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Strange Times

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by The Electric Me, Apr 1, 2020.

  1. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    It isn't limited to motorcycles.
    One of the local TV stations has been running a feature about speeding on the freeways in central Florida.
    They have written a record number of tickets for 100+ in the last couple of weeks; cars, trucks and bikes. Seems like the light traffic is an open invitation to floor it.......for some.

    My theory is that these people have no regard for ANY rules about anything.......and they are the ones most likely to ignore the rules about not congregating in groups and contract the virus as a result.
    Too bad that their selfish actions can't take just THEM out without some collateral damage.

    Having to go before a Judge for "reckless driving" probably won't phase them in the least.
     
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i think the cops are afraid to pull anyone over. would have to get up close and personal
     
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  3. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    Same has been happening here in the OC of California. They act like its ok due to no traffic. But, they are very loud!!
     
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  4. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I'm not yet hearing a reduction in the continual din of boy racers in the distance, taking advantage of the open roads (and more audible now because of reduced noise from other traffic?), but the troopers are busting more:

    'Stop driving like you're a NASCAR racer': Trooper busts 127, 120 and 117 mph drivers

    Based on other stories, it seems that speed-related organ donations are continuing as usual.
     
  5. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    They call em Donor Cycles for a reason......
     
  6. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    This got me thinking.
    If a vaccine was suddenly available, would I be fearful about being vaccinated?
    On one hand, despite the historical reality of problems with the early polio vaccines, being fearful of a Covid-19 vaccine, would seem nearly antiquated and superstitious to me. I would very much want to trust in science, to of gotten it right.

    On the other hand?
    I like to write. However, the sentences A rapidly produced vaccination for a virulent Global Pandemic causing virus was made available. Upon widespread distribution and application it was discovered.....

    And damn if in my fictional mind...the rest of that sentence is NEVER good.
    But ultimately I think I would have to suppress those older, ancient, more superstitious fears, and trust modern medical science.

    I mean the sentence could end...." Upon widespread distribution and application it was discovered.the vaccine not only prevented infection, but also added an average of 10 more years of healthy life to those that were vaccinated. "

    I mean if we are dealing with fears and fiction, the ending I want to write is mine.
     
  7. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Technically, I am a scientist -- but other than a general idea, virology is not my field -- you know:

    Oh, you want a tree frog expert. Well, I only work with tree frogs that dwell in Douglas fir trees that grow below 600 meters on the west sector of the Trout Creek Mountains.

    There is no way I would want to be stuck with a vaccine that was rushed into production. Talk to me in a couple of years after they do the due.....or when this pandemic gets MUCH< MUCH< worse -- then maybe.

    Wasn't only a couple of years ago they had big problem with one of the seasonal vaccines, IIRC.

    And, yes, the polio issue is a well-known and often cited example of not dotting the i's and crossing the t's.
    kris
     
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  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i've been getting vax for nigh on 60 years, no issues. okay, mybe you think y=that's the cause of my problems :whistle:
     
  9. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Yeah, my point. Obviously, the protection against "Old Timer's Disease" is not working....:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

    BTW, my great grandmother seriously thought it was "Old Timer's Disease," not Alzheimer’s disease. Her hearing, well....
     
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  10. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    More 4-wheel than 2-wheel donors so far.

    On the cycles, so far during the shutdown, it seems to be more drivers donating the organs of their ladyfriend passengers than their own.
     
  11. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    If that is what you mean by very rural Oregon, then you aren't-a-kidding.

    But I wasn't aware that anything there was at an elevation under 1200 meters. Or was that part of the point?
     
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  12. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    My Grandmother use tell me stories about growing up in the early 1900's in rural Missouri. She was born in 1909. She was poor, but didn't know she was, and her memories of her early childhood were told in tones that revealed a magical reverence. She loved her mother, my Great Grandmother, who by all accounts was a extraordinary woman. I never met her, as she had passed away long before I was even born.

    But one story my Grandmother told me has been returning lately. This was early 1900's Missouri and though they had neighbors, fellow farmers, even the one room school, nobody lived close to anyone else. Transportation at that time, in that area was still dominated by Horse and Buggy, and it was either a good walk or a longer ride to any neighbor.
    Unfortunately, access to medical care, was even more distant. There was no easy way to get to an operating hospital, and in their particular area even the doctors care was rare.
    My Grandmother told stories of epidemics that would sweep through the area. Scarlet Fever, was what my Grandmother said it was, but I think they really weren't even sure what these diseases were, only that they would come, and sweep through the area, and people died.
    My Great Grandmother would hear about a neighbor or family that had taken ill, and because there was no formal medical care, she felt it her duty to go help these neighbors and friends.
    Now you should keep in mind that at that time, and that location, the Husband/Wife marriage, was far more patriarchal. If you were a wife, you basically did what your husband said, I'm sure there were exceptions, but that was the accepted "norm".
    But my Great Grandmother would hear about her sick neighbors and immediately pack up to go help. This evidently upset my Great Grandfather greatly, who during at least one passing epidemic, forbid her to go, exclaiming that she would be putting herself at risk, and thus her entire family. She would bring back the disease.
    Despite the social mores of the time, my Grandmother disobeyed and ignored this command. She felt going to help the sick, was the "Christian" thing to do, and the right thing to do for her community. Evidently when she did make a decision, she was formidable. So she went and nursed and aided the sick, aware of the risk, and in defiance of what her husband wanted her to do.
    My Grandmother said, she never became ill, EVER. Despite the fact that these type of incidences re-occured.
    Who was really right here?
    From a reality, "Science" standpoint, My Great Grandfather was actually correct. Going to these neighbors and exposing yourself directly to the ill, increased the danger of becoming infected and spreading the infection. Sometimes it was going to help a family with a burial/funeral, as there were no formal funeral homes or morgues. The dead were layed out in living room, pantries, and buried, usually by the family on their property.
    BUT...
    I've always looked back at that story, and respected my Great Grandmothers courage. Right or wrong from a scientific standpoint, she did what she felt was right, and without fear of catching whatever disease was very often killing a great percentage of people.
    So today? I try to apply the reality, the science, respect social distancing, self isolation,wear a mask, but also, not proceed with fear. In honor of my Great Grandmother who felt aiding others, without fear, was worth the risk to herself and perhaps even her family.

