Nerm

One way to think about it is, say that the test had a false positive rate of 2% (hypothetical number, I have no idea what the false positive rate is). If we live in a pretend world where there were zero actual cases in the US, and gave the test to everyone in the country, we would have more than 6 million "confirmed cases" in the US. The death rate of these "confirmed cases" would be very low, because they don't actually have the virus.

Here is an article from yesterday about projections of cases and deaths in the US. Still a pretty big range of estimates. Hopefully there will be more clarity as testing continues to ramp up. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/experts-say-the-coronavirus-outlook-has-worsened-but-the-trajectory-is-still-unclear/

I busted out the calculator. Wasn't the stimulus bill 2 trillion? We have around 325 mil people in our nation, the vast majority of which would be citizens. Unless I'm off on that, that comes out to around 6k per person. I am skeptical that 300% of the stimulus was set aside for corporate bonuses. That % seems a bit high.

Nerm's sarcasm voice: I am outraged by Hillary regarding this kind of irresponsible tweet. She is well aware that if she says not to take medical advice from a man who looked at the solar eclipse, there will be dozens of Trump supporters who will go blind in attempts to "prove" that Hillary was trying to mislead people about the very reasonable act of looking directly at a solar eclipse. More leftist hysteria! She is getting cold blooded.

Here in South Dakota, we just got the news that schools will at least be closed until May 1st. Good to know our Governor, is being proactive with this. I was a little nervous after our Governor became famous for rolling out a anti-drug program with the slogan "Meth, We're on it!"

I think Buzz is right about attaching it to a larger piece. You might even be able to tape it on to another piece of wood with double sided carpet tape. Also, if you have a hand saw, you could just clamp another piece of wood parallel to what you are cutting to keep the saw straight on the line throughout the cut. Here is a video that could also give you an option if you use the circular saw a lot. You could clamp the piece you are cutting onto the bottom side of the jig. I use it all the time for exact cuts on long pieces.

I really liked the movie "Freaks" on Netflix. The movie is primarily about a dad trying to protect his young daughter. I will not go into more detail than that, as one of the interesting aspects of the movie is the tension at the beginning when you are trying to figure out what is "really" going on with the dad and daughter.

You might want to research the proposed unemployment and extended paid leave being discussed in proposals. There may be options besides resigning that protect some of your income/benefits.

I think a Republican staff member complaining the Democrats discussed wanting to eliminate 10k of student loan debt per person. Elizabeth Warren called for an agreement that business could only get support if they agreed to a permanent $15 dollar minimum wage for their company going forward. I don't know if those are issues that were actually being requested in negotiations, but those are what some people are discussing as potentially problematic if they were being requested.

I agree. I have never recommended the movie to anyone. There is no coherent story. I did find some interest in identifying what was being symbolized by various things, but I didn't think it was a good movie. I think my interest was similar to looking at a where's Waldo book, trying to find biblical stories being symbolized over the movie. But the plot/story was about the same as you get from a where's Waldo book... it just doesn't have one.

I would have hated that movie if I had not read an in depth explanation of it being an allegory of biblical themes of creation, and the destruction of nature due to God's creation of man. Knowing what it was going in, I was able to enjoy it without expecting what was happening on the screen to make sense as a story with real people acting in a rational way.

I was so excited to see this contribution to the thread. I don't see very many posts from you about political issues that do not include your hope for executions of Republicans. But, 5 minutes later I read... 🤨

If we end up in a situation where huge numbers of people are fired, or have to stay home for months at a time without anything productive to do, I wonder if it would make sense to offer incentives for online education and training in areas where there are a shortage of workers with necessary skills. It seems like training in tech/computers, or various medical fields would be something productive to do if you are not being allowed to work in your usual job.

I was wondering if they would close dispensaries, or keep them open. I assumed they would stay open, or at least allow for delivery. I have to admit that I had some curiosity about what would happen if shops were closed where it was legal. I wondered if there would end up being an ironic twist where it was easier for people to get weed in states where it was illegal, due to the normal underground distribution being unaffected by orders to close businesses. However, I think states where weed is legal know people would break quarantine to get alcohol and weed, so they will allow it to be sold in one way or another.

It was an extreme example, but stand by the point being made. I think you can support actions made in an emergency, but be against them being regular policy. If you fly in emergency supplies in a catastrophic situation, that is different than regularly flying those supplies to people everywhere regardless of their situation.

The Gordon Ramsey video makes me wonder if it would be cool to have a hidden camera TV show with Ramsey surprising people who just washed their hands. He could brutally berate people for inadequate hand washing. That may help bend the curve if you make all citizens think about the possibility of being recorded and critiqued when they wash their hands. If you are stuck in this situation with a reality TV star as your president, you might as well "lean in" with his expertise.

I may be able to do that, but it would be a couple months. I have a bunch of stuff family members are asking for, and I am a bit behind. But, I do end up making a bunch of things like those small boxes, then look for people to give them to. I will hook you up if I make one in the near future.

I have not yet begun to collect clamps. Here is a small box I made for a friend to use to store "medicinal herbs". I included the mt dew bottle for scale. That one small box took 7 clamps. Then you have to wait until the glue dries before being able to work on other projects. At least that is what I tell myself when I go shopping for more woodworking stuff.

I'm working on building a toy box for my nephew today. My kids are getting bored, so they love to help me out with sanding and finishing work on stuff like this.

I have to say, I think a lot of people talking about politicians or voters being hypocritical regarding potential stimulus checks being sent out are missing the context of the current situation intentionally. I don't think it is hypocritical to oppose a UBI, but to support a short term exemption for stimulus checks when people are being prohibited from working due to a national emergency. I am generally against shooting people, but in the case of an active military battle where an enemy is firing at you... I hope I am not a hypocrite for saying go ahead and shoot that person as many times as needed.

I honestly don't believe that there is currently any political motivation to avoid identifying people who have the virus to keep numbers low. That just inflates the % of people who die from it, which also would look bad for the administration, while increasing the spread of the virus further. Right now, I think they are trying to prioritize testing people who are most likely to be infected, as there is not a surplus of tests available. I think it is a triage decision, not a political one. That ship has sailed.

I think we are finally getting tests out in much larger quantities. I suspect that the numbers in most places will increase dramatically while the backlog of tests are processed.

I think it is stupid and juvenile for Trump to be calling it the Chinese Virus. I also think that he did so for the exact purpose of gas-lighting people into discussing the issue. He very much wants a bunch of tweets and oped articles expressing outrage about his racist language. I believe he already has his future stump speeches ready to talk about how "when I was trying to save American lives while battling the biggest crisis facing this country in decades, all the media could focus on was saying I was racist for stating where the virus originated". He has used this tactic so many times, but it keeps working. Getting people who hate him to start arguing about his language is exactly what he wanted to happen when he chose to use those words. This is a youtube video that is extremely popular with Trump supporters right now. They love this stuff:

So did you end up borrowing a vehicle to get the materials, or did you have them cut it up for you? Also, cutting the stuff in the backyard... was that cut by hand, or did you use power tools. I really struggle to get precision cuts unless I use a table saw. Nice work.

Unless something has changed, I think congress has made themselves exempt from being prosecuted for trading stocks with inside information that they get through their roll in congress. They are even allowed to trade stocks that will be directly impacted by their own legislation. At least that is my understanding.