiped out like they were last week. So it looks like hoarding is ramping down. But social distancing is not really a thing yet. I suppose it might have to get really bad before people take it seriously.

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People are mostly inside, but kind of out and about in SJ. Like nobody's trying to pack in next to each other, everyone's giving each other safe distance. Don't know if that's enough, but you need some fresh air every once in a while.

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OJ said he'd go crazy if all the golf courses are closed

https://twitter.com/TheRealOJ32/status/1240392353795444738

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Looks like a good thread here on Coronavirus prevention.

https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1240444821593944064

Basically, the South Korean model: lots and lots of testing, finding the asymptomatic cases and quarantining them.

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Insurance

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I am finding out first-hand what is covered under force majeure.

<Spoiler text>: not a lot </Spoiler text>

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Intercept Poverty by Elijah Hicks

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Solarise? Is that you?!?

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Just donated

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People of the DBD that have worked from home for a while. What are your tips to getting it done efficiently and without losing your mind?

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Yeah, what everyone said. Routine helps. Also not that this only applies to WFH, but the last thing I do everyday is make a list of things I'm going to do the next day.

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It hasn’t been going well, I’m trying to fix a lot of operational problems and getting stuck on what to tackle next. Plus working in the guest bedroom and easy access to social media is not helping.

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Try to limit the amount of extra time you find yourself working. It eliminates the commute time, but its easy to fall into the trap of working a little longer than you would if you were at work, and needed to leave to head home.

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I'm in the office (preparing to video teach and also doing some lab work) but I haven't seen another soul in the building today. Getting a little social withdrawal.

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Brain and brain?!?! What is brain?

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I have not done it for while, but so far it's been good when I stick to a routine. Alarm goes off at the same time (which is for commute life) and I get reasonably dressed (not full work clothes, but not PJs). I stick to the same food schedule and still make time to work out.

(Perhaps a coincidence/correlation, but I have not stuck to my schedule today and am feeling super unmotivated and want to just potato.)

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I echo most of this. It worked when I was in grad school mostly working from home (especially during the dissertation).

Make some time to go outside and get some fresh air (run, walk the dog, bike, etc.).

If you get stuck, switch tasks. I found that I'll take forever to do something that I currently don't feel like doing. But if I have an alternative task to work on, I can be reasonably productive. It's basically a productive way of procrastinating: I really don't want to do X, so I'll do Y instead. Then X doesn't seem as unpalatable when I finish (or if it does, I work on Z instead).

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who says I still have my mind?

I think make sure you have a room with a door.

Also I don't have little kids around anymore so it's easier for me.

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1. Work

2. DBD

3. Work

4. DBD

Repeat

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This plus mixing in exercise. Even regular short walks is a great way to refresh your mind.

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I'll take "How I survived graduate school" for $100, Alex

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wait, you actually change clothes more than once a week???

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First full day of shelter in place order. Traffic was almost the same as usual heading out to work. I'm guessing everyone has decided that the work is 'essential'.

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Still have to pay the bills.

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How are you helping your local community?

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Not shitting all over my friend’s republican husband who went on Facebook to chastise his “D” friends for undermining confidence in the government. To be fair, his wife is a pulmonary intensivist so he chastised his fellow conservatives for not taking the pandemic seriously.

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That last part is why I wouldn't shit on him either. At least he understands that much.

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1) social distancing; when I went for a walk yesterday, everyone I encountered did this dance where we would step back to allow the other to pass first, or vice versa

2) not spreading misinformation

3) sending Target or other giftcards to some people who are out of work (our shuttle drivers for work, my ballet instructor...)

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Ordering food from some of the local restaurants that are still open. I'll head up to a local brewery tomorrow to pick up some growlers of whatever they have on draft.

It's not much, but the best way I can help is by patronizing local businesses.

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Not that it'll save the world, but we're committed to ordering take-out once a week.

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Eye Roll

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Bangkok & Shanghai Update:

Things are calm here in Bangkok AND according to the group chats in Shanghai, things are slowly returning to normal in Shanghai.

