Covid-19 - The silver lining (Positives!)

[Oldddudders]

36 minutes ago, eastglosmog said:

Good grief, I didn't realise that sea levels had risen so far as to drown Slough!

Betjeman would approve!

[Gilbert]

45 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

 

if only ......

come friendly waves.....

[EddieB]

If you’re drinking Bacardi?

 

(Auntie Beryl, next door’s budgie, catching the last bus home, etc.)

[great central]

6 hours ago, big jim said:

I think you have hit the nail on the head there, i will be doing my best at boycotting ‘spoons when all this blows over but it’s going to be difficult, as a non drinker I use them regularly for dining when out with the family or while lodging in work and I don’t fancy a hotel dinner, you know what you are getting, it’s cheap and most places are actually quite pleasant (rugeley, congleton, sandbach and Dumfries in particular)

 

saying that I’ve just discovered ‘hungry horse’ which by us is greene king chain and the food there is on a par if not slightly better than ‘spoons but a touch more expensive so I’ll try and use them more when out and about 

 

 

 

Also from the Greene King chain are Farmhouse Inns, they do an excellent buffet breakfast from less than a fiver, including as much tea/coffee and toast as you want. If you also like cakes theirs are very very tempting, to say the least.

They're all closed at the moment, understandably, but worth checking out when the madness ends.

[Reorte]

7 hours ago, LBRJ said:

I am really starting to wonder (with a bit of empirical evidence so far) that the truly woeful "home delivery" services offered by the big supermarkets may not be the start of the end of them.

The country is full of people who "dont really like Tescosainsburies etc" but put up with em cos they have their uses....

now they are starting to prove that those uses are more than somewhat limited there is a spark of shopping local...We must fan that spark 

 

I think that's a bit harsh on them when they were never set up with this level of demand in mind, and it would've been very unreasonable to expect the capacity to be sitting there unused just in case something like this came along.

[Reorte]

2 hours ago, Fenman said:

Unfortunately for their mental health, many people look in the wrong direction. There’s a tragic story explaining why all those rich businessmen sitting in the First Class section of the plane are so miserable: it’s because they’ve forgotten how much materially better off they are than almost everyone sitting behind them and, instead, they’re grumpy because their mates are travelling in private jets.

 

IMO that doesn't prove that they've forgotten things but that all the material gains aren't what we actually need for good mental health. It would be a huge cockup of evolution if we evolved to find our natural environment made us utterly miserable, with its lack of material stuff. I'm not advocating going back to those conditions - it's a very good thing that you no longer have to be very lucky to survive childhood - but it's far from being everything. We've got an inbuilt drive for more, no doubt evolved from times when constantly trying to get more was needed just to get enough. Not having to worry about the essentials, then good company and good surroundings - and keeping the stress down. Modern life is terrible for stress and that is a real mental health killer.

 

Quote

Looking for positives in terrible circumstances is not disrespectful to those who are suffering, and nor is it necessarily a sign of mixed-up priorities: it’s about trying to keep a sense of perspective and to remain on an even keel.

 

Definitely.

[Fenman]

43 minutes ago, Reorte said:

 

I think that's a bit harsh on them when they were never set up with this level of demand in mind, and it would've been very unreasonable to expect the capacity to be sitting there unused just in case something like this came along.

I’d agree with that. In many situations there’s a spectrum, with ultimate economic efficiency at one end and resilience at the other. By constantly emphasising the supreme importance of “cheapest”, we push all suppliers to

the efficiency end — where their systems are as lean as possible, all just-in-time and exactly tailored to the normal market.

 

Which is fine, until unexpected shocks come along. Then we seem surprised that a system exactly optimised for one precise set of conditions can’t magically change overnight to adapt to new circumstances.
 

In WW2, the wildly inefficient UK rail network ensured that German bombing of lines rarely cut off a town: there were usually two, three or four routes into most decent-sized places.
 

We decided in the 50s and 60s that we were no longer prepared to pay for that much inefficiency. Each generation makes its choices. As the philosopher said: you can be a hedgehog, a supreme master at one very clever trick; or you can be a fox, a master of nothing but adequately good at all sorts of things. As our world has become evermore sophisticated, maybe we have too many institutions that are like hedgehogs and not enough that are like foxes. 
 

