#preprint spoilers

[readsquirrel]

I really love that given the invention of a magical recording device, Rozemyne’s use of it is to create a cute stuffed animal with quotes from someone you love who is far away

And Ferdinand’s was to start recording incriminating evidence

And yet Rozemyne is the one who used it to justify a little light coup

[captainchrisfics]

Slipped

About: On a press run for Defending Jacob, Chris’s mind drifts to every other thing he’d rather be doing than answering questions, causing him to subconsciously reveal his relationship status which sparks a slew of probing questions and potential problems for the newly public couple

Word Count: 3,153

Requested By: Anon. Thanks for the submission! I’m always happy to accept inspiration, especially when it’s a concept I get excited over before I even start the story. Hope it’s everything you thought it’d crack up to be :)

It’d be an understatement to say Chris was tired of doing press for Defending Jacob. Usually, he didn’t mind the tours too much anymore. Sure, it was his least favorite part of the job, but a few years working for Marvel and he’s learned how to cope with it. That being said, it’s gotten harder knowing he’s got someone waiting for him at home. 

The uncomfortable director’s chair he’d been stuck in for hours while interviewers cycled in and out had him longing for the time he’d get to spend tucked underneath the covers, curled up next to you on the couch with a bowl of popcorn in his lap and Dodger at your feet. As per usual, you’d take handfuls if his snack after asking for a piece or two when he’d offered to get you your own in the first place. You’d say it tasted better when it was his and he’d roll his eyes but laugh from his belly anyway. Eventually, you’d get up and return with a bottle of wine that somehow paired perfectly with Doritos and left you two feeling warm inside and out. You’d fill up on so much junk food that dinner would slip your minds so you’d just keep watching some Netflix shows you’d already seen while Chris was away until it got dark enough that you’d beg him to come to bed. He’d just hold you closer to his chest and ask for five more minutes, relishing in your combined warmth and the comfort of how the couch cushions molded themselves to your bodies already, until you both fell asleep there instead without realizing until the early morning. He’d be woken up by you stirring, climbing off of his chest to slink back to bed with a pillow instead of his pec and his ribs would feel empty without your weight so he’d follow you.

Neither of you would fall back asleep though. Instead, Chris would brush your hair out of your face and tell you about how he was thinking of making pancakes for breakfast even though it’d only be three or four in the morning and really the only thing on his mind would be that you had the loveliest eyes. You’d say you’d rather have waffles just to put up a fight about something since the peace of laying in his arms was too good on its own, but given time, you’d doze off and wake up to ready blueberry pancakes since he knows you’d prefer them anyway. Then he’d peck your purple-stained lips until you kissed him so hard the color transferred like lipstick. 

Yeah, that sounded a hell of a lot better than answering nearly identical questions so many times in a row he’d lost count. Chris greeted the new interviewer with a tight-lipped smile and a firm handshake. “Before we start, I just want to say I love your work,” she said with a polite smile. Chris brushed the compliment off with a wave of his hand as he thanked her, but he wasn’t too fond of pleasantries at the moment. He didn’t want to be rude, but they were time-takers as far as he was concerned.

She launched into the usual questions. How this role was different for him, any funny memories from the set, what he thought about the story. Nothing he hadn’t already gone over and, frankly, he’d already lost his enthusiasm for being interrogated. Soon they both grew rather bored as his answers ran dry and her questions became weak and they were both just killing time, probably so they could sell more advertising space on the video. 

“So starring in an Apple TV series has got to be a lot different than waiting maybe years for fans to see the next installment of a movie series,” she said, sitting back comfortably as she referenced his old role as Captain America without saying it. That’s all anyone ever wanted to talk about. “Are you looking forward to a different kind of response with that in mind?”

“Yeah,” Chris paused to clear his throat, shaking his head a little to try to rid his head of the curve of your lips. “I am. I mean, I love a good night in binging something so I hope the audience will enjoy that as well.” His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think a little deeper, maybe find something tucked in the corner of his mind he hadn’t said yet, but he came back empty-handed. Chris shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he tugged at his blue t-shirt, itching to be anywhere but there. 

“Oh, yeah?” she inquired, trying to keep the conversation casual. Don’t get him wrong, Chris thought she was friendly enough, but the thing was that nothing about these things ever are. It was all so contrived and uncomfortable, saying things preprinted on a cue card, but they always tried to pass it off as an easygoing conversation between people who actually knew more about each other than just their first names. In fact, Chris hadn’t even caught that. “I’m sure everyone would love to know, what’ve you been watching lately?” She ruffled a hand through her hair as her eyes drifted away, clearly losing interest in the conversation as well. 

He contemplated the question for a moment, scratching his beard as he answered with a shrug, “Stranger Things mostly. The acting is phenomenal, especially those kids.” The woman across from him started picking at her nails as she hummed in acknowledgment. “I like that, too. Thoughts on the third season?”

Chris’s eyes grew wide and a sudden burst of energy jolted through his posture as he shushed her. “I’m still catching up so, please, no spoilers. My girlfriend is bad enough,” he laughed at his own half-joke. Chris thought of how you couldn’t even get through an episode without squeezing his hand too hard when something gory was about to happen or gasping with the shock of realization a second before the twist actually transpired. The suspense was always ruined for him, but the way you balled his shirt in your fist while letting out a cute little squeak and turning into the crook of his neck, where you fit so perfectly, made it easy not to mind. 

Chris didn’t need much of an excuse to wrap a strong arm around your shoulders and pull you into his lap, relishing in being your comfort blanket. He’d hum as he rubbed your back so gently it sent more goosebumps up your spine than the scary scene. Even if it wasn’t so bad and long after it was over if it was, you’d stay curled up in the pit between his crossed legs, pressing your front to his until you were convinced Chris could never be unstuck from you. He was always so warm and he smelled more like home than your apartment did while he was away. He could tell by the way your body relaxed as his hands roamed over every muscle taught with anxiety when you were finally at peace again, eliciting a self-satisfied smirk that was probably plastered on his face right now just thinking about it. 

