Corona Virus - Bizzare Outcomes

[Jerry_Atrick]

That has been happening here, too.. We went to the garden centre to get a plant and saw people who clearly had no idea buying up; we overhesrd one couple syaing they eould plant them as soon as they got home... Not a good result from the plant (they are in containers that they are designed to stay in - out of the elements for a bit and then you plant the containers with the plants in about mid-April. But a boon for the garden centre and there will still be demand for food come June/July.

 

My faith in humanity took a dent yesterday. I had a minor altercation with another shopper; I was in the local mini-supermarket looking at some baking essentials next to a set of empty shelves where a normally abundant supply of different breads are and this young fella walks up, rolls his eyes and mutters something under his breath. Then he notes there is a packet of flour at the bottom shelf and proceeds to grab it. He notices there are more and takes all 6. Astonished, I asked him if he normally buys that much flour and rather annoyed he responded it's because there's no bread. So I told him that I bake my own bread and if I bought that much I wouldn't need to come back for about 3 - 4 weeks and maybe he should leave some for the next person.. While spouting is expletive-ridden response, I noticed it was self-raising flour. Unable to contain my laughter, I responded, "No worries, mate; enjoy your fluffy bread - by the way - do you have yeast?" There was none to be had... and he had no idea why he needed it (unleavened bread would even be more fun with self-raising flour).

 

The checkout operator limited him to two packets, but I felt like saying, "go on, love... He'll be back tomorrow to buy some bread"...

[willedoo]

Dickhead identification is a lot easier in times like these.

[Yenn]

I make bread without yeast, they call it sourgough.

Most of those plants are either going to die or they will all come together and there will be a glut, in which case the owners will be too selfish to share.

[Jerry_Atrick]

WHat flour do you use? It won't be self-raising flour.. and I guess he can make the starter himselfa anf wait 5 days - either way, He will be back the next day to buy bread..

[willedoo]

Living in the flightpath of a major regional airport, it's hard to get used to how quiet it is. Normally during the day there's lots of choppers & GA aircraft flying overhead as well as the airliners. In the last week, I've heard one jet and a couple of regional turboprops and that's it.

[kgwilson]

Crikey if I manage to go for a fly tomorrow I might be headline news in the local rag.

[Mike Gearon]

This really takes the corona virus stupidity prize. Michael Segal. Doctor

 

Expose people with an expected small death toll. It’s the sort of thing nazi Germany did. If you wanted to do something radical you’d issue the same population he wants to sicken with the early vaccines. A potential double win or even triple really.

 

1. You’d not have them get sick.

2. They’d be available as proposed.

3. Most importantly... you’d get them as a large early trial group vaccinated and speed the whole trial process.

 

Can’t believe how irritable this stupidity makes me and it gets published in the Wall Street Journal!

 

[willedoo]

It will be interesting to see if the Queensland Electoral Commission fines people for not voting in Saturday's local government elections. On the one hand, we've got the PM telling us not to go out unless it's urgent, and the Queensland Premier telling us all to go to a polling station and vote on Saturday.

[pmccarthy]

Break and enter will be down, because every house is occupied. But aggravated burglary will be up proportionately, because the determined burglars will have to deal with the residents.

[spacesailor]

AND STEAL their

TOILET PAPER.

spacesailor

[kgwilson]

The place not to be is Sydney Airport today. People arriving and all huddled together in queues. No social distancing & Borderforce said it's not our problem it's Biosecurity. Buck passing is alive and well

[Marty_d]

AND STEAL their

TOILET PAPER.

spacesailor

 

I was in Coles this afternoon and saw stacks of toilet paper, with no one going near it.

[kgwilson]

I was at a Shell (Coles) petrol station yesterday & they had toilet paper stacked all through the shop. People were surprised when the came to pay & most grabbed a pack of 30 probably for no other reason that it was there.

[kgwilson]

The following article by Verity Johnson published early this morning is a somewhat amusing but "On the money" view of the performance of National leadership.

 

In the past few weeks, watching world leaders react to Covid-19 has been like watching the final stages of a reality TV show where all the contestants start going bananas.

 

If this was The Bachelorette, Trump would be the thin-skinned used-car salesman dude who's forever lying about what a great shag he'd be. Boris Johnson the cocky, overbred private schoolboy who doesn't understand why his patrician wit hasn't automatically won already. And Scott Morrison is the dude they put in there so everyone can regularly shout at the TV, "Why the f... is this guy here?"

 

But in the race for the hearts and minds of the nation in crisis, there's been one clear winner. And the calm, compassionate, charismatic Jacinda has stood out as not only the one you want to take home to your family, but also run your household, business, and country.

 

While BoJo and ScoMo have thrashed around in indecision, and Trump has put his head even further up his backside than was previously thought anatomically possible, Aunt Cindy has shone. She's unequivocally playing the main role in this movie (the one that's always played by a white, middle-aged, maverick cop named Jack). Namely the person who looks in the camera and says, "It's OK everyone, I have a plan. Follow me and you'll survive." And it feels as though the ability to deliver that monologue, with or without accompanying cinematic explosions, is the most important thing we need right now in our leaders.

