thepossum

Just finished seasons 1-3 of Homeland. Missed it when it came out. A good production. EDIT Just completed series 5. ot sure whether to invest time in the next 3. WOuld be curious to know anybody's thoughts. It seemed to cover some very difficult issues remarkably well but I know it also was regarded as misrepresenting some parties/issues internationally. From my position it did well while acknowledging its limitations

Hi all, Haven't posted for ages but delighted to see that this is the most lively forum and often well beyond my idea of novice and beginner. Who needs intermediate or advanced forums, and seemingly the experts don't need one at all :) Regards P

Whatever it is, it is probably factual but also concerning. I see the same issue everywhere (including here in Australia but Leicester is close to my childhood home in England) with serious risks of vulnerable communities, socioeconomic inequality, the nature of their work, their need to work, scapegoating of communities and cultures by the more privileged in different countries. It's a risk everywhere and something we all need to be wary of, especially thinking of what has happened in history

Since you revivied the thread and nobody else commented I would love to add a few thoughts. I just read most of the thread and realised its been going for years so apologies. And I will try not to buy into American local issues. However as an outside observer (and inside observer given my history from the UK and Australia) it is a rather important thread. Firstly I am somewhat interested in history of the Confederacy and slavery in the USA (purely by way of understanding my own history). It is fascinating though, is it not, that in those days it was southern democrats fighting to protect slavery and their way of life. And these days the Democrats love having a go at the other team. Thats as an outsider Secondly I really am fairly ignorant of much of my country's history and colonial history all over the world regarding slavery. However, I have something of an out that in those days my family were mostly working in fields or holes in the ground and not part of the class that did it. But my lack of knoweldge is shameful. Thirdly, I may not be popular in Australia for saying this, but links between UK ruling and merchant classes (eg East India company etc), colonialism, South Africa, Australia, Canada, USA etc and the terrible things that happened, under our name, but arguably not under the name of my class (apologies); is widely lacking and unacknowledged. I will not be popular in my adopted home for raising the issue of the White Australia policy, our own segregation here, attitudes to anyone non-white basically, links with other similar white colonial countries etc Fourthly The issue of statues and the recent movement to demolish or at least challenge those of racists/slave owners did raise some interesting issues as to how far things should be demolished that were based upon questionnable historial policies and exploitation. I don't think much would be left standing around the world. And I mean anywhere throughout human history. Fifthly, apropos of the left and racism and slavery; I have been very concerned at some tendencies by some on the left during the recent pandemic economic crisis to ignore the inequality around the world, to look at their privilged back yards and lives, to actually reimpose very unequal policies bordering on permanent exploitation of certain groups in society while the elites sit around happily debating the sorry state of the world at their dinner parties Kind regards P

Thankyou Paul. I apologise for my initial reaction before I realised who was behind it all. Thankyou

Do any of the people on this site have the smallest idea about the damage they can cause to a professional person's life - personally or professionally by constant attacks like these Do you not all think at times like these, especially at times like these we need trusted knwoledgeable voices who stand up and discuss issues they are competent to comment on. Do you not realise the damage you can cause by undermining professional voices Do people not think that some of us are already under so much stress in our personal and professional lives that such attacks are hardly constructive at all Do you know how many people could be damaged. How many organsiations by attacking people, undermining them, causing them so much anxiety and stress when needing to, unnecessarily defend themselves. This is supposed to be a place of recreation. One of the few places I can come withoout stress

Please dont get involved. This is nothing to do with you. ok. I'm defending myself against a disgraceful attack after years of disgraceful attacks. And what is going on on this thread is the worst yet. I have neve had any problems with your behaviour or comments to date. Please

with likes by sfi and shyams and Kindly retract these, the three of you. What is going on. A personal attack against me and I have nothing to do with Pilowsky. At least I only write about things I am trained in and knowledgeable about. And I do not change my alias and have nothing to do with Pilowsky. This is disgusting attack. How many more of you are involved in this disgusting ad hominem and disgraceful attacks against me personally and professionally. What a disgusting group of people. Who do you think you are. I have put up with years of the most disgrarceful and disgusting attacks and behaviour on this site and on some of the table in the club. You are just the latest to display a total lack of knowledge of decent behaviour - personally and professionally. Take it down please. Do you want me to go arounnd and mouthing you all the time. Who do you think you are? WTF. In one circle of humanity do you think this behaviour is appropriate. Making disgraceful accusations. Involving yourself in the ongoing bullying. Implying that I change my alias. Suggesting I am in any way associated with some other user. WTF And in addition to deleting it I request a full retraction and an apology for this disgraceful attack Oh and PS I'm wondering what the assumption of the two of us being the same and insulting both of us says about the 3 involved

