COVID-19 / Coronavirus Pandemic

[levi]

You're right. That's probably the best option given the situation. But that still requires a contract, maybe monthly payments, and SMSs aren't secure anyway, so they shouldn't be used for authenthication. Once a company has your mobile number they will assume you have it always on and will use it to contact or spam you, even if you prefer email or snail mail. And dumb phones are still tracking devices if you keep them charged at all.

Yeah, although I'm on PayG bought using cash from a supermarket. But yeah, I'm aware my phone company knows where my phone is at all times. I'm glad I don't live in the US, as I know phone companies sell that information to the highest bidder regularly there. Here we have our local implementation of the GDPR along with previous rights, and I'm aware companies are probably getting around these requirements by not properly anonymising data, but I haven't positively heard that they are yet. Yes, and I'm aware of sim swapping offences too, and for that I rely on not being famous.

More and more often, companies or institutions have become bolder with requiring mobile phone numbers, and some start to require that you install their app in your smartphone (so they dictate which OS your phone should run, or give just 2 options). As if they could require you to trust their coding practices, their providers and toolchains, and steal your computing resources for the privilege of dealing with them. Websites are often not much better, pulling tons of unnecessary javascript from who knows where, and leaking referer headers to font or image CDNs.

Yeah, I block as much as I can using uMatrix these days. But any company that demands I install an app on a phone I don't have will immediately not be one I patronise.

 

[pyrat]

It's ok. But beware, a similar measure is not so far south from you as you might think

I hear this is now approved for all of Germany ? (if you don't want a COVID-19 vaccine you don't get your salary for any quarantine time you have take). It's not so serious as in Italy, although I'm not sure whether it leaks health information to the employer.
But it has 2 big drawbacks:

• Discourages (irresponsible) people from reporting contacts or potential symptoms, compromising tracking.
• It's a foot in the door to further erode worker rights in keeping your salary when sick. Who will be next ? Those refusing a treatment for any reason (good for the heatlh providers finances)? Smokers? Overweight people ? Vegans ? Carnivores ?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Omnivores FTW !

 

[TeDaDeS]

Huge protests against the pass in Paris today. As usual it's the army who try to contain the protesters, but today it goes completely out of control.
The Gare de l'Est train station is currently invaded, Gare du Nord next :^)

Looks peaceful to me. Maybe there is a specific timestamp you can give, it's a 2h video.
Having armed uniforms in the trainstation is something I personally have seen a couple of times, usually it's due to football matches.

And I found this post, a reason some unvaccinated people state the FDA approval of the vaccines doesn't change much for them:

FDA Repays Industry by Rushing Risky Drugs to Market

As pharma companies underwrite three-fourths of the FDA’s budget for scientific reviews, the agency is increasingly fast-tracking expensive drugs with significant side effects and unproven health benefits.

www.propublica.org

There is no information published stating the vaccine has a high risk of side-effects, but having this kind of news published certainly won't help convince people they should get vaccinated if they didn't want to due to trust issues.
Certainly sounds like bad practice in general if you want to have trust in any medication approved by the FDA, else their stamp of approval is hardly stating confidence.

Who will be next ? Those refusing a treatment for any reason (good for the heatlh providers finances)? Smokers? Overweight people ? Vegans ? Carnivores ?

It's a worrying trend indeed. If it becomes normal to allow insurance companies any of these reason to reject claims from customers they'll certainly use them.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Cops enter the station at 2:02:20
Slam the door at the face of journalists at 2:03:37, hilarious
Found nobody, check a random guy's backpack at 2:04:51, also hilarious
2:05:47, the journalist says he "doesn't even know if there's something interesting" (to film).
2:06:30 end of the useless raid

 

[levi]

Omnivores FTW !

Chuckle not. I you are eating a meal of meat or otherwise processed food at least, most days you count in my mind at least as purely carnivore with specialities.

