Corona Virus 2019-nCoV

[Quantum Quack]

Agreed. In addition, I would add that it's really pretty easy to learn how to maintain and fix carburetors, so the skill is not that critical overall. Not like skilled reactor operators, where you really can't learn it one weekend when you need to because your reactor is on the fritz.

Further, if there's a problem employing enough carburetor repairmen, perhaps the best solution is to get them retrained in fuel injector or EV maintenance.

and what maintenance is involved in fuel injection ( petrol) apart from replacing filters?
semi skilled module replacement does not a carburetor technician make... lol
Granted it is a dying art ... but a good carby technician with a chassis dyno was not easy to find... ( 20+ year experience )
any one can replace a few fuel injectors and computer modules... etc.. with a few hours training...

 

[Seattle]

and what maintenance is involved in fuel injection ( petrol) apart from replacing filters?
semi skilled module replacement does not a carburetor technician make... lol
Granted it is a dying art ... but a good carby technician with a chassis dyno was not easy to find... ( 20+ year experience )
any one can replace a few fuel injectors and computer modules... etc.. with a few hours training...

A good carby technician is not easy to find probably because most carzies don't use them. Anyone can work on a car with a few hours training. The point is to not try to find jobs for blacksmiths and pony express riders no matter how good they are. A good pony expressie is hard to find as well. They look good on their horsey wearing their sunnies but dang nabit they just aren't needed anymore.

 

[river]

A good carby technician is not easy to find probably because most carzies don't use them. Anyone can work on a car with a few hours training. The point is to not try to find jobs for blacksmiths and pony express riders no matter how good they are. A good pony expressie is hard to find as well. They look good on their horsey wearing their sunnies but dang nabit they just aren't needed anymore.

There was a time when a good carby got the best out of any Engine .

A skill lost .

 

[billvon]

and what maintenance is involved in fuel injection ( petrol) apart from replacing filters?

Cleaning, diagnosing pressure issues, dealing with injector/rail seals etc.

Granted it is a dying art ... but a good carby technician with a chassis dyno was not easy to find... ( 20+ year experience )

Definitely agreed! But then again, any good mechanic with a chassis dyno is not easy to find either.

any one can replace a few fuel injectors and computer modules... etc.. with a few hours training...

And anyone can learn to replace a float valve or a choke plate in about the same time.

 

[LaurieAG]

And anyone can learn to replace a float valve or a choke plate in about the same time.

LOL, over 30 years ago I traded my father a '67 Toyota Corolla van for a '74 HQ Holden van as he was going to get a new Toyota and would receive a better trade in value. He told me to always carry a hammer around in the van with me in case the HQ ever sputtered to a stop and there was a strong fuel smell under the bonnet.

Sure enough a year later I had to pull out that hammer, gently tap on the side of the float chamber on the carby to free up the jammed float, and it worked like a dream.

Back on the thread, considering that over the past 60 years or so they have built up knowledge about who is at risk from chloroquine derivatives, why on earth would any competent medical professional give it to at risk people even with a signed waiver? The early reports said it reduced the fever and recovery times by 1/4 to 1/3 on people with milder cases of Covid 19 so why would you test it on people with more severe cases or those at risk?

This just sounds something like a bureaucrat (of either persuasion) would do.

 

[billvon]

why on earth would any competent medical professional give it to at risk people even with a signed waiver?

For the same reason that some doctors can be convinced to prescribe antibiotics for head colds. Because they sometimes give in to patient pressure. (They, after all, work for the patient.)

 

[Quantum Quack]

For the same reason that some doctors can be convinced to prescribe antibiotics for head colds. Because they sometimes give in to patient pressure. (They, after all, work for the patient.)

Maybe doctors in Australia are more accountable for their actions?
I suppose if the POTUS dies because he has been prescribed a known dangerous drug the doctor involved is some how indemnified from jail time?
The oath to do no harm comes to the for, does it not?
...and since when does the patient legally tell a doctor what to prescribe?

