Coronavirus

[Cheshirechappie]

Cause here for a little glimmer of cautious optimism. The Los Angeles Times reports that a Nobel Laureate chemist has been looking at the Coronavirus figures, and suggests that the pandemic may not be quite as serious or long-lasting as some of the doom mongers are predicting. He does say that control of infection rates will be influenced heavily by social distancing measures, but they may help very significantly in quick control. The article also compares flu death rates in the USA (which go virtually unreported) with the daily media sensationalism around Covid 19.

It might just be that the Prime Minister's suggestion that 12 weeks will be enough to significantly control the epidemic may not be wholly misplaced.

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2 ... l-laureate

You said chemist and I thought they would know nothing about this.
But the article says he is a bio physicist so he probably does.

Yes, he's a biophysicist. His Nobel prize is in chemistry, though. Not sure how that works, but there it is.

 

[Geoff_S]

Good luck to anyone attempting to work from home, the internet being as it is - my wife has just given up trying and gone to work. We can't even listen to the radio without its breaking up, let alone watch the TV.
Amusing, in a sad sort of way - governments of all hues have been telling people for years it's best they work from home and now they need to they can't. Still, £100bn+ on HS2 hasn't yet had the plug pulled - better they ensure the whole Country has good internet speed and decent phone signals.

It was never good in your neck of the woods at the best of times (from a tourist, sorry). Bloody disgusting really. It's not like we're a huge continent!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've just seen a map of best and worst speeds- Truro is the worst in the Country at average of 23mbps. I'm about six miles from Truro and I'd be delighted with 23mbps - I've never had a reading of more than 19mbps. It's now fluctuating between 6mbps and 0.1mbps. I did a speed test last night and it told me I wasn't even connected.

 

[Rorschach]

I've just seen a map of best and worst speeds- Truro is the worst in the Country at average of 23mbps. I'm about six miles from Truro and I'd be delighted with 23mbps - I've never had a reading of more than 19mbps. It's now fluctuating between 6mbps and 0.1mbps. I did a speed test last night and it told me I wasn't even connected.

:shock:
I am meant to be getting 75 but only getting just over 50, so quite a drop in real terms but at least it's still a reasonable service. Hope they get yours sorted out.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I agree totally with most of the sentiments expressed on the antisocial and destructive behaviour which has become prevalent.

I would like those responsible punished for their stupidity. The explanation that they are the victim of poor parenting, inadequate education, racial or gender discrimination etc is a liberal way to excuse a failure to take personal responsibility for their actions.

But if punishment is seen as the solution, we need to be clear what this means. If people are arrested they need to go through a process to be punished, letting them off with a verbal reprimand is an inadequate. The police should not have to use limited resources for this at this time - they have better things to do.

So what is the solution - perhaps give police emergency powers to arrest and punish miscreants without legal process. To prevent repeat behaviour offenders should be confined (re-purpose remote army camps??) in shared accomodation for a minimum of (say) 14 days. With luck they would get the virus - no medical help to be provided bar paracetemol.

This is a real win-win-win:

- they are appropriately punished
- if they are infected and recover they no longer represent a threat
- if they don't recover they are removed permanently from the gene pool

I appreciate some may find this an unattractive option and outcome. Rather than repeating how bad it all is, we should find solutions even if many would normally see them as in conflict with previously accepted norms in our society.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

:shock:
I am meant to be getting 75 but only getting just over 50, so quite a drop in real terms but at least it's still a reasonable service. Hope they get yours sorted out.

Atm - 5.41 - 5.84 The upload speed is higher than the download.

 

[Bodgers]

Good luck to anyone attempting to work from home, the internet being as it is - my wife has just given up trying and gone to work. We can't even listen to the radio without its breaking up, let alone watch the TV.
Amusing, in a sad sort of way - governments of all hues have been telling people for years it's best they work from home and now they need to they can't. Still, £100bn+ on HS2 hasn't yet had the plug pulled - better they ensure the whole Country has good internet speed and decent phone signals.

Working fine here...50mbps BT connection. Skype/Teams sessions all good.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Atm - 5.41 - 5.84 The upload speed is higher than the download.

GCHQ at Bude are always hogging the bandwidth, but I know Goonhilly has an excellent fibre connection to London - you could always ask to borrow some of that. (The problem is probably in the last couple of hundred metres to your house - it'll get there drekly).

 

[MikeK]

Now when I started military service we were (sternly) taught that there's no self-discipline without having first been "taught" discipline and respect for authority - note again please, NOT kow-towing to authority, but also not saying to, for example, a policeman "you can't make me". So not a lot of self-discipline there!

Almost all of the men, and a couple of the women, in my family for the past six or seven generations have been in the military, including me, so discipline and respect for authority are in my blood.

Years ago, I was a cop in Virginia and can't remember how many times I heard something like "You can't do that", "F**k you", or "You can't make me." We used the "Ask, Tell, Show" method of modifying behavior. The majority responded well to "Ask", some required "Tell", and a few forced us to "Show". Unfortunately, "Show" never ended well for the other person and sometimes required a visit to the Emergency Room or a call for Emergency Medical Services to respond, depending on how stubborn the person was and how much force was required to complete the "Show" process. With few exceptions, those who experienced "Show" responded well to "Ask" later.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Yes, he's a biophysicist. His Nobel prize is in chemistry, though. Not sure how that works, but there it is.

At that level things are not often black and white. A mate of mine got his BSc and PhD in biochemistry for some time he's been a professor in that discipline. However, much of his work is on computer modelling of various substances for biochemical applications. He's also doing some stuff which is pure electronics.

