Friday Ephemera
Bit nippy out. || Banana-related breakthrough of note. || She does this better than you do. || His knife is sharper than yours. || Passionate exchanges. || Script Doctor recaps Picard with suitable ruthlessness: “Too bad the writers don’t think beyond the surface of their own ideas.” || Intriguing odour detected. || Disappointing soap. (h/t, Perry) || Upscale toasting. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Restaurant scenes. || Nommy nommy nom. || The thrill of sorting nails. || Achievement unlocked. || 85,000 British Pathé newsreels, 1910-2008. || A brief history of the URL. || Ice resurfacing simulator. || I did not know this. || Hands up if you own one. || Folded paper. || And finally, a slaughterhouse-related mishap.
?? Huh??
A British Jew is waiting in line to be knighted by the Queen. He is to kneel in front of her and recite a sentence in Latin when she taps him on the shoulders with her sword. However, when his turn comes, he panics in the excitement of the moment and forgets the Latin. Then, thinking fast, he recites the only other sentence he knows in a foreign language, which he remembers from the Passover seder:
“Ma nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot.”
Puzzled, Her Majesty turns to her advisor and whispers, “Why is this knight different from all other knights?
“And of course not making a decision is in effect making a decision.”
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
– N. Peart
I’m not certain, but I think we’ve had that classical music comment piece here before. I seem to remember a comment along the lines of “Modulation is difficult and that’s a problem”, or some such like.
No, at the least these social distancing measures will flatten the curve so the medical system will be better able to handle it.
I’m not convinced that flattening the curve is as desirable as its proponents make it out to be. Consider: under this plan, we’re all to be isolated for months, stuck at home with no sports or musical concerts or live entertainment of any sort to keep us entertained and distracted. No travel, no night out at the pub — nothing at all to do, except for the occasional dash to the market to purchase another gross of toilet tissue. The economy will stall, as any business where six or more employees or customers might gather closes its doors. All of this in an effort to prolong the misery to such an extent that our health care providers are stretched to the limit, but not beyond.
The alternative is that we all go about our regular business as usual. Shops and pubs stay open; the Prem and the Six Nations get on with their matches. Nobody gets sequestered at home with their spouse and children whom they love dearly, but not 24-hours-a-day dearly. As a result, the contagion spreads out of control. Our poor hospitals are stretched beyond endurance, forced to triage their patients and make heartbreaking decisions about who gets treatment and who gets sent home “to be made as comfortable as possible.” Under this scenario, sad to say, a lot of OAPs die an early (but honestly, not that early!) death.
Me? I’ll take the pull-the-bandage-off-quickly route. I get to keep my footy, and my pub, and my job, and my marriage. The misery is profound but acute, with the worst over in a matter of weeks instead of months. With a bit of luck, the economy and stock market make a quick recovery, and even if they don’t, at least my liability for public pensions and geriatric health care is significantly reduced. And just think of all the small homes and spots in nursing homes that will be freed up, and the effect that will have on affordability. There’s so much silver lining here that one would be forgiven for losing sight of the dark clouds!
I realize this plan may rub a lot of people the wrong way, but I tried very earnestly to warn them that putting me on the hook for their health care costs meant turning over the decision-making that goes with that care and those costs, so I honestly don’t think I can be painted as the Bad Guy here.
under this plan, we’re all to be isolated for months
I hope we end up with policies somewhere between the two extremes: as the amount of social distancing is increased from zero to total, the speed of transmission slows, so why not a middle-ground policy that provides a useful degree of flattening while allowing business etc to function?
Not that I am an infectious disease expert with authoritative opinions…
OK, real world example (shit jus’ got real) and now I’m personally in a very minor decision making position. A resident in my home owner’s association owns rental homes in a neighboring association. As such he is president of one of those HOAs. He has just notified me that whereas “our maintenance people don’t have a supply of Lysol to clean the chairs, tables & bathrooms twice per day the same as labs or specialty areas” he is closing that association’s swimming pool. Because of this he suggests we (I) do the same. It’s a board decision but personally, I’m not voting to do so. This locking people in their homes is a huge overreaction to the degree of problem here and I firmly believe, beyond what G’vnor Squid jokingly states, that this “cure” is far worse than the disease. If the local board of health closes it, well nothing I can do about it. But I’m not giving in to this overreaction and panic.
To what was said earlier that “no decision is a decision”, yes it is. But furthermore one must consider ALL the consequences of making sever decisions like what we are seeing today. And be perfectly clear about this, there is NO human being smart enough to understand the ramifications of unleashing such a shutdown of a significant part of the economy. Nor can even a police state, let alone a state governing even the weak-willed free people of the English speaking world, can realistically implement such draconian measures. People will tolerate such for a short period of time but the longer such a thing goes on, the more they will cheat on it. Western society, for all its faults, still has a culture of some degree of personal freedom that will not easily be suppressed. Especially in the context of virus.
When they enter the pool area, aren’t people already assuming the responsibility/liability of not drowning? Just throw an asterisk on the sign saying they promise not to get sick while they’re at it.
NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY
NO RUNNING
NO DIVING
* No giving anyone the Wuha^H^H^H^H Covid
Haven’t heard from out attorney yet, but according to our management company, attorneys for other associations are telling them to close their pools.
So there you have it. Not even the somewhat-accountable-to-elected-officials-accountable-to-their-constituents health department need to intervene. We are now ruled by the unelected law scum. Fucking bastards.