Interesting Links for 15-08-2020

[andrewducker]

A very cheery song about how important we all are.

Sent to me by a friend when I sent them this comic https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/lets-do-this
(tags:funny video music life space )

Coronavirus: Nearly half of Scots want ban on English tourists unless they quarantine

(tags:pandemic UK Scotland England )

A-levels: Exam regulator ignored expert help after statisticians wouldn't sign non-disclosure agreements

(tags:exams England statistics fail )

Band Escape Iran After Being Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison (For Playing Heavy Metal)

(tags:HeavyMetal music Iran OhForFucksSake )

Everything's Better With Muppets

(tags:video music muppets )

Comments

[cmcmck]

And as my Scottish other half says, it never seems to occur that a lot of English are thinking the same way about Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish which would not be helpful what with us living on the Welsh border an' all.

An awful lot of people have a foot both sides of borders.

And lord knows this is dividing us enough without adding to it!

[andrewducker]

England has a staggeringly higher death rate than Scotland at the moment. I'm not surprised people are worried about them bringing disease up here.

[cmcmck]

Although did you notice that the death figure has been overcounted by a cool 5K thanks to PHE's continuing bog ups? They seem to have thought it a good idea to include people without covid on the Death cert and not to have the same 28 day cut off that the other national authorities have.

[andrewducker]

Yes, but that was around 1/8 of the deaths. Daily figures were still massively higher than they should have been compared to Scotland, last I checked.

Checking the stats - the NW of England is at 580 cases/million, whereas Scotland is on 65 cases/million. That's a massive disparity, and a bit worrying from the bit just over the border from us.

[cmcmck]

I do wonder what the issue with the NW is.

Things have been unpleasant here, but nothing in that sort of league.

[andrewducker]

Here's the whole UK:


Some bits definitely worse than others!

[anef]

We're in East of England, which is on the low side, but at the moment travelling to London seems risky, let alone going to Scotland.

[andrewducker]

You'd want to go over, not through ;-)

[matgb]

Combination of small sweatshop factory/work environments, startups run be people that tend to skate around rules at the best of times, and complete obliviousness on the part of older whiter groups convinced it's a poor brown people problem, one of the biggest clusters in Manchester is the wealthier parts of Tory Trafford, garden parties and pubs.

My town is sandwiched between the three West Yorkshire hotspots and you would not tell from the way people behave in town, very much Somebody Else's Problem, and "it's not around here" despite the biggest factory outbreak being in the next sodding valley.

I genuinely think the decline of local papers and the lack of local news, replaced by Facebook runours dominated by cranks is a massive problem

[anna_wing]

I have retired friends in London. They're being sensible and keeping up the full mask, hygiene and social distancing drill.

[andrewducker]

I'm glad they are. I hope they stay safe.

(See above for map of where is better and worse in the UK)