Category: Announcements

Public service, alerts, and information that just needs to be known

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Safer at Home Order for Knox County

And Knox County is locked down.

“To further combat the spread of COVID-19, the Knox County Health Department has issued a Safer at Home Order — directing all residents of Knox County stay inside their homes, and immediately limit all movement outside of their homes beyond what is absolutely necessary to take care of essential needs.

…

YOU CAN …
• Go to the grocery, convenience or warehouse store
• Go to the pharmacy to pick up medications and other healthcare necessities
• Go to medical appointments (check with your doctor or provider first)
• Go to a restaurant for take-out, delivery or drive-thru
• Care for or support a friend or family member
• Take a walk, ride your bike, hike, jog and be in nature for exercise — just keep at least six feet between you and others.
• Walk your pets and take them to the veterinarian if necessary
• Help someone to get necessary supplies
• Receive deliveries from any business which delivers

YOU SHOULD NOT …
• Go to work unless you are providing essential services as defined by this Order
• • Visit friends and family if there is no urgent need
Maintain less than 6 feet of distance from others when you go out
• Visit loved ones in the hospital, nursing home, skilled nursing facility or other residential care facility, except for limited exceptions as provided on the facility websites.

Is this Order mandatory? What happens if I don’t comply?
Yes. This is a legally enforceable order.”

Read more

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Knoxville: Knox County Schools providing food to children

Emergency Feeding Information
While Knox County Schools is closed through April 3, 2020, out of concern over COVID-19, the district will be providing breakfast and lunch to any child 18 and under at no charge. Due to federal regulations, food cannot be distributed during an anticipated closure such as Spring Break; therefore, meal distribution will begin Monday, March 23, 2020.

Throughout the closure, meal distribution will occur on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 10 am-noon. The district will be providing two days’ worth of meals to be distributed on Monday and Wednesday, and a day’s worth of meals on Friday. Breakfast and lunch will be distributed at the same time.

The meals will be available at one of 25 designated emergency school feeding sites via drive-thru or walk-up for children to consume at home. There is no dine-in option. Children must be present to receive meals; however, families may pick up at any distribution site regardless of enrollment. Additionally, no proof of income is required. Extra meals cannot be provided if additional children are not present.

Distribution of meals will occur near the main entrance of each school feeding site. These include:

• Austin-East High School: 2800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Knoxville, TN 37914
• Bearden Middle School: 1000 Francis Road, Knoxville, TN 37909
• Bearden High School: 8352 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919
• Beaumont Magnet Academy: 1211 Beaumont Ave., Knoxville, TN 37921
• Belle Morris Elementary School: 2308 Washington Pike, Knoxville, TN 37917
• Carter High School: 210 N. Carter School Road, Strawberry Plains, TN 37871
• Central High School: 5321 Jacksboro Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918
• Dogwood Elementary School: 705 Tipton Ave., Knoxville, TN 37920
• East Knox Elementary School: 9315 Rutledge Pike, Mascot, TN 37806
• Fulton High School: 2509 N. Broadway, Knoxville, TN 37917
• Gibbs High School: 7628 Tazewell Pike, Corryton, TN 37721
• Green Magnet Academy: 801 Lula Powell Dr., Knoxville, TN 37915
• Gresham Middle School: 500 Gresham Road, Knoxville, TN 37918
• Halls High School: 4321 E. Emory Road, Knoxville, TN 37938
• Inskip Elementary School: 4701 High School Road, Knoxville, TN 37912
• Karns Middle School: 2925 Gray Hendrix Road, Knoxville, TN 37931
• Lonsdale Elementary School: 1317 Louisiana Ave., Knoxville, TN 37921
• Maynard Elementary School: 737 College Street, Knoxville, TN 37921
• Northwest Middle School: 5301 Pleasant Ridge Road, Knoxville, TN 37912
• Pond Gap Elementary School: 4530 Papermill Dr., Knoxville, TN 37909
• Powell High School: 2136 W. Emory Road, Powell, TN 37849
• Sarah Moore Greene Academy: 3001 Brooks Ave., Knoxville, TN 37914
• South-Doyle Middle School: 3900 Decatur Road, Knoxville, TN 37920
• South-Doyle High School: 2020 Tipton Station Road, Knoxville, TN 37920
• West High School: 3300 Sutherland Ave., Knoxville, TN 37919

We encourage families to continue to be proactive in reducing the risk of COVID-19 by not congregating at the school site.

