#cheap coronavirus deals

[newstfionline]

Saturday, June 17, 2023

Tornado devastates Texas Panhandle town, killing 3 and injuring dozens (AP) A tornado tore through the Texas Panhandle town of Perryton on Thursday, killing three people, injuring dozens more and causing widespread damage as another series of fierce storms carved its way through Southern states. First responders from surrounding towns and cities and from neighboring Oklahoma descended on the town, which is home to more than 8,000 people and about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Amarillo, just south of the Oklahoma line. Mobile homes were ripped apart and pickup trucks with shattered windshield were slammed against mounds of rubble in residential areas.

US purchases of Russian uranium (NYT) In 1993, in the pursuit of wrapping up the Cold War in a capitalist bow, Washington and Moscow inked a deal where the United States would buy and import the vast amount of Soviet weapons-grade uranium lying around the country, which would then be converted to nuclear fuel for power plants. This gave Americans cheap atoms to crack, Russians money, and the world some peace, but the side effect was that it pretty much wiped out the American uranium enrichment business. For decades, rather than invest in upgrading American centrifuges, the country just kept buying Russian uranium, which means that right now a third of enriched uranium used in the U.S. is imported from Russia, to the tune of around $1 billion a year. Naturally, this has posed a bit of a geopolitical pickle given the invasion of Ukraine and needed to stop, and the U.S. now needs to line up a new supply of enriched uranium, which will take years.

Mexico swelters as ‘atypical’ heat wave grips nation (Reuters) Mexican authorities urged people across the country to take safety precautions on Thursday as an unusual late Spring heat wave sent temperatures soaring, with cooler days possibly weeks away. Health ministry data through June 9 shows that at least six people have died this year as a result of the higher-than-normal temperatures. “The heat is intense!” said Abigail Lopez, a nurse in normally sunny but temperate Mexico City who said she was drinking more water and wearing lighter clothes to try to beat the heat. Mexico’s national meteorological service forecast temperatures over 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) on Thursday in all of the country’s 32 states, with highs at least 10 degrees hotter in 23 of them.

Scathing report finds Boris Johnson deliberately misled UK Parliament over ‘partygate’ (AP) A committee of U.K. lawmakers harshly rebuked former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Thursday, saying he lied to Parliament about lockdown-flouting parties and was complicit in a campaign to intimidate those investigating his conduct during the coronavirus pandemic. The release of the Commons committee’s scathing 77-page report Thursday touched off an angry exchange of recriminations. Johnson repeated his claim that the panel was a “kangaroo court” bent on ousting him from Parliament. The committee said the defense he had provided was an after-the-fact justification and “no more than an artifice.” The report and reaction to it highlight the battle over Johnson’s legacy as Britain prepares for elections that could radically alter social and economic policy in a nation struggling to overcome a cost-of-living crisis and complaints about government services ranging from healthcare to law enforcement.

Drought and rising heat bring unusual wildfire warnings in northern Europe (AP) Summer is wildfire season in southern Europe, but this year the continent’s north is also at risk, with forest fire warnings in effect across the Nordic and Baltic countries. A lack of rain and rising temperatures have led to dangerously dry conditions in the region, leading to worries of a repeat of the summer of 2018 when major wildfires swept across Sweden in particular. Small wildfires are already burning in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and experts worry it could get much worse unless there’s significant rainfall in coming weeks. Unlike the sun-soaked Mediterranean countries, which have to deal with wildfires every summer, the phenomenon is rare in the countries of northern Europe, where summers are normally cool and wet by comparison.

Russia’s labor shortage (WSJ) The war in Ukraine has fueled Russia’s worst labor crunch in decades after hundreds of thousands of workers fled the country or were sent to the front lines, weakening the foundations of an economy weighed down by sanctions and international isolation. Two waves of emigration last year, the largest since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the mobilization of around 300,000 men have exacerbated an already tight labor market plagued by long-term demographic decline. Russian businesses are short of everyone from programmers and engineers to welders and oil drillers, professions needed to boost the economy and support the war effort in Ukraine. To stem the tide, last month, President Vladimir Putin ordered officials to develop measures to reverse the population outflow.

Retaking Villages Leaves Ukrainian Troops Exposed and Diving for Cover (NYT) After months of preparation and bolstered by hundreds of Western-donated tanks, armored vehicles and howitzers, Kyiv has notched small successes in the first week and a half of a counteroffensive to drive Russian forces from southern Ukraine. In fierce fighting on the plains, the military said it had broken through a first line of Russian defenses and reclaimed seven villages. But with each step forward, its soldiers become more vulnerable—removed from the safety of their own trenches, closer to Russian artillery, maneuvering through minefields and unprotected from airstrikes. “They are attacking with rockets, howitzers, mortars, helicopters and drones,” Sgt. Serhiy Gubanov said in an interview while taking cover in a basement as explosions boomed outside. “It’s the complete collection of intense experiences,” he said.

Tropical Cyclone Biparjoy: Power disrupted, heavy rains lash India and Pakistan (Reuters) Roofs were blown off houses and trees and electric poles uprooted, leaving thousands without power as a severe cyclone made landfall and rain lashed both the Indian and Pakistani coasts early on Friday. At least two people died in India's western state of Gujarat after being swept away by flood waters just before the cyclone hit. More than 180,000 people were evacuated in India and Pakistan in the last few days as authorities braced for the cyclone, named Biparjoy, which means 'disaster' or 'calamity' in the Bengali language.

China seeks to expand its role in the Middle East (Financial Times) China has offered to mediate between rival Palestinian factions and facilitate peace talks with Israel, in the latest sign of Beijing’s intent to expand its diplomatic role in the Middle East. At a meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, in Beijing on Wednesday, the two leaders also said that they had signed a strategic partnership. Beijing has ramped up its political presence in the Middle East, hosting talks this year that led to the surprise resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Analysts say Beijing hopes to rival the US as a broker in the region, and replace Russia’s waning influence.