All the bars and "entertainment" venues in Bangkok are closed by order of the government - I went for a walk around today - and it looks like the girly bars and "massage" parlours are included in those closings. However, some of the bars which also serve food remained open. Grocery stores are busy, but not panicked. 90% of the people on public transit wear face masks and there is hand sanitizer in every single pubic space. The public ones smell gross and even the bottles I bought recently are definitely lower quality than the Purell ones I arrived in Bangkok with two months ago.

In Shanghai, the government just advised that it's ok to go outdoors without a mask - but if you're on public transit or in a crowded area to wear one. When people fly in now from other countries (especially Iran, Korea, the US, Italy - and another 12 countries) people are taken to hotel quarantine, and other people are requested to do self-quarantine, supervised by your local community council. I think I'll wait until things get a little bit more stable - also, there's a pool and it's pretty warm here in Bangkok and I have worn shoes very rarely in the last 2 months.

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it's so f-ing annoying knowing that majority of the cases in korea are due to religious nut jobs spreading the disease...seriously, about 5000 of the 8500 cases are directly related to members of a f-ing cult.

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Not the first time religious freedom has been the reason for allowing unreasonable actions for unfounded reasons to proceed that are outright dangerous to others.

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We as a society are much better at defining "freedom" as "freedom to do things" as opposed to "freedom from being harmed by others".

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A product of having done too good a job of insulating most people from most of the consequences of most things for such a long time that a lot of people have lost their consciousness of these consequences on others. We have an entitled notable local on air news and sports personality with a platform of influence who has been railing against all of these restrictions, taking the stance that he doesn't want anyone to take away his liberty to essentially do whatever he wants wherever he wants whenever he wants however he wants because he is willing to accept the risk. A risk he defines as only the risk to him personally. Refuses to recognize that his liberty to do so is terminated when he begins to materially contribute in voluntary and non-essential actions to a significant risk to others that has a real possibility to be deadly.

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using science and analytics to get to root cause? blasphemy! (format: sarcasm font) Wow. There's your carrier: Corona Carrie.

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corona cora? corona sharona?

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Wow. I had no idea.

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WOW.

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Damn, is it fair to compare her to Typhoid Mary? Corona Katie?

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#CoronaKatie started trending because of this person https://twitter.com/realkatiejow/status/1238937001463877632?s=20

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also, red robins are still around?

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was she partying in florida too?

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yeah it's fair...number of cases increased like 200x 'cause of her...they're calling the super spreader.

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our Shanghai office re-opened

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From social media it looks like my old Shanghai office is re-opened, but optional to work there - and the majority of the people (again from social media) are still working from home. Just a few of the designers and other people with giant work-stations are going in - and everybody gets a coronavirus kit weekly with new masks, new hand sanitizer

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How did you vote in this poll by Lou Dobbs?

https://twitter.com/LouDobbs/status/1240421216692961284

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I avoid Lou Dobbs as much as possible.

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I voted Lou Dobbs off the island.

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We have always been at war with EastAsia.

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You make me wanna leave the one you're with, start a relationship with you, it's what you do

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Florida

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SPRING BREAK! So what if there's a pandemic on?

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That will increase the likelihood many/most won't see another Spring Break.

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Most of them will be ok/fine - but they will spread and infect others, putting a lot of weaker people in danger.

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I've got a friend who went ahead with her vacation in the Panhandle (they drove from Tennessee) and her middle school said that, because of the recklessness in Florida in general, she'd have to quarantine herself before going into school to prepare to remotely teach. (The students are of course all at home anyhow.)

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CAL

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Go Bears!

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GO BEARS!

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Annie, the Sather Tower, falcon has laid her fourth (unfortunately, red) egg. Average clutch is 3.8.

https://twitter.com/CalFalconCam/status/1240657911921049600

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Here's a live cam of Annie & Grinnell on the Campanile:

https://www.facebook.com/cal.peregrines.7/videos/191290685301285/

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I saw a license late today DA BEARZ. Probably not Cal.

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I'm still trying to think of a good Cal personalized plate or two. Since "AU BEAR" and "AU URSA" are taken, maybe latin/spanish mixture "AU OSO 92" or latin/chinese "AU XIONG" but I think that's more obscure. I think the latin plural are all taken as well.

