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Post by casimira on Jun 17, 2020 13:23:57 GMT
I was tentatively planning on going to visit my friend in Miami because of the cheap air fares but upon hearing the number of infections being reported I quickly abandoned that idea.
Oklahoma is also reporting very high numbers and guess where you know who is planning on having a rally?
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Post by questa on Jun 17, 2020 13:26:27 GMT
Little buggies will be waiting in Jacksonville to great our fearless leader when he comes to make his nomination acceptance speech. One wishes it were little bugs, not little buggies to get up close to His Buggership.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 17, 2020 15:04:42 GMT
I see that two of my countrywomen have reintroduced coronovirus to NZ how embarrassing. Bixa I sent for a face shield each for my lot too...we wont look as GORGEOUS as you of course...but I think that we will find them useful.
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Post by casimira on Jun 17, 2020 15:23:09 GMT
One of our weekly newspapers did a cover story this week about a project out of the University of Arizona that has since been adopted in a number of locales throughout the globe. It's named "A Journal of the Plague Year" that is driven by public submissions to it's website collecting materials from people around the country and world about what day to day life is like during the pandemic. It is similar in nature to a familiar chronicle that emerged here in 2005 in partnership with several centers and institutions including the Smithsonian which is a fascinating archive known as the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank. It includes all kinds of materials - text, audio, video, photos, artwork, tweets, posts from Facebook, Instagram. Twitter, Snapchats, memes and more. covid-19archive.org/s/archive/page/Share
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Post by mickthecactus on Jun 17, 2020 15:40:50 GMT
Actually they are New Zealanders Cheery flying from the UK.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 17, 2020 15:45:21 GMT
That will interesting to look back at Casimira. On fb there are some posts circulating that list the latest events...so that when the posts pop up in your 'memories' feed in future years we can be thankful that our governments handled it so well...not.
For some reason the media and government here in the UK have decided that what we need to keep the masses happy....is football....wall to wall blasted football. 92 games over the next 40 days played behind closed doors, shown on TV.
Guess that I'll be watching a lot of DVDs and Netflix...
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Post by whatagain on Jun 17, 2020 16:29:14 GMT
I wonder if one day i will be able to shut up. I went to the local supermarket that i decided to boycott because no employee is weari g a mask but i had a crate of empty beer bottles to return and they are the only ones close to accept those. So here i am crate in hand at the door. A guy tells me i cant enter like that. Ah ,? Yes i have to take a 'caddie' a trolley on which we put the items we buy and which has always one wheel going east when the 3 others go north. The guy adds that it is to enforce social distanciation. So i tell him i have to get that stupid trolley but he doesnt even wear a mask ? He laughs. I enter and leave the thing 1 meter after the entrance... Bah...
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 17, 2020 17:12:52 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 17, 2020 17:21:38 GMT
If you want one K2, message me and I'll send one over. Thanks, but I have a stock of 12 at the moment.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 18, 2020 8:07:55 GMT
Actually they are New Zealanders Cheery flying from the UK. Ooh I didn't know that, thank you Mick.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 18, 2020 8:12:18 GMT
Don't laugh. I decided to utilize the elastic ear hangers (?!) that keep falling off the rubbish paper face masks that I bought from Amazon and made one. Hand stitched so don't think that it would be as robust as a machine stitched one. I used a pipe cleaner stitched into the upper seam so that the mask fits snugly around the nose. It's quite comfy.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jun 18, 2020 8:27:20 GMT
Very pretty.
I had to wear a mask for the first time at hospital yesterday. They are blooming hot!
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Post by lugg on Jun 18, 2020 9:10:17 GMT
Now hopefully, I will see my sister this week, but no hugs with her yet, just seeing her will be fabulous. Good news Mich Very pretty Cheery.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2020 20:34:21 GMT
Casimira, somehow I skated right past that link you provided for everyone in the whole world to shared their accounts of this singular year. Quoting you here in case anyone else missed it. Thinking about what anyporters have written about their their lives in this corona year, I imagine there are people here who would like to contribute. ... a project out of the University of Arizona that has since been adopted in a number of locales throughout the globe. It's named "A Journal of the Plague Year" that is driven by public submissions to its website collecting materials from people around the country and world about what day to day life is like during the pandemic. covid-19archive.org/s/archive/page/ShareYou're right, Mick -- the mouth masks are hot and smothering. Cheery, I'll be interested to hear how your family takes to the visors. It has been a game-changer for me, as I'm one of those people addicted to breathing. And Cheery, is that football thing designed to drive a big bunch of the population stark raving mad?
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Post by bjd on Jun 19, 2020 6:26:02 GMT
I took the bus to Bayonne and back yesterday. Masks obligatory in the bus. After about 5 minutes I pulled mine down off my nose so that I could breathe properly, and I just have a thin one with no filter. But it's wasn't hot outside so the rest was bearable.
