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EVERY WEEK, WE bring you a round-up of the best longreads of the past seven days in Sitdown Sunday.
For the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you an evening longread to enjoy. With the news cycle dominated by the coronavirus situation, we know it can be hard to take your mind off what’s happening.
So we want to bring you an interesting read every weekday evening to help transport you somewhere else.
We’ll be keeping an eye on new longreads and digging back into the archives for some classics.
If our brain rewards us for the familiar, what drives us to seek out new music?
(Pitchfork, approx 10mins reading time)
It was a question that Coco Chanel, Marcel Duchamp, and the rest of the Parisian audience might have asked at the 1913 premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, an orchestral ballet inspired by the Russian composer’s dream about a young girl dancing herself to death. On a muggy night at the end of May, inside a newly constructed theater along the Seine, those who chose to bear witness to something new experienced a piece of music that would presage a new world of art.
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Lowest new cases since April 1st.
@munsterman1: now let’s keep it coming down people.
@munsterman1: indeed & we’re testing more ado a clearer picture one would hope.
@Mark O’Donohoe: *so
@Mark O’Donohoe: A friend was tested this day week and got the result yesterday. Six days. Still too long I would suggest.
@Bert Carolan: Agreed.. but a definite improvement on before.
@Bert Carolan: definitely but at least it’s an improvement
If the 221 new cases is out of 10000 people great if it’s out of 300 it’s worrying… Don’t know why the numbers tested isn’t also released with these figures
@dublinsnap: Rip to those who have passed
@dublinsnap: They carried out over 40,000 tests last week. Assuming that is the same or higher this week, it’s around 221 positive out of almost 6,000 – 3.6% detection rate.
Regardless, we are closer to 100,000 total cases than currently reported, so the deaths are really the only metric to watch. 3.4% is still considered a fairly reliable mortality rate.
Come on peeps, a few more weeks of this hard work and it’ll all be worth the suffering of lockdown …
One things for sure it’ll be less suffering than losing a loved one or your own life.
3,500 saved already.. it might be you
@Mark O’Donohoe: it’s not 3500 lives saved, its 1265 needless deaths.
@alphasully: it can be both, depending on your outlook.
@alphasully: hindsight would be a wonderful thing….
I got all the numbers in last Friday’s euromillions.. yea, picked them Saturday morning
@Mark O’Donohoe:
OK you’d have a point if it wasn’t for the fact that so many people were calling for pubs to be closed and schools to be closed weeks before FFG shifted themselves.
They left the pubs stay open on paddys day weekend, never forget that.
@Mark O’Donohoe:
When people criticised the government, the response was “they’re taking advice from medical experts shut up”, now that in hindsight, we saw that their decisions came too late and too slow, people will just say “well yeah hindsight hindsight shut up”
When exactly can I criticize the government, a year before they make the decisions?
@Mark O’Donohoe: i feel that if this continues i’d rather die than live in fear all everyday
@Mark O’Donohoe: The virus isn’t going anywhere in a few more weeks. It’ll be a slow easing of restrictions until enough people get it that we have some sort of herd immunity while not overflowing the hospitals and vulnerable people will still need to be protected until we have a vaccine.
The biggest risk is the people who are expecting to be told “it’s all better now” and will start crying about civil liberty infringement (like those idiots in the US) while we’re trying to stop them and everyone else from dying.
@alphasully: sad as it is a good few of the dead would have died even if coronavirus wasn’t here unfortunately now if tested positive or a Doctor suspects covid then that’s what was recorded on death cert, over half are nursing homes and in some cases the doctor hasn’t even visited the nurse on duty reports it to doctor so real figures could be less
RIP
Possibly some light at the end of the tunnel. Just hope people don’t get more complacent
@The Hidden Revolt: until the 2nd wave..
@bigjoe77: yeh whatever you do don’t let anyone greet positive trends with anything other than doom. Listen Joe whenever the pubs reopen feel free to stay home…
@bigjoe77: Hopefully that doesn’t happen- isn’t the 2nd wave always worse?
@David Clements: its not about doom, its about living in the real world.
It was down on Wednesday and up again yesterday and down today.
Hardly a trend!!
@Charles Alexander: what? You don’t assess trends over 1 or 2 days or even 4 or 5. You draw the line from day 1 to today
@David Clements: Well said..
@David Clements: thanks for the lesson!
What I should have said was that I don’t see it as a trend that warrants any great deal of positivity.
When the numbers of deaths and infections fall consistently over a longer period of time then I will see it as positive.
Yes, it’s going in the right direction but there’s still a long way to go and we have to ensure that any degree of positivity does not lead to complacency.
Coming down a bit
@Lets be real: if you’re coming down get tested immediately
@Lets be real: but if its only down because we all stay in our homes then whats the point. Lockdown can’t last forever and they can’t get it to zero deaths so we’re only delaying the inevitable.
I really don’t see the long term plan here.
@Rossa Crowe: Eliminating it like some countries did or waiting for a vaccine are the options. Elimination seemed harsh bit only those countries are back up and running. Vietnam is especially impressive considering how poor it is.
Numbers are getting better so let’s keep going Ireland
The government have been doing a great job. Well done. Let’s continue to flatten this curve. Another month staying at home and the country should be in good shape
@@fplinsider1: I agree, great job by our government working night and day! Lets continue though, we are on a good path!
