[QUOTE=Xyzzy;541744][URL]https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/world/coronavirus-earth-seismic-noise-scn-trnd[/URL][/QUOTE]Ground-propagated vibration from truck traffic and other human activity is also a factor in particle accelerator performance. Electron synchrotrons, linear accelerators, and free electron lasers are used worldwide as light sources of exceptionally high brightness, small source size, and controllable time structure and polarization for leading edge research in many fields. Within the last ten years or more, it became necessary to site such shared facilities on high quality bedrock, with very thick continuously-poured concrete foundations, and sometimes with earthen berms as a means of mitigation of lateral propagation of vibration from nearby roadways. At ESRF, road repairs to reduce source magnitude were employed. That big thump a cargo truck makes on a manhole cover or crack in the pavement shakes things in the distance, by more microns than the light source and experimental beam lines can well tolerate. [url]https://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/e96/PAPERS/TUPG/TUP034G.PDF[/url]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;541746]I realized what I had just done, and what I had to do. [/QUOTE]A no-mechanical-contact photo with a camera or cell phone is something to consider for next time. Although that implies breaching the social distancing minimum if the photo is to be readable.

[QUOTE=kriesel;541750]A no-mechanical-contact photo with a camera or cell phone is something to consider for next time. Although that implies breaching the social distancing minimum if the photo is to be readable.[/QUOTE]
Yup. I also note that "social distancing," though almost certainly helpful in limiting airborne transmission, may be basically irrelevant WRT environmental transmission. Any surface touched by many people could be harboring virus -- a gas pump handle, a publicly accessible touch screen, a keypad.

If a trucker, delivery person, or anyone stocking the shelves in a grocery store is infected, the packages or items could be harboring virus. If a shopper is infected, anythingh they've touched will be infected.

You touch it, then touch your face, Boom! You've got it.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;541752]You touch it, then touch your face, Boom! You've got it.[/QUOTE]You can wear one of those comedy face masks and make yourself look like Trump. Then Trump would get it, hah!

Plus that has the added bonus of neutering the facial recognisers used to track you.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;541752]Yup. I also note that "social distancing," though almost certainly helpful in limiting airborne transmission, may be basically irrelevant WRT environmental transmission. Any surface touched by many people could be harboring virus -- a gas pump handle, a publicly accessible touch screen, a keypad.

If a trucker, delivery person, or anyone stocking the shelves in a grocery store is infected, the packages or items could be harboring virus. If a shopper is infected, anythingh they've touched will be infected.

You touch it, then touch your face, Boom! You've got it.[/QUOTE]
Available data indicate viability time of viruses on cardboard at of order a day, and so perhaps on paper also; on most plastics or metals multiple days, with austenitic stainless steels used for their corrosion resistance and cosmetics widely in health care settings particularly bad (e coli lingering for weeks or longer), while copper and zinc alloys (most bronzes or brass) or pure metal only hours. Web search "oligodynamic"; even better than the antimicrobial action of finely divided silver, which must get wet, as in wound dressings. In the bronze age, supposedly soldiers would sharpen their swords after an engagement and put the fine shavings in their wounds. Copper plumbing has gone out of favor, but was long noted for its resistance to developing biofilms.
Gives a whole new meaning to expiration date. Nominally inanimate objects can be quarantined for a suitable period in a designated location at home. (All those plastic-packaged items bought online and delivered by the usual [B]carriers[/B], or from local retail.)
[QUOTE=retina;541754]You can wear one of those comedy face masks...
Plus that has the added bonus of neutering the facial recognisers used to track you.[/QUOTE]Somewhat ineffectual if it's the formed plastic type of mask, given the airborne issue. Have some fun with it though; try to find a Dr. Fauci mask, or go as an old western bank robber (kerchief mask, hat to match). I have a kerchief or two that belonged to an ancestor who was borne during the late 19th century, before the last of the American Indian conflicts, started a family during WWI, continued having kids through the spanish flu epidemic, roaring twenties, and Great Depression, and finished raising them in WWII and the beginning of the Cold War.

[QUOTE=xilman;541733][URL="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52161995"]Mr Geisel said the diversion of masks from Berlin amounted to an "act of modern piracy", urging the Trump administration to adhere to international trading rules.[/URL][/QUOTE]

I do not know if that is true, but assume that 3M is producing most of its masks in China. What would happen if China'ld use a similar act to prevent export to the US; maybe simply to distribute them in a fairer way?

