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Steve

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16 hours ago, unclevlad said:

(How many of us could name...oh, let's say, 10 teachers from middle school through high school?  Probably, if I worked at it, but 10 would take some effort.)

 

I can, but I seem to have a pathologically good memory for some stuff.  McDonald, Bailey, Carlson, Thurman, Parker, Petersen were my science teachers from 7 through 12, in that order.  Bailey (who had the radio on in all his classes, including mine, during the Apollo XIII near-disaster) went on to become faculty at San Diego State in the Mechanical Engineering dept; we exchanged a couple of emails in the late 1990s when word reached me that he was about to retire from there.  At the time I was astronomy faculty at the enormous state university at the far end of the state; I think he was gratified that at least one of his students had made it so far.

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You're right, the elementary school teachers' names are largely easy, though I don't remember the woman whom I had my first four months of 1st grade (she is remembered because she assured my mother that I was retarded).  My 7-9 grades were spent in the smallest high school (they shoved 7 & 8 in with 9 through 12) among the USDESEA schools in Germany; total faculty 15 for the six grades.  The shop teacher doubled into teaching 8th grade science (he was great); the girls' PE teacher doubled into teaching 7th grade math (which was, frankly, beyond her abilities; I terrorized her).

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We didn't have a separate Middle School. High School covered years 8 to 12.

Off the top of my head:
Gwen Savage. English, years 8-10. Died from cancer while I was in year 11 or 12.
Barbara "Barbie" Brown. English, years 11-12. "Senior Mistress", meaning she was in charge of anything specifically related to the female students.
Ivan Brinkworth. History, years 8-10.
Cyril Vock. Geography, year 8. Managed to turn me off Geography, which is a real shame.
Helen Best. Japanese, years 8-10.
Col "Bugsy" Martin. Maths 2, years 11-12. Deputy Principal, patron of the Chess Club.
Barry Brown. Maths 1, Physics, years 11-12. I confused the hell out of him due to my unpredictable performance in his subjects. (Basically, I was bored.)
Ed Diery. Biological Science, years 11-12.
Barry Kenway. Science, years 8-10, Chemistry, years 11-12.

Toos O'Mara. German, year 8. (Dutch background, O'Mara was her married name.)


I could list a lot of people who didn't actually teach me personally, but that would be cheating.

Notable mention: Graham Bradley. Guidance Officer. My father.

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9 hours ago, Old Man said:

"All this has to be the best treatment news we’ve had since the beginning of the pandemic"

 

If there's one thing about this pandemic that went right, it's the vaccines and medications.

 

Then why do the companies that make them have waivers of liability? Why are members of Congress exempt from any mandates they attempt to push?

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4 minutes ago, Greywind said:

 

Then why do the companies that make them have waivers of liability?

 

The 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act empowers the HHS secretary, in emergencies, to provide legal protection to providers of critical medical supplies in order to, like, encourage them to make those supplies. 

 

Quote

Why are members of Congress exempt from any mandates they attempt to push?

 

Separation of powers.  The CDC and HHS are executive branch and the executive branch holds no sway over members of Congress.

 

Hope this helps.

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5 hours ago, Greywind said:

 

Then why do the companies that make them have waivers of liability? 

 

Because they're trial drugs.  They've generally passed several tests already, but the human body is complex, and doesn't react the same.  Bad Things can happen.

 

In this case too...let's take the vaccines.  The ramp-up from trials to mass distribution was VERY fast.  There was a non-zero chance that there would be surprises...and in this context, a surprise is a Very Bad Thing.  Had that happened, there may well have been a significant number of cases...and therefore BIG!!!! lawsuits...without the waivers.  It was a reasonable precaution to wait a bit...not hop up to the front of the line to get the first shots, and let more data build.  

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1 hour ago, Bazza said:

So Big Bird got vaccinated but not The Count? Isn’t The Count in a high-risk group? 

An undead creature possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

  • No Constitution score. Undead use their Charisma score in place of their Constitution score when calculating hit points, Fortitude saves, and any special ability that relies on Constitution (such as when calculating a breath weapon’s DC).
  • Darkvision 60 feet.
  • Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
  • Immunity to death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
  • Not subject to nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength), as well as to exhaustion and fatigue effects.
  • Cannot heal damage on its own if it has no Intelligence score, although it can be healed. Negative energy (such as an inflict spell) can heal undead creatures. The fast healing special quality works regardless of the creature’s Intelligence score.
  • Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
  • Not at risk of death from massive damage, but is immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points.
  • Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead.
  • Proficient with its natural weapons, all simple weapons, and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
  • Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Undead not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Undead are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
  • Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
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10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Two takeaways: Doctors as just as corruptible as anyone else. And anti-vaxxers are as dumb as we think they are.

 

No.  They aren't as dumb as I think they are.  

 

 

(No, that's not flattering them.)

 

As for the doctors, well, we don't need to go to Greece.  Twas a while back now, but wasn't it over the summer that a doctor lost his license for advertising fake vaccination certs, then delivering on them?  I mean, that's corrupt and moronic.  Or for corrupt, the doctors poo-pooing the vaccine, and playing up the risks, and selling their snake oil alternative for *obscene* profits.  

 

And the BS cited...was it here?  The Atlanta woman billed $700 for sitting in the waiting room, despite never being seen.  Lots of others.  Medicine in the US isn't per se corrupt, it simply has so many ways it can be exploited, and so much of it is for-profit.  With that combination, and with an utter failure to oversee the industry, questionable practices *will* happen.  Both within the letter of the rules, and...not so much, because the rules are a mess.  Both in the sense of "well this is what we THINK it means" and "well probably not but even if they catch on, it'll be hard for anyone to say we're breaking the rules...and they're wildly unlikely to catch on."  And in an emergency situation, the hospitals are virtually de facto monopolies.  You're not going "oh which hospital do I go to" and make a competitive assessment.  No, it's "I NEED HELP!!"

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13 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

Because they're trial drugs.  They've generally passed several tests already, but the human body is complex, and doesn't react the same.  Bad Things can happen.

 

In this case too...let's take the vaccines.  The ramp-up from trials to mass distribution was VERY fast.  There was a non-zero chance that there would be surprises...and in this context, a surprise is a Very Bad Thing.  Had that happened, there may well have been a significant number of cases...and therefore BIG!!!! lawsuits...without the waivers.  It was a reasonable precaution to wait a bit...not hop up to the front of the line to get the first shots, and let more data build.  

 

So, then the vaccines are a trial drug, but people that don't have to get it are perfectly comfortable trying to force it on the general populace?

https://media.tghn.org/medialibrary/2011/04/BMJ_No_7070_Volume_313_The_Nuremberg_Code.pdf

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In Australia there is currently over 700 cases where the Moderna vaccine has suspected to be the cause of the side effects, and 34600+ for the Pfizer vaccine.  Some of them are serious. And so far the reported related deaths for Moderna’s vaccine is 1, & for Pfizer’s vaccine is 220. 

 

https://apps.tga.gov.au/Prod/daen/daen-report.aspx (You’ll have to fill out the form again. Enter Spikevax for Moderna & COMIRNATY for Pfizer, and click on 2020 & 2021 for the date range. This is from the official Australian government body/agency in charge).

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4 hours ago, Old Man said:

Realistically speaking, there isn’t much “trial” about a vaccine that has been given to hundreds of millions of people with virtually no side effects. 
 

 

Realistically speaking not all side effects immediately revealed either. Ever hear about a medicine in the ‘60’s that was prescribed to pregnant moms for heartburn only to find out that they had a really high case of disabled children? I’ll have to look up the name of the medicine.

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