Lostin76

Honestly, I don’t think it’s a realistic expectation to expect consistency of policy in such a fractured political state and society. That horse has left the barn several years ago. Our political classes are at war with each other over $$$$. That’s literally all they care about. And they want to keep us at each other’s throats so they can sell their hate and policies.

Ha, not there yet. And honestly have never felt threatened by my neighbors. It’s mostly harmless, but annoying things. The traffic stuff is however a real problem and the NYPD has seemed to just walk away from it. I agree, The WORST mayor. And it didn’t help that the NYPD hated him so much that they (again) decided to take it easy on their workload. Saying, “Oh, I hate the mayor, so I won’t actually do my job today,” isn’t that big of an issue when you are reshelving library books, but when you are still responsible for traffic violations, that can have a big impact. There are still people that live here and they would like the NYPD to arrest an a**hole with 20 active school zone speeding violations - but they don’t. Those a**holes just keep on driving and causing problems. I’m a huge proponent of taking away traffic enforcement from an NYPD that doesn’t want to do it and actively contributes to the problem. Give that oversight to the DOT and then tell the cops from Long Island that they have to find parking like the rest of us. They shouldn’t get to block sidewalks and bike lanes with their personal cars. There is now a concerted effort of people flooding 311 with complaints about personal cars of NYPD parked illegally. And shocker, the NYPD is harassing people who have submitted formal complaints. Absolute trash.

The problem with the NYPD is that they have stopped doing many parts of their jobs after the city turned against their overzealous response to the 2020 marches. They have done this before, going on “unofficial strikes.” They think it’s cute and funny, but people actually die b/c of their “strikes.” For instance, this year has been one of the deadliest years for pedestrians and bikers in recent memory. The NYPD has multiple times promised to crackdown on drivers, and yet… Pedestrians and bikers are bing killed at an alarming historical rate, and the NYPD has been largely absent during this. On the subways, people are doing whatever the hell they want - I’ve seen dozens of homeless people smoking on the subway ( not on the platform, on the the trains). Have also seen two people urinating on the platform and one person pleasuring himself at Union Square, just in the last week. No cops anywhere. They’ve also always had a tendency to park illegally, but now every police station has lines of cars blocking the sidewalk and bike lanes on each corner. I’ve watched people push strollers out into the road to get around the lines of personal cars belonging to police that block the sidewalk. Neighborhoods complain and absolutely nothing happens. It’s to the point where the city hates them and they hate the city. No one wants them here and they don’t want to be here. Yet, I still pay their salary in taxes. Cops need to live in the neighborhoods they are assigned to, not drive in from their houses on Long Island. Is it a tough, dangerous job? Yep, but living here can also be tough and dangerous. The rest of us pull our weight. They don’t. They hide in their stations and scowl at people.

It’s not like the NYPD to actually do anything these days, except park on the sidewalk and stand around in donut shops. Worthless, waste of tax dollars.

Love corgis. They have such funny personalities. We had one in our building called Captain Pcorg.

Corgi or corgi mix? That sweet face!

Hard to tell, I tend to trust the NIH overall, but am not as forgiving when it comes to drug companies. That’s the one type of research that I have never been involved with and never will.

Exactly like that! It’s funny, my wife met a girl in the dog run a few months ago and realized that she lived right underneath us. The girl was like, “Oh, wow you guys have the tomatoes that sometimes fall onto my balcony. They are delicious!”

Large clinical trial to study repurposed drugs to treat COVID-19 symptoms Using an ACTIV master protocol, the trial will focus on potential interventions for mild-to-moderate illness. The National Institutes of Health will fund a large, randomized, placebo‑controlled Phase 3 clinical trial to test several existing prescription and over-the-counter medications for people to self-administer to treat symptoms of COVID-19. Part of the Accelerating COVID‑19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public–private partnership, the ACTIV-6 trial aims to provide evidence-based treatment options for the majority of adult patients with COVID-19 who have mild-to-moderate symptoms and are not sick enough to be hospitalized. NIH will provide an initial investment of $155 million in funding for the trial. “While we’re doing a good job with treating hospitalized patients with severe disease, we don’t currently have an approved medication that can be self-administered to ease symptoms of people suffering from mild disease at home, and reduce the chance of their needing hospitalization,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “ACTIV-6 will evaluate whether certain drugs showing promise in small trials can pass the rigor of a larger trial.”

Ha, yep. There are just too many people. We barely make eye contact on the subway most times! Though I will say that it’s very different where I live, we all kind of know each other at least by sight and habits.

