Interesting Links for 31-03-2020

[andrewducker]

The slice of bread here was made with leavening cultures sampled from ancient Egyptian baking vessels, using ancient Emmer wheat, with an ancient Egyptian recipe, using ancient Egyptian baking tools, and no oven!

(tags:bread history viaDanielDWilliam )

And now the police are getting overexcited about Easter eggs!

(tags:OhForFucksSake police Easter eggs )

"Panic Buying" was about 15% higher than normal shopping levels. And spending has already returned to normal levels

Of course, my local supermarket had no pasta and almost no bread when I was in last...
(tags:shopping money )

Hungary hands unlimited power to Orban, with no time limit

(tags:pandemic fascism hungary )

Alex Salmond was a bully and a sex pest, his own QC says on train

(tags:abuse OhForFucksSake )

"Whatever it takes." Getting into the specifics of fiscal policy to fight COVID-19

(tags:pandemic economics viaDanielDWilliam )

FactCheck: how many people are dying from Covid-19 in the UK? 

(tags:death pandemic virus uk )

UK faces cardboard shortage due to coronavirus crisis

(tags:materials packaging Doom uk recycling )

This is terribly cute and I must do something similar for Sophia when she's older

(tags:children adventure )

The Empire State Building looks amazing right now

(tags:design colour video pandemic newyork USA )

Orangutans and otters pictured playing together in photos shared by Belgian zoo

(tags:otters orangutan zoo cute )

Posiopaths: Positive only attitude can be toxic

(tags:emotion communication negativity )

Comments

The Hungarian situation

[claudeb]

"And so democracy dies (...) with thunderous applause."

Re: The Hungarian situation

[dewline]

This is certain to backfire on the Hungarians. And who else as well, we fear to ask.

Re: The Hungarian situation

[claudeb]

Any other national government that already had authoritarian tendencies and couldn't wait for a pretext, or for that matter a precedent.

Positivity and panic buying

[anna_wing]

Being selective with your compassion is not the course of someone who is trying to do good but of someone who seeks to progress their idea of what the world is and should be like. In other terms fascism.

Bah, humbug.

Everyone who has strong views about what their world is and should be, will try to promote it (I refuse to use 'progress' like that, ugh), and all of them think they're trying to do good. Including, obviously this person. Who also, obviously, has no clue at all what 'fascism' actually was and is, except "stuff I don't like and people who disagree with me".


People mostly wash their bottoms with water here,and most people can't afford supermarkets, so it was mostly Western expats doing the toilet roll thing. Similarly wheat flour and tinned tomatoes disappeared very fast, whereas there was zero shortage of rice (the supply chain for which is made of titanium and which is in any case mostly sold loose in wet markets in the traditional way). Oatmeal there was in plenty, for some reason.

[cmcmck]

The supermarkets have just admitted that March was better for their profits than Christmas.

Some are already knocking off the purchase limits.

When all this is over, profit tax, anyone?

[alithea]

I think the panic buying was worse in more affluent areas. This end of Dundee was only really affected the first weekend after folks with cars had stripped the big supermarkets, my mum hasn't had issues in her little market town, but my sister who lives in Kent commuter ville these days still can't get loo roll or oatmilk for love nor money.

[cmcmck]

Rural Shropshire is a long way from affluent, but the panic buyers have been in full flow here for sure.

[alithea]

There may be a difference between rural and urban too, although I suspect it's still more affluent than the community I live in.

[cmcmck]

I know Dundee a bit having spent a year at uni there doing a post masters modern Scottish history course- one of my various almae matres! :o)

[nancylebov]

In re panic buying and prosperity: I see a Whole Foods be much lower on stuff than an Acme (mid-range supermarket) across a small street from it.

[alithea]

I should have specified that I was talking about the UK, I wouldn't like to generalise any wider than that. Although having looked up Whole Foods, I see you're sort of agreeing with me (but I did have to look it up, which just illustrates why I shouldn't claim to understand US social dynamics!)

[nancylebov]

I'm sorry-- Whole Foods (sometimes called Whole Paycheck) is a cliche of the upscale supermarket here that I assumed this was well-known. Actually, I think both the prices and the quality have dropped.

Anyway, my point was that it doesn't have to be regional differences-- supermarkets can be near each other, but the difference is who shops there.

[alithea]

Yes, that's a good point.

[cmcmck]

Bit like Waitrose here, I guess.

[nancylebov]

Posiopaths: See Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich, about the history and ill-effects of positive thinking.

The article just addresses the problem when it manifests in idealistic groups. Posiopathy can also be used to facilitate fraud. There's a lot of "if you were thinking right, you'd be making money" is multi-level marketing. Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos blood-testing fraud) was into positive thinking.

[anna_wing]

Panic-buyers raise costs for everyone, because of disruption to stocking schedules and logistics, which has knock-on effects on the whole supply chain. It also encourages suppliers to the supermarkets to charge more too, knowing that the customers are willing to pay.