Isolated Blurt Thread Again

[oggbashan]

Why is it that you never see the last typo until AFTER you've hit the submit button, or worse still, after the story is posted?

 

[oggbashan]

At last! Another story posted.

My output is drastically slowed by vision problems. I make too many typos in a single sentence and have to keep going back to sort them out.

My writing output is about a tenth of normal and I have four more stories in progress before I can think about Nude Day. (Three typos in that sentence!)

 

[oggbashan]

1St story posted (with typos - Grr!)

2nd story submitted today. Three more to finish then I can move on...

 

[_Lynn_]

Fourth phone call of the day from eldest:

"I've just remembered something I need to say to Mum."

"No, it isn't worth fetching her from the garden. I'll ring again later. But I might have forgotten what I want to say - so I'll write it down..."

At least she calls you. Be thankful for that.

 

[oggbashan]

At least she calls you. Be thankful for that.

I am. Number two daughter has mental health issues and hasn't spoken to her parents for eight years.

Daughters one and three compensate with a daily phone call.

 

[Handley_Page]

I suspect that my daughter, if she's still with us, has forgotten I exist; she don't answer her phone when I call.

 

[oggbashan]

One of my friends died today, not of Covid-19, but of the stage 4 cancer he has been battling for four years. He was 80 and was still working as a car mechanic until six months ago.

I referred to him as "[blank] the car" to avoid confusion with my son-in-law of the same [blank] name.

He had been supplying and maintaining our cars for the last thirty years but we were also some of his few friends that he could drop in on at any time for a coffee and chat. Over the past year that had been frequent as he dealt with the sudden death of his 15-year-old granddaughter from Type 1 diabetes who was wrongly treated by her GP when she had a very high blood sugar episode. The doctor is still facing a disciplinary hearing and court case.

We will miss him and exchanging reminescences of 1930s and 40s cars that he and I used to drive. He still regretted selling his 1932 Rolls-Royce but the sale financed the family home. He replaced it with a 1950s Cadillac... But it just wasn't the same.

Rest in peace.

 

[oggbashan]

Cables!

I wanted an ethernet cable and I couldn't find one so I have just spent an hour sorting out some of my collection of cables.

I found an ethernet cable in the first five minutes but now I have:

A large box of kettle leads ranging in length from 18 inches, most between three and four feet and two at forty feet - Why?

Another box of Scart cables.

A large box of USB cables most USB to mini-USB but a dozen normal ones, USB to parallel printer port and USB male to female.

A smaller box of a least a dozen ethernet and half as dozen telephone cables.

A box of assorted chargers.

Do I need all those?

 

[oggbashan]

Do things change, when they put a label on behavior?

Sometimes because it provides an excuse to behave badly.

 

[oggbashan]

Yesterday I attended a friend's funeral. I shouldn't have done because I am classed as at "severe risk" but I had known him for thirty years and his daughter wanted me there.

Because of Covid-19 the mourners were restricted to 15 (would have been 5 last week) and all 15 of us turned up. As with most recent funerals I have attended (and I go to too many!) it was not a sad occasion but a celebration of that person's life.

Afterwards we went back to his old house and sat around for hours swapping stories of our interactions with him. Apart from his relations, none of us had met before but knew of each other's existence through him. I shouldn't have been surprised because we were all his friends, but we got on together as if we had all been friends for years which is a tribute not to us, but to him.

I will miss him but he had had severe cancer for four years and had been suffering for the last year. He kept his pain from his children but we friends knew exactly how bad he felt because he could moan whenever he was with us. The group of us were there to support him and he knew it.

But yesterday we forgot about his struggles in the last year and remembered him at his best.

 

[Handley_Page]

Sometimes because it provides an excuse to behave badly.

Or be very badly reported in the Press.

Yesterday I attended a friend's funeral.
.
.
But yesterday we forgot about his struggles in the last year and remembered him at his best.

The problem with a funeral is it is all too full a reminder of mortality.

 

[oggbashan]

Today I remembered that I used to have a large collection of Victorian novelists.

Before I opened my secondhand bookshop I had a very large personal library filling many hundreds of feet of shelf space in our massive house. The main collection was in the large living room; my personal favourites in the front parlour; Drama and poetry in the breakfast room; translations, foreign and dictionaries in the back parlour; cookery books in the kitchen (of course); Westerns and detective fiction in the toilet; children's books in each daughters' bedroom etc.

But one of my nephews was studying English Literature at Oxford. His Masters and Ph.D was on Victorian novelists so he asked his uncle for some. I lent him over 1,000 books. Three years later he returned them all but the space created had been filled by then...

I sold most of them through my book shop but now I have the urge to read some again such as A.L.O.E (A Lady Of England).

But Abebooks can provide anything...

 

[oggbashan]

I have just finished setting up the new-to-me windows 10 desktop to replace my ancient windows 7 version which had been running slower and slower.

I now have to get used to Windows 10.

But the sound quality on the new machine is cheap and tinny. I wondered why until I remembered that I had spent £45 on upgrading the sound card on my Windows 7 machine.

