OlympicsFan

An (somewhat?) interesting comparison of how Germany and Sweden handled this pandemic so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyqRsOPo4Ik About the current situation in Germany: Apparently the reproduction rate went down to 0.7, which is good news, but i am not sure whether it still is too early to "end the lockdown", considering that the Wuhan region had a reproduction rate of 0.32 before they ended the lockdown and now they still seem to get a second wave pretty quickly. In addition to that there are currently more than 11k free hospital beds in Germany, so there is some "wiggle room". About a possible vaccine: I am not sure whether this has been mentioned before, but apparently some oxford scientist said a couple of days ago that they could have a vaccine by September if everything "works out as planned". As i mentioned before a representative of the german company "CureVac said that same recently, so let's hope that we will maybe have a vaccine for high-risk groups by the end of the year. From what i understand, they aren't trying to develop a completely new vaccine, but they are hoping to repurpose a vaccine that has originally been designed for another virus and might also work on this virus after some "adjustments". Since those vaccines already cleared phase 1 of the clinical trials, they might be available much sooner than vaccines that have to be developed "from scratch".

No, because it could/will never be proven.

Which masks are you talking about? I think the kind of mask that i am wearing is also protecting myself ...

You think Spain, Italy and Sweden are in a better position than Russia? Based on what?

1) Not sure Japan is more likely to win bronze than China/Italy ... ? 6) I don't follow dressage closely, but is the US really more likely to win silver than GB or the Netherlands? 11) I am absolutely sure that Germany will win a medal, probably even gold. 14) They first two look pretty solid, but i don't agree about Lewis. I think there are multiple guys (for example Scott) who are more likely to win bronze. 15) Definitely a good prediction, although i feel that at least one out of Ruck/Baker will medal. 16) Another good prediction, but pretty bold to not predict a medal for Murphy. Personally i would like to see Irie winning a medal at home.

2) I would be very surprised if the US would finish ahead of China and Japan. 8) Would be quite funny if Deguchi would steal the gold medal from a japanese girl in front of her home crowd. 16) I don't see Australia beating Brazil (or even Italy).

About your swimming predictions: I would say that they look pretty good, but i think the US will win a medal in women's 400 IM and i also think Hagino and/or an american guy not named Litherland will win a medal in men's 400 IM.

18) My prediction would be: Ledecky and Titmus will fight for gold, bronze is very open (Anderson, Pellegrini, Sjöstrom (if she swims it), Haughey, Ikee, Oleksiak, Ruck, McKeon, Schmitt, 2 chinese girls) 19) Milak ahead of Urlando and Seto (or maybe LeClos/Kenderesi) 20) Hosszu ahead of 2 out of Ohashi/Baker/Margalis/Walsh/Ye Shiwen 21) Ledecky ahead of Quadarella and Köhler or one of the chinese girls 22) USA, Japan, Russia, GB and Australia are all very close, so too close to call ...

So what are you saying? a) The scientists were just doing research on the virus and it accidentally transferred to humans or b) They genetically engineered the virus and it then transferred to humans (due to inadequate personal protection? I am surprised that apparently China only has one BSL-4, while ... - Brazil, Belarus, Switzerland, Sweden, South Africa and even Gabon also have one each - India and Australia both have 2 - GB has at least 3 - Germany has at least 4 - The US has 14 that are planned/currently active I am also not sure how „clever“ it is to have a laboratory like that in a big city, but apparently it is the same in other countries. Germany for example has one BSL-4 in Hamburg and one in Berlin, the US has one in San Antonio, one in Boston and one in Atlanta, Brazil has one in São Paulo, France has one in Lyon, GB has one in London, Italy has one in Rome, Belarus has one in Minsk, Russia has one in Moscow, India has one in Hyderabad, Australia has one in Melbourne and Japan has one in Tokyo.

Who created that challenge and what exactly is the challenge? Also: How dare you to select a song by Led Zeppelin other than "Immigrant Song" (their best song ever by the way ...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlNhD0oS5pk

If we are only talking about novels and not poetry/philosophy/science, then my two favorite books are: The Trial (Franz Kafka) and Notes from Underground (Fyodor Dostoevsky) Sadly i haven't read too many of Dostoevsky's books so far, so maybe some of his other works will join that list later on. I also haven't read those books in english, so i can't say how good they are in that version. Unfortunately i haven't read a lot over the past couple of years, since i have become pretty "lazy" in that regard (nowadays i prefer watching documentaries). It is also absolutely impossible to read all the great books (or even a significant fraction of it) in only one lifetime, so you have to chose very wisely ...

