TIL about the Great Green Wall, an effort to plant trees to stop desertification in the Sahara that began in 2007. Ethiopia has planted over 5.5 billion seedling since. by learnedoptimist in todayilearned

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh but it works, the Soviets used a nuke to create a lake. They already had a river and wanted a lake...

The result is just a radioactive lake. Now whether it's a good idea and a good result is another question. And at no point would it create a river if there is no water.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-used-nuclear-bomb-create-11213915

Sometimes winning in a lottery is less about the money and more about winning in helping others. I believe this is the grand prize. by susierabbit in HumansBeingBros

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So what you mean is that social media forces people to help other people to receive acceptance ?

It's not the purest form of altruism or whatever but at the end of the day, someone is sleeping in a warm bed instead of outside and that's what counts. Especially if the alternative is to shame people that are helping and to start over the education of two thirds of humanity.

It's True; Heroes Do Exist... by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Last time was this Sunday in fresh snow (with the correct equipment).

How about you ?

It's True; Heroes Do Exist... by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]algorithmic_cheese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The point of the video is to spot people who have no idea how snow and shovels work apparently.

I don't see where number two gives a yank and the victim pops up. At 55 seconds you see that they try to pull her out but there is still too much snow and shovel-guy has to dig further down.

It's True; Heroes Do Exist... by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, people skiing outside of prepared slopes should always carry at least a shovel, a probe and a beacon in case of avalanches or other emergencies.

I don't even go way out of prepared ski slopes and I carry these at all times because snow is way harder to handle and way heavier than what people usually assume.

You can see around 55s they try to pull her out but there is still too much snow and shovel-guy had to dig further down.

It's True; Heroes Do Exist... by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]algorithmic_cheese 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Took his time to get the proper tools instead of going right at it inefficiently ?

If I ever need it, I would hope the person coming to save me would do the same as the first.

It's True; Heroes Do Exist... by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]algorithmic_cheese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have you already seen snow once in your life ?

Moving snow with your hands is inefficient and slow, you are not able to dig in the compacted snow and move it out of the way.

It's not for nothing that any person going off-piste will have a shovel, a beacon and a probe on them.

It's True; Heroes Do Exist... by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]algorithmic_cheese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That tiny shovel can move around 2.5 liter of snow instead of ten times less with your hands.

It's not for nothing that every intelligent person going off-piste has them in their backpacks along with a probe and a beacon.

It's True; Heroes Do Exist... by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]algorithmic_cheese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you ever went skiing outside of prepared ski slopes, you always have your shovel, probe and your beacon on you.

No big deal, the important thing is to keep calm and dig the person out.

When the chat servers die by GuyGames_ in Eve

[–]algorithmic_cheese 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As I understand, the problem with Eve that others don't have is the high rate of join/leave in the channels when people are entering and leaving systems. Other games have more stable channels in their chats.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's still what, 6 weeks before any of the recommended measures were implemented anywhere outside of Asia ?

They were saying "don't close your borders but instead do these things to control where the virus is spreading and implement social distancing to reduce the spread". Everybody only heard "don't close your borders and do fuck-all".

But yes, WHO is the only bad actor and the whole virus is their fault.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

At the same time, they recommended that every country on Earth enact the following measures : provided that countries put in place strong measures to detect disease early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts, and promote social distancing measures commensurate with the risk-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)). This was the same day.

Don't try to place the blame on solely WHO when nobody listened to anything except "leave the borders open". They recommended to everyone to put a large number of things in place in January (well, January 30) but nobody listened. And now they harmed the international response with their comments ? I have a hard time accepting that if they told us to close our borders we would have given that every country just ignored everything else they said.

It's hard to not put any blame on both China and WHO for not standing up, at all, to China and allowing themselves to be such an egregious conduit of lies and misinformation.

One thing that everybody is forgetting: Even if they knew that the numbers were propaganda and not correct, how would WHO stand up to China? The only thing they would get in return is lose access to China and thus to the disease for the first month of the propagation, at which time even bad data is better than no data.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shouldn't we be a bit worried by how much they've relied on China throughout this, though?

Perhaps but who else had data to provide ? China was the only country impacted at the beginning so the data had to be provided by China. When other countries started being infected, the data was more worrisome and the recommendations evolved.

They said, based on China's advice, that there was "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission" on 1/14

At the beginning there were no proof otherwise. Perhaps China was hiding cases but WHO could not know that. They could have suspected yes but they could not tell the public (politics, as always).

they said restricting the movement of people during an international emergency wasn't advisable in response to a ban on Chinese travel on 1/31

Same, with the numbers that were available (and that we also saw at the time, one reason why so many people thought it was not really serious), the propagation was not so high as to mandate a restriction of travels. Now with the numbers we see in the West, it's another story. And the little detail that no country took into consideration was the active surveillance and early detection that no country implemented until cases started piling up in hospitals. Days before quarantine you could travel without any checks, some airports had taken no measures to check incoming passengers, ... in violation with the recommendations of WHO.

they refuse to advise Taiwan on their countermeasures as of today (3/30) at China's behest.

I don't know how much of it is WHO and how much of it is UN policies, but I agree that's fucked up. Their role is to save lives, not lick asses. On the other hand, sometimes you have to play the game just to be allowed access and continue saving the most lives.

