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masks, redux
Feb. 10th, 2021 11:09 amI meant to do this just as an addition to the other post, but then it got longer, though not very organized.
They seem to have been approved as kn-95s by those proper authorities, and ... I lack the vocabulary for their state in the US: they had for a period an EUA ?for medical use? in the US, and now don't, though there's no reason given for the specific ones we have, or the document I found might be out of date, or or or... Some body in (I forget) New Zealand or Australia approved them, for something, saying that they meet some criteria (that I can't find).
I'm a little put off by ... the whole graph/cycle/machine, I guess. I'm pretty sure the information exists that would allow me to make a judgement about what masks I should be buying and wearing, and yet, I can't find it.
I'm pretty sure they're probably better at filtering than the (aesthetically pleasant, comfortable, and reasonably well-fitting) fabric masks I've been using, but that's maybe only in part based off evidence (from authority; my personal sense experience is also present but i don't have enough knowledge to rely on it). They do fit very tightly to my face, which I understand can be a problem with the kn95s with earloops.
There's a lot of articles about how to know if you have a legitimate n95/kn95/kf94/whatever. There are a lot of people (in, say, a 10 mile radius of me) who say they're finding n95/kn95/kf94s in hardware stores, etc, though I don't know if they're finding good masks or less-good masks.
I don't know what scenario is happening: my local hardware store stocked one (relative) duds, but has other good ones; my local hardware store is stocking all duds, but other stores have good ones; all the stores in the area are stocking a mix at random of duds and good ones; everyone is stocking (relative) duds because all the good ones are going elsewhere (to medical workers, say). This is probably a nonexhaustive enumeration of possible cases.
I'd sorta zoned out on the increased availability of non-fabric (albeit still non-medical) facemasks, but after some friends mentioned ordered KF-94s, I was like "I guess we should get some too?". The cohuman pointed out to me that the hardware store had KN-95s for about half the per-unit cost of the kf94s our friends got, and brought home a box of 20.
The other part that put me off of buying any facemasks was that I don't know how to tell what's legit; amazon's a shitshow (even from only a self-interested angle, the various counterfeits I've received that were sold by amazon, not just shipped by, has really soured me), and random sites are ... well, random sites.
This is to say: how the hell do I know that these masks are legit? Like, sure, Cole Hardware probably isn't trying to kill me, at least not intentionally ... And there's a piece of paper in here that has a red stamp on it and says some stuff about how it's probably fine... so I guess that's where I'm going to start.
japanese commercials in the hakone ekiden
Jan. 1st, 2021 04:25 pmthey're holding the hakone ekiden this year, despite things. (i understand japan is doing better with case rates than we are, by a lot, but maybe not doing so great right now by its own standards?)
There's plenty of commercial breaks, and it's pretty interesting seeing ads for a place I don't live. The 7-11 commercial (7&i) that keeps playing is particularly interesting, maybe mostly because I've seen it three or four times in the last half hour.
Everyone inside a 7 is portrayed wearing a mask, customers and employees, but there's at least one shot of someone exiting a 7 not wearing a mask and passing an employee who is.
