TrueBlue4ever

Even the man who implemented the strategy for Sweden is not convinced of that statement you so confidently assert. And it would appear that not locking down hasn't spared their economy either. And herd immunity isn't even progressing like they thought. So any other mistruths you want to offer, or are you just spouting unwarranted opinions with no factual underpinning to them? https://www.npr.org/2020/05/25/861923548/stockholm-wont-reach-herd-immunity-in-may-sweden-s-chief-epidemiologist-says Here's another pair of recent articles on the "herd immunity" lack of success. Based on this, please elaborate on how this model was "the correct one from the start". https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/article/Sweden-herd-immunity-experiment-backfires-covid-15289437.php https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-antibody-study-suggests-sweden-not-reaching-herd-immunity-2020-5

Apparently still not “done with it”

I found it curious watching the US numbers last week. The Country had been averaging a steady 1,400-1,800 deaths per day although dipping slightly every weekend to closer to 1,200 daily before spiking again. Based on the usual progressions the US should have hit 100,000 Deaths on Saturday or early Sunday. Then along comes the Memorial Day weekend with the ominous 100,000 number looming, and suddenly for 4 consecutive days on Saturday through Tuesday the numbers drop to 1,000, 615, 505, and 774, and the 100,000 is not hit until Tuesday night. Note that those three daily totals below 1,000 are all lower than anything that has been recorded since March 29, and in fact only twice in total between March 31 and May 23 did a daily total not exceed 1,000 deaths. Are they flattening their curve? Well, on Wednesday the deaths spiked again to 1,535. So did the CDC take the weekend off and was lagging in reporting, was there an actual drop, or maybe someone in the White House did not want the headlines of 100,000 deaths being prominent on the holiday weekend and suppressed numbers until Wednesday?

I'm certain I could go double or nothing and win the bet again. You'll be back posting something soon enough. Can't help yourself.

Looks like I won the bet.

Bet it won't be.

Here's another idea. Call it "a modest proposal". Let's just kill all the billionaires in the US and take their net worth and split it equally amongst every US citizen. No, hear me out. There are only 614 current billionaires in the US (see Forbes magazine for all numbers). That's a far sight less than 100,000. Their combined net worth is $2.9 trillion. Divide by the 328 million Americans (less the 614 of course) and you get $8,841 for each and every American citizen (not just the working ones - every single citizen left). The per capita disposable in the US is about $45,600. That of course includes the incomes of the billionaires, which skews the average up. Get rid of them, and the per capita income (before taxes) is about $36,700. So by giving the survivors a split of the billionaires' fortune, each person now has almost 3 months of income to put away. Lock down the country completely for that time so that the virus can't spread ans existing cases get isolated and treated. Eliminate all cases. And if anyone breaches the total lockdown, they get shot and killed by the government forces to prevent them from possibly spreading the virus. And we take their money too to split evenly amongst the rest. Kill the rich, eliminate the threat of the social distance deniers and call them collateral damage (or "the cost of doing business" if you will) and let the rest of us get on with it in 3 months' time. Sure, billionaires will die, including titans of industry, media moguls, celebrities, and a current sitting President, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. And for those who step outside to enjoy their personal freedoms in spite of the threat to everyone else, hey, it wasn't like you weren't warned. The threat must be eliminated. Hey, that's not being uncaring, that's just being practical.

https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1263811708566503427?s=20

Murder hornets and cicedas apparently, because 2020.

Read an interesting article in CNN last week about Biden’s potential VP candidates, an interesting angle on why Warren may not be considered because of the Senate majority being in play. I suspect Harris has more national name recognition than Klobuchar, but since this VP is the de facto President in waiting In 4 years for the Dems, they need to be much more than a window dressing pick. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/13/politics/joe-biden-running-mate/index.html

Now that’s how you do a political attack ad.

I have second-hand info from someone in the medical field who knows someone involved in testing, so take this double hearsay for what it is worth, but I am led to believe that up to 11 people were being contacted some 3 days ago to be told they had tested positive, but no change in the numbers yet from the government. I would have expected a spike with the reduced restrictions, long weekend and nice weather. We shall see.

I am waiting to hear of more new cases post-long weekend.

Early results in on Sweden's herd immunity efforts (unless they've gone back to denying that was the reason for no lockdown). Short version, not great, and maybe no better than other countries that did lock down. And if the post 2 above is any indication, testing positive for antibodies is no guarantee of immunity anyway. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/health/sweden-herd-immunity-coronavirus-intl/index.html

Not sure if we'd need "buzz" for a CFL season largely without fans in the stands, but with the reigning Grey Cup champs here and the Grey Cup (which they'd still want to have fans in the stands for if possible) in Regina, these two cities would make sense from a higher profile point of view.

With the reigning Grey Cuo Fair point. I know they were one of the early spots hit, had not followed how they progressed. Thanks for the clarification.

