[Kyanos]

Guess which dystopian future video game this is from?

[ck3D]

Meanwhile, in order to 'better enforce the lockdown', my country just invested eight million into surveillance drones and new weaponry for police officers that, given the current circumstances, they have the right to bear even off duty (which has already resulted in 'incidents' such as one off-duty officer shooting their noisy neighbor one night to then post the photos himself on Snapchat). Fuck out of here with this absolute bullshit is the only thought that can cross my mind right now.

[Kyanos]

Nothing ever spooked me out more than the one night I was "buzzed" by a drone will walking. I hate those things.

[ck3D]

Those actually confront you with pre-recorded messages and call the police on you if you're not moving. I had seen this type of stuff before, say, in Japan with speakers and whatnot directly integrated into the design of public outdoor plazas, but this is a new low, especially in the hands of a society that's clearly not as sophisticated as Japan's - my people are barbarians in comparison and probably shouldn't get close to such fire. But that's only one element out of many that make me think an actual revolution here has been building up for some years now. I wouldn't exactly like to see that at all, but our government is exposing way too many of its weaknesses right now and it doesn't look like the trust of the people, all cultural and social backgrounds considered, is ever coming back, so I'm having a harder and harder time envisioning an alternative outcome - we're fucked beyond belief.

I usually make it a point to never bring up politics online, that's how pissed I am.

[Kyanos]

Yeah, I don't go around censoring myself (too much) but the past few days I've been in full on fuckit mode circa 2015. The memetic battlefield of the 21st century will be a turning point in human history. Unfortunately many of my peers turn all too easily towards the gate, begging the keepers to protect them, all the while denying truths right in front of their faces. The gatekeepers are the ones they need protection from.

[Jeff]

Three employees at the grocery store where I shop became infected.

[Mark]

Don't feel guilty. I'm sure you didn't realise you were spreading it when you hoarded those last few rolls of toilet paper.

[High Treason]

Our grocery store seems to have given up on the whole queuing, distancing and hand washing thing, it was pretty much back to normal when I was there a couple of days back. Pet store is still hardly ever open and prone to barking orders though.

[ck3D]

High Treason, on 19 April 2020 - 10:43 AM, said:

Our grocery store seems to have given up on the whole queuing, distancing and hand washing thing, it was pretty much back to normal when I was there a couple of days back. Pet store is still hardly ever open and prone to barking orders though.

Here lockdown was recently extended by another month and as a consequence, a lot of shops that didn't have to close but still chose to do so for a short while for safety reasons are reopening, I'm guessing because they're panicking about finances (all the while the government is talking about raising all the taxes once this over, and the police is fining civilians like crazy, so I'm not surprised). People here in general are putting their guard down like it's a game they're tired of playing, and we even have politicians arguing that schools should be reopened ASAP on the basis of the idea that "four-year-olds can be educated about the virus" (...), but I've always established how shit my government was at handling the situation in a serious manner and not in a way that can be profited off, so (and don't even get me started on our ministers openly being lobbyists). It's weird, I feel like people are so used to getting constantly bombarded with images of panic and fake news in normal times that they barely consider the reality of things now, regardless of how critical said reality can be.

Something else that I find fucked is, the people I've observed going out the most right now pretending nothing is happening are the elderly, with some seeming sort of pride like they're happy that the world feels 'theirs' again. I'm not just worried about the consequences on themselves (they are grown-ups, usually more than me) but mostly about the impact on their families and whatnot, our own ignorance really fucking sucks.

[Danukem]

ck3D, on 19 April 2020 - 01:18 PM, said:

People here in general are putting their guard down like it's a game they're tired of playing

It seems like the isolation period has been largely a failure in most places. Yes, it did prevent the medical infrastructure from being overwhelmed (with some notable exceptions), but it seems that governments did not take advantage of the reprieve to accomplish enough to make the economic cost worthwhile. We still don't have enough testing for useful information about who has the virus and there is still no clear plan about how to proceed.

