Kyng

Only by guinea pigs... was pretty harmless!

44

I have a 15-inch one... it's plenty enough for me, and anything bigger would struggle to fit in my laptop bag 😛 .

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40 😄

Welcome aboard, Joshua! I hope you enjoy this place 🙂 .

37

Welcome aboard, fords8! I hope you enjoy this place 🙂 .

Coffee! Pizza or tacos?

Whoops, not sure what happened there! Since we should be up to 30 now, I'll post: 31

I don't use them. Not because I don't trust them or anything - but because it's right at the bottom of my list of priorities. I think it'd take a while for me to set up - and I'd much rather use the time on all kinds of other things.

26 🙂

Simple game here: I ask you for your preference among two options, then you answer, and give two options for the next person! Doughnuts or muffins?

24

To a certain degree, yes. We talked to our guinea pigs all the time... I was under no illusions that they could understand our words, but I'm sure they picked up some of the non-verbal cues in what we were saying!

Some kind of sleep replacement would be nice... I'd love to use those hours for something productive (or, at least, enjoying myself!)

22

Not really. I have a vague idea of where I want to end up, but no good ideas on how to get there 😛 .

Welcome aboard, Nomad! I hope you enjoy this place 🙂 .

I suspect there is some truth to this... my guess is that most young people now have parents who are on it, and therefore, they consider it "uncool". I believe the younger generation mostly hangs out on Snapchat or Instagram and the like (although, fortunately for Meta - the company that owns Facebook - they also own Instagram 😛 )

Well, they certainly weren't proven wrong by the study linked in the OP: I already linked an article that explained, in detail, what the problems and limitations with that study were. And to be honest, I think anything said "before masks were mandated" has to be treated as outdated at this point: it's been three years, and vastly more research has been done since then. Anyway, I get the sense that the conversation is just starting to go around in circles - and therefore, I think I'll stop here.

No. That's like saying cars are worthless because they can't get you to the moon, or hammers are worthless because they can't undo screws. Masks are designed for one form of protection. The fact that they can't do other forms of protection doesn't make them "worthless": it just means they aren't the be-all and end-all.

The problem with the bolded statement is: face masks don't cover the entire body (or even the entire face). Thus, the virus doesn't have to pass through your mask in order to infect you. Sure, they might offer some protection against the virus being breathed in. However, they offer zero protection against getting the virus via your hands, the rest of your face, or any other part of the body that they don't cover. On the other hand, they are designed to offer protection against people breathing it out (which is the main method by which transmission begins). That's why "Do they protect you from other people?" and "Do they protect other people from you?" have to be treated as separate questions. They're designed primarily for the latter, and they're inherently limited when it comes to the former.

As an accompaniment to the linked article, I'll also leave this one, presenting some counter-arguments: https://theconversation.com/yes-masks-reduce-the-risk-of-spreading-covid-despite-a-review-saying-they-dont-198992?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton The scientific review examined 78 studies - but these weren't all testing the same things to begin with - and in many of them, compliance with the masking advice was poor (most of the people being tested didn't bother wearing the masks all the time). Furthermore, most of these studies only addressed the question of whether wearing a mask protects you from other people: they did not address the separate, but equally important, question of whether it protects other people from you. So, I certainly wouldn't take this review as "definitive proof that all masks are completely worthless". (Indeed, if I read the article linked in the OP, it seems that the authors themselves were aware of the limitations of their own review... but of course, they can't control how the media reports and spins it!)

While Santa delivered presents he tripped over a rock