Random Rant Thread

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Interesting analysis. I haven't really dived into the methodology and whatnot, and probably won't, but sounds convincing enough.

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Yes, this is the way you ought to tackle the new variant. You do as best you can to control Delta before Omicron starts doing real damage.

In countries like the US, there was already so much Delta circulation, like strong cosmic microwave background, due to the policy/social failure that it was just going to be bad no matter what. In those places, it's actually a war with two fronts which are completely intertwined and thus hard to distinguish.

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Yes, I did say that people in the past are people in the past, and people now are people now, and that no matter how spoiled, weak, silly we are, it's we that we have to deal with now, and that doing the grumpy old man routine is useless.

But man. For how long should we let hysterical fools act like keeping a simple mask on for 30 minutes on a train or in a movie theater for the entirety of The Matrix Resurrection is the Battle of Verdun, Great Tokyo Air Raid and Kishinev Pogrom combined? Most of those bitches don't even wear glasses.

We really are the silliest human beings in the history of this planet.

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Yes, but one of the biggest problems is that the agency tried to listen to the bitches. "No, you keep wearing a mask even in the bed, and if you don't like my tone, kiss my ass, you spoiled loser bitches" should've been the attitude. They don't have the authority *anyway*. Should've played the role of the barking dog.

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"So instead of cosplaying as data journalists"

Hear, hear.

Enough is enough, man. Those people were useful earlier in the pandemic, but not anymore. They are way past their expiration date, and all that remains is enormous hubris. Nate Silver is one example, but he at least *is* an actual data journalist, and there are a lot of people even worse.

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Trying to be reasonable with the population 30% of which are anything but.

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OK, sorry about too much negativity, so some good news.

The wastewater samples from Boston: Peaked, and coming down.



Similarly it's coming down in D.C. too. 

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I know the debates in certain academic fields like physics and economics often do look like the Battle of Different Jewish Tribes, but in epistemology/public health/virology/healthcare in general, it often does look like the Battle of Different Indian Tribes.

When you have so many Guptas, the question of "which Gupta?" is a matter of life and death, really, as the question of "Which Friedman?" is in a few other fields.

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I did say and do think that the British society is much less broken than the American one, but boy are there so many creepy nutjobs in the British media and politics. Of course the US beats the UK on that front too with its sheer volumes of cranks, but at least the structure of demagoguery is simpler in the US.

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The only thing that the latest Boris Johnson "scandal" tells me is that no one outside the British media likes Boris Johnson. The whole thing seems like a nice pretext for Tories to ditch him with minimum damage to themselves.

Is there any other way to interpret that seemingly ridiculous theater? I just don't see any, but do understand my credibility on UK politics is near zero.

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I've been talking about what "mild" really means in Covid until blue in the face, so naturally I'll recommend this piece:

Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ Is Wishful Thinking
www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/01/omicron-mild-severity-immunity/621238/

Note I've always preferred "less virulent" to describe Omicron because I don't like the connotations and tone of the word "mild".

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As you all know, I have zero tolerance for anyone who screams Cancel Culture! whenever they go through the backlash to their expressed opinions, but people ought to understand that "There is no such thing as Cancel Culture, but that guy deserved to be canceled" is also an ideologically untenable position. I see too much of this on the left these days.

Pointing out the fake victimhood shouldn't lead to severely downplaying something that actually exists. Cancel Culture *does exist*, just not in the way those right-wingers claim it does.

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Anyone whose Twitter bio contains a George Orwell quote is an idiot who mysteriously thinks that they are witty and smart. I have never seen a single exception to this rule.

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Looking back on it I still find it astonishing that so many people bought the nonsense that the Great Barrington Declaration (<--- What a fucking stupid, cringe-inducing name) was selling.

I mean, protecting the vulnerable while the rest are encouraged to throw Covid parties to build herd immunity, aka "focused shielding." They sounded as if that "focused shielding" concept was the greatest invention in the history of epidemiology, vilifying lockdowns as the ultimate evil.

Sheesh, man. Jesus fucking Christ, those people.

Countries did lockdowns, very reluctantly, precisely because they quickly realized that "focused shielding" was impossible in reality. They ALL wanted to do "focused shielding." Of course they did! Badly! But no one could answer the question of how. So they opted for lockdowns. They thought that the only feasible way to reduce the fatalities in nursing homes was to limit prevalence in the general population. They didn't see any other practical way. And they were not wrong about that.

Do you know what that kind of logical ass-backwardness is generally called? The answer is "nonsense". That's what the GBD was peddling.

And needless to say, to this day those GBD bullshitters haven't given us even a hint on the ways "focused shielding" can be achieved in real life, presumably because there is none.

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I'm a sudoku genius, but suck at crossword puzzles. So I'm no good at this.

Wordle 209 5/6

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