Here’s a trick to include the current date in an Excel string — especially useful if you want to include the current date on a graph without having to actually type the current date each time. If you just include TODAY(), you get the integer representation. Wrap TODAY() in TEXT() and supply the formatting you want (“yyyy-mm-dd” in my example). Voila, a date like 2020-03-22 instead of 43912.
SARS COV-2 Visualizations
I see charts of the cumulative number of infections (‘the curve’) and the number of tests administered … but comparing the daily number of tests to the cumulative number of infections is not particularly meaningful beyond seeing that the increase in infections is still rather exponential.
A better visualization compares the cumulative tests to the cumulative infections (or, for less staggering numbers, the daily tests administered and the daily number of new infections identified). No, it doesn’t appear that ‘the curve’ is flattening. I’m curious to see, however, the impact of multiple states going into lock-down has in a week or two.
Looking at a number of infections, especially compared across the globe, provides a bit of a distorted view. Comparing countries by the percent of the population that’s been identified as infected instead of the raw number of identified infections avoids the appearance that small countries are less impacted (and that highly populated countries are disproportionately impacted).
Non-Bail-Outs
I don’t get why we they’re talking about “bail outs” instead of making purchases that solving other problems. I was seeing news stories about people stuck abroad followed by news stories about airlines needing money because no one was flying — paying for flights to bring people back to the US seemed like an obvious win-win. Now there are restaurants going under & kids who are out of school not getting meals. Hotels with no customers and individuals without a safe home in which to shelter. Instead of floating loans or handing out money, *buy* services and fix two problems simultaneously.
News and Falsehoods
Low Yeast, Long Rise Bread
There’s been a run on yeast. Well, there’s been a run on a lot of things. But most things have viable alternatives. No broccoli, get some carrots. No tomato sauce, get diced tomatoes and use a blender. While there are unleavened breads, and breads leavened with baking soda … it’s not yeast bread. I’ve found some recipes using brewing yeast for bread, but I wanted to see how little baking yeast would make bread. Last night’s pizza dough used a quarter teaspoon of yeast. I took a cup of warm water, added about a tablespoon of sugar, and a quarter teaspoon of yeast. That sat until there was activity. Mixed together three cups of whole wheat flour, one cup of white flour, a few tablespoons of vital wheat gluten, and a teaspoon of salt. Added the water/yeast, then added enough water to make a dough. The dough sat overnight to rise. I gently deflated it in the morning, then left it to raise again. Gently deflated it around lunch time, and left it alone until dinner time. Very good crust — great flavor, nice crunchy crust to it. And beautifully leavened.
Did you know … you can restore a deleted Microsoft Teams channel?
Click the ellipses menu next to the team name and select “Manage team”

Select “Channels”

In the channel listing, click the “Deleted” section to expand it.

Select “Restore” (you’ll get asked if you’re sure you want to restore it)

Voila, your channel is back!

Willful Ignorance
Office 365 Feature Scale-back
COVID Break Educational Activities
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




