Big Blue Huddle

I got the J&J shot back in April and have been somewhat discouraged about all the news that doesn't distinguish between Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J as to "booster shots". Finally, this morning in the Syracuse news, there is actually a news item that discusses J&J booster shots (https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2021/09/johnson-johnson-booster-dose-of-covid-vaccine-is-94-effective-against-symptomatic-infection.html

From what I understand (and don't quote me on this), if you get a booster shot, it has to be the same product as the shot you got the first time. Not a doctor - I am just spouting my opinion here!

I know it's just a matter of taste, bur for me it's Zeppelin hands down. There were a couple of PF songs that I thought were OK, but they didn't ever blow me away. In the early 70's, I was always blown away by Zep.

Quote from: AZGiantFan on August 03, 2021, 04:22:27 PM
Can you really distinguish between someone calling you Ric vs. someone calling you Rick, LOL.

Anyway, same name for me, except everyone except my wife calls me Rich.

Nah...something I did as a kid starting around 4th or 5th grade. Everyone called me "Ricky" and I thought it was too infantile a nickname so I insisted on just Ric. It's still pronounced exactly like Rick, I just had to be different I guess. I had noticed that "Vic" was always spelled without a "k" so I thought, WTH, I'll do that with Rick and no one stopped me - no teacher or parent. Although now that I'm old (and not a bit wiser), they probably started spelling "Vic" without a "k" to distinguish from the masculine name Victor from the feminine name Victoria or Vicky/Vickie. Who knows?

My name is Richard, but everyone (except cops, judges, doctors....or my mother when I'm in deep sh..) calls me Ric (w/no "k")

If I had to take one just to drive around and without re-selling it, it would be Miami Vice's Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider valued close to 2 million.

If I could take one just to re-sell, it's a no-brainer and I'd take Bond's Aston Martin DB5 which is worth somewhere north of 6 million.

Truth is, if I owned either of those cars, I probably couldn't afford the maintenance and I certainly could not afford the sales tax that comes with it 

The first two responses hit home to me as well. My mother did not clean out my stuff, I accidentally burned down my parent's house while playing with chemicals. Please don't try this at home, but I used to mix potassium permanganate with glycerin (yup, the primary ingredient of TNT). I was 12 and it was in the middle of February. I had done the experiment a dozen times without incident. I would crush the pp into a fine powder and shape it like a volcano on a cookie sheet. Drop of few drops of glycerol on the top and it starts a stream of smoke and eventually starts to blow flame out the top like a real volcano. We came home from church and the preacher's kid came with us. He begged me to show him that experiment so I said, "okay". So rather than crush the pp into powder (pp is crystals about the size of rock salt that you'd put on your sidewalk), I just grabbed a piece of aluminum foil and went out on our 2nd floor deck. There was about a foot of snow at the time. I put the foil down, poured a whole bunch of pp onto the foil (uncrushed) and figured, "might as well make it a big one because we're all outside and what could go wrong". Because the pp wasn't crushed, the endothermic reaction didn't become obvious. After putting drops over and over on the pp with no response, I finally poured the whole bottle of glycerin on the crystals. Unbelievably, the crystals moved into the shape of a softball and was one solid piece. I touched it and it was cold. My mother was calling us down for Sunday dinner (chuck roast, potatoes, etc...standard Sunday meal at our house). So, I figured the chemicals were dead and like an idiot, I wrapped up the remains in the tin foil and left them on the deck next to the sliding doors. My dad was saying the blessing when we heard a light "boom". He stopped his prayer for a second and we all looked up. Then came the monstrous explosion that made our ceiling buckle over our heads and drop crap all over us. The entire second floor was pretty much engulfed in flames.....and that was a sad regrettable day in my life as a kid. I never played with chemicals again and lost all interest in collecting them as I had for the past couple of years.

Anyway: I had a big box full of baseball cards that were mostly Yankees because that was my team (Mantle, Maris, Yogi, Whitey, you name it - mostly from the late 50's to early 60's) and they burned up in the fire. I also had a large stack of Batman comic books as Batman was the only character I loved back then. They burned up. As did my coin collection and pretty much everything else I owned and stored in my closet 

But that was one of the only times I lost things that would have been valuable today. In my case, it was cars! Instead of storing cars that I bought between 1968 and 1974, I'd sell them because I was bored with them at the time and wanted something different. I bought a 2-door '55 Chevy without a speck of rust or a dent (but was missing the driver's side window) for 50 bucks, turned it over for a 100...duhhh. I had a '64 Chevelle, '69 Road Runner, '69 GTX, '71 Cuda, a '72 TR6, etc. Many of my old cars are now worth tens of thousands.

