Infamy

Posted on by Thor

“December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to an emergency session of Congress. On that day More than 2,400 people, including 68 civilians , died and almost 1,200 more were injured. Americans were shocked by this surprise attack.

On average more than 2400 people have died each day in December, 2020. The surge of deaths following Thanksgiving travel are not yet a part of this surge. This is like experiencing the horror of Pearl Harbor every day of the week with no signs of the pandemic slowing.

Government and health officials have warned that cases and deaths will rise further in the coming weeks and months due to people traveling and gathering with family, against the advice of health experts. This is the new norm, with death on an epic scale and half the country trying to convince themselves that it isn’t happening. People cling to strange conspiracy theories.

The attack on Pearl Harbor woke a sleeping giant and united Americans against a common enemy. Today Americans are divided and confused preferring to hate each others political stances as opposed to the common enemy. America was betrayed by its government as the president lied to Americans about the virus. So many believed and continue to believe his lies. He didn’t want Americans to panic. But given the facts and some leadership Americans are able to fight and win any war. Trumps efforts to overturn the election are also infamous, yet so many stand behind him while ignoring the the danger to democracy and the pandemic.

Joe Biden is for the first time trying to unify the country around a common goal of wearing masks when out in public for 100 days to fight the spread of COVID-19. Back in 1941 people would have understood that as a patriotic duty. Today more than half the country will consider that an invasion of their rights. Americans are killing themselves by ignoring science and standing behind Trumps rhetoric of victim hood and hate.

iPad Robo Docs

Posted on by Thor

Boston Dynamics’ Spot the robot dog a contact free way for doctors to measure. patient vitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. It kind of reminds me of that hybrid dog in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers that had a human head.

Using four cameras mounted on the dog-like robot, the researchers have shown that they can measure skin temperature, breathing rate, pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation in healthy patients. Plans are in  place to test the Robo Docs to approach people who are showing symptoms of COVID-19 in a hospital emergency department.

The robots, controlled by a handheld device, can also carry a tablet that allows doctors to ask patients about their symptoms without being in the same room. A Robo Doc would cost about $75,000.

One of the horrible aspect of dying from COVID-19 is that you must die alone since visitors are not allowed. Hospitals are purchasing iPads essentially on music stands that can be st up so that a patient who is dying can say good bye to family face to face. The iPad stations allow patients to communicate with their friends and family, often for the last time. A photo posted Thursday of iPad stations being prepared for patients in the ICU has gone viral on Twitter, amassing more than 115,000 likes and 27,000 retweets in just days. iPads are often used right before patients are intubated. At this point, there’s no guarantee that the patient will have an opportunity to speak to their loved ones again.

 

 

 

Pre-Pandemic: Elite Animation Academy

Posted on by Thor

This sketch is a flash back to teaching Urban Sketching in the classroom at Elite Animation Academy (8933 Conroy Windermere Rd, Orlando, FL 32835). In the background you can see the students behind the computers learning the digital software.

My students are in the foreground sketching the classroom setting. This was sketched during the summer camps in 2019. Back then we could sit shoulder to shoulder sketching away.

Since the pandemic began, classes have been virtual and I actually love teaching online. I am able to share my drawing program on Zoom and then the students can follow along. I just finished teaching Foundation Drawing, Character Design, Animation, Drawing People Places and Things and a Portfolio Review class.  I have been getting some amazingly talented students online and they get some very specific one on one instruction thanks to this new means of sharing ideas and information.  The virtual Winter Courses are beginning January 16, 2021 through March 27, 2021.

100 Day Patriots

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President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday December 3, 2020 said he plans to ask the nation to wear masks for his first 100 days in office. He also said he’ll issue a standing order mandating masks in certain places. “Just 100 days to mask. Not forever — 100 days,” Mr. Biden said. “I think we’ll see a significant reduction if that occurs with vaccinations and masking, to drive down the numbers considerably.”

In researching my great grandfather Augustus Arthur Thorspecken, I found that he registered for the WWI draft  in June of 1917. I then found a newspaper clipping that showed that he was on leave from Camp Funston in January of 1918. Camp Funston in Kansas was the place where the first cases of Spanish flu first appeared and within a few weeks 1100 were sick. Since army training was 6 weeks in length, Augustus was likely at ground zero for the start of the Spanish Flu before he was shipped over to France. Because of the war, the flu spread to 24 of 36 U.S. army bases and then to Europe. The tight quarters of the camps were a perfect incubator to ignite the spread of the disease that resulted in an estimated  50 million deaths worldwide with about 675,000 deaths in the United States. My grandfather survived the pandemic and the war only to die of pneumonia 25 years later at the start of WWII.

Because there was a war going on, politicians on both sides of the Atlantic downplayed the spread of the virus. They did not want to appear weak. The first wave of the virus was like a tsunami that initially pulls water away from the shore, only to return in a towering, second wave. As the influenza spread across America, public health officials, determined to keep morale up, began to lie. U.S. Surgeon General Rupert Blue said, “There is no cause for alarm if precautions are observed.” As the disease accelerated newspapers assured readers that influenza posed no danger.

