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Jefferson and Maplewood Avenue Edited

Feb 19, 2023 at 1:54pm
Jaytee said:Is there anyone posting on Facebook or here who lives between brookside and dunnel? I would like to hear what they think about regrading the roadway. Remember that there are underground gas, water and sewer lines to deal with. I’m still for traffic lights or four ways stop with rumble strips from woodland as a warning to slow down. I’m happy with the closure of Lexington, the Hilton neighborhood is a close knit neighborhood and having trucks barreling down Burnett is unnerving for anyone with little kids trying to get to dehart. The four way stop at Rutgers did temper the traffic somewhat because people coming up from Union are still thinking it’s a 40 mph zone.  I don't know if it helps, but I recently noticed that Union had changed the speed limit on Burnett to 25 mph.

Jefferson and Maplewood Avenue Edited

Feb 19, 2023 at 10:21am
Is there anyone posting on Facebook or here who lives between brookside and dunnel? I would like to hear what they think about regrading the roadway. Remember that there are underground gas, water and sewer lines to deal with. I’m still for traffic lights or four ways stop with rumble strips from woodland as a warning to slow down. I’m happy with the closure of Lexington, the Hilton neighborhood is a close knit neighborhood and having trucks barreling down Burnett is unnerving for anyone with little kids trying to get to dehart. The four way stop at Rutgers did temper the traffic somewhat because people coming up from Union are still thinking it’s a 40 mph zone. 

Twitter is a Private Company

Aug 30, 2022 at 8:06pm
I mean, the flu readily comes to mind as a vaccine that's very familiar and very far from sterilizing immunity, doesn't it?I was curious about some of the other examples you noted though. Did some quick searching on the CDC site:Smallpox Smallpox vaccination can protect you from smallpox for about 3 to 5 years. After that time, its ability to protect you decreases. If you need long-term protection, you may need to get a booster vaccination. Find out who should get smallpox vaccine.Historically, the vaccine has been effective in preventing smallpox infection in 95% of those vaccinated.Not sure that really gets to the question of sterilizing immunity, but I didn't know that it could need a booster.Polio Inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) is the only polio vaccine that has been given in the United States since 2000. IPV protects against severe disease caused by poliovirus in almost everyone (99 out of 100) who has received all the recommended doses.I found the qualification of "protects against severe disease" interesting. So presumably some vaccinated number of people still get sick with polio, but not severely.Measles, Mumps, and RubellaSome people who get two doses of MMR vaccine may still get measles, mumps, or rubella if they are exposed to the viruses that cause these diseases. Experts aren’t sure why; it could be that their immune systems didn’t respond as well as they should have to the vaccine or their immune system’s ability to fight the infection decreased over time. However, disease symptoms are generally milder in vaccinated people. About 3 out of 100 people who get two doses of MMR vaccine will get measles if exposed to the virus. However, they are more likely to have a milder illness, and are also less likely to spread the disease to other people. Two doses of MMR vaccine are 88% (range 32% to 95%) effective at preventing mumps. Mumps outbreaks can still occur in highly vaccinated U.S. communities, particularly in settings where people have close, prolonged contact, such as universities and close-knit communities. During an outbreak, public health authorities may recommend an additional dose of MMR for people who belong to groups at increased risk for mumps. An additional dose can help improve protection against mumps disease and related complications. While there are not many studies available, most people who do not respond to the rubella component of the first MMR dose would be expected to respond to the second dose. Ok, trying to quote and keep the bullet point formatting didn't work out too well, but still readable I think. MMR seems closer to our experience with COVID, in that it's clearly not sterilizing immunity?Anyway, as I said that was just a quick search. Probably best to ask someone like bikefixed, er Peter Wick, in a non-politics section for better/more thorough answers.

