300

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300 Brevard County, Florida students of an outdoor graduation ceremony ere told to quarantine for 14 days after an attendee was diagnosed with COVID-19. Each student could invite 2 guests, so overall 900 people could be affected.

Bayside High School in Palm Bay, Florida, held an outdoor graduation ceremony for seniors last Saturday, an event that appeared to mostly adhere to safety guidelines. Students wore masks as did attendees in the bleachers and seats were placed almost 6 feet apart on a football field. When students walked out to the field however they clustered tightly together in a line. After the ceremony the students then clustered together in tight groups to chat which could be another chance for the airborne virus to spread.

The health department didn’t confirm whether the person who tested positive for COVID-19 was a student or adult. About 30 adult school and district staff were present at the event as well. Faculty wearing gloves and masks handed students their diplomas as they walked across the stage. Only speakers removed their masks when they took the podium. Anyone who attended the graduation ceremony was advised by letter from the Florida Department of Health, to self-quarantine and monitor their symptoms for 14 days. On student interviewed mentioned she had invited both her grandparents and her mom and dad. It would seem the two guest limit was just a suggestion.

Florida continues to set new records in COVID-19 cases and deaths as the state passes 450,000 cases. Over 6,300 residents have died, and this week, child COVID-19 hospitalizations rose 23%. Brevard County has a total of 5477 Cases of Covid-19 with 108 deaths. 13 people have died today July30, 2020. I am shocked that Florida school officials thought an in person graduation ceremony was a good idea at the height of the pandemic. Faculty and students around the country are finding creative ways to celebrate virtually. If only that creative spark existed here.

NBA Booble

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The 2020 NBA Bubble is the isolation zone with strict rules created by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to protect its players from the COVID-19 pandemic. 22 teams were invited to Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida to participate in eight games being held at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The bubble is a $170 million investment by the NBA to protect its season which was cut short by the pandemic. The bubble games will begin on July 30, 2020 inside the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

Lou Williams a Clippers guard was granted an excused absence for a family funeral. While on leave, he went to Magic City an Atlanta strip club where he was photographed by rapper Jack Harlow. Harlow quickly deleted the post from his Instagram story. Harlow tweeted Friday, “That was an old pic of me and Lou. I was just reminiscing cuz I miss him.” In the photograph, Williams is holding a drink and wearing an NBA mask given out on the Orlando campus.

Williams said he went to the strip club for dinner. He wrote in a tweet, “Ask any of my teammates what’s my favorite restaurant in Atlanta is. Ain’t nobody partying. Chill out lol. #Maskon #inandout.” Williams was tested for the COVID-19 each day that he was away from campus, a source told ESPN. Williams claimed he only went to the strip club for the wings. But you have to wonder if he was also drawn to the breasts and thighs. We all grieve in unique ways.

Players are subject to a minimum four-day quarantine after they leave campus on an excused absence. However, the re-quarantining time could be extended up to 10 days if recommended by the league’s infectious disease specialists. Of course Williams will need the full 10 days of quarantine and he will miss the first two games of the season because of his stripper joint stunt. He is paid about $58,000 a game so those were some pretty expensive wings. .

This incident makes it clear that the notion of playing ball in the midst of a raging pandemic isn’t the best idea and the best plans don’t work when players act stupid. At the beginning of the pandemic Rudy Gilbert made light of the virus when he touched every microphone at a press conference and he was infected by the virus. That stupidity canceled the game and shut down the league for four months.

The NBA bubble will likely burst before the season is through. I am amazed Williams will be allowed to play. The bottom line is that the games bring in a profit for the NBA. It reminds me of how professional wrestling was considered an essential business by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Despite several dozen positive COVID-19 tests in June 2020, for performers and staff, the wrestling league keeps churning out matches.

Half of the Miami Marlins Infected

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Major League Baseball has millions of dollars on the line, so they have every incentive to get the players on the field at the height of a pandemic.  The league created extensive protocols to try and play the game safely. No fans would fill the stands. The plan is to even fill the stands with computer generated crowds when the games are televised, much like the huge armies seen in the Lord of the Rings movies. The sound of fans shouting would be piped into the stadiums. The players travel would be cut down but they still would travel state to state. Players have been testing extensively and getting results within two days unlike the testing for everyday citizens that can take two weeks to get results.

