Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[Edwardian]

The Dominic Cummings interview  shown on television I think was edited down.

 

In a three-part radio version on BBC Sounds, you get a rather fuller interview.

 

Well worth a listen - any concerned citizen ought really to be, well, concerned - and just the thing to engender that tough, take-no-prisoner attitude I need when wrestling with a D&S wagon kit.

 

Well, I've finished listening to them, so I'll have to build something easier now ....

[Hroth]

Listening to the Mad Dom interview might be less emotionally damaging than putting up with the BBC blanket coverage of the Pan-Hellenic Games for the next two weeks.  The preceding football and tennis tournaments were an essay in slow torture on their own...

 

[Annie]

I know I posted one like this before, but this is a new one I found.  The one thing the pandemic has taught me is that human stupidity knows no bounds.

 

[Regularity]

We generally live in a society - at least in England - where education continues to be defined in terms of the requirements for gaining entry to a university, so practical skills and basic understanding are overridden by a desire to (a) teach academically and (b) pass exams.

 

People not destined for sixth form leave school with literacy and numeracy levels, let alone understanding of science and data, that would be deemed inadequate when leaving primary education in most countries. 
Indeed, when it comes to basic scientific and data literacy, even most graduates in non-STEM subjects would be outperformed by a good 11 year old. Worse than that, rather than trying to get to grips with the basics, people happily parade their ignorance of things mathematical and scientific as a badge of honour.

 

When I was in the sixth form, I was chided by a humanities student for not knowing the date of the Reform Act - I  did know it - which amused me greatly: the date is important in terms of historical order and contemporaneous events, but the impact of the Act is surely more important? My suggestion that he state, let alone explain, Newton’s three laws of motion was dismissed as “not necessary”. I think most people would benefit more from knowing about how two of these laws apply to stopping their car in an emergency than from knowing the precise date of what was only a partial enfranchisement of the population in the country with the “mother of all parliaments”. This attitude is reinforced by a lot of our politicians, who have sparingly little grasp of even the basics of, say, epidemiology, but it’s ok because they studied “classics” or PPE* at Oxford.

 

* Pontification and Posturing for Etonians. 

[Annie]

Sigh..... It's not that much different here really with a good many young people leaving school barely literate and with a very limited general knowledge about the world in which they live.  My own children were introduced to books and the joy of reading very early and while circumstances meant that some years of their formal education were less than best they were able to make up for it by doing their own self directed learning.  In particular my daughter's present understanding of higher level mathematics was not something she learned in the NZ education system, but from her own study of the subject.  Being on the autistic spectrum she was relegated to the 'dumb kids class' and largely ignored for most of her time at school.

However these days it seems that a growing percentage of the population don't read books, have no real knowledge of basic history or science and rely on social media sound bytes as their sole source of information.  I have just heard from friends in America that the COVID-19 infection rate has hugely spiked there again due to the large numbers of Freedom (Freedumb) Rallies held on the 4th of July.

Things are not looking good for the human race at the moment,

Edited July 25, 2021 by Annie

[monkeysarefun]

We had 3500 dead set heroes  marching through town yesterday in the middle of our covid outbreak  to  tell us its all a conspiracy by the nsw government.

 

At least they had the courage of their convictions and didn't wear masks so that makes it easier for the police to identify them.

 

They even had a fire twirler doing his stuff in support of anti lockdown laws..

 

 

Cop a face full of this, champ!

 

 

Two clowns got arrested for horse punching, which could have been mistaken for a euphemism if there wasn't a piccy.

 

 

The horse is ok, it got taken to horspital and is in a stable condition.

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Annie]

That horse punching image was on our own Radio NZ news website as well.  Somebody was badly influenced by watching 'Blazing Saddles' weren't they.  Seriously though it was pretty mean thing to do to a horse.

 

I really cannot begin to understand the lockdown protest marches in Australia or the Freedumb rallies and marches in America.  What do the marchers think is going to happen? - the virus is going to suddenly say, 'Oh gosh, sorry I didn't mean to', and leave the planet.

[Edwardian]

7 hours ago, Regularity said:

We generally live in a society - at least in England - where education continues to be defined in terms of the requirements for gaining entry to a university, so practical skills and basic understanding are overridden by a desire to (a) teach academically and (b) pass exams.

