Remember folks, debates about vaccine efficacy belong in the CE toilet.

This thread is about the effects the pandemic is having on your city.

I watched a documentary about this.

really? it seems more likely that there might be one about IceCube (similar experiment, similar concept, lower energy and optical light instead of radio). The PI of one of my experiments was interviewed in Encounters at the end of the World though (though Herzog edited it in a way to sound more mystical than it is). That was long before my time though :).

I forgot the specifics (it was quite a while ago) but remembered polar ice being used to detect neutrinos/ cosmic background radiation. Fascinating stuff.

I thought there was a NYT article on Lake Baikal as a center for research on Askaryan Effect not too long ago.

But my physics knowledge ignominiously ended in a crappy 11th grade AP score, so my understanding is next-to-nothing.

That (Baikal-GVD) is not an Askaryan detector either, but an optical Cerenkov detector. But to first approximation for anybody outside high-energy neutrino astrophysics (so basically everybody), it's more or less the same thing with slightly different technology (photomultipliers/SIPM's to measure ~optical photons vs. antennas to measure VHF/UHF radio emission) and energy regimes (~PeV vs ~EeV).

(Askaryan radiation is a form of Cerenkov radiation---it's the coherent Cerenkov radiation at wavelengths large compared to the size of the particle shower with a relative charge excess. Or equivalently, you can think of it as the Cerenkov radiation from a macroscopic charge excess as opposed to from individual charged particles).

And speaking of the NYT, the first time I was in Antarctica I accidentally cameod in one of their pictures :) .

Great news!

I've been extremely pessimistic and will continue until long-term data comes out. But I am one of those people that took advantage of the deals:

I got a larger place, an office, a balcony, and a higher floor for a lot less per month than I was paying a block away and my parking is cheaper now too. I signed a 18 month lease because I knew the good times might stop.

^^SF rents have stopped falling and are now beginning to climb again.

Here you might not have been able to do a deal like you did unless you were a fairly new arrival. We have rent control with vacancy decontrol. So if you've been in a controlled building a while, even with the recent drop you probably wouldn't have got a reduction in rent

By the way, did you ask your landlord for a reduction before you moved?

We were pretty much in multiple places (beach, ice cream shop, restaurant) in St Joseph, MI without masks this weekend.

We still try to make our kids wear them while indoors, although I admit I got a bit lazy last night and didn’t enforce it too much.

Michigan is like completely opposite Illinois though. In Illinois people are still masking a lot indoors (except for restaurants, I guess). But over here nobody’s wearing shit

Walked briefly through Streeterville and the Mag Mile in Chicago today.

On the “surface” things seem normal, but they really aren’t.

A restaurant that I’ve been going to for years told me how much they struggled, and still are. They relied on office workers who still largely haven’t returned.

Foot traffic on the streets has improved, but it’s still not the hopping and buzzing Chicago of summer 2019 and years past. I think we will get there, but I suspect it’s going to take another full year

Maybe....

I was out and about this weekend, and it felt the most energetic since I got here on May 8th. I continue to see less and less masks too. I am trying to be a trend setter and not wear them unless I see a sign that says I am required too. I was at a pub in Avondale, and no one was wearing masks (inside or outside).

Let me guess... Silver Beach, Kilwin's, RyeBelle's? :D

No, Urban Politician is right. Chicago has returned to about normal Spring-level mobility, but Summer is a significant notch above that.

It’s hard to reach Summer-level activity without events up-and-running. I think Independence Day and Lollapalooza will be the closest to Chicago in high-gear we get this year.

I expect we’ll see typical seasonal activity return by Autumn, and then next Summer things will be back to normal.





https://twitter.com/colintj/status/1...177073673?s=21

New York’s Metroploitan Opera 21-22 season is on and San Francisco Opera promises news soon about theirs. Bravo!

We finally got to go to church for the first time in over a year yesterday, and it felt very nice... Even nicer to have so many people there excited to see us, and happy that we meant what we said about continuing to attend even after moving an hour away. Our church shut down and moved to online-only services once the pandemic really got going, a smart move considering that much of the congregation is older. in May they started a slow reopening where you'd have to book one of a limited number of slots, and now they're finally fully open with just a few changes such as no singing.

Good guess, you got 2 out of 3

We didn't eat at RyeBelle's

The food in St Joseph isn't the best, but everything else is.....very nice

Agreed but like you said it's pleasant enough... I only go to RyeBelle's for their rooftop.

I'm not terribly familiar with the food scene there, but I did once have lunch at The Buck right in downtown St. Joe's.

Pretty damn good pub burger and an outstanding selection of Michigan craft brew on tap. Would recommend.

We still have preregistration and limited spots but we started singing three weeks ago.

:)