Intro
This is another of the W.O.O.D. series of semi-regular
Weekly Occasional Open Discussions.
(i.e. if I forget and skip one, no big)
Immediate prior one here:
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/07/28/w-o-o-d-27-july-2020/
and remains open for threads running there (at least until the ‘several month’ auto-close of comments on stale threads).
Canonical list of old ones here:
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/category/w-o-o-d/
For just general FYI notices, use to “tips” pages. All the old ones remain for historical reference:
“Tips Pages”
What’s Going On?
The Cringvention
The Democrats had a Cringworthy Convention that folks are calling a “Cringvention”.
Joe introduced himself and his spouse, Jill. He called himself “Joe Biden’s Husband”. Joe / Jill and “o” or an “ill”, I know it’s so hard to keep straight who is whom… Obama showed up and reminded us all how he was the Most Excellent POTUS who cured the world’s ills and fixed all the global problems while saying Trump was unable to do the job. Such an amazing display of lack of self awareness from the POTUS who bows to kings and ships $Billions to Islamic Terrorists while being implicated in Felonies by TLAs.
I have only watched out-takes and short snips, but that’s way too much already. It would seem almost nobody watched it anyway (reviews were horrible and ratings in the toilet). One news outlet captured a screen shot of a snip being “ratioed” with way more down votes than up, then noticed the next day half the “dislikes” were removed. Looks like Google is doing their best to shape appearance via manipulation of what you see. Isn’t that election interference or something?
Camel-Ah Harris is obnoxious when she talks. Also can’t seem to decide what her ethnicity is. One person announced her as “South Asian & Black” in the British Style of Asian (meaning Pakies or Indians). I’m growing more fond of the Cameleon Harris name…
Slowly The Light Dawns
After mere years of rolling blackouts, Governor Neusance of Kalifornia admitted that they were caused by “too much renewable energy” sources. Given another decade they might realize that shutting down all the dispatchable natural gas power plants (some with decades of service life left) was a Very Bad Idea.
Tim Pool had an avowed SJW on his show as a guest. She was explaining why she is voting for Trump! Seems that not only are folks in the middle moving away from the insanity of the Dimocrats, but even maturing SJWs are seeing the light.
The Mayor of Chicago has decided that having the police arrest folks and maybe charging some of them might, just maybe, stop some of the rioting. Now that her downtown and Miracle Mile are ruins… But hey, better late than never… maybe. Unlike Portland that has gone 80+ days of continuous riots without penalty and only now is realizing a tiny little bit that it’s helping Trump. “At least they are a good bad example”… State Police packed up and left as arrests for assault on police were not being prosecuted. Now Portland had their county buildings set on fire. Yet it must be “Trump’s Fault” in their warped view of the world.
Someone needs to point out to them that 1% of the population are Psychopaths and 4% are Sociopaths. IF you don’t have police, they recruit another 10% or so who are just loving fires and destruction and fights and then they set about having a crime and violence rampage. Might as well hang out a shingle saying “Fire Bugs Welcome! BYO Gasoline.” But maybe they will figure it out.
How Democrat Mayors and Governors could believe that letting loose the insane, arsonists, looters, and rioters in their own down towns while granting them immunity from prosecution AND pissing on their own police departments would somehow be helpful to their cause or in any way look bad for Trump is a study for psychologists and historians. All it has done is convinced large chunks of the population (and businesses) to avoid their cities and move out of town. It sure is making Republican run States and Cities look good!
Sturgis
Trigger Warning:
I’m about to show some videos of Real Americans having a good time. Most of these folks know what a real trigger is, and have one, and know how to use it. I strongly suggest you do not annoy them with some asinine whining about gender crap, oppression, or their “privilege” as many of these folks do Real Work for a living and have the muscles and sight picture to prove it. If you want to see what a real Trigger Event can do, go to Sturgis with that crap. But I really think it would be better if you just suck it up and STFU. ‘Cause I’m warning you, these folks have real triggers and know how to use them.
A giant biker rally was held in Sturgis South Dakota. I have watched a few videos of it. Regular “Deplorable” Americans saying a big F-U to people telling them to be miserable and ashamed of themselves. Big Men enjoying being masculine. Beautiful Women enjoying driving Big Men a bit around the bend ;-)
Soy Boys, Femi-Nazis, and Gender Bent need not apply.
I found myself wishing I still had my Bike and was there. Maybe next year… Even saw a few Rice Rockets there, so my old Honda 500 CC Silver Wing, twin, shaft drive, water cooled would have been acceptable (despite the Harley dominance).
A few Antifa Idiots showed up on one day. Stood in a line in the middle of the street with a lot of Big Beefy Cops near them. Motorcycle Guys just puttering by each way and jeering some. One very tall Antifa Idiot kicked at a bike. Several Dozen bikers left the side walks and were surrounding him, but a cop dragged him off as the rest of the Antifa were “escorted” out of town. What in Hell were they thinking? You just do not kick at a Bike in the middle of a Biker Convention. Oh, and in the Buffalo Chip camp grounds they had a very large Trump trailer ;-)
Bikers for Trump, it’s a thing… (2:42)
Chinese Wuhan Covid
This is a repeat from last posting.
This has been beat to death in a bunch of postings.
At present we’ve got renewed “outbreaks” based on a lot of testing with a test that has some number of false positives too. Deaths not going up much though.
Biggest issue seems to be that The Swamp wants to make this as bad as possible in the hope it will damage Trump. Rather like all their other “Do Crap And Shout” TDS efforts, it just makes them look evil. Oh Well.
Plus, folks are catching on that HCQ works, Ivermectin works, and several other things help. It is looking ever more like a fraud being committed by the Swamp Creatures and normal folks do not appreciate being pawns in a game of Political Chicken that’s killing off their friends and relatives when that could all be avoided. Oh, and the feeding of $Millions to Big Pharma for Remdesivir that only sort of works or a vaccine that doesn’t exist yet and may make it worse.
It’s just become rather obvious that it is a put up job. Only unclear bits are “by whom” and “deliberate or exploiting an accident?”.
China
Now into their 5th or so run of flood surges hitting the 3 Gorges dam. Much crop land flooded. CCP (Chinese Communist Party) telling folks to conserve food (as though anyone but party members has excess…) Bet that Australia Barley would be looking mighty good about now.
As the global Thermo Haline Circulation has slowed down a lot with our cooling sun, the rain bands have moved. I think China is going into a “world of hurt” stage. Beware cornered rats… There may also be some drought issues in other areas that normally get that rain. China has also had a few rounds of abnormal summer snow in some areas. Local lore calls this a harbinger of ill. Don’t discount the lore. It is a remembered connection between unusual events and their consequences.
Brexit
Looks like we’re on track for a WTO Brexit (and that is a good thing!) and for a CANZUK refresh of The Empire as democratic cooperating nations. Hopefully Trump can get us in on a bit of that action as that’s one BIG trading block with common language, culture, and rule of law. (Then again, I’ll understand if the USA is just a bit too “not one of us” for The Commonwealth…)
Musings from the Chiefio 
RE: a CANZUK refresh of The Empire as democratic cooperating nations. … I’ll understand if the USA is just a bit too “not one of us” for The Commonwealth…)
Maybe we can pick up the English speaking, New World nations like Jamaica, Barbados, Saint Vincent… slightly toughen the banking laws to foil corrupt nations money laundering; lower restrictions on tourism; and see about resurrecting some old anti-piracy treaties that might let the world HANG terrorists (after a speedy and fairly conducted military trial, of course)
@Pouncer:
Emphasis on “speedy” perhaps? ;-)
Fellow in the video has archery interests, Whitetail and arrows on one wall and a compound bow on another. However, I suspect he also has a gun room. I had an early Jennings Bow, but gave it to a collector/enthusiast about 7 years ago.
The fellow that kicked at the bike seemed not to understand that the security folks were doing him a favor. He has a thinking problem.
I would not walk through downtown Portland, although the Buffalo Chip fairway is tempting.
If all the antifa’s are that stupid the rest of us don’t have anything to worry about from that direction.
So whaddya know? Mr. Smith didn’t much like the virtual Democratic “convention”! No surprise there: It was an infomercial, and Mr. Smith doesn’t like infomercials — or dimocrats. But what will he say about the republicrims? Will he denounce them? Anxious minds want to know! [But I’m betting Mr. Smith is so enamoured with The Donald that he will be unable to express any real doubts. Anyone want to take my bet?]
We live in interesting times! The political world is about to be turned upside down.
“a harbinger of ill. Don’t discount the lore. It is a remembered connection between unusual events and their consequences.”
2020, Year of the Comet. No science, but the lore is strong. Unfortunately, 2020 is still in play.
jim2 replied 21 August 2020 at 3:32 am GMT:
If all the antifa’sare that stupid the rest of us don’t have anything to worry about from that direction.
Whoa! Not so fast!
For starters, I insist that people respect historic statues, and leave them in peace where they were erected: I refuse to judge people of the past by popular morality of the present. Wantonly not merely toppling, but reportedly destroying a statue of Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville (home of the U. of Va., which was founded by Jefferson) was an act that I couldn’t even imagine, unless the topic had been “the unthinkable”.
Haven’t you ever heard of “useful idiots“[☭]?
Mindless destruction, like what’s featured in deliberately minimized mainstream “reporting” this year, is well within the mental abilities of “stupid” people. Especially when local law-enforcement and government officials fail to carry out their lawful responsibilities. Arrests would’ve been a helpful start. It seems to me that stupid adults require a prompt response that’s comparable to the prompt punishment that willful young children need for learning right from wrong.
What proportion of the AntiFa thugs were reared under the “time-out” system of corporal nonpunishment, hmmm? Was that a foolish exercise in “spoiling the child(ren)”, by at least 1 generation of parents indulging themselves in virtue signalling, before that latter term was invented?
——–
Note ☭ : Wikipedia states that Vladimir “Lenin” never used the phrase “useful idiots”, altho’ it’s commonly attributed to him. A skeptical reader might suspect that Wikipedia was covering for one of the greatest heroes of leftists, except that it cites a column by “Mr. Language Maven” William Safire [*], a former speechwriter for Pres. Nixon.
Note * : “ON LANGUAGE” (column) by William Safire. N.Y. Times (Magazine?), April 12, 1987: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/12/magazine/on-language.html.
Latest Pointmman
“Why on Earth did the DNC pick Harris as Biden’s running mate?”
Another Ian says:
Young, Female & Black.
Compu gator;
The operative word is “If.” I agree with you on historic monuments.
One cheerful note is that we see the Federalist system working, in some cases, as our Forefathers envisioned. Trump sent in Federal agents to protect Federal property in Portland. Texas Governor Abbot is threatening to cap property taxes in cites that defund the police. The Federal government is going after antifa that aren’t being pursued by local or state governments. I’m sure there are more examples, but the point is ours is a complex system that is difficult to game.
That said, I am alarmed by how many offices and posts have been occupied by Marxists. Will this year be the year where politically moderate citizens see the “Man Behind the Curtain?”
In other news, I’m going to talk about how rainy the year (and water year) it has been for me, with the NWS current outlook having *two* tropical systems that may reach my area (and the peak of the tropical season is about 3 weeks from now and remains active for another 4 weeks, on average; and a reminder: Camille came through right about now, in 1969). The calendar year to date has seen an estimated 50+ inches of rain. The water year 70+, with an average amount of rain annually, whether by calendar or water year, of 4 and a half feet (54 inches). The current month has seen the average amount (about 2 inches with 10 days left to go) to date. For the whole month, we see about 3 and a half inches. September and October are likewise about 3 inches each, with September having a bit more than October. The water year ends September 30th. Temperature has been rather mild, overall; but let the alarmists tell it, it’s been *the hottest ever* (not!).
Is “seriouso” a typo or another new moniker? In any case, being a new variation it landed your comment in “moderation” as all “new” posters go there for a first look over.
It wasn’t so much ME not liking the convention as basically everyone not part of the Democrat Machine. Like I said, I just watched a few snippets of it in news summaries. IF it really was as horrible as the news / views / dislikes / commentaries / snippets are indicating, then I’m deeply loving it as it sinks Biden / Harris.
And, in fact, being one long boring “infomercial” was one of the more frequent complaints I saw about it. I’m taking it on faith that the folks doing that reporting are accurate (since many are themselves Democrats…) and the snippets given as examples match that description.
BTW, I very much do like Democrats, especially Southern Blue Dog Democrats, but they are being driven out of the party by the Dims & Socialists. I was registered Democrat a couple of decades back and voted for Obama in the California Primary (as an ABC voter – Anyone But Clinton).
Though I do find it odd that you repeatedly try to make your comments “about me”. What I like or do not like has no relevance nor even much meaning. I don’t like how stiff Pense is when speaking. I don’t like how Trump’s colour seems to change with tanning bed time or “something”. I don’t like how Shawn Hannity goes on long whinging complaints (so stopped watching him some years back). But none of that matters either. Given a choice between a TLA Facilitated sell out to China (Biden Bribo of $1.5 Billion to his kid…) and “Some rude crude guy who’s pro America”, I’ll hold my nose and take Rude Crude Guy.
Well, since The Donald has been busy driving the Republicrim Never Trumpers using Government for their own gain OUT of Government, I’ve got ever less of them to complain about. Note that the Swamp Creatures trying to get faux charges filed on anyone near Trump is not something that endears the Swamp to me, nor does it taint Trump. It’s just a tactic of manufactured mud to fling.
BUT, anyone caught actually doing really bad things against the law, yes, I denounce them. (Though I don’t bother with denouncing someone who smoked pot on a weekend, or turned in an expense report for $120 that ought to have been $119 or similar junk complaints. Similarly, if some Swamp Creature finds a plausible interpretation of law that lets them get an indictment when other equally valid interpretations of the same law says it is a legal thing that the guy did; well, that’s just Lawfare and bogus. We’ve seen a LOT of that from the DNC & TLAs & Friends).
Doubts? I have lots of them. The Donald is, IMHO, too often picking fights on a personal level that ought not happen. But he does seem to win them. He’s been looking a bit short slept and over driven during some of the pandemic news conferences – I have doubts he can keep up that pace for another year, never mind 5. He needs to take care of himself better and bag some Zs. On the one hand, I like that someone is finally standing up to China and stopping the slow destruction of America that is their agenda. OTOH, I’m not looking forward to the war with China that might cause – I doubt either course is a good one. I wish Trump would get on with it and stamp out Antifa as the Communist Insurgency that it is, and put Soros under a RICO charge, but he won’t as that’s not as effective for him as letting it run and pointing at it. I’m disappointed that the BLM organization is not being illuminated as a Marxist Front funnelling money to the DNC co-conspirators in the Color Revolution effort; nor asking just how much of the Democrat Machine is paid for by China. Maybe he has some better plan, but it just looks like lack of awareness to me. I worry that the Republican Swamp Creatures are still widely embedded in Government and the TLAs and are working against Trump and American Interests of We The Deplorables.
So yeah, I’ve got doubts about the Republicans.
I’m staunchly “middle of the bird”. About as non-partisan as you can get. Yes, a “California Conservative” which puts me as about a “Texan Progressive” too…
I mostly identify with Libertarians and Classical Liberal (i.e. use of Government Force is horrible and needs to be as minimal as possible. Free People can do more, better, than government ever can in just about all cases but national defence. It is your body and your life, you ought to be able to do anything with it that you like that does not hurt others nor deprive them of their property and liberty.) I’ve been a registered Libertarian or “Independent” many more years than I was a registered Democrat or Republican. So I’ve plenty of bile for Swamp Critters of both major parties. (Like Romney making a fool of himself in a mask parade somewhere and thinking that’s going to impress me, and how he made a lot of money off Government.)
But, in fact, Trump is not really a Republican. He’s also more libertarian. He just realized that the Republican Voters were fed up with the Republicrim Swamp and he had a shot at taking the nomination from them. Remember he was a registered Democrat for a long time. He tapped into the rage of Us Deplorables in the middle and found a path he could work. And he has. That, in fact, is why I support him despite his flaws. Because he would piss off the Republicrims as much as the Dimocrats and Swamp Creatures of all stripes. And he has.
Going to be? It already has been.
Trump has driven most of the Never Trumper Swamp Critters out of the Republican Party, invited in a load of “middle of the bird” folks, got Blacks and Hispanics to “just walk away” from the Democrats in high numbers and made a much “bigger tent”.
The DNC has run their little racket into the ditch, had Bernie (whom I donated to, BTW) come in as a side show to try to pull in a few more radical left votes and then when Bernie was scoring big and looked like he might be favored over their old tired Machine Candidates, stole the nomination once again. But, surprise of surprises, as they drove away old school Democrats and invited in fringe Progressive / Socialist / Communists, they got flipped by spending too much time on Social Media thinking the 10% Twitter Mob was reality. Now they are a Radical Leftist party embracing AOC Guidelines and trying to appeal to Bernie Bros. A bastard mix of old school corruption and “burn it all down” socialists.
Too much time spent taking Soros Money (and mandates) along with too much Chinese Corruption (and money) both wanting the destruction of traditional American values. The Dems have become the party of destruction, depression, and emotional vulcanism. They are already upside down.
The Republicans are being purged of their old guard and have a chance of returning to American core values. Stepping away from the Crony Capitalism Writ Large that they have done so often in the past. Again being turned upside down (though back to the good side, IMHO).
When I was supporting Bernie it was from a “If you can’t fix it, at least burn it down and start over” POV. Now, for the first time in decades, I’ve got some hope things MIGHT get fixed. Trump is trying, and in many cases succeeding, so I’m supporting him. BUT, he’s up against not only the entire Democrat Machine, Soros, Silly Con Valley Tech Mob, Hollywood Hucksters and ChiCom Insurgency efforts, but also the Republicrims in his own party. IF, once he is out of office, things go back to Crony Capitalism vs ChiCom Progressive Policies; then a pox on both their houses. I’m hoping for a Classical Liberal / Libertarian renaissance, but I’m pragmatic enough to doubt it will happen. Hopefully the inversion in the Dems will keep them disabled for a generation and the Trump Legacy will keep the Repubs in line for a decade or two.
For now, I’m with the Bikers, Biker Babes, Cowboys, Police & First Responders and other “Deplorables” just looking for a little liberty with rule of law as needed.
Dems cancel Tulsi Gabbard:
https://www.rt.com/usa/498647-tulsi-gabbard-democratic-convention/
@YMMV:
Yeah, Tulsi was one I was supporting. She was a truth teller. I didn’t agree with all her policy positions, but a lot of them were good.
But the DNC can’t abide with truth telling. Just like the CCP. The worst sin you can commit is to be honest and truthful. So many corrupt and manipulative SOBs get their nose out of joint.
Oh Well. I really liked Tulsi.
YMMV,
Maj. Tulsi Gabbard was the only Democrat I could relate to in that big original list.
However, she had a different, sort of odd, childhood.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/tulsi-gabbard-2020-presidential-campaign.html
If she converted to being a republican, I’d take a second look.
Kamala – There is something off-putting about her, at least as far as I’m concerned. That laugh, for one thing. I’ve seen it described as a way to evade questions, just laugh them away and move on to the next one. I so enjoyed the debate where Tulsi Gabbard pretty much took her out of the running by dropping the mother of all truth bombs on her. Harris never recovered after that, and the RNC should include that encounter in some ads, as a gentle reminder to the voters.
Tim Poole – I can’t find the episode you’re talking about where he interviews an SJW, but it reminded me of an article I read on Medium in February from an avowed Democrat who wasn’t happy with the direction of the party, and who decided to attend a Trump rally. You may have covered it, but I’ll link to it anyway, just in case, because it’s an interesting read:
https://gen.medium.com/ive-been-a-democrat-for-20-years-here-s-what-i-experienced-at-trump-s-rally-in-new-hampshire-c69ddaaf6d07
@Pinroot:
It’s on his “Timcast IRL” channel. He’s got a few different channels…
Yeah, something about Camel-ah just raises the hairs on my neck. My “deception flagged” alert goes off, as does my “untrustworthy attack possible” flag. She’s got some kind of evil streak going on (evidenced by how she treated prisoners – both those innocent and provably so and those with end dates she extended for her convenience)
I just get the Slimy Weasel flashing light when she’s talking..
@N&J H.:
If Tulsi had been kept in the debates, I’d have watched and been interested. As soon as they diddled the rules to block her it was clear “the fix was in” and no more attention on my part was necessary as I could have no influence on the outcome. It was DNC Insiders Only need apply.
“Wow. Vitamin D deficiency may cause 40% of respiratory deaths in older people”
http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/wow-vitamin-d-deficiency-may-cause-40-of-respiratory-deaths-in-older-people/
Or this one:
@EM You near the evac zone in South San Jose? We were packing up here until the wind shifted. Still ready to go- camping in Oregon looking tempting right now.
Take care.
NASA fire map: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#t:adv;d:2020-08-21;@-121.5,37.2,10z
@E.M. – I sometimes don’t wear a mask. There’s just no need to do it right now.
I was all in on masks and gloves early on, as were most of us vulnerable geezers here because nobody knew nuttin’ ’bout nuttin’ except that the Wuhan Flu was deadly for particular comorbidities.
