D&D and the rising pandemic

[Dannyalcatraz]

Damn you, AutoCorrect! (Or my own fat fingers and inattention.)

That “kinky” was supposed to be “only…

 

[Umbran]

That “kinky” was supposed to be “only…

"Kinky you can prevent forest fires..."

Seems like it works well enough.

 

[Zardnaar]

Um.. that is Eminent Domain. Eminent Domain requires the government to pay fair market value for the real estate they are taking. The power is in how the current owner doesn't get a choice in selling.

They haven't used that here since the 1970's or 80's. They paid above market value and built new homes for the people effected.

I think the last few left had to be dragged off by cops as dynamite was blowing the hills apart to build a dam so their homes were gonna be underwater.

They passed the resource management act here 1991 which essentially stops big developers taking land.

Downside is it let's the NIMBYs block any development espicially in inner city suburbs.

As an added bonus any house built before the 1920's can get heritage protection.

Throw in the fact virtually no one (old people mainly) voted in local body elections and we have a lot of councils whose main jobs involve gumming up development, subsidizing things like stadiums and avoid putting up rates and running down infrastructure.

Net result is the capital has had erupting sewage pipes, one city had its council sidelined by the central government and appoint commissioners to run the city (on a huge public funds salary of course. Plus expenses).

Net result housing crisis due to 25% population growth since 2004 and average house price approaching a million dollars. I live in the cheap part of the country it's only around 650k so it's all good. .

And the Covid bail out side effect poured gasoline on a bonfire in terms of affordable housing. And returning kiwis who decided NZ isn't that bad to live with Covid raging.

And of course the boomers worked really hard to buy their property 1-3 years seasonal work freehold house.

 

[Zardnaar]

Well apparently Pfizer has confirmed 1.5 million vaccines for August.

Goal is vaccinate most by end of the year.

 

[CapnZapp]

I'm sure this has been brought up before but this pandemic reminds me of a cool illustrated space battles book where the story has Terra invaded by mysterious strangers with powerful tech suppression emitters.

Spoiler

Turns out the inexplicable aggression was from a remote human colony that had been afflicted with some kind of terrible fungal plague, and for some reason Terra had unwittingly destroyed their vaccine supply.

If aliens had bombed our Pfizer plants we would strike back too...

 

[Eltab]

I'm sure this has been brought up before but this pandemic reminds me of a cool illustrated space battles book where the story has Terra invaded by mysterious strangers with powerful tech suppression emitters.

Spoiler

Turns out the inexplicable aggression was from a remote human colony that had been afflicted with some kind of terrible fungal plague, and for some reason Terra had unwittingly destroyed their vaccine supply.

If aliens had bombed our Pfizer plants we would strike back too...

Authored by Stewart Cowley?
IIRC the title is Great Space Battles.

 

[billd91]

Without going too far into politics, I think it's safe to say that the idea of using eminent domain (in the US) for this is going to be messy as all heck. You'd need to have the government outright purchase it to avoid complications. Even then, you're guaranteed to get a ton of NIMBY backlash. It sounds terrible (because it is), but the US has a long history of only wanting these services if they're far away.

The NIMBY issue is going to be a big deal. Ideally, you don’t want too much concentration of these resources because that leads to concentration of the problems and dysfunctions that poverty, dislocation, and chronic homelessness cause. It’s better to spread these resources out into more diverse economic areas with better public services and less stress, which also increases the NIMBY backlash.
But suboptimal is better than utterly lacking. I would just hope that public services would be sufficiently included rather than just packing in people.

 

[MoonSong]

Speaking of unfortunate facts of life. Turns out that not only it is very hard to get a vaccination certificate in my country, there is also a black market where they make counterfeit ones. Yikes, it is hard enough to get vaccinated and prove it while dealing with vaccine doubters and outright antivaxers. Now this very hard to get document is useless because of course the counterfeiters made it useless.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

8 fully vaccinated healthcare workers who went to a Vegas pool party got COVID-19 with mild symptoms - and at least 7 caught the Delta variant, a report said

The healthcare workers had symptoms similar to allergies or a cold and chose to get tested, a hospital CEO told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

www.yahoo.com

Edit: Bright side- as has been oft predicted by the MDs, it is noted that the ones who were fully vaccinated experienced mild symptoms, even though 7 had contracted the Delta variant.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Speaking of unfortunate facts of life. Turns out that not only it is very hard to get a vaccination certificate in my country, there is also a black market where they make counterfeit ones. Yikes, it is hard enough to get vaccinated and prove it while dealing with vaccine doubters and outright antivaxers. Now this very hard to get document is useless because of course the counterfeiters made it useless.

I’ve seen reports of fake vaccination schemes (usually to redirect the real stuff elsewhere) in India and Brazil.