20,000 Amazon Employees Infected

Posted on by Thor

Amazon said that more than 19,816 of its front line workers in the US have contracted Covid-19 since March 2020. This umber does not include all the front line drivers who might be infected. One 22 year old driver abandoned his truck full  of packages at a Detroit gas station and quit.

Amazon has kept its facilities open throughout the pandemic to meet a surge in demand from shoppers stuck at home. Amazon doubled its net profit year over year to $5.2 billion, compared to $2.6 billion at this time in 2019. The minimum wage at Amazon is $15 an hour but a newly formed Union is working to double that starting wage. Amazon had faced criticism from employees, unions and elected officials, who have accused the company of putting employees’ health at risk.

Staying open has proven very lucrative for the e-commerce firm, and has added tens of billions of to the wealth of founder Jeff Bezos, who is the world’s richest man. Starting in March, 2020 Amazon hired 100,000 new workers in a matter of weeks to meet surging demand from customers, and announced plans to hire another 75,000 in April, 2020. The company said that it  distributed more than 100 million face masks, and implemented temperature checks at its facilities around the world. Athena, a coalition that has opposed Amazon on a wide range of labor, planning and environmental issues, called on officials to investigate further. “Amazon allowed Covid-19 to spread like wildfire,” Athena’s director Dania Rajendra said in a statement. There have been at least 10 deaths among Amazon warehouse employees who tested positive for COVID-19.

 

Ice Contagion

Posted on by Thor

An amateur recreational ice hockey game  played at an indoor ice rink in the Tampa Bay, Florida became an example of a super spreader event for COVID-19. The teams each had 11 players between the ages of 15 to 53. 14 players of the 22 players and one rink staff member became infected.

Ice hockey involves vigorous physical exertion accompanied by deep, heavy respiration, and during the game, players frequently move from the ice surface to the bench while still breathing heavily. In this game, hockey-specific face protection varied and included metal cages or plastic half-shields (covering the eyes and the upper part of the nose); some players do not wear face protection. Cloth face masks for disease control were NOT used in the locker rooms or during the game.

The high proportion of infected players on the index patient’s team might have resulted from additional exposures to the index patient in the locker room and on the player bench, where players sit close to one another. Not all players from the game sought testing, and asymptomatic infections were possibly not identified. There was only one spectator to the game and that person showed no symptoms and went untested. It is unknown how many people the players then went on to infect.

A super spreader event is when one person infects more than 5 people. This is happening more often that you might think. The fact that the United States has been so lax on contact tracing, means these types of spreader events often go unchecked. You have to look for something to find it.

 

Jacksonville was like Mississippi

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Jacksonville was like being in Mississippi. After standing up for his rights Sam realized he was in a city with deep rooted racial hatred. Jacksonville was the site of Axe Handle Saturday in which blacks were attacked by a white mob who struck them with ax handles. I painted a negative view of the violence which plays back as a time lapse as the painting forms. Each horrific memory is depicted with this effect. On top of this I composited an old film look with scratches.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre. The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Third Wave

Posted on by Thor

The number of COVID-19 cases is surging across the country.The Midwest is being hit particularly hard, notably South Dakota which was the site of the Sturgis motorcycle rally which may have seeded outbreaks all across the Midwest. In South Dakota there is no mandatory mask mandate, governor Kristi Noem saying that people have the right to decide for themselves. One candidate for the North Dakota the house of representatives, David Andahl a “Trump Republican”, passed away from COVID-19 but is still on the ballot.

In all 45 states are seeing increases of cases of COVID-19. The U.S. has confirmed an average of 54,000 new cases per day, a 25 percent increase compared to two weeks ago. Florida is also seeing increases. Wisconsin is building a field hospital on the state park fairground.

The first surge hit New York and the northeast in the spring, and the second hit the south including Florida, over the summer, peaking at about 73,000 cases per day in July — the highest levels so far recorded in the pandemic in the U.S. Experts have warned for months of a surge in cases in the colder months that would likely rival the battering by COVID-19 the U.S. already endured.

Twenty-seven states, mostly in the South, Midwest and Mountain states, have “uncontrolled spread” of COVID-19, according to the COVID Exit Strategy, a nonprofit public health group that tracks metrics of the pandemic, including case numbers and test positivity rates. Another 18 states are “trending poorly,” including states on the East and West coasts, and Texas and Louisiana. Only two states — Maine and Vermont — are “trending better,” with declining cases and a smaller proportion of tests coming back positive.