“I’m sorry,” the reporter bolted up straight in her chair, leaning forward as she caught the bit of new goss like a gold nugget finally discovered stuck in silt. “Your what now?” She tucked her tight curls behind her ears, making sure she heard him correctly this time around, although Chris was sure the camera caught his slip of the tongue the first time around. 

Chris’s eyes dropped to the floor as he scratched his upper lip with his thumb in an attempt to suppress his shit-eating grin. He’d managed to keep the secret for nearly a year now. So many exits through back doors of restaurants or clubs to avoid paparazzi, countless sunglasses collected to make sure you both had somewhat of a disguise on you at all time, seemingly endless trips traveled apart as to not raise suspicion about the girl with a jacket over her head at his side. All to keep a little piece of paradise to himself without the prying fingers of rumor-happy gossip reporters typing clickbait to churn out articles and the harsh spotlight of a gaze the judgmental, beady public eye had to offer. All to save you from getting burned in the limelight that accompanied his career, a life he didn’t want to subject you to since you never asked to be the topic of global outcry over taking a famous bachelor off the market. All for Chris to blow it in the last five minutes of what was so close to being any other interview.

“Uh... fuck,” he slipped in under a sigh of defeat. “Yeah,” he stretched to scratch the back of his head, trying to make a smooth recovery in front of the cameras. “My, um, my girlfriend likes that- she’s a big fan of Stranger Things, but, I mean... you know, who isn’t?” Chris laughed in an attempt to pass off the comment as casual instead of life-altering though he wasn’t confident it managed to mask his stutter. Nothing about the pit in his stomach was normal, though. Or the onslaught of questions thrown his way, prolonging the q&a session with a newfound source of torture. Moreover, how he couldn’t stop his mouth from moving, speaking with an eagerness from his heart that didn’t quite connect with his mind. 

Like a bottle that’d been shaken, Chris’s cork finally blew and he just couldn’t shut up about you. She asked what he liked about you. He said it was the way that you could pop his bubble when his head was getting a little too big, keeping him grounded instead of in the clouds with the other L.A. stars. She asked how you two met and he told her he’d been head over heels from the moment you stole his taxi in New York and tried to fight him when he climbed in right behind you anyway. Then she wanted to know what he loved about you and Chris couldn’t stop himself from going on about the way you’re so ordinary in the best way, but still so inherently extraordinary just by your nature, managing to always keep him on his toes as well. She didn’t inquire anything about how Dodger took to you, but Chris told her about how the first time he took you home his dog barreled into you so hard he knocked you over and licked your cheeks maybe even more times than Chris kissed you that night. With raised eyebrows and a poorly suppressed grin, she asked if he thought you were the one. Chris insisted he was sure of it.

At the moment, he was elated to finally have the freedom to talk about the best part of his life so openly, even if it was to a reporter whose point was to exploit whatever he shared. And, boy, was he like a kindergarten kid with a cold. He told her everything short of your social security number and credit card information. It felt like the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders, but the gravity of what he’d done started to make him ache on the car ride home and grew to be all but oppressive by the time he swung open your front door. 

“So,” he started with a long sigh. Chris’s lips sucked into a whistle, like the sound of a bomb about to drop. “I may or may not have accidentally let it slip that I’m in a committed relationship.” He stood in the open doorway, kicking off his shoes in an attempt to pass off an air of nonchalance. 

“Oh, really?” Your eyebrows perched at the top of your forehead as your eyes rose to meet his over the edge of the book you were curled up reading only for a split second. “And who exactly might your secret mistress be?” You turned the page with a smirk, much to Chris’s chagrin.

Yeah, his annoyance surprised him too. Still, his hands fell to his sides as he stared at you with a suspicious incredulousness. “Haha, very funny.” He rolled his eyes as he found it safe enough to close the door behind him without much of a reaction from you. “I thought you’d be more... upset?” He suggested, unsure of why he couldn’t just be grateful she wasn’t screaming over him spoiling their secret love life. But there was a nagging in his stomach that he couldn’t ignore. Why go through all the trouble of seeming single when she evidently didn’t mind being a public couple? After all, he did it for your sake, right?

You caught on to the tinge of disappointment in his tone and dropped your novel on the coffee table, slinking up from the sofa like a stretching cat. Chris stayed planted in the doorway, watching every move of yours intently with a bitten lip and bated breath. After all this time, at least you still managed to surprise him. 

“Don’t be upset that I’m not, darling,” you said despite an inkling that it was about much more. Arms snuck around his waist as Chris’s shoulder sagged even more than they already were, trying to compensate for your height difference as he melted into your touch. 

“I’m proud of you,” you said, crawling behind him and stretching to your tiptoes to rest your head on his shoulder. Your nose brushed his bearded cheek as you whispered, “I’m grateful for you.” You placed a long kiss on his shoulder before moving your lips up his neck and stopping at his cheek, kissing every inch of Chris you could reach. “I’m in love with you.” Still, from behind, you brushed his hair behind his ear, something so intimate he couldn’t help the way it made his heart flutter. “Why wouldn’t I want the world to know it?”

Chris resisted his urge to shrug out of fear that you’d take it to mean he was trying to be dismissive. In all honesty, as much as he liked wrapping his arms around you like a present, being in your embrace instead might just beat it out. “Because... I don’t know. We’ve done so much to keep this between us, maybe we aren’t ready for the whole world to have a say,” Chris craned his neck to peck the top of your head as he places his hands over yours on his stomach, lacing your fingers together. “Sorry I said something about us in the first place. It just kind of... slipped.”

