OT - NO POLITICS IT'S SUMMERTIME - ( spring was cancelled )

[Gee Wally]

This stuff.

 

[Maine Fan]

they have to go back to school.
parents who cant work from home need them back in school. also the online learning is a disaster.
no reason for them not to be in school. just today there were about 300 peopke and kids in my local walmart.

We disagree. At the rate the number of cases is going up, parents won't have work to go to. As for online learning, my grandkids did well. If your local Walmart had 300 kids and people clustered together, not masked and not social distancing, then that Walmart should be closed.

 

[Gee Wally]

Pretty much every major health authority does not or has not recommended masks for virus transmission prevention until a couple months ago. This is a brand new thing they have implemented and encouraged and there is no real data to prove that masks have an efficacy in this matter. Even Fauci said masks aren't proven to do shit in March. It's just changed now because this is basically all they have at this point. And don't get this twisted, I am all for universal mask mandate. What could it possibly hurt and it may prove out to be extremely effective. And if it makes people feel safe so be it. Literally the easiest and simplest thing you can do.

yeah, thats a crock. Masks have been used in medical facilities, operating rooms and every manual Class A clean room for pharmaceuticals for generations.




To protect the other person.
Dont know where you come up with this stuff. But completely a crock.

 

[Fenway]

Political somewhat but hilarious and who doesn’t like to laugh

The sad thing is those text messages are exactly what he is sending

 

[Aussie Bruin]

We disagree. At the rate the number of cases is going up, parents won't have work to go to. As for online learning, my grandkids did well. If your local Walmart had 300 kids and people clustered together, not masked and not social distancing, then that Walmart should be closed.

Online learning is fraught with problems. I'm sure your grandchildren did just fine as will many other children. But many will not. Multiple studies have been done into virtual learning in this time and the findings are clear - online classes increase the gap between the smart students or those from good families and the ones that struggle and/or are from disadvantaged ones. The better off students who are self-driven and academically minded will cope with virtual classes, often supported by parents who are willing to assist them in their school work and by access to good internet connections, books and other means of learning. But disadvantaged students will struggle even more than previously due to lack of focused assistance from teachers who are less able to cater to their needs in an online environment, difficulty in accommodating kinesthetic learners, significant differences in quality between teachers as to their effectiveness and training in delivering online classes, deficient internet and resource access amongst poorer families, and having parents that either can't or won't supervise and assist their learning and will leave them to struggle or not pay attention to their school work at all.

In short, online learning tends to increase inequality in learning outcomes and is highly likely to leave many students with gaps, deficiencies or disengagement in their learning that they will never recover. A significant number of those students will be from poor families and minority groups. Then there are the mental health and socialization challenges for children who are not able to play, interact, work and compete in sport with their peers and who are experiencing intense disruption to their routines and sources of enjoyment, which can have significant short and long-term effects.

It is not easy, I freely acknowledge that. There are immense health challenges with sending children to school during a pandemic. It may well be in some places that the health impacts of doing so are even greater than the negative impacts on learning, so virtual classes are indeed deemed necessary in those locations for a time. But that decision should never be made lightly and it must be made with full awareness of this fact - online learning will hurt some children and damage their prospects wherever it is enacted, no matter how well it is done.

Studies:

https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/lamb_-_impact_of_learning_from_home.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/learning_at_home_during_covid_30042020.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/file..._and_vulnerable_children_acer_22april2020.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/clinton_supporting_vulnerable_children_final.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/file...iew-learningathome-covid19-final_28042020.pdf

 

[Fenway]

No good can come from this



Encore Boston Harbor resort casino set to reopen Sunday

 

[caz16]

I have found something during this weird time that I really enjoy.

Having bird feeders.
I’ve always worked pretty much dawn to dusk. Then on weekends had zillion things to do.
My kids got me a couple of squirrel proof feeders . They actually work.
Now that I’m WFH I can sit and glance at them nearly most of the day. Tons of different birds. Some very colorful.
Its pretty cool and for me has a relaxing effect.
I highly recommend checking it out.

