Time to read THE LAST CENTURION?

P.S. He is also clearly do not grasp that "centurion" initially was simply an officer in command of a hundred men - a centuria (yes, I knew that Roman centuries quickly venture off the 100-men number). Russian similar therm is "sotnik" (sotnya - hundred).

P.P.S. As predicted:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavir ... rus-cases/

After that "surge" that make TFLY panic, the total cases growth... returned to it's previous rate. Which quite clearly indicate, that the "surge" was caused by the change in the diagnosis principles.

And, also, now this is 8600 patients cured vs 1527 died. The mortality rate is going down, and the absolute majority of peoples who died were already in rather bad health.

Annachie wrote:Ah Fly.

Spoken like somebody who really has no idea what they are talking about, and doesn't care.

It's essentially a chest infection, that also leads to secondary chest infections.

If you were to verbally replace Coronavirus with Flu you would essentially still be correct.

Like many chest infections this Coronavirus creates mucas and crap in the lungs. The particulars of the locations, amounts, and crap, are diagnostically significant.

However, like any infection, it is unlikely to be able to diagnose the mild cases so no, there will not be a sudden increase in case numbers from chest scans. Nor does it mean that they were under diagnosing. More likely it was being over diagnosed.

The reporting is that the genetic tests were yielding high rates of false positive. China was severely UNDERCOUNTING the number of cases. A chest X-ray detects mucus in the lungs that is consistent with pneumonia or severe cases of Coronavirus.

Right now it appears that the number of infections is leveling off. However; this could be an artifact of a limited number of CAT scanners. I do not know enough about China's health system to venture an opinion on this detail.

We need to watch and wait. China's stringent quarantine might have the infection under control. The fact that the iinfection has spread to surrounding provinces suggests not. Reopening businesses might cause a surge in cases.

Dilandu wrote:

TFLYTSNBN wrote:Have you actually read THE LAST CENTURION?

https://books.google.com/books/about/Th ... h0CwAAQBAJ

I read enough of Ringo books, to know that this guy is interesting to read only until he start another political rant about those-he-doesn't-like. Then usually everything is failing apart really quickly. Oh, and he is totally incapable of ever creating an interesting antagonist. Short of some zombies, no Ringo-created antagonists ever were well-written and interesting.

Sorry if I hurt your feeling, but the guy that managed to turn a Bolo novel (A BOLO NOVEL!) into the political rant aren't exactly an example of very interesting writer.

Interesting that you disparage a coauthor of March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars, We Few. Sacrilage! Heretic!

I am normally not into Zombie stories or movies. Zombieland was one of the few that I enjoyed. Don't forget to double tap! I never read any of Ringo's zombie stories.

One's reaction to an author's politics depends on one's own politics. One's choice of authors influences and informs one's politics. I was raised on Heinlien, Niven and Pournelle as well as Anderson, Bova, Clark and Saberhagen.

Just FYI, The Last Centurion isn't a zombie story. It also isn't a story of average citizens turning Terminator. Ringo wrote the book when he was expecting Hillary Clinton to be elected President in 2008. He constantly refers to her as "the bitch.". The scene where she is dragged out of the White House wearing a straight jacket is hilarious.

I should have expected you to be sanguine about a potential plague. Russia already has a plague of AIDS, Turberculosis and Alcaholism plus your women are systematically exterminating about 70% of your progeny. The idea that population decline can lead to civilization collapse is antithema to Russians.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:
Interesting that you disparage a coauthor of March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars, We Few. Sacrilage! Heretic!

(shrug) Ringo may be good co-author to RFC, but it doesn't means that I must consider him as good writer as RFC. Through, in fact, Ringo have all potential to be good writer, if he would just limit the number of political speeches per book and put some actual efforts into plot and antagonists.

Just FYI, The Last Centurion isn't a zombie story. It also isn't a story of average citizens turning Terminator. Ringo wrote the book when he was expecting Hillary Clinton to be elected President in 2008. He constantly refers to her as "the bitch.". The scene where she is dragged out of the White House wearing a straight jacket is hilarious.

...And Ringo is still clueless why he isn't exactly well-liked on convents?

I should have expected you to be sanguine about a potential plague.