You shook your head as you tried to reassure him. “Chris, baby, you really don’t have to be. I’ve known who you were from the start. I’m the one who spent months convincing you that I’d be alright if news got out before we began dating, right? God, that feels like forever ago,” you paused to sigh, getting lost in a memory of only for a moment.

Chris insisted on exchanging information so you two could share the taxi and send whoever got out last part of the fare since he claimed rides seemed to be in such high demand it’d be near impossible to find another. Honestly, he just wanted to spend more time with you, it’d been so long since someone screamed at Chris Evans the Famous Actor on a street like that you intrigued him. You two ended up hitting it off, each asking the driver to continue to a different address whenever the one previously requested approached until you both decided on a bar. The sheer amount of digits on that bill was something you’d never forget, but you’d managed to snag something even more memorable. 

You and Chris were fast friends and, once you finally mustered the guts to admit that you liked him a little bit more than that, he realized how much couldn’t stand the idea of dragging down a red carpet with him. Not because of you, but because of the way he knew you’d be treated. The unkind comparisons they’d make. The lewd questions they’d ask. The accusations they’d throw your way. But you didn’t care about that. All you paid a mind to was what Chris thought, which you were eventually able to convince him of, and he’d agreed to put his heart before his head under the condition that you’d keep it low profile at the beginning. The first few weeks turned into months which melded into almost a year. It seemed like yesterday and centuries simultaneously. Now seemed as good a time as any to remind Chris of that same sentiment again. 

“Point being, I’m here to stay no matter what the DailyMail has to say about it. You don’t need to worry about them driving me away. You know I don’t scare easily.” You turned Chris in your arms so he was facing you and reached fasten his shirt a button or two, causing him to smile softly as the apples of his cheeks gained a rosy hue. The balmy look of love in his blue eyes didn’t come close to matching your intensity, trying to pour every ounce of sincerity into your expression so Chris would take it to heart. “I think it’s past time we got to walk in the same entrance anyway,” you finished with a crooked smile, causing Chris to chuckle at the absurdity of it all.

Your hands met in the middle, swinging back and forth ever so slightly as Chris watched your interlocked fingers intently. “I guess you’re right. It’ll be nice to do this in public,” he sighed, drawing circles on the backs of your hands with his thumbs. “You know what I really want to do right now though?” Chris inquired, earning a low hum as you pressed an ear to his chest. “All damn day I just wanted to plant our asses on that couch, watch some Stranger Things, and not move until the morning.”

You laughed and said you’d grab his snacks, to which Chris couldn’t help but point out your acknowledgment that they are in fact his. When you returned from the kitchen with a bottle of wine, a bag of popcorn, and all the candy you could find, you plopped down next to your boyfriend and pulled a blanket over your laps. Leaning against his side, you shoved a handful of M&M’s into your mouth while waiting for Netflix to load. 

“I thought you’d be better at keeping secrets given the whole Captain America thing,” you joked, poking his ribs lightly. “You don’t know how many times I wanted to tell my boss to shove off before I made my boyfriend break out his shield, but you just get to spill for funsies? So unfair.”

As much as Chris feared things would change once that interview was released, staring down at you as you perched your chin on his shoulder and locked your arms together, absentmindedly scrolling through your recently watched shows, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the two of you would stay like this forever, inside of your apartment or out and about in the rest of the world. Now that was something he could get used to.

Tags: @patzammit , @thegetawaywriter , @coffeebooksandfandom , @captainsteveevans , @intrepidandabitcrazy , @super100012 , @spilledinkindumpster

If you’d like to be tagged in my future fics, please reply to this post :)

[sciencespies]

Astronomers Discovered 39 New Gravitational Wave Events In Just Six Months

https://sciencespies.com/space/astronomers-discovered-39-new-gravitational-wave-events-in-just-six-months/

Astronomers Discovered 39 New Gravitational Wave Events In Just Six Months

A little over five years ago, humanity was yet to detect gravitational waves.

Now, observations are pouring in at an astonishing speed. In a six-month span last year, the LIGO-Virgo collaboration detected, on average, 1.5 gravitational wave events per week.

From 1 April to 1 October 2019, the upgraded LIGO and Virgo interferometers detected 39 new gravitational wave events: the shockwaves rippling out across spacetime from massive collisions between neutron stars or black holes. In total, the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 2 (GWTC-2) now boasts 50 such events.

This has given us the most complete census of black holes in our toolkit, representing a range of black holes that not only had never been detected before, but can reveal previously unplumbed depths of the evolution and afterlives of binary stars.

“Gravitational-wave astronomy is revolutionary – revealing to us the hidden lives of black holes and neutron stars,” said astronomer Christopher Berry of Northwestern University, a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC).

“In just five years we have gone from not knowing that binary black holes exist to having a catalog of over 40. The third observing run has yielded more discoveries than ever before. Combining them with earlier discoveries paints a beautiful picture of the Universe’s rich variety of binaries.”

You’ve already heard about some of the new discoveries made from the observing run.

GW 190412 (gravitational wave events are named for their date of detection) was the first black hole collision in which the two black holes had wildly mismatched masses; all other black hole collisions detected prior had involved more or less equal-mass binaries.

GW 190425 is thought to be from a collision between two neutron stars, only the second ever detected (the first was in August 2017).

GW 190521 finally confirmed the existence of the elusive ‘middleweight’ class of black holes, between those of stellar mass, and the supermassive behemoths.

And GW 190814 was the first collision that involved an object in the ‘mass gap’ between neutron stars and black holes.

“So far, LIGO and Virgo’s third observing run has yielded many surprises,” said astronomer Maya Fishbach of Northwestern University and LSC.

“After the second observing run, I thought we’d seen the whole spectrum of binary black holes, but the landscape of black holes is much richer and more varied than I imagined. I’m excited to see what future observations will teach us.”

