craigb

Heh, just realize that pretty much ZERO percent of all politicians are qualified to decide anything (e.g., military-wise, economics-wise or health-wise). They just parrot what they're told to say and hope they look good doing it. Heck, if they spent a fraction of the time they use trying to subvert their fellow politicians and used it to learn something, we'd be a lot better off!

This guy cracks me up! I think his hair is probably an alien. ?

See? That's what I detailed above. Once the body figures out exactly how to defeat something, it keeps the "battle plans" ready for the next time it encounters the same thing. Then, instead of trying multiple approaches, it just nukes the invaders fast!

A look into history and you'll see that every virus has a fairly predictable pattern: A slow start, exponential growth and a dying off period (for the virus). Several things can change how the pattern looks. In some cases (e.g., Ebola 2014), the virus is so lethal that it doesn't get the chance to spread very far (i.e., the infected die too quickly). So, left to itself, you should expect things to get better in the same manner that they got worse. In other words, China had it first, so they should be the first to get better, and so on. For simplicity's sake, I'm intentionally ignoring reinfection either from other areas of the world getting back into China (to hit those that missed it the first time) or, a much bigger danger, that the virus will mutate which basically needs to be treated like a completely new outbreak. My confidence of what China's reporting is accuracy is extremely low.

Not sure, but I'm drinking lots of coffee just in case! ?

Remember, there are TWO agendas going on! The first is from the good people (like the doctors) who care about others and are doing their best to handle the situation as if it was a naturally occurring event (which, I will allow, there's still a very slim chance it was). If you ONLY look at the outbreak by itself, then these people are doing their best (as per their training) to save as many as they can. I have a lot of appreciation for them as well as sadness that they've been put into this awful position (since many will be losing their own lives to save others). As for your vaccine comment, no offense, but do you know what a vaccine really is? A vaccine is usually a sterilized version of the virus (i.e., one that cannot replicate). It is no different to the body than actually getting the real virus, except that the body can apply all of its focus to coming up with a way to defeat the invaders (as opposed to also spending lots of energy fending off the new cells that are replicating). What this means is that you ARE beating the virus regardless of whether you are vaccinated or not. Regardless of whether you "beat" the virus using a vaccine or not, once you have gotten over it, your body now has a blueprint on exactly how to attack and remove the virus the next time you get it. As such, for the current outbreak, a vaccine is only effective if you get it before you contract the virus. I'm guessing you meant to say "anti-body" which is something that can help the body defend itself against foreign invaders.

Yikes! NOTHING could be farther from the truth! There are places that are getting some of the REAL reports of what's going on in China. They have much more restrictive media than the US. What I'm reading is that most of the reports exalting the merits of the people creating new hospitals, etc., etc. are just propaganda for the World to see. Most of the actual numbers are being hidden. So what's been the main "solution" they're using? LOTS of people have been forcibly quarantined in their houses and left to die of starvation (by "forcibly" I mean actually sealed in their houses by whatever measures were necessary, including welding the doors shut, etc.!). There's satellite footage of body burnings and mass burials. One ominous report shows that there are 21 million fewer cell phone users now than when the outbreak started... Now, I'm not sure exactly what to make of that, but you can bet others are making a sickening assumption. As for everyone else, I expect a vaccine to appear soon. Like I said elsewhere, this is a known virus that was being tested prior to the outbreak and an exact simulation took place six weeks before the outbreak (it was filmed - search for Event 201). So, my guess is that they probably have a vaccine, but need to finish the clinical trials before getting it out.

That reminds me of "alternate solutions" like soaking someone in gasoline and setting them on fire. "They don't have a virus now!" ?

Byron gets it! Although I shouldn't have to mention this, YES I do wish everyone all the best and hope everyone stays healthy! Those with the big agenda NEED something that's serious (or is made to look serious) to get the public reaction they're looking for. Just because some of us are looking at the bigger picture doesn't mean we don't care. In fact, it just pisses me off more that they're putting us in this position.

