Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: ps11yat14 on July 23, 2021, 10:30:24 AM
How is it going to encourage people to get vaccinated when now they are starting to tell vaccinated people that they must start wearing masks again. Talk about dividing the country even more!

Bill

Whats the big deal about wearing a mask?  How does that cause division? 

Quote from: MightyGiants on July 16, 2021, 10:24:07 AM
Ed,

I don't wear a mask outdoors, but if I go shopping or I am indoors where I don't know if I will be around unvaccinated people I still wear a mask (I step down to a surgical level mask, rather than a KN95 level).  My feeling is the vaccine is like a bullet-proof vest.   The vest provides protection but that doesn't mean you want to test that protection by walking through a gunfight.

I can also tell you that Israel is back to masking up indoors.   Israel has a high vaccination rate and they vaccinated quicker than our nation did.  So they are sort of the canary in the coal mine, so to speak.   If you want to get a sense of what's coming in the future, watch what is happening in Israel.

Here is why:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/science/Israel-Pfizer-covid-vaccine.html

"And on Monday, Israel

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on July 16, 2021, 03:21:19 AM
The idea that anyone would watch TV as a way of getting "information" with which to make the critical decision about getting vaxed or not, rather than simply listening to their own trusted doctor (or any number of other doctors), all of whom are infinitely more knowledgeable on this subject than any journalist, politician, or other medical layperson, and virtually all of whom are motivated by public health and not by politics, is what perplexes me the most. Why do people think they know more than MD doctors on this subject? Do they actually think every doctor out there is now complicit with the "deep state" and is deliberately spewing out harmful advice that is not in their patients' best interests? I find that both troubling and bizarre, to say the least.

However, what people choose to legally do or not do with their own bodies is their decision. Yes, they put others at risk by not vaccinating, but the overwhelming majority of others they are putting at material risk are other like-minded individuals who have, for whatever reason, made this same choice. That does not make their lives less valuable in my opinion, but they did make a conscious choice and therefore have indicated that they are prepared to live (or die) with the consequences.

I think you nailed it with that bold part.  There are plenty of places to get factual information about the vaccine.  I think those that are pulling information from TV opinion shows are the epitome of American apathy and intellectual laziness. 

I do have an issue with people that can get the vaccine (they are healthy enough and old enough) that are not because there are those that cannot get it and they are also being put in danger. 

Bottom line to me is that places with low vax rates are likely to have huge surges (already started) and potentially cause more shutdowns and/or hospitals to be above capacity.  We are already seeing more cases of advanced cancers because routine screenings were largely not performed during the pandemic. 

https://www.astro.org/News-and-Publications/News-and-Media-Center/News-Releases/2021/COVID-19-pandemic-has-led-to-more-advanced-stage-c

"In an informal analysis published on Medium, Meyerowitz-Katz compared the infection-fatality rates from influenza to several calculated around the world so far for COVID-19. Like COVID-19, influenza also has a high number of mild and asymptomatic infections. These cases are not accounted for in the majority of calculations of influenza severity made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which rely instead on hospitalizations. For the flu, doctors and hospitals are less concerned with mild cases that don

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on July 06, 2021, 08:50:09 AM
That percentage is likely to decrease over time, since a huge number of the total deaths occurred when there were no vaccinations available and also before people were taking lots of precautions and before doctors/hospitals fully understood the disease.

No doubt though that if you're fully vaccinated your chances of dying from this are very low. They're not zero, but they're low enough that you should be able to feel a lot more comfortable in day to day life then prior to receiving the vaccine.

I believe the measurement is from when vaccinations were deployed.

Trying to find where I heard this, but I thought it was relevant to the conversation:

99.5% of Covid related deaths right now are in unvaccinated people.

I can answer some of your questions. 

First, most crypto is completely traceable.  In fact, that is one of the principles of it's existence.  Through this link you can watch every single Ethereum transaction world wide: https://etherscan.io/
There are some forms of crypto known as "privacy coins" that make it more difficult to see transactions.   Bitcoin and Ethereum are NOT privacy coins and their ledgers can be viewed publicly. 


That being said, all you will see on that link is addresses (long lines of numbers and letters) and not who owns those addresses.

The government was able to recoup that money because of the way the money was being stored. It's amazing that you could be tech savvy enough to hijack a huge corporations systems, but lack such basic crypto commone sense.  So here is what happened:

The hijackers left the money on a US based crypto exchange.  Because that exchange is regulated by US authorities, they were able to freeze the account and take the money back.  Now, had these hijackers spent $75 dollars and purchased a cold storage wallet (there are other ways as well), they would not have been able to access the money that easily. 