One week into the season, two games were postponed because half of the Miami Marlins players and support team have tested positive for COVID-19. The Marlins had played a game in Philadelphia despite the fact that three of their players had tested positive for the virus. The team players had voted by text and decided to play despite the infections. 7 more players and two coaches then tested positive. 17 players and staff are infected as of July 28, 2020. They are now stuck inn Philadelphia quarantining.

It is truly Orwellian the way MLB executives believed that they could continue to play the game in the midst of a raging pandemic. They did not survive first contact. If they continue to ignore the beast, they will never complete the season without loosing lives. You can’t play games while the world burns all around you. The amount of control they are attempting is not possible.

MLB is a microcosm for all the failures happening all across the country as people blindly think they can control and subdue the virus. Schools are rushing to re-open, only without the same level of monetary resources. Washington Nationals pitcher Shawn Doolittle said, “Sports are the reward of a functional society.” We are NOT a functional society. Blind greed and ignorance have become more important than player safety.

Schools: Make Do

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an order saying schools must open 5 days a week starting in August. That order has made Florida a political battleground over schools and the COVID-19 outbreak as he followed the lead of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy Devos, who are pressuring states to fill classrooms with students in the fall. President Donald Trump said “The people of our country should think of themselves as warriors. Our country has to open.”

DeSntis doubled down on his assertion saying, schools must,  “find a way to make do.” The state is preparing to reopen schools amid a pandemic that has shown no signs of slowing. He gave his six minute address from Tallahassee during a week that saw COVID-19 cases increase rapidly, with an average of 119 deaths per day. A 9-year-old girl from Putnam County was listed among the updated death count Wednesday, the fifth child to die in the state. It used to be that one child’s death was too many but now, children are just collateral damage in the rush to re-open the economy before the November election.

As hundreds of Florida residents are testing positive every day, school districts are working to create back-to-school plans that call for face coverings on students, social distancing “where possible”, and frequent cleaning of schools and buses. But they have received opposition from teacher groups and many parents, who say conditions are not yet safe enough for in-person instruction.

DeSantis acknowledged that some teachers are more vulnerable to the disease because of medical conditions, or might not feel comfortable in the classroom. “They should be given the option of working remotely,” he said. “Let’s just find a way to make do.” The Governor did not discuss any precautions state wide which could help stop the spread of the virus. Face masks will be required in schools in an effort to limit the virus’ spread.

Researchers have found, with some exceptions, kids are less likely to be infected with COVID-19 or experience serious, if any, symptoms if they do get it. A recent South Korean study, however, discovered children 10 years and older spread the virus just as much or perhaps  slightly more than adults, particularly at home.

Three school teachers in Arizona worked in the same classroom to teach students virtually for summer school. All three teachers caught COVID-19 and one died from the infection. They took every precaution with masks, sanitizing and social distancing, but became infected anyway. The virus can be a threat even with the best precautions. Florida is not the countries epicenter with more than 400,000 cases of COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci called on hard hit states to pause their re-opening. Dr. Deborah Birx compared the outbreaks in the sunbelt state to be like three New Yorks. According to a recent poll, only 44% of parents are willing to send their kids to school.

Orange County Florida made the enlightened decision to have all students begin virtual learning starting August 10, 2020. This will of course also have it’s costs in that not every student has a computer or internet connections but the county is committed to make it work. I have been teaching virtually and challenges abound for instance Zoom meetings get cut off every half hour and students cut out occasionally. One students computer is very old and the audio makes her sound like an unintelligible robot but we make do with the chat feature. It is a brave new world and we are working out the kinks. I honestly love teaching virtually because the students can see me create a drawing stroke for stroke. I can share what I do much easier since every student can see what I am doing on their computers. Some students want instant gratification but art is a slow process of discovery and problem solving. Staying connected an engaged with every student is the new challenge in the digital world.

Curiosity Explores Mars

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Curiosity is a car-sized rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA‘s Mars Science Laboratory mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26th, 2011, and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale on Mars on August 6th, 2012. The rover has been sending incredible high resolution images back from mars.