So there we all were, wearing masks and gloves when hardly anyone was. OK Phil Jourdan wasn’t ;o) And now there is no particular reason to do so and everyone is wearing masks, because…
…the Devil… Hitler… a Hitler wannabe… a TDS affected official… governors and mayors are requiring them for no logical or medical reason, but somehow they think the political gains from their orders will pay off.When I do wear a mask, I wear a disposable paper mask that I attacked with a single hole punch. It looks to have survived the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. It’s a real conversation starter sometimes and I plant seeds of doubt about the efficacy of masks. I like to point out, when asked, that the filtration of their paper mask is pretty much worthless. So is mine, but at least I can breathe.\ and rebreathing your own exhaust is kinda like sucking on a tailpipe.
Anyhow, I’m having a lot of fun and have educated a few people or at least – hopefully – got them to look harder at masks, their legitimate uses, and their potential for political abuse. Oh, and I also very cheerfully mention HCQ and other quinine formulations + zinc and Ivermectin. A lot of people had no idea about those and it’s very satisfying to see the relaxation of fear on a few people I casually brought that up to. I’d say I’ve hit up between 20and 30 people, strangers, in conversation.
I have a window screen mask I made 4 – 5 weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to pick up elastic to make the ear loops. Dang! That mask would be a real conversation starter, eh? I gotta remember to pick up some elastic.
BTW, I looked up a few of the tyrannical edicts and none, nada, zip had any filtration specifications. You just have to wear a ‘face covering.’ I’m hoping for some
hall monitordoor guard to question my bullet hole riddled mask so I can ask to see the establishment’s filtration or mesh specification. My mask just has a little bit more coarse filtration than some of the other masks ;o) But so far, no luck. “C’mon in and spend yo money!” is all I get.“Mischief Is Important”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/08/21/mischief-is-important-11/
@Sorrioso – did you have a point? Just wondering as I saw none. But then I saw none this week from the Democrats either. So maybe just following the party line?
@Compu Gator says:
21 August 2020 at 6:00 am
Spot on. History is not for changing. It is to be understood. And destruction of the past is for those who wish to repeat it. Not prevent it. It is little wonder that the democrats are trying to destroy the past since the past and present is they are the party of racism, bigotry, and lynching.
@HR – whoa! Wearing a mask protects them from you. And is still useless! We are all going to get exposed to it. Some of us will be asymptomatic. Some of us will be mildly symptomatic. And some of us will die (I am in a high risk group).
But we will all get it. Masks are placebos. And impotent!
The point of the lockdowns was to flatten the curve. It has been flattened. So the medical facilities now can take care of you. If you get it and die, that is life. Millions get the flu each year and die. That is life. There are no guarantees in life except Death and..,,
It is time to stop lying to ourselves. I have been saying this for 6 months. SOme have listened. Most have not. It is time to stop living in fear. It is time to start living.
Anything less is existing. Stop existing.
I did in 16. I do not have to hold my nose in 20. He is rude. He is not crude. He is not deep state.
““Known serial plagiarist Joe Biden STOLE from Jack Layton for his DNC speech, say Canadians”
https://therightscoop.com/known-serial-plagiarist-joe-biden-stole-from-jack-layton-for-his-dnc-speech-say-canadians/”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/08/22/august-22-2020-reader-tips/#comment-1347772
For the Chameleon Collection if not already there
https://www.redpowermagazine.com/forums/topic/130962-whats-goin-down-with-blm/page/11/?tab=comments#comment-1463191
@Phil – If you saw my mask, you’d see that I am not living in fear, but having FUN!
The holes are about .32 cal sized and the mask is riddled with them. It positively screams, “I don’t give a rat’s patootie!”
That’s when I do wear a mask. Otherwise, I’m sooooo over it :o)
So are my neighbors. They’re over it. Not a mask to be seen in the neighborhood and we gather in groups to chitty-chat just as we’ve always done. 42 houses and two thirds of us have been here 20 years or better.
.
.
.
I’m also working people over on “Social Distancing.” When someone does the weird shuffle to try to keep their (arbitrary) 6′ social distance. I say, “Look. I don’t know you, so we’re already as socially distant as we can be. Are you trying to physically distance from me?”
Words mean something and I have started pointing that out lately at every opportunity. Oh, and I pull down my hole-riddled mask and smile!
You wouldn’t believe the number of smiles I’ve been generating in return from other people. It’s positively seditious.
Ridicule. It’s what’s on the menu from here ’til Nov. 3.
@Quail:
I’m about smack dab in the center of the Santa Clara / Silicon Vally metroplex. By the time any fire gets to me, it must burn through at least 10 miles of suburbs and urbs. It WILL be major global news if that ever happens.
The South San Jose evac area, last I looked, was in the hills east of Morgan Hill / Gilroy. I’m not worried.
I worked the Clear Lake fire in about 1971. That’s when I learned that THE major method of wild fire management was watching it burn and waiting for it to burn itself out. Yeah, if possible cut a fire break around it. Yeah, when wind and terrain allow, set backfires. Mostly stand on the hill and piss on wind blown embers. (Honest! I had a Pulaski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_(tool) for chopping brush or entrenching, but it was only OK on embers, so we were encouraged to use whatever liquid was available….)
So after one day of brush cutting, we spent 3 more watching it burn out and be back fired. Mostly we just hiked from camp to the fire, sat on the hill all day long, then went back for dinner and sleep. I think I put out 2 blown embers.
So to me, it looks like they are just planning to let the hills burn, clear out the odd rural buildings not in compliance with U.N. Agenda 21 / 30, and stop the fire at the suburbs major roads as firebreaks.
FWIW: for years I had a roof top sprinkler system. Mostly used as an experiment in cooling (worked well). Also had eave mounted mist system. All up maybe $50 of pvc, tubing, and sprinkler heads / misters. I often wondered why folks would buy $ million houses and have no fire sprinklers nor shutters.
BTW, mine is stucco with fiberglass shingles. Only flamable exterior is doors and eaves. Perimeter misting takes care of that.
Oh Well. That experiment ended some years back.
In the Oakland fire several years back, houses with non-flamable roof material (tile, steel, copper, etc) and stucco or brick exterior facing, often survived even as all around them burned down. Having shutters or at least removing flamable drapes (to prevent radiative ignition through windows) also is a big help.
Why people in wildfire zones build flamable houses with no sprinklers and shutters is an interesting study in hope over understanding….
Governors mandating masks is just a sneaky way of getting the public to go out and get exposed to the virus so we reach herd immunity sooner. I’m not sure if I’m being sarcastic or not.
A good look at China from Cross Roads — summer snow, more flooding, social unrest, Hong Kong, growing international resistance to ‘debt trap’ control, and the Trump squeeze is beginning to bite the CCP hard.
Read this and weep for American Justice.
https://truepundit.com/exclusive-the-untouchables-top-fbi-reveal-ag-barrs-immunity-agreement-to-protect-biden-obama-from-prosecution-by-john-durham-probe-of-spying-on-trump/
Obstruction of justice writ large.
Per masks:
They do one very important thing. Reduce initial viral load. With small initial exposure comes smaller disease, more doubling times for your immune system to gear up. This matters.
A huge inhalation deep into your lungs with no mask just after a cough your way from an infected person is much more likely to land you in pneumonia treatment.
So a mask stopping big droplets but not individual virus particles IS a big help
As we are under a mask mandate, I do wear one. I’d likely do it anyway. (Did before the mandate). It isn’t out of fear. Having OTC zink ionophore, ivermectin, high vit D level, and no comorbidity has me quite at ease. It is mostly to block cameras, and then I like the idea fewer folks are “spit talking” at my face. If it also means a milder initial case more like a cold, well that’s a bonus.
FWIW, there’s a modest chance I’ve already been exposed. A month or two back, after an outing, I had a small bit of “not quite right” with throat scratchey feeling. Did an ivermectin treatment, repeated a couple of days later, with 2 grams vit C daily, multivit with zinc, and sun time. Everything went away in a few days.
Could have been allergies, a regular cold, or whatever. But what was circulating then was Wuhan Covid. I’m in an early big hot spot.
I also have no trouble breathing in masks. Maybe it was my time spent scuba diving, but slow even breathing against resistance is just no big deal. I’d not want to run a mile in one , but walking is a nothing burger. Then again, I’m not in the land of humidity, but in very dry air.
@H.R.:
I like the window screen mask idea! Spouse made some masks for us (decorated with old T shirt bits). Uses shoe strings and a toggle thing (string pincher like on bags, sewing or camping stores have them) to adjust fit.
BTW, N95 masks work via air flow over the material creating electrostatic attraction. It isn’t pore size that gets the small particles, but electric charge. You might consider adding a battery holder and mini circuit card then giving a lecture on electrostatics to the door monitor… I doubt 1 in a 1000 would get past the bafflegab ;’) Maybe one in 50 “managers”. Have a handout on N95 mask electrostatics for them 8-)
https://www.honeywell.com/en-us/newsroom/news/2020/03/n95-masks-explained
“Material: The filtration material on the mask is an electrostatic non-woven polypropylene fiber.”
That’s why getting them wet reduces effectiveness.
Oh God! The beer bong hat! Get one, replace beer can with electronic prop. Hang screen around the perimeter. Added buzzy sound optional but preferred. Tesla discharge only for electrical engineers! Add recycled bug zapper to the top (chin strap to stabilize weight distribution) for those wanting visual display. Have helper film reactions and get trending on YouTube!
Hmm, a bit more history trivia. I’ve long noted that America’s counter-revolution started while some of the founders were still living. More on the party of Slavery and Death since its founding, here, involving the Post Office https://twitter.com/LarrySchweikart/status/1297167374307622912.
E.M.Smith: “Per masks: They do one very important thing. Reduce initial viral load. With small initial exposure comes smaller disease, more doubling times for your immune system to gear up. This matters.”
That is worth repeating. Consider this, every vaccine is designed to get you infected with some safe dose — something to build up your antibody protection in advance. We know masks are not 100% protection, but it is safe to assume that they reduce the risk of infection and they reduce the seriousness of any infection you do get. So even if masks don’t work, they work.
Those who are at serious risk should protect themselves. That said, this is still Summer. Now is the time for those not at risk to get their small inoculation doses. The hospitals are almost empty. When flu season starts up, the symptoms are almost indistinguishable. I don’t know what that means, but it will increase the panic, which is already over the top. Add in back to school. Now that most places have passed the peak, now is the time to go for so-called herd immunity (others call it community immunity, which has a ring to it).
Meanwhile, the FDA is said to be about to ban convalescent blood plasma treatment. It’s hard to think of any reason for this other than TDS,
And now blood plasma treatment — from horses! Go Brazil!
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/saude/noticia/2020-08/equine-serum-found-have-powerful-antibodies-against-covid-19
When I saw my Dr. in March, we had “the talk” about masks and she emphasized that they were important for reducing viral load. Gloves are very important too. That’s also when she checked my medical history and meds before I started on quinine and zinc.
Once the Summer weather hit and we were in the 80s and 90s (F), I’ve not seen masks as necessary except for Dr. visits (there’s a bunch of sick people there!) and indoors in small rooms with several people. Well, since I’m retired I never do the small rooms with several people anymore; i.e. meetings in conference rooms.
Just for regular flu season, as I move into that cohort susceptible due to age, let alone my diabetes, I’ll be wearing a mask and gloves on a lot of occasions where I should have been doing that in years past even before the Kung Flu Fuss brought on all of the ‘mandatory’ mask wearing. (I write ‘mandatory’ because the few edicts I’ve read always allow for medical or psychological exemptions. No one really must wear a mask, at least in my State.)
.
.
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One thing I’ve been glad to see out of all of this…
…is the plastic shields at checkouts. Companies should have done that years ago just for regular seasonal flu. The savings in sick time for cashiers/checkers will more than pay for the plastic guards. And I don’t want to go through a line where every one has coughed, sneezed, or breathed on the checker and they in turn are coughing, sneezing, or breathing on everyone who goes through their lane. Those shields should have been put in years ago.
One thing that drives me nuts is…
…seeing parents putting masks on young kids. At least in my State, the edict recognizes that children are more at risk from wearing masks than flu, so kids under 10 years of age are exempt. Yet I see people with 2, 3, 5, 7 years-old kids putting masks on them… because Covid.
There’s been enough time and data to show that kids aren’t particularly susceptible to the Wuhan Flu. As of July 17, 2020, only 168 people under the age of 24 died of (with?) Covid-19. I’m guessing that those who died had other very serious medical conditions that made them susceptible.
@YMMV:
The general rule is to “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”.
But in this case we know there is extreme malice coupled with a mantra to “Never let a disaster go to waste.” We know the players are not stupid but many have doctorates and masters degrees.
Couple that with the known Soros involvement in funding mayhem groups, Color Revolution desires, and the Color Revolution playbook.
I’d not be surprised by a conclusion folks from the Swamp inside the FDA and CDC were deliberately banning effective treatments to make things worse (intending to damage Trump and prevent reelection – in keeping with the Color Revolution playbook, and perhaps create revenue for selected patrons).
Just like the W.H.O. is owned by China and being used as a tool for China. I no longer trust either the CDC or the FDA to be working only in the best interests of the American people. I’ve swapped over to DIY preparation and research from other nations and agencies.
Sad, but that’s where I’m at. When “authority” is corrupt, you can not depend on Authority to be honest, protect you, or provide good advice. The Global Warming crap has clearly illuminated that academia is cortupted to the core. The traditional media blatant lying prove them corrupt to the core. The Democratic party rigging primaries and doing similar things in some other elections, promoting Russiagate for years, and doing an entirely political kangaroo court “impeacment”; then pushing removal of police: it shows the Democratic party corrupt to the core.
I don’t know who’s left that you can trust. Not the Republican Never Trumpers. Not the TLAs. Not anyone affiliated with the Bildeburgers et. al. Maybe your local police or Sheriff if in an uninvolved area . Maybe the military depending on just which officers. Maybe your personal M.D. if they have their own sovereignty. (I.e. not slave to FDA & CDC but digging in to world data and reports themselves).
I’m personally very comfortable being self reliant on most things. Many are not. This may not go well for folks prone to blindly following “authority”.
As the organized Democrat & Globalist mayhem reaches a crescendo in November, we will reach a turning point. Either the election is stolen for Dementia Joe or Trump wins and we get the Color Revolution attempt to de-legitimize the POTUS. Either the country gets pwned by the Globalist cabal, or they will push toward a revolutionary war. We’ll find out then just how many folks in America still have a working brain, morals, and some spine.
I’m hoping POTUS Trump wins in an uncontestable 49 State landslide and folks see that the kaos is only in Democrat run urban cores. Icing would be 120% of registered voters for demorats in a few urban areas ;-)
“But hope is not a strategy. – E.M.Smith”
Maybe Trump can start quietly rolling up the treasonous players before then…
@YMMV,
Keep in mind that use of horse serum derived antibody treatments is old, roughly as old as chicken egg derived influenza vaccines. Newer is tobacco leaf cell derived, or bacterial derived monoclonal antibody treatments. Mind you all of these will need special purification treatments and any protein based treatments will need preservatives added.
While masks are mostly placebos, well, from a certain point of view; they work ;p. Do I wear one? In certain circumstances, where I’m going to be publicly exposed (shopping or medical facilities), since I am on mild immunosuppressants and *do* catch anything going around (here it is summer ‘cold’ season and coronaviruses are but one of the causative agents for the syndrome). It won’t be long before it is goldenrod (allergen) season, too. Still watching the tropics given the possibility of two systems impacting my area.
Link to vertebrate coronavirus strains: https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1297207044664184832/photo/1.
H.R. replied 21 August 2020 at 11:56 pm GMT:
I sometimes don’t wear a mask. There’s just no need to do it right now.
Really, now?
I was all in on masks and gloves early on, as were most of us vulnerable geezers here because nobody knew nuttin’ ’bout nuttin’ except that the Wuhan Flu was deadly for particular comorbidities.
Sooo, should readers believe that the Wu-Hu Virus is no longer deadly for anyone?
I’m sure that in the opinion of today’s self-obsessed “youts” (sic) [♟], I’m considered a “geezer” or “old hippie“, esp. in view of my not-yet-white long hair & beard. I had serious comorbidities back then. And I still have them now: At least 1 is incurable with current medical science, and rare enough that I have no realistic expectation of a cure in the foreseeable future.
E.M. replied 22 August 2020 at 1:49 pm GMT:
[
PerRe] masks:They do one very important thing. Reduce initial viral load. With small initial exposure comes smaller disease, more doubling times for your immune system to gear up. This matters. [….] So a mask stopping big droplets but not individual virus particles IS a big help. [….] If it also means a milder initial case more like a cold, well that’s a bonus.
I’m really mystified that this is not a rationale for wearing masks that’s compelling for all of the bright people who I’m accustomed to seeing commenting here on the Chiefio blog.
E.M. replied 22 August 2020 at 1:49 pm GMT:
As we are under a mask mandate, I do wear one. I’d likely do it anyway. (Did before the mandate). It isn’t out of fear. [….] I like the idea fewer folks are “spit talking” at my face.
Yes! The “spit talking” by people raising their voices so they can be heard at the other end of their calls while holding their phones in front of their mouths, flat like a piece of buttered toast [📞]. They frequently appear right behind me in various lines/queues that I’d already entered because they were apparently free of such customers at the time. Fortunately for me, we here in Orange Co. (Fla.) also have a mask mandate, albeit tardily imposed.
E.M. replied 22 August 2020 at 1:49 pm GMT:
I also have no trouble breathing in masks. Maybe it was my time spent scuba diving, but slow even breathing against resistance is just no big deal. I’d not want to run a mile in one , but walking is a nothing burger. Then again, I’m not in the land of humidity, but in very dry air.
Well! I am indisputably in the land of humidity, and I have no problem breathing thro’ a mask, whether the disposable surgical kind, or the 3 layers-of-common-fabric kind. And my blood has an incurably low oxygen capacity; it’s genuinely life-threatening. How many antimask zealots suffer from that? I’m guessing that just about everyone is much better off than I am by that criterion. So to any masking-whiners who’re not on prescribed O₂, I’d say “Suck it up and just wear the damn mask!” If for no other reason than charity toward your fellow men, esp. those whose medical condition might be much worse off than yours [⚕].
——–
Note ♟ : E.g., selfies, esp. as distributed via Twitter (and instagram too?).
Note 📞 : Isn’t holding a cell-phone flat, like a piece of buttered toast, seriously, um, suboptimal for voice pick-up, or am I assuming too much from decades of using land-line and “cordless-phone” handsets?
Note ⚕ : My numerous close views of take-offs & landings by the local trauma center’s med-evac chopper in recent years have helped me keep some perspective on my own frustrations over my comorbidities. Plus my memory of visible-light and x-ray images, taken years ago, by a local emergency-orthopedic surgeon, used to document (for medical conferences) his own meatball surgery. Viewing definitely was not for the faint of heart nor delicate of stomach.
@HR – I apologize for the tone of my response. I was not actually going off on you (and I appreciate your mask and got a chuckle with it), I was just ranting at the wind. But in re-reading my response, I see how easy (due to my poor writing skills) it is to think it was directed at you.
I am about EM’s age, so not real old, but no spring chicken either. If it is my time to go, so be it. But I refuse to cower in fear. Every day at lunch I go out. I wear my mask (since it is mandated by our dictator of a governor blackface), but only when entering a store. I also walk around my neighborhood, without it! And dare any sniveling Karen or Ken to confront me on it.
Most of my co-workers are very misinformed about the whole Chinese virus thing. And they are cowering in fear. That is no way to live. That is NOT living, that is existing.
@Compu Gator – I’m convinced of the efficacy of quinine & zinc as preventative if the rest of the immune system is in good order. I also believe I have had a snoot-full of Xi’s Disease around the beginning of June. I was doing quinine and zinc then and noting came of it.
So I haven’t been too concerned, personally. But the lesson learned is good for the seasonal flu season that will soo be here. I’ll be upping my mask and glove wearing time then.
Oh, BTW. Somewhere last month or so I ran across an article that said it’s Type I diabetes that’s at severe risk, much less so for type II. That put my mind at ease a bit, but I also realize it’s not Get Out Of Jail Free type information.
masks good, mask mandates bad. My POV, protect me and mine and those at risk. But for those others, the young and healthy — let them get it if they don’t care to wear a mask. Their risk, their choice. The more of those young and healthy volunteers get hit with the virus and become immune, the better for everybody. The young and healthy won’t die, they won’t get sick, they might not even notice.
@YMMV – Exactly! Stop penalizing the healthy! Start quarantining the sick!
Since the stated GOALS were to not over run hospitals (now far overachieved to the point of damaging medical systems), buy time to develop understanding and better treatments (done, check!) AND reach herd immunity (almost…) it seems to me the best thing to do is resume normal germ exchsnge among those under 20 (I.e. school), then raise that age by tranches until herd immunity is obvious.
