Thinking warm weather will stop the virus is crazy to me. It is already spreading in places in the southern Hemisphere and in warm equatorial nations and desert countries.

Expecting the "sun" to somehow make the virus go away comes of as insane desperation to me.

https://www.google.com/search?client...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

MERS is its cousin, another coronavirus that spreads happy as a clam in not-exactly-chilly Saudi Arabia so I agree with you.

Spreading yes, but not nearly as quickly as in colder climates. I don't think anybody is expecting it to totally disappear in the summer months, but based on what we know about other respiratory viruses it's not inconceivable that the rate of spread will at least slow in the summer months.

The rate of spread appears slower in Africa.

Just because seasonal allergies are on its way.


https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/asse...-super-169.jpg

Everything is getting cancelled...

Fucking EVERYTHING. Holy shit.

I'm starting to think I should cancel my May trip. Was planning to go to several Euro countries for 2-3 weeks, but I guess now that looks like its gone to shit.

:(

I know a few forumers here have Euro trips and I believe 1 has a cruise coming up.

And I wanted to go to Chicago in July but IDK anymore.

Are airlines refunding tickets or waiving cancellation fees ? Because I bought tickets in advance about a month ago before this became a pandemic.

Anybody cancel trips and received a refund?

Panic-buying and a lot of people's alarmist attitudes sound like insane desperation to me too.

I went to the market after dinner to buy a bunch of bananas. The lines for checkout were ridiculous. The water aisle had signs limiting people to 5 one gallon bottles of water for purchase at a time.
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Photo by me

Holy FUCK. Justin Trudeau's wife tested positive for this!

I honestly think we all will test positive for it eventually.

What? She's positive? Source?

I wouldn’t. In fact I’ve been shopping travel deals and there are some good ones for cruises, hotels and I’m betting flights.

Yeah I'm thinking that I'm going to wait, maybe until mid April to see how this progresses. But ughgh would still suck, but I guess safety 1st. Granted the immunity aspect I suppose would aid once one gets it.

Shitty part is that the town next to mine in Somerset County has a case. Central NJ seeing an increase in cases. I'll probally get it, I'm expecting to get it given my travel for work.

Here in Sac, we’ve had the NBA season suspended, the USL season put on hold and the NCAA March Madness tournament canceled. Additionally we have a marathon this weekend that was canceled. Sacramento Intl Airport is mostly a domestic O&D airport with the exception of flights to Canada and Mexico, so we haven’t yet had any cancellations. In fact Jet Blue announced today that they’re adding additional service to New York. I suspect the entire airline industry is in for some rough times ahead including here.

Three concerts have canceled at the Golden 1 Center so far with more likely to follow since there’s the ban on public gatherings in excess of 250 people.

Sacramento’s Convention Center and main performing arts theater are undergoing major expansion and renovation so they’re closed anyway. Cal Expo has cancelled the Comic-con. Elk Grove School District (the second largest in California) has cancelled classes and Sacramento City schools are likely to follow suit.

This is going to be bad (very bad economically) for Sacramento and the State of California as it pertains to small businesses, tourism and leisure industry. If the State were to direct its employees to work from home (those that have the capacity to) it would slam downtown small business.

I was just at the local Walmart to see the toilet paper panic of 2020 and its real.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7768ab1d_h.jpgUntitled by photolitherland, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e3dae7ce_h.jpgUntitled by photolitherland, on Flickr

Idiots were literally lined up and whenever they brought a pallet of new toilet paper people were stuffing their carts with it. This makes absolutely no sense. Herd mentality stupidity. Perhaps people think toilet paper will completely run out somehow or maybe they think you can eat it.

I'm so glad that I have a bidet.

Ditto that! And we have tons of old wash clothes that we use for cleaning that could always be used for drying off post-bidet, then washed in hot water with bleach.

I kind of understand the desire to not run out of toilet paper. What I really don't get is the hording of bottled water. It's not like the c virus is going to break the water mains!

Might be time for investing in those Japanese toilets given the toilet paper shortage. I suppose water will do, water that is sprinkled into that area, a nice stream of water that if it had a conscious would have low job satisfaction.

I worked remote today so I wasn't on the CTA trains but the day before they were as crowded as ever and everything else seemed the same. Walking around my neighborhood early tonight all seem normal except the grocery store which I went into to do my daily or weekly shopping, just wow it was busy.

Disney World has closed. I have not seen about Universal. Going to be a huge hit for Central Florida's economy.

I saw the University of Saskatchewan move towards testing:

https://i.redd.it/65nkfroitcm41.jpg

Makes for a good Onion/Beaverton headline, but doesn't really mean anything until they get to human trials.