I would request you take this down Pilowsky. You are a disgrace posting a comment attacking me, and continuing the two earlier attacks by johnu and sfi.This is disgusting attack. How many more of you are involved in this disgusting ad hominem and disgraceful attacks against me personally and professionally. What a disgusting group of people. Who do you think you are. I have put up with years of the most disgrarceful and disgusting attacks and behaviour on this site and on some of the table in the club. You are just the latest to display a total lack of knowledge of decent behaviour - personally and professionally. Take it down please. Do you really want to be associated with the two who attacked me and have been involved in the attacks on here for years

Dear all Thankyou for your replies. Its difficult for me to explain my unease. Maybe it comes with age and dare I say wisdom (??). Maybe it has come with a change in media and technology. maybe the world has changed although as I suspect and others also back me up somewhat, I suspect it has not changed much at all. I believe the mechanisms of control are the same they always have been (thats from a non-expert observer of media and history) - the use of information, media, whatever mechanisms were/are available in order to control. The nature of the world is very different in some ways. I fear that the true nature of who is in control and how they use the tools at their disposal is not - they just have different and arguably even more efficient tools of control Sorry for being such a cynic. However, being reflective I realise to a certain extent I am part of that group (maybe in a minor way) - and very recently (in a historical sense) relatively privileged or lucky - but there are many others who for many thousands or even tens of thousands of years have known how to use various tools of power - across the whole wold, in every empire, in every tradition. And that same group (plus or minus a little variance) has remained the same forever, all over the world. Maybe it is now more obvious to even someone like me P

Thankyou for your considered reply Hrothgar

Dear all Apologies since I don't know all the rules for appropriate topics at a Water Cooler. I've also been out of web, database, software for a very long time, and haven't had a chat round a Water Cooler for a while. What is the latest popular reality TV show other than the news. However I sincerely hope all the real time critical systems we rely on in this world are not so affected by asynchronous issues as many web sites and web information systems around at the moment At the most benign level maybe someone gets a duplicate message. Next stage up maybe something gets ordered twice and has to be refunded or sent back. Next level, maybe wrong person gets the wrong thing, or we act on old information But after that, what next. Oh sorry we operated on the wrong person. Or sorry the wrong procedure. Etc Regards P

Hi all Posted this on the Trump rant thread but since it covers much broader issues of politics, media, democracy and manipulation throughout history, it was regarded as irrelevant, so I am starting it as a new thread Please bear with me. I will edit it down when I'm less tired of trying to express my feelings about the ridiculous media manipulation related to what we are fed through media about Whitehouse briefings during a global crisis regards P PS Sorry for being boring and rambling but I just felt like expressing my feelings about social media, media and apparent advice on injecting disinfectant; and also my thoughts on why Dr Birx is expected to be wasting her time doing studies on injection of disinfectant and shining UV light on viruses. Some of us are concerned ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Long rambing version - here util it is edited Hi all I need to ask something or at least raise something of concern, and it relates to this (it did before moving) thread and others for obvious reasons. I don't expect anyone will necessarily respond. I dont even know if I can express it very well. However what my concern relates to, as a non-USA citizen/resident, but whose life, along with the rest of the world is largely dominated/impacted by geopolitics of empires, whose media is totally dominated by the apparent shenanigans in the WHitehouse - both broadcast or written in MSM and social media. I could take the regular position which is to look at an (often out of context) media clip beinng (ab)used by various media voices to attack every liberal's favourite target. I could look at the clips and also think how ridiculous it is, how could anyone say that in that way, let alone a president of the USA. I could also question - is that really what was said. What was the context. I could if available and I have time watch a whole briefing from beginning to end without edits or commentary - I managed to find one a few days ago of a complete briefing by the Doctors Birx, Fauci and Redfield; President, Vice President, etc etc. A very good conference - but how often do you see that But I'm not going to. I'm a bit fed up with the theatre or the circus to be honest. At a time of such crisis. So I look for some deeper meanings in what is going on, or try to think of everything at a different level than the apparent ridiculous debate and argument and constant attack at the level most of us in the world are currently being fed. How real is all this? How contrived is? If it is all contrived manipulative theatre who is responsible. I'm not someone who looks at individuals, betes noires etc. I look at systems or some other framework or model of analysing the world and what is going on. The systems I am thinking of including government, media, coroorations, even academe and professionals now seem engaged at one level in constantly dealing with this low level of discourse which never gets us anywhere. To me anyway it never gets us anywhere. Its just a chance for all these different interests, sadly even those who should be disinterested to have a platform to express, promote, push their side of an issue, their agenda Is the world really that contrived. Has it always been such. Is that the only way of having a conversation about (for example) treatments for Covid 19, but more bradly management of a pandemic, a global economic catastrophe etc What I see is maniuplation. I see a worsening of a maniuplative system/systems that I imagine have played out through human history in different ways. Thos syetms of power and those who are interested or have interests in power. Even if its not manipulation it has the effect of manipulation - its an incessant form of extreme conversation - if you can call is conversation that never gets us anywhere. This in the middle of a crisis. Those systems and information are now dominated by technology, data, digital platforms and coroprations - a new alternative medium - but a massively powerful and also interested group that has joined the throng of other groups - government, media, academe (I hate to say), professionals (I hope not many) Meanwhile the majority of the world just reads, watches the rubbish being fed to them, the controlled flow of information, the manipulation and either accepts it or fights it in some futile way - at the same time billions of people around the world continue to be hurt and suffer, more an more every day. So I hope this rant or ramble makes some sense. I'm not trained in writing. But I don't like what I see regards P

