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Off Topic Thread 4.0

Zzippy

Thread continued from here

The usual rules apply. Non-rugby talk here. Consider this a social place, but like a pub, things like religion and politics can be divisive, so don't say things here you wouldn't say to someone's face in the pub. Sober

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Clegg

The lockdown is starting to get to everyone. My sister has been excellent in observing the guidelines. Only going out when necessary etc. But last night two of her friends came over and were chatting in our garden for two hours. They all observed the 2m rule and in fact they were a bit further than that. That's the first time she's seen them in like three weeks and she was desperate to speak to someone not in the family. I wish she hadn't as now worry sets in for the next few days about transmission etc. But I understand why she did it.

swiwi_

stephen_n wrote: »

So 3 more weeks of Lockdown, not surprising.

swiwi_

If you're missing sport...

stephen_n

Watched Trumps daily misinformation briefing there. How on earth does he get away with telling so many blatant lies, it’s unbelievable.

Bazzo

Was out for another run today and the park is still wedged with dickheads sunbathing, playing football in groups of 10+. Never mind that nearly 3000 people have died in the last 3 days.

mfceiling

swiwi_ wrote: »

If you're missing sport...

I've been watching these all evening on Twitter. He's very good.

thomond2006

stephen_n wrote: »

Watched Trumps daily misinformation briefing there. How on earth does he get away with telling so many blatant lies, it’s unbelievable.

Talking about the virus and antibiotics in the same sentence.

Someone I follow on Twitter had an interesting question: Who is briefing him?!

Dave_The_Sheep

thomond2006 wrote: »

Someone I follow on Twitter had an interesting question: Who is briefing him?!

Does it matter? He doesn't ****ing listen anyway, and says what he wants regardless (what makes him look best, or does the most for companies he's involved in).

stephen_n

thomond2006 wrote: »

Talking about the virus and antibiotics in the same sentence.

Someone I follow on Twitter had an interesting question: Who is briefing him?!

Briefing? He just makes it up as I goes along.

dregin

thomond2006 wrote: »

Talking about the virus and antibiotics in the same sentence.

Someone I follow on Twitter had an interesting question: Who is briefing him?!

Twitter.

[Deleted User]

He gets briefed by a program on Fox News called Fox and Friends. I wish I was joking.

[Deleted User]

thomond2006 wrote: »

Talking about the virus and antibiotics in the same sentence.

Someone I follow on Twitter had an interesting question: Who is briefing him?!

You can tell he picks bits and pieces up as he goes. He half understands things but he has very limited comprehension and no attention span. He demonstrates absolutely no capacity to interpret complex issues and can only deal with things in the most superfluous ways.

As for who briefs him - I honestly think he is most comfortable getting his information from the likes of Fox News and talk radio. There are a good few examples online where his statements and narratives can be tracked directly to a preceding episode of Fox and Friends. This is corroborated by the fact that he regularly calls in live to the show.

As damaging as Fox News is to the general public, it's completely amplified now and is steering the Presidency. Trump likely didn't take covid seriously because Fox dismissed it. There is plenty of evidence to suggest his administration was being told.

It's all so unbelievably reckless and they've absolutely no shame about it.

Lunacy.

Edit: 400,000 cases now. Going to be a Disaster.

Neil3030

Tomorrow the U.S. will overtake Italy and have the most fatalities of any country.

For me, the question becomes: will U.S. fatalities get to a stage where they account for more than all other countries combined? I.e., 50%+ of total fatalities?

March 17th they accounted for 1% of fatalities.

April 1st they accounted for 10%

Currently (April 11th) they account for 18% of fatalities....

Only thing stopping them reaching 50% may be the sh|t show in the UK....

Dave_The_Sheep

Only thing that matters in the US, callous as this sounds, is where the deaths occur. If they're in the some areas, they will get no help.

If they're in red areas, they might get help, eventually. Whether they're able to accept that help is up to them.

Buer

Neil3030 wrote: »

Only thing stopping them reaching 50% may be the sh|t show in the UK....

You can stick France into that bracket. Similar to how Spain was overshadowed by Italy for a couple of weeks, France is reporting huge numbers but receiving relatively little coverage compared to the UK and USA currently. 37% of those tested in France are positive for Covid-19 which is incredible. They've reported multiple days with deaths in excess of over 1,000 which the UK hasn't reached yet.

The decisions to proceed with international sporting events including clashes with Italian sides visiting after the outbreak seems utter lunacy now. It's laughable to look back and think some morons were using those events as reasons as to why we schould also proceed with our matches.

aloooof

thomond2006 wrote: »

Talking about the virus and antibiotics in the same sentence.

Someone I follow on Twitter had an interesting question: Who is briefing him?!

