5 minutes ago, bickster said:

No they weren't. You have your Kennedy Jrs mixed up between the dead and the alive

Pretty presumptuous there. My post was at least as relevant to this thread as a discussion about qanon stuff.

52 minutes ago, Sam-AVFC said:

Are you trying to sell his book or make a point? I'm not sure what a non specific teaser is meant to tell anyone.

I assume you read all this crap afterwards and decided it seemed legit?

Well Qanon and the guys name were mentioned, this seemed relevant. No need for there to always to be some form of agenda or for you to head straight for ad hominem street.

12 hours ago, AXD said:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgd85a/qanon-dallas-jfk-trump

Surely Republicans can't keep associating with this

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Anthony-Fauci-Democracy-Childrens/dp/1510766804

The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health

"During more than a year of painstaking and meticulous research, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unearthed a shocking story that obliterates media spin on Dr. Fauci . . . and that will alarm every American—Democrat or Republican—who cares about democracy, our Constitution, and the future of our children’s health."

By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Pre-orders open.

2 hours ago, bickster said:

What did they have knowledge of? Did they have knowledge that the CDC found no link whatsoever between the 2009 Swine Flu vaccines and narcolepsy in the US?

Did they read the 2017 review of those vaccines and the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic that concluded

The study found that the vaccine protected against between 66–80% of flu cases and around 61% of hospitalizations.

 

In the US is the important part.

21 minutes ago, bickster said:

I very much doubt more than 0.01% of the UK population have any knowledge of that

Sure, but those in the contrarian community who advocated a conservative vaccine stance did. Of course, they are just all conspiracy theorists and can be ignored.

22 hours ago, Mozzavfc said:

I think most people's fears come from the Thalidomide scandal in the 50s and 60s

I'd say the swine flu vaccine from 2009 is much more relevant.

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2021/1027/1256212-swine-flu-vaccine/

"The mother of a teenage girl who claimed she developed the sleep disorder narcolepsy after receiving the swine flu vaccine has told the High Court her daughter was robbed of her childhood and teenage years.

The case, which was settled for €1m today, is the latest in a number of settlements, without admission of liability, of cases against the Minister for Health and the HSE.

It follows a landmark case last year, which paved the way for settlements in an estimated 80 cases related to the Pandemrix vaccine..."

I wonder if this will help grandpa Joe wake up. The Clinton bagman is toast.

On 31/10/2021 at 08:32, Stevo985 said:

Craig is the best bond. Hands down imo.

Brosnan was ok but like CHindie said he had shit films. DAD is one of the shittest films ever

Craig is meathead Bond, a sad departure for the character imho.

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

Sorry to drag up an old post, but the quote is a classic example of any good thing being 'science' and any bad thing being 'anti-science', which is allegedly a synonym for 'wrong'. 

'If you are not a scientist, and you disagree with scientists about science' suggests there are clear boundaries around what is 'science' and what isn't, but it's not obvious that there are. It would certainly be stupid for me to argue with a specialist about their specialism, because of course I would likely be wrong in ways I didn't even understand, but a lot of people have spent a lot of time standing on their 'science' qualifications when saying what to do about coronavirus, and I can and frequently do completely disagree with them about the relative balance of transmission reduction versus freedom of association and movement. For that, I am not just using scientific knowledge about the virus, but some historical perspective and an ethical framework, as of course are they. Also, 'science' cannot 'change its opinion', people change their opinions, and people are subject to a well-known array of cognitive biases and personal and social incentives that can and do affect scientific work. 

Science, and the scientific method, are massively important. They are the source of huge amounts of knowledge and joy and the bettering of our lives. But they do not have a monopoly on 'finding the truth'. 

A large part of the issue is the use and abuse of the word science. 

Physics/Chem/Biology and math are all topics where hard data can be gathered and theories can be tested, with a statistical comparison of the data to the models with "all" sources of error known & unknown accounted for. 

Unfortunately, you also have the other "sciences" (social, economic, political etc.) who have little ability to do the above and who love using and abusing the scientific language. This is all before our beloved political and 4th estate clowns get involved.

E.g., see the epidemiology farce led by the good Dr. Ferguson with hardly an error or uncertainty in sight. There are many more examples of a study with poorly constrained uncertainties being taken as gospel by the political/talking their own book class... from all sides.

A useful watch before the circus that will be COP26. Approx 30mins, updates regarding the recent IPCC report and the contents therein, not the media/political headlines.

"Code red"? 

see Alphabet.

Conglomerate gonna conglomerate.

Biden/Pelosi/Schumer think they have a workable plan with $0.5T "infrastructure" and $1.7T human infrastructure... way down form the pipe dream of $6T and the more realistic $3.5T. It'll be interesting to see how this floats over the next week or so, as an awful lot of the progressive agenda has been sold down a neo-lib river.

4 hours ago, stuart_75 said:

Is that you Joe Rogan?