That’s not all the new data haul had to offer. Two other events, GW 190426_152155 and GW 190924_021846, stood out as extraordinary. And yes, those names are longer: As we detect more and more events, the date may not be enough to distinguish them, so the new naming convention is to include the time in UTC.

“One of our new discoveries, GW 190426_152155, could be a merger of a black hole of around six solar masses with a neutron star. Unfortunately the signal is rather faint, so we cannot be entirely sure,” said astronomer Serguei Ossokine of the Albert Einstein Institute Potsdam in Germany.

“GW 190924_021846 certainly is from the merger of the two lightest black holes we’ve seen so far. One had the mass of six Suns, the other that of nine Suns. There are signals from mergers with less massive objects like GW 190814 but we don’t know for sure whether these are black holes.”

The new population of black hole and neutron star mergers has been described in four preprint papers.

The first paper catalogues the 39 new events. The second paper reconstructs the mass and spin distributions of 47 merger events found in the entire GWTC-2 catalogue, and estimates the rate of black hole and neutron star collisions. The third paper painstakingly searches for gamma-ray bursts associated with merger events (it found none). And the fourth paper evaluates the data against predictions of general relativity; spoiler, general relativity holds up completely.

Overall, the new collection of merger events isn’t just a way to study collisions. It gives us a way to directly study black holes, which – as they emit no detectable radiation – are notoriously difficult to probe.

Thanks to gravitational waves, we know much more about these objects than we did even a year ago. And it’s going to snowball from here.

“Merging black hole and neutron star binaries are a unique laboratory,” Berry said.

“We can use them to study both gravity – so far Einstein’s general relativity has passed every test – and the astrophysics of how massive stars live their lives. LIGO and Virgo have transformed our ability to observe these binaries, and, as our detectors improve, the rate of discovery is only going to accelerate.”

LIGO has uploaded the preprints to its website while they await peer-review. They can be found here, here, here and here.

#Space

[daveinediting]

Let’s start here: if non-linear editing had existed in the early 90s as it does now, I probably wouldn’t’ve had the opportunity to edit like I did for Small World Productions. There wouldn’t have been the need, you see. And without that line on my resume, if other professionals didn’t know I had the editing chops (even basic ones), I might never have gotten the opportunities at the University of Washington’s Instructional Media Services where I was firmly and only a production assistant.

In order to understand how profound is the difference between non-linear and linear editing, well... buckle up. I’m gonna take us through what used to be, for small production companies, the process.

Lemme tee it up for you:

The credit card processing work I did for Small World Productions started in 1991, the year the first season of "Travels in Europe with Rick Steves" aired. Season two aired in 1993 so production and post-production would've happened in 1992. And I think it's during that year I was asked if I could join the post-production effort as an assistant editor.

At this time in the history of editing, finished programs for broadcast were completed in edit suites that were outfitted with multiple types (and various levels of super expensive) record decks and playback decks, multi-channel mixing boards, digital video effects boxes, character generators for name keys, titles, and credits... and plenty of other technical goodies necessary for the creation of broadcast programs meeting both quality and technical standards. All of that technical wonderment (including the editor who made every bit of gear in the edit suite work) came at a steep hourly rate. For this reason, producers who had to treat their budgets, you know, seriously... took to creating rough edits on basic, relatively inexpensive equipment, often just two video decks. Now these decks could be VHS, S-VHS, or Betacam. What was necessary regardless of the deck you used was a tape copy of your original footage with timecode displayed on the screen. That way, you could do your rough edit, write down the start and ending timecodes of all your edits and then take that stack of papers to the expensive edit suite where the editor would use those numbers, those edit decisions, to create the final version of the show complete with transitions, effects, titles, graphics, animations, music, sound mixing, and technical quality control. 

At the time, this was the fastest and most cost-effective way to move a show through to completion for broadcast. The expensive edit suite was called "Online". The basic one in which you could take your time making edit decisions was called "Offline".

Now, Small World Productions had an offline suite in the basement of a friend's house. It had two Betacam decks, one a playback machine, the other a playback/record machine. Both were controlled from the front panel of the playback/record deck with which you could switch control from one deck to the other, set your in and out edit points for either deck, choose to edit video or audio or both, preview edits, and record them. The playback/record deck also came with a jog/shuttle knob...

...that you used for slower, more controlled fast forwarding where you could still see video playback (shuttle)... or you could use it to move forward or back one frame at a time (jog).

Okay.

At Small World Productions, the process was for the offline editor in collaboration with the producer to edit a show onto a single tape. Of course that wasn’t the final word on the cuts they produced offline. The shows also called for dissolves, a fading from one video source to another. To do that, however, required two source decks and two source tapes, an A-roll and a B-Roll, that would play in synchronization during an edit as the dissolve was executed through a video switcher that controlled which video sources went to the master tape and how. So every show Small World produced in their offline edit suite actually required two tapes for eventual online editing. Which is where I came in.

First, of course, my job was to create the edit decision list, all those individual shot choices that were made during the offline edit. There was a preprinted form for this that required me to write down, in order, the timecode in and out points for each shot (which was displayed bottom center of each shot) and to write down the timecode in and out points on the master tape (which was displayed on the record deck timecode display. This effort produced the edit decision list that would be used in the online edit suite. The one with the steep hourly rate.

After that meticulous documenting effort, the next step was to, essentially, re-cut the show. Only this time from the original footage (not the copies with timecode on the screen). Plus, the show had to be edited to two different tapes according to the offline editor's dissolve choices. I'd start from edit number one on the list and record every edit to the A roll until a dissolve was indicated on the script. I'd make sure to add enough extra video to the last shot on the A roll to accommodate the indicated dissolve duration, usually a second or a second-and-a-half. Then I'd eject the A roll, insert the B-Roll and forward it to the corresponding timecode for the next edit and continue from there. Back and forth. Back and forth. Until I reached the final edit of the show.