Students meet under trees as schools shelter villagers displaced by Philippine volcano (AP) Nearly 20,000 people have fled from an erupting Philippine volcano and taken shelter in schools, disrupting education for thousands of students, many of whom are having classes in chapels and tents or under trees, officials said Friday. The Mayon volcano in northeastern Albay province, one of the deadliest of 24 active volcanoes across the Philippine archipelago, began expelling lava late Sunday in a gentle eruption that has not caused any injuries or death. But it could drag on for months and cause a prolonged humanitarian crisis, officials warned. Evacuees were directed to more than 20 emergency shelters, which are mostly grade and high school campuses. Every classroom has turned into an overcrowded sanctuary for several families with sleeping mats, bags of clothes, cooking stoves and toys for children. More than 17,000 students in five Albay towns are among affected by the displacements for the eruption. About 80% are continuing their daily school lessons through an emergency system in which parents teach their children at home or elsewhere using school-provided “learning modules.”

Thousands of Sudanese fleeing fighting with no travel documents trapped on the border with Egypt (AP) When fighting in Sudan erupted in mid-April, Abdel-Rahman Sayyed and his family tried to hold out hiding in their home in the capital, Khartoum, as the sounds of explosions, gunfights and the roar of warplanes echoed across the city of 6 million people. They lived right by one of the fiercest front lines, near the military’s headquarters in central Khartoum, where the army and a rival paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces, battled for control. Three days into the conflict, a shell hit their two-story home, reducing much of it to rubble. Luckily, Sayyed, his wife and three children survived, and they immediately fled the war-torn city. The problem was, their passports were buried under the wreckage of their home. Now they are among tens of thousands of people without travel documents trapped at the border with Egypt, unable to cross into Sudan’s northern neighbor. More than 120,000 Sudanese without travel documents are trapped in Wadi Halfa and surrounding areas, according to a Sudanese migration official.

An alien world with all the elements needed for life (Washington Post) Saturn’s moon Enceladus has enticed scientists for years with its plumes fizzing their way up from an ocean beneath a thick crust of ice. Now there’s a new element to the story, literally: That cold, dark ocean appears to contain a form of phosphorus, an essential ingredient for life as we know it. That means Enceladus has the only ocean beyond Earth known to contain all six elements needed for life. The claimed discovery of dissolved sodium phosphate, announced in a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature, makes Enceladus all the more intriguing in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth. The report is based on data from an instrument on board NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which explored Saturn in its moons for 13 years before engineers sent it plunging into the gas giant’s atmosphere in 2017.

After only an hour (Science.org) Tech experts have been sounding the alarm that artificial intelligence (AI) could turn against humanity by taking over everything from business to warfare. Now, Kevin Esvelt is adding another worry: AI could help somebody with no science background and evil intentions design and order a virus capable of unleashing a pandemic. Mr. Esvelt, a biosecurity expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently asked students to create a dangerous virus with the help of ChatGPT or other so-called large language models, systems that can generate humanlike responses to broad questions based on vast training sets of internet data. After only an hour, the class came up with lists of candidate viruses, companies that could help synthesize the pathogens’ genetic code, and contract research companies that might put the pieces together.

[end-of-the-world-optimist]

"On television, death is often a cheap device, used to precipitate a change in the narrative arc, write out an actor who wants to leave, or as a ploy for ratings. Although some of these factors were in play in "The Body" — the death of Buffy's mother, Joyce, also marked a turning point for Buffy's maturity into adulthood — "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon seemed more interested in using the episode to show, simply, how surreal and even physically strange grief can be, in a media landscape that often focuses on the more dramatic pain and catharsis involved with mourning a loved one. "What I really wanted to capture was the extreme physicality, the extreme — the almost boredom of the very first few hours," Whedon said in the episode's DVD commentary. He was drawing on his first-person experiences: when he was 27, his mother died in a car accident."

...

"'It's safe to say that death and grief related to it are almost entirely absent from Western pop culture. Popular movies and TV series rarely include realistic scenes of grief and bereavement,' says Raffaello Antonino, PhD, a psychologist and the clinical director and founder of Therapy Central. When death and grief are portrayed, it's often unrealistically, he adds."

...

"Another TV show that helped me walk through my mother's death was The Midnight Gospel, a Netflix adult-cartoon series by Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward and comedian Duncan Trussell. The show follows a space caster named Clancy Gilroy who travels through planets within a simulator, while he interviews guests he has for his space cast.

In season one, episode eight, titled 'Mouse of Silver', Trussell interviews his own mother, Deneen Fendig. The episode starts funny, sweet, and sentimental, before the conversation turns to Fendig's ongoing battle with cancer. It's quickly revealed that she's been told she only has six months to live. What follows is an honest, touching, and thought-provoking conversation about mortality and accepting that losing those we love is a given.

When I discovered this episode, it was May 12, 2020 — a few days before my mother's birthday, and about 18 months since she passed away. The world was in the throes of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. I'd chosen the episode for its name alone, expecting a light and fun watch, and ended up silently sobbing on my couch.

During the conversation, Fendig talks about the fallacy of trying to avoid conversations about one's own and one's loved ones' mortality. At one point, Trussell asks if she'd given any advice to people dealing with death right now.

"I would tell them to cry when they need to cry. And to turn toward this thing that's called death. Turn toward it. And even if you're afraid to turn toward it, turn toward it. It won't hurt you. And see what it has to teach you. It's a tremendous teacher, free of charge," his mother says.

"Well, I love you very much, obviously," Trussell says.

"I love you too," she says. "And, Duncan, that kind of love isn't going anywhere. That's another thing you find. That I may leave this plane of existence sooner rather than later . . . but the love isn't going anywhere. I'm as certain of that as I am of anything."

