Daily review 10/03/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 64 comments
Categories: Daily review

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

64 comments on “Daily review 10/03/2020”

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    1. 1.1

      Thanks Robert. I am losing my fondness for lawns (50 years of mowing them does that) – but not entirely yet. So I can beat your 11 ways of smelling a tree with 13 ways of looking at one of the most frequent users of lawns – blackbirds. By the great Wallace Stevens.

      1. 1.1.1

        The poem's a favourite of mine also. Ours here are ridiculously tame. One comes inside of the house as I sit reading, watches me with one eye as it crosses the kitchen floor to get to the butter in the table where it helps itself as I watch. Shameless! Another lives in the worm farm-bath and barely bothers to move away when I'm emptying the food-scraps bucket into it. I really like blackbirds.

          1. 1.1.1.1.1

            Yes; blackbirds provide the most reliable early warning service to the other birds. I wonder if they are rewarded for their squawk work somehow? Tasty berries left for them? Crusts set aside in gratitude?

        2. 1.1.1.2

          Robert I think I have told you about our blackbird once before. He is a glossy cockbird and is now in his 7th year. Why he is a particularly splendid specimen is, he has a very lame foot, bent almost completely under and he totters about. This particular stud of a cock has fathered many seasons of chicks and as far as we can ascertain has had two mates in this time.

          Season after season he talks to us in the garden and he and his mate build nests in climbers or on shelving outside our family room door. Every morning he is waiting for food and like your bird has come into the house cheeky as looking for us.

          What is interesting is that blackbirds are amazing parents, caring and its plain they do not abandon injured chicks like some animals in the wild do with their young. We remember this bird as a fledgling tottering about in the garden and his parents kept an eye on him until he could fly. We call him Pegleg, not because he has a pegleg but it just suited him. He has become an institution to us and has outlived his natural life in the wild so my book on birds tells me. Like you I just love blackbirds with their cheeky character.

    2. 1.2

      the youth of yesteryear, appreciating the sound of willow slapping on leather they play on the beautiful dirt expanse of the village brown

  2. 2

    Cunning!

    "If a tree senses insects chewing into its trunk or leaves, or receives an alert from a neighbor about such attacks, it boosts its production of the more insecticidal chemicals. The predators of tree-chewing insects—carnivorous and parasitic beetles and wasps—sniff the air for these defensive aromas of trees and use them to home in on their prey."

  3. 3

    Ever pondered on the safety of cardboard "tree" car air-fresheners?

    "The cardboard tree swings violently as we take the corner. The swinging motion looses pine and lemon scent from between fibers of compressed cellulose. A gust of forest air, right here in the car’s interior.

    Outside, a traffic jam. Gasoline byproducts and nitrogen oxides stream from tailpipes. When sunlight hits the fumes, the pollutants seethe and react, making ozone. The car interior is now a chemistry experiment: monoterpenes originally from trees blend with ozone, all held inside an enclosed space. When chemists replicate the experiment in the lab, the reactions of “air freshener” chemicals with ozone yield a mist of invisible particles and organic gases. The fine particles are a hazard not only to the lungs, but to other tissues of the body. So, too, are the gases born in this experiment, acetone, formaldehyde, acrolein, and acetaldehyde."

    1. 3.1

      The extravagantly mis-named "air-freshener" has to be a contender in any search for the most ubiquitous and pointless excesses of capitalism. If you think your house or car needs something to disguise its unpleasant smell, try cleaning it and airing it out.

      1. 3.1.1

        … and try to figure out what caused the smell so you can prevent it happening again.

        Easier said than done in my younger days, though, preventing that mouldy odour in an older car parked outside in Palmerston North weather.

          1. 3.1.1.1.1

            Yup. It worked for me. Kind of an extreme solution to mouldy odours in the car, but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

    1. 4.1

      Wasn't there a time some years ago when National said the same thing then about "burning up regulations." I think there was a Minister appointed but after a year or so the task was quietly shelved. Might have been in the 90s or in Key years.

      2. 4.1.2

        Rodney Hide and Paula Bennett both got some media coverage out of it during National's last term in office, for a net gain of fuck-all regulations found to be without merit. Before that, occasional Standard commenter Wayne Mapp was given a real hospital pass when Don Brash declared him National's "political correctness eradicator." It played well to the base, I guess.

  5. 5

    Tributes to Jeanette Fitzsimons in the House today.

    David Seymour couldn't even be bothered to get her name right.

    1. 5.1

      Seymour use an alternative pronounciation for her surname. That aside I think it's a good speech from him. The main part:

      I did not coincide with Jeanette Fitzsimons in this Parliament, nor, unfortunately, was I able to know her, but in a way, the fact that what I know of her has been learnt by osmosis, has bled out through society and through secondary connections, speaks all the more strongly to those values that I know she had.

      There are politicians who believe it is an achievement to hold a particular office. There are politicians who believe that it is about what she might have called the “he said, she said” BS; Jeanette Fitzsimons was clearly a politician who believed that being in office was not an achievement but presented the opportunity to achieve not on the personality, but on the issues.