Like in week 4 of school, have 20 to 40 y.o. return to work. A month later, 40 to 60. Allow anyone who wants to, to return to normal life early whenever they want. I’d guess full herd immunuty about 4 to 5 weeks, but maybe sooner. IMHO, this ought to have started a month ago…
Sanity will not return until November 4. One way or the other. Democrats will use death to further their agenda. Losing, they (not all) will accept reality,
The Democratic Socialists plan on winning this election cycle by any means, even if it means destroying the Constitutional Republic. They will lose in the long run but, the next year will be a hell of turmoil as they fight to the last with argument and lawsuit.
YMMV replied 22 August 2020 at 11:46 pm GMT:
My POV, protect me and mine and those at risk. But for those others, the young and healthy — let them get it if they don’t care to wear a mask. Their risk, their choice.
Lawd ha’ mercy!
Why must we keep going round-&-round about this on a blog with so many bright commenters?
Altho’ gloves protect a wearer who is attentive and uses some effective discipline, a mask protects everyone else much more than it does the wearer, e.g., from “spit talkers” wearing masks. I’d add that the masks worn by other people protect users of shared facilities, e.g., laundry machines operated in confined spaces, which feature virus-friendly hard-enamelled surfaces. It seems to me that E.M. made the crucial points clearly enough for all readers to understand & accept several months ago.
The “young and healthy” are plainly “get[ting] it“, as confirmed by reports from college & pro football preseason practices; some of their teams are still hoping to play a real season before the end of this year [🏈]. Those players are contagious to everyone who has contact with them, including supportive parents & grandparents. That contagion can start before symptoms appear. That feature of the Wu-Hu Virus has been established for several months.
YMMV replied 22 August 2020 at 11:46 pm GMT:
masks good, mask mandates bad.
That’s an attitude that’s publicly counterproductive to the point of being uncharitable. Trying to justify it as “libertarian” should be easily recognized as a flimsy cover claimed by self-centered people. In general, there are many people on this planet who are clueless or willfully refuse to do the kinds of things that they ought to do, given that they’re far from being the only inhabitants of this planet. Such things often require mandates to coerce people into doing what they ought to do on their own.
I dare say that “diversity” is often not a benefit to our citizenry: People from many parts of the world move to Florida from the 3rd World, whether to escape conditions in their native countries, or hoping to “make a better life” [🌴], but it’s foolish to assume that their ingrained habits & values conform to those expected of native-born U.S. citizens. Examples of reasonable mandates are easy to find, e.g.: Sanitation requirements for restaurants, which need to be a mandates. Turning on headlights while driving in rainstorms here in Florida is crucial to reducing a serious daytime traffic hazard (esp. as posed by tourist drivers and neutral-colored vehicles [☔]); it needs to be a mandate. And no way in Hey-ell would merely voluntary limits devised for the harvest of popular fish & game allow effective conservation without imposing actionable mandates [♓]. Haven’t readers encountered enough willful people lately to recognize & accept that wearing masks needs to be a mandate?
——–
Note 🏈 : Haven’t the Pac-12 and B1G (i.e., the 12-member “Big Ten”) Conferences recently announced that they’d given up on conducting their college-football seasons in 2020?
Note 🌴 : Few people give a daµn that it ain’t the proper reponsibility of Florida’s citizenry to provide “better lives” for uninvited residents. Oh! Herein, I am not objecting to potential residents of the high quality exemplified by E.M. Metro Orlando continues to have the lowest per-capita income of any U.S. metro area of comparable or larger population (as tallied by the U.S. Census). Arguably worse, people speculatively
move toinfest Florida from New York and New Jersey, bringing their political leanings and native, um, charm. I assume that native Texans sympathize. But I digress.Note ☔ : Black and neutrally dark-colored vehicles blend in to shadows or asphalt pavement. Silvery and neutrally light-colored vehicles blend in to the mirror-like reflection of a rainy gray overcast on wet pavement. Sometimes vehicles without headlights can be visually detected only as silhouettes created by headlights behind them.
Note ♓ : Alas, fish & game mandates don’t guarantee successful conservation, but the conservation goals are hopeless without the mandates.
Gator, I can confirm from my couple of years in Texas that all are welcome, except Californians who come for the low taxes and cheap (relatively) housing but continue to vote Democrat.
Strange you mentioned neutral colour cars. Every car and truck in TX was a shade of grey from white to black. We managed to find a yellow Ford. It was just so easy to find in a car park after months of grey and silver rentals.
Willis looks at the wording of the democrats platform
“Words From The Platform”
https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/
As we previously covered, this early treatment protocol combines ivermectin with doxycycline and zinc.
“Triple therapy specialist Professor Thomas Borody, famous for curing peptic ulcers using a triple antibiotic therapy saving millions of lives, today released the COVID-19 treatment protocol to Australian GPs, who can legally prescribe it to their COVID-19 positive patients. They can also prescribe it as a preventative medication. Borody says this could be the fastest and safest way to end the pandemic in Australia within 6-8 weeks.”
http://covexit.com/australian-gps-can-legally-prescribe-ivermectin-triple-therapy-protocol-professor-borody/
I imagine the hurricane party plans are in full bloom in The Big Easy.
(small hurricane coming through) ??
@u.k.(us),
Current maps do have it headed towards New Orleans. We shall see if it hits. Current forecasts look like I’ll see little impact from it (too small and quite a distance southwest). It is the other one, now going through Haiti, toward Cuba, that concerns me more; for the maps had it hitting near Pensacola; which is much closer and more south of me.
“President Trump to announce “major therapeutic breakthrough on the China Virus” ”
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/president-trump-to-announce-major-therapeutic-breakthrough-on-the-china-virus-.htmlhttps://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/president-trump-to-announce-major-therapeutic-breakthrough-on-the-china-virus-.html
Compu Gator: That’s an attitude that’s publicly counterproductive to the point of being uncharitable. Trying to justify it as “libertarian” should be easily recognized as a flimsy cover claimed by self-centered people. In general, there are many people on this planet who are clueless or willfully refuse to do the kinds of things that they ought to do, given that they’re far from being the only inhabitants of this planet. Such things often require mandates to coerce people into doing what they ought to do on their own.
Regarding covid and masks, everything has already been said and said well. Only it has been drowned out by those with an agenda and those who are in panic.
Don’t take my word for it. Watch “Nobel Prize Winner Michael Levitt: How The West Got Coronavirus Lockdowns Disastrously Wrong”
Charitable or not, there is only one way to escape this virus. You can run but you can’t hide. The virus will find you, sooner or later. The only way out is herd immunity. There are two ways to get that. A vaccine is one, with enough people taking it. Do I hear a call for a mandate? The other is the immunity which follows exposure. I hear about vaccines, that both that they exist now and that they might be years away and even then they won’t be 100% effective (as is common with vaccines), especially in people with weak immune systems (those who need it most)
Covid is one of the few things not labelled as The War Against Xxx. But it’s the moral equivalent of war. Some are going to die. As a general, you send people to probable death to protect others from possible death … and worse. There is no way around that.
There used to be liberals, the old freedom and democracy liberals. Liberals used to think that with good education, people will do the right thing. No comment on education now, but also no question of risking anybody deciding themselves what is right and maybe doing the right thing. No, now we must force them. Draconian measures are necessary. sarc. We have seen it all before, both from the fascists and the communists. And now from the so-called progressives.
BTW, It’s 80 years since Trotsky was murdered by Stalin’s progressives. Trotsky was the what-if guy — wouldn’t it have been great if it was him instead of Stalin who was the great leader? Well, the answer to that question is “no”.
https://unherd.com/2020/08/leon-trotskys-baffling-afterlife/
Trump just announced an emergency use declaration for convalescent plasma for Chinese Wuhan Covid.
Reduces mortality by 35%.
“How to Sell the same day’s footage to FOX *AND* CNN”
http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/how-to-sell-the-same-days-footage-to-fox-and-cnn/
No surprise that convalescent plasma was given a go. Use dates to the ’40s, I think; and maybe earlier. It was definitely used by the 50s, for I remember hearing about it.
YMMV said: “Charitable or not, there is only one way to escape this virus.”
Not quite, therapeutics can also provide an escape.
“Delingpole: From Climate Change to Coronavirus, We Are All Victims of Deep State Hysteria”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/23/climate-change-coronavirus-we-are-victims-of-deep-state-hysteria/
@jim2, ivermectin with doxycycline and zinc as a treatment. They can also prescribe it as a preventative medication. Borody says this could be the fastest and safest way to end the pandemic in Australia within 6-8 weeks.
Interesting, and thanks. As a treatment, you live and you get immunity. As a preventative, that’s another way to get immunity. Add Vitamin D and some other things to boost your immune system and be extra safe. Either way, the end result is boosting herd immunity.
“The virus of critical race theory is spreading to all of the national laboratories.”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/08/23/khmer-noir-6/
YMMV: “Add Vitamin D and some other things to boost your immune system and be extra safe. Either way, the end result is boosting herd immunity.”
I never thought of Ivermectin a a preventative. I always thought of it a Phase II if HCQ zinc din’t knock out the virus du jour.
And for all our discussion here of preventatives and treatments, I don’t recall anyone tying preventatives to herd immunity. Hmmm… excellent point.
Got-it-&-recovered + Can’t get it (preventatives) + can’t get it innate immunity = w-a-a-y faster path to herd immunity.
Someone (won’t go lookin’ fer who to give the proper credit) has provided links to various preventatives and toe that are innately immune due to blood type or some other genetic trait.
I’ve seen it all in pieces, but your comment is the first that has penetrated my thick that any of those rejections of… well, any virus, all contribute to herd immunity. It’s additive.
We’ve been tossing around a lot of stuff separately, but it seems to me that any of it that reduces the sting of any virus can be added together for even faster herd immunity.
Herd immunity is not dependent only on those who get a bug and then can no longer pass it on or succumb to it. Everything that prevents someone getting any bug and spreading it is contributing to herd immunity. Everything counts.
Blindingly obvious, but near as I can tell, you’re this first here to “call the baby ugly.”
I’m doing a major “DOH!” Thanks, YMMV.
…preventatives and toe that are innately immune..
I suppose I meant “those”. I don’t normally sweat typos here, because everyone is smart enough to to figure out what the gaffe was – one key off, fat finger etc. – but that one was a bit off the wall even by my very forgiving standards. Toe?!? I had to think a minute what I was on about.
I’d say “sorry” but I’m going to claim a light touch and sticky keys that caused the no ‘h’ and ‘s’. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ wid it.
;o)
@HR; No worries man, my old eyes, fat old fingers, and dirty old keyboard all contribute to my own gaffs. Besides those typos add to the entertainment value as I figure out your intent 8-) So keep typing away and we will communicate as best we can…pg
Interesting that you owned/rode a SilverWing Chiefio. I had one of the very first CX-500’s that went on the road in New England. When I went to the (large) dealer in February of ’78 to buy one Honda had not yet sent them any, we had to special order. Riding the bike the 50 miles home from Popoli’s Honda in early March was chilly, but with no snow on the ground I didn’t mind.
The CX-500 in the early years was an odd-looking machine, but with a push-rod engine that could be revved to nearly 10,000 rpm, power in the 100hp/liter class, and the first-class handling that came from having the engine as a stressed member of the frame, the looks were a small price to pay. However – did spend a couple of years upgrading the appearance as well as enhancing the handling even more with Pirelli sport tires, air-pressure kit for the fork, and inverted gas shocks with dual-rate springs.
I could heel the bike over in a tight-radius curve until the toe of my boot was lightly riding the pavement and the bike would carve the corner on a rail, no wobble, no wiggle. I loved that machine. If I can figure out how to post it – here’s a picture of the bike after I had “breathed” on it.
Kimberly Klacik US Congress Political Ad
video shows Klacik, in a red dress and heels, touring dilapidated areas of Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. The ad gained 4.4 million views on Twitter in less than a day.
Walk Away is gaining momentum. This is one of the best political hit piece adds I have seen in years.
@DoNoNorth:
Yeah. Really liked that bike… but got to where commuting to San Francisco (about 1.5 hours each way) would result in a numb palm and stiff fingers on the throttle hand. With typing being essential to work, carpal tunnel would be a real killer… so figured better to just move on…
One of the best engines I’ve ever owned.
@Jim2:
That ad is s killer ad! Nice LRD too… (little red dress)
@H.R.:
Yes. Saw a discussion of that a few days back. John Campbell episode I think. Even self isolation, masks, and gloves or washing add to it.
@PG sharrow,
Yes. If they win, it will be hellfire. If they lose, it will be hell fire. It is up to the majority to decide if we stop it, or allow if to become Kristalnacht.
It is the deciding time. I wish I knew the outcome. But with the goebels media against sanity, I do not know.
Nor does EM. That is why he is arming up.
Over hyping! Marco is a dud, and Laura will be a mild storm. If it bleeds it leads!
How do you spell DUH?
Democrats are going to trash it. Medical science is doing a Ho Hum.
The doctor that jim2 linked to has another interview:
http://covexit.com/we-know-its-curable-its-easier-than-treating-the-flu-professor-thomas-borody/
Looks like several blocks of Kenosha, Wisconsin are being burned by Antifa / BLM / Democrats
Whether I was black or white or whether fifty shades in between, if I was an American I’d vote for her. The worst place for black people to live are in Democrat states. Them’s the facts.
@ HR re:
“@Compu Gator – I’m convinced of the efficacy of quinine & zinc as preventative if the rest of the immune system is in good order. I also believe I have had a snoot-full of Xi’s Disease around the beginning of June. I was doing quinine and zinc then and noting came of it.”
I would like to hear more about what happened to you in June.
Also, what are you using for sources of quinine and zinc?
Hi, Power Grab – Source of quinine is tonic water – diet, I don’t need the sugar – and it has 83 mg per liter. I get zinc in my daily multivitamin. But I boost it 1 to 3 times per week with a Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc supplement that is marketed as a help for bones, but I got it for the zinc.
As discussed previously, you have to watch out for overdoing the zinc. That’s why I limit the extra zinc beyond what I get in my diet and daily multivitamin.
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In June, I developed, a bit of a scratchy throat, a nasty cough and a beastly, beastly headache. I so rarely get headaches that I barely know what they are. I don’t comprehend what people are talking about when the say, “I have a headache,” and they need something for it. It can be several years between headaches for me.
I was taking 2 – 3 acetaminophen tablets a day a not doing a whole lot. I just didn’t feel up to doing much of anything. I attribute the lack of fever to the fact that I was taking acetaminophen for a headache and the fact that I didn’t check my temperature. It’s the tree in the forest thing; if I have a fever but never check my temperature, do I have a fever? ;o)
BTW, I was still doing masks and gloves at the time, but other people weren’t as there was not mandate for them. My guess is I got it from some surface or other and picked it up after comeing home and taking off my gloves.
Anyhow, the beastly headache and cough lasted about 4 – 5 days and then eased up and out in days 6 and 7. All gone after that.
I thought it was seasonal allergies because our locust tree was shedding pollen like crazy. It was only later that it occurred to me that the tree does that every year and I have never, ever had a reaction like that.
If it wasn’t the Kung Flu, it was some other nasty bug. I’ve not been tested, so who knows for sure?
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I get my torn up shoulder stitched up on September 11. 72 hours before, I have to get a Covid test and then self isolate for 3 days.
Maybe, and maybe not I’ll find out if there are any antibodies left from that. The doctor is in agreement with me that a) there are way too many false positives, and b) the tests aren’t really Covid specific. I think he’d prefer just to see me the day before and just check very carefully for symptoms.
But the test is part of the protocol now in the Sawbones Industry, so I will be getting tested if I want the surgery, and I want the surgery. My arm is getting worse and I want to go fishing again.
“Bombshell evidence that COVID RNA base pairs are identical to chromosome 8 human DNA. Runtime 21:15
“Reinfection and T cell immunity — does the common cold give us protection against Coronavirus?”
Much detail
http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/reinfection-and-t-cell-immunity-does-the-common-cold-give-us-protection-against-coronavirus/
As mask mandates come back in, I wonder if face-shields would work as well or better in some situations. They would protect against spray talkers, which is a leading cause of contagion. Masks do have issues. For glasses wearers, they can fog the glasses. For the hard of hearing, they make it very hard to read lips and they cut down and muffle voices.
Anything is better than a lockdown. Cheap rapid testing is better than anything. The problem is that not knowing who is contagious, we have to assume that everybody is. If an analogy is needed, in WWII, we assumed that all Japanese immigrants were enemies and locked them up. Assumptions are bad.
In other news, a doctor mentioned that Human Corona Viruses have been with us for centuries. (Does not bode well for expecting this one to die out). Until recently it was thought there were only a couple. Not so.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/738623
“Cheap rapid ^accurate^ testing…”
We have cheap, rapid testing now, YMMV. Never mind that it’s not fit for purpose and tells us very little. It is cheap and rapid, though.
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We’ve never really shut down for any other virus before, although some places shut down for the Spanish flu.
“Why is this one different?” asks, H.R. while rolling his eyes so hard that there is a serious risk of a sprained eyeball.
BTW, the curve was flattened quite some time ago and hospitals were never overwhelmed to the point that the mobile, emergency hospitals that were deployed saw little, if any use.
If there is a Second Wave, I suspect that it will not be the Tsunami Of Death that has been predicted. We have too may therapeutics available now that weren’t available when the Chinese Virus first hit. They will keep the death count from Kung Flu fairly low. We may not even get a noticeable spike from where we are right now.
We’ll see.
@YMMV,
Recall that viruses are the ultimate parasite. Strictly speaking, viruses are not living beings, they’re just the reproductive code and the enzymes necessary for entering host cells and inhibiting host cell control of virus propagation. There is a kind of an arms race between parasites and hosts, just as there is one between predators and prey. The most successful parasites ultimately become neutral or beneficial to their hosts. If not, they just mutate into the least pathological form possible. That said, there will always be breakouts and newly vulnerable hosts. Pathogenicity is usually highest at the initial breakout. Thus, we will ultimately live with this strain, just like we live with the others. Oh yeah, measles virus and polio viruses are still with us; just mainly vaccine strains now.
In other news, Marco’s interaction with a mid-latitude upper air system meant a bit more than an inch of rain for me and now a wetter than average August. Laura is looking like landfall will be near western Louisiana/eastern Texas. Maps now don’t show any significant rain in my area, specifically from this system. I may see some, though.
The testing today is not cheap and fast enough! The goal is to test at home for $1, results in 10 minutes, no extra equipment. All you need to know is if you are infectious at that time. MedCram has a series of short videos discussing this idea.
The best 5.5 min into is
Intro .
Best 17 min background is
Coronavirus Pandemic Update 98: Home COVID-19 Testing
How do you give people confidence and end the lock down? This idea is it!
rapidtestsorg is helping to push the idea.
H.R.: “Cheap rapid ^accurate^ testing…”
We have cheap, rapid testing now, YMMV. Never mind that it’s not fit for purpose and tells us very little. It is cheap and rapid, though.
Cheap means cheap enough EVERYBODY can do it once a day. Rapid means results in a few minutes, even at home. So no expensive equipment required which requires trained personnel.
Now, about the accurate part. This is a home test, not a hospital test, not a lab test. Those can continue to be super sensitive. But for knowing whether you (yourself or your kids) are safe to go to work or school, what you need to know if you are in the contagious viral spreading phase. Not that you are going to get it tomorrow or that you had it two weeks ago. The rapid tests are not as sensitive as the best lab tests; but that is a good thing. They have exactly the right sensitivity.
Accuracy is good, so few false positives and few false negatives is still desirable.
Search for “dr. mina rapid testing” and tell me he is not convincing.
As vcmathjm says, MedCram has had a number of videos about this and will have another live Q&A with Dr. Mina on this topic on September 2.
I ran across MedCram somewhere before, but I haven’t had a look yet.
I’ll give it look on your recommendation, YMMV & vcmathjim.
But having only just read your comments, this is still ‘vaporware’?
I was talking more about the drive-thru tests, which I last heard were unfit for purpose.
I would just say that testing is as good as the minute applied. IMHO
@H.R., “this is still ‘vaporware’?”
As of the MedCram videos to date, yes. Sort of. There are places ready to make it, but the holdup has been getting approvals. From which agency? It falls between the cracks. However, places (like South Korea?) are said to be using this kind of test.
But this news is just in. The FDA has just issued an EUA for one of these. $5. Not for home use.
https://abbott.mediaroom.com/2020-08-26-Abbotts-Fast-5-15-Minute-Easy-to-Use-COVID-19-Antigen-Test-Receives-FDA-Emergency-Use-Authorization-Mobile-App-Displays-Test-Results-to-Help-Our-Return-to-Daily-Life-Ramping-Production-to-50-Million-Tests-a-Month
https://www.fda.gov/media/141567/download
@HR
This MedCram
COVID-19 Rapid Tests Demo & Q/A with E25Bio Co-Founder Dr. Herrera (Antigen Daily Quick Tests)
demos a test and talks to the developer about the problems getting it approved. As YMMV mentioned this kind of test, a public health test vs. diagnostic test, falls between the bureaucratic cracks.
“Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin et al: The Prosecution’s Dirty Little Secret ”
https://spectator.org/minnesota-v-derek-chauvin-et-al-the-prosecutions-dirty-little-secret/
@Ossqss re what the tests tell someone:
Yup, agreed. A test only tells you Yes or No at the time you took the test.
