New Zealand - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[patham]

So what does everyone have planned for the first weekend of Level 2?

 

On my end it's tradie time again. Dropping out ceilings. Installing new lighting and insulation.

 

 

 

Are you allowed to touch 240 V in NZ without a sparky license? Here in Aus they don't even allow the masses to change a plug.

 

I remember the old days in Africa, when appliances were sold without plugs and you had to fit your own. The days before HSE.

[Wayne Potgieter]

So what does everyone have planned for the first weekend of Level 2?

 

On my end it's tradie time again. Dropping out ceilings. Installing new lighting and insulation.

 

Then I'm looking forward to an actual visit to Bunnings. None of this click n' collect nonsense! How am I supposed to make impulse purchases when I cant aimlessly wander the aisles. I'm a simple man.

 

Some small social events on the cards. Probably a braai with some friends that live in Long Bay (aka Whangarei South).

 

But yeah, not rushing to go out to restaurants, cafes, bars or malls.

 

How about you good folk?

I have university exams around the corner.

 

A little different this time around in that they are "Online Time Constrained Assesments" Same thing as an exam, but I can use my textbook.

 

So will probably be focussing on that.

 

Maybe a cheeky restaurant meal and a nice long run (by my standards)

 

Thats about it.

 

Busy booking some domestic travel for the break between semsters.

[patches]

Are you allowed to touch 240 V in NZ without a sparky license? Here in Aus they don't even allow the masses to change a plug.

 

I remember the old days in Africa, when appliances were sold without plugs and you had to fit your own. The days before HSE.

 

Yeah, NZ (and Aus) are pretty limiting on DIY, especially with electrical and plumbing.

 

But the Worksafe regulations do allow replacement of existing fixtures. It's when one starts adding or modifying circuits that they get twitchy.

 

So fortunately this particular ceiling currently has 2 fixtures (a pendant and a spot), and there's enough slack in the cable for me to replace them with 2 downlights.

[patches]

I have university exams around the corner.

 

A little different this time around in that they are "Online Time Constrained Assesments" Same thing as an exam, but I can use my textbook.

 

So will probably be focussing on that.

 

Maybe a cheeky restaurant meal and a nice long run (by my standards)

 

Thats about it.

 

Busy booking some domestic travel for the break between semsters.

 

At uni I found the open book tests were some of the hardest. The examiners went overboard with the questions. Hopefully yours are kinder!

[Wayne Potgieter]

At uni I found the open book tests were some of the hardest. The examiners went overboard with the questions. Hopefully yours are kinder!

c's get Degrees!!!!!

[intern]

Never really heard that someone calls themselves to be knowledgeable... That's usually something someone says of someone else as a good characteristics. Generally people with pure knowledge are quite humble too.

 

Opinionated vs knowledgeable.

 

That's really unnecessary Hayley. And there you are, generalising again. OK fvor you, not OK for me, even when you're having a very pounted personal dig at me. But ja, all power to you.

[intern]

Fvor pounted is the new covfefe. More neologisms.

Anyway, with level 2 probably gonna get the boat out and go for a fish or a dive, maybe one last sneaky lake trip before it gets too cold...

[arabsandals]

Astute observation; someone else sent this to me: When ministers make statements about coronavirus policy they invariably say that they are “following the science". But cutting-edge science is messy and unclear, a contest of ideas arbitrated by facts, a process of conjecture and refutation. This is not new. Almost two centuries ago Thomas Huxley described “The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”

The science is based on  a painstaking century long analysis of another great pandemic. Also epidemiology is literally the study of the spread of disease. Everything they're saying and suggesting has been tried and tested before. Scientists have been saying we're going to have a pandemic for decades. Come ON. You can do better. Apply some critical thinking.

[intern]

The science is based on  a painstaking century long analysis of another great pandemic. Also epidemiology is literally the study of the spread of disease. Everything they're saying and suggesting has been tried and tested before. Scientists have been saying we're going to have a pandemic for decades. Come ON. You can do better. Apply some critical thinking.

The trouble, Arabsandals, is that critical thinking is frowned upon when it goes against the mainstream. And then there's the resort to personal attacks on anyone not following the script.

