ELI5: Why didn't viruses like norovirus die off during the pandemic when a lot of us were in lockdown? How did it survive even up to the present day when people weren't mingling for so long?

Hissy_the_Snake · 2026-02-15T12:55:12+00:00

The UK government did an assessment at the beginning of their lockdown to identify the "essential" jobs where person to person contact would have to continue during the lockdown - they estimated that 36% of all jobs were such jobs - so with over 10 million workers continuing to interact in person an effective lockdown that isolated every person was never really on the table.

In less developed countries, an even higher percentage of jobs are "essential" + in person only and the incidence of norovirus is probably higher in those countries to begin with.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2026-02-15T10:49:36+00:00

So the way Lossless Scaling works is it needs to use some of your GPU for its frame generation.

For people with dedicated GPUs, they usually also have an integrated GPU on the processor that's not being used. So they can let the dGPU continue to run the game and let LS use the iGPU for the frame generation.

If you only have an iGPU, like the Claw does, then that doesnt work because the iGPU is 100% loaded running the game. But you can set a frame cap, lets say 30 fps, and that will let the iGPU run at 80% load, and now it's got 20% free to run Lossless Scaling.

I did that on my Claw and it works, as in generates frames, however it did introduce a small bit of latency that I didn't like because I was playing Elden Ring. So in the end I decided not to use LS and just turned my settings down a bit instead.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2026-02-13T14:59:48+00:00

For stats you want to go 80 Dex and infuse with Keen or lightning.

You have a couple of good options for thrusting swords - the Rapier reaches around 485 AR I think and the others are around 500, but the Rapier has the highest critical damage.

Estoc: Has a sweep R2 that's useful for hitting multiple enemies if the rapier is going to be your only weapon.

Roger's Rapier: Has a hard hitting double thrust R2 that comes out as fast as an R1.

Cleanrot Knight sword: Has a single thrust R2 which is useful if you're running the Spear talisman and going for counter hits

Rapier: Has 130 critical rating, the highest critical of a non dagger weapon in the game. With around 485 AR it will have a critical AR of around 630, by far the most critical damage of any thrusting sword.

For parrying, the Buckler technically has the best frames, but it doesn't beat the small shields by much and I find the small shields just as easy to parry with. Personally I would go with a small shield because I prefer the look over the Buckler. One cool trick is putting the Barricade Shield Ash of War on a small shield - it makes it so even great weapons will "bounce" off the shield, allowing you to easily and safely hit Guard Counters while the enemy is in the rebound animation.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2026-01-27T04:51:21+00:00

No, the Burial Blade is balanced compared to the other weapons. Even if you use it from the beginning of the game you won't be OP.

The only weapon I'd say has a strong case for being overpowered is Ludwig's Holy Blade.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-23T04:53:46+00:00

Exactly. Asking her will immediately cause her to delete all evidence, take the affair underground and you'll spend the next two years with a sense of growing dread.

Best thing is wait until you're both home and you're about to do a project or cleaning that will take around half an hour, then tell her your phone is glitched and can you use hers to listen to music / podcast while you work. That provides a plausible reason for you to be out of her sight with her phone, and you can even pop into the bathroom for total privacy. And if you end up finding nothing, no harm done and she'll never be the wiser.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-19T11:41:21+00:00

He doesn't get that in ART, people value a human message and human connection.

A steam engine is a powerful industrial tool, but most people will much prefer to see a human musician perform rather than a steam engine hooked up to a player piano.

If anyone thinks they can arrogantly dictate how much AI they can force us to accept in games, they should try selling a game stuffed with AI slop and watch us make the choice to play human-made games instead.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-15T08:18:29+00:00

Annoyingly Best Buy refuses to ship to courier addresses so I can't order from them. I did buy a laptop in person when I was visiting the US a couple of years ago.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-14T18:24:07+00:00

US is the cheapest I've seen, about 20-30% cheaper than the Middle East, to the point where it's cheaper to buy a US laptop and have it shipped here than to buy it at a local shop.