I’m concerned stockpilers are going to hoard all the toilet paper. Why the hell do you need 6 months of toilet paper? Are you going in a bunker? I went to CVS and there was none. I went on Amazon, and all of it is out of stock.

Me and my wife went to the grocery store quickly last night to pick something up we were missing for dinner and literally almost every person in there was scrambling for toilet paper. The place was super busy compared to normal too. I don’t get it? We stocked up on toilet paper at Costco like a month ago though so we have lots of stock and that’s why I’m not worrying... just doesn’t make sense to me.

I'm a social worker, and got a grim email this morning from the state Department of Health and Human Services:

-- Expect a spike in occurrences of domestic violence, child physical abuse, and child sexual abuse, same as occurs on holidays or any other occasion when there is forced togetherness.

-- Expect children to go hungry if the schools close, because a lot of families cannot make up for the meal(s) the child won't be getting at school.

-- Expect a lot of foster families to request respite, where the child is temporarily housed somewhere else, or a change in placement where the child is completely removed from that foster home and placed in another. Expect this due to complications in finding childcare if the schools close.

-- Visits between parents and children go on, even if all of the staff but one is out sick.

-- "Deep clean" any rooms or facilities used for visitation. No further guidance.

-- In-home services and investigations continue. If one staff member falls ill, find another, and keep going until you run out of staff.

-- Many children are in the care of elderly kinship caregivers. Prepare for these caregivers to be ill or to die.

-- Expect the illness to sweep group homes and psychiatric residential treatment facilities

-- Fewer than 3% of youth who age out of foster care end up getting a 4-year college degree. Many of those who do, are living on college campuses -- if those campuses close their residential facilities, those youth will be effectively homeless.

Basically, the thrust of the email's gist was, "SURPRISE!! Here's a nasty present -- have fun figuring out how to deal with all of this! :))

I'm already stir-crazy. I don't know how I'm gonna survive a month (or more?!) like this.

Louis CK | My life as a father...

• Video Link


This might be for you Crawford. :haha:

I have a 50 mile commute (each way) for my MBA once a week, at least I won't have to do that again until at least August as they're moving classes online.

You still use toilet paper with a Toto.

A detachable shower head on a cord with good water pressure can do wonders though. :haha:

Having spent time in London, I have to ask... If you do have such a wondrous device at hand, which switch on the wall do you flip to get it to come on? Or do you have to ask the neighbors to do something -- or does it involve semaphore? Whenever I've spent time in London, I've always spent it in places where the plumbing and electrical fixtures tend to function like a science fair project or something from a journal of theoretical architecture.

Just announced, Toronto's CN Tower is closed to the public as at end of day, til April 14th.

Asheville in the time of coronavirus:

High demand for elderberry syrup amid coronavirus fears

Restaurants double down on cleaning, brace for coronavirus impacts

Answer Man: Coronavirus having local tourism impacts? More to come?

It certainly IS real, the TV show I work on is shutting down for the season. I just kissed $3 grand in pay bye bye, so a real material loss and a ton of uncertainty as to getting my next gig.

I have 3 major pet peeves with this country:

1) a lack of air conditioning anywhere;

2) placement of combination washer/dryer machines (for clothes!) in the kitchen, taking up valuable storage space; and

3) no proper electrical outlets in the bathroom, as if it’s still the 1920s and there’s a live exposed current that will catch fire if exposed to steam.


The light switches being outside of the bathroom I have gotten used to (and will instinctively look for them there in other countries), and separate hot/cold taps mostly remain in places like pubs which are trying to be old-timey on purpose.

Wait, in the UK, you wash your clothes in the kitchen? Odd.

Yes, but the good thing is you pay insane money for what little you got. At least You're making someone out there happy.

Overheard at work:

"Probably all the cure is for coronavirus is snake venom and tequila."

In most places I've been to in Europe, the laundry machine is in the kitchen.

Not in Germany. Definitely in the bathroom.

:haha::haha::haha::haha::haha:

Thank you. That made me laugh. That is very much in the style of Bill Bryson.

All of our school districts are beginning to shut down one by one.

That does not bother me as much as Japan's Bathroom/sitting shower/tub/laundry combo thing they got going on.

Long fucking lines at every groery store at 6 AM

In Toronto,

All 3 Universities, and all community colleges are suspending in person classes for a minimum of 1 week, and in general shifting everything possible to online for the balance of the school year.

Why is a city mayor meeting with a president of another country in the first place?

Germany struck me as the most 'American' than the other W. European countries. Bigger houses like us.

They haven't heard of ground fault interrupters? You could go into business marketing them and get even richer than you are.

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