Zoraptor

I'd probably specify it as being an 'institutional' type killing too. A fight between a mexican gang and a black gang might be colour related as well, but it's between two equivalent groups. Police killing someone due to colour is a lot different since the police are a representative of Government, as would be the judicial system if they let police off lightly or failed to punish crimes against one racial group equivalently to others. In a more general sense people care a lot less about gang warfare type deaths because there's an expectation that if you have gangs they will be involved in crime, and sometimes that involvement will result in violence between competing groups. That's always been the case to greater or lesser extents. A cop deciding to kneel on someone's neck for ten minutes until they die while being filmed isn't quite as normal though.

Similar here, they've been retrofitting hotels to improve ventilation over the past few months. As the article says, they haven't absolutely proven airborne transmission, but it's certainly the most plausible method. That's only one factor though, there are a lot of factors at work at close distance other than that, such as the ones I specifically mentioned. Mostly I find the no difference between 6' and 60' comparison to be kind of pointless and designed to generate headlines rather than say something important, so I'm not really disposed favourably to it from the start. I'd fully accept that the virus is airborne, but that isn't the only way to transmit it. Kind of sucks if you're in a situation where you have to spend a work day in a poorly ventilated room with lots of people and in that case social distancing may be approaching pointless, much as it is if you were living with someone. But there are plenty of situations where that isn't the case.

The 6' rule (or 2m rule here) does have a basis in terms of reduction, since it minimises larger droplet dispersal, accidental contact and does reduce direct exposure to smaller droplets somewhat too. The fact is that for something genuinely airborne and highly infectious- like measles- you are fundamentally very much in trouble if you're in an enclosed area with someone and don't have immunity, at almost any practical distance. Covid is a lot less- about 1/6 as- infectious than measles though. As with most things covid related it's not about out and out prevention of spread. If you want that you do what we did here for 5 weeks and stop anyone going anywhere that isn't absolutely essential, a response in which social distancing is almost entirely irrelevant, and such virus as you have burns itself out inside individual houses. As with most measures like mask wearing or washing hands social distancing is about slowing/ minimising spread in a situation in which life in general has to go on. I'm not excluding the model for being just maths though, I'm excluding it for not asking/ answering a relevant question with its model; to whit, it's irrelevant if 6' or 60' is better, the question is whether 6' is better than a closer distance or not. If it is, then it's a sensible mitigation factor even if it's otherwise the same as 60', because 60' is obviously impractical anyway and the idea is to maximise prevention while minimising other impact. But they don't answer that question.

There's lobbying from a lot more than just the oil industry against it, any industry that relies on oil lobbies against it too. And that's a lot, not just obvious ones like transport but also anyone who uses plastic. And, of course, you have issues like the massive deforestation occurring in Indonesia so that they can grow palm oil for 'green' biofuels... And of course of course if you wanted to switch to 'green' plant based plastics you need a lot more land to grow them on as well... ... Basically after anything more than a cursory glance at the reality of the situation: we're completely screwed and simply aren't capable of fixing things without there being maybe a 3/4 reduction in population which is the one thing no politician will touch with a pole of any length, since it would require a fundamental shift in economic theory and application let alone the ethical considerations. Fortunately, we have Bill Gates and his microchipped 5g population control vaccines for that. What was the figure that came out recently, fossil fuels in Australia are subsidised at the rate of 16,000 AUD per second or something?

They've (finally) got a system for rolling back specific bits of a big update 'automatically'; 'Known Issue Rollback'. No idea why it's taken them seemingly decades to get to that point when it would seem to be a pretty basic requirement. Given the problems with Win10 and automatic updates I'm very glad I ended up with the corporate Windows 7 Ultimate that I did rather than a consumer edition since the win10 pro only tries to force you to update after about a year of beta testing by the consumer arm.

They've rolled back that update now. Guess someone has to act as beta testers for MS though I too am glad it's other people rather than me.

Might be a bit of payback for Erdogan's shenanigans during the Trump term, too, which ended up making the US look pretty weak. But, it will only shore up Erdogan's domestic support at a time when it's been increasingly shaky due to covid and funny money economics; even the opposition CHP feels it has to support him on the subject of genocide.

Joe Biden finally recognised the Armenian Genocide, and good on him for it too. Despite the talk that it was going to happen I thought he'd chicken out like Obama did, when push came to shove.

Yep, that's not a great study for actual practice, since it's just a mathematical model from mathematicians and they seem to... struggle with medical justifications and reasoning. The question is not whether you're safer at 6' or 60' as no one suggests social distancing of 60', it's whether 6' has the same risk as a closer distance like 3' or whatever. You also cannot say much about outdoor transmission when you cannot trace exposure well- which is the case in most of the world where you may have, say, got covid from someone in the supermarket, or someones else at the supermarket, or got it from someone in the car park. No way to tell, you'd just presume it was someone inside the supermarket instead of outside. We've definitely had outside transmission here, with the most well documented case involving a border worker and shop worker/ student whose only contact was them walking past the same place at more or less the same time in November last year. We could only tell that though because there were so few community cases (ie 1) so there was only one possible source.

