Positive effects from Corona (yes positive)

[pinball1970]

Not another Corona thread surely?...yes but this time it's something positive we can take forward, when it's over.

Several posters [USER=668722]@Tom O @davenn and others have made reference to reduced seismic activity due to lock down.

That's great for Earth sciences and reduction in RTAs but there are other obvious benefits.
A few outlined here.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science...avirus-pandemic-earth-pollution-noise/609316/
We cannot shut down construction and ship haulage but less car use means less emissions because people like me are riding a bike again after about 30 years.
Also working from home where I can so more time with family.
So good for me good for the planet.
So, how much of one's job can be completed at home? Really? I have discovered that this is a lot more than I thought.
What else can we take from this? On a positive personal level and globally?

 

[Vanadium 50]

I did not suggest that Coronavirus was a good thing in any way or shape. I don't like being called out in a thread like this one bit.

 

[pinball1970]

I did not suggest that Coronavirus was a good thing in any way or shape. I don't like being called out in a thread like this one bit.

Not what I meant at all.
Easier to remove you rather than discussion.
Looking for silver lining, light at the end of the tunnel stuff.

 

[wukunlin]

The question of whether there are benefits of working from home has been studied before, but I think more comprehensive data can be acquired this time round.

 

[Klystron]

I often buy bulk items from local grocery stores. Prior to this crisis store employees would simply dump a large bag of grain, legumes, nuts, etc. into cylindrical bins fitted with loose transparent acrylic tops.

Customers would take a generic plastic bag from a roll, use dedicated metal scoops to fill each bag then wrap a wire closure around the neck of the bag after writing the bin number on a tag attached to the closure. One can optionally weigh each bag; an action repeated at checkout. I rarely saw the bins or scoops cleaned though good stores keep the counters and floors clean.

Despite health concerns I use this system because:

1. provides decent jobs to under-employed people often with autism and other disabilities.
2. provides a selection of whole grains and other healthful products,
3. at a reduced price than heavily packaged commercial products,
4. greatly reduced packaging particularly paper and cardboard

The bins are still in place but store employees wearing protective gear fill, weigh and mark small but thicker plastic bags with the item then fill the bins with the small bags. This method saves customer time and effort, reduces bin number mistakes and provides a few more hours to employees (see #1).

I hope this practice continues after Covid-19 becomes a memory. As managers will provide exact amounts to customers who do not want to purchase the small bags, I see slight down side. The improvements in hygiene and convenience particularly for disabled and rushed customers are worth the small added cost on each item, still much less than commercially packaged products.

 

[pinball1970]

I often buy bulk items from local grocery stores. Prior to this crisis store employees would simply dump a large bag of grain, legumes, nuts, etc. into cylindrical bins fitted with loose transparent acrylic tops.

Customers would take a generic plastic bag from a roll, use dedicated metal scoops to fill each bag then wrap a wire closure around the neck of the bag after writing the bin number on a tag attached to the closure. One can optionally weigh each bag; an action repeated at checkout. I rarely saw the bins or scoops cleaned though good stores keep the counters and floors clean.

Despite health concerns I use this system because:

1. provides decent jobs to under-employed people often with autism and other disabilities.
2. provides a selection of whole grains and other healthful products,
3. at a reduced price than heavily packaged commercial products,
4. greatly reduced packaging particularly paper and cardboard

The bins are still in place but store employees wearing protective gear fill, weigh and mark small but thicker plastic bags with the item then fill the bins with the small bags. This method saves customer time and effort, reduces bin number mistakes and provides a few more hours to employees (see #1).

I hope this practice continues after Covid-19 becomes a memory. As managers will provide exact amounts to customers who do not want to purchase the small bags, I see slight down side. The improvements in hygiene and convenience particularly for disabled and rushed customers are worth the small added cost on each item, still much less than commercially packaged products.

Thanks @Klystron. Even the smallest thing we can get from this is what I what I was getting at.
We cannot change the the bad stuff, acknowledgment of something positive means we may get something positive from it.

I am sure this has been described before as 'learning.'

Always good in my good in book.

 

[nuuskur]

We often get junk mail - catalogues of some jack-of-all-trades online stores. It's made of the kind of paper that doesn't even burn well. Once the crisis was announced, the junk mail stopped.

 

[Bandersnatch]

With zoo closed to visitors, pandas finally bang after 10 years

 

[BWV]

Your average American can now understand a graph with a log axis

 

[Jarvis323]

Actually, it may be this outbreak that saves us, because as bad as it is, it's not the worst possible pandemic we may face in our lifetimes. With the level of mishandling in this case, we likely learn from some crucial mistakes and dodge a bullet the next time; kind of like how Hong Kong, Taiwan etc. were able to do because they had experience from SARS.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

I think widespread working from home and online delivery of educational content are positive developments.

Hopefully, once COVID-19 has passed, more folks will continue to work from home productively, saving gas, easing traffic, and also requiring less office space to be maintained. Likewise, now that many "old school" profs have had to put their content online, hopefully, a significant fraction will decide that it is not so bad and will be more open to online content in the future. A couple complete online Physics BS programs in the US would be a good thing. But even in the absence of complete programs, the more courses that are available online, the less time, fuel, and classroom space need to be used in content delivery.

 

[Klystron]

Masks.
​

Until a few weeks ago face masks were rarely seen in public where I live, with the exception of working people. Now common people wear face coverings to avoid contamination and contaminating others.

Hopefully this fashion continues and expands with more breathable and comfortable mask styles widely available. Added benefits include reduced exposure to allergens.