fuzzynormal

Do you think I hate the "other side"? Which is how this thread started, but you know how these things go.

I'm calling evangelicals evangelicals because evangelicals are the ones running the creation museum down the street with the TRUMP 2020 flag flying in front of it, and you asked me why I thought a certain political side held science in a lesser esteem, so I offered you an example of evangelicals, who overwhelmingly support the figurehead of the GOP, as not accepting scientific evidence because they run a creation museum down the street. And not that it matters much, but you should know my best firnd is an evangelical and we have these go-rounds about stuff all the time. Usually ends about the same as it's going here too. Shall we set aside an appropriate time that you're more comfortable with? By all means, I don't want you to get upset trying to defend your opinions. Let's mark the calendar to pick up the debate. I'll bring the berets and white face paint. Although, to be honest, it's going to be hard to debate if all we can do is express ourselves visually.

One side says it's not alive? Ummm...? But, oh man, maybe we shouldn't really start down this road.

That's cool. Free country so good for you! Curious though, do you think evangelicals respect science as much as people that are not evangelicals?

Yes, I agree that people were stirring up fear about how unprepared the GOP was because the POTUS was saying stuff that was stirring up fear about how unprepared the GOP was. The evangelicals running the creation museum down the street flying their TRUMP 2020 flag would like to have a word. "Not the time to talk politics" seems to happen often when the GOP is forced to pivot and adapt to reality. Anyway, I stand by my statement, even though I'm not practicing it at the moment, that hopefully the rhetoric will wind-down a bit and be tempered in the "new normal" in the aftermath of all this.

Or how about a hybrid of the technique: Three quick consecutive bracketed exposures x24fps? Anyone know the reasons why that wouldn't be implemented in M43? That's not simultaneous triple exposure, so it would have certain motion blur issues, but seems like it could be done via firmware?

Says a guy sitting on the toilet. 😉 I kid! I kid! Don't take that joke too seriously. But it's kinda like the poop calling the other turd brown, you know? Speaking of jokes, less than a week ago people were making ha-ha's about the CDC, WHO, and COVID in right wing watering holes like the FNC. Mocking the virus hand-wringing. Somehow claiming it's a hoax. This week it's suddenly incredibly serious and we all need to be part of the solution. Not that I disagree with it being serious and all, but funny how rhetoric works. Maybe COVID will shake loose a little bit of that nonsense and we'll give facts and science a bit more prestige? Oh, for a silver-lining.

Interestingly, the nations with the lowest numbers also took the biggest SARS hit in 2003. Those countries didn't mess around, knew what's at stake, and they're practically a flat-line on the charts.

I think another thing that has flown under the radar a bit is that hospitals don't just stop trying to treat other diseases while COVID19 is garnering all the attention. The question becomes how well an they do it? An at-risk person who then gets the run-of-the-mill flu is now at a heightened amount of danger because health services are stretched way too thin. So flu deaths can spike too. When the dust settles and we look back at 2020, COVID numbers might not be as high as we feared (let's hope) but meanwhile other numbers across the board could be rather depressing.

On the opposite side of things, I may need to sell gear to fund unexpected travel and from losing an important client. Not too fun all around.

The history of the Spanish Flu is certainly not reassuring, unfortunately.

Alright, I've been unleashing my angst on here for a lot of reasons, mostly because I can't sleep, but perspective is always important, so here it goes: My elderly mother, already suffering from another disease, is self-isolated because she has the symptoms. My brother is as well. Not tested yet, happening soon. I don't know what the heck is going to happen, but before we all get way too angry and impersonal, a little empathy goes a long way --and keep your outlook healthy. Good luck out there.

Hugging the flag right now. Maybe even doing some dirty dancing with it.

Y'all is cray cray.

Because they don't spontaneous explode when they get it? Like, you know, having a 1 to 2 week incubation period. So...I'm exhausted my political hand wringing. I love everyone, even those of you I disagree with. It's okay to not share the same opinions, but I don't want to hold onto our commonalities. Which brings me to more news relating to the OP. Yeah, lost 2 more clients today. Edit jobs now, not even location shoots, edits. The company is just tightening up and "whoop" my work is on the chopping block. Hooray! On top of that, rumblings in CA that landlords should be required to forgive rent during the crisis. Well, shit, my wife and I barely make it on our rental properties as it is and now that income is jeopardized too? I used to hear stories from my grandma as a kid about what the Great Depression was like. I might need to get some chickens....

They don't spontaneously explode?

I thought The WHO did it a week ago?

No. Didn't say that nor hope for any of that. Qualified my definition of what I meant by "Failure". Do you really think I'm some sort of cartoon over here? C'mon now. I don't have a wax mustache and I'm not twirling it with a damsel tied to the railroad tracks. Okay. Okay. Maybe you got me. It's not really a damsel on the railroad tracks, it's an unborn fetus under the heel of my Birkenstock sandals. I am twirling my mustache, but only because I'm proud of it and my new arm pit hair. I was born a woman and have recently transitioned to my true orientation. The hormones are awesome and I can afford them because even though I'm of sound mind and body I'm on unemployment, disability, and food stamps. I threw away my bootstraps while on an Antifa march in Portland during Pride Week. Took me a while to make the decision to accept my real identity, but after numerous trips to my school's gender neutral bathroom and meditating to the Flying Spaghetti Monster I've come to realize that with unprotected premarital sex and a vegan diet I'm ready to take away everyone's guns and jobs. Oh, and then I'll do genocide because bad man in President chair makes me sad. That too. Oh boy. Too much? Was that too much? Curse you internet! You did it to me again!! Speaking of tracks, I've gone off the rails. Sorry about that. I better get outta here. Love you all, seriously.