 

[billvon]

Maybe doctors in Australia are more accountable for their actions?

Nope. From the Australian branch of ABC:
=============
GPs are prescribing antibiotics at a rate up to nine times higher than the current guidelines, according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The five-year study showed Australian doctors over-prescribed antibiotics for acute respiratory infections such as bronchitis, influenza and tonsillitis — in the mistaken belief they were erring on the side of caution.

But in reality, those who leave the doctor's office with a drug they may not need are contributing to the global resistance to antibiotics.
=============

I suppose if the POTUS dies because he has been prescribed a known dangerous drug the doctor involved is some how indemnified from jail time?

Nope. He can be sued like anyone else.

The oath to do no harm comes to the for, does it not?
...and since when does the patient legally tell a doctor what to prescribe?

?? He can legally ask his doctor for anything. The doctor can legally prescribe it if he (or she) chooses to do so.

 

[Quantum Quack]

Nope. From the Australian branch of ABC:
=============
GPs are prescribing antibiotics at a rate up to nine times higher than the current guidelines, according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The five-year study showed Australian doctors over-prescribed antibiotics for acute respiratory infections such as bronchitis, influenza and tonsillitis — in the mistaken belief they were erring on the side of caution.

But in reality, those who leave the doctor's office with a drug they may not need are contributing to the global resistance to antibiotics.

In regards to respiratory infections it is debatable whether precautionary treatment is advisable... although I fully agree with your concerns and perhaps the doctors need to be more thorough in their diagnosis before prescribing.

?? He can legally ask his doctor for anything. The doctor can legally prescribe it if he (or she) chooses to do so.

telling a doctor what you want him to prescribe is far different to asking him don't you think?

 

[billvon]

telling a doctor what you want him to prescribe is far different to asking him don't you think?

Of course. Drug seekers have their techniques down pat, and it usually involves asking the doctor with questions that lead up to his prescribing what they want. For example, "hey Doc I am going to an area with a lot of malaria, and my last doctor said that mefloquine didn't work for me. What else can I take?"

 

[Quantum Quack]

Of course. Drug seekers have their techniques down pat, and it usually involves asking the doctor with questions that lead up to his prescribing what they want. For example, "hey Doc I am going to an area with a lot of malaria, and my last doctor said that mefloquine didn't work for me. What else can I take?"

Yeah... people can be so manipulative ... especially with regards to opioids, so much so that many doctors, here in Melbourne have signs on their doors that state that they do not prescribe opioids... managing legitimate needs by other means...

 

[iceaura]

That's the problem with having low skills, those jobs are the first to be reduced.

That hasn't been the case during this epidemic. Many lower skilled jobs have been classified as "essential", many have been denied unemployment and other benefits, and for that and other reasons the people holding them have been forced to go to work under abusive and very high risk circumstances.

We don't really need a lot of carburetor skilled people. Yes, old cars and lawnmowers may have them but so what. It's not hard to run gas with cleaner added though a lawnmower and if that doesn't work, it's actually not hard to remove the carburetor and soak the parts in carb cleaner.

You missed the point. Badly.

In addition, I would add that it's really pretty easy to learn how to maintain and fix carburetors, so the skill is not that critical overall. Not like skilled reactor operators, where you really can't learn it one weekend when you need to because your reactor is on the fritz.

That's why I used PDF formatter as an example of my point - that the main virus break is not skill, but whether or not one can phone the job in. Reactor operator - a job the Navy teaches a more demanding version of in about a year, to people who join the military rather than go to college - cannot be phoned in.

You missed the point, apparently misdirected by Seattle.

I was simply comparing those who the rightwing Republican apologists have apparently decided to call "skilled" (and therefore deserving of consideration rather than abuse or dismissal) with what they (and you) are dismissing as "unskilled" and therefore apparently a less consequential loss to the absurd misgovernment of epidemic disease. That rebuilding carburetors is not really that difficult, although you guys are wrong about that in general (as your providing nothing but examples of people not rebuilding a carburetor hints) (also: a professional would know how to rebuild dozens of different carburetors, and they are not all anachronisms) would just be part of my point, see?