I was complaining about the drive-thru tests because the test being used only told you maybe-Yes and maybe-No because the test had a lot of false positives and false negatives and wasn’t specific to the Chinese virus. So maybe you had some unknown virus and maybe not.
What YMMV and vcmathjim tossed into the mix was a test that would get rid of the need for any arbitrary, contradictory, tyrannical restrictions, and privacy-invading contact tracing by narrowing the window between getting Kung Flu and going around spreading the virus.
So… you get up in the morning, take the test for Xi’s Disease and it says you’re good to go. You ‘Go’.
During the day, making your point, who knows what yahoo you’ll come into contact with that gives you a snootful of the virus? If you can afford $2/day, you can test yourself in the evening and find out that, “Uh-oh. Some yahoo gave me a snootful of Wuhan Flu today.”
Now you know to take early action with a choice of a treatment that’s suitable for you. Early treatment seems to be a key to avoiding all the nasty business that SARS-Cov-2 dishes out. And you can call off and stay home to avoid being “That Guy” going around spreading the virus.
Take your meds, go to bed, and test yourself in the morning to find out if you’ve knocked out the virus or if you need to stay home for the day.
All this because of a fast, cheap test and nobody but you, your Dr., if you call in for an Rx, and your boss has to know about your health status. No State Stasi Nazis need to be involved.
And really, no masks required unless you are particularly vulnerable due to some other health problem. If you don’t have the bug, why wear a mask? Well, unless you are vulnerable and need to have some protection against yahoos.
About testing, we are *over* testing now. We are testing so many that we are approaching 20% of the population (locally) with several tests which have: 1. unknown sensitivity, 2. unknown specificity, 3. unknown false negative rates, 4. unknown false positive rates (because none of these are being reported to the public), and especially, unknown true prevalence rate at this late date into this (almost a year now).
Examples to show how important true prevalence is: if the true prevalence is 0, then *all* tests that return positive are, by definition, false. If the true prevalence is 100, then *all* tests that return negative are, by definition, false. Given that the actual prevalence is somewhere between 0 and 100, and that these vary over time, combined with the various other factors mean that mass testing is futile from a medical and an economic viewpoint.
Then consider this: the only test that could show true infectiousness is a two part one. First part means isolating and culturing the virus and the second part is determining the minimum infectious dose. From that, you can determine if a person is infectious by looking at the virions being shed and whether an infectious dose is generally happening.
Also forgotten is Hope-Simpson seasonality, in general. What’s called the summer cold (the syndrome), where I am, may be caused by coronaviruses. So, it isn’t surprising that the US south saw it then, overlapping with the tropical areas that are nearby during their rainy season. Add to that antibody dependent enhancement is a thing for natural infections, too (see dengue as an example, which complicated vaccine development).
We should be advocating ending the lockdowns now, in toto, and mostly unconditionally (care homes, medical facilities excepted).
@cdquarles, “Also forgotten is Hope-Simpson seasonality”
A long technical book with valuable insights.
“The Transmission of Epidemic Influenza” by R. Edgar Hope-Simpson
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yda40j4hf9nbad/11th%20The%20Transmission%20of%20Influenza%20BOOK.pdf?dl=0
(NOTE: this link gives you the option of downloading the pdf. If you drop off the ‘?dl=0’ part, the pdf will come up directly in your browser.)
I already have it, YMMV. Still, the link may be useful for others.
cdquarles: “About testing, we are *over* testing now.”
Yes because these tests are finding too many positives and causing second-wave panic. That there is no second-wave of deaths or ICU admissions implies that these are effectively false positives.
No because we still can’t end lockdowns, open schools, stop wearing masks, and declare victory.
So it’s not that we are over-testing, it is that we are wrong-testing. A perfect test that only gives results days later is almost worthless. A test that doesn’t get you out of doing a two-week quarantine is worthless.
Dr. Mina puts emphasis on breaking the chain of spreading. Find contagious cases ASAP, before they do too much damage. Good for public health. Also good for personal health because early treatment is best. Don’t give the virus a head start in your body. So test yourself often.
Too late for that and we have not *ever* done that, really, with any virus beyond the few that vaccine strains replaced the wild ones. Politically speaking, nearly all of the 100+ year old heuristics have been replaced by superstition, in my opinion. We most certainly *can* declare victory, if enough say “No more”. Remind yourself why, beyond limited circumstances, we *don’t* test as widely nor have we recently locked down for influenza; which is pretty much as dangerous as this one is, right now.
How did that saying go? Yeah, life finds a way. It is the political point that’s driving this, not public health (reminds me why they *didn’t* follow the rules with the mostly sexually transmitted viral disease known as AIDS, early on, when that could have made a difference).
The head of WHO said this week that the lockdown has nothing to do with the virus. It is all about control to establish a one world dictatorship to “distribute the wealth”. This so called Doctor is a Somali Communist Warlord that is a part of the CCP attempt to control the world’s economy
No, mask shields are not it. The simple fact, this is a bad flu. Not as bad as the spanish flu, but a bad one, that targets MY AGE GROUP! And I am the first to say, stop it. Get back to normal.
Let’s get rational. This is just another bug. ANd not a particularly bad one since it exempts the young! And I am old! The destruction of basic rights far exceeds any good the dictators have attempted.
Time to put the dictators on trial! For crimes against Humanity!
We are in total agreement. But we have to test all. To understand the nature of the infection, which is far lower than the fake news protrays! Everyone gets it. Very few die.
I’ve been participating in the most recent exchanges because my underlying concern is with the current state of rapid testing at the drive-thru stations.
I’m not particularly worried about a positive test and the resulting Kung Flu doing much damage damage to me even though I’m Type II diabetes, 66 years-old, pudgy by 30 lbs. I have confidence that Ivermectin or one of the other therapeutics will knock out a case of the Kung Flu, should I contract it.
HOWEVER…… my shoulder is torn up, I really need and am totally ready and on board for the surgery. It’s outpatient, low risk, a good chance for a positive long term outcome, AND it should get rid of the pain. Oh, and I can FISH again! The surgery is scheduled for September 11.
What could F#%&! all that up? A positive test on a drive-thru test, which I don’t believe is even fit for purpose. I have to do the test 72 hours ahead of the surgery and then self-isolate until the day of surgery. Lessee… the test will be on 11/8?
So I’ve really enjoyed the discussion regarding tests from everyone and it’s added a lot to my think-upon list. But I just want to be sure that I don’t get blown off track for my shoulder surgery due to all of the political BS; rush, rush wrong treatments, pooh-pooh good treatments, isolate-so-granny-don’t die, etc., etc., etc. & etc. BS, BS, BS.
What’s behind my latest babbling is that I’m a little nervous about going for a test which I have no confidence in whatsoever, and it can screw up a procedure I need and want. (The pain is getting worse.) Not a damn thing I can do about getting the surgery if I get a positive, false or not.
Anyhow, the recent exchanges, tangent to my immediate concern, have been really good and have provided a lot of food for additional thought. Thanks, y’all, though I always expect good quality stuff like that from the denizens here.
P.S. I’m so dang full of D3, C, quinine, and zinc that I think the Wuhan Flu viruses have been instant messaging each other to avoid me at all costs. A fella can hope, eh? ;o)
HR says; “P.S. I’m so dang full of D3, C, quinine, and zinc that I think the Wuhan Flu viruses have been instant messaging each other to avoid me at all costs. A fella can hope, eh? ;o)”
Lol, I resemble that remark! at 74 with asthma, and a bit over weight I have a bit of risk but no fear of this virus. I’ve survived, Fire, Flood, Earthquake and War, Desert, swamp and Arctic. Drove big rigs and heavy equipment, piloted planes and work boats. Everyone dies of something but this WuHuFlu is minor if you can avoid medical quacks.
The tests seem to give 20-30% false results so I would insist on a second test if positive. Complications from the surgery is a bigger risk then from this virus. You will be fine. 8-) …pg
@p.g. – Thanks for the encouraging words. Much appreciated.
The surgery is the least of my concerns. It is positively amazing what they can do with endoscopic surgery. I’ve been bloodied up more on the playground in 5th grade compared to what many surgeries are today. They used to cut up more to get to and do the repair than to actually do the repair. That’s ancient history, now.
I joked with the surgeon who is going to do the dirty deed about all the cutting he’s NOT going to do and he’s old enough to give a knowing laugh about the bad old days.
It’s just the #$@&-ing politically #$@&-ing convoluted screwed up… (did I remember to mention #$@&-ing?) …nonsense posing as “science” that has my knickers in a wad.
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Yup. We’re all gonna die from something. As my dad said, the secret to a long life is to keep breathing. Once you stop, it’s all over. BTW, dad said every death certificate should have the exact same cause of death because everyone dies precisely because they stopped breathing.
You might be around quite a while, p.g., because you’ve got lots of fresh, clean air to breathe in out there in the boonies.
If I’m headed to the Great Beyond soon, I’d rather it be from succumbing to lead poisoning from the 5 – 6 -7 or more commie idiots that I made sure preceded me on that last journey. The World won’t notice if it’s short a few commies., eh? Croaking from Wuhan Flu would be a let-down.
@HR; Clean air? We have been living in a pall of smoke for weeks from fires and normal California summer weather. Because of normal air flows, all of the Bay area and Sacramento smog gets pushed up towards us in the north. . I, Friends and family have been blessed with my airwashers to clear the air inside our living spaces.
As to breathing, that is a learned reflex, not entirely automatic. The first thing a newborn learns is to breath, If you forget or get too tired to continue, you begin to die! So, like your Dad said, you live as long as you keep breathing.
I was puzzled when looking at the station readings for wind speed with the recent storm. It was a 150mph hurricane at landfall, but I saw nothing even close to that. This explains some of it.
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/08/hurricane-laura-and-wind-speed-dilemma.html
If your really bored and want to learn about Ocean acidification accuray ;-)
https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Quality+of+pH+Measurements+in+the+NODC+Data+Archives
@ HR:
After reading this article:
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/sunlight-and-vitamin-d-theyre-not-the-same-thing/
even though I take cod liver oil daily and take an additional D3 supplement, I think if I were in your situation, I would try to do some sunbathing (especially the sore shoulder), but not to the point of burning, and spend as much time outdoors as I can (depending on your air quality…you’re not in smokey California, are you?)
I would also try to figure out what things/activities are best for helping me turn off anxiety and fear. I get a lot of enjoyment out of old sitcoms/movies and music (both listening to it and making it). In fact, when I was dealing with the cancer diagnosis, I made a playlist for my MP3 player where most of the songs were fun and uplifting and had lyrics about flying. I would limit my intake of fear-p0rn (which is almost all MSM material these days!)
In my case, one little can of (diet) tonic water and one tin of smoked oysters turned off symptoms of fear/anxiety/stress in a matter of minutes. I used it on three different occasions this summer and had quick relief all three times. But since you’re already consuming zinc and quinine, if you can figure out what other supportive and mood-lifting things you can do, that might help you prepare for the test and come out with a clean bill of health.
If you don’t already make it a habit, find something to laugh about every day.
If you’re on speaking terms with the Man Upstairs, have a sit-down with him and be frank.
I agree with you about the tests. Everything I’ve read says they’re not infallible and not specific for their intended purpose. Even if they just happen to give a result that matches your true condition, it’s just a snapshot in time. Just today I’ve received some emails about some group that is coming to town to do quick PCR tests where the results are returned within 2 business days. So they say. Aside from that, in my little berg, I understand that thousands of people were tested over an 8 day period using a cheek swab that has been locally processed. So far, the numbers of positive test results have been around 200 or less. I’ve talked on the phone with two of the alleged positive (or exposed) people. They sound great and are just waiting out their time until they can resume their life. The hoops the people in positions of authority are jumping through, and their fear, would be funny if they didn’t have the power to lock down everyone and their puppy dog if they get frightened enough.
@HR – I am 64, normal weight, but had cancer 2 years ago. I am cancer free now, and I am not worried about getting it either. BUt I have been donating blood (for the past 1.5 years – you have to be cancer free for one year after having it). I worry about those tests as well. Because if I get a false positive, I have to self quarantine for 3 weeks, so will not be able to donate (I am O-). But now, before you can even enter the building, they take your temperature. I was at 99.3 one time and they rejected me! (the last time I was at 96.9). SO that bugs me because those temperature guns are not very accurate. And my temperature ranges as you can see.
I wish you luck. The lockdowns are now killing more than the WuFlu. For the simple reason that people are not getting tests and care they normally would. People have forgotten that the lockdowns was never to stop the spread, only to slow it. Eventually we will all be exposed. and 998 out of 1000 will not die from it. The only hope we have is to re-elect Trump to end this stupidity.
@Power Grab – Oh, I’m in good spirits. I have been in a good mood since about 1955. I don’t have any understanding or concept of ‘bad mood’. It’s a foreign concept to me.
I’ve mentioned here before that I used to get Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Mostly that was due to working factory hours where you get up in the dark, work in a building with few windows, and come home in the dark during the Winter months. It caused a bit of melancholy is all, and it wouldn’t even hit every year. Now that we’ve been doing Winters in Florida every year, I haven’t had a case of SAD in about 5 or 6 years.
Towards the end of my career, I started to get occasional anxiety attacks. I knew it was just a chemical imbalance due to lack of sleep. I’d work sometimes a month straight with no days off and average about 5 hours of sleep per night. The attacks were real, but merely annoying to me, as I knew the cause. We were finally able to hire some help to take some of the load off of me and the attacks went away, of course. BTW, they wound up with 3 Engineers to replace me when I retired. No kidding.
The fishing got me more sunshine than I’m getting now. I’d say I’d was out fishing from 3 to 8 hours per day. Now I mow, which is two hours of sunshine a week, water the veggies and flowers when it’s been dry. That’s another couple of hours per week. I doo Poop Patrol twice daily as well as some other puttering outdoors. So I’m getting the pill for D3 and a decent amount of sunshine, too.
Since the fishing was cut out, I’ve been otherwise occupied with making that birdhouse, a sandpaper storage tower, that cigar box guitar, setting up my my private fishing tackle store in my basement, target shooting when I need a break from puttering, refinished a couple of tables, repaired my mother-in-law’s Grandmother Clock, hung some more pegboard for tools, restored a half-dozen tools from the 1850’s to the 1930s, repaired and restrung my wife’s violin, and at the moment I’m sorting all of the canned goods by expiration date. Long-dated goods are going into the basement prepper larder and short dated goods are going back on the shelf.
So I keep busy puttering.
From what I gather reading others’ comments here, that’s nothing unusual or out of the ordinary for this gang, although everyone’s puttering is no doubt quite different. Look at how busy you are in non-working hours, eh?
However… I mentioned my worry about the stupid testing messing up my schedule for surgery and your comment reminded that worrying never solved a darned thing. So I’ve stopped. I’ll just deal with whatever comes up, though I reserve the right to be ticked off about any delays :o)
Time to go throw the lamb chops on the grill.
“Shut the door they’re coming in the window – – ”
““This is the first explicit rebellion against critical race theory in the federal government—and the coalition is growing.” ”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/08/28/this-is-the-first-explicit-rebellion-against-critical-race-theory-in-the-federal-government-and-the-coalition-is-growing/#comments
E.M.
Are they after you?
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/08/28/o-sweet-saint-of-san-andreas-80/#comments
Know thine enemy:
Help for those arrested protesters:
https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/legal
Mechanical terms translated
http://mez.co.uk/haynes.html
@Another Ian:
Those terms are a hoot! And familiar……
BTW, California tried that before. Taxing retirement payments when folks left the State. Court threw it out. I think the wealth tax on folks who left will experience the same.
I’m below the cut off anyway.
“I’m below the cut off anyway.”
For now. The cutoff will keep getting lower and lower and lower if they were ever to be successful.
Calling for captions
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/08/28/caption-this/#comments
And comments
@H.R.:
There is a $ cut off in the several millions, so I’m an order of magnetude or more below that; then there’s another exemption for real estate (where the bulk of my wealth sits ATM). Then, once I’m moved and gone it’s “Come And Take It”… Molon labe. Florida lets you file homestead and for the rest of your life, your home is protected from debt processes. So good luck with that…. or attaching the gold buried under the hot tub….
Nah, knew you’re good E.M.
I was just pointing out how no taxes ever seem to go away and if targeted, the target expands until everyone is the target.
Just think about how the U.S. income tax started out; 2% on the 1% ‘rich’ as I recall it and if I’m off, it’s not by much.
Russia declassified the Tsar Bomba test. It is awesome! EM can probably understand most of the narration. I was surprised of how many words are close enough to English to understand as well.
H.R. – could be pretty important to get the surgery. A friend of mine tore his rotator cuff, and while he was in hospital waiting for the operation it got more painful. Basically, they gave him some painkillers and told him to shut up. However, turned out the blood had pooled there, and putrefied somewhat, and he died of sepsis before they realised he had it. A surprising number of people die from sepsis, so it’s certainly something to be aware of. I’ll leave you to look up the various symptoms, but if you do suffer from that it’s urgent. Often the cause of a cytokine storm, as I understand things, so can cause a lot of damage.
Hopefully, the other stuff you’ve been doing as regards vitamin D will stop it happening anyway.
Incidentally, when I left Raychem (a loong time back now) they replaced me with 4 people – that always amused me. I’ve a suspicion that that sort of thing may be somewhat common among denizens of this blog. Probably something to do with seeing something that needs to be done and doing it, and thus covering things from multiple specialised subjects. Then of course, because there’s not enough time, you do the job in a more-efficient way rather than the traditional approach. Does make it a bit difficult for a manager to define what you actually do, in terms of what qualifications to advertise for in the replacements.
Simon, OR..seeing something that doesn’t have to be done and not doing it. I found my predecessor (who left before I was hired) used to generate loads of weekly reports he sent to long distribution lists of people who did not understand or need to know those reams of data. I stopped, and nobody noticed.
OK, my work stories:
While in college working to pay for it, in the medical accounting department doing filing:
We got several boxes of yellow thin 1/4 page computer printed notices from Medicare and MediCal each week to be filed in individual patient billing jackets (by me and my fellow clerks). Each month we got the monthly summary also filed. I asked the billers what they did with the yellow bits: “Oh, nothing. We only trust the monthly when we bill”. I took the recommendation to “management” that we not file those thousands of pointless papers per day. One for every item rendered in care.
“Management” informed me they had exquisitely thought out the system they designed sad every bit was prefect and ~”tut tut kid, go back to work”. In parting I said “OK, but the billers don’t use them and it is just wasting money”. About 3 weeks later a notice came down for us to not file the yellow slips, but to “pend” them for a month until after the billing cycle. No one ever thanked me, but I did get dirty looks from the “manager”.
At National Semiconductor as Production Planner:
“Management” gave each of us a 4 inch thick green & white 128 char wide computer printout of our parts. We were to, using a hand calculator, do a long involved calculation for each part using yield loss numbers for each step of fab, test, etc. Then build just exactly the parts needed for the likely orders (another arcane calculation). The result was lots of build orders for small odd lots each week. 2354 LM120 and 76123 LM205 etc. Each requiring different parts provisioned and station setup / tear down.
Thinking about this my first several months, I found it stupid and inefficient. I also realized quoting 109 pieces from stock for parts with a 90% failure in testing was a losing idea. So I decided to just set total WIP+Inventory = Toral On Order. This had many benefits. First off, I put in big round lot orders. 100000 LM120s. My factory slice would set up once and run a few days. Having thousands of parts, it took a while to run through my whole tab and do that. In the end, my factory use was much more efficient and I rarely had notices of factory overbooked. Doing the calculation could be done by scanning the line in the tab and doing a mental running total at each step of the process. Then subtract from orders and build the round up round lot.
Things we could build well got inventory in box stock, so setting quotes was just “1/10 of stock immediately”. This increased sales of what we built best. Things with big fail rates had no stock so got quotes of “1/10 of WIP in 6 weeks”. We still sold them to folks who needed them, but discouraged big orders in a panic.
And I got through my tab in about 1/3 the time of anyone else. Plus, when called up to the supervisors desk for the inevitable surprise indpection and challenged as to why part FOO was not in stock, I knew I could say “We have build problems on that one. I’ll get you the details this afternoon.” Then, and only then, go find out what and why. Build, test, die whatever.
Having learned before that “management” didn’t like being told their baby was ugly, I never said what and why. HOWEVER, I was “rewarded” for my efficiency by being given half of the rest of the parts in Advanced Linear. I still finished in about 2/3 the time of everyone else, but got puzxled looks instead of dirty ones.
At Apple:
We ran a supercomputer data center with 20 people. Nearest to us was 200. How? Hired 90 percentile people. Told them their responsibilities, NOT how to do them. Everyone was encouraged to understudy the guy next to them and the next job up. “Just do it” and “tell me what you fixed, don’t wait to ask permission to fix it” were encouraged.
@Simon – I was in a very small company and it was hard to justify a lot of overhead. My hats were, process engineering for new product, new product engineering and quotes, tooling and machine procurement, tooling and fixture fabrication, programming anything programmable (often 2-6 new items per week that ran through several different machines), Quality control, Receiving inspection, facilities and facilities maintenance, Safety Director, Paint Process control and engineering (a full-time job right there), and few things I’ve forgotten.