Yep, I get that! After all I’m a small town kid from Southern Indiana. I hate all the people and crowds. Even the view is better from Brooklyn!

The growth of fringe websites catering to conspiracy theories about vaccines empowers more insane people like this. ‘Maryland man allegedly fatally shot his pharmacist brother for ‘killing people’ with the COVID vaccine, court records show” https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-cr-burnham-follow-20211006-srubyenoujenvkd5igalidruwm-story.html

Interesting bit on Ebright on his Wikipedia page: “Ebright has stated that the genome and properties of SARS-CoV-2 provide no basis to conclude the virus was engineered as a bioweapon,[51][52] but he also has stated that the possibility that the virus entered humans through a laboratory accident cannot be dismissed[53][54][55][56][57] and has called for a thorough investigation of the origin of the pandemic and for measures to reduce the risk of future pandemics.[58][59][60][61][62]”

That’s one of the reasons I love it so much. Bloomington itself is one of the main characters in the movie.

Such a bummer, I should have posted it in the “Forgotten Movies” thread then. I thought IU fans wouldn’t have forgotten it!

Great intro for Coach, you could tell he was feeling it.

Ha, my word is not sacrosanct by any means. And I’ve never had to fire anyone for a flu shot refusal in my group. BUT, I have had to hassle people every fall to make sure they get their shot by the deadline. And I do know that the stated policy requires the shot or an approved exemption, or face termination. It’s pretty standard practice at NYC hospital systems. It also looks like the mandate is pushing a lot of workers towards COVID vaccinations. I talked to a nurse in the COVID pod on Tuesday and she said they’ve seen at least 10x as many staff coming in for first shots. If the goal was was more vaccinated people in your workforce, they have succeeded.

People are dismissed every year for the flu shot if they can’t provide an approved exemption. It’s never happened to one of my employees, b/c they have always got the shot, but I know it happens. Also not trying to be a smartass, but we have hundreds of lawyers on staff. They might know a bit more about it than us armchair epidemiologists, doctors, and lawyers on HSN.

Anyone ever see a cactus bloom? Ours do this early fall at night. They are pollinated by bat, so they bloom at night.

Breaking Away has long been one of my favorite movies for obvious reasons, but i hadn’t seen it in about a dozen years (more on that in a bit). After our recent trip to Italy, I was kind of fixated on buying a Vespa to get around here in Brooklyn, but it just seemed like a lot of hassle to park it outside and insure it. So, I ordered a vintage Colnago road bike (1977 Colnago Mexico) with all Italian gears, brakes, and parts. Had it shipped here in pieces and have been assembling it on our dining room table. It’s literally the dream bike from my teenage years when all i could afford was a Huffy bike from Western Auto. So, yesterday I watched Breaking Away again, because I remembered Dave being obsessed with Italy. The movie still just really nailed that time and place so perfectly. It doesn’t hurt that I always miss Bloomington in some small part. I really clicked with Dave, who was obsessed with all things Italian and had to have his Italian bike tuned perfectly at all times. It’s just a great, feel good movie of the little guys winning in the end. And I loved seeing the storefront of Williams Jewelry where i bought my wife’s engagement ring when we were in Bloomington. The previous time I saw Breaking Away was actually here in NYC in Bryant Park. It’s a big park in Midtown Manhattan and each summer they have weekly outdoor movies on a huge screen in the park. People get there early and spread out blanket and it’s a huge party. Like a big deal. At the end of the movie the cheers and shouting were just incredible, never hear anything like it. And I, a fairly recent IU Bloomington graduate, had tears in my eyes when the school song was blaring. I realized I need to watch this movie more often.

Sorry, I wasn’t referring to the questionable, clickbait titled Yahoo news story, just your mention of the death of the vaccinated senior citizen. That is the whole crux of the article I posted.

I would think it might be more common in the NE. And we have 45,000 employees just in our system.

I thought this article was super interesting in this week’s New York magazine. David Wallace Wells is pointing out that age is an often ignored factor, using this is an example; ‘According to an analysis of British data by the Financial Times, a vaccinated 80-year-old has about the same mortality risk as an unvaccinated 50-year-old, and an unvaccinated 30-year-old has a lower risk than a vaccinated 45-year-old.’ https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/covid-19-vaccine-status-age-discrimination.html

Many top tier NE health systems require employees to get flu shots every year. We’ve done it every year since I’ve been here. You don’t hear about it, b/c the flu hasn’t been politicized like COVID.

It’s not in most places, but in many healthcare centers, it is.