[Winstonm]

 hrothgar, on 2020-March-13, 14:22, said:

Economists have long lamented that we aren't able to run realistic large scale experiments. "In this world we'll follow a policy of strictly setting the growth of the money supply at 1.3% regardless of what happens while in this other identical world, we'll use discretionary fiscal policy". And of course, you can't do anything like that with epidemiology, well up until now...

Looks like the Brits have volunteered to try a radically different approach to coronavirus... "Let's promote Herd Immunity!" which, as far as I can tell is a sophisticated branding campaign for "The virus will run wild, but eventually the weak will all be dead and, in the mean time, we can still go off and see football matches and drink down at the pub."

Maybe the grand irony is that this coronavirus is an integral component of the natural selection process.

[euclidz]

 fromageGB, on 2020-March-12, 06:39, said:

population of the UK is about 70M, and the number of known cases is 460. At a rate of one in 152K I am more likely to encounter an islamic terrorist before I meet someone with the virus.

. . . 460 . . . three days later it is 1140. At that rate of growth it will be two weeks before someone in your Bridge Club with the virus is sat next to you?

[euclidz]

50% of all UK Bridge Clubs will be closed within the next 10 days and 100% will be closed in the next 20 days - my prediction.

[fromageGB]

New approach. Go to all the bridge clubs, concerts, cinemas you can find open (by bus or tube) and catch coronavirus early while they still have room in the hospitals to take you. Wait until the peak, and you're too late.

[euclidz]

 euclidz, on 2020-March-14, 09:24, said:

50% of all UK Bridge Clubs will be closed within the next 10 days and 100% will be closed in the next 20 days - my prediction.

And my prediction comes to pass. And fromageGB . .. you are the 'problem'. . . the problem being you and others who 'glibly' pass this off as some small thing passing us by.

[thepossum]

 Winstonm, on 2020-March-13, 16:59, said:

Maybe the grand irony is that this coronavirus is an integral component of the natural selection process.

In terms of natural selection, SARSnCov2 certainly seems to be doing well in natural selection. It's serious but not too serious to die out before it has spread itself widely

[Cyberyeti]

 fromageGB, on 2020-March-14, 10:13, said:

New approach. Go to all the bridge clubs, concerts, cinemas you can find open (by bus or tube) and catch coronavirus early while they still have room in the hospitals to take you. Wait until the peak, and you're too late.

If you're young and fit, that may not be totally stupid, I couldn't risk doing that

[Elianna]

 Winstonm, on 2020-March-13, 07:00, said:

Grammatically, I think you are wrong. The phrase "possibly even worse" is separated by dashes, which act the same as commas, setting that phrase aside from the main sentence. The understanding of the sentence is: The UK should invest in better understanding of diseases in wildlife populations, and the routes to these becoming human diseases to drastically reduce the risk of future global pandemics like Covid-19, and some possibly worse.

"future global pandemics like Covid-19" is accurate. The sentence structure could be improved, but it is accurate and grammatically correct IMO.

Speaking as one who learned English in the US, I agree with you.

I notice that the people who disagree seem to be Brits.

Perhaps it's a difference in British vs. American English? Since living in Switzerland, I've noticed that there's a difference, not just in vocabulary, but also in grammar. I can't think of specific examples, but there are things that BBC has said that I thought were phrased in a strange way.

[gordontd]

 Elianna, on 2020-March-19, 04:59, said:

Speaking as one who learned English in the US, I agree with you.

I notice that the people who disagree seem to be Brits.

Perhaps it's a difference in British vs. American English? Since living in Switzerland, I've noticed that there's a difference, not just in vocabulary, but also in grammar. I can't think of specific examples, but there are things that BBC has said that I thought were phrased in a strange way.

Some things are so different they are actually opposites - "I could care less" in US = "I couldn't care less" in British English.

[Elianna]

 gordontd, on 2020-March-19, 06:03, said:

Some things are so different they are actually opposites - "I could care less" in US = "I couldn't care less" in British English.

While there are cases in the US of people saying "I could care less", it doesn't mean that's how it's said in the whole US. If you asked most Americans, most would say the proper phrase is "I couldn't care less", and that the other way is laziness.

A better example of oppositeness would be "homely".

[barmar]

 gordontd, on 2020-March-19, 06:03, said:

Some things are so different they are actually opposites - "I could care less" in US = "I couldn't care less" in British English.

I've heard both here in the US, they mean the same thing.

[Cyberyeti]

 gordontd, on 2020-March-19, 06:03, said:

Some things are so different they are actually opposites - "I could care less" in US = "I couldn't care less" in British English.

It's also not uncommon for the brain to process statements where somebody doesn't say what they mean, you get the intended meaning, but it's not what they said.

A radio host was recently complaining that somebody hadn't washed their hands in the urinal ...

[barmar]

Just discovered that "The Daily Show" has moved to YouTube. Trevor Noah and the correspondents are producing shows from their living rooms.

In Wednesday's inaugural episode, Trevor spent part of it on a video chat with Roy Wood Jr., and towards the end Roy hung up to go help his kid.