[Gorefest]

amphibian, on 21 March 2020 - 10:10 PM, said:

There is absolutely a point in this - that the people who said to not immediately start suppressing and social distancing were wrong and that immediate action needs to be taken. Make your listening choices accordingly.

There you go again with the right or wrong finger-pointing. So unnecessary and unfounded. We will not know what was right or wrong until 1-2 years from now. This is a viral epidemic, not an earthquake or a tsunami. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Areas that have started rigurous lockdowns from the start may still be hit hard after those measures get lifted (thdy are impossible to maintain indefinitely), plus not all countries have the ability or the infrastructure to react in a similar manner. E.g. South Korea already had experience and a good infrastructure from the MERs epidemic a few years ago. Many other countries need to create buy-in and preparation of their citizens, which takes time. My listening choice definitely wont be a broken record.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'"If we die, we die for Christ": Florida megachurch pastor encourages congregation to keep coming to service

[...] "Do you believe God would bring his people to his house to be contagious with the virus? Of course not," Maldonado, a Trump supporter, said to his congregation[...]

"This service is usually packed. So now they're home in a cave afraid of the virus, that you want to transmit the virus," Maldonado continued. The Herald noted the venue "appeared half empty."

[...] Maldonado was selected to pray for the president as part of the "Evangelicals for Trump" rally in January.'

https://www.alternet...2LyMNtwAPHg9a5I

'Will spring breakers become super-spreaders?

As Florida officials move to expel the hundreds of thousands of spring breakers who ignored calls for social distancing, public-health specialists are nervously wondering what will happen once the party's over.

For much of this week, revelers continued to cram four and five to a hotel room, swarm beaches over hundreds of miles of coastline, and then gather shoulder-to-shoulder in bars and clubs – almost a model process for spreading contagious diseases.

Now, with their campuses likely shuttered, most spring breakers will return to hometowns across the country where any exposure to coronavirus could set off a contagion, public-health experts warned.'

https://www.politico...onavirus-140609

'Coronavirus May Mean Automation Is Coming Sooner Than We Thought

[...] Xing referenced a CNN article about why toilet paper, of all things, is one of the items people have been panic-buying most (I, too, have been utterly baffled by this phenomenon). But maybe there'd be less panic if we knew more about the production methods and supply chain involved in manufacturing toilet paper. It turns out it's a highly automated process (you can learn more about it in this documentary by National Geographic) and requires very few people (though it does require about 27,000 trees a day—so stop bulk-buying it! Just stop!).

The supply chain limitation here is in the raw material; we certainly can't keep cutting down this many trees a day forever. But—somewhat ironically, given the Costco cartloads of TP people have been stuffing into their trunks and backseats—thanks to automation, toilet paper isn't something stores are going to stop receiving anytime soon.

Automation For All
Now we have a reason to apply this level of automation to, well, pretty much everything.

Though our current situation may force us into using more robots and automated systems sooner than we'd planned, it will end up saving us money and creating opportunity[...]

[...] "This is an opportunity for automation to happen at the last mile," said Xing. Delivery drones, robots, and autonomous trucks and vans could all play a part. In fact, use of delivery drones has ramped up in China since the outbreak.

Speaking of deliveries, service robots have steadily increased in numbers at Amazon; as of late 2019, the company employed around 650,000 humans and 200,000 robots—and costs have gone down as robots have gone up.

ARK Invest's research predicts automation could add $800 billion to US GDP over the next 5 years and $12 trillion during the next 15 years. On this trajectory, GDP would end up being 40 percent higher with automation than without it.

[...] tools like DataRobot and H2O.ai are democratizing artificial intelligence by allowing almost anyone, not just data scientists or computer engineers, to run machine learning algorithms. People are codifying the steps in their own repetitive work processes and having their computers take over tasks for them.

As 3D printing gets cheaper and more accessible, it's also being more widely adopted, and people are finding more applications (case in point: the Italians mentioned above who figured out how to cheaply print a medical valve for coronavirus treatment).'

https://singularityh...CgAQm5HfGxibrW4

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 22 March 2020 - 03:00 AM

[amphibian]

Gorefest, on 22 March 2020 - 02:19 AM, said:

amphibian, on 21 March 2020 - 10:10 PM, said:

There is absolutely a point in this - that the people who said to not immediately start suppressing and social distancing were wrong and that immediate action needs to be taken. Make your listening choices accordingly.