People knew that this was no common flu. The numbers were too staggering. There were not enough coffins for the dead. Mass graves had to be dug. They could not trust what politicians said. Society began to disintegrate. In 1918, without leadership, without the truth, trust evaporated. And people could only look after themselves. The most important lesson from 1918 is that politicians need to to tell the truth. This is a lesson that was not learned by the 2020 POTUS who lost. Joe Biden wants to start working to mitigate the damage already done with the simple request to wear a mask. Patriots who care about fellow Americans will pitch in.

F#ck Christmas Stuff

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In July of 2018, former top aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff secretly taped a conversation with first lady, Melania Trump that included several profanity-laced comments including: “”I’m working … my ass off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?””

Every Christmas Melania offers her apocalyptic vision of the holidays. In 2017 she chose to line the halls with F#cking dead white branches. In 2018 she decorated Christmas trees soaked in bright red cows blood. In 2019 she sucked any color out of the decorations and limited herself to pure white supremacy. The 2020 decorations come as her husband stamps his tiny feet and yells fraud. Golden tones permeate the halls as several thousand Americans die every day.

The White House is hosting 20 mask less Christmas parties in 2020 despite warnings from Top health officials. A White House official said they’re “providing the safest environment possible” but many attendees at a holiday party on Tuesday November 2, 2020 did not wear masks. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany shrugged off the concerns, saying “If you can loot businesses, burn down buildings, engage in protests, you can also go to a Christmas party.” This is very strange reasoning for putting guests lives at stake. Never take responsibility and deflect. The White House remains one of Americas top super spreader hot spots. It is the American way for 49 more days until Joe Biden in inaugurated.

A White House coronavirus task force report distributed to states earlier this week  warned “the COVID risk to all Americans is at a historic high.

Every Minute

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The U.S. Centers of Disease Control (CDC) reported that the United States is now averaging one COVID-19 related death every minute. The pandemic is increasing in severity as we head into the winter months.

The virus has causes 69,000 deaths in nursing homes as of November 15, 2020. The latest COVID-19 pandemic death toll for the U.S. stands at 267,302, with 1,251 new deaths being reported in the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

Hospitals in the Midwest are being overrun by  the increasing demand. COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising amid shortages of nurses and other health care workers, the situation in some places is becoming severe. If things don’t change, hospitals will have to ration care by turning patients away. COVID-19 deaths, have climbed more than 40% over the past two weeks and set records last week in places like Wisconsin. The Dakotas and Wyoming had the country’s highest infection rates last week, but Iowa and Wisconsin weren’t far behind, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

There is light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines becoming available. But the three of four month until those vaccines can be distributed to people, will be the darkest months of this pandemic. “We have not even come close to the peak and, as such, our hospitals are now being overrun,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm of Biden’s  coronavirus advisory board. The United States is headed for a COVID Hell.

Zombie Mink

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17 million mink were killed in Denmark in November after COVID-19 spread from mink farmers to the mink they were raising and then a mutated strain of the virus passed back to humans.

The Denmark Food and Agriculture Minister Morgens Jensen resigned when it was decided that the order to kill the animals was illegal. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited a mink farm after the mass killing.

Mass graves were dug at a military area in western Denmark for the 17 million mink and they were buried under six feet of dirt. Hundreds of bloated mink have started rising from the grave. It is believed that the CO2 gas used to kill the animals caused the decomposing bodies to rise to the surface. The local media has started referring to them as zombie mink.

Jensen’s replacement, Rasmus Prehn, said Friday November 28, 2020 that he supported the idea of digging up the animals and incinerating them. He said he had asked the environmental protection agency look into whether it could be done. Parliament was to be briefed on the issue on Monday November 30, 2020.

The American Mink Farming industry as been on high alert since the mass killings in Denmark. Thousands of mink have died at fur farms in Utah (8,000) and Wisconsin (2,000) after a series of COVID-19 outbreaks. In Oregon, least 10 minks and an undisclosed number of human farm workers tested positive for the COVID-19, the U.S. Agriculture Department confirmed Friday November 27, 2020. The infected animals were ordered isolated, so far sparing them from the grim fate of the Denmark mink. So far, no mutation has been detected in U.S. minks. The United States produces roughly 3 million mink pelts a year compared to Denmark’s 17 million. There are about 275 mink farms spread among 23 states; to date, 16 mink farms have had COVID-19 outbreaks in Utah, Wisconsin, Michigan and Oregon, according to figures provided to The Post by the USDA. The number of farm workers infected from the outbreaks is being withheld  by the Department of Agriculture, citing privacy concerns. Animal and environmental advocates, believe the privacy concerns are a smokescreen to protect thee American mink industry. The lack of transparency from the mink farming industry now poses a public health risk.

Holiday Travel

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Holiday travel this year is like holding a hot air balloon Festival during a tornado. This is 2020 so a firenado seemed more appropriate.

