Monthly Archives: July 2020

Panther Coffee

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July’s Trade Coffee (referral link) comes from Panther Coffee.  Nicaragua is another country in the coffee belt that I’ haven’t had many opportunities to taste coffee beans from.  These beansare from the Las Cuchillas Jinotega region.

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The beans arrived at the same time as the 2nd Angels Cup beans. Opening the bag, the beans had a subtle fruity aroma.  Occasionally with each sniff, I would get hints of a honey and nut aromas.  Making my latte, a subdued fruit flavor peachy flavor emerges reminding me that it is peach season.  There is a pleasant milk chocolate aftertaste that lingers at the back of the tongue.  After a few sips, the milk chocolate flavor becomes much more dominant after each sip with the fruity flavor becomes the aftertaste.

Imitations of Imitations

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Lately when browsing in Amazon, I’ve been seeing a trend of a seeing imitations of imitations of the real product.  If we suspend any thought about IP theft related to these products, the constant iterative process of tech is pretty fascinating.  Sometimes you’ll see normal everyday US-centric products on Amzon (like a cable grommet).  You then add power outlets.  Then as the need for USB charging arises, USB only chargers appear.  As technology becomes better/faster/smaller, the ability to have a USB hub and charging as well as video outlets, audio jacks and ethernet ports (example or example).  But this iterative process doesn’t surprise me.  From a Wired documentary about the innovation found in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, the constant iterative process of tech is pretty normal.   One thing Wired discussed was the lack of IP enforcement.  In many situations, the shop owners know that enforcement was impossible and so actively sharing ideas so that new ideas can be born became the norm.

But back to Amazon… I’ve been seeing these imitations and have been trying to find out what was the original product and how did that product evolve to what I’m seeing.  In addition to this, I’m also trying to see if they have a website which would at least indicate a serious global nature of the Amazon store.  What I end up doing is opening a bunch of links to investigate more.  Because of this cross checking, I’ve ended up finding something even better that is also carried in Amazon but wasn’t on their first few pages.  One of these would be this high quality leather desk pad from Galloway Leather.  I ended up purchasing it because the first option I wanted was out of stock.  Although it’s now on the first page of my feed (thanks to algorithms, maybe?), I originally had to go to the 2nd or 3rd page for it to show up.  Ironically it was an “Amazon’s Choice” which makes me wonder that the Amazon algorithm probably didn’t think I wanted this type of high quality material.

Behind the Scenes on Hamilton

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Ever wondered what goes on behind a musical?  This popped up on my YouTube feed and the complexity of what goes on is amazing.

 

Little Amps Coffee Roaster

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I had accidentally updated the frequency of Angels cup delivery to twice a month.  It should be set back to once a month now since I have two coffee subscriptions now.  So June’s 2nd Angel’s cup comes from Little Amps Coffee Roasters.  These beans are from Columbia’s Finca La Argentina in Tolima.  Based on Google maps, this is a pretty high elevated region in the world.

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The aroma smells wonderful.  I get hints of floral, fruity and berry aromas.  On a second whiff, I also get this subtle earthy aroma.  Making my latte and on the first sip, the berry and fruity flavors stand out amazingly well.  I also get this strong earthy, nutty after taste that lingers and coats the back of my tongue.  This coating left an unexpected slight bitterness after each sip.  I say unexpected since many of the beans that had a floral and fruity aroma rarely had any bitterness as well.  So it was surprising to taste the flavor profile evolving after a few sips.

 

New Julian Coffee Kickstarter

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Recently I posted about a Kickstarter coffee campaign from Julian Kimmel.  I just found out from an email that he has another campaign on Kickstarter.

I backed it since the beans from his last campaign were pretty good.

Successes from Quick Action

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Today, I saw an old article from CNN that details some of the reasons as to how Vietnam has been able to control COVID-19.

  • Quick government action
  • Swift travel restrictions
  • Quarantine/lock down of cities as needed
  • Aggressive contact tracing
  • Public communication of location where new cases occurred
  • Government mandated face masks and social distancing requirements
  • A general population that understand the risks of infection and more importantly accepting the temporary inconveniences to control COVID-19

 

 

 

How would you handle COVID-19?

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Since hindsight is 20/20… this is what I would have done with COVID-19.

In late January, announce that the international borders will be closed within 10 hours of the announcement.  The 10 hour buffer allows any current en route flights to land without issue.  Empty inbound international flights are still allowed in order to accommodate any outbound international flights.  The crews from these inbound flights will be sequestered to just two or three hotels only.  This action isolates the crew so to allow contact tracing to be easier in case of outbreaks.  Domestic travel can still operate normally until otherwise told.

I think if just this measure was put in place there might not have been an outbreak in both Seattle and New York.  It’s still possible the cases could appear as there were only 15 confirmed cases back on Feb 15, 2020.  Given the incubation length and the potentila asymptomatic transmission possibility, a January closure would have mitigated the most damage.  According to the NY times interactive modeling, the 15 early cases were linked to transmission from China.  However, what’s more important is that any subsequent cases would be linked to these 15 cases AND there would be no new influx of cases.  Although travel was restricted from China on Feb 02, 2020, restrictions were imposed far too late from Europe on Mar 13, 2020.  Between late January and mid-March, countless travelers passed through the international airports and silently spreading the infection.  Through genetic testing, the outbreak in New York was linked to a European strain.  It shows just how partial restrictions are pointless.

If these borders were to have been closed in late January, I see a number of different scenarios that would be different

  • COVID-19 cases would be limited and probably very manageable by the healthcare professionals
  • Stay-at-Home requirements might never have been issued
  • Businesses would remain open
  • Healthcare system would function at normal capacity without needing to be in constant emergency “war zone” mode
  • No Masks
  • No Social Distancing

What would you do?

Stay-at-Home again…

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California is re-imposing the restrictions of gathering indoors.  As long as COVID-19 is not under control, outbreaks will continue to happen.  There are a few effective ways to limit transmission…

  1. Stay at home as much as possible.
  2. Wear a mask if you go outside.
  3. Limit outdoor activities to a minimum including grocery shopping, food takeout, etc.