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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Interesting Data From Our Google Overlords

Interesting Data From Our Google Overlords

by $8 blue check mistermix|  April 6, 20209:42 am| 70 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus

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Google has released movement reports using their “world-class anonymization technology” (ed: LMFAO) to look at changes in behavior versus a pre-COVID baseline. I’ll let you take a look for yourselves, but holy shit, Spain :

Way to go, Italy:

Both Spain and Italy might be on the other side of the apex. New York is no Spain or Italy, but it’s the best of any US state I saw:

We need to do better. Georgia, watch out.

This data comes from Google location services, which is off by default, though I’ll bet a lot of us turn it on (I do) because you get some decent location-based recommendations from it. I’m pretty shrug shoulder emoji about Google having my location data, for a variety of reasons.

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Previous Post: « Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to Work
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Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    April 6, 2020 at 10:00 am

    This aged poorly. pic.twitter.com/ndHgZLZlxv— Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright) April 5, 2020

  2. 2.

    Cthulhu

    April 6, 2020 at 10:05 am

    South Korea looks terrible on this metric so movement isn’t the only thing we need to consider.

  3. 3.

    raven

    April 6, 2020 at 10:11 am

    We live in Blue Athens an our mayor and council shut this shit down quickly. I posted this earlier but no one seem to be interested so I’ll post it again.
    Q&A With Epidemiologist-Turned-Restaurateur Tim Dondero
    “The move here by the mayor [Kelly Girtz] and town to close food establishments to sit-down customers, asking people to stay at home, that was more dramatic than most parts of Georgia; it was earlier. Atlanta has just done it—I think it went into effect this evening. [Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced on Monday, Mar. 23, a 14-day stay at home order for the city of Atlanta.] So, here was way ahead. At first I thought, well gee, that’s really jumping it. But now I’m very positively impressed. And I begin to wonder if we may be spared if discipline is maintained here for a while. So I think the response has been good. I think Athens was ahead of the game, and I approve completely.”

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    April 6, 2020 at 10:15 am

    @raven:

    One of the things I get from looking at the charts for places like Georgia and Florida where the government was reluctant to tell people to stay at home is that people were starting to stay home without being told.  Most places saw a dip starting in mid March, even if it wasn’t the total collapse you see in places with strictly enforced orders like Italy and Spain.

  5. 5.

    Just One More Canuck

    April 6, 2020 at 10:15 am

    What’s with red states and parks? The only conclusion I can draw is that people in red states hate each other so much that they cant stand being cooped up with each other

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    April 6, 2020 at 10:21 am

    @Just One More Canuck:

    A lot of places have said it’s OK to keep going to the park as long as you maintain social distance while you’re there.  Even here in California, parks in general are open, though some areas within the parks, like playgrounds and basketball courts, are closed.  So people may keep going to the park as a way to avoid going stir crazy.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 6, 2020 at 10:24 am

    @raven: If it makes you feel any better, I read it.  ;-)

  8. 8.

    PSpain

    April 6, 2020 at 10:27 am

    I am surprised 1st and 3rd categories are at 94% and 90% here in Spain.  All of those places are closed.  It must be  how they define those categories. There is no going out for a walk everyday like in New York.  No driving without a reason or you are fined.  No grocery shopping far from home.

    People have been fined the minimum 600€ for abusing the rules like  going to a corner store and buying 2 cokes and gum, or biking to the next town for bread when they have an horno in their town.

    Were we are in the city of Valencia people are surprisingly following the rules.

  9. 9.

    Soprano2

    April 6, 2020 at 10:29 am

    @raven: I read that, it was interesting. I think it’s going to be a bloodbath in the restaurant industry here. We’re looking at one of those loans to see if we can defray the costs enough to be open for limited takeout, but honestly we make our money from selling drinks.  It’s hard to decide what to do, because we have no idea how long this is going to last, plus we have a stupid governor in MO so who knows. At least my city was smart, our stay-at-home order went out the 3rd week of March.

  10. 10.

    AliceBlue

    April 6, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @Roger Moore: Yes.  I live in Georgia and the clothing store where I work closed on March 18.  Of course our idiot governor ordered schools closed but reopened the beaches, overriding local officials.  The mayor of Tybee Island is spitting bullets.

