PhineasC

We talking about tasty cakes or gourmet chocolates here?

This will just become another differentiator that employers use to determine bonuses and advancements. Two employees generate roughly equal work, but one comes into the office to network with the boss and his peers and works in a more collaborative manner, the other is working remotely and requires more review of his deliverables and oversight and has very little camaraderie with his team. In many cases, the former will advance more rapidly.

LOL I see where this is headed. You guys want everyone very fat and addicted to snack food, but not so fat that any single customer eats too much and dies.

Snack and confectionary companies definitely want everyone eating unhealthy foods because that is what they sell. They want people to pay the same for shrinking portions and end up buying more in the end to satisfy their cravings.

I see your point, but surely there must be a frequent overlap between crowding and overall population density. They would seem to go together in places such as the Bronx. That said, I understand the concept that something like household density and crowding may be more strongly correlated than overall city density.

They also want their college debt forgiven

Oh look, here comes the govt with ridiculous unemployment pay rules and UBI to enable just that!

And by "shaming" I meant by doctors and family members. I don't mean pointing and laughing at strangers on the street. But we need to be able to be honest with people that being obese is a major cause of disease and death and COVID seems to really love killing fat people.

There seems to still be a desire to push a narrative that "everyone can die from COVID at any time," which is true in a technical sense, but the data is really clear on the risk factors for COVID, and when you see clusters of deaths, there are definitely patterns around weight, age, and underlying diseases, which also then tend to dovetail with certain demographic patterns such as income and population density. More honesty is needed here to help people understand both their actual risk from the virus, as well as the need to get vaccinated, which should be much more urgent for some communities than others. Pretending we are all at the same risk is deeply unhelpful; it makes people at less risk worry way too much and makes people at major risk think they will be fine and can skip the vaccine. I see this all the time in the media and from people like Fauci. I think the intent is to try to scare everyone equally to avoid complacency, but it just doesn't work.

Along with pushing the vaccine, the experts ought to be using this moment to reverse the narrative of the last decade that says being obese is still healthy. Obesity is very strongly correlated to negative outcomes from COVID. It seems to have become socially unacceptable to point out that someone is grossly overweight and unhealthy. We need to bring back "fat shaming" as a part of combating disease, IMO. I have seen basically zero voices pushing for diet and exercise as a major preventative measure against diseases such as COVID.

Looks like the CDC updated their "best guess" in mid-March and are saying 99.35% now (0.65% of people die from COVID). Of course, the deaths are still heavily clustered in the 65 and up age group with underlying diseases and can vary greatly between states and regions. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html Doesn't seem to change the overall situation, but OK. I have zero issue with the vaccine being "deployed." I hope everyone has a chance to get it if they want it. No, I don't trust big pharma to always make the right call when they have zero liability on the line, so that's why I don't think this vaccine should be mandatory. That's all.

I haven't read much about this, but somehow I find this post to make the vaccine even less compelling... Well, glad they found a willing "market" now at least. I guess not enough people were dying from SARS to make it worth their while.

LOL I was doing what is called "amplifying" your point, and perhaps packaging it into a form that is more palatable for the masses. We make a good team!

Don't forget how much of this pro-lockdown narrative is pushed by a small number of "influencers" and media types who are working from home and want to keep doing so. They are part of the "techno-capitalist" class. They are able to stay home forever and make money online while ordering from Amazon and DoorDash. They want 2020 living to stay in place as long as possible. They aren't hiding it; they are writing tons of words lamenting the end of lockdowns on social media and in the major news outlets.

It's considered perfectly normal and prudent to be so concerned about certain nebulous and unknowable "long term effects" of COVID that you refuse to leave your house out of fear. On the other hand, if you even slightly question the long term effects of the first mRNA vaccine used in humans that was rushed through the development process under "Operation Warp Speed" against a virus that is survivable in 99.8% of cases, you are labeled as an anti-vaxx crackpot and science denier. The state of the national dialog right now...

I've never seen them boost morale or productivity. They are miserable.

This happens in the summer too. Anyone familiar with beach traffic patterns knows that in September the beach crowds drop off rapidly, even on the weekends. There are many beautiful beach days in September, and even October, and the water is at its warmest, but most people have already started mentally moving on to pumpkin spice and roast turkey season despite it still being like 85 degrees outside... society is always rushing this stuff. These same people rush the beaches in late May when it is 67 degrees outside and cloudy and the water is in the lower 60s. LOL

I hope it doesn't rain again until August. Then it can rain all it wants through the end of September.

Stein + Torch. Stowe burning soon?

It would seem MA is making the required investment to avoid the bad scenario I have been worried about; that is indeed very good to hear and a good sign other states may get there.

Oh god... open concept.

I have been really impressed with how BW handled everything this season. It was clearly a rough one for ski places. Was neat watching a full season play out day after day. Never had that opportunity before.

Despite the many "jabs" going into arms, there are fewer students in the Northeast in school five days a week than prior months... https://apnews.com/article/survey-schools-reopen-many-students-still-learn-remotely-e4d47c469e5bbd96868766771064f620

My customer is the Federal govt, and they are showing zero signs of returning to in-person support. This may not change until the administration changes again.

Yes, the false dichotomy that will be presented to parents is that they must choose to either (1) risk their children's lives with scary and dangerous variants of COVID or (2) get them injected with an experimental vaccine that is under emergency use authorization only. They will try to force the decision by making the COVID vaccine mandatory to return to school (and do other things, as well).