      That’s why we hear so frequently in the last few days, as people up and down New Zealand have come to terms with her passing, words like “principled”, “kind”, “dogmatic”, “humble”, “achieving”: values that I think all of us should aspire to and values for which all of us can have a great admiration for Jeanette Fitzsimons.

      Good speeches also from Marama Davidson and James Shaw, Jacinda Ardern and Coromandel MP Scott Simpson (also for National).

      There was no contribution directly from NZ First. Ardern: "I rise on behalf of the New Zealand Labour Party and on behalf of our coalition partner, the New Zealand First Party".

      Transcripts and videos of all the speeches: https://yournz.org/2020/03/10/obituary-speeches-in-parliament-for-jeanette-fitzsimons/

      2. 5.1.2

        Actually Jeanette very much wanted to be in office, not for the "baubles" but to turn principles into practice. She was never allowed to do this because of the intransigence and short-sightedness of some of those who have paid such glowing tributes over the past few days. (Many deserve blame, but Dunne, Peters and – sadly – Clark in 2005 are top of the list. National and ACT are a given, of course).

        Of course political obituaries will always have more courtesy than sincerity, those are the accepted rules of the game. But praise for her "legacy" from those who tried their damnedest to prevent it has had me reaching for the sick bag.

          1. 5.1.2.1.1

            Nor me.

            You would have enjoyed the heart felt messages spoken on Sunday afternoon though, from her family and friends, and the beautiful little poem composed by two young Lilys.

            Mind you I would have liked to have heard Marama and James speak.

        2. 5.1.2.2

          Actually Jeanette very much wanted to be in office, not for the "baubles" but to turn principles into practice. She was never allowed to do this because of the intransigence and short-sightedness of some of those who have paid such glowing tributes over the past few days.

          Quoted for truth.

    1. 7.1

      the thing that is bothering me about Italy is the lack of reporting about what is happening in the hospitals. When I google it's all about travel plans. I'd really like to know if the what that doctor was reporting on social media from one of the hospitals is reflective of the overall situation, or not.

      I think it's a given that the US will be a shit show. Horrible and shocking. I'm more interested to know what the comparison graph between Italy and China is, or Italy and other South Korea. And then some fast fucking analysis of what the discrepancies are (if any).

      1. 7.1.1

        Google is your friend.

        Conclusion

        I'm fairly confident that, left unchecked, COVID-19 will increase at a doubling time of 2-3 days. When containment in breached in a location this is the rate that the growth occurs at over the first few week or so.

        When effective measures are put in place this decreases. An effective quarantine may be able to convert the growth into a sigmoid function with a limit on the failure rate.

        Some locations (Japan, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong) have managed to avoid exponential growth despite having a large number of cases.

        https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KJBQ7GiyvFTBnSEEC/growth-rate-of-covid-19-outbreaks

        1. 7.1.1.1

          so what is happening in Italy (high death rate, chaos in hospitals) is from a normal rapid increase in spread? And this might be preventable if action is taken early enough?

          Italy and South Korea look similar in the graph, is the difference between the two countries down to management?

          1. 7.1.1.1.1

            Reported today that because of Italy's aging population, the average age of fatalities is 80. Also, Korea has tested more than four times as many people than Italy and has nearly three times the number of hospital beds.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_countries_by_hospital_beds

            https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/

            edit: and the Korea isn’t fucking about

            South Korean health authorities warned Monday that any new coronavirus patients will face fines for concealing their travel history, residences and other important information.

            The measure comes as a 78-year-old patient at a Seoul hospital was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Sunday. But despite repeated inquiries, the virus patient misled the hospital staff and gave incorrect information about her residence and other details.

            The patient, a resident in the southeastern city of Daegu ― the epicenter of the virus outbreak here ― also denied her multiple trips to the city during hospitalization.

            The Baik Hospital in downtown Seoul has temporarily closed its emergency room since Sunday.

            “The government can impose fines under 10 million won if patients do not tell the truth about their travel history to health authorities,” Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said in a daily briefing. The amount is equivalent to $8,296.

            https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2020/03/119_285851.html

              1. 7.1.1.1.1.1.1

                I read somethwere that C19 got into one of South Korea's mass-rally churches, which accounts for about half the cases.

                Much more packed and longer than a Tool concert, too.

                  1. 7.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1

                    Crowds and superspreaders,are the main reason why we see large scale local outbreaks at present.

                    https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1237058761073852419

                    And why events such as the Boston st patricks day parade have been cancelled.

                    Flights from the US and Australia now need monitoring.

                    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-washington/washington-state-could-have-64000-coronavirus-cases-without-real-action-governor-warns-idUSKBN20X2R8?il=0

                    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-11/coronavirus-infection-prompts-closure-of-melbourne-school/12044594

                    NZ is around two weeks behind.

