Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

CreditWh0re said:

And Rand Paul jumped his **** for not displaying enough humility. /smh

Rand Paul: "With all due respect, Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end all, I don't think you're the one person who gets to make the decision..."

Fauci: "I've never made myself out to be the end all. I'm a scientist, a physician and a public health official. I give advice according to the best scientific evidence. I don't give advice about economic things, I don't give advice about anything other than public health."

Clearly one understands what humility is more than the other.

Shades ADHD, Autism and I am sure a laundry list of other issues make it difficult for many kids to stay focused and be disciplined enough to be self-learners.

bigboy said:

I'm pretty shocked that colleges were not more prepared to go full-bore online.

It's not that we or other colleges don't have the capability to go full-bore online. That's not it at all.

In a normal year, I teach face to face in the Fall/Spring, but also teach two online courses in the Summer. I can guarantee you that the online version of my fall class is just as academically rigorous as the face-to-face fall class. There are actually checks and balances and accreditations that colleges can have in place to ensure such rigor. In fact, most students who I have had go through both modalities have said that the online version is actually more difficult, but most of that has to do with it being the same material taught over a shorter amount of time.

But back to the point of being "ready". Teaching a (quality) class online requires a ton of prep. In fact, it takes me the better part of a semester to design and create just one online course. I have to create podcasts of every single one of my lectures, re-imagine new assignments better suited to remote learning, create PowerPoints to coincide with the lectures, not to mention all the behind-the-scenes course design that goes into whatever platform we are using. What happened was unprecedented.

After Spring Break, the rug literally got pulled out from everyone, and we were told to convert all of our teaching to online. From that day until just last week when our semester ended, I literally spent every day either creating content or grading content, and I would argue I had it pretty easy since I am actually accustomed to teaching online. All over this country, thousands upon thousands of teachers at every level had to learn on the fly. No one signed up for this ****. So was it watered down? I would expect so, in most cases. But that's what happens when your job changes overnight.

It sure as hell takes a lot more than 2 weeks. Frankly, I've never been more proud of my colleagues, especially the ones who had never taught online before.

University of California system cancels most in-person classes in Fall 2020:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/12/coronavirus-cal-state-univer...fall-2020/

Lord Gonchar said:

(More anecdotal evidence ahead...take with appropriate grain of salt) words and stuff...

My oldest is an eighth grader and while I thought he was a rock star at shifting over to the online learning format, he also found the work to be ridiculously easy. I don't mean to brag, but he has been the model student through all this. Every morning he gets up, showers, gets dressed up, chit chats with me over breakfast about what's going on. Then he goes down to his room, joins a Zoom group with some of his friends and they all crash out the work they need to do for the day. I don't have to tell him anything, he just does it. He also tries to reach out to others he hasn't seen in a while just to check in. I have no idea where he gets this from.

My middle son is a fifth grader, is ASD and also has been exceptional through this. He's not at the level of my oldest, but he knows what he needs to get done. His issue is the amount of detail he WANTS to put into his work and the amount of time allotted in the day. He only wants to work independently and doesn't care about video conferencing with anyone. He's also found the work to be pretty easy.

The youngest is a third grader and while he's been the most challenging, he is usually done with his work for the week midway through Wednesday.

I've been treating the school day like a work day since I'm working from home, too. The younger two have their own breaks they build in throughout the day. For the most part I've given all of them free reign to get their work done without hovering. If they need help, they are always able to ask. I'm their boss, we conference each Friday morning to make sure they are on the right trajectory to have everything done, or find out what things still need to be marked turned in.

This experience gave me a lot of hope on my kids' ability to function in a work environment independently, because isn't that really what this is all about?

GoBucks89 said:

University of California system cancels most in-person classes in Fall 2020:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/12/coronavirus-cal-state-univer...fall-2020/

Aren’t UC and CSU different systems? UC is considering it, CSU is going online.

HeyIsntThatRob? said:

This experience gave me a lot of hope on my kids' ability to function in a work environment independently, because isn't that really what this is all about?

I'd trade in a few of my co workers and hire your kids based solely on their work ethic. I always say that you can train and teach a job. You can't train and teach work ethic (in adults) or a good personality.

