
CES Organizers Press on despite Omicron threat (axios.com) 69
The Consumer Technology Association says it is going ahead with next month's CES trade show in Las Vegas even as a number of tech companies and publications say they won't be sending their employees. From a report: The annual consumer electronics trade show is a key gathering point for the industry, but the pandemic forced it to go virtual in 2021. "CES will still take place Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas with strong safety measures in place," the Consumer Technology Association said in a statement to Axios. "Thousands of entrepreneurs, businesses, media and buyers are planning to come to Las Vegas. Top leaders from federal and state and foreign governments are attending," the group said, adding that it has "received several thousand new registrants since late last week."
Yes, but: Lots of tech companies and media organizations say they won't be in attendance. Amazon said late Monday that it won't be attending. Meta, Twitter and Pinterest are also skipping the show, per Reuters. T-Mobile is vastly scaling back its presence, including canceling a planned keynote from CEO Mike Sievert.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Is omicron a big threat? (Score:5, Insightful)
Stupid people are dangerous. Stupid people in peril are a threat.
As Slashdot is suppose to be a site about Nerds. Most of us probably worked hard in school, during school we faced adversity of people calling us Nerds, because we focused on academics and skills that would equate to jobs. Wile these other kids, were so focused on being the next sports/rock/actor star, while the chances of them actually succeeding were slim to none. So as they grew up, they didn't prosper as well as they hoped. Then they see the Nerds who are doing well for themselves.
Because they are stupid, they are not thinking that they made a mistake in their lives but us Nerds who took their jobs away from them. That makes them Dangerous. They trust us even less.
Now that a virus is killing them and their families, or soon will, they don't trust the experts (nerds) research, but try to do things they think is right, even though it isn't based on rational thinking, but following their favorite echo chambers, so they will go beyond just not protecting themselves, but trying to stop others from getting vaccinated or wearing masks, at the same time, being a possible spreader. Thus they become dangerous.
Re: (Score:2)
I know some intelligent Network engineers, and End Use support folks who may have issues with that reasoning.
Besides those who pushed lock-downs (many were not Nerds) mostly planned for it to be a short term thing (A few weeks), in which companies could had actually tried to accommodate their business model to operating safely, vs. trying nothing and they are our out of ideas, so they will layoff all their employees, only to cry they don't have the staffing anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
Nerds are just as much a vector for misinformation as any other population, in some ways worse because in addition to the Dunning-Kruger everyone contends with they've got a streak of intellectual arrogance. Remember Bill Shockley's views on eugenics. This was an expert in solid state physics reading the writings of a single controversial figure in psychology (who turned to be a scientific fraud [wikipedia.org], or a the very least incredibly sloppy in his research, the original data from which he burned) and being convi
Re: (Score:2)
> them actually succeeding were slim to none
Actually, according to my guidance teacher in high school, it's 1 in 100,000 on average for sports and acting. I suspect the same holds true for rock stars too.
For instance:
Actors made a median salary of $40,860 in 2019. The best-paid 25 percent made $58,580 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $25,180.
Re: Is omicron a big threat? (Score:2)
Re:I'm not vaxxed and I'm still alive! (Score:4, Interesting)
Inference - these people have lost their sense of smell, due to covid, and haven't realized it. Most likely they're walking around unmasked spreading the joy of the season far and wide. share and enjoy
Re: (Score:2)
My wife is a marine pollution researcher who's been watching the amount of COVID being detected at sewage treatment plants, and she's been freaking out over the numbers for weeks because so far that's been a good indicator of future case report trends.
Of course we don't know how severe those cases will be; most will be mild because the state has a 74% full vaccination and 89% partial vaccination rate. It's hard to estimate how many people are fully immunologically vulnerable, but there better not be many
Re: It's not a bad cold (Score:2)
It didn't affect you seriously so it won't affect anyone seriously? Seriously, go away.
Re: (Score:2)
It didn't affect you seriously so it won't affect anyone seriously?
No, that's my own anecdote on top of the whole of South Africa showing a vastly lower hospitalization rate for Omicron.