[Morpheus Kitami]

Trooper Dan, on 19 April 2020 - 02:40 PM, said:

It seems like the isolation period has been largely a failure in most places. Yes, it did prevent the medical infrastructure from being overwhelmed (with some notable exceptions), but it seems that governments did not take advantage of the reprieve to accomplish enough to make the economic cost worthwhile. We still don't have enough testing for useful information about who has the virus and there is still no clear plan about how to proceed.

Unfortunately, I think that's going to ring hollow with some people. There's quite a few hospitals that have laid off some of their staff. Doesn't matter why, some people hearing that is going to assume this isn't that big of a deal.

[Kyanos]

I saw the new string of satelites, about 20 seconds apart, not too high, not too too fast, pretty fast, at least 25 of them they were present when I got outside.

[Danukem]

Morpheus Kitami, on 19 April 2020 - 04:42 PM, said:

Unfortunately, I think that's going to ring hollow with some people. There's quite a few hospitals that have laid off some of their staff. Doesn't matter why, some people hearing that is going to assume this isn't that big of a deal.

If anyone deserves a bailout in the US, it would be hospitals. They are being forced to take unlimited numbers of COVID patients often with no compensation, and at the same time they can't perform the elective procedures (such as plastic surgery) that usually make a lot of money for them.

[Kyanos]

I don't care too much for that idea.
But here hospitals are in a constant bailout.
I guess we all get what we pay for.

[Danukem]

Photonic, on 21 April 2020 - 03:09 PM, said:

I guess we all get what we pay for.

Very, very few people get what they pay for from the government. They either get what other people pay for, or they get less. And increasingly, the other people are theoretical entities who will pay back the enormous debt at some future date.

[Outtagum]

Morpheus Kitami, on 19 April 2020 - 04:42 PM, said:

There's quite a few hospitals that have laid off some of their staff.

Probably because they spent more time goofing off on TikTok than actually working.

[Hank]

^ Fuck no. It's healthcrats assessing what is an essential service and what is not. Dentist are non essential, because they are private. Other private services are also not under the control of the healthcrats, and are deemed non essential. Not sure about NYC, will tell you in mid may, but my dentist in Toronto is closed and so is my lower back exercise trainer, also private. Quite essential for me, but hey ... it's just me.

[Radar]

Yeah but he still has a point. All the social media posts from "busy" hospital workers clearly show they aren't busy enough.

[Hank]

Well, and I happen to disagree. Yes, the media is fueling the fear mongering, visualizing dooms day scenarios, and the video you posted a while back was bang on, against that farce; BUT, hospital staff do have work to do, with or without this Wuhan Virus. Some health staff did not get laid off because they played video games, or just past the time otherwise, they got fired because heathcrats defined some medical procedures and the support staff non-essential.

[Danukem]

Quote

Preliminary results from New York's first coronavirus antibody study show nearly 14 percent tested positive, meaning they had the virus at some point and recovered, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. That equates to 2.7 million infections statewide -- more than 10 times the state's confirmed cases.
The study, part of Cuomo's "aggressive" antibody testing launched earlier this week, is based on 3,000 random samples from 40 locations in 19 counties. While the preliminary data suggests much more widespread infection, it means New York's mortality rate is much lower than previously thought.
As of Thursday, nearly 16,000 people in New York have died of virus-related complications. With 260,000-plus confirmed cases, the mortality rate would be as high as 6 percent. With 2.7 million cases, it would be around 0.5 percent -- much lower, though still much higher than the seasonal flu.

https://www.nbcnewyo...breaks/2386556/

This is consistent with other similar studies I have read. So the actual mortality rate is about 0.5%

Still no joke, about 5 times as deadly as the regular flu.

[Kyanos]

The second wave will reinfect. Antibodies don't work for these, or else we would have had a vacinne by now. Some preliminary leaks from wuhan showed reinfections to be more sudden and violent, more SARS like. Taiwan has some "official" documents about reinfection rates.

I am turning my opinion on the origin of this. I no longer believe it to be man made.

[Danukem]

Photonic, on 23 April 2020 - 02:30 PM, said:

The second wave will reinfect. Antibodies don't work for these, or else we would have had a vacinne by now. Some preliminary leaks from wuhan showed reinfections to be more sudden and violent, more SARS like. Taiwan has some "official" documents about reinfection rates.