We expanded, but then it became hard to find somebody who was competent in doing 2 or 3 of those things carved out into a single job and willing to work hard to make sure their stuff got done right.
I loved that job, even when customers were screaming, things were crashing (largely due to people not following instructions), heaters or air conditioners quit working, plumbing got stopped up in the middle of a ISO Audit, and prototypes were due to ship tomorrow. There was not one single day I did not look forward to going in to work.
Those of you who have worked in small companies know how it goes – you would have a similar story – and those like p.g. starting up a product line have the whole shebang on their shoulders, including marketing, HR, and accounting if it comes to all that.
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@Rhoda – LOL!
Similar story: My wife worked with a person on the Help Desk who took trouble calls, wrote them out by hand, then entered them into the todo log… but he was also supposed to then go fix the stuff. Well he was too busy writing and entering to ever fix anything. He was supposed to solve minor problems when the call came in as most problems could have been solved right there by asking the caller to reboot or check their connections. Got paid $65k per year to accomplish nothing, but man oh man was he busy!
The one thing I liked about my job at that small company was that we had exactly one meeting per month. That was to review the financials, production measures, and quality performance. It was about 1 to 1.5 hours max.
The rest got done by going over and talking to people and settling things either on the spot or very soon after if maybe a little research was needed. Decisions were made quickly without a lot of meetings and agonizing. Yay!
From WUWT (although I saw it on a couple of other sites):
Open a separate browser tab or window
type in antifa.com and press Enter
Watch it send you to https://joebiden.com/
The assimilation of the left and the arse wholes is complete.
“the left and the arse wholes”
@phil – As E.M. and I were discussing elsewhere, there’s often more than one way to spell the same word ;o)
CDC data diddling?
“Is anyone surprised by this? The CDC have revised their deaths from Covid figures DRAMATICALLY DOWN
https://twitter.com/littllemel/status/1299791452105474057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1299791452105474057%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2020%2F08%2Fshock-report-week-cdc-quietly-updated-covid-19-numbers-9210-americans-died-covid-19-alone-rest-serious-illnesses%2F
More detail here :
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/shock-report-week-cdc-quietly-updated-covid-19-numbers-9210-americans-died-covid-19-alone-rest-serious-illnesses/ ”
Via http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/weekend-unthreaded-324/#comment-2359776
@Another Ian:
Oh My Gawd. (Note to H.R.: Continuing the variant spelling thing…)
@Philjourdan:
Please please please tell me that antifa.com is owned by the committee to elect Trump and screw around with Biden!
Doing a whois:
Registered in Panama in 2002… Well before Trump. Guess that pantifa are just giving their support to Biden then…
The Hillary Clinton Campaign paid 5 Antifa groups to disrupt Trump Rallies. They are an organized and trained army that Obamanation financed early in their administration with some of the “Shovel Ready Jobs “money. I remember “help wanted” advertisements in the major newspapers for “Hooligans wanted” employment. Obama said of $40Billion of that money “I can not tell you where it went”. I am sure that the CIA got much of that, it is their MO to siphon money off of many budgets, but a couple of billion would fund a small army for quite some time. Nadler said that “in Washington (DC), Antifa is a myth.” He knows of this private Army that “does not exist” as does much of Washington. Much of these peoples funding comes through government funding programs as it does for most these “professional” protesters.
During the depression there were many of these “for hire” socialist armies fighting for control of Europe Nazi and Soviet control of much of this region was the result…pg
@Simon Derricutt re the sepsis tip – Thanks!
I looked up the symptoms so I can be on guard against it.
I’m more concerned about it occurring after surgery, if it does occur. For about 4 days, they will isolate my shoulder to give the stitching a chance to take hold. Then I start physical therapy to get things moving again. I’d say those few days are the danger zone because they are opening up my body, even if it’s not by much nowadays. Then I’m sure it will hurt like the devil for those few days, so it will be hard to notice something out of the ordinary beyond post op pain.
Relative to Another Ian’s comment above regarding the CDC’s revision, here is a short extract from a paper with the rather clumsy title “If COVID Fatalities Were 90.2% Lower, How Would You Feel About Schools Reopening?”. The paper appears to from mid-July.
…..
Why Did the CDC Decide to Create Unique Reporting Rules for COVID-19 When Successful Reporting Rules Already Existed?
A double standard exists for how COVID-19 data is collected and reported versus all other infectious diseases and causes of death. Let’s examine three essential data categories; Fatalities, Cases & Hospitalizations for all infectious diseases because there are significant flaws in what constitutes a COVID-19 case, hospitalization and fatality.
On March 24th, the CDC decided to ignore universal data collection and reporting guidelines for fatalities in favor of adopting new guidelines unique to COVID-19. The guidelines the CDC decided against using have been used successfully since 2003.
After all, based upon the July 11th data from the CDC’s Provisional COVID-19 Death Counts by Sex, Age & State webpage, if COVID-19 is an epidemic (122,374 Fatalities), then shouldn’t pneumonia (131,372 Fatalities) also be an epidemic?1
….
The link is “https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/if-covid-fatalities-were-90-2-lower-how-would-you-feel-about-schools-reopening/” (I rarely comment anywhere – so not sure about links, so enclosed in quotes to prevent any issues)
Obviously peak stupidity is a long way off
“You are Probably a Criminal. Hands Up–Drop the Feather!”
And
“Alberta oil shipped through Panama Canal to Atlantic Canada to avert COVID-19 threat to energy supply”
@HR – indeed, the English language is very versatile.
@EM – I have a motto. I hate being wrong, more than I love being right. So I tell my family when things that look great and kill the left, are false. But I also tell them when they are right.
So the owners went all in for Biden. That is their choice. But it sure looks bad for Biden!
@DoNoNorth – Why? Money, The feds were paying for Covid-19 deaths. YOu got Bupkiss for regular deaths. So the states most in debt from their tin pot dictator’s decision to shut down commerce, reported the most.
And it worked. But here is the real sin. They won in the short term, but lost in the long term (liberals make very bad chess players). They sure scared their folks! So much they left the state.
As Sonny Cuomo said, 50% of the revenue comes from the top 1%. And they just moved to Florida.
@ HR re:
“Then I’m sure it will hurt like the devil for those few days, so it will be hard to notice something out of the ordinary beyond post op pain.”
With the amount of vitamin D you’re on, maybe it won’t be awful bad…? They say that having plenty of vitamin D helps prevent pain. Or something like that.
You’re a walking, talking experiment, aren’t you? :-)
I’m glad your attitude is so good!
Unbiased news
https://www.redpowermagazine.com/forums/topic/133061-wgn-news-nation/
Seems some scepticism
Has anyone here had a Covid test after having been on your choice of prophylactics? If so, did the test come out positive or negative?
Just curious.
@Power Grab:
May be hard to find someone on a preventative measure that needed a test…..
@All:
Just watched the Biden 24 minute speech in Pennsylvania, delivered to an empty warehouse and with who knows how many takes. I am impressed!
He got through the whole thing without any hortible gaffs, so with the right medications, he can read. Mumbling was not so bad as to be an issue. Enunciation was a bit like every boring Biden speech ever, but workable. That’s a big improvement over the last few months of gaffs. Did sound a bit nasal stuffy like when the whole bottle of wine swells up your nose membranes. But hey, whatever drug works.
He managed to affix the blame to Trump for EVERTHING bad caused by China and The Democrats. Covid? Trump did it. Riots, divisiveness, looting, fires? Because Orange Man made them upset, so Trump is responsible for their anger and the consequences of Democrat mayors, governors, and District Attorneys not prosecuting rioters. Also, EVERY police shooting was because Trump caused racism and let cops do bad things. Oh, and Trump has set right wing militias loose on a murderous rampage. (Never mind 3 months of constant attacks by the Marxist Socialist Communust insurgency paid for by Soros and Democrats with police ordered to stand down and it really being only minimal self defence finally being done by the citizens). Then, Trump destroyed the economy because he’s responsible for the Chinese Wuhan Covid and the Democrats response of putting active cases in nursing homes, closing schools, and arresting anyone not closing their business as the DICK (Democrat In Charge Kommisar) ordered.
It was an interesting study in selling FUD (Fear Uncertainty & Doubt) caused by the Democrats as Trump’s Fault and fixable if only you vote in Democrats so then they will stop burning everthing down and locking down their citizens while they destroy their cities and economies. Only the Democrats can return the peace and safety you crave. Which is true, since they are the ones doing all this crap, only they can stop doing it.
Kind of like a protection racket, really…
After years of defaulting to searching the Internet via IxQuick, later & currently named to the bland StartPage, I’ve done the modest browser reconfiguration needed to default to DuckDuckGo.
That’s because I could no longer avoid the conclusion that it was past time for me to abandon my years of loyalty to IxQuick and its successor StartPage. Altho’ the latter protects user privacy by anonymizing results that it obtains under some kind of contract with privacy-hostile Google, those results unavoidably suffer from Google’s smugly unapologetic censorship-by-selection. So I would never get a FOX result in the 1st few pages, which were always filled with results from the “mainstream news“, e.g., N.Y. Times, Wash Post, and other distant purported experts on local events & conditions in, e.g., Minnesota, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
For comparison, do knowledgeable readers refer to such distant “usual suspects” to get worthwhile news on earthquakes or hurricanes in the states where those emergencies are usually suffered?
——-
Note ×: I’ve been opposed to the trendy verbification of the privacy-hostile “google” search-engine, meaning “search on the internet”, since I first heard that usage.
@Poweer Grab – You’ve read the preventatives I’m doing.
I have to take a test on Sept. 8th. I don’t think anyone hanging out here has bothered to get tested, so if no-one pipes up before then, I guess I’ll be your sample size of one.
You can run your statistical analyses on my results **GRIN** On the bright side, the math is easy ;o)
@Compu Gator – I don’t use the name of that search engine whose motto, “Don’t be evil” is not only ignored, but they triple-down on the evil.
I generally say to someone that I will search or I searched, and just leave out the means, even though I didn’t use the Spawn Of Satan Search Engine© in the first place.
Every now and then, when it fits the situation, I will state, “Google is NOT your friend.”
Covid paper discussing T-cell function: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.25.20181487v1.full.pdf. It is math heavy and spends a good bit of time talking about parameters. Math, like a map; is an abstraction and thus is not reality, necessarily. The points discussed are plausible from a basic physiology standpoint.
HR – Do you know if it will be the PCR test or some other type? The PCR test will report a positive for someone with very minimal levels of the virus.
@Compugator:
I’ve mostly used DuckDuckGo for a few years now. I use the verbal phrase “web search” as in “I’ll web search for ‘China floods'”.
Oh, and per remote event news:
For quakes and hurricanes and such, I go to the government data sites or dedicated enthusiasts ; such as https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/news.html while for video, I have loaded a set of local broadcaster channels in my Roku so I just open the local TV station news there. Hawaiian TV for that eruption. Florida and Atlanta stations when the hurricane hit the pan handle. Locals have skin in the game so tend to be accurate. They also tend to have direct feeds to their home page for browsers.
For international news, the foreign broadcasters are best either as TV or via their web sites. Sure, stuff about their home country will be biased (but lets you see the internal bias) however: they ALL love to talk dirt about the other guy. So Al Jazeera is good for dirt on Turkey or Egypt. Israeli news for Lebanon or Syria. India loves spilling the beans on China. Etc.
A couple of years ago I did a regular rotation daily of Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS, etc. Now I just don’t bother. They’ve become “all Trump all the time” and naval gaze inside the USA all the time.
@EM – did you see the loop?
It was pre-recorded, and so probably took several takes.
They got Hollywood on their side! They got Silicon Valley on their side! Yet they cannot produce a coherent video of Biden!
@CompuGator.
DuckDuckgo is merely an anonymizer for Google. It is useless when Google decides to hide results,
@ EM re:
“May be hard to find someone on a preventative measure that needed a test…..”
Yeah, but some people are forced to take one of the tests even though they have no symptoms, just because everyone in their cohort is forced to take the test.
@ HR:
Be sure to give us the gory details…and the result of the test. ;-)
@Power Grab – By doze, by doze. Dey stug a tree ub by doze.
;o)
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@jim2 – That’s what had my knickers in a bunch. I don’t know what test they will be using, and I have no control over what test they use, even if I knew what test they are using. Grrrrrrr…… SPIT!
Meanwhile, the hospital and surgeon won’t go against the grain of any current protocols because they stand to lose licenses, be professionally disciplined, etc.
I had a lovely chat with the surgeon’s scheduler/assistant/brain/memory (He does the cutting. She takes care of everything else.)
She’s totally skeptical about the value of any testing, but what are they going to do? I could smell the smoke coming through the phone, she was so mad. I made the pleasant error of asking her about schools opening and her kids. Oh.My.Ears!
I think my surgeon’s practice is of the opinion that if you’re not showing up with a major fever and hacking up a lung, you’re probably good to go as far as any colds or flu is concerned.
They are w-a-a-y more concerned about all those underlying issues that cause problems in surgery; heart, lungs, interactions of your prescriptions, etc. Asymptomatic of any flu or cold? Pfffttt!
But they gotta do what they gotta do.
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I’ll ask what test they are using when I get tested and post it here.
@PhilJourdan:
I think not. IF it is just a ftont end, it gives very different results.
For “Trump news”:
Google:
DuckDuckGo:
DDG source code is on Github. It hss its own crawler, but also aggregates some other results, but if it is including Google, it didn’t make this list:
https://vpnpro.com/web/duckduckgo-review/
In any case, the results get a “quality” sort not a political filter.
Oh, and Phil, what loop?
This is a nice summary of the forces arrayed against Trump. It’s a list of current news about Trump found by DDG. Fox is the only source I see that isn’t rabidly against Trump. What an uphill fight we have.
http://www.trump-news.today/
Well, it is approaching 9 AM and electricity has gone out. Not the high demand heat of the day, so not sure why. UPS keeping communcation gear up. Camping gear for making breakfast. If it goes on another hour or three, I’ll start cleaning up the generator….
Just another day in California….
@Another Ian, “Unbiased news”
In case you missed it in his link, this is relevant (paraphrased):
I once had a friend who grew up i China ask me why so many Americans watch the news.
– What do you mean?
– Well, in China no one watches the news because we all know it’s propaganda.
I guess Americans haven’t figured that out yet.
E.M., if the power outage goes on too long, does WordPress support blogging using smoke signals? Is that what they call ‘cloud computing’?
;o)
I’m gonna go brush up on my Talking Drums skilz. I’ve got a tom-tom somewhere down in the basement.
@cdquarles, “Covid paper discussing T-cell function”
Very interesting. In short, the body’s T-cell producing ability decays exponentially with age, from about age 20, explaining why old and older people suffer so much from Covid. It declines 4.5% per year. Half-life 16 years. Other diseases with this property: MRSA, West Nile virus, Streptococcus Pneumonia and certain cancers, such as chronic myeloid leukemia and brain cancers. It also explains why men are hit worse; men are effectively six years older than women.
We found no evidence for differences between age groups in susceptibility to overall infection, or, relative infectiousness to others. The simple inverse relationship between risk and thymus size we report here suggests that therapies based on T-cell mechanisms may be a promising target.
“Math, like a map; is an abstraction and thus is not reality, necessarily.”
Math is its own reality. Or realities, since there is not just one math.
But its value is that the mathematical abstraction can fit so well … when used properly.
At a bit after 11 am, electricity has returned.
@H.R.:
Why do you have Tom in the basement? Do the Police know? Or is that 2 Toms?
;-)
@YMMV:
Math is just a very formal structured language. Like all languages, it can be precise and accurate, or can describe vague fantasies…
@E.M.- No, I don’t have Tom in the basement…
…but I do have Prince Albert in a can.
“E.M.Smith says:
1 September 2020 at 6:28 pm
At a bit after 11 am, electricity has returned. ”
Taken up that grand Australian aboriginal custom of “gone walkabout”?
@Another Ian:
Got out the butane stove and cooked breakfast (SPAM & eggs, pan toast), then did some reorganizing of stuff in the cars and then assembled some car camping kit bits. (Dry & canned food box, suitcase, personal maintenance kit (teeth, soap, razor,…), etc.)
So not walkabout, but prepping for one….
Lots of folks out walking, on bikes, with dogs. So many doing short outings.
Mrs. H.R. and her mom were in the larger town just over from us. Our town has a roundabout and downtown is 3 buildings and a county EMT outpost.
The big city has a downtown 6 blocks long with small business going 1/4 to 1/2 block away from the main drag. 3 and a half stoplights, the half stoplight only works on a trip or when someone pushes walk.
They were headed to a jeweler to pick up a watch that had been repaired. A lady on the street with a camera crew came up to my wife and said, “Hi. We’re from CNN and we are here in small town America to interview Trump voters.”
Mrs. H.R. replied, “I don’t talk to CNN.” Then she walked off to get the watch. So they were in the jewelry store a while ’cause mother-in-law likes jewelry and was looking to see if anything caught her eye.
The Mrs. said when they left the jeweler’s to go back to the car, the CNN crew was down at the corner at the crosswalk – waiting, waiting, looking, looking – and apparently still hadn’t interviewed anyone.
HA! Gonna be a long wait ’cause there’s a small liberal arts college that’s 3 blocks from the main drag and there are BLM and Biden signs everywhere. And then the conservatives ’round and about the area are like my wife; they’re not a bout to talk to CNN.
Talk about CNN not doing their research! No worries, though. They’ll just make something up.
Geez EM! Uh, source? DDGo says they only anonymize your Google searches. That is not my claim. That is theirs! Thus they do. Helps a bit, but it is still GOOGLE.
I am just reporting the facts, I am not a democrat and re-propositioning them.
@Phil:
My source is the link I gave. I saw no claim about Google at DuckDuckGo, so link to your source?
Well, electricity just died again. Twice in one day. I’ve been in 3rd world like locations with more reliable power.
Guess tomorrow I set up the generator and do the prep work (lay drop cords) to be prepared for this as “the usual”….
@E.M.Smith: “Math is just a very formal structured language.”
That’s one way to look at it, far from the only one. But don’t look too close. It’s like beauty. We think we know what it is, but we might not agree. It can’t be defined.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics
The word mathematics comes from Ancient Greek máthēma (μάθημα), meaning “that which is learnt,”[36] “what one gets to know,” hence also “study” and “science”.
I didn’t know that.
“Like all languages, it can be precise and accurate, or can describe vague fantasies…”
Like science fiction. Fantastical, but vague only in what is not known. Very formal.
cdquarles is right: Math, like a map; is an abstraction and thus is not reality, necessarily.
I’ll stick with my comment “Math is its own reality.” But abstract. Nothing says its reality exists. It is simply a structure of ideas which do not contradict each other. You could say it is a game like chess: these are the rules, what follows from them?
@YMMV:
Mathematics also lets you make up rules. You can extend the language with new sets of rules to describe and set in motion. Further, you can have orthogonal sets of rules. Incompatible sets. Sets which contradict. Standard Math has one definition for division by zero, non-standard a different one, both are exclusionary of the other.
It is the language of formal structured thought, but it is not the thought. In it, you can construct new thought descriptions, via formal manipulations, then examine those results to see if they are descriptive of some real new thought, or just a dead end. (You can do the same in natural languages. For example: “The banana likes flies” is structurally the same as “Flies like the banana” but only one has described a reality while the other is bit daft.)
So verbal language also has rules as to what it can describe, has both precise real descriptions and irrational ones.
In fact, all math statements can be translated into natural language, and you can “do math” in words. It’s just very cumbersome. (One could argue that learning math is done via the cumbersome natural language translations of what is being done, then the shorter math form is understood and can be substituted).
Similarly, there are mathematical descriptions of languages and how they work. (A compiler is made via a description of the desired language and a “compiler compiler”. The language is described in a formal symbology rather similar to a type of math). All this is done in binary in various bits of silicon that do simple forms of math. That is, the ALU Arithmetic Logic Unit is the place where all the magic happens, and it is just doing adds, subtracts, bit shifts, etc. I.e. Arithmetic.
BTW, that something does not have an agreed formal definition does not mean it CAN’T be defined. Just folks are too busy food fighting over it.
That mathematics often offers elegant and exact descriptions of natural phenomenon, ones we can easily manipulate and appreciate, does not mean it is any more real than a poetic description of a sunset or how people move on skates. It just means it is more suited to the task.
E=MC^2
Energy is equal to the Mass multiplied by the speed of Light times the speed of light.
Both are equivalent. Both have the same meaning. Both tell the same truth. Both are a language describing the reality of Einstein’s understanding. Neither of them is the reality of a nuclear event.
Similarly, one can say E=M/C^3 and be just as nonsensical as “The banana likes flies”.
Maybe I read too much Gödel Escher Bach ;-)
A picture of a table is not a table. The word table is not a table, nor is “picture of a table” either a table or a picture… Oh Oh… I’m going down the rabbit hole again ;-)
Sorry about that rabbit hole … I’ll just say that kids who say they don’t like math don’t know what math is. Although if they did, they might like it even less, because it involves thinking.