Sorry Bob, but there's a lot of (media induced?) inaccuracies there! Even if the virus goes worst case scenario, there's still a very good chance that MORE people will die if the economy collapses. However, what you're seeing isn't capitalism, some actual capitalists are calling it "criminal capitalism" because it will cause more issues than it solves. Also, I don't want to go into politics but, from what I've read and seen, most people have things 180 degrees backwards (not their fault, this is the message some want to send). Economics 101: - True capitalism creates wealth and a better standard of living - Runaway capitalism is bad - Socialism isn't even a thing, it's only the transition period between capitalism and Communism - Communism is far worse than runaway capitalism because, not only do a select few get all the wealth, but there's a lot less for the bottom end and those that complain tend to get purged quickly. Any of the Collectivism approaches may temporarily spread the wealth out (although a careful viewer will notice that those promoting the plan tend to exclude "their" wealth from the plan), however it's been noted many times that even if you did spread everything out, in a very short period of time the same distribution that you started with would form. You just simply have a smaller number of people who understand money than those that don't (and, on purpose, this is NOT taught in schools!). As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing real or useful about politics. They're just a tool for those who really run everything and, now that they've added the FANG's to their arsenal (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) along with over 90% of all mass media (owned by three companies!), the chances of you hearing about what's really going on are close to zero. [tinfoil hat time] I'm now understanding more about why there was so much panic and hysteria. As I mentioned before, it's no secret that one of the goals of those that run everything (and a key part of UN Agenda 21) is to have one global currency, preferably electronic. There's already a bill to create a US Cryptocurrency. The guy leading the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, has a history of some shady actions (like hiding a Cholera outbreak multiple times), but he's already been on the media telling everyone not to use cash since the virus can be passed that way and to only use credit (part of getting people used to not using cash). These people are trying to create a scenario (by using the virus and other tools) where the masses will panic and demand a solution. What's the solution? A new economy based on an electronic currency. If this occurs, we will be totally and completely screwed. This is the end game of the move to a fiat currency that started first when we first (illegally) started having to pay taxes (1913), then continued with the (illegal) creation of a central bank (i.e., the "Fed" - also in 1913), which was followed by disconnecting the US Dollar from having any underlying value (when Nixon stopped the Gold Standard in 1971). Also note that the US Dollar became the World's Reserve Currency back in 1944 and has been what the World uses to buy oil since the early 1970's (the Petrodollar). So, changing the US Dollar to an electronic crytocurrency affects the entire World. Think about it: If ALL currency is invisible and controlled by a central bank (whose members DO NOT answer to any government), all they need to do to enslave people and keep them in line is to arbitrarily change account balances or threaten to withhold all of a persons "money." No thanks! [/tinfoil hat time]

Noice! But I can already hear the cop "So, do I! *Cough* Roll down the window please."

I used to make my own gobo's (isolation curtains) just with those mobile clothes hangers and moving blankets. Cheap, easy to setup, take down and move around. Kind of like combining the stuff below:

The media programming is strong with this one!

And these same companies wonder why cracking is such a big problem... ?

My two cents worth (although I may be owed change...?). I do IT consulting work, so I'm constantly remoting in to servers and user's computers all over the place (including the Philippines and Mexico). Since many of the users now have dual monitor setups, it was VERY trying to work directly on my laptop. So I started remoting into my laptop first from my primary computer which had a larger screen. That helped so much that I went out three Christmas' ago and got a 40" 4k TV which looked HUGE originally. However, I would never go back now that I've used this screen for a while! Although it's a 4k monitor, I use it at 2,560 x 1,440 98% of the time. I also do gigantic spreadsheets and Windows programming, so the extra screen real estate is VERY helpful. Now, here's the interesting part: There's software out there that will allow you to partition your screen (MaxTo is one and Stardock has related products too). This allows you to virtually have multiple desktops (or even multiple computers) up at the same time, but with the ability to use the full screen with any of these (just a couple key strokes required). You can also divide the big monitor into smaller ones so that things stay compartmentalized in each. While the curved screens are nice, I like the flat ones and I actually have my 40" screen attached to an arm so I can turn it into portrait mode (good for making posters for clients and playing around with Reason's virtual racks!). The one thing that annoys me to no end are the screens that are very short and wide. Those are almost completely useless to me. A couple last points... Do some research! Most 4k TV's work GREAT as monitors (and I just saw an off-brand 55" at Walmart for well under $300!). That said, if you want to do fast-paced gaming, you'll want to spend a lot more and get one with a really low latency (the good gaming screens have low, single-digit latency in milliseconds, most other TV's are in the 60ms to 90ms range - still plenty fast enough for even most games). Also, check the viewing angles. Obviously, straight-on should look great, but many (including me) have noticed that some, like my Samsung, start to wash out a little when looked at from an angle (like when I stand up). LG's tend to be very good from any angle. The final thing to consider is the type of TV. You'll have to look this up because I don't recall all the specifics, but some (OLED's?) can still be affected by burn in (the original reason "screen savers" were invented). This can become very apparent if you use one of these types of TV's as a monitor since a lot of things (like your taskbar) rarely change.

I don't know about anyone else, but I clearly see a small handful of frets that have not been labeled! ?

One for Strummy! ?

My business partner just did the download from the first link and all he got was their shareware/adware... I'll send him the direct link!

Reminds me of a comment I just heard: Q: Are you quarantined? A: No, but I'm stuck in the house with my wife; not sure which is worse! ?

Yes! Avoid the blotters with Bullwinkle on them!!!

Yep! I'll post my list soon. ?