I'm biologist by education. I just have a practical, non-fiction view on such things.

Fly, I enjoy reading Ringo's stories even though some of his politics make me annoyed.
His zombie series is quite good, as it does set up a valid scientific rationale. From memory, basically a weaponised disease with a flu virus as a carrier, but an additional factor that lobotomized people back to about a dog level of intelligence. Throughout the series the characters mention the "zombie apocalypse" theme derisively, so he is aware of the limitations of the genre.
I'll never know if I did have any influence, but about a year before it came out, I got into an argument with him on his website, about his jingoism. Among other things I pointed out that the US Seals weren't the only heavy duty special forces that were highly competent. Among a number of forces I naturally pointed out the Australian SAS, and how even US Commanders tended to send them in first into really hard areas. I also sent him a long joke about an Australian country girl who demolished boot camp. His main "goodies" in this series are an Australian SAS operative and his teenaged daughters.

Daryl wrote:From memory, basically a weaponised disease with a flu virus as a carrier, but an additional factor that lobotomized people back to about a dog level of intelligence.

With one problem - humans aren't carnivorous, and so "mad zombie attacks" are contrary to all our instincts as primates. In other words, its an example of pseudo-science; infected humans simply would not behave as Hollywood zombies.

Of course, it is plot element, so it is not really important. Still, Ringo managed to put political propaganda here in increasing large qualities.

The main point that you all miss or avoid is thatThe Last Centurion is a Plague story, not a Zombie story. Ringo goes heavy on the politics, but the response of private ferry operators and boaters on 9-11-01 verses the disaster that was the local government response in New Orleans during and after Katrina prooves his point. Bush got blamed even after Bush organized that fantastic rescue and evacuation response. All of those National Guard helicopters were deployed from Red States that had also been hammered by the storm.

I cite The Last Centurion because it is an interesting description of the effects of a major plague on civilization. Ringo doesn't predict the end of the world or the end of civilization (at least in America). But he does portray the effects of a plague that infects the majority of people (just like the common flu) but has a high mortality rate.

Right now Coronavirus seems to be leveling off as one should expect. However; the criteria has been revised because the blood test was giving a 70% false negative. Chest X-Rays to detect massive lung infections that result from only a minority of infections that become most severe.
Even worse they are now seeing "recovered" patients becoming reinfected and dying of heart failure . I am not paniccing, but I am not sanguine.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:The main point that you all miss or avoid is thatThe Last Centurion is a Plague story, not a Zombie story.

Frankly, I never stated it is, so I'm really puzzled why you are trying to prove that it isn't. I only mentioned - I quote myself:

Dilandu wrote: Short of some zombies, no Ringo-created antagonists ever were well-written and interesting.

And I do NOT mention "The Last Centurion" here, I was talking about the general Ringo inability to write interesting antagonists.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:Even worse they are now seeing "recovered" patients becoming reinfected and dying of heart failure . I am not paniccing, but I am not sanguine.

And mortality dropped below 13%.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:I cite The Last Centurion because it is an interesting description of the effects of a major plague on civilization. Ringo doesn't predict the end of the world or the end of civilization (at least in America). But he does portray the effects of a plague that infects the majority of people (just like the common flu) but has a high mortality rate.

Yes, he does -- and while his action scenes are entertaining as usual, the fact that he seems utterly convinced that the only people worth a damn are people who agree with him (or his protagonist, as the case may be) about literally everything and that anyone who does disagree is either terminally stupid, criminal, or some amount of evil makes the book rather one-sided and boring whenever he gets into ranting about how people who aren't like him are the worst thing to have ever happened to society.
His portrayal of anyone not a military veteran, american-style conservative or some combination of the two is so incredibly blinkered and biased that it could read as parody - except he's deadly serious about it, just like you are, TFLY.

The Last Centurion was entertaining as a "what would Anabasis look like when it's a mechanized Infantry company doing it", but as a description of "how would the US work in a crisis" piece it's ... flawed. Heavily flawed, because the only thing he can imagine a democrat government doing in crisis is "become Maoist China" -- Which I imagine is a vision you agree with, TFLY, but as we all know, just because you believe something really deeply doesn't mean it's true.