The anti-vaxxer left and flat earth movement folk make not such strange bedfellows as if turns out.
The second one sounds dumb. But, you can still wash your hands. But, Iām doing too much grunching.
I was wondering about the New York factor (population density - subway) and looked at prior year flu deaths.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/flu_pneumonia_mortality/flu_pneumonia.htm
New York isnāt always the worst, but it is generally among the worst. (not saying this is the flu ā just looking for something that spreads in a similar way)
The virologist in the second quote said she is not worried at all about catching the virus from things like food packaging. I do think you should wash your hands after unpacking the food, but I also think thatās in the category of an abundance of caution. The chance you will actually catch the virus off a surface like that is already extremely small.
I will drop it now, but Iāll say that my argument is that you are being miles too liberal in extrapolating from āvirus detectable on surfaces after x hoursā to actually acquiring the virus. Even if itās on the surface, it has to somehow get into your respiratory tract, and if you dispose of the packaging, wipe the surface it was on with disinfectant, and then thoroughly wash your hands, it canāt do that. Thinking about it logically delivers the same result as expert opinion. I think youāre vastly underestimating how much more convoluted your proposed method of transmission is than āsomeone coughs out a big chunk of live virus and you breathe it inā. Despite how breathtakingly (hur hur) simple and easy that transmission route is and despite the fact that people are contagious for days at a time, the R0 with no containment is only like 4 or whatever. Youāre proposing a series of transmission steps each of which is very unlikely at best and some of which (survival of handwashing) are damn near impossible. When you multiply all this out youāre going to get like a trillion to one.
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Stanford is like the UPenn of the pandemic.
So China has reportedly banned something like a third of Australiaās meat exports to China for āinspection violationsā in what appears to be revenge for Australiaās recent criticism of China for not cooperating with the global community on COVID. The response of senior government officials has been subdued, trying to play it down, but check out this guy, a government MP who is probably best described as a deplorable of the educated middle class variety:
But Liberal-Nationals MP George Christensen said it was clear enough what was going on.
āItās a bastard act,āā he told news.com.au.
āMy understanding is itās about a third of Australiaās meat exports to China.
āItās just wrong. China has just gone into full, bullying, threatening, coercion mode. Thatās what I think.
The Queensland MP said China had questions to answer on the spread of the coronavirus.
But rather than engage in a ātit for tatā diplomatic debate he urged Australia to use the Chinese-owned Port of Darwin as a bargaining chip.
āThereās a lot of questions being raised now about the Port of Darwin,āā he said.
āThere is a clear clause in it that says at any point in time itās deemed to be a national security issue that contract is null and void
āThey are positioning thrembsleves directly against us and against our national interests. Certainly, there are bargaining chips out there, like the Port of Darwin.ā
Earlier, Mr Christensen told Parliament: āWe can keep giving into Communist Chinaās threats, or we can stand up for our sovereignty and our economic independence.ā
āWith more than 36 per cent of our exports being sold to China, representing 7.9 per cent of our GDP, itās clear we have put too many eggs in the one basket,āā he said.
āBeing so entangled with an authoritarian regime has left our nation open to economic blackmail and boycotts like that mooted by Chinaās ambassador and the actions against our barley and beef exports.ā
So thatās fun.
To be fair, itās not like heās wrong about our strategic dependence on China. Iām not sure what is gained by saying all this publicly, though.
I have no idea how people who have been smoking for 30 years successfully quit.
I smoked while living in China for a couple of years and I was having nicotine cravings months afterwards. Physical withdrawal effects lasted a couple of weeks and I maxed out at only half a pack a day. Was never a 2 pack per day smoker.
The MP for the Philippines!
I did it after several abortive attempts, one of which even lasted two years.
I had to find it slightly physically nauseous before I finally managed it. Well, that and my dad dying of lung cancer. 
Iām giving it a go.
Smoked for nearly 40 years ~30g pouch a week. Stopped for 9 months a decade or so ago but drifted back into it.
On the 8th Feb this year I looked into my empty pouch with 1 smokes worth left and decided that would be the last one - just wasnāy enjoying it. Havenāt bought any since and thatās where Iām focussing - just donāt buy any.
Still have the odd bong hit for the other but tobacco is not in the mix now. Whether I can keep it up who knows but Iām not climbing walls.
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Quel surprise. Bone-headed right wing ārockerā, notorious for buying up a noisy pub near his house just to close it down, is a bigot.
Nice riposteā¦
https://twitter.com/bornmiserable/status/1260045153374359553
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Thatās why you gotta listen to Springsteen.
Yikes. The last I heard of Bryan Adams was when my sister was into him in like 1993 when she was 15. I had no idea about his political opinions and sort of assumed he was a leftie as many musicians are.
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Went, with 3 others, to Microsoft TechEd 2000 in Amsterdam - huge week long conference - and for the final night they booked the Ajax stadium and Bryan Adams. Our boss couldnāt understand why none of us gave a shit and spent the evening at the Greenhouse.
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Thatās a perfect boss story. Why are so many of them completely clueless about standard things?
Sue was great - just awful taste in music.
I remember one who tried to coerce me into going to some godawul military parade he had tickets to (as an ex member of the armed forces), when it was obvious to everyone else in the department it wouldnāt be my thing.
A group of us were once, in the mid 90s, at a mangerās house for after meal drinks and someone suggested (lol) he put some music on. āOur CDs are there, you can choose one if you likeā he replied, pointing at a single, sparsely populated CD rack containing about 5 CDs of 80s pop and nothing else. LOL no thanks.
That will always annoy me. British pubs are more than just places for randoms to drink and often have histories that go back a long way.