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In Robert Heinlein's 1951 Red Scare scifi novel 'The Puppet Masters', alien parasites are taking over people's minds on Earth (set in 2007). Someone has to convince the President that it's really happening:

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At the beginning of a forest fire or an epidemic there is a short time when a minimum of correct action will contain and destroy. The B. W. boys express it in exponential equations, but you don't need math to understand it; it depends on early diagnosis and prompt action before the thing gets out of hand. What the President needed to do the Old Man had already figured out - declare a national emergency, fence off the Des Moines area, and shoot anybody who tried to slip out, be it a cocker spaniel or grandma with her cookie jar. Then let them out one at a time, stripping them and searching them for parasites.

The Old Man had cracked the case, analyzed it, and come up with the right answer in a little more than twenty-four hours. His unique gift was the ability to reason logically with unfamiliar, hard-to-believe facts as easily as with the commonplace. Not much, eh? I have never met anyone else who could do it wholeheartedly. Most minds stall dead when faced with facts which conflict with basic beliefs; "I-just-can't-believe-it" is all one word to highbrows and dimwits alike.
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Not sure about shooting grandma or dogs (Heinlein's authoritarian streak coming out), the bold bit seems relevant today.
 
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At last we have an Opposition: New Labour leader Keir Starmer tears into Dominic Raab over coronavirus testing and PPE failures in first virtual PMQs - as Foreign Secretary blames 'logistical' issues
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this is from the DM, obvious has an agenda, but still
 
bimble said:
Friend holed up in a hotel in Benares (india). Says all restaurants ordered to shut today, shops shut. I think he’s mad to stay there but he’s got no home to come to back here .
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Well. Repatriation flights are go, some 5 weeks later , he is on one Saturday, British airways chartered by the gov. Quite impressed really. Charging him under £600 including bus to Delhi chartered as well as there’s no public transport .
 
Numbers said:
Did anyone watch the Good Morning Britain interview this morning with 93 year old veteran Ken Bembow and his 17 year old Carer Kia Tobin?
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Yes! I haven't watched broadcast news for a long, long time, but due to the strange times I did see that. It turned me into a blubbering mess and filled me with hope for humanity. It made me feel profoundly happy.
 
farmerbarleymow said:
At least we now know what kebabking looks like, now he's been in the No 10 press conference. :thumbs:
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Uh, no. kebabking would the one in slightly-unorthodox fatigues, with collar-length greasy hair and a porn star moustache and a special pair of glasses which would support a large black oblong across his eyes, like on the covers of those "He Who Dares, WIns, Rodney" books.... Would probably have rappelled out of a helicopter and come in through the ceiling with flash-bangs. :D
 
existentialist said:
Uh, no. kebabking would the one in slightly-unorthodox fatigues, with collar-length greasy hair and a porn star moustache and a special pair of glasses which would support a large black oblong across his eyes, like on the covers of those "He Who Dares, WIns, Rodney" books.... Would probably have rappelled out of a helicopter and come in through the ceiling with flash-bangs. :D
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I fear you massively overestimate my athleticism. And hair... :thumbs:
 
Teaboy said:
Yes, the smokers are getting very excited about it on the world news thread. Some proper smokers logic going on there...:D
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tbh this sounds like another of "Sod it we've no better ideas, what have we got to lose" kind of thing, on the same line as Darth Orange and his obsession with the anti-malaria drug.
 
my local Co Op is too cramped for passing in aisles so it has a one way system and blocked off ends to enforce it, except it doesn’t work that way and you end up having to step round a barrier or over beer cases cos when you’re trapped at the end of an aisle and some cunt doesn’t wait but comes blundering down the aisle towards you and you have no choice but to make a break for it and climb over the barrier to avoid getting breathed on. So you have to break the rules to stay alive ffs
 
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Also, does anyone else find the constant drip of information boring as fuck? Never been into science, so not enjoying the geekery, even though I should probably be keeping abreast of developments for my own and for my my loved ones’ safety, but I just cannot get into it
 
Orang Utan said:
my local Co Op is too cramped for passing in aisles so it has a one way system and blocked off ends to enforce it, except it doesn’t work that way and you end up having to step round a barrier or over beer barrel cases cos when you’re trapped at the end of an aisle and some cunt doesn’t wait but comes blundering down the aisle towards you and you have no choice but to make a break for it and climb over the barrier to avoid getting breathed on. So you have to break the rules to stay alive ffs
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I didn't even understand the one-way sustem in my local coo-op - there seems to be a dead end no reversing by the dairy
 
We normally use Sainsbury's or Lidls -- the two nearest.

We used a little Tescos once though, and that was much more clearly marked with one way system arrows, and distancing lines throughout the shop, than either of the other two.

The staff were generally enforcing stuff more carefully too. Is that other Urbans' experience with Tescos in other places?

Sainsbury's was by far the best of the three for providing plenty of antiseptic handwash as you went both in and out, mind you.
 
Orang Utan said:
Also, does anyone else find the constant drip of information boring as fuck? Never been into science, so not enjoying the geekery, even though I should probably be keeping abreast of developments for my own and for my my loved ones’ safety, but I just cannot get into it
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I love science stuff so find it fascinating. There should be ways of finding out the key facts without wading into lots of detail I guess.
 
This is interesting - the ground is vibrating less due to lockdown. I bet the moles and earthworms will be happier. :)

Staying at home has led to a notable reduction in the hum of ground vibrations in the UK generated by human activities such as air and road traffic and industrial work, geoscientists have said.

Experts said that compared to noise levels before lockdown, signals from seismometers across the country show ambient noise caused by people going about their daily lives has dropped between 20% and 50% in the last five weeks.

Seismometers are normally used to record earthquakes and volcanic activity, but they also track the vibrations in the planet’s upper crust, or seismic noise, caused by humans.

Dr Brian Baptie, head of seismology at the British Geological Survey in Nottingham, told the PA news agency: “We have got a network of around 100 sensors all across the UK measuring seismic activity.

“What we have since lockdown is that noise levels at nearly all of our stations have gone down by somewhere between 20% to 50%.”
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