Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!
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@Luhmann said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@Gurth said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
Since the plan was floated the other week to make English a fourth official language
Funny, I haven't heard a whisper about that.
I heard whatshername … Gwendolyn Rutten say it on the VRT TV news a few weeks ago.
Very, very unlikely.
Agreed, though at the same time: look at how many B•••••n institutions that used to have two equivalent names (in Dutch and French) have taken an English name (plus possibly some semi-nonsense words) instead … BIVV/IBSR -> Vias Institute is one I can think of off the top of my head, but I’ve seen plenty of others come by in recent years.
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@admiral_p @Benjamin-Hall Yes, the French government has announced a lot of measures to try and ease the financial cost to, well, everyone.
The most obvious one (at least, the one most people talk about) is sick leave for parents: one parent can, without any justification, ask to be put on sick leave (so with sick pay from the social security, which isn't your full pay but still enough to live). I think it was initially announced for 2 weeks, but I suspect this is just because the system needs to have some sort of expiration date in sick leave, and they'll just extend it as needed. Of course this only works well for employees, self-employed people are covered but in a much more patchy way: one cousin is in this case (and so is his wife) and for them basic sick pay isn't covering all the usual charges that a business has (rent etc.). For a "normal" illness they have a complementary health insurance policy, but it apparently doesn't cover this (which, without too much garaging, is where you see the difference between private/public insurance: the public one doesn't care so much about the cost, they'll do whatever the government decides and we'll all pick up the bill later, whereas the private one can just look at the contract and say "lol nope"). But still, for most people this will at least allow them to stay at home and not be forced to work.
The government has also announced that all taxes that businesses have to pay every month (employer's contribution to social security, sales tax...) will be delayed, so that should limit cash-flow problems for a lot of them. Of course that doesn't work for paying e.g. rent or utilities (although that last one is usually huge companies, some of them state-owned (such as electricity) so I suspect they should be able to easily delay paiements), but it'll give them some leeway.
The rules for "partial technical unemployment", as it's called (where a business says "we have lost all of our clients so we have to close"), have also been simplified, which means companies will be able to temporarily lay off workers (who will then get unemployment benefits), which again will reduce their spending. I imagine that most restaurants will have to do that, since they're closed.
Overall, the government (including the finance minister, who traditionally plays the "bad cop" who opposes every spending) has repeatedly said they're ready to splurge literally billions to alleviate the crisis. So far they seem to do so, but of course for one thing there'll always be edge cases that are not covered, and for another there is only so much that the government can spend to replace actual economic activity, so it'll work for a couple of weeks, longer... I don't know.
The other question is whether people will willingly accept the restrictions. In a democratic society, this is the most important part, in fact. So far it's mixed: the latest restrictions announced on Saturday evening where clearly "because people aren't taking previous restrictions (Thursday evening!) seriously", and after announcing that bars etc. would close at midnight, there's been a lot of people going out "one last time" etc. (like for NL/B*****m up-thread). And in my close circle, it's mixed as well: my mother is staying put, but a cousin sent pictures of their usual Sunday lunch with grand-parents etc., even though the cousin himself works in an hospital (and was actually in contact with sick people the day before!).
So how long will people accept it... no idea, I guess we'll see...
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@Gurth
Still doesn't give me much hits ... a vague artikel from 2008 about making English a 3th administrative language in Brussels capital.
Some more talk about pushing English as a language in Brussel, mainly in education.
A far cry from making it a 4th official language.
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@Polygeekery said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@MrL said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
PistolsKnives at dawn.I don't have anything against IPAs in general. Some of my favorite beers are IPAs. But Lagunitas IPA is atrocious.
Ah, never had this particular one.
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Public health officials say it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine.
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@MrL on the other hand, I do generally believe that IPAs are, for the most part, shite. Special FX beers. We have a fabulous tradition when it comes to beers (Pilsners, Weizenbiere, Trappist beers, Saison, Blanche, etc. etc.), why, oh why should we waste our time on a style of beer that some say is really a myth and if not, only exists because it's a long way from the UK to India?
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@admiral_p said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
a style of beer that some say is really a myth
If it's a myth, it's a myth with fairly deep roots. I've been having IPAs occasionally for decades. They're generally nice (assuming you don't go for one of the bitterness-is-everything crazy composition ones) when you want a fairly light beer but not one as light as a lager.
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@HardwareGeek said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
And close your tags!
Maybe you should become @topspin's adoptive parent and instruct him in proper tag behavior
Filed under: Corporal punishment probably belongs in THAT thread
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@izzion said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@HardwareGeek said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
And close your tags!
Maybe you should become @topspin's adoptive parent and instruct him in proper tag behavior
Filed under: Corporal punishment probably belongs in THAT thread
I usually do that to piss of @pie_flavor, but he's not around much these days.
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Some galaxy brain from the auto section of one of the largest news website in the Czech Republic just remembered that old car first aid kits had face masks in them, and wrote an article telling people they can use them in an emergency.
