Objectively intelligent.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

If grocery stores started raising their prices right now to pay their staff a risk premium, would anyone object?

I'd rather they give these people masks and hand sanitizer. Bezos can afford it.

But no, I've no objection to paying a premium. As long as I know damn well it goes to the workers exclusively and not the owners.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I'd rather they give these people masks and hand sanitizer. Bezos can afford it.

Let's get the hospital workers the equipment they need first.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

If grocery stores started raising their prices right now to pay their staff a risk premium, would anyone object?

NextDoor says yes (although I suspect the price increases are coming from their suppliers).

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Adder

NextDoor says yes (although I suspect the price increases are coming from their suppliers).

Nextdoor objects when someone swarthier than a Dane walks down the street. Sartre described Nextdoor when he said, L'enfers, c'est les autres.

eta: I did not expect to see John Kerry calling someone an asshole on Twitter today. Huh.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Nextdoor objects when someone swarthier than a Dane walks down the street. Sartre described Nextdoor when he said, L'enfers, c'est les autres.

eta: I did not expect to see John Kerry calling someone an asshole on Twitter today. Huh.

I had to verify that was actually true.

Something my brother-in-law is working on. He's the first dude in the video if you click the link and watch:

Rice University and Canadian global health design firm Metric Technologies have developed an automated bag valve mask ventilation unit that can be built for less than $300 worth of parts and help patients in treatment for COVID-19. The collaboration expects to share the plans for the ventilator by making them freely available online to anyone in the world.

Faculty and students went into overdrive several weeks ago when requests began pouring into the university seeking plans for an early prototype developed in 2019 by Rice engineering seniors.

That now-alumni team of Madison Nasteff, Carolina De Santiago, Aravind Sundaramraj, Natalie Dickman, Tim Nonet and Karen Vasquez Ruiz, calling themselves Take a Breather, designed and built a programmable device able to squeeze a bag valve mask. These masks are typically carried by emergency medical personnel to help get air into the lungs of people having difficulty breathing on their own. But the masks are difficult to squeeze by hand for more than a few minutes at a time.

Dr. Rohith Malya, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, an adjunct assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice and associate of the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health and a principal at Metric Technologies, recognized the need to automate the masks not only for emergencies where hospital ventilators are in short supply but also for developing nations where such equipment is not available at all.

The first criterion certainly applies now, with a global shortage of ventilators threatening the population as the novel coronavirus spreads.

Rice administrators, staff and students gathered to see how quickly they could develop a more robust prototype built primarily of 3D-printed and laser-cut parts. Their solution, designed and prototyped within a week, is a reconfiguration of the original rack-and-pinion device and designed to be not only medical grade, but also inexpensive enough to be considered disposable.

The small team worked in the Brown School of Engineering’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK), where the original project came together last spring. The OEDK is usually hopping at this time of year as Rice senior engineering students race to finish their capstone design requirements. With students hunkered down and taking their classes online, the facility provided a quiet refuge for the ApolloBVM team as it worked around the clock to build the device.

The Department of Defense is one of the groups interested in ApolloBVM. The U.S. Navy invited several institutions to submit proposals to develop a low-cost, mechanical ventilation support system that can be rapidly produced with widely available resources.

“This is as simple as it can get, with all readily available parts,” said Danny Blacker, the OEDK’s engineering design supervisor.


The prototype uses an Arduino board to facilitate programming that allows users to adjust the rate of air delivery to the lungs of patients depending on their conditions, but the team expects a custom integrated circuit will eventually be available to replace the board at a lower cost. The device will also employ feedback sensors that help fine-tune the flow of air to the lungs, as well as motors of the same type that power 3D printers for hours on end.

In its documentation, the team characterizes ApolloBVM as a “high-acuity limited-operability (HALO) ventilator solution with an a priori design to produce volume- and pressure-cycled ventilation that includes positive end-expiratory pressure and the inclusion of enriched oxygen sources.”

Malya inspired the Rice project two years ago after seeing families try to keep critically ill loved ones at the Kwai River Christian Hospital in Thailand alive by bag-ventilating them for hours on end. He expects the new ApolloBVM to serve that purpose eventually, but the need is now worldwide.

