Summer 2020 Banter and random observations

[Ginx snewx]

12 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Thanks... I’m going to put some stuff down along the foundation tomorrow

We put mint plants around the foundation, they spread like crazy, no ants now

[STILL N OF PIKE]

Let’s see if I can go 95% sunless 10-3pm for the third day in a row @ Newport 

 

#smallproblemsiknow

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

6 minutes ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

Let’s see if I can go 95% sunless 10-3pm for the third day in a row @ Newport 

 

#smallproblemsiknow

Hope you’re quarantining first two weeks upon return...... 

[STILL N OF PIKE]

47 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Hope you’re quarantining first two weeks upon return...... 

I’m Quarantined from insanity Indefinitely. I only did a 20,000 person protest down here , so I should be good

 

[kdxken]

This really pisses me off. What difference does it make if you're serving food or not as long as you're outside in a safe environment?

https://www.brewbound.com/news/massachusetts-pauses-reopening-on-premise-establishments-required-to-sell-food-with-alcohol-purchases

[HoarfrostHubb]

3 minutes ago, kdxken said:

This really pisses me off. What difference does it make if you're serving food or not as long as you're outside in a safe environment?

https://www.brewbound.com/news/massachusetts-pauses-reopening-on-premise-establishments-required-to-sell-food-with-alcohol-purchases

Sadly some bars were trying to get around restrictions by saying they were restaurants when they really were just selling stale bags of cheez itz 

I agree that a one size fits all edict doesn’t work. I was at Stone Cow yesterday to pick up some cans from their store. The brewery part/barn/outdoor seating area Iwas empty and I was thinking to myself how nice it would be to have a pint while no one was around

Alas...

 

[kdxken]

22 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Sadly some bars were trying to get around restrictions by saying they were restaurants when they really were just selling stale bags of cheez itz 

I agree that a one size fits all edict doesn’t work. I was at Stone Cow yesterday to pick up some cans from their store. The brewery part/barn/outdoor seating area Iwas empty and I was thinking to myself how nice it would be to have a pint while no one was around

Alas...

 

So they've already shut it down? I was hoping to get in a last beer at the lost shoe later this afternoon.

[kdxken]

25 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Sadly some bars were trying to get around restrictions by saying they were restaurants when they really were just selling stale bags of cheez itz 

I agree that a one size fits all edict doesn’t work. I was at Stone Cow yesterday to pick up some cans from their store. The brewery part/barn/outdoor seating area Iwas empty and I was thinking to myself how nice it would be to have a pint while no one was around

Alas...

 

I have yet to be at a brewery where it looked in any way out of hand. Mostly couples and small groups of friends abiding by the prescribed precautions.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

27 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Sadly some bars were trying to get around restrictions by saying they were restaurants when they really were just selling stale bags of cheez itz 

I agree that a one size fits all edict doesn’t work. I was at Stone Cow yesterday to pick up some cans from their store. The brewery part/barn/outdoor seating area Iwas empty and I was thinking to myself how nice it would be to have a pint while no one was around

Alas...

 

How many places now strictly serve only alcohol? I can’t think of really any of the top of my head. For the most part I think bars are in restaurants, and even the strict bars I’ve been to in the past serve pub fare.

I get it I guess, but these wide reaching and generalized rules are going to kill some businesses.

The wedding stuff I completely agree with. Hosting a wedding with over 300 people, even if outdoors, probably isn’t the best idea right now.

[HoarfrostHubb]

12 minutes ago, kdxken said:

So they've already shut it down? I was hoping to get in a last beer at the lost shoe later this afternoon.

No. They are still open and probably very busy.  This was yesterday before they were actually serving food etc.   I think they opened at 4 and this was 3:30 or so  

I would be apoplectic if they closed

[HoarfrostHubb]

7 minutes ago, kdxken said:

I have yet to be at a brewery where it looked in any way out of hand. Mostly couples and small groups of friends abiding by the prescribed precautions.

Wachusett Brew Yard/Woods has looked a bit too crowded for my taste a couple of times.  But driving past it makes it a bit hard to see how people are spaced out. 
 

I have not seen and breweries otherwise that were overcrowded

[PhineasC]

25 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

How many places now strictly serve only alcohol? I can’t think of really any of the top of my head. For the most part I think bars are in restaurants, and even the strict bars I’ve been to in the past serve pub fare.

I get it I guess, but these wide reaching and generalized rules are going to kill some businesses.

The wedding stuff I completely agree with. Hosting a wedding with over 300 people, even if outdoors, probably isn’t the best idea right now.