[QUOTE=kriesel;541758]Available data indicate viability time of viruses on cardboard at of order a day, and so perhaps on paper also; on most plastics or metals multiple days, with austenitic stainless steels used for their corrosion resistance and cosmetics widely in health care settings particularly bad (e coli lingering for weeks or longer), while copper and zinc alloys (most bronzes or brass) or pure metal only hours. Web search "oligodynamic"; even better than the antimicrobial action of finely divided silver, which must get wet, as in wound dressings. In the bronze age, supposedly soldiers would sharpen their swords after an engagement and put the fine shavings in their wounds. Copper plumbing has gone out of favor, but was long noted for its resistance to developing biofilms.
Gives a whole new meaning to expiration date. Nominally inanimate objects can be quarantined for a suitable period in a designated location at home. (All those plastic-packaged items bought online and delivered by the usual [B]carriers[/B], or from local retail.)[/QUOTE]Reminds me of an article I read -- probably in the early 1990's -- about cutting boards. A study showed that wooden cutting boards were actually more sanitary WRT food-poisoning bacteria than plastic ones, which were nearly impossible to disinfect, due to the microbes being lodged in knife cuts in the plastic. I got a copy of a report from the author, whose name I remember to this day, as D. O. Cliver. When I saw the slight repositioning to "Doc Liver," the name was stuck in my memory forever!

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;541764]Reminds me of an article I read -- probably in the early 1990's -- about cutting boards. A study showed that wooden cutting boards were actually more sanitary WRT food-poisoning bacteria than plastic ones, which were nearly impossible to disinfect, due to the microbes being lodged in knife cuts in the plastic. I got a copy of a report from the author, whose name I remember to this day, as D. O. Cliver. When I saw the slight repositioning to "Doc Liver," the name was stuck in my memory forever![/QUOTE]I remember a similar study. It makes sense; trees live for decades or centuries, can't move away from epidemic areas, and are prone to various diseases. Having antifungals and antimicrobials built in to the wood has an obvious evolutionary advantage. One of my 3 locust trees at home got a bad root fungus. It went down in a wind storm, while all the trees upwind were fine. Honey locust is very hard wood when healthy, but the part just below grade that failed, in a pyramidal 45 degree pattern (shear failure from bending stresses) could be cut with a spade, like it was cork, not hardwood. What they need to evolve next is greater resistance to insects, such as termites, carpenter ants, and borers; perhaps a symbiosis with pathogens for problem insects.
It's unclear how much of the antimicrobial action of wood survives normal processing including kiln drying, or the severe treatment undergone in papermaking. [URL]https://www.rowandsons.co.uk/blog/myth-fact-antibacterial-properties-wood/[/URL]
That seems focused more on bacteria, molds, and yeast. Specific to virus and the currently pertinent strains is [url]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354207002380[/url]

[QUOTE=retina;541754]You can wear one of those comedy face masks and make yourself look like Trump. Then Trump would get it, hah!

Plus that has the added bonus of neutering the facial recognisers used to track you.[/QUOTE]
Our Hypocrite-in-Chief is now recommending people wear face masks, but says he won't wear one. But then, he'd need [i]two.[/i] So I guess he's doing more than most folks to conserve the supply...

I've been sent a number of Emails in recent days, offering face masks to "Protect yourself from virus attack!"

I reckoned the best way to do that was to delete the messages without downloading them, so I never saw the details of these offers.

Know your enemy
 

This article must have been a challenge to proofread.
[url]https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/science/coronavirus-genome-bad-news-wrapped-in-protein.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab[/url]

[QUOTE=kriesel;541745]Missing two categories:
5) Contact with an infectee that remains asymptomatic and undiagnosed. Random testing in multiple studies have shown 33 to 46% of those infected fall in this category.
6) Airborne transmission, which a recent study or two has indicated is occurring, in addition to droplet or surface modes.[/QUOTE]

No - your 5) is exactly Science article's "4. Asymptomatic", and airborne is included in "3. Environmental" - note I wrote "e.g. on surfaces" not, "i.e. on surfaces" - though the line there between close-infectee-contact and 'environmental does admittedly blur . And the numbers are early estimates, not carved in stone, my main takeaway was "asymptomatic transmission by various modes is possibly responsible for the majority of transmission", thus people should take appropriate precautions - social-distance, wash hands, avoid touching eyes/nose/mouth with unwashed hands (masks help here), wear a cotton surgical-style earloop mask whenever in an enclosed space with other people where 6'/2m-distancing is difficult to achieve.