Hacker News Reader

droithommeon MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

Massachusetts was one of the first states to attempt universal health care coverage. They also have some genuinely fantastic research hospitals. The best in the nation? Not sure and maybe not. But "some of the best", yeah, that's quite reasonable. And good enough? I'd say ... no.

droithommeon UK Health Minister tests positive for coronavirus

They should test her. She might have it. They have the testing capacity. Your opinion on this is incorrect. If Netherlands continues with this policy they are following in the horrific missteps of the US in restricting testing.

Some homebody with symptoms that don't match? Put them at the bottom of the queue for testing if there is limited testing capacity. In the meantime, grow testing capacity as fast as you can which is 100% of political issue and not a scientific or economic one, and make as many n95 masks as possible domestically.

> "she's being treated as she should be"

That is a completely unmerited claim and one which causes harm.

droithommeon MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

> If there is no refund being offered for the content shifting online from in-person, why have in-person at all?

Most MIT undergrads pay no tuition, even though tuition is something like $70,000 a year there. They have a massive endowment and are thus on average one of the lowest cost colleges in the US, though not as low cost as Princeton. What refunds could they give?

> Is room and board going to be refunded?

Undoubtedly.

> If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all?

Most of MIT's undergraduate course work is on line and free for anyone to take. Many take advantage of that. They also have a Masters program, the first year of which anyone who wants to can take it for free. Those who do well are admitted to the second year.

MIT's way ahead of other universities on online education and does extremely well with it. The main "problem" is that MIT is in the top two engineering schools in the world, their classes are extremely rigorous and it simply is not for everyone. 99% of the world population, to be blunt, are not intelligent enough to do well there. And MIT has no intention of dumbing it down to be more "fair and equal" in accordance with the democratic ideal of minimal expectations.

But yes, there are effectively no caps on admission if you want to take online classes there. You won't get an MIT diploma, but you will learn the material and what you do with it is up to you.

droithommeon California will pay people unable to work because of Covid-19, and their carers

$6000 a month mortgage.

$1000 a month property taxes.

$2000 a month health insurance premiums.

$1000 a month car payments.

$1000 a month food bill.

That's not uncommon in the bay area for a developer with two or three kids. $132k without even getting started.

Suddenly his $150k developer income is cut to 60% of what it was before, $90k. Except wait it's not there's a "cap" so he's pulling in a massive $62k. With $132 in basic expenses.

This is no problem and terribly generous as you see it.

droithommeon California will pay people unable to work because of Covid-19, and their carers

Thanks. As I see it it is beneficial to society to avoid putting the quarantined in such desperate situations as they have no reasonable choice but to break quarantine. They need their needs taken care of to prevent them losing all they have worked for, they need regular delivered meals, they need things to prevent them going insane whether that be books or notebooks and pens or Netflix access or whatever.

Critically deprived people reasonably go insane, escape isolation, and become spreaders. Thus it is a matter of public health not to deprive people.

droithommeon California will pay people unable to work because of Covid-19, and their carers

I think you must have misunderstood my comment because you say you see it from another angle, then you explain my position. It is vitally necessary to society that people be quarantined and be able to cope with the quarantine, and this requires they not be put in a position of damned if they do damned if they don't. They need a living income for their area for the time they are in isolation, which allows them to pay basic bills and not lose their house and everything they have worked for, plus obviously someone needs to be delivering meals, and basic needs to prevent insanity whether books or DVDs or paper notebooks to write in or whatnot.

Disability insurance might pay $50 a week for many, more for some. It's not enough. So the isolated break quarantine and roam, or go insane. Both are understandable given the horrific mismanagement of the crisis.

Based on my analysis of widespread stock market anomalies, the secretive quasi-executive branch's Plummet Protection Team has been spending dozens or even hundreds of billions of federal reserve creation bucks per day for almost two weeks now attempted to counter market slides. This is going to cause massive inflation, possibly hyperinflation if not stopped, and will not stop anything regarding the virus spread because it's not addressing market fundamentals. The same amounts spent on assisting with quarantined people, plus manufacturing masks and Chloroquine for mass distribution would have a chance of stopping this. There is absolutely no interest whatsoever in that approach, I presume because it is not profitable to certain parties or otherwise coalesce with their trajectories.

droithommeon Boeing proposal to avoid 737-MAX wiring shift does not win U.S. support

Good.

droithommeon California will pay people unable to work because of Covid-19, and their carers

Covid-19 infection is not a lifestyle "entitlement" contrary to your claim. It's obviously a disability that prevents you from being able to work and absolutely people who get it should receive the disability INSURANCE payments they were forced to pay in to for years. How is an insurance claim on an insurance policy one has been forced to pay for an "entitlement" anyway, in your opinion? Care to explain that one?

droithommeon Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

> Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

Hm, so that means I should live in an underground bunker with filtered air, hydroponics, and a decade long cache of provisions until the pandemic passes.

droithommeon Professional and Home-Made Face Masks Reduce Exposure to Respiratory Infections (2008)

Whitehouse trade advisor Peter Navarro made the claim in an interview on February 24th:

https://youtu.be/4nM0gDDKYDQ?t=205

> "Let's take face masks for example. N95 face masks. Typical problem, China. China basically makes a bunch of them. Well the first thing they did was put on export restrictions so that we couldn't get any of them. Next thing they did was nationalize effectively 3M, our company, in China, to prevent them from sending us any stuff."

