Brexit, for once some facts.

[Nev]

It does seem utterly nonsensical for us to have their phones, tablets, notebooks, smart bands, smart watches, mini hotspots, routers, memory cards, whatever else, and yet be worried about their network kit.

I'd understand far more if everything they do was under suspicion (or proved to be compromised).

I'd understand far more if the alternative suppliers were Plessey, GEC, STC. Imagine if we built our own kit, installed it and then flogged it to the rest of the world.

I agree with all this and it would be nice if the Government would just level with us, but why would they start being honest about something now when they never have in the past?

The technical/security issue is a smoke screen, there maybe a theoretical threat possibility to having them in our 5G network but I suspect the far bigger reasons are as follows.

1. Even with an 80 seat majority there were so many conservative rebels on this issue it was more than likely the Government would have lost a vote in the HoC on it, which would just add to the feeling lots of people now have that the Government is totally incompetent.

2. The Government is desperate for a trade deal with the USA, and now that we are out of the EU we have no real leverage, so when Trump says jump Boris says how high?

 

[sjpt]

2. The Government is desperate for a trade deal with the USA, and now that we are out of the EU we have no real leverage, so when Trump says jump Boris says how high?

Absolutely, it's the new version of the special relationship.

 

[oldgroaner]

This is rather funny

The goodness will flow....

 

[oyster]

This is rather funny

The goodness will flow....

I can certainly take the messages seriously. But what we have not got is information about how to address issues that arise!

They seem so willing to pay a fortune for PR/propaganda but if you do what an ordinary member of the public or business might do, look at government websites, the information simply isn't there.

Part of the reason, to quote QI, "nobody knows". Even where things are known, they are not being fed through.

 

[oyster]

I see another town is having to tighten up...

Extra measures introduced in Blackburn with Darwen after rise in Covid-19 cases

Extra measures including a limit on the number of people allowed to visit a household have been announced in Blackburn with Darwen after a rise in coronavirus cases.

On Tuesday, the Lancashire authority’s director of public health Dominic Harrison announced the new measures to be followed for the next month with the aim of avoiding a local lockdown.

Will Hancock's claimed desire for this to be done locally actually happen? Or are they just doing what they are told to do?

 

[oyster]

In case you have not yet seen it:

http://instagr.am/p/CCn800cFIbe/

 

[grldtnr]

All good news .. the sooner we get out completely the sooner we can start making plans to get back in again, can't wait. Stay brushed up on your French & German that's all that the EU really consists of anyway, and one day there'll be the three of us all back together again.

Yeah! On the beaches, with guns & sharp pointy sticks to beat the bajaysus out of each other, it's what Belgium was made for, as a pitch for the fun & games, as some presenter on 'Top Gear' drily remarked upon.
' Juex sans Frontiers' NOT!

 

[oyster]

Hillingdon hospital outbreak due to training session. The running of which was obviously not the fault of a nurse yet deeply questionable in the circumstances. But the chief exec obviously and immediately blamed nurses.

An investigation by Hillingdon hospital in north-west London has found that a nurse who had coronavirus unwittingly infected 16 others during a training session they all attended on 30 June, in what was described by a doctor as a “super-spreading event”.
.
.
The nurse became increasingly ill during the training session and ended up being taken to the hospital’s A&E. There is no suggestion she acted inappropriately.

 

[oyster]

All good news .. the sooner we get out completely the sooner we can start making plans to get back in again, can't wait. Stay brushed up on your French & German that's all that the EU really consists of anyway, and one day there'll be the three of us all back together again.

Almost - but not quite. Berlin, Paris, London and Magaluf.

 

[sjpt]

Coronavirus: I trust people's sense on face masks - Gove

Minister Michael Gove says he does not think face coverings should be mandatory in shops in England.

www.bbc.co.uk

Gove has been accused of many things, but basic good manners is not one of them.

p.s. neither is common sense.

 

[Nev]

Moderna were getting a lot of favorable reports about their Covid vaccine on Bloomberg and CNBC yesterday although problems with side effects did create some cause for concern.

