Would not be surprised to hear MIPS tweaking is the default operating procedure for internet providers in most of the world. Tweaking is a powerful tool to manage the loads on their server farms.

Same with phone companies.

Observations from a UPS feeder driver (tractor-trailers).

Had a freakishly large surge of pickups early in the week from the pet food factory in Flagstaff.
Usually averages around 450 boxes per day, but was around 1500 on Monday, 1200 on Tuesday, and tapered down to a little over 300 last night.

Fulfilled by Amazon, and they're pretty fast getting that stuff into our system.
The hub in Goodyear wasn't abnormally busy early in the week, but picked up towards the end of the week (not normal) as slower shippers got their stuff in the system.

Seeing more rigs on the road at night than is normal for this time of year, and significantly more grocery store trucks.
The supply chain is catching up to the demand surge.

The craziness should start abating in a week or two when people realize that the stores keep getting restocked.
There aren't any shortages, just limits in the speed of restock.

Got a general message from my manager today.
UPS has been classified as a Critical Infrastructure Industry by DHS, so we're supposed to keep working everywhere.

The nature of what the package drivers do pretty much guarantees some of them will catch it (a former coworker in package has been delivering into a hot zone for the last week).
From the package drivers it will spread to the hub workers, and then eventually to the feeder drivers.

The package drivers tend to be in very good health and under the age of 50 while the hub workers are mostly in their 20s and 30s, so most of them should be fine.
A little worried about my department, as many of the drivers are in their 50s, 60s, and older, with many of those in not the best health.

There's effectively nothing being done by UPS to protect workers from infection.
Realistically, there's not much which can be done.

Hopefully this problem will start coming under control before it sweeps through our system.

Strong hopes for that as well (and for you). Logistics tanking is a killer. Besides, I have an affinity for 'Brown' - as they are the carrier in my AO that simply rocks it & makes the others look like amateurs.

Recent notice others may have already seen....


Seems those that were not prepared for such an occurrence are finding doors slamming shut by the hour.

Stay safe out there.

As the son of a 40 year UPS package driver, I wish you and all of your colleagues great fortune and good health.

May God bless and protect all the great men and women who keep this awesome nation of ours chugging along.

Best Regards,
K

Americans are used to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes where the supply chain is interrupted by infrastructure damage. This is all new to us. The problem is (or will be) that those that are hoarding now won't just stash the TP and can goods away but use them until their stash is depleted. That puts them right back where they started from, unprepared.

You can not eat or shoot TP, that fact should drive a rational persons decision process.

So I find the virus concern is real but not near the concern the media and public officials trying to avoid political suicide are acting like.

The media has distorted the facts which are unknown and certainly not complete or absolute at this time much like the flu where many people do not go to the doctor are not reported....as a poor kid with 8 bros and sisters we never went to a doctor for anything that did not require hospitalization....in fact I knew no other kids within my socioeconomic group who went to a doctor outside of the same deal. America still has a ton of people who rarely if ever go tot he Dr for a flu or cold. It does not take a mathematician to understand that their must always be all the information available to call a statistic a fact. The current statistics are based off known information but the actual death rate may be much lower than many other illnesses given the lack of testing to confirm the totality of the spread.

The real concern here is the irresponsible reporting and reactions by sheeple that is causing a panic that is on the verge of becoming epic. According to most of the Coronaviruses as in the common cold and others and what is seen already by scientist of 19 is it is vulnerable to heat like many viruses. So when the POTUS in a simplified way stated the comment that summer was coming and the virus would go away is not entirely wrong. The common sense should tell us that if science says heat destroys it and it can live in freezing environments that this strain will survive...hopefully everybody understands the hemispheres and the planetary changes through the 365 day cycle means their are summers, springs, falls and winters somewhere all year round hence this will survive like the flu the common cold and the plethora of other germs, viruses etc....around the globe.