The U.S. is nearing 8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 220,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ensemble forecast projects an additional 9,000 to 20,000 deaths by Nov. 7, 2020. All the while Trump is downplaying the virus spreading lies and misinformation. Listen to experts not politicians, your life depends on it.

Yesterday This Was Home: Close Up

Posted on by Thor

We cut to Sam’s hand gently pressing down on the girl’s arm as a reminder that they should not move. This shot lasts just two seconds with the narrator saying, “So she wouldn’t move.” I decided I could get away with not animating the scene. In the previous scene I had animated Sam gently pressing down on her arm, so this shot was about the stillness that followed. This was the moment he had predicted and this was his moment to take a stance.

When animating, some scenes would expand a bit from what I had set up in the storyboards while others were cut back a bit for the sake of the pace and timing of the short. It is a fun process with every individual element playing a part. I found I missed animating and it felt good to be in control of every single piece of the puzzle. Music was only used with the introductory tiles cards. The music was titled Traveling Horse by Lobo Loco and it has a blues vibe that I liked. It did not hurt that it was royalty free. The single opening riff opened up the short.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre. The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: A Reminder

Posted on by Thor

In this shot Sam pressed down on the girls wrist to remind her that they should not move. This was one of my favorite moments in the story. I kept their movements constrained focusing mostly on his simple gesture of lifting his hand up and pressing it down on her wrist. She reacts simply by glancing over at him and he glances back. It is a precious scene and I animated it early to get a feel for the characters. How I drew then in this scene influences how I drew then in the rest of the scenes.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre.

The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: Sam Looks Up

Posted on by Thor

Sam Looks up at the driver. The animation involved an anticipation where Sam lowers his chin a bit and blinks and then raised his head up. This is his chance t make a stand. The background and characters were reused from two shots prior. I isolated Sam’s head so I could animate it in Callipeg. The shot only last for several seconds as the Narrator says, “I looked up at him and I said,”. By this time I was animating up to three scenes a day. I was on a roll and realized that the steps I had taken to organize the short were paying off. The storyboards were developed enough so they doubled as backgrounds and I had worked n layers meaning I could turn off character layers if they needed to be redrawn for animation. In this case I just had to isolate Sam’s head to animate it.

In the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline you can see that the original Oral History video is under all of my storyboard and animation clips. It was edited a bit to cut out conversation and laughter that is interspersed in the oral history. I needed to keep the animation and story tight and concise.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre. The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Celebrating Black Culture: Music, Storytelling, and Poetry
Evolution of Music
Thursday, October 15, 2020

The Legacy of Ocoee: A Panel Discussion
Thursday, October 29, 2020

Lunch & Learn: Crafting the Ocoee Exhibition
Friday, November 6, 2020

The Destruction of Rosewood
Sunday, November 15, 2020

Family Days: Growing a Better Tomorrow
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Saturday, February 6, 2021

Celebrating Black Culture: Music, Storytelling, and Poetry
Storytelling & Poetry
Thursday, February 11, 2021

Commander in Sheep

Posted on by Thor

The Trump Campaign continues to hold super spreader rally’s across the country. This one was in North Carolina. Trump can not run on his record since there are 218.000 dead from a virus that the administration made no attempt to contain. Trump is pushing all around him to find an October surprise and yet they are going back to Hillary Clinton’s e-mails as if that should concern us all when he is threatening our lives with his every lie.

Regardless of weather he wins or looses, Trump is profiting from the campaign. He has moved  $2.3 million of contributions from other people into his private companies. Rudy Giuliani handed the New York Post a suspicious story about some abandoned laptop. The White House was warned that Giuliani was the target of a Russian intelligence misinformation campaign. The warnings were dismissed. The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine. Of course Trump was impeached for his attempts to force Ukraine to come up with a fake investigation into is political rival in order to get military aid as they were being attacked by Russia.

He had hoped to rush through a virus before the election ignoring safeguards, he flipped flopped on a stimulus package and wanted to hand out money with his signature for votes but that was shot down by Moscow Mitch. The man is desperate to find old dirt and new and when he finds none he lies.

Despite this, people still show up to his super spreader events to catch a glimpse of the man. They are willing to risk getting the virus because their commander in sheep beat the virus. He got the best cocktail of experimental drugs but they are on their own with no vaccine and no access to the treatments he got at Walter Reed Hospital. Trump claims the virus is behind us but nationally we are seeing more that 50,000 new cases every day. More than 40 states are seeing daily increases in cases. College students returning to campuses have helped fuel the fire. People are not following simple CDC guidelines to help stop the spread, wear masks, wash hands often and avoid social distancing. These super spreader rallies are a sure sign that people are  ready to die. They are the red hatted sheep going to slaughter.

