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mancs...and your point is?! do u also want to rename the spanish flu...the mexican swine flu...the black death...???
@Mancs -- I understand it, but it still doesn't make it right. I see reports like this coming out:
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regi...oreign-workers
So I can just imagine what their nightly news broadcasts are like. I almost lost a really good friend who I really care about.
After three weeks of him being distant with me, a couple nights ago I finally got... not pissed off, but lovingly impatient with him. I finally managed to get him to come back around to me, and he confirmed, he's scared because of the virus and the onslaught of propoganda that's currently happening in Laos about filthy foreigners invading their country with the virus.
I understand it, but it's still a pretty shitty government response. Then again, I guess Canada's borders are currently closed because we don't want any filthy Americans or Europeans coming in, so same type of thing, but still...
I don't care, I got my friend back, so I'm happy.
I'm not renaming it. Many Vietnamese call it the American War. I'm suggesting we reconsider what we call it. As for the so called 'Spanish Flu', according to wikipedia: "The Allies of World War I came to call it the Spanish flu, primarily because the pandemic received greater press attention after it moved from France to Spain in November 1918. Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship." This is relevant to the current debate with Trump about what we call the current infection.
PS. While we're talking about the virus, why is Trump threatening to send US military troops to the Canadian border?
Jesus christ is he ever stupid...
Nurses in the US are currently showing up at work wearing black garbage bags because there is no protection. Don't worry, nobody wants to sneak into the US at the moment.
Post-1812?
This just in: in the UK apparently the PM (the stunningly handsome Mr Boris) has been tested as poz for the Covid-19.
( https://www.theglobeandmail.com/worl...fter-positive/ )
I have had fairly good experiences with supermarket trips in the last week in the Silom area in Bangkok - I was in Foodland in Patpong 2 today and Tops in Silom Complex earlier in the week, both were not crowded and had short checkout queues with everyone standing politely at the "social distance" marks on the floor and 99% of customers and 100% of staff were wearing masks, many Tops checkout staff now have full perspex face shields. Both Foodland and Silom Complex were doing temperature checks and had hand sanitiser at the entrance
stock wise it all looked fairly normal - no obvious empty shelves though the Tops pasta selection was not quite 100% but you could still get any pasta shape you wanted even if not perhaps the brand you wanted, but they had a good selection of fresh fruit, veg, dairy, meat, eggs, rice, packaged food etc. Foodland had no spinach or button mushrooms today (though that has been true on many of my trips there for quite a while) but as usual a wide selection of Thai and Asian mushrooms and any type of Thai veggi you might want and a good selection of fresh fruit, dairy, meat, eggs, rice, packaged goods etc. Neither had any small pump bottles of hand soap but no shortage of shower soap/gel, shampoo and other toiletries. Toilet paper shortages never seems to be a problem here - hand-held squirters seem to rule!
sourcing masks at a reasonable price in the area is still almost impossible but hand sanitiser and alcohol spray seem to be fairly easy to find at reasonable prices in Silom
I am fairly lucky that I have a 7-11 next door for fresh milk, bread and snacks, and a small Thai food shop just around the corner that is now offering take-away serves of stir-fries and curries at 40 Baht each but every restaurant in the area is working to organise take-away and delivery and foodpanda and grab food etc are living their wettest dreams
I am sure "your milage may vary" living in other areas and using smaller shops and fresh markets and being out of delivery areas - or being out of budget for deliveries - and the situation may change dramatically at any time - but at the moment I think I am happier here than being back home in Sydney, which hasn't been "home" for more than 25 years!
Foodland and Tops appear to be doing better than the 2 major supermarkets here in Perth.
I haven't seen toilet paper in weeks! I have Japanese "washlet" toilets so that doesn't actually bother me, but it's scary seeing the empty shelves. In my local supermarket they seem to have given up on ever getting toilet paper again and have replaced it with bags of potato chips (crisps). Ouch!! Lol
Also gone missing : hand sanitiser, soap, laundry detergent, paper towels, rice, flour, shampoo, pasta and pasta sauce - all the essentials. Gone!
The locals haven't caught on yet that a lot of those products are freely available at Asian grocery stores. Thank God for Fuji supermarket! Shhh!
The worst thing is, I now have to cook! Good lord, that's something I haven't done in years! Restaurants are closed - takeaway only - but the lines are too long.
Bangkok seems to be a much better place to be at the moment.
If only!
Thanks, bkkguy for the update on the supermarket situation in Silom, Bangkok. It seems very similar to the position I reported on in my post #334 on March 20, 2020 when I visited my local Tops Market in Sathorn, Bangkok. If only my present local supermarket was as well stocked.
Had I still owned an apartment in Bangkok and if I still had a 12 month visa, I may well have decided to remain in Thailand. But I didn’t own the apartment and the rent was very expensive and besides I had only a three month visa, which expired on April 16, 2020. So for me, I believe I took the right decision in leaving when I did.
I just wish we had better weather here in the UK. But our clocks are changing on Sunday from GMT to BST (British Summer Time) so that’s something to look forward to, no? :)
With regard to face masks, I read the following article in The Sunday Times of March 22, 2020 which may be of interest to some of my fellow members:
And a similar story can be found on the BBC News website:Quote:
Virus-killing ‘snood’ mask ready for mass production
Jonathan Leake and Jonathan Ungoed-Thomas
Scientists have invented a reusable face mask, based on the snood, which can trap viruses – including the coronavirus – as frontline hospital workers run out of protective gear.
Researchers at Manchester University have helped develop a fabric with an anti-viral coating that blocks airborne droplets and kills any microbes hiding in them.
The breakthrough technology, originally designed for flu outbreaks, is going into mass production and will be made available to NHS staff, patients and the public.
The fabric of the snood is coated with a protein which disables viruses on contact. It can be washed several times before it loses its anti-viral powers. The firm behind the technology says it can make up to 1.3 million a week.
Sabine Flitsch, a professor in chemical biology at Manchester University, said the proteins on the fabric were designed to trap incoming viruses. She said: “The surface of the material is very adhesive to viruses and can inactivate them.”
The human respiratory tract is always under attack by microbes and has evolved defences to kill them. This includes secreting a mucus filled with proteins that latch onto the outer coatings of viruses, bacteria and fungi to disable them.
The Manchester research team used those human proteins as a template for their fabric coating. This was tested by researchers at Imperial College London, who pushed air containing viruses through the material.
The results showed that it stopped 96% of viruses - meaning there was still a risk of infection but much reduced from normal.
Paul Hope, technical director and co-founder of Virustatic, said the snoods could easily be given to patients with suspected coronavirus in hospital, even if they had breathing difficulties. He said: “The snood mask moulds to your face. It fits everyone.”
The firm said it had told Matt Hancock, the health secretary, it could supply many thousands of the masks.
Link to BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52008745Quote:
The 'virus-killing' snood
Designers claim the mask kills more than 95% of any viruses - including Covid-19.
The snood has been developed in response to the pandemic
The company hopes to make as many as a million-a-week and plans to reserve part of that stock for the NHS.
"We have been working on the anti-viral coating since 2011 but it's only in the last five weeks that we have developed the snood in response to the current pandemic," said Anna Roberts, of Virustatic Shield . . .
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And once again, just to lighten the mood I offer three photos which are doing the rounds on facebook:
For those interested in horoscopes, I think I can safely say that this one is spot on:
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And just in case you needed reminding to wash your hands, how about this toilet door:
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And lastly, for couch potatoes everywhere, your time has finally come:
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