I love feeding the birds. We have a humming bird feeder and an oriole feeder too.. The hummers are so curious and will came right up to us to check us out, they go in the garage if the doors are open to look around. We bought some ceramic poppy feeders with wrought iron stems that are about 5" across and are cupped - we throw sunflower seeds in and the cardinals, blue jays, chickadees and gold finches love them.

We have a wild strawberry patch at the back of our yard and this year it has really taken over back there. We watched blue jays and robins in it, feeding their young as well. The squirrels also eat the berries. There is a ground hog hole and this year we just have ground hogs but last year we had a fox family and it was awesome to watch them. We have two wildlife cameras so we can get close shots of everything, not the best quality but fun to see the nightlife.

 

[DaveFromNB]

The trouble with school, is that the kids aren't independent of others. They need to be taught by a teacher, in a school with maintenance staff, administration staff. Many get there on a school bus. Of course they are in rooms with other kids.

If teachers get sick, do you have enough substitutes available? What do you do with the kids if you don't?

If bus drivers get sick, do you have enough substitute bus drivers?

If maintenance staff get sick, so you have enough substitutes? Do you have kids go to a school that isn't getting washrooms cleaned and garbage collected?

Say someone in a kids family gets sick. Do you self-quarantine everyone in the kids class?

Say a kid gets sick. Do you self-quarantine everyone in all his classes?

Say a teacher gets sick. Do you self-quarantine every student taught by that teacher?

Do you try and keep kids in one room through the day? Might work for junior grades, sure doesn't work in high school where one teacher can't teach all subjects. The distancing context goes out the window when you have hundreds of kids in hallways moving between classes.

What do you do with kids whose parents won't let them go into this environment? Do you still run online courses for those kids, as well as the ones in self-quarantine? Do you have the school staff resources to do this? A teacher is going to be prepping for the in-person classes, do you expect them to also run online for the class?

When kids and teachers get sick, do you have enough administration people to manage the impacts of that? To get substitute teachers, to manage what kids are supposed to be at school that day given self-quarantines?

There will be lots of people working on addressing all the various issues, but it sure isn't an easy thing to get kids back in classes. And keep them there.

 

[Over the volcano]

Online learning is fraught with problems. I'm sure your grandchildren did just fine as will many other children. But many will not. Multiple studies have been done into virtual learning in this time and the findings are clear - online classes increase the gap between the smart students or those from good families and the ones that struggle and/or are from disadvantaged ones. The better off students who are self-driven and academically minded will cope with virtual classes, often supported by parents who are willing to assist them in their school work and by access to good internet connections, books and other means of learning. But disadvantaged students will struggle even more than previously due to lack of focused assistance from teachers who are less able to cater to their needs in an online environment, difficulty in accommodating kinesthetic learners, significant differences in quality between teachers as to their effectiveness and training in delivering online classes, deficient internet and resource access amongst poorer families, and having parents that either can't or won't supervise and assist their learning and will leave them to struggle or not pay attention to their school work at all.

In short, online learning tends to increase inequality in learning outcomes and is highly likely to leave many students with gaps, deficiencies or disengagement in their learning that they will never recover. A significant number of those students will be from poor families and minority groups. Then there are the mental health and socialization challenges for children who are not able to play, interact, work and compete in sport with their peers and who are experiencing intense disruption to their routines and sources of enjoyment, which can have significant short and long-term effects.

It is not easy, I freely acknowledge that. There are immense health challenges with sending children to school during a pandemic. It may well be in some places that the health impacts of doing so are even greater than the negative impacts on learning, so virtual classes are indeed deemed necessary in those locations for a time. But that decision should never be made lightly and it must be made with full awareness of this fact - online learning will hurt some children and damage their prospects wherever it is enacted, no matter how well it is done.