It seems like true "bars" like in the old school that serve only alcohol are pretty rare. They all seem to serve food now. I wonder if this might affect strip clubs more than actual bars at this point.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

2 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

It seems like true "bars" like in the old school that serve only alcohol are pretty rare. They all seem to serve food now. I wonder if this might affect strip clubs more than actual bars at this point.

Yeah, maybe.

Wasnt there an issue recently in NY because Cuomo was literally doing this same thing, but even taking it a step further determining what he thought was “substantial” enough good to be considered a meal item so places could serve alcohol.

I’ve seen quotes from owners of bars and restaurants in NYC saying people are now ordering food and just leaving it so they can get a drink. So wasteful, and not really solving any problems.

[PhineasC]

17 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Yeah, maybe.

Wasnt there an issue recently in NY because Cuomo was literally doing this same thing, but even taking it a step further determining what he thought was “substantial” enough good to be considered a meal item so places could serve alcohol.

I’ve seen quotes from owners of bars and restaurants in NYC saying people are now ordering food and just leaving it so they can get a drink. So wasteful, and not really solving any problems.

That certainly sounds like a mother hen Cuomo thing to do. No idea how people in NY stand him and DeBlasio dictating their every move. Big city life, I guess.

[South Shore Slop]

[Dan76]

He's a clown now  begging for ''Rich'' people to come back to the city.

[HIPPYVALLEY]

18 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Thanks.... and that would make sense... been pretty hot and dry here 

When it was so dry here in June our house was filled with sugar ants.  Terro Liquid bait traps work great but they take a few days and they will attract dozens of ants but then one day they’re just gone.

[powderfreak]

6 hours ago, PhineasC said:

It seems like true "bars" like in the old school that serve only alcohol are pretty rare. They all seem to serve food now. I wonder if this might affect strip clubs more than actual bars at this point.

I thought it was a liquor control board issue that you had to sell food to serve alcohol?  I thought that was a general rule of getting a liquor license... the idea being you can feed a drunk some food to try to make him less drunk, ha. 

I remember when I worked for a hotel here in VT they were doing restaurant renovations but in order to continue selling booze at the bar they had to at least have pre-made sandwiches on site.  Looked very unappetizing but filled the rule of needing food to serve alcohol.

[8611Blizz]

Around here they will not give anyone a liquor license if they don't serve food.  That came into effect in the 90's.

Now it doesn't really matter, nobody wants to eat pizza and burgers outside on the sidewalk and pay $5 for a bud when they can do that at home for a fraction of the price.

[ORH_wxman]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

I thought it was a liquor control board issue that you had to sell foot to serve alcohol?  I thought that was a general rule of getting a liquor license... the idea being you can feed a drunk some food to try to make him less drunk, ha. 

I remember when I worked for a hotel here in VT they were doing restaurant renovations but in order to continue selling booze at the bar they had to at least have pre-made sandwiches on site.  Looked very unappetizing but filled the rule of needing food to serve alcohol.

I think you can be grandfathered in on that. There are several bars in ORH I used to go to that didn’t serve food. Like you could buy a bag of chips or something but they had zero actual meals or even hot snacks. 

[mreaves]

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

I thought it was a liquor control board issue that you had to sell food to serve alcohol?  I thought that was a general rule of getting a liquor license... the idea being you can feed a drunk some food to try to make him less drunk, ha. 

I remember when I worked for a hotel here in VT they were doing restaurant renovations but in order to continue selling booze at the bar they had to at least have pre-made sandwiches on site.  Looked very unappetizing but filled the rule of needing food to serve alcohol.

That’s the rule. We had to have food at the golf course in order to sell booze. 

[weathafella]

On 8/7/2020 at 5:31 PM, Ginx snewx said:

winter moth, they are destroying trees in Rhode Island too. 

We get out hemlocks treated for them about once every 5-7 years.  They’re destroyers. 

[Ginx snewx]

Researchers created a test to determine which masks are the least 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(CNN)Schools are reopening, amusement parks are welcoming back visitors, and outdoor dining is the new way to eat out. But despite the signs that life is returning back to normal, the coronavirus pandemic has gone nowhere.

That's why a group of researchers at Duke University created a simple technique to analyze the effectiveness of various types of masks which have become a critical component in stopping the spread of the virus.

 

The quest began when a professor at Duke's School of Medicine was assisting a local group buy masks in bulk to distribute to community members in need. The professor wanted to make sure the group purchased masks that were actually effective.

In the study published Friday, researchers with Duke's physics department demonstrated the use of a simple method that uses a laser beam and cell phone to evaluate the efficiency of masks by studying the transmission of respiratory droplets during regular speech.

 

 

 

 

A visual aid showing how the laser beam and sheet of light work to capture respiratory droplets.