    I haven't thought about this story in a long time. It was only one of many my Grandmother use to tell me when I was a little kid. I suppose it is the Covid 19 crisis that made this story return to my consciousness.
    It's not an anecdote, with any perfection to it.If there is a moral? Maybe it's flawed. But it's a human story. It's just a remembered story told to me, about a person I actually never met but through my Grandmother's story telling it felt like I did come to know her. And even today, sometimes when I'm trying to figure out what the right thing to do is, I silently ask for my Great Grandmother's advice.
     
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  13. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    I'm tired, have a few more hours of work ahead before I can hit the pillow, but in Electric's great grand's case, a fair number of people have -- let's call it immunity" -- though technically, it is not, from "pass down."

    Meaning, some folks had folks that had the virus or something like it, or had folks....

    So, those caregivers were very precious.
    kris
     
  14. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Hey, I like to say ...uhmm...wait...married with child.....let's just say, I am one of the few female HUMANS in my area -- although I saw a quite cute REAL cougar the other evening. \ Elevation....well that's a relative thing....
    kris
     
  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    We don't any of us get out alive anyway, so there is a lot to be said for her choosing for herself to use her gifts of time and energy in the ways she felt called to do. (The question of endangering great grandfather without his consent seems stickier, but it's complicated and we weren't there.)

    There seems to be enough latitude in my own thinking that I can be moved by and respectful of your great grandmother's decision to put herself on the line, and still at the same time feel that, say, Dan Patrick sounds a little too glib on the subject of putting lots of people who aren't Dan Patrick on the line, and that his reasoning comes across as a bit heat'n'serve, as if he maybe hasn't put even as much time in thinking about it as you did to thoughtfully share this story.
     
  16. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Our techs cover a wide area, and we're held to time metrics for closing trouble tickets.
    This leads to the wish that somebody would invent a Star Trek style transporter.....but the running joke is that we'd want to shove a few cats through it first!!

    Would I take one of the first vaccines?
    Sure....if it's an attenuated virus vaccine!
    That's not 'new technology'.....it's simply using a refinement of a technique first used in the 1790s, and UNLIKE polio, smallpox, or the measles, COVID-19 has a relatively high survival rate AND an even higher rate of full recovery.

    Plus....
    SOMEBODY has to be first.
    In this case, the juice would be worth the squeeze.
     
  17. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Pretty sure that is NOT the way they do it anymore.......and it was an "attenuated" virus that caused the polio vaccine problem.

    Now they isolate one component of the bad virus protein that will activate the immune response without the entire structure of the virus being present.
     
  18. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    ...which would make it SAFER.....riiiight?

    @ road speeders....
    Saw my first 'revenge of the Po Po' yesterday!! :)

    So....there I was.
    I'm clamping along at PSL+5 being a proud representative of Priusdom and a good ambassador for my company, four seconds behind a van who is two seconds behind a Sherrif's patrol.....
    ...a little boy racer in a Yota comes smoking by me like I'm going backwards, and SLAMS on brakes when he sees the fuzz in front of the van.

    Didn't work....
    One minute me and the van are clamping along at PSL+ "maybe" a little bit more than 5mph with me being a proud representative of Priusdom and a good ambassador for my company... :D
    A few years ago i would have paddled my brakes to warn the wanna-be drifter....but he was ABSOLUTELY busting 100 and traffic was way too thick where we were to be having that much fun.


    Beware.
    States are not going to stop collecting fines and fees from speeders for much longer.....
     
  19. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Please don't insult me yet again for contradicting you with reference articles, but ...

    The big polio vaccine blowup happened from Salk's "killed virus" vaccine, due to manufacturing and inspection failures at Cutter Laboratories, the smallest of four companies making the product. The products made at the three larger companies did not display this problem. (Though some indicate Wyeth also had some problems.)

    After Sabin's "attenuated virus" vaccine was proved out, it became the vaccine of choice in 1961. It was cheaper, easier to administer (orally, not by injection), and even produced some 'contact immunity' in close un-immunized people. But in rare cases the virus would reactivate in the gut and cause the disease.

    An improved version of Salk's killed virus injected vaccine was licensed in 1987, and has become the vaccine of choice in the U.S. But worldwide, both are still in use, each with its own advantages. The Sabin oral type remains far cheaper, and a better choice for mass immunizations in developing regions.

    The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis
     
  20. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Well one thing I take from the responses, is that whatever side of the issue you are on, there would be some resistance/fear in regards to accepting the vaccination.

    I think, I would be schizophrenic in that part of me would have trepidation about taking the vaccine, BUT...I think ultimately I would take it. I might not just want to be in the first wave.