You don't trust black people? Seriously go away.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem, Ken, is that you have absolutely no credibility.
Re: (Score:1)
Wow, a racist doens't like me? High praise indeed, you white robed freak!
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting take. How did you come to that "conclusion"?
I can justify my claim, but I seriously doubt you can do the same. That's because you have no credibility.
Re: It's not a bad cold (Score:2)
I have no idea what color you are, and don't care.
All I know is that you are a stupid lying chucklefuck.
Re: (Score:2)
Personal experience -- especially if you're vaccinated -- is useless as a barometer of public risk.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Initial data on Omicron has lower death rate, however it will take weeks perhaps months before there is enough data to explain it effects.
However also lower severity, but higher infection rate can equal the same amount of people being hospitalized, and perhaps dying. But the hospitalization is still the big issue. If the hospitals are full of Covid patients, then they are not able to do the elective surgeries. Despite its name, Elective Surgeries are not just those things that might make you feel a bit
Re: (Score:2)
Hooray for Slashdot moderation
I said this and got modded up, you said the same thing and got modded down
What a shit show
Re: (Score:2)
It depends on the moderator.
At this point I don't expect that I will change any minds, however I just like having my opinion on the record.
I would like to think, when historians are studying the early 21st century, they may ask if everyone believed in this nonsense, then I hope they will see our comments and realize there were individuals who had a more rational stance.
However history will make its own assumptions, so I just as well be considered one of causes of these nonsense.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Is omicron a big threat? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Current U.S. death rate [covidusa.net] from covid is 1.6%. Not all that far off from 2%.
However, that number is most likely too low as some death certificates are not accurately reporting people died from covid [usatoday.com].
If official figures are to be believed, in Lafayette Parish deaths at home from heart disease increased by 20% from 2019 to 2020. Deaths from hypertensive heart disease, or heart ailments due to high blood pressure, doubled and are on track to remain that high in 2021.
These sudden, unexplained jumps in deaths at home - from diseases with symptoms similar to COVID-19 - point to a substantial undercount of the pandemic's toll, said Andrew Stokes, a professor in the Department of Global Health at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Lafayette Parish's chief death investigator, Keith Talamo, acknowledged that most people who die at home are pronounced dead over the phone. He said his office lacks the resources to test every death for COVID-19. And, in a significant departure from widely accepted death investigation practices, Talamo said he typically writes down "what the families tell us" and doesn't push further.
So that 2% figure is probably pretty accurate when taking into account the undercounting of covid deaths in this country.
Re: (Score:2)
Dumb, and pointless. (Score:3)
Conventions still serve a purpose (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's difficult if not impossible to do a full read of someone's body language over a zoom call.
The idea that you can detect lies by watching someone has been debunked repeatedly, it only works once you get to know their tells and you likely can't do that in the course of one conversation.
Re: (Score:2)
If they lose this year, they will not be able to recover. Businesses might decide that it is better to provide raises to all employees rather than this perk to the chosen few.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: CES doomed by Fascist Requirements to attend (Score:4, Interesting)
Faux News must be fascist then since they are requiring everyone in the building to get vaccinated.
Re: CES doomed by Fascist Requirements to attend (Score:5, Insightful)
Opportunity (Score:5, Insightful)
You can never be too safe ... (Score:2)
https://pjmedia.com/instapundi... [pjmedia.com]
Really sucks.. have ski passes (Score:1)
Missed out on a great year in 2020. Huge amounts of snow.
Hoping omicron is so fast that it's over by the end of january.
Hopefully omicron is mild-- will know in another week to 10 days.
I thought this was supposed to be about nerds. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Treat them as being in the same risk group as vaccinated people. Come up with even lower numbers. -Oh wait, we can't do that last part because too many nerds are pretending that naturally acquired immunity doesn't exist
No one is pretending that. You are pretending that people get natural immunity without risking their health, or that people know whether they've even had covid because there has been enough testing. Neither of those things is true, so your rambling is in fact blathering.