In addition to a Science Experiments For Covid19 Break, lots of e-books from the local libraries, the free learn-at-home program from Scholastic, and a handful of new physical books, I’ve got four daily educational activities for Anya during this school not-a-break:
10:30 Cleveland Science Center Curiosity Corner Experiments https://www.youtube.com/user/GreatLakesScience
11:00 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Animal info https://www.facebook.com/ClevelandMetroparksZoo
13:00 The Kennedy Center / Mo Willems Drawing https://www.youtube.com/user/TheKennedyCenter
15:00 Cleveland Metroparks Naturalist https://www.facebook.com/ClevelandMetroparks
There are two get-moving videos that we’ve checked out … but it’s maple sap season so most of our physical activity is “hike in the woods and collect sap” 🙂
Wednesday @ Noon, https://www.clevelandinnercityballet.org/ does a virtual ballet lesson
Daily, not live, https://www.facebook.com/DominiqueMoceanuGymnasticsCenter/ has mini-workouts
I’ve had several situations now where a group is looking to start an online video meeting. To eliminate platforms that don’t support the number of people required, I put together this quick list. Teams and Zoom are, unfortunately, something home users are less apt to be familiar with … but it really is “click to join the call” easy.
Microsoft Teams (300)
Zoom (100)
Facebook Messenger (50)
Skype (50)
FaceTime (30, but limited to Apple products)
Google Hangouts (10)
Hangout Meet has a 250 person limit, but only if it is part of the gSuite subscription. It’s not part of our school district’s education package. Not sure if it’s part of our Township’s government package. Update: Google is now offering paid Hangout Meet features for free through 01 June.
Visualization from Johns Hopkins Uni Center for Systems Science and Engineering: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Testing Stats: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing-in-us.html
Interesting combination of data — there have been 13,624 tests (although the data points for the past few days is currently incomplete) and 1,663 infections. That means like 87% of the people who have been tested weren’t infected. Which could be that they’ve been tested before they are infected enough, or it could be that there are a LOT of uninfected people getting tested. Since the actual number of tests is going to be higher, the percent actually infected is lower.
Governor DeWine announced today that school will be out starting Monday — I guess I understand the need for some logistical wrangling, but it seems a bit odd to say “there’s a public health emergency that requires us to close down all of the schools …. next week”. I wonder how many people will be absent for the rest of the week. It seems like — if there’s enough spread to require schools to be closed, we shouldn’t be going in tomorrow.
Striking how the states where Biden is leading count so much quicker than the ones where Bernie is leading ..
Of course you can use the math libraries and actually round, but this is a quick one-liner that truncates to two digits.
fValue = static_cast<int>(fValue * 100) / 100.0;
(Warning: If saying Castro had a decent literacy program offended you … you probably want to skip this comment). There’s one thing I think Trump does well — play the media. In the 2016 election, he didn’t need to buy a bunch of advertising because every major news outlet handed over HUGE chunks of airtime to him. Did they mean to? Probably not. They thought they were doing X and Trump was working the system to accomplish Y. I worry that the Democratic candidate this Autumn will be unable to complete with Trump because Trump is playing a different game. It’s like kitting up for a baseball game and showing up at a Formula One race. You might be an awesome baseball player … but you really should have brought a car. Bernie playing the media like this — because you *know* they weren’t there to cover an “I look forward to the debate Sunday” speech … they thought he was pulling out of the race — shows me that he can compete with Trump on issues *and* can play the media to his advantage.
And, yeah, I look forward to Biden answering for his history on Sunday. His fabricated Civil Rights legacy. Direct quotes where he is willing to cut Social Security. The money he’s received from credit card companies and how that influences his position on bankruptcy and consumer protections. His support of the PATRIOT Act — his pride that it’s based on legislation he drafted!
Letter sent to my Ohio State Representative and Senator:
I am writing to encourage you to support GA133 HB-546 introduced on 10 March 2020. The bill alters the definition of hybrid and electric vehicles to reclassify plug-in hybrid vehicles. These are vehicles that will both plug into an external source to charge for a modest electric range AND use the gasoline engine when the charge is depleted. Examples of vehicles in this category are Chevy Volt, Toyota Prius Prime, Chrysler Pacifica PHEV, Kia Niro PHEV, Honda Clarity, and Ford Fusion Energi. These vehicles are not intended to run on electricity alone — they use a combination of electricity and gasoline.
Plug-in hybrid owners have been uniquely penalized by the latest gas tax bill. Plug-in hybrid vehicle owners pay tax on the gasoline used and pay the higher registration fee for fully electric vehicles. HB-546 accommodates said payment of the gasoline tax by halving the registration fee for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Without a system to account for electric miles driven (i.e. a system that taxes road use by electric vehicles the same way the gasoline tax does), reclassifying plug-in hybrids seems like the best way to accommodate the fact that plug-in hybrid drivers are already paying toward road maintenance through the gas tax.