The Actuator – April 22nd

[sqlrockstar]

Thanks to everyone’s efforts these past six weeks, I’m hopeful we’re on the other side of the curve now. Perhaps we’ll resume normal activities in a few weeks, although I think “normal” will be refined a bit. I look forward to the day where I don’t spend 30 minutes wiping down my groceries.

As always, here's a bunch of links I hope you find useful. Enjoy!

Group Chat: The Best Way to Totally Stress Out Your Team
Group chat – 4 positives, 17 negatives. Preach.

Coronavirus is revealing how broken America’s economy really is
The truth hurts. One of our biggest weaknesses, healthcare, is being exposed right now.

Amazon closes warehouses in France, tries to make US shoppers buy less
"Amazon is...trying to nudge consumers to buy less than they otherwise might.” Good luck with that, Bezos. You’ve trained us for decades.

Formula E team fills the sports void with online marble races
If life without sports has you so low that you’re willing to watch marbles race, maybe pick up a book or something.

'5G Causes COVID-19' Conspiracy Theory: No Fix for Stupid
Not even with duct tape.

Contact Tracing COVID-19 Infections via Smartphone Apps
Interesting thoughts on the development of smartphone apps to help trace COVID-19 infections.

Coronavirus: What's happening to the beer left in pubs?
I’d back any Kickstarter focused on airlifting those kegs and delivering them to those in need.

I put the deck furniture out last week, so naturally this happened a day later.

[gfsutherland]

Missed the snow on the coast of Maine (shocking I know). My furniture went out Sunday!

Dumping beer down the drain!!!! Say it ain't so! (Do the take away thing for heavens sake).....

Note to Jeff B....  Ummm... People are hooked on Amazon like crack!  Not happening....

So it's the 5G Virus? Silly me.... 🙄

[david.botfield]

Thanks for the articles.

[smttysmth02gt]

Thanks for the articles!  I saw the 5G one already..........smh.......

[rschroeder]

"5G causing Covid-19"?   Nice hoax!

One might as well state boldly that cheese or light bulbs or dry elbows (or changing a light bulb with a piece of cheese using an arm with dry elbow skin) caused Corona-19. The "sky is falling!" crowd will read that and run with it.

[rschroeder]

The Contact Tracing article was interesting!

Thank you for sharing it.

[rschroeder]

I suspect that, despite training people to temporarily avoid bars or pubs, and despite beer perhaps having to be discarded, people are waiting anxiously to return to their old habits of drinking with friends in pubs or bars.  We'll need to learn a LOT more about Covid-19 and its effect on our bodies, the possibilities of developing immunities or effective vaccines, and the likelihood of relapses or re-infections after having it once and recovered--before we can give up all the old habits.

[rschroeder]

I've enjoyed watching some of the YouTube marble races--in sand--over the last year or two.  Seeing the races elevated to hard tracks is the next step in self-isolation-excitement.

[rschroeder]

The group Chat at work story--it hit the nail on the head.  I've contributed to some of those problems, and experienced others.  Thanks for providing info about watching out for over-sharing / over-reacting.  Group chats aren't the be-all / end-all fixative for just about anything.  It's better when they're configured to be one-way information shares instead of fully interactive, in my limited experience.

[rschroeder]

The article supposedly showing how the Corona virus reveals how broken America is . . .   It's a bit inflammatory, a bit in-your-face, a bit aggressive, and hard to verify/validate.

Things could be better in the States.  Some places probably have some better ratios or conditions than the states.

But the overdramatic last statement in the article?  It's not going to happen.  People in the States will continue the slow & easy flow following the avenues of least resistance.  There's no "decide to do something now or perish" imperative. 

Is this article fear mongering?  Almost.  But perhaps not strongly enough, not in methods designed well enough, to make Americans change.

But Covid-19's been changing some Americans' actions, attitudes, & life styles.  Some folks rebel against change, calling it oppression.  Others laugh at that and claim "You're not oppressed, you're inconvenienced."

I can see both sides.  I'm lucky, my wife and I are still employed, still have good company-paid-for health coverage, and are safely working from home in a fresh and clean rural environment.  Others who've lost their jobs, who have no way to pay for food &  rent, who have no coverage, have fallen (or will fall) through the cracks. 

That part of America is broken.  But this story won't fix that.  It won't make people change their decisions and actions.  It'll take something worse, something long-term.  Maybe if Covid-19 has continual re-infections of people who've already survived it once.  With endless recurring surges.  Something that will bring change will have stunning proof that self-isolation and better containment of outbreaks and better cleanliness, and should result in more compassion for our neighbors and strangers, instead of hoarding and everyone out for themselves, getting while the getting is good.

Society hasn't broken down yet, and it'll take a long time to get to that apocalypse, and the post-apocalyptic environment hinted at in the article.  Hopefully we'll have our eyes opened enough by then to be willing to accept change within ourselves and the way we do business and the way we treat other countries and peoples.

[rschroeder]

I'm impressed Amazon committed to closing down its multiple distribution centers in France as a result of the government's concerns for COVID-19 protection for workers.  It's an interesting article that reviews some of the other things Amazon has done to try to reduce their own COVID-19-related "surge" of online purchases and delivery demands when brick & mortar stores closed due to the pandemic.

Some folks are thinking of safety, whether it's Amazon or a government, and they're using science and math and medicine to prove and predict the value of isolation.

While I want the economies of the world to thrive, they operate on a delicate balance point when people have no income, no food, no jobs as a result of trying to have no disease.  I don't know the right answer to it all.  I expect it'll be a compromise of going back to work too early to limit spreading the disease effectively, and isolation.

[vinay.by]

Perhaps we’ll resume normal activities in a few weeks, although I think “normal” will be refined a bit. - I hope the same my friend

[vinay.by]

I am still getting used to the new thwack site 🙂

[vinay.by]

I put the deck furniture out last week, so naturally this happened a day later. - Nice 🙂

[vinay.by]

'5G Causes COVID-19' Conspiracy Theory: No Fix for Stupid - Hmm, ??!!!???.....???!!!!???

[m_roberts]

Some 5G masts have been burnt down over here, hence the term Covidiots

[joshcb]

I got told off on here by admins once for daring to suggest that america isn't a 1st world country, you know, despite all the evidence showing that it isn't 🤷‍♂

[Jfrazier]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYJdpnjuSWVOLgGT9fIzL0g - Jelles Marble Runs - Channel

[vinay.by]

Group Chat: The Best Way to Totally Stress Out Your Team - This is an amazing write-up, in fact its very well drafted which covers almost every thing that's happening..... 

[vinay.by]

Formula E team fills the sports void with online marble races - This is kinda nice, its a stress buster!!

[vinay.by]

All COVID related - hmm - it's sad that all of us have to face this and we are still stuck in it, hope the human race get's out of this as early as possible and government(any) or research team(any) comes up with a vaccine or a fix to end this 😞

Coronavirus is revealing how broken America’s economy really is
Amazon closes warehouses in France, tries to make US shoppers buy less
Contact Tracing COVID-19 Infections via Smartphone Apps
Coronavirus: What's happening to the beer left in pubs?