*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@qoto.org

Dyson has received an order from the UK government for 10,000 ventilators to support efforts by the country's National Health Service to treat coronavirus patients.

James Dyson, the company's billionaire founder, confirmed the order in a letter to employees shared with CNN on Wednesday.

'Desperate' shortage of ventilators for coronavirus patients puts manufacturers on wartime footing
"A ventilator supports a patient who is no longer able to maintain their own airways, but sadly there is currently a significant shortage, both in the UK and other countries around the world," Dyson wrote.

Dyson said the company had designed and built an entirely new ventilator, called the "CoVent," since he received a call 10 days ago from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/tech/dyson-ventilators-coronavirus/index.html

#humour #linux #unix

"The global oil market has been hammered this month by an economic slowdown and a price war between major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia. Canada’s storage situation mirrors that across the continent. U.S. crude prices are down 60 per cent since the start of the year, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) settled at US$24.49 a barrel on Wednesday. Western Canada Select heavy oil blend was priced at US$8.84 a barrel, according to NE2 Group.

With economic pain spreading, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday to “rise to the occasion” and bring stability back to oil and financial markets that are reeling because of the novel coronavirus and resulting pandemic."

It would certainly make sense to pressure the Saudis to stop dumping oil as they are, which is hurting badly producers here in North America and elsewhere. Excessive production, at a time when demand collapsed.

Soon many small players will be broke. Canadian heavy oil at 9 USD per barrel?? US fracking can't be economical at the current WTI level either.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadas-oil-industry-facing-deep-production-cuts-as-demand-dwindles/

A liv epidemic model at the New York Times = you can see numerical estimated results of changing various parameters on the current pandemic situation. #QOTOJournal

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/25/opinion/coronavirus-trump-reopen-america.html

"The shock to the global economy from Covid-19 has been faster and more severe than the 2008 global financial crisisand even the Great Depression. In those two previous episodes, stock markets collapsed by 50% or more, credit markets froze up, massive bankruptcies followed, unemployment rates soared above 10% and GDP contracted at an annualised rate of 10% or more. But all of this took around three years to play out. In the current crisis, similarly dire macroeconomic and financial outcomes have materialised in three weeks."

Economic scenario outline by professor Noriel Roubini, who acurately forecasted the 2008 financial crisis (a year before it happened) is pretty bleak. I like reading his pieces, beware that this one is a bit bleak.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-pandemic-has-delivered-the-fastest-deepest-economic-shock-in-history

Might as well add a nice photo of Sao Pedro de Moel, which is a nice place to visit, and specially wonderful for touring cyclists. 😃

Video even? https://youtu.be/RFDEBHjmFyk

Found the correct location of the beach on the photo, it's not as I thought Sao Pedro de Moel, but the Praia do Carvoeiro, near Peniche, North of Lisbon in the portuguese coast.

"CARVOEIRO

Cabo Carvoeiro is located on the far western corner of the peninsular of Peniche, in a zone of great beauty due to the curious geological formations that have been sculpted by the sea over time, such as the Nau dos Corvos, a large boulder which resembles a giant, half-shipwrecked vessel.

This site offers spectacular views over the sea and the Berlenga islands, and is also an excellent spot for observing sea birds."

from : http://www.living-algarve.com/places-interest-algarve/

"Bacalhau a Lagareiro" is my favourite way of preparing Salted and dried Cod. This photo shows a nicely made portion on a plate.

A great recipe and nice photos is on Nelson Carvalheiro's website : https://nelsoncarvalheiro.com/bacalhau-recipe/

More recipes, videos, photos? https://www.bing.com/search?q=Bacalhau++a+lagareiro

Some beauty to cheer us all up.

I found this beautiful photo this morning, as a background image on a website. I think I have visited this location, and if I am right it would be Praia de Sao Pedro de Moel, in the center region of Portugal.

I stayed overnight in the nice campground, so a magnificent sunset into the Atlantic from the cliff top. Back in 2017, bicycle touring Portugal.

Some great photos of beaches in the Leiria region of Portugal in this page : https://countrytodiscover.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/beaches-in-leiria/

From The Guardian - these REpublicans are unblievable.

Another "Very Stable Genius" kind of guy.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/older-people-would-rather-die-than-let-covid-19-lockdown-harm-us-economy-texas-official-dan-patrick

Here's the pdf file with the patterns for the mask -- three sizes, small, medium, large.

They are available on her website but need some digging around to find. Hope this helps. 😄

PDF file at OneDrive : https://1drv.ms/b/s!AkeSSy1Q30XMhoEXdvndbnQ8m6CHyg?e=EJr2he

A public service announcement -- a friend sent me an email with the info on this blog page. Pattern and instructions for home making your own masks, it looks likely that this will be a major issue very soon.

NY Times article I read mentioned that doctors in a Brooklyn, NY hospital were already being forced to re-use their disposable masks, due to lack of replacements.

Another NYT article quoted state procurement personnel saying that masks that usually sold for $0.85 each (85 cents USD) are not costing them about 7 dollars EACH. Profiteering is rearing its ugly head.

Consider making your own.

https://jennifermaker.com/face-mask-patterns-cricut/

Due to American sanctions brought in by the Trump government against any oil tanker companies shipping crude oil (usually from Venezuela, to Cuba), Cuba has been operating with only about 30% of their usual crude oil supply.

There's no fuel for tractors, and people in the country side are back to plowing with oxen. Some don't even have that, and food production has been curtailed in the whole island.

This is the inhumanity of this cruel man at the helm, affecting a whole nation. A good article at the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/cuba-food-production-us-oil-sanctions

The Tourism sector which is the island's lifeline, is also hurting.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/21/havana-cubans-count-cost-as-tourists-stay-away-trump-sanctions

A very poignant article at Reuters I just read this morning.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-ethics-speci/special-report-all-is-well-in-italy-triage-and-lies-for-virus-patients-idUSKBN2133KG

This has some background explanations that help understand the Fed's panicky emergency meeting and slashing of interest rates.

They are worried about a crisis of liquidity in the financial markets, similar to the one that started in 2008 and forced huge measures by central banks to avoid a seize up.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-markets-crisis-ana/the-plumbing-behind-worlds-financial-markets-is-creaking-loudly-idUSKBN2120NJ

The economic impact of the epidemic is hitting main street now, after all the panic and pain in Wall St and the world's financial markets.

Good read at the NY Times!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-economy-impact.html

Slowly app launched another neat new series of stamp this morning. Welcome to "Cheat Day" series.

Yummy sugar fixes and comfort foods.

Had the pleasure to pet two beautiful young Black Cats on Friday, which was also the 13th!

They are so lovely, these mini-panthers. 🙂🐈

#cats #mastocats #CatsofMastodon #meow #xp
---
RT @CatDisapproval
Today is my human brother's birthday! There will be cake!
https://twitter.com/CatDisapproval/status/1239198312886083586