samhexum

Deadly hornets from Asia that measure up to 2 inches and can wipe out entire honeybee colonies within hours have been spotted for the first time in the US. The so-called “murder hornets” – which also are blamed for killing 50 people a year in Japan – have been spotted in Washington state. According to The New York Times, they can rip through a hive and kill a bee every 14 seconds. But researchers are describing an interesting defense being employed against the menacing hornet: the Japanese honeybee. Bees in Japan have been known to form a ball around the invader and vibrate to produce heat, which can essentially cook a hornet to death. The report said bees can survive in extreme temperatures and can kill a hornet in an hour. The Times reported that European honeybee – which are common in the US – try to sting the hornet, which proves futile due to their tough exoskeleton. A researcher told the paper that the Japanese honeybee learned to adapt through generations. “Our honeybees, the predator has never been there before, so they have no defense,” Ruthie Danielsen, a beekeeper in Washington, told the Times.

https://www.gocomics.com/the-born-loser/2020/05/04

Rick Springfield (his album stuff, not his singles) Donna Summer Abba, Bee Gees (pre-disco and their last 5 albums, which not too many people know), ELO I'm a hard rock kinda guy. :D:rolleyes:

Well... maybe just in Trump strongholds. Here are some happy numbers... Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investment firm posted a quarterly net loss of $50 billion Saturday and reported that a number of its 90 operating businesses have been “severely affected,”according to Reuters. Buffett, 89, is nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha because of his Nebraska roots and investment savvy. He is the fifth-wealthiest billionaire, according to Forbes, with a personal net worth of about $72 billion. The other top four: Jeff Bezos, $138 billion; Bill Gates, $104 billion; Bernard Arnault, $94 billion; and Mark Zuckerberg, $75 billion. Berkshire saw two of its biggest businesses take particularly hard hits. BNSF Railway, North America’s largest freight railroad network, saw shipping volumes of consumer products and coal plummet, while insurance giant Geico set aside money for car premiums it probably won’t collect. The smaller operations cut salaries and furloughed workers, and retailers such as See’s Candies and Nebraska Furniture Mart closed stores. Berkshire reported buying a net $1.8 billion of stocks in the first quarter but selling a net $6.1 billion in April. The investment firm repurchased $1.7 billion of its own stock in the first quarter, but that was less than the prior quarter. The pandemic also has forced Buffett to cancel “Woodstock for Capitalists,” a weekend festival that normally draws tens of thousands of people to Omaha.

That's why I've actually considered chucking all my porn & toys so my sister doesn't have to feel uncomfortable when cleaning out my place. I won't have the time or energy to do it if I get sick. I'd barely have the energy now. And it's such a lonely death, since loved ones can't visit.