"panhandler" in Stop&Shop parking lot

Jul 8, 2022 at 8:45am
Harriet said:Today I once again watched a guy trying to talk people into giving him money in the parking lot. I've seen him there multiple times, usually on the weekends. He wears a backpack and a slouch knit hat.He's not there every day. He tends to be there 2 days in a row and then go elsewhere for a few days. He's usually in the parking lot for several hours during the late afternoon. I see him as I go to the gym and do some shopping.Calling the police seems extreme, especially since he is Black. I don't want to put him at risk.What local resources are there that could provide assistance to someone who may be homeless or otherwise in need of help?him a few bucks or don’t. Harriet said:Today I once again watched a guy trying to talk people into giving him money in the parking lot. I've seen him there multiple times, usually on the weekends. He wears a backpack and a slouch knit hat.He's not there every day. He tends to be there 2 days in a row and then go elsewhere for a few days. He's usually in the parking lot for several hours during the late afternoon. I see him as I go to the gym and do some shopping.Calling the police seems extreme, especially since he is Black. I don't want to put him at risk.What local resources are there that could provide assistance to someone who may be homeless or otherwise in need of help? Give him a few bucks or don’t. Either way don’t call the police. Let him be.  

"panhandler" in Stop&Shop parking lot

Jul 7, 2022 at 11:35pm
Today I once again watched a guy trying to talk people into giving him money in the parking lot. I've seen him there multiple times, usually on the weekends. He wears a backpack and a slouch knit hat.He's not there every day. He tends to be there 2 days in a row and then go elsewhere for a few days. He's usually in the parking lot for several hours during the late afternoon. I see him as I go to the gym and do some shopping.Calling the police seems extreme, especially since he is Black. I don't want to put him at risk.What local resources are there that could provide assistance to someone who may be homeless or otherwise in need of help?

