News COVID-19 pandemic

[Notebook]

BBC comes in for criticism often from political parties as being biased one way or the other.
Often gets it for not differentiating the four Nations, and not providing enough local and regional content.

Can't win really, but that's what its there for.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

My take on the BBC (for what it's worth), if I want a fairly balanced report about what's going on here in the United States I'll watch BBC (there's an Australian news channel I've seen that was pretty good too, but can't remember the call letters).

If I want entertainment, there's CNN, FOX, and the rest. NPR is OK but has it's moments of leftness.

 

[Urwumpe]

Is that legal?

Well, lets explain it like this: As long as I only work for 20 hours per week, it is legal, the government pays 67% of my salary for the other 20 hours per week. My employer even accepted to turn the 67% into 80% for all employees, which likely made the negotiations with the works council a lot easier.



Of course, our government is not known for being benevolent. It requires really dire situations, seasonal lack of customers is for example no reason for being granted this money. 90% of the employees have to lose at least 10% of their income.



Sadly, I was placed among the 90% despite my usual business already ramping up again after the usual calm during the first two months of the year.



And of course, like many software developers, its my own duty to organize my work, and thus my own duty to get the work load reduced to 50%.



But its really hard if you also need to get the next contract with the deadline for the bid approaching. Especially if you are expected to take more responsibility there and finally work officially as the software architect there.

 

[Notebook]

Good Greif, I thought my old job was messy!

Last time I heard the phrase "Software Architect" was just as I was leaving the industry.
Television had moved into IT land(or so it thought) and the last company I was working for was going into litigation with Grass Valley, Sony Broadcast and Harris Automation.
All good companies but something was going wrong, so I took my pension early and left.

 

[Urwumpe]

Good Greif, I thought my old job was messy!

Last time I heard the phrase "Software Architect" was just as I was leaving the industry.

Well, it is like a Systems Engineer. Just with more circular dependencies. :lol:

 

[Notebook]

Trouble was I was quite willing to learn about IT stuff, but few IT folk were keen on learning about broadcast stuff.
Invented a new department, "IT Broadcast", as there were only two of us and ten of them, we could see which way the tide was going.

Can't blame them really, we were a legacy from the previous operation and didn't really fit into the brave new world...

 

[Urwumpe]

Trouble was I was quite willing to learn about IT stuff, but few IT folk were keen on learning about broadcast stuff.
Invented a new department, "IT Broadcast", as there were only two of us and ten of them, we could see which way the tide was going.

Can't blame them really, we were a legacy from the previous operation and didn't really fit into the brave new world...

Actually, I get most of my contracts because I am from a legacy world... :tiphat:


It just means looking for jobs far away from daylight and hipsters and have no problem with the smell of oil and metal dust. Others need a virtual taskboard, Chuck Norris jokes and enhanced feedback devices in their office space. I need a heavy set of Allen keys and a flashlight when I visit a patient.



I still need to convince my boss, that I need a colored overall with the company name on my back and a hardhat with my name on instead of the typical software developer uniform (black hoodie and jeans). :rofl:

 

[Notebook]

My take on the BBC (for what it's worth), if I want a fairly balanced report about what's going on here in the United States I'll watch BBC (there's an Australian news channel I've seen that was pretty good too, but can't remember the call letters).

If I want entertainment, there's CNN, FOX, and the rest. NPR is OK but has it's moments of leftness.

That's a remarkable comment, you aren't confident in your national news agencies?

I grew up with names like NBC and CBS as news companies, admittedly as names on microphones!
Always thought of them as reliable sources.
The BBC has always had good reporting from North America, again it has accusations of bias against European reporting. With the now redundant Brexit topic, not a problem.

We are all global now, wonder how long it will last?

 

[insanity]

That's a remarkable comment, you aren't confident in your national news agencies?

Not really. For-profit media has an incentive to exercise editorial discretion to drum up ratings so they can sell ads. I, myself, watch CNN mostly but I am largely skeptical and distrustful of them (though I'm far less skeptical of them than I am of MSNBC and Fox). The broadcast networks tend to offer fairly glib takes and aren't doing tons of interesting public-interest reporting.

NPR and PBS are national treasures though. While they both can lean a little left just by the sheer honest fact that journalists tend to be lefties, I feel like they are very good about sticking to facts and trying to avoid sensationalizing the news.

In this moment especially, it's really hard to get straight news. All of the cable networks (save for Fox) are on the "sky is falling" crowd which doesn't help people make rational decisions. Fox and the conservative media are trying to play the, "It's not bad, bro. And if it is it's the Democrats fault" game which is also leading to people making irrational decisions.

 

[tl8]

My take on the BBC (for what it's worth), if I want a fairly balanced report about what's going on here in the United States I'll watch BBC (there's an Australian news channel I've seen that was pretty good too, but can't remember the call letters).

If I want entertainment, there's CNN, FOX, and the rest. NPR is OK but has it's moments of leftness.

ABC which is modeled on the BBC. Look up Planet America for a detailed program into your politics.



They are also doing educational things and are trying to provide clarity to the ever changing rules.

