Corona Virus - Bizzare Outcomes

[red750]

People running around saying "I've been tested, I'm OK." That was then - they might not be now. Wasting tests unnecessarily.

[willedoo]

It's been interesting shopping in the supermarkets. Normally the shelves are full, but as they are gradually depleted you get to see what people mainly buy.

 

Frozen peas are gone, but some beans left. In the long life milk alternative section, soy milk is the hardest hit. Plenty of almond milk left, but that would kill a brown dog, so no surprises there. The one that surprised me was all the sultanas running out. People must be intending to make a few cakes and biscuits. Saw one bloke desperately grabbing bags of lollies.

 

Personally, it hasn't affected me much as the diet and lifestyle means very little mainstream supermarket requirements. Am on an enforced health sabbatical from alcohol, don't smoke or eat anything sweet, so that's an advantage regarding supplies. Plus living in the country, there's normally a certain amount of stored food in the house already. One thing about country living, it's a life style by necessity less dependent on corporations and supply chains. The freezer is full, the veggie garden is producing, have my own water and septic. The only weak link in the chain is grid connection. The power going off is the only thing that would leave me up sh*t creek.

[Marty_d]

Here's a funny thing - I was in the local gun shop today getting some ammo for the .22 magnum (if meat becomes scarce we have thousands of wallabies and rabbits around).

It's normally deserted except for the occasional redneck in camo trousers leaning against a wall. Today there were 4 other punters at the counter - 3 of us buying ammo and the other two filling out some kind of application form, guessing it's either licence application or category upgrade.

 

Supermarket wasn't as bad as I expected. Yes a lot of bare shelves but I managed to get the basics. Everyone was polite, no shoving or grabbing.

[spacesailor]

DID you get those dunny rolls ?.

Son-in-law shot (got ) three boars two weeks ago, every one but me got a share, NOT happy Jan !

spacesailor

[Marty_d]

DID you get those dunny rolls ?.

Son-in-law shot (got ) three boars two weeks ago, every one but me got a share, NOT happy Jan !

spacesailor

Nah - we've got 2.5 boxes of "who gives a crap" left, so entirely unaffected by the bog roll shortage. Mmmm, wild boar sounds a lot better than wallaby!

[kgwilson]

Here's a funny thing - I was in the local gun shop today getting some ammo for the .22 magnum (if meat becomes scarce we have thousands of wallabies and rabbits around).

It's normally deserted except for the occasional redneck in camo trousers leaning against a wall. Today there were 4 other punters at the counter - 3 of us buying ammo and the other two filling out some kind of application form, guessing it's either licence application or category upgrade.

 

Supermarket wasn't as bad as I expected. Yes a lot of bare shelves but I managed to get the basics. Everyone was polite, no shoving or grabbing.

 

 

What about wild redneck? There's plenty available.

[spacesailor]

Wild boar.

Second time Iv,e missed out.

I think it may be on purpose as its in big demand ,

Good money to the right people,

spacsailor

[Marty_d]

Talking of poor old Italy... one of the best meals of my life was a wild boar fettucini in Firenze (Florence). Magnificent.

[old man emu]

My son had a "Karen" incident yesterday afternoon. It was my birthday and he was detailed to get a cake. There was one lonely mud cake on the supermarket shelf, and as he reached down to pick it up, a woman behind him with a trolley yelled, "Don't touch it. It's mine!"

He said, "What!?"

She said, "I want that cake for my kids."

He replied, "And I want it for my Dad's birthday."

"I saw it first!," she said.

My son had had a shite of a day at work and was not his usual merry self, so he snapped, "Eat a dick, Karen!" and walked away with the cake.

There were some blokes in Hi-Viz looking on. With his comment, they broke up, laughing.

 

I should add, that with the "one per customer" rule for a lot of products, "Karen's" trolley was full on multiples of the same items.

[willedoo]

if meat becomes scarce we have thousands of wallabies and rabbits around

Tasmania won't starve. On a visit there I stayed at the Upper Esk valley and getting up in the morning, I could not believe the amount of wallaby droppings on the ground. Over several acres, you literally could not put a foot anywhere on the ground without stepping on some. There must have been hundreds of them there during the night.

[spacesailor]

SO THATS WERE THE BOG-ROLLS WENT. LoL

spacesailor

[willedoo]

Here's a funny thing - I was in the local gun shop today getting some ammo for the .22 magnum (if meat becomes scarce we have thousands of wallabies and rabbits around).

 

Marty, I think you've been holding out on us. Are you sure you're not a closet doomsday prepper?

[willedoo]

The NRL teams are going to play with pre-recorded crowd noise to keep them motivated. It must be deflating playing to empty stadiums. Still, it didn't stop us playing footy at school with hardly any spectators.

