Fred's Blog

Author: Fred Rothganger

  • End of COVID?

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    Fred Rothganger
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    Looks like our 4th wave is going out with a whimper, thanks to the vaccine. Other countries, like India, haven’t been so lucky. What I worry about now is if a new variant emerges that evades the current vaccines. We may end up in a situation like flu, where we need an updated vaccine each…

  • My greatest fear

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    Fred Rothganger
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    What am I scared of? Not climate change. It is real, but it’s not happening fast enough to count as the epic disaster some people describe. Not COVID. Actually, I was a bit concerned about long-term health consequences, but expected not to die of it. What I’m really scared about is our civilization self-destructing in…

  • Vaccine

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    Fred Rothganger
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    Just got my vaccine. As I was standing in line (or rather, cattle chute), an incredible feeling swept over me. This is the day we’ve been waiting for, like the dove returning to Noah. COVID is finally over.

  • Start of the 4th Wave

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    Fred Rothganger
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    I went to the CDC website today, hoping to collect support for declaring that things are looking good. Unfortunately, there is still a worrying uptick in case rates. By the end of this month we will know whether a 4th wave is forming. If it doesn’t, then we can celebrate the end of COVID. This…

  • Daylight Saving Time

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    Fred Rothganger
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    Some congress people are proposing to make DST permanent. This is a case of totally missing the point. In ascending order of stupidity, here are the main choices the country has: Permanent standard time. Adjust time on reasonable dates (see below) Permanent DST The system we have now When congress last meddled with it (2005),…

  • Reparations

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    Fred Rothganger
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    Here’s a little thought experiment: Suppose person A lives in a valley on good land and enjoys prosperity. Then person B comes into the valley. Because B is stronger, it takes over all the good land, forcing A to live on the worst land. Conditions are so bad that A is barely able to survive.…

  • Throw away your mask?

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    Fred Rothganger
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    Now is not the time to throw away your masks and party in the streets with your friends. We have about a month to go before we really get past COVID. All the gleeful opening up could easily create another wave. I see a tiny uptick in the data which could be the front of…

  • End of COVID?

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    Fred Rothganger
    in

    Will we have a 4th wave of COVID? The waves are caused by relaxing our guard when things look good, combined with not acting quickly enough when cases start ticking up again. The waves have been spaced about 4-5 months apart, so I’d expect the next one around the end of March (about 5 weeks…

  • Good Death

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    Fred Rothganger
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    Without being specific, there have been occasions when someone died and I felt like things were better because of their passing. For a few, I’d like to dance on their grave like that scene in the Scrouge musical (“Thank you very much, that’s the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me.”) For others, it’s…

  • Belief in Democracy

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    Fred Rothganger
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    A few months ago I considered making a post that asked the following question: “If Trump announced that he is suspending the constitution, dissolving congress, and that he is the only authority, would you still follow him?” My guess was that about 5-10 of my more extreme social-media friends would have actually said yes. Then…