It's called "following an argument". Seattle is not capable of that, in my case, due to his obsession with the person (which he also cannot register, as you can see in the first paragraph of thread post 1736), but there's no gain in being mislead by one of his posts.

 

[iceaura]

Back on the thread, considering that over the past 60 years or so they have built up knowledge about who is at risk from chloroquine derivatives, why on earth would any competent medical professional give it to at risk people even with a signed waiver?

Because the President has endorsed it, loudly and publicly, and so the Republican mob is leaning on the doctors etc.

This just sounds something like a bureaucrat (of either persuasion) would do.

Or a medical professional threatened by a bureaucrat - in this case a Federal administration full of such bureaucrats, all doing the bidding of their President.

 

[Seattle]

That hasn't been the case during this epidemic. Many lower skilled jobs have been classified as "essential", many have been denied unemployment and other benefits, and for that and other reasons the people holding them have been forced to go to work under abusive and very high risk circumstances.

So you are upset when the lower skilled aren't losing their jobs and when they are? Many of them are however, as you are well aware. In particular those who work in bars and restaurants.

Those who work on tractors probably aren't very affected whether they are "essential workers" or not.

 

[iceaura]

A good carby technician is not easy to find probably because most carzies don't use them.

The rightwingies inevitably substitute their imagination ("probably") for even a casual check of physical reality. It's a feature, not a bug - physical reality is a threat to their entire world view.

So you are upset when the lower skilled aren't losing their jobs and when they are?

He's not actually that stupid; he's obsessed, so weird things happen when he tries to read or think about my posts.

Many of them are however, as you are well aware. In particular those who work in bars and restaurants.

Often at jobs that require significantly more skill than the average office job of the phone in type - the typical "skilled" job the virus spared (but the Republican-crashed economy may not).
Do you remember what my post was about? Try revisiting the actual words therein.

Those who work on tractors probably aren't very affected whether they are "essential workers" or not.

Another "probably". The physical reality on that one (migrant labor season in the fields) isn't in yet.
It looks hopeful, though. Outdoors increasingly seems to be a much safer place than indoors. We may be on the verge of settling the long-vexed question of why infection by colds and flus ebbs in the summer. Now if only the late spring and early summer is cool enough, and the hurricane season that looks bad spaced and timed well enough, to spread the crowds widely enough and create as few desperate hordes of refugees as possible - - - climate change factors into everything.

Meanwhile, sounds like it's time to revisit the actual post that had you launching all this crap. Or the thread title, something like that.

Random thoughts from the universe of irrelevancies are often entertaining - and a welcome addition to the trolling and attempted personal attacks (without replacing them - miracles we don't get). But they are no more thread relevant: Start a relevant thread? A moderator's ghetto? Just a suggestion.

 

[Seattle]

Bartenders should be paid more than office workers and guys who enlist in the Navy to learn how to work on nuclear reactors should be paid more than those who go to college.

I'm just trying to write these pearls of wisdom down, continue...

 

[billvon]

Bartenders should be paid more than office workers and guys who enlist in the Navy to learn how to work on nuclear reactors should be paid more than those who go to college.

Enforceable by government fiat.

 

[iceaura]

Bartenders should be paid more than office workers and guys who enlist in the Navy to learn how to work on nuclear reactors should be paid more than those who go to college.

Folks, he's not that stupid - he's just picked up an obsession, and it makes bad things happen when he tries to read or think about my posts.
I have recommended he start a thread on the topic, rather than fling irrelevant shit around in one thread after another. More than that I cannot do.

I'm just trying to write these pearls of wisdom down, continue...

You already did - that's how they got posted here. (I certainly didn't write that crap. )
As far as writing down my stuff for yourself? Feel free. Might work. At least it should improve the odds of your remembering the actual post, when attempting a reply.