I'd never heard anyone speak like that before, and it showed me a new way of grieving, or thinking about grieving — a way of accepting that the love doesn't go away, even though the one you love is gone."

...

"Generally speaking, Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn't really deal with death and bereavement," Dr. Antonino points out. "Buffy kills all sorts of creatures in practically each and every episode. Still, these deaths have nothing to do with real grief and loss." But in "The Body," just like in real life, Buffy isn't able to fight a demon to bring her mother back to life. Instead, she must surrender to it, just like any of us have to. I think that's why the episode feels so special: it's not magic, it's real. It can happen to any of us. It will happen to all of us. And that's the point.

"[Death] doesn't give you anything," Whedon says in the interview with Metro, "Death is the thing that Buffy cannot fight, it renders her meaningless. And the episode feels like a reminder of that human experience. I think [The Body] is probably the best thing I've done and the best thing I will ever do."

[interestrateuk]

2022 predictions: Will interest rates finally rise?

New Post has been published on https://interestrate.co.uk/2022-predictions-will-interest-rates-finally-rise/

2022 predictions: Will interest rates finally rise?

It is fair to say that Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, is not held in very high esteem by economists at the moment. So before we look at predictions for UK base rates in 2022, we thought it might be interesting to consider some of the confusing and contradictory comments made by Bank of England MPC members during 2021.

Date: 20 June 21

Even as far back as June, there was growing pressure on the Bank of England to increase base rates. However, despite comments to the contrary, nothing happened.

Date: 15 July 2021

Fast forward to July 2021, and Andrew Bailey acknowledges the challenges of inflation but says that he “won’t be rushed into interest rate decision”. Is he being stubborn or sensible?

Date: 27 September 2021

In September, the mood changes within the Bank of England with “market guidance” suggesting that interest rates would increase. When the increase failed to materialise, to say that the market was disappointed is an understatement, especially with inflation expected to hit 4% later in the year.

Date: 27 October 21

As we move to the end of October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer became involved in the discussion. Under existing statutes, the Chancellor is obliged to contact the Bank of England if inflation is more than one percentage point outside of the bank’s target. Before the November MPC meeting, there were high hopes that interest rates would finally start to move. No change again!

Date: 5 November 2021

Comments after the November MPC meeting report was released saw the Bank of England immediately talking up interest rates, despite voting for no change at the meeting. So, after the Bank of England governor suggested “rates will rise” and the markets were ready, why no action? In addition, The Guardian reported serious concerns within financial markets regarding the recent mixed messages from the Bank of England. Many now believe “market guidance” is a thing of the past, and the Bank of England’s reputation is shot.

  And finally, despite no change in interest rates from the November MPC meeting, mortgage companies have had enough. Even though UK base rates remained unchanged at 0.1%, UK lenders began to increase mortgage rates. We have also seen the vast majority of sub-1% mortgage deals disappear. Is the tail wagging the dog?

Date: 15 November 2021

Yet more concerns about inflation but no action on UK base rates. The most recent Bank of England forecast suggests that inflation will top 5% in early 2022. What more motivation does the Bank of England need to increase base rates?

Date: 26 November 2021

In what many believe could be the start of infighting within the MPC, one member openly discusses a tightening of monetary policy. As we await the December MPC meeting report, can we expect more members of the MPC to follow suit?

When considering all of the recent derogatory headlines regarding the Bank of England and Andrew Bailey, this one sums up the feeling amongst economists. Despite recognizing that inflation was out of control some months ago, no action has yet been taken. So while many expect the December meeting to result in an increase in UK base rates, time will tell.

The spectre of inflation

While it is fair to say that the Bank of England has no direct control over energy prices, one of the main factors behind an increase in inflation, there are other aspects to consider. These include a rapid recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, local supply chain issues and a tight employment market resulting in significant wage inflation. Is cheap finance still fueling the recovery? Inflation is expected to peak at 5% in 2022. Interestingly, despite expectations of interest rate rises over the next 12 months, inflation is still likely to exceed the Bank of England’s 2% target at the end of 2022.

Expectations for UK base rates

It is fair to say that expectations for UK base rates during 2022 are “live” and subject to much speculation and movement. However, many experts still believe that UK base rates will be around the 1% mark in 2022, with an increase expected sooner rather than later (possibly as soon as December). The FT’s graph shows the market consensus towards the end of October 2021. Before the November MPC meeting, many people would have bet their house on an increase in base rates. Consequently, after deciding on a no-change policy, the Bank of England has come under immense pressure. It is effectively taken for granted that UK base rates will increase as a consequence of the December MPC meeting – although we could see movement any day now. However, could recent events rein in expectations of an increase in base rates?

Could the Omicron variant delay an expected increase in base rates?

Over the last few days, we have seen the UK government tightening regulations regarding the wearing of masks and additional precautions after the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant. There are concerns that the Omicron variant is more infectious, has numerous mutations, and may avoid current vaccine protection. These concerns saw an initial 3% fall in the UK and US stock markets, with investors unsure about the immediate future. So what is the consensus today? As we await further information regarding the Omicron variant, many people are now starting to factor in a worst-case scenario. This has seen GDP growth revised downwards over the last few days. Many now expect the return of restrictions to curtail consumer spending, and reduce pressure on wage inflation. While there is still the enormous challenge of energy prices, this may take the edge off consumer inflation and reduce pressure to increase base rates.

Will interest rates finally rise in 2022?

Before discovering the Omicron variant, it seemed almost inevitable (although we have been here before) that UK base rates would increase in December and into 2022. In light of criticism in early November, and a refusal to increase base rates, the Bank of England seemed to go on the offensive. In a rather unfortunate quirk of fate, the Omicron variant may force the Bank of England to become even more cautious and possibly delay the expected increase in base rates. Another U-turn! Who would be an MPC member in the current environment?

[college-girl199328]

Almost three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, testing for the coronavirus is becoming less common and less relevant in Canada, experts say.

