4802

Okay going to sign off for the night with a more uplifting note and video Christopher Tin posted on his FB.

Ah, this breaks my heart just a little bit! Zborallica is a choir from Slovenia, and they were supposed to fly out to New York to meet me at Lincoln Center for a weekend of rehearsals, culminating in a grand performance of Calling All Dawns at Lincoln Center on Monday. Alas, the pandemic shut down everyone’s travel plans.

But singers are singers, and will always find a way to sing together. I’m so touched that they put together this virtual performance of Baba Yetu. Really touched. Thank you Zborallica! You sound wonderful, and I hope the concert gets rescheduled and we get to work together soon!

4803

Nesrie, you win the thread today. Thanks for posting that it brought a smile to my face, with all my fond memories of Civ IV

4804

Just some things to say from first hand experience as I’m in China.

2 months ago we started to hear about the SARS like things in that southern city. Now we know the bureaucracies has costed us 1+ months to contain it. And the virus has potentially 2 weeks to show symptoms so the hospital workers there treating the patients all got infected making that city’s health care collapse. At least they eventually shut down the city at the end of Jan. and the government machine started to run like a Ferrari. Malls and theaters shut down. Quarantined everyone who has travel history or contact with everyone with travel history to that province for 2 weeks, and if somebody shows a fever then quarantine anyone close to that. And everyone stays at home until just recently, that our city has been cleared to be OK now. But schools are still closed hoping to reopen next month. Now the focus is mainly at the airports to use community efforts to ask/force anyone traveled back to self isolate for 2 weeks.

I just hope you guys get isolated, work from home and stay healthy until the storm passes.

Now with regards to the diamond princess thing. From my observation the most deaths in China is a result of the collapse of the city health care system. Once the whole country’s effort to restore the system took effect and with enough hospital new beds the death rate are comparable on the lower side. Between patient zero on the cruise ship and the ship’s quarantine was just about 2 weeks and all the patients received care after having symptoms. This is a perfect world that most likely does not apply to the real world. The question becomes how strong is your health care.

4805
4806

Being on these things a couple of weeks out of the year, it’s typical for a communicable disease to pass quickly among guests on a cruise ship – there’s even a name for it, the cruise crud. It’s a closed environment with everyone going to the same two places to eat daily, walking down narrow corridors with handrails everyone is using (it’s a ship with ocean motion) and stairs with handrails or elevators with buttons everyone is pushing thousands of times a day.

So it doesn’t surprise me that someone with a communicable disease will pass it on to others on a ship, and they in turn will pass it on. The saving grace that keeps the numbers down is that the cruise is normally at most seven days long, if not shorter. Many people are off the ship before they might contract it. That 1% rate on the ship the article cites would be much higher if quarantine hadn’t been put in place. The author could have discussed that.

4807

That reminds me, I think I’m due for a re-read of A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.

4808

David Foster Wallace may not be your typical cruise passenger with typical expectations. Imagine a neckbeard visitiing E3 at its height, wondering what exactly the attraction is and being dismissive of it.

4809

LOL, now I wish DFW was still around to write about E3.

4810

Its the first couple of days of working from home, and I can already tell it’s going to be a hard adjustment. I really feel for the people who don’t have partners, it might be a horribly lonely time for them the next few months.

Any QT3ers that fit in that category make sure you lean on us and any other avenues of digital engagement to keep optimistic and healthy as the crisis goes on.

4811

I’ve arranged a daily “coffee call” with my team. no bosses, just an opportunity to gossip, swap tips, check we’re coping, etc at 10am if you are free.

then the boss found out, invited loads of others and is now rescheduling it to try and find free slots for all and it’s a big confusing mess.

4812

Do these scammers like Jim Bakker believe this stuff?

4813

If the airline industry gets gutted and the remaining flights are a rare treat, not a default setting, then the silver lining is the environment.

4814

Has anyone seen explanations as to why men seems to be harder hit than women? A week or so ago, I saw someone saying that more men in China are smokers, but I don’t think that is the case in Denmark. And we are also seeing 2/3 of those tested positive being male.

Could it really be possible that men are simply less hygienic?

4815

Men are probably less likely to seek help for one. Don’t wanna be a pussy after all.
Hygiene could also be a factor, for mostly the same reason.

Good news out of NYC:

4816

If that happens I become homeless eventually.

4817

Womens live longer. Could be men at age 80 are in worst shape than women at age 80. So when the virus hit, he make more damage to men than women.

Why womens live longer, I leave it to smarter and more informed people.

4818

We’re boned - so very boned

4819

But wouldn’t that result in more women than men being tested in the first place? Which makes it even more odd that more men are being tested positive.

4820

Are there stats for older men in Denmark smoking as much as older women?

4822

I can’t find data grouped on age. But in total, there are a very few more female smokers than males in the Danish population (according to off. Danish statistics, 2018).

I am fairly certain that the substantial difference in gender tested positive can not be explained by smoking in Denmark.