ezs | Nothing of Any Quincyquonce

COVID – week 104 – March 7 – March 13

by ezs | Mar 12, 2022 | evilzenscientist

Weekend – call for fourth jab in England, Covid cases rising again. Changchun, PRC on lockdown because of surge of Covid.

Locally – mask mandates end this weekend, many businesses still requiring masks and vaccine proof.

Friday – "one third of US Covid child deaths were from omicron". Hong Kong battling huge wave of Covid.

Thursday – Covid building up again in England.

Wednesday – vaccination mandates, mask mandates – ending across the US and Europe. Meanwhile Hong Kong, Israel and others are seeing a fifth wave of Covid.

Tuesday – ah – the variants are coming back. "Deltacron" and BA.2 are starting to enter the vernacular. With war taking the headlines, and a weary populous; this could just be "let it run" – which is a disaster for public health, those sheltering, the immune compromised, and anyone with children under 5.

Monday – good read on the coalition of extreme groups forming across the US.

This time 2021 – vaccination and beating the variants. A year into working from home, and it’s the new normal.

This time 2020 – getting into the groove of weekly blogging with daily news aggregation. Restaurants and bars closing, statewide school closures, large gatherings banned.

	The Guardian	The Seattle Times
7 Mar		here
8 Mar		here
9 Mar		here
10 Mar		here
11 Mar		here
12 Mar		here
13 Mar

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

Going Solar – a preamble

by ezs | Mar 2, 2022 | evilzenscientist

When we moved to Issaquah, back in 2008, we moved into a new home. I’ve spent the last 14 years or so researching and tracking the financials, efficiency and availability of photo-voltaic systems. Back in 2008-2010 I spoke at length with several colleagues who had made the early jump, these homebrew solutions came with costs, risks – but happily lots of data.

We are at the point in early 2022 where we have decided to take the plunge and make a major investment in a combined photo-voltaic and battery storage system. This series of blog posts will walk through a lot of our thoughts and decisions, mainly so I can have this for future reference.

COVID – week 103 – February 28 – March 6

by ezs | Mar 2, 2022 | evilzenscientist

Weekend – with war in Europe dominating the headlines, the US and much of Europe seems to have forgotten we’re in the tail end of a pandemic.

Cases are down – but still higher than much of the last two years.

Friday – Hong Kong planning to test all residents, shops rationing some food and medicines.

Thursday – Live coverage from the Guardian looks to be over. Newsroom is focused instead on war in Ukraine.

Wednesday – the end of Omicron is being mistaken for the end of Covid.

Tuesday – the smaller, child sized, shots of Pfizer are less effective. Stops serious illness, but doesn’t prevent infection.

Monday – European war, and the potential for massive global escalation, has given The Guardian newsroom a completely different focus. No daily aggregates from The Guardian in almost a week.

This time 2021 – vaccine rollout well underway; 28M in US with two shots. A great early lead.

This time 2020 – I was in the office, running an architecture design session, no social distancing. All of the talk was about the coronavirus. 2 March 2020 – State Of Emergency declared in Washington State. Work from home officially started on 6th March.

	The Guardian	The Seattle Times
28 Feb		here
1 Mar		here
2 Mar		here
3 Mar		here
4 Mar		here
5 Mar		here
6 Mar

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

Security and access tweaks

by ezs | Mar 2, 2022 | evilzenscientist

Like many other sites, large and small, well known to obscure – I’ve been getting a lot of external and malicious traffic.

Some slight tightening of security, mandating newer TLS versions and cipher suites.

COVID – week 102 – February 21 – February 27

by ezs | Feb 22, 2022 | evilzenscientist

Weekend – looks like The Seattle Times and The Guardian are down to weekday updates – which is unsurprising.

UW reporting "end of the pandemic". Locally cases are "much lower" than the peak of a few months ago.

Wednesday through Friday – Ukraine invasion. Newsrooms have put most coronavirus news way below the fold. General trend is lifting restrictions and mask requirements; continue to encourage vaccinations and boosters.

Tuesday – most COVID restrictions in UK, Ireland, US starting to be removed. On the other side – 100K new cases in Brazil. Free testing to end in England.

Monday – possible war in Ukraine has taken Covid off the headlines globally. NZ ends vaccine mandates.

This time last year – vaccination systems went online, and were swamped. 500k US deaths from COVID.

This time 2020 – this was the week when panic buying really started. Cleaning products, face masks, hand sanitiser, paper towels, toilet paper – all stripped from stores.