  11. 11.

    danielx

    April 6, 2020 at 10:31 am

    This is a repost from last night, but seems appropriate:

    I did get a laugh from brother in law today when I picked up firewood from him, with desperately needed personal conversation with him and my sister – at suitable distance of course. He said said Lebanon* hillbillies are still out and about, oblivious, and said natural selection will ensue – said I know these people. He retired from UPS as a master mechanic after thirty years, I’ll take his word for it.** I said, been my impression that hillbillies are pretty hard to kill off. He ruminated on this for about thirty seconds and said yeah, you’re right, it’s sad – great people are dying and those motherfuckers are like cockroaches – short of using a fire axe, flamethrowers and tactical air support you can’t get rid of them.

    *Lebanon, Indiana being the county seat where they live, though out in the boonies to an extent. Got serious poor white trash there whose biggest point of pride is low melanin.

    **We talked later and he did qualify this – he knows a lot of blue collar folks who don’t (or can’t) pay as much attention as they should to social distancing, but they do work. He said the area hillbillies to which he was referring – who he’s been observing for lo these many years – are people who mostly don’t have jobs because they don’t want to work or because they couldn’t pass a pre-employment drug test if their lives depended on it. They gonna party in groups if they want, and ain’t no doctors, scientists, governors or anybody else gonna tell them what to do, nosiree.

  12. 12.

    clay

    April 6, 2020 at 10:33 am

    @Roger Moore: We started more-or-less staying home the week of March 8*, and got serious about it the following week.  Well before DeSantis issued his half-hearted order for Florida.

    (*It helped that this was when we were on Spring Break.)

  13. 13.

    download my app in the app store mistermix

    April 6, 2020 at 10:35 am

    @PSpain: It drains your phone battery to have the GPS on all the time, so Google is often close but not 100% accurate in its location fixes.  Also, the categorization of the location is not going to be totally accurate in all cases.

  14. 14.

    raven

    April 6, 2020 at 10:39 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Oh I feel fine, I just thought it was pertinent.

  15. 15.

    raven

    April 6, 2020 at 10:43 am

    @Soprano2: Athens businesses survive on the University football Saturday money and I really don’t think we’ll be playing in the fall. Graduation and weddings are also huge and my buddy up the street is juts hanging on with walk up. He’s byob so that part didn’t hurt him but his catering is gone. We’re wondering what will happen with our rental house. Juts as this started we had to drop 5k on HVAC and this is a student driven market even thought we’ve not rented to many.

  16. 16.

    danielx

    April 6, 2020 at 10:43 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Note: no offense to hillbillies in general, a lot of whom are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever seen.

  17. 17.

    JCJ

    April 6, 2020 at 10:48 am

    @PSpain: 

    https://www.cnet.com/news/77-year-old-fined-for-playing-pokemon-go-amid-spains-coronavirus-lockdown/

    No matter what there are always a few knuckleheads

  18. 18.

    JCJ

    April 6, 2020 at 10:52 am

    @danielx:

    A friend in high school called Lebanon Lebtucky (I am originally from the sophisticated metropolitan West Lafayette)

    I always liked seeing the Waffle House sign looming above that exit on I-65

  19. 19.

    Eunicecycle

    April 6, 2020 at 10:53 am

    @Just One More Canuck: My county in Ohio had parks visits up 110%! I will say that the weather is just now changing to spring, and the data were comparing Feb and March. Not much park activity here in February. Anecdotally the walking trail near us does seem a little busier than normal, even for spring.

  20. 20.

    glc

    April 6, 2020 at 11:12 am

    West Viriginia parks up 52%

    NJ Workplace -44%, Residential +16%

    NY Workplace -46%, Residential +16%

    Manhattan Workplace -57%, Residential +19%

     

    Not sure what the time frame is here. I would have expected stronger figures.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 11:13 am

    @Roger Moore:

    Even here in California, parks in general are open, though some areas within the parks, like playgrounds and basketball courts, are closed. So people may keep going to the park as a way to avoid going stir crazy.

    Yep. There was even a recent story about the police coming up to groups of people in a park, reminding them to try to maintain social distance.  The people pretty much complied without further incident.

     

    ETA: It is a dreary day today, with much rain in the Los Angeles area. Adds to the sense of isolation.