He speaks like no one I've ever met. Not to mention his hand waving / gestures.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1248698754556923904

[Deleted User]

That second clip is honestly like talking to my 7 year old nephew

Squidgy Black

"People go to a hospital and they catch.... They go for a heart operation, that's no problem, but they end up dying from... from... problems, you know the problems I'm talking about."

Outstanding insight.

molloyjh

So today seems our little one (2) seems to have hit a wall with all of this. Shes very active and needs to get out into open spaces to burn off energy. We'd been managing it well enough until this week when places started either closing down more or limiting accessibility. Tried to see if we could get into the woods behind the house today, a regular spot for us. The car park has been closed for a couple of weeks, but there was a small space for some on street parking. Had been great because very few people could get in at the same time and between the size and number of trails you could be up there for an hour and not see another soul. The on street parking is gone now too though. And having not been out for a few days, not getting out properly again today was the last straw for her. We were only just getting by with her. Worried now the reduction in options for everyone will make the few remaining spots impossible to use safely. It's hard enough her not seeing anyone. Having so little opportunity to burn off that energy now too could cause us all problems.....

hahashake

Buer wrote: »

You can stick France into that bracket. Similar to how Spain was overshadowed by Italy for a couple of weeks, France is reporting huge numbers but receiving relatively little coverage compared to the UK and USA currently. 37% of those tested in France are positive for Covid-19 which is incredible. They've reported multiple days with deaths in excess of over 1,000 which the UK hasn't reached yet.

The decisions to proceed with international sporting events including clashes with Italian sides visiting after the outbreak seems utter lunacy now. It's laughable to look back and think some morons were using those events as reasons as to why we schould also proceed with our matches.

On that note, the numbers in Belgium and the Netherlands are shocking per capita. I know it's not apples and apples but imagine their numbers with the population of the UK or USA. Easy to ignore with bigger total numbers coming out of Italy and Spain but cases and deaths per head of population are similar (more so for Belgium).

mfceiling

molloyjh wrote: »

So today seems our little one (2) seems to have hit a wall with all of this. Shes very active and needs to get out into open spaces to burn off energy. We'd been managing it well enough until this week when places started either closing down more or limiting accessibility. Tried to see if we could get into the woods behind the house today, a regular spot for us. The car park has been closed for a couple of weeks, but there was a small space for some on street parking. Had been great because very few people could get in at the same time and between the size and number of trails you could be up there for an hour and not see another soul. The on street parking is gone now too though. And having not been out for a few days, not getting out properly again today was the last straw for her. We were only just getting by with her. Worried now the reduction in options for everyone will make the few remaining spots impossible to use safely. It's hard enough her not seeing anyone. Having so little opportunity to burn off that energy now too could cause us all problems.....

That's a bummer. They're too young to reason with and you can't really formulate an exercise plan for them.
My youngest pair are doing exercise workouts out the back (kudos to Joe Wicks on YouTube). The eldest is only getting by on 12 - 14 hours sleep a day.

Do you have a bike handy with a kids seat on it? Fresh air for her, exercise for you. Win win!!

irishbucsfan

hahashake wrote: »

On that note, the numbers in Belgium and the Netherlands are shocking per capita. I know it's not apples and apples but imagine their numbers with the population of the UK or USA. Easy to ignore with bigger total numbers coming out of Italy and Spain but cases and deaths per head of population are similar (more so for Belgium).

Belgium is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. There’s no real value comparing the number of cases per capita

hahashake

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Belgium is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. There’s no real value comparing the number of cases per capita

Which is why I said It isn't apples to apples. The numbers are still very high compared to South Korea for example, which has a higher population density and cases in early Jan.

irishbucsfan

hahashake wrote: »

Which is why I said It isn't apples to apples. The numbers are still very high compared to South Korea for example, which has a higher population density and cases in early Jan.

Im sure we’re all aware South Korea are an outlier in the quality of their response, and there are many factors which make them extremely different to any number of European countries, such as historical virus responses preparing them or the fact their only land border contains a demilitarised zone.

Across Europe in general there’s huge variance but a factor seems to be densely populated industrialised cities. For example Faro in Portugal has a couple of hundred cases. Porto has 9000+. Faro is larger than Porto. The whole of Portugal has been in a state of emergency since March, there’s very little internal variance in the response across the country except for huge extra resources being poured into Lisbon/Porto. Belgium perhaps just has more cities like Porto. I don’t think case numbers and population alone can tell any real story about the quality of a nation’s response. I’m sure it will be studied for decades if not centuries.

vienne86

molloyjh wrote: »

So today seems our little one (2) seems to have hit a wall with all of this. Shes very active and needs to get out into open spaces to burn off energy. We'd been managing it well enough until this week when places started either closing down more or limiting accessibility. Tried to see if we could get into the woods behind the house today, a regular spot for us. The car park has been closed for a couple of weeks, but there was a small space for some on street parking. Had been great because very few people could get in at the same time and between the size and number of trails you could be up there for an hour and not see another soul. The on street parking is gone now too though. And having not been out for a few days, not getting out properly again today was the last straw for her. We were only just getting by with her. Worried now the reduction in options for everyone will make the few remaining spots impossible to use safely. It's hard enough her not seeing anyone. Having so little opportunity to burn off that energy now too could cause us all problems.....

