The Ides Of March

despite an apocryphal warning from a soothsayer Julius Caesar was indeed assassinated on the ides of March

“On The Ides Of March” is a song by ShadowIcon that is about this.
I much prefer “End Of Days”, though. Feels more appropriate.

seems to be as relevant today, at least this year, as the Government decides when to start constraint of social mobility.

Apparently never. It seems to me as if the current idea is “everybody catch SARS-CoV-2 and then the damn thing will go away”. Great plan. Still, I don’t supposed we should be surprised at a Tory government relishing a way to cull pensioners and the weaker members of society.

Still, I don’t supposed we should be surprised at a Tory government relishing a way to cull pensioners and the weaker members of society.

Well, if more cabinet members get it then perhaps they may realize that when the manure strikes the airflow induction machinery it tends to spray everywhere and everybody gets some.

everybody catch SARS-CoV-2 and then the damn thing will go away

To be fair, I think the idea is that the young and fit should all catch it, that people in care homes and those who have health issues and are sensible will stay at home and avoid it. The mortality is then much less than 1%. Once the young and fit have developed herd immunity then allow mixing again and many fewer elderly people will actually catch it.

that people in care homes

Who are looked after by…?

That could be a little unfair, Rick: some thought does appear to have gone into the decisions.

There appear to be two main issues:

1. This won’t just be “let’s lock down for four weeks, and it’s over.” This is going to be for the long term. Most of 2020, probably, and then seasonally just like ’flu.
2. Unlike some other EU countries where the population tend to be a bit more thoughtful (or places like China where there’s definitely more, er, compliance with government requests), few experts in the UK trust their public to do what they’re told for long periods of time if it’s personally inconvenient, whatever the wider benefit.

The current clamour for “more to be done” sounds good, but usually comes with a rider of “so long as my children don’t have to stay home from school and inconvenience me” or, in another field that I’m fairly closely acquainted with, “so long as it doesn’t stop me rehearsing for/performing in/going to see that piece of theatre that I’ve been looking forward to for several months”.

Or even, perhaps controversially, “so long as we can continue to run a RISC OS event that draws plenty of people aged 60+ from all over Western Europe and congregates them into a small room for several hours at a stage when things are likely to be really getting interesting, and where for some, at least, there will be a strong desire to ignore that cough/sniffle/warm feeling so as to be there and not to let people down/throw away several months’ work.”¹

So with that in mind, the current tack seems to be to recognise that a much bigger lockdown will be needed, but to time it for when it will be most beneficial so that it can achieve something before people get bored and start breaking curfew en-masse. Sadly, given the way that people have been behaving in the UK with respect to toilet roll, pasta, hand-sanitizer and face masks over the past few days, I can’t say that I blame the experts for their scepticism.

There’s a better explanation that I stumbled across, from someone whose job it is to look at this kind of thing, elsewhere on the web (it’s in Google Drive, so might not be RISC OS friendly).

¹ This doesn’t represent the policy of any particular show organisers, by the way; the ones that I’m aware of are monitoring the situation and government guidance as it develops and keeping their options open for now. And in the end, if the event goes ahead, they too are dependent on exhibitors, helpers and visitors doing what’s right for the wider community.

[It’s good to see that Textile’s formatting of numbered lists is intuitive, isn’t it?]

Pandemic numbers as a kind of youtube livestream here

Kind of creepy as it almost looks like a Eurovision style data display…though this time the winner won’t be the one with the most points. Despite that it is quite informative…when you do the math on death toll per infections everyone can realize that some countries have already the hell of a problem or will run into one if they don’t take measures as they obviously have many undiscovered cases.

Here’s one that is easier to understand, and no speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT1doNm0B5o

Very much a Eurovision leader board. Place your bets on who will win.

I saw an item on line ‘do face masks really protect you?’ and I groaned. The answer of course is that face masks offer no protection whatever to the wearer against a virus (unless you stop breathing, but that doesn’t work either for very long). There may, however, be people out there naïve enough to believe that they do, encouraging them to wear them. Fine.

The truth though is that they protect other people from fluid etc. that you exhale, that might be infectious. Most people though are not much good at altruism.

The truth though is that they protect other people from fluid etc. that you exhale, that might be infectious. Most people though are not much good at altruism.

Yup.
You know what I do, you know where I live. Those two work to give a a general idea of what I’m informed about.
Masks, as used in operating theatres, are mainly concerned with blocking particulate transfer from the staff to the patient.
Please all believe me when I say you are 8the patient and any mask is to reduce infection transfer to you

Also believe me, when the staff are concerned about you being an infection source then you will know because they have nice plastic visors (or more) protecting them.

