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Post by rowmat on Sept 14, 2021 20:26:52 GMT -6
In March 2020 (pre vaccines) when I saw the demographic of those who were getting seriously ill and dying from COVID it was obvious that not only the elderly were at risk but all those with weight, heart and diabetes issues were by far the most highly represented in the stats. At the time I was 103 kgs (227 lbs) and pre-diabetic and on medication for chronic reflux. So I decided it was time to do something about my metabolic health. In 12 months I lost 21 kgs (47 lbs), am no longer pre-diabetic and no longer required reflux medication. I do mix of low carb and occasional keto. My doctor didn’t recognise me the first time I went for a checkup after I lost the weight and walked right past my in the waiting room. Anyway my bloods came back excellent and she praised my efforts until I told her that it was keto that enabled me to lose the weight. She said keto was unproven and I should stick to the standard recommended low fat diet as promoted by the heart foundation. I had to remind her I initially did follow that diet on her recommendation and after six months I had lost no weight and then became pre-diabetic. Basically she still doesn’t believe that keto works and assumed I must be making it up. 🙄 So one thing I learned is just how unhealthy the majority of us are and if anything COVID has shone a spotlight on the Metabolic Health Crisis while many simply choose to ignore how much of a factor that comorbidities play in poor COVID outcomes. Congrats! Thats a big deal, you should be proud for sure! Doctors are kinda funny when it comes to nutrition. They get pathetically little nutritional education in med school. And the American Heart Assoc is routed in "old school" nutritional paradigms that don't seem to reflect the current understandings we have of diet...either way, if it works keep it up! “ And the American Heart Assoc is routed in "old school" nutritional paradigms that don't seem to reflect the current understandings we have of diet.”I would argue that “old school” is really only 50 years old at best. Cholesterol and saturated fats became demonised after Ancel Key’s (flawed) “Seven Countries” study following Dwight Eisenhower’s heart attack put the spotlight on diet. The processed food industry lobbyists along with big pharma (we have a pill for that) then got on the bandwagon and we are where we are today.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 14, 2021 19:38:38 GMT -6
Honest question: Why aren’t we mandating that people get their diabetes under control? I don’t know the numbers, but from my personal, anecdotal experience in the hospital, 90% of these people who are seriously ill have poorly controlled (or not controlled at all) diabetes. It would not stop the spread of Covid, but it would greatly lesson the severity of it, which is to one extent or another is what vaccines do. In March 2020 (pre vaccines) when I saw the demographic of those who were getting seriously ill and dying from COVID it was obvious that not only the elderly were at risk but all those with weight, heart and diabetes issues were by far the most highly represented in the stats. At the time I was 103 kgs (227 lbs) and pre-diabetic and on medication for chronic reflux. So I decided it was time to do something about my metabolic health. In 12 months I lost 21 kgs (47 lbs), am no longer pre-diabetic and no longer required reflux medication. I do mix of low carb and occasional keto. My doctor didn’t recognise me the first time I went for a checkup after I lost the weight and walked right past my in the waiting room. Anyway my bloods came back excellent and she praised my efforts until I told her that it was keto that enabled me to lose the weight. She said keto was unproven and I should stick to the standard recommended low fat diet as promoted by the heart foundation. I had to remind her I initially did follow that diet on her recommendation and after six months I had lost no weight and then became pre-diabetic. Basically she still doesn’t believe that keto works and assumed I must be making it up. 🙄 So one thing I learned is just how unhealthy the majority of us are and if anything COVID has shone a spotlight on the Metabolic Health Crisis while many simply choose to ignore how much of a factor that comorbidities play in poor COVID outcomes.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 14, 2021 0:10:10 GMT -6