But on the way home late afternoon, it was warm and sunny so the mask felt much worse. I noticed that everyone put on a mask to get on the bus, but most of the young people pulled them off once they were sitting down, although they did sit in separate rows and not beside each other. For the last half-hour I ended up hanging my mask off one ear. I don't know how anyone is going to cope wearing one when it gets hot this summer.
I also went to a restaurant for lunch. Tables not really a metre apart. Nobody with a mask - of course you can't eat with a mask on! The waitress said she couldn't breathe with one so didn't wear it, just tried to avoid getting too close to people. It was just a small local place and she seemed to know all the customers.
I also went to the doctor the other day. He told me that there were suspected cases of covid19 well before the end of the year 2019. He had one patient, sent to him as a friend of a friend, a Parisian, whose symptoms now appear to have been the coronavirus. That was in October or November. And at the local old-age home, there was an unusual series of deaths in early February, but of course, nobody was being tested at the time.
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Post by tod2 on Jun 19, 2020 9:50:15 GMT
South Africa Level 3 advanced Regulations: You may go to a movie, followed by dinner in a restaurant. Then you may go to the casino. You can get a room at the casino, shag a hooker and then get your hair done after breakfast. But, you are NOT allowed to visit your friends for coffee…..and definitely no smoking!
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Post by questa on Jun 19, 2020 10:00:55 GMT
Nobody with a mask - of course you can't eat with a mask on! We are familiar with the classic movie scene where the surgeon doing a heroic operation calls for the nurse to wipe his (always the male) brow. What happens when he needs a drink of water or in the long 8-9 hour epics he needs a coffee and food. I really hope one of our current anyport readers can share this information as my memories are of rather primitive practices. A drink of water involved a length of cleaned and sterilized tubing with one end in a freshly opened water bottle and the nurse sliding the other end behind the mask and hoping it will find the mouth. Now they wear more protection than a suit of armour...how do they drink? Usually for coffee etc the surgeons would move away from the table at an appropriate time and the assistant doctor would keep things safe.A change of gown and gloves usually followed. If we look at ops like the separation of conjoined twins a cast of de Mille proportions seem to be needed.So what is the drill nowadays?
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Post by casimira on Jun 19, 2020 13:28:51 GMT
Thank you Bixa for reposting the link to "The Year of The Plague". It's a really interesting and very well done archive to peruse. The New Orleans entries have increased quite a bit since the newspaper story and since I don't venture out much beyond my immediate neighborhood it's been intriguing to see and read what's going on in other parts of the city and surrounding Parishes. I think it would be perfect place for Kerouac to post some of his Paris photos from his wanderings since the pandemic.
BJD, I too, have heard of several people who took to being very ill back toward the end of last year and shook it off as being a case of the flu, some saying it was like no flu they had ever experienced and upon going to their physician were told it was likely "just the flu". One friend of mine whom I spent some time with back in February is thoroughly convinced that she had it and she only just this past week has been feeling like she can go back out again. The time period that she believes she was infected coincided with quite a few Carnival festivities. As she is a musician with a band she was exposed to many elderly Afro-American musicians that performed with her. Two of them died from the virus. I was worried for a bit because I socialized with this woman quite a bit during the same time frame.
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Post by bjd on Jun 19, 2020 13:47:43 GMT
I heard on the radio today that testing of sewage water in Milan and another city in northern Italy has shown that there was covid19 in the water already in November/December. I guess China wasn't quite upfront with their information.
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2020 13:52:07 GMT
My North Florida County is seeing a spike in cases, as is the whole State of Florida. Until a month ago, we’d hardly had any reported here. Two days ago we had ten new confirmed cases, and yesterday there were 26. Our governor is blaming the state-wide spikes on testing. So is the governor of Texas, while in California all citizens are now required to wear a mask when out in public to help tamp down their spiking numbers.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 19, 2020 14:17:26 GMT
I just understood yesterday why the fountains of Paris are not running, but that's just because I am thick. At least a month ago, it was revealed that the non potable water system of Paris was infected with covid. Paris is one of the only cities in the world with both a potable water system and a non potable system (even though it is pretty much cleaned up). The non potable water is used for washing the streets -- and running the fountains. They decided to wash the streets with potable water until further notice, but the fountains remain dry so that they will not splash covid on anybody. (My own take on things like this is "overkill" but I do not exercise any municipal responsibilities.)
Tonight, there is a concert for the Fête de la Musique (even though it will only be on Sunday) at the Accor Hotels Arena which can hold 20,000 people. There will only be 2000 spectators, but it is the very first time that such a crowd is being allowed into a closed space anywhere in Europe since the pandemic began. For people watching the televised event, it really doesn't make any difference, but I very much understand the performers who say they have been really suffering to be performing in front of nobody for the last 3 months. Tonight's live applause will be important for them.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 19, 2020 14:35:31 GMT
Montana is “spiking” upward, too, though part of it is due to increased testing of asymptomatic people, including 100% of residents on some Indian reservations.
