How is The Coronavirus affecting your life?

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Today the City of New Orleans officially cancelled the 2021 Mardi Gras parade season. With the virus spiking to historic levels all across the nation, that's an easy decision to understand, but it's a devastating blow to the entire industry and everyone who makes their living creating the artwork for our huge parade audiences each year. If the worthless US government could've gotten all of us N95 respirators, and mandated their use in public for a few weeks, then this virus would've been contained months ago. Instead, this entire region has just been dealt a crushing economic blow because our annual tourism and parade season is the linchpin for the survival of hundreds and probably thousands of local businesses.

Around here local business are failing in droves but the big box retailers are raking in stupendous profits. Even if the virus went away tomorrow it'll take years to recover. In my situation some things are just gone and won't be back, period.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Yesterday when I went to town I forgot to get laundry detergent and had to go back to Walmart to get some today... I'm glad I stocked up on paper towels and toilet paper and food yesterday because today they had no paper towels or toilet paper and people are just cleaning the shelves out hoarding food...

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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I'm told ammo prices went through the roof and availability is limited. Again. Fortunately, I don't buy the stuff. Insane demand and hoarding, just like everything else.

The World Turned Upside Down indeed.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
The World Turned Upside Down indeed.

When I was walking into the store a guy was in a checkout line with at least 20 boxes of cereal and uncountable boxes of pasta, his cart was overflowing and he wasn't the only one, it was madness there today...

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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
It got like that here in the Spring but evened out. There have been occasional burps in the pipeline where you can't get a particular item or have to get some foreign looking substitute but nothing major. I can go get about whatever I want.

Consumer hoarding is one thing. There are other stoppages. Some understandable, some not. Appliances. Mostly made overseas so I guess I can understand. 12+ week waiting time on some things.

Things like Andersen windows, lumber, pvc pipe, circuit breakers I dunno about. Who the hell knows. There is certainly no shortage of consumer garbage to go wade through for 'the holidays' if that's what we're calling this weeks long protracted HalloThanksXmasNew Year phase we're in.

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nivek

As Above So Below
Maybe in the near future they'll open a Soylent Green section in the store.
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Well, now that you mention it, coming to a butcher/grocery soon...

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Scientists Create Meat from Human Cells But Claim It’s Not Cannibalism

When is eating the flesh of humans not cannibalism? According to scientists at a company specializing in regenerative medicine and developing biomaterial for spinal cord treatments, it’s not cannibalism if the ‘steaks’ are grown from the consumer’s own cells at home … and the see this as a way to reduce the consumption of animal flesh and all of the environmental and health issues associated with it. Before you dismiss this as some futuristic dystopian fantasy, these human ‘steaks’ have a ‘brand name’ – Ourboros Steak – and prototypes are on display at a museum in London. Yikes!

“A group of American scientists and designers have developed a concept for a grow-your-own steak kit using human cells and blood to question the ethics of the cultured meat industry. Ouroboros Steak could be grown by the diner at home using their own cells, which are harvested from the inside of their cheek and fed serum derived from expired, donated blood.”

In a press release for the annual Beazley Designs of the Year awards organized by London’s Design Museum, scientist Andrew Pelling, founder of the Ottowa biotech firm Spiderwort, industrial designer Grace Knight and artist and researcher Orkan Telhan unveiled a display of amuse-bouche (bite-sized hors d’œuvre)-sized Ourboros Steak on display either preserved in resin in small cups or lost on traditional-sized plates on a table. You may recognize the term “Ourboros” – it’s an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail … an appropriate name for eating steaks grown from one’s own cells.

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Ourboros

“Expired human blood is a waste material in the medical system and is cheaper and more sustainable than FBS, but culturally less-accepted. People think that eating oneself is cannibalism, which technically this is not.”

Grace Knight tries to reduce the ‘Ewww!’ factor by pointing out that lab-grown meat uses fetal bovine serum (FBS) – an expensive protein-rich growth supplement derived from the blood of calf fetuses after their pregnant mothers are slaughtered by the meat or dairy industry. The team sees growing Ourboros Steaks as do-it-yourself project – not-cannibals will be able to buy a DIY kit containing swabs for collecting cheek cells, pre-grown scaffolds made from mushroom mycelium for growing them, human serum for feeding them and instructions on the proper temperature for growing them (like a warm oven) for three months until you have your tray of human amuse-bouche.

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Is your mouth watering yet?

Before you run out searching for a kit (growing your own meat from your own self sounds like the perfect stuck-at-home-by-the-pandemic project), no lab-grown meat has been approved for sale anywhere, but it’s bound to happen soon since the market is expected to be worth $572 million by 2025.

Would you try lab-grown human meat? Would you try it if it was grown from your own cells? In your own home by you? The ethical questions are overwhelming, the “Ewww!” factor enormous … yet here we are talking about it and there is the London Design Museum considering it for a design award. Is this a sign that it’s inevitable?

Is your mouth watering yet?

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Standingstones

Celestial
I decided to get an early start on my Christmas shopping this year. Granted I do most of my buying on the internet. I figured it might get crazy closer to Christmas with all the hoarding going on this past year. Better to buy in September and October than wait until the last minute. I try to minimize going into stores these days.
 

michael59

Celestial
There's going to be another shutdown in California starting Saturday. They'll be a curfew from 10 pm to 5 am. This could last until Dec. 21 and may be extended.
California will impose 'limited' curfew due to COVID-19 surge

People are not going to appreciate this. We have been really good about self isolating and it was TPTB who change everything by opening things up again. Why do they think they need to enforce a curfew?

We're not children. People are going to take that as a punishment and retaliate.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
I just found out this morning, we've had a flood of new cases in my immediate area and county over the past few days, the closest hospital is slammed full of people coming in the ER...Its no wonder when people are still going in the shops without a mask...I'm not leaving my house for the next 7 days, I don't need to get any supplies nor food for a short while...

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The shadow

The shadow knows!
Rikki and I after consulting with Debbie's BF family to allow her to spend Thanksgiving with him. We did Nix the sleepover however..
 

nivek

As Above So Below
The county I live in along with a handful of others has now been designated a Code Red county with over 15% positivity rate...

I said I wasn't leaving the house for a week but I am out of dog food and when I checked on the dog food order I placed in Amazon I see its all still in the cart, forgot to check out doh!...So now it's a trip to the city this morning, oh joy, to a city double the positivity rate...I think I'm taking my P100 respirator with me on this trip...

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The shadow

The shadow knows!
As I mentioned my kids are cooped up.
The twins are really taking it hard.
Ian has gone deep into his studies. Chris missing his friends badly.
And Samantha is still not affected by the chaos.
Rikki and I sacrificed so much so they can have more.
And Buster has shown us more love and affection..
 

nivek

As Above So Below
So now it's a trip to the city this morning, oh joy, to a city double the positivity rate...I think I'm taking my P100 respirator with me on this trip...


Made it there and back, there were sooooo many people out and about in that city if not for the face masks you would think things were normal again...At least no one was in the pet shop when I was there this time, in and out in less than 20 minutes and driving back home...I already placed the online order before I left, so that's in the works now, won't need to drive back to that city anytime soon...

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