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Welcome to this very special leap year edition of the mighty GLoP podcast! We’re going to let you, dear listener, find the provenance for the title in this episode. But yes, we do discuss the virus that’s going viral, the political response to it, as well as some of the best and worst movies based on a story like this. Also, some thoughts on the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday, Jonah finally reviews Picard and reveals himself to be a germaphobe and a slob, Rob teaches us how certain cultures blow their noses and learns how to pronounce “endocrinologist” and reveals himself as a fan of the neti pot, and John never gets sick. See you in four years.
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That’s a quote from Jerry Edgar, Harry Bosch’s partner!
I’m actually surprised Rob know what Mormon garments are for. At least he didn’t call them magic underwear.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people who do not know how evil Cuba has been. That knowledge has been hidden
When someone posted on a forum a few years ago about Cuba’s health care system, I posted something about how Cuba has recently been using battery acid to torture people in its prisons.
No one defended me. There are many, many smart American Leftists with advanced college degrees who think that the United States is essentially more evil than Cuba.
The Left has gone so far Left they they know ridicule conservatives who care about Christians dying in other countries, religious architecture being destroyed in other countries, and the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Of course, there has also been at least a 30-year hatred of free speech for conservatives going back to Rush Limbaugh and any college student who dares speak up on an American college campus.
Sure the media needs to be responsible, but come on. Does anyone believe the media wouldn’t have protected Obama even in the exact situation of the movie “Contagion” even if it had been Obama himself who started it all because he didn’t wash his hands?
The only crazy thing would be to believe that the media wouldn’t blame Trump for not curing the virus himself, if things get worse. Remember, they told us Joe Biden would cure cancer, all we have to do is elect him!
The weirdly-laughing sidekick for Hillary could be Kamala Harris. Easy job for her.
Gosh this is getting so old: Goldberg’s TDS infects any topic remotely related to the administration. What Mulvaney said was NOT simply crazy. Maybe a bit exaggerated to make the point, but not wrong. The “mainstream” press has not been covering the Coronavirus in any competent or serious way, because they have been busy with their impeachment obsession, and any other diversion that can regenerate a click or view. For quite a while, ZeroHedge was one of the few places to go for consistent coverage. The first widely distributed story that I recall was the press attacking Trump for restricting flights from China. Now that the Russia hoax has failed, the Ukraine impeachment has failed, the “he’s a racist” angle is not catching on and the Democrat primary roster is being exposed as communist clown car full of misfits, they need the next thing. Has Goldberg forgotten the Katrina “narrative”, as an earlier example of the same?
You sort of had something similar in the late 1960s/early 70s, when the first real airline security measures had to be put in due to the number of progressive young adults who took to hijacking airliners and ordering them to fly to Cuba. The denouncement by the end of the 70s was a lot of those revolutionaries had been cured of their beliefs in the perfection of Castro’s system by having to live in Castro’s system. It might be fun to see if they could work out some sort of exchange today that didn’t require taking over airliners, but could give many of the millennial and Gen Z fans of socialism half a decade or so to find out what it’s really all about.
Based on the podcast description, I expected more discussion of virus-type movies, but only two were mentioned, a little: Outbreak (Bad) and Contagion (Good).
But I’ll go ahead and toss in my own bit of information about the classic Andromeda Strain. (The excellent original, not the crappy “mini-series” remake.) Certainly in the movie, and I think it was the same in the book too, they show that the virus will only grow within a narrow range of blood pH. But the problem is that the test animals they showed the scientists using, have blood pH that is outside that range. So the “reality” is that Andromeda would not have killed them. People, yes. But not those animals.
The most bothersome part of that to me, is that Michael Crichton doesn’t seem like the kind of person/writer/scientist himself, to have made such a mistake. Maybe he never figured that something like Google would ever allow people to find out?
And a requirement that they shut up if they refuse to go.
I don’t follow Jonah’s logic on air dryers. Those are used by people who have just washed their hands, and don’t even have to touch them to turn them on. What am I missing?
China can be much worse than snot rockets on the coffee shop floor. Many toddlers are dressed in crotchless pants so they can crap anytime, almost anywhere. On the sidewalk outside your restaurant? No problem.
