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Captainant

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Captainant

  1. 1 minute ago, HenryJames said:

     

    That's awesome news, but wasn't the Pfizer vaccine the one that needed to be stored in -70C? I'd think that's the larger limiting factor than manufacturing the injections. Most rural counties aren't gonna have easy or fast access to ultra-deep freeze facilities.

  2. Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

    CHICAGO (WLS) -- There is new and disturbing information in the alleged militia plot against the governor of Michigan.

    The 14 men charged had far more violent plans than just a kidnapping, according to federal and state authorities.

    New filings claim there was a Plan B the militiamen had drawn up, that involved a takeover of the Michigan capitol building by 200 combatants who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials.

    And, according to government documents now on file in lower Michigan court, there was also a Plan C -- burning down the state house, leaving no survivors.

    ...

     

    In an interview with the ABC 7 Chicago I-Team last week, Michigan's attorney general, who's prosecuting some of the militiamen, discussed the domestic terror threat.

    "We are one of the few states that does not ban guns in our state capitol building, and clearly there have been threats made on the lives of our legislators; you probably saw the pictures back from in April, where we had armed gunman, some of them, same defendants in this case, that were hovering over state senators with long guns, screaming and yelling at them as they were deliberating, as they were discussing legislation and as they were voting, so that remains a big concern to me in a very scary scenario," said Dana Nessel.

    That fear bleeds over to Illinois. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker mentioned the Michigan case during Tuesday's COVID-19 update.

    "We have threats that stream into my office daily, while we have watched the kidnapping plot against the Michigan governor unfold just a state away," said Pritzker.

    Despite the violent nature of the charges, including an alleged plan to hold a mock treason trial for the governor of Michigan once she was kidnapped, several of the defendants have had bond reductions and are now free.

    Higgins' attorney suggested in court that he may challenge extradition altogether at Thursday's bond hearing in Wisconsin.

  3. Kenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse Used COVID-19 Stimulus Money to Buy Gun

    Quote

    In his first interview since his arrest, Kyle Rittenhouse told The Washington Post that he used government stimulus funds to pay for the gun that he later used to kill two people at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, this summer. “I got my $1,200 from the coronavirus Illinois unemployment, because I was on furlough from YMCA, and I got my first unemployment check so I was like, ‘Oh I’ll use this to buy it,’” he told the newspaper. Rittenhouse, who is 17 years old, said he paid an adult friend to buy the gun for him since he was underage. “I feel I had to protect myself,” Rittenhouse said. “I would have died that night if I didn’t.” The teenager, who’s been charged with intentional homicide and illegally possessing a gun, told the Post that he didn’t regret having a firearm that night. One of Rittenhouse’s sisters referred to the Kenosha demonstrators as “monsters.”

    Jesus tittyfucking christ. It's a bingo card of terrible things

    • Rage+1 2
  4. 1 minute ago, BabaYaga said:

    I'm saying the spike in cases specifically in EP is a little more complicated than just attributing to a lack of social distancing and masks.....

    Which is.... That they're mexican and will bring disease over the border? What's the additional complicating factors that differentiate EP from east TX from north TX? Show your work and maybe people won't assume you're posting in bad faith

  5. 5 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

    Smart enough to recognize unique characteristics EP has that many other cities do not.  Everyone who mentions EP, but conveniently omits Juarez & Chihuahua is not telling the whole story.  You have tens of thousands of workers crossing back and forth daily in a region of more than 3M people.  You have gatherings and shopping of course, but a significantly higher proportion of generational living akin to what we saw in Italy living under one roof.  EP can mandate what they want.  Juarez is another story.  Even with similar messaging and mandates, Juarez and Chihuahua are beyond impoverished, 100% cartel controlled, and extremely limited in all things medical related.  So are we advocating shutting down the border completely in the region to isolate and contain the virus (being facetious of course).  It's more complex than "see......they're just not wearing their masks......."

    How are all those juarez residents sneaking all the way into east TX and Dallas to drive infections there? (Nice dog whistle of brown people bringing disease tho)

    • Fuck You 3
  6. 37 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

    it's bad engineering.  it's the macgyver equivalent of duct tape.

    IMO, the use of MCAS in itself isn't bad engineering nor does it inherently make an aircraft less safe. The bad engineering is when they hid their design decisions and material changes to flight characteristics from the end user who would ultimately die due to those changes.

    ...

    And ya know, lied to regulators and customers, etc, etc. 

    This whole debacle is going to be the next Challenger/Morton-Thiokol engineering ethics case study in which business and non-technical factors determined technical outcomes, without fully considering the repercussions of their decision. I have no doubt that Boeing could have developed, built, and sold the 737MAX safely, just the same as the Challenger didn't HAVE to blow up that day.

    But in both cases, suits overruled the engineers and their documented objections. Only problem is the engineers answer to cold hard facts, while the suits answer to their share holders and careers

    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. 3 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    so...if there’s an efficacy threshold and it’s 70% or higher, we are not meeting it. 

    it's not so much that there's a line where anything less than isn't worth doing, as it's where it becomes significantly more effective. Even partial measures and partial compliance makes an impact on the R0 of an infected person. I posted this video months back, but it's a data scientist's visualization and explanation of the phenonium through modeling the behavior in models with many agents in them. Granted, he's not an epidemiologist, but it's a useful tool for better understanding how community spread occurs, and what different levels of mitigation does.

     

    • Hook 'Em 1
  8. 10 minutes ago, kevwun said:

    Password requirements are tyranny!  These fucks will cry about anything.