I am turning my opinion on the origin of this. I no longer believe it to be man made.

"reinfection" could be any number of things. It could be the patient had a false negative when they seemed to be recovering but had the virus all along. They could also have been infected by a different strain later that their antibodies did not work against. Since we know it mutates rapidly and there are many different strains, this has implications. As with the common cold, it seems unlikely there can be a vaccine. Or, it could be like the flu where there is a vaccine every year that is updated to work against many of the strains going around, but not all of them.

[Mark]

Dan posted: Since we know it mutates rapidly and there are many different strains, this has implications
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I haven't been paying a lot of attention to this crisis and I'm wondering if something has changed. Maybe 3-4 weeks ago I heard a couple of the "experts" saying that the virus was ( luckily ) mutating very little and slowly.

[Danukem]

Mark, on 23 April 2020 - 03:16 PM, said:

Dan posted: Since we know it mutates rapidly and there are many different strains, this has implications
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I haven't been paying a lot of attention to this crisis and I'm wondering if something has changed. Maybe 3-4 weeks ago I heard a couple of the "experts" saying that the virus was ( luckily ) mutating very little and slowly.

There's a lot of conflicting information out there, and yes there are reports from a month or more ago talking about the low mutation rate. I've also heard the opposite.

https://www.newsweek...y-china-1499503

Quote

Yong Gia, from the Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, who was not involved in the study but is also researching SARS-CoV-2 and its potential mutations, said the latest findings "represent a significant contribution to our understanding of COVID-19."
He told Newsweek there are still many unanswered questions about the virus, and any findings or data should be valued. "Previously, scientists believed that [SARS-CoV-2] tends to mutate at a low rate, and suggested that we may not need to worry too much about vaccine development. The current study would make people rethink this. In fact, as the virus continues spreading and infecting a large population of people, the number of mutations would still accumulate to a high level, despite the low mutation rate."

So in this article, a scientists says that even if it has a low rate of mutation, the sheer number of copies being made guarantees that many mutaitons will accumulate. So...I'm not sure now. Maybe it is a low rate.

I also read a different article referring to a preliminary study claiming that there are now 30 strains. According to this, the strain prevalent in Europe and NY causing so many deaths is different from the one in CA and China causing fewer deaths. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I'll throw it onto the pile.

https://www.jpost.co...dy-finds-625333

[Jeff]

Haven't seen this in a long time:

[Mark]

How can that be. Thats about 43 cents American. Ours is way low too but still 3 times higher. Maybe our state and federal gas tax is way higher. It would be about 70 cents here without taxes.

[High Treason]

Trooper Dan, on 23 April 2020 - 03:29 PM, said:

There's a lot of conflicting information out there

And this is why I'm not even bothering to follow this thing, nobody knows what's going on so it's just a waste of my time, so I'll just get on with my welding project instead.




Gas prices are pissing me off, people keep telling me it's cheap but every time I go it has gone up, last time I went it had raised by 20%! Nobody has kerosene or 2-stroke oil in either, strangely no SAE30 oil too, so I guess I'll be mixing 10W-40 for a while as it's all I can get. Gonna send someone else to get my gas next time as I swear they crank the handle on the sign when they hear the 2-stroke coming, I'll even believe this if I roll up on the diesel in a few weeks only for the price to be low.

[Hank]

Mark, on 23 April 2020 - 04:49 PM, said:

How can that be. Thats about 43 cents American. Ours is way low too but still 3 times higher. Maybe our state and federal gas tax is way higher. It would be about 70 cents here without taxes.

Did you allow for liters vs gallons? The price shown is per liter.

[Danukem]

Low oil prices do not directly translate into low gasoline prices at the pump. It's a factor, but there are many other factors. The cost of processing the oil, distribution, paying workers, taxes... a lot of the costs are fixed. I would venture to guess the main reason we see gasoline prices dropping so much in the US is that people aren't driving as much so gas companies have to compete for the drivers who are left. I don't know what it's like in the UK but here in the US it's common to have competing gas stations across the street from each other. I'm pretty sure if they had any choice in the matter they would leave their prices high or even raise them.

[Mark]

No Hank, I forgetted dat. duh....