On another topic, this Unherd video interview is great. Great interviewer, great interviewee, and some great observations. About excess deaths from covid and asking how bad is covid compared to the flu and getting some surprising answers. We’ve never done so much testing. Not for flu. And how the lockdown cure is worse than the disease. It’s the unknown which causes panic.
His offhand remark: Voting could be done with blockchain.
What’s a few outages among friends:
From: https://m.pge.com/#outages
After mine was restored….
E.M.
The walkabout reference was actually to the power
https://theamericanreport.org/2020/08/31/explosive-new-website-names-alleged-u-s-domestic-surveillance-targets-mueller-brennan-clapper-architects-of-vast-criminal-operation-where-are-barr-durham/
_ Gödel Escher Bach _ (great book) can be summarized as the case for the claim that the system can’t completely describe the system. The system is open — or if closed, is enclosed within a SuperSystem which can’t be completely described, or remains open. OR, if closed, is itself enclosed within a HYPERSuperSystem… A related revision of the the claim is, from inside the system, it’s impossible to determine if the system is incomplete, or open, or within the superior system.
This summary of the book is incomplete. The jokes, poetry, images, introduction of the term “meme” to popular discourse, and danger to mind can’t be mapped to any text smaller than the book itself.
@ HR re:
“She’s totally skeptical about the value of any testing, but what are they going to do? I could smell the smoke coming through the phone, she was so mad. I made the pleasant error of asking her about schools opening and her kids. Oh.My.Ears!
I think my surgeon’s practice is of the opinion that if you’re not showing up with a major fever and hacking up a lung, you’re probably good to go as far as any colds or flu is concerned.
They are w-a-a-y more concerned about all those underlying issues that cause problems in surgery; heart, lungs, interactions of your prescriptions, etc. Asymptomatic of any flu or cold? Pfffttt!”
…smell the smoke… LOL!
Oh.My.Ears! . . . LOLOL!!
I keep seeing stuff to steal….
…underlying issues that cause problems in surgery; heart, lungs, interactions of your prescriptions…
Ah. That explains why they did the lung x-ray and EKG (“Well, you’ve never had a heart attack.”) on me before my surgery a few years ago. I wondered what the heck that was about. Oh, and I overheard a conversation between a medico and a surgery-bound patient where they tried to nicely get him to tell what “substances” he was taking because they needed to deal with any interaction between their drugs and his substances. (There was only a curtain between us.)
On the other hand, when I gave my full-page, typewritten sheet about my supplements to the anesthesiologist when we had our meeting, and he spent 20-30 minutes typing it into his computer-on-a-cart, then came up for air and said that he could find no research that talked about how my stuff and their stuff interacted. Therefore, he said, I could continue taking them up until the day of surgery. Made my day! :-) Woohoo! I’m an anomaly!
Some math describes some parts of reality. What I wonder is if all math describes some bit or another of reality, but we haven’t “discovered” those bits of reality yet.
@Power Grab – ♯♪♫ Steal away… steal away… steeel-away home. ♪♫ I hain’t got long to stay here♫
Steal away. Life is short.
Power Grab replied 2 September 2020 at 6:49 pm GMT:
That explains why they did the lung x-ray and EKG (“Well, you’ve never had a heart attack.”) on me before my surgery a few years ago. I wondered what the heck that was about.
I’m a seasoned citizen with an engineering mind-set that I’m incorrigible about applying to my many recent observations of medical care for various family members at the premier medical campus in this tourist-infested region.
I don’t recall what specifics you gave about your surgery. I assume that they already had the results of blood tests in hand. A 2nd round of blood tests in short succession might be an inauspicious sign.
I suspect that the remark about your avoidance of any heart attack was more a statement that the medical facility didnn’t possess the base-line data on your cardiac health that they believed they needed before proceeding with your surgery. I take it that they planned general anesthesia. Do you recall the wording of the legal release & waiver that required your signature before they would proceed with anesthesia? The possibility of a broken jaw and worse (explicitly incl. death)?
If they were considering administering general anesthesia (i.e., deliberate unconsciousness), they would want to quantify the fitness, incl. pumping strength, of your heart, not only for distribution of the anesthetic medications, but also how much they dare slow your pulse, or lower your blood pressure during the surgery. I’ve been told that without various medications, if one’s pulse drops into the 30s/min., it’s considered to be arrival at a cardiologically slippery slope: With just a wee bit more slowing of the pulse, and the natural heart-pacing signal crumbles into ineffectiveness; I visualize it as a regular pulse trace on an oscilloscope (how quaint! ) breaking up into low-amplitude randomness. Ummm, it was not a matter of detached technical interest at the time.
The EKG has the quickie 5-lead (thus 5-sensor-pad) version, and a 12-lead version. There might be additional versions with more leads, but it seems to me that if the results of a 12-lead EKG raise medical eyebrows, the echo-cardiogram, which uses ultrasound to locate restrictions in the blood flow within the vascular system of your torso, would be the cardiological next step.
If planning to administer general anesthesia as gases via the mouth, I can understand why they would want to quantify the fitness, esp. gas exchange, of your lungs. Why accept a politically-correct claim by the patient that she “never smoked”, or risk her having forgotten suffering some lung-damaging bacterial, fungal, or viral disease, when the medical staff can get a useful-enough assessment from a lung x-ray? The latter is so easy to do nowadays: Apparently-digital x-ray machines that are adequate to the task, of sizes suggesting mobile industrial cleaning equipment, roam hospital halls on wheels.
Besides, one’s body may have responded to reduced organ-fitness by various forms of compensation that the patient no longer notices, and thus fails to reveal in a hospital interview.
N.B.: I am medically a layman, with no medical training beyond “Wilderness 1st Aid”. I am not offering medical diagnosis nor advice in this reply.
@Compu Gator – to butt in on your reply to Power Grab… yeah.. . for a lot of surgeries, the anesthesia is THE most dangerous part.
I feel that way about the bit of cutting they will do on my shoulder. I’m not really worried about the surgery, other than the surgeon’s skill at making the right stitches in the best places for the most favorable outcome. And I’m sold that he is first rate.
So the danger, IMO, is with the anesthesiologist.
They weigh the patient for dose/mass, they closely examine the patient’s meds for possible negative interactions, they check heart and lungs to make sure they will stand up to being gassed, and still the most common ‘negative outcome’ (death!!) of surgery is from getting knocked out, not surgical mistakes. Surgical mistakes are w-a-a-a-y behind and are in second or third or further place.
The ones who are insisting on all the pre-surgery tests are the anesthesiologists, ’cause they get sued the most.
H.R. replied 3 September 2020 at 2:01 am GMT:
[….] about the bit of cutting they will do on my shoulder. I’m not really worried about the surgery, other than the surgeon’s skill at making the right stitches in the best places for the most favorable outcome. And I’m sold that he is first rate.
Being a seasoned citizen, in Alabama if I recall correctly, I’m sure you remember the bad ole days of 1/2 century–and more–ago, esp. as college & pro football teams adopted mass-increasing weight-training programs like those of LSU and Nebraska, when a knee injury of any kind was career-ending. It seems to me that it was 1/4 century ago that the wonder-procedure arthroscopic surgery began to enable football players to resume game play during the same season, after on-the-order-of 1/2-dozen weeks in rehab, altho’ there are rare exceptions even nowadays.
Hmmm And having mentioned first rate surgeons, wasn’t one of the premier arthroscopic surgeons who specializes in football injuries, based in Alabama? As if there were no surgeons satisfactory for such tasks in more-populous home states of prominent football teams?
Compu Gator replied 3 September 2020 at 2:48 am GMT:
It seems to me that it was 1/4 century ago that the wonder-procedure arthroscopic surgery began to enable football players to resume game play during the same season, after on-the-order-of 1/2-dozen weeks in rehab [….]
Arrrgh! Hasty arithmetic conversion: I was thinking of seasons ca. 1980, so properly 40 years ago.
And rehab for some cases progressively shortened.
I’m fairly sure that before 1/2 century ago, knee injuries were also “end of career”.
@Compu Gator – Hmmm… the way you wrote about pre-arthroscopic surgery times – what? 200 or 300 B.C.? – took me back. ;o)
Heck yeah. Back when, only the top pro athletes got knee surgery. Everyone else just had to limp along. I remember catching Joe Namath on some show saying that his knees looked like zippers he had so many surgeries. I just couldn’t relate to that as it was beyond my experience then. No one I knew had ever had knee surgery. They just used a cane if they blew out a knee, ’cause surgery wasn’t worth the risk.
About 20-ish years ago, maybe a bit longer, my brother-in-law had knee surgery. Even then I thought it was a bit of risky business… except he said they were not going to slice up his knee, but do it with arthroscopic surgery. Huh?!?, sez I. Turns out it was easy-peasy.
My oh my, how things change.
I just realized that I’ve been writing all about peripheral stuff to the surgery because nowadays, the surgery is the least of anyone’s worries.
But thankfully (sarc, sarc, sarc) we have the government to thank for replacing the old worries about surgery with enough rules, regulations, and crap to keep us occupied for months before and after surgery without ever thinking about the actual surgery.
Glen Beck is leading an effort to prove Google’s manipulations of their search engines to manipulate voters in the upcoming election
they are looking for computer users to help them in collecting search results.
Like my mother before me, my heart rate routinely drops into the 30s beats per minute while I’m sleeping. At *first*, it alarmed the staff. While watching me, and when I told them my mom’s history, the frantic looks stopped :). (I learned a trick back in my early 20s that allowed me to conciously lower my heart rate.)
@Gator,
Yes, there was such a specialty hospital. CEO went to prison a few years ago (and a former Governor, too). HealthSouth, if I recall correctly (though that wasn’t the name back in the Bryant era ;p, I think). The orthopedic surgeons there were among the first to do athletic joint repairs, and later, arthroscopic procedures. (Just down the road, some of the premier cardiac surgeons were brought in and trained others, some 40 years ago, too.)
Oh yeah, that reminds me. A major breakthrough for this came from fiber optics. Scopes now are a centimeter or less in diameter. I want to say that my opthamologist used one during my cataract and glaucoma surgery back in January of this year.
From the link https://newatlas.com/energy/nano-diamond-self-charging-batteries-ndb/
Technology of self charging ‘batteries’ made from nuclear reactor waste is what they tout. However these are NOT truly batteries …
So apart from the difficulty of making utterly flawless nano-diamonds from super refined single isotopes of carbon, it’s not a ‘real’ battery but a rechargeable supercapacitor, with all the destructibility and reliability that these offer.
I’m sceptical of these proposed ‘batteries’ as these look much like the cold fusion all over again. However I’m willing to be proved wrong and will be if they ever get to be a commercial reality (and get around all the excessive legislation about anything nuclear).
tom0mason @ https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/w-o-o-d-20-august-2020/#comment-132623
No, this is a legitimate low power source. The source of energy is beta decay, which produces an electron. The electrons are stored in the super-capacitor. I’m not saying it will be useful, just saying it does not depend on unproven science.
And speaking of cold fusion, there is a meeting every year. I note I still don’t have that water heater that runs on cold fusion for almost-free. :)
https://iscmns.org/iccf22/
Google investigated cold fusion recently.
Here we describe our efforts, which have yet to yield any evidence of such an effect. Nonetheless, a by-product of our investigations has been to provide new insights into highly hydrided metals and low-energy nuclear reactions, and we contend that there remains much interesting science to be done in this underexplored parameter space.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1256-6
More on the Google-funded effort:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01683-9
Ugh, first article is paywalled.
I am not sure where the best place for this one is: https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/09/03/oregon-state-police-cross-deputized-special-deputy-us-marshals-attempt-manslaughter-and-murder-charges-now-in-play/, though I find it interesting. It touches on happenings in Portland, but those can be applied elsewhere.
@Another Ian:
I got the power connection, but thought “Walkabout” was only an extended informal journey / wander while pondering life. Is there more to it than that? Have I got the definition wrong? Just wondering, as it’s not USA slang so a bit unfamiliar.
@Jim2:
Aye, now there’s the rub. Is 10 dimensional phase space and the associated math describing it really how the universe works, or just a mathematical bit of poetry fantasy?
@H.R. & Folks;
Spouse had rotator cuff repair a year or three back. Nearly trivial after effects. Tiny incision.
Yes, general anesthesia is the biggest risk. It finds out what is marginal in your status…
@CDQuarles:
It mostly bypasses the local DA for assault on officers and resisting arrest charges. So if the OSP arrest someone, they know the next stop is the slammer, not Starbucks…. I’m hoping the County Sheriffs are next to be deputized.
BTW, my body temp cycles wider than most. 97.4 F to 99.5 F not uncommon. I get to explain this often. I also enjoy watching the local grocery store entance temperature checker puzzle over 97.x when I go early in the day :-)
@ Compu Gator:
Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your sharing. I had biology and chemistry a lifetime ago, and only have a clue about medical procedures I’ve experienced. So your comments help me acquire additional clues. :-)
The surgery I referred to was my hysterectomy. I don’t remember the verbage that I signed off on, but I know where to look. I tried to put all my copies of paperwork into a big 3-ring binder.
I appreciate your and HR’s comments about anesthesia. My dad told me one time that the anesthesiologist actually is the person who runs the surgery. The way he told it, he won’t allow the surgeon to cut until he is satisfied that the patient is ready. IIRC, he mentioned that with general anesthesia they take the functioning of the patient’s body down almost to the point of death.
I assume they used a mask on me, but I’m sure that something introduced via the IV line hit me first. I distinctly remember starting to look around the brightly-lit operating room with a bare face, right after they put a silver “shower cap” on my head, and the next thing I remember was being waked in my private hospital room and being asked to help move myself to the regular bed.
I understand that a variety of drugs are used for a situation like mine, probably including gas, but I didn’t ever wake up with a mask on my face. And I don’t remember having a dry mouth after surgery, to speak of. However, I do remember the anesthesiologist’s asking me to open my mouth as wide as I could during our interview.
I’m pretty sure the EKG was the 5-lead type. I don’t remember having lots of wires attached to me. It only took a few minutes to attach the leads, run the test, and explain the results (“You haven’t had a heart attack”). I was surprised that they did it and wondered, if it’s so important, why do it so quickly?
No, they would have had no heart-related data on me. No one has ever done any kind of heart or stress tests on me, aside from the routine use of a stethoscope and sphygmomanometer .
The lung X-ray also was as quick as they come, I reckon. If they said anything, it must have been that my lungs were fine.
If they drew blood for tests the day of surgery, I don’t remember it. If they did it, they probably didn’t tell me what it would be used for.
I have electricity so far today, but overall it still looks dodgy for PG&E:
About general anesthesia, depending on the procedure, gas is not used much these days. It is given intravenously. And yes, the ‘gas passer’ does run the surgery suite. Been there and seen it :). I’ve also seen a bad reaction to a heart-lung machine and to dialysis (without a solution error!). That was from a hypersensitivity type reaction by their immune system. What’s helped much, in my opinion, beyond going toward more specific agents with short half-lives is the greatly improved monitoring; which is much less invasive than it used to be.
Oh, the general public simply isn’t aware of how much human body temperature (and how it gets measured affects the results) varies. 98.6F/37C is the mean oral temperature. Core temperature is 99.5F/38C on average and the diurnal variation is quite wide. I’m not surprised at what our host reports. Your temperature rises when you are exercising, as does your blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate, relative to your resting values within your diurnal ranges.
A good thread about the basic biology of infectious diseases, with some simplifications: https://twitter.com/federicolois/status/1298631229483425792. This, in my opinion, is where the politics adversely affected things. Herd, or community, immunity is a thing, though it is *not* a monolith. It is a biological necessity. A vaccine is designed to do what a natural infection does, but with a hopefully lower *overall* risk. We are mortal man doomed to die, whose span shall be 120 years. *Nothing* in this corporeal life is riskless.
When I was living in a box for NASA, we had a test of temperature sensors as well. One in a moulded ear plug. The other was an anal wire thing.
One “night” I was awakened by the monitor folks asking me to check if the anal probe had fallen out. It was reading “too low”. Well, it was where it belonged. I just ran lower than anyone else in the experiment (3 separate groups of 3). Mid “day” I got a bit warmer than the others.
Physical activity was limited. 11 x 17 foot room for 3.5 months… I dropped from about 200 lbs to 156 lbs, eating as much as I wanted, but just not very hungry.
I put quotes on day and night as we were doing a circadian rhythm study too. No windows nor outside sounds. Light constant 10 candle power? lumins? for 3 weeks at a time. I settled on a 25 hour day length (told later) while another guy in our group ran to 23. Then we did a couple of weeks of structured day / night cycle. Repeat…
They would wake us up at our minimum body temp and we’d fly the flight trainer. As I was best at blood draws, I got to take blood draws from the other two guys while they took turns on me. They didn’t want to risk light upsetting anything, so the night draws were done with only a 7 Watt red darkroom light… Blood draws were one day each week, every 4 hours around the clock… yeah, 15 x 6 = 90 sticks plus repeats on misses… All 4 major veins in the arms were used and yes, I ended up with minor “tracks”.
But they found out you can fly well enough when sleepy and cold, and no need to have crew on different day schedules on orbit in case of emergency evacuation. They also found out that “jet lag” from changing when our day started was not good (no surprise there…) and that different folks can be very different in day length, temp cycles, etc.
@ cdquarles:
I was talking to a quarantined person today on the phone. The subject of taking one’s temperature came up. I suggested taking the temperature several times a day, on a regular schedule, and logging it to see if there was a pattern. I’m not sure where I got that idea, but I’m glad to hear it’s worth doing. There’s not much else to do when you’re quarantined!
jim2: “Some math describes some parts of reality. What I wonder is if all math describes some bit or another of reality, but we haven’t “discovered” those bits of reality yet.”
Probably. There are instances of some math being “discovered”, as pure thought, and only later physicists discovering that they can use it.
‘Describes’ is the keyword. Back in the mists of time, when mathematics was invented, it may have been for practical purposes, bean counting, building pyramids and stonehenges, fighting wars, who knows. In the modern practice it is totally abstract and does not depend on what we know as reality. Great effort has been made to formalize it. And discovering that is not so easy. See Axiom of Choice. But some math, not the exotic stuff, fits reality so well we forget that it is not reality.
For example, cartesian space worked well enough until Einstein messed with it. We know the equations for gravity (we think), but we do not know what gravity is.
My point is that there is something between mathematics and reality. The model. Sometimes known as physics (etc.). That the model is a set of assumptions and is not reality is easy to see sometimes: climate science models, pandemic models.
And here we have it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2279112/, to which I’d add one thing about the background prevalence. Influenza and coronaviruses are, in part if not all, zoonotic; so they also circulate among other vertebrates then mutate sufficiently to have ‘novel’ strains emerge.
Looks like Arch Linux has drank the systemd hemlock:
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=arch
@cdquarles Great article.
Some important historical comparisons that are forgotten or were never taught to many today.
I created a MX Linux live boot USB stick. MX Linux doesn’t use systemd. It froze like Mint has been. So, I guess it could be my 15 year old mother board. Maybe :)
Jim2 @ https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/w-o-o-d-20-august-2020/#comment-132624
I have no qualms with the
“No, this is a legitimate low power source. The source of energy is beta decay, which produces an electron. The electrons are stored in the super-capacitor. I’m not saying it will be useful, just saying it does not depend on unproven science.”
For low energy source for medical equipment such as cardiac monitors or pacemakers – yes go for it but the anti-nuclear people will not be on your side.
My doubts are about reliable manufacturability at scale. What I’m skeptical of is making a reliable higher powered version as they imply in the cartoon promo video in the link I supplied. Complicated and expensive refining to single isotopes of carbon, forming these into the ideal sized diamond nano- particles. Secondly there is the problems of disposal/recycle if millions of these are made as, say, replacements for AA and AAA sized batteries (which is also implied in their write-up and childish cartoon). These sized ‘batteries’ would last only as long as there internal electronic function, and as I know and experienced, the current supercapacitors are low voltage devices, and are quite fragile with finite life under normal environmental conditions (despite the manufacturers assurance).
Lastly this idea is not, nor will ever be, a battery, they are just supercapacitors hooked on to some novel atomic (and electronic) charger.
“Antifa Cheers Speech Made Up Entirely From Hitler Quotes”
https://www.bitchute.com/video/PxZvm9vcbfad/
This is worth a watch – can’t help but laugh……… or cry!
The great speeches of Joe
“Cities in flames and the blame game begins.”
Hey tomOmason @ https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/w-o-o-d-20-august-2020/#comment-132675
Consider this anecdotal but if you are interested in self charging batteries you might find this thought provoking. About 15 years ago (more or less) I was looking at luminescent paints and ran across a company which claimed to have the best luminescent materials in the world. Digging around their web site, I found a section reporting on an invention they claimed to have in a working prototype but not yet in production. Briefly, it was a new and more efficient luminescent powder which reacted to emissions from tritium gas. (Such luminescence is not new, you can get it in pistol sights, but their variety was “new and improved”.) The twist is that they were using glass microballoons such as are commonly used as a fiberglass filler, but which were filed with their new powder and tritium gas to produce a VERY bright paint with a 12 year half life. Paint it on solar panels, bundle the panels into a stack and feed the constant output into a conventional rechargeable electric battery. They claimed that the power density of their panels was high enough that a self charging electric car could be built with a stack of panels which would fit in the trunk. Additionally, being glass microballoons, even in a crash or fire the chance of major release of radioactive gas was essentially zero. You can drive a tractor trailer rig over a spill of microballoons and very few will be crushed. Scattered maybe, but not crushed. On the other hand, recycling would be fairly easy by scraping off the paint, dissolve the binder, and then crushing the balloons with very close fitting metal rollers. My reaction was “OH BOY! Sounds good!” After that I checked their web site every so often, but no update on production, until one day I checked and the whole invention story had disappeared. I suppose I could do enough research on the Way Back machine to maybe find it, but I do not see any real point. Sensitive subjects DO disappear off the web. Not often, but sometimes. Or maybe they were just promoting imaginary ideas and gave up.