If you have a courgette (zucchini) plant in the garden you will make bread etc from it because it'll happily produce up to 2kg a week, for literally months*, and there are a limited amount of things you can do with them- and free is free. Absolutely should be savoury and eaten like actual bread rather than sweet though. *or alternatively, get mildew inside a few weeks and never recover as happened for some reason this year to no less than 4 plants.

The 5 continents thing always cracks me up. Massive discrimination against penguins. But yeah, that's non political given that sport is 'meant' to be a pure contest between individuals that excludes anything other than their individual (team) prowess and that's what they're enshrining. Doesn't and didn't always work out that way though, of course.

That's mostly host countries trying to make themselves look good though, rather than politics directly in the sporting events. So you'd have Cathy Freeman lighting the Sydney flame showing that Aborigines are all good now when they really aren't, or Beijing having a nice parade of its cultural diversity most of which was being actively suppressed even then. A Tommy Smith style political protest at an actual Olympic sporting event was so memorable because it's been so rare. Massive politics around the city selection and ancillary stuff like boycotts though, of course, as well as political leaders using an Olympic junket to meet up; and commercial interests being paramount go without saying- that is almost certainly the real reason for a ban on any 'politics'. And of course IOC Presidents and delegates have not always been of unimpeachable character; indeed it might be more accurate to say that they haven't always been of impeachable character given their level of endemic corruption.

Don't need to, we're years ahead. Honestly, we'd consider a Free Trade Agreement with Narnia if we could find someone to negotiate one with.

And we'll get to do the whole thing again next year in six months time when the next lot of exercises leads to another round of 'imminent invasion!!!111one!!!' headlines. Guess it's appropriate that Pavlov was Russian. Ironically the almost completely unreported meeting with Lukashenko from Belarus might well turn out to be of far more long term significance, now that he's permanently alienated from the west and has nothing to play off against Russia progress on the much delayed Union State seems a lot more likely.

The Liverpool owner has apologised now it seems. Don't really know what they were even thinking and how insulated they were to think that it was going to work in the first place. Guess it's covid related, especially for the clubs that are in a really bad financial situation, but still, everything that happened was utterly predictable. The only surprising thing was just how quickly the decisions got reversed. Now they've lost most of their leverage with UEFA and the existing domestic leagues since they can't perpetually threaten to take their ball and go play elsewhere. No chance getting financial backing for another breakaway any time soon now that the backers are left hung out to dry, no chance getting teams to join even if they could get that backing, massively reduced ability to extort money out of their domestic leagues... almost enough punishment meted out already. Just needs some cut price fire sales from owners whose expectations of a US style franchise league have been dashed.

All the English clubs have pulled the plug now. What an utter unmitigated embarrassment.

President of Chad Idriss Déby dies under somewhat odd circumstances. Specifically, in 'clashes with rebels', having officially won the presidential elections for a 6th term literally a day earlier. Would look like a coup, walk like a coup and sound like a coup- were the transitional military authority not headed by his son.

Dunno about Europe, but if you get massive point penalties for financial irregularities I'd think that point penalties for trying to co-opt the game for their financial gain would be appropriate. Especially since a lot of big clubs are functionally insolvent and rely on trust fund top ups and buddy rate financing. A few of the big boys in England getting Saracened/ Rangered and having to spend a year+ down with the plebes would be great. Might also get some of the ownership dross ejected too.

Currently England has a vaccination reminder card only, to help people remember that they need 2 doses. England being England there are persistent rumours that the government wants to bring in 'proper' vaccination cards as an identity card by stealth, filled with all sorts of biometrics and the like. Like most places, they'd almost certainly go for a phone widgit instead of a specialist card if they wanted one.

nVidia's ARM acquisition may be in trouble after Her Majesty's Government announces a Public Interest Intervention on national security grounds. May be genuine, though the grounds seems a bit odd with nVidia being a US company; or it may just be the political equivalent of "nice little business deal you've got there, would be a shame if someone stopped it..." and the UK wanting to leverage some guarantees about employment and investment.

The fundamental problem with Assad losing, now, is that the stridently anti Assad Syrians are all either dead or fled already, so there's little additional damage to be done if he continues ruling except for the embarrassment. Refugees aren't willingly going to go home any time soon, and all you'd get from a rebel victory now is millions of pro Assad people fleeing the country as well, plus a bunch of genocidal score settling with Druze/ Christians/ Shia/ Alawite minorities. Assad was probably the lesser evil from 2012, by that time the largest opposition groups were already ISIS lite groups like Ahrar ash Sham/ Jaish al Islam and ISIS' literal progenitor Jabhat al Nusra (AQI's 'Support Front' for Syria, and while JaN split over becoming ISIS AQI literally became it). The early support was almost exclusively from Iran rather than Russia using proxies like Hezbollah and Liwa Fatimayoun/ Zeinabiyoun from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and arming others like Liwa Al Quds (Palestinian refugees based in Syria). The Russians did almost nothing prior to 2015 even when it came to supplying excess equipment*, except for vetoes in the UNSC (mostly backed by China) and they didn't veto everything there either. The best evidence for that very limited involvement is what happened when Russia did intervene despite that intervention being mostly limited to a couple of dozen planes and helis and involving very few boots on ground outside Hmeimem AB- it permanently changed the situation on the ground in months, and made it obvious that the war was lost for the rebels after barely a year. Indeed, post intervention there was not a single significant long term gain from the rebels, which certainly was not the case beforehand. Iran still supports Syria more than Russia in terms of (proxy) boots on ground, and supplies a lot of oil etc free. Most of the casualties in the war came prior to the Russian intervention, and by a pretty decent margin. *certainly in part because a dearth of equipment was not really Syria's big problem, they probably had too many armoured vehicles which meant a lot got captured by the rebels, but they still had something ridiculous like 2000 tanks. OTOH, they could really have used some modern planes instead of relying on 50 year old models like the MiG-21 and Su-22, and trainer aircraft with juried attack rigs. Even when they got 'modern' stuff after the intervention there wasn't much of it, and a lot was being trialed by Iranian proxies for potential purchase by Iran (eg most of the T-90 tanks and some of the 'funnies' like the TOS-1).

That's SNHR, who split from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights for not being extreme enough, and from 2016 though that mostly effects the Coalition numbers, for example, in Raqqa. Most significantly, SNHR also includes rebel combatants as civilians, unless they directly defected from the army, so there are ~100k people included who weren't actual civilians (cf SOHR who despite being anti government do separate combatant rebels and civilian deaths and who estimate ~120k or VDC who estimate 130k). That's also why SNHR figures for combatant casualties look really weird, with the side with more tanks and planes suffering considerably more combat losses than the side without them. As per above, civilian deaths are estimated in the ~120k area, IIRC comparable with Afghanistan post intervention; 400k is for all deaths including military. If we use that 400k, then we use the full combatant numbers for Iraq on all sides too, and that's, well, a lot lot more. Estimated civilian deaths in Syria caused by Russia and the US are pretty comparable on a like/ like basis, 8000 v 4000. Indeed, on a genuinely like/ like basis the coalition ends up potentially looking worse since they retook a lot less urban area and a lot less population than the government did, certainly more than the 2x factor in civilian deaths. East Aleppo alone was multiple times the population of the largest city retaken by the SDF, Raqqa. The more urban area, the more civilians will die. Meh, Trump supplied lethal weapons too (eg Javelins), and he was seen as being soft on Russia. And he wanted to bomb Russian SAMs in Syria and had to be talked out of it by Mattis, lest we forget. And he expelled a bunch of Russian diplomats, and they expelled a lot more of his. Lethal weapons only matter if an escalation is intended, and as per previous we get 'imminent invasion' articles and claims every year when the Russians hold war games. Biden's walking a tightrope where his support base has been fed a diet of Russiagate and Trump Derangement Syndrome conspiracies for 5 years which brings certain expectations- and when they get debunked, like the 'bounties', it's always with a murmur not a shout. But any contest with China will be a lot easier with the Russians on board, or at least not inextricably bound to China. So you get a round of tepid expulsions and sanctions so weak that the Ruble rose significantly after they were announced, and an apparently condition free offer of a summit. I'd go so far as say that it's a surprisingly sound strategy. Soundbites for the baying masses like calling Putin a killer- which Putin won't care about even slightly- while keeping lines of communication well and truly open on other issues.

They're meant to be inviting 5 teams on a per season basis though, so long as they're Macclesfield or Carlisle Arsenal and Tottenham should be guaranteed to finish at least 6th from bottom. Oh who am I kidding, Arsenal would somehow contrive to lose to Macclesfield and Carlisle too, especially if there's no threat of actual relegation. On the plus side though, there's the perpetual amusement remembering all the people who thought Wenger was the problem...

100% pure Gromnir. Can't even do a basic internet search properly, thinks a major survey has 5 questions; and it's someone else's fault and they're lazy for correcting him, which is very much a pattern response when he's found wanting. Also, him having a long list of people he picks fights with isn't a problem, on the contrary it's a sign of virtue. Not sure if that constitutes an actual narcissistic personality disorder, but it would be deliciously ironic considering the thread subject. Thing is, I don't single you out, I'd have written- and have written- similar responses to heaps of other people without issue indeed I've done so on things like suicide rates and gun crime, deaths by terrorism and maps from NATO that forget Kaliningrad is part of Russia; you just trigger easily and take even the most minor correction as a personal affront to your gravitas, even when it's on stuff you literally know nothing about. And your response is always to repeat stuff until the other person gives up, giving you the 'win', and reinforcing that pattern of behaviour. That's why you have a list of people you argue pointlessly with, and I don't.

Dunno, you'll go a long way to find two people I obsessively pick fight with on this forum whom I can segue said obsessive need for attention with. And I told you last time, 300USD per hour or part thereof and I'll do research for you, that's my rate. Shouldn't have made the joke about accepting payment in lolz, obviously. For you, payment very much demanded in advance.