What does Putin want (and whatabout it) Edited

Jul 2, 2022 at 1:15am
jamie said: paulsurovell said: Three people? Their statements are credible but what's not credible -- with the evidence so far -- is that the bomb hit the mall and that there were 1,000 people inside.  Even the article raises doubts as to whether the bomb hit the mall (probably because there's no crater) noting Russia's version "has not been independently verified" and this --> Your desire to protect Vlad is very admirable.  I wish you would do the same for Vlad's constant blaming of Ukraine for missile that didn't hit Vlad's objective.  Never have seen you come to the side of the Ukrainians.I have to remind you - the Russians have invaded and are decimating the county - do you agree with this?The bombed out apartment complexes - was this part of the denazification or demilitarization aspect of his "operation"?  Or has Ukraine been bombing their own housing units? This WaPo article does a pretty good job of explaining why civilian facilities, included apartment complexes, are bombed-out, in most cases. I bolded the most relevant parts. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/28/ukraine-kyiv-russia-civilians/ Russia has killed civilians in Ukraine. Kyiv’s defense tactics add to the danger.By Sudarsan Raghavan March 28, 2022 at 11:00 p.m. EDT KYIV, Ukraine — The suspected Russian missile hit the tall apartment building, engulfing it in flames and smoke. It killed at least four people, including elderly residents, and shattered the lives of a close-knit community. For lawmaker Oleksii Goncharenko, the tragedy was yet another example of potential Russian war crimes. “They are just hitting residential buildings in these areas,” said the Ukrainian parliament member, who arrived at the scene shortly after the explosion two weeks ago. “You can walk around, you will not find any military targets, or any military people. This is just terror.” Yet a few minutes later, the whooshing sound of Ukrainian rockets fired from a multiple rocket launcher startled residents staring blankly at their destroyed homes. Then, another outgoing barrage. The weapons seemed to be nearby, perhaps a few streets away, certainly well inside the capital. Increasingly, Ukrainians are confronting an uncomfortable truth: The military’s understandable impulse to defend against Russian attacks could be putting civilians in the crosshairs. Virtually every neighborhood in most cities has become militarized, some more than others, making them potential targets for Russian forces trying to take out Ukrainian defenses. What is a war crime? The International Criminal Court said on Feb. 28 it is investigating possible war crimes in Ukraine. Experts tell The Post how the legal process works. (Video: Alexa Juliana Ard/The Washington Post) “I am very reluctant to suggest that Ukraine is responsible for civilian casualties, because Ukraine is fighting to defend its country from an aggressor,” said William Schabas, an international law professor at Middlesex University in London. “But to the extent that Ukraine brings the battlefield to the civilian neighborhoods, it increases the danger to civilians.” Ukraine’s cities — and civilian areas — have become the crucible of the war, where an intense struggle is unfolding between Russians who want to seize or control these areas and Ukrainians defiantly resisting. That has transformed the conflict into a largely urban war, forged more by aerial weaponry and bombardments than traditional street-by-street fighting in many areas. With Russian forces targeting cities, the Ukrainians have responded by fortifying civilian areas to defend Kyiv, deploying air defense systems, heavy weaponry, soldiers and volunteers to patrol enclaves. Civilian casualties are mounting. There’s no doubt that Russian forces are behind the most horrific acts of the war as it continues into a second month. They have struck schools, clinics, ambulances, shopping centers, electric and water facilities, and passenger cars, among numerous indiscriminate attacks on civilians, according to human rights activists. In the southern city of Mariupol, a suspected Russian airstrike killed many people taking refuge inside a theater. It was clearly marked, with the Russian word for “children” in huge letters visible from the sky. Days earlier, a maternity hospital was hit. But Ukraine’s strategy of placing heavy military equipment and other fortifications in civilian zones could weaken Western and Ukrainian efforts to hold Russia legally culpable for possible war crimes, said human rights activists and international humanitarian law experts. Last week, the Biden administration formally declared that Moscow has committed crimes against humanity. “If there is military equipment there and [the Russians] are saying we are launching at this military equipment, it undermines an assertion that they are attacking intentionally civilian objects and civilians,” said Richard Weir, a researcher in Human Rights Watch’s crisis and conflict division, who is working in Ukraine. Over the past month, Washington Post journalists have witnessed Ukrainian antitank rockets, antiaircraft guns and armored personnel carriers placed near apartment buildings. In one vacant lot, Post journalists spotted a truck carrying a Grad multiple rocket launcher. Checkpoints with armed men, barricades of sandbags and tires, and boxes of molotov cocktails are ubiquitous on city highways and residential streets. The sound of outgoing rockets and artillery can be heard constantly in Kyiv, the capital, the squiggly white trails of missiles visible in the sky. “Every day, it’s like this,” said Lubov Bura, 73, standing outside the apartment building where she lived that was destroyed two weeks ago. Moments later, as the building was still burning, the sound of outgoing Ukrainian rockets was heard again. “Sometimes it sounds closer, sometimes it seems far. We think about it and, of course, we are worried, especially in the night.” A police officer carries a piece of a suspected Russian missile that was shot down by Ukrainian forces earlier this month and landed on an apartment block in Kyiv, according to authorities. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post) A Ukrainian defensive position in a residential area of Kyiv on March 21. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post) The Ukrainian military has “a responsibility under international law” to remove their forces and equipment from civilian-populated areas, and if that is not possible, to move civilians out of those areas, Weir said. “If they don’t do that, that is a violation of the laws of war,” he added. “Because what they are doing is they are putting civilians at risk. Because all that military equipment are legitimate targets.” Andriy Kovalyov, a military spokesman for Ukraine’s 112th Territorial Defense Brigade, whose forces and equipment are positioned in the capital, scoffed at that reasoning. “If we follow your logic, then we shouldn’t be defending our city,” he said. In response to written questions from The Post, Alexei Arestovich, adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the country’s military doctrine, approved by parliament, provides for the principle of “total defense.” That means that volunteers in the Territorial Defense Forces or in other self-defense units have the legal authority to protect their homes, which are mostly in urban areas. Moreover, he argued that international humanitarian laws or the laws of war don’t apply in this conflict because “the main task of Putin’s military campaign is the destruction of the Ukrainian nation.” He said Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied Ukraine’s existence as an independent nation. “Therefore, what is happening here is not a competition of European armies according to established rules, but a struggle of the people for survival in the face of an existential threat,” said Arestovich. “We cannot prevent our citizens from defending their homes, freedoms, values ??and identities as they understand them.” On Monday, Ukrainian forces showed a group of journalists a military fortification in a northern residential neighborhood of the capital, near tall apartment buildings, a subway station and shops. The road was barricaded with lines of tires, concrete blocks, piles of sandbags, sharp metallic objects to stop vehicles and large metal tank traps known as hedgehogs. There were also two lines of antitank mines on the road. To one side, a lush patch of greenery, an ideal place for picnics, was sealed off with a warning sign: Mines. “If you want to protect the city, you should be ready to fight inside the city,” said Pavlo Kazarin, a territorial defense unit volunteer and spokesman for his battalion. “Unfortunately, we cannot evacuate all the city because there are still 2 million people. Still, we can stop the Russian army outside the city. But we all understand the risks. We cannot defend the city without risks or injuring the civilians, unfortunately.” When asked if there was concern that Russian forces could view the residential apartments as a military target because of the fortifications out front, Kazarin agreed. “But I repeat: There are always some risks when you are trying to protect the city.” He said the Ukrainian forces are trying “everything to prevent” Kyiv from becoming another Mariupol or Kharkiv, cities that were heavily bombed and besieged by Russian forces. “There is a very cruel logic to war when we are trying to protect the civilians,” Kazarin said. Even if Ukraine violates its responsibilities under international law, “that doesn’t mean Russia gets a pass to do whatever it wants,” Weir said. If civilians are killed near a military position or equipment, Russia still can be held responsible for a possible war crime if its attack was indiscriminate and disproportionate against the civilian population. Much depends on the size and importance of the military target, the type of weapons used, whether civilians were knowingly targeted and if the harm to them was excessive. For example, Russia’s firing of banned cluster munitions last month into three residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was a possible war crime, even if the Russians claim they were targeting Ukrainian military equipment or positions, activists said. “Where an attack on a military objective may result in civilian casualties, the damage to civilians needs to be balanced against the military advantage,” said Schabas, the international law professor. “If there is no military advantage, then the violence is not justified, and it is reasonable to speak of war crimes.” But the line between what constitutes a war crime becomes more blurred if residential neighborhoods are militarized and become battlefields where civilian deaths are inevitable. “Ukraine cannot use civilian neighborhoods as ‘human shields,’” said Schabas, adding that he was not suggesting this is what is happening. After every suspected Russian airstrike in the capital and elsewhere, the Ukrainians have dispatched teams to gather video and other evidence to use in a potential war crimes case against Russia at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, but many of those sites could be weak grounds for alleging war crimes. “If there are military targets in the area, then it might undermine their claim that a specific strike was a war crime,” said Weir of Human Rights Watch. There are plenty of places in Kyiv where military forces coexist within civilian enclaves. Offices, homes or even restaurants in many residential neighborhoods have been transformed into bases for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, armed militias made up mostly of volunteers who have signed up to the fight the Russians. Inside municipal buildings and in basements, including one underneath a coffee shop, Ukrainians make molotov cocktails to be used against Russian forces if they enter the capital. Inside a large factory complex, nestled in front of a bustling main highway with shops and apartment buildings nearby, a paramilitary force trains recruits before deploying them to the front lines. Security experts for Western media organizations have noted that Ukrainian air defenses are so centered in the city that when they hit incoming Russian rockets, missiles or drones, the debris has sometimes struck or fallen into residential complexes. Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers warn journalists not to take photos or video of military checkpoints, equipment, fortifications or impromptu bases inside the city to avoid alerting Russians to their locations. One Ukrainian blogger uploaded a TikTok post of a Ukrainian tank and other military vehicles positioned at a shopping mall. The mall was later destroyed March 20 in a Russian strike that killed eight people. There is no proof that the TikTok post led to the strike. On Facebook, a person supportive of the Ukrainian military urged that the man be hunted down for revealing Ukrainian military positions “for the sake of likes” on social media. “I pay $500 for any information about this author on TikTok. ID, residence address, contact details.” The Security Service of Ukraine later said it had arrested the blogger. In other militarized neighborhoods, residents also expressed concern about hearing outgoing rockets and artillery. “It’s scary,” said Ludmila Kramerenko. “It happens three or four times a day.” When asked whether she worried about having military weaponry and fighters so close to where she lives, she replied after a long pause: “I don’t know what to say. We are just hoping that everything will be all right and this will end soon.” Like most residents interviewed, she expressed stoicism and loyalty to Ukraine’s military forces. She said she doesn’t like how the capital has been altered into a fortresslike military zone, but she understands. It was worth hearing the sound of outgoing rockets or living within sight of heavy guns to prevent the Russians from entering the capital, she said. “We feel bad and saddened because of how our city has changed,” said Kramerenko. “But we understand the situation and believe in our Ukrainian soldiers. We Ukrainians have to fight back.” Claire Parker in Washington and Volodymyr Petrov in Kyiv contributed to this report.