I was looking forward to the break. Unfortunately, I have been having a difficult time with my own health. So many little things going on with me and with each one, I think, I got it. I got the virus. Ditto. And I'm just isolating in my apt, except to go get the mail, or meet my pot dealer downstairs for a delivery, but I'm sure each surface I touch has given it to me. I don't know how you & other healthcare workers do it. I couldn't even come close to being so selfless. I find myself thinking and even saying out loud when no one is around, "I think I got it." Fuck the numbers and the plans and the politics of it, when you think or say: "I think I got it". all you have is fear and hope. One will win out in the long run but in the short run, it is anyone's guess what is going to take control of your thoughts. Ditto again. After several hours of rounds and wearing a face mask almost continuously for 4 hours, I sat down to eat lunch. I took off the mask and felt a bit short of breath and with it a little bit of the cough I always have but now drives me crazy with doubt. Is this cough the same or slightly different, Is this just my allergies, or ACE induced cough or post nasal drip or is it more? Am I really short of breath or is it just exhaustion after walking around the hospital for hours when I am carrying far too much weight and after far too little sleep? Is it my 65(ish) extra pounds, or the 40 years of heavy pot smoking that have left my lungs in crappy shape, or just my totally sedentary life? The more I thought about it, the harder it was to catch my breath. I tried some meditation tricks, controlled breathing and extended breath holding. That seemed to do it. I ate a dry chicken salad sandwich and talked to a friend on the phone as I did. Is there a piece of music you can listen to that calms you down and makes you feel mellow? Maybe put something on your phone that you can listen to when feeling more stressed than usual. And then I heard myself say it. I had heard it dozens of times from dozens of men who left this earth far too young and far too beautiful in every way and now I had said it out loud: " I think I got it" I got in the car and drove home. I called a friend and tried to distract myself with the conversation. Instead, I had a distracted conversation and begged off the phone before I blurted it out. I feel awful for you. I don't believe that 'thoughts and prayers' malarchy, but if I did, I would for you. I know that doesn't help, but it's all I can offer (unless you want a hit off my joint ). I decided to check if it worked and washed it off and popped it in my mouth. It beeped. I casually took it out expecting my usual 98.3 but it read 100. 100 fuck. I looked in the slightly steamy bathroom mirror. I saw it in my eyes. The fear. The trepidation. The desperation. "I think I got it". Now in that minute every patient I had seen who felt well and died soon after came to my mind. I could see them all. Fuck Fuck Fuck. Well maybe this thermometer was broken, let me go to my standard. I popped in my lucky thermometer. What an age we live in that one needs a lucky thermometer. 99.9. I wish I had words... A calm voice of reason was not what I needed then, but that is what I got. It is probably just fatigue and the hot shower and the terrible dried out chicken salad you had for lunch. (The chicken salad was pretty dry). Take it again. Take your temperature again. I better use my lucky thermometer I said, as if that would make sense to her. We sat on the phone silently waiting for the beep like some ancient answering machine: "I may have contracted a really horribly deadly disease, please leave my temperature at the beep." And then. Beep. we both heard it. There was no denying it. 99.5. Two minutes later....99.3......one minute later,,,,,99.1,.....just to check again 10 second later.....99.0. Three minutes later 98.7. I knew that thermometer was lucky. At some point, she had hung up and I vaguely recall her saying to call her back when I regained my sanity and got some sleep. I'll give you the 'Mazel Tov' I wasn't in the mood to give Anderson Cooper for his kid. Thanks for listening. Anytime. I'm up all night. If we knew each other I'd tell you to call anytime. If you come here and are feeling down and just need to vent or express your thoughts, and you see me online, send me a message. I may not have anything wise to say, but I'll be a sympathetic ear. I wish you peace and contentment.

