Mischievous Ramblings II

Death Rates: COVID-19 vs. Seasonal flu

I've consulted six different summary sites (ncov2019.live, woldometers, Johns Hopkins, WHO, Google, and the BBC). There is variation but all agree the current death rate worldwide from COVID-19 is about 5.8%.

We all understand that both cases and deaths are being undercounted. I suspect that cases are more undercounted but that's just a guess.

For now, COVID-19 is killing a tad under 6% of confirmed cases.

Between flu season 2009 and 2018 (for convenience, I label a flu season which runs from year X to year X+1 as year X, so 2009 is the 2009/2010 season), there were about 315 million symptomatic cases of flu in the US and about 350000 deaths for a death rate of about 0.11%.

During that period the most mild flu season (2009) was .02% and the most severe (2010) was 0.17%.

In round figures, COVID-19 is observably about 50 times more lethal than the flu on a per case basis.

"It's not about the nail"

The burden of bearing a massive penis

The burden of bearing a massive penis:

The lesson is clear. If you live in an environment where you can afford to be slow and lazy, sexual selection can take over: the females will preferentially mate with the fish with the larger gonopodia, driving up the average size over generations. If you have to be nimble and swift to stay alive, natural selection will cull out the males with oversized genitals.

Read the whole thing, but that's the money quote. :-)

Book on gays in professional sports, including hockey.

Given the unpleasant experiences a shy heterosexual boy has in locker rooms growing up, I cannot imagine what it would be like to be openly gay in similar circumstances. Books about lower-level hockey always seem supercharged with testosterone, and one suspects that introducing openly gay teammates would result in violence.

It's a little comforting that these excerpts suggest otherwise. Still, I don't believe that it's really anybody's business whether a professional is gay or straight so long as they believe in consensual relationships (they are role models, after all). It would be nice if everybody could bring their honey to the same events, though.

A Closeted NHL Player Tells His Story -- Outsports.com

As a hockey player, Aaron represents a paradox in relation to orthodox masculinity. He has survived the serious bodily risk that comes with this violent sport, but he fears another kind of damage—the loss of respect if he were to come out. “If people found out I was gay, it would ruin everything,” he tells me. He was initially leery to give me this interview and revealed only parts of his identity to me at a time in order to build trust. He has more practical fears too. He fears coming out would cause him to lose ice time or to become “the bastard of the company unit.” 

“I’m not afraid of being selected out for punishment, my team would beat ass if anyone tried to mess with me, but I just don’t think it would help my playing.” He continued, I really love what I do. I’m like a racehorse on the track, eager to run. I want to skate. I want to play; it hurts me not to. I’m one of the luckiest guys, to be able to do what I want and get paid way too much for it, and I’m afraid that coming out would spoil that. I just wish people didn’t care so much.” 

Aaron struggles to lead some semblance of a normal romantic and social life away from the prying eyes of his teammates. He has a boyfriend of several years, gay friends, and he permits himself to visit gay clubs when he is on the road—which is often. On rare occasions, he even runs into other professional hockey players when visiting gay establishments. 

Author Discusses Book on Gay Athletes -- Outsports.com

The answers (found on the pages of my book) clearly shows that gay athletes would receive much more support after coming out than objection to their coming out, and that most professional athletes just wouldn’t care. I show that not only would openly gay athletes retain their sponsorships (if they had them in the first place), but that they would actually gain a number of sponsorships as well. More so, I show that a fledging career could be transformed by the simple proclamation of, “I’m gay.” For example, why doesn’t a third-rate benchwarmer, someone who has spent his career shuffling between the minor levels and the major league bench, come out? Why wouldn’t a sponsor-less, no-name athlete, come out? Imagine the publicity. Talk show interviews, book contracts, a plethora of sponsorship offers, perhaps even a movie deal too. Who wouldn’t want that? The answer is that saying, “I’m Gay,” is not so easy for these men. It is this answer that is spelled out in the pages of my book.

Citizens Against Nude Juice Bars and Pornography?

Nude Juice Bar Survives Legal Challenges

The mix of nude dancers, orange juice and black-and-white independent films wasn't in Bob Rieger's original business plan. But it has helped his Racehorses Gentlemen's Club survive amid the cornfields of McCook County and fend off a two-year barrage of challenges from politicians and outraged members of Citizens Against Nude Juicebars and Pornography.

"I've been to court with them four times, and I beat them every time," Rieger says.

When the county denied Rieger a liquor license for a bar, he opened a strip club with a juice bar in 2003. When it served a stop order saying a commercial business could not operate in area zoned for agriculture, Rieger went to court and won.

And when 74 percent of the county's voters passed an anti-nudity ordinance in June, Rieger found a loophole that exempted movie theaters. After a two-week hiatus, the club re-emerged as Racehorses Gentlemen's Club and Adult Movie Theatre and has been operating ever since.

You've gotta admit, this guy is resilient: first he imagines a strip bar, then he re-invents it as a strip juice bar, then as a movie theater.

Next it will be the site of art classes, I imagine.

And you've also got to wonder about the people fighting this -- I mean, if they're really upset about public urination and nudity, why don't we just enforce any existing laws against pissing in the parking lot and coming to work already naked?

Because it's not about that. Psst! lemme tell you a secret -- it's about sex, and them South Dakotans don't want any of that there sex happening in their towns....

Wired News: Cell Phones That Do It

Wired News: Cell Phones That Do It

Did you know that cell phones are the only things guys compete with on the basis of smallness?

Two From Australia

Sex visits for aged homes and Family fury over brothel bonuses are both a few days old, but they're still worth reading.

Um….

dailyrecord - FIERY LUST OF STINKY SEX SICKO

That's quite a list. I feel normal, now.

Sex keeps older couples connected, experts say

Sex keeps older couples connected, experts say

I don't have personal experience, not being in the age range they're talking about, but I do believe that my parents had an active sex life until he was over 80 and she was almost 70. Since my father died at 83, that's pretty good, espeically when you consider that my father had a large stroke at 72 and lived the last 11 years of his life hemiplegic and aphasic.

Allergic to Sex?

I'M ALLERGIC TO SEX is a frightening and uplifting story about sex, marriage, and allergies.

It's been said before, but I could not make this stuff up.

As The Man said, "the world is weird enough for me".