 

[FBnil]

Meanwhile in Australia:



a point of view

 

[FBnil]

sell that information to the highest bidder regularly there

no no, you sell to all with older information becoming less expensive and therefor reaching the pricepoint your buyer is willing to pay. If they want exclusive access to the data they need to pay more (for example: a one week headstart).
You can also sell a subset of the information. You would think that less information is cheaper... nope. It's more expensive because it has been pre-filtered. For example: teens between ages so and so that roam around rich neighborhood such and so.
Shee shells Sea cheals buy the see sure

 

[matzesu]

In Idar Oberstein, a Mask Refuser just shot a Student who worked on a Gas Station and refused to sell him bear last saturday.
I luckly ditnt had any Mask Refusers in the last multiple 2 Months tm circles, and if so, then just because they forgott the masks..
lots of Mask and Corona Law Refusers on the Social Media are wellcoming the murder ..

There is a lot of agression in these peaple, so some Shop Keepers may refuse to ask for the mask just to save the workers, i dont know,
at least my customers where quite normal.. and a Gas Station is a bit different to a Beeceeper Supply Store..

 

[JDTAY]

In Idar Oberstein, a Mask Refuser just shot a Student who worked on a Gas Station and refused to sell him bear last saturday.

Well yeah, I'd hate to think what a reckless mask refuser would do with a live bear.

 

[matzesu]

Also a reason why i just drink non alkoholic things, (expect one or two met a year).., ordering might be quite dangouros..

 

[pyrat]

Well yeah, I'd hate to think what a reckless mask refuser would do with a live bear.

Sure, I'd never sell stock or go short in front of a man with a gun and no mask. My profile is too risk adverse.
But @matzesu was probably just meaning beer.

Omnivores FTW !

I'm not sure what FTW means. I lloked it up in a street English online dictionary and found all sort of meanings, even a comment saying it may mean anything, so I gave my disambiguation up.

Should I post this in that other thread, though ? What was it called "On the cromulency..." ?

 

[matzesu]

FTW means For the Win , it’s Gamer Jargon, same as rofl and lol

 

[levi]

Technically rofl is hacker speak, and probably lol is too. But FTW in my mind is more restricted to the gamers, sure.

 

[netcat]

FTW originally meant Fuck The World. It's nihilist / satanist / punk thing that predates the web.

 

[FBnil]

lol

In Dutch "lol" means "fun". So it's a natural word, it means exactly what it says.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

For The Win !

 

[matzesu]

Like the German Punk Band (or German Rock now) "Die Ärzte" sayd in one of there new songs on the CD they just brought out today (Dunkel) "Menschen sind für Menschen nicht gemacht" (Humans are not made for Humans), .. I have to listen a lot more on the CD to remember every lyric but i think they right..

My Mother told me after the Murder in Idar Oberstein, not to ask anymore for the mask, but i think whe have a bit different customers than a Gas Station, and when whe ditnt ask anymore, the Mask Refusers won..

Akkording to a Politician, the Pandemic should end next spring, i hope so..

 

[pyrat]

I don't want to stand between you and your mother, and I don't want to put you in any risk, but I think you're right.
Mask refusers have likely killed many more people by succeeding in staying without mask in closed spaces than by shooting at people.
So you can't really survive by not demanding them to wear masks, you're only choosing the weapon for the duel.

And I don't think the man who shot the Gas Station worker is representative of all mask refusers. The huge majority of them don't kill people by bullet.
The man who shot the Gas Station worker woud probably have shot him because he didn't like his hair style or the way he gave him his change back, if there wasn't a mask mandate.
There's nothing we can do to prevent the danger of crossing a mad man with a gun.

 

[Phlyra]

the Pandemic should end next spring

Of course we all hope it will be over by then but if the 1917/18 pandemic is anything to go by, one should expect it to last until ~2025...maybe it won’t seem that way across the World but almost certainly some parts will see unrelenting epidemic-like conditions.
Don’t forget that something like 75% of the vaccine distribution has been in < 20 countries and places like Zimbabwe are still really struggling, potentially even more so than they were in 2020 because countries are opening up and travel is allowing variants to spread.