Coronavirus:

[MurphOnMillerAve]

A question was presented on a TV News program, recently, for contemplation and conjecture:

Do we think hand-shakes and shoulder-hugging greetings are going to be gone from our society permanently?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A question was presented on a TV News program, recently, for contemplation and conjecture:

Do we think hand-shakes and shoulder-hugging greetings are going to be gone from our society permanently?

Too soon to know........SEC and NFL football looks to be happening..........

[rogruth]

A question was presented on a TV News program, recently, for contemplation and conjecture:

Do we think hand-shakes and shoulder-hugging greetings are going to be gone from our society permanently?

No touching between anybody but intimate friends. You can decide how intimate.
It had already gotten to the place that a teacher should never touch a student for any reason.
So we are working on it.
How long will we wear masks? I think it will become rather common. I do NOT like the masks but wear one when at any place
other than home. I am what is usually called an old man. My major health and physical problems are eye problems and
arthritis. I am not ready and do not want to die from a virus that must be a painful death so I wear it.

[chuck]

Assuming they get an effective vaccine out by next year it should start to drift back. Hopefully we will remember the safety protocols and act more responsibly when this happens again.

Re Football et al. We'll see how this plays out. One or two bad outbreaks and it's all over.

The spiking going on with college's is a reminder of how hard this is to control and how it's not easy to "fix" once an outbreak occurs. The dimwits that are sending sick students back home because they don't know how or don't care to or just don't want to deal with them is another fantastic example of how short sighted/stupid some of the people in leadership positions are. If you are going to "open back up" your plan needs to be complete, not something slapped together on a wing and a prayer. They had all summer to get ready and I mean really get ready.

I don't understand how some of the schools are handling this so badly. We had to come up with a "continuity of business plan" back when the first bird flu outbreak threatened which thankfully never materialized. Critical roles were identified, procedures out lined and in some cases full blown tests/trails were run. The plan was taken off the shelf and reviewed/updated every other year. This wasn't cheap or easy to do and I always assumed that it was some legal reason that it was started/set up. Did everyone else not get the memo or just chose to ignore it?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Assuming they get an effective vaccine out by next year it should start to drift back. Hopefully we will remember the safety protocols and act more responsibly when this happens again.

Hope springs eternal......

Re Football et al. We'll see how this plays out. One or two bad outbreaks and it's all over.

That's what I thought about MLB; they had a very shaky re-start but it seems to have flattened out. The NHL did it right....

College football is nutz.....half are and half are not and everybody is complaining............

The spiking going on with college's is a reminder of how hard this is to control and how it's not easy to "fix" once an outbreak occurs. The dimwits that are sending sick students back home because they don't know how or don't care to or just don't want to deal with them is another fantastic example of how short sighted/stupid some of the people in leadership positions are. If you are going to "open back up" your plan needs to be complete, not something slapped together on a wing and a prayer. They had all summer to get ready and I mean really get ready.

They believed the WH and that it was all going away and hot weather would end it, etc., etc., etc......and were wrong.

I don't understand how some of the schools are handling this so badly. We had to come up with a "continuity of business plan" back when the first bird flu outbreak threatened which thankfully never materialized. Critical roles were identified, procedures out lined and in some cases full blown tests/trails were run. The plan was taken off the shelf and reviewed/updated every other year. This wasn't cheap or easy to do and I always assumed that it was some legal reason that it was started/set up. Did everyone else not get the memo or just chose to ignore it?

It's all about the money; planning and rational thought need not apply.

[rogruth]

I agree "it's all about money".

Is a ranking of states by IQ available or even possible?
Washington DC should be omitted from the list. Not a state and other reasons.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

It just all feels to me like big changes - permanent changes - are afoot , not dramatic and predictable and easily accepted changes epitomized by such things as the 1957 - 1963 Cadillac finned "tanks" toning-down and making room for such wonders as the appearance of the first "compacts" in such "cars" as the Corvairs , but rather, something nowadays that is going to take time to manifest and modify us and our tastes and preferences, to say the least.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Is a ranking of states by IQ available or even possible?