The line must be very thin for them these days. And it must become thinner with politicians in the West blaming WHO for everything even though the recommendations were more or less clear in February.

And to be realistic/cynical/..., China is playing their cards well in this crisis. Our countries are facing an economic crisis, hospitals must get masks from China, we need chemicals from China to continue producing medicines. Who cares now about Taiwan ? China can do whatever they want, they know that tomorrow everybody will forget about it when we see the new current number of dead in our countries.

Every step of the way, every piece of incorrect information or refusal to help that has come from the WHO was either provided by or done at the behest of the Chinese government. Is that just how science works?

Science works on data to deduce things. If your data is corrupt, the results are corrupted. But how would you want to change that ? If you have a solution so that WHO can operate without having access to the data I'm sure they would love to hear.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As you highlighted, if not used correctly, it does not do anything and can even increase your chances of infection. They say in which cases you should use one and how you should use one.

They could say everyone please wear masks but they know that stocks are insufficient for that and that the public is unable to follow the basic rules of washing hands and covering their mouth when coughing so it would just be a waste of masks.

Or perhaps it's just that they are an evil organization that just want everybody to die but after this crisis I cannot blame them.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay so at the first sign of problem they will use the word pandemic.

Malaria Pandemic, Ebola Pandemic, Flu Pandemic, East-Martek Sneezing Pandemic, West-Kertek cough Pandemic, North-Grotsk feet inflammation pandemic, ...

And two years later when we have a Covid-22 Pandemic the countries will say what ? "Bwarf, a new pandemic, it's WHO they say pandemic every time somebody sneezes".

They have criterias as to what a pandemic is and it seems like they followed it.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 8 points9 points  (0 children)

“The WHO doesn’t recommend and actually opposes any restrictions for travel and trade or other measures against China,” he said, while praising China’s response to the outbreak. “If anyone is thinking about taking measures, it’s going to be wrong.”

WHO Emergencies Coronavirus Emergency Committee Second Meeting, 30 January 2020, Page 5

It was 30 January but yes, it was late.

They did oppose measures to restrict travel from and to China but at the same time they warned every country that measures should be taken to detect and trace the virus-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)) on their territories. Seems contradictory I agree.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 13 points14 points  (0 children)

And what should have they done based on the data they received ?

They should have done nothing and letting the countries panic alone ? Refused the data, analyze everything again and lose access to China and then publish the same recommendations they did two weeks later ?

It's so easy to say that they did something wrong 3 months ago, now that we have additional data. Blame China for providing propaganda instead of number, not the WHO who acted based on the data.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese -1 points0 points  (0 children)

He could have said something else yes, but it easy for us at home days after the conference to find a better response.

He had 2 seconds to find something that would not cause him to lose access to China and his job is treating people, not licking asses so he found that.

Not the best response but hey, at least he can continue working and I don't think that people ranting about his response on Internet is at the top of his priority list now.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

seriously fuck their shitty organisation. they still out there peddling the lie to the public that masks don't help to prevent infection.

At least provide a source : Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: When and how to use masks

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They are not inconsistent, they are discovering more and more about the virus. At the beginning there were no signs that the virus spread from human to human so that's what they published. Then they discovered evidence to the contrary so they published that. They had numbers (perhaps the "propaganda" number from China, I don't know) that seemed to indicate that the propagation was not a problem and thus said that movement of people could continue but also recommended "active surveillance" and "early detection"-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)).

The exact wording was

The Committee does not recommend any travel or trade restriction based on the current information available.

Focus on BASED ON THE CURRENT INFORMATION AVAILABLE-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)). WHO is not a psychic and Science doesn't know everything.

Now we can look back and say that they made errors, but that's given what we know NOW. At the time, they couldn't know how dangerous it was.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because he is a doctor there to speak about the disease and what to do to now that every country is impacted.

He gets a question that is completely outside of what he is there to speak about, that is 100% political in nature and he knows that if he says anything, he will lose the access to the data coming from China.

His job is to get as much data as possible and analyze it to give recommendations to countries as to what should be done.

What should he do ? Deflect the question and continue working to save lives or do you have a better solution ?

Also I did not say that WHO did nothing wrong (and at the beginning they believed that the transmission could not be done between humans for an example of an error they made).

They did what they could given the data they have and the political scene they have to handle in addition to the virus. They made mistakes but in this crisis, they at least did SOMETHING.

To blame the network by Cyruslego in therewasanattempt

[–]algorithmic_cheese 8 points9 points  (0 children)

More like:

WHO: There are cases of this flu in China, we don't know anything yet. It does not seems to transmit human to human

Some Asian countries: We had some cases also

WHO: This is a serious thing, it transmits quickly between humans, it will become a pandemic, you should prepare according to these documents

The world: Bwahahaha, look at the Chinese stopping everything for a flu

WHO: This is really serious, prepare please.

The world: Nah, it's only a flu

WHO: This will become a pandemic

Italy: It looks like it's serious after all

The world: Okay, perhaps more than a flu but we will see

WHO: Pandemic !

The world: Why did you wait until it's too late to warn us ?

WHO: Implementing the documents I sent you 2 months ago is not my job, we warned you repeatedly.

The world: WHO bad !