Current popular definitions of face mask generally refers only to coverings for the nose and mouth, whether these are surgical masks, N95s, or cloth masks. But there are other face protection gear that might enhance or offer better protection than these so-called face masks. These include visors and goggles, and face shields that cover the entire face, basically a sheet of transparent plastic held up by a strap or belt that wraps around the head.

People who can only wear loose-fitting face masks could benefit from face shields to reduce viral particles coming from overhead. I'm not sure if these could substitute for face masks, since the couple of articles I've read about them say they tend to protect mostly the wearers rather the people around them. Sort of like a motorcycle helmet without the helmet.

A picture is worth how many words exactly? I suspect that Google search is going to do its "magic" by comparing new pictures with already indexed pictures. Maybe the algorithm(s), given a set of somewhat identical photos, will flag the older pictures as original and the newer ones as the "fakes"? So if you see, say, a photo of Trump toting a bazooka during a White House presscon, it would be quickly flagged as a fake if a photo already exists of the presscon showing him without the bazooka.

More like "2020: the Death of Linux on the Desktop". Now the only way regular Joes and Janes are going to use Linux is through the stained-glass Window. Maybe not classic embrace and extinguish, but conquer and control. If you can't beat 'em, confine 'em.

If by owned I include abandoned and lost, then yes, I've owned more than 16+ SD cards. All I know is that I've gone through more SD cards than USB flash drives, for a strategic reason. SD cards are simpler, as they don't have as much built-in electronics and are therefore easier to salvage when they start to go bad. I have a number of UFDs whose fault appear to be simply loose USB connectors. Probably can be hard-hacked by buying some Chinese spare parts, but that's too much a pain, especially when I have multiple incremental backups that just need to be pulled off some unlabeled storage box.

How effective is pepper spray against a riot cop wearing a face shield and tear gas mask? This will work only against less organized groups of civilians, the protestors and the "casual" (not gang-affiliated) looter. This is another case of toilet paper panic.

Just because the bullshit has been around for a long, long time doesn't mean it won't hit the fan. Some technology just takes time to mature. Take for example, the electric car. The first electric cars were actually as old or older than the first gas-powered vehicles. But it's only in the last decade that they have gained near mass market acceptance.

Outside the realm of technology, I can cite the example of the proto-mammals that evolved at the same time as the archosaurs. Mammals only emerged as the dominant vertebrate species after spending over 100M years scurrying around the feet of the seemingly unvanquishable dinosaurs.

Who knows if the pandemic might turn out to be the extinction level event that would finally wipe out the low-to-mid-level code monkeys, leaving only the rock-star programmers and the software entrepreneurs and impresarios as the sole representatives of the once proud species that could read, if not write code.

Maybe someone in the know can enlighten us about what goes on in these events? Wouldn't contributing directly to the developers be a better use of money since none of it would be going to the overhead of renting venues and buying plane tickets, etc. Or are these events, being more about PR and advertising than software development, the only places where tightfisted corporates are willing to part with their funds?

Somewhat OT but I found out recently that CDC is, for some weird reason, correctly styled as plural. For example, despite the plural construction "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", the Wikipedia article uses singular verb, noun and pronoun forms in describing the agency:

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Walk through the streets of any modern city, and chances are some gadget or device has already imaged you. What difference does it make if some pedestrian wears the imaging (or at least scanning, assuming reports are true the Apple googles don't come with a visible light camera) device on his face?

Your definition of nationalism contrasts with the dictionary definition. Take the Wordnet definition: "love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it". So a true nationalist is someone who, if the needs warrant, is willing to die for his belief in a nation state separate from his family, tribe or village. Of course the borders of what makes a nation is as fuzzy as a cloud. They could be small city states like Singapore, former empires such as the Chinese mainland that through the passage of time and ruthless cultural suppression have gained a national identify, or remnants of such empires, such as Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Ironically, if parts of a nation begin to see themselves as a separate cultural entity, they too can become nationalists, e.g. Basque or Quebec nationalism. To the other members of the larger, existing nation, they might simply be viewed as separatists, rebels that must be suppressed at all costs.

It doesn't help that the people who should know better (experts, authorities) lump together two different conspiracy theories into one. The first one, about 5G "suppressing the immune system", is improbable but not preposterous, since excessive exposure to some forms of radiation is a known trigger for autoimmune diseases, particularly cancer. So it's simply a matter of extending widely known medical facts into realms where they don't belong, sort of like applying Newton's laws of gravitation to blackholes.

The second one, about the massless transmission of organic material, belongs to realm of Clarke's advance technologies indistinguishable from magic. Linking together the improbable with the truly preposterous is a known propaganda trick, guilty by association.

In the age of social media, even the death of a couple of thousands, within a brief period, becomes an issue. We now have the virtual equivalent of seeing people dying in the streets. Caring about the welfare of our kin became part of our genetic programming because this increased the survival rate for the genes shared by members of the tribe. Socialist media have extended this concept to include the humans that live in the concrete jungles well beyond our nearby valleys and shores.

I've always thought of Stars Wars as happening in the past. We're simply the degenerated descendants of a formerly space-faring civilization. If there's any doubt, the opening text of every Star Wars movie says so itself: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away".

Harry Potter has lots of reference to contemporary culture, including British politics and class structure (which might not be obvious to American viewers) and the all-too-familiar experiences of youth, from bullying to first love to anti-establishment rebellion. Her later stuff, if you have in mind the extended universe set in pre-Depression America, might be less interesting because it hits closer to home, the way a choir might get bored by the preacher rehashing his usual talking points.

Our wetware evolved to take care of the near-term risks first. Pick the fruits and escape the lion first, then start wondering why lately it's become much harder to pick fruit or the level of the water in the watering hole has gone down.

Everything gets wiped out by something. Species that can reproduce faster, even if they get killed by the billions, always win over a slow-breeding but strong species.