“This is a clinician-informed end-to-end design that repurposes the existing BVM global inventory toward widespread and safe access to mechanical ventilation,” Malya said, noting that more than 100 million bag valve masks are manufactured around the world each year.

“The immediate goal is a device that works well enough to keep noncritical COVID-19 patients stable and frees up larger ventilators for more critical patients,” added Amy Kavalewitz, executive director of the OEDK.

Malya said the name is a tribute to Rice’s history with NASA and President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech kicking off the nation’s efforts to go to the moon.

“This project appeals to our ingenuity, it’s a Rice-based project and it’s for all of humanity,” he said. “And we’re on an urgent timescale. We decided to throw it all on the table and see how far we go.”

Up-to-date details about the project, dubbed the ApolloBVM, and its progress are available here:

http://oedk.rice.edu/apollobvm/

[Hank Chinaski]

So we sucked Trump’s mushroom dick in the election. I didn’t enjoy it, but okay, once we get into a pandemic we gotta be front of line to get equipment? Turns out nope. My prez doesn’t like my governor, so the people, who fucking voted for him? Die.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

So we sucked Trump’s mushroom dick in the election. I didn’t enjoy it, but okay, once we get into a pandemic we gotta be front of line to get equipment? Turns out nope. My prez doesn’t like my governor, so the people, who fucking votes for him? Die.

I know that sucks, but I don't think you're taking into account how valuable it will be in the long term that so many Michigan voters supported Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, paving the way to break hegemony of the two-party system.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I know that sucks, but I don't think you're taking into account how valuable it will be in the long term that so many Michigan voters supported Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, paving the way to break hegemony of the two-party system.

Thank you for the reminder. We need to get third party vote over 5%, or 7 or whatever the number is. Biden=Trump. I will vote for real change!

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I know that sucks, but I don't think you're taking into account how valuable it will be in the long term that so many Michigan voters supported Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, paving the way to break hegemony of the two-party system.

Fair point. Hil would not have done differently I’m sure. And if we can just the third party up to what, 5%? 7? Then things will really tart falling into place.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

Can't even buy S&P puts or borrow S&P shares to short.

I had no problem shorting DIA at the end of today.

"The U.S. became the first country to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases. Italy had its deadliest day with almost 1,000 fatalities. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his health secretary tested positive.

President Donald Trump ordered General Motors to start making ventilators by invoking a Cold War-era law. Toyota’s idled U.S. manufacturing facilities will make much-needed face shields and masks.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said new infections will be “astronomical.” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned his city may see a New York-like surge in less than a week."

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

& Azithromycin.

It's not a great study that made the connection.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I'd rather they give these people masks and hand sanitizer. Bezos can afford it.

But no, I've no objection to paying a premium. As long as I know damn well it goes to the workers exclusively and not the owners.

You OK? https://www.foxnews.com/us/closing-p...lvania-experts

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

You OK? https://www.foxnews.com/us/closing-p...lvania-experts

I've got enough to stun a stable of horses.

Wolf can't easily reopen the stores because the workers are unionized and the union is saying no way. And I'll bet a ton of the workers now have the disease because Wolf announced the closure two days before it happened, creating standing room only collections of consumers in every store for 48 hours.

A buddy of mine is doing disaster planning for a city (he's a bit busy) and seizures from booze and opioid withdrawal are a serious concern. A client that designs rehab facilities has been asked to look into how they may be expanded to include makeshift triage area, so ERs don't have to deal with addicts seizing.

I have had strange chills for a few days, however. I can't imagine I have it, but I was going to the gym daily until Wolf closed them, and to stores fairly frequently thru last week. So I'm not totally ignoring such symptoms, as I normally would.

ETA: Oh, and we're definitely getting civil unrest.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Fair point. Hil would not have done differently I’m sure. And if we can just the third party up to what, 5%? 7? Then things will really tart falling into place.

I'm sorry. I should have seen this, and your state's kerfuffle with Trump, in advance.

There are two ways to deal with Trump. Score political points off him, or kiss his ass. A gets you an enemy you can ill afford at the moment, b gets you what you want from a transactional nihilist.

You can win an argument with your spouse. And then you won't get laid for a month. A smart person would rather get laid.

Same sort of shit played out between Cuomo and DeBlasio. Worked out brilliantly for NYC.

[Icky Thump]

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you

https://twitter.com/bostonTVguy/stat...82389382787072