mike carey

[MEDIA=twitter]1248406874057142276[/MEDIA]

More a response than a preparation, but even for a response you have to prepare. Some put more effort into it than others. [MEDIA=twitter]1248378486533681159[/MEDIA]

They are restricting the number of people who can leave (max 1,000 per day to Beijing) and imposing stringent tests before allowing people to leave. Those going home to Beijing need clearance from their local district that they can quarantine in place once they return. So, easing rather than lifting.

Ok, so posting this here is a stretch, but children travelling or even seeing their grandparents are one of the groups who are waiting for it to end. The evening current affairs program put out a call last week, or maybe the week before, for people to send in videos of children sending messages to their grandparents. They are broadcasting a collection of these videos every few days. These are the ones broadcast tonight. [MEDIA=twitter]1247826687913365505[/MEDIA]

Unfortunately, no. But I couldn't resist it.

Yes, Lady Jane Gray was never accorded the title. I don't think Phillip's title was anything more than a courtesy whereas William and Mary were joint sovereigns and he remained king when she died.

For the British monarchy, males outranked females in the line of succession, but that was changed a few years ago (it required the consent of all the 'Commonwealth Realm', 15 of them IIRC). But there are no first-born females yet who benefit from the change. If anything happened to Prince George, Princess Charlotte would be William's heir apparent over her younger brother. Mary was the daughter of James II so was in the line of succession (but not the heir) and was chosen to replace James when he fled the country and was deemed to have abdicated. They got to ignore the actual heir, because it was basically a coup, and they just could. So she had a valid-ish claim on the throne. William of Orange led an invited invasion force that was what forced James to leave, and he insisted on sharing the throne.

Yes and no. Her title would have been Queen, as were Elizabeth's mother Queen Elizabeth and grandmother Queen Mary (they were the ones for whom the ships were named). Queen consort is not a title, it's a description. When you're talking about the wife of a current king, it's obvious what her status is. But Diana would have been a queen consort, as would Camilla or Kate be next, rather than queen regnant which is what the current queen is. The only queen regnant whose husband was king was Mary, Princess of Orange. She and William III were co-sovereigns.

Q. What is the difference between COVID-19 and Romeo and Juliet? A. One is a corona virus and the other is a Verona crisis.

I found a few airline amenity kits from long haul flights that I had thrown into the bottom of a cupboard. The eye masks in them aren't ideal but they'll work for the limited times I'll be out and need one.

Consider who you use as a pretext for your exercise. [MEDIA=twitter]1246927052785307650[/MEDIA]

This sorta qualifies as maintaining mental health or at least that of any significant others with whom you might share digs. [MEDIA=twitter]1246934509204824064[/MEDIA] Ok, I intended to post the list, but the dance bit to which it replied fits into the general theme of the thread.

David. Well, actually he was christened Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David but known as David to family and friends. The last four names are those of the patron saints of the four home nations.

All of us tend to adjust our lifestyles to match a reliable income at whatever level that might be, so reinvention after a sudden change of circumstances can be difficult especially with expenses that are fixed like mortgages and fixed expenses on properties. It's never impossible, but it can be difficult.

As @BSR noted, even allowing for generalised issues with counting there is a disparity between countries on what is counted. Some, like France, are playing catchup with some groups that they have recognised they missed. Some countries, like China, appear to be deliberately obscuring the extent of the casualty rate they face. These disparities make comparison between countries problematic and a lot of the time running a league table of infection rates is not all that helpful. Despite this, the figures for individual countries are useful as long as the criteria that are used are consistent over time (or when changes to methodology are noted and trends are adjusted for them). They provide an indication of how the pandemic is progressing in each country individually, and that is important in evaluating the precautions that each is taking. It's all part of a wider understanding of statistics, that you need understand how they are derived and what they are and are not useful for. In the case of COVID-19 their greatest value is to explain trends not to make comparisons between countries.

I think it's possible to have a lot of fun with Mike with his clothes on. Whether the other party has their clothes on or not. I'm sure some bottoms could learn to do other things with appropriate encouragement!

Delighted to see you make a cheeky comment, PK.

You're quite right. Even though there isn't an approved antibody test yet, that may happen and may be a requirement. Back to the days of yellow vaccination books. I'm certainly not confident that travel from Australia will be possible this year, or that other countries or sub-national jurisdictions won't have severe restrictions. I would hope that they end up being more like the current yellow fever rules than complete travel bans, but we will see. Just now, I'm not confident in booking anything in Palm Springs before next April.

Welcome to the forum, [uSER=19448]@Joshua Mann[/uSER], or to be more precise welcome back to posting in this time of corona. As you've no doubt worked out it can be fun, but you don't need to take everything too seriously (although occasionally most of us do). No doubt it's concerning to have to freeze your RM account, but such are the times we are in.

Indeed they are not, and the situation of others is not to be minimised. But this thread is about sex workers. Many of their challenges are shared by others who are marginalised, but many others are not. Their work can't be used in a resume for other jobs, unemployment payments in the US, unlike many other countries, are contingent on having been in recognised work. Even the best prepared workers, and not just sex workers, can easily be knocked over by force majeure like a pandemic, so 'they made their choices', while correct doesn't capture the nature of the difficulty they may be in. When we're talking about one set of people on any subject, the fact that other separate groups may also be affected is a separate issue. The groups are not in competition for sympathy or anything else.

Interesting development in Australia. I rarely spend over $100 so it won't affect me (and I always use tap and go). [MEDIA=twitter]1245949000651608064[/MEDIA]

My local Aldi had plenty of ricotta when I was there two days ago. Big plastic sieve-like containers, about a kilo by the look of them. Not much use to you though.

+1 We've just had a royal commission into financial sector malpractice, and it's resulted in financial institution executives left and right having to fall on their swords. One of the things that came out was the sharp practices of, and high fees that bank and other for profit financial institution operated retirement savings funds charged. This was in stark contrast to 'industry funds' that are run as not-for-profits by various industry sector employers and unions in collaboration. They have lower fees and of the top 10 retirement funds, nine were industry funds. Since the RC, the for-profit funds have been haemorrhaging investment funds to the industry ones.

Sure t-shirts may be breathable, but wearing masks in public is designed to protect the public from any pathogens you may breathe out, not to stop you from breathing them in. They stop you from broadcasting droplets and contaminating surfaces. The risk from inhaling aerosols is less than that from touching contaminated surfaces and subsequently touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Any sort of mask is likely to stop you touching your nose or mouth, even the ones that anti-globalisation protester wore. If you want to have a mask that reduces your chances of inhaling airborne viruses, you need an N95 mask or better. The plain surgical masks that clinicians used routinely in non-pandemic times are not much more effective than a cloth mask would be.