I think the point is not whether there is legal precedent for vax mandates, or if it’s been done in the past or whether it’s novel or just business as usual, it is “is it good or bad for society”? I venture to say that most people say the mandates are good, but that depends on what type of “good” you’re looking at. Is it good for public health? Yeah probably. Is it good public policy? Probably not, it’s a bureaucratic nightmare, and incredibly divisive. Is it a good or worthwhile encroachment on personal liberty? Maybe yes, maybe no, depends on your world view. From my perspective, I’ve watched from the front row as decisions have been made, over and over, based on fear, public policy, and for political gain. I’ve seen almost 100% of the attention being centered on the harms of Covid, and almost no attention being paid to harm the lockdowns caused. No one paying attention to the suicide rate, to the rate of depression, child abuse, spousal abuse, drug addiction, over doses, the crime rate etc. not to mention peoples livelihoods destroyed. So I’m more than a little worried and skeptical of a government that grants itself another extended power that it will never give up. We have the patriot act, the national defense authorization act, domestic spying, corporate censorship and deplatforming of unorthodox views. It just gets worse and worse. And at every step of the way these things have been done “for our own good”. If that doesn’t concern people I don’t know what will. I know full well the dangers and damage of this virus, but for me, we’ll I guess Covid doesn’t scare me more than tonados, earthquakes, brush fires, flash floods, hurricanes, aneurysms, heart attacks etc. it’s a force of nature, and while any one of these things may kill me, my world view is such that I’m far more concerned about how I live rather than how I die. To that end, every time the government grants itself more power I’m concerned. Here in Australia the South Australian government has introduced a new app which is mandatory for those ordered into home quarantine self isolation. QUOTE: “ Those taking part in the Home Quarantine SA program are required to download the SA government's home quarantine app, which uses geo-location and facial recognition software to track those in quarantine.
The app contacts people at random, asking them to provide proof of their location within 15 minutes.
If a person cannot successfully verify their location or identity when requested, SA Health will notify SA Police who will conduct an in-person check on the person in quarantine.“ END QUOTE In Australia we are now required to use QR check-in codes at every place we visit such as the local supermarket, gas station, pharmacy etc. This is logged on a govt database and is supposed to be used for COVID transmission contact tracing. However there is an increasing number of incidents where police have accessed this data without obtaining warrants in order to track persons of interest unrelated to the pandemic. The problem is we know that once this kind of surveillance/tracking technology is introduced it is never going away and will be repurposed beyond COVID. www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-10/covid-19-home-quarantine-facial-recognition-app-divides-opinion/100446812
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Post by rowmat on Sept 10, 2021 19:33:09 GMT -6
The J99’s are sublime on acoustic instruments and vocals (excluding death metal 😜) OK, so what's everyone's go-to mic/pre/comp combination for 'Death Metal' ? SM7 > API > Distressor Cranked and compressed hard. And of course the hands cupped around the mic.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 10, 2021 18:38:28 GMT -6
I’ll update what’s going on with my situation if anyone still cares lol.... I messaged the buyer my video of the amp working, and called him out. Obviously no response. Classy. Reverb is giving me 14 days to refund the item minus fees and taxes, which is cool because that wasn’t really made clear to me. I also have a very nice member here going to look over the amp for me to make sure it’s in top top shape before I resell it. It is listed several places at the moment. Reverb is going to cover any tech costs I ensue as a credit on what I owe back. So in the end, still quite the pain in the arse for such an expensive specialty item, but as long as it doesn’t take me months to resell this thing, I should make out alright. Just thinking out loud but I’m wondering whether he intended to flip your amp to another buyer he already had lined up but then the buyer pulled out of the deal?
