Don’t we see this same story in lots of engineering and production challenges these days? The complexity of a minimally viable products is so high that there’s little room for the risk that innovation brings. Even in something as different as movies. The basic budgets and expectation of a blockbuster are so inflated that the dollars keep flowing to the same, tried and tested products. Wasn’t this also the story for the F35? Incremental gains needing exponential investment.

If we need to go into some sort of permanent multi-year social distancing, then some of this stuff stands. If not - urban centers are extremely popular with the younger generation folks. (And my generation) I live within 2 miles of Seattle’s urban core. This has not made me rethink that at all. I think once this blows over urban real estate likely continues its insanely steep appreciation.

@Rainman said in Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome: @Loki My concern is when the public schools open this coming fall. Everything will be fine, until something like the Kawasaki disease hits, then parents will go ballistic. I did hear a reasonable governor speak to this yesterday. Don't remember who it was. He said that when schools open, if Covid hits, they may have to keep kids home for a couple of weeks. His perspective was that switching from school to online could be a solution parents could get used to. Problem is, in my experience, most parents will be caught in the scenario where they cannot find daycare that is equivalent to some sort of part-time model. And then once again, the finger pointing will begin. Too many one parent families. Too many families where both parents work. You can't open and close schools like a window shade.

@Doctor-Phibes said in "Against Community Standards.": @Mik said in "Against Community Standards.": I suppose it depends on if they got what they were paying for. It might also depend on if they got what they were praying for. Maybe it was ice cream? A little too successful it seems.

The vaccine should be rolled out if that is the only problem.

That's me to a T. I have in fact used that meme.

@Doctor-Phibes said in Here they go again?: @Mik said in Here they go again?: Is it still too early to shoot them? Moderator! This is a family forum! Guns, God and Family, lad. It's the American Way...

Excellent summary, Aqua. We've been enjoying this show for quite a while. I think we've seen all that are available at this time. The only show that makes me laugh harder is Stil Game. Just finished the final season of that series. Sad to see it go.

@Horace said in Sands of Time: In fairness, they took videos and posted them for the world to see. Folks have been making ephemeral art since long before video recording was commonplace.

I'm putting that shit on FB and watching all the 'don't inconvenience me!' heads explode.

The room appears to be a storeroom for teaching spells. You find jars, canisters, and wooden boxes full of basic spell components. "Oh, if there's gold wire or leather string I'd like that please." "I CALL ANY COPPER WIRING!" "Fucking junkie. That is such a Baltimore thing to call dibs on." Do you all go up the ramp, or down the stairs into the arboretum? "No splitting up. It's what horror movie idiots do." "Defo. With a demon, dwarf and half-elf, we have WAY too many racial minorities in the group for that to be a solid plan." "That's right! This is no horror movie! We are real, imaginary people in a life or death situation on paper damnit, this is no time to be reckless." "Random question...Do dragonkind have barbed penises? This might inform my next move." "Are you telling me that you're so big that you can't see down there?" "I guess I could cast minor illusion so that you can check yourself out." "...Would you please ca--" "No I'm not doing that." The two gelatinous cubes advance towards the party, both encompassing the space of hallway... The one slowly consuming the human is in the rear. "Great. We're gonna be chased all the way out of here by a lime jello." The gelatinous cubes are translucent, with no apparent color or tonal value to them. "Even better. Clear jello: the dry hump of jellos." You make it to the wide stairwell and see a dead human man on the stairs, his throat slit... Something is in his hand... "Zoom and enhance." "This isn't CSI, jackass, just lift up his fucking hand."

Well the age of enlightenment didn't come until at least 1687...

What about the guy closest to the impact? I wonder about his injuries. He took the worst of it.

I want Lieutenant Uhura back!

@Aqua-Letifer said in So what happens when they move pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the US?: @Loki said in So what happens when they move pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the US?: it is far from the worst of our issues. The fewer expensive medications you take, the easier it is for you to say that. There used to be a time when companies picked up the majority of healthcare costs. Many reasons for that change. I suppose now it is the out of pocket cap right that people can hit, and which plan a person picks with respect to how long it takes to hit that cap? You can pay more or less monthly right for a different cap? Is your point that people are hitting the cap sooner because of drug price increases?

@jon-nyc said in Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California.: Of course I agree, and I was openly critical of him in early March. But I must say seeing people pile on Cuomo now who at the time were saying ‘it’s just the flu’ seems a bit ... opportunistic. One does the best they can, with the information available at the time. I don't fault Cuomo. Or Trump. Or Newsom. Or DeSantis. Most national pols and the governor's have done ok, to about as best they could. Only a few have really screwed the pooch.

@Aqua-Letifer said in The Doctor Thread: @Jolly What do you think about PAs? About the same as NP's. They do have their place and they serve a useful function. But they are not physicians.