  22. 22.

    chris

    April 6, 2020 at 11:15 am

    International relations ‘r’ US! MAGA! (It’s going to take generations to fix this shit.)

    BREAKING: In one on one interview Premier Ford tells me Ontario will run out of personal protective equipment for health care workers in one week. US stopped shipment from crossing the border yesterday. #covid19 ⁦@CityNews⁩ pic.twitter.com/ndR71K0MCt— Cynthia Mulligan (@CityCynthia) 6 April 2020

    Bold is mine.

  23. 23.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 6, 2020 at 11:18 am

    The park a block away from me is open, but the playscape is blocked off, and all the buildings are closed.

  24. 24.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 6, 2020 at 11:23 am

    So Acting SecNav Modly addresses the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt. Over the ship’s PA. Calls Capt Crozier “stupid” and says he betrayed the Navy. This is the Captain who was cheered by his crew as he left his command.

    Smart.

    I got nothin’

  25. 25.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    April 6, 2020 at 11:24 am

    @Soprano2:

    Good fuckin’ luck with those loans.  I’ve heard nothing back on my EIDL application, my bank isn’t responding to my plaintive requests on PPP money (I’ve sent them both of the app forms that I’ve seen), and all three of my open credit lines managed to lock up on a systemwide basis, despite me never having missed a payment.

    I have had zero new revenue since March 16, and am bleeding cash.

    As always in every crisis, America’s lenders, their accomplices in the financial and credit reporting industries  and conservative decisionmakers put a boot on your throat in order to comfort the already comfortable.

    I’ve mapped the trajectory to my Chapter 7 filing, and it isn’t pretty.

  26. 26.

    satby

    April 6, 2020 at 11:24 am

    @raven: also true for S.Bend and Notre Dame, probably lots of other college towns with popular sports programs. It’s going to kill off a lot of the independent restaurants and small landlords.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 11:24 am

    @Soprano2:

    I read that, it was interesting. I think it’s going to be a bloodbath in the restaurant industry here. We’re looking at one of those loans to see if we can defray the costs enough to be open for limited takeout, but honestly we make our money from selling drinks.

    In some California communities, you are allowed to get drinks with a takeout order.

    In many places, the restaurant industry was already taking a hit. Labor, supplies, and lease costs were all rising. But I agree that this industry and many others may have a difficult time recovering.

    I mentioned before that I think that there will be a tremendous recovery and a spike in employment, but that it will not be uniform, and entire sectors of the “old economy” will be gone for good.

    I hope that the Democrats win big in November. I would really like them to focus not just generally on “families and working people,” which is their usual mantra, but on small business and tax incentives that might best assist in any recovery.

    I wouldn’t expect much from Trump and the Republicans. Trump loves throwing meat to his corporate buddies, and a few crumbs to small business.

  28. 28.

    Jinchi

    April 6, 2020 at 11:31 am

    @Roger Moore:  Right. A park can mean a lot of different things and it’s the density of people that’s important. Given that most other options are closed, they are an obvious point for exercise and any outdoor activity. Near me the busiest parks have wide open spaces and families are staying well separated. They’re busier than normal, but less populated than the neighborhood streets would be.

  29. 29.

    Mandalay

    April 6, 2020 at 11:34 am

    Trump, during his press conference yesterday:

    I had mentioned yesterday where I see the nurses rushing into hospitals and they’re putting on their outfits and they’re putting on their masks and goggles in some cases, they’re rushing into war. They’re rushing into war, and I see people from apartment houses screaming and shouting and singing their praises. It’s an incredible thing. They’re warriors these doctors and nurses. They’re running into buildings and they’re literally putting it on as the doors are opening, they’re putting all this stuff and running inside and they’re running inside to tremendous danger. Tremendous danger.

    None of this is true.

    It’s bad enough if he is just lying his ass off, but I suspect he thinks what he is saying really happened.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    April 6, 2020 at 11:34 am

    @Brachiator:

    ETA: It is a dreary day today, with much rain in the Los Angeles area. Adds to the sense of isolation.

    I have to go in to work.  We’re supposed to be shutting down labs that aren’t actively involved in clinical trials or COVID-19 research, but shut down labs are allowed one person to go in and do essential maintenance.  I am our lab’s designated person, so I’m going to go in two or maybe three days a week to perform instrument maintenance.