Of course, the "face masks" are fucking CPR masks, it's a sheet of plastic with a one way valve in the middle. It doesn't do shit for your protection, it doesn't prevent you from breathing on anyone else, and there's no way to wear it because it's a square sheet of plastic with no straps, it's not meant to be worn at all.
I'm in absolute awe at the stupidity being displayed. It's not even just that the author kinda sorta remembered something about a mask and wrote the article without checking anything, there's a picture of the mask in the article so he has to know what it looks like. The comments are tearing the author apart so hard you'd think the zombie apocalypse already started.
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@Polygeekery said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
I don't have anything against IPAs in general. Some of my favorite beers are IPAs.
Everything is racist thread is
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Now I'm being told you can buy gasoline at some gas stations in Prague for as low as 24.90 CZK per liter. Since the Crown just massively tanked against both the Euro and USD, at current exchange it's 1.02 USD/l or 0.92 EUR/l. That's absolutely ridiculous, prices haven't been this low since... hell, I've been driving for 10 years now and the lowest I remember is about 28 CZK/l. In February the average price was 32.02 CZK/l, although that's for both gas and diesel combined, so gas would be a bit higher than that.
I'm not sure what exactly this means, but I don't think it's anything good.
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@blek said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
I'm not sure what exactly this means, but I don't think it's anything good.
It's Saudi Arabia and Russia having a price war combined with tanking (hah!) demand. A family member from Southern California posted this picture from yesterday afternoon:
You'd normally expect this section of highway to be bumper to bumper, possibly stop and go at that time.
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@boomzilla said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@blek said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
I'm not sure what exactly this means, but I don't think it's anything good.
It's Saudi Arabia and Russia having a price war combined with tanking (hah!) demand. A family member from Southern California posted this picture from yesterday afternoon:
You'd normally expect this section of highway to be bumper to bumper, possibly stop and go at that time.
Apparently this morning there was a peak of 17km of traffic not going the speed limit. Which is unheard of.
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@Luhmann said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
Still doesn't give me much hits ... a vague artikel from 2008 about making English a 3th administrative language in Brussels capital.
Some more talk about pushing English as a language in Brussel, mainly in education.
A far cry from making it a 4th official language.This was last month or so, and not an official proposal but some kind of idea floated by Open VLD.
Ah, here we go:
Of gaat het voor Rutten toch vooral om het internationaal uitstralen van België, met Engels als "vierde officiële landstaal", een "Europees leger" en drietalige burgers. "Ons land wordt het eerste echte Europese district", stelt Rutten ook voor, al is het onduidelijk wat dat precies inhoudt.
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Highlighting the important hieroglyphics doesn't make them any more legible.
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@Dragoon That post is really mainly for @Luhmann’s benefit. But since you asked nicely, it translates as:
Or does Rutten mainly go for the international allure of B•••••m, with English as “fourth official language”, a “European army” and trilingual citizens. “Our country will be the first real European district”, Rutten suggests as well, though it is unclear what that entails exactly.
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There was an address from the minister-president of the Netherlands, which ended 10 minutes ago. He mentioned the measures being taken are unheard of for a nation at peace. He mentioned this will not be a matter of weeks - it can take months or 'longer'.
Dutch policy is specifically targeted at controlled spread, to slowly build group immunity.
He mentioned two alternative strategies: Allowing the virus free reign would overload hospitals and cause disaster.
A full lockdown on the other hand, where nobody can leave their homes, would be an economic disaster and in the end be simply a stay of execution - when the lockdown was lifted, which could be a year from now, the virus would still be around and immediately hit us anyway.
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@PleegWat said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
He mentioned the measures being taken are unheard of for a nation at peace.
I was thinking that there probably hasn't been a world-wide concern of this intensity since WWII.
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@jinpa Well, AIDS did instill quite a bit of panic at the time it became widely known.
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@Rhywden said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@jinpa Well, AIDS did instill quite a bit of panic at the time it became widely known.
I was there at the time, and it didn't seem to be of the same magnitude. Though it was no doubt considerably different in communities that engage in risky behaviors.
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@jinpa At least in the beginning where no one had really much of a clue what that thing was and how it spread, not that much different.
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They were just looking for the cheesy dibbles.
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It never ceases to amaze me. Just was at my local supermarket. The guy before me bought 3 kg of rice and 4 bags of toilet paper.
Nothing else.
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@Rhywden said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
It never ceases to amaze me. Just was at my local supermarket. The guy before me bought 3 kg of rice <snip>
Nothing else.
Obviously not an Asian.
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@admiral_p said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
We have a fabulous tradition when it comes to beers (Pilsners, Weizenbiere, Trappist beers, Saison, Blanche, etc. etc.), why, oh why should we waste our time on a style of beer that some say is really a myth and if not, only exists because it's a long way from the UK to India?
Don't know about you, but I don't drink tradition, or stories, or myths, I drink stuff that tastes good (for me).
As I said before: "If it tastes good it's good. And if something is the only original 500 year old traditional something, which tastes like shit, it's shit."