The federal government scrapped pre-arrival PCR test requirements for travellers last February and is ending new shipments of rapid antigen tests to provinces and territories.

While supply is not an issue as Ottawa and provincial health authorities have millions of rapid tests in their stockpiles, demand appears to be waning.

“So it may be that a year from now or so, the rapid test may not be necessarily useful,” he told Global News.

"As the virus has mutated over time, the emergence of new variants has also reduced the sensitivity of the antigen tests," said Evans.

Dr. Anna Banerji, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said in her opinion, people are using rapid antigen tests less because there is no longer a public health strategy to deal with COVID-19.

Money is another factor to consider, as “these tests are not cheap,” said Evans, so there might be less of an appetite from the government to continue picking up the cost for a tool that was not relied upon to paint a picture of the pandemic in the first place.

Instead, PCR testing done in labs has helped track COVID-19 case numbers and positivity rates in the community, he said.

Ottawa has ordered more than 811 million rapid tests since the beginning of the pandemic, with a price tag of about $5 billion, of which 680 million went to provinces and territories.

So far, the provinces have been providing these tests for free at pharmacies, grocery checkouts, and other locations.

Health Canada said the decision to end shipments at the end of January was made in collaboration with provinces and territories, as the regions have enough supply.

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid antigen tests were an essential go-to for many Canadians.

Cutting back on supply might make it difficult for people who want to continue testing themselves, said Evans.

“It’s going to be really challenging without the rapid test for many people who have relied on them to really figure out if the symptoms they’re having of a respiratory tract infection are due to COVID or just due to some other virus,” he said.

There is also a risk of further spread of COVID since viral shedding can occur up to seven days after COVID-19 symptoms develop, Evans said.

According to Health Canada, there are 90 million rapid tests in the federal inventory, but 6.5 million of those will expire this year and the rest will expire within two years.

Once these tests go beyond their expiration date, accuracy becomes questionable, Evans said.

He said antigen tests can still be safely used one or two months after their expiration, but the reliability is going to diminish the further away one gets from the expiration date on the package.

"There is nothing in the rapid antigen tests that is particularly biologically hazardous, especially if they have never been used," said Evans.

And most pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals are well equipped with biological waste containers, so they should be able to take care of any large lots of expired tests that need disposal.

[nandini849]

Hassle-free Medical journey with MangoHomz

Imagine you struggled to research all your options, communicate with travel agencies and choose a hotel. Unfortunately, hotels do not provide kitchen facilities for cooking. And most importantly, we cannot ignore the patient’s medical needs, such as access to elevators and wheelchairs. Don’t you think that such objections should not concern the care of the patient and his multiple checks? The Government of India has helped facilitate opportunities for foreign patients to seek quality and affordable medical care in the country. You can’t even complain — it’s not easy to provide high-quality accommodation for patients. It was about time to close the gap between quality medical options and comfortable and affordable housing.

Feel at home with MangoHomz during your medical journey.

Hotels near tata memorial hospital Mumbai by MangoHomz fill India’s biggest medical tourism gap by providing patient friendly accommodation near the hospital of your choice. However, medical travel can present challenges for patients and their companions, especially in a multilingual country like India, where even basic communication can be a major challenge. In addition, there are other issues to deal with — like finding patient-friendly, budget-friendly accommodation near a hospital or clinic, ensuring smooth airport/station transport, continuous availability of medicines, getting good food, hiring a nurse. , etc.

MangoHomz is an AI-powered medical travel technology company that aims to provide patient-friendly and cheap hotels near tata memorial hospital Mumbai for patients and their companions. In addition, we also offer a number of value-added services such as transport, food, medicines, medical equipment and trained nurses to make the treatment of our guests as comfortable and peaceful as possible. Ideally, it should be located close to a hospital or clinic where patients and their companions can enjoy a comfortable and affordable stay — before, during and after treatment, that is. During recovery and follow-up. We at MangoHomz strive to provide patient care facilities to patients and their loved ones in various medical centers in India.

Hotels near tmh Mumbai at MangoHomz is carefully selected and tailored to our standard format, carefully designed to ensure a comfortable, affordable and hassle-free stay for patients and their companions. Our patient room promise reflects our commitment to a stress-free stay. Each MangoHomz property has a nurse to attend to the needs of patients and their companions. Book a MangoHomz room today and prepare for a safe, happy and healthy stay during your doctor’s visit.

Eat well. to get better

Hotel near kokilaben Dhirubhai ambani hospital Mumbai At MangoHomz, we have partnered with several food partners to provide delicious, nutritious food to each of our guests — both patients and their companions. The goal is to deliver the right food in the right amount at the right time! We ensure that the freshly prepared food reaches the patient in hygienic packaging, so that he can take all the medicines on time.

Preventive measures of Coronavirus (Covid-19) at MangoHomz.

Every MangoHomz property welcomes you with preventive measures against the new corona virus (Covid-19). Our employees are trained to follow strict SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

WAITING ROOM

1. Regular cleaning of surfaces with disinfectants

2. Cleaning of elevator door handles

3. Periodic cleaning of furniture

ROOM

A handy MangoHomz Welcome Kit, which includes hand sanitizer, handkerchief and disposable gloves, awaits guests. In addition, rooms are disinfected before entering and after leaving to be safe for the next guest. Disinfection includes:

1. Regular cleaning

2. Disinfection of electronic devices such as TV remote control and AC

[andrzejdudamiedzymojeuda]

I'm in the process of reading "Tender is the flesh" and I almost feel like it's right-wing, but I know it is not. It's not leftist or 'nazi', it simply recognised how human beings get brainwashed into believing they're the worst scum of the earth, the vermin, how goverments can make its citizens fear something harmless (see: coronavirus pandemic and masks outside etc vs. the umbrellas against the birds)

It's kind of like a cheap copy of 1984, but at the same time it is not because it deals with something a little different in a little different way.

