The Core

I'm so sorry to hear that.

As for the last question, I believe that accounted for a lot of the problems in long-term care facilities. To keep the load off hospitals, they were sending people back. I thought they had learned from that debacle.

Spending my entire life in just above sea level and near the coast in Northern California has basically ruined me

When we lived in Berkeley, we became incapable of travel. Everywhere felt too hot or too cold or too humid most of the year.

I saw this mentioned in connection with the finding that normal human body temperature in the US has dropped.

I remember when I was a kid, by grandparents would keep their house at 68-70 degrees in the winter and we were miserable when we visited (though we adored them).

No way I can find it, but the article was saying that the average interrior temperature in the winter in a house in the US in the late 1800s was 55 degrees.

One sixteenth-century French traveler (I believe it was Montaigne) was surprised when he went to what would now be eastern Germany and when people entered a home in the winter, they took their coats off. In France, they kept coats hanging by the door to put them *on* when you entered, because the home was only slightly warmer than outdoors, but you were less active. In eastern Germany, they still had so much forest that people could burn not just a single small fire to boil a pot, but a nice, roaring, heating fire to make it warm inside. Wastrels!

French settlers in Canada made similar statements. They said that though Quebec was much colder than northern France, because there was wood available, they were much warmer inside.

Now I know people who won't even wear a sweater in winter because they find it uncomfortable and, though this is changing, people who wear coats and ties all summer. Their houses are rarely colder than 70 or warmer than 75 (and when warmer than 75, that's because the heat is set high, not because the A/C is set low)

And if an anti-trust suit said that Google could not buy their way into being the default search engine?

Google is obviously the default for Android devices and then they pay their way into being the default for Apple devices. The problem is, if payments were not allowed, would Apple just default to Google based on customer choice? Or, when you bought a new iPhone, would you be forced to choose a default search provider?

The 7-8 billion is easy money for Apple right now. Why would they give that up?

Don’t Lose the Thread. The Economy Is Experiencing an Epic Collapse of Demand.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/upshot/coronavirus-economic-crisis.html

You can already sense in the public debate over the economy that people are starting to lose the thread — viewing the slight rebound from epic collapse as a sign that a crisis has been averted. That certainly is the kind of optimism evident in the stock market, which is now down a mere 1.1 percent for the year.

But there are clear signs that the collapse of economic activity has set in motion problems that will play out over many months, or maybe many years. If not contained, they could cause human misery on a mass scale and create lasting scars for families.

The fabric of the economy has been ripped, with damage done to millions of interconnections — between workers and employers, companies and their suppliers, borrowers and lenders. Both the historical evidence from severe economic crises and the data available today point to enormous delayed effects.

Nice. I think they are often portrayed first as mechanics, second as daredevils and third if at all as engineers and scientists.

Well that's why I can't buy the Protexus electrostatic sprayer. Marriott bought them all.

Our state and county just released the new requirements. To be frank, it's labor-intensive. Highlights:

 - cleaners cannot enter the room until 24 hours after guest leaves and guest cannot enter for 3 hours after cleaner finishes vacuuming. So this means at least one night empty between guests. For a hotel that runs at a 2-night average stay, this means that the hotel is effectively "full" when 66% of the rooms are occupied.

Most resort hotels cannot stay profitable at 66% occupancy during the high season (and often 20% during the low season). Add to this that the conference and wedding business is gone and a lot of hotels will not last until a vaccine comes along.

 - all bedding must be laundered, that includes bedspreads, duvets and other items not typically laundered in hotels between guests and they must be washed on hot, preferably the sanitize cycle if available. Again, this adds a significant expense in labor, but also a capital investment. The hotel I work at has some extra bedspreads for problems, but nothing close to 2 sets. So to open all the rooms, that will be (rough guess, I have no actual knowledge except a rough idea about the number of beds) at least $100,000 in linens and we're a small hotel compared to Vegas.

 - all pots, pans, dishes and silverware must be washed whether used or not. Not a big deal at the hotel, but again more time, labor and resources for the rental.

There's a lot more that will impact the guest experience. Lots of things will get removed from rooms - clocks, throw pillows, extra linens, extra towels, extra pillows, throw blankets, etc - all verboten.

Any hotel in California that is already cash poor and/or carrying debt will be absolutely hosed.

Just to give you a rough idea... this massive document is just the state guidelines. The county is adding additional, more stringent guidelines... all against the backdrop of cases spiking in California

https://covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-hotels-lodging-rentals.pdf