  31. 31.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 11:35 am

    Some people just don’t get it when it comes to staying home. In Scotland, the chief medical official and advisor to the Scottish leader had to resign. From the BBC:

    Nicola Sturgeon has defended her response to revelations that Scotland’s chief medical officer had twice breached coronavirus lockdown rules.
    The first minister initially backed Dr Catherine Calderwood to keep her job.

    But it was announced later on Sunday night that she had resigned after a further “long conversation” with Ms Sturgeon….

    She also said Dr Calderwood failed to reveal a second visit to her holiday home during the coronavirus lockdown when the news broke on Saturday evening, and had only disclosed it the following day….

    Dr Calderwood was given a police warning on Sunday after the Scottish Sun published photographs taken the previous day of her and her family visiting their second home in Earlsferry in Fife – more than an hour’s drive from her main family home in Edinburgh.

    The chief medical officer had regularly appeared in TV and radio adverts urging the public to stay at home to save lives and protect the NHS, and took part in daily televised media briefings alongside Ms Sturgeon.

    Some people just cannot give up their lifestyle habits.

  32. 32.

    scav

    April 6, 2020 at 11:37 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Some people just can’t read a room.  Those sailors cheering should really concern a lot of elected officials.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 11:39 am

    @download my app in the app store mistermix:

    It drains your phone battery to have the GPS on all the time, so Google is often close but not 100% accurate in its location fixes.

    Phone makers need to address this. Smartphones are not just micro-laptops. They are fully portable devices. I use a many of the features that tech folks advise that you turn off to conserve battery life, or that are battery drains.

    Also, the categorization of the location is not going to be totally accurate in all cases.

    Yep. But the aggregate data is still pretty good.

  34. 34.

    Jinchi

    April 6, 2020 at 11:40 am

    @Gin & Tonic: SecNav Modly addresses the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt. Over the ship’s PA. Calls Capt Crozier “stupid”

    He also scolded the crew for cheering Crozier as he left the ship.

    And he complains that Crozier was being unprofessional. What was this guy thinking?

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 11:44 am

    @scav:

    Some people just can’t read a room. Those sailors cheering should really concern a lot of elected officials.

    People with a military background probably have a good insight into this, but maybe both sides are right here. Is it important to maintain the integrity of the chain of command? Or is that just mystical bullshit?

    There is an episode in one of the “Master and Commander” series of novels where Captain Jack Aubrey gets involved in some notorious scheme and has to be publicly humiliated by his superiors. But his crew and others who know the truth publicly cheer him.

    This was supposedly inspired by a historical incident.

  36. 36.

    Jinchi

    April 6, 2020 at 11:46 am

    @Brachiator: I hope that the Democrats win big in November.

    For all the flack Warren got asking how she was possibly going to find the money to pay for her agenda, I hope Democrats realize they’re going to have to figure out the answer to that and quickly.

  37. 37.

    Jinchi

    April 6, 2020 at 11:53 am

    @PSpain: I am surprised 1st and 3rd categories are at 94% and 90% here in Spain.

    It’s down by 94%, not at 94%. My guess is that the remaining 6% represents people in areas nearby or workers keeping the places at minimum operation status.

  38. 38.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 6, 2020 at 11:53 am

    @Jinchi:

    He’s thinking he’s the acting secretary and he wants to be the real one.

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    April 6, 2020 at 11:55 am

    @Brachiator:

    Phone makers need to address this.

    They’ve been getting better.  GPS is much less of a drain than it used to be.  It also gets a lock faster, so it’s practical to leave it off most of the time and turn it on again every few minutes to get your location.  They also get a reasonably good location when you’re in busy areas by checking the names of nearby WiFi networks.

  40. 40.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    April 6, 2020 at 11:55 am

    @Brachiator:

    I would really like them to focus not just generally on “families and working people,” which is their usual mantra, but on small business and tax incentives that might best assist in any recovery.

    To be blunt, I don’t want to hear a fucking word about “the poorest among us”, the homeless or any other Sally Struthers-Sarah McLachlane sob story.  I want to hear “we called, you sacrificed, and we want you back on your feet as soon as possible” without a bunch of nonsense about how programs for retraining, learning to code or infrastructure are going to help.

