GET OUT THE VOTE 2020

In 1916, 40% of the U.S. chose not to vote. 

In 1966, 40% of the U.S. chose not to vote. 

In 2016, 40% of the U.S. chose not to vote. 

GET OUT THE VOTE !

CQ: Day 85: Birthday Quarantined

Today is my 46th birthday. Our county opened up last week, and most of Pennsylvania is now open (with capacity restrictions, and you have to wear a mask), but we're still self-isolating. It's not that weird for me because we don't typically go anywhere on the yearly anniversary, and we usually get take-out, which we did again today.

Funny thing was - we drove to Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cake, and their driveway was blocked. You had to go in the back way into the parking lot because the drive through, which was open, was wrapped around the entire building. You could only go in IF you were picking up food ordered online, or you were getting an ice cream cake. Our DQ's booths are very close together and not able to be easily socially distanced. I imagine they will try to run the drive through like that all Summer.

During the last two months, neighborhood has had several birthday (and graduation) "drive through" parties - where attendants drive by the person's front yard in their cars. It's a bizarre thing to see. 

I also got my first haircut today in 4 months. Needless to say, my "quarantine cut" had been getting a little out of control. Weird thing was, I had to wear a mask today during the cut, and I had to give them 4 hours of advanced notice then wait an hour outside the salon. 

CQ: Day 83: GDP Could Fall by 53%

A report from the Atlanta Federal reserve now estimates that the U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) could fall 53% in the second quarter of 2020. I wondered what that looked like, and I couldn't find a graph of it, so I created this one, which shows quarterly GDP change since 1947, which is as far back as they calculated it.

It's not pretty.

CQ Day 77: Over 40,000,000 Without Jobs

The number of jobless claims in the U.S. has now risen to over 40.8 million, so much worse than even the New York Times' front page graph showed earlier this month.

The "Great Recession" of 2008 is almost invisible on this graph. These are numbers economists have never seen, never expected, and don't know what to do with.

CQ: Day 62: What About School??

I posted an article to Facebook today that says the future of universities is online, partnering with major tech companies: 

"The post-pandemic future, he says, will entail partnerships between the largest tech companies in the world and elite universities. Think MIT@Google. iStanford. HarvardxFacebook."

I don't know if that's the future but I do know that brick and mortar universities were losing enrollment before the Coronavirus crisis. Now suddenly they've had to do the last two months of teaching online, and they may have to (at least partially) do it this Fall. People are starting to find out very quickly if they're ready for online learning.

That includes grade school and high school as well, though since those kids are traveling long distances, it's a little more doable, at least in the short term. But if we have to socially distance this Fall, then we're going to have to have school run 3-4 times longer each day and have 3-4 times the staff. That's not going to work.

The local charter school has had this sign out for a while but I didn't get a chance to snap it until May 24, 2020 while on a grocery run. This photo was later added to this blog entry.

CQ: Day 58: Unemployment Falls Off A Cliff

Unemployment numbers have now reached over 20,000,000.  For some perspective, the New York Times from page today showed the "graph" of the numbers, which required the entire front page to show how far the U.S. has dropped. Gulp.

Here's another way to look at it, showing jobs added and lost in the last 10 years: 

CQ: Day 48: Gas For $1, Empty Streets, See You Soon

Gas prices have plunged since oil went negative last week. Sam's Club was selling it for $1.49 a gallon today; $1.89 at Sheetz.

In some places out West, it's fallen below $1, something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. The National Average is $1.74, a level not seen for any significant length of time since the 1990s (though a few cents above the New Years 2016 low) The $1.74 level is down from $2.62 at the beginning of the year, $3.99 in 2011, and over $4.00 just before the 2008 Recession. Graph from GasBuddy.com:

I took the photo above on a food run today. Wal-Mart finally got the custom stickers for their floor to direct Social distancing, and their isles are now one-way only.

I was the only car on the road several times today, simply unheard of in this college town outside of major holidays. The photos below show only three cars on the main stretch of North Atherton Street, and an empty College Avenue by the Penn State Bookstore. Both are typically bumper-to-bumper this time of day. The students have been gone now for a month. 

It's eerie out there.

Only grocery stores and take-out restaurants remain open. Malls and major retail stores remain closed, as they have for 6 weeks now. I can't believe it's been that long, and it's a weird thing to continue to see.

The Hoss's restaurant, which features a buffet, has a sign that says "SEE YOU SOON"

I'm just not sure that's going to happen.

CQ: Day 43: Sesame Street?

April 25, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 4,300 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S.

Blog: Even Sesame Street is now in on the COVID-19 preparation. No doubt weeks too late, CNN had Big Bird, the Count, and Elmo on TV this morning to help kids through the crisis.

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.

CQ: Day 36: Masked Emojis Have Arrived

Saw this ad today on Facebook.  I guess face masks are part of our "new normal."

CQ: Day 21: The World Is Empty

(from my AccuWeather.com blog): 

I didn't think it was possible, but as the United States moves into another month of quarantine, 90% of the population of our country (and 50% of the world's) is under stay-at-home orders... and the webcams are even emptier.