Photos from inside the crater suggest that pools of water may have in the crater 3.5 billion years ago. Streams might have laced the crater’s walls, running toward its base. Watch history in fast forward, and you’d see these waterways overflow then dry up, a cycle that probably repeated itself numerous times over millions of years.

Curiosity got her name from a nationwide student contest that attracted more than 9,000 proposals via the Internet and mail. A sixth-grade student from Kansas, 12-year-old Clara Ma from Sunflower Elementary School in Lenexa, Kansas, submitted the winning entry. As her prize, Ma won a trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where she signed her name directly onto the rover as it was being assembled.

Ma wrote in her winning essay: “Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone’s mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn’t be who we are today. Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder.“

The rover is still operational, and as of July 26, 2020, Curiosity has been on the planet Mars for 2834 sols (2911 total Earth days). It is conveniently social distanced from COVID-19 and it’s design will serve as the basis for NASA’s 2021 Perseverance mission which will carry different scientific instruments.

In researching the rover online I found so many images that claimed to be sightings of UFO’s or strange smooth egg shaped rocks. I imagined the rover finding a face mask, perhaps a sign of a time when civilized people tried to survive when microbes and viruses threatened their very existence.

69% of Americans say they wear masks when they leave the house. However when I drive to Crealde to teach each Sunday, I find that 2 2 out of the 25 or so people I see wear masks when out in public. A study out of Hong King shows that COVID-19 transmission rates are cut by 75% when surgical masks are used. The study used surgical mask material draped over hamster cages to conduct the test. The hamsters who were infected had less of the virus in their body than those that had no mask. So cover your freakin’ face. Some humans might not be as smart as hamsters, but despite any pandemic, cock roaches will survive.

Hagia Sophia

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Hagia Sophia  was the first Christian Cathedral build by the Roman Empire in the Byzantine era. It has served as a Greek Orthodox cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and an Ottoman mosque over the course of its long history. It was once called the Church of Hagia Sophia and later, in 1943, Great Mosque of Ayasofya. In 1934 a presidential decree converted the building into a museum.  For 85 years it was a museum. That court ruling that granted the museum status was annulled on July 10, 2020 and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the conversion of the city’s historic Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.

Hagia Sophia became UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. UNESCO released a statement expressing that it “deeply regrets the decision of the Turkish authorities, made without prior discussion, and calls for the universal value of World Heritage to be preserved.” Ernesto Ottone, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture, said in the statement, “It is important to avoid any implementing measure, without prior discussion with UNESCO, that would affect physical access to the site, the structure of the buildings, the site’s moveable property, or the site’s management.”

The site will now be managed by the country’s Presidency of Religious Affairs, rather than the Ministry of Culture, CNN reported. “Since its status as a museum is changed, we are canceling the entrance fees,” said Erdogan in a speech on July 10, 2020 according to the Anadolu news agency. “Like all our mosques, its doors will be open to everyone — Muslim or non-Muslim. As the world’s common heritage, Hagia Sophia with its new status will keep on embracing everyone in a more sincere way.”

What will happen to the artifacts and art within it? Artifacts include, includes medieval mosaics depicting the Holy Family and images of Christian imperial emperors, which Muslims who make use of the building as a mosque are expected to cover up using curtains or lasers. It is not clear how the lasers would work. The Christian icons would be uncovered and be open to all visitors at other times.

Hagia Sophia will officially begin regular worship services beginning July 24, according to CNN.

My sketch done in 2015 is of the Tulip Festival that takes place in front of Hagia Sophia. The festival took place this year in April. In April, it was confirmed that COVID-19 had spread all over Turkey. On April 14, 2020, the head of the Turkish Ministry of Health, Fahrettin Koca announced that the spread of the virus in Turkey has reached its peak in the fourth week.

Burning It Down

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When Greta Thunberg came to the United Nations she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Prior to that trans-Atlantic trip she had been on a sail boat only one time before. When out in the middle of the ocean you are completely at the mercy of nature. You have to act accordingly. It puts life into a different perspective. You have to completely trust the scientific data and the weather models. You don’t take any unnecessary risks.  You don’t act irresponsibly. If you were cold you would not light a fire on the deck. We are a civilization in the middle of the ocean and we are right now setting fire to the boat. We have nowhere left to turn to.