Studies:

https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/lamb_-_impact_of_learning_from_home.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/learning_at_home_during_covid_30042020.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/file..._and_vulnerable_children_acer_22april2020.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/clinton_supporting_vulnerable_children_final.pdf
https://www.dese.gov.au/system/file...iew-learningathome-covid19-final_28042020.pdf

“Online learning“ was put into place overnight with no training or funding this spring.

Even in non-pandemic times our public education system replicates and increases social and economic inequalities. Now we’re expecting struggling kids and families to perform better with masks, 6 feet of distance from their classmates and teachers, and the fear of catching COVID from the other hundreds of kids in their school and bringing and bringing it home?

There is no right solution only less-wrong solutions. The best of these are so obvious and obviously off the table because our shits all f***ed (actually funding schools rather than cutting, testing for COVID, contact tracing, and isolating). So we’re left starting at plan F.

Just going back to school is unbelievably dangerous and idiotic. Instead districts can do things like using athletic funds to support connectivity issues with families. Use school buildings as support locations for struggling students. Actually train teachers in online learning resources and strategies to engage and support students. None of these would cost very much if anything at all above current school budgets and online learning is where we’re all going to be anyway when the virus comes back in the fall.

We might as well try to get it as least wrong as we can until there’s a vaccine.

 

[Over the volcano]

The trouble with school, is that the kids aren't independent of others. They need to be taught by a teacher, in a school with maintenance staff, administration staff. Many get there on a school bus. Of course they are in rooms with other kids.

If teachers get sick, do you have enough substitutes available? What do you do with the kids if you don't?

If bus drivers get sick, do you have enough substitute bus drivers?

If maintenance staff get sick, so you have enough substitutes? Do you have kids go to a school that isn't getting washrooms cleaned and garbage collected?

Say someone in a kids family gets sick. Do you self-quarantine everyone in the kids class?

Say a kid gets sick. Do you self-quarantine everyone in all his classes?

Say a teacher gets sick. Do you self-quarantine every student taught by that teacher?

Do you try and keep kids in one room through the day? Might work for junior grades, sure doesn't work in high school where one teacher can't teach all subjects. The distancing context goes out the window when you have hundreds of kids in hallways moving between classes.

What do you do with kids whose parents won't let them go into this environment? Do you still run online courses for those kids, as well as the ones in self-quarantine? Do you have the school staff resources to do this? A teacher is going to be prepping for the in-person classes, do you expect them to also run online for the class?

When kids and teachers get sick, do you have enough administration people to manage the impacts of that? To get substitute teachers, to manage what kids are supposed to be at school that day given self-quarantines?

There will be lots of people working on addressing all the various issues, but it sure isn't an easy thing to get kids back in classes. And keep them there.

Think districts will try to do both - offer in person and remote learning at the same time allowing for parents to pick what best suits their needs.

Oh and in Massachusetts we’ve laid off thousands of teachers and staff in our schools in the last couple weeks. In our city the schools were the only part of the budget that saw layoffs.
More than 2,000 educators in Mass. receiving layoff notices, union says

 

[Over the volcano]

Last one from me today, sorry for taking over the thread for a few posts.

Current state of testing - we were tested last Friday, 9 days ago, and no results yet because of the back log. Getting to the point where there’s no point in testing at all.

and Black lives still matter.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

“Online learning“ was put into place overnight with no training or funding this spring.

Even in non-pandemic times our public education system replicates and increases social and economic inequalities. Now we’re expecting struggling kids and families to perform better with masks, 6 feet of distance from their classmates and teachers, and the fear of catching COVID from the other hundreds of kids in their school and bringing and bringing it home?

There is no right solution only less-wrong solutions. The best of these are so obvious and obviously off the table because our shits all f***ed (actually funding schools rather than cutting, testing for COVID, contact tracing, and isolating). So we’re left starting at plan F.

