The end of the world!!!

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Kizmet, Jun 1, 2016.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    San Francisco has announced a ban on large gatherings. As a result, the Warriors/Brooklyn Nets game scheduled for Thursday will be played without fans present. The Warriors are promising to refund everyone who bought tickets. The Warriors go on a road trip after that, till around the end of the month and there are only a few games left in their star-crossed season. Several concerts at their arena and a Santa Cruz Warriors G-league game are also being cancelled.

    And it's a local tradition for the SF Giants and Oakland A's to play each other in a big local game at the end of spring training. That game at the Giants' bayside ballpark is now cancelled. They are working on finding different arrangements.
     
  3. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    WHO has declared it a full global pandemic. While not as apocalyptic as that sounds, ...it's getting serious.
     
  4. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    On a lighter note, there's a preview of the POTUS's rescue plan available here:

     
  5. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    The NBA is cancelling the rest of the 2020 season.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2020
  6. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    Earlier today I received a nice message from one of the nations largest respirator distributors today:

    "To put the challenge in perspective, over the past few weeks orders for safety masks exceeded our entire on-hand supply by several years, and in some cases, decades."
     
  7. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    The NBA player that tested positive was all-star Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz. Instead of the scheduled game at OKC starting, OKC police appeared and cleared the arena. Then the season ending announcement from the league.

    In other End of the World news, actor Tom Hanks has tested positive in LA.

    And perhaps the biggest news is that travelers from Europe are to be forbidden entry into the United States for the next 30 days, not unlike similar restrictions on travelers from China already in place.
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2020
  8. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    The State Department has issued a Level 3 (Reconsider travel) warning for all foreign travel. Besides the possibility of contracting corona virus in some foreign locales and then bringing it back, there is also the prospect that other countries will be enacting travel restrictions of their own, such that Americans overseas might have trouble returning.

    https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/travel-advisory-alert-global-level-3-health-advisory-issue.html

    And it appears that Tom Hanks and his wife, who also tested positive, are in Australia, not LA. So they will be subject to whatever the Australian protocols are.

    What's more, it appears that several researchers at Genentech in South San Francisco have tested positive. I wonder if that was a gift from Kizmet's Boston, where I've read that a biotech conference proved (ironically) to be a hotbed of contagion, producing something like 70 confirmed cases. I wouldn't be surprised if these California individuals are attendees at that conference or came in close contact with somebody who was.

    And it turns out that a hotel within walking distance of my house has been designated as a quarantine site. (Reassuring news.)

    That being said, people are still out on the streets and still in the stores. Traffic seems pretty normal. People aren't wearing masks. (Which are hard to find to buy.) There's no panic buying at the local supermarket (yet).

    It's a rapidly evolving situation, changing by the hour.
     
  9. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I don't like to wish bad things on anyone but I'm saying that Donald Trump did not look good in that press conference last night. I know he's pretty bad at reading the teleprompter but this was not a good look for him. A little sweaty, a little raspy. I wanted to send him some NyQuil or something.
     
  10. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I went out yesterday to stock up on staples yesterday. I saw a guy in a mask, but only one. My local store had everything it usually has. The exception was that most brands of toilet paper were gone, they basically just had giant bales of their store brand, and those were marked as "limit one per customer".

    And I'll get more stuff today. But I consider it prudence buying rather than panic buying.
     
  12. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator


    So far I haven't run into any shortages of anything. Maybe I should buy in bulk and save it all up for the coming black market.
    (Pssst, buddy. Wanna roll of 2-ply?)
     
  13. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  14. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    The State of California has just banned all gatherings of 250 people or more. That's the end of all sporting events, the convention industry, most performing arts events, large nightclubs and church services, and more.

    Reports coming in as I write this that MLB has just suspended Spring Training. I expect the regular season to follow.
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2020
  15. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    The NHL season has been suspended too.

    This looks like universities going to DL. Once a high profile one (like Stanford) does it, the rest follow by herd-instinct. So the NBA suspends, and the rest of sports follows.
     
  16. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    That's a pretty insulting thing to say. Do you really believe that these large university systems just cancel all activities lightly, impulsively? Considering the millions of dollars involved and the millions of lives you don't think some serious conversations have occurred in this regard? Maybe you're the one who's got the reflexive thinking.
     
  17. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Maybe, but I've worked for several regionally accredited universities in the U.S., and can tell you that herd mentality the industry is a very real thing.

    I'm not saying I disagree with mass closures, by the way.
     
  18. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    A blanket condemnation of the entire educational system based on zero evidence (or even limited anecdotal evidence) is pure prejudice.
     
  19. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    For what it's worth, once a high profile organization does something that mitigates a hazard, it demonstrates the action as a practice that was achievable with regards to liability/culpability challenges. One would than legally be in a precarious position if something were to occur of having to defend why they chose to not follow suit. While the argument is not as legally powerful as a consensus standard, it is still highly effective in court, particularly with pulling an emotional argument from a jury or painting a defendant organization as negligent. The other aspect, is that organizations are realizing very quickly that if they have employees work during a recognized pandemic, any illness that were to befall them would be a recordable illness according to 1904 record keeping regulations. The Department of Labor has verified this. Which means that in this scenario, an employer is entirely liable for all expenses and damages related to an employee who becomes ill from it unless (1) source of infection can be proven to have occurred elsewhere, which is technically infeasible, or (2) an exposure risk analysis determines a low level of risk, no exposure to public, large numbers of people, etc. If you are an organizational leader and realize the ramifications of that, it can be a dire liability situation. This is not even taking into consideration altruistic motivations of keeping an organizations students, staff, faculty, and administration safe during what is an outright global pandemic. I honestly do believe, there are people who care. Heck, I grew up with 80s cartoons, carebears buddy! The other aspect to consider is that every region which has curtailed the spread of this, has achieved it via social distancing and a complete shutdown of commerce. It is certainly at a scale that is unprecedented for the modern world, but it appears to be the only thing that works. While the U.K. is going in a different route, I pray that they do not reflect back on that decision with a significant amount of regret.
     
  20. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    So your position is that an organization might look at the available data, including considerations for the organization, it's employees, the students and general public as well as an examination of the recommendations of the public health experts and make a decision to temporarily shut down and that a group of these similar organizations might independently and in a networked manner reach the same conclusion. Naaaw, that can't be right.
     

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