The irony is the Chinese did not have 1 not 2 but 8 vaccines in short order post Wuhan spread.....hmmmm all those years we trained for NBC scenarios only to nearly abandon the concern when 9/11 happened instead focusing a top tier superpower military on fighting cavemen in sandals and RPG's in a third world country a far less sophisticated opponent....we took our military backward and even nearly eliminated our heavy capability when Obama decided to deactivate the Tankers in Europe and leave them to fend for themse......BTW GREAT IDEA BHO....surprise the Russians took that Uranium they got from good old Hillary did I mention it was American Uranium? and once again brought the old red Army aggression back.....damn near brings a tear to my eyes. And decided to take Crimea back and once again harkening back to Hitlers Germany war machine concerns decided to hold the oil and natural gas of Europe hostage once again. I digress......while all this was happening the Chinese dug in like Alabama ticks in Africa building infrastructure to get those darn natural resources seemed to be playing with the NBC idea in a way the Biological anyway and it seems ironic that the virus got out so quickly and they had again lets count not 1 not 2 nor 3....4,5,6,7 they had 8 solutions....seems awfully convenient such few cases have been reported on the continent given how deficient the healthcare system, and nutritional issues amongst other issues that has compromised the health and immunities there.

Now just curious if anyone honestly believes the Chinese government just had to deal with an unexpected outbreak the "sum ting wong" virus hit? or is it possible they were playing with the biological warfare side somewhat and it accidently got out before they could treat it.....OR....they intentionally turned it loose and had a surprisingly positive (for China) effect on western civilization.....strange how common westerners are terrified and more concerned with toilet paper for a cold/flue type virus than the economy....how many are buying cheap stock? are the Chinese????? no matter how this turns out I am curious and may be placing bets on how this affects civilization how we know it.....in the words of FDR there is nothing to fear but fear itself

WD, from Post 86th of this thread, discounted, imho, because no-one at that point wanted to confront the Chinese. Make no mistake they are our enemy, they have 1.3 billion people to feed. To survive they must expand.


edit to add: from day one I have been prejudice towards China, but with good reason. I have had two staffs front and back of the house, they are RUTHLESS with each other, and particularly with not Chinese.

I have skipped over while speed reading threads but good to see we are on the same page......all the breadcrumbs lead right back to an intentional or possibly unintentional outbreak.....when the Dr who first reported it dies after being ignored then it seems silenced by the government it smells of something fishy

WD, yes. That said, moving forward the triangle of Russia, China and Iran as a PR front, speaks to me as intention. That held, every move, action, deflection since day one hits my nerve center as conjoined. Mind you, I am far outside my lane, but have posses an uncanny ability to recognize macro human behavior based on my training in organizational dynamics.

Ok folks... Quote of the week

I'm going with that. The first rule of NBC warfare is "don't nuke yourself". Still, of the 3, bio, as far as I know, is the most uncontrollable. I would think that you'd want a deadly but short lived disease so that you could quickly occupy the battlefield. In some ways this fits that description, but it's not very troubling to fit young military aged men. In that sense it doesn't seem to be a very good weapon.

Genomic analysis points to natural origin
 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0317175442.htm

"By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes," said Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research and corresponding author on the paper.

In addition to Andersen, authors on the paper, "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2," include Robert F. Garry, of Tulane University; Edward Holmes, of the University of Sydney; Andrew Rambaut, of University of Edinburgh; W. Ian Lipkin, of Columbia University.
...

The scientists analyzed the genetic template for spike proteins, armatures on the outside of the virus that it uses to grab and penetrate the outer walls of human and animal cells. More specifically, they focused on two important features of the spike protein: the receptor-binding domain (RBD), a kind of grappling hook that grips onto host cells, and the cleavage site, a molecular can opener that allows the virus to crack open and enter host cells.

Evidence for natural evolution

The scientists found that the RBD portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins had evolved to effectively target a molecular feature on the outside of human cells called ACE2, a receptor involved in regulating blood pressure. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was so effective at binding the human cells, in fact, that the scientists concluded it was the result of natural selection and not the product of genetic engineering.

This evidence for natural evolution was supported by data on SARS-CoV-2's backbone -- its overall molecular structure. If someone were seeking to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness. But the scientists found that the SARS-CoV-2 backbone differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.
snip

Huh? Where did you read about them having ANY vaccines in use?