    We have families and obligations right here, right now.  We have specific skill sets, and most of us were really good at what we do, and spent a lot of time, money and effort building customer bases.

  41. 41.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    April 6, 2020 at 11:55 am

    This data comes from Google location services, which is off by default, though I’ll bet a lot of us turn it on (I do) because you get some decent location-based recommendations from it. I’m pretty shrug shoulder emoji about Google having my location data, for a variety of reasons.

    Alas, Google collects location data from your cell tower location, even if you’ve turned off your GPS. But it’s okay, because you can *trust* them… assuming you’re in a porcine ocular organ.

    Oh, sorry. You can trust them… in a pig’s eye!

    That said, for society, the cat’s out of the bag  – Google should have been hammered all to hell and gone for swiping information that you explicitly told them not to collect. I doubt they paid a fine, much less had any significant legal issues.

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 6, 2020 at 11:57 am

    @Brachiator: I mentioned in another thread, my wife knows a retired commanding officer of a significant USN vessel. He is an out and proud anti-Trumper now that he’s retired, but he thinks Crozier shit the bed here. I wonder what he’ll think of this Modly thing now.

  43. 43.

    scav

    April 6, 2020 at 11:58 am

    @Brachiator: I can get the balancing act probably required.  But in this specific instance, I think the horse may be exiting the barn.  I’d imagine the sailors have a better understanding of what is expected of command and what gets one kicked to the curb.  They saw their leader removed and likewise knew why. They still cheered.

    ETA So that I why I think there is a bit of a signal about an underlying unmet need for leadership in here.

  44. 44.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    April 6, 2020 at 11:58 am

    A query, part flippant, part not – why can’t the SBA and the various state unemployment offices simply contract with some developer teams from Pornhub to revamp their website and capacity issues?

  45. 45.

    Mandalay

    April 6, 2020 at 11:59 am

    @Jinchi:

    And he complains that Crozier was being unprofessional. What was this guy thinking?

    Though not widely reported, initially [Navy Secretary] Modly publicly supported Crozier:

    [Chief of Naval Operations] Gilday, the top uniformed officer in the Navy, acknowledged there had been a “misunderstanding” with Crozier about how rapidly sailors should be evacuated.

    But, Gilday and Modly said, Crozier would not be punished for having communicated his concerns through the chain of command, regardless of the fact that the memo ended up in the press.

    “We’re not looking to shoot the messenger here,” Gilday said. “We want to get this right.”

    Surely the only reason Crozier is gone is that Trump blew all that out of the water, and demanded that he be fired?

    It’s also worth noting that I haven’t seen any Republicans support Trump on this.

  46. 46.

    Kelly

    April 6, 2020 at 12:00 pm

    Local governments funded by traffic fines are probably in a bit of a pinch. I suppose they could enact fines for breaking isolation to make up for it.

  47. 47.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 12:22 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    To be blunt, I don’t want to hear a fucking word about “the poorest among us”, the homeless or any other Sally Struthers-Sarah McLachlane sob story. I want to hear “we called, you sacrificed, and we want you back on your feet as soon as possible” without a bunch of nonsense about how programs for retraining, learning to code or infrastructure are going to help.

    I love you like an online brother (or sister, as the case may be), but you need a better perspective.

    In Southern California, authorities have done much to help the homeless during this pandemic. It is only logical. Germs don’t care.  You save the homeless and you save everyone.

    In an Orange County senior facility, asswipes were complaining that the homeless were being housed in a nearby hotel. These fools whined that this put them at risk.

    The sad fact is that some nursing homes are more dangerous than homeless communities. A recent news story talks about 30 cases in one senior “care” facility.

    I agree, and have said in other posts that the Democrats (and sane GOP, for that matter) need to look at the situation on the ground, and abandon a lot of their boilerplate rhetoric.

    But the homeless are just as worthy of help as you and yours.

  48. 48.

    germy

    April 6, 2020 at 12:23 pm

    Trump watches Fox. He is influenced by Fox. And he makes decisions based on what he sees on Fox.

