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Messages - Muadzin

#31
Open Discussion / Re: Just Saying -- the soapbox thread
November 03, 2021, 11:30:54 AM
Unexpected side benefits of the job for the win?
#32
Open Discussion / Re: Android 12...Windows11
October 28, 2021, 01:53:56 PM
I'll let the early adopters experience all the fun and bugs and remain with Win10 for as long as possible until it is all smoothed out or Win10 is no longer supported or I can no longer update for free.
#33
Open Discussion / Re: Just Saying -- the soapbox thread
September 29, 2021, 08:26:22 AM
Quote from: alanp on September 25, 2021, 07:17:21 AM
I still have a brief WTF moment when I'm watching a video by an American (in this case, one of Peter Santenello's Amish ones) and they talk about how a cafe' has the most amazing pie... and, rather than a steak and cheese, or steak and mushroom, or chicken and bacon pie... they bring out pudding.

I'm more amazed when I see a mentioning of pie and it has meat in it. Pies are deserts, not dinner. Only the British could come up with such a bizarre dish, and they are of course world renowned for their culinary arts.
#34
Quote from: alanp on August 19, 2021, 03:58:12 PM
I heard a good term for this kinda stuff -- "panic porn".

The other thing to remember is that journalists are people, too, with their own deeply held beliefs (whether that is Christian values, or completely open borders, or a love of Marx and Engels), so you should read multiple sources on the same topic, and try to pull together what's going on as an aggregate.

Word! Or avoid the most partisan news sources altogether. Or news altogether. Life is much better once you quit watching the news.

Quote from: Aentons on August 19, 2021, 11:26:42 PM
A buddy of mine has fully resisted getting vaccinated because his (mis)understanding was that "you can still get covid and give it to others, so what's the point?". His wife finally threatened to leave him if he didn't. He got vaccinated yesterday.

Oh yeah, emotional blackmail. That marriage is in for the long haul. NOT!

Quote from: pickdropper on August 20, 2021, 02:46:03 AM
I agree with your overall sentiment, so please don't take this the wrong way... almost no person with a solid understanding of the immune system expected sterilizing immunity any of the CoV2/COVID19 vaccines without high vaccination rates. All vaccines, including those against CoV2, improve immunity thereby resisting infection and reducing symptoms in individuals. The efficacy ranges at the individual level ranges from sterilizing to significantly reduced symptoms (i.e. MASSIVELY decreased risk of hospitalization and death). However, vaccines only reach "sterilizing" at the population level once a large enough proportion of the population has been vaccinated- this is the real concept of herd immunity. CoV2/COVID19 continues to cause problems purely because not enough people chose (when readily available) to be vaccinated and not at all because the vaccine is ineffective.

Actually, your mention of sterilizing effect of the measles vaccine is a great demonstration of what I just said. In 2017, an anti-vaxx sentiment polluted the Somali-American community in Minneapolis. The largest outbreak of measles in 30 years ensued, and ~20% of the 80 new infections were in vaccinated individuals. The same vaccine that provided sterilizing immunity to a population was compromised by a significant number of people that were corrupted by anti-vaccine propaganda.

Oh, I don't take that the wrong way at all.  My (not very well-worded) post wasn't against the efficacy of the vaccine but more about public expectations and the continued distortion of what the vaccine is actually designed to do.

Muad's comment "If they can still lock us down, even though we're vaccinated, then what is the point of getting the jab of an experimental vaccine? It's basically like nothing will ever change." echos a lot of what I've heard people complain about around here.  "Why should I get the vaccine if there are still breakthrough infections" or if there are continued mask mandates or lockdowns, etc.  The vaccine isn't an immediate fix, but it's a significant help as we all work together to bring order out of chaos.  It's just going to be a process and not a switch that gets flipped.

And yes, your measles example is solid.

They want me to wear masks again at the university where I work. Hell no! Back to working at home it is.

I'm starting to think focusing on a vaccine was the wrong strategy altogether. Because this thing keeps on mutating faster then John Carpenter's The Thing. It's like trying to come up with a vaccine to the common cold. Maybe pouring in all that money on a medicine would have been better? One that mitigates and shortens the effecst. So you can call in at work:
Hey boss, I got corona today.
Okay, you know what to do. Take 2 pills and come back next week.

One thing I do know, Australia and New Zealand are showing us what to expect for the winter, just like they did last winter. Expect a lot more lockdowns to come and more repression and shaming to get you to do what the PtB want you to do. And divide and conquer of course. Have the vaccinated be angry at the non-vaccinated. Instead of the real culprits, the airlines, who keep on flying all these variants all over the world.
#35
I don't even build pedals anymore and I still enjoy coming here. So welcome back!
#36
Quote from: alanp on August 17, 2021, 06:38:48 AM
Someone in NZ has the Delta variant... naturally, he decided to jump in his car and go for a drive (before he had symptoms, to be fair.) I'm starting to wonder if one of the early symptoms is itchy feet and the desire to go for a wander.

