Off Topic Thread 5.0

aloooof

thomond2006 wrote: »

A decent drop in the number of new cases today, hopefully that continues.

Encouraging figure today, lowest we've had since 22nd March. The 3-day average is down over 100 since as recently as Monday.

irishbucsfan

Panda Killa wrote: »

1/3 of people arriving into Ireland at Dublin airport aren't telling the authorities where they will be staying...
It's then impossible to check on whether or not they are self-isolating

How many people are arriving into Ireland?

Like it’s a third, but that has only just started and the people travelling currently are doing so in very extreme circumstances. Purely even getting a flight to Ireland that won’t cost an absolute fortune is difficult, if it wasn’t I’d have done it myself already

gp1990

Hospital admissions with Covid-19 have reduced from 40 a day or more on average last week to 20 or fewer this week.

The average number of people in intensive care units has fallen from a peak of 140, to 100 last week, to 76 as of this morning.

The average number of people admitted to intensive care units was in the region of 4 to 6 people a day every day up to seven days ago. But in the last week it has been 2 each day.

there is a greater than 90% confidence that the reproduction rate averaged across the population is between 0.5 and 0.6.

Yes, yes I know any cases are still too many, but surely these figures can only be deemed (relatively) positive on the whole?

Neil3030

irishbucsfan wrote: »

How many people are arriving into Ireland?

Like it’s a third, but that has only just started and the people travelling currently are doing so in very extreme circumstances. Purely even getting a flight to Ireland that won’t cost an absolute fortune is difficult, if it wasn’t I’d have done it myself already

And are authorities even checking on those who do disclose the address/phone number they'll be staying? I'd be highly skeptical they can enforce it any meaningful way. It puts the idea in people's heads that they need to do self-isolate, which is about as much as you can hope. Most people will, a few idiots won't. Not sure how the cops having their phone number will change that.

Panda Killa

irishbucsfan wrote: »

How many people are arriving into Ireland?

Like it’s a third, but that has only just started and the people travelling currently are doing so in very extreme circumstances. Purely even getting a flight to Ireland that won’t cost an absolute fortune is difficult, if it wasn’t I’d have done it myself already

671 didn't fill the forms at all
& 231 of those who did fill it out didn't respond to phone calls.
This is Dublin airport only for this week

errlloyd

Does anyone know anything about actually traveling abroad?

My OH lost her grandmother this week to Covid, they were quite close. She's from the states and has no family here at all. There won't be a funeral or anything, but if it was possible she would probably go home to be with family. (Instead of here, where she knows basically no one except me).

irishbucsfan

Panda Killa wrote: »

671 didn't fill the forms at all
& 231 of those who did fill it out didn't respond to phone calls.
This is Dublin airport only for this week

Those numbers are absolutely miniscule.

Not surprising people aren't responding to phone calls either, when you think about who'd be travelling at a time like this.

It's not a plausible to put anything like this in place with no planning and expect it to be successful outside of people who will voluntarily go out of their way to adhere to it. I'd say we could see the proportion of adherents go up as numbers increase and the proportion of people travelling in emergency situations decreases

Dave_The_Sheep

Did my shopping for the next ten days or so there earlier. People are definitely far more lax and there's a lot more out and about in groups than there were this time last week.

irishbucsfan

errlloyd wrote: »

Does anyone know anything about actually traveling abroad?

My OH lost her grandmother this week to Covid, they were quite close. She's from the states and has no family here at all. There won't be a funeral or anything, but if it was possible she would probably go home to be with family. (Instead of here, where she knows basically no one except me).

It completely depends on where you're talking about really, I think. If you can get a flight at an affordable price you can generally travel but would be expected to isolate in a lot of locations (just like Ireland). My OH was in a similar position.

If its a more common destination then your OH might be in luck. I don't know about the US's travel restrictions, I think citizens can return and are expected to isolate (including from her family I think unfortunately). Obviously she'd have to worry about getting back unless she's willing to accept an extended trip away until prices/availability suits for a return, and then take the two weeks of isolation in Ireland (which is what I effectively had to do myself, albeit I left early enough in March)

Squidgy Black

errlloyd wrote: »

Does anyone know anything about actually traveling abroad?

