Day of Chaos 2: a.Covid-19 thread.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

And there's a formula - and it's n * (n-1) / 2

'sright, it's from graph theory. You have n people (nodes) who can infect everyone but themselves. So that's n(n-1) possible vectors (arcs). Since person A infecting person B is the same arc as B infecting A, it halves the total number of arcs, hence (n(n-1))/2.

Or in Ulster Scots*:

A rake a fowks geein a diffren' ween of fowks the lurgee.

*It was recently discovered that approximately half of all scots language articles on wikipedia had been translated by a teenage brony from the states who had never been to Scotland and was just rewriting articles phonetically in a scottish accent, seasoned with the odd word translated from an online dictionary.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I was trawling through a lot of Irvine West's stuff recently and it suddenly occurred to me to ask one of you Scots boarders whether Johnny Lee Miller's Edinburgh accent was convincing (given that Irish accents are almost never quite convincing when they're tried by non Irish actors).  But then I ended up chatting to my Scottish rockabilly neighbour and he says it was pretty good.  But I'll ask you anyway.  Was he convincing as an Edinburgh schemie, albeit one that fancies himself as a bit of a high flyer?
Sorry, very much off topic, but you heid-the-baws brought it up.

[Funt Solo]

Ho! Fanny-baws! Whit are daen takkin aboot accents when its ra climate we're oan aboot?

---

I was entirely convinced by everything in Trainspotting except for The Filthiest Toilet in Scotland. That was actually owned instead by a friend of mine and, once he'd cleaned it, it caused continual heart attacks for surprised visitors in the weeks and months following.

But I've never spent all that much time in Edinburgh, so I'm not sure.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

...given that Irish accents are almost never quite convincing when they're tried by non Irish actors...

I have yet to hear any non-native deliver a Northern Irish accent. Not even you Southers can really manage it. Although Liam Neeson sounds more Northern Irish whenever he tries not to.

[shaolin_monkey]

Here's a thought. The daily deaths in the US from COVID-19 yesterday were 3000. The US population is about 5 times that of UK.

So the number of deaths in the US would be the equivalent of 600 people dying in a day in the U.K. recently.

Which they have.

[TordelBack]

The whole enormous range of NI accents are impossible to 'do' because there's no such thing.  Nordies just put on whatever accent suits them in the moment to befuddle outsiders (defined as people from the far end of the same street). No-one could really talk like that all the time, courtship would sound like a punishment beating*.

I've seen a number of threads about the staggering UK Covid death rates that go something like "So?  That many people die of cancer,  what about them? ". So Covid can simultaneously be unimportant/a hoax/the flu, and as lethal as the collective daily impact of cancer. A suite of 100 diseases that shape regulations and taxes across society, the second largest cause of death globally, despite not being contagious. That's quite a perspective.



*I kid because I love. There are few families of accents more enchanting. Try living in Tallaght, it's like your ears are being attacked with a Lidl own-brand Multitool. Sometimes literally.

[JOE SOAP]

Or in Ulster Scots*:

A rake a fowks geein a diffren' ween of fowks the lurgee.

Can't stand the host but this was funny.

https://twitter.com/vinnybelfast/status/1047486551415033856

[Funt Solo]

I only just discovered the other day that when Americans (that's USA-peeps, I mean) describe themselves as Scots-Irish, it's not just that they're confused or can't tell the difference, or have a mammy from Glasgow and a Pappy from Port Rush, but it refers instead to their being descended from Ulster Protestants (whose ancestors had come over from that there lower bit of Scotland or upper bit of England a while before that).

---

That Covid though, eh? Is it all in the mind? *


*Joking!

[Dandontdare]

The thing I love about taking calls from NI customers, is that before telling you what they are calling about, they insist on telling you that they are about to tell you what they are calling about - "How can I help you?" "Well, I'll tell you what it is.....".

Even better if they're from County Down, just so I can hear them pronounce those words when I check the address.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Good man, Gandalf!  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55345131

[sheridan]

Wednesday.
Boris Johnson: "not by imposing endless lockdowns or cancelling Christmas" (mocking Keir Starmer for suggesting a christmas lockdown).

Today.
Boris Johnson: creates a new Tier 4 for London and the South-East, doing exactly what Starmer was calling for.  But a few days late and after people had finalised christmas plans...

[TordelBack]

Same exact thing happened here with Lockdown 2. Varadkar mocked the CMO on a fucking chat show for calling for stricter restrictions, and then two weeks later imposed the exact same restrictions, but by then they were needed for twice as long. Pricks the lot of them.

[Barrington Boots]

My brother is a librarian. He's now in tier 4, but libraries are staying open. So he has to go to work, but he and his children cant go to my Mum and Dads, who have been isolating in preparation for his visit.
I mean... tier 4 but you can still go to the library. WTF.

[Professor Bear]

When there are no consequences for lying or incompetence, why would you bother being competent, or honest, or even consistent?

[Tjm86]

Welsh Assembly has libraries down for "click and collect" only, same as non-essential retail.  Similar in England?  TBH I can see the logic there.  For some folks library services are a life-line.

My father had a pace-maker fitted back in the summer (well, he is nearly 80!).  Mam wanted to meet up at the start of December to exchange presents.  We knocked that on the head with the climbing infections in these parts.  In the last few weeks of term literally every student in school has had to isolate because of cases within each year group.  My daughter was sent home the last day for the same reason.  She ends isolation today.  No way am I chancing getting anywhere near my father under these circumstances.

What is even more infuriating is when you suddenly realise that PHE flagged this mutation five days ago and Hancock even mentioned it in the HOC.  BBC reported on it but hardly anyone paid attention because of where it  was buried.  It's also worth noting that it would have taken PHE time to pick up on the trend from the data so this would have been going on for weeks now.  Just think of all of those lovely pictures of p***-heads in London. 

I've spent a bit of time reading Hansard and some of the crap Johnson has been spouting as well as how Starmer has been discussing measures.  I would say 'ironically' today's news is no surprise but it is just one more thing to p*** everyone off with.  He was calling Johnson out for dithering again and for more robust measures.  How many lives will now be lost because of that?