 

People not destined for sixth form leave school with literacy and numeracy levels, let alone understanding of science and data, that would be deemed inadequate when leaving primary education in most countries. 
Indeed, when it comes to basic scientific and data literacy, even most graduates in non-STEM subjects would be outperformed by a good 11 year old. Worse than that, rather than trying to get to grips with the basics, people happily parade their ignorance of things mathematical and scientific as a badge of honour.

 

When I was in the sixth form, I was chided by a humanities student for not knowing the date of the Reform Act - I  did know it - which amused me greatly: the date is important in terms of historical order and contemporaneous events, but the impact of the Act is surely more important? My suggestion that he state, let alone explain, Newton’s three laws of motion was dismissed as “not necessary”. I think most people would benefit more from knowing about how two of these laws apply to stopping their car in an emergency than from knowing the precise date of what was only a partial enfranchisement of the population in the country with the “mother of all parliaments”. This attitude is reinforced by a lot of our politicians, who have sparingly little grasp of even the basics of, say, epidemiology, but it’s ok because they studied “classics” or PPE* at Oxford.

 

* Pontification and Posturing for Etonians. 

 

I couldn't agree more, and say that as one who is entirely a product of said Liberal Arts bias; Arts A Levels, History degree at one of the more other worldly universities, pausing only briefly to be commissioned in a Yeomanry regiment, before being called to the Bar.

 

Yet I daily and keenly feel my lack of understanding of all sorts of sciency and techy (i.e. useful) things.  Witness Edwardian trying to do anything electrical. 

 

The most I can say about my education in this regard is that my analytical and critical reasoning abilities allow me to some extent to weigh the data given in areas such as the current pandemic sensibly, but I also understand when simply to leave the conclusions in the hands of people who actually understand this sh1t. 

 

 

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

We had 3500 dead set heroes  marching through town yesterday in the middle of our covid outbreak  to  tell us its all a conspiracy by the nsw government.

 

Darwinism at work

 

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

At least they had the courage of their convictions and didn't wear masks so that makes it easier for the police to identify them.

 

They even had a fire twirler doing his stuff in support of anti lockdown laws..

 

 

 

From here it looks like an extreme attempt at social distancing in a crowded sea of numpties.

 

 

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

The horse is ok, it got taken to horspital and is in a stable condition.

 

 

Again, why no groan button?

[CKPR]

10 hours ago, Annie said:

What do the marchers think is going to happen? - the virus is going to suddenly say, 'Oh gosh, sorry I didn't mean to', and leave the planet.

Our so-called health secretary Sajid Javid has gone full Ayn Rand today, saying that we mustn't be cowed by the virus and we should bravely stand up to it. Bit like his heroine when she demanded that her followers must conquer fire by taking up smoking. Oh yes, that Ayn Rand who died in penury from a smoking-related illness...

Edited July 25, 2021 by CKPR

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, CKPR said:

Our so-called health secretary Sajid Javid 

 

... could do with reminding himself of the lesson taught by King Canute.

[Regularity]

43 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

... could do with reminding himself of the lesson taught by King Canute.

Didn’t have any lasting effects on the PM.

[uax6]

But in the real world all these numpties are actually doing us all a favour aren't they?

 

That there appears to be so many willing people who actually want to die should make life easier as we ought to reduce the global population to slow down global warming. 

 

Sadly though not enough of them will actually die without breeding... iPads for sterilisation prehaps?

 

Andy G

[DonB]

The latest Numpty-speak that has come to my ears .... "I'm not getting a jab 'cos they will be able to access my bank account" .... from an 18year old!  And there are some who think that we would be better off by effectively giving  such enlightened thinkers priority to University places.  

[simonmcp]

Never mind the fire waving loon in the picture of up thread, is that tram track with centre power feed?

[Caley Jim]

Recently sent to me by my (retired Medical Director) friend in Melbourne.

 

Jim

[figworthy]

19 hours ago, Regularity said:

We generally live in a society - at least in England - where education continues to be defined in terms of the requirements for gaining entry to a university, so practical skills and basic understanding are overridden by a desire to (a) teach academically and (b) pass exams.

 

 

Twenty years ago at work, we had a school leaver dumped on us for a year.  When he arrived, he'd just sat his A-levels and was getting a years work experience in before heading off to university.  4 straight As, and next stop Cambridge (something STEM, I forget what).  What was clear from day 1 was that if it wasn't on the syllabus for the the subjects he'd done, he didn't have a clue about it.  Stuff that the rest of us (from a variety of backgrounds) would consider general knowledge was met with a blank expression.

