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Mrs Whiggins

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5 hours ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

 

I’m pretty sure they get attacked by infected settlers. Then later Spock gets infected by a flying amoeba which looks sort of like a fried egg. Then Bones figures out that very bright light will kill the bug but it makes Spock go blind. Then Bones regrettably realizes that just ultraviolet light would’ve killed the creature infecting Spock and that wouldn’t have blinded him. But fortunately Spock’s Vulcan physiology has protected him because the bright Vulcan sun caused the Vulcans to develop an extra eyelid and Spock’s eyesight returns.

That’s assuming I’ve correctly identified that as a scene from Operation - Annihilate!, the final episode of the first season of the original series. Masks wouldn’t have protected them. Spock got infected when one of the flying creatures landed on his back.

But I assume the gag was about the guy with the red shirt without a mask being the guy who dies. But that always goes without saying. He’d die even if he was wearing a mask. Because he’s a no name extra wearing a red shirt and that’s what they do.

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At this point I've just about lost faith in this country. I don't know which is stupider -- electing a failed businessman President of the United States, or not getting vaccinated in a pandemic.

 

Edited by Bookman
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7 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I’m pretty sure they get attacked by infected settlers. Then later Spock gets infected by a flying amoeba which looks sort of like a fried egg. Then Bones figures out that very bright light will kill the bug but it makes Spock go blind. Then Bones regrettably realizes that just ultraviolet light would’ve killed the creature infecting Spock and that wouldn’t have blinded him. But fortunately Spock’s Vulcan physiology has protected him because the bright Vulcan sun caused the Vulcans to develop an extra eyelid and Spock’s eyesight returns.

That’s assuming I’ve correctly identified that as a scene from Operation - Annihilate!, the final episode of the first season of the original series. Masks wouldn’t have protected them. Spock got infected when one of the flying creatures landed on his back.

But I assume the gag was about the guy with the red shirt without a mask being the guy who dies. But that always goes without saying. He’d die even if he was wearing a mask. Because he’s a no name extra wearing a red shirt and that’s what they do.

image.gif.241793fb75def960fe96ee30a2d692c1.gif

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10 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I’m pretty sure they get attacked by infected settlers. Then later Spock gets infected by a flying amoeba which looks sort of like a fried egg. Then Bones figures out that very bright light will kill the bug but it makes Spock go blind. Then Bones regrettably realizes that just ultraviolet light would’ve killed the creature infecting Spock and that wouldn’t have blinded him. But fortunately Spock’s Vulcan physiology has protected him because the bright Vulcan sun caused the Vulcans to develop an extra eyelid and Spock’s eyesight returns.

That’s assuming I’ve correctly identified that as a scene from Operation - Annihilate!, the final episode of the first season of the original series. Masks wouldn’t have protected them. Spock got infected when one of the flying creatures landed on his back.

But I assume the gag was about the guy with the red shirt without a mask being the guy who dies. But that always goes without saying. He’d die even if he was wearing a mask. Because he’s a no name extra wearing a red shirt and that’s what they do.

Or we could just chuckle at the joke and move on.  

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1 hour ago, bolverk said:

I feel really awful for anyone of you who are facing the dilemma of sending your unvaccinated children to school in the next couple of weeks. 

Texas Hospitals Are Already Overloaded. Doctors Are ‘Frightened by What Is Coming.’
Across Texas, health officials warned of a growing crisis not seen in months, with more than 10,000 Texans hospitalized and intensive care units stretched thin.

Aug. 11, 2021
Updated 7:21 p.m. ET
SAN ANTONIO — At least two hospitals in Houston have been so overwhelmed with coronavirus patients this week that officials erected overflow tents outside. In Austin, hospitals were nearly out of beds in their intensive care units. And in San Antonio, a spike in virus cases reached alarming levels not seen in months, with children as young as 2 months old tethered to supplemental oxygen.

Across Texas, health officials warned of overloaded, strained hospitals, a growing crisis not seen since early February, when a late winter wave deluged the state’s health care system. More than 10,000 Texans have been hospitalized this week and at least 53 hospitals were at maximum capacity in their intensive care units.

“If this continues, and I have no reason to believe that it will not, there is no way my hospital is going to be able to handle this. There is no way the region is going to be able to handle this,” Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, a top health official in Harris County, which includes Houston, told state legislators on Tuesday. “I am one of those people that always sees the glass half-full, I always see the silver lining. But I am frightened by what is coming.”