I also like the fact that the main character himself isn't a good human being. It's realistic, you don't have to be pure to be right about the reality.

[blocksjust]

Maestral hotel prvic luka

MAESTRAL HOTEL PRVIC LUKA FREE

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MAESTRAL HOTEL PRVIC LUKA FREE

, being established in 1996, is longtime Europe’s leader in online hotel reservations.Īt you won't be charged any booking fees, cancellation fees (see particular hotel policies), or administration fees – the reservation service is free of charge. in partnership with offers highly competitive rates for all types of hotels in Prvic Luka, from affordable family hotels to the most luxurious ones. Certain services and amenities may be reduced or unavailable as a result.ĭue to Coronavirus (COVID-19), this property has reduced reception and service operating hours.Why to book your stay at Hotel Maestral Prvic Luka with us In response to Coronavirus (COVID-19), additional safety and sanitation measures are in effect at this property.įood & beverage services at this property may be limited or unavailable due to Coronavirus (COVID-19).Īs a result of Coronavirus (COVID-19), this property has temporarily suspended its shuttle services.ĭue to Coronavirus (COVID-19), this property is taking steps to help protect the safety of guests and staff. In accordance with government guidelines to minimise transmission of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), this property currently isn't accepting guests from certain countries, during dates where such guidelines exist. Please note that all Special Requests are subject to availability and additional charges may apply. Guests are required to show a photo identification and credit card upon check-in. You can use the Special Requests box when booking, or contact the property directly with the contact details provided in your confirmation. Please inform Hotel Maestral in advance of your expected arrival time.

[travelonlinetipsofficial]

Coronavirus Makes Travel Cheaper, But Should You Book? | WSJ - Travel Online Tips As the coronavirus forces would-be travelers to stay indoors, travel deals are popping up online. Don’t be easily swayed. cheap Videos #Videos #travel #love #photooftheday #nature #photography #instagood #travelgram #travelphotography #travelblog #travel #travelgram #travelphotography #wanderlust #instatravel #travelling #travel #travelgram #photooftheday #travelphotography #trip #instatravel #foodandtravel #foodie #foodporn #food #foodblogger #foodphotography #foodies #foodiesofinstagram #travel #foodpornshare #sogood #travelonlinetips #MarkWeins #holiday #vacation #staycation

[jadekinsjackson]

Jade Talks Cheap Flights 14 Mar 20 – USA Domestic $40 roundtrip! Hi, here's todays cheap flight deals. Before you ask, today is all about domestic travel deals including flights within the USA from $40 roundtrip, within New Zealand from $56 roundtrip and within Australia from $100 roundtrip.

[superbeans89]

Pokemon Go are doing a solid. For those stuck indoors because of coronavirus, they’re letting you buy THIRTY incenses for ONE pokecoin. Please take advantage of this incredibly valuable deal, as you can only purchase one thing of it.!

[alixdolstra]

For just 35 cents (AUD) you can have an activity pack to entertain and educate your kids during isolation! Spread the word, help some parents out!

https://etsy.me/2JhcksJ

[onlinetraveldirect]

At Online Travel Direct, we’re here to make it easy for you to book your holiday, your way. We offer a wide range of global Flight and Hotel Deals at surprisingly low prices. We also give you the option of bundling everything into one handy all-inclusive package.

[mcmansionhell]

Coronagrifting: A Design Phenomenon

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled content to bring you a critical essay on the design world. I promise you that this will also be funny. 

This morning, the design website Dezeen tweeted a link to one of its articles, depicting a plexiglass coronavirus shield that could be suspended above dining areas, with the caption “Reader comment: ‘Dezeen, please stop promoting this stupidity.’”

This, of course, filled many design people, including myself, with a kind of malicious glee. The tweet seemed to show that the website’s editorial (or at least social media) staff retained within themselves a scintilla of self-awareness regarding the spread a new kind of virus in its own right: cheap mockups of COVID-related design “solutions” filling the endlessly scrollable feeds of PR-beholden design websites such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, and designboom. I call this phenomenon: Coronagrifting. 

I’ll go into detail about what I mean by this, but first, I would like to presenet some (highly condensed) history. 

From Paper Architecture to PR-chitecture

Back in the headier days of architecture in the 1960s and 70s, a number of architectural avant gardes (such as Superstudio and Archizoom in Italy and Archigram in the UK) ceased producing, well, buildings, in favor of what critics came to regard as “paper architecture.” This “paper architecture” included everything from sprawling diagrams of megastructures, including cities that “walked” or “never stopped” - to playfully erotic collages involving Chicago’s Marina City. Occasionally, these theoretical and aesthetic explorations were accompanied by real-world productions of “anti-design” furniture that may or may not have involved foam fingers. 

Archigram’s Walking City (1964). Source.

Paper architecture, of course, still exists, but its original radical, critical, playful, (and, yes, even erotic) elements were shed when the last of the ultra-modernists were swallowed up by the emerging aesthetic hegemony of Postmodernism (which was much less invested in theoretical and aesthetic futurism) in the early 1980s. What remained were merely images, the production and consumption of which has only increased as the design world shifted away from print and towards the rapidly produced, easily digestible content of the internet and social media. 

Architect Bjarke Ingels’s “Oceanix” - a mockup of an ecomodernist, luxury city designed in response to rising sea levels from climate change. The city will never be built, and its critical interrogation amounts only to “city with solar panels that floats bc climate change is Serious”  - but it did get Ingels and his firm, BIG, a TED talk and circulation on all of the hottest blogs and websites. Meanwhile, Ingels has been in business talks with the right-wing climate change denialist president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. (Image via designboom) 

Design websites are increasingly dominated by text and mockups from the desks of a firm’s public relations departments, facilitating a transition from the paper-architecture-imaginary to what I have begun calling “PR-chitecture.” In short, PR-chitecture is architecture and design content that has been dreamed up from scratch to look good on instagram feeds or, more simply, for clicks.  It is only within this substance-less, critically lapsed media landscape that Coronagrifting can prosper.

