h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We seem to be pretty geared up for meeting the challenge of the coronavirus. In Polokwane, we no longer greet each other with a handshake, but now we bow to each other or bump elbows. The drivers of the taxi-minibuses are wearing masks and gloves. At the gym, there are spray bottles all over the place with disinfectant and cloths for wiping the equipment; you have to clean your hands before you may enter. Outside of town, a hotel has been converted into a quarantine centre, mainly for dealing with folks coming to South Africa from China. School is cancelled for about a month or so. No congregations of over 100 people are allowed. The annual ultra-massive Easter gathering (often numbering in several millions of attendees) at Zion City Moria has been cancelled.

But the supermarkets are still open and I don't see any shortages.

And how are matters on your end?

Just about everything is cancelled here in Pennsylvania. (They even closed the state liquor stores!)

Today, Elektra had to be pre-screened at the hospital before going in to get her routine blood test, while I waited in the car.

Church is cancelled for the next 2 weeks - they're going to try to do an online podcast.

Groceries and pharmacies are open, and the road workers are taking advantage of the light traffic to make progress. Lots of people are discovering the joys of working from home.

Lola the dog is still startling deer outside...

Surgical face masks are of no use! They are only protective for about 4 to 5 minutes
As soon as your exhaling moisture soaks into them, they become even more attractive to airborne bugs etc
Safer to wear a scarf around your face - surgical gloves though, do help when touching door handles etc etc.
But if wearing them, don't touch your face/lips - dispose after use or wash them in soap before removing them (if reusing them)

Morning all!

It suddenly seems like a miracle that I can know you're all out there, I can communicate from the confines of my flat, and we can share insights from the rapidly changing reality shape that seems to giving us no choice but to urgently adapt.

I'd like to create a space on the site here where we can continue to call in with each other, drop by with and any kind of communication possible.



It has moved so fast I've had uncontrollable shaking for three days and nights now, but I am determined to overcome this, and regroup physically and psychically, because there's no point in me being a weak entity, I need to be a strong entity, at least in the spirit and psychic dimensions.

At the moment I'm thinking about all the amazing and wonderful details of this life on Earth that I have ever loved, and kind of returning them to essence in a celebratory way, sort of like in my gut, my solar plexus, this seems to stop the shaking. It makes a medicine, an elixir.

This way I am changing my own psychic shape to meet the demands of our new time.



I saw this amazing reference somewhere to these people who, realising there's no more outer travel, have decided to celebrate their rooms or their houses, and travel around them. Photos from on the top of wardrobes and in cupboards and things.

I remember reading once about this eccentric artist guy, perhaps from the Victorian era or somewhere, must find out, who did just this. He was confined to his room, so decided to travel around it. The Plains of the Eiderdown and things. Now he doesn't seem so eccentric.



I intend to pull out strange creative impulses, a survival tactic, born from our new confines. If it isn't counterproductive I'll share them on this site. I'll return to my journal, unless we make a new place. Expect photos of my lightswitch, seen from a new angle, or a poem about the purr of the gas boiler in my cupboard.

A Journey Around My Room by Xavier De Maistre

Xavier De Maistre, a 27 yr old Frenchman found himself imprisoned in his room for six weeks when he was arrested in Turin after a duel, in the Spring of 1790.

Interesting stuff Cactuscafé! I might do this myself … actually this would be a journey of discovery, since after my parents died, I haven't actually been exploring the house to see what all is in it, there are so many rooms, cupboards etc. here …

Prof, thanks for the mask advice, yes, for most people it just makes them feel safer.

What really raises my hackles is the bullsheet 'health advice' that appears on some social media sites. The latest one I've seen says that you can cure yourself by blowing with a blow-dryer into your nose and mouth! Then … we tried to de-bunk it, on the site, giving a link to what Snopes says about it (basically they say it's boolsheet) then there was a guy (or two if I'm not mistaken) saying that the blow-dryer thing deserves a chance and Snopes is not the ultimate authority about this stuff, and neither are 'mainstream' doctors or the pharmaceutical industry or the WHO …

And another bad thing I've seen … a video (staged but said to be based on real occurrences) of a man giving out free face masks … as soon as the recipients put them on, they lose consciousness, leaving them free to be robbed by the guy handing out the drugged masks. I don't know if this is really happening but if it is happening anywhere then South Africa would be the place. We've some of the worst people in the world here (well some of the best too...)

