Wuhan Coronavirus - are you prepared?

[Gasmantle]

As this forum has members scattered all over the globe I'm just curious to hear what the food situation is in your country?

Here in the UK we have mass panic buying and the supermarkets are largely empty - I've had trouble buying essential items like bread and milk.

The UK government keep telling people there is adequate food in the supply chain but shoppers are still stockpiling 

[Toshio Uemura]

7 hours ago, Unventor said:

Some would even say the 1500dkr (200€) would be okey to pay that to feel the first real spring day....

In Japan I wouldn't expect this to be needed to fine people. 

You have a good understanding of our culture here in Japan. We get along fine without a fine most of the time. 😆 That’s what I meant earlier, when I was talking about social maturity.

To give you two examples:

1. it is possible and very easy to get from OSAKA to TOKYO (even by Shinkansen) for less than 4$ US by simply cheating using cheap platform tickets. I know foreigners who live here for a few months, who travel this way. When they get caught, they get a smile and are asked to pay the normal fare, no fine, no police. We understand they still suffer from a culture shock, they are not yet socially mature. 
The majority of the people here would not even contemplate such a cheat trip. The advantages for society are very obvious. Conductors are not needed for waking up people and checking tickets. (It’s only done in Airport EXpress Trains frequently used by foreigners 🤣) And passengers can sleep during their morning commute without being disturbed.

2. No Japanese would think of parking his car on one of the many conveniently located blue parking spaces for the disabled right in front of our shopping centers not even if they have to walk for 10 minutes, when no other space is available. If you’d decide to park there, it would be convenient for you and would have no consequences. You would not be fined, but we just don’t do that, It is that simple.

Freedom does not mean to do just anything you want! That is the opposite of freedom. Freedom in our CoViD-19 situation means to me, that you could go out to meet friends or sit in a crowded bar, BUT YOU DECIDE THAT YOU DO NOT DO IT and stay at home instead. That is freedom!

Little things like that add up to a high quality of everyday life and a feeling of security and responsibility. This is not imposed on us by laws and enforced by fines it comes naturally to us due to social maturity which is rooted in “amae”, a feeling of pleasurable dependence on another person. (Parents, teachers, your superiors). You trust them to support and guide you and in return you show them obedience and respect.
 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Toshio Uemura

[Toshio Uemura]

39 minutes ago, Gasmantle said:

As this forum has members scattered all over the globe I'm just curious to hear what the food situation is in your country?

Here in the UK we have mass panic buying and the supermarkets are largely empty - I've had trouble buying essential items like bread and milk.

The UK government keep telling people there is adequate food in the supply chain but shoppers are still stockpiling 

Developed countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas are surely able to supply the population with enough food. So panic buying and hoarding is stupid and puts even more people at risk. I believe it is a reaction to governments not releasing important information earlier. And this information was available months ago to people who dared to listen and read and look for it.

I believe having a one months stock helps to reduce the trips to the supermarkets. But I would not start now to buy such stock at once.

we live in an earthquake country, so we have a food stock for two months all year through that we replenish and refresh regularly little by little. (Just buy 20% more of your favourite foods whenever you go shopping and within 6 months you have a reliable and fresh stock for any emergency.) Contemplating the possible outcome of this foreseeable pandemic we stocked up little by little to a 4 months supply as early as January, so we now only go to the supermarket every two weeks for fresh vegetables, fruit and milk. So far food is widely available and plenty, and if panic shopping should start, I won’t need to take part. Toilet paper is still limited (I have no idea why!) but is available for everybody who needs it.

So my advice: stock up a little to have supplies for a few weeks to avoid cuing in supermarkets as good as possible, but do it little by little, act moderate. 

[Grumly]

27 minutes ago, Gasmantle said:

As this forum has members scattered all over the globe I'm just curious to hear what the food situation is in your country?

I don't know yet : this morning was the first time I went out since the official confinement bill, and I only went to the bakery. Kind of a cliché thinking of it, carrying my baguettes in my bag. But on a e-wheel and with a full face helmet instead of the béret :-)

As for the bread, the disruption was rather on the customer count than the supplies. Usually a saturday at this time there are an average 5-6 customers waiting to be served. This morning I had a single one before me. They were admitting one person at a time in the shop.

We will replenish (or try to) other food supplies next week, first we finish old stuff that was piled in the trays and cupboards :-D

As far as I heard, there is no particular issue. At worst you won't find your usual products and have to do with a substitute. Nothing to scare me right now.

The only shortage I heard about was on TP. Which really blows my mind. Probably people worried about the rare occurences of diarrhea when sick with covid-19. But they got it wrong : if you get diarrhea while couhging your lungs out, you won't make it to the toilets and TP roll... Gonna need new pants first.

24 minutes ago, Toshio Uemura said:

2. No Japanese would think of parking his car on one of the many conveniently located blue parking spaces for the disabled right in front of our shopping centers not even if they have to walk for 10 minutes, when no other space is available. It we would park there, we would not be fined, but we just don’t do that,

That one is not the best comparison point, IMHO. Even in France where discipline is not our most prevalent behavioral trait (is that correctly said ? :-) ), this is very rare and such offenders are commonly referred to as **bunch of censored rude names**. In that example, the victim is a weak person, that makes it a social no-no.

In other sorts of cheats, the victim is often a company or government structure which can be regarded as some sort of evil, even on wrong or biased basis.

What people miss here, is that there is no such thing as lost money as far as companies / governments are concerned, it is always recovered from customers / tax payers / loans that will have to be paid back with interest by customers / tax payers. As you point out with the domino effect leading to intrusive train ticket enforcement.

But some people persuade themselves that the others deserve it, that others are dumb to pay and so on... This attitude reminds me of articles about contempt culture in software engineering, but this plague can be found everywhere. At the end, it boils down to empathy or the lack of it, and ask yourself what consequences your actions might beget for others, and if you would like them, would you be at the other end.

[Toshio Uemura]

7 hours ago, Unventor said:

I don't think @Toshio Uemura wanted to mislead at all, but it shws sharing info can have different effects

Thank you for your critical look at my post and the your valuable comments. I can assure you, that I do not pursue any political agenda by sharing information published in the NYT.The sole purpose of sharing this article from the New York Times here was neither to spread fear nor to misinform or mislead anybody, but to raise the awareness towards the general trend of these curves that is also reflected in the Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard that we all look at frequently. Everybody is welcome to run my comments and information through their individual filters they choose to apply as long as it is understood that I am sincerely trying to support this community to the best of my abilities.

[Toshio Uemura]

7 minutes ago, Grumly said:

don't know yet : this morning was the first time I went out since the official confinement bill, and I only went to the bakery. Kind of a cliché thinking of it, carrying my baguettes in my bag

Forgive me, but I just have to post this ... 🤣 

[SamSuffit]

6 minutes ago, Toshio Uemura said:

Forgive me, but I just have to post this ... 🤣

Hum to the stranger eye, it seems very French. To the Frenchman:

• the van on the left has an ad in English
• the houses behind have a very English architecture .
• the baguettes are very big and in a supermarket trolley, indicating low quality (good baguette is smaller and in bakery in France)

Conclusion:  this is not in France, but more probably in UK

[Toshio Uemura]

24 minutes ago, Grumly said:

The only shortage I heard about was on TP. Which really blows my mind. Probably people worried about the rare occurences of diarrhea when sick with covid-19. But they got it wrong :

My take is, the hoarding of toilet paper stems from the shock of suddenly not being able to buy masks 😷 anywhere. The idea is to wrap it around your face to replace the mask. It will protect you from SARS-CoV-2 in the same way a chain-link fence protects you from gunfire, but it makes sense and may replace a mask 😷  if you intend to use the mask to protect others from your coughs and sneezes.

At least managing their toilet paper gives people some sense of control and ☮️ peace of mind. (But only if you don’t have cats or dogs around! 😝 )

Edited March 21, 2020 by Toshio Uemura

[Toshio Uemura]

7 minutes ago, SamSuffit said:

Hum to the stranger eye, it seems very French. To the Frenchman:

• the van on the left has an ad in English
• the houses behind have a very English architecture .
• the baguettes are very big and in a supermarket trolley, indicating low quality (good baguette is smaller and in bakery in France)

Conclusion:  this is not in France, but more probably in UK

I knew it: you French People really know your baguettes 🥖 😆 

And you have all reason to be proud of this tradition. I have never had anything like it outside of France. On my trips to Paris it was a treat to shop for them every morning. Vive la France! All hail to the baguette! 😊 

[Grumly]

15 minutes ago, Toshio Uemura said:

Forgive me, but I just have to post this ... 🤣 

Not yet tried pushing a shopping cart standing on an EUC, but I've had indications that it might not be trivial. From another rider who has tried with 2-wheeled trash containers. Small hard wheels are unfit for speeds above calm walking pace and can randomly cause hard braking (that would be a trash-faceplant).

If you ask, this came from a discussion about carrying/pushing unusual things riding an EUC. I have tried a wheelbarrow, and found my single wheeled one quite manageable while not/lightly loaded. But when heavily loaded it becomes hard to find lateral balance while starting/stopping. I suggested a 2 wheel wheelbarrow would be cheating, but he assured me it would not. Now, I'll have to try. Since the load I mostly carry in the wheelbarrow is horse poo, I'd better not faceplant.

Confinement results in fascinating experiments

[edwin_rm]

Hint: People don't need toilet paper if they take plenty of Fiber supplements. Try it! The paper will look dry and clean after just one wipe with one ply, or two at most.

[Gasmantle]

At the risk of sounding like a bringer of doom can I ask that we in the affluent Western World think about those in the starving disease ridden third world.

Today in the UK I struggled to buy a loaf of bread, some people can't even get clean drinking water and food is a luxury.

It's easy for us guys who can afford EUC's to get carried away about our current crisis - in the 3rd world this kinda thing is a daily problem and isn't going to go away in 12 mths.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Gasmantle

[Toshio Uemura]

30 minutes ago, Gasmantle said:

At the risk of sounding like a bringer of doom can I ask that we in the affluent Western World think about those in the starving disease ridden third world.

Today in the UK I struggled to buy a loaf of bread, some people can't even get clean drinking water and food is a luxury.

It's easy for us guys who can afford EUC's to get carried away about our current crisis - in the 3rd world this kinda thing is a daily problem and isn't going to go away in 12 mths.

What are your suggestions on what this „think about“ should look like? Praying for them? Donating money? Volunteering as a relief worker? What exactly are your thoughts here? What are YOU thinking about regarding those in the starving disease ridden third world?

[travsformation]

9 hours ago, Gasmantle said:

As this forum has members scattered all over the globe I'm just curious to hear what the food situation is in your country?

Here in the UK we have mass panic buying and the supermarkets are largely empty - I've had trouble buying essential items like bread and milk.

The UK government keep telling people there is adequate food in the supply chain but shoppers are still stockpiling 

The same happened in Spain several weeks ago. Shelves will be back to normal in a couple of weeks, don't worry. Just think of it as a sudden surge in demand, the supply chain will follow its usual pace.

The initial shortages were meat, eggs, frozen food (especially pizza), fruit and vegetables (except broccoli), and of course, toilet paper (shower gel and shampoo were unaffected...a troubling hygienic paradox, if you ask me...).  We didn't bother doing any shopping because we keep a well-stocked fridge and pantry, and tend to make extra when cooking food that can be frozen for quick meals on weekdays/when lazy. By the time we'd finished off all the frozen goodies, supermarket aisles were mostly back to normal and the supermarkets were deserted, since everyone else had more food than they could eat (or had spent their entire salary on frozen pizza).

The added benefit is that we also avoided to hordes of idiotic panic-buyers, and thus, unnecessary exposure.

[travsformation]

7 hours ago, Toshio Uemura said:

I can assure you, that I do not pursue any political agenda by sharing information published in the NYT.The sole purpose of sharing this article from the New York Times here was neither to spread fear nor to misinform or mislead anybody, but to raise the awareness towards the general trend of these curves that is also reflected in the Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard that we all look at frequently.

I don't think anyone was suggesting you had an agenda / were trying to mislead anyone. It was rather that some of us are skeptical of the data  simply because it's what each government reports, and accuracy/transparency vary widely from country to country, but that has nothing to do with you

[LanghamP]

25 minutes ago, travsformation said:

The initial shortages were meat, eggs, frozen food (especially pizza), fruit and vegetables (except broccoli), and of course, toilet paper (shower gel and shampoo were unaffected...a troubling hygienic paradox, if you ask me...).  We didn't bother doing any shopping because we keep a well-stocked fridge and pantry, and tend to make extra when cooking food that can be frozen for quick meals on weekdays/when lazy. By the time we'd finished off all the frozen goodies, supermarket aisles were mostly back to normal and the supermarkets were deserted, since everyone else had more food than they could eat (or had spent their entire salary on frozen pizza).

If one was concerned about securing a food supply for at least several months, wouldn't one avoid frozen foods and perishables?

