April 28, 2020

2 geometric pieces from paper

#1 is 30” x 22”
an attempt at a non-local mandala—might make a good mural
[link:https://imgur.com/gallery/eE6vdm9|

#2 is 24” x 22”
[link:https://imgur.com/gallery/lmTfY4P|

(edits—sorry, can’t get the images to load)

April 22, 2020

Elizabeth Warren was made for this moment. Joe Biden should recognize that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/22/elizabeth-warren-is-vice-president-country-needs-right-now/

There’s little doubt the medical and economic catastrophe of the coronavirus pandemic will dominate the presidential race. On Wednesday, Axios published a Joe Biden campaign memo revealing his plan to make the case against President Trump, based on the president’s corrupt, inept and out-of-touch response to the coronavirus pandemic. The former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee can strengthen his argument by selecting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as his vice president. There is no one better equipped than Warren to help make the case Republicans are largely responsible for both the mounting death toll and economic carnage of covid-19.

In little more than a month, 22 million Americans have lost their jobs as economic activity ground to a halt. A Gallup poll conducted over the first half of April found 1 in 4 Americans agreeing it was more likely than not they would be unemployed at some point in the next year. And according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, 3 out of 4 Americans say the economy is in either “poor” or “fair” shape.

The Massachusetts senator has the perfect background for this moment. Warren first achieved academic and public prominence studying bankruptcy, talking repeatedly with families plunged into a financial abyss through unemployment or a health crisis. She went on to co-write a seminal book about the financial plight of the American family, “The Two-Income Trap,” which even counts Fox News host Tucker Carlson among its fans. She offered advice and sympathy to financially overwhelmed families on daytime television shows. Like Biden’s talent for connecting with voters when the subject is grief and emotional loss, Warren’s ability to tap into Americans’ financial fears is all but unique among national politicians.

Then there is Warren’s ability to tie the financial plight of American families to the United States’ culture of legalized corruption. This connection has been grotesquely clear during the coronavirus pandemic. Multiple members of Congress sold off stock after receiving confidential briefings on the growing epidemic. Congressional debates over economic stimulus set off a corporate lobbying gold rush. The relief bills passed have repeatedly favored the richest and most connected, including what Warren called a $500 billion “slush fund” for the largest corporations, while leaving everyone else fighting over scraps. Most recently, a loophole in the Paycheck Protection Plan allowed publicly traded companies like Ruth’s Chris Steak House to get their oven mitts on money meant to help small businesses survive. As the inequities have piled up, Warren has remained vigilant, calling out Trump administration officials and warning them she’s keeping an eye on the money.

Warren can point to a long record of fighting corruption. Corruption, she said in 2018 while debuting a tough bill taking the all too ubiquitous issue on, is “like a cancer eating away at our democracy.” It was a centerpiece of her presidential campaign, too. Speaking in New York’s Washington Square Park last year, in the shadow of the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, she said of the first Gilded Age, “Business owners got richer, politicians got more powerful, and working people paid the price,” adding, “Does any of that sound familiar?” It should.

(continues)

April 3, 2020

How did covid-19 begin? It's initial origin story is shaky.

From David Ignatius at Washington Post—
...

“There’s a competing theory — of an accidental lab release of bat coronavirus — that scientists have been puzzling about for weeks. Less than 300 yards from the seafood market is the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers from that facility and the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology have posted articles about collecting bat coronaviruses from around China, for study to prevent future illness. Did one of those samples leak, or was hazardous waste deposited in a place where it could spread?

“Richard Ebright, a Rutgers microbiologist and biosafety expert, told me in an email that “the first human infection could have occurred as a natural accident,” with the virus passing from bat to human, possibly through another animal. But Ebright cautioned that it “also could have occurred as a laboratory accident, with, for example, an accidental infection of a laboratory worker.” He noted that bat coronaviruses were studied in Wuhan at Biosafety Level 2, “which provides only minimal protection,” compared with the top BSL-4.

“Ebright described a December video from the Wuhan CDC that shows staffers “collecting bat coronaviruses with inadequate [personal protective equipment] and unsafe operational practices.” Separately, I reviewed two Chinese articles, from 2017 and 2019, describing the heroics of Wuhan CDC researcher Tian Junhua, who while capturing bats in a cave “forgot to take protective measures” so that “bat urine dripped from the top of his head like raindrops.”
...
“And then there’s the Chinese study that was curiously withdrawn. In February, a site called ResearchGate published a brief article by Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao from Guangzhou’s South China University of Technology. “In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories,” the article concluded. Botao Xiao told the Wall Street Journal in February that he had withdrawn the paper because it “was not supported by direct proofs.”

“Accidents happen, human or laboratory. Solving the mystery of how covid-19 began isn’t a blame game, but a chance for China and the United States to cooperate in a crisis, and prevent a future one.“

[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-did-covid-19-begin-its-initial-origin-story-is-shaky/2020/04/02/1475d488-7521-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html|