All my TA says we are at the bottom or very close to it.  Very strong support at $8k.

Local companies and officials are fraudulently boosting electricity consumption and other metrics in order to meet tough new back-to-work targets as the spread of Covid-19 in China wanes, a Caixin investigation has found.
As new coronavirus cases in China slowed in recent weeks, local governments in less-affected regions pushed companies and factories to return to work, typically by assigning concrete targets to district officials. Company insiders and local civil servants told Caixin that, under pressure to fulfill quotas they could not otherwise meet, they deftly cooked the books.
Leaving lights and air conditioners on all day long in empty offices, turning on manufacturing equipment, faking staff rosters and even coaching factory workers to lie to inspectors are just some of the ways they helped manufacture flashy statistics on the resumption of business for local governments to report up the chain.
Electricity consumption data has regularly been used as a proxy for the business resumption rate when reporting to Beijing, and to the public.
The East China province of Zhejiang has been lauded as a prime example of the nation’s industrial recovery from the coronavirus outbreak by China’s top economic planner, which reported on Feb. 24 that its work resumption rate was more than 90%.
Nevertheless, a civil servant in one district of the provincial capital, Hangzhou, told Caixin that from Saturday plants were instructed to leave their industrial equipment idling for the whole day, while offices were told to keep computers and air-conditioners running, when Beijing began checking the resumption rate by examining power consumption figures.
Caixin has chosen not to name the district to protect the identity of the civil servant, who could face repercussions for revealing the information publicly. But reached by phone, one company insider in the district said they saw such directives in multiple corporate WeChat groups. Another said they received the order too, but their operations had already resumed two weeks prior, and its production lines were in normal operation by Feb. 29. Another executive said they were not informed of the electricity use target, and said they were running at about one-fifth of normal capacity, with only a small proportion of machines in use.
Hangzhou’s target was for corporate electricity consumption that day to hit 75% of what it was on Jan. 8, and that it should return to at least 90% of that by March 10.
The real resumption rate in one industrial park in Hangzhou over the weekend was 40%, the civil servant estimated, far below the 75% target.
The district official pointed out China is further subsidizing electricity costs as a way to incentivize businesses to resume, and said many companies would rather waste a small amount of money on power than irritate local officials.
Insiders told Caixin that in some cases, rather than giving companies direct targets, local governments assigned quotas to local district officials who were then directly responsible for meeting them. Those officials would regularly visit the companies, prodding them to resume production in the guise of expressing “care and support.” That pressure is likely what drove them to switch on their machines.
Zhejiang Provincial Government Deputy Secretary-General Chen Guangsheng boasted to press on Feb. 24 that a segment of manufacturing plants in Zhejiang reported a work resumption rate of 98.6%, and service enterprises 95.6%. More than 99% of the coastal province’s companies with annual export value above $10 million had resumed business, the provincial leader said.

A company in Wenzhou, a major commercial center in the same province, confirmed it had received a designated power consumption target equal to half of the level before the outbreak, and had been running its air conditioners all day long to meet the goal.
Zhejiang is not the only place where the reality on the ground is said to deviate from government figures.
In the small industrial city of Botou, some 230 kilometers (143 miles) south of Beijing, Caixin found factories reported by the local government to have reopened their doors had not in fact resumed production.
The head of one told Caixin that despite reports up the chain, the local government’s unwillingness to risk an outbreak meant it had not actually restarted. “The local government still forbids factories to actually resume work,” the executive said. “We have returned to the offices, but production has not resumed at all.”
He further said the Botou government asked him to falsely report the number of employees who had returned to work, and even went so far as to directly coach workers about how to lie if they received calls from inspectors.
Prolonged suspension of production had led to the loss of technicians and business orders, he added, because some of the company’s peers in other parts of China had resumed manufacturing ahead of them.
Replying to Caixin’s request for comment on Monday, the Botou government said at least 228 enterprises in the Botou area had resumed business, but some companies might have said they did not because while they were registered as having resumed, they may not have been prepared to immediately commence production. They said companies were permitted to resume normal business after reporting to the local government, but could only begin operation after officials confirmed virus control measures were in place.
A source in a smaller enterprise in Botou told Caixin companies have been allowed to resume production after meeting certain virus containment requirements, but face the further logistical issues as many rural roads remain blocked. Without a way to get raw materials in and send products out, there’s not much point in businesses returning to production.
Open data from Baidu Maps shows overall traffic flow inside the Botou city over the weekend was still less than half of the average last year, after two weeks of slow recovery starting from Feb. 18.

I really wanted a Tesla to work for me. But my daily driver of 21 years was a full-size van. Went and looked at the nearest dealership (over an hour away, FFS). Even the X was too small by a large margin.

Ended up with a Denali instead.

To add insult to injury, GMC recently pre-announced a 1000HP Hummer-branded EV. Maybe shoulda waited? Time will tell.