Coronagrifting: An Evolution

As of this writing, the two greatest offenders of Coronagrifting are Dezeen, which has devoted an entire section of its website to the virus (itself offering twelve pages of content since February alone) and designboom, whose coronavirus tag contains no fewer than 159 articles. 

Certainly, a small handful of these stories demonstrate useful solutions to COVID-related problems (such as this one from designboom about a student who created a mask prototype that would allow D/deaf and hard of hearing people to read lips) most of the prototypes and the articles about them are, for a lack of a better word, insipid. 

But where, you may ask, did it all start?

One of the easiest (and, therefore, one of the earliest) Coronagrifts involves “new innovative, health-centric designs tackling problems at the intersection of wearables and personal mobility,” which is PR-chitecture speak for “body shields and masks.” 

Wearables and Post-ables

The first example came from Chinese architect Sun Dayong, back at the end of February 2020, when the virus was still isolated in China. Dayong submitted to Dezeen a prototype of a full mask and body-shield that “would protect a wearer during a coronavirus outbreak by using UV light to sterilise itself.” The project was titled “Be a Bat Man.” No, I am not making this up. 

Screenshot of Dayong’s “Be a Batman” as seen on the Dezeen website. 

Soon after, every artist, architect, designer, and sharp-eyed PR rep at firms and companies only tangentially related to design realized that, with the small investment of a Photoshop mockup and some B-minus marketing text, they too could end up on the front page of these websites boasting a large social media following and an air of legitimacy in the field. 

By April, companies like Apple and Nike were promising the use of existing facilities for producing or supplying an arms race’s worth of slick-tech face coverings. Starchitecture’s perennial PR-churners like Foster + Partners and Bjarke Ingels were repping “3D-printed face shields”, while other, lesser firms promised wearable vaporware like “grapheme filters,” branded “skincare LED masks for encouraging self-development” and “solar powered bubble shields.” 

While the mask Coronagrift continues to this day, the Coronagrifting phenomenon had, by early March, moved to other domains of design. 

Consider the barrage of asinine PR fluff that is the “Public Service Announcement” and by Public Service Announcement, I mean “A Designer Has Done Something Cute to Capitalize on Information Meant to Save Lives.” 

Some of the earliest offenders include cutesy posters featuring flags in the shape of houses, ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home;” a designer building a pyramid out of pillows ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home”; and Banksy making “lockdown artwork” that involved covering his bathroom in images of rats ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home.” 

Lol. Screenshot from Dezeen. 

You may be asking, “What’s the harm in all this, really, if it projects a good message?” And the answer is that people are plenty well encouraged to stay home due to the rampant spread of a deadly virus at the urging of the world’s health authorities, and that these tone-deaf art world creeps are using such a crisis for shameless self promotion and the generation of clicks and income, while providing little to no material benefit to those at risk and on the frontlines.

Of course, like the mask coronagrift, the Public Service Announcement coronagrift continues to this very day. 

The final iteration of Post-able and Wearable Coronagrifting genres are what I call “Passive Aggressive Social Distancing Initiatives” or PASDIs. Many of the first PASDIs were themselves PSAs and art grifts, my favorite of which being the designboom post titled “social distancing applied to iconic album covers like the beatle’s abbey road.” As you can see, we’re dealing with extremely deep stuff here. 

However, an even earlier and, in many ways more prescient and lucrative grift involves “social distancing wearables.” This can easily be summarized by the first example of this phenomenon, published March 19th, 2020 on designboom: 

Never wasting a single moment to capitalize on collective despair, all manner of brands have seized on the social distancing wearable trend, which, again, can best be seen in the last example of the phenomenon, published May 22nd, 2020 on designboom:

We truly, truly live in Hell. 

Which brings us, of course, to living. 

“Architectural Interventions” for a “Post-COVID World”

As soon as it became clear around late March and early April that the coronavirus (and its implications) would be sticking around longer than a few months, the architectural solutions to the problem came pouring in. These, like the virus itself, started at the scale of the individual and have since grown to the scale of the city. (Whether or not they will soon encompass the entire world remains to be seen.) 

The architectural Coronagrift began with accessories (like the designboom article about 3D-printed door-openers that enable one to open a door with one’s elbow, and the Dezeen article about a different 3D-printed door-opener that enables one to open a door with one’s elbow) which, in turn, evolved into “work from home” furniture (”Stykka designs cardboard #StayTheF***Home Desk for people working from home during self-isolation”) which, in turn, evolved into pop-up vaporware architecture for first responders (”opposite office proposes to turn berlin's brandenburg airport into COVID-19 'superhospital'”), which, in turn evolved into proposals for entire buildings (”studio prototype designs prefabricated 'vital house' to combat COVID-19″); which, finally, in turn evolved into “urban solutions” aimed at changing the city itself (a great article summarizing and criticizing said urban solutions was recently written by Curbed’s Alissa Walker).

There is something truly chilling about an architecture firm, in order to profit from attention seized by a global pandemic, logging on to their computers, opening photoshop, and drafting up some lazy, ineffectual, unsanitary mockup featuring figures in hazmat suits carrying a dying patient (macabrely set in an unfinished airport construction site) as a real, tangible solution to the problem of overcrowded hospitals; submitting it to their PR desk for copy, and sending it out to blogs and websites for clicks, knowing full well that the sole purpose of doing so consists of the hope that maybe someone with lots of money looking to commission health-related interiors will remember that one time there was a glossy airport hospital rendering on designboom and hire them. 

Enough, already. 

