|
Call me nihilistic but I almost hope it escalates and explodes. Maybe restarting from the ground up something changes for good.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
|
|
|
|
|
After the Black Death, the survivors (and their grandchildren) could still look up a lot of previous knowledge in pre-Black-Death writings. Later, when the printing press had become a household item, almost all knowledge could survive, in the form of books, a thirty year long closedown of society caused by an epidemic.
Today, you can't just pick that .pdf down from your bookshelf and thumb through it to find what you need. Your PC must be operational, your screen still working, "someone" must be able to start up the power plant. Someone must provide the oil, coal or whatever fires the power plant. The great majority of the information is not on your local harddisk, so someone must keep up the network - every single node between your PC and the database you want to access ...
An epidemic comparable to the Black Death would certainly affect both power plant workers, PC service men, DevOps personell at the data centers, fuel oil vendors and lots of other people that must be around to ensure your access to Wikipedia. Or to the schematics and construction drawings for that motor. Or to the service manual for the failing power generator.
That is what worries me: The number of people and professions required to ensure access to almost any piece of information. Or rather, how few deaths - a far lower percentage than the Black Death - it would take to paralyze all information access. How little of modern technology and knowledge is accessible in non-electronic form.
If we expericence anything like the Black Death, we must cross our fingers for society to be able to recover before optical fibers are all glass crumbles, before power generators have corroded away, before the hard disk bearings have deformed due to not being activated, ... A generation after the Black Death, society was essentially still in limbo. I very much doubt that we would be able to recover much info from the internet databases thirty years after they were last accessed. (Alan Weisman: "The World Without Us" is rather scary, when considering the effects of a pandemic.)
The best we can hope for, is to find scraps of old books in what remains of classical libraries. Most likely, we will find very little that is more recent than 1960s-70s technology, and even though we can read e.g. about transistors and vacuum tubes, we probably cannot make more of them; the library books do not tell much about how to build a semiconductor factory.
So for all practical purposes, in a restart from the ground, the ground is not much above stone age technology. Even though we will be sitting on piles of technological scraps, our chances of utilizing those scraps is very close to zero.
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: our chances of utilizing those scraps is very close to zero.
Nah! It's all on YouTube! Duh! 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
den2k88 wrote: the embers of our ancient divisions between north and south are now flaming once again with open racism from italian to italian
But that never really went away; it was just pushed to a back burner.
It's (some people find this surprising) the same in the UK.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
|
Considering the relative size of UK vs Italy and the number of regions Italy is made of I don't find it surprising at all. 2 Italians form 3 political parties.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
|
|
|
|
|
den2k88 wrote: 2 Italians form 3 political parties.
But only because they can't agree on a name for the fourth.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
|
den2k88 wrote: It's quite mild
No it isn't!
Average death rate for the common flu is 0.17%.
If you compare that to Covid-19 the number of deaths as of today is 2,769 compared to 30,317 that has recovered.
Of the currently sick people (48,148) 8,851 is in serious or critical condition.
The numbers above are official statistics, I have no idea how reliable it is, or how they define serious or critical. (Dead or recovered should be easier though)
But I have no reason to believe it's faked. Considering this data is mostly from china, I would rather expect it to be whitewashed.
The reason it's taken so seriously is that the people that die, dies from a so called cytokine storm. They're bleeding to death in the same way as the victims of the Spanish flu of 1918-1920
The rest of your post I agree with though.
|
|
|
|
|
Jörgen Andersson wrote: No it isn't!
You're right, I was referring to the contagion situation. So far it seems fairly in check.
As for the virus, it's kind of bipolar: very aggressive in 5-15% of cases and very mild in 85-90%. With the correct diagnosis and safety protocols it is curable with no particular problems. Many people who are in intensive care have been placed there to err on the safety side, given the low quantity and quality of data on this particular virus.
As for the dead, the 7 registered and confirmed cases in Italy are all of 75+ years old people with an already compromised respiratory system. This doesn't mean we can underestimate the risks, but it's nothing exceptional anyway.