I love to have Horse instead of Electric Car  

Even if these were true, I still don't want to drive a goddamn computer with wheels which some other guy can press a button and stop its engine.

Fuck this.

Fuck tesla.

Good morning Bitcoinland.

Still over $9k I see after a wee dip under and back up... currently $9080USD/$12177CAD (Bitcoinaverage).

No problem.


Pretty well so far. Of course the Jays are in the middle of a total rebuild.

The big news is top pitching prospect Nate Pearson who has been dominating. In his first appearance he struck out the side (all Yankee major leaguers) on 12 pitches. He has yet to allow a run in 3 appearances. Many believe he will be a homegrown workhorse ace like Dave Stieb or Roy Halladay.

He's big, has a triple-digit fastball and a hard breaking pitch with tons of late movement and possesses a strong work ethic. He's said to be mature beyond his years. Will hopefully be called up sometime this season. Gotta get that extra year of team control though.

Slugging first baseman Rowdy Tellez has come into camp in much better shape. He only lost a pound but described it as losing 15 pounds of fat and gaining 14 pounds of muscle. He also is realizing he doesn't need to swing for the fences to hit it out. His strength should allow him to tighten up his swing, improve his average to all fields and still get lots of HRs and extra-base hits.

Vladdy Guerrero has also arrived in better shape and is looking to improve on what was for him a disappointing rookie season.

Veteran journeyman Joe Panik, signed to a minor league deal has been impressing everyone with his defense at short and stands a chance to make the team as a utility infielder.

Other than that, it's what you'd expect. Veteran pitchers like Ryu and Shoemaker are working on extending pitch counts, youngsters like Thornton are working on new pitches, and hitters are getting their at-bats.

We'll all see how this works out in 3 weeks. I'll be flying up in time for the home opener. Same seats as the last few years, behind home plate but just enough up the 1st base line that the ump doesn't block my view of the strike zone. Good view of the Jays pen and dugout.

Play ball!

Hmmmm, this is interesting. Vegas always try to fill their hotels even if that means almost giving their rooms for free. I am wondering if this summer will be good to go there again for mere pennies.

I would need to check first if my private insurance would cover a coronavir infection overseas... Those US medical bills can rise fast enough to wipe all your lifetime net worth in a couple months.

Decisions, decisions....

Little fun fact on Chinese hospitals, they're fucking garbage.

I worked with some Chinese investors, one who owned two hospitals back in china, had a coworker visit and see them, he could not believe how shitty they were. Like weirdly shitty tiled dirty looking hotels almost. He said don't get fucking sick in china and if you do hope you can make it to the west.

I've been gone six months or so from the thread and you're still mr.millenial over here, what a shame.

https://www.internations.org/go/moving-to-china/healthcare

"China does have free public healthcare which is under the country’s social insurance plan. The healthcare system provides basic coverage for the majority of the native population and, in most cases, expats as well. However, it will depend on the region you reside in. As some areas don’t require their foreign residents to support the local healthcare system by paying the appropriate taxes, those residents will not be covered by public healthcare."  

These sources appear to be in conflict as slightly more people live in urban areas than not. One of them seems incorrect and Im not flying to Wuhan to find out.  

Either way, I would still say that even if Wikipedia is the correct source, that free healthcare is available to all, bc everyone in an urban area is free to move out to the suburbs or country to get free healthcare.  

No way I would burden myself, my insurance company, and by proxy, every other person's premiums, or society in general if I had those kind of problems. I'll just have to let life (or death) run it's course when I get that far gone. You know, take it like a man, instead of living on life support.

Residents of urban areas are not provided with free healthcare, and must either pay for treatment or purchase health insurance.

According to this: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/covid-19-tests-dont-cost-over-3000/ , that is not true.


Also, from https://www.ahip.org/keeping-americans-safe-from-coronavirus-covid-19/

Visits to the doctor’s office and the emergency room can cost patients money, she said, noting that some high-deductible insurance plans could effectively charge patients who go to the ER $1,000 or more.

My theory is based on the assumption that you have way more undiagnosed cases, hence the lower true mortality rate.
Thats why Diamond Princess is the perfect sample.

We know every single person except 14 got tested.

No other sample is like this for any town, village or city.

Your gov, like most others, either cant or wont test everyone who needs it so the mortality rate seems much higher than it is bc you dont know about all the undiagnosed cases.

I suppose I could clarify that the .4 percent mortality Slayer estimate is assuming the patients get decent healthcare, this would be skewed higher in cases where not enough ICU beds are available. Thats why I mentioned the more communist or socialist a government is, the higher the mortality rates will likely be bc govs suck at everything, including running a healthcare system.

Look at the example inWashington State where six died in a nursing home. Yes that sucks for them, but they were in a nursing home and probably the weakest ones there, so they likely would have died sometime in the next 6 months to a year. This virus will likely take a bunch of people who were about to die in 2020 sometime anyway, and just take them out all at once.