Paul

[Oldddudders]

The business world is dominated these days by shareholders who want a return now, not tomorrow. Thus building in resilience in this case, or planning for long-term gain, have become unfashionable, and not what the FD drives the Board to do. 

 

[Fenman]

22 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

The business world is dominated these days by shareholders who want a return now, not tomorrow. Thus building in resilience in this case, or planning for long-term gain, have become unfashionable, and not what the FD drives the Board to do. 

 

True, but it’s not just evil FDs: how many RMwebbers are obsessed with getting the cheapest X?

 

Paul

[The Lurker]

in other positive news, Ocado didn't deliver our Andrex loo roll today - but it was replaced with Cushelle. That's what I call a silver lining!

[SHMD]

A Silver Lining?

 

I'm getting much better at "Fortnite" now!

 

 

Kev.

[jjb1970]

To me the silver lining might be much more affordable medical equipment like ventilators designed in response to the pandemic. That could be hugely beneficial to poor countries and less developed health services. 

[sir douglas]

last week ehen i went out with my dog i could easily feel how cleaner the air is. i'm thinking of taking photos of the sky but keep forgetting, when will we ever again see a sky without jet trails. it may become something unique to this year

[APOLLO]

35 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

To me the silver lining might be much more affordable medical equipment like ventilators designed in response to the pandemic. That could be hugely beneficial to poor countries and less developed health services. 

 

I've always thought the many £millions we give abroad in foreign aid should be converted to needy products that those countries need (especially after natural disasters) - and ALL of this aid should be manufactured / produced  in the UK. The powers that be will then less inclined to make themselves rich etc. A win win situation for the UK & the recipients.

 

Fat Chance - the whole world is corrupt.

 

Brit15

[eastglosmog]

4 hours ago, Fenman said:

........................

In WW2, the wildly inefficient UK rail network ensured that German bombing of lines rarely cut off a town: there were usually two, three or four routes into most decent-sized places.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

And the inefficient use of wagons (all those PO's laden one way only) meant they could carry a lot more traffic when required.

[Nick C]

Another silver lining pointed out by one of my wife's colleagues this morning - he's been able to spend a lot more time with his kids, as they're all at home. -  so he's been starting work earlier (at the time he'd normally leave for the commute), then taking a longer break in the middle of the day to have time to play ping-pong with them for their "PE Hour"

[Nearholmer]

4 hours ago, APOLLO said:

I've always thought the many £millions we give abroad in foreign aid should be converted to needy products that those countries need (especially after natural disasters) - and ALL of this aid should be manufactured / produced  in the UK.

 

That would be a bit like the policy widely-applied in workplaces, of giving everyone fairly cheap and basic chairs, which cause a significant proportion of people back difficulties, then issuing individuals with really comfy, well-designed, rather more expensive chairs only after their lower vertebrae crumble to dust.

 

The point of aid, is supposed to be stop countries getting into a mess, or help them get out of a mess, before the whole problem becomes so acute as to need emergency aid. Supporting education, for instance, needs more than a stack of blackboards made in Braintree.

 

Which I know doesn't answer the  huge corruption problem ......... maybe the only way round that is a lot of "our people", UK Government Employees, on the ground to project manage, administer, oversee, and very gradually hand-over to trained local people ....... aid directly to the people, rather than their dodgy governments and state apparatchiks. Which might require us to provide more aid, to do the job properly, rather than less, and might smack of stealth-colonialism.

[jjb1970]

There is no shortage of educated, trained and competent people in most poorer countries. Let them have a few tools and they can help themselves. The big thing is access to markets and trade, but of course that's when it gets difficult because people in the developed world then complain about unfair competition, social dumping etc if countries utilize one of their biggest assets (labour) and want to do the value added parts of chains (manufacture, integration) rather than just being a supply of cheap raw materials.

[APOLLO]

23 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

That would be a bit like the policy widely-applied in workplaces, of giving everyone fairly cheap and basic chairs, which cause a significant proportion of people back difficulties, then issuing individuals with really comfy, well-designed, rather more expensive chairs only after their lower vertebrae crumble to dust.

