Thursday, January 19, 2023

CoVid-19: Here Comes The Kraken | Are We Finally Taking Avian Flu Seriously? | What Exxon Knew About Climate Destruction | Silly New Yorker Visits San Diego | Gas Stove Gaslighting |

Downtown San Diego & Coronado Bridge As Seen From the Bayshore Bikeway
(Taken 1.18.2023)


It's been a minute since I've posted and there have been so many things I've meant to post about but life gets in the way sometimes. Like for one thing, all this storm coverage has been crazy. I know that there has been real destruction and loss, but when San Diego is featured on the YouTube channel "World Is Dangerous" and they show flooding in Mission Valley, I kinda have to laugh. My dad worked at the VA in the valley for over 30 years and there was a time he considered moving our family closer to his work, but he saw them building right in the flood plain and nixed that idea real quick. But it's also the media and the City and County's failure that warnings aren't more urgent: we build this whole section in a flood plain and sometimes it will rain. The Fashion Valley parking lots were built to flood in these circumstances. So, too, Mission Center Road and several of the other north/south crossings over the river. Avoid the area. If you live in the area, know that this is a known mitigation, seek higher ground, and FFS, don't try to drive through moving water. There needs to also be better outreach among the unhoused that this is not a safe place to be in such conditions. 
Another thing tripping me out is the egg 'crisis'. When the San Diego Zoo first took the flamingos off habitat, the news should've been warning about the issue much more fervently than they have, and now they're just talking about it like it's a gouging problem. It is not. As of today, 57,868,714 birds have been culled because of the avain flu, H5N1, or HPAI - highly pathogenic avian influenza. The penguins at the Zoo are in a covered area by the bears. My favorite parrots have been moved into a covered aviary. It is all connected. We can ignore it or realize we're creating these super-bugs and climate change is fucking with birds migratory patterns, spreading new diseases to new places. 
Last, of course, COVID is all but ignored these days. The County data is getting less and less specific, as is the State and the CDC. Numbers haven't been reliable for a while but every week they are less so. Still, you can get a general sense of the virus by the numbers still available so as long as they are, I'll keep posting what I can. We were happy that Nova was tested weekly at school, and now even that is being canceled
Finally, for a long time I was posting political stuff and White House briefings, but it's all such a shit show with this new Congress that I just can't even. It isn't worth my stress or space. 
I hope everyone is doing well. On the one hand I would like to be posting more than once a week, but on the other hand, I'm kinda living my best life these days and I just don't see a reason to stop. For fun, I posted this ridiculous article by a New Yorker who gives her experience of San Diego. It's so poorly written and absurd that I just laugh every time I think about it. 
Stay safe out there. 

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