Serious question: Has anyone seen an article or study about the microcephaly effects on pregnancy where the main population studied was not in brazil? I have yet to see a study that links it to microcephaly for anyone who has not been in brazil for a long time. I realize the mosquito isn't common, but brazil also does things like: "secretly spray tons and tons of pesticide on their populus", etc. Given these are all…
Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
51–60 of 213 posts
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
talking on an iPhone, by yourself, especially late at night, then you're asking for trouble. Please don't apply your standards other cities of the world. What you described does not happen in my (capital) city. In fact if you drop something, you will likely get it back.
I'm not sure about the tone of that message, but I have lived in several cities where this was the case: Oslo, Singapore, Helsinki, Stockholm come to mind as places where even “dodgy” areas have had until recently very little instances of systematic robberies.
Just to give a counter example: I lived in Brussels, Philadelphia, Oslo, Sao Paulo... the only place about which I have a first hand "armed robbery" story was in Oslo of all places: a coworker got actually shot in the back when he bravely (but stupidly) turned his back and said "no, you are not going to shoot me".
He was lucky and was only a couple of weeks out but he carried his X-rays of the bullet with him because nobody would believe him otherwise.
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a middle-income tourist who has had multiple holidays in Rio, the closest I've come to being robbed was by a taxi driver that wanted $200 to travel from Corcovado to Pao de Acucar. Seriously, it's like any other city in the world. If you walk around a dodgy area talking on an iPhone, by yourself, especially late at night, then you're asking for trouble. Be sensible and cautious, and Rio is a lovely place to go on…
Not that I don't agree with you... I do. But, being brazilian, the idea of walking around at any time with my iphone out makes me cringe. I love my country, and I think everyone should visit it, but just keep away your iphones and anything of value while walking about, and you'll be fine!
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#54This article is idiotic if the main reason for cancelling the game is actually some "global spread" of Zika. Rio is not some city in the middle of nowhere from which no flights are coming in and out of, and now suddenly this massive international influx of visitors will come in -- it is a world-class city, a financial hub of the largest country in the continent. If we take London 2012 as a benchmark, estimates there…
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#55This article is idiotic if the main reason for cancelling the game is actually some "global spread" of Zika. Rio is not some city in the middle of nowhere from which no flights are coming in and out of, and now suddenly this massive international influx of visitors will come in -- it is a world-class city, a financial hub of the largest country in the continent. If we take London 2012 as a benchmark, estimates there…
No, it's not the same.
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is the FINANCIAL impact the biggest one to be considered?
Because it's an objective unit of measurement. You can't objectively measure (or assign a value to) human suffering.
If you could produce more meat cheaper at the expense of keeping animals in terrible conditions on factory farms, would you do it? After all, if money is all that matters the animal's suffering doesn't even enter the equation.
How about increasing financial gain at the expense of destroying the natural environment (eg overfishing, dumping plastics and releasing all the carbon from the ground)? Grandchildren may have to pay the bill, but what if you had perfect knowledge and knew they'd be economically richer, but with worse health outcomes and lots of species gone exinct?
Measuring implies a model, and the model makes assumptions about the world that may not be true, and the whole combination can be extremely harmful. Not to mention very human-centric (and "us" centric). As the Native American chief said:
When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#57So does "fold" just mean "times"? I always thought it meant 2^x times.
Yes. It's quite commonly used in British English afaik. You can say "This brought a twofold increase in clientele", "We saw a threefold weight increase in affected mammals". I've never seen it used passed "fourfold" though.
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
talking on an iPhone, by yourself, especially late at night, then you're asking for trouble. Please don't apply your standards other cities of the world. What you described does not happen in my (capital) city. In fact if you drop something, you will likely get it back.
He said in a dodgy area . Pray tell what is this magical city you live in that does not have a single dodgy area.
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is the FINANCIAL impact the biggest one to be considered?
Because it's an objective unit of measurement. You can't objectively measure (or assign a value to) human suffering.
So yes, we can and we do 'objectively' (as in, per a standardized methodology) assign value to human suffering.
Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed
#60I think this is a stupid statement made by people that are not in Rio. I live a longtime in Rio and never had Dengue, Zika or whatever.. right now it's cold in Rio de Janeiro so mosquitos are dead or dying, how are you going to get Zika with dead mosquitos right now? Stupids and racists from Harvard, search more references first!
Your anecdotal evidence is much more valuable than a report put out by the world's top university. Thanks!
I'm not saying that there's no Zika, I'm just saying that there's more of a "ohhh.. everybody is going to get it!" then anything else...