Update of Covid

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Covid, Logarithmic chart of COVID, pandemic

The massive amount of Covid pandemic is shown with color-coded data.

Note the dark blue line. It represents the whole world caseload of people who have been diagnosed with the Covid disease. The black line below it shows the total number of victims who have died of the pandemic disease. Note that the United States has the worst caseload and death load of any country and that it is progressing at a steeper growth rate than all large population countries except Brazil. Note also that China put a sudden end to the Covid pandemic. It is not erased completely and it never will be, as it will lurk for a long time as does the common cold. Vaccination will help, but it won’t eliminate the disease.

The best option for people these days is to avoid other people with the Covid disease and to clean their sinuses with a mild soap suds made of baby shampoo.

 

Seek and you will find, … something.

Tags

Alternate realities, Challenges to invent, Make it work!

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matt, 7:7 NKJV

“Where observation is concerned, chance favors the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur

Bring a gun to your shoulder, take aim and targets will appear.

To a hammer, the whole world becomes a field of nails.

To the right ship, the whole ocean is a highway.

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To reveal a new truth, think about it, and then do each of the following: I take an idea and,

Ask, beg, demand, grill, seek, try, observe, postulate, intend, investigate, study, analyze, details, speculate, generalities, review, facts, meditate, consequences, compare, similarities, weigh, differences, test, qualities, challenge, powers, rack, deficiencies, stretch, assumptions, squeeze, facts, magnify, details, shrink, lists, endeavor, heroically, attempt, impossible, begin, fresh, explore, peripheries, choose, core, cope, quit, struggle, upward, endure, downward, long-view, short-view, alternate, realities, substitute, fantasies, reproduce, unique, generate, identical, equivalents, outcomes, precursors, findings, practical, useful, functional, effective, works, fails, propose, suggest, submit, recommend, develop, assemble, produce, promote, exploit, expand, encourage, boost, enliven, hoist, cheer, help.

Now go seek, find, go in, and do it.

Never do anything for the first time.

Tags

Arctic survival

I just finished reading Neil Shubin’s book The Universe Within, Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People.

When beginning my second reading, on page 7, a statement leaped out at me and clicked!

Never do anything for the first time.

“I learned plenty of lessons that first year in Greenland, ones that were to become useful when I began running my own Arctic expeditions eleven years later. By bringing leaky leather boots, a small used tent, and a huge flashlight to the land of mud, ice, and the midnight sun, I made so many bad choices that first year that I remained smiling only by reciting my own motto, ‘Never do anything for the first time.'”

That sentence which I read a few days ago had been forgotten until, when reading it again, it took on a much deeper meaning for me.

I feel like everything I do is being done for the first time, and it is to be expected that a new thing won’t work properly in the first embodiment. Whatever it is that I’m doing is not right from the beginning and must be reworked.

For example, the Covid face mask based on a 1.75-liter plastic bottle has been modified at least a hundred times with significant improvements. They were tiny improvements but significant. And, usually, each improvement is overwritten with a slightly better solution and that one is reworked too.

I am not a perfectionist! I just want things to work well enough for a first-time user to get the expected results.

On deconstructing this concept, it became obvious that to get something to work right requires experience with the component actions. Any new thing will require some learning, and if it’s a totally new thing, that means learning a new set of skills. And then weaving these sometimes contradictory skills into a functioning pattern of habits. Then when the totally new thing is worked on, it is with similar skills to what you have already developed, and the task isn’t totally new.

All of this is obvious when it is picked apart, so when you are aware that you are beginning something new, you should discover the separate skills needed and get experience using the equipment to be used in the wilderness, where there is no backup, in similar situations where a problem is easily rectified.

When Shubin was dropped off an airplane for a few weeks in the high Arctic wilderness to do archeology, he was wearing leaky boots and was trying to sleep in a cheap second-hand tent in 24-hour sunlight. It didn’t work out well.

“Be prepared!” is the Boy Scout motto, but being prepared means having a good idea of the problems that will be encountered and having the right equipment and the well-practiced skills to use it properly.

Getting things right the first time requires preparation.