    So you have to wonder, if Fox had taken coronavirus more seriously in the weeks leading up to the crisis, would Trump have? Would lives have been saved? Hard to conclude otherwise. pic.twitter.com/hsCqu1rcsz

    — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 5, 2020

  49. 49.

    Benw

    April 6, 2020 at 12:25 pm

    @Brachiator: I love those books!

    Aubrey was sentenced to the stocks in a civilian trial. The sailors, including officers, showed up to prevent him being stoned by thugs hired by his personal enemies.

  50. 50.

    germy

    April 6, 2020 at 12:32 pm

    great point from @EricBoehlert:

    the same networks now airing 10 hours/week of Trump's unhinged, self-aggrandizing "press briefings" refused to give @BarackObama 10 MINUTES in 2014 to explain the expansion of DACA, or to address health care reform.https://t.co/WcTj3CAT2y

    — Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) April 6, 2020

  51. 51.

    Baud

    April 6, 2020 at 12:33 pm

    @Mandalay:

    It’s also worth noting that I haven’t seen any Republicans support Trump on this

    Republicans support Trump on everything, regardless of what they say or don’t say.

  52. 52.

    sdhays

    April 6, 2020 at 12:34 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Dump and Kushner aren’t invested in Pornhub.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    April 6, 2020 at 12:35 pm

    @sdhays: Hence the high quality.

  54. 54.

    Mandalay

    April 6, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    @Brachiator: I hesitate to speak for others, but  I think Le Comte’s point was that the Democrats should be careful about what they say publicly, and he was specifically speaking about what he wants to hear.

    I didn’t see anything remotely suggesting we shouldn’t help the homeless.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 12:41 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    RE: Phone makers need to address this.

    They’ve been getting better.  GPS is much less of a drain than it used to be.  It also gets a lock faster, so it’s practical to leave it off most of the time and turn it on again every few minutes to get your location.

    Good stuff.  This should be an ongoing area for improvement.

    Instead I keep seeing tech evangelists asking for better game play on smartphones.  I acknowledge that games are actually a spur to innovation, but it is not the only path.

    Also, NFC needs to be included in all phones.

  56. 56.

    Mandalay

    April 6, 2020 at 12:43 pm

    @Baud:

    Republicans support Trump on everything, regardless of what they say or don’t say.

    Well they almost never openly defy him, but there is a big difference between implicit/complicit support by staying silent, and explicit cheerleader support.

    Nobody is cheerleading Trump’s firing of Crozier except Modly, who has done a complete flip flop in order to keep his job.

  57. 57.

    cain

    April 6, 2020 at 12:43 pm

    One time I got drunk while wondering around downtown Denver – and left my scarf at an establishment, I was following others so I couldn’t remember the places I was at. Ended up using the location services to figure out where all I went to. I still didnt find my scarf, but it was awesome to be able to find out.

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    April 6, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    @Mandalay:

    I hesitate to speak for others, but I think Le Comte’s point was that the Democrats should be careful about what they say publicly, and he was specifically speaking about what he wants to hear.

    Fair point.

    I would say that I don’t think that the Democrats need to alter their rhetoric here, especially since the right wing believes in a social hierarchy in which the poor and homeless deserve nothing. And they tailor their tax policies to make sure that the poor get nothing.

  59. 59.

    sdhays

    April 6, 2020 at 12:57 pm

    @Baud: This made me think of the inside anecdotes back in 2016(?) about how Jared took over the New York Post. Having him take over a porn site would be a great setup for a comedic documentary.

  60. 60.

    glc

    April 6, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    @sdhays: Assumes facts not in evidence

  61. 61.

    Barney

    April 6, 2020 at 1:46 pm

    I can’t understand how Italy;s grocery/pharmacy number can drop 85%. If I did that one sixth as much as I used to, I’d be going once a month. Did they used to visit them once a day before?

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    April 6, 2020 at 1:59 pm

    @sdhays

    The Post is Murdoch.

    Kushner’s was the now defunct New York Observer.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    April 6, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    @Barney

    Daily for items such as fresh produce and baguette-style breads a (pre-virus) commonplace. Also, although it may have changed since I was last there, refrigerators in European domiciles generally smaller in capacity than those in America (so things like milk more popularly purchased in smaller containers than the jugs here).

  64. 64.

