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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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[Deleted User]

Matt Damon whilst trapped or 'locked down' on Mars in the Martian, had to survive purely on potatoes.

Now he is stuck in Ireland during Covid19.

Coincidence? I think not.

[Deleted User]

If you need a laugh today

https://twitter.com/J_CartwrightN0T/status/1249281846065668096?s=09

CatFromHue

he'll lose marks for that dismount

[Deleted User]

CatFromHue wrote: »

he'll lose marks for that dismount

At least it will be a distraction from no longer being able to walk.

Neil3030

That video reminded me to check in on the lastest dancing coffin meme compilation, and it was the first clip :pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL8_I7S9siU

CatFromHue

https://twitter.com/Ciara_Knight/status/1242872475391754240

Buer

I was speaking with family in Australia earlier. I've been following their numbers which are impressively low and asked how they're achieving these. The Aussies don't mess about when it comes to these things. They went very hard after contact tracing and testing from the off which pinpointed the spreaders and locked them down as quickly and aggressively as possible. All borders are now closed not just internationally but interstate. Most highways have checkpoints set up throughout the day turning back anyone who does not reside in the location. Only returning citizens are now allowed enter the country. After they do, they're brought from their flight on a bus to a hotel where they're locked down with the army patrolling the hotel to ensure no exceptions.

The hospitals have all necessary PPE which makes Europe look completely ill prepared. Every doctor and nuse has gown, face mask, face shield, gloves etc. without exception and very few cases have occurred relative to European countries. In Ireland, 2,312 healthcare workers have been infected. In Victoria (which has a larger population than Ireland), there have been 162.

I believe Australia has performed several simulations and training excercises in recent years and had an entire documented plan ready to be enacted. The plan was reviewed and updated as recently as late last year.

Apparently they're not planning on opening their borders any time soon with government officials advising they expect it to be late 2020 or even 2021 when they do so. They're already on top of this but it appears they have little faith in the approaches of some other nations which have huge visitor numbers to Australia and will surely reintroduce another wave of infection if they did so.

Interesting to hear it and read up on it thereafter. Obviously exisiting relatively removed from most countries geographically hasn't hurt them but it's incredible to see a nation of 25 million people have only 61 deaths at this point.

swiwi_

Buer wrote: »

I was speaking with family in Australia earlier. I've been following their numbers which are impressively low and asked how they're achieving these. The Aussies don't mess about when it comes to these things. They went very hard after contact tracing and testing from the off which pinpointed the spreaders and locked them down as quickly and aggressively as possible. All borders are now closed not just internationally but interstate. Most highways have checkpoints set up throughout the day turning back anyone who does not reside in the location. Only returning citizens are now allowed enter the country. After they do, they're brought from their flight on a bus to a hotel where they're locked down with the army patrolling the hotel to ensure no exceptions.

The hospitals have all necessary PPE which makes Europe look completely ill prepared. Every doctor and nuse has gown, face mask, face shield, gloves etc. without exception and very few cases have occurred relative to European countries. In Ireland, 2,312 healthcare workers have been infected. In Victoria (which has a larger population than Ireland), there have been 162.

I believe Australia has performed several simulations and training excercises in recent years and had an entire documented plan ready to be enacted. The plan was reviewed and updated as recently as late last year.

Apparently they're not planning on opening their borders any time soon with government officials advising they expect it to be late 2020 or even 2021 when they do so. They're already on top of this but it appears they have little faith in the approaches of some other nations which have huge visitor numbers to Australia and will surely reintroduce another wave of infection if they did so.

Interesting to hear it and read up on it thereafter. Obviously exisiting relatively removed from most countries geographically hasn't hurt them but it's incredible to see a nation of 25 million people have only 61 deaths at this point.

They are likely to open the borders with nz imo. Both countries should be coronavirus free in a not too distant future. Population density is low in both countries, I don’t think you can compare to Europe really.

[Deleted User]

Increase in reporting on the possibility of re-infection.

Very concerning if true: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/13/who-officials-say-its-unclear-whether-recovered-coronavirus-patients-are-immune-to-second-infection.html

Neil3030

Not relevant yet. It would be much more irresponsible of them to instead say - "yup, looks good, no risk of re-infection" and risk pissing recovered patients that are still in lockdown.

Buer

swiwi_ wrote: »

They are likely to open the borders with nz imo. Both countries should be coronavirus free in a not too distant future. Population density is low in both countries, I don’t think you can compare to Europe really.

Yup, the Aussie government advised that they could potentially open borders with NZ but that would be it.

Obviously, there are a number of aspects which means it's hard to compare the antipodeans with this part of the world but they really do seem to have come down hard and implemented the basic things very effectively i.e. enforced isolation for those entering the country, excellent PPE for health workers etc.

Locking down borders is much harder to do in Europe and will never happen. But I see this as being a much more prolonged situation with peaks and troughs for us. I was surprised to see that Spain are opening elements of their economy again with construction and manufacturing being allowed to return to work.

Squidgy Black

Anyone see the absolute shíte McGregor's been tweeting? He had a go at Stenaline as if it was their fault the borders weren't closed, and that we should only be allowing deliveries of medical supplies and nothing else, that we can survive off Irish grown produce and other supplies.

It's mad how some people's coke fuelled rants have such a reach and gain support of so many.

sydthebeat

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Anyone see the absolute shíte McGregor's been tweeting? He had a go at Stenaline as if it was their fault the borders weren't closed, and that we should only be allowing deliveries of medical supplies and nothing else, that we can survive off Irish grown produce and other supplies.

