Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

fuckin' climate change

[iam416]

Buchanan:

I think the manufacturing processes for Moderna and Pfizer are time intensive and complex. It's not like making a pizza box. I think Pifzer has it down to 60 days (from 110 days), but that ought to tell you what we can expert in terms of huge supply inceases from those two -- as in -- nope. Gradual increases, but not huge.

The real key is getting other vaccines to the market -- in particular, J&J. It's been waiting for FDA approval for two weeks, now, and they won't even meet to discuss until the 26th.

Finally, Biden's goal of 100M shots in his first 100 days is the most ludicrously low bar goal ever. That would be a fucking FAILURE. Something like 250M is actually ambitious.

[Dr. Strangelove]

2021-02-17_10-24-28.png

Learning more about the Texas power outages....

Tons of stuff that supports the power grid was not adequately freeze protected for this event. This is a rare event, but not unheard of. Texas gets an ultra freeze like this about once every 30 or so years. Point being, there is enough data to say that everything should be built with a possible cold snap in mind. Just for fun, I looked up the 1989 cold snap that occurred in Texas, and I couldn't find any reference to mass power outages. There has, of course, been a shitton of growth there, both in the population of certain areas and the energy industry. I wonder how much of the stuff built since then was built half-assedly without taking the worst case into account, be it windmills that iced up or gas power plants that got shut down because some little water line froze up. For that matter, I can't remember another event in my lifetime where a huge cold snap caused mass power outages. No matter where you live, you can probably remember a once-in-a-generation cold snap that made life miserable for you for a week or so, but did you lose power?

What a shitshow.

The EL Paso area and the Texas Panhandle are both on the same power grid as New Mexico and the rest of the western US. That eastern strip is on the same power grid as Louisiana. Everyone else in the heart of Texas is on the ERCOT grid, which has failed in spectacular fashion.

Different note but Austin's airport was shut down for days by six inches of snow. They don't have a single plow or any salt. They have been spraying de-icer but that apparently was pretty useless on the ground. I get that it rarely snows, but geez, you'd think they'd buy at least a couple attachments to put on pickup trucks in an emergency to keep runways clear.

[lineygoblue]

Rush Limbaugh has died.

Some extremists will take joy in his passing, but that's to be expected.

For me, I could take it or leave it with Limbaugh. There were times while I was running my delivery route where I'd tune in as soon as he came on, and leave it on the "EIB" network for the rest of his program. Then there were other times when I shut him off or changed the channel within five minutes after he came on.

Limbaugh showed that it was okay to be conservative. It was okay to stand for conservative principles, and to support conservative politicians. We didn't have to conform to the MSM model that they felt all Americans had to conform to in order to be considered a true American. It was okay to think for yourself. It was okay to look at all sides of an issue, and believe what you see with your own eyes, and hear with your own ears.

I don't think we'll ever see another Limbaugh. That thought brings joy to many extremists today, but its actually quite sad. We're living in a day when conservative values are being run away from with great speed, and those who choose to remain in those beliefs really have nobody to speak for them in today's politics. Some have been assigned to that by the MSM, but they aren't true to the cause like Limbaugh was.

Thank you and RIP Rush Limbaugh.

[crashcourse]

well first kamala says there was no plan to distribute vaccine and they had to start from scratch

then Joe says no vaccine at all when he got elected

then says minorities dont know how to get on internet to log in

geez

RIP Rush--love him or hate him he certainly created a stir

[Hannibal]

No shit. He didn't signal that the end was that near. His last show, I believe, was only two weeks ago. I guess that when you go, you can go really fast.

[Hannibal]

article-8018-1.jpg

Party Of Love And Progress Rejoices Over Death Of Political Opponent | The Babylon Bee

U.S.—Within minutes of the news of the death of Rush Limbaugh, Democrats, well known as the party of love, empathy, and progress, began to rejoice over the death of their political opponent.

The party that is known for standing against hate in all its forms, the party that has chanted "Love Trumps Hate!" for the last four years, the party that calls the other side hateful bigots who will be on the wrong side of history for their opposition to love and tolerance, all cheered loudly and danced on Limbaugh's grave on social media for much of the day Wednesday.

"Listen, hate has no home here -- wait, Limbaugh's dead? Wooohooooo!!!" shouted one progressive podcaster. "Today should be a national holiday!" She then jumped on Twitter and garnered thousands of likes and retweets for tweeting horrible things about a man she disagreed with.

Unfortunately for progressives everywhere, Limbaugh has announced he will continue broadcasting from the afterlife.

[lineygoblue]

And they wonder why 73 million people voted against their candidates.

[Tom W]

They aren't wondering. They're pretty much convinced that all of them are ignorant racists, bigots and, well.. Nazis. They would think they were prone to being infected with these traits if they didn't have pink hats and BLM signs to protect them.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Buchanan:

I think the manufacturing processes for Moderna and Pfizer are time intensive and complex. It's not like making a pizza box. I think Pifzer has it down to 60 days (from 110 days), but that ought to tell you what we can expert in terms of huge supply inceases from those two -- as in -- nope. Gradual increases, but not huge.