This seems a very accurate view of how the present administration is burning the boat and seeking to profit as it sinks. Trump has failed the country at very turn. His constant gas lighting is infuriating. Things didn’t need to get this bad. He is still dismissing this virus as “the sniffles.” He wants to open schools with no plan for safety. He destroys all he touches, and he wants to take you down with him. While his campaign flounders, he is also diverting millions of dollars from donors into personal profit. He continues to rake in millions from his campaign, millions from the Republican National Convention, and millions from committees. What does he have to loose? The Senate has given him a license to steal. Since becoming president he has done everything in his power to hide his tax returns. The Supreme Court on Friday July 17, 2020 granted a Manhattan district attorney’s request to reject President Trump‘s claims of absolute immunity from a subpoena for eight years of tax returns. Those finding however will not become public until after the election in November.

For the next four months Trump will continue to divide the country and let it burn. He is a desperate man at a desperate time. He is capable of anything. After deploying unidentified troops to Portland he now plans to also send troops to Chicago with the excise of protecting statues. The Portland Mayor, Ted Wheeler, was tear gasses along with protestors in an unprovoked attack by Federal officers. Trump has warned he may order troops into other states and cities he deems insufficiently policed, even if governors and mayors in those places don’t ask for help. Trump’s campaign has turned to themes of violence and chaos as it seeks to falsely paint his Democratic rival Joe Biden as anti-police.

Meanwhile Trump waxed poetic about how good he did at a cognitive test intended to check for dementia. This is the man who plans to restore public safety for fear of protest, while thousands die every day from COVID-19. It is a strange distraction tactic. The United States COVID-19 cases have doubled in just the last 6 weeks to over 4 million. Deaths and hospitalizations continue to rise sharply in many states. Florida is poised to become the next epicenter for the virus. The U.S. death toll now exceeds 141,000. The country is engulfed in flames.

Crealdé in a Pandemic

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I have been teaching an Urban Sketching class at Crealdé School of Art for the past 3 Sundays. We have spent most of our time outdoors since there have been decent breezes and it hasn’t been too hot. I have four very talented students, each with their own style. I start each class with a premise and then we sketch on campus. I have been keeping classes outdoors since it is easier to social distance and enclosed spaces with recirculated air are the breading ground for the COVID-19 virus. The main focus of the class is to get out of the studio and explore the world anyway.

I rolled out a black board and used it so I could sketch large enough for all to see from six feet away. This class was about doing thumbnail sketches and basic ideas about composition and perspective. As my students explored the campus with their sketchbooks it felt good to sketch on location again myself. I had not sketched on location since the start of the pandemic. Instead I have been doing one illustration based on some story from the pandemic. Now that I am teaching I can no longer do a painting every day without burning out. I instead pace out each painting over several days. I feel pressure to get the paintings done fast because the news surrounding the pandemic keeps changing moment to moment.

The pandemic is the only story I keep tracking every day. Even doing thumbnails around Crealdé I focused my attention on the measures that were taken to try and make the campus more safe during the pandemic. Portable sinks were set up with foot pedals so that peoples hands do not need to touch faucets. Picnic tables were moved out from under the awning to allow six feet of space between tables. I carry a six foot stick as a visual reminder for students and myself to maintain social distancing. I also us the stick as a pointer when reviewing art work.

We made up the ill fated first class virtually. I am thankful I teach on a day where there are very few people on campus. I realized that the figure drawing class that usually happened next to mine was canceled. We might have to move inside once it truly gets hot.

Chalk it up to Racism

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Writing “Black Lives Matter” in chalk on the sidewalk is illegal in Saleh, Washington. Charges could include 364 days of jail time and a fine up to $5,000. A video posted on July 6, 2020 showed a sanitation worker pressure washing the chalk on a sidewalk outside the city hall as youths with face masks lay on it, holding protest signs. I have sprayed my foot before with a pressure washer and that can really hurt. The children remained seated as the worker, who was not wearing a face mask, pressure washed around them. The chalk they had used to create the sidewalk art was sprayed into the street. This of course reminded me of the civil rights protests in Alabama when fire hoses were used to blast Black children protestors.

