701 karma · joined February 27, 2019
Unvaccinated people, because they would be homebound (or killed) by the more virulent strains, must be allowed to go about their business maskless. This way, we'll achieve herd immunity by spreading less virulent strains around. Sort of like an airborne live attenuated vaccine.
They're not pretty. They don't have lots of features. They use more water*.
But they'll last forever.
*Many consider this to be a drawback, but it results in cleaner clothing.
We're already at a point in terms of wealth and technology that Amazon could deliver all of our durable goods and nonperishables, Instacart could deliver all of our groceries, and schooling and most jobs can be completed online.
Every family of average or greater means can already afford to buy everything from these two companies.
Every family of below-average means could be supported by a government stipend to enable them to receive goods this way.
We have the ability to build a society where most people leave their homes only a few times per year.
Surely this is just a small price to pay in the fight against a virus that could leave vulnerable people on a ventilator or worse, right?
(Not to say that each of the 349 isn't a tragedy, only that the coronavirus is unequivocally not dangerous to children without preexisting conditions.)
Also - if you're considering it, please save the "long covid" histrionics. We used to call that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and there's no reason to believe "long covid" is different, scarier, or more prevalent than CFS. I have a strong suspicion that the patient's psychological suggestibility and media consumption are greater predictors of "long covid" than infection.
When you inhale, your diaphragm contracts and creates a negative pressure inside your thoracic cavity (relative to the outside atmosphere's 101.3 kPa). This pressure, ordinarily, is proportional to the force with which your diaphragm contracts. Adding a layer of fabric restricts the outside air's ability to flow into your thoracic cavity and equalize the pressure. It's like having a congested nose but being unable to open your mouth to bypass the congestion.
There's also the problem of carbon dioxide buildup within the mask. Your unconscious breathing effort is ordinarily controlled by the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in your blood. Carbon dioxide levels, not oxygen levels, are what make you feel "out of breath". The lungs may hold almost a liter of air, but an ordinary unconscious breath exchanges only a tiny fraction of this. That unconscious breath is so small that a large percentage of it may come from air trapped inside your mask, and your alveoli end up being faced with a much higher percentage of carbon dioxide in the air into which they are trying to exhaust carbon dioxide from your blood.
Problems all around.
"Think of the children" is how they force changes that would otherwise be unconscionable.
They've done it with encryption and anonymity for years. Now they're doing it with the hardware in your pocket.
Buy a feature phone or a phone from a vendor who doesn't have this power.
Switch to Linux.
Stop buying from companies that abuse you.
Elect politicians who care about your rights.
You know what's not helpful? Attacking the messenger, regardless of how sanctimonious you think he is.
What definition of the word systemic are we using?
So, we don't need to follow the law?
The law is merely advisory and doesn't require our adherence?
Would you be this unaffected by violations of the law if your guy hadn't won?
It's clear that not everyone will be so easy to control like some kind of oversexed zombie. But most don't have the fortitude to continue questioning when challenged by a determined opposition.
Jay Leno spent years showing us clueless Californians who couldn't tell us why the 4th of July is a holiday. These types would seem to confirm Huxley's suspicions, but they don't make up the entire country.
For people who aren't controlled by their base desires, where soma and orgy porgy failed, today, deplatforming and "fact checkers" are stepping in to finish the job.
You've had a year and a half to adjust. If you don't want to move, you could easily rent office space near your home. Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency for everyone who is happier and more productive at home.
Putting engineers in a war room or open office is only going to irritate the ones who want to spend their time doing deep work. And those are usually the better ones.
But having zero symptoms, if that was the case, is unusual. It'd be interesting to have your blood tested for antibodies.
Joe Average envies Bill Gates.
Joe Average does not envy MS programmer #7413 who does device driver maintenance.
It might not be useless in the strictest sense of the word, but it ought to be taken away from them.
Can they refuse to run a test because they're afraid it might produce exculpatory evidence?
I observe a correlation between overattachment to animals and lack of empathy toward other humans.
In other words, people with "fur babies" are far less likely to have well-formed consciences.
I think most kids are smart enough to understand the difference between insects and the higher forms of life that are capable of experiencing suffering.
Information can't be changed in two places simultaneously. That latency, no matter how small, requires us to either eat the latency, give up guarantees, or alter our system's behavior in some other small way.