That was the gig.

And like that! I was an assistant editor. 

The equipment I already knew how to work and the rest was a variation on painting by numbers as taught to me by John, my boss and principal editor for the series. 

For me, the process was essentially creating a player piano roll with the edit decision list standing in for the piano roll. But mostly (and most importantly) what it was... was a detailed exploration of an actual editor's thinking process, of how such shows as these are constructed edit by edit from the ground up. It was invaluable training. It was serious hands-on that might as well've been called "How To Edit A Half Hour Travel Show". Like, exactly how.

And you bet I soaked in that experience. It's what informed my eventual and first incarnation as an editor myself. 

But that was still to come.

We're definitely gonna get into that... however, next time we'll pick the story up on a lake in Denmark. It’s my first memory of identifying myself as an editor. And — SPOILER ALERT — it's not clear to me at this point why on earth I woulda done that.

But it’s a clear sign of where I was in my career at the time. At least...

In my own head.

:-)

[number06fan]

Legionnaires’ Disease and COVID-19

Schools, gyms, and businesses have sat mostly empty for the past two months. They’ve been mostly quiet while everyone was at home. At a glance, they might appear lifeless. Look a little closer, however, and you might find that lifeless isn’t quite life. There are things that are living behind closed doors, oblivious to the slowdown that’s upended human life. They’re all around: on the floor, in the air, even living in the walls. They’re even in the pipes — and some might pose a risk to your health. Spoiler Alert: Legionnaires’ disease and COVID-19 are both concerns right now.

Yes, we’re talking about bacteria. The world around us, after all, is saturated with them. Most of the microbial life we share space with is either harmless or beneficial. They’re little kingdoms of no concern to us. Some varieties, however, can pose a risk to human health — such as legionella, the bacteria which cause a deadly pneumonia known as Legionnaires disease.

Legionella bacteria, which thrive on the moisture that comes with plumbing and HVAC systems, thrive in damp environments, growing in pipes or water features that harbor some stagnant water.

Why stagnant water? According to the CDC, stagnant water can dip down into temperature ranges where legionella thrives. Stagnant water can also see reduced concentrations of disinfectants like chlorine which would otherwise inhibit the growth of legionella. Stagnant water is still, rather than moving, which makes it easier for bacteria to form protective biofilms on the internal surfaces of plumbing.

After two months of lockdowns, stay-at-home-orders, and other measures, the plumbing in office buildings across America is likely harboring stagnant water — and potentially legionella bacteria as well.

Warnings as facilities reopen

The potential risk of legionella has not gone unnoticed. Several news outlets have published articles warning about the risk of plumbing that’s gone unused over the past few months. The New York Times published a piece featuring the voices of public health officials and researchers who warned that many facilities aren’t designed for extended periods without use.

“The buildings aren’t designed to be left alone for months,” Dr. Andrew Whelton of Purdue University told the NYT. He’s one of the authors of a study that’s been accepted for publication in the journal AWWA Water Science looking at the potential public health implications of plumbing after an extended lockdown.

The big finding of that article? We don’t know that much yet. The literature on extended plumbings shutoffs is relatively sparse. This is new territory for everyone. What we do know, according to the paper, is that extended water shutoffs decrease the effectiveness of disinfection agents in the pipes. Those disinfection agents may leave dangerous byproducts as they decompose. Pipes might corrode faster than they normally would. All the while, opportunistic bacteria are given more opportunities to establish themselves — changing the ecology of the pipes, potentially creating dangerous byproducts themselves, and building up their populations, increasing the likelihood of sickness when the water system is eventually reactivated.

Legionnaires’ Disease and COVID-19

Dr. Whelton isn’t the only researcher investigating the public health implications of plumbing shutoffs. An article published in Reuters mentioned a preprint study that’s been submitted by Chinese researchers to the Lancet.

Although it’s important to keep in mind that the study has not yet been peer reviewed or published, its findings were striking: twenty percent of coronavirus patients, they found, were also infected with legionella. Both legionnaires and coronavirus cause pneumonia; one disease may leave someone at higher risk for the other, and together the illnesses may be more deadly than each would be on their own.

The Chinese study isn’t the only instance of coronavirus and legionnaires showing up together. According to Reuters, doctors in Japan have documented a case of a man infected with both coronavirus and legionella bacteria after taking a cruise on the Nile River.

Preparing for reopening

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for legionella and other dangers that may be lurking in the pipes as different businesses reopen. Several things can be done, however, so that businesses are as prepared as they can be to turn their pipes back on.

The CDC recommends several measures. Firstly, they say that businesses should develop a plan for dealing with legionella and other shutoff-related problems while reopening. There are plenty of resources on the CDC’s website to help specific business owners do so.

Secondly, they recommend checking the water heater at a facility — a common reservoir of legionella bacteria. It’s important that the water heater is hot enough to prevent the growth of undesirable bacteria — typically that means a temperature of at least 140 degrees.

Similarly, the CDC recommends checking on the maintenance and condition of other water fixtures, including drinking fountains, fire suppression systems, pools, hot tubs, water towers, etc.

Thirdly, they recommend doing a flush using both hot and cold water. Taking this precaution should help to clear some of the bacteria that may be present out of the system.

What isn’t clear is whether flushing with water is sufficient on its own to clear out dangerous bacteria from the pipes. There’s good evidence that it works for mainline plumbing systems; some fixtures, however, might require more specialized attention, either in the form of a chemical flush or a more aggressive cleaning.

If you’re a business that’s seeking to reopen and you’re worried about bacteria like legionella in your pipes, we recommend starting with the CDC’s website. The most important parties to do something — legionnaires is a serious, deadly disease and it should be treated with respect.

By: Sean McNulty

The post Legionnaires’ Disease and COVID-19 appeared first on The Lange Law Firm.