The layman, used to a plumber doing nothing but fiddling about with pipes, taps etc. tends to think the same sort of things of high level scientists. It ain't necessarily so.

 

[RogerS]

I've just seen a map of best and worst speeds- Truro is the worst in the Country at average of 23mbps. I'm about six miles from Truro and I'd be delighted with 23mbps - I've never had a reading of more than 19mbps. It's now fluctuating between 6mbps and 0.1mbps. I did a speed test last night and it told me I wasn't even connected.

I'm very happy with my 10Mbps.

 

[RogerS]

Now when I started military service we were (sternly) taught that there's no self-discipline without having first been "taught" discipline and respect for authority - note again please, NOT kow-towing to authority, but also not saying to, for example, a policeman "you can't make me". So not a lot of self-discipline there!

Almost all of the men, and a couple of the women, in my family for the past six or seven generations have been in the military, including me, so discipline and respect for authority are in my blood.

Years ago, I was a cop in Virginia and can't remember how many times I heard something like "You can't do that", "F**k you", or "You can't make me." We used the "Ask, Tell, Show" method of modifying behavior. The majority responded well to "Ask", some required "Tell", and a few forced us to "Show". Unfortunately, "Show" never ended well for the other person and sometimes required a visit to the Emergency Room or a call for Emergency Medical Services to respond, depending on how stubborn the person was and how much force was required to complete the "Show" process. With few exceptions, those who experienced "Show" responded well to "Ask" later.

Oh, I like that approach. You're a man after my own heart. =D>

 

[MikeG.]

....... Basic discipline in schools would be a good start.......

Have you some evidence that schools don't have good discipline? My wife has been teaching for nearly 35 years and says that discipline and respect are in excellent shape now, and that wasn't always the case last century. This isn't some elitist corner of a rich part of Britain, but a school on an estate in a difficult part of a large town.

 

[Benchwayze]

I empathise with you Nigel. However, would you be prepared to administer the birching?

I was a Police Officer from the mid 1960s to the mid 90s. Birching had been consigned to the history books by then, but often times it was a Police Officer who carried out the punishment. There used to be a birching stool and birch in the Force Museum. Not exactly an horrific exhibit, but it did cause me to reflect. I am no 'snowflake'; no 'stripling' either, yet I wouldn't want the job of cold-bloodedly birching another human being. I say 'cold-bloodedly' because there have been times when I have had to use violence to quell an unruly spirit.


John

 

[That would work]

....... Basic discipline in schools would be a good start.......

Have you some evidence that schools don't have good discipline? Why wife has been teaching for nearly 35 years and says that discipline and respect are in excellent shape now, and that wasn't always the case last century. This isn't some elitist corner of a rich part of Britain, but a school on an estate in a difficult part of a large town.

Yes, I sometimes wonder what it is that people imagine us teachers do?
I've been in a few schools lately (teaching) and the notion that "discipline" is an imposed state is ridiculous. It's about a school fostering pupils ability to be a part of the place... there are very many schools who do just that and have excellent discipline. I guess you could go back to masking things by using physical violence but then that didn't work did it.

 

[AES]

Have you some evidence that schools don't have good discipline?

No I haven't - not real evidence anyway. But from what I've heard from some parents with kids at school in Germany, that may be so.

PLEASE NOTE I was NOT referring to either UK or Switzerland because not having kids, I have NIL experience of schools here; and only old experience of schools in UK (I went to 11 different schools in 10 years). But as said, that's old experience, I left school in UK in 1960.

MOREOVER, IF it was my earlier post you're referring to Mike, I did NOT say that there's no good discipline in schools. What I said was that IF kids don't learn the basic fundamentals of respect and discipline at home, then when teachers (and I mentioned police too) have such kids to deal with then they face an up hill task. Personally I think that statement is fair enough - AND no disrespect to teachers was intended nor IMO was it implicit within my post.

Perhaps you're referring to another post in this thread? In which case I'm clearly over-reacting. IF so I apologise for the above in advance.

Mod edit: quite a few posters not using the Quote facility. DIY quoting makes the post less than clear and at times difficult to read. Anybody having problems please drop a post in site-updates.html where help is available.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I have a long retired ambulance man as a relative by marriage. He is a small man, but the town's hard men knew they'd met their match with him. If he ever got any trouble when working he just laid the guy out cold, threw him in the ambulance then turfed him out several miles down the road. I suspect this would now be frowned upon. :lol:

 

[beech1948]

Monday started off well today.

All staff working from home. My 12 salespeople are retraining as first line of support. First 11 customers signed up to get a network link to allow us to service their AI systems. Pushing like mad to get next 180 on board. Costs are horrendous but must do for business survival. No major panics in our systems

Office empty except me and my secretary who are sitting 20 feet apart but we can communicate by shouting. Monty Python is alive and well and working in Crowthorne, Berks. Damn I have to get my own coffees as we are so busy.

 

[MikeG.]

........IF it was my earlier post you're referring to Mike, I did NOT say.......

A......it would be nice if this thread on corona virus remained on the topic of corona virus.

B...... the post I was responding to was the post I quoted. I was responding to the phrase I quoted, and to nothing else.

 

[AES]

Yes, I see that now MikeG, but overlooked it at the time. I apologise.

NOT an excuse really, and it doesn't apply in this particular case, but when a thread gets long and involved (and the topic wanders a bit) I DO sometimes get confused by the use of the Forum "quote" button - when someone quotes someone who quotes someone else who was anyway in turn quoting someone completely different.

But as said, that does NOT apply in this case, and clearly I was over-reacting "against" something that I see now was clearly not aimed at my post.

"Engage brain before opening mouth" (or in this case "operating keyboard"). Sorry.