Current irrelevancy, as is standard projected into my posting (in which it has not appeared until now in reply) from the world of the rightwing tool: "paid".

Bartenders should be paid more than office workers

Some already are, lots of places. So?

guys who enlist in the Navy to learn how to work on nuclear reactors should be paid more than those who go to college.

? The US military is underpaid, of course, as the price of mercenary specialists proves. It is underpaid at all skill levels, however, and incorporates no fantasy of pay matching essential or deserving role. College does.

The confusion of "paid" with "skilled" or "essential" is similar in origin to the recent - and thread relevant, and unlike "paid" considered in my posts - confusion of "essential" (therefore protected rather than lost) with "skilled". These confusions are basic features of the rightwing world view in the US - part of the delusion that unregulated capitalism automatically rewards relative ability, skill, merit, and real world contribution. ( Adam Smith, among others, knew better than that)

The large scale and media structuring campaign to minimize and deny the effects of Republican fuckup on the US economy has many facets - pretending that the economic hardships due to this Republican mishandling of a viral plague have been concentrated in an already disposable and inessential and unskilled and otherwise undeserving minority of lower class Americans, while those so far relatively unharmed are (by definition, almost) members of the deserving and accomplished and contributing class - is one of them.

The problem that campaign faces in that regard is that this virus has been mishandled to the point it can wreck the country. It's the same basic issue that has brought down many other fascist governments, it's the common way fascism becomes ruin: nature sides with the hidden flaw, and fascists are fuckups.

 

[iceaura]

Enforceable by government fiat.

The rightwing corporate media feed victim, befuddled and confused by the sudden appearance of the magic word "paid", pulls yet another wingnut stereotype out of the kitbag. The thread topic or post issue? Not a consideration. The concept of a leftwing libertarian? Unavailable, unimaginable, no clue.

The sheer irrelevancy, meaninglessness, the surreal prevalence of intrusive fantasies in these dumbass and juvenile posts from who should be the best informed citizens on the planet, is startling in its normality - there's nothing exceptional about what Seattle and Billvon have been posting here, their inability to address a topic or paraphrase an argument is something Americans now take for granted. It's a fungus that has come to dominate American politics. The consequences of electing yet another President amanita from the Republican shitpile have included - so far - about 60,000 extra deaths from the Covid virus (and extra tens of thousands of permanently damaged recoveries, that the US is not tracking even if it could).

The US - the source and originator of modern First World medial care and public health standards, until around 1980 the healthiest country in the world by most measures - can no longer handle a viral plague with standard First World methods. The US has lost its First World medical care capability in matters of public health. We saw some of that after Katrina.

It's the kind of scene one reads about in accounts of the aftermaths of disaster or war, when a society is struggling to restore basic infrastructure and clean itself up. That the disaster or war was self-inflicted, leading to hangover issues interfering with recovery, is common in such accounts and obviously a significant part of US history.

Prediction: it will dominate accounts of the aftermath of this virus in the US, if any. (If the entire era becomes a suppressed event in some Chinese history book there won't be such accounts, of course).

 

[billvon]

The rightwing corporate media feed victim, befuddled and confused by the sudden appearance of the magic word "paid", pulls yet another wingnut stereotype out of the kitbag. The thread topic or post issue? Not a consideration. The concept of a leftwing libertarian? Unavailable, unimaginable, no clue. The sheer irrelevancy, meaninglessness, the surreal prevalence of intrusive fantasies in these dumbass and juvenile posts from who should be the best informed citizens on the planet, is startling in its normality - there's nothing exceptional about what Seattle and Billvon have been posting here, their inability to address a topic or paraphrase an argument is something Americans now take for granted. It's a fungus that has come to dominate American politics. The consequences of electing yet another President amanita from the Republican shitpile have included - so far - about 60,000 extra deaths from the Covid virus (and extra tens of thousands of permanently damaged recoveries, that the US is not tracking even if it could).

Holy word salad Batman!

You have a bright future as an online op-ed writer.