“Les Miserables” Tony nominee Judy Kuhn was three weeks away from being eligible for health insurance when rehearsals for her off-Broadway show shut down because of the coronavirus. Still, she considers herself one of the luckier ones in New York’s tight theatrical community — at least she has a nest egg and her husband’s medical plan to fall back on. And other bigger names do too: “Moulin Rouge’s” Karen Olivo, Kyle Selig of “Mean Girls,” and Adrienne Warren, who channels Tina Turner in “Tina.” They all figure, somehow, they’ll be able to weather the storm financially. But they hurt for the thousands — both on stage and behind the scenes — who lost their jobs seven weeks ago and are in for a long haul until the lights go back on on Broadway. “It’s a terrible, terrible kind of uncertainty to live with,” Kuhn, who was set to open this month in Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins,” told The Post from her home in lower Manhattan. In a single day, March 12, New Yorkers in the theater world found themselves jobless after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered a stop of all gatherings of 500 or more to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Broadway League, the trade group representing the theaters, is hoping to turn the lights back on sometime in September. A deal struck between the theaters and labor unions paid workers for the first few weeks of the shutdown and covered their health insurance for at least a month; the sides are talking to work through the many health and financial worries tied to the long downtime. Olivo, who plays Satine, is adamant that something good has to come from all the personal suffering. The crisis has changed her, and she believes it will change everyone in theater. “I have too many friends who have fallen ill, some in the hospital, some we even thought we might lose,” the 2009 Tony winner for a revival of “West Side Story” told The Post from her home in Madison, Wis. “I kind of feel this is a really great time for all of us to train, not just as artists, but as human beings.” She also is calling on theater actors to become what she calls “actorivists.” “We’ve all become fatigued and complacent,” Olivo said. “It’s important to self-care … and then you need to brush yourself off, figure out what your part is and get moving.” Selig is seeing things far differently these days, too. He’s more appreciative of his back-to-back hit shows — three years in “The Book of Mormon” and his three years so far as Aaron in “Mean Girls.” The money he saved is keeping him afloat when so many of his close friends can’t make the rent. “Every single person I’ve ever worked with doesn’t have a job,” Selig told The Post from his home in Hewitt, N.J. “They truly have no money coming in.” What they’re going through reminds him how much he has taken for granted, from going out for drinks after the show to being untouched — so far — by the deadly infection. “I’ll probably make it out OK,” Selig said. “But I think about families losing members, the medical staff, the first responders who are truly risking everything.” Warren jumps rope in her Upper West Side apartment so she’s in shape when she gets back on stage. And she figures she can do voice work if money runs low. But her emotions haven’t been so easy to take control of. This year was a big one for the show, which debuted in November, and for Warren personally. She portrayed Tina Turner first in London, and now on Broadway. She was looking forward to ending her run sometime around the time of the June 7 Tony awards, which have now been postponed. “I’m very, very heartbroken for the show and I’m very heartbroken for my entire community,” said Warren, who was nominated for a Tony in 2016 for “Shuffle Along.” “We don’t have to create the greatest masterpiece,” Warren said. “It’s OK to just survive right now. It’s OK to ask for help. And it’s OK to help others.” That’s what she and the others are doing. They’re all helping raise money for the Actors Fund, a social services group for the entertainment industry, and Covenant House, which operates a nationwide network of shelters and programs for homeless kids. A month ago, the nonprofit Broadway Cares launched a $1 million online fund-raising campaign that will benefit the Actors Fund. Nearly two dozen producers, led by Spencer Ross of “Company,” “The Minutes,” and “Jagged Little Pill,” promised to match the money, up to $1 million. “In action, there can be hope,” said Tom Viola, Broadway Cares’ executive director. So far, Viola’s organization has raised $4.2 million, and a second $1 million match challenge is underway, launched by Christine Schwarzman and Darren Johnston of No Guarantees theatrical production company. “I don’t know any group like the theater so interested in helping each other out,” Kuhn said. “I just hope the actors who are really suffering know that they have a community that really supports them.” Here’s how to help: Broadway Cares: https://donate.broadwaycares.org/give/140654/#!/donation/checkout Covenant House: https://www.covenanthouse.org/covid-emergency-donate Actors Fund: https://actorsfund.org/help-our-entertainment-communiity-covid-19-emergency-relief

My sister's doing some shopping for me this weekend. The 2 dominant chains in my area are Shoprite and StopNShop. (My best friend and I want one of them to change their name, because we always say the wrong one when we're talking about shopping.) StopNShop has 80% lean ground beef advertised through Thurs. for $3.49/lb. She's going there tomorrow. Shoprite's sale ends today, and she needed some things from there, so she went today. She called me from the store & told me they had the 80% lean for $3.99/lb and did I want her to get it or wait for tomorrow? I told her to grab it for me, because who knows whether StopNShop will actually have anything. Under normal circumstances, I'd never pay over $2.99/lb and often a bit less.

Str8-adjacent?

I had the oldest parents in my neighborhood. (that's saying something-- we'd have anywhere from 35-50 kids [ages 12-22] hang out on 'the block'.) My parents were 55 & 41 when I was born. First marriage for both. They both eventually told me they married only because their chances to have kids were about to disappear. My sister was born a year and three days after the wedding and I followed 3 1/2 years later. I knew they'd die when I was relatively young. My father died a few months after I turned 30. My mother died a few months before I turned 40. They had longevity... he was 85, she was 81. Oddly, both of their fathers (and my dad's older brother) died in 1929-- 33 years before I was born, so I never had grandfathers. BTW, did you know John McCain's mother is still going strong at 107? Meaghan talks about her often on THE VIEW.