Possible but probably of dubious meaning; IQ itself is of dubious value.

I do know that there have been rankings of cities by IQ, numbers of higher education degrees, etc.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

It just all feels to me like big changes - permanent changes - are afoot ..........

Maybe; we will have to look back and see after time elapses. Lot of people out there determined to deny changes and unwilling to accept that the normal of a year ago is not coming back any time soon, if ever.

Maybe one thing that this will call attention to is the huge number of people that living pay check to pay check, are simply not prepared to have that interrupted, and have not put a penny aside for their future.

BTW, was at the grocery store today......just about as normal as it could be just with masks and 1 way aisles. I actually like the 1 way aisles and think that's work keeping. Managed to collect everything off the list and more....

[robert.]

Our local grocery store did away with one way isle. I too loved the one way. It would have worked if they gave it 5 minutes of planning before making directional arrows. They used Beige colored arrows on a buttercream colored floor. With bright overhead led lighting it was impossible to those arrows.
a rumor has it. If delval closes dorms for covid and returns housing costs. They will go belly up this year. They went with a strict security protocols. They have an officer on duty 24 hrs. a day in each dorm. Only dorm residents are allowed in. No visitors from other dorms. Classes 7 days a week. If you go home for family matters . You spend 14 days in a quarantine dorm with online classes. School ends before Thanksgiving.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

If delval closes dorms for covid and returns housing costs. They will go belly up this year.

Would not be surprised.

They went with a strict security protocols. They have an officer on duty 24 hrs. a day in each dorm. Only dorm residents are allowed in. No visitors from other dorms. Classes 7 days a week. If you go home for family matters . You spend 14 days in a quarantine dorm with online classes. School ends before Thanksgiving.

Seems fair.

[HONDO74]

COVID-19 silently arrived in US near Christmas — earlier than thought, UCLA study says
https://news.yahoo.com/covid-19-silentl ... 41020.html

In December, all eyes were on China as it struggled to control the coronavirus, which was seemingly contained within its own borders, a crisis a world away. But a new study finds the deadly virus may have already reached the U.S. by then, and was actively spreading, weeks before the first COVID-19 case was confirmed on American soil.

Researchers with the University of California Los Angeles looked at over 10 million patient and health records spanning Dec. 1, 2019, to Feb. 29, 2020, and records from the previous five years, and found a troubling trend.

If true, that would shake up the current narrative of the virus’ origins in the country.

The first U.S. coronavirus case wasn’t confirmed until Jan. 20, in a man who had just returned to Washington from a visit to Wuhan, China. And it wasn’t until a month later, on Feb. 26 and 28, that the first cases of community spread infection were detected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Pretty sure that's not news............in fact, old news, even on this forum and discussion thread. Prior report stated even earlier -- Nov....

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[chuck]

One way aisles are OK if the aisles are wide enough and if people keep moving. I got stuck twice in one aisle by a couple of octogenarians that were practically parked side by side having a discussion about a coupon. No situational awareness. It gets worse when the aisles run almost up to the cash registers and the six foot spacing dots push customers back into the aisle. We have a couple of instances where some genius set up opposing one way arrows at opposite ends of an aisle with a break in the center. I have no idea what he/she/they were thinking. I am sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Re the big cars with the big fins. The fins disappeared when the law suits started happening (You will poke your eye out!). The cars stayed big until the first oil embargo. I remember trying to pilot Deb's Dad's Oldsmobile 98 back in 1970. You could have set up a dinner service for three on the dashboard. I felt like I was trying to steer an aircraft carrier. Seemed more like a parade float than transportation. The "compacts" of the mid sixties were more like todays mid size. Even the Corvair was pretty big by todays standards. When Deb dumped her "Omega" (an X-car, meaning it was supposed to be a car but wound up an X) she bought a Tercel. Crazy small but it ran forever and got great gas milage. We looked at a Chevette (piece of shit), a Fiesta (another piece of shit, I kept hitting my shoulder on the side window) and a Colt (not a piece of shit but not as nice as the Tercel (and more expensive).