My OH lost her grandmother this week to Covid, they were quite close. She's from the states and has no family here at all. There won't be a funeral or anything, but if it was possible she would probably go home to be with family. (Instead of here, where she knows basically no one except me).

There's a non-essential travel ban, so unless it's essential travel you can't fly. In saying that, there's still regular flights scheduled for repatriations and stuff like that, so I'm not entirely sure what way it'd work in terms of them deeming a family death a reason for travel, especially if she's been living here a while.

Panda Killa

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Those numbers are absolutely miniscule.

Not surprising people aren't responding to phone calls either, when you think about who'd be travelling at a time like this.

It's not a plausible to put anything like this in place with no planning and expect it to be successful outside of people who will voluntarily go out of their way to adhere to it. I'd say we could see the proportion of adherents go up as numbers increase and the proportion of people travelling in emergency situations decreases

900 in 5 days isn't miniscule tbf..it seems the numbers at Dublin Port are quite high also...take other ports and airports...it's quite likely 2000 people in that timeframe have not complied with instructions.....don't forget....this is a country that lost its shít when 189 Bulgarians arrived

irishbucsfan

Squidgy Black wrote: »

There's a non-essential travel ban, so unless it's essential travel you can't fly. In saying that, there's still regular flights scheduled for repatriations and stuff like that, so I'm not entirely sure what way it'd work in terms of them deeming a family death a reason for travel, especially if she's been living here a while.

The US travel restrictions don't apply to US citizens, unless there's been some change in that

irishbucsfan

Panda Killa wrote: »

900 in 5 days isn't miniscule tbf..it seems the numbers at Dublin Port are quite high also...take other ports and airports...it's quite likely 2000 people in that timeframe have not complied with instructions.....don't forget....this is a country that lost its shít when 189 Bulgarians arrived

Well over half a million people a week go through Dublin airport normally. 900 people is absolutely miniscule. No one is travelling through there who doesn't absolutely have to, there's all sorts of reasons they'll be rushing through airports and not stopping to fill out optional forms. Not even considering the fact just being in an airport currently is fairly terrifying.

Squidgy Black

irishbucsfan wrote: »

The US travel restrictions don't apply to US citizens, unless there's been some change in that

No but if she holds dual citizenship I'm not sure what way it'd be handled other than if she says it's a repatriation, because there's a non-essential travel ban on Irish citizens too. Best bet would be to try and get a hold of the US embassy and ask for their advice.

What they've done with the leaving cert is a bit mad. I don't know what the solution is but I don't think this is it. I failed my mock and got around 200 points only to turn it around and get around 450. I wonder what predicted result I'd get.

Squidgy Black

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What they've done with the leaving cert is a bit mad. I don't know what the solution is but I don't think this is it. I failed my mock and got around 200 points only to turn it around and get around 450. I wonder what predicted result I'd get.

I did absolutely woeful in my mocks and failed two subjects at honours level (incl maths) and ended up dropping into ordinary level to get into college. Can't imagine my results would've been great. Considering the exams themselves are really just down to how well someone can revise I'm not sure how they can all of a sudden and say they've decided to do it on an assessment basis.

gp1990

Surely social distancing is manageable in the case of the leaving cert?

If something like this - and with such importance - can't go ahead in July I think we can kiss goodbye to offices or schools opening on a widespread basis until after September

This may just be the biggest talking point from the government response to Covid yet. I don't see this being a popular decision

The Mocks were a farce in my school. I actually failed English and got an A1 in Spanish despite getting B in both in the LC. Some teachers didn't give a fk when marking them

Bazzo

Maybe they'll see sense and look to reform the whole system.

There was an opinion piece in the times a few weeks back that suggested an appeal which involved a suggested grade by another member of staff followed by a second appeal which allowed you to sit an actual exam. Seemed sensible and could whittle numbers down enough to allow appropriate social distancing

Podge_irl

Squidgy Black wrote: »

No but if she holds dual citizenship I'm not sure what way it'd be handled other than if she says it's a repatriation, because there's a non-essential travel ban on Irish citizens too. Best bet would be to try and get a hold of the US embassy and ask for their advice.

Dual citizenship would be irrelevant and there is no such thing as official repatriation. All she needs to say is that she is going home. She will have no bother getting to the US.

Getting back to Ireland would be the more difficult question.

