Everything wants to kill us

[ExFlyBoy5]

Well, seems like the staff at my wife's OT office is trying to kill her. They have a screening process in place which includes taking your temperature. The thermometer they are using is the probe type that has a plastic shield that slides/snaps on prior to taking the temperature under the tongue. Well, the staff member neglected to put on the plastic shield on it and shoved it in DW's mouth. DW realized pretty quick that it didn't have the shield on it (from the metallic taste) and took it out and showed the staff member. The offending staff member said, "oh, I thought it was on there?" and didn't know what to do at that point. DW said, "I don't know, maybe wash it under hot water? I am not a medical professional." I am *not* a happy camper right now.

 

[Amethyst]

Good lord, where does she work, 1972? Even our agency health office used no-touch temperature takers, and that was before pandemics were a thing.

I hope she gargled immediately with alcohol, and then drank some!

Well, seems like the staff at my wife's OT office is trying to kill her. They have a screening process in place which includes taking your temperature. The thermometer they are using is the probe type that has a plastic shield that slides/snaps on prior to taking the temperature under the tongue. Well, the staff member neglected to put on the plastic shield on it and shoved it in DW's mouth. DW realized pretty quick that it didn't have the shield on it (from the metallic taste) and took it out and showed the staff member. The offending staff member said, "oh, I thought it was on there?" and didn't know what to do at that point. DW said, "I don't know, maybe wash it under hot water? I am not a medical professional." I am *not* a happy camper right now.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Good lord, where does she work, 1972? Even our agency health office used no-touch temperature takers, and that was before pandemics were a thing.

I hope she gargled immediately with alcohol, and then drank some!

Oddly enough, I have seen these "old school" thermometers used almost exclusively the last couple of months. As a matter of fact, when DW had her first appointment at the "latest and greatest $250 million dollar proton therapy center in Atlanta", they too had these thermometers.

We are hoping that this was an isolated incident and that the previous 20+ patients didn't have this done as well.

 

[Midpack]

I take your point seriously, but remember, a lot of creatures were "here" long before humans (hundreds of millions of years) and went extinct on their own, and there will be a lot of them "here" long after humans are extinct.

 

[Midpack]

I can't confirm this but I heard a story years ago about a big celebration about the release of some cleaned/rescued seals right after the Exxon Valdez incident. The high school band was playing, politicians were blabbering on, the crowd was cheering as they released 2 or 3 seals that had been hand cleaned and nurtured back to health. They opened the back of the truck, the seals lumbered down into the water, swam out 100 yards, and a pod of orcas had an easy lunch. The crowd, the band, and the politicians walked away in silence.

Some people are surprisingly gullible or lazy (simple online search)...

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fake-news-stories/

 

[aja8888]

Rather than say "everything wants to kill us", maybe it should be "every living thing (mammal, fish, bird, insect, etc) is someone else's lunch" !!

 

[aja8888]

99 Percent Of The Earth's Species Are Extinct

According to experts, the vast majority of species died out from what is essentially old age. A species generally sticks around for anywhere from 1 million years (for mammals) to 11 million years (for marine invertebrates). But don't get too comfortable. The planet has also been through five mass extinction events, starting at about 440 million years ago. The worst was the third extinction, which took place around 250 million years ago and wiped out 96 percent of life on Earth. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum, life found a way, setting the stage for the fourth and eventually the fifth extinction. That's the famous one that most experts think was caused by a huge meteorite hitting the Earth around 65 million years ago, killing off around 88 percent of then-existing species.

https://curiosity.com/topics/99-per...tinctbut-thats-not-the-worst-of-it-curiosity/

 

[Silver]

Since this virus apparently came from an animal, I think this is Mother Nature's way of saying 'Kismet, baby. Let me do a little culling of my own".

 

[Pellice]

Midpack, that graph makes me so sad. The passenger pigeon was the most plentiful bird in North America. They were shot by the millions, until they were no more. Let's try not to impoverish the planet of its richness.

 

[braumeister]

Since this virus apparently came from an animal, I think this is Mother Nature's way of saying 'Kismet, baby. Let me do a little culling of my own".

As I see it, when nature thinks there are too many of us on the planet, she has basically three options for culling: wars, famines or epidemics. All are horrible, but given the choice between them, I prefer the epidemic.

 

[Pellice]

As I see it, when nature thinks there are too many of us on the planet, she has basically three options for culling: wars, famines or epidemics. All are horrible, but given the choice between them, I prefer the epidemic.

I guess it takes a female to say: Birth Control. I prefer Birth Control.

 

[braumeister]

A species generally sticks around for anywhere from 1 million years (for mammals) to 11 million years (for marine invertebrates).

Which is why I've always been fascinated by the exceptions.

Horseshoe crabs have been essentially unchanged for 450 million years. Aardvarks and crocodiles for probably 50 million years. Many other examples.

What do you think the chances are of homo sapiens lasting even one million?

