The Real Swine Flu Hazard
Scott Stein at When Falls The Coliseum discusses his university's attempt to stamp out swine flu:
Someone — who deserves a big raise — decided to mount the automatic dispenser on the wall directly above the elevator buttons. I mean, directly above them. So today, when I pressed the up button to call the elevator, hand sanitizer shot out. I wasn't trying to sanitize my hands. I just wanted to press the elevator button. But the dispenser doesn't know intent. Hands trying to press buttons are in its sights. The squirting liquid missed my jacket sleeve by an inch and landed on the floor. Despite my employer's attempt to sanitize my hands against my will with a sneak attack, I was no safer from swine flu. My fellow citizens concerned about public health and safety needn't fret, though. There is a bright side: I'm pretty sure that the glob of soapy liquid that landed on the floor constituted a dangerous slip hazard.
More, including pic of sanitizer dispenser near elevator buttons, here.
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Forget swine flu -- can we vaccinate against Chinese spambots?
I've looked at some older threads with this same spammer, and they aren't removing the posts. So ... free ad space!
Moochers.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hand sanitizer is alcohol-based and is only effective against bacteria, not viruses such as H1N1.
You are wrong.
Fun fact: My university bought crates and crates of hand sanitizer... but refuses to buy Kleenex. I schlep that in from home.
When I finally catch the swine flu, I'm going to give it to all you guys. It's ecommunicable, right?
SugarFree the rentseeker? I thought I would never see the day!
BTW, Suki featured your Hamthrax word on the blog, I think it is still at the top.
Not rentseeking. If you run a public desk, would you rather give a snotty undergrad a Kleenex or a squirt of hand sanitizer for everyone in a ten foot radius when he sneezes?
Between the co-workers with little kids and the employees who refuse to get a $35 flu shot "because I don't have insurance," my office is a ticking timebomb.
"public desk"
The collectivism is consuming you man!
Well, it was a pubic desk, but one disastrous parent's weekend is all it took, apparently.
"it was a pubic desk"
It's called a "bed".
Sometimes only a cold slab of hardwood-patterned laminate will do.
Of course, you didn't go over for a peek. Someone from the State Department in DC did, LOL.
Okay, if they wanted to automatically prevent transfer from elevator buttons why didn't they think to sanitize the buttons instead of people's hands. Having an automatic sprayer that would spray the buttons with an aerosol disinfectant every 15 minutes (more likely once an hour) or so would be just as effective without the goo.
I am thinking gadgetry like in the movie Brazil, or maybe some steampunk type setup.
This is one step closer to the realization of my ultimate statist vision: Comfortable massaging recliner toilets with conveyor belts of food moving in front of the face, with splash-proof keyboards so that we can all work from home monitoring the surveillance cameras that will be mandatory in all rooms of all residences.
///wrings hands devilishly///
Okay, if they wanted to automatically prevent transfer from elevator buttons why didn't they think to sanitize the buttons instead of people's hands.
Or if the hand sanitizer can detect your hand without physical contact, why can't the elevator?
Atanarjuat
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hand sanitizer is alcohol-based and is only effective against bacteria, not viruses such as H1N1.
According to the Mayo Clinic alcohol based sanitizers do kill viruses. However, the water based ones do not.
Biologically, alcohol is nasty stuff on the cellular level. It's like oxygen and sunshine. If it's in the wrong place at the wrong concentration it will kill you. A 60% concentration like that found in hand sanitizers will kill just about any living thing.
And yet, I've drunk 120-proof alcohol and lived. I'm like a god.
I like the shit out of this.
Shut the fuck up, Citizen Nothing.
Drinking 120-proof alcohol, even a lot of it, doesn't raise the percentage of alcohol in your tissues up past more than a 1%-2% at most. In biology, concentration is everything.
You will,however note, that alcoholics often develop ulcerations and perforations of stomach and intestines which is caused by relatively concentrated alcohol hitting the epithelial cells.
Since alcohol is water and fat soluble, it possibly kills by breaking down the phospholipid and cholesterol in the cell walls, letting everything leak out. This could be a mechanism for killing bacteria, for viruses it may dissolve the protein and nucleotides in the virus?
Concentrated alcohol causes proteins to denature and unravel. IIRC, It causes the hydrogen bonds between molecules of cystine to pop apart. Interestingly, it only works in right mixture of alcohol and water. Pure alcohol does not unravel proteins. It has to have enough water in the mix to work.
This is an example of why biochemist get the big bucks.
Some friends of mine got swine flu. They walked it off. No biggie.
I hear you can just rub some dirt on it.
I made a swine flu lolcat.
This is how bored I am.
I am more disturbed by this than by anything you have ever written.
Bwa-ha-ha. [disappears in puff of acrid smoke]
Today my company announced that, as a cost-cutting measure, it will no longer provide free Styrofoam cups at the newsroom coffee machines.
The newspaper industry is saved!!!
A friend of mine got swine flu and all he got was a cough.
"I went to a farm and all I got was this lousy swine flu"
"I went to a farm and all I got was this lousy swine flu hamthrax"
FTFY
Hey, they removed the spam! This makes me unreasonably happy. Of course, now my post talking about the spam look silly, and this post is another waste of time on the topic of spammers, and they aren't really "spammers" are they? Anyhow, I call this a win.
Does this mean I am no longer a customer/God?
Yes, you are an excellent customer/God as you would please wire funds for a portion of my $2.8 million USD inherited for investment. I will need your personal dates and figures to wire money to you and require $1,000 USD to complete this transaction.
Sounds like the swine flu is just another flu for most people, but it kicks your ass if you've got certain risk factors--like pregnant women, for instance.
They had a choice you know.
Yeah. That's pretty much the case with any disease/virus/condition.
So God hates pregnant women? If they had abortions they would be safer?
Praise Jeezbus!
So you just take along a pencil or a ruler to push the elevator button with.
And if you a feel a sneeze coming on, direct it right at that sanitizer.
So God hates pregnant women? If they had abortions they would be safer?
Praise Jeezbus!