Coronavirus General Discussion

[yankees60]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... si=2969699


Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin 'warns unemployment in the US could hit 20 PER CENT' as coronavirus plunges the economy into a recession - with a fifth of workers already losing wages

Steven Mnuchin reportedly said on Tuesday that unemployment may reach 20%
The Treasury Secretary made the comment during a meeting with US senators
Mnuchin reportedly said he believes economic fallout from the coronavirus is potentially worse than the 2008 financial crisis
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs said a global recession is already underway
A recession is defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative growth
New poll finds 18% of US adults have lost jobs or had hours cut due to crisis
Trump for the first time acknowledged that the US 'maybe' faces recession
Marriott hotel chain is beginning furloughs for tens of thousands of workers
Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?

Vinny

[Smith1776]

@smithers: ok, but how much gym time are you going to miss if you’re horizontal with a temperature and the shivers or, God forbid, in a coma.

Looks like my internal debate is over. The CEO of the gym I was thinking of has also closed its doors.

As always, our number one priority remains to be the health and safety of our members, team members and community. In support of BC and Canada’s efforts to slow the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent actions to limit gatherings to 50 people or less, we have come to the difficult decision to temporarily close all of our locations, effective as of 8:00PM on March 17, 2020 through March 31, 2020.

https://www.snclubs.com/safety/

Crap.

EDIT: On the bright side, all of this tumult is really giving me time to dive deep into Linux!

[Smith1776]

Proposed Coronavirus home workout (no running or jumping due to knee issues.):

- 4 x 25 sit ups
- 4 x 25 ab roller reps
- 4 x 25 push ups
- 3 minute plank
- 2 x 30 second two point planks
- 100 squats
- 2 x 90 second side plank
- 30 reps leg raises
- 30 reps boxer crunches
- 2 x 30 bicycle crunches
- 4 x 25 tricep dips on a bench
- 2 x 25 lunges
- Chin ups/pull ups if I can find a bar

What I have so far. May add/modify as this whole thing progresses.

[dualstow]

Who posted this? Was it kriegsspiel? Mountaineer? Or did I get it from twitter? I've had the browser tab open for a while and I finally started reading it. Hilarious!

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/16/ex ... -heritage/

EDIT: I remember now. It was Mountaineer, because you wrote "levity." Awesome.

[Smith1776]

Who posted this? Was it kriegsspiel? Mountaineer? Or did I get it from twitter? I've had the browser tab open for a while and I finally started reading it. Hilarious!

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/16/ex ... -heritage/

EDIT: I remember now. It was Mountaineer, because you wrote "levity." Awesome.

I am triggered.

[dualstow]

Who posted this? Was it kriegsspiel? Mountaineer? Or did I get it from twitter? I've had the browser tab open for a while and I finally started reading it. Hilarious!

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/16/ex ... -heritage/

EDIT: I remember now. It was Mountaineer, because you wrote "levity." Awesome.

I am triggered.

[yankees60]

My local update....

1) We had a staff meeting. Five people were in our conference room thinking that they were maintaining proper distance. I refused to join them and stayed in my office, listening to the meeting, semi-participating, while I was initiating getting payroll done. All the other participants (five) were off-site). The youngest person on our staff (about 24 years old) was beyond exasperated that these five boomers were all together in the conference room, that they just didn't get this isolation thing. She was the hero of the day in my eyes and I think her messages actually got through to some of the people in that room.

2) Went to my local Stop & Shop about 3:45 PM. Parking lot not that full. Seeing people walking out with small quantities, nothing special. Headed towards the frozen foods to stock up on my bags of mixed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots. I was not surprised to see the paper goods aisle wiped out. Nor was I surprised to see bread was low. However, I was totally surprised and SHOCKED to see that the frozen vegetables were totally wiped out!!! There was nothing left in there for me to buy of anything!

I headed to the section where I normally buy the bulk of my food - fruit and vegetables. I asked a guy who was stocking there which day the store got wiped out of the frozen vegetables. He stated that on Friday almost the whole store got wiped out. He said, though, that the fruit and vegetables section remained the most well stocked.

I ended up spending $145 on fruits and vegetables that will either be consumed in the next week or last in my kitchen or refrigerator for the next two to three weeks.

This morning when I was in front of a bank teller for a few minutes was my first presence with another human since last Thursday night. Now that I'm home and fully stocked who knows when I will next be in the presence of another human!

One bright side of this is that I brought home my office gerbil. The poor gerbil has been without a friend for too many months now after its friend had died. All rodents are highly social creatures.

I have ten other gerbils in my house and I think I can predict with 100% certainty that when that gerbil goes back to my office it will have a friend with it so that they can do all the endearing behaviors that all rodents do with one other, e.g., grooming one another, sleeping all scrunched up on top of one another...

Vinny

I meant to add to the above bolded section that one of things that the non-profit organization for which I work does is produce frozen vegetables in institutional size for schools (young through college). And, with the schools now closed we'd wondered if we would even be able to sell our about 20,000 pounds of (locally grown) frozen vegetables that we have in inventory. Seems like from my experience today that we may some form of a business opportunity?

