It's really true US infrastructure are old and decaying....
Let's see which president will start to update and upgrade them really.... stock exchanges indexes are not the only indicators of the health and wealth of a country.
Curse of Arecibo strikes again: Now another cable breaks, smashes into America's largest radio telescope
America’s largest radio telescope, at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, has suffered yet more damage after another cable above the reflector dish snapped and came crashing down last week. It doesn’t appear to be as serious as a similar accident in August, when a three-inch-thick auxiliary cable broke free and tore a 100- …
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Tuesday 10th November 2020 14:58 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Indicators
"Sadly they are, however, the only indicators that matter to political donors."
As demonstrated by the US Presidents tweet when the vaccine was announced.
"STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!
Yeah, it's great news, but how he leads the sentence is telling.
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Tuesday 10th November 2020 19:25 GMT DS999
Re: Indicators
What's really funny is that the announcement came from Pfizer, who did NOT participate in Trump's "warp speed" program (gave money to drug companies to help defray the risk of making a vaccine that might not work)
So even though he tries to take credit for it, he had nothing to do with it.
If that 90% effectiveness holds up, that will be a game changer. Looking forward to FINALLY being able to put this virus behind us next spring! It is going to be a bad winter in the US though, record high cases and hospitalizations in many states across the country. Hopefully we've learned enough about treating it in the past six months that we won't also break records in deaths.
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Wednesday 11th November 2020 18:53 GMT DS999
Re: Indicators
90% effective will work even if only half of people get vaccinated. You just need to reduce the 'r' value of how many people the average infected person infects below 1, though obviously the further below 1 the quicker it dies out. Being over 90% effective means fewer smart people will get infected by the antivax morons, so at least there's that.
There are levers that a president who doesn't turn everything into a partisan issue can pull to get the vaccination percentage up. I hope Biden requires schools require their students/faculty/staff be vaccinated for the 2021 term or loses federal funding, require it of military and federal employees, etc.
I'm sure a lot of the Trumpies will scream from the rooftops about their "freedom" being infringed by requiring a shot, but this is nothing new as vaccination requirements for schools, military and federal employees date back to the 50s and were not controversial or partisan then. At least they would get back their freedom to cough on others they are so upset about lately, and the worst they'd spread would be the usual colds and flu.
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Thursday 12th November 2020 18:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Indicators
Unfortunately you probably need quite a lot more than 50%. If you assume that R0 is 2.5, vaccine effectiveness is 90% and 10% of people are already immune, you need 55%. But the practical effectiveness will probably be lower than 90% (see this): if it's 80% then with the remaining assumptions unaltered you need 62%. And then perhaps some people can't have the vaccine which makes things worse.
I don't know what the proportion of people who are anti-vaxxers are, but I suspect after n years of conspiracy-theory-cretinism the window between how many you need to vaccinate and how many will accept vaccination is uncomfortably narrow. I don't wish anyone harm, but I do wish anti-vaxxers would go and live on another planet.
However there's another way of thinking about it which is much more cynical and which you might be referring to above. If you or I get vaccinated, then we've got a (probably less than) 90% chance of being immune, regardless of whether there is some kind of viral apocalypse happening around us. But the anti-vaxxers will not have that safety factor. So they'll preferentially get ill and preferentially die. Unfortunately they will also cause people who can't be vaccinated to get ill and die, which is horrible.
If I was really, really cynical and nasty (and I'm not suggesting this) I would instigate a rule which said that if you get ill with CV19 and you have both been offered and refused vaccination then you should not get other than palliative treatment. They more-or-less do this for smokers in some places.
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Thursday 19th November 2020 14:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Indicators
What's really funny is that the announcement came from Pfizer, who did NOT participate in Trump's "warp speed" program (gave money to drug companies to help defray the risk of making a vaccine that might not work)
Actually, they *DID*, they just didn't want to admit to it. They've already been caught in that particular lie. But go on ahead, keep flogging the false narrative.
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Tuesday 10th November 2020 14:27 GMT ThatOne
The writing is on the wall
As I said in the last article about the last accident, "they" are trying to bring it to a point where they can claim repairs (and of course any upgrade) are not a viable option anymore.
Stay tuned for other sudden (and totally unforeseen!) accidents.
(We need a tinfoil hat icon)
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Tuesday 10th November 2020 19:52 GMT oiseau
What caused it?
An investigation to pinpoint what caused the August failure is still ongoing.
Really?
Still don't know?
Like I said in August:
"Due to the lack of federal aid, a great deal of Puerto Rico's basic infrastructure is still in ruins after hurricanes Irma and María devastated the island, all made worse by an earthquake in January of this year.
Could this have also affected Arecibo's maintenance schedules?"
As far as I know, the 08/2020 status has not changed.
So now we know for sure: No money + no maintenance = Arecibo infrastructure fails.
And I really don't see them getting any help before January 20th. 2021.
Ahh ...
These last four years in The Orange Asshole's™ little hands.
That's the curse.
It will probably keep on giving and giving and giving.
O.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