 

Adrian

[Edwardian]

In the news ..... fascinating interview on R4 with the son of anti-vac nutter and de-frocked nurse Kate Shemirani 

 

NHS compared with Nazis

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Edwardian

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

anti-vac nutter and de-frocked nurse

 

I know her attitudes and beliefs are appalling, but "defrocked nurse" sounds like something from a Carry On film...

[Regularity]

12 hours ago, figworthy said:

What was clear from day 1 was that if it wasn't on the syllabus for the the subjects he'd done, he didn't have a clue about it.

I once employed someone who had a first class degree in operational research (basically, statistics applied to business) but it transpired that she had trouble with some basic arithmetic, such as which way to move a decimal point when switching between a ratio and a percentage. (I accept that some on here may, through no fault of their own, find that confusing, but they probably aren’t looking for employment in a role requiring statistical analysis, for which this is essential, and they haven’t studied a numerate discipline to degree level.)

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

In the news ..... fascinating interview on R4 with the son of anti-vac nutter and de-frocked nurse Kate Shemirani 

 

NHS compared with Nazis

Some lovely people out there…

[Edwardian]

13 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Recently sent to me by my (retired Medical Director) friend in Melbourne.

 

Jim

 

 

 

Look up Leicester in the context of anti-vac.

 

An interesting history.

 

As I understand it, the opposition to vaccination in the town led to the 'Leicester Method', based on quarantining and only vaccinating contacts of the quarantine cases. 

 

Did this, I wonder, lead to the survival of smallpox in Leicester? My mother seems to remember an outbreak in the city in her lifetime, which I, frankly, struggle to believe. It is possible that there was actual or threatened smallpox infection from travellers from Karachi, where there was an epidemic in 1961-62, though I suspect the boom of Asian immigration came a little later, perhaps swelled by expulsions from East Africa.  

 

Anyway, the combination of the Leicester Balloon Riots and the town's Victorian anti-vac movements does argue for some form of congenital idiocy in its population, which I hope successive waves of immigration has by now bred out. 

 

15 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I know her attitudes and beliefs are appalling, but "defrocked nurse" sounds like something from a Carry On film...

 

Ooh Matron!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Edwardian
spelling

[webbcompound]

10 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 My mother seems to remember an outbreak in the city in her lifetime, which I, frankly, struggle to believe. It is possible that there was actual or threatened smallpox infection from travellers from Karachi, where there was an epidemic in 1961-62,

This link takes you to an archive on the  1962 UK outbreak of smallpox I remember this because I had to have a smallpox vaccination to go to France.

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by webbcompound

[rocor]

19 hours ago, uax6 said:

... iPads for sterilisation prehaps?

 

Andy G

 

I would have thought two house bricks would be more effective.

[Edwardian]

5 minutes ago, rocor said:

 

I would have thought two house bricks would be more effective.

 

Again ....

 

[Regularity]

On 25/07/2021 at 09:28, Edwardian said:

The most I can say about my education in this regard is that my analytical and critical reasoning abilities allow me to some extent to weigh the data given in areas such as the current pandemic sensibly, but I also understand when simply to leave the conclusions in the hands of people who actually understand this sh1t.

Listening attentively to the people who understand it is an excellent consequence of critical reasoning, especially if they explain things clearly and simply.

Here’s what we know: there is a 2-4 week lag in growth in number of cases following easing of restrictions, at least amongst those not vaccinated.

There is a 2-4 week lag from that in growth in the number of deaths, although proportion of deaths remains fairly constant amongst serious cases, so this is linked to the number of cases.

Vaccinations doe not stop people from getting a disease, they merely reduce the impact of the symptoms. This does reduce the spread (fewer people coughing their germ-laden breath into the atmosphere) but it also gives variants which are more resistant to the vaccine a chance to spread more rapidly where not everyone is vaccinated.

Ergo, any decision to remove restrictions needs 4-8 weeks to show its full effect.

Conclusion: take things slowly, one step at a time, with a pause of one-month between steps.

 

If this path had been followed, we might well by closer to a safer relaxation by now.

 

I do accept that the anti-vaxers have a “right” to not be vaccinated, so long as they accept that I have a right to be protected from infectious diseases, and that a government’s first duty is the protection of its citizens: not just from foreign powers, but from diesease. All three have a responsibility to listen to and accept the best expert advice, too. They are free to avoid vaccination, but they have a corresponding responsibility not to spread the disease to the majority who are vaccinated.