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I'm still trying to think of a good Cal personalized plate or two. Since "AU BEAR" and "AU URSA" are taken, maybe latin/spanish mixture "AU OSO 92" or latin/chinese "AU XIONG" but I think that's more obscure. I think the latin plural are all taken as well.

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I'm still trying to think of a good Cal personalized plate or two. Since "AU BEAR" and "AU URSA" are taken, maybe latin/spanish mixture "AU OSO 92" or latin/chinese "AU XIONG" but I think that's more obscure. I think the latin plural are all taken as well.

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damn the double post. I Only hit it once but got a spinning cursor. Weird.

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new site, same fun :)

speaking of, is there a guide on how to navigate the new forum (stuff like z'ing, where new posts show up, etc.)?

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Fed is gonna come try to shill some shirts.

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I bought one at the W4C announcement party. WOre it the other day.

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I'd imagine a Chicago Bears fan.

<<Superfans raising beers and Chris Farley pounding chest.gif>>

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Same.

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That was my assumption.

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PRO

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Saints Coach Sean Payton announces he has Covid-19. First in NFL.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28927492/saints-sean-payton-says-tested-positive-coronavirus

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Celtics announce one of their players have it. Marcus Smart later announces that it's him.

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When it rains, it pours, D$

Chris Sale to have Tommy John on his throwing arm. Out for 2020.

https://www.mlb.com/news/chris-sale-tommy-john-surgery

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Ouch. Losing both Price and Sale. At least the Sox are under the cap. The Yankees also are losing pitching so the AL East is wide open.

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not unexpected.

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I’m ok with it

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Here's Dale Earnhardt Jr learning his going to be a father again

https://www.instagram.com/p/B94Py_MHiV3/?utm_source=ig_embed

In related news, his wife might be smoking hot:

https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/31920-earnhardt-main.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=661

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I figure all athletes have smoking hot wives.

I found out about No 2 on my 30th bday when I got a card that had some sort of homemade baby in a diaper cutout or something like that.

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Here's my favorite highlight from the Blue Jay/Cardinal match-up late last season

https://i.redd.it/fvqd8xcvmmn41.jpg

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Almost looks as if the Cardinal Daniel LaRusso is pulling the Crane technique on Johnny "Sweep the Leg" Blue-Jay....at least mid-crane...

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Go Bears!

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Proof that it's Trump who's trying to label it "China Virus"

https://twitter.com/jabinbotsford/status/1240701140141879298

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Update: White House Briefing turned into a shitshow. Trump turned it into a GOP rally.

Dr. Fauci absent from briefing. Also, WH allowed question from rabidly pro-Trump OANN reporter to ask if the term 'Chinese food' is racist.

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The same reporter promoted/endorsed a documentary pushing the conspiracy theory that Dr. Fauci created Covid-19 in North Carolina as a Deep State domestic bioweapon to unseat Trump.

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/pro-trump-oan-pushes-wild-conspiracy-theory-novel-coronavirus-was-created

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With any luck someone will ask him about this at the next briefing.

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Breaking news: Gaetz is still a putz.

https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1240654253057851395

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Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, but said we don't need it yet..

https://twitter.com/abbydphillip/status/1240309125931827201

Pelosi put pressure on:

https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/31920

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One could argue she's more responsible than Bernie...

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why was she running as a democrat?

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to get herself a gig as the voice of the democrats on fox news

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Not look at the markets...

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Senators Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler dumped 500k - 1.5million in stocks after receiving a Corona Virus briefing. Senator Loeffler's husband is head of the New York Stock Exchange. Fucking criminals.

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Now the honcho in the white house is saying that govmint should get equity in any company they help bail out. Of course, the carried interest will go directly into his and Jared's pocket.!!!

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There's a couple iterations of this going around, because when companies get bailed out future profits can be tied to taxpayer money.

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Wasn't Elizabeth Warren making this same demand a couple of days ago? Strange if those two would agree on literally anything.

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All choices are relative. Raise the stakes high enough and things will change.

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