Just going back to school is unbelievably dangerous and idiotic. Instead districts can do things like using athletic funds to support connectivity issues with families. Use school buildings as support locations for struggling students. Actually train teachers in online learning resources and strategies to engage and support students. None of these would cost very much if anything at all above current school budgets and online learning is where we’re all going to be anyway when the virus comes back in the fall.

We might as well try to get it as least wrong as we can until there’s a vaccine.

Nothing you've said contradicts what I wrote. The point drawn from the 5 independent academic studies I cited is simple: prolonged online learning will have a detrimental impact on many children. School isn't just about education either, far from it. To quote from one of the studies:

For many children and young people, particularly those who are vulnerable, their educational outcomes, nutrition, physical movement, social, and emotional wellbeing are affected by being disconnected from school. It is imperative these aspects of the education program are continued.

So the effects of being away from school can be significant in a number of ways.

I agree, there are major issues with running on-site classes in the current circumstances. I also agree that much can and should be done to improve virtual learning programs and capacities, enact clever and flexible means of engaging with students, and assist those in the most need. If indeed it's simply too dangerous and impracticable to operate classes on-site in some areas then make the alternative as good as it can possibly be.

My argument is simply that we can't lose sight of the fact that, even with the best digital programs and support services in the world, online learning can never be a fully adequate substitute for face-to-face education, and its use will negatively impact some children more than others. So whatever is done in the short-term, governments and administrations should be working as hard and smart as possible to facilitate a return to physical classes and school attendance as soon as is safely practicable. Perhaps in the case of America that is a fairy tale wish, but it is what should be happening.

 

[sooshii]

We haven’t had many rabbits around for years. I attributed it to having dogs. This year, they’re everywhere, including in my raised veg beds. (I have to use Liquid Fence).
This was the scene in my office on Friday.

 

[Over the volcano]

Nothing you've said contradicts what I wrote. The point drawn from the 5 independent academic studies I cited is simple: prolonged online learning will have a detrimental impact on many children. School isn't just about education either, far from it. To quote from one of the studies:

For many children and young people, particularly those who are vulnerable, their educational outcomes, nutrition, physical movement, social, and emotional wellbeing are affected by being disconnected from school. It is imperative these aspects of the education program are continued.

So the effects of being away from school can be significant in a number of ways.

I agree, there are major issues with running on-site classes in the current circumstances. I also agree that much can and should be done to improve virtual learning programs and capacities, enact clever and flexible means of engaging with students, and assist those in the most need. If indeed it's simply too dangerous and impracticable to operate classes on-site in some areas then make the alternative as good as it can possibly be.

My argument is simply that we can't lose sight of the fact that, even with the best digital programs and support services in the world, online learning can never be a fully adequate substitute for face-to-face education, and its use will negatively impact some children more than others. So whatever is done in the short-term, governments and administrations should be working as hard and smart as possible to facilitate a return to physical classes and school attendance as soon as is safely practicable. Perhaps in the case of America that is a fairy tale wish, but it is what should be happening.

I don’t think anyone is against going back face to face when it’s safe to do so. There is nothing I’d want more. But we’re not there by a long shot. Right now it would be probably the worst thing we could do from a heath and an educational perspective.

 

[Gee Wally]

Fauci is sidelined by the White House as he steps up blunt talk on pandemic

Three Arizona teachers who shared a classroom got coronavirus. One of them died


Coronavirus updates: Daily US death toll rising after falling for months; Vatican warns shipowners; Trump wears a mask

Coronavirus deaths take a long-expected turn for the worse

Boston's Phase 3 Reopening Starts Monday. Here's What to Expect

Education secretary won't say if schools should listen to CDC guidelines on reopening

Chris Wallace presses DeVos on threats to withhold funding from schools that don't reopen

'Parents are scared': Day cares reopen, but uncertainty lingers

Coronavirus Testing Czar Pushes Back on Trump’s Criticism of CDC Guidelines

 

[roflstomper]

yeah, thats a crock. Masks have been used in medical facilities, operating rooms and every manual Class A clean room for pharmaceuticals for generations.