 

[oggbashan]

Design Flaw

My Volvo V70 is awaiting repair after an accident. The repair is delayed by Covid-19.

While standing the battery went flat. A key will open the driver's door but nothing else. The battery is in the boot under the boot floor. But with a flat battery you cannot open the tailgate to get at the battery...

My gardener had to crawl over the seats, lift the boot floor (while kneeling on it - a real contortion) disconnect the battery and attach the charger. But because the battery is flat (and now disconnected) you cannot open a window so the driver's door has to be left ajar to run the cable for the battery charger.

Even when the battery is charged because it is disconnected he has to repeat the process of crawling over the seats to reattach the battery terminals. Then he can open the tailgate to restore everything.

Why put the battery where you can't reach it when it is flat?

Edited for PS: My older Volvo has a keyhole that can open the tailgate even when the battery is flat, and a lever to open it from the inside. You can do that with the other doors too. But not on the V70.

PPS: On the older Volvo the battery is under the bonnet (US=Hood). You unlock the driver's door, pull a lever , and you have ample access.

 

[Handley_Page]

Stranded on my front garden lies my son's Audi A8. A magnificent beast of a car with one slight snag. The battery is in the boot and one really should have a charging socket on it somewhere, because whoever designed the electronic locking system did not think about the access ability when the battery is flat.
He's isolated in Spain and has the second key which is supposed to be able to open the boot. It could be a while before I get my charger back. . . .

 

[TxRad]

HP, you have expensive tastes in lawn art.

 

[oggbashan]

Face masks!

Now that face masks are to be compulsory on public transport and recommended in hospitals and supermarkets my wife thought we didn't have enough. She thought we had five.

She was wrong. We have five and another pack of 20 but she wanted more.

She showed me a mail order catalogue posted through our door. the first item is for a pack of 50 face masks at £39.99. Next to that is a box saying 'free postage for orders over £30'. She wanted me to order them.

I started the process. You can sign in if a previous customer - I'm not; create an account - I didn't want to for a one-off purchase; or continue as a guest. I continued as a guest but the 'free postage' was a charge of £5.99 despite my order being over £30. Then there was a small print message. 'If the PayPal icon does not display, that is because one or more items on your order are out of stock.'

No PayPal icon - out of stock. I aborted the order. I completed the contact form complaining about the delivery charge.

I went to EBay and found the same thing (50 face masks) for £19.99 with free delivery and in stock. I ordered through EBay.

 

[oggbashan]

Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the UK

There have been Black Lives Matter demonstrations in many cities in the UK today.

Belfast did it properly. Each demonstrator stood in their own two-meter square.

Elsewhere, social distancing appeared to be completely ignored. Don't they know that Bame people have a larger risk of serious impacts of Covid-19 than others? Protesting can be good, risking death for yourself or any others isn't sensible.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There have been Black Lives Matter demonstrations in many cities in the UK today.

Belfast did it properly. Each demonstrator stood in their own two-meter square.

Elsewhere, social distancing appeared to be completely ignored. Don't they know that Bame people have a larger risk of serious impacts of Covid-19 than others? Protesting can be good, risking death for yourself or any others isn't sensible.

That's the same observation made here in Australia, where the indigenous populations are some of the most vulnerable (and so far, kept safe). It would be a dreadful irony if these demonstrations trigger an up-kick in Covid cases. That will bring a wringing of hands and further debate, none of which will be terribly helpful.

I wonder if the old Police song has seen an upkick in listens: "Don't Stand so Close to Me."

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

There have been Black Lives Matter demonstrations in many cities in the UK today.

Belfast did it properly. Each demonstrator stood in their own two-meter square.

Elsewhere, social distancing appeared to be completely ignored. Don't they know that Bame people have a larger risk of serious impacts of Covid-19 than others? Protesting can be good, risking death for yourself or any others isn't sensible.

That's the same observation made here in Australia, where the indigenous populations are some of the most vulnerable (and so far, kept safe). It would be a dreadful irony if these demonstrations trigger an up-kick in Covid cases. That will bring a wringing of hands and further debate, none of which will be terribly helpful.

I wonder if the old Police song has seen an upkick in listens: "Don't Stand so Close to Me."

I think that's overlooking what this type of protest is about. People have been "sensible" for decades and it has accomplished nothing. People feel something has to change, so they have to do something different. In the United States, we know that regardless of race, we may be killed or injured by police when we protest. If you're willing to be killed or injured, risking Covid-19 isn't really an issue for yourself. There are people who are staying away from the protests because they have vulnerable family members they could pass it to. If it weren't for Covid-19, the protests would be larger.

I don't think you're quite keying in on the desperation people are feeling. In the US, it has generally taken public spectacles of protesters getting killed or abused by police to turn the tide of public opinion on many types of issues. (The Kent State Massacre is a good example.) There are fools among the demonstrators, but as a group, the people who are demonstrating aren't being foolish They're being effective. There have already been reforms put into place in some cities. Choke holds are now illegal in some cities that used to allow them, and it's because of these protests. Other instances of police brutality have been met with discipline they otherwise would not have. A woman who was recently killed by police in Florida may now get justice she otherwise would not have. The choices the protesters are making might not be the choices you'd make, but I think it's they're valid choices.

