Notes From All Over -- Late Afternoon Edition -- December 29, 2020

Updates

December 31, 2020: two days ago we noted that, seemingly out of nowhere, the cases were surging in New York again. See original post. Now this today:

Original Post

Apple: I don't know if folks recall but on Christmas Day, Apple's iCloud crashed -- crash might not be the correct word -- better said, it appeared the iCloud was not able to keep up with the number of new mobile device (iPhones and Apple Watches, for the most part) activation, authentication, syncing, etc. Today we learn that "nine of ten US smartphone activations on Christmas Day 2020 were iPhones."  

Think about that. Nine of ten smartphone activations on Christmas Day were iPhones. 

Link here. Apple is now followed here. 

Minnehaha County: link here.  

Chinese flu watch: newly reported Covid-19 cases plummeting in the US. Link here. This is really quite fascinating. I predicted about a week ago that California would surge to the top of states reporting newly diagnosed cases. It took a few days longer than I expected, but here it is, the top five, California jumps to #1, Tennessee, previously #1, drops to #3. 

Meanwhile, Arizona moved into the #2 position, followed by Rhode Island, #4.

But look at this. Number 5 (#5) would have been Oklahoma but New York surged and is now #5. So, we either have the "top 6" or we still have the "top 5" with New York and Oklahoma tied for that fifth position. Not good news for New York when you re-join the "top 5" list. Florida is not far behind. 

Having said that, the "brown" map is getting very, very, very light. The only area that is really dark brown remains San Bernardino, California. 

Chinese flu penetration in the US: link here. 

• North Dakota continues to lead the US with 12% penetration.
• South Dakota remains in 2nd place with 11% penetration.
• No one else is close. Iowa is 3rd with 8.7% penetration.
• The US average is 5.9% with California, ranked #34, shows only 5.6% penetration. California has a long way to go. My recommendation: send all the vaccine to California.

Cases across the country are plummeting:

California: with regard to Covid-19, this state is the one of most concern right now (although the recent numbers coming out of NY are also of concern) and is currently the poster child in the US for "Covid out of control." Yesterday, the governor extended the draconian lock down measures "indefinitely." The graphics suggest California may have turned the corner, but it's early and very subtle:

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Miscellaneous

Quick! Pop quiz: when you are watching YouTube how often do you get advertisements for shipping your car cross country? You know, on one of those tractor-trailer automobile transporters. I will bet your answer is: never. 

So, today, while looking for a particular clip on YouTube I was rudely interrupted by one of those tractor-trailer automobile transporters ads to ship a privately-owned vehicle (POV) cross country. LOL. About one week ago, I went on-line, found a broker, and reserved a tractor-trailer automobile transporter to ship one of our cars cross country. LOL. The technology is amazing; the ability of "everyone" to track "everything" you do on the internet is simply amazing. I have no problem with that. I prefer targeted ads. 

Test: I'm going to see how good these companies are at tracking. I'm looking to buy two breeding ostriches for an exotic zoo-farm here is north Texas. Let's see if I get any targeted ads. And we move on. 

Drones: