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Merry Xmas to the CW family! (Not a deal)


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13 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

 p  I wish this tragedy brought people together. I thought at the beginning of the pandemic it would, but that's not what's happening. 

Because everyone wants "everyone to be united....but only on the condition that it's my way" and that's a trait that seems to be equal across the spectrum.

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5 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

Because everyone wants "everyone to be united....but only on the condition that it's my way" and that's a trait that seems to be equal across the spectrum.

My experience is that in the days following 9/11 we had a time of great unity in this nation because hyperpartisan media wasn't as powerful as it is today, there wasn't an ultrapowerful cult of personality politician who seized a tragedy in order to more greatly strengthen an existing cultural divide and social media was not mainstreamed. The week of 9/11 I actually ghostwrote an article that appeared, I think it was on the front page of a major newspaper's business section, on what made America's response to 9/11 -- the population's response not the military's response -- so incredible and what truly made our nation great. To boil the op-ed down, I contrasted the extremists who attacked us and their rigid intolerant positions with the better angels of America in its response in the days that followed those attacks. What made and makes us great is our diversity. That's what makes us great innovators, great thinkers, great designers, great strategists -- because our diverse population enables us to see things in different ways, as opposed to hyperpartisans and cults of personality. Funny, I actually wrote the op-ed for my own newsletter, and the views were not the kinds of things our billionaire CEO had -- a man who was a top political contributor and had the president and numerous federal legislators literally on speed dial and staying at his homes when in town -- we are political opposites. But he thought my values were the ones that made our nation great, even though the politicians he supported didn't espouse those views to win over their middle-class voters.  

So today, I think the evidence is overwhelming from numerous studies, that what has kept us from being unified in our response to the pandemic is that part of America that rejects diversity, that sees it as a problem. And that hatred for diversity extends to intolerance for independent thought, anti-intellectualism and contempt for science and fact. Some recent studies have found things like, around a 70% correlation between political party affiliation and not being vaccinated or wearing a mask (fortunately, that number has gone down more recently) -- which in turn can be found in a more recent study that found if you live in a region of the US that voted a certain way during the last major election that you are 300% more likely to die of COVID-19 than the avg citizen. Right now, our hospitals are around 90% filled up with people who oppose vaccination and masking -- and that is primarily people of the same political affiliation, psychographics and demographics. Sadly, those who value diversity -- including diversity of thought -- are not able to engage in civil dialogue with those who don't value the same, and that's why it's simply not equal across the spectrum. And here we are on a day that is supposedly in honor of bi-racial, Jewish rabbi who commanded to love others -- without conditions. As the grandson of a Jewish WWII vet -- a man who fought against a nation that passionately claimed to be followers of that same rabbi, but of course, practiced deeds incredibly contrary to His teachings, it's rather clear that professions without equivalent actions mean nothing. I don't know how the US is going to do better, and I don't think one politician could unite us -- it seems the greatest impact any of them have had socially in the past decade is at dividing people. So yes, this Christmas my hope is that people in my nation put aside their political affiliations, that they stop looking at media outlets engineered to make and keep them angry, and instead invest themselves in caring for others. My wife and I met at my church at a program I created and ran that brought together upper middle class churchgoers with the local homeless community for meals. Not to preach to the local homeless people, but to show them love and kindness, to buy them a meal, to invest time with them and truly get to know them and care about them. Nearly two decades later, our son spent the other night volunteering at a food pantry. He invited his best friend to volunteer -- whose family holds very different political views than me and whose father works for an infamous billionaire political contributor that used to mostly be known as the brother of another billionaire, that  most Americans know the name of -- and they worked together, as they have a few times this month -- to bring food to people in need. That is, to me, the kind of unity this nation needs. To prioritize the greater good instead of rigidly demanding adherence to extreme positions and an intolerant worldview. To be listeners and thinkers who embrace those from different backgrounds and put the greater good first. 

And no, for those who make illogical leaps, that's not socialist. I'm a business owner and very much a capitalist and have been quoted in dozens of business books and done speaking for some pretty conservative business organizations. 
 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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2 hours ago, cclarry said:

I don't celebrate the "Invictus Sol", but I hope that everyone has a wonderful end of year!
A bit of trivia...

Xmas was illegal in the United States until 1870...

Sorry, that's incorrect.

Christmas was not illegal in the entire US, but only in the heavily Puritan area in Massachusetts. Many Puritans and Bible-based Christians in the US and Europe were highly offended by the Christmas holiday, which they saw as a perversion of the faith. Like Easter, Christmas was created out of the Catholic church, and put on the holy days of other religions in an attempt to confuse and get more converts from those religions -- and consequently, was seen as an offensive, promotional outreach technique. In the case of Christmas, it was created by the Romans in the 300s. A number of Bible-based Christians of the day took the Bible and Christ's teachings not to go beyond scripture very seriously and as both of these holidays were created by the Catholic church and not practiced, taught or commanded anywhere in the Bible or by Christ,  these hardcore Bible-believing Protestants deemed them heathen practices. 

https://apnews.com/article/archive-fact-checking-2739050002

Edited by PavlovsCat
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10 minutes ago, cclarry said:

While it wasn't technically "illegal" neither was it YET a LEGAL Holiday.