There you go again with the right or wrong finger-pointing. So unnecessary and unfounded. We will not know what was right or wrong until 1-2 years from now. This is a viral epidemic, not an earthquake or a tsunami. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Areas that have started rigurous lockdowns from the start may still be hit hard after those measures get lifted (thdy are impossible to maintain indefinitely), plus not all countries have the ability or the infrastructure to react in a similar manner. E.g. South Korea already had experience and a good infrastructure from the MERs epidemic a few years ago. Many other countries need to create buy-in and preparation of their citizens, which takes time. My listening choice definitely wont be a broken record.

This is twice as communicable as the "regular" influenza and the mortality rate has already been gone over many times. Something like 18% of those who get it require intensive care. There are asymptomatic carriers as well.

There are not enough respirators and masks and protective gear now. But whatever measures we can take to reduce the speed at which this rips through our populations we need to do immediately. Singapore went on complete lockdown and contained it. That can't be done with much larger countries, but it would help slow the spread.

This is not a marathon until May. This is a marathon until maybe the winter or beyond. This is a situation where huge swathes of the elderly and many younger ones will die or experience permanent effects unless we do everything we can to slow the spread.

If I'm wrong, come out of your isolation and yell at me all you want. I'll pay you $150 if you need money. I can't promise more than that, but it's a real promise. Stay home, do what you can to personally minimize the spread.

[amphibian]

Read this article that lays out how Italy's slow response led to disaster: https://www.nytimes....pgtype=Homepage

A cogent line from it says that at first Italy looked at what happened in China as though it wasn't real and now Europe looks at Italy as though it isn't real.

[Mezla PigDog]

You are saying this to people who are isolated and taking sensible steps, Amph. I've been out of my house twice in a week. Gorefest is still working as he's doing covid stuff. Save your shit for people who aren't listening to the advice - go and find them and tell them that they are doomed rather than act like a broken record here. Is saying that we are fucked making you feel better about your own situation or something?

[Tsundoku]

A cool, very simple graphic about social distancing:

https://www.facebook...13438998966536/

It's amazing how quickly new terms slide into our lexicon. Directly proportional to context I guess.

EDIT: Aaaaaaaaaand the AFL season is on hold (after just one round) until at least late May. Two World Wars couldn't do that. What Will Loki Do?
I guess we'll see what the NRL does now. They've had two rounds so far.
I'm pretty sure Super Rugby shut down. Then what about the A-League (soccer)? Then again, both of them didn't have much in the way of crowds or viewers anyway.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 22 March 2020 - 08:23 AM

[Macros]

Shit I didn't realised so many fuckwits still went and did spring break.
And those mega church quotes.


Truly humanity is fucking stupid

[Imperial Historian]

amphibian, on 22 March 2020 - 03:09 AM, said:

Gorefest, on 22 March 2020 - 02:19 AM, said:

amphibian, on 21 March 2020 - 10:10 PM, said:

There is absolutely a point in this - that the people who said to not immediately start suppressing and social distancing were wrong and that immediate action needs to be taken. Make your listening choices accordingly.

There you go again with the right or wrong finger-pointing. So unnecessary and unfounded. We will not know what was right or wrong until 1-2 years from now. This is a viral epidemic, not an earthquake or a tsunami. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Areas that have started rigurous lockdowns from the start may still be hit hard after those measures get lifted (thdy are impossible to maintain indefinitely), plus not all countries have the ability or the infrastructure to react in a similar manner. E.g. South Korea already had experience and a good infrastructure from the MERs epidemic a few years ago. Many other countries need to create buy-in and preparation of their citizens, which takes time. My listening choice definitely wont be a broken record.

This is twice as communicable as the "regular" influenza and the mortality rate has already been gone over many times. Something like 18% of those who get it require intensive care. There are asymptomatic carriers as well.

There are not enough respirators and masks and protective gear now. But whatever measures we can take to reduce the speed at which this rips through our populations we need to do immediately. Singapore went on complete lockdown and contained it. That can't be done with much larger countries, but it would help slow the spread.

This is not a marathon until May. This is a marathon until maybe the winter or beyond. This is a situation where huge swathes of the elderly and many younger ones will die or experience permanent effects unless we do everything we can to slow the spread.

If I'm wrong, come out of your isolation and yell at me all you want. I'll pay you $150 if you need money. I can't promise more than that, but it's a real promise. Stay home, do what you can to personally minimize the spread.

Amph you do realise who you are talking to right? Mez and gore have relevant experience and are involved in the industry. They know all about what you are talking about and probably have a different perspective as a result.

Your viewpoint is not wrong as they have repeatedly said but spreading words of doom isn't helping anyone. The simple truth is everyone is stumbling in the dark here, and decisions made with good intentions could be proved to be disastrous. I don't think anyone is taking the lessons of Italy lightly.

[Silencer]

Well, on the bright side of all this, I've been assured that my job will remain in place and operational throughout all of this.
No COVID shutdown for me.