[deladane]

Day 6: Tuesday, March 6 ~ Sea Day #2

Day 6: Tuesday, March 6 ~ Sea Day #2

Today’s daily schedule:

Last night was the one and only time we changed our clocks on this cruise.  It was nice that Captain Leo waited until the second sea day to spring our clocks ahead one hour to match the time zone in the Caribbean so we didn’t lose an hour of sleep on the very first night of the cruise. Daylight savings time occurred on the sea day mid-way through our itinerary when we were sailing from Barbados to Bonaire, so that put us back on track with the Miami time zone and saved us the need to change our clocks at the end of the cruise.  Before going to sleep last night, we put the breakfast room service door tag out and requested an 8:30-9am delivery time with hopes of sleeping in a little bit, but also to test out the process.  We like to eat breakfast on our balcony each port day to avoid the chaos at the buffet, so this was a good chance to test it out and see how things go before tomorrow when we will arrive at our first port of call. This is the breakfast room service menu for Concierge (and Aqua) class cabins.  

Despite my best efforts to sleep late, I woke up at 7am and the ship was rocking so much that I couldn’t fall back asleep.  I got up and sat outside on the balcony and took notes in my trip journal and let DH sleep a little longer.  It looked like there was a beautiful sunrise but we couldn’t see the sun directly on the starboard side this morning (I’ll bet early risers with port-side cabins had a great view though!)

At 8:25am, the cabin phone rang with a heads up that our breakfast was on the way. I have a feeling a lot of people use breakfast room service as a wake up call, so it’s a nice touch that they call on the phone first to give you a minute to open your eyes and put on some clothes or a robe or something before they come knocking on the door.  The food arrived promptly at 8:30am, and everything was hot and exactly as we ordered, including my special request for smoked salmon!  We ordered some orange juice with our breakfast- the menu has premium and regular OJ and we ordered one of each, but could not tell which was which!  I have a feeling one is fresh squeezed (presumably the premium OJ), so we ordered that for the rest of the cruise, but like I said, I really couldn’t tell the difference from the regular juice.

Instead of taking the whole stack of plates outside, I like to divide up our food inside and then we can just take one plate outside for each of us.  

My breakfast (before adding cream cheese and salmon to the bagel)

DH’s breakfast

We popped open the bottle of champagne from embarkation day (another Concierge class perk), and made some mimosas to go with our breakfast.  

We stayed out on the balcony until around 10:30am, and then relocated to the solarium.  It was another windy and cool day, so it was nice to hang out in the solarium which is a bit warmer than out by the pool.  We noticed many chairs were occupied by towels and books, but not as many as yesterday by the pool.  Luckily, there were 2 loungers available but they were in the middle of the row so we had to crawl up onto them.  Why must they set up the seats so close together?!  It gets so awkward to climb in and out of your seat, and I can only imagine how challenging this is for anyone with mobility issues.

Sorry for the terrible lighting in this photo! The section where we were sitting was right near the door to the elevators and the spa where the ceiling is a solid tarp and much dimmer than under the glass ceiling in the main seating area.

The Slush Bar is located right next to the Pool Bar on deck 12 and offers fancier versions of the standard boozy slushy drinks. These drinks take a few minutes to make, and there is only one bartender stationed at this bar, so it can take a while to get your drink, especially if there is a line before you get there. The bar is only opened from noon until 4pm, so we made sure to be there right when they opened to avoid a long wait. Here is the menu (sorry for the glare!), and the drinks are included with the premium beverage package.

Side note (because I took this photo while we were waiting for the bartender to make our drinks):  This is a photo of our sea pass cards.  Since we had the classic alcohol package when we boarded the ship, there is a code “CALL” preprinted at the bottom of the card.  When we paid for our upgrades to the premium package, they added the “PALL” sticker.  If your sticker falls off (or if you take your seapass card in the ocean/pool and it wears away), you can go to guest services and they will print you a new card with PALL printed on it.  Notice the bottom left corner of the card where it says “068”.  The seapass cards all list the last 3 digits of your cabin number, but not the first digit which is for the deck.  I think Celebrity started doing this because people forgot their cabin numbers and kept going to guest services to ask, but I’m not so sure this was the best solution.  If I lost my seapass card and someone found it, they could go to every deck and try to open the door for the cabins ending in 068… with only 7 decks on the ship with cabin numbers ending in 068, it wouldn’t take long for that person to find my cabin.  Just a thought!

DH ordered the Golden Coconut (a gourmet frozen pina colada), and I had the Spiked Razz Slush.  We both enjoyed our drinks, but honestly couldn’t taste much difference from a regular pina colada or daiquiri at the pool bar so we only returned here one or two more times during the cruise.

Back in 2016, the Slush Bar served drinks in disposable to-go cups, similar to what Starbucks uses for their frapuccinos.  We thought those cups were fun, and were disappointed to see that the Eclipse just uses the same tall hard plastic cups that they use at all the outdoor bars for frozen drinks.  I guess Celebrity decided it was better to use cups that were washable instead of wasting the disposable ones.  I can’t really blame them… it’s not like we can really take these drinks too far considering they aren’t allowed off the ship!  

We took our drinks back to our loungers in the Solarium and relaxed there for a little while until we started to get hungry for lunch. One corner of the Solarium houses the Aqua Spa Café, which serves lighter and healthier options for breakfast and lunch.  Despite the name, this spot is not restricted to people staying in Aqua Class cabins. Anyone can eat here as long as they are over age 16 (because that is the restriction for being inside the Solarium). The food was pre-plated and served buffet style, and there is a juice bar where they will make smoothies and juices both off the menu and made-to-order.  I don’t think I ever took a photo of the lunch menu (oops!), but here is the breakfast menu (taken later in the cruise, but it was the same for the whole cruise so I may as well post it now!)

