h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can the coronavirus be spread by touching surfaces? The jury is still out on how common a vector it is, but the (US) National Institutes of Health are saying the virus can be stable for hours or days on surfaces:

http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/new-coronavirus-stable-hours-surfaces

Elektra was hunting all over for a video with the skinny on safe grocery handling technique, so I helped her find this one which I think is pretty good. It's by a practising doctor who's worried about his parents, and doing their shopping for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjDuwc9KBps

Yes: as I predicted, it is necessary to wash the apples we bought with soap and water.

I pointed out that this is the same technique doctors use, or scientists trying to keep their experiment from being contaminated.

'Remember when they used to pay you to wash glassware in the biology lab at uni?' I asked. 'I learned this helping you.' (If I helped wash glassware, we could go out afterwards, and the professor didn't care who did it, as long as the glassware got done right. We'd get done about midnight and go out for pizza.)

I also pointed out that the beginnings of this kind of technique can be found in the Torah, 'you know, the boring parts of the Bible nobody ever wants to read...' (But which I read as a small child because I didn't know any better than to start at the beginning and read all the way through. Several times. You know, like you do with LOTR.)

Did you know that Leviticus tells you what to do if you have mildew in your house? Okay, you probably don't want to do the bird sacrifice part, although I've lived in places where a good chicken sacrifice was considered reassuring. However, the rest of it is pretty good. See Leviticus 14:33-57 in a modern translation like NIV.

I also ran across this quirky thought for today in a Bible commentary:

'Suppose sin were visible - small green spots that break out on the skin. Do you think this would help people to take sin more seriously?'
- Philip Yancey, Tim Stafford, NIV Student Bible

My thoughts:

1. Sin is what got us into this mess. No, not drinking, cussing, or fooling around. Being careless with the environment and thoughtless of each other and other creatures. Those are sins.

2. If sin were visible as green spots, politicians would need to wear face masks in public.

3. On second thought, they'd probably just tell everyone that
green spots were this year's fashion statement.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

My sister and I used to go out on Thursdays, shop in charity shops to keep the economy afloat and have lunch somewhere. Since the lockdown, we have been WhatsApping each other on a Thursday morning instead. This morning we exchanged our favourite conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

Thanks for noticing this.

The doctor who said we were supposed to wash the apples in soap and water has since apologised. The CDC yelled at him, because you don't want people swallowing soap. Fortunately, we rinsed ours well. (The lab always said, 7 times in tap water, 7 times in distilled. )

The conspiracy theories keep getting worse, don't they?

And now we all have picturesque face masks in lovely prints, homemade by our family sewing experts.

Stay safe! Someday, it will be possible to shop in charity places again.