 

The evidence for COVID19 mortality is not cut and dried. It can't be. Nor is the evidence for lockdowns. It can't be. Because these are developing issues.

 

Be that as it may. My major concern is that we are entering a period of serious suffering from economic consequences which inevitably will have serious impacts on wellbeing. Our personal freedoms are being eroded or erased, and we are not vigilant but cheering on the dictators.

 

For sharing my views on these issues, Hayley and to a lesser extent you, have had a few cracks at me, because apparently on a thread 'Good bad and ugly', negative comments on our situation in NZ are unwelcome. Well, OK, then.

 

And any time I have put up evidence or views which are contrary to the received and heavily promoted mainstream views, I have been belittled, mocked and/or ignored. 

 

Anyway, the last flu pandemic wasn't a century ago. It was in 2009.

 

Some facts and figures from that 'killemall' event are below.

 

Some studies estimated that the actual number of cases including asymptomatic and mild cases could be 700 million to 1.4 billion people—or 11 to 21 percent of the global population of 6.8 billion at the time.^[12] The lower value of 700 million is more than the 500 million people estimated to have been infected by the Spanish flu pandemic.^[13]

The number of lab-confirmed deaths reported to the WHO is 18,449,^[7] though this 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic is estimated to have actually caused about 284,000 (range from 150,000 to 575,000) deaths.^[14] A follow-up study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the 2009 H1N1 flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu.^[15] For comparison, the WHO estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 people die of seasonal flu annually.^[9]

[intern]

The science is based on  a painstaking century long analysis of another great pandemic. Also epidemiology is literally the study of the spread of disease. Everything they're saying and suggesting has been tried and tested before. Scientists have been saying we're going to have a pandemic for decades. Come ON. You can do better. Apply some critical thinking.

 

Also, you forgot to 'like' the cartoon I shared, I thought we could at least maybe have a laugh about that one!

[patham]

The science is based on  a painstaking century long analysis of another great pandemic. Also epidemiology is literally the study of the spread of disease. Everything they're saying and suggesting has been tried and tested before. Scientists have been saying we're going to have a pandemic for decades. Come ON. You can do better. Apply some critical thinking.

 

If you extrapolate what I think the gist of your argument, it is that all diseases and hence epidemics  / pandemics are equal in nature, and thus all the science is known in advance. The principles might be, but not all the details.

 

My original point is that for a new virus, not all of that is known. In the early days in Wuhan no-one even knew how this was transmitted, so how can you model that what you don't know? By assumptions. Over time, as you get a clearer picture and the data condenses, you can start to refine the science, but it needs to represent the evidence at hand, not that of 1918.

 

And the reality is, sometimes it is not what scientists know, its what governments and society prioritise that makes the difference. And it seems like only Taiwan and some of the other Asian countries had kept in mind the priority of an epidemic and were well prepared to deal with it. For the rest of the world it was way down the list of things to worry about. 

[Slowbee]

How much is a big Mac in NZ ?

 

Using the Big Mac as a guide for standard of living.

[Wayne Potgieter]

How much is a big Mac in NZ ?

 

Using the Big Mac as a guide for standard of living.

I am embarrassed to admit I actually don’t know. [emoji4]

[Slowbee]

I am embarrassed to admit I actually don’t know. [emoji4]

In your case a rephrase is required ...

 

who much is a vegetarian burger from MacDonalds ?

[DawieO]

How much is a big Mac in NZ ?

 

Using the Big Mac as a guide for standard of living.

I’m told $8NZ gets you a Big Mac.

[hayleyearth]

So what does everyone have planned for the first weekend of Level 2?

 

On my end it's tradie time again. Dropping out ceilings. Installing new lighting and insulation.

 

Then I'm looking forward to an actual visit to Bunnings. None of this click n' collect nonsense! How am I supposed to make impulse purchases when I cant aimlessly wander the aisles. I'm a simple man.

 

Some small social events on the cards. Probably a braai with some friends that live in Long Bay (aka Whangarei South).

 

But yeah, not rushing to go out to restaurants, cafes, bars or malls.

 

How about you good folk?

Our little one just wants to go to the "parkie". Shame, she's found it hard to understand why she coudn't go swing, slide or climb. She loooooves the worm type slides, ones I would never have gone down at her age.