Podge_irl

Squidgy Black wrote: »

I did absolutely woeful in my mocks and failed two subjects at honours level (incl maths) and ended up dropping into ordinary level to get into college. Can't imagine my results would've been great. Considering the exams themselves are really just down to how well someone can revise I'm not sure how they can all of a sudden and say they've decided to do it on an assessment basis.

I did fine in my mocks, but I wasn't taking them seriously - because they were not supposed to be taken seriously. I did significantly better in my actual exam. Also half my year cheated in the mocks by getting hold of the papers (which seemed counterproductive to me at the time, though had it been 15 years later apparently it would have been a great idea).

I am not going to judge whatever they choose to do because it is a terrible situation no matter what. It will never be fair. I got more points in my LC than anyone in my school had ever gotten (/humblebrag), I suspect if my "expected grades" were given as what I actually got they would have been rejected as unrealistic. Is there even a set up for that? I get that they do more continuous assessment these days but I imagine swathes of children will get screwed.

Neil3030

Thing is though, if everyone bombs their mocks, and the CAO essentially grades on a curve, would the ultimate allocation of places be any different?

Richie_Rich89

gp1990 wrote: »

Hospital admissions with Covid-19 have reduced from 40 a day or more on average last week to 20 or fewer this week.

The average number of people in intensive care units has fallen from a peak of 140, to 100 last week, to 76 as of this morning.

The average number of people admitted to intensive care units was in the region of 4 to 6 people a day every day up to seven days ago. But in the last week it has been 2 each day.

there is a greater than 90% confidence that the reproduction rate averaged across the population is between 0.5 and 0.6.

Yes, yes I know any cases are still too many, but surely these figures can only be deemed (relatively) positive on the whole?

Not sure the figures being lower is wholly positive because it could lead to the general populace getting more complacent around social distancing guidelines.

Might be no bad thing to artificially inflate the numbers being announced every day so people are more likely to toe the line. I think that would be a good idea. Maybe announce figures twice what they actually are or something along those lines.

Neil3030

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

Might be no bad thing to artificially inflate the numbers being announced every day so people are more likely to toe the line. I think that would be a good idea. Maybe announce figures twice what they actually are or something along those lines.

Bad idea. Last thing you want is the public losing faith in government information.

Cross the bridge of complacency when we inevitably come to it.

Stheno

Pigsback have a cordless hair clipper on offer if anyone is looking

Synode

Neil3030 wrote: »

Thing is though, if everyone bombs their mocks, and the CAO essentially grades on a curve, would the ultimate allocation of places be any different?

They were saying on the radio yesterday that it's not just based on the mocks. It's based on performance over the whole year in class, homework etc.

sydthebeat

Synode wrote: »

They were saying on the radio yesterday that it's not just based on the mocks. It's based on performance over the whole year in class, homework etc.

It should be based over the whole leaving cert cirriculum period.....Be that 2 or 3 years. A lot of applicable knowledge that goes into the leaving cert happens in 5th year.

kuang1

Stheno wrote: »

Pigsback have a cordless hair clipper on offer if anyone is looking

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/1?q=hc4250+remington&client=ms-android-samsung-gn-rev1&biw=412&bih=718&tbs=vw:l,ss:44&prmd=isvn&sxsrf=ALeKk01iZ5XOAY6-YTNJMfLzvJY-quloug:1588925971294&prds=num:1,of:1,epd:14775807135096528444,paur:ClkAsKraX-QpgtsZm79EjdWwWC6OL1dS9llfWSARmomHJR3wCBRWC1No4ncMTOH-6Q1Qh1rDcShIldykBCJnORfJZsQlZtIb3sacSjhzrJPKMk4l1kazG6zmVxIZAFPVH70kncpSYbv6HeH0rDmUkms7vJkulg,prmr:1,pid:14775807135096528444,cs:1

I have this and it's the best gadget/item I have ever owned. (and I like my gadgets!)

I've totally abandoned razors and use this on my face as well as my head. So I'm never clean shaven anymore, but this thing gets very close, with no pain, irritation or nicks.

Couldn't recommend it highly enough.

I shaved my head about 4 weeks ago and grew a beard and now I have perfect upside down head.

kuang1

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I shaved my head about 4 weeks ago and grew a beard and now I have perfect upside down head.

As in razor shaved?
Or a "blade 1"?