BreakPoint
Random Posts (An alternate to side discussions)
@Henrik_Volkers wrote:
How about spending some PC time for something maybe helpfull:
Sorry, I don't quite have the right hardware. 😄
(Side story: We actually collaborated and met with Cy Levinthal in the late eighties.)
This weekend things got worse here. All schools, daycares, restaurants and bars are closed. You can still bring your kid to school, if both parents have 'crucial' jobs (MDs, firepeople, police, infrastructure, media, the list is quite long (but programmers are not on it)).
Tried to do the groceries yesterday. No potatoes, no meat, no vegetables, almost no pastas or cans\jars. I managed to get meals for a week, by improvising. (Turned out there were potatoes just not pre-packaged; everybody overlooked them.) It was funny walking to the store, with people panicking, others just gazing at the empty shelves. Just started reading Kafka, so maybe that resonated a little...
Two hours later, the store got new supplies. Everything was normal again.
Search LabVIEW like a graph! BTW. Im sneezing and coughing and a bit feverish. So is my 3 year old. She was banned from daycare last week because she sneezed three times. Probably where she got it in the first place, but those are the rules.
Changes are small that it's corona, as only 6000 are officially infected (love statistics)! If it is corona, it's like the mildest flu ever, at least for us so far.
wiebe@CARYA wrote:
This weekend things got worse here. All schools, daycares, restaurants and bars are closed.
Ohio was the first state in the US to shut down dinning inside of restaurants and bars last night (many other states quickly followed suite). But schools were also shutdown (possibly through the rest of the school year). I overslept a little this morning, which would normally almost double my commute time, but traffic was about what I would normally see (ie about 2/3 of what traffic would normally be). But the office seems a lot more empty at this hour than normal. Luckily, we do have the option of working from home. Unfortunately, I am at the point in my project where I need to be working with hardware, so I really need to get into the office.
And I still don't understand why toilet paper is one of the biggest commodities at the moment.
Wiebe, what you describe pretty much jives with the research my wife has done on the COVID-19 symptoms. So it is likely you did get it. But unless we are testing everybody, it is really hard to state how many people actually got it and therefore what the death rate actually is. So South Korea may be the only place with accurate numbers (last I heard they were testing everybody, Ohio just threw out a guesstimation of 100k infected based on some infection rate, but less than 100 confirmed due to lack of testing capability until later this week).
@crossrulz wrote:And I still don't understand why toilet paper is one of the biggest commodities at the moment.
I have theories about that.
1) if everyone has to be at home unexpectedly, the need more toiletpaper than anticipated. So they go out and buy it.
2) the shelves with toiletpaper don't have as much toiletpaper as it looks. Over here, shelve space is expensive. With 10 brands of TP, each brand only has ~60 roles. If people take two 6 role packages, this only enough for 50 people. Of course once a shelve is at 30%, this triggers people to buy more. This is actually a trick supermarkets pull when there's no shortage.
3) the stores seem to have stocks in the back, but they can't bring it in, because all shelves are empty. The margins of TP might low, so it's no priority.
@crossrulz wrote:Wiebe, what you describe pretty much jives with the research my wife has done on the COVID-19 symptoms. So it is likely you did get it.
I'm not sure what I prefer.
If this is corona, I'm not worried. It's like a flu, but milder.
But if it's not what I have now will make me vulnerable for corona. So it's kind of a 'double or nothing' gamble.
Change of getting tested is 0, Unless you need to be hospitalized.
The estimate is 50% of us (Netherlands) will get it. The trick for now is to not get everyone sick at the same time. Reading between the line, they almost say they want people to get sick, so the are better and immune when the peak comes.
As I'm pretty average, haven't been traveling or know anybody that is sick, I wander if the peak is already here.
wiebe@CARYA wrote:The estimate is 50% of us (Netherlands) will get it. The trick for now is to not get everyone sick at the same time. Reading between the line, they almost say they want people to get sick, so the are better and immune when the peak comes.
As I'm pretty average, haven't been traveling or know anybody that is sick, I wander if the peak is already here.
It's all about "flattening the curve" around here to avoid what Italy is facing (hospitals overrun). But somebody told me this morning that the expected peak is in the April/May time frame (at least for the US).
@crossrulz wrote:
wiebe@CARYA wrote:The estimate is 50% of us (Netherlands) will get it. The trick for now is to not get everyone sick at the same time. Reading between the line, they almost say they want people to get sick, so the are better and immune when the peak comes.
As I'm pretty average, haven't been traveling or know anybody that is sick, I wander if the peak is already here.
It's all about "flattening the curve" around here to avoid what Italy is facing (hospitals overrun). But somebody told me this morning that the expected peak is in the April/May time frame (at least for the US).
I was going to post a 'flatten the curve" image, but the first site I found was that we shouldn't flatten the curve, but stop it. That seems to miss the entire point (that we can't stop it), but I decided not to post it.
I hope our peak is sooner, I have plans for May.
Remember that "the peak" follows what we are seeing now, and if the curve is as portrayed there will be a long tapering off, so it will be a while, I'm afraid, before we are out of this. Then there is a concern that there may be another bout this fall. We have had a number of travel plans we have had to cancel, was planning on Washington, DC this weekend, but even discounting the foolishness of traveling to a major metropolitan area, all of the museums, etc., are closed. Trying to reschedule the hotel package.
In May my father is scheduled to travel from Austin to NY state to attend his 75th reunion at the West Point Military Academy. They haven't cancelled it yet, which surprises me as they have extended "spring break" by 2 weeks for the cadets, and I am thinking having an event where many very elderly travel to meet (my dad is 98) would be a foolish thing. My sister is sweating trying to get money from the airline, she bought tickets worth $2300 for her, my dad and brother. She says she bought travel insurance, but apparently pandemics may not be covered!
Take care all, have enough concern to follow sensible plans, wash your hands frequently, avoid crowded places. Some real idiots posting selfies in bars in NY City, saying "hey I'm 30 so I'm not worried" not even considering carrying it to their older parents or grandparents, or their sister/brother with existing health issues. Adds new context to "selfie", maybe should be referred to as "selfishies"