The NEJM have a long article (free) here on the phase 1 trial.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483?query=featured_home

 

[oyster]

Anyone fancy a new job? As a retrofit co-ordinator.

Free home insulation: Too good to be true?

By Roger Harrabin
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53365827

Mind, if I wanted some wool in my house, I'd rather have a ...
Coronavirus: Llamas provide key to immune therapy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53369103

 

[oyster]

Does this sound like someone who is in mourning, or even understands mourning? It is a cheap and extremely hollow "joke":

“Because at the minute he’s got more briefs than Calvin Klein,” the prime minister says, to some cheers in the chamber.

Which followed:

Johnson says he mourns the loss of everyone who has died in this epidemic. The government will do absolutely everything in our power to prevent a second spike, he adds.

I assume such comments inanities are prime weapons against a second spike.

 

[flecc]

A statue of a Black Lives Matter protester has appeared on the plinth previously occupied by the statue of slave trader Edward Colston. Barry will be thrilled:

Information Link
.

 

[Barry Shittpeas]

WTF is that ******* stupid **** Handcock going on about? In one sentence he says you do need to wear a face mask in a shop because it’s a closed environment, with poor ventilation, containing people from outside your family. Then in the following sentence, he says you do not need to wear a face mask in an office because that is also a closed environment, with poor ventilation, containing people from outside your family.

Handcock then tried to explain his logic by saying, in an office you tend to spend all day with the people, who’s movements and habits are completely unknown to you, so a mask is not necessary. The man is a ****, but I think we knew that before this latest clusterfuck.

 

[Barry Shittpeas]

A statue of a Black Lives Matter protester has appeared on the plinth previously occupied by the statue of slave trader Edward Colston. Barry will be thrilled:

Information Link
.

I don’t really care, it can stay as far as I’m concerned. However, I don’t think it should be pulled down and thrown in the harbour. Such an act would only be undertaken by a bunch of untamed animals acting on tribal instinct.

 

[Barry Shittpeas]

Hillingdon hospital outbreak due to training session. The running of which was obviously not the fault of a nurse yet deeply questionable in the circumstances. But the chief exec obviously and immediately blamed nurses.

An investigation by Hillingdon hospital in north-west London has found that a nurse who had coronavirus unwittingly infected 16 others during a training session they all attended on 30 June, in what was described by a doctor as a “super-spreading event”.
.
.
The nurse became increasingly ill during the training session and ended up being taken to the hospital’s A&E. There is no suggestion she acted inappropriately.

That’s very contagious if it takes out 16 in a single training session. I guess that’s with some distancing measures in place too. She won’t have been going around shaking hands, kissing and hugging people either. I doubt very much that she was sneezing and coughing all over people too. Those 16 infections will be as a result of simply being in a room with one infected person for a few hours. That fits with what my niece tells me from the hospital where she works.

 

[oldgroaner]

 

[RossG]

A statue of a Black Lives Matter protester has appeared on the plinth previously occupied by the statue of slave trader Edward Colston. Barry will be thrilled:

Information Link
.

Apparently two lorries arrived overnight and spent 15 min carefully positioning this work of art, presumably no one spotted them.

 

[Nev]

Those 16 infections will be as a result of simply being in a room with one infected person for a few hours. That fits with what my niece tells me from the hospital where she works.

I wonder if the infected nurse in this example would come under the 80/20 rule? I am sure I have read somewhere that 20% of people infected with Covid are responsible (the super spreaders) for infecting around 80% of other people with the virus.

This 80/20 rule seems to pop up in all kinds of situations. I watch a lot of military history programmes and I think I remember seeing a stat that during the second world war 20% of fighter pilots were responsible for around 80% of the kills of enemy planes (this was in all air forces not just the British).

In many large companies just 20% of the workforce are responsible for 80% of the profit of the company (probably not easy to identify that 20% thought).

Is the 80/20 rule a thing or just a quirk of statistics and when studied in depth it doesn't actually exist?