Trump is the weakest sheep. His only desire is attention and admiration. He continues to ignore, downplay or wish away COVID-19. If he has to leave office, he want to take his followers with him. These airport rallies remind me of Jonestown where everyone had to drink the Koolaid and die. He has pinned all his hopes on this hectic tour of super spreading events. He fails to remember that voters need to be alive to cast their vote.

“Beware of false profits who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” -Matthew 7-15

Herd Immunity

Posted on by Thor

I wish Donald Trump had learned something from infecting his family with COVID-19. To excuse holding super spreader rallies leading up to the election, the Trump administration has adopted a policy of “Herd Immunity.” The strategy is to do nothing, as he has done all along, and let the virus go unchecked. The basic idea is that the vulnerable and weak are acceptable collateral damage. They will die anyway. “It is what it is.”

This scorched earth idea has never worked. according to Stuart Ray, M.D., professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, countries that have avoided lock downs, masks and physical distancing, we have not seen evidence that any have achieved herd protection on a national scale. Sweden for example decided that social distancing was voluntary. The results were devastating. By the end of May 2020, the nation recorded nearly 41,000 COVID-19 cases resulting in more than 4,500 deaths in a population of 10 million, compared with Scandinavian neighbors Norway and Finland that counted fewer than 600 COVID-19 deaths combined. Out simply the result was death on a massive scale, which America has already seen and will see much more with Trumps continued, do nothing policy. The idea of herd immunity is not a science based theory. It is dangerous.

The director of the World Health Organization held a press conference to state, “Never in the history of public health has herd immunity bee used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic…letting COVID-19 circulate unchecked therefor means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death.”

No one knows if it is even possible to develop immunity from the virus. An otherwise healthy 25-year-old Nevada man is the first American confirmed to have caught COVID-19 twice, with the second infection being worse than the first. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee said, “Respiratory infections like COVID-19 don’t provide lifelong immunity like a measles infection.” The man from Nevada has recovered from both infections. a 98 year old Dutch woman got the virus a second time and that second infection killed her.

I did the above illustration after listening to a Jordan Klepper interview with a Trump supporter at the Harrisburg Pennsylvania Trump Rally.

The supporter, proud of the conservative supreme court nominee, confirmed he was pro-life.

Klepper – “It is important for Americans to do whatever they can to protect a human life.”

Supporter – “Yes”

Klepper – “Why aren’t you wearing a mask?”

Supporter – “I mean again, it’s a personal choice I think? If everybody was wearing them and everybody said put a mask on, I would respect everybody’s wished and put one on. We are not sheep.”

Klepper – “You are not sheep. But if everybody here was wearing masks…”

Supporter – “Again, we are not sheeple.”

Klepper – “So you are going to look at what everybody is doing and you are going to follow along.”

Supporter – “That’s right.”

Klepper – “But not sheeple.”

Supporter – “Not sheeple.”

The Sower

Posted on by Thor

Donald Trump held a rally in Sanford, Florida. Air Force 1 landed at the Sanford airport and bleachers and a makeshift stage were set up on the runway. Thousands of mask less fans showed up believing that Trumps claims of immunity would become their immunity to COVID-19.

A mask less Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis made his appearance giving high fives to screaming fans like he wan entering an NBA championship game. 25 yards later he wiped his nose with the hand everyone had slapped.

Trump plans to continue holding death rally’s across battleground states. His concern are his poling numbers not weather his voters will be alive come November 3, 2020. Trump threatened to go out into the audience and kiss every man and every beautiful women. First lady Melania Trump was last seen September 29, 2020 at the first presidential debate, mask less inn the audience. My guess is that Melania is still quarantining and Trump is horny as hell after all his steroid treatments.

People behind Trump were issued MAGA face masks so that the TV shot would show plenty of masks. But masks were not required for the thousands of other packed shoulder to shoulder around the makeshift stage. CNN Reporter Jim Acosta reported from the event having to shout over Rumpers shouting “CNN sucks!”  In his live shot Jim said, “You know what really sucks? Getting COVID-19.”

The Trump administration has decided that herd immunity is their new policy. Herds of sheep keep packing Trump Rallys.