In recent days, Texas has averaged about 12,400 new cases a day, nearly double the number seen just two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database. The spike comes as about one in five U.S. hospitals with intensive care units, or 583 total hospitals, recently reported that at least 95 percent of their I.C.U. beds were full. One worry about the highly contagious Delta variant, which has fueled surges across the country, is whether it might test the capacity of health systems.

Hospitals in New Orleans, Jackson, Miss., Miami and Huntsville, Ala., have been taxed this week, too, as cases continue to rise in those regions and elsewhere across the South. Texas is among several states grappling with dangerous surges exacerbated by the Delta variant, which the White House recently said was as contagious as the chickenpox.

Earlier this summer, cases skyrocketed in Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas. As in those states, the vast majority of patients hospitalized in Texas are not vaccinated, state officials said.

The sudden increase of infections has refocused national attention on the efficacy of masks and comes as the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, remains firm in his refusal to enact any statewide mandates requiring masks while also prohibiting local officials from doing so in their own communities. To help manage the surge, Mr. Abbott appealed this week to health care workers outside the state to travel to Texas and help the overloaded hospitals.

The number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations across the state is projected to climb to well over 15,000 by the end of August, according to the University of Texas at Austin’s Covid-19 model consortium.

“The fact that we’re having to construct the tents shows that the system in general is not prepared,” said Amanda Callaway, associate administrator for Harris Health System, which oversees the two hospitals in the Houston area requiring overflow space. “There’s lots of concern. There’s only so much you can do, only so many rooms. We’re just trying to respond as fast as we can.”

Aside from the tents, doctors are also treating patients in waiting rooms because of a shortage of beds, she said, adding that at least 90 percent of the coronavirus patients are unvaccinated.

Dr. David Persse, Houston’s chief medical officer, blamed inadequate attention by state officials to highlight the importance and necessity of vaccinations to stem the surge, with Mr. Abbott framing it as an issue of individual rights. “It’s the wrong approach,” Dr. Persse said. “The rhetoric around this has been such that people adhering to their right to make their own decisions are endangering themselves and their families.”

Mr. Abbott, like governors in Florida and elsewhere across the South, maintained his position even after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course and recommended that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks indoors in high-risk areas. He issued an executive order prohibiting local governments from mandating vaccines and prohibiting school districts from enforcing masks.

Still, local officials in some of Texas’ largest cities, including San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Austin, have defied Mr. Abbott’s orders and issued new mask requirements in city buildings and schools, citing the unfettered spread of the virus and still too-low vaccination rates. In Texas, about 56 percent of those 18 and older are fully inoculated.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, just shy of 240 Texas children were hospitalized on Tuesday with the coronavirus. Citing those figures, President Biden on Wednesday told reporters that he was exploring whether the federal government has the authority to intervene in state mandates issued by Mr. Abbott.

Over the weekend, the authorities in the State Capitol of Austin warned residents of a “dire” situation in the city, with hospitals so overrun with patients that they were short of both staff and resources to care for the sick.

Earlier this week, the resurgence was playing out in unnerving ways at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, where a growing number of children were being admitted with severe symptoms of Covid-19, including high fevers, chills, coughs and shortness of breath. Many others arriving for unrelated illnesses were also testing positive for the virus, hospital officials said.

The Delta variant and other respiratory infections were to blame for the crowded ward, with up to 15 Covid patients on any given day, said Dr. Norman Christopher, the chief medical officer at the hospital.

“We are now entering a new phase where our volumes are increasing much more exponentially here just like on the adult side,” Dr. Christopher said. “And that’s compared to almost nobody just a few months ago.”

Dr. Abhishek Patel, who works in the hospital’s pediatric I.C.U., walked in and out of a room where a 6-month-old and a 2-month-old were battling severe Covid-19 infections and were breathing with the aid of supplemental oxygen. This week alone, he said, two teenagers, who had other underlying health problems, succumbed to the virus.

In a room nearby, Cerena Gonzales, 14, moaned in pain. Last week, she was an excited teenager looking forward to starting her freshman year in high school. On Tuesday, she was surrounded by hospital equipment. She and her younger sister got sick after their parents, Carlos Gonzales, 47, and his wife Elizabeth, 42, began developing Covid symptoms and were taken to the hospital. None of them had been vaccinated, Ms. Gonzales said.

“We hesitated,” Ms. Gonzales said. “We were all a healthy family.”

As soon as she was discharged, Ms. Gonzales, still breathing with the aid of two portable oxygen tanks, rushed to her daughter’s side. She caressed her daughter’s forehead and tried to keep her upbeat. She recalled in tears the harrowing scene days earlier when doctors put her on a speakerphone so that she could hear as her daughter was intubated. “I thought I was going to lose my mind,” Ms. Gonzales said. “I could not be there with her.”

By Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Gonzales said she believed the worst of the crisis was over. She untangled her daughter’s thick black hair from IV tubes and gently encouraged her to drink orange juice.

Several members of her family had been ravaged by the virus, she said, and so she now plans to organize a family excursion to get vaccinated. “There is no reason any parent should go through this,” she said.

Nearby, Anne Marie Baker, a pediatric nurse, had the grim task of cleaning a room where just moments earlier a teenager had died from the virus. Ms. Baker took off her masks and slumped into a chair to catch her breath. Children under 12, who do not yet qualify for a vaccine, are most at risk, she said.

“In the last two months, we just had all of these patients,” she said. “It’s just so sad.”

Need more apple flavor horse paste. Stat.
 

It’s our only hope left.

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28 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I guess the median is technically a type of average, but there is a real joke inside the joke there. 

I agree.  Obviously, Carlin was referring to IQ tests, and he should have pointed out the difference between "median" and "average", noting that in the US the average IQ is 98 when the worldwide average is 100, and then gone on to discuss the flaws in using IQ tests to measure intelligence, regardless.

Good thing he was just a dumb comedian going for a quick laugh.

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26 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

Or we could just chuckle at the joke and move on.  

It’s not really that good of a joke and Neil should know better. And screw you if you don’t like it when I flaunt my Trekker cred. It amused me and that’s all that matters. Live long and prosper, motherfucker.  😛

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My son started his first day of Kindergarten today. This afternoon we all got an email from the principal that 4 "individuals of the ____ community" have tested positive. Already. What I don't understand and what I probably won't be able to figure out is if these people set foot on campus in the last couple of days. Possibly, since there was a meet the teacher on Monday. 

My son is super excited about starting school and we want him to do in-person learning. I doubt we could swing home schooling or remote learning. Even if we did, it's not available until two weeks from now, so lots of FAAFO between now and then. The emotional roller coaster between watching him start this next chapter in his life and worrying about his health is jarring.

We are supposed to go to a wedding up in Wisconsin at the end of the month. We have been thinking of pulling the plug on that, but by some twisted irony it may be good to get out of the hot zone that is Texas if only temporarily.

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My son started his first day of Kindergarten today. This afternoon we all got an email from the principal that 4 "individuals of the ____ community" have tested positive. Already. What I don't understand and what I probably won't be able to figure out is if these people set foot on campus in the last couple of days. Possibly, since there was a meet the teacher on Monday. 
My son is super excited about starting school and we want him to do in-person learning. I doubt we could swing home schooling or remote learning. Even if we did, it's not available until two weeks from now, so lots of FAAFO between now and then. The emotional roller coaster between watching him start this next chapter in his life and worrying about his health is jarring.
We are supposed to go to a wedding up in Wisconsin at the end of the month. We have been thinking of pulling the plug on that, but by some twisted irony it may be good to get out of the hot zone that is Texas if only temporarily.

My kids last half of kinder and all last year of 1st grade have been wrecked by covid.
He’s definitely behind in reading. Good to go in math, but during all online no,fucking way he could learn to read. Its bullshit.
Hope you fair better.
Were in RRISD.
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My kids last half of kinder and all last year of 1st grade have been wrecked by covid.
He’s definitely behind in reading. Good to go in math, but during all online no,fucking way he could learn to read. Its bullshit.
Hope you fair better.
Were in RRISD.
My work with reading to my kid nightly no matter what for 30 min since he was 2 and just buying him piles of books of various interests paid more dividends than anything else I've done in life. That and modeling reading for fun and then discussing books.
I work my ass of on helping him learn how to learn, get organized and break projects down into manageable chunks.

In the US you either need to budget a lot of time supplementing Public school, or go Private. IMO

No judgment. it took serious effort to get my kid to enjoy reading. Once it took, it was easy. Around 5th grade he read Hatchet and we reread it on a hiking trip
Finished it at 8k feet in July at 30 degrees in Yosemite in a tent. Truly great times.
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8 hours ago, williemackgarza said:


My kids last half of kinder and all last year of 1st grade have been wrecked by covid.
He’s definitely behind in reading. Good to go in math, but during all online no,fucking way he could learn to read. Its bullshit.
Hope you fair better.
Were in RRISD.

Get some Hank the cow dog books and read them to him.

Seriously, great books for kids.

 

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7 hours ago, We’reTexas said:

Holy shit r/HermanCainAward? That’s incredible. 

