Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Trump calls for halt to US funding for World Health Organization amid coronavirus outbreak
23 mins ago

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-calls-for-halt-to-us-funding-for-world-health-organization-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/ar-BB12D4Vp?li=BBnb7Kz


"The Trump administration will halt funding to the World Health Organization as it evaluates the agency’s “role in severely mismanaging” the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

“Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said at a White House press conference."

Good.

When WHO is unable to stop the next Ebola outbreak because of lack of funds and the re-opened economy brings it to the US again, will you still think that was the right choice? Granted their performance early in the outbreak was not stellar, but WHO was getting contradictory info just like the rest of us. It took a few weeks of careful observations to determine which info was correct and which was not. That doesn't amount to being useless overall IMO.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Life has become a Ken Kesey novel both at work and off work.

"You see these people? These are the real people."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpJ0eVr-U0

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

China is fighting the coronavirus with a digital QR code. Here's how it works
6 hrs ago


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-is-fighting-the-coronavirus-with-a-digital-qr-code-heres-how-it-works/ar-BB12HctC?li=BBnb7Kz#image=BB12HctC_1|1


"Relying on mobile technology and big data, the Chinese government has used a color-based "health code" system to control people's movements and curb the spread of the coronavirus. The automatically generated quick response codes, commonly abbreviated to QR codes, are assigned to citizens as an indicator of their health status.

Although authorities have yet to make the health codes compulsory, in many cities, citizens without the app wouldn't be able to leave their residential compounds or enter most public places. "

"The health codes can also serve as a tracker for people's moves in public areas, as residents have their QR codes scanned as they enter public places. Once a confirmed case is diagnosed, authorities are able to quickly backtrack where the patient has been and identify people who have been in contact with that individual."

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ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Trump calls for halt to US funding for World Health Organization amid coronavirus outbreak
23 mins ago

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-calls-for-halt-to-us-funding-for-world-health-organization-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/ar-BB12D4Vp?li=BBnb7Kz


"The Trump administration will halt funding to the World Health Organization as it evaluates the agency’s “role in severely mismanaging” the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

“Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said at a White House press conference."

Good.

When WHO is unable to stop the next Ebola outbreak because of lack of funds and the re-opened economy brings it to the US again, will you still think that was the right choice? Granted their performance early in the outbreak was not stellar, but WHO was getting contradictory info just like the rest of us. It took a few weeks of careful observations to determine which info was correct and which was not. That doesn't amount to being useless overall IMO.

BTW, if the US stop funding the W.H.O., the next in line (as major funder) is... China.

Which is the strategy China employed in the last decade - it doesn't matter if reacting to global political decisions or inaction by the West in some area of the World: "Don't worry. We are here (omitted: to stay). We will help!"

And, no, the objection that China contributes a fraction of the money the US gave to the W.H.O. doesn't hold. There is a void, and they will move to fill it. And many other countries will cooperate, both because they are already looking at China as the epicenter of a new trade block and out of spite for (political sentence detected!... bzzzz... Exterminate! Exterminate! zap!).

Stop funding the W.H.O. in the middle of a pandemic... Great move. No, really

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ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

A Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted

Dec. 19, 2017



https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/health/lethal-viruses-nih.html


"Federal officials on Tuesday ended a moratorium imposed three years ago on funding research that alters germs to make them more lethal.

Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks.

Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine."


"When the moratorium was imposed, it effectively halted 21 projects, Dr. Collins said. In the three years since, the N.I.H. created exceptions that funded ten of those projects. Five were flu-related, and five concerned the MERS virus.

That virus is a coronavirus carried by camels that has infected about 2,100 people since it was discovered in 2012, and has killed about a third of them, according to the World Health Organization."

Mildly concerning, but we know that this coronavirus wasn't made in a lab.

Is "the scientific panel" the institutional review board process? If so, that is rather stringent and any risk of harm to humans has to be mitigated or conclusively shown to be worth it. It's worth noting that "compassionate use" falls outside of this process specifically because treatments that haven't yet met the stringent "prove it doesn't have negative side effects" part of the process would not pass.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Google and Apple are working together on an automated smart phone infectious contact technology.

The way it would work is the user would have to "opt in" (supposedly) and then their smart phone would record the wifi "chirps" of all the nearby smart phones throughout the day. When a person was found to be positive for COVID-19, the system would query their phone and pull up all the chirp contacts during their contagious period and then "public health authorities" would use that to do contact tracing.

It's seriously creepy with tremendous 4th Amendment abuse potential. Note: This is NOT GPS tracing or even cell tower tracing> If I understand it is the technology used by the phone to find wifi networks

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Google and Apple are working together on an automated smart phone infectious contact technology.

The way it would work is the user would have to "opt in" (supposedly) and then their smart phone would record the wifi "chirps" of all the nearby smart phones throughout the day. When a person was found to be positive for COVID-19, the system would query their phone and pull up all the chirp contacts during their contagious period and then "public health authorities" would use that to do contact tracing.