Cue the tiny violins: One of the world’s richest men has lost billions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investment firm posted a quarterly net loss of $50 billion Saturday and reported that a number of its 90 operating businesses have been “severely affected,”according to Reuters. Berkshire saw two of its biggest businesses take particularly hard hits. BNSF Railway, North America’s largest freight railroad network, saw shipping volumes of consumer products and coal plummet, while insurance giant Geico set aside money for car premiums it probably won’t collect. The smaller operations cut salaries and furloughed workers, and retailers such as See’s Candies and Nebraska Furniture Mart closed stores. Berkshire reported buying a net $1.8 billion of stocks in the first quarter but selling a net $6.1 billion in April. The investment firm repurchased $1.7 billion of its own stock in the first quarter, but that was less than the prior quarter. The pandemic also has forced Buffett to cancel “Woodstock for Capitalists,” a weekend festival that normally draws tens of thousands of people to Omaha.

Another 299 people across New York died from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours — an “obnoxiously” high number, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday. Fatalities jumped 10 deaths from the day before, and include 276 who died in hospitals and 23 in nursing homes, for a statewide total of 18,909. “That number has remained obnoxiously and terrifyingly high and is still not dropping at the rate we would like to see,” Cuomo said at a daily briefing from New York City Transit’s Corona Maintenance Facility in Flushing, where trains will be disinfected nightly. An additional 831 New Yorkers were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 cases, Cuomo said, a decrease from the several days prior, when admissions were plateaued at around 900. More than 10,300 New Yorkers remain hospitalized with COVID-19, with 2,923 on ventilators in intensive care, according to state data. Diagnoses grew by 4,663, state officials said Saturday, to a statewide total of 312,977. Cuomo also announced preliminary results of the state’s 15,000 antibody tests it began conducting April 22. On that date, when 2,933 had been tested for signs they had already fought the disease, the rate of positivity was 14 percent statewide. It has since dropped to 12 percent. Only one age group has seen an increase in positive antibody tests: 18- to 24-year-olds. Their positive-test rate grew from 8 percent on April 22 to 11 percent Saturday, the governor said. New Yorkers between the ages of 45 and 54 had the highest percentage, 14, of positive antibody tests. In New York City, the percentage of those positive for antibodies stood at about 20 percent on Saturday, a two-percentage-point drop from April 22. The results show the Bronx has been hit harder than any borough, with 28 percent positive for antibodies, compared to 19 percent in Brooklyn and Staten Island, 18 in Queens, and 17 in Manhattan. “We’re going to do more research to understand what’s going on there. Why is the Bronx higher than the other boroughs?” Cuomo said. In counties outside New York, about 1 to 3 percent tested positive for antibodies. Cuomo said the state would begin Saturday testing all transit workers for antibodies, among several new initiatives. And state workers will distribute 7 million face masks beginning Saturday to high-risk communities, including NYCHA complexes and nursing homes. The state will also distribute $25 million to food banks across the state, with $11 million to New York City, he said.

But do you play one on TV?