"We use a black box, a laser, and a camera," Martin Fischer, one of the authors of the study, told CNN. "The laser beam is expanded vertically to form a thin sheet of light, which we shine through slits on the left and right of the box."

In the front of the box is a hole where a speaker can talk into it. A cell phone camera is placed on the back of the box to record light that is scattered in all directions by the respiratory droplets that cut through the laser beam when they talk.

A simple computer algorithm then counts the droplets seen in the video.

Encouraging the use of effective masks

Public health experts have spent months emphasizing that masks are one of the most effective tools to help fight the pandemic, and many US states have now introduced some kind of mask requirement.

 

 

 

 

But when testing their effectiveness, researchers discovered that some masks are quite literally useless.

Researchers tested 14 commonly available masks including a professionally fitted N95 mask, usually reserved for health care workers. First the test was performed with a speaker talking without wearing a mask. Then they did it again while a speaker was wearing a mask. Each mask was tested 10 times.

The most effective mask was the fitted N95. Three-layer surgical masks and cotton masks, which many people have been making at home, also performed well.

 

The 14 masks used in the test.

Neck fleeces, also called gaiter masks and often used by runners, were the least effective. In fact, wearing a fleece mask resulted in a higher number of respiratory droplets because the material seemed to break down larger droplets into smaller particles that are more easily carried away with air.Folded bandanas and knitted masks also performed poorly and did not offer much protection.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Yeah. I don’t understand using the neck gaiters.  I find them uncomfortable but maybe people find them easier to breathe through? 
Looks like we will have 4 different approaches to school in my home:  son doing college remotely.  Daughter doing a hybrid 2 days in, 3 days remote, me doing full remote from my classroom (at least that should be better), wife going back full in person. 
wheeeeee
 

 

[dendrite]

Anyone know what this is?

[Dan]

Yeah. I don’t understand using the neck gaiters.  I find them uncomfortable but maybe people find them easier to breathe through? 

Looks like we will have 4 different approaches to school in my home:  son doing college remotely.  Daughter doing a hybrid 2 days in, 3 days remote, me doing full remote from my classroom (at least that should be better), wife going back full in person. 

wheeeeee

 

 

Last Monday the school board held a meeting that said we would be most likely going full time. Friday afternoon the superintendent put a video out and they completely flipped their view and have decided to go full remote, starting sept 10th. With a check in late October to see the state of things. Many parents around here are absolutely flipping their kids.

 

Want half their taxes back, teachers need to have their salaries slashed. It’s insane.

 

Can’t satisfy everyone, but geez can we have some respect for one another without being absolute jerks about it. Terrible!

 

 

.

[Ginx snewx]

Fantastic night.  Movie night on the deck with RI friends, holiday in RI tomorrow. 

[Dan76]

9 hours ago, dendrite said:

Anyone know what this is?

It's big whatever it is

[powderfreak]

8 hours ago, Dan said:

Last Monday the school board held a meeting that said we would be most likely going full time. Friday afternoon the superintendent put a video out and they completely flipped their view and have decided to go full remote, starting sept 10th. With a check in late October to see the state of things. Many parents around here are absolutely flipping their kids.

Want half their taxes back, teachers need to have their salaries slashed. It’s insane.

Can’t satisfy everyone, but geez can we have some respect for one another without being absolute jerks about it. Terrible!

I've seen some rough comments towards teachers lately on social (but social media comments in general is a dumpster fire) but I never realized how many parents think of school as child care almost more than education.  I mean it makes sense as I just never thought about it that way, but even in my hometown suburban Albany area, comments on remote schooling are like "I pay these high taxes so you will take care of my kids during the day, the education is a bonus.  If you can't watch my kids then what's the point?" 

The overall tone was more like even if my kid's teacher is great, and he/she learns everything they are supposed to in 3rd grade remotely from home, I am not paying for that because I'm not getting child care out of it.

It has to be incredibly stressful for families right now.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

9 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I've seen some rough comments towards teachers lately on social (but social media comments in general is a dumpster fire) but I never realized how many parents think of school as child care almost more than education.  I mean it makes sense as I just never thought about it that way, but even in my hometown suburban Albany area, comments on remote schooling are like "I pay these high taxes so you will take care of my kids during the day, the education is a bonus.  If you can't watch my kids then what's the point?" 

The overall tone was more like even if my kid's teacher is great, and he/she learns everything they are supposed to in 3rd grade remotely from home, I am not paying for that because I'm not getting child care out of it.

It has to be incredibly stressful for families right now.

Yes it is. Nobody is getting a tax break for schooling going full remote, and on top of that, now many families have to find some sort of child care for that time as well.

Lose lose for everyone.