Maybe it would be considered "essential" travel? Players would quarantine for the two weeks, so it is not an absolute travel ban. As for being a hub city, there would be benefit for the bottom line of the host cities. Players need hotels to stay in, food to eat, etc. so business would get extra traffic. There's a reason Las Vegas is being looked at hard for the NHL hub plan. They would welcome all the hotel traffic of players and possibly their families. I suspect if the CFL is considering a hub city plan then they will want similar criteria that the NHL looked at: 1) Not a coronavirus hotspot - not sure what the current status of every city is, but Calgary, Quebec and BC seemed to be of particular concern, and Toronto being so big the population density would raise concerns. Winnipeg and Regina seem to be handling it well. 2) A stadium with 4 pro-size dressing rooms minimum to handle the extra traffic. I know IG Field has the Bomber locker room, the Bison locker room, a road team locker room, and a room for amateur athletes. Not sure if they have a fourth full locker room. I'm guessing Roger's Centre in Toronto would have the full number given that the Argos and Jays both played there, can't speculate on any other stadiums. But in Toronto's case that leads to issue #3 3) Not sharing the stadium with another tenant is preferable. 4) Readily accessible practice facilities nearby. It has already been pointed out that with IG Field, Pan Am stadium next door, and the indoor soccer complex which could be divided into two or even 4 separate fields, Winnipeg is well suited to handle to traffic flow. 5) Enough hotel space nearby to accommodate the players and be close to the practice sites - with the University being largely shut down, this might be less of a problem with the dorm space available. 6) A field that can handle the wear and tear of multiple games in a week. Given that natural grass is not an issue in any stadium, this should not be a bar to any of the CFL cities. Other potential issues would be enough space to handle the TV and radio crews for each game, and easy travel between the 2 hub cities. With one TV broadcaster, that would not be an issue, but the league might need to have an in-house radio broadcaster rather than sending a local radio crew for each team. You could do worse than have Bob Irving cover every game on radio, and with Geoff Currier and Kelly Moore you have capable back-ups both with experience calling CFL games. As for the travel, pairs of cities that would work are Toronto-Hamilton, Edmonton-Calgary, Ottawa-Montreal, and at the outer limit Winnipeg-Saskatchewan (if you want to avoid flying altogether). Just some thoughts on the matter.

Here's a new avatar for you, then.

And TSN1290 will be re-broadcasting the Grey Cup on Monday at 3:00 pm I believe.

Good detective work. As for the "rant", even by today's PC standards one would have to be a snowflake to get bothered by that. Not sure why the media would get all bent out of shape.

Two "sports" related analogies about feeling stupid and judged by others in a mask. When Jacques Plante wanted to wear a mask after taking one too many pucks to the face, there was a lot of public backlash (as much about it being distracting and negatively affecting his game as it was about "not looking right". Fortunately he went on a heater and the public outcry waned. And he had the perfect retort when challenged by Gump Worsley about being scared because he wore a mask when other goalies still went bare-faced: "If you jumped out of a plane without a parachute, would that make you brave?" Once read an SI article about the World Co-ed Naked Volleyball Championships held in upstate New York, and they got a writer to assemble a team of six players together including him. One of the big features of the article was the discomfort about being naked in front of strangers and how to overcome that fear while trying to focus on playing a match with all those eyes on you. Writer said in the first game none of his teammates were really shy about their bodies but didn't want to strip down "just because it was expected", so one guy who was Australian (they have few hang-ups) was naked, two of the men played just in boxers, and two of the ladies wore a t-shirt and underwear while one wore bottoms but went topless. Their opponents all went naked, and the entire crowd gathered to watch the match were all nudists. One line from the article kind of summed up the feeling. "At some point you realize that no one is really gawking at you, and you aren't gawking at anyone else, but you become aware that when everyone else is naked and you have clothes on, YOU are the one that stands out and draws more attention to yourself." Early on mask-wearing was an extreme rarity. Now it is still the exception and not the rule, but I am seeing a significant shift. Before the pandemic I can think of seeing people on an airplane wearing masks and worrying "Oh no. Are they contagious?" As time goes by I realize that same thought will run through my head if I see someone without a mask where the majority of the crowd has one on. On the plus side, think of the fun you could have wearing a designer mask (like the Gerry Cheevers "stitches" for his hockey mask). You can't tell me this wouldn't look way cool as a face mask design.

That would work too.

I don’t imagine anyone is going to write an epitaph on their tombstone saying “It was worth it not to look silly in a mask”.

I'll agree that it was a messed up attempt, but I disagree that it turns more people off than it draws in. At best it's a neutral issue. No hard core fan who is watching the Grey Cup for the football is going to say "Well that does it. Having an in-broadcast interview with this celebrity has soured me so much that I'm going to shut off the TV and not watch the completion of the first Bomber Grey Cup win in 29 years." Many on this site have railed against Rod Black's coverage for what feels like forever, and yet you are all still here following the game and commenting on the things he says, which means you are still watching him. As for the casual fan, they are watching for the spectacle as much as anything, so a bit more Keith Urban is not something they will complain about. Remember when Justin Beiber did the halftime show at the 100th Grey Cup? The game itself averaged 5.5 million viewers, but the halftime jumped to an average of 6.1 million, peaking at 7 million viewers. This for a guy who was booed mercilessly in the stadium. And all the wives who were at my Grey Cup party and had been blabbing in the kitchen in the first half while the hubbys watched the game were glued to Keith's performance and then paid attention when he came up to the booth later to chat, and stayed to watch the football afterwards. I can do without it, but in today's world this is a pretty silly thing to get your knickers in a twist over.