I honestly don't know how that translates to other countries, but what jumps out at me is that you wouldn't have demonstrations of that size if people weren't strongly motivated.

 

[TxRad]

Who is getting the virus here in Texas.
54% Male 45% Female

40% Hispanic 27.5% White 16% Black

Who is dying.
55% Male 41% female

40.5% White 26% Hispanic 13% Black

These numbers are for the whole state.

They don't seem to match what I'm hearing on the news.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

Who is getting the virus here in Texas.
54% Male 45% Female

40% Hispanic 27.5% White 16% Black

Who is dying.
55% Male 41% female

40.5% White 26% Hispanic 13% Black

These numbers are for the whole state.

They don't seem to match what I'm hearing on the news.

I'm curious. What do you hear on the news?

I think there are at least two factors at play for the disparities. (Probably more, but two I know about.) From the science-based (not regular news outlet) articles I've read, it is more fatal in men, and the gender-based stats were for Texas are about dead on for the disparity described by the epidemiologists. They don't know why yet, but one theory is that higher estrogen levels protect women because they are related to a higher inflammatory response. That's ironic, since one of the most fatal developments in the disease is an inflammatory cytokine syndrome that is basically an inflammatory response in overdrive. It's just their theory, but whatever the cause, the gender disparity is real.

When you look at racial disparities, it gets a lot harder to isolate the variables. Is it genetic? Is it location-based? Is it access to healthcare? The articles I've seen have only speculated that it's related to access to healthcare and economic factors that drive whether people have to go in to workplaces that involve close contact. In addition to mortality rates, those factors influence the stats on whose getting it because they influence who gets tested. I think they are very far away from the kind of genetic analysis that would tell anything about genetic predisposition.

Another possibility that I haven't seen discussed, but is parallel to access to healthcare is proper diagnosis of the cause of death. It's pretty well documented that covid-19 deaths are dramatically under-reported because patients weren't tested. In areas with overburdened coroner/medical examiners and overburdened medical systems, covid-19 deaths may be going unrecognized at a higher percentage than elsewhere.

One of the interesting things about this is that for just about any question a person has, there's probably a scientist out there somewhere who knows the right answer, but until it's accepted within the scientific community, it's not the recognized answer. I'm not sure if I"m saying that in a way that makes sense. I guess what I mean to say, is someone has discovered or theorized the answer to many of the questions, but we have no way of knowing about it yet.

 

[TxRad]

What these numbers show to me is that the news media in general are wrong in saying that blacks are dying in greater numbers per number of case than other races.

Whites have 27.5% of the cases and 40.5% of the deaths. Blacks have 16% of the cases and 13% of the deaths. The 13% is what the media is reporting on average but the conclusions are wrong.

Hispanics are not even mentioned by the news media. 40% of the cases and 26% of the deaths.

Texas hospitals have not been overrun, nor have medical examiners. Yes, the number of cases have been under report at one time or another but that was mainly from how the system was originally set up. State medical numbers were used but not private numbers. Now that has been changed.

The only thing that might affect the numbers is the larger number of Hispanics in Texas but that's not to say it is any higher than any other border state.

I don't know the answers myself. All I have to work with is the raw numbers.

 

[Handley_Page]

HP, you have expensive tastes in lawn art.

Ah, well, it is not my car; it's my sons; 'im wot lives a lot of the time in Foreign Parts.
If, on the other hand, you'd care to see an 'aerial farm', look no further than my back garden. . . .

Who is getting the virus here in Texas.
54% Male 45% Female
40% Hispanic 27.5% White 16% Black
Who is dying.
55% Male 41% female
40.5% White 26% Hispanic 13% Black
These numbers are for the whole state.
They don't seem to match what I'm hearing on the news.

There's a bit of a row going on about numbers reported and soo on. One country is alleged to be fiddling the figures (how they are derived) and another cannot shut up its scientists. This leaves the rest of us thoroughly confused.

But it's gloomy and I need a long hot coffee, please. . . .

 

[oggbashan]

I understand WHY people want to demonstrate in the UK, and it is not just solidarity with US protestors.

We have a problem with racism too in reduced opportunities for people of colour, and assumptions made by 'ordinary' people about black men.

We do not have a disproportionate number of black people being killed by police. Our police are not perfect but every time someone dies as a result of police actions there is an impartial investigation - that doesn't happen in the US.

Our Police forces have far more oversight than in the US and are better trained to deal with situations without the use of force.

But in some parts of the country, particularly in parts of London, the Police can be seen by black people as representing the oppressors and although a significant amount of street crime is carried out by black men, more than their percentage of the population would suggest, stop and search is often targetted at innocent black men unfairly.

Racism may not be as violent as in the US, but it exists. But waving signs saying "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" have nothing to do with UK issues.