@Christine Klein: government are making recommendations. Its the public who have achieved this. We need to keep going
@@fplinsider1: are you brainwashed they’re being told what to do and were slow to act if the first, asleep at the wheel ,to busy saying we’re not talking to so an so ,while the virus was invited into the country, they’re unelected now ,and very little revenue coming in and haven’t taken a pay cut in solidarity
RIP
@Derek Kelly ☘️ #StayHomeSaveLives: yes all those who died enjoyed a Christmas meal with their families and expected to celebrate more , this cut those expectations for most possibly
.
So if staying at home and being paid to do so is a huge burden for people we are doomed.
A lot more than people in ghettos further afield are getting
RIP and condolences to all.
If they eased “ restrictions “ any more they would be non existing, it’s been a joke from the start & so many people will be out of work permanently because of it!
@Colette Kearns: and over 1000 people out of a life.
@Colette Kearns: Your comment is confusing
@Colette Kearns: 34 people died today get a grip
@Colette Kearns: try again
@Colette Kearns: Ah give it a rest with your curtain twitching. The country has been incredibly cooperative with the lockdown so stop trying to destabilise. Restrictions need to be lifted, time to get back to business. The curve is as flat as a pancake so we’ve done our part. Time to move on.
@Cian – Wash your: think she means the easing of restrictions is like not bothering having restrictions at all, as the many not complying are literally reversing all the good of those who are.
One in 6 who don’t give a dam are voiding the good of the other 5 of 6 who do.
Hence dragging this out when we could have imposed martial law type situation and kept the moron’s under house arrest.
Maybe. I kinda agree. Whatever.
#DontBeTheOneIn6
Stay safe & kudos to all who sacrificed. RIP to the soldier’s we’ve lost.
@Cian – Wash your: Sorry I didn’t explain myself properly. What I’m trying to say is , people haven’t been taking the lockdown seriously & will result in more tragic deaths, people are loosing their lives due to to much complacency. Others who are following the rules will loose their livelihoods . So I’m saying keep the lockdown for another while ( but I’ve heard they might let the over 70ies for a hour or so which would be good for them) it’s all about saving lives!
@L̴a̴yta R̵̝̹̣̦̞̺͈͖͂̋̊̐͌͘̕͠͠ǒ̴͍̱̝̰͔̋͆̓͛͗n̶̊͌: Thank you , you explained it much better than I did!
@Terry Walks: without aggressive testing and contact tracing it won’t work
@Colette Kearns: I think most people are taking the lockdown very seriously. Unfortunately nobody can account for a small minority of selfish @rseh0les
@Coco86: realistically the virus will come in contact with everyone eventually and those that will die will die as unfortunate as it may be. Were only delaying the inevitable.
200 this week or 200 over the course of a month is the only difference I see with this strategy, apart from keeping the hospitals manageable.
@Terry Walks: No curtain twitching, I live beside the main road & can hear the extra traffic on the road since last Monday!
We are getting there.
Please please let’s NOT have another speech from Varadkar. Let the medical experts do it
@Tony Kennedy: he is a medical doctor Are you?
@Anthony Doyle: Tony said expert! ,varakar and expert in the one line doesn’t fit
RIP to all those who have lost their lives to this terrible virus … thoughts and prayers with their loved ones
Is it me or is it the lowest number in cases for quite a time (March?!)…
Lets keep it coming down and lets not get complacent! Stay in for another few weeks and we will get that! Well done to the people adhering the rules!!! #stayhome #flattenthecurve #wecandothis
I wonder are the 140 cases in rosderra meats included in that figure. If they are then the total of cases is v good if not expect a rise in the coming days/weeks.
RIP (before people here go off on selfish opinion it is easy just to say it first) again to all those who’ve died, dreadfully sad times.
We need a solid week or 2 with new and deaths dropping daily if there’s any hope of changing restrictions.
Looks like they are running out of dead bodies to label coronafearus deaths. The plandemic will be over soon.
@Mark McAuley: amazing, every word in that sentence was wrong.
@Mark McAuley: is this a line from Finnegan’s Wake?
@Mark McAuley: You can recover from Covid. Stupidity however, is permanent.
@Mark McAuley: Dumba$$
@Mark McAuley: and let me guess, you know the real truth right? Cause you’re just so clever and the rest of us are just sheep.
Jesus christ, catch a grip.
@Mark McAuley: go to the USA and follow Trump
@Aaron O’Leary: haha. Not a laughing matter but I have to admit I laughed at this response. Well played
RIP
How many of the 34 deaths were laboratory confirmations of older deaths and how many of the 34 were newly reported deaths from yesterday. I think that the daily updates should be very clear in this regard to see exactly where we are as of now in regards to new deaths rather than old ones added to this total
@Barry Lee: you tell ‘em Bazza
How many people are we testing per day now ? How many extra icu beds do we now have if we get another spike? Do we have a stockpile of ppe ? The ability to test, trace and isolate seems to be essential to getting the country back open safely , so why have we not got the capacity to do this on a larger scale yet ?
Death rate % keeps on climbing.
And how many tested?How many survived?
@Cat Reid: total tested 153,954 total recovered 13,386
@Gwen Denny: thank you
Today Northern Ireland reported 18 deaths but reported that only 4 were last 24 hours the other 14 were only recorded yesterday but died in last few weeks we should be getting the same information
We’re doing great compared to S.Korea or New Zealand or even India (sarcasim overloaded). I know people will lash out at comparing to India; truth is they’re doing well. Usual excuses of billion population and I don’t believe the statistics…however, truth prevails.
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