ilikeanswers

16 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

What year?  2020?  We hardly knew there was COVID in Jan 2020.    The first COVID vaccine to get emergency approval here in the USA was in December 2020 and that was the Pfizer/BioNtech 2 shot vaccine (which I have in my arm).  I am not sure if any vaccines were approved by any Western country prior to December 2020!   I do not think the EU approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine until Jan 2021!  I think some countries also approved the Russian Sputnik V around Jan 2021.

 

If you really want the specific dates it probably can be found in the Internet.  And what I posted earlier was not at all political but simply the facts as they developed in our country.  I lived in Mexico this winter and watched as they got their first vaccines (Pfizer and Sputnik V) in Feb 2021. .  When I returned to the USA last week both DW and I were able to immediately get the Pfizer Vaccine (my personal preference).   When it comes to politicians I would simply send all the world's politicians and lawyers to a small island somewhere and let them try to impress each other 🙂

 

Come to think of it perhaps your country could just stick them somewhere in the Outback.

 

Hank

I think you misunderstood my post. You were correcting your years but I was thinking how your summer is our winter. So saying summer 2020 to an Aussie is saying somewhere in January and February😂 so even if you correct your years for half the world it would still be the wrong date. Sorry I have a weird sense of humour 😜. 

46 minutes ago, frantic36 said:

Let's just say we will agree to disagree as I followed this closely. No more politics please.

This might be of interest to read. It gives you an insider view of OWS:

Proud of vaccine success, Warp Speed’s ex–science head talks politics, presidents, and future pandemics

8 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

One correction to my post is that I said the vaccines were all under development by the summer of 2021 and that was a typo and should have said summer of 2020.

I'm reading that and my first thought was there was a vaccine in January last year😳 😂. 

57 minutes ago, Big Kev said:

In a roundabout way, you're sorta in the right territory. Same ship calls there on southbound trip before our location.

 

Fakarava? 

54 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

As former suicide hotline worker, I find it sad when children are comfortable when any gun shaped device is pointed at their forehead.

As a former suicide hotline worker don't you think gaslighting children to perceive every gun shaped object as a weapon is inappropriate😳?

5 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

My nine older neighbours used to say we were smart to travel whilst young, as none of them travelled in retirement for one reason or other.  My children went to state schools, so low fees.  We lived on one wage, which allowed us to travel.  

My parents really pushed me to travel young. They were hoping to in retirement but unfortunately health issues have got in the way. Looking back on the travels I have done I'm glad I didn't wait. Some of the activities I have participated in I wonder if I would be able to do them when I am my parents age. My uncle who is in his 80s just before COVID climbed Kilimanjaro😱. I would like to think I would be like him at his age but to be honest he is the exception in the family so all the more reason not to put all my travel eggs into the retirement basket😄.

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I think I have read of an argument for keeping liquor stores open. It goes like this. It is to help the hospitals from getting overwhelmed since it prevents alcoholics from getting DTs and having to go to the emergency room.

I've heard that argument but I think it is more or less propaganda from the alcohol industry🤔. I've yet a hear a doctor endorse this point of view. All the doctors here seem more concerned about creating addicts and adding to mental health woes😳 and the public has been quick to point out the hypocrisy if you compare with drug addiction, yet to hear anyone suggest a free for all on drugs😂.

40 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

A part of the store does is all. But the rest of it is non-essential. 

But if the items are for everyday living (e.g toilet paper😜) then it seems justifiable that Walmart be open. Unless you are preper with 10 years supplies of can food and toiletries I think most people need somewhere to purchase these products😄. What I found bizarre was how many countries deemed liquor stores essential😝.

14 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

I am sure many people labelled as essential are not essential. WalMart, Home Depot, Lowe's are not essential businesses. Extended car warranty companies are not essential. And if there was a need for mass transit ONLY for essential workers, that could be an exception. But, determining essential vs non-essential is a joke. 

I don't know the other shops but I remember when I was in America Walmart sold food I would think that would qualify as essential?

10 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

If covid is/was as bad as the CDC stated, all mass transit would have been shutdown.

But then how would essential workers get to work😳?

Huahine?

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

When I retired I had plenty of sick leave left, but no recreation leave nor long service leave, as I took it all.  Our longest trip was a year, but most years we took six weeks leave (holidays, LSL and public holidays).  My American friends couldn't believe it!  I had to tell one friend's boss, if he wouldn't give her three weeks, it was too far to travel to Aust with two young boys!  

