The Virus

[Cookedj]

The hysteria has hit our school system. There is no logic or reasoning with them, because "they saw on a snap story......."

[sgphoto]

Those who think it will be over in two weeks and is hysteria won't.

Ferchrissakes. This is incorrect, and I believe is a deliberate part of your agenda. Nobody is saying it will be over in two weeks. What the experts - practically all of them - are saying is that you self-isolate for two weeks. If your symptoms are less than severe you will have survived the virus (if you had it) and are not likely to get reinfected. This is a major factor in the concept of containment. If everybody who has symptoms self-isolates then it limits the spread of the disease. It's not that hard to understand.

My agenda is to provide information for those who want to know more. Your agenda seems to continually be in a pissing contest with anyone who doesn't swallow your claptrap about everything. I'm done with you.

I'll give you this. You are in fact, 'The Biggest Pisser.' Put that on your hat next to "World's Biggest Wanker."

Your accolades continue to grow.

[welch]

Wife and I are retired, and, in NYC, it means I can audit classes at City College for free, and, for some reason, Columbia lets retirees in my neighborhood audit for free, also. Last week, Columbia ordered all classes to meet on-line, and yesterday the entire City University did the same.

Our eager young professor at CCNY wrote this morning that "this will be a great time to curl up with a cup of coffee and Nietzsche"...it's a class on Freddie N. Still not the same as being around a roomful of young kids who have done the readings!

In addition, there are many lectures on YouTube, so we've got to make the best of it.

[welch]

This afternoon, Mayor DiBlasio, mayor of NY City, said that he is calling a state of emergency. Governor Cuomo has done the same for upstate. DiBlasio said he expects as many as 1,000 cases in the city by the end of next week. He also expects this whole thing to last as much as six months, and that it will take another six months to recover from all the damage -- health, economic, and everything else.

At least the Mayor is not puffing fantasies at us.

[dneal]

People of the earth: for the love of god, stop buying up all the toilet paper. It will not save you from anything. WTF are you thinking?


6B18FE26-B917-4E0C-9C4D-E1A5D76D8502.jpeg

[Pterodactylus]

A preppers life these days by https://www.deviantart.com/ptero-pterodactylus on @DeviantArt by Ptero Pterodactylus on DeviantArt

(Pilot Parallel Pen 1.5)

Yesterday I had an odd experience.
I went out for shopping for the weekend.
Planned to make spaghetti at weekend and buy some minced meat, onions and spaghetti noodles.

It started when I arrived at the big supermarket, almost got no place to park my car.
A huge amount of peope were at the market and bought stuff as there´s no tomorrow.
I never saw something like this, it was completely surreal.

It is amazing how less it takes that many panic and do irrational things.
Many bought a ridiculous amount of groceries.

As noodles, minced meat and onions were out of stock, not to mention flour, condenced milk, and many other things I bought some some pork filet for weekend (most likely too expensive for the hoarders) instead.

Wait, also the most important article were of course also out of stock,.... toilet paper..... preppers favorite product.


What concerned me much more than some stuff were out of stock temporarily because of the hoarders was that I had to wait at least half an hour at the checkout and some reckless and irresponsible people coughed into the surrounding as tough nothing had happened.


I´m sure we can have our spaghetti next week when things are restocked, but the peoples unsocial behavior and ruthlessness really shocked me.

[sgphoto]

One of the serious points to make about the current pandemic is the value of social distancing. Here's a hypothetical example.

A doctor has 100 adult patients. For the sake of clarity let's say all of them will get the virus. If social distancing isn't practiced, 60% of patients will get the virus within 2 weeks, 25% in another week, and the remaining 15% over the next months.

As you can see the doctor, hospitals, medical supplies, and medical staff will be overwhelmed in the first month leading to a potential breakdown of medical care.

If social distancing (6 feet apart, personal hygiene, staying home, etc) is practiced, the same number of people will still be infected but it will be spread out over weeks and months putting less strain on medical care with the additional advantage of giving researchers time to gain knowledge and better techniques in dealing with the virus.

That is called 'flattening the curve." It works.

Every person who uses social distance and prevents or delays personal infection allows medical care to assist those who have the infection.

It also means that if or when you become infected that medical care will probably be there for you.

It's very simple; not convenient, not easy, not what any person wants - but it is simple and can go a long way to preventing the curve from breaking the medical care community.

Good luck.
Sg

[Scrawler]

A preppers life these days by https://www.deviantart.com/ptero-pterodactylus on @DeviantArt by Ptero Pterodactylus on DeviantArt

(Pilot Parallel Pen 1.5)

Yesterday I had an odd experience.
I went out for shopping for the weekend.
Planned to make spaghetti at weekend and buy some minced meat, onions and spaghetti noodles.

It started when I arrived at the big supermarket, almost got no place to park my car.
A huge amount of peope were at the market and bought stuff as there´s no tomorrow.
I never saw something like this, it was completely surreal.

It is amazing how less it takes that many panic and do irrational things.
Many bought a ridiculous amount of groceries.

As noodles, minced meat and onions were out of stock, not to mention flour, condenced milk, and many other things I bought some some pork filet for weekend (most likely too expensive for the hoarders) instead.

Wait, also the most important article were of course also out of stock,.... toilet paper..... preppers favorite product.


What concerned me much more than some stuff were out of stock temporarily because of the hoarders was that I had to wait at least half an hour at the checkout and some reckless and irresponsible people coughed into the surrounding as tough nothing had happened.


I´m sure we can have our spaghetti next week when things are restocked, but the peoples unsocial behavior and ruthlessness really shocked me.