Saleh is a quiet rural town with a conservative mayor. The city administrator refereed to the 10 children as a mob. Chalk art has long been a tableau for social activism, a form of instant commentary that takes political expression quite literally onto the streets. Cities have at times targeted it, such as in San Diego, where a man was charged with 13 counts of vandalism in 2013 for writing anti-bank messages on a public sidewalk. A jury acquitted him.

Selah’s chalk activism began with Gabriel Fabian, 20, who was not politically active until after seeing the video capturing the arrest in May that led to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Mr. Fabian, who is Latino, decided he needed to play a role in halting the oppression of Black people, and that it would need to start at home. He began by writing Black Lives Matter on his dead-end street. A street sweeper wiped away this messages the same week. Fabian’s friends repeatedly wrote messages on the concrete, all of which were repeatedly removed by officials.

Since the chalk art keeps appearing, police chief Richard Hayes has threatened punitive damages saying the chalk art is graffiti.  The family’s attorney, Joseph Cutler, has argued that erasing the Black Lives Matter chalk art is in violation of the family’s right to free speech. The city claimed that they always remove chalk art although, Fabian’s mother Ms. Perez said she had seen no efforts to remove recent chalk art tied to school graduations. It would seem the message is what is being targeted. Courtney Hernandez has been organizing Black Lives Matter events in the area, said it was clear to her that the city was attempting to silence protest.

85 Babies Infected in Texas

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85 Babies have tested positive for COVID-19 in Nueces County in Texas. This number is a reflection of when testing started in mid-March, according to a county news release. The news of the 85 infected babies follows a report from earlier this week regarding scientists’ uncertainty on the impact of COVID-19 in children.

Evidence behind what role children play in the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affects them is inconclusive. Several studies suggest but don’t prove that children are less likely to become infected and more likely to have only mild symptoms. Many kids have no symptoms, and it’s unclear how easily they can spread the virus to others.

There is some evidence that kids are less likely to catch the virus and less likely to spread it, but it’s not clear exactly how strong that evidence is. For months most families and their children have been isolated at home, limiting their chances of catching or spreading the virus. In reality, it may take reopening schools and returning children to a closer-to-normal life for the picture to come into clearer focus.

The Associated Press also reported this week on how evidence has been growing that the COVID-19 can spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus. Researchers in Italy studied 31 women with COVID-19 who delivered babies in March and April and found signs of the virus in several samples of umbilical cord blood, the placenta and, in one case, breast milk. Cases of newborns testing positive for the virus have been relatively uncommon but are not unheard of since the pandemic first took hold.

With some respiratory illnesses, like influenza, young children play an amplifying role. They don’t carry the antibodies that adults have amassed. As a result, they are more susceptible to many of the bugs that cause colds and flu, which circulate more actively as the cold weather sets in. This is why teachers are often sick with a cold each season. However COVID-19 isn’t the sniffles, it can cause death. The World Health Organization does not currently see clear answers in the data that have been collected to date.

Two weeks after Israel fully reopened schools, a COVID-19 outbreak swept through classrooms, including at least 130 cases at a single school, that led officials to close dozens of schools where students and staff were infected. At least 42 kindergartens and schools were shuttered indefinitely. More than 6,800 students and teachers were ordered home for quarantine by government order.

Florida’s largest teacher union is suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to overturn an emergency order that requires schools to physically open five days a week in August, despite the incredible surge in cases in the state, saying the policy bypasses local leaders and defies national public health guidelines. DeSantis is followed the lead of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy Devos, who are pressuring states to fill classrooms with students in the fall. “Governor DeSantis needs a reality check, and we are attempting to provide one,” FEA President Fedrick Ingram said in a statement.

In Tallahassee, a 19-year-old elementary school custodian died after a battle with Covid-19, and at least three people at his Leon County school, including the principal, have contracted the virus, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. About 1/3 of children tested in Florida have tested positive for the virus. To date, 16,797 children in Florida have the disease out of 54,022 tested. The data shows that 908 people under the age of 18 have tested positive for COVID-19 in Orange County, which equates to about 24% of the tests conducted on children in the county. Word of children testing positive gets around at summer camps which face pressure to act promptly.