Frankly, after an endless barrage of cyberpunk mask designs, social distancing burger king crowns, foot-triggered crosswalk beg buttons that completely ignore accessibility concerns such as those of wheelchair users, cutesy “stay home uwu” projects from well-to-do art celebrities (who are certainly not suffering too greatly from the economic ramifications of this pandemic), I, like the reader featured in the Dezeen Tweet at the beginning of this post, have simply had enough of this bullshit. 

What’s most astounding to me about all of this (but especially about #brand crap like the burger king crowns) is that it is taken completely seriously by design establishments that, despite being under the purview of PR firms, should frankly know better. I’m sure that Bjarke Ingels and Burger King aren’t nearly as affected by the pandemic as those who have lost money, jobs, stability, homes, and even their lives at the hands of COVID-19 and the criminally inept national and international response to it. On the other hand, I’m sure that architects and designers are hard up for cash at a time when nobody is building and buying anything, and, as a result, many see resulting to PR-chitecture as one of the only solutions to financial problems. 

However, I’m also extremely sure that there are interventions that can be made at the social, political, and organizational level, such as campaigning for paid sick leave, organizing against layoffs and for decent severance or an expansion of public assistance, or generally fighting the rapidly accelerating encroachment of work into all aspects of everyday life – that would bring much more good and, dare I say, progress into the world than a cardboard desk captioned with the hashtag #StaytheF***Home. 

Hence, I’ve spent most of my Saturday penning this article on my blog, McMansion Hell. I’ve chosen to run this here because I myself have lost work as a freelance writer, and the gutting of publications down to a handful of editors means that, were I to publish this story on another platform, it would have resulted in at least a few more weeks worth of inflatable, wearable, plexiglass-laden Coronagrifting, something my sanity simply can no longer withstand. 

So please, Dezeen, designboom, others – I love that you keep daily tabs on what architects and designers are up to, a resource myself and other critics and design writers find invaluable – however, I am begging, begging you to start having some discretion with regards to the proposals submitted to you as “news” or “solutions” by brands and firms, and the cynical, ulterior motives behind them. If you’re looking for a guide on how to screen such content, please scroll up to the beginning of this page. 

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If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my Patreon, as I didn’t get paid to write it.  

[hug-your-face]

Expecting Difficult Conversations During the Holidays?

(Thanks to @squeeful for posting the original link from the WSJ; but it’s behind a very tenacious paywall. I did the work of scraping it out from behind the paywall so you can read it --HYF)

Worried About a Difficult Conversation? Here’s Advice From a Hostage Negotiator.

Elizabeth Bernstein 9-11 minutes

There are so many to have right now. Tensions over racial issues, politics and the coronavirus pandemic are provoking arguments within families and between friends: Spouses are arguing about money; siblings are fighting about how to keep parents safe from the virus; some people are confronting relatives about race. Many conversations have the potential to become heated, especially as chronic stress is keeping our fight-or-flight systems activated, making us more likely to react.

Christopher Voss is a former hostage negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and CEO and founder of the Black Swan Group, which trains companies and individuals to negotiate. He has decades of experience guiding people through conversations that are high tension and high stakes. Mr. Voss is the author of “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” and once did a video series for a website run by Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal.

I spoke with Mr. Voss about how to navigate a conversation where both parties are worked up and entrenched in their viewpoints. Here are edited excerpts of that interview.

How should you prepare for a difficult conversation?

Mr. Voss: We often prepare but don’t realize it. When we think about the conversation, we picture ourselves getting mad. That is preparation. And we default to our highest level of preparation. So if that is all you prepared for, that is what you are going to get.

You need to do what athletes do. They prepare by envisioning their performance, by envisioning themselves doing things right. First, you need to envision yourself taking a different tone. If you use a calm tone of voice, it will actually calm you down.

Then you want to rewire yourself for gratitude. The brain functions more effectively when you are in a positive frame of mind. And gratitude is highly positive. So tell yourself you are lucky to be in this conversation or to have this person in your life, that you will miss them when they are gone. If all else fails, remind yourself you’re lucky to be on this planet.

A few years ago, we had a colleague who was trying to cheat us. As I was preparing for the conversation, I couldn’t stop envisioning myself getting angry. Then I had this thought: “I am lucky to be in this position, because she wouldn’t be after us if we weren’t so good.” Instantly, by shifting into gratitude, I thought of all the things I needed to say to make it an effective conversation.

Should you have a goal?

Yes. You want the other person to get a hit of oxytocin. You’re going to get that by getting them to say: “That’s right.” You do this by listening and then really summarizing their perspective for them. You especially want to focus on articulating any negative thoughts they have. Don’t dispute or deny them. When the word “but” comes out of your mouth you are denying and it is time to shut up.

Once you’ve articulated their perspective for them, they feel understood. And a person who feels understood is getting a feel-good wave of chemicals in their brain. The one you are really going for is oxytocin, the bonding chemical. Once they get a hit of oxytocin, everything is going to change. They’ll feel bonded to you. And if they feel bonded, whether it’s a little or a lot, that’s to your advantage.

So your power is in making the other person feel heard?

This should be your goal. When people have arguments, they raise their voices because they don’t feel heard. Ask yourself to remember what it felt like to feel acknowledged during a disagreement. You’ll remember how great you felt. You won’t remember what happened afterwards. That means the fight didn’t continue.

Ask yourself: What is this person saying about this situation and about me right now? We usually know what people are saying. We just don’t want them to say it. Say it out loud and see how they respond.

Some people think that acknowledging how someone is upset allows them to dig in more. But it’s the opposite. As soon as you articulate the other side’s point of view, they are a little surprised. You’ve made them really curious to hear what you are going to say next. And you’ve made them feel that you are in this together.

How do you start the conversation?

You want to start out articulating their negative thoughts about you or the situation. If you’ve had an argument with someone, what do you know for sure? They probably think you’re a jerk. So open the conversation: “Right now, you probably think I’m a jerk.”

This takes a lot of courage—until you know how effective it is. When you see how well it works, you’re like: “Ooh, I’m going to do it this way every time.” It’s like a shortcut in a videogame. It accelerates a positive outcome.

