I got to see Cas win on telly...
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The very minor pluses of Covid19
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- Jul 2016
- 9278
- Dublin
- Bohemian FC Manchester United Mansfield town Torino Berwick rangers
- Chocolate Digestives
As I said on another thread, my department was split up, I'm now a 5 minute bike ride away instead of 20.I don't have to take telephone enquiries (always a bonus) and I'm getting 20 euro a day travel and subsistence allowance.
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- Mar 2008
- 18786
- Revelling In The Hole
- England, Chelsea and Tooting and Mitcham. And Surrey CCC. And Wimbledon Dons Speedway (RIP)
- Nairn's Cheese Oatcake
I shall be working my way through the films I've recorded on my Sky box but not yet watched. I may also do a bit more in the garden, if only to avoid having to deal with the DIY backlog.
I strongly suspect that a fairly major plus will be a greater sense of community spirit and support, establishing links that will be sustained into the future. And a refined disaster planning infrastructure.
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- Mar 2008
- 18786
- Revelling In The Hole
- England, Chelsea and Tooting and Mitcham. And Surrey CCC. And Wimbledon Dons Speedway (RIP)
- Nairn's Cheese Oatcake
Originally posted by That Night In Barcelona View Post
Do you have a link to any information for this? I'm not sure where to look on Google but I did see the pictures of Wuhan a month ago comparing air pollution last year and this year.
There were some dramatic pictures of the drop off in pollution levels in Northern Italy:
https://www.space.com/italy-coronavi...te-images.html
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Originally posted by Eggchaser View PostAir pollution and CO2 emissions are way down.
There was a documentary on BBC4 this week (a re-run) called Inside the Medieval Mind, or something like that. It posited the theory (a mainstream one in historical circles, I believe) that The Black Death was a key event in the end of serfdom. The illness was a significant driver and catalyst for social change and a more equitable distribution of power and wealth (relatively speaking only, of course!). Are the conversations I've had and also overheard the beginnings of a 21st century equivalent? Well, fingers crossed.
But actually massively reduced air travel, potentially in the long term as well as short, and a recognition and rejection of the extreme short termism and self-interest of some decisions employers have been allowed to make would not be minor benefits. If either comes to pass...
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Originally posted by Janik View PostAnd far more people from a more diverse range are asking questions about the fundamental structuring of society, their minds focused by their fears of catching something from a courier driver or zero-hours contract shop assistant who they appear to have suddenly clocked are in a terrible position regarding sick leave.
There was a documentary on BBC4 this week (a re-run) called Inside the Medieval Mind, or something like that. It posited the theory (a mainstream one in historical circles, I believe) that The Black Death was a key event in the end of serfdom. The illness was a significant driver and catalyst for social change and a more equitable distribution of power and wealth (relatively speaking only, of course!). Are the conversations I've had and also overheard the beginnings of a 21st century equivalent? Well, fingers crossed.
But actually massively reduced air travel, potentially in the long term as well as short, and a recognition and rejection of the extreme short termism and self-interest of some decisions employers have been allowed to make would not be minor benefits. If either comes to pass...
There's maybe a parallel with how peoplea are viewing billionaires now - Whole Foods are asking their staff to financially help out fellow workers who get sick, which - at least in the comment sections of the article I read - is leading a lot of people to declare what an utter fucking cunt Jeff Bezos is.
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The Black Death I think was of course instrumental in weakening the feudal system. However, it was not necessarily as simple as people started questioning it. With villages in particular suffering huge losses, there just weren't enough labourers to tend the crops for the rich. Also, the whole ownership of estates became much more complex, as owners started dying, and then their shares getting distributed to long-lost relatives or sometimes just left to go fallow.
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Oh, and the western world has been shaken out it is complacency about deadly infectiousness diseases, which the advances in medical science had basically allowed people to ignore. Small pox, polio, TB, measles etc. were mass killers 50-100 years ago. But the elimination or near elimination of those has allowed people to forget or disregard that deadly bugs can circulate and that they are not automatically immune. If this incident basically gets the anti-vax movement recast as obvious and complete scumbags who need to be chased from town with burning pitchforks and then their houses razzed to the ground to ensure they never come back, well then that is a serious positive for society.
Even the people trying to play it down by saying 8,000 people in the UK died last year from complications related to 'flu must surely, in the back of their minds, be thinking "8,000 is quite a lot, actually. It could take my Mum. Maybe I should be more careful about potentially passing bugs on in future."
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