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Post by rowmat on Sept 9, 2021 16:03:36 GMT -6
Just ordered some Seventh Circle Audio stuff: cmo2 8 bay chassis and psu, Neve 72, 2 Jenson 99 with op amps and the new 2 channel di module. Really looking forward to building and trying this stuff out. SCA has a new SSL pre module and Harrison filters too! The J99’s are sublime on acoustic instruments and vocals (excluding death metal 😜)
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Post by rowmat on Sept 7, 2021 17:01:35 GMT -6
Israel is interesting. Is the vaccine waning? It appears to be to some extent. It's one of a number of factors, but definitely a warning signal. I'll point out that in a society with a high vaccination rate, the percentage of vaccinated among hospitalized will be high. If 100% of the population is vaccinated and there are breakthrough cases, 100% of new infections will be among the vaccinated. As for India, I'm not sure they're tracking very carefully. Maybe I'm wrong? India is likely substantially under reporting cases as are many countries especially those with limited health infrastructure and resources. To put things in perspective most don’t get extremely ill or die so in a country with low vaccination rates and declining infection rates natural immunity appears to be playing a role. What remains to be seen is how natural immunity vs vaccine immunity compares in the long term infection/reinfection rates along with how mutations affect things. Israel’s infection rates plummeted after they began vaccinating heavily at the end 2020 and into the beginning of 2021 but that now appears to be changing. Also the UK’s infection rate is now climbing again. In the meantime this is useful for keeping track of the data as it changes. You can edit the parameters to compare the data between countries and if you want to see how COVID has evolved as the infections progess through each country press the ‘PLAY’ button on the bottom left corner of the graph and observe. ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&facet=none&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=USA~GBR~CAN~DEU~ITA~IND~ISR
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Post by rowmat on Sept 7, 2021 15:06:38 GMT -6
Israel is around 70% double vaccinated (over 12yo) compared to India around 12%. India was indeed hammered by Delta but now appears to be in decline from new cases while Israel’s case numbers are way up even compared to the US and UK. Either Pfizer (which was mostly used in Israel) is waning in efficacy or as the existing crop of vaccines were developed for the original strain the current data appears to show substantial Delta breakthrough cases. Deaths are also up in Israel but not as much as the original wave. The challenge is trying to playing catch up as the virus mutates without creating unintended consequences in the long term.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 7, 2021 14:38:39 GMT -6
When talking of the "unvaccinated" we should not include those that had covid, recovered and have natural immunity. Hopefully, but it seems like there is some question about that. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e1.htm
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Post by rowmat on Sept 7, 2021 14:22:36 GMT -6
Saw her in Melbourne around the time ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ was released in the late 1990’s. Gurf Morlix’ double Twin Reverb setup with what looked like a Silvertone electric sounded great. She also has spina bifida so that along with her stroke last year must be tough. I saw her band around that time, and I thought Morlix was playing a Jerry Jones guitar. The guitar he was playing had lipstick style pickups and looked like a Silvertone but I could be wrong.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 7, 2021 14:16:41 GMT -6
When talking of the "unvaccinated" we should not include those that had covid, recovered and have natural immunity. Which is why we need antibody testing as many more have had COVID than the test results show.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 7, 2021 14:00:00 GMT -6
My concern is due to the current vaccination regime are we vaccinating our way toward more vaccine resistant mutations? Or are the unvaccinated providing a large sandbox for the virus to continue to have a place to mutate in? Did you watch the video?
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Post by rowmat on Sept 7, 2021 13:28:26 GMT -6
My concern is due to the current vaccination regime are we vaccinating our way toward more vaccine resistant mutations?
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Post by rowmat on Sept 2, 2021 23:19:19 GMT -6
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Post by rowmat on Sept 2, 2021 23:11:35 GMT -6
Saw her in Melbourne around the time ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ was released in the late 1990’s. Gurf Morlix’ double Twin Reverb setup with what looked like a Silvertone electric sounded great. She also has spina bifida so that along with her stroke last year must be tough.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 2, 2021 19:51:36 GMT -6
I actually spent about two hours on the phone to a Reverb mediator from Australia. About 1.5 hours was on hold. Complete waste of time. I actually began to wonder if I was in the middle of a Monty Python sketch. I wish I could still talk to someone on the phone. That part of the business is done. My issue was not with the seller but with Reverb itself. Within seconds of my purchase I received a message from Reverb telling me that my transaction had been canceled due to ‘Suspicious Activity’. However Reverb canceled the transaction AFTER the $2.5k left my account. So I was out $2.5k, locked out of any further actions and was given no further explanation. The seller was expecting to see the payment come through and now my payment had disappeared into Reverb’s system and then the bullshit to try and find out what had happened and how to get my money back really began.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 2, 2021 18:41:49 GMT -6
The problem is I can’t have a conversation with this mediator guy. There is literally like a 24-36 hour space between responses. It’s awful. Maybe I’ll issue the refund and cancel my card right after. Then play dumb just like the buyer. I actually spent about two hours on the phone to a Reverb mediator from Australia. About 1.5 hours was on hold. Complete waste of time. I actually began to wonder if I was in the middle of a Monty Python sketch.