Some real progress today on my mask

Tags

Evolution of a face mask, Evolution of an idea

I have been designing a face mask for more effective filtering out contaminants from the air, which of course includes Covid. I have chosen materials that are ubiquitous and made of thrown-away materials found everywhere in the world. The point of the various designs is to make the mask really effective and really cheap and easy to make. It is intended to be so cheap that even the poorest people in the poorest country could make one for themselves from local trash.

I don’t really know what trash is available everywhere, but when looking at pictures of garbage floating around at river mouths of the world, everything needed appears to be there.

One problem solved today was with Scotch tape, which I have used in my many models. The final models will only use a foot of tape, but that requires the purchase of a three-dollar roll. Today I realized something that will work perfectly. It wasn’t a gigantic ah-ha moment, it was a yes, that will work moment.

Many glass containers, and some others too, have wrap-around labels that cover most of the cylindrical portion of the container. Many of these are not glued on permanently  but are attached with adhesive that allows the label to be pulled off. The labels are not intended to be pulled off, but it is probably cheaper to make them this way because the label sticks instantly and doesn’t require drying or setting. This labeling material backed with adhesive is usually made of strong thin plastic sheets and will perform all the tasks that Scotch tape or duct tape has been performing on my experimental masks. These readily available garbage items with adhesive sheets are a tiny thing, but they will make the mask available to billions of people, so that is important.

Another obvious thing I discovered today is that a few of my designs permitted eating while wearing the face mask. Well, not exactly eating, unless the food has been puréed in a blender. The flapper valve is easily pushed aside and the holes under it in the front face are big enough to permit a drinking straw to poke through to the wearer’s mouth. Now you can go to your favorite sporting event and drink your beer without exposing yourself to other people’s diseases. Also, it will be an exotic new experience to watch baseball while eating a puréed hot dog.

One of these days I will post a video demonstrating how to make and enjoy my new face mask. But first, it needs a name!

Another update on COVID-19

Tags

Air face masks, Combating Covid with baby shampoo, Covid face masks, Covid update, Live long and prosper., Logarithmic disaster, Making a Covid face mask

Winston Churchill is reported to have said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else”. This has never been more true than our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, we are practically having riots in the streets for the state governments to even attempt to do what is necessary to bring the disease under control. Our President has abdicated all responsibility for directing any reasonable approach.
It has now been demonstrated in China and New Zealand that COVID can be STOPPED, but it is unlikely that those procedures will be implemented here.

America now has the distinction of more COVID cases and deaths than China, Spain, Italy, …… combined.

I offer a nearly FREE nasal cleanser, and an effective breathing mask, and a visor too, all for free, and I am being ridiculed for wasting my time.

 

Dear President Trump

Tags

A letter to President Trump, Baby Shampoo, Baby shampoo against COVID, Covid disease against Baby Shampoo

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

The COVID-19 can be controlled and eventually defeated with little loss of life and we can all safely return quickly to a vibrant economy if we do one simple thing. It is obviously the right thing to do because it is proven to be safe and we know that it kills viruses. And, it can be implemented immediately by most people without spending any money because what we need is already in abundant supply in many people’s homes. And, it is so cheap and readily available that once this idea is presented to the public everyone would be eager to share it with everyone they encounter. The method will cost less than one penny per person.

What could be better? It will quickly end the COVID-19 pandemic, it will cost almost nothing to implement, and it will almost instantly restore the economy to becoming Greater than it has ever been. There is no need to wait for vaccines to be developed and tested.

First a few obvious facts. The COVID-19 virus doesn’t live on doorknobs, it only exists there and slowly dies. The COVID-19 virus doesn’t live on people’s hands, it only exists there and slowly dies there too, or it dies quickly if the hands are washed with soap and water. The COVID-19 virus lives in the cells of the human body, and it first enters the body and lives in the surface cells of the nose, eyes, and mouth of its host person.

The answer to the COVID-19 problem is to wash the face more thoroughly with a proven to be safe and effective soap that is easily tolerated and yet kills viruses. People already wash their faces several times per day, and all we need to do is change their routine very slightly to use a universally accepted mild soap that can be tolerated by the nose, eyes, and mouth. That soap has been available for many years and has been used for bathing babies for decades without their complaint. Babies get the Baby Shampoo in their eyes without complaint, they get it in their mouth without complaint, and they get it in their nose without complaint.