So, we're at Level 4, full lockdown. It wouldn't piss me off so much if *I* got a holiday too, rather than continuing to work at the slaughterhouse while other people stay home and play Xbox.

If they can still lock us down, even though we're vaccinated, then what is the point of getting the jab of an experimental vaccine? It's basically like nothing will ever change.

Quote from: fig on August 18, 2021, 01:14:32 AM
I've stopped watching or reading the news, or any TV....

I'm feeling muucchhh better now.

Yeah, me too. The business model of the news these days seems to be to generate traffic through click bait. And constantly scaring us, or making us angry seems to be the best click bait.
#37
Quote from: alanp on August 14, 2021, 05:59:37 AM
It's interesting, how translation can cause gaps in understanding, sometimes.

Ivan Grozny. In English, Ivan the Terrible, Tsar of Russia.

This is a bit misleading, to modern readers, though. It's like Pratchett's Lords and Ladies. "Elves are fantastic. Elves beget fantasy. Elves are terrific. Elves beget terror. No one ever said elves are nice."

The translation 'Terrible' doesn't mean as in the modern understanding of rubbish at something. It's closer to the original meaning, as in he was a terrible foe. Ivan the Formidable would possibly be a closer modern translation.

English is abysmally terrible on non-English names. Don't get me started on how all Roman emperors have lost the final 'us' from their names in English. Augustus became August, Trajanus became Trajan, Hadrianus became Hadrian, to name a few. All except Titus. I suspect for obvious reasons.
#38
Open Discussion / Re: New wave of "lawsuit" guitars?
August 07, 2021, 12:09:12 PM
Quote from: Tremster on August 05, 2021, 07:16:33 AM
Necro bump.

Gibson is now suing Mojo Hand FX over the name "Mister O" phaser, which could be mistaken for "Maestro".
https://www.gearnews.com/gibson-serves-mojo-hand-fx-with-cease-and-desist-over-mister-o-pedal-name/

Still up to their usual Gibson tricks I see. I hope that company dies and does so very soon.
#39
Open Discussion / Re: New Lovetone project PCBs
July 05, 2021, 12:32:47 PM
I can't wait for these to become available as kits on Musikding. I might come out of pedal building retirement to build these.
#40
Always always ALWAYS read the fine print.
#41
Got my first shot of Pfizer last saturday, gave a zumba class the next morning. Only thing I noticed was like somebody punched my left arm.
#42
Open Discussion / Re: A klon just sold for 3500!
June 09, 2021, 07:31:50 AM
As the saying goes, a fool and his money will soon be parted. Also, it's also about bragging rights for some people. Especially on places like TGP, which is like the Japan of guitar internetdom, the source of 3/4ers of all that is weird in the world. And lastly, there still persists a large group of guitarists who are as pathologically afraid of a soldering iron as vampires are to sunlight or a crucifix.
#43
Still no shot here in the Netherlands, but we have of course the worst minister for health in the universe. It's only now that at 52 I'm finally eligible to get the vaccine. I have an appointment for over 2 weeks time. Probably Pfizer or Moderna, as Astrazenica has been restricted to 60+ only. Some age groups are getting Jansen, if you're born in 1967 to 1968.
#44
I still think that they could have finished those old buildings a lot quicker then they historically did. Even with old tools. As the people back then were more primitive technologically, but just as smart as we are today. It's the same Mk.1 brain we all have. To quote from The Right Stuff, what makes rockets go up? Funding! Same with cathedrals. They didn't always have enough funding. Certainly not steady funding as famines, war, politics and other upheavals could interrupt their cash flows. They knew the risk, they accepted them, plus they were of a different mindset when it came to such things then we are. We are of the right here, right now mindset, no patience whatsoever. Theirs was a more if it will take a 100 years or more, so be it. As long as God's house gets finished it doesn't matter that much. If we die beforehand God will know what our intent was.

And you gotta love ancient engineering. First time I saw the Pyramids, see these mountains of stone rise over the horizon, I was so awed. Humans built these! With primitive tools and techniques compared to ours. If they could build these with their tools and skills, there is no limit to what we can build with our engineering tools and skills. One of my better more optimistic moments.
#45
Quote from: matthew.raiteri@gmail.com on May 25, 2021, 11:28:17 AM
I get why it took 150 years to build something like that a thousand years ago, but they just build a building that is a mile tall in Dubai in five years (the length of of a really good Bowie song).

The Dubai building gets build by a commercial enterprise with a lot of money. In business time is money. Cathedrals get build by religious folk, who don't have lots of money. Well, at one time they did but not any more as there are barely any of them left today. Without the tourism this building would have run out of funds to build decades ago. Factor in a very destructive civil war in the 1930's, and how this cathedral was seen as a symbol of a rebellious province by a dictator who ruled Spain for almost 4 decades and I can see why finishing it wasn't seen as a priority for him either.