Posts by aficionado

  • Hantavirus is NOT a pandemic says WHO

    Interesting to learn of the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, a British territory with slightly more than 200 residents. The stop just after the first passenger died. Here is the islands interesting community website reporting on the medical supplies and personnel airdrop. In addition to the report, the whole website is great example of an informative community run page.

    Tristan is famously the remotest inhabited island in the world

    Details of the Daring Airdrop at Tristan da Cunha, 9th May 2026
    More details and pictures have come in of the intrepid airdrop of urgent medical support sent to Tristan by the UK Government on the 9th May 2026.
    www.tristandc.com

  • Hantavirus is NOT a pandemic says WHO

    The CNN article that UK Man posted does a good job of explaining the difference between the city mice who transmit a different variety of Hantavirus, vs the rural Andes variety which is what these passengers brought on board.

    To me, it sounds like any investigation will be to confirm mice populations. There is no need for urgency since they have no confirmed cases in the province. They already know the mountainous provinces in Argentina and Chile, are who have a documented number of cases every year. There is nothing anything anyone can do to stop this Andes variant, except telling people to be cautious when stepping off the rural routes onto leaf litter, tall overgrowth, and other mice friendly areas.

    I also read somewhere about the cruise operator. They are known for their strict protocols and mostly cater to environmental and nature seeking clients who will follow those protocols. Since those best practices are designed to prevent contamination at different ports of call as they travel around. Not necessarily to prevent this type of human outbreak. For example, they take extra steps to be sure no one places their bags on the ground during daily guided trips, and wash footwear before reboarding.

    Quote

    The duo, both aged 69, spent 48 hours in the city before they set sail, it is believed.

    The Dutch man first displayed symptoms of the virus five days later on April 6, while at sea, Petrina noted.

    "The time frames do not correspond to a possible infection in Ushuaia," Petrina said.

    Quote

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the incubation period – the time between infection and the onset of symptoms – for hantavirus is between one and six weeks.

    But it is typically between two and three weeks, WHO technical officer Anais Legand told the AFP news agency.

    Health official: 'Almost zero' chance Dutch man got hantavirus in Ushuaia
    Tierra del Fuego epidemiology director Juan Petrina says that the likelihood that the Dutch man linked to the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship…
    www.batimes.com.ar

  • PC memory (RAM)

    Quote from Splinter

    From our DCT editor:

    He definitely has some sort of ad-blocker active somewhere.

    I see he's using the DuckDuckGo browser on an iPad. Well, you can let him know that the DuckDuckGo browser block ads by default, ad-blocking and anti-tracking is built into the browser.

    If he's going to use a privacy oriented browser such as DuckDuckGo or Brave, ads will be blocked by default.

    First, it is not the same as Brave browser which promotes itself as intentionally blocking all advertising.


    In my post I wrote clearly, that I have settings in DuckDuckGo browser to block Trackers, not Ads. So this means, yes, sites that force intrusive type of advertising via tricks when performing the tracking handshake will not get their ads through. I am using that browser to stop exactly this type of sketchy abusive behavior. If DCT is fine with that then me, the customer, will not be able read their content or pay them by reading normal conventional advertising that their competitors provide. I only visit sites of their competitors who follow the rules.

  • Hantavirus is NOT a pandemic says WHO

    Quote from Splinter

    The national government's investigation team is taking its time arriving in Ushuaia when they need to jump on this one asap!

    The federal government has already done their part. They have set the stage for the free market to come in to resolve the problem. The national park workers have been eliminated so the maintenance of trails, signage, and education of visitors can now be replaced by the tourism industry. The health workers, plus animal and plant biologists in the field no longer work for the government agencies, so the free market will do those jobs much more efficiently. Soon. 🤔

  • Car insurance fraud.

    I only hear about needing the Technical Review (RTO) system, also known as Vehicle Technical Verification (VTV) if a police asks during their seatbelt/insurance/registration stop. The laws by decree were changed this year. Now many workshops can do this inspection to give a sticker, instead of the limited few of the past. And new vehicles do not need until their 5th year.

  • Hantavirus is NOT a pandemic says WHO

    I recall deadly cases reported in recent years from mountain areas of Neuquen and Rio Negro provinces. Also the famous case, from the last year or two, of Gene Hackman when his wife died from the disease contracted somewhere on the multimillion sprawling property in New Mexico.
    —-
    [This lastest virus outbreak] has been identified as the Andes virus, the only type of hantavirus that can be transmitted from one person to another.
    —-
    Argentine officials revealed their governent’s leading theory is that the two MV Hondius passengers carried the rat-virus on board after birdwatching in the city of Ushuaia, the Associated Press reports.

    The pair, both 69, visited a landfill site during the trip and may have been exposed to rodents carrying the deadly infection.

    They then boarded the cruise ship on April 1, 2026, and the husband developed flu-like symptoms five days later.

    Argentine authorities have said Ushuaia and surrounding Tierra del Fuego province had never recorded a hantavirus case.

    Couple killed in hantavirus outbreak 'contracted it during bird watching trip'
    metro.co.uk

  • The missus crashed the new car.

    Quote from UK Man

    The pickup arrived while the missus was in the garage. She just assumed the coast was clear as it always is and was looking to see if there was any traffic coming up the road. I did ask her if the collision warning sounded but she said she thought it was because the rufuse bin was too close.

    In many other countries there would be clear yellow painted curb outside your garage. That other parked car would have received a parking fine rather quickly. Young people (including me back then) who first drive are outraged to receive parking tickets, but eventually figure it out. Here in Argentina if the municipality attempts a better, fairer, parking or driving violation system, the citizens revolt declaring their human rights are being violated for having to follow any new safer equitable rules.

  • The missus crashed the new car.

    Larger vehicle also take some time to learn what to watch out for. The backup cameras, that I assume the bronco has, are great, but now your mind is learning to move your eyes from the two side mirrors, the rear view mirror, and the tv screen in the center console showing lower rear view, plus it is beeping different sounds based on distances. The unexpected person blocking your driveway does not help.

  • Gaming articles

    Quote from Splinter

    new-video-game-pragmata-shocks-modern-audiences/

    It only takes one real person to begin the controversy, then most are automated posts simulating outrage, though really they are embedded with spam or phishing attempts. Any real people who are silly enough to post into the argument are data harvested

  • PC memory (RAM)

    I see DCT works fine on my Firefox on one of my other Android phones that I use as an isolated test sandbox to visit websites like DCT who allow sketchy advertisement services. So I'll never visit DCT from any of my main daily devices until they stop blocking browsers like Brave and DuckDuckGo which do not allow Trackers.

    I know the reason Firefox works is because it does not have a Block Trackers option. Which means I will never use Firefox to visit DCT

  • PC memory (RAM)

    Quote from Splinter

    Can you try another browser?

    I can. But I will not. I isolate my forum and social media any from my normal browsing, where a posted link might contaminate. Same for visiting websites who allow sketchy ads which also are more likely to have been planted there with bad intent.

    The DuckDuckGo browser is doing it's job well. Even though I am not blocking advertisements I am not allowing Trackers. Apparently the advertisement network in use at DCT is recognizing that I have anti-tracker setting turned on, and is spuriously reporting to the website owner at I am ad-blocking.