OK, *now* we're in trouble ...

[rslade]

For some reason, on the Johns Hopkins CoVID-19 dashboard, Canada, as a country, has disappeared.  (If you switch to the province/state/dependency mode, the individual provinces with infections still show up.)

This is disturbing, for someone who lives there ...

[CraginS]

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@rslade wrote:

Fire up your app and cough twice ...

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The last time a medico-type person told me to cough twice there was a cold hand in a most disturbing location.

Craig 

[rslade]

I will social distance from you
(All I want for Christmas is you parody)

Chorus Studio, Vancouver

[rslade]

A "moral contract" with a virus?

Quebec premier Francois Legault has promised a sort of four day "visiting period" December 24th to 27th over Christmas, if les Quebecois will behave themselves nicely in the week before and after.

This proposition is so bizarre it makes my head spin. It is akin to the saying that expecting the world to treat you nicely because you are a good person is like expecting a bull not to charge you because you are a vegetarian. Yes, I know that we all have COVID fatigue, and that mental health is an issue, but thinking that you can make this kind of deal with a virus reveals a profound misunderstanding of the situation.

The pandemic risk is not this type of risk. You can't make deals with it. It won't agree not to attack you on Tuesday if you behave properly today. You have to isolate, you have to wash your hands, you have to keep physically distant, and you have to wear a mask if you aren't physically distant ALL THE TIME. Or, if you are in close contact with someone who is infected (even if neither you nor they know it) you will get sick. You don't get to do deals. You don't get to not wash your hands just because you, personally, find wearing a mask more difficult than you think other people do.

Look, putting it in infosec terms, you don't get to click on that dangerous link, safely, just because you have not clicked on three dangerous links previously. If you click on the link, you are going to get the drive-by download installed on your machine, and the blackhats are going to steal all your financial information, contacts, and accounts. You have to keep up your guard ALL THE TIME.

With this type of thinking, I am not looking forward to the coming months. The US is already in a bad way, and American Thanksgiving is already showing up in the case numbers. You should have taken a lesson from us, in Canada. We let our guard down for our Thanksgiving, which is in October (at the actual harvest season, not just a kickoff for Christmas shopping season), and we are definitely paying for it now. If those of you in the Unexplored Southern Area partied on Thanksgiving and then are going to do it again at Christmas, there won't be any of you left by the time the vaccines actually come out.

Look, this isn't the virus that stole Christmas. Think of other ways to "get together," separately. That's why God invented Zoom and Whatsapp and Facetime. (And Jit.si. I'm dying to try out Jit.si. Somebody just installed it on our Vancouver Security SIG Slack.) (I hate Slack.) I'm pretty sure you can find someone on Doordash who will deliver turkey. But don't think of packing together in a house this Christmas. It's dangerous. And no "moral contract" will change that.

Now go call your Mum on Whatsapp.

[CraginS]

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@rslade wrote:

A "moral contract" with a virus?

Quebec premier Francois Legault has promised a sort of four day "visiting period" December 24th to 27th over Christmas, if les Quebecois will behave themselves nicely in the week before and after.

This proposition is so bizarre it makes my head spin. It is akin to the saying that expecting the world to treat you nicely because you are a good person is like expecting a bull not to charge you because you are a vegetarian. Yes, I know that we all have COVID fatigue, and that mental health is an issue, but thinking that you can make this kind of deal with a virus reveals a profound misunderstanding of the situation.

...

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Gee, Rob, and you make fun of us 'Murcans!

Stay healthy, My Friend.

Craig

[rslade]

[rslade]

Due to the ultra-cold shipping and storage requirements for the CoVID vaccines, there is a projected shortage of dry ice.

Does anyone else find it highly ironic that we may be in trouble because we don't have enough carbon dioxide?

[Caute_cautim]

@rsladeGo ask the the people of the Amazon Rainforest in 2020, what happened!! 

In the first seven months of 2020, more than 13,000sq km (5,019sq miles) of the Brazilian Amazon was burned, according to analysis of satellite data provided by Dr Michelle Kalamandeen, a tropical ecologist on the Amazon rainforest. That's more than eight times the size of London.

So, if you want to generate Carbon Dioxide, decide which way you want to be remembered:

Although more costly than cremation (but still cheaper than a traditional burial) there are more environmentally friendly variations of cremation that essentially accomplish the same thing by using solutions of water, electrolysis and other chemicals—methods like Aquamation, Resomation, Bio-cremation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTD0GltXB50

Then think how many people will die during COVID-19 what is the greenest way to go and do we actually have space?  You have all seen the scenes of mass graves, not something people want to remember after this situation is overcome eventually or eliminated.   However, this is a reality we face every day and we have to make choices, regardless of whether it remains a taboo subject - we seriously have to think about it.

Then add EV batteries, and other hard to dispose materials to the list - we need to think smart with innovation.

Regards

Caute-Cautim

[rslade]

Need a good news story?

You're welcome.

[rslade]

Dance.

(I think the original is on TikTok.)

[Caute_cautim]

@rsladeYes the original is on TikTok, but you can still play the video.  Quite uplifting from you - well done.

Regards

Caute_cautim