Montana just added 25 new cases, the highest number since late March. But our total is still only 655 cases, with only 20 fatalities. My county has added only 4 cases since the end of April, and has had a total of only one death.
We are at Phase Two of re-opening. I have a hair cut appointment this coming Tuesday. Masks required, and I am the first appointment of the day, so the air should be free of floating virus.
I cancelled the longer color touch-up part of the appointment and will also skip the usual blowout and style. But it’s been 19 weeks since my last haircut, and I’m more than ready. I need 2” of wispy “crunchy” ends removed.
On a positive note, as my “roots” grow out, I realize I probably have enough white hairs now to not “need” touch-ups of my blonde...
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Post by lagatta on Jun 19, 2020 14:54:29 GMT
You might find that you have very attractive silver hair. It is a good idea to give yourself an anti-yellowing rince once in a time though. I'm so relieved to have stopped colouring my hair. Still, so looking forward to getting a cut.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 19, 2020 15:16:59 GMT
Not really the subject, but every older woman in my family or close relations was relieved the day they finally decided to stop colouring their hair. Deciding when they needed to return for more colour was always stressful, not to mention a bit expensive. Oddly enough, just before leaving Florida, my mother had started colouring her hair again (probably not understanding that it was only because her hairdresser kept insisting that she would look so much better with less money in her wallet). And because of this, for the next ten years I regularly paid for this to continue in France, just because it was a routine that my mother continued to understand and which was a link to her former life. I would have saved so much money if I hadn't paid those 47 euros every 4-6 weeks.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 19, 2020 15:26:44 GMT
When we think of covid-19, we tend to think of places like the United States, the UK, China or Brazil as being the most dangerous countries.
However, the countries with the highest death ratio are:
1. Belgium 84/100,000 2. United Kingdom 62/100,000 3. Spain 58/100,000 4. Italy 57/100,000 5. Sweden 50/100,000
Sweden is particularly ironic since they thought they were so much smarter than everyone else. As for Belgium, it is shocking for a country with an excellent health system, but anomalies in smaller countries are always possible. Back during the enormous heat wave of 2003, France was nailed to the wall as the country with the most deaths, but proportionally Luxembourg was the country with the most deaths, followed by Italy (which hid its figures for a few months).
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 19, 2020 15:52:01 GMT
I am shocked by Belgium's figures.
I don't see Sweden as so much ironic as inevitable, considering how it seemed to handle the virus by using its population as guinea pigs in a response that was rather fecklessly laissez-faire. There is no point in even discussing the UK's response, which seems as badly bungled as that of the US.
But it looks as though Belgium tried to do everything right. Did they start too late with prophylactic restrictions, such as closing it four borders with other countries?
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 19, 2020 16:16:27 GMT
Belgium did not start late. The Belgian borders were closed until 15 June, just like the majority of other EU countries. However, it appears that the Swedish policy was inexcusable. In fact, its borders are still closed with the other Scandinavian countries.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 19, 2020 16:43:17 GMT
There has now been a maga-cluster in Germany at the largest abbatoir in Europe - Tönnies, in Gütersloh. 730 employees tested positive out of a total of 1100 employees tested. All schools in the city have been closed until further notice. Other than the fact that meat processing plants are particularly disgusting places, there is still no understanding as to why there have been so many outbreaks in various countries around the world. And of course, the first big case in China was related to a meat market, as was the new case in Beijing a few days ago. Is it a vegetarian conspiracy?
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Post by bjd on Jun 19, 2020 16:58:40 GMT
I once heard or read some explanation for Belgium's high death rate. I believe they said that anybody who died with covid19 was considered to have died of the virus, even if they had actually died of something else, like a heart attack. Most other countries did not do this.
I just found this in an NPR article from the end of April: "Belgium has surged to the top of the grim leaderboard because authorities decided to be radically transparent, if perhaps a bit speculative, about the toll from the novel coronavirus. They include not only deaths that are confirmed to be virus-related, but even those suspected of being linked, whether the victim was tested or not." and "Belgian authorities have come under pressure to change their method due to the negative perception. Even Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès has suggested the count has been exaggerated. But Emmanuel André, the spokesman for the government's coronavirus emergency task force, is unapologetic. He insists other governments have been undercounting fatalities attributable to the virus, and in fact, he said in a news conference Monday, "more and more countries are starting to copy the Belgian surveillance model ... which allows us to measure the severity of the situation."
"When you don't know, it's more difficult to act," he says."
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 19, 2020 19:17:23 GMT
According to Matt Hancock (our health minister) there has been a spike in numbers of coronovirus cases in Leicester this week. Our mayor had a phone conference with the minister this morning, but he says that he's none the wiser...there are no plans to lock down the city or anything, and non essential shops opened on Monday just like everywhere else in England.
I'm still taking the dog out for all his walks and the only difference I've noticed really is an increase in traffic.
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