A Plague of Insecticons

I got an email this morning from Orkin. It contained a graphic I'd never noticed before and almost couldn't help but laugh at. 

It's the most pestilent time of the year.

Remember this? 

Hands down, everyone. We're going to go over why this was dumb.

Created following the September 11 terror attacks, the Department of Homeland Security created this color-coded terror alert system to notify the public of the current threat level. This system was in effect for nearly ten years before being scrapped in favor of a more "text-based" alternative that would offer more specific information than a simple color. At no point during that time did the terror threat fall to green or blue. 

From the start, I think we were all asking similar questions about this scale. What exactly would a "low" threat level look like? What in Hel's Realm is a "general" risk? What exactly makes a terror threat more or less threatening? Moreover, if your job was monitoring terrorist activity, wouldn't you almost always see some kind of threat somewhere in some form? It's like that saying about how giving someone a hammer causes them to see only nails. This is a problem inherent in communicating a lot of information in a clear and concise way to a lot of laypeople. It's a messy process with a lot of trial and error, all while balancing on a knife's edge of trust and authenticity. Too much certainty, and you set yourself up for a fall. Not enough certainty, and there's no confidence in your abilities in the first place. It's an "Us vs. Them" scenario that shouldn't exist. The worst part is it's nothing remotely new. 

Ever heard of this thing?

At least we're not arguing over colors.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by a nonprofit organization called the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a name so simultaneously cool and boring it alleviates all doubts I may have had about the involvement of actual scientists. It was in response to growing public concern over the use of nuclear weapons following the end of World War II. Unlike the terror alert system, this has been more or less completely unchanged in form since its inception, showing the upper left fourth of an analog timepiece, the minutes hand representing how close we are to a man-made doomsday scenario. The "time" is updated in an annual announcement, currently sitting at "100 seconds" from midnight. In case you're wondering, the hour hand has never moved, and probably isn't meant to, depending on who you ask. The minute hand, meanwhile, started at about 7 minutes from midnight and has moved 24 times up to the present day. 

The lowest it ever got was back in 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved. It was practically off its own scale at "23:43." I guess we weren't too concerned with climate change back then, despite what Captain Planet would have had to say about it. In fact, climate change wasn't officially added to the threat  list until 2007. This 17 minutes to midnight streak lasted until 1995. Exactly what happened in 1995? In a way, nothing. Military spending remained at Cold War levels and there were growing concerns over a power vacuum created by the Soviets packing it in. Many of the changes to the clock in the subsequent years could probably best be summed up as, "Little has changed, therefore it's getting worse." That said, since the clock was only concerned with nuclear armaments, neither Three Mile Island nor the Chernobyl disaster had any impact on it. 1988 did see a little improvement in the United States' relations with Russia, doubtless because of the awkward position they were in during the cleanup of the disaster. 

Jury's out on whether or not the Pandemic has or will have any effect on the clock. I mean, the virus wasn't man-made (despite what conspiranoids would have me take on faith), but the spreading across the globe was pretty much squarely on us. 

I don't necessarily have a point beyond my usual advocacy for media literacy.  I just thought it interesting to see a pest control company using such a tactic in their marketing. Granted, I'm no expert on pest control or the life cycles of various insects that fall under their purview, so I don't doubt there's merit behind the data. I've used Orkin for years and I don't begrudge them for doing their job. It's only the perspective and priorities I question. 

"I would only agree that a symbolic clock is as nourishing to the intellect as a photograph of oxygen to a drowning man." -- Watchmen

Goodnight, and good luck. 

Mask. Copy.

During a business trip with my family to Washington state, I remember sitting through this documentary about Mt. Saint Helens, which had erupted only a few years prior. One image that stuck with me is one of people walking through smoggy streets all wearing surgical masks. There was also this one image from a science book about cities of the future that burned itself into my brain. 

This is the Usborne Book of the Future. It’s sadly out of print, but has been scanned and archived at various locations. It’s a little bit dated on the science side of things, but still a fascinating look into our past visions of the future. http://calameo.download/00081642432fc0bfded26

Fast-forward to several years later when I started watching anime and generally learning what I could about Japanese culture, and I noticed a recurring theme of some people wearing surgical masks in public. I never quite put together what was going on, though there was this correlation between wearing the mask and being sick, not unlike wearing a scarf or muffler. It was later explained to me that the mask is worn by the sick person to keep them from spreading it to others, which probably took my brain more time to process than I'd prefer to admit to because you always see the surgical mask of keeping things OUT rather than IN, hence being worn by surgeons. Like almost everything in Japan, something as practical as a paper fiber mask became an entire aesthetic unto itself. While there may be some connotations with gang activity, these are very much the exception and not the rule. 