A few years ago I read that Americans ranked somewhere lowest on the list of devoloped countries where people took recreation/holiday leave but apparently Australians were starting to follow Americans and every year they were taking less leave and ranked IRC somewhere top five for longest working hours. Don't know if this trend has continued, it would be interesting to see an update🤔.

Isle of Pine? 

1 hour ago, ldubs said:

Maybe we should force FB to post a weekly status recap on ever user's feed including a reinforcement of the game plan that will lead to success.  

 

"Press like if you want the pandemic to end"  

"share with 10 friends if you don't want to get COVID19" 😜

3 hours ago, Jonny Rotten said:

They make Sci-fi movies about things like that,,,,,so never 

Well as long as your getting your education from Hollywood😂 cause you know actors are somehow experts on everything 😳. 

13 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We have had 5 cruises cancelled since last April.  But these cruises from the Bahamas and St Maarten will likely happen as there does not seem to be any entity that will shut them down.  Apparently RCI/Celebrity already has the necessary support from the involved government and these cruises are beyond the reach of our USA  Centers for Disease Control (CDC) who seems to have an agenda of throwing roadblocks up to prevent cruises involving US ports.  Eventually the CDC will relent but they have certainly been "slow walking" the process to restart cruising.

 

I can also see these cruises being helpful to the CDC as they are apparently going to follow a careful protocol using both vaccinations and testing.  If these cruises are successful it might encourage the CDC to adopt similar criteria.  If they fail....that could be a real disaster for the cruise industry.

 

Hank

Bahamas has shut it's borders suddenly before when there was an uptake in COVID. From what I understand they are currently vaccinating and with such a small population you would think they would get through everyone by June but I think if we have learnt anything from the last year you just can't count those chicken till the eggs have hatched😕.

20 minutes ago, ldubs said:

That last part of what you say -- kind of saying that the news is giving their target audience what they want to hear.  I think there is too much of that.    

But I think the problem comes from the audience. You can't reach somone if they hear one thing they don't like and switch off so inevitably news will give them what they want after all journalists have to get paid somehow. I personally think you need to instill in children to be critical thinkers and make it a habit to read through everything and not just skim to the bits they like as if they are scrolling a Facebook feed🙄. 

18 minutes ago, clo said:

We did an Alaskan cruise some years ago and didn't love it. The ports were overwhelmed with cruise pax. But then I read about the ferry, which can be on and off. Have you done it? It sounds like more what we would like.

It's old and COVID has probably changed some things but this might give you some insight:

Live from the Alaska Marine Highway

11 minutes ago, ldubs said:

It would be terrific to combine my interest in fishing with our travels, but so far it has not been practical.   On our New Zealand trip I thought hard about bringing my fly fishing gear, not that fly fishing is my expertise.  As it turned out I would not have been able to use it.      

When I was on Aranui they had optional fishing tours where they would take you out on a smaller boat to popular fishing spots (I'm pretty sure they supplied all the equipment). On one of these tours someone caught quite a large fish and the ship's chef cooked it up for them and their group.

41 minutes ago, clo said:

We're retired but two weeks is pretty much our limit. Although we did two special trips (SE Asia and Patagonia and Antarctica) that were close to a month. We missed our dogs, our home, our kitchen 🙂 and more. The thought of a third of a year away honestly makes me seriously unhappy. (And I'm being nice by describing it that way.)

I've never found myself missing home when travelling but maybe I have yet to find my maximum limit. Home life is fine but I love the stimulation of travel and there isn't anything at home that is as good an equivalent.

11 minutes ago, ldubs said:

I hope you get to realize those cruises soon.   

I doubt there will ever be cruises to Wallis and Fatuna, their pretty conservative about their tourism (quality over quantity I guess😆). But having travel closed off like this does make me rethink where I want to travel and maybe not waiting for the "right moment" to visit some of my must go to places🤔.

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

I am not sure you understand, but much of the world is not locked down like your country.  The Bahamas and many of the Caribbean islands are open to tourism as long as they meet their requirements which are often just a negative COVID test within a few days of arrival.  While I thought that many places would make vaccinations a key part of entry, at this point it seems that most countries open to tourism are still relying on testing...although some are starting to talk about vaccinations or even a combination of vaccination and testing.  But as an American there are actually a lot of places we can travel and there are enough International flights to meet most needs.  

