There oughta be a law against the variant of pillarbox presentation with blurred and dimmed portions of the portrait video at the margins. Who thought this up, and why?

They "solved" the chronic memory exhaustion problems by going to compelled updates that forced a browser restart. This was very annoying if one was trying to use Firefox for extended sessions (e.g. embedded system debug logs). Then after restart, you'd get a UI change with Pocket or some other spuriae interposed into the formerly familiar menu.

Don't forget Alexander Abian wanting to save Earth by blowing up the Moon. Also, I wonder if the dinette set is still available in New Jersey. atom atom atom

The problem is neither new, nor fully related to Covid.

I had contact with a chemistry professor, 4-year state university, circa 2006. Around 40% of the students in first semester general chemistry were lost to drop or fail. This course was a requirement for all sciences majors, and notably for pre-nursing. Enrollment is constrained by lab section seats.

The department instituted a qualifying examination, and a zero credit remedial course to give a second chance. The main skills deficits: algebra, and basic study habits. Second semester specifically requires facility with the quadratic formula for second order reaction rates.

"First hit's free" ... "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

Meanwhile, back in 1799:

"It is unfortunate when men cannot, or will not, see danger at a distance; or seeing it, are restrained in the means which are necessary to avert, or keep it afar off. I question whether the evil arising from the French getting possession of Louisiana and the Floridas would be generally seen, until it is felt; and yet no problem in Euclid is more evident, or susceptible of clearer demonstration—Not less difficult is it to make them believe, that offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence." -- George Washington, letter to John Trumbull

Now soliciting investments in my startup and/or motion picture: Cujonics.

Exactly the floor buffer event happened to my then company around 1989. This was followed some time later by the janitor's toddler pushing the temptingly lit colored button at toddler height. That button was the disk drive power switch.

Not quite. Streaming video typically begins with fetch of a manifest which offers several renditions of a given title at different encodings (resolution, bandwidth, baseline/HDR/Dolby Vision). The player selects an encoding that is compatible with available decoding features, resolution, and estimated link rate. It then pre-fetches segments into a buffer to cope with short term variations in content bulk versus transmission rate. It also can move up or down the list of available encoding rates according to observed transmission performance. On YouTube you can observe the succession of rate/resolution steps with "Stats for Nerds".

The large buffer is important for ordinary content, but introduces latency that is not compatible with realtime game video. A separate issue popularly termed "bufferbloat" also arises from latency introduced by buffering in routers and edge equipment.

(opens wallet)... "I see dead people."

Nixon at typewriter: “Memoirs, by Richard Nixon. Nineteen dollars and ninety-five cents.” [ he turns a page ] “Chapter One. I was born in the house my father built” --SNL 1978

I love the smell of Coppertone in the morning.

I would be more impressed if they leaked a viable source for a replacement hose for my Shark canister vacuum cleaner.

This sounds much like Oriana Fallaci's 2001 "The Rage and the Pride".

I have had 3 such alerts. One was a technical error where a moderate quake somewhere in Nevada triggered California alerts. One was a direct alert for my area (3 miles from one major fault) for what turned out to be light shaking almost immediately coincident with the alert. The third was for a larger quake offshore at a triple plate junction, which didn't do much at this distance, but which has caused significant shaking here in some previous events.

Recall that earthquakes generate several modes of wave propagation, with velocities dependent upon both the mode and the rock types. The initial P wave travels faster than the S, Love, and Rayleigh modes which carry the damaging and more prolonged shaking energy. An alert based upon the P wave jolt, can give useful warning, more warning time with increasing distance.