It's seriously creepy with tremendous 4th Amendment abuse potential. Note: This is NOT GPS tracing or even cell tower tracing> If I understand it is the technology used by the phone to find wifi networks

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Real time

Computing
relating to a system in which input data is processed within milliseconds so that it is available virtually immediately as feedback, e.g., in a missile guidance or airline booking system.
"real-time signal processing"

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ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

It Begins – East and West Coast Blue States Team Up To Begin Economic Civil War…
April 13, 2020
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/04/13/it-begins-east-and-west-coast-blue-states-team-up-to-begin-economic-civil-war/


"t seemed clear several weeks ago this was going to happen. East coast blue state governors and West coast blue state governors are uniting to begin the economic civil war planning to block any White House effort to re-open the U.S. economy. The founders planned for this in Article I, Sec 10 (paragraph 3):

“No state shall, without the consent of Congress, … enter into any agreement or compact with another state”.."


"EAST COAST — Six Northeast governors will form a working group to come up with a plan to restart [control] the regional economy, they announced on Monday."


"WEST COAST – The governors of Washington, California and Oregon on Monday announced they were working on a joint plan for reopening [controlling] their states’ respective economies once it is safe to lift coronavirus-related restrictions."

This extremely partisan source (and that's a kind assessment) isn't a constitutional lawyer (among other things), so you can safely ignore these hysterics.

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Even your Refrigerator

Smart refrigerator, also known as internet refrigerator, is a refrigerator which has been programmed to sense what kinds of products are being stored inside it and keep a track of the stock through barcode or RFID scanning. This kind of refrigerator is often equipped to determine itself whenever a food item needs to be replenished.

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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

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ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Trump calls for halt to US funding for World Health Organization amid coronavirus outbreak
23 mins ago

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-calls-for-halt-to-us-funding-for-world-health-organization-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/ar-BB12D4Vp?li=BBnb7Kz


"The Trump administration will halt funding to the World Health Organization as it evaluates the agency’s “role in severely mismanaging” the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

“Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said at a White House press conference."

Good.

When WHO is unable to stop the next Ebola outbreak because of lack of funds and the re-opened economy brings it to the US again, will you still think that was the right choice? Granted their performance early in the outbreak was not stellar, but WHO was getting contradictory info just like the rest of us. It took a few weeks of careful observations to determine which info was correct and which was not. That doesn't amount to being useless overall IMO.

BTW, if the US stop funding the W.H.O., the next in line (as major funder) is... China.

Which is the strategy China employed in the last decade - it doesn't matter if reacting to global political decisions or inaction by the West in some area of the World: "Don't worry. We are here (omitted: to stay). We will help!"

And, no, the objection that China contributes a fraction of the money the US gave to the W.H.O. doesn't hold. There is a void, and they will move to fill it. And many other countries will cooperate, both because they are already looking at China as the epicenter of a new trade block and out of spite for (political sentence detected!... bzzzz... Exterminate! Exterminate! zap!).

Stop funding the W.H.O. in the middle of a pandemic... Great move. No, really

It's the smartest thing we could have possibly done. Either they can react by cleaning up their act, replacing the leadership stooges in the pocket of China and thereby restore themselves to the good graces of the US and restore their funding source, or they can go running into the arms of China, completely undermining what little credibility they have left and destroying themselves as an organization. The US has no use for them if they are simply going to be an arm of China.

p.s. Clive is one of my favorite actors and your use of his image is seriously undermining how I view him. Funny how that seems to work.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Google and Apple are working together on an automated smart phone infectious contact technology.

The way it would work is the user would have to "opt in" (supposedly) and then their smart phone would record the wifi "chirps" of all the nearby smart phones throughout the day. When a person was found to be positive for COVID-19, the system would query their phone and pull up all the chirp contacts during their contagious period and then "public health authorities" would use that to do contact tracing.

It's seriously creepy with tremendous 4th Amendment abuse potential. Note: This is NOT GPS tracing or even cell tower tracing> If I understand it is the technology used by the phone to find wifi networks

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Trump calls for halt to US funding for World Health Organization amid coronavirus outbreak
23 mins ago

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-calls-for-halt-to-us-funding-for-world-health-organization-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/ar-BB12D4Vp?li=BBnb7Kz


"The Trump administration will halt funding to the World Health Organization as it evaluates the agency’s “role in severely mismanaging” the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

“Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said at a White House press conference."

Good.

When WHO is unable to stop the next Ebola outbreak because of lack of funds and the re-opened economy brings it to the US again, will you still think that was the right choice? Granted their performance early in the outbreak was not stellar, but WHO was getting contradictory info just like the rest of us. It took a few weeks of careful observations to determine which info was correct and which was not. That doesn't amount to being useless overall IMO.

The president can't halt Congressionally-appropriated funds. I.e., funding is not at the president's discretion. Congress has the power of the purse and if the appropriations that pass Congress say that $100M is to be spent on a hunt for Sasquatch, then that $100M has to be spent and it has to be spent on a hunt for Sasquatch. The president can't say "I'm preventing this from being spent."

