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

A personal letter in reply to a local user I just sent.

How can a new user in the Fediverse start finding interesting people and making connections?

Some ideas and suggestions, maybe they could be useful to others.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello and welcome to Qoto.

I would suggest you look at my profile, any info I intended to share is posted there, along with most of my toots, done in public mode.

For a new user in Mastodon, it's a good thing to post some info about yourself. This can be done in your profile itself, and also with an "Introductions"post which is specifically done for that; tell people what you do, what you are interested in, maybe hobbies and a general idea of your location (don't need an exact location, best kept private).

Usually, these posts are done and "pinned"to the user's profile so any visitors can see and find them easily. And we use a hashtag #Introductions so it also gets indexed and easily found that way.

Mastodon and the Fediverse are quite interesting, but it takes a bit of time and patience to make friends here. Replying to people's posts does help, any posts that you find useful or have an opinion on, adding a comment will get the poster to become familiar with you.

Right now there's been very little social posting here at Qoto.org, we used to have some frequent users and friendly chatter (all started in the same manner I suggested above, by commenting and reacting to each other's posts).

Sadly, people come and go; I have been very active and am a moderator here, but have done very little posting for the past month or so.

Any posts you make here are seen by many people out in other servers as well. It's also a good idea to find interesting conversations in the Home (the little House icon) feed or the Federated feed (much busier, the Globe icon). I have responded and got involved in great conversations in these places, and you start making friends in other servers as well.

Hope you enjoy your stay, and find many interesting conversations to be part of. The Fediverse is quite interesting, although for a newcomer it might feel less welcoming than Facebook, for example. But it's much richer and more interesting once you start getting to know people and places around here.

Have a good day! 😄

"Boris Johnson has spent decades preparing for his lead role, honing his adopted character, perfecting his mannerisms, gauging the reactions to his performance and adjusting it for maximum effect. Now he has the national stage and the rapt audience he always craved. His speech this week announcing a lockdown drew the biggest television audience in Britain in this century.

The problem is that he has been preparing for the wrong part. The man came to power playing Falstaff, a double-dealing, comically entertaining, shameless rogue; now he is suddenly onstage as Henry V, the wartime king whose solemn judgment, intense focus, charisma and conviction must lead his nation in a time of crisis. Mr. Johnson does not know how to play that part, and it shows."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/opinion/coronavirus-uk-boris-johnson.html

"Lloyd Blankfein, who ran Goldman Sachs Group Inc. until 2018, helped kickstart the calls to get back to work on Sunday when he tweeted that “extreme measures to flatten the virus ‘curve’” were sensible “for a time” but could crush the economy: “Within a very few weeks let those with a lower risk to the disease return to work.”

His longtime deputy, Gary Cohn, who left the bank to become Trump’s top economic adviser, asked if it was time “to start discussing the need for a date when the economy can turn back on.” Without clarity, businesses “will assume the worst,” he said."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-25/billionaires-want-people-back-to-work-workers-aren-t-so-sure

From the same article above, an interesting fact -- that Medtronic is open sourcing their design plans for some simpler models of ventilators, to allow any interested parties to produce them.

This is good news on a sorely needed item in this pandemic.

"Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak told CNBC on Wednesday that it is increasing capacity of its critical care ventilators and partnering with others such as Tesla. He said Medtronic is open sourcing one of its lower-end ventilators in less acute situations for others to make ventilators as quickly as they can. These lower-end ventilators, which are easier to produce because there are fewer components, can be used as an intermediary step in critical care."

'Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the company’s factory in Buffalo, New York will open “as soon as humanly possible” to produce ventilators that are in short supply due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

His comments, which were made Wednesday via Twitter, follows previous statements by the CEO outlining plans to either donate ventilators or work to increase production of the critical piece of medical equipment needed for patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by coronavirus."

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/25/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-new-york-gigafactory-will-reopen-for-ventilator-production/

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