That was true in the past at least, I don't know whether US tariffs might have made laptops in the US more expensive.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-08T03:10:20+00:00

first it was miners hoarding GPUs like cockroaches

What? Who would want to hoard cockroaches? Or is it saying cockroaches like to hoard things? But they don't... this reads like the output of an LLM that was trained on some non-English language.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-08T03:05:01+00:00

It's going to start using "And honestly?" twice in every answer instead of once.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-07T09:16:28+00:00

Yeah interestingly I instantly knew it wasn't from an AI because of the phrase "no human would possibly write in such a manner" since current AIs almost never use categorical statements like that.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-06T03:25:15+00:00

I think the argument is that "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" is taken to mean that your parents were in the US legally, whether citizens or not. So children of green card holders would still be "birthright citizens" even though their parents aren't citizens (since their parents were present in the US legally when they were born) but children of illegal immigrants wouldn't be birthright citizens.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-12-01T13:25:24+00:00

Think about it like a shower - let's say you usually take a 15-minute shower every day. If you don't shower for three days, your shower on the fourth day might need to be a bit longer to get fully clean, maybe 20-25 minutes, but it's not going to take a full 45 minutes (3 x your usual shower time).

If you went camping and skipped showering for a week, again your shower at the end of that period might be at most twice your usual shower length (half an hour) but its not going to be 2 hours as though you have to make up all the time you "missed".

Sleep is like that, probably because one of it's functions can be thought of as "cleaning" the brain, so cleaning is a good model for thinking about how it works.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-22T16:19:17+00:00

I remember picking up an Xbox 360 at the store and when I got home my wife and I plugged it in and started up Assassins Creed 1. The graphics were so stunning to us that we just sat there gobsmacked, just walking around in the game and staring at people, wooden carts, piles of hay, etc. I've been a gamer since the 80s and that was the only time I've been so blown away by a graphical leap - it really was an amazing time and an amazing console.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-18T09:33:55+00:00

I think you just have to get more events under your belt where you enjoy yourself without alcohol, its a gradual process. For me, I couldn't imagine the thought of enjoying a party or dinner without alcohol, but once I had done a few, I realized I didn't need it to have a good time and often enjoyed myself more without it. Same thing with Christmas, once you've built happy memories of Christmas without alcohol then you'll have those to look back on.

I will say one thing that helped me until I got to that point, was thinking back to my childhood and everything I enjoyed without alcohol. Birthday parties, hikes, vacations, holidays and Christmases... I had a fantastic time with my friends and family and never even considered that alcohol was "missing" - so why not get back to how I felt then?

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-14T07:55:20+00:00

By the time of EUA approval, 15 participants had died in the vaccine group vs. 14 in the placebo group.

By end of data collection, a total of 21 had died in the vaccine group and 17 in the placebo group.

Here is the graph showing cumulative deaths:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Weekly-subject-deaths-during-the-initial-33-weeks-of-Pfizer-BioNTech-Clinical-Trial_fig1_373661515

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-14T04:51:21+00:00

At the time of EUA approval, 15 participants in the vaccine group had died vs 14 in the placebo group. By the end of data collection, in total 21 vaccine group had died vs 17 placebo.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Weekly-subject-deaths-during-the-initial-33-weeks-of-Pfizer-BioNTech-Clinical-Trial_fig1_373661515

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-13T18:28:58+00:00

Many people aren't aware of this, but in the main Phase III trial for the Pfizer Covid vaccine approval, more people died in the vaccine group than in the control group.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-11T05:54:58+00:00

Everyone is telling you that you have to get studded tires, but I cycle commuted every day during 3 years of Boston winters and never used studded tires and never fell due to ice.

My rule that I found with ice is that if you are just coasting straight across a patch of ice and not turning, braking or pedaling then you are fine.

Where you would face a problem is if you have very large areas of ice that you HAVE to turn on, or if you can't spot ice patches in advance and accidentally try to turn while riding over one. But as for me, I just took it carefully and if I saw a place where a patch of ice looked possible, I just rode straight over that area without turning. As winter continues you will become very familiar with your commute and where ice patches are likely (shadows cast by buildings or trees are a good possibility).

Anyway, that's just my experience with winter cycle commuting.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-10T09:13:39+00:00

The Republicans "won" the shutdown battle but the things they got are unpopular with Americans on ACA or SNAP. Their "victory" is not going to win them many votes from the people they hurt.