Certainly no expert but I would on some days open 2C, then its 2D-3D - who knows what next, and who decides to stop and realises theres no hope Maybe 2C-2D-3D-3H-3S-4D-Pass Or 2C-2D-3D-3H-4D-Pass Or 2C-2D-3D-Pass

Its sad you had to explain this Barmar I must admit I am feeling less concerned about the intellect of any on this site who ever attacked me before, if this is the level of people's understanding of anything I had been planning to raise some serious issues about this terrible pandemmic which have been concerning me. The conflict between control and freedom. The meaning of life and existence. How this issue is challenging all our values. Where to from here. The state of the world economy during and post pandemic. Is there a chance of a vaccine and if not where to from here. Ethics. Law. Philosophy. Science. The arts. Anything But at least I now know the level at which to pitch any future posts and threads :)

I will preface this with my: I am not a doctor, epidemiologist, virologist, public health official etc etc However Some may argue that it may take experiments to establish the stongest evidence of causes of things. However there are many other methods that give strong indications of risk factors/associations. And as far as I m aware, from my perhaps limited knowledge of medical reesearch and epidemiology, experiments that require giving people viruses to test what it is that kills you are not commonly accepted scientific practice - for obvious reasons I would hope. Therefore people tend to rely on other methods. One recent report from Italy posted in a discussion on Twitter abut comorbitiesMy link has a number of interesting statistics and tables that give some indications of risks (or associated factors), not causal risks I hasten to add but strong associations with mortality In that report one of the most discussed numbers were comorbities(pre-existing conditions) with Covid - section 3 of the report It is clear from the numbers that without making any statement of cause there are very strong risk factors associated with 1 or more pre-existing medical conditions - that is reading the data and discussion. Not medical opinion or anything before anyone has a go. However I do actually have a masters in biostatistics and some understanding of the field Please read the report. Hopefully doctos or other experts will clarify. Also these are risks/associations - not causal relationships Table 1.Most common comorbidities observed in COVID-19 positive deceased patients Ischemic heart disease 30.1% of fatalites Atrial Fibrillation 22.0% of fatalities Stroke 11.2% of ftalities Hypertension 73.8% of fatalities Diabetes 33.9% of fatalities Dementia 11.9% of fatalities COPD 13.7% of fatalities Active cancer in the past 5 years 19.5% of fatalities Chronic liver disease 3.7% of fatalities Chronic renal failure 20.2% of fstalities Number of comorbidities 0 comorbidities 1.2% of fatalities 1 comorbidity 23.5% of fatalities 2 comorbidities 26.6% fatalities 3 or more comorbidities 48.6% of fatalities NOTE It should also be born in mind that many of these comorbities are common across the high risk groups anyway so no inference can be made that they are a factor involved in mortality (eg high blood pressure) - they could just be common comorbities in that population DISCLAIMER Again I add I am not a doctor, epidemiologist etc but it seems that many of the risk factors are quite obvious and obviously common in older people - hence higher death rates. Also as far as I am aware most (if not all) the younger victims of Covid also had serious comorbities HOWEVER Please note that this in no way downplays the infectiousness, seriousness of the illness, the load on health systems etc etc. And it is not expert comment. Just I happen to have some training and get rather upset sometimes at the lack of clarity in messages and discussion. ALSO Just because there appears a very strong association between fatalities and comobrities no inference should be made about the seriousness of the illness for all the non fatal cases - or for people to think that they are ok, or they wont get a serious illness, or that they will die or any inference at all. That is also not medical opinion. Just common sense. But surely we can discuss some figures and likely risks ALSO These figures are from one specific nation with a reasonably resourced health system, I have massive concerns for the effect in places with less resourced health systems. Thats a personal view knowing how much treatment is required PLEASE Treat this information in the way it is intended. Do not misuse the figures. Do not Regard them as expert comment or causal in any way shape or form. But I am sure by now everyone is aware of these issues without having to be a medical expert to discuss it PS Whenever I get abused for commenting on things I may know something about (yet am not expert in) I am somewhat heartened (or should I say dismayed) that I am in good company. Our Chief Medical Officer in Australia is regularly attacked via social media for not being a virologist - I believe since he has a different speciality in medicine he is not regarded as qualified to discuss anything either