Vinny

[Smith1776]

Who posted this? Was it kriegsspiel? Mountaineer? Or did I get it from twitter? I've had the browser tab open for a while and I finally started reading it. Hilarious!

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/16/ex ... -heritage/

EDIT: I remember now. It was Mountaineer, because you wrote "levity." Awesome.

I am triggered.

This is one my favourite GIFs in all of Internet Land.

You're Cap. I'm Hulk.

https://imgur.com/gallery/ACWMPtn

[dualstow]

Hahaha!
Unimportant side note: I don't really like Captain America and never did. I've always been a Hulk fan, but mainly Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno. That's what I grew up with.

[Smith1776]

Hahaha!
Unimportant side note: I don't really like Captain America and never did. I've always been a Hulk fan, but mainly Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno. That's what I grew up with.

I am also very familiar with Lou Ferrigno, but through a totally different context. I've always just known him as the guy opposite Schwarenegger in those classic bodybuilding competitions from the 70s.

[Ad Orientem]

Two very scary articles...

An examination of likely death tolls based on rate of infection and mortality rates among those infected.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... e=Homepage

These Places Could Run Out of Hospital Beds as Coronavirus Spreads
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... virus.html

[Libertarian666]

@smithers: ok, but how much gym time are you going to miss if you’re horizontal with a temperature and the shivers or, God forbid, in a coma.

Looks like my internal debate is over. The CEO of the gym I was thinking of has also closed its doors.

As always, our number one priority remains to be the health and safety of our members, team members and community. In support of BC and Canada’s efforts to slow the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent actions to limit gatherings to 50 people or less, we have come to the difficult decision to temporarily close all of our locations, effective as of 8:00PM on March 17, 2020 through March 31, 2020.

https://www.snclubs.com/safety/

Crap.

EDIT: On the bright side, all of this tumult is really giving me time to dive deep into Linux!

Sounds good. If the testing of my program that is currently about to start is successful in showing its excellent performance, I may need your services some time in the next couple of months.

[Libertarian666]

I meant to add to the above bolded section that one of things that the non-profit organization for which I work does is produce frozen vegetables in institutional size for schools (young through college). And, with the schools now closed we'd wondered if we would even be able to sell our about 20,000 pounds of (locally grown) frozen vegetables that we have in inventory. Seems like from my experience today that we may some form of a business opportunity?

Vinny

I think your non-profit should contact Walmart and/or Target and see if they can use them.
I'll bet they can.

[yankees60]

I meant to add to the above bolded section that one of things that the non-profit organization for which I work does is produce frozen vegetables in institutional size for schools (young through college). And, with the schools now closed we'd wondered if we would even be able to sell our about 20,000 pounds of (locally grown) frozen vegetables that we have in inventory. Seems like from my experience today that we may some form of a business opportunity?

Vinny

I think your non-profit should contact Walmart and/or Target and see if they can use them.
I'll bet they can.

I'm wondering if my local Stop & Shop could sell them all in just ONE day! After I reported the above to another friend she stated that she'd had the same experience at Stop & Shop plus the only other large supermarket in our town. NO frozen vegetables in either.

Our product is packaged huge in big bags for institutional use. Of course, the bulk way I buy things those bags would be suitable for me.

Vinny

[Smith1776]

Sounds good. If the testing of my program that is currently about to start is successful in showing its excellent performance, I may need your services some time in the next couple of months.

Yessss!!

[Smith1776]

2am here and I'm about to sign off, guys.

U.S. stock futures have hit a limit down and have stopped trading.

Asian and European markets all down. Australia is down 6%.

[Kriegsspiel]

This is a fuzzy request, but can people on the forum with a longer tail of experience than me share their thoughts on this:

How does this period feel compared to 2008/2009? Yes, I can see the stock market numbers, I can see some old forum posts, but it's not the same as being there.

In 2008/2009 I was just starting college and I was blind to everything going on from an investment perspective. How does the atmosphere compare to you guys?

I'm not much older than you, but here's my take:

In 2008 I had just graduated from college and was new to the military; I just went about my days like usual. If the O-club hadn't had the news turned on I wouldn't have known there was anything amiss. I don't recall anything out of the ordinary in day-to-day life, bars and restaurants were open, ski resorts and beaches were open. If you weren't wealthy, and you didn't get laid off, everything was fine. Even if, as we now know, recent graduates were going to get stuck in entry-level-land, AT THE TIME nobody thought anything of it, because it is the normal course of things for new graduates to have those kinds of jobs. I didn't have a smartphone, and even if I did, they didn't have the apps/capabilities they do nowadays. In retrospect, it seems like it was a great time to snap up bargains on real estate and the stock market if you could.