To protect the other person.
Dont know where you come up with this stuff. But completely a crock.

The CDC, WHO and every other major governing medical body? I thought you were all about that published research? My how the turntables have......

Masks are worn during surgery so the doctor doesn't drool into a gaping wound or get spattered when they sever and artery. Masks have no been proven to reduce the spread of viruses. This is not disputable at this point in time even though things may change.

Class 1 rooms dont even take into account particles the size of corona when measuring.

 

[JRull86]

No good can come from this



Encore Boston Harbor resort casino set to reopen Sunday

Ridiculous.

Casino's should be firmly in phase 4.

 

[Gee Wally]

Drool.
Lolo...ok....
Aside Covid, generally accepted and mandated practice in hospitals, clean rooms, treatments centers for immune suppressed never happened and literally thousands of places worldwide didnt and dont do this as a norm way of working. As I said for generation s.

Precautions.
Like seat belts, air bags and crumple zones in cars wont guarantee saving a life but surely enhance the chances.
PPE does the same. Always has.
Now your point about virus being small is nuts on. It is. Can pass through bacterial sterilization like .2 um filters.

However, and a huge however, viruses cant travel on their own. They must hitch a ride. On the variable sized mucous, expectorated cough and sneeze molecules , saliva, bodily fluids, even dusr.
Thats wear layers of protection become applicable along with sanitized surfaces as much as possible.


https://www.fda.gov/media/71026/download

Done with you .

 

[CDJ]

View attachment 353453

We haven’t had many rabbits around for years. I attributed it to having dogs. This year, they’re everywhere, including in my raised veg beds. (I have to use Liquid Fence).
This was the scene in my office on Friday.

the guy I just adopted supposedly didn’t have a prey drive, if that’s the case then he’s just REALLY enthusiastic to meet the bunnies out back. Fortunately he’s a giant oaf and can’t catch them if his life depended on it

 

[Ladyfan]

The CDC, WHO and every other major governing medical body? I thought you were all about that published research? My how the turntables have......

Masks are worn during surgery so the doctor doesn't drool into a gaping wound or get spattered when they sever and artery. Masks have no been proven to reduce the spread of viruses. This is not disputable at this point in time even though things may change.

Class 1 rooms dont even take into account particles the size of corona when measuring.

what is wrong with you ??? Where do you come up with this bull shit ?

 

[Gee Wally]

the guy I just adopted supposedly didn’t have a prey drive, if that’s the case then he’s just REALLY enthusiastic to meet the bunnies out back. Fortunately he’s a giant oaf and can’t catch them if his life depended on it

this is a first time for me. I have two dogs. Dont know if they fought over them or not. But carnage.
Part of the issue, never had this before, is we put up a fence last year. Rabbits come in and then cant get out.

Glad your pup is working out for you though.

 

[CDJ]

this is a first time for me. I have two dogs. Dont know if they fought over them or not. But carnage.
Part of the issue, never had this before, is we put up a fence last year. Rabbits come in and then cant get out.

Glad your pup is working out for you though.

Hahahaha good dogs, just protecting the turf


And thanks. He’s honestly all I could have hoped for. He’s so good with other dogs and people, I have him playing with my parents french Bulldog a lot and she’s a Neurotic little bitch but he handles her gently

still working on easing the cat and him together. He wants to be friends with it so badly and the cat wants nothing to do with him. He rushes and catches a paw then gets mad but again, he can’t do anything about it because the cat is way faster and he’s a giant oaf lol

 

[Alicat]

Staggering numbers

 

[DaveFromNB]

It's been a long 4 months. And this sucker is just getting started.

Herd immunity won’t save us from the coronavirus pandemic

 

[Gee Wally]

If people would simply do what they should.......it's , right now, the only way to combat this thing.

Surgeon general says U.S. can reverse coronavirus surge in a few weeks 'if everyone does their part'