    J R in WV

    April 6, 2020 at 2:18 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    So Acting SecNav Modly addresses the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt. Over the ship’s PA. Calls Capt Crozier “stupid” and says he betrayed the Navy.

    And I am sure Acting Secretary of the Navy Modly received all the honor required by Navy regs as a ranking civilian leader of the Navy, and not one whit more. Stone faced honor guard looking anywhere but at him, for one example. No visible disrespect, just no visible respect other than that required by regulation.

    When he left the ship he knew what regard the ship’s crew held him in. Far more stupid to put his foot into the yellow-jacket nest after pissing off every member of the crew, than just to have left it alone. What was he thinking? Oh, yeah, he wasn’t thinking, ’cause he can’t!! Only thoughts as authorized by Trump!

    He’s lucky as hell a huge power tool didn’t fall on him walking across a deck. Or the wing off a fighter jet. Oops, sorry about that, we’ll call 911 for you~!!~

  65. 65.

    SeattleDem

    April 6, 2020 at 2:20 pm

    Yes, or several times per day. In Italy, like most of Europe, the store is about two blocks away at the most and it is more common to decide what you want to eat and go to the store and get it rather than stocking your shelves and monster fridge with stuff that you might or might not ever eat.

  66. 66.

    Uncle Cosmo

    April 6, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    @Barney: Might very well be the case. When I first started vacationing in Europe (40 years ago!) urban residences all over the Continent had hobbit-sized fridges (if any at all). It was quite common for city dwellers (mostly using public transport) to drop by the (small) grocer’s and butcher’s on the way home to pick up the makings of that day’s supper (& very little more, with not much room to keep it cold). Our suburban lifestyle of loading up the SUV at the hypermarket every week & cramming it into the freezer was quite alien to them. (And literally unpalatable – they were used to fresh food.)

    This is still the case in many parts of the Continent. The friend I stay with in the suburbs of Prague has a 5-room flat in a high-rise (MBR, BR2, study, LR, DR/K) and his fridge is maybe 12 cu.ft. – the fridge/freezer combo is roughly 5′ tall x 2′ x 2′ . We cook at most enough for 2 meals for each of us at a time. With two supermarkets in easy walking distance, there’s no need to make more. (ETA: He also has a gas range and a small microwave. Dishwasher?? Why do you think evolution gave you opposable thumbs??)

    (ETA 2: More succinctly, NotMax @ #43 supra.)

    /TMI

  67. 67.

    J R in WV

    April 6, 2020 at 2:29 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Also, NFC needs to be included in all phones.

    What the heck is NFC?

    On the topic of battery life… I have noticed that if you turn off your phone when you don’t need to make a call, the battery can last for weeks. Yes, I know I’m odd.

    But where we live there is no cell signal at all, because of the geography, steep hillsides and ridges all around. Actually, even up on the ridge top with an aimed high-boost antenna, there is no cell phone connection.

    Down in our cove there’s barely FM radio signals and no broadcast TV signals, which is why we have our antenna up on the ridge, connected to our laptops via ethernet.

  68. 68.

    PSpain

    April 6, 2020 at 2:33 pm

    @JCJ: There were some other funny ones,  like people who took the  car out for sex and got caught, and neighbors who called the police because of a party and the police broke up an orgy.     Plus a lot of people walking stuffed dogs and  arrested for renting their dogs so people could go out.

  69. 69.

    J R in WV

    April 6, 2020 at 2:56 pm

    @Barney:

    I can’t understand how Italy;s grocery/pharmacy number can drop 85%. If I did that one sixth as much as I used to, I’d be going once a month. Did they used to visit them once a day before?

    Yes, they did visit various local shops on a nearly daily basis for fresh seafood, fresh vegetables, freshly baked bread, etc.

  70. 70.

    PSpain

    April 6, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    @Jinchi: I get that.  I thought it would be closer to zero.  Where we are in the Valencia city the parks have been roped off and if you go there you will be fined or arrested.   Outside the cities and towns the lines are probably blurred.   Our house in the mountains , which we are not allowed to go to,  is surrounded   by parkland.  I am sure if we were there Google would count us as in the Park.   Next week when the restrictions are loosened my wife or I may be able to go to collect oranges, but only one person per car.    There are road blocks everywhere.

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