It's tougher to get a grasp on Wuhan because it's happening as we speak. Just a few months ago I was vaguely aware of it, but we've had so many similar scares that I DGAF about (SARS, Ebola, swine flue, bird flu) that I mostly ignored it. The flu was pretty bad this year where I live, so more people were talking about that than Wuhan. Some people at work were really into it from the start, but everyone else dismissed it. I know I have become incredibly distrustful of news media, and other people have too I'm sure, so maybe that plays a role. I still don't know what stuff I read is true and what is not. The news in both cases has tried to increase the fear, but it's much easier to get people scared of an infection than collateralized debt obligations; the VAST majority of humans don't understand modern finance, but everyone is afraid of disease. Social media is amplifying the fear, as most people I know have become habituated to checking their phones every few minutes and are essentially Clockwork Orange-ing themselves all day. Today the government is closing businesses, schools, ski resorts and other recreation, bars & restaurants. That affects everybody. My gut feel is that this shouldn't be as devastating as it is becoming.

[dualstow]

Some of the above reminds me that, while people are saying 'at least the first day of 9/11 was the worst', the fact is no one knew that until much, much later.

Because of 2008-9 and the dot com crash at the turn of the millennium, I have always warned my friends to have some money in something besides stocks and to be ready for a 50% market haircut. While thanking me profusely, none of them took my advice. Zero. My only friends who hold cash, bonds or shiny metals were doing so before they met me, and are older than I am.

Nothing like living through one of these downturns.

Social media is amplifying the fear, as most people I know have become habituated to checking their phones every few minutes and are essentially Clockwork Orange-ing themselves all day.

I’m familiar with the book and the movie but what does that mean, clockwork orange-ing themselves? Torturing themselves?

[yankees60]

Hahaha!
Unimportant side note: I don't really like Captain America and never did. I've always been a Hulk fan, but mainly Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno. That's what I grew up with.

I grew up in the TRUE Golden Age of comics. The 60s. And, I remember as a 12 year old realizing I could only afford to buy DC comics or Marvel comics. I agonized over the decision of which to continue to buy. Made the right choice - Marvel! During the 60s I collected 1,200 Marvel comic books. Used to buy all of them every month the day that they came out and would read all of them that same night. Then the next day start rereading them, including all the letters. In the process I bought #1 X-Men, #1 Avengers, #1 Daredevil, many other# 1's. Also acquired #1 Spiderman without a cover but bought just about all the Spiderman's after that one. Bought all of them from my deep love for comic books. NOT for investment purposes!

Vinny

[Kriegsspiel]

Social media is amplifying the fear, as most people I know have become habituated to checking their phones every few minutes and are essentially Clockwork Orange-ing themselves all day.

I’m familiar with the book and the movie but what does that mean, clockwork orange-ing themselves? Torturing themselves?

They're intentionally frightening themselves, and they're doing it constantly. It seems to only be making them more scared and unhappy.

[Libertarian666]

My gut feel is that this shouldn't be as devastating as it is becoming.

I think that if we don't find a treatment that can keep people out of the hospital, the best solution is to keep all the especially vulnerable people at home until the pandemic runs its course to the point where most people have had it and are no longer going to transmit it to them.

[Libertarian666]

My gut feel is that this shouldn't be as devastating as it is becoming.

I think that if we don't find a treatment that can keep people out of the hospital, the best solution is to keep all the especially vulnerable people at home until the pandemic runs its course to the point where most people have had it and are no longer going to transmit it to them.

Yes. But how long are they going to trash the economy before coming to this conclusion? If that is the end game anyway, why shut everything down for several weeks?

In Chicago, older people don't go out for weeks when the risk of slipping on the ice and breaking a hip is high. But it doesn't stop younger people from going to restaurants and movies*.

*Hollywood is doing that by continually putting out progressively awful movies, but that is for another thread.

I don't know. But I'm sure that the government has information I don't have, so what they are doing may make sense.
For example, if there is a treatment that might be available in a couple of weeks, the delay may save lives.
Otherwise, all it will do is destroy the economy.

[Kriegsspiel]

I think that if we don't find a treatment that can keep people out of the hospital, the best solution is to keep all the especially vulnerable people at home until the pandemic runs its course to the point where most people have had it and are no longer going to transmit it to them.

I don't know. But I'm sure that the government has information I don't have, so what they are doing may make sense.
For example, if there is a treatment that might be available in a couple of weeks, the delay may save lives.

I can't help but believe our resident anarcho-capitalist is trying to clown us.

[Libertarian666]

I think that if we don't find a treatment that can keep people out of the hospital, the best solution is to keep all the especially vulnerable people at home until the pandemic runs its course to the point where most people have had it and are no longer going to transmit it to them.

I don't know. But I'm sure that the government has information I don't have, so what they are doing may make sense.
For example, if there is a treatment that might be available in a couple of weeks, the delay may save lives.

I can't help but believe our resident anarcho-capitalist is trying to clown us.

Ok, let me rephrase that first point. What I meant by "keep at home" is "tell them not to go out", not "weld them in their apartments" as was done in Wuhan.

Is that better?

[stuper1]

But I'm sure that the government has information I don't have, so what they are doing may make sense.

This was the sentence that was jarring to me. I never thought I'd hear something like that from your keyboard.

Just makes me more sure that we are living in a very strange time.