Corona-virus - Impact of the Health Situation worldwide

[Dunsignalling]

Historically, it would have been unthinkable for any major city to grow up other than adjacent to the sea or major waterway. Moving goods overland by wheeled means was formerly much more difficult than by water. Hence the development of canals to facilitate moving bulk materials like coal and iron ore before the advent of railways.  

 

Rising sea level will place many such cities in peril and immediate proximity to the sea is no longer economically vital for mature cities (e.g. London) anyway. Containerisation makes it easier to service them from newer, larger, and more efficient deep-water ports uncompromised by the need to fit into or around an existing conurbation. Hence London's docklands having (re)developed into anything but and big new ones being situated at Tilbury.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MJI]

Belgium

 

We are legally responsible for their defence.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London_(1839)

[melmerby]

5 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

Historically, it would have been unthinkable for any major city to grow up other than adjacent to the sea or major waterway. Moving goods overland by wheeled means was formerly much more difficult than by water. Hence the development of canals to facilitate moving bulk materials like coal and iron ore before the advent of railways.  

 

Rising sea level will place many such cities in peril and immediate proximity to the sea is no longer economically vital for mature cities (e.g. London) anyway. Containerisation makes it easier to service them from newer, larger, and more efficient deep-water ports uncompromised by the need to fit into or around an existing conurbation. Hence London's docklands having (re)developed into anything but and big new ones being situated at Tilbury.

 

John

 

The major exception in the UK would be Birmingham. (And the adjacent Black Country)

No navigable rivers and as far from the sea as anywhere. There were some water powered mills.

However it was already expanding before the canals arrived followed by the railways. It was considered important enough to be connected to everywhere else and ended up as the hub of both systems

[boxbrownie]

10 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I think the idea is build what almost amounts to a disposable ventilator. A design that will serve in a crisis and expand the number of machines available quickly, if they're a bit rubbish and only last a short time it doesn't matter as long as they work. Given the sort of money the government is throwing around just now the costs of paying to buy a few thousand cheap throwaway ventilators won't even be a rounding error. Even if they're bought and thrown away without ever being used it is a trivial amount of money just now.

 

However, if companies develop a low cost and simple ventilator that is suitable to be used as a throwaway crisis response then it could have huge benefits for health agencies and for making ventilators much more affordable to less well developed health services.

Exactly, it has strong parallels with wartime in as much that technology/inventions appear in short time to fulfil an immediate need, thankfully that tech can be further developed and expanded after any crisis/war is over to benefit the general populace.

[Titan]

My parrot swallowed a watch.

 

Now Polly ticks...

[jonny777]

34 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I see that some people are still not social distancing in the UK.

Two of my neighbours had visitors yesterday, one for many hours in the evening, another had the builders in to do some loft work, a lad two doors away went out in his car for the evening, his workmate called for him to go to work in his small van this morning. Lots of routes for spreading infection there.

 

How do I know?

My model making area is in a front bedroom and I can't help noticing people moving around!

 

 

I'm not quite sure that I understand this sentiment. My old kitchen was ripped out on March 9th because that was the date given by the fitters for work to start, back in January.

 

There were few restrictions then, and the current lockdown only appeared 2 weeks later. It takes time to remove all the old floor, ceiling, wall tiling in addition to the cupboards and electrical items. The walls and ceilings have to be re-plastered and left to dry, and the floor has to be laid and levelled for the new tiles to be added. 

 

What am I supposed to do? Demand they stop work due to a virus threat, leaving me with no kitchen sink, cooker, fridge, dishwasher, cupboards, etc.; and me living out of a coolbox in the lounge with a microwave and kettle on the sideboard? 

 

How long would this torture have persisted with no sign of the rules being relaxed? 

 

No. We all took the sensible decision that they complete the installation as planned. To me, it was essential work, and to them it was work they could not undertake from home. Yes, there was a chance that one of the workers or myself could have the virus unknown to anyone else and pass it on; but we took the chance and kept apart as much as possible. No one was deliberately interacting with any other member of the wider community. The work was all self contained within my home. 

 

They finished on Tuesday (24th), and did an excellent job. The added bonuses are that I am now back to having a fully functioning kitchen and they are getting paid. I see no problem with this. 

[Stanley Melrose]

23 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Exactly, it has strong parallels with wartime in as much that technology/inventions appear in short time to fulfil an immediate need, thankfully that tech can be further developed and expanded after any crisis/war is over to benefit the general populace.

 

If my memory servers me correctly, we were told when I worked for Ford that Dagenham produced a bren gun carrier from scratch in 33 days during WWII.  I've no idea if it piggy-backed on an existing vehicle but it almost certainly did.  The Liberty Boats were still going in and out of the Port of Liverpool well into the 1950s and they were supposed to make one voyage across the Atlantic bringing vital supplies.

