phelps

p.s. by the way, I just read an article that shocked me more than the actual numbers of infected and / or dead people... this is the Italian original source (in Italian, of course)... https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/03/19/news/coronavirus_tamponi_da_brescia_a_stati_uniti-251735473/?ref=RHPPTP-BL-I251736270-C12-P1-S1.12-T1 basically, they say that a firm located in the Brescia province (the true heart of contagion in Italy) just sold half a million of coronavirus test kits to the USA, kits that have been brought to the USA with a military flight from the Aviano US Base last Monday (when we were already in the middle of the crisis with almost 30,000 cases and more than 3000 deaths)... to be remembered, we did perform just a bit more than 180,000 tests and we're complaining every day that we should test more but we lack kits... well, after reading this, I feel like I never felt before...I just can't keep my anger and frustration within myself...I don't really know how to calm down... p.s. the news has been officially confirmed by the US ambassador in Italy, this is no leak nor anything subject to interpretation / verification...

there are still many people on the streets... remember that there are 10 million people in a realtively small are, which incidentally is also the core of the economical, industrial and financial system of the whole Country... this means that we can't stop all the jobs, we just can't close everything down as they apparently did in Wuhan (for instance), otherwise the whole Nation would go bankrupt in a while... add to this the fact that the early mishandling of the situation led to many doctors and hospital personnel to get infected as well, with the consequence that many people already hospitalized for other issues had been infected this way, causing a lot of deaths because if you are already facing cancer or other bad diseases, this virus almost automatically gives you the final push to the end... moreover, usually Italian family members have always intense relationships, seeing each other very often also among the non strict relatives... and our attitude doesn't make ourselves the most disciplined people in the world (many thousends of violations have been recorded only in the last few days, even this is more a problem of the Central/Southern regions rather than Lombardy, where however it's been estimated that 40% of residents every day move for some reason -most of them for good reasons and within authorized parameters, but still)... put all these aspects together and you have the perfect storm, with basically minimal chance to limit the damage in a very consistent way...

https://video.repubblica.it/dossier/coronavirus-wuhan-2020/coronavirus-l-esercito-trasporta-le-bare-di-bergamo-nelle-altre-regioni/356268/356835?ref=search https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/03/18/foto/bergamo_non_c_e_piu_posto_70_mezzi_militari_portano_le_salme_fuori_dalla_regione-251650969/1/?ref=RHPPTP-BH-I251519435-C12-P3-S2.3-T1#1

of course it's not the true reason I'm not a EU fan... that's just another example of what they focus on instead of what they should do...

top 50 of the world ranking in the single categories, which is quite a different thing than the OQR (there should be a few more options)...

it's a whole EU thing... but they proposed not to shut them down, rather to limit the bandwidth to SD resolution (480p)... I do really hope EU gets cancelled as soon as possible...

see explaination above...

this is a full recap Region by Region, updated to today's numbers... the green column is the number of recovered people, red of course is the number of deaths and orange is the total number of positive tests... "tamponi" is the number of tests performed...

no, no...it's because the naked truth of the numbers...

having listened to what my granfather and (partially) my dad always told me, luckily we're not even close to those days...

because it's what happens every day... if you look at the general numbers, half of the positive tests and half of the deceased people come from my region (mainly the Bergamo and Brescia province, in the east of Lombardy...but today the most hit province is Milan...and I'm more and more scared...for my dad, who's already 78 years old rather than myself)...

yeah, today's numbers are really scary (at least, yesterday we had more than double recovered people than deaths...today there are more deaths than recovered people)... and as always, around half the infected and the deceased people are in Lombardy... yesterday a military convoy was organized to move bodies from the Bergamo province to other places to be cremated, as there's no place anymore in the infrastructures of that province...

you're right...I should have added that one too, but it was already complicated enough to set up this version of the poll that I didn't think too much to any other option that could make sense... next time (if there will be a "next time") I promise to do better...

by the way, I saw pictures from the most classic Spring Break locations... they are packed of youngsters as always, as if this fuckin' virus didn't exist at all...

Should the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games be cancelled, postponed or held at any cost?

"Follow the Money"... https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1092079/david-owen-blog-tokyo-2020-plan-b

news from a few days ago, but confirmed only in the last few hours... 3 Korean fencers have been tested positive for coronavirus after coming back from the last Epee Grand Prix held in Budapest... the names of the 3 unlucky athletes have not been disclosed, but the Korean Federation is quite worried about the chance of many other members of the team (and also many of the opponents they faced in that competition) could also be infected by coronavirus...

naaa...you're late... here in Lombardy we're already down to the lack of places in ICUs and we're running short of assisted breathing machinery (not to mention face masks, which have never been available in the required number)... and today we've experienced the highest number of deceased people since the beginning of this sh*t (475 deaths, more than 300 here in Lombardy)...

no, the world cup was due to start in April in any case... and now the start is delayed (the first stages were scheduled in East Asia)... so far, the only event regularly held is the Olympic Panamerican Qualification...

I'm also for the second half of September 2021 (October is not the best period...remember, in Japan they also have to cope with typhoon season...look at what happened to 2019 rugby world cup because they chose to play in October)... but I'm also OK with any decision that doesn't cancel the Games and/or force them to be held still in the middle of the virus' crisis...

it's too early...I do really think we need at least 1 year to get out and then somehow recover at least partially from this disaster... and it's not question of giving priority to the Olympics rather than any other sport event in the world, but just getting back in the right mood and in the best possible condition to enjoy an event like the Olympic Games...and it doesn't matter if we look at them from the spectator's perspective or the athetes' or any other stakleholder's, as we are all on the same boat right now... personally, I hope 1 full year from the orginal date should be enough, but if they go with a 2-year delay, it's still better than cancelling everything...

well, I fear the Japanese in this case are acting like Titanic's orchestra...

on the Italian press there are strong rumors that next Thurday, after the meet with the International Federations of the Olympic Sports, IOC President Thomas Bach (himself an Olympic Champion in Fencing in 1976, to be remembered ) will announce that the Tokyo Olympic Games are postponed to 2022...

you have to search for consequences of interstitial pneumonia, which is what makes this virus si scary and dangerous... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_interstitial_pneumonitis http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lungnontumoracuteinterstitialp.html

for the actual Olympic Tournament seeding purpose... these OQTs give fighter more points in the OQR than any other tournament taken into consideration... winning the OQT basically is the only way to keep the hope alive to be one of the 4 seeded athletes in the actual Olympic Tournament...