This has to do with the emotional wiring in our brain. Brain science shows that every time you identify a negative emotion, that negative feeling diminishes. So if negativity is an obstacle, and just calling it out reduces it, this accelerates the process of defusing the tension. Then from there you are able to talk.

What if a normal conversation suddenly turns heated?

Remember that people elevate their voice because they feel they aren’t being heard. So you want to acknowledge: “I am being an idiot.” Use the strongest synonym you can: idiot, jerk, something stronger.

You don’t want to be sarcastic. You want to demonstrate that you understand their negative perception of the situation. This has an inoculating effect. It doesn’t matter whether you think their perception is fair or accurate.

How do you deal with your anger?

The whole process of working to make them feel heard will keep you calm. It puts you in a completely different head space and the anger circuitry in your brain will not get triggered.

What are some pitfalls to avoid?

A common derailment is trying to explain stuff to people. Explanation is a nice word for argument. When you are explaining something, the other side feels you’re telling them that they don’t understand, that they aren’t smart.

Once you’ve listened to their viewpoint and they feel heard, there’s a really good chance you won’t need to explain your point at all.

How do you move forward?

Once the person feels heard, you can put it back on them: “How do we move forward?” This makes them take a broader look at the entire landscape. The answer isn’t nearly as important as the thought process you forced them to go through. The “how” question is designed to get them to think about negative consequences. And you’re defending your line in the sand by shifting the problems back onto the person causing them, without being seen as combative.

What if the other person becomes irate?

If you use a soothing, supportive tone of voice, this will have a neurochemical impact on them that will calm them down. Your tone of voice has an impact on someone’s thinking before you finish the sentence.

Should you apologize?

An apology should always precede something negative. The apology is a bit of a warning that bad news is coming. It allows the person to prepare. And it is amazing what people can handle when they are given the slightest opportunity to be prepared, rather than blindsided.

What do you do if there’s a stalemate?

Here is the critical game-changing move: Remember that the last impression is the lasting impression. If you are struggling to get the last word in, that’s when the last word is a cheap shot. But when your last word is something positive, it seeds the possibility that the other person will think about what you said and come back and propose a resolution.

[helenarlett-rex]

So the fallout gets worse...

Last week I made a post about how the board at the library I work at ruled that we should immediately drop all covid restrictions in our library, and everything that happened as a result of that. Well... as it turns out there’s more...

Let me start by saying I keep pet mice. Very tame, hand raised mice I buy from a specialty pet store that gets their supply from local breeders. It’s pretty far away from where I live and it’s not easy to get these mice. I have to go on a waiting list to even get them, and they aren’t cheap. But these mice are wonderful. They’ll hang out with me crawling around on my shoulder and inside my shirt. They do tricks. They eat out of my hand. They get excited when I come home and come running up to see me. They are essentially like owning very small dogs and I’m just as attached to them as a normal dog owner would be to their dogs.

Last year right around the start of covid, I owned three of them but they all got sick and died within three days of each other. I had taken them to a vet who specialized in small rodents and he informed me that they had a certain viral infection. There was a name for it but I can’t remember what it is now, mostly because I couldn’t pronounce it in the first place... But I had never heard of it before so I asked the vet what it was exactly. And he explained to me that it’s a strand of coronavirus. Not the same coronavirus that everyone in the human population was getting sick from, but a different strand that is harmless to humans but extremely deadly to rodents and has no treatment. Once a rodent is infected, they are dead within a couple of days.

However... Just because this particular strand doesn’t harm humans, doesn’t mean that humans can’t be infected with it. Humans can pick it up and serve as carriers, and then spread it to any rodents they come in contact with.

Now fast forward a couple of months. After fully sanitizing my home and making sure everything was safe to bring new mice home, I got two new mice to replace the ones who had passed. I named them Tanuki and Kitsune. I’ve had those mice for about a year now and they’ve been doing great. Until yesterday morning when I woke up and found them both showing the signs of the same viral infection that killed my previous mice. The “Mouse Coronavirus” if you will... Within the first hour of noticing they were sick, Tanuki sadly passed away. By that point I knew what I was dealing with and that it was already too late to do anything. Kitsune passed away a few hours later...

Now at this point I found myself wondering how they had even gotten infected with “Mouse Coronavirus” in the first place... Neither of them had left my house in almost a year so there was no way they could have come in contact with it directly... That meant the only way they could have gotten infected was if I had picked it up somewhere and passed it on to them. And it had to be me. The only other person in the house is Violet but she hadn’t handled them or even been around them in a month or more... Those mice were my babies, not hers.

So where would I have come into contact with this virus? I had to start thinking about where I had been and what I had done recently. The virus kills mice within two to three days of infection, so if they died on Wednesday, they must have gotten infected somewhere around Sunday or Monday. And that made the answer pretty simple. I was at work on both Sunday and Monday, and that was the only place I had been. In fact... further simplifying things... work is the only place I’ve been in the last two or three weeks... I haven’t even been to the grocery store!

So the mice only could have gotten infected from me, and the only place I could have picked the virus up at was work. But I’ve been working at the same place the entire year I’ve owned them and they’ve been fine up until now. Did anything change recently? And yeah... what do you know... Something did just change... We removed all of our covid restrictions and there have been a tone of people in the library without masks on.

So, wow... We stopped forcing people to wear masks inside the library and within the week I had already been infected with “Mouse Coronavirus” and brought it home to my babies, killing them...

So thank you, everyone out there who thinks we don’t need to take precautions anymore. Everyone who feels the need to force everyone around them to stop taking precautions as well... Thanks... You killed my beloved pets... You killed them just because you didn’t want to put up with a minor inconvenience... I’m broken right now, but hey... At least you don’t have to wear a mask for fifteen minutes when you go to the library to rent a movie...

Burn in hell.