CitizenVectron

Update: Texas gov knew of natural gas shortages days before blackout, blamed wind anyway ARSTECHNICA.COM Official's phone logs offer blow-by-blow account of the disaster as it unfolded.

How do you all think events would have gone differently if the people entering had managed to kill a member of congress/senator? Or perhaps kidnap them for a while?

Also have we all forgotten about the pipe bombs that were planted?

Maybe Knives Out 2 is a musical.

Leslie Odom Jr and Kate Hudson have also now joined the cast.

The absolute best case for a billionaire is someone who stays at home and just lets their wealth accumulate and does nothing. But in that case, the money they have is still indirectly harming others by being in that bank account and not in poor people's.

As of today, anyone 12+ in my province can get their first dose. Awesome to see demand staying high. My 17-year-old niece went to a drive-thru clinic yesterday and got hers, which I am very happy about. Her mom (my wife's sister) is...dumb, and is not going to be vaccinated, and tried to convince my niece not to be, either. Fortunately she (niece) is dating a guy in the military (only 18, not super creepy, lol) who has been vaccinated since Jan, and who has actually administered vaccines in long term care homes when the military was sent in to help. So he's seen first-hand what the virus has done to people in vulnerable places. So he convinced her to get the shot, and explained the risks, side-effects, etc. Tomorrow she will be taking her younger brother (14) to get the shot as well. I'm very happy about that. Fortunately in my province anyone 13 and up can make certain medical decisions for themselves, provided they are of sound mind. Vaccination is one of them.

Teachers union where I live is for the entire province. They have massive bargaining power, and as a result they have good pay. I think starting is around $50k, and goes as high as $95k depending on time, education, etc (teachers require a bachelor's degree, but can be paid more with a master's and PHD).

And then reinstate it right before an election, saying that it was time for American to heal. Then, if the Democrats win, the GOP will denounce their plans to remove the filibuster.

In the first episode, Batman will leave a room and it will show Alfred turning into a ball of energy and floating out another door. It will never be referenced again.

I think that's likely. Saskatchewan just announced today that everyone will be eligible to make their appointment by July 26 (rolling out second shot by age group), and that they expect everyone to receive their shot by early August at the latest. I think we'll hit over 70% with both doses by the end of July. Second shots for 85+ have started as of today.

We're getting off-topic here (or past the point)—regardless of density, etc, Saskatchewan has had consistently worse rates of infection that Ontario throughout the pandemic, yet also has a much better vaccine rollout. The reason is simple: our goal was to inject as many people as quickly as possible. This meant centralized booking systems and drive-in/walk-in sites you could access without appointment. It hasn't been perfect (some groups like teachers came later in the process than they should have due to the requirements being mostly age-based), but it's been better than anywhere else in the provinces. Ontario fucked up by focusing on private distribution through pharmacies (a mistake that Saskatchewan unfortunately just followed).

Not sure if you heard (you probably have), but Dune is apparently no longer going to HBO Max, and will now release wide in theatres.

Exactly. In my province, the main places of spread are: 1. Households 2. Workplaces 3. Hockey and curling rinks (because the virus survives in the air for much longer) You catch it when you're breathing in the air for long periods around other people who have it.

As long as the delayed boosters provide the same level of efficacy (and early results from the UK seem to show they provide better efficacy at 12 weeks than 3 weeks), then giving everyone one shot first is the far better approach, and will have saved hundreds or thousands of lives.

Hey, whatever works!

I can't remember who was the biggest advocate of this idea here. Maybe @sblfilms? But the idea goes that it doesn't matter where you live (or how close you live to someone else), it matters how often you are around other people. Theoretically, people in a 30-storey apartment building in NYC are living in a much more dense environment than the same number of people living in a rural area spread out over 30 square miles. But, if those rural people are more often gathering in local diners, halls, and living rooms, then the virus can spread more easily. So in that sense, the issue is mostly compliance around gatherings, and the culture of areas/people in terms of how often they gather. There was some good stuff posted a long time ago in this thread about how people in suburbs and rural communities end up gathering a lot more than people in cities during the pandemic, and this is why they experienced worse spread over the past year. It's really interesting stuff.

Gonna be some psychopath that is able to manipulate everyone else in alliances and get the rest voted off. Then that person will kill the rest of the crew and commandeer the ISS and make it into the Low Earth Orbit Nation.

As has been pointed out multiple times here in the past, population density isn't the main driver of outbreaks, it's population crowding. A small town that has one or two places to gather (but lower density overall) can more easily have an outbreak than a big city. It's the % of the pop that normally gets together that matters, not how close they live to each other. This is why outbreaks in SK have been larger in small communities than in cities, generally.

A single dose provides 80-90% protection against getting the virus, and two doses provide 80-95% protection. There is almost no meaningful difference in herd immunity. However, if that is the hill you want to die on, Canada is going to also pass the US for full vaccinations sometime in July, count on it. And we will pass Israel in August or September, at the latest. But by then it won't matter—70-75% of the pop having a single dose is going to stop the pandemic better than 60% having two doses.

Noice. I don't think we'll keep going in a straight line until we reach 75% of 12+, though. My province is on-track to be first to get there in 18 days, but 25% of people here say they are vaccine hesitant (highest in the country). I think SK will get to 75%, but it will take 4-6 weeks, not 2-3.

They are being overly cautious because you can't put the genie back in the bottle. It is very likely that by late June/early July we will have practical herd immunity in Canada, even exceeding the US or Israel. However, there is always a small chance that something changes. Maybe a new variant, or something else. If we take away restrictions too early, then it will be politically impossible to put them back, even for a short time. That is why governments are choosing to open up more slowly (as opposed to the US where they are rushing to be first). Politically, in Canada, the public massively supports keeping restrictions in place for as long as needed. Much like the vaccine delivery schedule, the federal government is under-promising, and will over-deliver. We'll have a relatively normalish summer, and likely a completely normal fall. Anyone who wants both shots* will be able to make an appointment by mid-to-late July, and get that shot by the end of August. Anyone who wants their first shot will be able to get it by the end of June.* * Assuming anywhere but Ontario, which is massively fucking up the rollout, somehow.