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Thanks for the condolences. Doesn't it seem they should let a man's children see him before he dies? This scene is being repeated thousands of times every day. Very sad for the victim and the survivors. We are going to have a generation of people seeing therapists

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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Even your Refrigerator

Smart refrigerator, also known as internet refrigerator, is a refrigerator which has been programmed to sense what kinds of products are being stored inside it and keep a track of the stock through barcode or RFID scanning. This kind of refrigerator is often equipped to determine itself whenever a food item needs to be replenished.

This is the kind of technology I hope I never have to use. Hell, I hope I never have to replace my 20 year old truck.

Have you seen the kind of **** they are loading up new vehicles with? Rear cameras and beeping radar so our obese population incapable of TURNING around to look behind then when moving the vehicle in reverse can navigate....Remote starting?

I pointed out to a few of my former coworkers that under Florida law it is illegal to have the engine running in an unattended vehicle and also REQUIRES that you TURN AROUND and look behind you when operating your vehicle in reverse. Auto manufacturers are putting features in their vehicles that violate the law, but no one seems to give a ****.


Just how much cost do all these unnecessary bells and whistles add to the vehicle and how much does it cost to repair them when they break?

I want a truck, NOT a spaceship.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Just found out today my uncle passed away from COVID-19 yesterday in Indianapolis. He was in a good quality nursing home but one of his dinner buddies got sick. The home was in lockdown for 30 days so my cousins didn't get to see him.

I had an anxiety dream about him on Monday. He was 86 and had some significant health problems. He worked as an artist for the Navy.

Thanks Winnie the Pooh

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That's not how this particular game works. The US withdrawing funding removes most of the influence it has over the organisation, and as RFalvo69 says, if there's a void, it will be filled.

There's a clear line that can be drawn here between the Chinese expanding their influence in Africa, the WHO top leadership and recent events.

Granted, the US can take an isolationist approach, but is the loss of soft power acceptable? Unlikely.

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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

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ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Even your Refrigerator

Smart refrigerator, also known as internet refrigerator, is a refrigerator which has been programmed to sense what kinds of products are being stored inside it and keep a track of the stock through barcode or RFID scanning. This kind of refrigerator is often equipped to determine itself whenever a food item needs to be replenished.

This is the kind of technology I hope I never have to use. Hell, I hope I never have to replace my 20 year old truck.

Have you seen the kind of **** they are loading up new vehicles with? Rear cameras and beeping radar so our obese population incapable of TURNING around to look behind then when moving the vehicle in reverse can navigate....Remote starting?

I pointed out to a few of my former coworkers that under Florida law it is illegal to have the engine running in an unattended vehicle and also REQUIRES that you TURN AROUND and look behind you when operating your vehicle in reverse. Auto manufacturers are putting features in their vehicles that violate the law, but no one seems to give a ****.


Just how much cost do all these unnecessary bells and whistles add to the vehicle and how much does it cost to repair them when they break?

I want a truck, NOT a spaceship.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

We've discussed previously the proliferation of dreams (I lost the link to this story and now can't find it, but it was posted online today).

The first time dreams was brought up was about three weeks ago, both Chickenboy and Cap Mandrake mentioned they were having them.

As we noted, Stephen King used dreams in his pandemic novel, The Stand, written in the '80s.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Just found out today my uncle passed away from COVID-19 yesterday in Indianapolis. He was in a good quality nursing home but one of his dinner buddies got sick. The home was in lockdown for 30 days so my cousins didn't get to see him.

I had an anxiety dream about him on Monday. He was 86 and had some significant health problems. He worked as an artist for the Navy.

Thanks Winnie the Pooh

Mike

"Good times will set you free" - Jimmy Buffett

"They need more rum punch" - Me


Artwork by The Amazing Dixie

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've never owned a smartphone and won't ever. I never thought it would be an issue, and still don't think it will be, but...hmm. For the 0.2% of the population who have "opted out," this is kinda weird stuff.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Google and Apple are working together on an automated smart phone infectious contact technology.

The way it would work is the user would have to "opt in" (supposedly) and then their smart phone would record the wifi "chirps" of all the nearby smart phones throughout the day. When a person was found to be positive for COVID-19, the system would query their phone and pull up all the chirp contacts during their contagious period and then "public health authorities" would use that to do contact tracing.

It's seriously creepy with tremendous 4th Amendment abuse potential. Note: This is NOT GPS tracing or even cell tower tracing> If I understand it is the technology used by the phone to find wifi networks

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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

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ORIGINAL: RFalvo69
Stop funding the W.H.O. in the middle of a pandemic... Great move. No, really

It's the smartest thing we could have possibly done.

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Either they can react by cleaning up their act

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they can go running into the arms of China, completely undermining what little credibility they have left and destroying themselves as an organization.

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p.s. Clive is one of my favorite actors and your use of his image is seriously undermining how I view him. Funny how that seems to work.