Interesting etymology of the word, quarantine. Italian health pass enabling bearer to pass despite quarantines due to plague, 1722. The word quarantine was derived from the Italian words quaranta giorni, meaning 40 days - the number of days a ship from an infected port had to wait before entering Venice. Via
Awesome, kind, generous and wise. Gary Neville has closed his hotels & he will hand them over to the NHS.
Not a single member of staff will face redundancies & all will receive full pay
Outstanding Women Reading
After the ball Ramón Casas, 1910
Rembrandt's mother reading - Circle of Rembrandt ca 1629
Winslow Homer , The New Novel, 1877
'Teasing the Cat' by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1888
Master of Frankfurt (1460-ca 1533), St. Catherine, oil on panel. (with cool headphones)
Reading Woman - Patrick Bornemann born 1960 in Africa, living in San Francisco (California), USA
Body Modification, foot binding in China, photographs by Mattia Passarini oh no. But he had a good, long run at 86. Still, sad. Cameroonian Jazz Legend and Saxophonist, Manu Dibango has died of coronavirus. His 1972 hit, Soul Makossa, which peaked at no. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 was famously sampled by Michael Jackson on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin.'"
Is this a sore throat? Is this just allergies? Caught in a lockdown No escape from reality.
Don’t touch your eyes Just hand sanitize quicklyyyyy I’m just a poor boy, no job security Because of easy spread, even though washed your hands, laying low I look out the window, the curve doesn’t look flatter to me, to me
mama, just killed a man i didn’t stay inside in bed I walked by him, now he’s dead mama, life was so much fun but now I’ve caught this unforgiving plague
mama, oooooh didn’t mean to make them die if I’m not back to work this time tomorrow carry on, carry on as if people didn’t matter
oo late, my time has come sends shivers down my spine body’s aching all the time goodbye everybody, I’ve got the flu gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
mama, oooooh I don’t wanna die I sometimes wish I never went out at all
I see a little silhouette of a man what a douche, what a douche did he even wash his hands though security is tightening very very frightening me Gotta lay low (gotta lay low) Gotta lay low (gotta lay low) Gotta lay low masturbate Masturbate O O O O
I’m just a poor boy, facing mortality HE’S JUST A POOR BOY FACING MORTALITY spare him his life from this monstrosity
Touch your face, wash your hands, will you wash your hands? BISMILLAH NO WE WILL NOT WASH OUR HANDS! (WASH YOUR HANDS!) BISMILLAH NO WE WILL NOT WASH OUR HANDS! (WASH YOUR HANDS)
BISMILLAH WE WILL NOT WASH YOUR HANDS! (WASH YOUR HANDS!) WASH YOUR HANDS! (never, never, never wash your hands oh oh oh oh oh oh oh) No no no no no Oh mama mia, mia (mama mia wash your hands!) COVID-19 has a sickness put aside for me, for me
So you think you can stop me and just shake my hand? So you think we can hang out and not break our plans? Oh baby, can’t do this with me, baby, Just gotta stay home, just gotta stay home with my fever
oooooh
Curving can get flatter Anyone can see Curving can get flatter Curving can get flatter, you’ll see
Just look out your windows…. Cuomo The apex of this pandemic is higher & sooner than we thought.
We believe we are 14-21 days away from this apex.
We are scaling hospital capacity as fast as humanly possible.
I will turn this state upside down to get the hospital beds we need.
Every day needs pics of puppies but maybe today more than others. Via
"Now, scientists have narrowed down this timeframe, noting that SARS-CoV-2 may be stable for up to 3 days on surfaces and—importantly—hours in the air, according to a correspondence to the editor recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine." Important to know. The COVID-19 virus can remain airborne for hours.
Now, there’s “good evidence” from South Korea, China and Italy for loss or impairment of smell in infected people, says a joint statement from the presidents of the British Rhinological Society and of ENT UK, a British group that represents ear, nose and throat doctors. In South Korea, some 30% of people who tested positive for the virus have cited loss of smell as their major complaint in otherwise mild cases, they wrote.