I mean, I'd just buy a dozen protein powder jugs and plastic bottles of lime juice. Or perhaps buy the powder version of Soylent meal replacement (which I've used and am a fan of).

[travsformation]

2 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

If one was concerned about securing a food supply for at least several months, wouldn't one avoid frozen foods and perishables?

Vegetables feature very prominently in Spanish cuisine, so maybe it was a case of "enjoy the perishables while they last and dig into the non-perishables later"?

In any case, we're talking about panic buyers, their rationale (or lack thereof) is beyond my comprehension....

 

[.....]

Another good side effect is that people in the area are buying up seeds for gardens like crazy! MAYBE this little trend will not peter out totally, and there will be a little more local produce available. It helped that it came right when spring planting is here. I have NO doubts that 99% will realize a garden is HARD WORK and give up and go back to their usual. MAYBE a little respect for our poor farmers will remain, and MAYBE 1% that explore gardening, will keep after it.  Bless the local USA farmer. They are my neighbors and I KNOW they are barely making ends meet and utilizing generations of family land to do so. If the farmers that devote their lives to this AND are using land worth millions (inherited) to do so, the backyard gardener doesnt stand a chance. The farmers get shit on and has for decades. I surely hope this will gain them a little more respect and perhaps a little more a living wage. USA needs to PAY MORE for the things they take for granted, as the greed we're used to, is NOT sustainable. Was that a thread derail?

Edited March 22, 2020 by ShanesPlanet

[Toshio Uemura]

2 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said:

Was that a thread derail?

Not for me. I believe it is important to talk about all aspects of this outbrake. And if in the end there is only one thing that people might perceive as positive regarding this crises, it is that people learned to value the basics of life and work and relationships. May be we all learn to appreciate the essential things and realize that little is often more.

[Gasmantle]

11 hours ago, Toshio Uemura said:

What are your suggestions on what this „think about“ should look like? Praying for them? Donating money? Volunteering as a relief worker? What exactly are your thoughts here? What are YOU thinking about regarding those in the starving disease ridden third world?

Just for once can't you just accept other peoples posts at face value without having to put your own twist on things.

I don't know what your agenda is but it seems to me that no matter what anyone else posts here you have to criticise and make out you know better

Wind your neck in a bit.

[Toshio Uemura]

46 minutes ago, Gasmantle said:

Just for once can't you just accept other peoples posts at face value without having to put your own twist on things.

I don't know what your agenda is but it seems to me that no matter what anyone else posts here you have to criticise and make out you know better

Wind your neck in a bit.

Please read my post again. You may have misunderstood it. If you have, it is probably my bad English. I am not a native speaker and I am from a different culture. I was just asking 5 questions mostly using your own words. There are no statements, there is no agenda in my post! In Japan, we are thaught to ask for clarification, if we do not understand, what exactly our friends want to communicate. So if I have offended you by taking you seriously and by asking sincere questions about what you posted above, I apologize. This was by no means my intention. I completely accept your post. I was merely asking for your further thoughts and ideas on what you want me (and other people) to do! Sorry to have asked. 🙏 🤭 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Toshio Uemura

[esaj]

5 hours ago, Toshio Uemura said:

little is often more.

Not according to Yngwie Malmsteen 

 

[Toshio Uemura]

3 minutes ago, esaj said:

Not according to Yngwie Malmsteen 

 

An old Zen mondo says: Less is more, more is less! And more is more and less is less!🤗

[Toshio Uemura]

This is an interesting study and it might help our mission to get more EUC acceptance in the greater public and a better understanding of the EUC as a clean and alternative means for short distance urban commuting. 
it is available as free PDF. 
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-018-0427-5

Edited March 22, 2020 by Toshio Uemura

[RenaissanceMan]

More bad news.

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that SARS-CoV-2 remains viable and infectious as an aerosol (exhaling) in the air for up to 3 hours and on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for about 24 hours. This explains the high basic reproduction number of 3 to 4, i.e. the expected number of new cases triggered on average by a single infected individual and the consequential sharp exponential rise in infections we are currently witnessing in many countries.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2004973

Wash your hands (maybe also use gloves) and avoid indoor places where crowds gather regularly (like super markets), if you seriously want to avoid the virus. FFP1 and FFP2 masks don't offer protection. - I know, one cannot and does not want to hide perpetually ... but what else could you do now if you are in a high risk group? Your life could be over in a matter of weeks once infected.