As for the China cases, it's mostly a social issue of bad national health system and terrible hygienic conditions in the affected area. In Naples we had an epidemy of Cholera in the freking 1970s, and up to 1990s there were inhabited cities in Molise without running water (actually in 1996 my grand-grandfather in Apulia lived in a house without running water as well).
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
|
|
|
|
|
Associate come around secretary and surgeon (8)
cheers,
Super
------------------------------------------
Too much of good is bad,mix some evil in it
|
|
|
|
|
Compadre = Associate
Com e = come
PA = secratary (Personal Assistant)
DR = surgeon (Doctor)
|
|
|
|
|
Seriously, I should have coined a tougher one..
Were you waiting for CCC to be posted to pound on it? 
cheers,
Super
------------------------------------------
Too much of good is bad,mix some evil in it
|
|
|
|
|
"Come" gave away the start a bit too easily. Although my first thought was "comrade" but it obvs didn't fit. Honestly not even sure why "compadre" jumped into my head at that point either. Maybe I have been dreaming of Mexicans or something.
super wrote: Were you waiting for CCC to be posted to pound on it?
I try to make a habbit of checking around 9am, but most days I usually forget and turn up a bit late. I also usually am not so good at them but I have had a decent run recently... either I am getting better or they are getting easier. I think the latter!
|
|
|
|
|
I was going with the word Arrive or comeback but I did not want it to be too complicate to repeat myself
Associate Halfhearted comeback around Secretary and Surgeon.
cheers,
Super
------------------------------------------
Too much of good is bad,mix some evil in it
|
|
|
|
|
I may have stumbled a bit with that one tbh... stick with the easy ones. I can do those!
I just made a nice simple one for tomorrow, but I have a feeling it might end up being a bit tricky. Only time will tell.
|
|
|
|
|
Don't surgeons prefer "Mr" rather than "Dr" to avoid them being confused with people who know what they are doing the plebian pill pushers? 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
OriginalGriff wrote: Don't surgeons prefer "Mr" rather than "Dr"
Well, perhaps the male ones do
Possible even some of the female ones too, it is 2020 after all.
|
|
|
|
|
OriginalGriff wrote: the plebian pill pushers?
While in Germany, Most of the time when I went to GP, the only advice he gave was take a week rest, drink soup and tea.
If nothing improves come back later.
cheers,
Super
------------------------------------------
Too much of good is bad,mix some evil in it
|
|
|
|
|
And he was right. The overwhelming majority of minor illnesses will go away with little or no treatment other than rest and lots of fluids. A good GP is one who knows the difference between a minor illness and one that requires medical intervention.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
|
True, but it's still a bit of a cop-out. Not everyone goes to the doctor first day of symptoms. I had a phlegmy cough and earaches for about 4 weeks, decided to go doctors and still got told "come back in a couple of weeks". So I went back, different doctor, and was given antibiotics for ear and chest infection. Cleared up in 2 weeks.
I feel the first doctor could have easily diagnosed me correctly if he had just taken a couple of minutes to properly consider the symptoms. I was coughing up some pretty nasty stuff by the time I went to see him!
Although I get that they are overloaded with patients and they just want to play the numbers game.
Anyway, the whole conversation made me think of this[^].
|
|
|
|
|
musefan wrote: Anyway, the whole conversation made me think of this[^].
I've got to send that to my GP...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
|
Please upvote and/or comment if you're a C# developer who also develops Android apps (in any language).
Thanks,
/ravi
modified 25-Feb-20 23:46pm.
|
|
|
|
|
Trying to score some reputation points?
|
|
|
|
|
dandy72 wrote: Trying to score some reputation points?
Ha ha, no! I was remembering when CP allowed up and down voting a post. (It was a poor man's instant survey.)
/ravi
|
|
|
|
|
If I still could, I'd downvote you.
--edit
As is, voted it as inappropriate.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
|
|
|
|
|
Ravi Bhavnani wrote: Please upvote and/or comment if you're a C# developer who also develops Android apps (in any language).
I don't.
You can request a survey if you wanted, you know how it works.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