My kid, also ASD and ADHD, is struggling to finish things, but this isn't unique to the home environment over school, it's just that it's my wife's problem instead of the teachers. It's been rough, but some changes around the drugs have helped a little, and they're in a slightly better rhythm. I think they need to hand out millions of parent of the year trophies this year.

Work was remote for me anyway, as my team is spread across all four US time zones. But they have decided to eliminate all travel for the year, so I won't be seeing that view from One World Trade Center any time soon. ☹

Aren’t UC and CSU different systems? UC is considering it, CSU is going online.

Correct. My mistake. CSU system has about 480,000 students on 23 campuses. They are going mostly online for Fall 2020. UC system with about 280,000 students has said its unlikely any of its campuses will fully open in Fall 2020. Looking at mixed in-person and online classes but nothing official at this point for UC.

Another good read, especially for those of us in Ohio...but also for anyone who lives in a town that lives and dies with its local college.

(kind've like a certain coastal Ohio town and a large amusement park).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephengavazzi/2020/05/10/weep-for-ohi...2ada0240e7

But that's what happens when your job changes overnight.

Not only did instructional jobs change overnight, but the people doing them were living through the pandemic too--with their own kids at home, maybe elderly or immune-compromised family members that were suddenly shut-ins that they had to take care of, etc.

We aren't working from home. We are dealing with a global crisis while trying to get through each day. The emotional and cognitive toll of that is high, and very few of us are or should be expected to be the most productive versions of ourselves. For some of us, especially folks a little earlier in their careers, it looks like we are, but that's because we are using work as our avoidance mechanism and putting in extra hours. I know at least a few of my former PhD students are doing that.

OhioStater, I think that describes a lot of towns - in Ohio: Kent, Oxford, Bowling Green, not to mention any number of small towns with small colleges. Some migration to online learning may have been inevitable, but it's coming as a very sudden shock to those places.

And back to the (nominal) topic of this website, how do you think Branson, Missouri, is doing? Pigeon Forge? Yikes.

Brian Noble said:

We aren't working from home. We are dealing with a global crisis while trying to get through each day. The emotional and cognitive toll of that is high, and very few of us are or should be expected to be the most productive versions of ourselves.

This is so true. I'm "fortunate" in that my wife is out of work indefinitely, working for a theater, so her job is now school and childcare. I work with some people who live in a tiny 600 sqft. apartment in Manhattan with a toddler and two remote working parents, and I don't know how they can do it, but I suspect the mental toll gets worse every day.

We opened our main office this week for the first time in 2 months on a 100% voluntary basis. Given the restrictions/limitations in place (all of which make sense) and ability to work remotely very effectively, most people have no interest in returning to office at this point. Of the few people who have gone back so far, vast majority either have young kids at home or live by themselves. Its been very tough on people with young kids to work, home school and run a house (and many times deal with aging parents). They are just looking for a block of time to be able to focus on just work. And those living alone are just looking for some type of human interaction. Strange times.

The good news about modeling: the modelers are getting better at it. The bad news: the patchwork of social distancing reduction mightbmight them all in a few weeks, apparently.

Coronavirus Models Are Nearing Consensus, but Reopening Could Throw Them Off Again https://nyti.ms/3fHPglP

I was reading about concerns in Athens County, Ohio, home of Ohio University. The school is something like 30 million in the hole and in the face of the pandemic it looks like the little hill town of Athens is being dragged down with it. It almost solely consists of businesses that cater to university folks, mainly bars and restaurants. Even if the school is able to survive with online students, the town may not. They are rather remote with the closest bigger cities being Columbus, 1 hr, Cincinnati, 3 hrs, and Charleston at about 2 hrs. In other words, nowhere convenient enough to absorb the workers and businesses.

Speaking of Columbus, there was an unreleased report from the White House this week with a list of cities to watch for an uptick of cases and we were one of them. We already have passed every county in Ohio in the number of reported cases, and I wonder why? Other cities on the list included places like Nashville, Charlotte, Birmingham, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Lincoln. I see those cities as large/medium sized cities full of plenty to do, but are they also full of people who don’t know how to act? Maybe these cities have been lulled into a sense of complacency- perhaps it seems like since we aren’t major hotspots (yet) that it will just never happen here.
This news comes right at the time that Ohio is entering into a re-opening phase. My every hope is that things don’t backfire and blow up again. I plan to wait it out anyway- my only commitment is a private appointment with my barber on Monday. Everything else can wait, most everything on my agenda has been cancelled anyway.