Not just the media. He is who he is and it unnerves a lot of folks because it's pretty damn bonkers. Which is why his supporters enjoy him. Librul tears and all that.

Well, yeah. But...why is that a bad thing? That's just American politics. From never-Trump conservatives to bleeding hearts liberals. If a guy is implementing policies you think are directly detrimental to the nation, you'd rather not see those things happen. The more noble and fundamental ideals of American Exceptionalism don't seem to be on the Trump menu, imho. This sort of conflict is ever thus depending on who's butt sits at the executive desk. I'm pretty confident conservatives would have liked to see Obama fail at creating the ACA, for instance. I'm not ashamed of my ideology and still appreciate other POV's. Now, I'd prefer a FDR type in office rather than a self-serving-corporate-lackey type, which is how I view Trump and those that prefer America to be a corpocracy; don't think it's a healthy society, that. What can I do but hope the pendulum swings? How do we get there? Trumpism failing is a start...please keep in mind that failure depends on the specific situation! For instance, a China trade war. I could think, "no way that's gonna work, it's unrealistic, full of ignorant hubris, and it can't be pulled off. Great if it somehow did though." Like watching a 95 yard Hail Mary pass. You want to see it happen, but you know it's impossible.

Oh, and for whatever it's worth (not much) I do disagree with the assumption that Trump has "done more." He does have different issues to cope with, but back in 2009 we approved a test for H1N1 a month before anyone listed H1N1 as a pandemic. Ahead of the curve there. If you recall, because of the Obama Care issue, a lot of conservatives were complaining that we were too aggressive regarding treatment. That it was a political ploy or a scare tactic. A flu like H1N1 has anti-virals to treat it. And it's the flu, you know? Humans walk around with some level of immunity because we've all had it. There's even a semi-effective vaccine. COVID-19? Nope. No meds. COVID19 is new to the immune system. No one has protection from COVID19. Well, those that have recovered from it have.

Indeed, but the numbers have been trending to that portion outstripping available care. Luckily, Trump just announced that Americans shouldn't gather in groups larger than 10, so that'll help. Trump's transitioned from a glib attitude about COVID to something a bit more somber. Behind the curve, I think, but at least the tone has changed in the last 72 hours. BTW, you should know he rates his response to COVID as a 10 out of 10! Lots of 10's today.

Of course that really depends on the distribution rate of contagion, not necessarily the sum of contagion. Which is why The WHO and CDC recommend self-isolation, to slow the spread and keep the finite number of hospitals beds/services available as much as possible.

The biggest irony is that if the best case scenario unfolds and we're able to pump the breaks on COVID, many people will assume everything that's about to happen in the next two weeks was all an over-reaction.

I think it really comes down to perceived competence and assurances, rightly or wrongly. That comes from the CDC, WHO, POTUS. You mentioned lower numbers of initial infection, but exponential infection rates don't really care about starting from a low value. It's an "It only takes one" sort of situation to get that ball rolling. As for swine flu, H1N1 has a much lower case fatality rate of 0.01-0.08%. It does not disproportionately infect adults older than 60 years. H1N1 was spread out across the age spectrum. Weirdly, the CDC's experience with H1N1 is one of the reasons scientists are more on edge now-a-days. Perhaps it was ignorance before, wisdom now. https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/10/covid-19-gets-bad-are-we-prepared-for-triage/ The pulmonary infection among the elderly is a big deal with COVID. I lost my Dad a year ago to a pulmonary fibrosis disease. Being in the ICU on a ventilator is serious business. It's not just a cold compress to the head and two Tylenol. So that's why there's alarm bells ringing with COVID. Experts are saying one thing and Donald is, well, just being himself and saying his typical random musings. We all know those musings are not fact based. So, no assurances. If Trump's opinion about COVID aligned with the scientific facts/assertions, sure there would be people still grousing about him, but that's not what's happening here. I'll tell you this, if I'm wrong and Donald Trump has somehow been right about all the random stuff he's said regarding COVID over the past 4 weeks, that'll be the most delicious crow I've eaten in a long time. In the meantime, we all know what he was saying about COVID before Friday. And many on the right were happy to be all jokey jokey about things. Now that's it's a national emergency his supporters have instantly pivoted to this being "serious" all of a sudden. So it's a bit maddening to those of us less forgiving of his tendencies. For instance, he had a conference call with the nation's governors this morning. Standard Trump things ensued. A transactional mindset was once again at the forefront. He told them to buy medical supplies themselves to get stuff faster. Afterwards the gov. of New York let loose with this: https://www.militarytimes.com/2020/03/16/ny-governor-calls-on-national-guard-army-corps-of-engineers-to-increase-role-in-coronavirus-response/ Take it as you will, but it's not just me, random guy on the internet, worried about Trump's capability to actually govern when it matters.