An endless opportunity to see Trumpkins (and some random whackadoos)  get comeuppance of sorts.  Not sure if folks clicked on through to that thread, but the redditors in there dug up a lot on these two human wastes of space.  She died, and did so while having that as her facebook avatar.  I don't really do facebook, but apparently as of yesterday their facebook pages were open and much was discovered.

Surrounding in quotes for the good times.  It really seems like it couldn't have happened to a finer couple.

 

Quote

 

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Lol her Facebook is still there and public. This is what she said on July 7th sharing an anti covid article

Yes, words matter... And fear is something that doesn't go away easily or quickly. As one expert said recently. When people start dropping dead, then you've got an emergency. Nothing like this is happening....

She would then go on to drop dead from covid.

Here's what she posted on June 22nd:

"I can't help but wonder when the head count is going to end, or is it going to continue as a subtle reminder of the scourge we've been "saved" from? The "numbers" are getting lower and lower... Only 18 today!!!! At what point are YOU going to get on with your life and get back to normal?

She would then go on to become another covid statistic that could not be "saved"

On January 29th she posted:

"Have you noticed the miraculous decline in covid??? I mean, with a 99.4% recovery/survival rate... Who knew so many people would suddenly get better!!

Little did she know she would be one of the not so many people who would not get better

She was on trumps juice and an avid watcher of OANN and Newsmax. She spent this entire year laughing off covid only to die from it scared and alone. They always talk about how covid has a 99.4% recovery rate(which is false but w e) because they never think they will end up being the .8% that die from it.

She was also a Secretary for the Aroostock County Republicans, so that's one less voter and supporter for their party. Sacrificed owning the libs. I want to make a custom card with all of her anti-covid statuses and mail it to that Republican group she worked for with a big letter "F" in the middle. On the front of the card will be a liberal crying and an "owned" under it.

Here's the Facebook feed:

https://www.facebook.com/cindy.johansen.5

 

 

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Hats off to the reasonable people on school boards that deal with these morons that attend the board meetings. I don't know if I could last 1 meeting without telling them and their kids to f-off.

And I've read rumors that QAnon folks see school boards as targets for their future political ambitions. I recall those random elections on a Saturday in May where you can get on school boards in the Houston area with maybe a few hundred votes. 

When a highly motivated base gets large enough, they can move mountains against regular people.

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12 hours ago, Bookman said:

At this point I've just about lost faith in this country. I don't know which is stupider -- electing a failed businessman President of the United States, or not getting vaccinated in a pandemic.

 

 

12 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I guess the median is technically a type of average, but there is a real joke inside the joke there. 

I was thinking about this joke this morning, totally unrelated to this post, which I find cool, but gives me an excuse to comment on it. 

 

But here is a joke within the joke I was thinking about: why does this joke work with a large crowd?  Because everyone thinks he's talking to them.  You are the smart one, and you'll indicate it by laughing at the situation you're mired in.  It's Emperor New Clothes-esque.

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As I hoped and somewhat expected, as of last night our school district is mandating masks for all students, staff, and visitors regardless of vaccination status at all district buildings through at least the end of September. 

They surveyed parents in the district on their preference: 54/46 in favor of masks. 

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16 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Courtesy of some of the more, um, enlightened on my wife's  Facebook.  She won't quit Facebook, because it's become too entertaining (or sad, depending on the day).  Not only that, the person who posted this shared her iPhone contact she had made for this doctor:

 

IMG_4125.thumb.jpg.dde1f8c0a142230100bb121eba256550.jpg

 

 

 

IMG_4124.jpg

Well, now I have that Imran Khan song in my head.

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5 minutes ago, heso said:

As I hoped and somewhat expected, as of last night our school district is mandating masks for all students, staff, and visitors regardless of vaccination status at all district buildings through at least the end of September. 

They surveyed parents in the district on their preference: 54/46 in favor of masks. 

which district? 

I know RRISD did something similar but is still keeping them optional.

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I was thinking about this joke this morning, totally unrelated to this post, which I find cool, but gives me an excuse to comment on it. 
 
But here is a joke within the joke I was thinking about: why does this joke work with a large crowd?  Because everyone thinks he's talking to them.  You are the smart one, and you'll indicate it by laughing at the situation you're mired in.  It's Emperor New Clothes-esque.
Well he didn't tell the joke at a Rodney Carrington/ Larry The Cable Guy show...
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Found out yesterday that a friend passed away from Covid. He was unvaccinated. His widow also got it, survived, but is on oxygen. Her Facebook page is filled with comments about don't listen to the haters, and you both did the right thing, and other such nonsense. He wasn't a close friend, but when I did associate with him he never was an over the top Trumper, although I knew that's where he was.  He was a retired police officer and was always about serving others. Just crazy that he refused to get vaccinated. I will never understand.