The real key is getting other vaccines to the market -- in particular, J&J. It's been waiting for FDA approval for two weeks, now, and they won't even meet to discuss until the 26th.

Finally, Biden's goal of 100M shots in his first 100 days is the most ludicrously low bar goal ever. That would be a fucking FAILURE. Something like 250M is actually ambitious.

Right ...... what I'm actually trying to flesh out is how close to herd immunity can we get if we can, in fact, get to 250M doses a day. Do we need 70%? immunity, 40%? No one really knows for sure but there are some pretty good guesses out there that are less than 70% to get R0 < 1.0. Hell, it's already happening mostly as a result of better human behaviors.

Now, you take into account that somewhere around 30-40% of people in the US have had C-19 and probably have some level of immunity (the answer to how much is not supported by current research, the longest out to 8 months). That brings the number of inoculations, even to get all the way up to 70% with immunity, entirely achievable, according to one expert, by July ...... I've seen estimates as early as May or even April. I won't dismiss these becasue I think the obstacles you list can be overcome.

The point of all this getting to herd immunity is that you don't want to let this fucker hang around. The longer you do this, the more it mutates and becomes resistant to various approaches to deal with it. More people will get C-19 and die. Immunity needs to build to the point where it's not circulating - think endemics like influenza, measles, ebola and HIV. All of them are out there but they aren't circulating at sufficient levels (e.g. R0 >1.0) to create public health emergencies. We can deal with them through effective treatment (HIV) or mass vaccination (measles, ebola and influenza).

The risks to vaccine into arms that you speak of gets broken down in detail in the article at the link below. Every risk can be overcome if the experts in each risk area turn to and get laser focused on eliminating them. It's doable and I've got my fingers crossed that the Biden administration understands this and is publicly low balling goals because it's better to do that and exceed them than to fail and cast doubt about success.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-fu...ccine-rollout#

This link is to an interview with UCLA MD Virologist done by an MD interviewer from Johns Hopkins. What's interesting about it is the explanation of the spike proteins in the typical viruses hounding us today, including SARS-2, and how these RNA viruses mutate and why it is so GD important to bust our asses to get COVID vaccine in arms. I think it can be done and a lot earlier (early summer) that some pessimists think (late fall)......and I think Fauci is purposefully low balling.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infecti.../covid19/91026

[UMStan White]

"Limbaugh showed that it was okay to be conservative. "

Limbaugh showed it was okay to be a bigot of the worst kind

[CGVT]

"Limbaugh showed that it was okay to be conservative. "

Limbaugh showed it was okay to be a bigot of the worst kind

Exactly. He was a piece of shit.

[Hannibal]

Exactly. He was a piece of shit.

"Love Trumps Hate" -- Democrat Bumper Sticker/sign/T-shirt

[Hannibal]

Acronyms are racist:

https://abc7news.com/sfusd-renaming-...l-sf/10229093/

First the San Francisco School Board decided to rename 44 schools because they are named after people with ties to racism or slavery. Now the Arts Department has taken a bold move by changing its name, "VAPA" because they say, "acronyms are a symptom of white supremacy culture."

Schools have yet to reopen in San Francisco, but their Arts Department has continued to work toward ensuring that all students have access to quality arts education.

The director of that department said, "We are prioritizing antiracist arts instruction in our work." So they got rid of the acronym "VAPA," which is short for visual and performing arts.

From now on, they'll simply be called SFUSD Arts Department.

"It is a very simple step we can take to just be referred to as the SFUSD Arts Department for families to better understand who we are," explained Sam Bass, Director of the SFUSD Arts Department.

Many of the schools up for renaming in San Francisco are currently named after historic figures, including George Washington and Dianne Feinstein.

In a letter, he explains that acronyms are a symptom of white supremacy culture.

"The use of so many acronyms within the educational field often tends to alienate those who may not speak English to understand the acronym," he added.

That's based on a 1999 paper written by author Tema Okun titled "White Supremacy Culture." Okun told me that, "Our culture perpetuates racism when things continue to be written down in a certain way."

But the San Francisco Unified School District uses so many acronyms on a daily basis that if you go to their website there's a section on how to find what their acronyms or abbreviations mean.

When we asked Mayor London Breed for her opinion, she was confused and thought we were asking her about the issue of renaming schools.

"We definitely need to have a robust conversation about what we need to do but not a rushed conversation," said Mayor Breed.

So does that mean that the acronym SOTA which stands for School of the Arts should now be called the Ruth Asawa School, period?

"In the same sprit of getting rid of acronyms I do believe in calling it Ruth Asawa," suggested Bass.

The school district told me there is no official policy or effort underway related to acronyms district wide.

The next President of the US comes from the Bay Area and this is the District represented by our Speaker of the House.

[Hannibal]

So, CGVT, DSL, Stan, Froot, etc. Do you agree with your fellow Democrats that acronyms are racist?