You have to buy as much as you can before the vultures get there and leave nothing. I managed to get 40 pounds of coffee. I did think of others and left 2 bags, not like everyone else who takes everything.

[countrydirt]

As this pandemic develops, it does seem like we are getting more information that is starting to look valid from a public health perspective. I'm a high school teacher. Our state athletic association shut down all spring sport practices and games until April 6 as well as cancelling the state basketball tournament. Our county had the first positive case of Covid-19 confirmed today. The two school districts in our county met this morning and made the decision to shut down for an additional week prior to the scheduled spring break. It appears likely that most schools in Colorado will do the same. I've had several out of state meetings and conferences rescheduled into video conferences.

Unlike some teachers in our district, I'm not necessarily jumping for joy. I've had students preparing for judging contests for the past month and those have been cancelled, even though the contests, scheduled for April and May, have already been cancelled. I woke up really early today, in sort of a froth over this impending shut-down and am still not calmed down.

However, on a good note, we will still have a weigh-in for our county fair steers this afternoon. We've already been told to not shake hands with people when they come in and unload their cattle. I expect I will wear gloves and shake hands anyway - not nytrile gloves, but leather work gloves. We already have trees pollinating here and allergy season is started, so it is a real struggle not to touch my itchy eyes. Guess if I get some cowshit on my gloves, I probably won't try to rub my eyes.

[FredRydr]

...Guess if I get some cowshit on my gloves, I probably won't try to rub my eyes.

You'd only get madcow.

[jar]

...Guess if I get some cowshit on my gloves, I probably won't try to rub my eyes.

You'd only get madcow.

You get a mad cow if you try to rub some shit in its eyes.

[manoeuver]

Hey Pen Friends! Checking in with some insights and updates.

A week or so ago I was asking questions about the possibility that the Corona bug was a human-altered virus.
Since then I've been reading and listening and having face -to-face conversations that have greatly eased those fears.

One tidbit was the Rogan podcast with Michael Osterholm. Osterholm talked about how nature is much better at building new terrible viruses than people are.

Yesterday I had a long chat with a customer in my shop. I asked him about his army career and he told me he was SIGINT, or Signal Intelligence. His role was interpreting intercepted communications and recommending strategy to decision makers.

What a gift of a conversation we had. There were lots of interesting twists and turns, but the main point was that this virus doesn't check any of the boxes he'd expect to see for a bioweapon. That was really a huge relief for me.

In short, I actively tried to find out if I was wrong, sought good information, and adjusted my thinking. Turns out I was wrong. Now I'm slightly less wrong. Feels good, highly recommended.

[ethernautrix]

Poland's closing its borders to foreign visitors as of tomorrow (March 15) for two weeks. Going into lockdown mode.

[guyy]

This afternoon, Mayor DiBlasio, mayor of NY City, said that he is calling a state of emergency. Governor Cuomo has done the same for upstate. DiBlasio said he expects as many as 1,000 cases in the city by the end of next week. He also expects this whole thing to last as much as six months, and that it will take another six months to recover from all the damage -- health, economic, and everything else.

At least the Mayor is not puffing fantasies at us.

He's not closing the public schools, though. The biggest schools have nearly 5,000 people in the building & students and teachers are travelling from all over to get to them. I don't know what he's thinking, and i'm not t sure why Cuomo isn't going over his head, either.

[Chuck Naill]

Hey Pen Friends! Checking in with some insights and updates.

A week or so ago I was asking questions about the possibility that the Corona bug was a human-altered virus.
Since then I've been reading and listening and having face -to-face conversations that have greatly eased those fears.

One tidbit was the Rogan podcast with Michael Osterholm. Osterholm talked about how nature is much better at building new terrible viruses than people are.

Yesterday I had a long chat with a customer in my shop. I asked him about his army career and he told me he was SIGINT, or Signal Intelligence. His role was interpreting intercepted communications and recommending strategy to decision makers.

What a gift of a conversation we had. There were lots of interesting twists and turns, but the main point was that this virus doesn't check any of the boxes he'd expect to see for a bioweapon. That was really a huge relief for me.

In short, I actively tried to find out if I was wrong, sought good information, and adjusted my thinking. Turns out I was wrong. Now I'm slightly less wrong. Feels good, highly recommended.

Why would you consider this person a definitive source?

[jrthemoon]

PLEASE can someone tell me what this fascination is with toilet paper is it a fetish thing ?


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[Cookedj]

PLEASE can someone tell me what this fascination is with toilet paper is it a fetish thing ?


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Got no clue. I can understand cleaning supplies to a point, but you don't need 67 gallons of bleach and 70 packs of paper towels.

[Scrawler]

PLEASE can someone tell me what this fascination is with toilet paper is it a fetish thing ?


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The hallmark of civilization is how far we can get away from our own waste. The end of TP marks the end of civilization for some. The implications for the world a few days after the last rolls are produced are enormous.

[sgphoto]

Remember in the public latrines in Rome, sponges were tied to sticks.

Costco just announced all stores are out of sponges and sticks.

However, emergency supplies of corn cobs are being rushed from the Midwest to all their stores.

It could be rough going for some.

Sg

[junglejim]

The hallmark of civilization is how far we can get away from our own waste. The end of TP marks the end of civilization for some. The implications for the world a few days after the last rolls are produced are enormous.

I guess that would trigger a mad rush for leaves on trees?

"Future Updated news: Millions of acres of trees have been suddenly denuded over the past week as people all over the world look for some form of replacement for non-existent toilet paper. Carbon dioxide levels are rising rapidly and oxygen levels fall as a result of this tragic loss. More news at eleven, but first a message from our advertisers."