I really feel for you there - it's very tough when they are that small and you have no hope of explaining things. I'm beginning to think that this stuff of closing all car parks is just going to compress the same number of people into tighter and tighter spaces and could be counter-productive. I hope someon sees sense here. All I can do for now though, is wish you luck.

stephen_n

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Im sure we’re all aware South Korea are an outlier in the quality of their response, and there are many factors which make them extremely different to any number of European countries, such as historical virus responses preparing them or the fact their only land border contains a demilitarised zone.

Across Europe in general there’s huge variance but a factor seems to be densely populated industrialised cities. For example Faro in Portugal has a couple of hundred cases. Porto has 9000+. Faro is larger than Porto. The whole of Portugal has been in a state of emergency since March, there’s very little internal variance in the response across the country except for huge extra resources being poured into Lisbon/Porto. Belgium perhaps just has more cities like Porto. I don’t think case numbers and population alone can tell any real story about the quality of a nation’s response. I’m sure it will be studied for decades if not centuries.

They also expelled nearly all foreigners and restricted inward travel from non-nationals. Plus there’s the whole cell phone tracking thing, which I’m not sure would have flown here.

pickarooney

Buer wrote: »

You can stick France into that bracket. Similar to how Spain was overshadowed by Italy for a couple of weeks, France is reporting huge numbers but receiving relatively little coverage compared to the UK and USA currently. 37% of those tested in France are positive for Covid-19 which is incredible. They've reported multiple days with deaths in excess of over 1,000 which the UK hasn't reached yet.

The decisions to proceed with international sporting events including clashes with Italian sides visiting after the outbreak seems utter lunacy now. It's laughable to look back and think some morons were using those events as reasons as to why we schould also proceed with our matches.

The danger with France,.and Spain prior, showing no signs of improvement after 4 weeks of lockdown is that other countries will point to it say such measures are useless and rush back to work. They can also point to Sweden and conclude that no-lockdown seems to be going OK.

[Deleted User]

molloyjh wrote: »

So today seems our little one (2) seems to have hit a wall with all of this. Shes very active and needs to get out into open spaces to burn off energy. We'd been managing it well enough until this week when places started either closing down more or limiting accessibility. Tried to see if we could get into the woods behind the house today, a regular spot for us. The car park has been closed for a couple of weeks, but there was a small space for some on street parking. Had been great because very few people could get in at the same time and between the size and number of trails you could be up there for an hour and not see another soul. The on street parking is gone now too though. And having not been out for a few days, not getting out properly again today was the last straw for her. We were only just getting by with her. Worried now the reduction in options for everyone will make the few remaining spots impossible to use safely. It's hard enough her not seeing anyone. Having so little opportunity to burn off that energy now too could cause us all problems.....

I've been chilling in a local park for the past few hours. Can you do something like that? Arguably shouldn't be doing it but the police have been around and asking everyone if they're local. They're happy enough to make everyone aware of their presence and nothing more. There's decent enough space between every group. Groups are 3 at most other than families. People's mental health has to be taken into account.

molloyjh

mfceiling wrote: »

That's a bummer. They're too young to reason with and you can't really formulate an exercise plan for them.
My youngest pair are doing exercise workouts out the back (kudos to Joe Wicks on YouTube). The eldest is only getting by on 12 - 14 hours sleep a day.

Do you have a bike handy with a kids seat on it? Fresh air for her, exercise for you. Win win!!

We dont unfortunately. And I'm not sure she'd be able to sit still that long. She's very......independent. Also head strong and stubborn. We've tried to vary things as much as we can. We've cooked and baked with her. Arts & crafts. My OH even had her doing yoga for a few days. We had obstacle courses out the back, hop-scotch, got her on scooters and her first (no peddle) bike. But nothing beats the freedom to go for a wander or a run for her. And our garden is just too small & awkward for that.

molloyjh

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I've been chilling in a local park for the past few hours. Can you do something like that? Arguably shouldn't be doing it but the police have been around and asking everyone if they're local. They're happy enough to make everyone aware of their presence and nothing more. There's decent enough space between every group. Groups are 3 at most other than families. People's mental health has to be taken into account.

Theres a limited number that we can get to on foot. Parking is at a premium elsewhere as car parks are closed. Anywhere that is open is going to be busy with this weather. We're going to have to have a look around this afternoon and tomorrow.