[spacesailor]

Doesn't worry the DEAF. LoL

spacesailor

[willedoo]

Watching the Bulldogs vs Cowboys, no recorded crowd noise yet. But it's bizarre. About 6 people clapping when thay came back out after half time.

There's all this noise coming off the field that you can't normally hear. You can hear the players every word and all the contact noise, quite loud.

[Marty_d]

Marty, I think you've been holding out on us. Are you sure you're not a closet doomsday prepper?

I said .22 magnum, not .308!

 

The NRL teams are going to play with pre-recorded crowd noise to keep them motivated. It must be deflating playing to empty stadiums. Still, it didn't stop us playing footy at school with hardly any spectators.

Wouldn't that be kind of freaky? Crowd noise coming from an empty stadium. Call ghostbusters!

[old man emu]

Now the Australian War Memorial has cancelled the open-air Dawn Service and Morning memorial service. They will be held inside the Memorial and only for invited participants.

 

If the authorities keep up this cancellation bull, people will start revolting. Somewhere here I mentioned the Roman 'bread and circuses' idea that kept the masses pre-occupied.

[spacesailor]

Away,s get an invite to one of the new,

CATCH,IT parties. LoL

Get the WuFlu over and done with.

spacesailor

[Marty_d]

Now the Australian War Memorial has cancelled the open-air Dawn Service and Morning memorial service. They will be held inside the Memorial and only for invited participants.

 

If the authorities keep up this cancellation bull, people will start revolting. Somewhere here I mentioned the Roman 'bread and circuses' idea that kept the masses pre-occupied.

The modern circuses are Netflix, Amazon, Foxtel and Stan.

As long as the NBN doesn't fall over the plebs shouldn't revolt.

[willedoo]

It will be interesting to see how low fuel prices go, and for how long. Oil dropped to $20/barrel but has bounced back today to 25-30. Two things have driven it down, the slow demand due to the coronavirus impacting the economy, and Russia and OPEC failing to reach agreement on production cuts.

 

The coronavirus impact on oil demand might stick around for a long time yet. On the other side of the coin, Russia and Saudi Arabia are not likely to go back to negotiating anytime in the near future. The U.S. is contemplating using diplomatic pressure against the Saudis and sanctions against Russia to force them to cut production and lead to a price rise. The U.S. shale oil industry needs a $50 price to stay afloat. The bigger companies can subsidize their shale sector, but the smaller shale only companies will all go bust at the low prices.

 

The Saudis only wanted to cut production if the Russians did. Reason being, the Saudis are broke, running 50 billion dollar deficits and have whittled down their reserves, so they need to produce more to pay the bills. Russia on the other hand has enough cash reserves to run deficits for several years. If only OPEC cuts production, the U.S. and Russia step in to fill the demand. The U.S. can do that if the price remains viable. It was Russia who walked away from the production cut deal with OPEC, as their reasoning was that the U.S. would step in and take the share of the market that they would lose with a production cut. What the Russians have done is to ensure world overproduction and low prices. This will take a year or two to destroy the U.S. shale oil industry, which will stay busted due to lack of investment. Nobody will risk investing in a shale industry that is vulnerable because of high production cost.

 

Give it two years till the U.S. shale oil industry dries up, Russia and Saudi Arabia will probably then negotiate a deal to cut production and prices will be back to normal minus the U.S. shale. So combined with a global virus recession, the fuel prices should be lower for the next year or two compared to the last couple of years.

[Mike Gearon]

Is this happening in Australia?

 

Factory visit today in Taichung and we had a procedure. It’s ramped up this week with imported corona virus. Local Taiwan transmission was stopped/ bugger all.

 

1. Had to get masks from car.

2. Confirm we hadn’t arrived from overseas in last 2 weeks.

3. Get temp checked.

4. Use hand sanitiser.

[red750]

To facilitate social distancing at the checkouts -

 

 

To meet the government's new 4 metre spacing, those X's may need to be relocated.

[Marty_d]

One person per 4 square metres I think it is.

 

Jaysus in your average lift you'd be lucky to have half a square metre...

[willedoo]

The four square meter rule must be for calculating number of people allowed into a venue within a set floor space. On a personal level, if you and the next person are standing in the middle of your respective four square meters, that means you are two meters apart. You'd think the government would just advise people to extent the previous 1.5 meter rule to 2 meters. It's mathematically a bit easier to understand for a lot of people.

[willedoo]

I'm trying to figure out all the equipment I'll need to go to the supermarket. Tape measure, calculator, face mask, hand sanitizer, shopping bag, wallet.......