The people who wander the streets¹ with masks on aren;t protecting themselves at -unless they have masks that seal onto them and ALL breathable intake passes through the mask and the mask is virus/bacteria proof.

Most people though are not much good at altruism.

I’m not sure the people I work with could define altruism but I can say without fear of contradiction that they will all work silly times and overlong hours to do what they do “because”

NB. I’m told that with a lot of the viral input coming through mouth breathing (even round a mask) a regular fluid wash down through the mouth and into the stomach will kill the virus in the stomach acids.
To me that sounds like an afternoon down the pub. To Vince it’s probably a confirmation that the draft battery acid called cider is “a good thing”

¹ Coventry is blessed with two Universities and the “Coventry University” (the’s the Polytechnic for the old school bods) has an overabundance of Chinese and Malaysian students who provide this kind of “entertainment” each time a flu or “man flu” wave passes through.

NB. I’m told that with a lot of the viral input coming through mouth breathing (even round a mask) a regular fluid wash down through the mouth and into the stomach will kill the virus in the stomach acids.
To me that sounds like an afternoon down the pub. To Vince it’s probably a confirmation that the draft battery acid called cider is “a good thing”

1 Coventry is blessed with two Universities and the “Coventry University” (the’s the Polytechnic for the old school bods) has an overabundance of Chinese and Malaysian students who provide this kind of “entertainment” each time a flu or “man flu” wave passes through.

But Rick tells me we need 60% alcohol in hand-rub, so is this like hand-washing – actually just dilution?

So might we just as well drink water?

Not that I’m against drinking beer – used to be safer than water!

But Rick tells me we need 60% alcohol in hand-rub, so is this like hand-washing – actually just dilution?

No, I told you that the CDC recommend alcohol based hand rub with at least 60% alcohol (not the 50% you mentioned); and I then told you that a good wash with plain ordinary soap is better yet because it basically destroys the lipid envelope that is holding the virus (an assembly of RNA, proteins, and fatty gunk) together. That’s also why antibacterial stuff is pretty much useless. You can’t kill what isn’t alive. But you can take a sledgehammer to it, and that sledgehammer is called soap.

As for dealing with the virus in the stomach acids, I think that the acids are what does the trick. Any fluid will help get them there, but clearly some fluids are more appealing than others. :-)

Addendum – John, since you seem to keep saying that it’s me telling you that you need 60% alcohol (or more), please allow me to point you to a properly authoritative source:

• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/election-polling-locations.html

• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention.html

• Etc etc…

And, remember, the hand gel is only for when you can’t wash using normal soap. If you can, prefer the soap.

you will know because they have nice plastic visors (or more) protecting them.

From https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/10/entertainment/outbreak-movie-anniversary/index.html

But Rick tells me we need 60% alcohol

Rick, you misunderstand: The expression “Rick tells me” means that I have it on impeccable authority that I know is extensively and thoroughly researched – so much so that I don’t even need to check the supplied references myself!

The reference prompting your response was intended as a humourous reference to the relatively low alcohol levels in beer, not in anyway a slight to you!

And if I wanted an expert on beer – well, I know whom I would rely on for that expertise!

I’m tempted to even say that lipid=fat, so washing in sodium hydroxide solution would cut out the middle-man, but I wouldn’t dare!

Kids, don’t try this at home, permanent scarring could result! Just google soap manufacture!

The expression “Rick tells me” means that I have it on impeccable authority that I know is extensively and thoroughly researched

<looks behind> You’re talking about some other Rick, right? Not this Rick? ;-)

the relatively low alcohol levels in beer

That’s probably a good thing. I can’t imagine beer would be enjoyable if you could get wasted (and potentially hospitalised) after a mouthful or two.

so washing in sodium hydroxide solution would cut out the middle-man

We use varying incarnations of that stuff at work – Diversey Divoflow ¹, a caustic alkaline concoction that comes in 900l containers. Nasty stuff.

permanent scarring could result!

If you think scarring is bad, think about what it does to the eyes.

¹ If you Google it, it’s the pee-coloured sodium hydroxide solution. I don’t know how it is legal for Diversey to name a dozen different things “Divoflow” ²… There’s also “Sanibright” ² (detergent/disinfectant that everybody uses) and, uh… “Enduro Uniphase” ² that is used by the night cleaners and sometimes for dealing with burnt stuff in saucepans (in a somewhat “nuke it from orbit” manner). Detartrage is done by “Pascal” (concentrated nitric acid, this crap smokes when you use it!), and there’s industrial strength bleach, but I forget the name.

² It’s my job to deal with checking and restocking these things for production and washing up, since I treat the stuff like nitro glycerin so I don’t end up wearing it… like <cough> has happened </cough>. Lovely.