Did the CDC jump the gun?

Aug 10, 2021 at 10:10am
tjohn said: bub said:It was my impression from the beginning that it was a well intentioned but ham fisted effort to protect the mask supply for healthcare workers.    If true, then it goes down as one of the worst missteps of the pandemic response (excluding everything Trump said and did). Ham-fisted or not, the thought of needing/demanding healthcare professionals to get in there and treat these people but do so without basic protection was sufficient motivation in my mind. There weren't enough of those PPE materials to go around until production was ramped up. Even with the PPE they had, many such heroes, as we called them, caught COVID and died anyway. That left the remaining hospital staff to become even more exhausted. The available supply was so short, I believe it was a reasonable response. I do, however, think the message about using any sort of masking material available in the meantime should have been better. That said, we were still trying to learn as much as possible about the mode of transmission. All those handwashing directives? Yeah, it is very important in the general sense, but look up the question of whether handwashing was important to stopping COVID-19. Notice the dates in early-to-mid 2020 for the vast majority of what you see. Then, the number of such reports drops off significantly as we discover that the far more dangerous mode of spread is airborne transmission. Do people still wash their hands as well as they used to? What about all the hand cleaner dispensers set up everywhere? Are we using them much anymore? That stuff was on clearance after the new year, even in spite of the nasty resurgence at the holidays. Even after many many months of study, we were operating under mistaken "knowledge" [see above] that it was droplets rather than aerosol particles. At least the demand that air circulation be improved was on track. A friend of mine in Maplewood started a mask production drive with the tightly knit cloth she had volunteers collecting from all over. We donated many pairs of flannel pajamas and many of my old flannel plaid shirts. We also did what we could to scavenge such materials from thrift stores to help her crew make (maybe) thousands of these double-layered masks to make up for the lack of them. Many other people dug out their sewing machines and got to work.

Reporting from my basement: Politics and pandemic, a deadly duo Edited

Jun 19, 2020 at 7:40am
Knit. oh, wait. It’s not the French Revolution, yet. ;)

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Feb 3, 2020 at 1:17pm
It is the Internet, people will fight over anything.  On one knitting site there were even arguments about eastern uncrossed vs western knitting when teaching left handed people to knit.  

. Edited

Feb 3, 2020 at 8:45am
j_r said:As a private enterprise with something like 8 million members across the globe, Ravelry (I've been a member since it began in 2007) is within its rights to restrict certain kinds of activity. "Free speech" isn't really in play here at all.   True, but, posting knit patterns with very offensive language aimed at the president is offensive.  I would much prefer they didn't host any political works of either side.  Let us stick together in our mutual love of fiber crafts.

Knitting Groups?

Sep 29, 2019 at 8:39am
Project Lab at The Local Yarn Store is a great place to start. There is a friendly unstructured group that meets there at 6 on Fridays. If that time doesn't work, just drop in to knit for an hour or so; you're likely to meet people that way. And if you are interested in going to Rhinebeck for the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival next month, Irina, the owner, is running a bus from the store.