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@Gurth
Uh yeah, there is a reason she ending her term as leader of a minority party. It's so serious it didn't even register on my radar
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@Polygeekery said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
I don't have anything against IPAs in general. Some of my favorite beers are IPAs. But Lagunitas IPA is atrocious.
Sorry, it was the first GIS result with a single bottle and the letters IPA prominently on the label.
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@Rhywden said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
It never ceases to amaze me. Just was at my local supermarket. The guy before me bought 3 kg of rice and 4 bags of toilet paper.
Nothing else.Someone posted this link about tasty dishes with toilet paper (warning, dutch). I don't dutch either, but the key points are fairly parseable, if have a germanic-ish language-y background.
Didn't see any recipes that would combine rice with toilet paper, though. (But maybe that's just where my dutch-gibberish parser failed.)
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@cvi said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@Rhywden said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
It never ceases to amaze me. Just was at my local supermarket. The guy before me bought 3 kg of rice and 4 bags of toilet paper.
Nothing else.Someone posted this link about tasty dishes with toilet paper (warning, dutch). I don't dutch either, but the key points are fairly parseable, if have a germanic-ish language-y background.
Didn't see any recipes that would combine rice with toilet paper, though. (But maybe that's just where my dutch-gibberish parser failed.)
Obviously, he plans to make rice paper when the toilet paper runs out
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@Carnage
Probably Moonshine:
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We're not under lockdown, but close.
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@PleegWat said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
A full lockdown on the other hand, where nobody can leave their homes, would be an economic disaster and in the end be simply a stay of execution - when the lockdown was lifted, which could be a year from now, the virus would still be around and immediately hit us anyway.
Too bad state/local governments in the US don't understand that.
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You know things are getting serious when the city hall says they are going to suspend parking meters so people can stay indoors.
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@boomzilla said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
You'd normally expect this section of highway to be bumper to bumper, possibly stop and go at that time.
I was about to say...
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@Zecc said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
You know things are getting serious when the city hall says they are going to suspend parking meters so people can stay indoors.
.... Wait, do people normally leave, cum on parking meters, and then go back inside? WTF?!?!?
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@Rhywden said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
It never ceases to amaze me. Just was at my local supermarket. The guy before me bought 3 kg of rice and 4 bags of toilet paper.
Nothing else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiyfwZVAzGw
These fucking morons. There would be absolutely no shortage in toilet paper supply if the fucking hoarders didn't buy enough toilet paper for the next 4 years, thus creating a temporary scarcity out of nowhere and forcing other people to also hunt down for it. It's a vicious cycle, but it's going to end soon when the amount of morons with years of supply has saturated.
Modest proposal: Exponentially raise the price for each bag. First bag $2, second bag $4 (total $6), third back $8 (total $14), fourth bag $16 (total $30). That should teach them two valuable lessons in these days: how exponential growth works, and not to be fucking selfish assholes.
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@Rhywden said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
It never ceases to amaze me. Just was at my local supermarket. The guy before me bought 3 kg of rice and 4 bags of toilet paper.
Nothing else.
Yeah, that's really weird.
...
With that much rice, they aren't going to need toilet paper for a while.
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@jinpa said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@Rhywden said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
It never ceases to amaze me. Just was at my local supermarket. The guy before me bought 3 kg of rice <snip>
Nothing else.
Obviously not an Asian.
’d … My thought was, “If he had gone to an Asian food shop, he could have bought a 25 kg bag instead.”
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@Luhmann said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
@Gurth
Uh yeah, there is a reason she ending her term as leader of a minority party. It's so serious it didn't even register on my radarTBH, I wouldn’t have known about it either if the VRT news hadn’t paid attention to it — more than their own website, even.
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@topspin said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
It's a vicious cycle, but it's going to end soon when the amount of morons with years of supply has saturated.
I don't know about that. If we are talking supply and demand, the world seems to have a nearly infinite supply of morons.
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This week has been interesting. One of the things I have used to distinguish my business from others has been a strategy of implementing systems to allow workers to do their thing from home or wherever. All along the way I have used weather emergencies and disaster as a selling point. Also along the way has been a repetitive theme of "We don't need to be able to have everyone work from home. We won't have anymore than 10-20% of people doing so, at most, for any period of time."
Now those systems are at or beyond their breaking point. Several clients have had us virtualize their systems on our hardware in order to cope. Others we have had to move hardware in to their location and setup temporary VDI, VPN and other systems to bridge the gap. For one client their building is basically under lockdown because of other critical federal tenants that they share the building with so we have had to use their security guards as remote hands when systems have needed manual intervention.
It has been interesting. Just like backup, now that the need has been demonstrated adequately there will be lots of opportunity in disaster planning in IT once we get to the other side of this.
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@Polygeekery said in Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!:
All along the way I have used weather emergencies and disaster as a selling point. Also along the way has been a repetitive theme of "We don't need to be able to have everyone work from home. We won't have anymore than 10-20% of people doing so, at most, for any period of time.
I think you anticipated the problem with these two sentences in conjunction with each other. I guess you were hoping it would never come to this. Hopefully you'll work out the problem and they'll forgive you.
(I don't have a business, but I sympathize with your problems.)