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Found out yesterday that a friend passed away from Covid. He was unvaccinated. His widow also got it, survived, but is on oxygen. Her Facebook page is filled with comments about don't listen to the haters, and you both did the right thing, and other such nonsense. He wasn't a close friend, but when I did associate with him he never was an over the top Trumper, although I knew that's where he was.  He was a retired police officer and was always about serving others. Just crazy that he refused to get vaccinated. I will never understand.

Lovely that their FB “friends” are telling them that they did the right thing — that’s rich. Somebody else made the sacrifice, the ultimate one in this case, for them. The irony is lost on these stupid, selfish pricks.
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18 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Mississippi's last stand for hospital care:

 

 

Quote

 

1,000 Kids in Mississippi Test Positive for COVID-19 After School Reopens
Thousands more are in quarantine after schools reopened in the state as the delta variant surges.

Nearly 5,000 children, educators and school staff are quarantined in Mississippi after returning to classrooms at the start of the new school year, some under mask-optional policies.

The 69 outbreaks reported between Aug. 2 to Aug. 6, which was the second week of school for some districts, resulted in nearly 1,000 children and 300 teachers and staff testing positive for COVID-19, according to a weekly report from Mississippi's Department of Health.

While many school districts adopted a mask mandate for the beginning of the school year, it was not universal throughout the state, despite pleading from the Mississippi State Medical Association last week for all districts to require students and staff to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.

The highly contagious delta variant is ripping through Mississippi, which also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, more than quadrupling case numbers since June and causing a deficit of ICU beds.

The state's early start to the new school year is providing a grim bellwether for school districts set to return more than 50 million students to classrooms over the next few weeks, many under mask-optional policies.

In southern Mississippi, Lamar County School District shuttered two of its schools during the last week in July and returned students to virtual learning until Aug. 16 after a week-long staggered reopening resulted in one high school identifying six cases among staff and 41 cases among students, forcing the quarantine of roughly 100 people. Highlighting just how contagious the delta variant is, after one week of in-person learning last year, the school district recorded only five cases among staff and five among students.

Despite the early warning signs from states like Mississippi and Arkansas, where than 800 students, educators and staff from one school district were quarantined just days after they began the new school year under a mask-optional policy, a handful of Republican governors are refusing to reconsider executive orders and state laws barring school districts from requiring masks.

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2021-08-11/1-000-kids-in-mississippi-test-positive-for-covid-19-after-school-reopens

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Here's a terrific article by Dr. Sanjay Gupta discussing "breakthrough" infections and what they really mean.  I'm sure most anti-vaxxers couldn't be bothered to read it, but if they did so with an open mind, it might change some perspectives.

Two good takeaways:  the reason the vaccine is more effective against severe disease and death as opposed to just preventing infection is because the immunoglobulins that are produced by the body post-vaccine are far more capable of entering lung tissue than upper airway tissues (nose, throat, etc.).  He also points out the obvious that seems to escape too many people, and that is the fact that as more people become vaccinated, the percentage of breakthrough infections goes up, and with 100% vaccination rate every infection would be by definition a breakthrough infection.

Breakthrough infections

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3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

and that is the fact that as more people become vaccinated, the percentage of breakthrough infections goes up, and with 100% vaccination rate every infection would be by definition a breakthrough infection.

fuck it is sad that this simple concept is completely lost on some folks. 

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2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Here's a terrific article by Dr. Sanjay Gupta discussing "breakthrough" infections and what they really mean.  I'm sure most anti-vaxxers couldn't be bothered to read it, but if they did so with an open mind, it might change some perspectives.

Two good takeaways:  the reason the vaccine is more effective against severe disease and death as opposed to just preventing infection is because the immunoglobulins that are produced by the body post-vaccine are far more capable of entering lung tissue than upper airway tissues (nose, throat, etc.).  He also points out the obvious that seems to escape too many people, and that is the fact that as more people become vaccinated, the percentage of breakthrough infections goes up, and with 100% vaccination rate every infection would be by definition a breakthrough infection.

Breakthrough infections

So you're saying that vaxxes will eventually fail 100% of the time and that Covid is a hoax./EveryDumbFuckingTrumpkinIWentToHighSchoolWithWhoIsNowOnFB

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