Yes, on a federal level it wasn't illegal, it just wasn't declared a federal holiday. But it was banned for two decades in the mid-late 1600s in part of Boston.  Anyhow, thanks for allowing me to share otherwise completely uninteresting nerd knowledge I learned back in college. I have yet to attend any kind of social gathering  -- including those with just my kids -- where other humans find this knowledge of interest, so thanks! ;)

And here's more, if you're so inclined. 

https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas
 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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6 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

Yes, on a federal level it wasn't illegal, it just wasn't declared a federal holiday. But it was banned for two decades in the mid-late 1600s in part of Boston.  Anyhow, thanks for allowing me to share otherwise completely uninteresting nerd knowledge I learned back in college. I have yet to attend any kind of social gathering  -- including those with just my kids -- where other humans find this knowledge of interest, so thanks! ;)

And here's more, if you're so inclined. 

https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas
 

Well aware...I've done extensive research on the subject, which is why I refuse to "put lipstick on a pig"

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6 minutes ago, cclarry said:

Well aware...I've done extensive research on the subject, which is why I refuse to "put lipstick on a pig"

I prefer the term swine, thank you. 

ALTERNATIVE RESPONSE: We're not. We're having ours with pineapple and a side of sweet potatoes. 

Okay, I realize you weren't referring to me. I was just trying to inject a little humor into our nerd talk.  I think you're saying that you're with the Puritans, right? In any event, I'll pivot back to music before the mods clip this thread. So I wish you and everyone else here a great, peaceful, friendly, happy and healthy day. 

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 M E R R Y     C H R I S T M A S   Everyone!

Trimmed.jpg.4ba49a4b905f6b7235bb4b032356697e.jpg

I just took this photo in my front yard 5 minutes ago.  This is what it's like to live in a Christmas card 😁 

@Doug Rintoul  I deduce from your post that you live on the North side of my neighborhood!  (I am in Whatcom County)

Meet you at the border ditch for a snowball fight.  ❄️❄️

 

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On 12/24/2021 at 10:52 AM, Hatstand said:

asking for an IPhone and he got me a Windows phone the B*stard!

I had almost all Windows phone. Didn't like the iPhone (I had a 3).

First one was a Samsung Black Jack. GReat little phone that had internet and a nice colorful screen, and a small legit keyboard.

The Windows first Lumia phone was a great phone. That thing took the best pic of any phone I had. It had Carl Zeist lens in it and the software for it complimented it very well. However, in MS infinite wisdom, they bought Nokia (the original maker of the Lumia) and *** that up, and after that when they updated the Windows OS for the Lumia phone (because now they were making it), they did something to the camera software and it never took pics as well as it first did. So yeah, the most outstanding thing about the phone that made it stand out, they ***  it up!

Bill Gates has been noted saying that not capturing the mobile market was his biggest mistake. But here it the real kicker, it wasn't because they didn't have the product, just some people made really bad decisions.

As a side note, I will never buy another Windows phone. Ever. Take that to the bank/grave... what ever.

I presently have a S10.

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3 hours ago, Grem said:

I had almost all Windows phone. Didn't like the iPhone (I had a 3).

First one was a Samsung Black Jack. GReat little phone that had internet and a nice colorful screen, and a small legit keyboard.

The Windows first Lumia phone was a great phone. That thing took the best pic of any phone I had. It had Carl Zeist lens in it and the software for it complimented it very well. However, in MS infinite wisdom, they bought Nokia (the original maker of the Lumia) and *** that up, and after that when they updated the Windows OS for the Lumia phone (because now they were making it), they did something to the camera software and it never took pics as well as it first did. So yeah, the most outstanding thing about the phone that made it stand out, they ***  it up!

Bill Gates has been noted saying that not capturing the mobile market was his biggest mistake. But here it the real kicker, it wasn't because they didn't have the product, just some people made really bad decisions.

As a side note, I will never buy another Windows phone. Ever. Take that to the bank/grave... what ever.

I presently have a S10.

I worked on marketing for Windows phones and the first iTunes phone for what was then the top mobile phone brand in the US. Windows mobile was a mess, a train wreck, and Microsoft epitomized a bloated bureaucracy that couldn't get its act together. My experience with Jobs, well, he definetly wasn't the guy his PR machine created.  But, he was responsible for the first really iconic smartphone globally and disrupting the mobile phone market in the US -- and you could easily see it coming from the mobile phone industry,  but he still pulled it off. A horrible human being, but an absolutely brilliant business person. 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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Merry Christmas! 🎄
--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://www.garrigus.com
* Cakewalk SONAR Video Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottGarrigus?sub_confirmation=1
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Publisher of the DigiFreq music recording newsletter: http://www.digifreq.com/
* Publisher of the NewTechReview consumer tech newsletter: http://www.newtechreview.com/

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