In terms of managing the actual health crisis, the role of a national leader is a bit different to normal. Typically, you'd expect the PM to make decisions on policies based on public service advice, but primarily from party policy and own opinion. Not now.

 

Right now requires leaders to listen to what their scientists and health advisers say. And just that. Uncharacteristically for politicians, they need to remove their own opinions and simply get everyone doing exactly what the doctors order.

This is where Ardern has excelled. In comparison to leaders like Trump, she's been sitting down, shutting up and listening to what the scientists say.

Trump has consistently undermined America's preparedness for Covid-19, disbanding the US's China-based pandemic research team, systemically eroding funding for the Centers for Disease Control, rejecting WHO virus tests, and making misleading, blatantly unscientific statements that the virus will "vanish", or that he'd like to see churches packed for Easter.

 

His style, a dangerous yet highly listenable blend of scientific distrust and sweeping it's-all-good-man, is completely at odds with the need to prioritise the advice of the experts.

 

But Ardern is sensible enough to realise that pandemic control is not her speciality, and to react swiftly to her medical advisers instead. Which is exactly what we saw when she heard the criticism of New Zealand's early complacency and swiftly raised the alert level to a general lockdown – a firmness unseen in Australia.

 

And the next vitally important step, after realising that you don't know all the answers, is to clearly communicate the advice of those who do.

 

Boris Johnson is smart, but his preference for loveable bumbling chic hasn't prepared him for delivering important messages in a way people listen to. As we can see when he tried to be stern in asking people to practise social distancing, and everyone ignored him and went to the pub.

 

Trump likewise can't stay on a consistent message, bouncing between it being a hoax, to it being "contained" in America, to it being a national crisis. Scott Morrison is no better, having tried to say both that mass events should be cancelled (but he was going to the footy) and that bars and cafes were out (but not hairdressers for appointments under 30 minutes, with one person per four square metres).

In contrast, Ardern has managed to tell the message clearly and calmly via press conference, text message and even road signs. Be kind. Stay home. That's it.

 

It's a mark of highly skilled communication to be able to find clarity in overwhelming and complicated situations. And ultimately it's the ability to do that which maintains public calm, because everyone's freaking out and can't process anything except the clearest of messages.

 

But perhaps what's made her most invaluable is how she conveys equal parts clarity and compassion. She openly acknowledges that people are afraid and that this is normal (instead of doing a Trump and attacking reporters who state this). And by embracing the difficulty we're all feeling, she connects with the public and gets our support. And we're listening. We're not partying on Bondi beach, we're (mostly) hunkering down at home.

 

Once again she's proved that communication with kindness – historically dismissed as too feminine a leadership style – creates the powerful, reassuring leadership people trust.

 

And our survival right now depends on trust in the Government. And we need them to maintain the good practice they've started – even more so if this gets worse.

 

While it still looks very uncertain, Ardern's leadership has given us cause for hope that we can get through.

[Yenn]

We will get through. but we don't know how many will get through. So far most governments have been found lacking and the higher up the track of how good they think they are, the poorer their showing.

As above NZ seems to be doing well, no doubt because they are a no nonsense type of people. Australia used to be that way, but has slipped badly in the last few years. The USA will in my estimation end up as the poorest performing country with this virus.

Some of the decisions made seem to be ridiculous. In the UK police are targeting people who go put and walk in the country. They want them tucked up in their little houses, going mad, instead of walking in the open air, miles from anyone else.

I hear that we are not supposed to go to National Parks. I went to one last weekend and saw nobody except those I went with and social distancing was easy to maintain.

The role of the media is to send us all mad with fear and they seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.

[red750]

[willedoo]

New Zealand PM Ardern's leadership style is always reassuring. She comes across as calm, capable, measured and compassionate. On the other hand, Scotty FM has problems with his basic personality. Once his speech goes to the bullying tone, people just switch off and mutter 'dickhead' under their breath. BoJo has problems as well. And as for Trump, once he opens his mouth, people are too busy laughing to hear what he's saying. Not that it would be coherent anyway.

[red750]

Saw a video of Trump talking about the origins of coronavirus. He said, "It has it's oranges......"

[nomadpete]

Are you suggesting that you think Trump might not pass the ACAT test?

[Marty_d]

The following article by Verity Johnson published early this morning is a somewhat amusing but "On the money" view of the performance of National leadership.

 

In the past few weeks, watching world leaders react to Covid-19 has been like watching the final stages of a reality TV show where all the contestants start going bananas.

 

If this was The Bachelorette, Trump would be the thin-skinned used-car salesman dude who's forever lying about what a great shag he'd be. Boris Johnson the cocky, overbred private schoolboy who doesn't understand why his patrician wit hasn't automatically won already. And Scott Morrison is the dude they put in there so everyone can regularly shout at the TV, "Why the f... is this guy here?"

 

But in the race for the hearts and minds of the nation in crisis, there's been one clear winner. And the calm, compassionate, charismatic Jacinda has stood out as not only the one you want to take home to your family, but also run your household, business, and country.

