OT - Dow plunges 1,175 - worst point decline in history

[MattTuck]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

I don't know about this year's flu, but last year's flu was killing off healthy young people. I think most viruses tend towards becoming less deadly so they survive longer. Here's hoping that is true with this one.

I'm a bit curious what will happen with Brexit. I guess there will be a lot of panics over the next 11 months

edit: The paper I had referenced earlier has been withdrawn. Stay calm and carry on.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

I don't know about this year's flu, but last year's flu was killing off healthy young people. I think most viruses tend towards becoming less deadly so they survive longer. Here's hoping that is true with this one.

I'm a bit curious what will happen with Brexit. I guess there will be a lot of panics over the next 11 months

Hope Scotland leaves the UK as a result of BREXIT. Scotland is better off negotiating their own trade deals plus Scotland NEEDS immigration and isn’t in the ultra right wing, nationalistic, bend that Boris and another ‘hair guy’, is.

[Dekonick]

Originally Posted by joosttx

until it mutants into a killer.

Fortunately, viruses tend to work the other direction as being a killer is counter productive. Both host and virus tend to adapt to one another over time.

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by Dekonick

Fortunately, viruses tend to work the other direction as being a killer is counter productive. Both host and virus tend to adapt to one another over time.

Quick killer is counterproductive. From the plant virology world the newly introduced slow killers were the most impactful. Maybe it’s different for animals.

[robertbb]

Originally Posted by joosttx

Quick killer is counterproductive. From the plant virology world the newly introduced slow killers were the most impactful. Maybe it’s different for animals.

I don't buy this. As if a virus knows/cares how long its host survives and can mutate to kill it more slowly. The cells aren't going to communicate between hosts...

[Llewellyn]

I maintain my point (probably unpopular) that the only way the planet could survive into the future is if about 25% (as a minimum) of the human population gets wiped out by something. Other than that we'll have to wait for humans to continue making it uninhabitable (which will probably be in fewer than 100 years at the current rate).

[Louis]

Originally Posted by Llewellyn

I maintain my point (probably unpopular) that the only way the planet could survive into the future is if about 25% (as a minimum) of the human population gets wiped out by something. Other than that we'll have to wait for humans to continue making it uninhabitable (which will probably be in fewer than 100 years at the current rate).

I don't think we're anywhere near "Max Human." The quantity of 99.9 percenters can increase a lot (and their misery index too) and humans will still survive. Overall most people won't be happy, and the 0.1 percenters will have to build taller and taller walls to keep the 99.9% out, but they'll have the power and the money, so they'll probably be able to do it, until conditions truly are untenable. Then eventually it will all come crashing down, and you can pick your dystopian / apocalyptic movie of choice to imagine what things will be like. (I found "The Road" to be particularly nasty.)

[mjb266]

My wife has been working a lot with Rabbit hemorrhagic disease...wait til we get a human equivalent. Huge transmission rates and high mortality rates (~90%).

Decimates the entire population, and there is nothing we can do about it. Like Ebola on steroids.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by mjb266

My wife has been working a lot with Rabbit hemorrhagic disease...wait til we get a human equivalent. Huge transmission rates and high mortality rates (~90%).

Decimates the entire population, and there is nothing we can do about it. Like Ebola on steroids.

As much as I can see some good coming from this sort of research, I wouldn't be able to justify it to myself.

If that and janitor were my only choices, I'd be scrubbing toilets.

Edit: That's assuming this is lab work, where they purposely infect test subjects. If it's just working with the bugs themselves, not Thumper or Hazel, then that's great.

[mjb266]

Not lab work. On the response side of things instead...not that there is a whole lot you can do in response. Can’t vaccinate effectively, can’t cull as there are hundreds of stakeholders all with different values/beliefs, they(bunnies) live in communities underground, and the virus can be transmitted a variety of ways.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by mjb266

Not lab work. On the response side of things instead...

That's good. I wish her success, even though it will most likely come slowly.

[lookout2015]

Originally Posted by robertbb

I don't buy this. As if a virus knows/cares how long its host survives and can mutate to kill it more slowly. The cells aren't going to communicate between hosts...

It doesn’t “know” or communicate but it doesn’t have to. The ones which kill their host too quickly, kill themselves in the process so don’t replicate and spread through the host population. The ones which kill their host more slowly have time to replicate and spread to other hosts and survive. Natural selection doing what natural selection does.

[Tony T]

….and…. we're back — DOW up 450, S&P up 43 and NAZDAQ up 130 (all time high)
…and TESLA, wow, uo 20% yesterday, and another 15% today @ 900

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by mjb266

My wife has been working a lot with Rabbit hemorrhagic disease...wait til we get a human equivalent. Huge transmission rates and high mortality rates (~90%).

Decimates the entire population, and there is nothing we can do about it. Like Ebola on steroids.

Lovely

[Davist]

Originally Posted by Llewellyn

I maintain my point (probably unpopular) that the only way the planet could survive into the future is if about 25% (as a minimum) of the human population gets wiped out by something. Other than that we'll have to wait for humans to continue making it uninhabitable (which will probably be in fewer than 100 years at the current rate).

Most projections show population stabilizing in the next 10-20 years then declining after that. You must have liked the Avengers End Game movie..