          2. 7.1.1.1.2

            S.Korea is tapering off + they are extensively testing so the high infection rate is accurate (my guess is that the US probably has many more people but they don't know it…or should that be refuse to know it?). This is slowing the spread as tested people know they need quarantine, whereas someone guessing tends to feel ok about bending rules.

            Italy has a major disaster on their hands as the rate of infection is about to explode due to the leaking of the quarantine before the official announcement. People scarpered out of the q zone and all over Italy and other countries before they could be locked down. Even now it looks as though people aren't taking "just a 'flu" seriously and are going out to visit friends etc although this might change with additional publicity around the dangers.

            Out of the two countries I'd rather be in South Korea any day. You couldn’t pay me to go to Italy.

            ***

            Random FYI people with high blood pressure made up nearly half the deaths in Wuhan. I'm on a diet as of now in an all out effort to get my BP down to normal range.

          3. 7.1.1.1.3

            There was this in Granny the other day, re-run form Daily Telegraph

            https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12315019

            It asks this question,

            Is it because Italy's decade of austerity has been harsher than anything George Osborne ever imposed? Are we seeing the delayed kick from cut after cut to the servizio nazionale sanitario, its budget pared to 6.6 per cent of GDP? If you think Britain's NHS has been starved of funds, spare a thought for Italy, Portugal and Greece.

            but doesn't really answer it.

            1. 7.1.1.1.3.1

              that was grim reading. Very interesting though. Austerity seems like it would be a factor, so that's age, testing, bed numbers and austerity.

              1. 7.1.1.1.3.1.1

                NZ has less beds per 1,000 than Italy. We're near the bottom of the list (Joe's link above). Wonder what that's about. Presumably ICU bed numbers is the more critical factor.

                1. 7.1.1.1.3.1.1.1

                  the -problem that you will have is not htat we don't have enough bed.We never did. And with the cuts by the last blue government its gotten worse.

                  the problem is that if we have an outbreak here, we won't have any capacity for anything else. So you have an accident? Serious Injury? Is there a surgery open? Will there be beds? Will there be enough medical staff?

                  The reason Italy is calling back retired doctors and nurses is to stave off that problem of lack of qualified staff. Especially in rural areas where you may not have a hospital at all in hte near vincinity but would have to travel to the next largest town. So anyone who has medical expertise will need to be drafted.

                  How good do you think we look here in NZ with our month long waiting lists and lack of beds, especially rural/semi rural.

                2. 7.1.1.1.3.1.1.2

                  We've also got the DHB system and a political consensus the 'efficiency' is achieved in health care by putting the organisations under financial stress, ie deliberate underfunding.

                  When all this is washed up it will be interesting to see how different models of healthcare provision compared in their societal outcomes. At present I'm trying to figure out why outcomes in South Korea are so much different to nearly all other countries.

                  And yeah, that Telegraph piece was grim reading, we're in for a rough ride here, and not directly from the infection. Really surprised to see it published in Granny.

      2. 7.1.2

        what that doctor was reporting on social media from one of the hospitals

        A bloody scary read but I share your question.

        1. 7.1.2.1

          Certainly is a marker point for me for moving from concerned but still relatively relaxed to being actively worried now. But yeah, much of my stress is related to just not knowing enough and having read something scary without having good corresponding analysis.

  8. 8

    Crowdsourcing computer power to find Covid-19 treatments: folding at home.

    If you're not using much computer power, especially graphics, this app uses your spare power (like bitcoin miners do) for some weird biochemical math.

  9. 9

    The problem in Italy maybe simple corruption. Big Chinese factories bringing workers back early from Chinese New Year and sliding them in without border health checks to keep the places running. There will be a lot more heard about this in the coming days.

    FYI, the Chinese have huge factories in Italy assembling Chinese shitty products so they can be labeled Made in EU/Italy. Reeks of corruption. Fabulous place Italy but count your fingers. My info from a long term Kiwi relative there.

    1. 9.1

      I read about those factories last week Adrian. (Might have been from you?) And yet commentators never mention that as a reason. I expect hospital records would give a good hint.

  12. 12

    Johnson, Bolsonaro and tRump are all cut from the same idiot cloth

    Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday minimized the threat of the new coronavirus — which has killed nearly 4,000 people in more than 60 countries and tanked global financial markets — saying its destructive power has been "overstated."

    The fall of world markets "basically has to do with the price of oil, which sank 30 percent, and with the coronavirus issue too," said the ultra-right wing president to a crowd of about 200 Brazilian supporters in Miami, where he is visiting in an effort to drum up foreign investment.

    "In my opinion, that virus's destructive power is overstated. Maybe it is even potentially being exaggerated for political reasons," Bolsonaro said.

    https://www.france24.com/en/20200310-bolsonaro-says-virus-threat-is-overstated

    2. 13.2

      This statistic shows the number of civilians killed in Syria from February 2019 to February 2020. In February 2020, an estimated 276 civilians were killed in Syria as a result of the civil war.

      That's the bit not hidden by the paywall.

      How many were killed by coronavirus in February?

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