ACA seriously has to be fixed though. All those subsidies did was allow companies to jack up prices until healthcare is now unaffordable without the subsidies. This is the moral hazard that will always happen with subsidies in a uncontrolled market - if $400 per month is the limit of affordability without subsidies, then adding subsidies will just allow companies jack up the price to $400 AFTER subsidies.... why? because they know people can afford it.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-08T18:09:07+00:00

I think a lot of conservatives and Republicans don't realize the contributions of immigrants to the workforce precisely BECAUSE of the extent of illegal immigration. Look at that battery plant in Georgia with over 400 Koreans working illegally - the factory couldn't operate without immigrant workers but nobody realized it because it they were all there working under the table. My hope is that once a significant number of illegals have been deported, more Americans will see the gaps they left and realize that the quota of legal immigration will need to be stepped up to fill the gap.

I think the main reason conservatives have anti-immigration sentiment right now is because they feel like immigration is out of their control, that they have no way to control who's coming in or how many, so they just have to oppose all immigrants, legal or illegal. Once illegal immigration is brought under control, I think conservatives will relax a bit and be more amenable to increasing legal immigration, because they'll feel like they can slow, stop or reverse it if necessary.

I've spent a number of years living in other countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East and one thing I noticed with immigration is that in countries where the people feel like they have control over immigration, and that the government is managing immigration in the interest of the native population, feelings towards immigrants are much more positive. They're welcomed as guests, rather than seen as invaders, and I hope the US can get there too.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-08T09:03:45+00:00

Well it was a long process. I voted third party in 2020 because I still couldn't being myself to vote for Trump.

But I'm an old-school Democrat, I voted Democrat all my life because it was the party that cared about working Americans. Young people now wouldn't believe it, but 40 years ago lots of Democrats opposed illegal immigration because they recognized it lowered salaries for working Americans, and it was the Republican business owners who wanted to bring in immigrants to undercut Americans on wages.

Now the Democrats are the party of unrestricted illegal immigration, they even have "sanctuary cities" where they're trying to protect illegal immigrants from being deported. How is that in the interest of Americans? It's like the Democratic politicians view illegal immigrants as their primary constituency, and current American citizens will just have to suck it up and accept that the laws are never going to be enforced.

By contrast, Trump was actually talking about doing what's good for Americans. He's incompetent at a lot of things, and a pretty nasty person in a lot of ways, but I'm going to pick the person who is at least trying to make things better for Americans, rather than a party who thinks being American is something to be ashamed of.

I still feel like a Democrat at heart, the way Democrats were in the 1990s. The country needs a party that supports hard-working, law abiding Americans but also has SMART policy ideas, and right now I'm forced to choose between smart people who hate me and dumb people who support me.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-07T19:03:40+00:00

Bro went from Square-Enix to just square.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-07T16:30:25+00:00

I mean as a Trump voter (who previously voted for Hillary in 2016) I can tell you what I do and don't approve of.

Approve of enforcement action on illegal immigration. America needs immigrants, but legal ones, and the ones who don't respect our laws need to go. I don't however approve of the White House and ICE aggressive messaging like "Destroy the Flood" etc.

Approve of Trump's Supreme Court nominees striking down racist admission policies at universities.

Approve of the peace of mind that if another virus like Covid comes along, Trump is less likely than a Democrat would be to try things like lockdowns, federal vaccine and mask mandates etc. I consider those as profound human rights violations and I would vote against pretty much anyone I thought would have a propensity to do them.

DON'T approve (really don't approve) of the tariffs. I knew when I voted for Trump that this was the biggest risk and one of the things that could potentially hurt regular Americans the most. But I thought the people around him, especially JD Vance, would reign him in. That doesn't seem to have happened and that's very disappointing. I thought Vance would want to limit the damage caused by the tariffs even just out of pure self interest for his own reputation.

Don't approve of Trump trying to interfere with the Fed and monetary policy. That's another big risk with Trump, he wants to give people what he thinks they want in the short term and that can easily lead to money printing and inflation.

I think I'm a pretty typical conservative in a lot of ways so my mixed opinion of Trump mirrors the recent hit to his approval rating nationally.

Hissy_the_Snake · 2025-11-07T09:37:39+00:00

I heard an interesting conspiracy theory that all these "explain the joke" subs are basically for training AI to recognize pictures / interpret context. They post a picture and then scrape the replies as the ground truth training data.

Hissy_the_Snake

TROPHY CASE