[Ed P]

Yes Bob, that is the sort of soot I remember. The pic also captures the scoured clean fireclay of the ‘throat’ and base of the hearth.

[Ed P]

I would suggest a clean install, but I note that swmbo has a lot of software installed. That factor makes me suspect Cortana even more!

[Ed P]

Root certificates need updating? link

The anti-virus used can add its own twist to this, for example Kaspersky’s trust certs are not trusted by Firefox.

[edit] This link gives some other possible steps.

[Ed P]

If so and if neighbours PC is old (pre 2010) it may be a CMOS battery issue.

[Ed P]

On initial installation Windows 10 has the vile habit of spending the next couple of days snooping through all your files and categorising the results into a search database for Cortana. If you have any network attached storage it will also trawl through that as well if given a chance.

There are nuclear options to disable Cortana link, but you may want to grin and bear it for a week before deciding what to do.

M$ is aware that most people hate Cortana on the desktop and has promised future ways of removing it.

[Ed P]

I think that Western Health Officials are in a ‘do not spread panic’ mode at the moment. However their advice to health professionals is a little more worrying.

Paraphrasing: if you have cause for concern that the patient may have Snake Flu, flee and lock them inside the room before carrying on the rest of your examination by phone. The next stage is left moot!

[Ed P]

I just picked up this Wired article on Snake Flu – apparently Health Officials were warned  over the New Year. It has now been around for about a month and a LOT of potential vectors are flying around the world.

Based on released Chinese data and a back of the envelope calculation about 30% of those infected will require intensive care, and about one in twenty of those infected will die.

I’m not surprised that the UK is now starting to focus on how to manage large numbers of infected people, but I just cannot see them locking down Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick in the way the Chinese have acted.

[Ed P]

Snake Flu seems to be a contagious virus. The precautions so far recommended are similar to those for ordinary flu:

“The consensus appears to be that wearing a mask can limit – but not eliminate – the risks, provided they are used correctly. That means securing them over the mouth, chin and nose, using the bendable metal strip at the top to keep it snug against the contours of the nose.

Experts say the best way to avoid germs, with coronavirus and other airborne illnesses, is to wash your hands thoroughly and frequently, try not to touch your face or eyes and avoid contact with people displaying symptoms.

source Guardian”

Glasses may also offer some protection against virus splashes, but surgical gloves are not recommended as hand washing is supposedly better.

I assume that the more worrying symptomless transmission is mainly through touching a contaminated surface (door handle, hand shake, kissing etc) and subsequent transfer to mouth/nose/eyes.

[Ed P]

Again very nice, but if you don’t mind me being picky; then harking back to the wood burning fireplaces of my youth and in the US, it is still squeaky clean even the usual smoke spillover at the top of the fireplace has been wirebrushed.

This image shows the sort of soot and ash I remember. This one shows the smoke spillover.

[Ed P]

They have now shutdown Hong Kong schools for one month.

Oh well, it will remedy the dumb-bell age distribution in the UK!

[Ed P]

Add some semolina to your mix – Turkish style.

[Ed P]

As Dave implies – Gaming!

[Ed P]

Nice lighting, very well executed. Nice random brickwork too.

A very minor texturing/composition critique – fireplace is too clean, no soot etc. It needs a bit of ‘grunge’ applied. No red glowing ash in grate.

[Ed P]

UK Dog walkers should now make themselves aware of the symptoms of Lyme Disease (from Deer Ticks). I knew someone in the US who had it without knowing about it for months and it played havoc with his body and brain before finally being cured. Had it been identified early on he would not have been as badly affected.

[Ed P]

Many tropical diseases and parasites are truly horrific. A colleague of mine was in Zaire for three or four months and was at some time bitten by a fly. Nasty bite but he thought he had contracted malaria so started on the usual ‘whack it’ prophylactic of sulfonamide (not without substantial risk in itself). It did not work, then he started seeing things moving under his skin and swimming in his eyeballs. He was medivaced to France  and had six months of treatment that darned near killed him!

Thirty years ago the dosages to kill some tropical parasites was only slightly less than the lethal dose for humans!

[Ed P]

Off topic as usual – I cannot help thinking pop bottle with ceramic, rubber and wire stopper whenever I read or hear ‘Corona’. Post war there were still a very few used Corona bottles around that had the coveted glass marble as a stopper.

[Ed P]

I assume no change (other than possibly an increase!) is required on existing PayPal donations.

[Ed P]

+ 1 @VFM, animal-human crossovers are frequently the cause of woe. Lucky for us, the deadly Asian form of Hantavirus never got further than Australia, but that one initially came from bat crap on food-stuffs. So always wash your fruit and veg!

However I suspect that the snake origin for coronavirus may be a first for a reptile-human crossover.

[Ed P]

Lots of theories on this one. Latest one is that the virus is a snake-human crossover.

It is thought that it may be from the Chinese wet-market practice of selling poisonous snakes for human consumption. (Many Chinese folk medicines are based on appearance so snakes are consumed to restore libido). Typically the butcher will grab a snake and just chop its head off before giving it all to the customer. The chopping block just gets a wipe with a dirty rag before moving on to chickens etc.

[Ed P]

Add surgical gloves to your day to day wear. Research shows that hand contamination is a major transmission vector for respiratory illnesses.

[Author]

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