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Post by rowmat on Sept 2, 2021 0:22:03 GMT -6
Not just vintage audio gear. Here’s a photo of our regular session bass player from an era where a working muso could actually make a decent living. He was a prolific session player throughout the 1970’s, 1980’s and beyond. This is him in front of his Aston Martin DB5 (the James Bond Aston) around 1980. I remember he said it cost him around $30,000 AUD. I’m guessing he wished he kept it and stuck it in a garage as their prices have gone up just a ‘little’ since then. www.carsales.com.au/cars/aston-martin/db5/
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Post by rowmat on Sept 1, 2021 16:54:13 GMT -6
My first experience with Reverb was my last and that was as a buyer. - NEVER AGAIN!!
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Post by rowmat on Aug 29, 2021 16:53:24 GMT -6
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Post by rowmat on Aug 25, 2021 23:28:14 GMT -6
Jeepers! My boxed pair of KM84’s are better than those and had brand new capsules fitted in 2016.
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Post by rowmat on Aug 23, 2021 16:31:01 GMT -6
The ruling class have worked out how to divide the peasants for millenia by using their own idealogy against them via a combination of tribal bias confirmation and cognitive dissonance (fueled by media propaganda irrespective of any facts) in order to keep them trapped within their own opposing tribes and fixated on fighting against each other. For instance throughout 2020 many political pundits staunchly advised against getting vaccinated because they distrusted anything promoted by a certain orange haired individual occupying the White House. Fast forward to a change of government and several of those same pundits now state that anyone who is vaccine hesitant obviously must either be a pro orange man supporter, on the far right or a white supremacist/terrorist. Pundits were not opposed to the orange guy's vaccine. The opposition and skepticism came in the wake of reports that the orange guy was pressuring premature approval so a vaccine would drop before election day. I think you may be a victim of the very situation you are describing above. If we’re talking FDA approval that has only just now been given to Pfizer so many changed their narrative prior to any FDA approval. So unless they knew something that most didn’t it would appear their change of heart was not based on safety considerations but on their political standing. I don’t dispute that ‘orange man’ was pushing to get it passed before the election.
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Post by rowmat on Aug 23, 2021 15:49:40 GMT -6
I run into them and they fall all over the political spectrum. I also recognize that the public figures who are anti vax, anti masks, anti distancing...basically anti every preventative measure, are largely playing to a conservative base. This isn't media spin...they ARE the media figures, community leaders and politicians. ***With some prominent exceptions, like Bret Weinstein, RFK Jr., etc. I guess I don't watch/read whoever they are. I find Tucker Carlson and Rachel Maddow to be equally unbearable to watch for example. My real life interactions don't reflect what you're saying but I recognize that we don't live in the same town so I'm sorry you're having those interactions. Even still are you finding it to be a vast minority of people or most? The ruling class have worked out how to divide the peasants for millenia by using their own idealogy against them via a combination of tribal bias confirmation and cognitive dissonance (fueled by media propaganda irrespective of any facts) in order to keep them trapped within their own opposing tribes and fixated on fighting against each other. For instance throughout 2020 many political pundits staunchly advised against getting vaccinated because they distrusted anything promoted by a certain orange haired individual occupying the White House. Fast forward to a change of government and several of those same pundits now state that anyone who is vaccine hesitant obviously must either be a pro orange man supporter, on the far right or a white supremacist/terrorist.
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Post by rowmat on Aug 23, 2021 4:36:36 GMT -6
We should expect the 'fake and fraud clones of vintage gear' industry to expand over the next few years. Remember $25 Rolex watches? Yeah but mine only cost $12! 😆
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Post by rowmat on Aug 23, 2021 1:15:41 GMT -6
I bought a pair of 80 Series Heritage Audio 8173 pre’s and a pair of 6673 pre’s new in 2015-2016 and now from the same dealer they are almost double the price!
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