There are 37 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The constant refrain of holiday carols and commercialization leads to a desire for human companionship. Millions of Americans ignored warnings from health experts and decided to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. The CDC has said that small home gatherings are the primary source of spread of the COVID-19 virus.in a recent study it was found that the virus was spread 65% of the time at small gatherings. The coming weeks will be difficult, especially since so many traveled over the holiday and held in-person dinners indoors.

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost authority on infectious diseases, and Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned about the potential for a spike in infections stemming from holiday parties, even if they’re small and only among relatives.

Nearly 3 million air travelers passed through security checkpoints on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving. Sunday was the single-busiest day at airport checkpoints since March. The Thanksgiving travel damage is done. It will take 7 to 10 days for people to discover if they have been infected. Dr. Anthony Fauci described what the United States will experience in the first weeks of December as “A surge upon a surge.”

Fauci said the arrival of vaccines offers a “light at the end of the tunnel.”However we all have to stay vigilant to help slow the spread of the virus until that vaccines can be distributed. Health care workers will likely be among the first to get the vaccine, with the first vaccinations happening before the end of December, followed by many more in January, February and March, he said.

In the mean time do not let your guard down leading up to Christmas. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said to think of COVID like the Grinch. If you practice social distancing, wear a mask in public and wash your hands often we can all celebrate the holidays safely. In many places, hospitals are being overwhelmed by rising case loads. More than 20 percent of U.S. hospitals expect critical staff shortages in the coming week, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Beds can be built but you still need enough doctors to handle the rise in cases. we are fast approaching 100,000 people who are hospitalized for COVID-19. Now the Midwest, Great Plains, and Mountain West are the new hot spots, but some former hot spots are warming back up as well, with cases and hospitalizations surging again. Florida which is third in terms of the number of deaths from COVID-19 is again becoming a hot spot. “Thanksgiving may be the beginning of a dark holiday season as the surge in coronavirus cases is likely to persist, or even get worse, through December, January and February.” said Dr. Fauci.

Kansas Surge

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A Kansas mask requirement went into effect July 3, 2020 as cases began rising across the Midwest. However 81 counties opted out of the mandate, as permitted by state law. The other 24 counties — which account for the majority of the state’s population — chose to require that masks be worn in public places.

The CDC and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment analyzed trends in county-level cases before the mandate went into effect and two months afterward. Though rates were considerably higher in the 24 counties that required masks, over the two-month study period they brought the growth of cases under control and even reduced them. The counties that didn’t require masks continued to see their cases increase.

On average, the counties that required masks saw a 6% reduction in cases (calculated as a seven-day rolling average of new daily cases per capita). In contrast, the counties that opted out saw a 100% increase.  Along with other mitigation strategies including physical distancing and hand washing, “the decrease in cases among mandated counties and the continued increase in cases in non mandated counties adds to the evidence supporting the importance of wearing masks,” the CDC says. The conclusion is simple. Wearing face masks in public spaces reduces the spread of COVID-19.

Kansas hospitals are seeking the help of nearby states to help handle the surge of patients being admitted to hospitals. However the entire Midwest is struggling under the immense surge in cases.

Dr. Birx said that Americans who gathered for Thanksgiving should assume they’re infected and get tested. People who traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday are likely to cause a spike in cases in the next two weeks. If you visited family outside your home, you should consider yourself as possibly infected and should get a COVID-19 test.

Massive Mask-less Wedding

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An ordinance in New York allows gatherings of up to 50 people. In defiance of that ordinance, thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed into Yetev Lev D’Satmar synagogue in Brooklyn for a secret wedding. The building has a maximum capacity of 7,000 people and this event was packed shouder to shoulder with standing room only in the aisles.

Authorities learned about the secret wedding over the weekend and fined its organizers $15,000. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo condemned the event on Sunday as a “blatant disregard of the law” and called it “disrespectful to the people of New York.” Officials have issued strict limits on public gatherings in New York City’s boroughs and across the rest of the state. However, large parties have been cropping up on a near-daily basis, according to the New York City Sheriff’s Office.

A much smaller wedding in Maine had 55 guests. Guests reportedly did not wear masks, nor observe physical distancing rules. That wedding resulted in half the guests contracting COVID-19 with that then spreading to 177 people and killing 7. One guest who became sick visited a parent who worked at a retirement home. That resulted in an outbreak of 38 cases among staff and residents at the long-term care facility, over 100 miles away from the wedding. Six residents died at that facility.

In NYC the club scene went underground after the start of the pandemic. Those in the know can find crowded gatherings at warehouses, lofts, basements, boats, parks and rooftops. It is like the return of the prohibition ere only today people want to get drunk and deathly sick. Over Halloween weekend two parties were shit down by police, one with 400 people in Brooklyn and the other with 550 in the Bronx. Event organizers fail to understand or simply ignore the dangers of large indoor gatherings. Two bit event organizers see this as an opportunity to profit off the pandemic.