Here are 450 online classes you can take during quarantine All eight of the schools making up the prestigious Ivy League – Harvard, Yale, Princeton , Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth and Columbia -- offer online classes to the public for free. You can find a detailed list of all 450 classes here. Healthy social distancing
Over the past several weeks, the markets have been in turmoil as investors are coming to grips with the emerging coronavirus pandemic. The market slide began in late February as investors weighed the negative effect that the government imposed shutdown in China was going to have on global supply chains, international trade, and overall economic activity. The downward pressure only mounted as the virus spread beyond China’s borders... to South Korea… to Italy… and eventually to the U.S. The market finally buckled this past Monday under the combined weight of the Saudi Arabia – Russia crude oil price war shock and the growing realization that efforts to contain the spread of virus had failed. The virus is now with us and in our communities, and we fully expect growth in the number of coronavirus cases to rapidly accelerate in the coming days and weeks, if only because of more widespread testing. The lack of a coherent response by the Federal government has only magnified the anxiety, and as the wave of public and private closures, cancellations, and suspensions continues to build, there is no longer much doubt that this public health crisis will have a huge impact on our day-to-day lives and the economy in the coming weeks and months.
The S&P 500 Index is down more than 20% in less than three weeks, and we are officially in bear market territory. This is absolutely what a market panic looks like. The panic and hysteria are rooted in the fear of the unknown. We still know relatively little about the virus and COVID-19, and the absence of national leadership has left us guessing as to what the government response will be, let alone its efficacy. All we know is that the situation is bad and likely to get worse, and that the near-term economic impact is all but certain to be significant. Whenever there is so little information and yet so much fear, “worst-case” scenarios take on magnified importance in the minds of many investors, leading to irrationally excessive risk aversion and selling. This is the moment that drives too many investors out of stocks for the wrong reasons. As investors, we need to remind ourselves that the speed and magnitude of price drops like these are the reasons why equity investments deliver higher returns over long periods of time. The most important thing to recognize is that these higher returns only accrue to those investors who have the discipline and resolve to resist the impulse to stop the immediate pain and get out. The short-term emotional relief from selling will come at a terrible cost, sometimes in the form of capital gains tax liabilities, but most significantly in the missed opportunity from either a partial or no participation in the market’s eventual recovery.
...In many ways, the current situation is much less alarming than what we saw in the 2008/2009 financial markets crisis or even the 2001 bursting of the dot-com bubble. Although it may feel worse in the moment, resolving this public health crisis will likely be more straightforward than fixing a profoundly broken banking system or unwinding a massive misallocation of capital. The first step in the right direction will be a clearer policy response by our government, and Friday’s declaration of a national emergency and passage of spending/aid package are positive signs that we can expect one soon. This, in turn, will provide businesses and consumers with some degree of certainty which will help loosen the bunker-mentality that can have a paralyzing effect on consumer spending and economic activity. At the same time, as we learn more about the virus and COVID-19 and develop more effective strategies and treatments, the level of public panic will also subside. The fear of the unknown will eventually give way as we better understand our opponent and regain our ability to look past this crisis. An economic recovery will follow.
Periods of panicked selling do tend to make excellent buying opportunities, and we can see that certain sectors/industries have been grossly oversold (e.g., energy, financials/banking). However, we are not in a rush to buy since we are likely to see additional volatility in the markets as it may be many weeks or even months before we are able to turn the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and globally will rise exponentially, and we may see more and more governments (including our own) take extreme measures to slow the spread of the virus and buy time to “flatten the curve” and keep public health systems from being overwhelmed. We may have some time here to let the chaos play itself out and allow us to better assess valuations and find potential bargains.
...how the crisis is affecting bonds. The market sell-off and flight to safety has driven the yields on U.S. Treasury securities to all-time lows – below 1% across the board, even for 30-year maturities. These ultra-low returns have their own distorting effects if they persist, but the logic of locking a sub-1% return for 30 years escapes us as it implies that we can expect with near certainty a future of negative inflation. As in equity markets, fear and panic are resetting bond market reference levels to reflect worst-case scenarios, and this brings its own set of risks for investors seeking refuge in bonds. We continue to believe that equity ownership in good-quality companies backed by solid balance sheets and with well-supported dividends is the superior choice for long-term investors seeking to protect and grow their wealth.
Italy reported 793 virus deaths, the most in one day. The country’s missteps have underscored the importance of early, strict isolation measures.
The tragedy of Italy now stands as a warning to its European neighbors and the United States, where the virus is coming with equal velocity. If Italy’s experience shows anything, it is that measures to isolate affected areas and limit the movement of the broader population need to be taken early, put in place with absolute clarity, then strictly enforced.
