How tough would it be to spoof this? I mean, if it's just that "Sent from my iPhone" sig, that would be trivial. Is there more behind this green/blue distinction?

My local utility did this back in the 1990s. They figured out that by running fiber around town, they could monitor electrical loads very precisely, and this would allow them to save tons of money on peak power purchases from the grid. And as a side-bonus, the fiber would also act as a backbone for cable TV and broadband internet. They proposed a bond issue (or maybe it was a local option sales tax, don't remember exactly) and put it up for a vote. It passed, of course, and ended up paying itself off (in power purchase savings) well ahead of schedule. As a result, we had 10Mbps broadband back when most people were still on 28K dial-up. These days it's gigabit, and it's pretty cheap too.

Social democracy FTW! ;-)

Replying to myself to add a couple more links regarding the continued use of HCQ in Costa Rica and Malaysia.

I would mod this up if I had points. But I can add some supporting evidence that starting HCQ EARLY makes all the difference. For example, a non-scientific pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) trial of 10,000 police officers in Mumbai found zero Covid-19 deaths among the 4500 taking HCQ versus 9 deaths in the 5500 who did not. Now India's ICMR is explicitly endorsing the use of HCQ for prevention.

During an outbreak in a nursing home in Texas, the doctor started HCQ+Zinc at the first sign of symptoms, and had only one fatality out of 56 elderly patients.

A small study in New York found that adding Zinc to HCQ reduced the likelihood of a patient going to ICU, invasive ventilation, or hospice by nearly half.

Another study from Spain found that, "in a cohort of 166 patients from 18 to 85 years hospitalised with COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine treatment with 800mg added loading dose increased survival when patients were admitted in early stages of the disease," by a factor of 1.4 to 1.8.

In a small cohort in Lebanon, doctors concluded, "Early administration of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin potentially explains our 94.7% success rate in treating a fairly complex cohort of COVID-19 pneumonia."

Granted, much of this evidence is somewhat anecdotal, since it is not based on randomized controlled trials, but it is sufficient to provoke further study. Meanwhile, in the links provided in the OP, there is no discussion of when (how early) the HCQ was started, at what dosage, etc.. And despite the now-retracted Lancet study, HCQ continues to be used in Turkey, Malaysia, and Costa Rica, apparently with satisfactory results.

Good answer, if a bit terse... I would add bureaucratic inertia and corporate capture, along with a lack of political will which may be attributable to a lack of big, "visionary" human missions. Just going around in circles in the ISS isn't all that inspiring, compared to walking on other worlds.

But now that we're back to launching people -- or more precisely, now that launching people is no longer the exclusive domain of governments -- the future looks brighter than ever for space exploration and development.

Somebody published a Zinc study a couple of weeks ago. Scroll down to the last couple of pages of this PDF for the summary...

Patients receiving HCQ+Zn who needed ICU = 9.2% (vs. 15.7% without Zn)
Patients who needed invasive ventilation = 8.0% (vs. 16.5%)
Expired/Hospice = 13.1% (vs. 22.8%)

It's also worth noting that Costa Rica and Malaysia have been using HCQ all along without any adverse incidents. Then there's that nursing home in Texas that used it quite successfully to quash an outbreak, with only one death out of 90 cases in the facility.

The trick seems to be using it as early as possible in the disease process, at the first sign of symptoms, not when somebody is already moderately or severely ill.

And "Better luck next time" for Boeing... their reputation has been taking multiple blows lately. But hey, that's why we have multiple contractors for the commercial crew program. Redundancy.

Kudos to SpaceX, it's been a helluva along wait. I'm really looking forward to this!!

The video I posted includes clips of the same footage.

This 7-minute video explains in detail why and how mask wearing is an essential part of the overall strategy to stop the virus from spreading. I recommend it for anyone who's not quite convinced yet.

Specifically, aggressive testing and contact tracing, along with transparency and open communication. For every new case, they would send out a text to people in the area saying, "This person ate at McDonald's on Tuesday afternoon," and urged people to show up for testing. They got on the ball early, and stayed vigilant.

Another thing I'll add, just as a cultural note... In a lot of Asian countries, surgical masks are available in every 7-11 and Circle-K, because they are a commonly used item, and there is no social stigma for wearing them. The main reason for this is that a large portion of the population still use scooters for commuting, and although many of these countries have made great strides in combating pollution, when you're on a scooter in heavy traffic you're going to experience a lot of fumes. So it's very common to see people wearing masks in this situation.

Thus, when the news breaks that there's a new virus on the loose, there's no frantic scramble to clear the shelves of masks, because everybody's got some in their sock drawer. I was in Taipei during the SARS outbreak, and within a day or two when I showed up at work there was a 100-pack of masks waiting for me on my desk. Everybody got them, and everybody wore them. It makes a huge difference.

Also, since disk space is dirt cheap, why not just download the BitTorrent file? You don't have to keep it after you're done watching.

It's a little early yet for planting here in Iowa, but I did pick up some seeds on my last trip out.

Here is one option that will drastically reduce your need for the dead-tree solution...

I started getting detailed information via YouTube (specifically Chris Martenson) in late January. In early February I stocked up on food and other supplies. Now I'm all set to ride it out from home. Luckily I work from home, so I literally don't need to leave the house for a month or two if necessary. The US (where I live) is finally getting its act together with regard to testing, so I'll wait and watch for a few weeks and see how bad the situation is, then reassess my options.

Hoping for the best...