More information related to the extended closure may be found at knoxschools.org/covid19update.

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A quick disclaimer about social media and live events

A quick disclaimer about social media and live events.

I recognize that the chance for some of the information I’m distributing could be inaccurate. For example, Arrowmont having burned…we now have pictures that most of the structures are still standing.

I hope most people know that social media brings awareness at the sacrifice of accuracy. Our sharing of information is second or third hand and anecdotal. I am 45 minutes to an hour and a half away from the fires. I am not witnessing any of this first hand.
The choice between posting these things is one of awareness versus accuracy. I’d rather put it out there and have people know what’s going on and what is at stake and make corrections later. I am not always good about including words like “second hand” and “unconfirmed” I think that’s all implied right now.

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Good light show coming…you just won’t be able to talk about it

Watch for some fascinating Northern Lights coming this Friday.

Satellites have just detected a powerful X1.6-class solar flare. The source was active sunspot AR2158, which is directly facing Earth. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash. Ionizing radiation from the flare could cause HF radio blackouts and other communications disturbances, especially on the day-lit side of Earth. In the next few hours, when coronagraph data from SOHO and STEREO become available, we will see if a coronal mass ejection (CME) emerges from the blast site. If so, the cloud would likely be aimed directly at Earth and could reach our planet in 2 to 3 days.

[Source, Slashdot, X-Class Solar Flare Coming Friday]

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R.I.P. HipDial

Another free service bites the dust.

Hiya,

I wanted to let you know personally, that we’re discontinuing the free HipDial service one week from now on September 17th. It turned out that it wasn’t economical to give the service away for free, after all. If you’re not interested in using HipDial moving forward, you can safely ignore this email.

If you’d like, I can set you up with a month-long free trial of our paid service, at a specially discounted rate of $9/month (instead of $19). Just send me a quick response to this email and I’ll get you set up. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or if there’s anything else I can do for you.

Cheers, Jonas

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March 20 – International Day of Happiness

For you sadsacks out there, today is International Day of Happiness. Perk up! Let’s spread some joy.

"Happiness may have different meanings for different people. But we can all agree that it means working to end conflict, poverty and other unfortunate conditions in which so many of our fellow human beings live."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message for the International Day of Happiness, 20 March 2014

[Source, un.org]

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RIP Google Latitude

I loved the concept of a mapping service that would show me where my friends and family were in real time. In use though, it never really worked so I’m not surprised to see Google shutdown Latitude. I’m still disappointed. I saw such opportunity. Perhaps Waze will make up for it.

Google Latitude was retired on August 9th, 2013. Products retired include Google Latitude in Google Maps for Android, Latitude for iPhone, the Latitude API, the public badge, the iGoogle Gadget, and the Latitude website at maps.google.com/latitude.

[Source, Google, Latitude has been retired]

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Help Me Internet, You’re Our Only Hope

American Seating Envoy DeskAn American Seating Envoy school desk sits in our dining room. Our children used to study here. As an authentic school desk, it had seen its fair amount of usage. Years of students leaning on the desk stressed the weld and bent the support. As Cathy refinished the wood and re-painted the metal, I searched for someone to straighten or replace the support and spot weld the broken joint. A friend stepped up, and offered to handle it for me. American Seating Co. Envoy desk from Grand Rapids, MichiganAnd then I never saw the desktop again…

His job changed. He quit coming to the coffee house where we shared more conversations. Then he quit answering my calls and text messages. 17I suspect that the desktop is history. So I turn to you, the people of the Internet!

Can you help me find a replacement desktop for an American Seating Co. Envoy desk from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I do not know the year of manufacture. The only identifying mark beside the manufacturer stamp is the number 17 stamped on the back. Do you know this desk? Do you have a resource to help me replace the top? Thank you Internet!

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Revolution3 Triathlon in Knoxville May 5

This Sunday, May 5, a triathlon will happen in Knoxville which includes a $50,000 purse.
Competitors will swim up river from Volunteer Landing (evading the floating bodies at Calhoun’s) just past First Creek, turn around and swim down to Second Creek. From Second Creek they will bike to the Gay Street Bridge then to John Sevier Highway and back downtown (24 miles). The run will be along the Neyland Dr Greenway, through Tyson Park, continuing down Third Creek Greenway, all the way down Cherokee Blvd, and back ending at the World’s Fair Park.

See more at the rev3tri website.