It's like they kidnapped a person, got the ransom money and immediately deposited into an FDIC regulated bank.  In this case, there is a public record of what address the money was sent.  Once they FBI (or whoever) realized it was a Binance (I think that's the exchange) address, they were able to contact the company and freeze that address. 

So while these transactions are anonymous, they are not "secret", they are the opposite.  The anonymity goes out the window if you are just logging in from your computer and not taking steps to block tracing (like using a Tor browser for example).  While an average person might not be able to figure out who is making a transaction, a group like the FBI could definitely see your IP address and track where you are logging on from. 

I hope what I wrote makes sense.  I think politicians who want to try and ban crypto are completely wrong.  This form of currency will exist moving forward, it's just a matter of regulation and adaptation. 

BTW, I consider my understanding very rudimentary.  I own some crypto and have used it in some transactions.   I really don't get the full understanding of why mining uses some much electricity. 

Quote from: jimmyz on April 19, 2021, 06:27:55 PM
Yeah, the paramilitary contractor paradigm now allows countries to wage war unofficially.

And making some people very rich in doing it.

I realize that in the wake of the 9/11 attacks there was wide feelings that this attack was able to be coordinated because it happened in a country with a failed central government.  The objective as I understood it then, was to:

- Capture or kill Al-Qaeda leaders 
- Setup a democratic government that could run on its own.

The first objective was somewhat achieved but never finished.

The second objective has never really even been close and may never happen.

I think in the case of Afghanistan we need to pack it up and leave and if there is worry about attacks being planned from that country we can use other means to monitor the situation.  The reaction to the attacks of 9/11 has shaped the current world in many ways and cost a lot of lives as well as money.  Is the world a safer place now?

Quote from: Painter on April 06, 2021, 01:47:51 PM
120 pieces of legislation in 43 States related to ballot and voter eligibility all introduced by Republicans following Trump's defeat and the purple bruise they suffered in the Red State of Georgia, and not at any time before. That also is despite the fact that the most thorough post-election audits ever by State and Federal agencies and private entities concluded that there was no meaningful voter fraud in past election.

While it should be obvious to any honest, clear thinking person that, having the motive, the GOP is pursuing the opportunity to make it harder for poorer people and minority communities to vote. What also is obvious is that there are those recognize the fact but can't accept it and so must embrace a web of conspiracies. if they must, it's their sad problem, but they shouldn't expect the rest of us to walk into it.

During the 2016 campaign Trump said there was massive voter fraud and that the election was rigged.  After that election the "Voter Integrity Committee" was assembled and found an extremely small amount of isolated issues and the committee was quietly disbanded.  Somehow, at that point, even though the President himself had called the election rigged, there was none of this legislation. 

Quote from: Ed Vette on April 06, 2021, 09:50:01 AM
I also think Gun background check laws should be universal across the US. As you know, NJ is among the strictest in the nation and we had to get not only a background check but fingerprinted and we have to apply for a permit to purchase in a 90 day window. My brother just goes to the store, they do a check and he walks away with his new toy. Other states have open carry or concealed. I like the idea of one ID with the ability to add applications like we do adding a motorcycle endorsement to our license.

That should certainly be possible in the digital age.

My brother, an ex-marine had about a 6 month period to be able to carry. 

When I lived in Maine, if I wanted to buy a gun to keep in the house, I could have bought if from a friend or a classified ad without a background check.  Only gun dealers in Maine have to do background checks (If I remember correct). 

I have to admit, I liked that when I bough a pistol here in PA, it was a pretty simple process with the background check. 

Quote from: Slugs Narrows on April 06, 2021, 09:32:02 AM
Can also use this as a universal card for conceal carry and firearm purchase.  The NRA would never sign off on it as a fear of mass registry etc etc but as a gun owner who believes in background checks etc this could also serve to facilitate that as well.

I will say I worry about to much power in Government hands and one number or way to track and monitor but let

Quote from: uconnjack8 on April 02, 2021, 04:32:11 PM
What's the over/under on the length of time before this thread is shut down?

I had under 24 hours, so I lost my bet on this, but I think it's time for the Mods to kill this thread.

What's the over/under on the length of time before this thread is shut down?

This will be a widespread problem relatively quickly. 
https://www.grandforksherald.com/newsmd/coronavirus/6732987-The-true-cost-of-North-Dakotas-strained-hospitals-He-could%E2%80%99ve-easily-died-in-my-home