 

Stan

[robert17649]

producing things that function can be done very quickly even in a medical context, in the early days CPAP devices were thrown together from redundant sphymomanometers and bits of tubing. They worked but would never have passed any serious safety checks, they saved lives though. when the basic principles were understood they were manufactured to higher and safer standards.  Putting together a ventilator is much the same, its easy to make one work once, basically its squeezing a bag. To make one work repeatedly and safely and to be easily cleanable and sterilised ain't so simple.

[Joseph_Pestell]

The clever feature on the GTECH ventilator, which is what had taken the time to develop, is that it works purely on the oxygen pressure in the cylinder - no electrical power.

 

That will be a huge plus in Third World environments but also at The Nightingale (aka Excel) as it mean less cables to install and trip over.

[boxbrownie]

28 minutes ago, Stanley Melrose said:

 

If my memory servers me correctly, we were told when I worked for Ford that Dagenham produced a bren gun carrier from scratch in 33 days during WWII.  I've no idea if it piggy-backed on an existing vehicle but it almost certainly did.  The Liberty Boats were still going in and out of the Port of Liverpool well into the 1950s and they were supposed to make one voyage across the Atlantic bringing vital supplies.

 

Stan

And we assembled aircraft and aircraft engine in Birmingham.....

[Joseph_Pestell]

31 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

 

I'm not quite sure that I understand this sentiment. My old kitchen was ripped out on March 9th because that was the date given by the fitters for work to start, back in January.

 

There were few restrictions then, and the current lockdown only appeared 2 weeks later. It takes time to remove all the old floor, ceiling, wall tiling in addition to the cupboards and electrical items. The walls and ceilings have to be re-plastered and left to dry, and the floor has to be laid and levelled for the new tiles to be added. 

 

What am I supposed to do? Demand they stop work due to a virus threat, leaving me with no kitchen sink, cooker, fridge, dishwasher, cupboards, etc.; and me living out of a coolbox in the lounge with a microwave and kettle on the sideboard? 

 

How long would this torture have persisted with no sign of the rules being relaxed? 

 

No. We all took the sensible decision that they complete the installation as planned. To me, it was essential work, and to them it was work they could not undertake from home. Yes, there was a chance that one of the workers or myself could have the virus unknown to anyone else and pass it on; but we took the chance and kept apart as much as possible. No one was deliberately interacting with any other member of the wider community. The work was all self contained within my home. 

 

They finished on Tuesday (24th), and did an excellent job. The added bonuses are that I am now back to having a fully functioning kitchen and they are getting paid. I see no problem with this. 

 

I am in a similar situation with about 6m2 of roof area exposed to the elements.

 

Looks like I am going to have to tackle it myself IF I can get the necessary materials.

[runs as required]

46 minutes ago, Stanley Melrose said:

  ...  The Liberty Boats were still going in and out of the Port of Liverpool well into the 1950s and they were supposed to make one voyage across the Atlantic bringing vital supplies.

 

The first time I ever went to downtown Le Havre - an extraordinary rebuilt city after WWII - entirely in Precast concrete by French architect  Auguste Perret - there used to be a Concrete Liberty ship moored symbolically in the basin before the Hotel de Ville, its steel net reinforcement slowly rusting away, exposed by salt water spalling the concrete.

Very Poetic ! 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by runs as required

[jcredfer]

15 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I am in a similar situation with about 6m2 of roof area exposed to the elements.

 

Looks like I am going to have to tackle it myself IF I can get the necessary materials.

 

I don't suppose there is anything to stop you getting a single man roofer to do the job.  Appropriate distances and separation shouldn't be difficult to arrange.

 

Julian

 

[jonny777]

19 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I am in a similar situation with about 6m2 of roof area exposed to the elements.

 

Looks like I am going to have to tackle it myself IF I can get the necessary materials.

 

I was very fortunate in that most of the work had been done by the time the real lockdown began. The kitchen company had two jobs scheduled to commence last Monday (23rd) but both of those were cancelled by the customers, and I can understand their decision in the circumstances. This meant that my kitchen was the last work they had, and having shelled out thousands for all the new fittings and fixtures they were keen to finish in order to recoup the outlay, understandable in my opinion. 

 

You have my sympathy, and there must be thousands in a similar position to yourself with half-finished work and contractors confined to their homes. 

[boxbrownie]

33 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I am in a similar situation with about 6m2 of roof area exposed to the elements.

 

Looks like I am going to have to tackle it myself IF I can get the necessary materials.