 

[CaptTom]

Actually, as I've looked at material from biology, astrophysics, physics, and chemistry, I've been astonished to learn how well-prepared the Earth is to support life. Any minor deviation in any one of hundreds of different variables, and we wouldn't be here at all. So "everything wants to kills us" seems too pessimistic and negative to me. This world has been arranged in thousands of ways to be "just right," i.e., precisely the kind of place we need. If any of these variables were off by a small fraction, we wouldn't be here to even have this conversation..

Ahh. So the universe wants to kill us, too!

Actually, given what we know now about the expanse of the universe, there are undoubtedly countless planets which are totally inhospitable to life.

But, statistically, it's virtually impossible that there aren't also many planets which just happen to be perfect for life to develop and survive. You could say we're lucky to have "found" one. But you could say it found us.

Just as any one of us is very unlikely to ever win the lottery, someone always does win. It seems miraculous to that winner, but it's actually inevitable.

 

[dd564]

Yeh, this graph is sad, but I'd still chose the advancement of human life over it.
I'd make that choice 99 days out of 100.

Looking at it in hindsight, there are always things that could have been done better, safer, faster, slow, less expensive.

Some people accept there is cost to life. Others would prefer to dwell on those same costs and prefer to try to stall life for everyone.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

or leaves us disabled.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Ahh. So the universe wants to kill us, too!

Actually, given what we know now about the expanse of the universe, there are undoubtedly countless planets which are totally inhospitable to life.

But, statistically, it's virtually impossible that there aren't also many planets which just happen to be perfect for life to develop and survive. You could say we're lucky to have "found" one. But you could say it found us.

Just as any one of us is very unlikely to ever win the lottery, someone always does win. It seems miraculous to that winner, but it's actually inevitable.

And since there are 200 billion galaxies with an average of (just using Milky Way as an data point) 100 billion stars there are likely a lot of lottery winners every second.

 

[Nemo2]

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“God is dead" Nietzsche.


"Nietzsche is dead" God.

 

[Go-NoGo]

I can't confirm this but I heard a story years ago about a big celebration about the release of some cleaned/rescued seals right after the Exxon Valdez incident. The high school band was playing, politicians were blabbering on, the crowd was cheering as they released 2 or 3 seals that had been hand cleaned and nurtured back to health. They opened the back of the truck, the seals lumbered down into the water, swam out 100 yards, and a pod of orcas had an easy lunch. The crowd, the band, and the politicians walked away in silence.

Classify that under fake news, Snopes debunked it:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fake-news-stories/

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

And since there are 200 billion galaxies with an average of (just using Milky Way as an data point) 100 billion stars there are likely a lot of lottery winners every second.

Such outdated info. "Latest" survey shows that there is *at least* 2 TRILLION galaxies! I read an interesting post from Mike Rowe that he has had to go in TWICE to re-record "History of the Universe" narration because of new research and findings about the size of the universe.

 

[Mdlerth]

I tried counting them, but got bored after the second billion

Such outdated info. "Latest" survey shows that there is *at least* 2 TRILLION galaxies! I read an interesting post from Mike Rowe that he has had to go in TWICE to re-record "History of the Universe" narration because of new research and findings about the size of the universe.

A trillion here, a trillion there, and soon you're talking big numbers.

 

[Mdlerth]

After dogs, insurers are Man's Best Friend

I been thinking that everything wants to kill us or make life an unhealthy one for all of us.

Surprisingly enough, the only entities that want us to stay healthy and live forever are insurance companies.

 

[ER Eddie]

You could say we're lucky to have "found" one. But you could say it found us.

I would say it was prepared for us. That's how I'd put it. I like how Fred Hoyle put it, too: "A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as chemistry and biology."

Such outdated info. "Latest" survey shows that there is *at least* 2 TRILLION galaxies!

Holy ****, that's a lot of stars.

 

[MRG]

Surprisingly enough, the only entities that want us to stay healthy and live forever are insurance companies.

Only if we continue to pay. They seem to feed from our existence and don't want to kill off those who feed them. I'm not sure how to describe such a lifeform.[emoji849]

 

[Winemaker]

Classify that under fake news, Snopes debunked it:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fake-news-stories/

Okay, fake news. But I don't always believe snopes either.

 

[CaptTom]

I would say it was prepared for us. That's how I'd put it. I like how Fred Hoyle put it, too: "A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as chemistry and biology."

Fair enough. Could be. But of course, that really doesn't answer the question. All it does is push the question back to how the "preparation" came about.

There have been many things proven false which our "commonsense interpretation" had every reason to believe. The Earth is flat. It doesn't move. The Sun and stars rotate around it. The physical things we see around us are solid. The elements are the smallest components of matter. I could go on.

I'm not claiming to have all the answers. In fact, I'm claiming that no-one does. You can choose to make something up, then believe that and dismiss all further investigation. But it doesn't really get us anywhere.