It's a rather sad state of affairs when we have to rely on Rogan to perturb the consensus. This is one of the consequences of the large scale censorship programs being implemented around coivd, all in the name of keeping the message simple for the apparently idiotic masses.

The Virginia govenor race is in a dead heat in the latest polling with Dem stalwart McAuliffe having much more trouble than was expected. A real bellweather race this as we head into the midterms next year.

On 23/10/2021 at 21:03, HanoiVillan said:

 

This is almost a deliberate ploy to grab the attention of the q-anon etc crowd. Completely ridiculous that these can't be released... oh right, lots of the old people are still running things.

3 hours ago, sidcow said:

They should bloody well bill them.  How much does a stay in an ICU bed cost?  Thousands?  Tens of Thousands?  Yet they're perfectly happy for The Taxpayer to pick up the bill and the doctors and nurses to spend their precious time trying to keep them alive just because they thought they didn't need a vaccine or thought is was dangerous for them to take it despite the clear and obvious danger of not taking it.

It depends. Are they in the ICU because of covid or was covid the last brick. The data on co-morbidity is quite clear. This should be the real point. Whatever the arguments are about vaccines, it is crystal clear that those above 60 and anyone with the well known list of co-morbidities should for the own sake get one of these jabs.

I'd bet you could go into most ICUs and see many people there via the consumption vices. 

It really interesting what covid has done to our humanity and the general philosophical system that underpins society. Most would agree that the death penalty is wrong, that murder is not a simple thing of 1 or 0. Yet, covid has people saying and wishing the worst for other populations. Long term consequences.

On 21/10/2021 at 17:55, blandy said:

May I ask why you suggest that?

The US is large  and diverse place and has areas with high and low numbers at any given time, hence the US numbers as a whole are not particularly revealing, when compared with the UK. Even something such as vs midwest or west coast etc., would be a better description of the true state of affairs.

On 22/10/2021 at 06:43, HanoiVillan said:

Occasional 'American gerontocracy' reminder - Chuck Grassley, Iowa Senator who is up for reelection in 2022, has decided to run for another 6-year term. He is currently 89; at the end of that term he will (would) be older than the Queen is now.

Still, good news for hobbyist codebreakers, who get to keep their skills sharp on his tweets:

 

Have a look at the current dear leader last week. The thing at the end, truly wtf stuff.

Just now, blandy said:

I agree with some of that. But We need metrics and data to understand both the current situation and trend, but the key metric at the moment in the uk is hospitalisations, followed by deaths. Yet the trend currently of infections is going the wrong way, indicating rising hospitalisation and death to come. As a consequence of that data steps need to be taken to actively turn things round. But we need to be careful not to go too mad over other nations data, which are not gathered using the same baselines or methods.

Right, comparing the US to the UK is silly. A more appropriate comparison would be with specific states or the US with the EU... and that's just for starters.

6 hours ago, limpid said:

As this is the science thread, I should point out that the mass is 6.5 billion suns, not the size.

The size is proportional to the mass, however. Btw, imaging of the ~4 million solar mass black hole at the heart of our very own Milky Way should be released in the next few months. It is 1000 times smaller than that in M87 (distance ~50 Mly), but about 1000 times closer (distance ~ 25kly).

We need to stop counting cases or as an alternative stop focussing on them and leave them to an end of season stat update. Pertinent things for immediate digestion need to change to things like ICU capacity, deaths and moving spending from silly business like the military to increasing beds per head of population.

The virus is endemic and the specific country by country numbers are of little practical use. Though they do help with clicks though.

Much like the injured player... how much has Trump's ban and hence relative silence helped rather than hindered him.

1 hour ago, TheAuthority said:

Basically back to normal for the majority (or so it seems) over here in Denver. I wear my mask everywhere in public though in spite of the fact that you don't have to if you're double vaxxed (honor system.)

9,300 tests done on campus at the Uni in the last 7 days and 14 positive tests which is pretty good.

https://www.du.edu/coronavirus/dashboard

Although Denver in general is rising which is worrying.

Still ~1500/day. 

Same here in Michigan, mandatory masking indoors on campus' though and this is pretty universal, at least down south. Masking is in general of the recommended variety in most places though. The high school etc. system is a mess, with various schools here and there going their own way and thumbing their nose at masking etc.  

Our daycare is currently closed for week #2, as many of the vacc'd staff have come down with it, sigh!

Biden's approval rating is in the toilet and surveys show many people are buying what is being sold. Politics is a dirty game.

8 hours ago, bickster said:

14,000 people were murdered in the USA in 2018 by being shot (38 per day)

24,000 people committed suicide in the USA in 2018 using a gun (64 per day)

This.

Absolutely maddening how rarely this point is made in the gun "debate". I did see an ad during the weekend from some gun related agency (not NRA or feds), suggesting that people add a simple padlocks/chains to their guns to block the trigger or firing pin, to ensure that no rash decision could be made or at least to help cut down on them. Better than doing nothing I suppose.