These are the food options for lunch…

Fresh fruit, no idea what the white thing is- maybe yogurt??, turkey and tomato wrap

Beet salad, Caprese salad, bowtie pasta with pesto

The end of the line had a few other salads like tuna, chicken, and salmon salad.

There were also some breadsticks and a biscuit/scone type thing but I didn’t try any of these

I opted for the bowtie pesto pasta salad and the salmon salad and brought the little plates back to our loungers so I could share them with DH.  Both were light and tasty, and they made for a good pre-lunch snack.  

Of course, we can’t resist checking out what they had upstairs at the Oceanview buffet, so we took turns going up there to get a few more things to eat.  Today’s theme was A Taste of Italy and featured a fresh mozzarella station with pesto and a few kinds of tomatoes.  There was also several kinds of lasagna (DH loved the beef lasagna), meatballs, and other pasta dishes.  I ended up with a slice of pizza topped with shrimp (not a combination I’ve ever tried before but it was bizarrely tasty), pasta salad, seafood salad, fresh mozzarella with pesto, and of course, a piece of that yummy chocolate fudge cake.  

We ate our lunches on our loungers in the Solarium, then relaxed there for a few more hours until 3pm, when we went upstairs to the Sky Lounge for music trivia.  This was actually the start of a tradition for us, and we attended many of the 3pm music trivia sessions in the Sky Lounge throughout the cruise.  It was offered every day, regardless of if it was a port day or a sea day, and there was a core group of about 50 people who seemed to show up every day just like us!  At first, DH and I played on a team of just the 2 of us, and while we did respectably, we knew we wouldn’t ever win without more man power.  At some point later in the cruise, we teamed up with a couple of baby boomers and realized the secret to music trivia success: form a multi-generational team!!  DH and I knew all the songs from the late 70’s through today, and the baby boomers knew all the songs from before then.  We were allowed to have teams of up to 6 people, so this made it more fun and gave us better odds at winning.  No spoilers just yet to see if we ever did win a trivia game!

Today’s trivia theme was Broadway Music Trivia. They played 15 songs and we just had to guess the name of the show, not the song name.  DH and I have had a subscription to see the traveling Broadway shows that come to San Jose for the last 4 seasons (and we’re already signed up for the 2018-2019 season!), and I have seen over 50 Broadway shows from when I lived in New York, so we thought we had good odds with this theme.  In the end, we only got 10 out of 15 correct, and the winning team got 14 right.  Every day, at 3:30pm, they went right into general knowledge trivia which is not one of our fortes, so that was our cue to head back to the cabin and get changed for the evening.

When we got back to our cabin, our cheese tray was waiting for us, as was the disembarkation questionnaire.  Today was day 3 of a 14 day cruise, so I thought it was a bit soon to be talking about disembarkation, but I assumed it was to give us priority on our preferred time slots before they asked the rest of the ship for their forms (or maybe everyone got their forms today, I really don’t know for sure).

We went down to the Martini Bar at 4:45pm and all the seats around the bar were taken.  One of the ladies sitting there said we needed to arrive by 4pm to get a seat, but that is way too early if you ask me!  We would never be ready by then on a port day, and even if we were, we don’t need 3 hours of drinks before our 7pm dinner reservations (at least not if we want to enjoy our dinner at all!!).  Luckily, someone got up a minute later so we could take a seat, and one of the bartenders quickly took our order.  I always love when they pour multiple drinks at the same time!

I ordered a Sunset Martini, made with Grey Goose Le Citron vodka, Bacardi Coconut rum, pineapple juice, and grenadine.

A few minutes later, I noticed another bartender, Ketut, getting ready to put on a show by the Crush Bar, so I went over to check it out.  Ketut was my favorite bartender at the Martini Bar and we always tried to order from him because we thought he was the liveliest and had the best flair of the group. I am always so impressed that they can get the drinks into the correct glass without spilling!

BTW, this was a great use for the burst mode on my camera haha  Back at my seat at the bar, I was ready for round 2, so I ordered the Blue Wave Martini with Bombay Sapphire gin, peach schnapps, blue curacao, and lime juice.

One really fun feature of the Martini Bar is that the surface where you place your drinks is covered with a thin layer of ice. Make sure to always put your martini glass on a napkin or else it will stick to the ice and you may spill it when you try to pick it up!  DH found great amusement in drawing pictures in the ice while he sipped his drink. Here is today’s creation… a thirsty shark!

It’s so great that the Martini Bar is located just above the Grand Foyer so we can listen to the band performing downstairs while we enjoy our cocktails.  They are very talented and always played a great set!

After 2 drinks, we were ready to move along, but it was still too early for dinner.  Time for an impromptu photo shoot around the ship!

Those large pieces of art back near the specialty restaurants on deck 5 make for a great photo background.  On the way, we passed through the Ensemble Lounge, so we took at seat at the bar to try out a drink or two.  Unfortunately for us, we arrived right at 6pm and the bartender was extremely busy.  Not only does she make drinks for people sitting at the bar, but also for those sitting at the little tables around the lounge who order drinks from the bar waitress (who only takes drink orders but does not actually make any drinks), as well as drink orders from the specialty restaurants!  This is one very busy bartender and I was surprised she had to handle all of that by herself.  My guess is that service is a lot faster if you arrive here outside of dinner hours, but we rarely came back here so I don’t know for sure.  When we got her attention, I ordered a Kir Royale and I think DH had a beer.