Tritium light source:
Laser sealed in a 31.5mm borosilicate glass tube which has been coated internally with phosphor. In one single process, the unit is sealed by a CO2 laser and injected with gaseous Tritium. The low energy electrons emitted by the Tritium, excite the phosphor and this creates a safe, low level light without heat and no risk of fire or explosion.
http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_8&products_id=994
Hey jim2, yes, but now imagine a similar product with a (reportedly) more efficient phosphor and packed into millions of tiny glass bubbles about 1/50th of a millimeter in diameter. Mix the bubbles with a clear binder, pain them onto a photovoltaic panel and (I would assume) aluminize the outer surface of the paint to bump up efficiency a bit more. Solar panels would not need the standard exterior heavy glass surface or mounting frame if they are stacked together. I have no idea whether heat would be an issue.
Be nice ti have a box of the little light sources from the link you gave. Of course radium would be better — but good luck getting radium these days!
Hi Jason – how much tritium would you need? Apparently tritium costs about $30,000 per GRAM!
https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/the-16-most-expensive-materials-in-the-world-188955/
Amazon has bunch of tritium light sources:
https://www.amazon.com/tritium/s?k=tritium
“Something Wicked This Way Comes”
An interesting view point of a Muslim woman. By Qanta Ahmed | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/joy-reid-ilhan-omar-qanta-ahmed
This opinion piece well worth the read,
There is an under current in the Islamic World that Trump is encouraging. There is a prophesy that the 12th Imam will apeare and teach Muslims “A new way” also that this teacher walks with Jesus. We live in interesting times…pg
Latest Pointman
In other news, some may find this interesting: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/04/anti-fascism/, and I went looking because of a quote ascribed to H. L. Mencken.
@YMMV – The word mathematics comes from Ancient Greek máthēma (μάθημα), meaning “that which is learnt,”[36] “what one gets to know,” hence also “study” and “science”.
I am reminded of Sheldon’s physics lesson to Penny (BBT). LOL
@EM – you got a generator? A 5750 watt will run enough of the house to keep you comfortable (i.e. freezer working and internet as well).
A “Whole house” generator over here costs about $8-9k installed. And you want to get a good installation company.
So far, I am doing well with the smaller one that does not run the stove, AC/Heat and Dryer for far less.
When an outage hits, I have to shut off street power (the main switch), crank up the generator, switch off the Dryer, Stove, Heat pump and blower, and then flip the switch on the generator. And all that cost me less than $1k.
If the power is out for more than 3 days, I am a dead man as my wife wants her AC. But other than that, it works fine!
Actually to butt in to the Compu Gator thing, I fully support HR. Indeed, the highest malpractice rates are for Anesthesiologists. Bar none, The most mistakes happen there, so get the one charging the most!
@EM – I had a partial nephrectomy, and they drilled 3 holes in me and removed part of the kidney and I was home in 24 hours!!!
I am awed by the advances! My holes are dimples and I am now (2 years) cancer free!
Hey, that’s great on the 2 years cancer free, philjourdan.
.
.
.
Now that’s something that has changed dramatically in my lifetime. When I was a kid (’50s) and I’m going to say up until about the mid-70s (just my fuzzy memory), a diagnosis of cancer was pretty much a death sentence. Well, there were some tumors they could snag if they got them early.
Anyhow, all but a few cancers are treatable and have excellent survivability, particularly if caught early. And now there’s even some success with some late stage cancers.
It’s just a marvel to me.
About 20 years ago under Gov. Grey “out” Davis, I had 2 generators.
A 5 kW Brigggs & Straton driven one and a 1 kW Honda inverter one.
During some 3 day outage, used the B&S to drive washer / dryer and AC. It was way noisy.
The Honda nicely drives all the lighting we want, the TV Entertainment cluster and the fridge all at the same time. It is 56 dB and a dream!
After pondering it a while, sold the 5 kW to a friend. Don’t need it. We can easily go a week or two without laundry and AC here is fairly optional (and 2 months out of the year at that).
After we dumped Grey, the power stabilized. Over the years, the 1 kW UPS boxes on the TV entertainment cluster and the office had the batteries die and went to the parts pile. I’d put drop cords in place where I could crank the Honda and run the wires in about 5 minutes. Now they are coiled in the garage. It would take me sbout 2 hours to get everything set up again. (The office is much lower power R.Pi now so on a 250 W UPS.)
I need to do a fuel service on the Honda. Not hard, just lazy. I now have 4 inverters of different power that plug into the cars. So in about 5 minutes I can have 150 W, 250 W, or 300 W by just plugging in or 2 kW by using jumper cables to the big one.
But so far, just about the time the candles are lit, power is back. I also have a butane asian stove that sets up in about 2 minutes, so one outage while cooking had me just swap over to it to finish. Then by the time we were done eating, power was back. The outages have been running about 1.5 hours so far. Just not enough to get me motivated to do the generator set up / tune up…
Oh, and most rooms have a Maglight staged, so step one, if night time, is just reach over and click it on. In the first minute we have light. Then candles (also prestaged).
Yeah, way over the top prep. But ready for 2 weeks outage post Great Quake if needed.
E>M. I hope you’re used to long waits
“SACRAMENTO, CA—Governor Gavin Newsom has released new guidelines for California’s counties looking to reopen their businesses, saying that counties may only begin to lift their lockdowns once a cure for death itself has been found.
Link at
https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/07/get-with-the-program-daniel/
Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold says there are “preventive safeguards” in place to prevent double-voting (one of those by mail). I’ve searched high and low but the only “safeguard” I’ve found is “it’s illegal!” What part of fraud do these people not understand? Criminal voters won’t worry about the law, especially when it’s easy to get away with it. Once again, Trump is right, mail-in voting invites fraud. You don’t need a scientist to understand why.
” mail-in voting invites fraud.” LOL, Mail in voting IS FRAUD, One that the Democrats have perfected over years. Since before 1975 that I personally know of. With absentee voting gives them about 6% edge but this new General Mail in Voting, The sky is the limit with vote harvesting and selective gathering. In select precincts Democrats have achieved 140% participation of registered voters casting their votes for democratic choices with No counter votes!
There is a reason for voting in person on ONE day with identification, FRAUD!
A Democratic Pundit once bragged that cheating was the only way that they could win against the Republicans because the Republicans cheat. When asked for his proof of Republican cheating he replied, “We know that the Republicans cheat because sometimes they win!”
Brexit news.
With only weeks left to seal a deal on future trade relations with the European Union, the UK will up the ante and go for the “nuclear option”. Legislation currently prepared by the government will walk out on key provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement signed last October, stripping their legal force
https://www.rt.com/uk/500046-johnson-reneges-brexit-agreement/
I’m typing this on a computer while watching a TV all powered by my 30 ish year old Honda generator. It works!
Still need to clean the fuel cap (bit of rust) , change the motor oil (10 years old?) and buy a new set of filters. But a basic clean up, drain old fuel preserver and re-fuel, then spritz of ether down the throat, and it is running fine!
The gas cap for the Honda generator has an on / off knob, that closes an air vent, consisting of a spring and metal cup closer. They had developed some rust over the last decade of non-use. That’s been mostly de-rusted. Enough for use. “Someday” I ought to replace it or the metal bits if a repair kit exists.
Total use hours over the years is somewhere around 30 to 40 as an estimate, so filters ought to be mostly unused. But old enough to need replacing. So I need to find out where to get them. The air filter is just foam and looked intact / not breaking down. It runs fine anyway :-)
Having taken 3 or 4 outages lately, I’m glad I got it going again. Candles and butane stoves let life continue, but don’t run the TV, computer gear, fridge or small AC. The wall AC is 870 Watts, so it plus electronics and lighting is doable. I’ve also run fridge plus lighting and electronics.
Fridge holds cold for a day, and things cool off here at night, so swapping between them is not an issue.
I’ve got about 24 hours of gas at the moment. More via syphon or filling another can. More than enough for rolling blackouts.
Next step is getting my drop cords out of storage, laid out and ready. I’ll likely leave that for during the next outage.
Not good reading
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/coming-coup?utm_campaign=&utm_content=ZeroHedge%3A+The+Durden+Dispatch&utm_medium=email&utm_source=zh_newsletter
Oh, and just to round out my fun….
Yesterday I got to do an Army Crawl over the gravely dirt under the house to find and remove a ripe (and rapidly ripening more in the 100 F+ heat) ex rodent.
I did learn a couple of things.
1) Army Crawl in limited space with an Israeli gas mask is challenging. Big round filter in low front wants to drag on the dirt. Chin up!
2) It works really really well.
3) Thinking “Maybe a sniff will give some clue on direction or distance?” is a BIG mistake. It is much stronger under the floor than above.
4) Forgetting your flashlight is a mistake. Do not try to compensate for low light via sniffs. Just go get the flashlight.
5) A rapid exhale in a newly re-installed mask does clear even strong stuff and the next inhale is soooo nice!
6) Sliding a cardboard pad as you crawl is a bother, but removes the hurt of gravel bits.
7) A flashlight on tight beam just above dirt highlights a furry bump way over there nicely.
8) A trashbag used like a mitten to do a pickup (doggy poo bag style) is better than an entrenching tool. Don’t forget your little shovel under the floor in your enthusiasm to dump the rodent…
9) It is advisable to have emergency beverage available for post event. Scotch rocks or beer best.
10) Clothes sunned on chairs in the yard become suited for human approach the next day. You can keep your shorts on…
11) Don’t eat before, but you won’t want to eat after. See #9 for advice on this conundrum.
@Another Ian:
An attempted stolen election followed by the Color Revolution play book is EXACTLY what I’m expecting.
The Swamp, Globalists, Socialists, China, EU (but I repeat myself…), and more are all devoid of moral compass while all are agreed a 2nd Ttump term is just not survivable. They are cornered and desperate. It will not be pretty nor will it follow rule of law.
E.M. Around that area
“Can we step back before going over the cliff?”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/09/07/can-we-stop-back-before-going-over-the-cliff/
@HR – I think you are about 10 years ahead of me (I was born in the 50s, but a kid in the 60s). Yes, the “Big C” was the end of the line.
But St. Jude is running an ad now about some lymphoblastomic cancer that (when we were kids) was 94% fatal, and now only 4%.
They have come far. Fortunately mine was caught early by a doctor who made a mistake! His mother died of renal cancer. He recently (about 3 years ago) switched to a subscription practice. I was left with one of his former partners and when they came up wanting big time (they had about 3500 listing them as their PCP), I decided to bite the bullet and pay the fee (it is not part of the HMA allowed fee, so comes directly from your pocket).
When I went to him after 6 months, he ordered some abominable scans as he thought I had been having problems there (no, just cysts in the wrong places!) But that is what found it.
So I am very fortunate and willing pay the extra fee now (it gets you direct access to the doc 24×7) His patient load is now 500. Versus the 3500.
Sadly he is only 10 years younger than me, so I may outlive his practice!
But yes, I have 3 dimples in me now that were not there 3 years ago. And I was home in 24 hours. My wife and daughter sat up for the time, and then came to visit me. They said I was doofy! I was feeling no pain! Never took the Oxycontin either. I was not in pain, but very afraid of that stuff!
@EM – 30 year old? Damn mine is only 20 year old!
Yea, I do service it every year. But I guess I have a few years to go before rust! Every year, I drain the gas and toss it (dump has a place for that) along with the oil (I will change that more frequently if we use it more).
So far running like a champ. Friend in Texas asked what it was. I told them a B&S engine! But the actual model is a BigBoss.
@EM – Re: ripe rodent.
ROFL!!!! Thanks for that!
Quick anesthesia recovery story:
A few years back I had hernia surgery; arthroscopic, in and out. The doc gave me scrips to fill on the way home. We stopped at our grocery, which has a pharmacy. I didn’t think I was all that loopy or really much buzzed at all. I thought I was perfectly fine.
Walking was painful, so I got one of the battery powered ride on carts to go to the pharmacy at the end of the store.
Wheeeee! zOOOOm! 4-wheel drifts! I was a *ahem* bit of a maniac.
Fortunately I didn’t run over anyone or knock down any displays, but it did finally penetrate my consciousness that I really shouldn’t drive… anything, nor sign any contracts or make any major financial decisions. (That’s what they had on the post op instructions.)
We got the scrips and Mrs. H.R. had me headed out the door ASAP. Off to home and bed.
Some light entertainment.
Antifa pants, well leg, on fire ,
Who put it out?
Police put it out!
Here it is set to music. )
@Phil:
Glad you enjoyed “learning by proxy: 8′)
I figure it’s dry under there, so things won’t rust, so I’ll retrieve the entrenching tool later…
maybe next year…
Or next rodent…
Or maybe I’ll just sell quick…..
@Beth:
Nice one!
Silly thing is, had the guy just kicked off his shoes taken a step and dropped his pants, he’d have no burns at all. Evaporating gasoline from the fabric keeps skin cool initially. Dropping the pants top will likely snuff the pantlegs once away from the shoes.
Running just oxygenates the gas and makes the flames a lot bigger and hotter.
And trying to smother the flames with a dust bin lid, E.M. ! Shows the intelligence level of the Antifa mob.
Found the manual for the 1000i online. No wonder I couldn’t find the oil drain plug or filter, it doesn’t have them. Just remove dip stick and tilt to the side to drain out that hole. Refill with 1 cup 10w30. (Well, really .26 quart or .25 liter but…) So tomorrow will be an oil change.
Fuel filter looks to be only the screen in the fuel filler neck, already cleaned.
Air filter is just detergent wash, wet it with oil, and wring out. Since it was fine earlier, I’m just going to do that and call it done.
@EM, glad I have a retriever who will go get whatever he is asked to get. Ask HR. I actually think he likes that type of thing as he rolled in it while we (myself and many others watched a Super Bowl a couple years back, not good to have give a dog a bath at 1 am post driveway projector party) 30 of us watched the game.
On another note. I thought I would share a song I hadn’t hear for a while. Live too>
Re @Another Ian:
“An attempted stolen election followed by the Color Revolution play book is EXACTLY what I’m expecting.”
Idle speculation – toss a real Obama birth certificate in?
Ossqss: “@EM, glad I have a retriever who will go get whatever he is asked to get. Ask HR.”
I’ll vouch for that. While we were on the dock fishing Ossqss asked him to bring us a couple of Busch Light beers. That’s not all that impressive, though.
It’s how he managed to pour them into the frosted mugs and bring them to us without spilling a drop that has me stumped.
;o)
@H.R.:
Yeah, my Golden (Burt), from 20 years ago, just couldn’t do that. He’d have drunk them just after the pour!
Saying “Burt, beer Burt!” would get him trotting your way fast. Seemed to like Pabst as much as the good stuff ;-) but any open beer was fair game.
After 2 or 3 he tended to nod off and dream about this poodle he once knew….
Barrack Obama was born in his mother’s native village in Kenya just like his Kenyan grandmother said. There is no birth certificate. Just the phony one from Hawaii
A thought hit me this morning. Remembering how BO stopped smiling after he won the election…could it be that the leftists/communists *want* to lose in 2020 because that gives them an excuse to continue their favorite past-time: stealing/killing/destroying. I can’t bring to mind anything they’ve ever really BUILT. Can they claim ownership of any significant structure or enterprise that everyone can publicly enjoy, use, or be inspired by?
OK, Power Grab asked, and of course most others here are WuHu Flu gear heads and interested, so here’s the pre-op drive-thru test I took.
It was the PCR test. They took a throat swab, not the tree-up-the-nose swab. Supposedly the results are binary; you either have an active case of Kung Flu or you don’t.
@Power Grab:
IMHO, Obomb-uh got his first round of security, intelligence, and financial briefings and realized it was all HIS problem ….
Trump knew things were shit and likes fixing the impossible.
The Big 0 (yes, that’s really a zero…) expected to raid the pantry for goodies to distribute and buddy up with his Socialist and Muslim fellow travelers, but found the pantry was empty, debt was through the roof already, and his “friends” were trying to destroy him / his government.
That’s my guess anyway. Seems like most Presidents have an OMG moment after they “win”.
Under another rock?
”
DEVELOPING: Investigators have learned that Obama CIA Director John Brennan ran a secret task force out of Langley with its own separate budget to investigate Trump campaign and alleged ties to Russia. Task force set up before FBI officially launched its own probe on 07/31/16
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) September 8, 2020″
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/09/08/when-the-cia-does-it-is-it-illegal/
@HR – Yea, I know that feeling. Every time I get the rotor rooter (now every 3 years), I come home feeling hungry (the prep is worse than the procedure) and fine! But I have been told I am a bit batty! :-)
@EM – re: burning man – Do you really expect them to show a lick of common sense? The idiot tried to kick a burning bottle of gasoline!
Strictly speaking, a rtPCR test for an RNA virus does not detect intact virus. It detects the short RNA string (which when short, is *not* unique) believed to be the RNA string in the virus, infectious or not.
“Trump knew things were shit and likes fixing the impossible.”
Unofficial motto of the Australian 6th Division AIF
“The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes slightly longer”.
Things they were in on – first stopping of a blitzkreid attack in the first siege of Tobruk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tobruk
and first stopping of a Japanese attack at the Battle of Milne Bay.
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_milne_bay.html
@ HR:
So, how long will it be until you get the results of the test?
@ EM:
Re ‘Seems like most Presidents have an OMG moment after they “win”.’
I remember watching their exit from the WH after their first official private meeting, trying to read body language. Looking back, I can’t help but think Big O threatened DJT to keep watching his back. But I didn’t get that DJT was nervous. He’s a grown-up and has been around the block a few times.
@powerGrab:
IMHO, POTUS Trump is one of the few to not have the OMG reaction. And yeah, my impression was Big 0 told him a load aboug inside the Whitehouse crap.
@Phil:
Nope, don’t expect them to think or know anything. Just pointing out what could be done by a thinking person.
@Another Ian:
Hmmm…. looks like an interesting group of guys!
Willis E on Scott Adams
“The Climate of Scott Adams”
@Power Grab re Cov test:
I think they will call with the the results tomorrow or Thursday, latest. They can’t have someone with a raging case come in to the hospital, so they need quick results so they can call the whole thing off, if needed.
Meanwhile… the surgeon needs to make some jack, so he doesn’t want me to test full blown WuFlu, but low load – present, but not contagious – would probably be just fine by him. I think the hospital could use the money too, so they are probably of a similar mind as the Doc.
So I’m thinking that they’ll just take that swab and call it good, since I wasn’t sweating bullets and hacking up a lung at the drive-thru test station.
Oh…… and at the drive-thru, the 3 people I interacted with were very much aware that I was the for pre-op testing and not just some fearful, MSM-terrified quivering mass of ectoplasm wanting to be tested so they can safely open their refrigerator or something like that.
BTW, the drive-location was set up to handle a LOT of people packed and stacked all day, demanding tests.
The whole 15 minutes I was there.. well let’s just say that you don’t have to push through the crowds when you’re the only one there with a choice of two testing lanes.
They set up these drive-thru locations with the idea of lines and lines of people waiting- eager! – to get tested and the reality was that no one gave a rat’s patootie about getting tested. The test stations were swamped with nervous Nellies for the first few days, then nada, zip, zilch. If it weren’t for the pre-op testing they do, no one AT ALL would go through the lines**.
.
.
**OK, maybe a feisty drunk who thinks it would be a good idea because… well, it makes sense to a drunk.
Willis E on how it is done
“Things Look Better With Gaslight”
“Tabitha Alloway: “Rule by Experts” Is Tyranny Shrouded in Science”
https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/09/tabitha-alloway-rule-by-experts-is-tyranny-shrouded-in-science/
8:30am here in Northern California, Sky is a deep blood red and it is nearly as dark as night. A”Snow” of ash is fallowing from the sky. The power has been off for 30 hours, so generator is roaring away destroying our tranquility. At least I have 2 Airwashers humming away making the air quality in my kitchen a bit more breathable while I surf the web. Hope the rest of you are enjoying your morning…pg
Hey H.R.,
“4) Forgetting your flashlight is a mistake. Do not try to compensate for low light via sniffs. Just go get the flashlight.”
I am probably preaching to the choir, but as a long time spelunker with literally miles of crawling (a bit here, a bit there, not all at once!) a headlamp is much more useful than a flashlight. Good around a campsite or in the woods as well. Basically, even a cheap headlamp is good for any situation where you really need to have both hands available.