Oh and our minister of health has made a statement saying he reckons the virus will affect 60-%-70% of South Africans! If it gets to that then it basically will be 100% because that means they've totally failed at halting the spread of the virus. And that can happen! If this thing gets into the shanty towns where millions of people live in cramped flimsy shacks with cardboard and corrugated iron for walls, and many people share a single bedroom … that will be game over. We're all going to have it then. We'll be looking at half a million to a million deaths, and five to ten million people seriously sick with possible irreversible damage.

Oh gawd, Willem, these are dark pictures indeed.

Yes, there's a lot of internet rubbish circulating at the moment. And its so irresponsible, because people are already terrified enough. I was reading the advice from Mind the other night, because I was feeling like I was going to flip over the edge, and they were saying do NOT spend the night reading everything on the internet, which really helped.



Hey, so you're going to travel through your house. How fascinating! Will you illustrate your travelogue and can I see it please?

In the face of what is happening around the world with "coronavirus/influenza" pandemic outbreak.

I can tell you now! You'll always have "the anti-negative thinking" using his humour etc to bring smiles as per "ab" normal

http://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusMemes/comments/fgvarj/a_cartoon_in_the_toronto_star/

IE:

"I'd like to create a space on the site here where we can continue to call in with each other, drop by with coffee and any kind of communication possible"
Cactuscafe, the Lounge sounds like the place for this http://h2g2.com/thelounge/

Over here, we've all been staying home since Tuesday. Except "people who are essential to the life of the Nation". They have now put in place a system of fines for people who go out without a valid reason. If you leave your home, you have to have a certificate stating why, and the police are checking them.

I've been working from home since then too. That helps you keep a semblance of normality.

The shops are being emptied almost as fast as they are getting restocked, apparently. (I haven't been, I managed to get to my parents' place before the lockdown, so my Dad's been doing the shopping for us three).

Most of all, thank Bob for the internet.

Um, Superfrenchie, fines for being outside your home - what the bleep do homeless people do then???

Those who were staying at shelters when the lockdown started were allowed to stay there.
The others, well... they get fined.
Although, after several cases were reported in the media, the govt had decided to open more shelters. (Not nearly enough spaces, of course, but they don't really care about that anyway, they only did it because of the public backlash).

I honestly don't know what happens when you're fined and can't pay.

Post 11
I miss you anyway love

Yes, thankyou Bob.

Who? What?

What Superfrenchie said, thank Bob for the internet.

The Lounge? There's a Lounge? Has there always been a lounge? Oh. . Will go check.

Hullo Prof!

Interesting to hear about how it is in France, superfrenchie. I've been reading about those certificates.

Hmmm... over here in South Africa there aren't really homeless shelters. Hobos and street kids sleep on the streets … for instance a popular place is at the back of a large store where the rear ends of the air conditioners make it nice and warm in the evening. So if we were to lock down like in France, I dunno what they will do …

But I'm also thinking, a homeless shelter … aren't there rather many people in one, all crammed together? I wonder if it wouldn't be less risky if these folks were sleeping on the streets if at least a good distance apart.

Over here … in the shack towns there are *so* many people and they're *so* all squashed together in small places all of the time. Even the main form of transport, the mini-bus taxi, typically has something like twenty people or more crammed in there, because if they carry fewer people, they're not so economical for the drivers any more. I mean, this is how almost everybody travels over here.

Right now, the neighbour's kids are playing on their trampouline in their backyard. We shouted hi back and forth, while I took video of the chipmunk and birds. Some students jogged by at a safe distance - their university is closed but they live nearby. Elektra's out walking the dog, with strict instructions not to get too close to anyone.

We had church service this morning - by internet. Everybody logged onto Facebook or Youtube or the church's website and watched the podcast and sent greetings via the comment threads.

It sounds like you're handling things well there. Internet church? Interesting - should work! I was thinking they should be using the 'net for school teaching as well, but so far it doesn't sound like the teachers over here are using the opportunities they have ...

Another area that has me worried - prisons. Over here in South Africa, prisons are badly overcrowded. If a virus gets in there ...