Below is a video tour of 45 Earthcams in 31 cities worldwide that I recorded today (most at rush hour). It's next to impossible to find a car or a person in the footage. I can't believe our world has changed this much.

CQ: Day 16: Pennsylvania Lockdown

March 28, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 121,500 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S.

Blog: And... it's finally reached us in Central PA. 

Counties have been added daily to the list of Pennsylvania stay-at-home orders for the last 10 days. Today, it came here to Centre County. We are now prohibited from driving anywhere except to get groceries or medicine. Not that we haven't been self isolating for over two weeks already, but now it's official. It's a chilling realization. 

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.

CQ: Day 11: "No Rush Hour" in NYC: Times Square Empty

Cities are empty, and the webcams stand watch.

(From my AccuWeather.com blog today):

Outdoor webcams (such as those at Earthcam) are robotically, with no knowledge of the virus and no political bias, recording the lack of humans worldwide, something heretofore unseen, as the Earth quarantines from the coronavirus. Here are a few examples I've captured over the last week. This footage was recorded in Times Square last Friday at rush hour and again this Monday rush hour (see also widescreen higher-res version):

This next one was recorded around 9 a.m. ET on Friday, March 20, and shows the lack of people and vehicles in Prague, London, Dublin, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida: [video not available] 

The same day, I also recorded a slideshow of traffic cameras across North America. These were mostly captured around 9-10 a.m. ET, and most are stills. Shown: Altoona, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Detroit, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and, from Canada, Montreal and Toronto.

You don't need a webcam to see the effects of coronavirus quarantine... there are plenty of other ways to measure our isolation. These are scenes not unlike those in apocalyptic movies... and the webcams will continue to watch us as we work through this maze of confusion.

(read more on my blog, including satellite & drone footage...)

CQ: Day 1: Big Crash

March 16, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 4,300 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S. NOTE: This was the big crash, but it wasn't the last. My "two-week" work-at-home policy instituted was extended to at least 6 weeks (as of this writing). The Penn State closure for "three weeks" mentioned below would later be extended for two months, ending the Spring semester at Spring Break.

Blog: So... The Dow Jones $DJIA just fell almost 3,000 points, or 13 percent, the #2 DAILY percentage crash in history, further than the 1929 crash. Only 1987 was worse. It was surreal to watch on television.

And just after the crash, I did something I never thought I'd do. I gathered up my belongings and left work, without a return date. It was weird. I think I said, "see you on the other side" on my way out.

We were told to work at home starting Monday, but my wife is not feeling well so we're starting tomorrow, Friday. I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home, to get a couple week's worth of groceries, just in case things got bad. Nobody was really panicking, but I was wary.

I filled the car up with gas and got some cash just in case. The local paper in the checkout told about the closure of Penn State.

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.

CQ: 3 Days Before: Second Crash

March 9, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 514 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S.

Blog: Today's stock market crash is quite unusual. The plunge of over 2,000 points was the 2nd-biggest percentage drop since *1987* (#1 was the slightly-worse October 2008 crash).

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.

CQ: 4 Days Before: Mask Hysteria

MARCH 8, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 450 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S.

Blog: I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home. Confirmed that, as the media has been saying, you can't buy dust masks anymore. They put signs out to remind people they don't protect against Coronavirus, but obviously people didn't listen.

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.

CQ: 12 Days Before: Last Supper

February 29, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 24 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S. NOTE: This may have been the last "normal" day we would experience in the year 2020, although we didn't know it at the time. We were surrounded by a dozen people in the shop's small room, then went to a restaurant where we sat down to eat with others, not thinking at all about social distancing or the Coronavirus. Although the major papers had headlines about the virus, many papers did not. The U.S. had 68 confirmed cases.

Blog: We had a nice time tonight when we drove into a nearby town to visit a friend's shop's grand opening and dined on (amazing) burgers and fries.

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.

CQ: 17 Days Before: First Crash

February 24, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 15 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S. NOTE: This was the first time that COVID19 really caught my interest -- and it was because of the first stock market crash of the event.  Note that the newspapers' primary headlines were NOT coronavirus-related at this point. What we didn't know was that this would be only the first of several stock market crashes over the next three weeks. The chart below shows that we were on the precipice as the market opened this morning:

Blog: The stock market is crashing due to Coronavirus today. If we close with the current loss on the Dow #djia (-933 / 3.22%) it will be the #3 point loss and #11 %age loss.

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.

Tangled Up in Blue

"Tangled up in Blue" is trending on Twitter today.

 My parents grew up on Bob Dylan, who is turning 78.

I went to a Dylan concert at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, North Carolina in 1976, when I was 2 years old. It was loud. I cried and my mom had to take me to get ice cream.

 Decades later, I stumbled upon, and fell in love with this brilliant song.

 

Songs are poetry. (They rhyme sometimes), and of course Dylan was a master of words. One of my favorite Bob Dylan stanzas is this one from "Tangled Up In Blue:"

(the lines are actually not in the original handwritten song shown here, but are in most lyrical interpretations of the version on the original album. He wrote & performed several versions).

Here's the story of that song, and here's more about Dylan's complex rhymes.