Covid testing? Let me see if I have $11K available…
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-doctor-went-to-his-own-employer-for-a-covid-19-antibody-test-it-cost-10-984
One of my neighbors a few houses down recently died, reportedly from Covid. She was 98 years old, had a history of OPD, mobility issues, and some moderate dementia. She had gotten so frail that she was taken to the hospital and died about two weeks later. Her friends tell us that while hospitalized, she was tested TWICE for Covid, with a negative result both times. The local newspaper has reported her death from Covid.
While this is “friend of a friend” anecdotal, I have had two people tell me that personal acquaintances of theirs have received notifications of positive test results despite not have been tested. According to the news, Covid is now apparently spreading to the cemeteries.
Color revolution in the US? Yes, I think so too. In my opinion, we are at least several months in to what can only be described as a sort of political bifurcation of American history. It is too early to know what branch of the fork we will take (maybe both, depending on where you live), but one way or the other the US is going to be quite different six months from now.
Hey jim2!
” Apparently tritium costs about $30,000 per GRAM!”
That’s not as bad as it sounds. Tritium is an isotope of Hydrogen gas, but three times as dense, meaning a cubic centimeter of tritium will cost about (0.000269g/cc)($30000/g)=$8.10 even at current prices. Of course it would be cheaper if mass produced by neutron irradiation of lithium.
Just making some wild and rough guesses… One cubic centimeter is 1000 cubic millimeters. Suppose your paint is a tenth of a millimeter thick and that half of the paint volume is actually tritium, that means that $8.10 current price worth of tritium (in microballoons) will paint 20,000 square millimeters. Call it five inches by six inches. Someone feel free to correct me if I have dropped or added a decimal somewhere, but I think that is right.
Again, those are just guesses since the original info is now gone. But still, interesting idea, and MAYBE (just maybe!) a good idea.
This article, in reference to HIV/AIDS, is exactly how I remember things going down at the time. https://humanevents.com/2020/09/08/from-aids-to-covid-the-political-capture-of-americas-public-health-establishment/. I also agree that the ‘progressives’ are doing it again with Sars2-CoV/COVID-19, from a near polar opposite. So, once again it seems, the truth is the opposite of what ‘progressives’ say and what you should do, particularly this far in (almost a year) should be the opposite of what they say. And yes, if Bill Gates was interested in helping the ‘poor’ around the world, he should be touting HCQ/Zn/azythromycin or doxycyclin or ivermectin + combos pending a properly done vaccine, without chip tagging.
“Part of the heat is coming from beneath our feet”
Pingback: Orange Sky Bad! Must Be Trumps Fault! | Musings from the Chiefio
Check the photo!
“Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/09/09/your-moral-and-intellectual-superiors-220/
@HR 20 hour turnaround for a (negative) test on Tuesday. Best of wishes for your surgery!
The Mrs. was watching the 11 pm local news, hoping to catch the weather.
There were two live stories that I have no clue what they were about, but both were being shot in front of buildings – hospital and ??? – in empty parking lots. Not a single soul around other than the reporters and their cameraman.
They were both wearing masks! What idiots… not!
They are just wearing them to push fear onto the populace and show that mask compliance is good, normal, and virtuous, I suppose.
You can bet the farm and your redheaded nephew that those masks came off the minute the cameras went off.
This is a reply that I drafted 2 weeks ago (on 27 August). But out of concern that my coldly emotional expressions would offend E.M., perhaps on behalf of some of his family or friends, and thus get me banned from this Chiefio blog, I decided not to post it. Now that Jeremy Carl’s article has been published on line in Human Events [†], it’s confirmed the accuracy of memories that I formed formed in the early 1980s, while living & working in Silicon Valley. And trying to enjoy scarce off-work social opportunities as a physically fit and “straight” single guy. I now regret my uncertain combination of discretion & cowardice. So here, belatedly, is what I’d written. The only changes I’ve made since August are a spelling correction that leapt out at me today, and emphases of several words
cdquarles replied 27 August 2020 at 8:49 pm GMT [*]:
It is the political point that’s driving this, not public health (reminds me why they *didn’t* follow the rules with the mostly sexually transmitted viral disease known as AIDS, early on, when that could have made a difference).
Indeed!
Most politicians submitted [×] to nonsensical or implausible defensive propaganda from the so-called gay lobby, early in the spread of AIDS as centered in the S.F. Bay Area, e.g.:
• AIDS can’t infect “straights”; it only infects “gays” (no explanation was given);
• quarantine would further “victimize” infected people; and
• any government-mandated restrictions to promiscuous sodomite “lifestyles” would violate their constitutional rights.
It would’ve been completely in character for the so-called gay lobby to have demanded completely free medical treatment & care (but I can’t recall that with certainty) despite refusing to make changes in the “lifestyle” that spread the disease. Not even prophyllactic changes. Yet the paradoxical argument for the free treatment & care would have been “to stop the spread of AIDS”.
But because of the politically submissive response, totally innocent “straight” people were thus infected with AIDS via routine blood donations and tranfusions, before a reliable blood test could be developed. Even nowadays, intended recipients via transfusions of already-screened blood from at least 1 hospital system I know of must sign a legal release, accepting possible transmission of AIDS, before a transfusion will be administered. I assume that it’s far from unique, and that such releases are required in all U.S. hospital systems equipped with lawyers.
All of the above [#] is easily enough to make attentive on-lookers absolutely despise the gay lobby and the people it claims to represent. The latter have never expressed repentence, so no one is obliged to grant forgiveness.
——–
Note † : Jeremy Carl: “From AIDS to COVID: The Political Capture of America’s Public Health Establishment”. Human Events. September 8, 2020. https://humanevents.com/2020/09/08/from-aids-to-covid-the-political-capture-of-americas-public-health-establishment/.
Note * : https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/w-o-o-d-20-august-2020/#comment-132425.
Note × : I’ve spared readers the obvious disgustingly graphic alternative phrasing to “submitted”.
Note # : And that ain’t all of it.
@Compu Gator re AIDS –
And guess who made a mess of the AIDS epidemic with decisions and recommendations that caused a large number of people to die, needlessly.
It was none other than Dr. “No-Masks-Yes-Masks-No-Masks-Yes-Masks-Yes-HCQ-2006-No-HCQ-2020” Fauci.
Is there nothing that man can’t bollix up?
It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the usual bureaucratic nonsense that winds up costing every man, woman, and child in America a wasted $100 or $200 each, but no… his actions have caused many, many thousands to die.
Dr. Fauci. Grrrrrr… *SPIT*
Okay. The hospital called today with the time to show up tomorrow (Friday, 8:50 am) and the results of my test for Xi’s Disease.
The test was negative, as it should have been. I have zero point zero signs of any illness and my preventative regimen should knock out just about any virus before it even starts to make inroads.
@H.R.:
Maybe we all ought to be reminded what your preventive regimen is? Maybe I’ll put mine together on a page…
Sure E.M. I’ll talk, I’ll talk! ;o)
And that’s a great idea to have a thread dedicated to Covid-19 and General Virus Preventatives: What people actually do.
People could also list their physical precautions. For example, I’m sold on masks for Dr. visits during flu season. And I think gloves are far more important than masks when flu season is in full swing and people are sneezing droplets of who knows what all over the place. Shoulda been doing that all along after I turned 60.
Here’s my preventative regimen –
Quinine via tonic water – 83mg of quinine per liter
3 or 4 liters per week which is 249 – 332 mg of quinine per week
…Oh, I drank one or two liters per day the first week I started. As I understand it, you need a large intake up front and then maintenance is about 200 or so mg per week thereafter
Zinc – 11mg per day in my multivitamin + a 25mg tab every week or too or if I feel a bit sniffly
D3 – 25 mcg tab per day + 10 mcg in my multivitamin
Plus sunshine – Lot’s when fishing or mowing, but I try to get at least 1/2 hour per day otherwise
Melatonin – 10mg per day 1/2 hour before bed
And I’m also getting the daily recommended trace doses of Iodine, Magnesium, Selenium, Copper, Manganese, Chromium, and Molybdenum in my daily multivitamin
I wash my hands a lot and don’t touch my face. I’ve been cleaning grocery cart handles for years now as I’m pretty certain that was where I got my last flu bug about 7-8 years ago.
Oh! I didn’t list vitamin C because I started taking 2 grams per day, 1gm morning and 1gm at night, ever since we had the discussion on vitamins, particularly C, about 2-ish years ago.
It was the gorilla/heart disease/vitamin C study E.M. found that convinced me.
I’m not really big on vitamin C for colds and flu, but our discussion way back when was how it seemed more to be a key to enable all the other trace elements and vitamins to work.
Anyhow, that gorilla study where vitamin C was removed from gorillas’ diets and they developed heart disease was like a smack in the face with a mackerel. It just can’t be ignored.
FYI
Renewable power
And
“Economics”
Plus comments on both
“Records Show Weissmann Special Counsel Team Erased 15 Phones After IG Requested Review…”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/09/10/records-show-weissmann-special-counsel-team-erased-15-phones-after-ig-requested-review/
“Wiping your phone to hide damaging information only works if the other phone you are communicating with wipes the same data. Guess what happened? Yup, exactly that.”
Pingback: Wuhan Covid: How Folks Prep To Prevent | Musings from the Chiefio
Never Forget!
Re those erased phones
“The top echelon of the FBI has been completely captured by organized crime. Change my mind. ”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/09/11/when-the-fbi-does-it-that-means-that-its-not-illegal-171/
“TRUMP RESTORES AMERICAN HISTORY—DEFUNDS ANTI-WHITE RACISTS”
https://richardsonpost.com/howellwoltz/18238/marxist-united-states-politicians/
I was on my way to work that morning, having just dropped off my youngest at school. Word came over the radio. I later saw the 2nd plane hit on live TV. Later, I saw the towers collapse at the point where the planes hit and the fires were raging. The beams buckled first (remember, the fire simply needed to be hot enough to soften steel) then gave away in a massive pancake collapse; which happened slowly at first then picked up speed.
I was at work, and my boss came in excited about it. The first one I assumed was a Cessna. The second one was no mistake. My GF (I was between marriages) called me panic stricken, and I calmed her. Then I went to take a Cert test, An easy one that I aced. But the cert testing site was glued to the TV.
It was the MCSE 2k Desktop test.
Nothing more happened after that other than Flight 93. That was when I knew we would be OK
Being on the west coast, I was hours late. Did my usual wake up and gather morning news. Turned on the TV to see smoking tower one. 6 something AM? Transfixed, watched, and saw impact to tower 2 live. The falls. Yeah, I got to work way late. Being a manager nobody gave me grief. Did the disaster recovery status check and review. Prepped for war and more.
Sent my resume to the CIA, NSA, and more. Turns out they were flooded with resumes, so I wasn’t called. Sent an idea to a couple of TLAs from 2 countries. Saw it work in some news, so know it saved lives. Can’t say any more about my Hammer, but glad of its use. Terrorists died. No money nor recognition, but that’s OK. Maybe better that way, not being a target.
a-ok so far
more participation here, later.
but y’all are in luck! it could be a week or so before i’m back to my usual smart-@$$ commenting
;o)
I am watching six (yes six!) tropical weather systems. One is already south-southwest of me and moving westward away from me. One is exiting the southwest peninsula of Florida. That one is the major concern at the moment. Two are way east in the Atlantic and don’t look like they’ll be coming anywhere near me. Then the last two are near western Africa. Those will be watched also. Peak of the season is now.
Hey, H.R.:
Even connecting one mind to an other at 300 baud is OK!
Even one finger
typing,connects used, even if slowly.
Denizens of Chiefio can expect a vacation from my footnoted ramblings for an as-yet unforeseeable period: My Internet PC more-or-less died Sep. 10 (Thu.) morn. When it successfully booted, it would spontaneously shut down after increasingly brief running time. Later, it would just spin the DVD, and immediately drop power. No messages (e.g., POST failure) displayed at all. That I’m able to send a brief message now, after a day of being completely disconnected from a.c. pwr. seems evidence that it’s some kind of CPU heat problem in this hand-me-down PC (might I find CPU heat-xfer. gel/grease turned to dry crud?). Or maybe it was a cockroach taking several strolls on PCBs or within the p.s. inside (but is the chiton of its external skeleton conductive at all?). If it’s a heat problem, then this PC will be spontaneously shutting itself down any moment now.
So computing life goes, when trying to save money by extending the working life of PCs that family members and their offices no longer wants or can use. Maybe now’s a good time for a shiny new Raspberry-Π 3B-or-4.
Gotta allow remaining time before this PC shuts down to look at NWS forecast trop.-storm/hurricane tracks.
Replace the Power supply. They are cheap and easy. Might not be that, but a low cost fast fix if it is.
I would have to concur with phil, old computer, dying power supply caps. But clean out out fans and heat sinks is a first start. ppp
My give to the blog on old PC’s. Put a $60 SSD in it. If it don’t work, It will somewhere else. Windows 10 folks in particular. You gotta take it apart anyhow (and clean it) if you do.
If you have the proper M.2 PCIe slot, put an NVMe in it to max out, maybe memory too if worth it. Much cheaper direction if applicable.
Spinning drive, 160 Mbs. SSD 5-600 or so. NVMe x4 if appropriate other hardware is there. Boot time on an older PC with Windows 10, 2+ minutes. New drive less than 30 seconds.
Just sayin, I have done upgrades on many Windows 7 PC’s that went to 10 that greatly benefitted from such. Free easy drive cloning software also from many.
Crucial.com is where I went. Plug in make and model# and the legit options appear in search. No second guessing there.
Or ya can buy a good deal on Amazon. Just don’t buy anything with less than a 5 in the processor name and or less than 8 gig of memory absolute minimum and SSD>.
This was one I had some neighbors buy and the love it. Just sayin, you don’t need to spend too much for good performance. Lenovo is the old IBM.
L8R, as we deal with Sally winds/rain coming towards us near SRQ. I hope folks in the NO area are ready for some rain. It’s comin.
Be well and safe.
Well, that was strange, but not unexpected from WordPress on posting info. Anyhow, if interested, I am happy to help with new PC’s and value assessment.
>
E.M.
FYI http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/weekend-unthreaded-326/#comment-2364728
You might have a look and correct if my IIRC wasn’t so good
“Caption This — Winners”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/09/13/caption-this/
Here’s a desktop for about $120 :
Here’s the link
https dot www dot amazon.com/Fanless-Celeron-Processor-Computer-Supports/dp/B088TR4XVL/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=desktop+computer
trying again:
https colon // www dot amazon dot com/Fanless-Celeron-Processor-Computer-Supports/dp/B088TR4XVL/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=desktop+computer
Yep, watching Sally. Current forecast has this storm landing near the mouth of the Mississippi river, passing by metro NO, then turning abruptly east along a mid-latitude ridge that’s now north of it and an approaching mid-latitude trough. Track, as now forecast, comes quite near me; but the storm should be rather weak and transitioning by then. Disturbance 1 is headed away. One is a “hurricane” headed toward Bermuda. One is expected to dissipate out in the Atlantic. The other two are still near western Africa but one is looking better than the other. Peak of the season is now.
jim2 replied on 13 September 2020 at 1:21 pm GMT:
Here’s a desktop for about $120 [….]
“Velly innnterestink” [*]. Only 4 GB RAM, reputedly a wee bit skimpy for Win. 10, but that might be primarily responsible for the eye-catching price. The “[s]upports Ubuntu & Linux” (alt-boot, or Win.-replacement?) is esp. intriguing [♤] if both would remain available for ad hoc use.
Rummaging beyond Jim2’s link led me to a Web page featuring more than a dozen Win.-10 miniPCs [**]; it seems to be a single on-line retailer of multiple nominal manufacturers. Getting 8 GB RAM not unreasonably adds a substantial premium to the price, as apparently does building in empty RAM (or SSD) sockets.
For me, the biiig win of a miniPC [*] over whoever‘s stock packaging [♣] of a Raspberry Π 4 (-B?) [♥] would be that the miniPC already accomodates my existing (i.e., already paid) PC-compatible peripherals, e.g., VGA monitors: What’d it cost me to attach an existing VGA monitor to a Rasp. Π (maybe 2 new cables: micro-HDMI to std.-HDMI cable, then std.-HDMI to VGA cable)?
I wonder how one is expected to clone hard-disk-equivalent storage, so such miniPCs could be stowed away as already configured emergency cable-up replacements (e.g., for clobbered PCs that operated Web sites) with low power consumption (e.g., as an acceptable load for a small-scale generator). I wonder whether at such prices, one ought to buy them in pairs (i.e., like hard-drives bought specifically for archiving. I suppose that there’s a conventional solution for SSDs.
——–
Note * : “Mini PC Fanless Intel Celeron N3350 Processor (Up to 2.4GHz) 4GB DDR4/ 64GB eMMC Mini Desktop Computer 2.4G+5.8G Dual WiFi HDMI+VGA BT4.2 3X USB3.0 Supports Ubuntu& Linux Auto Power On”, by MINISFORUM. $119.99 at Amazon; but elsewhere? https://www.amazon.com/Fanless-Celeron-Processor-Computer-Supports/dp/B088TR4XVL/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=desktop+computer.”
Note ** : MINISFORUM seems not to have a Web site of its own. Scroll toward the page-bottom for the products with the most affordable prices: https://www.amazon.com/stores/MINISFORUM/page/42947B91-73A1-496F-8A23-91CEA80C6EDA?ref_=ast_bln.
Note ♤ : “Supports Ubuntu & Linux”: What with Mint originating as a fork of Ubuntu, can I safely assume that the miniPC would support Mint? Or would that be a foolish assumption that’s made only by Linux newbies? What about E.M.’s favored Devuan [†] [††]?
Note † : “Welcome to Devuan”: “a fork of Debian without systemd”. https://www.devuan.org/. An excellent example of a footnote expected to be needlessly redundant to many readers, but provided primarily for the benefit of my fallible memory.
Note †† : “Devuan XU4 Disappointment”: https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/08/21/devuan-xu4-disapointment/.
Note ♣ : £116 (“Only 19 units left”): https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-desktop-kit?variant=20096644022334.
Note ♥ : In official prose, the SBC name has neither Greek letters nor dashes (which is not to promise that I’ll always comply), e.g.: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/.
“BOMBSHELL: The @CDCgov is moving forward with a critical race theory training program—in violation of @POTUS’ executive action.
I’ve obtained leaked documents that outline the CDC’s plan to “examine the mechanisms of systemic racism” and address “White supremacist ideology.”
🧵
— Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) September 14, 2020 ”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/09/14/swamp-creatures-9/
Pingback: W.O.O.D. – 14 September 2020 | Musings from the Chiefio
@Compugator:
Debian begat Ubuntu begat Mint (sort of). You can run the Mint layer on other base OS types.
Basically, Debian is pretty much a done deal “out of the can”. Ubuntu cleans up a few loose ends, dumps on their proprietary bits, and assembles a collection of desktop bits that they think are better (and fatter and more resource hungry and spy more and…)
So essentially, if something runs Debian, or most any other Debian clone including Ubuntu, it can run Mint. But you might need to install the desktop bits yourself.
The wiki lays out the relationship pretty well. It’s an Debian / Ubuntu + bits port.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint
So take your basic Ubuntu and install those particular packages, customize the desktop look and feel a bit, and you have it. Mostly.
Where they go all proprietary (well, really, “unique to them open source”) is:
So you’d need to download those from Github and install / configure them too.
But really, it’s like 99%+ just Debian, maybe 1/2% Ubuntu overlays, and then their stuff.
@Another Ian:
I expect someone at CDC will be either looking at a new resume project or a suddenly reduced budget…
I was going to put off this review until I had run it for a week, but MX Linux is looking pretty good. I put it on a new computer with AMD processor and NVidia graphics. I also have Linux Mint installed on that box and MXL has been easier to get tweaked for AMD/Nvidia. In fact, LM still won’t boot in standard mode. It scrambles the desktop right out of the box. It will boot OK in recovery mode.
MXL uses sysvinit, but you can easily configure it to use systemd. It also has good support. Here are the highlights:
https://mxlinux.org/current-release-features/
I’ll let you know latter on how it’s going, but so far, real good.
@p.g. Re: Clean out the dust.
Yep! But the dust in them computers can kill a person!
And I forgot to add, MXL makes it real easy to create a persistent USB live instance. It will keep whatever programs you install and also of course files. Pretty cool to have a completely functional OS around your neck ;)
Here’s a nice video demo of the MXL live stick
@CD – Sally is the princess! My Wife’s cat. Treat her like one and she is a pussy cat! Otherwise, Look OUT!
@Another Ian note that the CDC is not a government entity. It is a private partnership with the government…
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/disease/cdc-is-a-private-organization-not-government/
@Ilanfar:
Even as a “partner”, I think the POTUS & Congress can exert pressure on actions and budgets… The interesting bit will be the “how” it is done.
I’m not fond of Quangos, and would like to see them all replaced with something else. The problem is in the first part of the name: Quasi Non-Governmental Organization.
Anything that’s quasi has issues.
https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention
As Executive Branch, it is under the thumb of POTUS DJT, one way or the other…
So just takes some HHS squeeze on the right “attention getter” parts…