On February 23rd Navarro discussed it as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImxuY_yLCBQ

> "China put export restrictions on those masks and then nationalized an American factory that produces them there."

droithommeon Professional and Home-Made Face Masks Reduce Exposure to Respiratory Infections (2008)

Whitehouse trade advisor Peter Navarro made the claim in an interview on February 24th:

https://youtu.be/4nM0gDDKYDQ?t=205

On February 23rd Navarro discussed it as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImxuY_yLCBQ

> "China put export restrictions on those masks and then nationalized an American factory that produces them there."

droithommeon Professional and Home-Made Face Masks Reduce Exposure to Respiratory Infections (2008)

According to early February's reports, 3M's mask making factory - in China - was nationalized by the Chinese Government. Ships en route to the US with mask deliveries were supposedly ordered to turn around and bring the masks back to China.

droithommeon Earth might have a tiny new moon

Likely very little to none. Something that size mostly burns up in the atmosphere. Maybe a schoolboy would be slightly singed by a pebble while walking home.

https://www.space.com/6833-boy-hit-meteorite.html

Famous previous case:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_(meteorite)

droithommeon Earth might have a tiny new moon

Not really but kind of. In the same way we have hundreds of thousands of small satellite bodies.

droithommeon WHO Director: "Covid-19 does not transmit as efficiently as influenza"

> defer to the expert numbers (2-3%)

Latest expert estimate of global mortality rate, as published by WHO, is 3.4% as reported here:

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/WHO-global-mortality-...

And also as reported in OP's link.

https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-...

> "Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died."

droithommeon The neuroinvasive potential of SARS-CoV2

Here's how to put them on and take them off properly, courtesy of Singapore General Hospital:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoxpvDVo_NI

droithommeon The neuroinvasive potential of SARS-CoV2

> only a N95 or better mask would protect you from incoming

That is not only completely false but is extremely dangerous misinformation.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190903134732.h...

> The study reported 'no significant difference in the effectiveness' of medical masks vs. N95 respirators for prevention of influenza or other viral respiratory illness.

droithommeon United States National Radio Quiet Zone

The article doesn't mention it, but there's many people who moved to this rectangle because they are (believe or actually are) hypersensitive to radio transmissions.

droithommeon Are you a 'cultural fit' for your job? Machines can now tell

I think it's even worse than that.

"I did this and that."

Translation: "I assert that I myself did these things."

"We did this and that."

Translation: "Some guys that work at my company did it."

The assumption that we is better than I is poor.

droithommeon Are you a 'cultural fit' for your job? Machines can now tell

Machines eh.

droithommeon Modeling the effectiveness of respiratory masks in reducing influenza (2018)

You should consider reading the scientific study that this entire thread is about.

> In this article, a risk assessment model previously developed in general form was used to estimate the effectiveness of different types of protective equipment in reducing the rate of infection in an influenza outbreak. It was found that a 50% compliance in donning the device resulted in a significant (at least 50% prevalence and 20% cumulative incidence) reduction in risk for fitted and unfitted N95 respirators, high-filtration surgical masks, and both low-filtration and high-filtration pediatric masks. An 80% compliance rate essentially eliminated the influenza outbreak.

It's not the only study.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190903134732.h...

> Summary: The study reported 'no significant difference in the effectiveness' of medical masks vs. N95 respirators for prevention of influenza or other viral respiratory illness.

droithommeon U.S. Signs Peace Deal with Taliban

"There is no doubt we have won the war. This is why they are signing a peace treaty." - Chief Taliban negotiator Abbas Stanikzai

Well, they disagree with you.

droithommeon U.S. Signs Peace Deal with Taliban

> The war had no clear objectives.

True for the US side, and thus was unwinnable.

Not true for the Afghan side. Their goal was to expel the invaders. Their goal accomplished, the only possible conclusion is they won the war.

droithommeon Modeling the effectiveness of respiratory masks in reducing influenza (2018)

Thanks for this. The US Surgeon General needs to be fired and delicensed from medical practice after his claim yesterday that no one should buy masks because masks don't work. He has no business representing himself as a qualified medical professional.

His statements are such egregious malpractice that they rise to the caliber of extreme negligence and should expose him given his position to liability and possibly criminal charges for contributory homicide.

South Korea is looking at charging church officials with "murder through willful negligence" (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/world/coronavirus-news.ht...). The reason? They told church members to remove their masks during services as it was "disrespectful to God." Telling people not to wear masks is murder through willful negligence.

droithommeon U.S. Signs Peace Deal with Taliban

You believe the US won?

> we wanted to withdraw and the reason for that is that we knew it would be immoral to use the force required to completely kill them

We won because we didn't commit total genocide, only partial genocide? Due to our very high sense of morality and goodness?

droithommeon U.S. Signs Peace Deal with Taliban

Here's another victory: caused 2 trillion in damages to the enemy and thoroughly demoralized them.

Primitive stone age goat herders vs the "world's most powerful" military. Who will win?

droithommeon U.S. Signs Peace Deal with Taliban

The Afghans win because they successfully repelled the invaders after a long and terrible war. Repelling the invaders is a winning end state in a war where the start state was invasion by a foreign country.

droithommeon The Korean Clusters: How coronavirus cases exploded in Korean churches/hospitals

How do you infect 600 people during a 2 hr service if it's only transmitted through droplets and prolonged close contact.

droithommeon Google employee diagnosed with coronavirus

The south tower had begun evacuation when "an official" announced over the building wide intercom that everything was fine and the people in the stairwell needed to turn around and go back to work. This story, told by survivors who ignored the command, was vehemently denied until the 911 commission reviewed an audio recording in which the message could be heard.

droithommeon Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

I don't turn off my virus blocker for anyone. No way no how no sir. Sites that refuse to show content without opening up for viruses are intrinsically suspicious, no matter how fancy their brand name.