And it’s difficult to practice “social distancing” when the one and only pisser in your six unit apartment building (the public toilet for #2 may be down the block, around the corner) drains by gravity via a board covered canal, molded into the concrete floor of the entrance hall, directly into the roadside ditch next to the entrance stoop. Then the man across the street who keeps pigs in his cellar brings them out periodically and slops them in that same ditch. Yes, lots of “particulates” in the air coming right in the kitchen windows.
Netti Pots really are wonderful!
They like the dumpster fire that it Picard? The people have completely taken leave of their senses.
I avoid air dryers because there are a lot of particulates floating around a restroom that land on and in the dryers. Who knows what’s growing in them?
This article goes into the question of paper versus
plasticair, and splits the categories into paper towels, hot air dryers, and the new-style jet air dryers that have become the default ones in restrooms over the past 20 years:That might be a fair point, but the guys sounded like their worry was about the dryers blowing germs etc off the peoples’ hands that use them. But if you WASHED your hands, not just stick them in the dryer still dirty for some reason, you should have washed the germs off and down the drain; and what you’re using the dryer for is just to remove the remaining water.
The only possible answer is that they aren’t really Star Trek fans. If they were, they would know better.
But even if you aren’t a fan from before, Discovery and Picard are both awful shows with terrible writing and acting…
What a terrible idea. Who puts their hands under/in/whatever a blow dryer BEFORE WASHING THEM?
If the test had people dip their (gloved) hands into a liquid that contained a virus, AND THEN WASHING THEM, BEFORE using the dryers, then it might be useful.
I am with JPod and simply don’t understand people at all. They are seriously thinking of replacing Terrible Trump with Bolshevik Bernie?
My daughter had a group of friends over the other night and to my horror one of them said he had spent the last 6 hours canvassing for Bernie. He said that one old guy “wouldn’t even listen and told me to get lost” and couldn’t understand it. I can understand it. The old guy has heard it all before and knows it is complete and utter pernicious BS! The young man was “so excited” about Bernie.
As for Picard, I am enjoying it. I think that old Jean Luc is way past it but I like the young pilot and the young (Aussie/NZ) kid. But then I just watched the entire Voyager series and although it was pretty hokey, it was perfect for me to crochet by.
Finally, I did 2 tours in China and Rob is so very correct about the spitting and the face masks. Both were ubiquitous. You could see the particulate matter in the smog too! Why doesn’t Greta go over there and tell them “How dare you!”
If you’re a germaphobe like Jonah or myself you see 98% of the restroom patrons doing more of an aspirational job washing their hands than doing any good.
I’m submitting separate comments because Martini Shot was mentioned, and I’d really like Rob to crack down on the public employee union folks at KCRW that only update/post his show once every six weeks or so.
Maybe because they still put “dissidents” in prison over there, or sometimes even give them a 9mm “vaccination” in the back of the head and then bill the parents for the cost of the bullet?
Those types only “protest” or “resist” when and where they already know they’re safe.
“In Soviet California, public employee union folks crack down on YOU!”
On neti pots. I tend to go towards a motorized pump system like this. I’ve never used a neti pot, but my impression is that it takes more skill, meaning that there’s a learning curve that you don’t need with a pump.
I find that when I present this as an option to friends, women are most resistant to the idea. For some reason, they love the idea of a neti pot. It’s a kind of snobbery.
When I’ve gotten sick, I’ve used that pump with great results. The device does come with instructions, and they also sell you pre-mixed powders that work well. But if you don’t want to buy the pre-mixed powders, water, salt, with a dash of baking soda works just as well.
So if you’re concerned with sinus sanitation, that’s another option to consider.
I’ve read about studies that show just rubbing your hands under running water, even without soap, does most of the work.
And the automatic faucets might seem frustrating to some people, but it’s gotta be better than touching something in a bathroom. Something that other people will have touched BEFORE washing.
Assuming that most people just wet their hands, the Mythbusters found that paper towels were more effective against bacteria than hand dryers.
I listen, but I don’t know why. I find all three of the hosts obnoxious and pretentious. Maybe it helps me validate my own value system. Talk on GLOP.
And such small portions!
I find this works well. A compromise between using gravity with a neti and a motorized (yikes!) pump.
I don’t know about that. Jonah seemed pretty knowledgeable about TNG.