 

While BoJo and ScoMo have thrashed around in indecision, and Trump has put his head even further up his backside than was previously thought anatomically possible, Aunt Cindy has shone. She's unequivocally playing the main role in this movie (the one that's always played by a white, middle-aged, maverick cop named Jack). Namely the person who looks in the camera and says, "It's OK everyone, I have a plan. Follow me and you'll survive." And it feels as though the ability to deliver that monologue, with or without accompanying cinematic explosions, is the most important thing we need right now in our leaders.

In terms of managing the actual health crisis, the role of a national leader is a bit different to normal. Typically, you'd expect the PM to make decisions on policies based on public service advice, but primarily from party policy and own opinion. Not now.

 

Right now requires leaders to listen to what their scientists and health advisers say. And just that. Uncharacteristically for politicians, they need to remove their own opinions and simply get everyone doing exactly what the doctors order.

This is where Ardern has excelled. In comparison to leaders like Trump, she's been sitting down, shutting up and listening to what the scientists say.

Trump has consistently undermined America's preparedness for Covid-19, disbanding the US's China-based pandemic research team, systemically eroding funding for the Centers for Disease Control, rejecting WHO virus tests, and making misleading, blatantly unscientific statements that the virus will "vanish", or that he'd like to see churches packed for Easter.

 

His style, a dangerous yet highly listenable blend of scientific distrust and sweeping it's-all-good-man, is completely at odds with the need to prioritise the advice of the experts.

 

But Ardern is sensible enough to realise that pandemic control is not her speciality, and to react swiftly to her medical advisers instead. Which is exactly what we saw when she heard the criticism of New Zealand's early complacency and swiftly raised the alert level to a general lockdown – a firmness unseen in Australia.

 

And the next vitally important step, after realising that you don't know all the answers, is to clearly communicate the advice of those who do.

 

Boris Johnson is smart, but his preference for loveable bumbling chic hasn't prepared him for delivering important messages in a way people listen to. As we can see when he tried to be stern in asking people to practise social distancing, and everyone ignored him and went to the pub.

 

Trump likewise can't stay on a consistent message, bouncing between it being a hoax, to it being "contained" in America, to it being a national crisis. Scott Morrison is no better, having tried to say both that mass events should be cancelled (but he was going to the footy) and that bars and cafes were out (but not hairdressers for appointments under 30 minutes, with one person per four square metres).

In contrast, Ardern has managed to tell the message clearly and calmly via press conference, text message and even road signs. Be kind. Stay home. That's it.

 

It's a mark of highly skilled communication to be able to find clarity in overwhelming and complicated situations. And ultimately it's the ability to do that which maintains public calm, because everyone's freaking out and can't process anything except the clearest of messages.

 

But perhaps what's made her most invaluable is how she conveys equal parts clarity and compassion. She openly acknowledges that people are afraid and that this is normal (instead of doing a Trump and attacking reporters who state this). And by embracing the difficulty we're all feeling, she connects with the public and gets our support. And we're listening. We're not partying on Bondi beach, we're (mostly) hunkering down at home.

 

Once again she's proved that communication with kindness – historically dismissed as too feminine a leadership style – creates the powerful, reassuring leadership people trust.

 

And our survival right now depends on trust in the Government. And we need them to maintain the good practice they've started – even more so if this gets worse.

 

While it still looks very uncertain, Ardern's leadership has given us cause for hope that we can get through.

 

Damn you Kiwis for having the only great leader in the English-speaking world. Why can't she be one of the 650,000 New Zealanders living here?

[octave]

Damn you Kiwis for having the only great leader in the English-speaking world. Why can't she be one of the 650,000 New Zealanders living here?

 

Very true, down to earth clear and concise and does not crowbar a political point into every sentence. My son moved to NZ 6 years ago and loves it there, enough to become a NZ citizen. We chat every day so I am quite aware of how things there are being handled. Here are a couple of examples of clear concise and down to earth communication.

 

 

[red750]

[old man emu]

A bizarre outcome.

I live on one of those secondary roads in suburbs that feed traffic down to the main road between suburbs. About 200 metres in one direction is a primary school. 500 metres in the other area primary school and a high school. Between 7:30 and 9:00 in the morning and 2:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon of school days the traffic outside my house is very heavy. And then there is the sound of those unfortunate kids who have to actually walk to school, passing on the footpath. For the past week or so, the road has been deserted at these times. The silence is eerie. Even during the day, the only loud sound comes from the buses passing by every half hour.

 

As a result, I've been sleeping in until after 8:30. Half the day is gone by the time I get off this forum!

[willedoo]

The silence is eerie.

 

I know what you mean, ome. Eerie is the word for it. Being in a flight path, there's normally several aircraft pass overhead every day. In ten days now, only one jet, one helicopter and two turboprops. Also out on the verandah at night over the weekend, looking down over the coast, it's all quiet on the Western Front. Friday and Saturday nights, there's usually some fireworks at an event somewhere. Traffic noise is down as well.

[kgwilson]

The USA will in my estimation end up as the poorest performing country with this virus.

100% accurate and it only took a day for that to happen. The USA now has 45,000 more cases than Italy at No 2