---------- Post added at 08:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:12 AM ----------

I still need to convince my boss, that I need a colored overall with the company name on my back and a hardhat with my name on instead of the typical software developer uniform (black hoodie and jeans). :rofl:

James May has recommended this for day to day wear. If I become rich, I plan to do this...

 

[Evil_Onyx]

My take is that all the News outlets lean one way or another, what is good about the BBC and other national broadcasting organisations is that, it is easy to work out which way and why. That can not be said of "For-Profit" outlets.

The BBC changing to the current situation is a perfect example of why it needs to stay publicly funded, I don't see any for profit TV organisation switching a huge chunk of there air time/work hours to educational output.

 

[Linguofreak]

NPR is OK but has it's moments of leftness.

It's more than just moments, their bias is quite strong, but as I've said earlier, they get huge props for not being sensationalist purveyors of yellow journalism, like all the other news establishments, right or left.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

My wife's mother came down with COVID-19-like symptoms after returning from a trip to Israel some weeks ago. Reported her symptoms to her doctor and self-quarantined. Her PCP requested a test, but the request was denied because her recorded temperature was 99.9F, 0.1 lower than the diagnostic fever threshold of 100F. :facepalm:Thankfully she's recovering and doing well, doesn't appear that she is in any danger of bad consequences.

Well, my mother-in-law finally got a test, positive for COVID-19, in quarantine for two weeks or until asymptomatic. Now CDC is freaking out and wanting everyone she contacted in the last three weeks tested.


This is closing the barn door after the horses have already run away. :facepalm:

 

[insanity]

Well, my mother-in-law finally got a test, positive for COVID-19, in quarantine for two weeks or until asymptomatic. Now CDC is freaking out and wanting everyone she contacted in the last three weeks tested.


This is closing the barn door after the horses have already run away. :facepalm:

Hoping that she stays on the mild side and that you and yours keep good health. More testing and contact tracing is the only way out of this long-term, even though we're pretty deep in the mitigation phase now.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Lots of news here is either from the AP (Associated Press) or Reuters. It really doesn't matter what channel you watch as they either paraphrase or quote directly what either one of those two have already written. The rest of it is entertainment parading as news.

@Thunder Chicken, sorry to hear about your mom-in-law dude. Too bad they didn't pay attention to the symptoms earlier. Here's hoping she makes a full recovery.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Thanks for the good wishes. She's been getting better, but slowly. Pretty wiped out and achy and coughing a lot. It's bad that she got it, but in a sense it's good now that she's recovering as we don't need to worry so much about her getting it.

Hopefully my father in law doesn't catch it.

I'm somewhat grateful that my parents aren't around anymore - both of them smoked for a long time and both had COPD.

---------- Post added 04-04-20 at 12:22 PM ---------- Previous post was 04-03-20 at 09:28 PM ----------

Wife is making up some fresh cinnamon raisin bread and toffee and we're going to bring it over to her mom this afternoon. That will get the serotonin flowing.

 

[Notebook]

Can we come?

 

[richfororbit]

I think the whole situation with covid 19 will probably last five months, how the government react to this, I don't know. It could like for supermarkets, the measures remain for all businesses in the future until a vaccine is developed.
Even the Artemis program has slowed, the personnel missions. How annoying.

Only a month ago it was unlikely anything that was reported in China could happen in other countries, but it has, and some will have it much harder than others.

Out of this sorry sad, state of affairs, hopefully something positive, and noble will emerge from the selfishness and crap that is all over the place in society.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Can we come?

If you can get to Southeast Massachusetts, sure. My wife will bake for anyone. :tiphat:

 

[ADSWNJ]

That's a remarkable comment, you aren't confident in your national news agencies?

I grew up with names like NBC and CBS as news companies, admittedly as names on microphones!
Always thought of them as reliable sources.
The BBC has always had good reporting from North America, again it has accusations of bias against European reporting. With the now redundant Brexit topic, not a problem.

We are all global now, wonder how long it will last?

Not remarkable in the least. It's the reality of hyper-polarization of politics and media. One feeds on the other in an endless cycle, all chasing the click-baits. The media wants you terrified and addicted to the next 30 mins of adverts and eye-balls, regardless if the story is true, false, or simply made up. If orange man bad and 'Trump Lied, People Died' keeps 100k people on a channel, then they will pond it for all its worth, 24x7. If 'the media is all fake news but not us' excites you, then that exists 24x7 too. If you get excited by news leading with a fire in the 'hood or a cat stuck up a tree, well surprisingly large local affiliates of the big news channels will happy run the first 10 mins of the news on those things.

As a person born, raised, and lived to my early 40's in the UK, then for the past 13 years in the US, I have a world-view on political bias, the death of journalism, and on the quality of news casts. I miss the UK newspapers and news casts. Especially the Independent, the Times, News Night, Channel 4 news and the Beeb 9pm news. Here - take your pick of Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC - it's all reasonably crappy, polarized, hyper-partisan, opinion/bias vs news, and hyper-localized too. In a 50 min Channel 4 news at 7pm (as I remember it), you would learn about things in at least 20 countries, with a bit of depth in the back-story. Cat up a tree, house burnt down? That's for 10 mins of local news after all the serious stuff. I kid you not - NBC News in New York will happily launch their flagship 11pm news with local stories like that. Rest of world? Um ... nope.