A few minutes before 7pm, we made our way over to the dining room.  We requested to sit in Pinto’s section again, and the hostess said it was no problem, but for some reason, when we arrived at the table they wanted to seat us at, there was another couple sitting there.  The lady who escorted us to the table looked very confused, but just sat us at the next open table, which was unfortunately not in Pinto’s section.  At the time, we didn’t know what happened and why they assigned us to a table that was occupied, but towards the end of the cruise, we figured it out.  There was another couple who we saw escort themselves to their table.  They started to sit down and were saying that they like their waiter, Peter, but they were sitting at a table in Pinto’s section. Peter and Pinto have sections right next to each other, and I think this couple was confused and sat themselves at the wrong table, which was then assigned to us because the hostess didn’t know these people were sitting there.  Tonight, we sat at table 546, but we were assigned to table 545, and I have a hunch this couple just sat at the wrong table but meant to sit at 546.

The reason this was such a problem was that Peter and Erick were very slow as a wait team and our meal took an hour and 45 minutes, start to finish.  That was way too slow for our liking, so we talked to the hostess on the way out in hopes of getting back in Pinto’s section tomorrow.  She was a bit confused as to why we weren’t in his section tonight, but assured us she would do her best to seat us with Pinto tomorrow if there were tables available.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Here is tonight’s dinner menu:

Barolo Braised Beef Ragout

Sesame Crusted Tuna Carpaccio

Mediterranean Seafood Orzo

Lemon-Pepper Roasted Chicken

Roasted Beef Flank Steak

Dessert Menu

Apple Pie (minus the ‘a la mode’) from the classic menu

We left the dining room at 8:45pm, and hurried over to the World Class Bar to pick up a drink to bring to the theater for the show.  I tried the Celebrity No. Ten and really enjoyed it.  It was light and refreshing, and was conveniently served in an easy-to-carry glass haha

Tonight’s show was a comedian named Dan Grueter, and the daily schedule described his jokes as quick and clean.  I do not usually like when comedians resort to profanity and dirty jokes to get a laugh, so I was hopeful for these “clean” jokes. He was very funny, but he did not have a pre-written routine.  Instead, he talked to people in the first few rows of the audience and made jokes about them. I must have been very tired from all of the relaxing we did today because I nodded off towards the end of his show.  Luckily, we were sitting at the back of the room and he didn’t see me!

When the show ended, I went back to the cabin to pack up our bags for our first port day, while DH went to the atrium to listen to Hard Days Night.  I was fast asleep by the time he returned to the cabin, but he later told me the band was a lot of fun and I missed a good set.  I guess you can’t do everything on a cruise, and I needed my beauty sleep before arriving in St. Maarten tomorrow.

Step Tracker Daily Total:  6018 steps; 2.45 miles; 113 flights of stairs*

*So yea, I think it’s highly unlikely that I walked up 113 flights of stairs in one day haha  More likely, the strong winds that persisted all day today caused the ship to rock up and down, and I spent most of the day towards the forward end of the ship (in the Solarium and the Sky Lounge), and that end of the ship felt more movement than had I been mid-ship.  Very weird, but at least this was the last day I experienced glitches like that on my Fitbit.

[readsquirrel]

Sort of spoilers for Ascendance of a Bookworm last book preprint part 1 -

She broke that boy. She showed him what love looks like and made him want to know more, made him want to be loved. Made him learn to love himself.

And I think it’s great that the love wasn’t even about her being an isekai protagonist— it was a kind of familial love in that existed in the commoner world already. But her unique view on the world that ignored the boundaries of social standing made that sharing possible.

And it rocked his world even from the beginning.

[readsquirrel]

Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 5 Vol 10 preprint on March 25, 2024 spoilers—

So, first, I love everyone jumping to assuming that a bit of *eyebrow waggle* mana dyeing has been going on between her and Ferdinand, and it going right over Rozemyne’s head. Just highbeast flying over her head levels of missed the implications—much like her awareness that she was totally doing that exact pre-marital hijinks just last book.

Some noble moms really fell down on the job with giving the sorely needed birds and the shumils talk. They should be blaming themselves here.

And then the question— so, is there in fact a solution to the whole glowing with divine power issue, it’s just something that would very visibly show what’s going on behind closed doors…? And, heh heh heh, if Rozemyne really wanted to get back at Ferdinand for something, could she instead make him glow too??

[readsquirrel]

Spoilers for Ascendance of a Bookworm preprint on March 18, 2024–

OMG, nopes out of battle to determine the future of the country and whether she and everyone she loves will be put to death by a new regime in favor of reading some ancient history texts in a lush library is just Peak Rozemyne. It’s so perfectly set up and established to be in line with her character over 30 books that I can’t complain in the slightest. Chef’s kiss.

[readsquirrel]

Spoilers for Ascendance of a Bookworm part5vol8 preprint halfway mark…

Sylvester and co did such a great job of keeping Rozemyne in the background when Georgine visited that Ferdinand successfully came off as the mastermind pulling her strings.

Detlinde was around for all of Rozemyne’s hijinks at the royal academy, all the she’s having tea parties with royalty and doing crazy magic and winning ditter and top of the class. But Detlinde is so self-absorbed she couldn’t be bothered to care.

So, we have Georgine who schemes but doesn’t have the information, and Detlinde with the knowledge but who lacks the foresight to use it or even pass it along. Detlinde didn’t worry about finishing the job, because who could possibly have the knowledge, power, or the driving motivation to do anything more than let Ferdinand die.

And because of that gap a duchy was lost.

[readsquirrel]

Big spoiler for the preprint of Ascendance of a Bookworm preprint (part5, volume 9)…

Okay, so, would Rozemyne’s PTSD around feystones be helped or hurt if she knew that Sylvester ALSO put Georgine’s full head in a time stopping box so he could use a psychic tool on it later…?

On the one hand, that’s a whole different kind of freaky fantasy violence. See, fey stones seem pretty unthreatening by comparison.

On the other, presumably a fey stone is going to be involved in the mind reading.

Two follow up questions:

In her previous life, did she ever see Seven? If so, what did she think of it? (I presume if she did, it would have been low on the worlds she’d want to wake up in.)

And second, how thankful would she be to know he could have dropped that on the table too but he didn’t?