     The victimhood complex is REAL. I was recently watching the docuseries "Five Came Back" about the filmmakers of WWII and the efforts to counter axis propoganda through the "Why We Fight" films. 

    One thing that really stood out to me was the 1940 description of fascists, and how they constantly seek to paint themselves as the victim and use that to justify their abhorrent behavior and tactics

    • Haha 1
  9. 8 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    If you have friends/relatives who are anti-mask, don't focus on the mask wearing, focus on "do you want to keep schools, restaurants, etc. open?"

    We can't convince those people, no matter how many studies we send them, but if they think it keeps schools/businesses open, some will relent.

    alternatively:

    gmt4pc1ko6061.jpg

  10. 7 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

    Now I feel like we're back to March again with these hypothetical arguments about schools.  How many teachers are actually catching covid at school?  The doomsayers predicted teachers would be dropping like flies.  We've run the experiment and there's actually very little covid in schools and those cases that we're detecting are mostly from older kids socializing outside of school.  Again, the costs of closing schools (in terms of learning, social disruption, and caregiving) far outweigh any possible medical benefits of stemming the spread.  Schools aren't the issue and should stay open, just like they are in the rest of the world.  

    I don't disagree, but you missed my second sentence.

    Closing schools is a mitigation for risk of faster and wider spread of COVID. We are at this point because as a nation, we have failed to mitigate other and easier risks. This is evident in hospitalizations and deaths at the same levels as they were in March, with significantly worse peripheral conditions and trends. Winter is coming, and all that.

    If the costs of closing schools is SO BAD, then the powers that be should have taken this more seriously and encouraged people to participate in risk-mitigating behavior, rather than flaunting those recommendations and best practices (because MUH FREEDOMS). 

    Schools aren't the issue right now, but I think it's a reasonable precaution to protect our only schooling system and set of educators. Especially as we head into a dark, cold, and sick winter.

    EDIT: also, if we were able to get vaccine doses out to teachers nationwide, I think that schools should 100% stay open in person. But we shouldn't be staking our educators health against our current ability to contain COVID.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  11. 6 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

    It corrects the pitch to satisfy the need to make it feel more or less identical to the earlier models. Had there been no earlier models and the Max was the first 737 ever built it would not have needed the MCAS.  The low sling engines do make it less stable but that’s a far cry from being “unstable”.  In the same way that one of your cars is probably more stable than the other but that doesn’t render the other car unstable. 
     

    No, but if you're given a new car that handles completely differently and told that it's the exact same with no need for any sort of learning or ramp-up, you should kind of expect some accidents to occur.

    Boeing shot themselves in the foot because they didn't want to certify a new type and go through the rigors of scrutiny against their shortcuts. They cared about their profits more than keeping people safe.

    They lied to their customers and passengers, and killed over 300 people due to their malfeasance. 

    • Like 1
  12. 9 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

    Even if the plebes aren't doing what the clerics on high want them to re: covid, there's very little evidence schools are a major vector of infection.  The costs of closing them would outweigh the benefits.  By far.  

    It's too bad that MUH FREEDOMS anti-facemask gang didn't give enough of a shit about how their actions could effect others. When teachers get zero support or cohesive plan for how to operate, increased uncertainty will lead to more closures. It's all about risk mitigation, because districts would rather not put their underpaid and shorthanded teachers at risk of contracting COVID or saying "fuck this shit I'm out". Shit several educators I know personally may not even get their student debt forgiven like they were promised when they chose to start teaching - why should they continue to be underpaid child care?

    • Hook 'Em 1
  13. 6 hours ago, 52-80 said:

    Welcome to surly, where questioning groupthink makes you an alt-right fascist.

    How's the weather back in the CR?

    Slow your self-victimization roll there, sweetheart. Nobody called him a facist. Many people, including me, don't think confidently wrong summaraization of studies should go unchallenged. 

    Sorry I """censored""" you by actually reading the data brought in to the conversation and pointing out that his conclusions aren't supported by the Dutch study? Is that what passes for political these days? 

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 1
  14. 4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


    Because...and follow me here....he’s a shitweasel with no courage. He has been attacked by the wingnut wing of his party (so, pretty much the whole thing) for not being “the virus is a hoax and everything should be open” enough. So, he’s caved, because it’s more important to not have Allen West call you a poopyhead than it is to look out for the people you’re supposed to protect.

    And as long as there's at least one other state doing as bad as texas, he and his will point to that state to say "see? We didn't do so bad!" Ala what we've seen with comparisons to Europe. 

    It's not about protecting people, it's about saving face

    • Hook 'Em 2
  15. 2 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

    Masks help to a point where it's almost statistically insignificant in the study I posted. That was my point.  Brisket was trying to run how more effective they were as a percentage over non-wearers as proof.  I said I agreed they might be more effective, but as this 1000+ page thread has proven, wearing a mask and mandates for them are very imperative to some.  The fact of the matter is, while they are 'more effective', it lies in the statistically insignificant portion of the curve in some studies.  Not in some others.  But science!!!   It shows that only the science that people want to look at is what matters to them.  

     

    That's more or less the point.   

    The study is comparing against an already low risk behavior. Which it still demonstrably and measurably improves upon. You are missing the other context and reading only the tiny grain of info you saw repeated on facebook or parler or wherever you first read it. 

    So you're "not arguing against mask usage", you're just arguing that they're pointless and it's hypocritical to put a mandate in place. 

    Sounds like you should really be just asking questions

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Haha 1
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