Sure, we might stop doing home loans at some point, but apparently credit cards are far, far too important to our society to even consider shutting down our team.

So fear not, people. The spicecredit will flow.

*sigh*

[Macros]

One other silver lining.

We are bound to have enough people in lockdown now for a game of mafia

[Mezla PigDog]

I'm slightly ashamed by how many family members I have got around to get in touch with. I could have done it any time but it takes a global pandemic.

[Macros]

We're pretty tight as a family, have a WhatsApp group for both sets of cousins etc, but the banter on the group's then last few days has definitely been helping the parents amongst the groups who are in lockdown.
We're trying to organise a virtual engagement party for us all to get together via zoom or whatever

[QuickTidal]

Silencer, on 22 March 2020 - 12:15 PM, said:

Well, on the bright side of all this, I've been assured that my job will remain in place and operational throughout all of this.
No COVID shutdown for me.

Sure, we might stop doing home loans at some point, but apparently credit cards are far, far too important to our society to even consider shutting down our team.

So fear not, people. The spicecredit will flow.

*sigh*

There’s no chance to work from home or online for this?

[Lady Bliss]

Macros, on 22 March 2020 - 12:37 PM, said:

One other silver lining.

We are bound to have enough people in lockdown now for a game of mafia

YES!

[Lady Bliss]

Beaver Killia, on 22 March 2020 - 06:00 PM, said:

Rand Paul got the bug,

Past few days has made me wonder how any possible senate votes will take place. We know that job requires them to drop everything they could be doing to board a plane and get to that room to say yea or nay.

This doesn’t seem sensible at present.

There must be some kind of disaster recovery plan that allows them to work remotely. I’d hate to think that we have all our eggs in one basket.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Currently, senators vote in person on the Senate floor, where they indicate, frequently with the point of a finger, whether they will vote for or against something.

[Senators] Durbin and Portman argue that bringing all 100 senators back to Washington could go against Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance amid growing concerns about the possibility of the spread of coronavirus on Capitol Hill.

Setting up remote voting would require a change in the Senate rules. The proposal would give the Senate majority and minority leaders the ability to jointly authorize remote voting for 30 days. After that, the Senate would need to vote to reauthorize.'

https://thehill.com/...r-remote-voting

Not yet passed, though no doubt it will. However:

'Rand Paul [...] was the only senator to oppose a coronavirus relief package last month'

https://www.thedaily...avirus?ref=home

They need a quorum of 51 senators to hold a vote. Assuming Rand Paul won't be there, and they have to be physically present to vote on the rule change (hazmat suits should be allowed if necessary), they'd be better off voting without him.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 22 March 2020 - 07:00 PM

[Gorefest]

Pants, my wife developed a cough over the weekend. We are pretty sure it is completely unrelated to covid, but obviously we will be following the guidance so going into self-isolation for the next couple of weeks. I think we got enough food in the house to last us at least for a week and we will just book a home delivery or get my sister-in-law to provide a food shop. I should be able to coordinate activities from home, but I feel terrible for my team who now even have less hands on deck.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'White supremacists discussed plans to weaponize coronavirus via "saliva," a "spray bottle" or "laced items," according to a weekly intelligence brief distributed by a federal law enforcement division on Feb. 17. '

https://www.theguard...Alt3fl8tKquSRo8

Is that how Rand Paul got it? (Kidding. His libertarian secret lab only makes meth, and other self-regulated dental supplies.)

'“White Racially Motivated Violent Extremists have recently commented on the coronavirus stating that it is an ‘OBLIGATION’ to spread it should any of them contract the virus.”

[...] The intelligence brief, marked for official use only, noted the white supremacists “suggested targeting … law enforcement and minority communities, with some mention of public places in general.” According to the document, the extremists discussed a number of methods for coronavirus attacks, such spending time in public with perceived enemies, leaving “saliva on door handles” at local FBI offices, spitting on elevator buttons and spreading coronavirus germs in “nonwhite neighborhoods.”'

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 22 March 2020 - 08:13 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

Gorefest, on 22 March 2020 - 07:29 PM, said:

Pants, my wife developed a cough over the weekend. We are pretty sure it is completely unrelated to covid, but obviously we will be following the guidance so going into self-isolation for the next couple of weeks. I think we got enough food in the house to last us at least for a week and we will just book a home delivery or get my sister-in-law to provide a food shop. I should be able to coordinate activities from home, but I feel terrible for my team who now even have less hands on deck.

Oh bad luck. We're not isolating as we don't have symptoms but we are only going out for food shopping. I had a weirdly lovely weekend. Having our options limited has felt quite liberating. We haven't even watched much TV.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]