Tulsi: Trump: Stop hiding Saudi role in 911 and protecting Al Qaeda Edited

Aug 8, 2019 at 10:17pm
Tulsi the Warmonger  Hired a Russian Agent to Shut Down the Reporting Among Hawaii's Free Press! Have to wonder why Team GASP (Gabbard-Assad-Surovell-Putin) was so concerned about keeping the press at arm's length. Likely related to her close knit relationship with Shelly Adelson and their joint love for shutting down online gambling in a bid to line Shelley's pockets (and no doubt hers as well.) http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/20879/Tulsi-Gabbard-Hires-Russian-Agent-to-Keep-Hawaii-Media-in-Check.aspx

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Jun 25, 2019 at 9:37am
mtierney said:Please, let us just knit in peace — a politics-free zone!https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/style/ravelry-knitting-ban-trump.html  I saw this lovely little knitted number.  I don't think it is peace that ultimately awaits those who would lock children away in concentration camps.  No, I think it is something else entirely.

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Jun 25, 2019 at 9:26am
Please, let us just knit in peace — a politics-free zone! https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/style/ravelry-knitting-ban-trump.html

Art and Politics

Jun 4, 2019 at 1:28pm
nohero said:  So he deliberately made John Bolton look like Elmer Fudd?  Yes. And I just realized Kelly Ann Conway is in there.Another thing is that if you look at the original painting this is riffing on, Washington's boat is in front with a number of other boats filled with soldiers behind it. Here we see the president and his tight-knit band of gammons crossing the swamp alone.

. Edited

May 21, 2019 at 6:45pm
Also, knitting as data representation:https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/19/americas/sue-montgomery-knitting-montreal-womens-rights-intl-scli/index.htmlMayor's knitting shows men still dominate debate[excerpt]Sue Montgomery, a city councilor and borough mayor in Montreal, has opted to sit back and knit during monthly executive committee meetings.Concerned about the disparity of female and male voices during the meetings, her latest creation details how often men speak in red and women in green. And the results reveal a worrying finding: that men still dominate public discourse...."It's not that we women don't talk, it's that men talk too much and repeat everything several times, thus waste everyone's time" 

So, how much should we tax the rich? 70%? 90%?

Jan 8, 2019 at 1:51pm
here you go:From an early age, Alexandria grew up with a deep understanding of income inequality. The state of Bronx public schools in the late 80s and early 90s sent her parents on a search for a solution. She ended up attending public school in Yorktown—40 minutes north of her birthplace. As a result, much of her early life was spent in transit between her tight-knit extended family in the Bronx and her daily student life. It was clear to her, even then, that the zip code a child was born in determined much of their destiny. The 40-minute drive represented a vastly different quality of available schooling, economic opportunity, and health outcomes.https://ocasio2018.com/about

fox and falcon

Dec 21, 2018 at 1:18pm
callista said: j_r said:Dropped in last night. They have SOMA Reservation IPA and Two Towns on tap, and the bartender was happy to replace a warm one with a pint ($8) from another part of the restaurant -- even though I had finished the warm one before saying something.  I noticed a $10 pinot grigio quartino on the bar menu. And they are knitter-friendly.  Is 'knitter friendly' code for something?    Not code, literal: you are welcome to sit at the bar and drink & knit :)

Kamakaze Pedestraian on Tuscan last evening.

Dec 13, 2018 at 6:21pm
last winter there was a guy jogging on Parker Ave. after dark, wearing all black with a black knit cap on his head.  I didn't seem him until he was right in front of my car.  If he had been TRYING he could not have made himself less visible.  He was very lucky I still have good reflexes.

Update! Rescued! Little Red Hen for adoption through the Elizabeth Shelter. Edited

Nov 19, 2018 at 12:58pm
Maybe get her one of these?  Found it on Etsy!  Wonder if they could knit a pattern of big eyes on the back to scare off the hawk too?

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