 

The point of aid, is supposed to be stop countries getting into a mess, or help them get out of a mess, before the whole problem becomes so acute as to need emergency aid. Supporting education, for instance, needs more than a stack of blackboards made in Braintree.

 

Which I know doesn't answer the  huge corruption problem ......... maybe the only way round that is a lot of "our people", UK Government Employees, on the ground to project manage, administer, oversee, and very gradually hand-over to trained local people ....... aid directly to the people, rather than their dodgy governments and state apparatchiks. Which might require us to provide more aid, to do the job properly, rather than less, and might smack of stealth-colonialism.

 

You missed my point a bit - Aid should be prioritised for natural disasters especially in poorer countries. (Earthquakes volcano eruptions, tsunamis, drought etc etc. Giving money as aid just does not work it's way down to the needy, due to mass corruption. OK aid for education / health is also important. Give them books, equipment, field hospitals, etc etc - just NOT money. And also police it all - ensure it goes to where it is needed.

 

Brit15

 

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Apollo

 

I understood at least some of what you were saying, although maybe I missed part of it - I just didn't agree with it.

 

My view is that providing emergency aid after disasters is necessary/humanitarian, but insufficient to help countries pull out of the messes that they are in. At best it sort of keeps them staggering along until the next disaster, natural or human-made.

 

The problem, or at least one of the big problems, is, as you say, corruption, and while I don't suppose I have any better idea of how to fix that than the next person, I was trying to suggest constructive ideas.

 

JJB is probably right that a big part of the solution for countries in difficulty has to be business/work, but that again tends to run slap-bang into corruption, indeed some western enterprises have fueled that problem, and some basic state-functionality without rampant corruption has to exist to allow business (rather than simple exploitative extraction of natural resources) to operate. Nobody wants to invest in a country that is powder-keg as a result of 99% of the population being exploited and treated with contempt by a kleptocratic ruling class.

 

It makes me wonder if the Chinese model of economic colonialism might actually be the best solution ........ we probably can't afford to do it on a large scale (I wonder if China really can), but maybe we should pick a few countries that we genuinely, meaningfully help for mutual benefit, not just prop-up in the wake of the next flood/drought/earthquake.

 

After all, back to something I was thinking about yesterday, helping the current 'have-nots' to become 'haves' is key to a more stable world in the future. 'Haves' tend not to fight one another, create waves of mass-migration, multiply their populations at a prodigious rate as the only form of social-insurance within grasp etc. Prosperous, well-provided-for people tend, on the whole, to be boringly peaceful, stay at home, and have a lot fewer children.

 

Kevin

 

 

Edited March 27, 2020 by Nearholmer

[The Johnster]

Silver lining; it's much easier to cross roads where you want to these days without having to walk miles for zebras or wait hours for pelicans.

[TheQ]

7 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

To me the silver lining might be much more affordable medical equipment like ventilators designed in response to the pandemic. That could be hugely beneficial to poor countries and less developed health services. 

There will be a lot of spare one free after all this.. 

[TheQ]

7 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

Silver lining; it's much easier to cross roads where you want to these days without having to walk miles for zebras or wait hours for pelicans.

Not too many of them in the UK. 

[Reorte]

<pedantic mode>Not so many pelican crossings around now though (lights on the other side of the road), they're mostly puffin crossings (lights on the near side, also includes sensors to detect pedestrians still crossing).</pedantic mode>

Edited March 27, 2020 by Reorte

[bradfordbuffer]

10 hours ago, cactustrain said:

It is much quieter at the moment. You don't realise how much background noise there is until it stops. As I get older I appreciate peace and quiet more and more.

 

The air quality is noticeably better and the air smells fresh.

 

You can see clear blue sky - plane vapour trails do seem to seed clouds. 

Local butchers in town doing well....they always have any way but far much more foot fall....they know who regulars are though.....went in last week for 20quids worth of stuff...

Left bank card at home!    .....drop it in next time it's fine! Nice chaps....my scouser accent must be getting more Yorkshire! 

 

Plus side of situation

diesel 110 a lt! On monday Topped up tank....down side cant go out in car! Ying and yang....

Stay safe...