 

In June, RCI will start cruises from Nassau that will primarily be for folks from the USA...although folks from other countries can cruise if they meet the Bahamian entry rules (based on a recent COVID test).  Celebrity is starting cruises in June from the island of St Maarten with similar rules based on testing although the cruise line will require passengers over 18 to be vaccinated.   But none of the destination islands on those cruises currently require vaccinations.  

 

To answer your specific question, the authorities in the Bahamas and other countries do not have access to most US data bases.  Since Celebrity is requiring passengers to be vaccinated I assume they will settle for the vaccine cards given to most Americans at the time they get their vaccinations.  By June, when these cruises commence, most Americans who want to be vaccinated will have had the opportunity.

 

Hank

We will see if those cruises actually sail😆. There have been too many announced sailings that have been backtracked for me to believe it will happen till a ship is leaving port😜.

47 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

Or even the rough ivory comb of a mid-13th century Viking Greenlander or a gaming board scratched by Roman soldiers on the stones of forum in a faraway place like Britain, where they must have been longing for their homes.

I do love objects of ordinary people 🤗. I find them much more fascinating than big palaces and temple. I love knowing how people live everyday lives. I remember being thrilled seeing a toilet in Teotihuacan😂. I think I watched too many archaeological documentaries and they always talk about how things were renovated or reconstructed. Every time I visit a man made site I'm wondering what it originally looked like. I think that is why I prefer visting places where things happened rather than looking at objects left behind🤔. You can't change the location of a historical event😜. 

1 hour ago, frantic36 said:

I just did the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius and that is ~13-15.5C 🥶. That is our Winter temperatures during the day. So I would definitely be wearing a coat.

 

I find it interesting how where you grow up and live defines when you feel the cold.

Or hot. Some people if I say it was a 40°C (104°F) day wonder how I'm still alive 😂. 

1 hour ago, SelectSys said:

 

I will provide you with my opinion which is somewhat different than a definition.  I guess the most noticeable difference is what I perceive to be the evolution of fact-based journalism to advocacy-based journalism.  It seems that journalists of all stripes seem to be more interested in pushing a narrative rather than simply telling the story.  The front page and editorial page seem merged to me.  It's not that all the facts are missing from stories, it just seems that they are carefully curated and managed to support a position.

 

The one thing that's not clear to me if today's journalism is really all that new?  Propaganda and journalism seem closely related to me.  I would expect the origins of journalism are based more in propaganda rather than objective truth as kings and churches controlled the flow of information to their subjects and members.  I remember from high school that the pamphleteers who helped incite the American revolution certainly took an advocacy role in delivering a message shaped to a particular perspective.  Similarly politicians/publishers like William Randolph Hearst had no problem shaping stories to fit his preferred narrative.  I assume Jeff Bezos is at least tempted to put his thumb on the scales at the Washington Post.

 

The image of journalism that I had growing up was that it was fact-based and unbiased.  Whether this pure journalism ever existed doesn't matter as I believed it and devoured the product.  I remember waiting to read the newspaper every afternoon and watch the nightly national news.  This is no longer the case and I have dropped all subscriptions and services to major news outlets with the last being a 41 year subscription to the "Economist."

 

Local news where I live remains readable and watchable.  The cable "news" channels to me are unwatchable whether it was the Cuomo Brothers Comedy Hour or Sean Hannity doing his schtick.  It's simply all advocacy all the time.  I think eventually things will turn around and new sources of media will fill the void left by traditional media.

 

I am curious to know your opinion regarding the evolution of journalism and if you think anything has changed.

I saw a documentary a few years back about the history of journalism in USA and I think it was less fact base in the past than it is now😳. The articles from the 1800s to the early 20th century was pretty bad. There were newspapers that mounted campaigns against people and the bigotry that came through was no better than trolls on the internet. You could really see the evolution from this to cable news. For all the problems I would say journalism has improved though there does seem to be a backward slide to the early days of journalism as their financial model falls apart on the other hand I have found many smaller sites that do a great journalism and give detailed explanations on events far better than mainstream media. So maybe it is all a bit of give and take.

Personally I'm not a believer in objective journalism. I don't think any writer can be truly objective, it is the reader who I think needs to be more open minded. Too many people will read an article see one thing they disagree with and then that journalist becomes enemy number 1. I think this is why journalism gets dumbed down because if you look in depth into any thing it becomes contradictory and won't fit into a neatly defined boxes and with readers seeking echo chambers who is willing to inflame them with complicated explanations🙄.