It's mad how some people's coke fuelled rants have such a reach and gain support of so many.

Listening to some rants on FB would make you think that there are plane loads of rabid tourists coming into the country every single day.....

[Deleted User]

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Anyone see the absolute shíte McGregor's been tweeting? He had a go at Stenaline as if it was their fault the borders weren't closed, and that we should only be allowing deliveries of medical supplies and nothing else, that we can survive off Irish grown produce and other supplies.

It's mad how some people's coke fuelled rants have such a reach and gain support of so many.

Well apparently we're one of the most food secure nations on earth so I reckon we probably could feed ourselves, but the whole electricity situation wouldn't be great.

Squidgy Black

Interested Observer wrote: »

Well apparently we're one of the most food secure nations on earth so I reckon we probably could feed ourselves, but the whole electricity situation wouldn't be great.

Being food secure doesn't mean you produce enough food, it means you have ample supplies of food, that's quality and safe, as well as affordable.

We still rely on fairly large amounts of imports, particularly for fruit and veg. There was a report done a few years ago that over half the consumer spend on food products was imported goods, to the tune of €8 billion.

Podge_irl

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Being food secure doesn't mean you produce enough food, it means you have ample supplies of food, that's quality and safe, as well as affordable.

We still rely on fairly large amounts of imports, particularly for fruit and veg. There was a report done a few years ago that over half the consumer spend on food products was imported goods, to the tune of €8 billion.

I think, to be more precise, we produce enough food, its just not the food we are necessarily used to subsisting on.

Mind you, I may have to survive on gruyere cheese for the foreseeable.

Bazzo

If I have to subsist on steak and cheese for a few months for the good of mankind then that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Former Former

Podge_irl wrote: »

I think, to be more precise, we produce enough food, its just not the food we are necessarily used to subsisting on.

Mind you, I may have to survive on gruyere cheese for the foreseeable.

Yeah, we produce enough food to feed the entire country twice over.

The problem is that we produce way too much of certain foods (eg beef and dairy) and none of many others. As long as import and export holds up, this is fine, but if international trade seizes up, we could be looking at a lot more beef and potatoes and a lot less avocado toast and mango smoothies.

irishbucsfan

Former Former wrote: »

Yeah, we produce enough food to feed the entire country twice over.

The problem is that we produce way too much of certain foods (eg beef and dairy) and none of many others. As long as import and export holds up, this is fine, but if international trade seizes up, we could be looking at a lot more beef and potatoes and a lot less avocado toast and mango smoothies.

I think a lot of our potatoes are grown in the UK now... at least my family married into a family of potato farmers in the North of England who would grow enough potatoes between them to keep Buer in coddle for decades, and that's all for Tesco in Ireland

OldRio

Talking of food production. If any of you have space to grow some vegetables it's a great time of the year to sow your seeds. If you're short of space try window boxes or containers. You can get great results.

We are fortunate. We grow about 70% of our food on the farm. Freezing and preserving helps during the winter alongside the winter veg that can be left in the ground.

Synode

We were talking about growing a few bits in the garden we're renting in. Any recommendations on what to grow for complete beginners?

OldRio

Synode wrote: »

We were talking about growing a few bits in the garden we're renting in. Any recommendations on what to grow for complete beginners?

Quick green vegs would be Spinach, Chard Kale Rocket and Lettuce. Some varieties of Peas grow to maturity pretty fast.
Carrots are fairly easy.
Grow what you enjoy to eat.

Former Former

Apparently courgettes are easy to grow and give you a good yield from a small patch of ground or a pot

OldRio

Former Former wrote: »

Apparently courgettes are easy to grow and give you a good yield from a small patch of ground or a pot

Only grow a couple of plants. The yield is amazing and you can preserve them in various chutneys but don't grow more than two plants.

ionadnapóca

Onions
perfect for this time of year

awec

Former Former wrote: »

Apparently courgettes are easy to grow and give you a good yield from a small patch of ground or a pot

Pity they’re awful to eat.

molloyjh

OldRio wrote: »

Quick green vegs would be Spinach, Chard Kale Rocket and Lettuce. Some varieties of Peas grow to maturity pretty fast.
Carrots are fairly easy.
Grow what you enjoy to eat.

What's the yield like from carrots? Looking into doing some planting if I can. Got a Click And Grow for herbs at the start of the year so looking at veg in the garden. Dont have a huge amount of space, but could prob get a couple of those cold frames and maybe the grow bags. No idea how much use the latter are though.

molloyjh

On a positive note I got the pizza oven up and running! The best bit about it so far is how it crisps up prosciutto. Absolutely amazing bits of smoky bacon on each one. Delish.

OldRio

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Onions
perfect for this time of year

Garlic as well. Very easy to grow and for some reason they always do well. Buy some shop bought garlic. Divide the bulb into individual cloves and plant.

Just a caveat about all seedlings at this time of year. Only plant out when the risk of frost has passed

OldRio

molloyjh wrote: »

What's the yield like from carrots? Looking into doing some planting if I can. Got a Click And Grow for herbs at the start of the year so looking at veg in the garden. Dont have a huge amount of space, but could prob get a couple of those cold frames and maybe the grow bags. No idea how much use the latter are though.

Carrots take space and require planting the seeds straight into the ground. In other words they don't like being transplanted. They also require thinning.

Grow bags will work for tomatoes and cucumbers at a push. But only grow the outdoor variety. They will also require feed. Liquid seaweed is good.