Obviously ... i never claimed anything else. My point was: If you would create a bioweapon, you would probably take a deadly virus and change it in a way that it spreads more easily/has a longer incubation period. The other alternative would be to take a very contagious virus and make it more deadly. This virus has a mortality rate of roughly 0.3 %, while some other viruses kill between 30 and 50 % of all infected people. I also think that if you would create of bioweapon, you would at the same time create a treatment/vaccine. I am not saying that the virus definitely didn't come from a laboratory or wasn't engineered, but i am pretty sure that it isn't some bioweapon (that was released on purpose).

If noone would take him/what he says seriously, then he would have never become president and probably wouldn't be the favorite to win the next election too. It is hard to believe, but there are actually millions of americans who believe what he says. I also have to say that Joe Biden isn't much better. Of course he normally is less offensive than Trump, but during the past couple of months it became pretty obvious that he also pretty much lost control over his mind. I am not sure why american people are so obsessed with being governed by old (white) men who clearly have some "cognitive issues" ... ?

While i think that it is certainly possible that this virus came from a lab (coincidentally China's only level 4 microbiology lab is in Wuhan ...), i am pretty confident that this virus isn't some man-made weapon. If the plan would have been to create a bioweapon, then you would have used a more deadly pathogen like Ebola or Lassa virus. In addition to that you wouldn't "release" the virus in the country where it was created, you would "release" it in some completely different part of the world, so that noone can ever trace it back to you. Here are two articles that also doubt that the virus originated in a lab: https://www.vox.com/2020/3/4/21156607/how-did-the-coronavirus-get-started-china-wuhan-lab https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9.pdf Naturally it is very difficult to prove where a virus didn't come from, when you don't know where it came from or who was patient zero ...

Here is a table with the number of foreign Covid-19 patients currently treated in german hospitals: https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article207207005/Corona-Krise-In-der-Krise-wird-Deutschland-zum-heimlichen-Helden-Europas.html 107 patients from France, 32 patients from Italy and 40 patients from the Netherlands Bavaria (Bayern) and Berlin didn't report any numbers, but i am pretty sure that both of those states also have some foreign patients currently. I hope that the lockdown in Germany will soon loosen up, considering that there seem to be many empty beds in german hospitals.

Thanks. Do you have any idea why Germany took on so many dutch patients then?

Not sur if it counts, but both the FIFA and the FIBA Youtube channels have uploaded some "classics" recently: FIFA for example uploaded Netherlands vs. Mexico (2014 world cup), France vs. Argentina (2018 world cup), Nigeria vs. Italy (1994 world cup), Portugal vs. Spain (2018 world cup), Brazil vs. Argentina (1990 world cup), France vs. Italy (2006 world cup), Netherlands vs. Brazil (2010 world cup), Brazil vs. France (1986 world cup), Spain vs. Netherlands (2014 world cup) and also the official movies for the 2014 and 2018 world cups. https://www.youtube.com/user/FIFATV/videos FIBA uploaded USA vs. Serbia (2014 world cup), Spain vs. Slovenia (2017 eurobasket), Yugoslavia vs. Argentina (2002 world cup) and a "movie" about the history of the world cup. https://www.youtube.com/user/FIBAWorld/videos

@heywoodu: How is it looking in the Netherlands? Today i read that one german state alone (Nordrhein-Westfalen) has already treated 39 patients from the Netherlands and that the number dramatically increased over the past week. Are your hospitals overrun?

You don't seem to know it yet, but there is only one correct answer for the winner in men's road race/time trial: Remco Evenepoel. This kid was already great in 2019, just imagine how much better he will be in 2021. Daria Bilodid also seems like a pretty safe bet, but i don't agree about Nathalie Moellhausen, my prediction would be Yiwen Sun (although i will cheer for Coraline Vitalis).

So what about some of the best tv shows of all time? Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under ... you never even watched them?

Yes (in my opinion). I had a similar experience a couple of years ago. I watched one or two episodes, but found it to be too "slow", so i stopped. Later on i gave it another try and watched the whole series in a couple of weeks. This is also one of very few shows (in my opinion) that knew when to end (most say it has one of the best endings of any tv shows ever), so even the last season didn't decrease in quality.

Now that we are the owner of Italy, do we get the copyright for pizza and ice ream?

I already told you that back then, you could have listened to me and saved your money ... Now please listen to me this time at least: Neither Inception nor Interstellar is that great either ...

I really like the idea of this thread, but i would prefer to only predict the actual medallists in each event and not all the results of all the preliminary rounds.

Why Brazil 2016 and not for example Spain 2008 - 2012? Edit: I guess you only meant teams that actually played at the olympics and not the greatest teams overall? Even in that case i don't know why you named the 2016 brazilian teams, considering that they barely beat a pretty trash german team.