If babies can use Baby Shampoo in normal concentrations without complaint, it is obvious that adults can use it too without complaint if they think it will do them some good. If it can prevent them from dying from COVID-19, they will be eager to use it. Why get sick when all you have to do is wash your face normally with a normal concentration of this classic shampoo and water and get a very small amount of the highly diluted suds into your nose, eyes, and mouth? A single drop of Baby Shampoo in a cup of water will foam well and it is this concentration that is easily tolerated. Standard soap and water will kill the COVID-19 virus on your eyelids, and in your mouth and in your nose, but it burns. Baby Shampoo is designed to be tolerated without burning and it works.

Use Baby Shampoo this way a few times per day and survive the pandemic.

We made rhubarb chutney today. Oh boy!

Tags

Covid, FREE face mask air filter, Rhubarb chutney, Rhubarb chutney to the rescue

Other than fiddle all day trying to improve on my design for a highly effective and almost FREE facial air filter, nothing much happened. Except, the rhubarb has been growing furiously for the last month and today we harvested some of it and used it to make chutney. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time! Last spring I discovered the rhubarb growing in front of our house, and being harvested by our neighbors for their purposes, makes fantastic chutney. I quickly became addicted to using it on my toast in the morning, and when the few jars of it were gone we tried making chutney using other stuff like cranberries, apples, raisins, and they were very good tasting, but nothing compared to rhubarb chutney. So, after storing four bottles, I licked the pot like a kid. It was like my first smell of coffee from a vacuum-packed can being opened by my mom when I was about a year old. That was is one of my first memories of life on this planet. A profound experience! And now it’s rhubarb chutney.

So far most of the response I get from talking about using one drop of Baby Shampoo in a quart of water to cleanse the sinuses of COVID consists in nothing but ridicule. There are two exceptions, and one of these exceptions is a retired medical doctor who has been doing it for about two weeks without any problem. On checking the internet it appears that about three thousand people a day are now being reported as dying of COVID. I am not in a position to know the accuracy of those figures, so I accept them as stated, and have decided to only update my logarithmic chart once every five days. It takes a lot of routine fussing to make a new chart, and why bother when the situation is so obvious and no one, other than the “scientists” are being respected for their efforts to find effective cures. That’s about 7,777,000,000 people whose ideas are being ignored, including, yours truly.

My life is just fine and along with Voltaire’s Doctor Pangloss, I am enjoying my garden.

 

I haven’t done much except refine my breathing mask.

Tags

Evolution of an idea, Inventing a free breathing mask

Doing creative work is different from other kinds of work. With most kinds of work we know exactly what we are trying to accomplish. When I was a kid it was mowing the lawn, or milking the cow, or slopping the pigs. The tasks were clear and the enjoyment was to be had by people in the not distant future, and in the case of cows the relief for them of having an udder full of milk released. And, for a kid slopping the hogs, it was as delightful for me watching the hogs eat as it was for the hogs eating the slop.

Creative work is different because if it is really creative it has never been done before. It is a voyage over the horizon into a new concept of reality. In my case the problem is to make a near-free breathing mask that really works. There are lots of masks being made for breathing while in a possibly Covid-laced atmosphere, but all of them I’ve encountered have obvious flaws. The obvious flaw on most of them is the two-way passage of air through the filter. Air goes through the filters both ways, and air goes around the edges both ways; warm moist air comes up over the wearer’s glasses, fogging them. Also, the commercially designed and manufactured face masks have been in short supply when we really have needed them. And, of course, wearing them is uncomfortable and interferes with communication. Also, for me at least, they are aesthetically boring.

Anyway, I have made many tiny improvements that cost very little money and can be easily made at home. Tiny little things often make a real difference.

It has been fun trying to invent a free face mask

Tags

Air face masks, Covid face masks, Making a Covid face mask

The face masks seen in public places, required these days because of the Covid virus disease, look inadequate to me. So I have spent much of my time this week designing new ones.