I would have thought both these situations are deemed essential........after all either could jeopardise ones health.

 

Unless of course your roof is the shed roof like mine? 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, jonny777 said:

 

 

I'm not quite sure that I understand this sentiment. My old kitchen was ripped out on March 9th because that was the date given by the fitters for work to start, back in January.

 

 

This AFAIK was the first visit from the builders (two of them) so presumably nothing in serious need of finishing.

The vans signwriting claimed that they just did lofts, (not general building work) e.g. Boarding, Loft conversions, Veluxes etc.

The lad used to always use his own car when he went out in the morning but has now taken to "car sharing", which in these times seems strange.

[Nearholmer]

Builders and construction workers are in the most difficult situation of everyone when it comes to decisions about working:

 

- self employed, so no financial cushion;

 

- employers who will drive-on regardless because of penalty clauses in their contracts (a neighbour is caught in this, managing a big site in central London, employer refuses to stand-down, wife working in the NHS, three children in various forms of daycare);

 

- impracticality of keeping 2m apart;

 

- government advice is to carry on; London mayor’s advice the complete opposite.

 

What would any of us do?

 

Easy if you’re on a pension or can simply work from home; a lot harder if you are in neither bracket.

 

There is some real black humour going round about it, with guys singing songs about having so much cement dust and glass fibre in their lungs that the virus can’t live in there ........ they know full well that damaged lungs actually put them at greater risk.

 

Supermarket workers are also “out there”, being incredibly exposed, even given the sorts of precautions now used.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by Nearholmer

[298]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

The major exception in the UK would be Birmingham. (And the adjacent Black Country)

No navigable rivers and as far from the sea as anywhere. There were some water powered mills.

However it was already expanding before the canals arrived followed by the railways. It was considered important enough to be connected to everywhere else and ended up as the hub of both systems

 

So someone was having a laugh when they decided the city's assay office's hallmark should be an anchor....?

[black and decker boy]

3 hours ago, melmerby said:

The major exception in the UK would be Birmingham. (And the adjacent Black Country)

No navigable rivers and as far from the sea as anywhere. There were some water powered mills.

However it was already expanding before the canals arrived followed by the railways. It was considered important enough to be connected to everywhere else and ended up as the hub of both systems

No doubt helped by the iron & coal deposits nearby??

 

(Ironbridge & Coalport being a result of surface & shallow coal & iron seams in use dating back a very long way)

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

I would have thought both these situations are deemed essential........after all either could jeopardise ones health.

 

Unless of course your roof is the shed roof like mine? 

 

It's not in the part of the building that I live in. But it won't do the fabric any good left like that.

 

I also need doors and windows fitted. Suppliers seem to have gone home. Not replying to e-mails.

[boxbrownie]

7 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

It's not in the part of the building that I live in. But it won't do the fabric any good left like that.

 

I also need doors and windows fitted. Suppliers seem to have gone home. Not replying to e-mails.

Surely the fact it’s the building you live in regardless of which bit makes it essential, as for windows and doors I suppose that depends upon if there are old ones already there or they can be boarded up safely until this settles down.

A good argument for at least getting the roof done, my shed roof is now leaking like a sieve and it could be done by our maintenance man alone so should be fine, if we can get the materials!

[JeremyC]

My younger son works for a company administering a heating scheme for the Scottish Government. He's now working from home and says their instructions are to put all surveys or installation work not started on hold and that all installations in progress should be completed by close of play tomorrow (Friday).

Edited March 26, 2020 by JeremyC

[boxbrownie]

10 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

It's not in the part of the building that I live in. But it won't do the fabric any good left like that.

 

I also need doors and windows fitted. Suppliers seem to have gone home. Not replying to e-mails.

Surely the fact it’s the building you live in regardless of which bit makes it essential, as for windows and doors I suppose that depends upon if there are old ones already there or they can be boarded up safely until this settles down.

A good argument for at least getting the roof done, my shed roof is now leaking like a sieve and it could be done by our maintenance man alone so should be fine, if we can get the materials!

[Reorte]

It really should've occurred to me when I got a load of shopping in at the start of the week (not in the panic buying vein, but simply because I usually don't cook during the week, using the work canteen) that I should've also got more containers to freeze batches in - I live on my own and it's much easier to do more than I need and freeze it.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, black and decker boy said:

No doubt helped by the iron & coal deposits nearby??

 

(Ironbridge & Coalport being a result of surface & shallow coal & iron seams in use dating back a very long way)

Ironbridge & Coalport were naturals for expansion (which did actually happen), as they are on a navigable river.

But they are not that near Brum & the Black Country which has no navigable rivers but in the end expanded the most.

Edited March 26, 2020 by melmerby