Enough already. Now, deadly hornets from Asia that measure up to 2 inches long have been found for the first time in the US — and researchers are worried they’re colonizing. The aggressive insects, nicknamed “murder hornets,” can wipe out bee colonies within hours and have stingers long and powerful enough to puncture beekeeping suits. Beekeepers in Washington have already seen the hornets devastate their hives; Japan attributes 50 human deaths a year to the nasty buzzers, which have “teardrop eyes like Spider-Man, orange and black stripes that extend down its body like a tiger, and broad, wispy wings like a small dragonfly,” according to the New York Times. Researchers are determined to keep the hornets in check. “This is our window to keep it from establishing,” Washington state entomologist Chris Looney told the Times. “If we can’t do it in the next couple of years, it probably can’t be done.” Giant, bee-eating hornets from Asia invade Washington State December 23, 2019 A giant killer hornet from Asia that devours bees and dissolves human flesh with its sting has touched down in Washington State. This marks the first time the insect invader has been found in the region, according to a pest alert issued by the Washington State Department Of Agriculture last week. The nearly 2-inch-long flying terror was spotted on Dec. 8 by a resident of Blaine, Washington, who says they saw the insect buzzing around a hummingbird-feeder, WSDA reports. Entomologists later found the Calico-colored specimen dead on the property, which they confirmed was an Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa mandarinia) — the largest of its kind. It’s an unusual find. Not only does the behemoth bug hail from Asia, but it usually remains inactive during the winter months. The hornet likely flew down from Canada, where the insects are a scourge, department spokesman Chris McGann told CNN. Justin Bieber wasn’t enough? Now Canada exports this! The entomological interloper could decimate local beehives. Just one hornet can kill 40 bees in under a minute — a talent most famously showcased in a terrifying 2012 video of 30 hornets massacring 30,000 bees in Japan. And unlike native Japanese bee populations (which have an ingenious way of warding off hornet attacks), the US’ European bees have no natural defenses against the hornets. News of the creepy crawly’s encroachment unsurprisingly set the internet abuzz, spawning a flurry of flamethrower memes and replies of “yikes” and “little hornets are bad enough.” “If you live where you can shoot, a shotgun works for removing single individuals from the air,” said one social media survivalist. The hornets aren’t typically aggressive toward humans, according to the WSDA advisory. Nonetheless, the Asian hornet’s sting can damage human tissue and feels “like a hot nail being driven into my leg,” one Tokyo entomologist told Smithsonian Magazine. And in 2013, swarms of giant hornets killed 19 people in three months in China. If stung, the pest report advises washing the site with soap and water, applying ice and using antihistamine cream. However, victims should dial 911 if experiencing multiple stings or a severe allergic reaction. Residents can also reduce the chances of getting stung by refraining from swatting at the giant hornets and properly disposing of food waste. WSDA urges Washington residents to report hornet sightings to its Pest Program, preferably with photos attached. The latest buzz in the science world: Honeybees are dying of something that is freakishly similar to the coronavirus. Bee populations around the globe have been decimated by a viral disease that creeps into hives via asymptomatic insects and spreads like wildfire, British researchers discovered. Their research even suggests the insects could benefit from social distancing. The scientists found piles of bee carcasses outside hives infected with chronic bee paralysis virus, which causes severe trembling, flightlessness and death within a week, the Guardian reported. The infection was once a rarity but has spread rapidly, according to the researchers at Newcastle University, who examined bees in 25 countries. In Britain, for example, chronic bee paralysis virus took only a decade to invade 39 of 47 English counties and six of eight Welsh counties. In the US, the infection rate jumped from 0.7% in 2010 to 16% in 2014. The findings, published in Nature Communications, suggests that the disease is twice as likely to infect commercially harvested bees — and that colonies not confined to the close quarters might fare better. “You can’t do social distancing in a hive as easily, but you can manage it by increasing the space in there,” Professor Giles Budge told the website.

Yes, but I'm not the only one I know who finds that quite often when technology gets 'upgraded' and/or 'improved' it becomes less convenient and more annoying to use. Even with something as simple as my favorite supermarket's online circular. It was spruced up and somewhat redesigned a year or two ago and now it takes extra clicks to get to it from the store's website or to put things onto my shopping list. Well, since NYC is supposedly not going to be covid-free for 18 months, and I have lung issues, it'll be a long time before I shop there again. And I prefer Chrome to Firefox, so it's inconvenient for me to have to go back & forth (and it screws up my audio if both are open). Isn't your loss of access to apps inconvenient? If they'd just leave shit alone, computers and phones would be less work to use.

Obviously, I know nothing about the subject, but I assume it's a similar situation to my computer, which runs on Windows XP. Several years ago, I stopped getting updates to Chrome because it no longer supports XP. Over the last couple of years more and more websites can't be accessed by Chrome. I'm getting warnings that youtube is going to be another (OMG!!!). Fortunately (for now) Firefox seems to access what Chrome won't. It's planned obsolescence. You've been happy with your phone. My computer's been good enough for my needs. But they have to become obsolete so we have to buy another.

Thanks. I'm listening to my "Las Hermanas Pointer" CD right now. It's been awhile. I forgot how much I love it.

I’ll be getting a smartphone… I’m on my sister's family plan, & they pay for me as my yearly Xmas present (or part of it). It’ll be time to upgrade soon, and there are no flip phones available, so they’ll get me the cheapest smartphone.

When the cover far exceeds the original:

When the cover far exceeds the original: