No Excuses

The Jets are going to miss the FG to win this aren’t they? 

It’s not a bad trade. 

I think the only sad thing about it is how it reinforces what a third rate team the Wizards are in the NBA. A potentially major market team that is functionally the most irrelevant team in the league. A complete afterthought for any superstar and a dumping ground for other teams to send their garbage. 

Washington Amazon Prime or bust

 no but seriously, rebrand this mfer. Also bullying works, don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t.

I got excited first and then I realized that nothing good ever happens to this cursed team. Our new owner will probably be San Dnyder.

On 12/26/2021 at 5:09 PM, PeterMP said:

 

Is there actually any evidence that we had the ability to generate the tests at the necessary volume and if we did, it would have made much of a difference?

 

The Vanity Fair piece is just odd to me.  The interpretation of a "vaccine only" response (from the Vanity Fair article) can be widely interpreted.  But even they say the Biden administration has put billions of dollars into ramping up test production.  $23 billion dollars doesn't seem like saying we don't care about something.  They talk about Europe like it is a great model for at home testing, but in Europe there have been issues with omicron.  If home testing is some great panacea, then why didn't the UK keep it in check?

 

It isn't like the FDA hasn't approved tests.  In May, there were multiple FDA approved home tests.

 

https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/diagnostics/covid-home-test-kit-review/99/i20

 

It's widely accepted that diminishing FDA restrictions on testing actually resulted in some not very good tests being put on the market and probably hurt our response and that home testing wasn't likely to going to actually solve the problem.

 

e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577497/

 

(Which is consistent with what we've seen in Europe and them still having issues with omicron.)

 

 (People frequently like to criticize the FDA, but I've known a few people that work at the FDA and mostly they are good people that work hard.  And there is a long history of complaints about the FDA being underfunded and under resourced.  But by May, the FDA had approved a handful of home tests.  Are we really blaming a Dec. out break on lack of approval by the FDA that had been approved well before that?)

 

Generally, this seems to me to be likely a case where people like to complain about government when there really wasn't much different that the government could do.  Given the restrictions and resources the relevant government entities have.  I'd say 20/20 hindsight is perfect.  But this isn't even a case of that.  There's really nothing that I've seen that suggest that a different approach would have changes things much at all.  London is shutting down bars.  We could have rushed tests through the FDA process, probably had some poorer tests on the market, spent $200 billion on ramping up at home testing, and be in the same situation.  For what?

 

(What has worked pretty well is China style lockdowns.))

The FDA's approval process for rapid tests, and in general at-home diagnostics, is hardly explicable by any logical standards: https://www.propublica.org/article/this-scientist-created-a-rapid-test-just-weeks-into-the-pandemic-heres-why-you-still-cant-get-it

There is no reason our shelves aren't stocked with $2 rapid tests like in Europe except that we (a) didn't approve tests fast enough, (b) don't allow tests approved in Europe, and (c) didn't subsidize their production in between waves when companies were destroying their stockpiles and shutting down production.

Rapid at-home tests wouldn't have prevented waves, but they have helped people in countries where they are cheap navigate around COVID in a much more effective way. There was no proper messaging informing the public on the proper use of rapid tests and what their proper use-case are (they are very good at informing you when you are highly contagious, or asymptomatic and contagious if you are going to visit family or friends).

They would prevent the long testing lines we see for PCR tests. Most importantly, we would not have had empty shelves right at the time omicron was peaking. Countries with a more nimble approval process did not have this problem, which tells you all you need to know.

Hospitalization data from SF and NYC showing no sign of an unmanageable surge:

The administration would argue (as it does in the article) that it is precisely following the advice of “public health experts”. The problem is that they are listening to a segment of voices that are deeply uninterested in leveraging technology and innovation to its maximum and becoming flexible about policy in the face of an emergency. I’ve worked hand in hand with many government agencies on science and tech policy issues and this is pretty much standard course across them. They are not equipped to effectively regulate innovation, and they are beyond terrible at imagining how innovation can make society better. 
 

It’s pretty much DC at its worst. Republicans are a bunch of incompetent buffoons and Democrats can’t be bothered to think that sometimes good governance demands bureaucratic flexibility and creative thinking beyond your little echo chamber of career government officials.

24 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

 

I'd be curious if future covid boosters will be a blend of variant protections like flu shots are? Is that even possible?

It’s possible. It will depend on which strains are in circulation at the time of vaccine prep and testing. For the next update, I believe it will likely be entirely tailored for Omicron. Not sure how it will hold up but the variants from here on out will be selected for immune evasion built largely to the ancestral strain all the way up to delta. Omicron is our best indication for what future strains will look like so it makes the most sense to vaccinate against it at some point next year.

The FDA is squarely to blame for the lack of at-home rapid tests available in this country, followed by the Biden administration laughing at the suggestion of sending rapid tests for free to people only to enact it in January when it won’t matter much. 
 

I really, really hope that Pfizer and Moderna are following through with Omicron specific shots for next year. Fauci once again gave terrible advice that we don’t need variant specific shots. The COVID shots need to be updated every year to match the dominant circulation strain at the time as closely as possible. They may not end up being a perfect match, but we know pretty well now that shots based on the ancestral strain won’t be good enough for the immune evasive strains that will follow Omicron.

5 minutes ago, Elessar78 said:

Except the word out of SA was that Omi is more likely to re-infect those with prior infection. 
 

In the summer 2021 surge, they were flying people across the country in search of beds. If all areas light up, then there’s nowhere to ship them.

 

Oxygen and other related drugs are finite. Collapse is prob a strong word but it could but it could likely end up as it can’t function on a very basic level. 

The reinfection of past cases or breakthroughs is partially why this wave is milder. Pretty much every COVID wave from here on out in the US will be variants with strong immune evasion.
 

Collapse is not happening nationwide. Parts of the country still coping with delta hospitalizations may have a tough time. But Omicron is hitting places fast but also leaves fast too. And we are not seeing apocalyptic hospitalization scenarios anywhere in the world where the outbreak is on a downtrend already.

I really really doubt that our healthcare system will collapse. There may be parts of the country that are strained but this will not look like the earlier waves even with a larger outbreak size. There are some voices in the public health community who have made COVID doomerism their identity and it’s time to start ignoring their advice.
 

The country overall is at 80-90% exposure through vaccines or infection. There are not that many pockets of completely unexposed localities left. We have already seen the need for mechanical ventilation down and ICU admission down for Omicron. Reports of people needing oxygen are also down by a good %. We have good antiviral drugs just approved, and several mAbs have shown to work against omicron.
 

Anyone saying that healthcare systems will collapse nationwide is completely bull****ting.

13 hours ago, purbeast said:

You are in for a rollercoaster of emotions with part 2.  I loved everything about that game.  It's definitely the best PS4 game IMO.

 

The only thing I wished was that TLOU part 1 was fresher in my mind because I only played TLOU one time and it was at launch.  I remembered the overall general idea/story but definitely not the details.

It’s been interesting playing TLOU during a raging pandemic. With the ending I was so conflicted:

I’m doing the mini DLC now but can’t wait to start the 2nd one. Have to wait after holidays into next year though which is going to kill me lol.

Just finished The Last of Us, what a ****ing story and game. Have never seen a game take such simple design decisions but create such a rich and tense world around it. The ending leaves you feeling so many things, can’t wait to see what’s coming in the second game.

I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s because we had temporary reprieve from school shootings during COVID. This story is just so infuriating in a way that I haven’t felt in a while. It has all the characteristics of the worst aspects of American society.

Dumb selfish parents, a spoiled little ****head, school administrators who can’t be bothered to do their jobs. 
 

So many bad choices by so many people. Time and time again we are reminded that we are a country with too many selfish assholes.

Besides releasing uninspiring boring ****, it looks they are just enormous scumbags. I’m ok with never playing a Rockstar published game, they literally haven’t made a good one since San Andreas.

8 hours ago, Momma There Goes That Man said:

man, you don’t even know. Are you going to play 2 afterwards?

You are embarking on The Godfather part 1-2 of video game stories imo. Each one set a new standard. 

Yeah I’m gonna play both back to back. I’m like 1 hour into the first one now. 

8 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Finished Ghost of Tsushima over the weekend.  A masterpiece.

 

No idea what to play next.  

Finished it myself last week. Great game, loved the simple story, and very refreshing to play a game with mostly good character writing/side stories. I felt more attached to Lady Masako’s story than the main one, and I’ve hardly ever enjoyed the pointless side quests in any game.
 

The open world is 90% empty, but the game is still so good. Compare that to Cyberpunk2077, which spectacularly failed at creating an enjoyable world despite maximizing it with density. 

Starting The Last of Us 1 now. I’m like a decade late. Pretty good so far.

15 hours ago, KDawg said:

The goal of any deadly virus is to mutate to the point that is no longer deadly and doesn’t kill the host, isn’t it? 
 

Is Covid different? Why are these variants such major news for folks

There is no goal to any virus in terms of lethality, they simply have to transmit as efficiently as possible within the constraints of their genetics. Lethal viruses can sustain themselves as long as they transmit before social isolation/distancing can catch their spread.

The first SARS coronavirus was extremely lethal compared to this one, but symptoms developed fast enough that it allowed public health agencies to quarantine and control spread. The current virus is not as lethal, but it spreads pre-symptomatically really efficiently, which is why it caused a sustained global pandemic unlike the first one. The science isn't entirely clear on this, but it's likely possible under the appropriate conditions that you can have a coronavirus that has the lethality of the original SARS, but the pre-symptomatic transmission profile of SARS-Cov2.

With the current coronavirus, we likely have to remain vigilant for quite some time that it doesn't develop a more lethal variant that maintains or accelerates its ability to transmit before symptoms appear. We know that this is has already happened once with the Delta variant, which spread faster, and was more lethal than the Alptha variant.

I suspect that until we have a vaccine that isn't primarily based on the spike protein, any new variant that shows changes in viral behavior (transmission, lethality, etc.) will be a cause for concern. There are going to be more variants over the next few years, we haven't even seen the virus evolve in response to the vaccines yet. When we reach endemicity, where most people have immunity through vaccines or infection, the selection pressure on the virus will be very different than what its facing currently.

This is a long-winded way of saying that there is cause for concern with any new variant because we are building our knowledge for how coronaviruses evolve within a human population for the first time ever. We will probably stop caring about new variants when we know how the virus behaves/evolves when nearly all the people alive in the world have built up immunity through vaccines or natural infection. We may also stop caring whenever a vaccine is available that is not sensitive to mutations in the spike protein.

55 minutes ago, Grumpy Vet said:

Hi all - 

 

For those of you that recently got the booster, where are you finding it?  I'm in Howard County Maryland and I can't find any appointments sooner than a couple weeks out.  I'm reticent to pick something that far out.  I'm in sales and have a pretty crazy schedule right now.  I have a few new jobs starting up out of town and will more than likely be out of town a bunch over the next few weeks.  I won't know for sure when until a day or two before.  I've checked local pharmacies, grocery stores and the local health department.  The earliest I've found is 2nd week in December.

 

I'm a Pfizer guy sitting at about 7 months past dose #2.  

 

From all the stuff in the news and social media - you'd think you could find something within 48 hours and within 20 miles - but that's not what I'm finding.

 

Thanks,

GV

If you can make it to Montgomery County, there are county run vaccination sites that are doing walk up appointments. I know the Silver Spring Civic Center barely has any wait.

https://mcgvaccineprod.powerappsportals.us/en-US/covid-vaccine-scheduling/

This is a good move. They should also at some point institute hard caps on car speeds. There is zero reason vehicles should be able to exceed speed limits over 90 MPH. The max speed limit in the US is 85 MPH, and this is one highway in Texas.

You would avoid a lot of idiots like Henry Ruggs killing innocent people through both measures.

9 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

 

So the answer in Virginia is to act like young progressives dont exist?  Terry's campaign was extremely weak, centered moderate compromise positions and tying his opponent to a guy that was no longer in office. 

 

The second Youngkin started talking about raising the education budget, **** got real, they traditionally cut it instead. 

 

Did he pivot, did he budge, no, he did nothing to get progressives to vote for him, no olive branch, nothing.  That won't work either.

The moderates in the party are bad too. Stale and outdated ideas, poor messaging control, typically uninspiring vision. 
 

There’s an ideal Democratic Party that doesn’t do dumb **** like call pregnant women “birthing people”, and chooses to focus its messaging on popular ideas like healthcare, wages, labor rights and anti-corruption. 
 

But we’ve got the old-tired Clinton era jerkoffs still running for office, who are staffed by young out of touch knuckleheads from Ivy League schools, and it’s just an all around mess on messaging and party identity.

At some point the bozos in the Democratic Party hopefully realize that letting college-educated progressives dominate your social messaging is a massive L nearly all over the country. 
 

The GOP made CRT into an issue, even though it’s non-existent in schools, but let’s not pretend that a bunch of Dem aligned people haven’t been shoving the ideology of Robin DeAngelo and Ibram Kendi in everyone’s face. 

The GTA remake looks like trash tbh.

And yeah for real, stop making enormous empty maps with nothing to do in them. Make well thought out levels, have none of these people played Mass Effect 2-3 and the Deus Ex games?

Playing through Ghost of Tsushima right now. It’s pretty good, like if Ubisoft knew how to make a good open world game. 

It’s got the whole generic open world loop going on, but the story is really good, the side characters and their quests are interesting and the combat really shines. The vibrant colors really cover up the butt ass textures they used in the game but it works. The load times, resolution/frame rate on PS5 are amazing. 

Imagine if Ubisoft had taken the Assassins Creed series in this direction, instead of creating the 💩 coming out since Odyssey. 

The country they offered it to snitched on them to the FBI so I'm assuming it was an allied nation?