mike carey

Most people are capable of considering two unrelated issues at the same time.

David is a really nice guy.

I'll have to stop commenting on your posts and tweets lest I seem to be some sort of over-awed fan boy.

Or olive oil that's cholesterol free. It's the equivalent of the 'contents may be hot' on coffee cups.

This has been commented on here in the past. Narrative comments in reviews on RM are indeed visible for those of us who aren't in the US, but in the US you can see them if you use a VPN or proxy server (not sure about the technical terms) set for another country. Here in Terra Australis, I'm accustomed to being able to read them all the time and it's frustrating when I visit the US to have to live without them or jump through hoops to read them.

Actually no, I knew roughly what both were, but I hadn't joined those dots.

Including midnight calls for 1am appointments!

I wasn't sure so I googled it, that uniform was introduced in 2017. I have no idea what preceded it. The RAN [Royal Australian Navy] field dress is in blues and greys, so I thought that might also be the case for the USN.

That's US Navy field dress.

I think I could overlook the 'messy'.

The places I've seen reported on use industrial-scale composting operations to process the green/food waste. That would probably reduce, but perhaps not eliminate a rat problem. (And here, birds of prey, snakes, foxes and small marsupial predators anywhere near larger cities.)

D'oh! I didn't google it, just thought, 'That's odd,' Now I know how far north of the 'rest' of Hollywood, it makes sense! (Green bins are a thing here, although not everywhere. Most places, including Canberra, they are only for garden waste, although some local councils want you to use them for all food scraps, including meat. In sink disposal machines have never been common here.)

I'm sure I've used this line before, and it's not my own creation, but anyway. 'It's all very well to use the element trendium, but the problem is it has a short half life before decaying into its sister element tedium.'

I understand that being in a paper bag is the most unfavourable environment for the virus.

Well, I am an oldie!

Can do if @Benjamin_Nicholas is there! Leaving aside the fact that I can't leave the country.

My sister was a member of the Labor party and a trade union official in her twenties. I remember going to Labor party events with her. Roll the clock and she is now more conservative and is a member of the Liberal Party, and a branch official and member of the state council. Her wife's influence, I think. She joined the Party in part because she opposed the Christian right that was taking it over in Victoria (that has largely been pushed back). Although she says she's on the left of the party, she no longer watches the ABC and takes a harder line on climate change and trans rights, following the conservative talking points. When we meet we talk politics less than we did, and if anything my views have moved to the left, although I've never been a member of a party. We still talk politics, but it is more awkward than it was in the past. There's a by-election in my federal constituency next month, and I'll probably vote Green, but my vote will flow to Labor. I won't discuss that with her (the Green part, I mean, if asked I'll tell her where my vote eventually went, to Labor). (The member who retired through ill-health was Labor.)

After watching the antics of Snowball a few posts back, an interview on the radio here today struck a particular chord with me. It's with a woman who was highly qualified in her field and then, after raising a magpie chick, launched into studying birds, going so far as to complete (as it transpired in the conversation) a PhD in the field. She talks about the adventures and misadventures of her life with the birds she looked after (and studied). At one point, she talked about having a galah (a pink and grey parrot) that (or maybe that should be 'who') called out the names of her four Rhodesian ridgeback dogs, in her 'come here' tone of voice. The dogs came in, then the bird told them to sit, and they did! It's a long listen, just under an hour, but I found it good fun. https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/gisela-kaplan-rpt/12294122

I walked past my local supermarket this afternoon—I was at the shopping centre for other things—and extra Perspex had gone up. Early in the piece, they had put screens up at the checkouts that are staffed. In the self-checkout area up till now they had every second machine closed for distancing, but now they are all open because now they have installed Perspex screens between each of the registers.

Our first case was in mid-summer but there wasn't much spread, or rather not many additional imported cases for several weeks, and it was only in mid-March that the government became really worried and the restrictions were escalated. We had closed our borders to people first from China at the end of January and then Iran, South Korea and Italy. Repatriation flights from Wuhan and from the Diamond Princess in Yokohama were quarantined in remote facilities for 14 days. The borders were closed to non-Australians and quarantine imposed for Australians who returned from 19 March. We (and New Zealand) are easing our restrictions now (I had my first drive out of Canberra yesterday, and back today), although we are easing one or two measures then waiting two weeks to see what happens before easing some more. It's winter now (-2 to 13C tomorrow in Canberra) so we will soon find out whether a combination of the easing and the cold weather causes a spike. (Most of the recent cases here have been of people in the quarantine hotels where recent arrivals are confined, so very few are from community spread.)

It was before 15 Feb 71 as the UK price is 5/- not 25p, so pre-decimal currency

Has anyone else received free stuff or bonus offers from commercial providers like telcos or credit card companies in this time of plague? My mobile phone provider has thrown free credits at me a couple of times over the past few months. First, they made all national calls free for three months (still about six weeks of that to go). The credit balance in my account that would have paid for them over that time will now roll over when I pay for the next period, so I don't lose anything. They also gave me a bonus data allowance on my phone, and it looks like a bonus data allocation on a mobile broadband dongIe I have from them. My main bank credit card reduced the minimum monthly payment to $5. That could be useful if I were out of work and needed that flexibility on paying it off, but I don't and would avoid that at all costs as the interest charged on outstanding balances hasn't reduced. Finally, my Amex card has doubled the rewards points credits per dollar spent for three months, and just last week they've provided a $400 recredit of grocery purchases valid over the next three months. In effect (as I read it) $400 worth of free groceries. I would have used it for those purchases anyway, so if I've misread what the offer entails it won't matter. Anyone else benefited from this sort of largesse?

A epidemic is on a smaller scale and less broadly spread than a pandemic. A pandemic is still an epidemic but the reverse isn't true. Whether HIV/AIDS is one or the other is an interesting discussion but not one that would necessarily have made any difference in how it was combatted in many places, or that some jurisdictions would not take adequate efforts in doing so. I found this piece useful: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/epidemic-vs-pandemic-difference

You're right, and there is some value in counting the number of people who died because of the epidemic regardless of whether it was this particular virus that killed them. For some, Covid-19's brute force assault on their body is what kills them, for others it's the straw that breaks the camel's back. Even now, the Kansas Flu in 1918-19 is reported as having killed 50-100m people, we may have a narrower range this time around, but there will be a range. (One consideration in all the talk of unintended deaths brought about in part by the restrictions is that there could well be an unintended fall in the number of seasonal flu deaths, and possibly of road traffic and particulate pollution-related respiratory disease deaths.)