Fast forward again to a few years ago when I read a post about someone with a severe tree nut allergy suffering through the holidays, and "suffering" is not being melodramatic or hyperbolic. This is someone with a tree nut allergy so severe that the mere smell of nuts can trigger a reaction requiring an epi-pen. Most of the time, this isn't a problem for her. However, when the holidays roll around, grocery stores suddenly become mine fields dotted with bushels of walnuts, almonds, and macadamias. The solution to this problem is a simple enough one, a neoprene mask with a few filters to allow better ventilation while also trapping the offending particles. Unfortunately, this solution invites more than a few stares and even full-blown suspicions from others in the grocery store. Age plays a small role in this, one might assume; someone sees an elderly person wearing one, they won't think twice, or maybe they'll put it together that they're trying to keep the bad stuff out. If it's a youngster, suddenly it becomes an issue of morals and criminal justice... never mind that if someone is going to rob a grocery store, they're not going to wander around the produce section pushing a cart and asking staff where the stuffed mushrooms are, all while wearing a mask. 

A few years later, we had a really bad flu season. I had missed my flu shot because we were unseasonably warm and I had assumed (incorrectly I learned later) that it was all the more unlikely I'd get the flu and that if I did get the shot, it may not be effective because I may well have gotten it too early. Well, I did get sick, and I probably don't have to tell you how horrible it was. Fortunately, I was put on some antibiotics which helped, along with getting some of my aforementioned misconceptions cleared up by my doctor. Since then, it's become a small tradition every Labor Day to take advantage of the time off work to beat any lines and get my flu shot. Around the same time, when my roommate was sick, she hit upon the idea of getting a box of those surgical masks from the local Walgreens. It wasn’t uncommon to see people in masks, though usually it was older folks who were likely using it to keep OUT rather than IN. 

Today, we’re glad we still have some left. I’ve got some reusable ones, but these served well in the time before those arrived. 

It's rather surreal that seeing someone wearing a mask has become so rapidly normalized. People will likely still be wearing them long after lockdown orders are fully relaxed. I'll certainly be wearing them when flu season comes around, novel viruses notwithstanding. All of this talk about when we’ll have normalcy or what-have-you is ignoring a lot of history. Just think of how air travel has been affected by the 9/11 terror attacks. The very fact that your bathroom has an abundance of tile and similarly slick and washable surfaces is a result of previous pandemics, including the Spanish Flu, Cholera, Tuberculosis, and Polio. 

When we go to buffets or cafeterias, we don’t give a second thought to the sneeze guards over the salad bar. We all know why they’re there, and I don’t know of anyone who’s raised a fit over it. Maybe that wasn’t the case when they were new, but any outrage today invites more eye-rolls than affirming or polite nods. I think about that when I go to grocery shopping and see the sneeze guards in front of the cashiers. At first, these were pretty ramshackled affairs, painter’s tarps draped over scrap wood or some PVC pipe. Now, many of them are plexiglass with some strips of particle board or metal brackets for reinforcements. Sure, it’s one more surface to clean up at the end of the day, and obviously they’re going to have to be replaced as they get scuffed, scratched, and cracked from general wear-and-tear, but as far as a regular operating expense goes, what exactly would be the harm in leaving them up? It’s no different than some convenience stores in rough neighborhoods putting their cashiers behind glass boxes that make my bank’s entrance look like a screen door on rusty hinges. If that expense can be justified, what’s a little Lexan at Lowes? What’s wrong with these handfuls of extra precautions no more onerous or intrusive on our daily lives than motion sensors on restroom sinks and hand dryers or anything being advertised as Lead-free? 

It's an amusing thought that for X number of people who simply see the mask and don't give it a second thought, there's at least 1 person out of that group who is silently screaming because of some hang-up or pet peeve yet doesn't want to say anything because it's simply not worth the effort to let the world know a piece of fabric can send you on a tirade? 

It’s not a new thing, it’s doing far more good than harm, and it’s not going away. No one’s trying to control you, no one’s trying to infringe on your rights, and no one is trampling on your deeply-held beliefs. It’s a practical solution to a legitimate real-world problem. It transcends politics and ideologies. Having personal freedom means taking personal responsibility for what you do with those freedoms as well as fail to do in spite of them. We are individuals, but we are singular as much as we are plural.