First off, its been quite a while, and maybe it's time for another long post. ;)

I have moved halfway across the country, took a new job, and have seen the various responses and mannerisms from other areas during my travels. There is a massive variability in how different areas are handling all of this.

Regarding the town of Athens, reading that article made me think of how Wal-Mart moves into a town, all the local businesses fold, and then Wal-Mart moves out. The town is left with basically just a residential sector and they have to commute for most anything else. They can't sell their property to purchase elsewhere because it just became worthless, so they are stuck.

Unemployment closed at ~15% for April, which typically doesn't represent the real number because of how it is calculated. The markets and our leaders are optimistic that these jobs will return quickly. Some industries might, however most will probably take much longer. This pandemic has affect the poor most, as seems to be the case with everything, however once the poor are affected it slowly rolls up. With a short term crisis is doesn't have much effect on the upper echelons of society, but in the case of months of shutdown, it will end up as a lagging indicator. As is the case with Athens, the college is beginning to suffer. People don't need college, most people are probably better off going into the workforce and finding their path before starting a college degree, unless it is required to work in the first place. I think you will see other areas of business begin to struggle and fail as the little guys at the bottom are affected en masse, it will just take a little longer to show up.

Colleges will hurt longer term, as they are to a certain degree, discretionary. So is tourism, travel, and many other service industries. Look at the airlines, they are hurting bad right now, most businesses have canceled all travel except for the most urgent items. Once they adapt to no travel and realize they can do more things virtually, this will become more of a norm in the company culture and will freeze in place. This pandemic is forcing changes to occur which after a while will become the new norm, and then people will look back and see our old ways as less efficient or cost effective in some cases. When the time comes to go back to old ways, will we actually do that? This factor will certainly have a ripple effect into other areas of the economy.

What exactly was the point of all this lock down? Saving lives and not over whelming the hospitals. I think in the vast majority of areas this was achieved, now we are at the point of people discussing opening, and others are concerned about lives. We cannot stay closed for the sake of keeping people from getting infected, we stayed closed for the sake of not overloading the hospitals, two very different things. Unless you are able to stay away from everyone until a vaccine is available, you will almost certainly contract this virus. When we reopen cases will increase, people will get sick, the whole point is to reopen as much as is possible without putting the healthcare system into jeopardy correct?

You will not stop the spread of this disease unless everyone stops contacting everyone else.

I think the public were onboard at first because they thought lockdown meant stopping the spread of the disease, which it never would have. I think leaders thought that the economy would only be affected for a short period of time and bounce back. I think that they completely missed the bigger picture. They knew the economy would hurt short term, I think that it will drag on much longer, and that you may see a total shift in the way of life compared to previous. Whether or not you agree with that shift is personal preference and I think that the shift which might occur could take many years to revert if it does at all. I don't think this was even considered in the initial thought process.

Re: College in the fall

It will be interesting to see how the different schools handle things. My son is headed to Miami and apparently they're floating the idea of a 4 step plan to get 35,000 kids on campus this fall.

It's the basics, really. Testing, tracing, distancing...and flu shots(?).

I graduated from that UM. (Back in my day, we had to walk around the lake to get to class) I double checked your link cause I know there is also a Miami U in your neck of the woods...

I wouldn't be suprised if the U has a pretty solid playbook from Shalala's term they could dust off and start with. They're probably in better shape then most. Also lectures outside.

Regarding regionality, that pretty much applies to everything in the US. But yeah, I noticed that too MR with the mask idealogy, especially the first week it was mandated. It seemed like people in Eatern PA were initially taking more seriously then say Western NY. Everyone in the Northeast is generally now on the same page thankfully, but I think how the directive was issued/phrased/enforced/marketed by local state leadership (cause no federal level direction...) greatly effects the perception on it.

Group think influences too. It was pretty striking to watch the % of masks (before the mandate, when they were still saying no masks to keep ER supply lines functioning) ratchet up from 25%, 60%, 80% at the local grocery store over that single week.

An update for the refrigerated truck enthusiasts