Meanwhile at the bottom of the Mariane Trench…
That would be bad. Our cars, phones, TVs, tools, and everything made of plastic would get infected and begin to rot from the day it was made.
I don’t think we have to worry about plastic eating bacteria anytime soon:
Facemasks and respirators especially high quality rated ones are near impossible to buy right now. Fireflies is trying to source face masks and respirators for us.
Give ’em time…
Hey! Traffic fatalities should be down! 
Gotta find a bright side……
Yep, according to the local news there is very little traffic in L.A. or on the I-10.
And I've seen video of NYC.
It's pretty quiet on the street there as well.
Good thing that someone posts corrections. Thanks.
Haha, thanks for that. I was trying to sketch it myself today but drawing isn't one of my talents.
I once heard from a fellow grad student that he had worked with a professor trying to select for a bacterium that would eat DDT.
Usual way — take a lot of bacteria, add a bit of DDT. See what survives, take a sample of that one, grow more of them, add a bit more DDT.
Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s a method called “mass selection”
They got a strain that would live happily on DDT.
Unfortunately it was also capable of living on polyvinyl chloride, PVC, the insulation used on phone and electrical lines and for many other purposes.
They sterilized the culture and moved to another project.
As mentioned above, Mother Nature is repeating this selection procedure on all the plastic crap we’ve scattered around the world.
Self check out has been the go for a few yrs now in Aust.
Agree with.
NO
Only because of staff reducing possibilities.
BUT in todays environment. A SUPER good idea.
Gloves ON. Goods in trolley. Through checkout to car.
Load into REUSABLE PLASTIC Bags
Which have also been used for same period of time virtually.
THE secret is.
DO NOT OVERLOAD. 1\2 to 2\3rds full and weight restricted is the key.
I’ve only broken 2 bags. one, a sharp item slit the side.
Tóther the handle let go cause Ï”Overloaded”. then tugged to get out from bundle of,
in car boot.
15c AUD Each to buy.
I always use only plastic bags. I need them for garbage disposal and also to take other plastics to recycling. On average I use them 2-4 times before end use. I don´t take them again to shop though…
. Very similar in Slovakia. Sold out. I use gas mask from 1960…old filter….
.
And if you believe what they say, then go ahead and do so. But the environment where this is out of control says differently. People housed in close quarters are getting the highest numbers, despite their efforts at social distancing. I hope nobody is dump enough to believe a report from China about this virus or a flashlight lumen output either. 
.
I really didn’t expect the US gov’t to fail so miserably. I had hoped there was a group of people keeping the intelligent lights on… but, they either didn’t or were prevented from doing so. This is a huge mess that didn’t need to be so bad. If prep was done right, US would’ve been in a position to rebound by May. But because the wrong messaging was given, markets were so fearful of incapability as untruths were walked back, everything tanked much lower than it should have. So, businesses closing up, jobs lost… I don’t see a dystopian future. Only, a kind of “rollback” to 2008. And guess what? Recovery will be slow, but not as before… because overall, economy was pretty healthy. It WILL revive. The big question is, how long will it take. If only certain people would get out of the way and stop hampering it.
It is quite possible that there is another strain. It’s common with influenza / Corona family viruses, that a strain can emerge with slightly different properties. Let’s just hope any airborne variants will be contained. Aerosol variant is much easier to contain, except for the rather long lifespan on some surfaces.
The good thing is that COVID19 does have a relatively defined “life” cycle. It breaks down after only a few hours up to few days on surfaces. But containment requires full cooperation. If people are believing this is just another flu, it will take much longer to run its course.
[quote=MtnDon]
Yeah, on the one hand I like the self serve checkouts but at the same time I don’t like them as self check outs eliminate jobs.[/quote
Thing is, I must carry a bad electromagnetic field or aura around me. Every time I try self checkout, the goddam things crash-every time I go to use them. Happens across every store I use. Store in town has especially junk system-got so frustrated with it I almost left the store in cuffs. Local Panera where I was a frequent flyer: swiped my card and shut down the whole store system.
Needless to say, I go to a real person. All of these times (dozens, or more) can't be a coincidence.
The German goverment has now concluded a nationwide curfew, comparable to our neighbours, i.e. leaving one's home is only allowed under important circumstances for the next 14 days. Among these are going to/from work and groceries, seeing the doctor or walking the dog/get some fresh air outside. The police will enforce these rules and everyone needs to show his ID card if asked for. All restaurants are now closed but delivery/take away service is still allowed.
The latest numbers for Europe (status of 03/23/2020, 08:30 CET)