The most common face masks I’ve seen appear to be little more than a piece of cloth stretched over the face by some bands pulled across the ears or behind the head. That’s totally inadequate.

I have been wearing the 3M N95 mask I purchased about five years ago when a local forest fire was creating a lot of smoke in our neighborhood. This month the local hospitals were requesting people to bring in their face masks, but this one was so old I didn’t think they would want it. I also had a “surgeon’s mask” that was being handed out at the door last summer when I was on my annual doctor’s visit. It had been worn several times too, so I didn’t turn it in.

However, I did become interested in creating a better air face mask that could be made by almost anyone, almost anywhere in the world for free, and without too much skill or time involved. Even my 3M N95 mask, which is the high standard, has several flaws in my way of thinking. One major one is that the flapper valve is a one-way air exit valve and the filtered air is mixed with the person’s exhaled air with every breath. About half the air being inhaled is, therefore, air exhaled with the previous breath. There obviously needs to be flapper valves on the incoming air as well as the exhaust air. With each breath within those 3M masks, half the air that is brought through the filter’s mask is exhaled back out through the filters.

Another problem with those form-fitting masks is that air leaks out around the edges, which becomes a problem for people wearing eyeglasses because the moisture in one’s exhaled breath condenses on the glasses. It’s a problem viewing the world through foggy glasses. Even worse, air leaks in around the edges of the mask, and that might be contaminated with Covid viruses. Also, the usual cloth masks get wet with one’s own exhaled air and stick to the face. This wet surface is probably a near-ideal place for viruses to hang out while waiting for a nose to enter.

Solving these problems and many more and designing a device isn’t a one-off design task. I have designed and tested about forty different flapper valves for making air go one way through a surface reliably and be free and easy to make from readily available materials anywhere in the world. Most of them work okay, but all of them have some limitation or another.

While writing this post I have been wearing one of my face masks and it hasn’t bothered me. I’ve usually forgotten I was wearing it, except when I wanted a sip of coffee.

I design a breathing system, but post the graph.

Tags

20 million dead from coronavirus, Anger leads to fury, Health, Humanity will survive, Keeping Coronavirus mild, Making a Covid face mask, Surviving for a year

The logarithmic curves are showing a slight rollover.

The rollover is probably real and will continue, but that doesn’t mean the suffering will roll over. The absolute numbers of people encountering the Covid form of sickness and death will continue increasing until everyone has developed an immunity to this form of the disease. The 1918-20 flu didn’t die out, it mutated some and is still with us, but we have developed resistance to it, and if we are healthy don’t die. The ideal way to cope with Covid-19 is to avoid getting it until a vaccine is available and then possibly get a very mild form of the disease and develop some immunity. Sigh, if only we were in control of our fate, and our exposure to the disease, that would seem sound advice.

My way of struggling with problems is to try to see them clearly and then confront them in a way that appears to be appropriate. I still think nasal cleansing with a virus-killing soap is a viable option, and I am checking out some milder soaps, and some milder ways of presenting the method. A slogan like, “Wash your hands, face, and nose three times per day.” That sounds mild enough to avoid the yuck factor. Today, on one of our two daily walks, Debbie and I encountered a professional nurse on her daily walk. She was expressing annoyance at her work routine, but what caught my ear was that she had washed her face earlier today with Dove soap and inadvertently got some in her nose. Without my prompting, she said that it was a distinctly unpleasant experience. I’ve been doing the Dove experiment every day now and have concluded that it is not the product to use. Hibiclens is much milder. Over the next few days, I will be experimenting with baby shampoo and Ivory soap. A solution of soap that is strong enough to kill the Covid virus in the sinuses but able to be tolerated without discomfort must be discovered. If there exists such a way I hope to discover it, and soon.

Today, I spent most of my “creative time” trying to design a workable respirator out of a 1.75 liter PETE water bottle. The goal is to provide people in distant lands with a homemade device that is as effective as the N95 face masks now being preferred in our hospitals. It is made totally of cast-off type of materials, except for adhesives to hold it all together. I’ll find something tomorrow.

A happy life is one where we spend our time doing something we feel is significant.