Its a good thing sometimes to go through all the illustrious people we have been lucky enough to study with or from, and work with or for, over the years. Thanks for the post Ken PS I have a rather scary list of people I could list, and always dreamed to be on a list one day :), but....

Sorry mythdoc. I deleted my post but hadnt realised you answered. It wasnt so much expecting a response as just trying to communicate the issue to some who maybe dont understand what has to be balanced by those in positions of power , and by all of us really It was indeed rhetorical And I will also add the other part of my deleted post is that are many killers in this world other than one new virus and many of those could be much worse after the pandemic response. That is not expressing an opinion on the response, just a point of view on something that is a known and unquestionnable fact about poverty and its impacts PS I'm not interested in debating my rhetorical since it is an impossible debate and would get us nowhere at all. It was simply something for people to ponder if they care about my posts But I will address your point nd hope that its the end of your desire for an argument. If my question was extreme with 1 versus the whole world then tell me your acceptable equation of deaths from one virus to devastation to millions around the world. You clearly have some easily caluclated equation and figure in your head how to do that calculus But its also clear from your attempt to answer my question that you have some other agenda such as imposing a radical oppressive new structure on the world and would like to take this opportunity to prosecute that case. Despite the fact that your view is held by a minority and countless people are losing everything. The billions of people whose lives you would seemingly happily and cruelly destroy earn what little they have through honest hard work in whatever capacity. Yet you slander them all implicity as corrupt, greedy etc Yoou do realise that already countless people in many countries around the world, including the poorest of the poor are losing the ability to earn enough even to fulfil their basic daily needs for themselves and family - as a result of the lockdown. I imagine you are not one of those people who lives like that day by day So much of this ideaological agenda and argument comes from people in positions of extreme privilege who wish to impose some radical agenda on people who do not wish to have their agenda imposed - especially not under the pretence of measures allegedly brought in to care for their well-being. Maybe everyone needs to learn more about the real world (you used those words) and get out of their privileged little bubbles for once in a while

Deleted yet another duplicate post. Some combination of Android OS, chrome browser and web site leading to multiple posts

Looks as if USA is also going for the herd infection approach

In terms of natural selection, SARSnCov2 certainly seems to be doing well in natural selection. It's serious but not too serious to die out before it has spread itself widely

Following my confident counter-factual about investing if I had had cash a week ago to buy bargains I would have lost somewhere between 10-15%. However I am encouraged to learn that some funds have been increasing their exposure to markets and taking advantage of lower asset prices

You run the risk of being hoist with your own petard for using the common tactic of using rather misleading language to desribe outcomes from surveys - where questions are often designed in order to achieve misleading results to drum up unfair accusations and make arguments and points through media or other means There may indeed be things called facts but there are many different ways of misrepresenting people's knowledge of facts. Hopefully those in academe are more careful about doing so than the broader media and survey organisations You can get any answer you want from surveys and you can use surveys to push any argument or agenda I stand on the side of facts (whatever they are) along with you but....

Like a few others above, I am not an American, so feel eminently qualified to offer the following opinion I can't see any result other than a Trump victory later in the year

I put up a simple and reasonable post about testing and numbers of cases, and true ratios. Points that have been made by several experts over recent weeks. What happens. The usual suspect who thinks he runs this site and gas the right to attack who he likes launches into yet another personal attack Ironically when this all started he seemed to be a bit more reasonable than the most obnoxious characters But it soon became clear that he is either one of the ringleaders or started attacking me for daring to stand up against the disgusting bullying culture I observed Wish I had never come back Bye all good people. Hope I never need to meet any of the bullies in real life. I defend myself physically when attacked too Bye