Anyway, that's some of what I wish I still had. My father blew it even bigger. My mother was born and raised in Florida (St. Pete) and my father from Broome County, NY. My parents lived in Florida for a year or two after they married and my dad returned from the Korean War. My father hated it down there. While he was there, my uncle on my mother's side tried to convince him to buy property outside the city limits. Property could be had for 2.00 (or less) an acre. My father told him he was nuts because it was nothing but swamp, snakes, and bugs. So he passed. Now the area is built up with malls, major buildings/corporations, stores, etc. He'd be a millionaire had he held on to several hundred acres for 20 years or so.

Some were interesting - especially Liam Neeson who looked like the class nerd.

Unrelated (don't want to sabotage the thread) concerning Hollywood looks that makes me laugh. This is a true story. Hollywood was looking for a double for Charlie Chaplin and had a contest for people who thought they could look enough like him to be his double. Charlie himself (unbeknownst to the people running the contest) entered the fray and came in 3rd! LMAO

I've never seen pictures of the two men who looked more like Chaplin than Chaplin himself, but I'd love to see them.

Charlie Chaplin with and without makeup and costume:


Of course, without his iconic mustache, hair, cane, and hat - he doesn't look a whole lot like the character he played if and when he wanted to go incognito. To me, the downside of being famous is that you could never go out in public like a normal person where people had no clue who you were. I love going places and fitting in where no one knows me - or cares. Privacy is a wonderful, wonderful thing IMO. I always thought the guys in the band "Kiss" were smart to make their millions while hiding their looks behind a ton of makeup. Smart...very smart!

Quote from: uconnjack8 on July 06, 2021, 07:37:01 AM
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.

Thanks for such a well thought out answer. It makes complete sense now. I am with you as to wondering why it takes so much electricity to mine crypto. Some of the mining companies like one of the biggest "Marathon Patent Group, Inc." have literally only 3 employees. Yet there are close to 30 employees running an energy producing system to keep the 3 guys/gals (whatever) up and running. It takes more electricity to run a mining operation than it takes to run a small city. I simply cannot grasp why that it is.

Woolworths
Grand Way (the hardware and clothing store of sister company, Grand Union)
Family Bargain Center
Ames Department Store
W.T. Grant (simply called "Grants")
Not sure if Montgomery Wards is still in business
IGA
Peter Pumpkin

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on June 27, 2021, 09:06:16 AM
I found this article. Amusing, interesting, and disgusting to read, all at the same time. For full disclousre, among these foods, I have tried:

1. Durian (as discussed). That was gross. I have nothing positive to say about it and would not recommend that to anyone who does not already have an acquired taste for it.

2. Kopi Luwak. I knew what it was but had never seen it before until I was at a hotel in Turks and Caicos (of all places). It was stupidly expensive (think around $20 or even $25 for a cup or a small pot), but I was very intrigued so I decided to just go for it. It just tasted like good quality coffee, but certainly not worth the price. Was a bit of a non-event. I know that it is considered to be very high quality, hence people's tolerance of the way it is procured.

3. Natto. Fermented beans. I had that once in Tokyo on a business trip. We were at a nice restaurant, and my hosts handled all the ordering, and that was among the items they selected. I didn't want to be rude, so I tried it. Defintely not my thing. Gross taste and texture. I love Japanese food, but that particular part of their cuisine is not for me and never will be.

I haven't tried any of these other foods and don't plan to. I have seen a documentary on casu marzu which included Gordon Ramsay trying it. Bugs gross me out, and so does rotting food, so no thanks. Perhaps the grossest thing on this list though is the mice wine, especially given people actually eat the rotted mice when they're done with the "wine." That is absolutely horrifying. I would eat anything else on this list before I tried that.

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/10/10-of-the-worlds-most-disgusting-foods/

Casu Marzu cheese disgust me as well. Don't like eating live (or dead) larvae/worms in my cheese.

I had to look up the way Kopi Luwak is "procured" and that too disgusts me  (for those not wanting to bother Googling it, it's basically coffee...but the coffee beans are first eaten by a large rat looking creature called an Asian palm civet who eats the beans whole, then craps them out. The coffee is then made from the rat's feces....YUM

In my opinion, the ONLY reason Escargot gets eaten is because of the fancy French name as well as the product is served in ornamental shells that look nothing like the common yard snails' shell. I thoroughly believe that if the menu said, "Snails.......$15.95" and they were served in their original shell, the majority of people would never eat them. However, I do respect the fact that people eat (and enjoy) things I'd never eat. Try as I may, I don't think I could eat frogs' legs, but I know a lot of people love them. Dittos with sheep's head, rocky mountain oysters, etc. I get a kick out of a local tradition in Syracuse held every October called the "Riley's Testicle Festival" where testicles are served en masse (deep fried). Interestingly, a lot of women have zero problem eating testicles, but there's very few men that want to eat them...LOL

https://www.syracuse.com/restaurants/2015/10/rileys_balls_testicle_festival.html

Quote from: philo43 on June 26, 2021, 10:30:43 AM
In the 80's when I was stationed in Greece, a buddy and I rented motorcycles for a ride north from Athens along the coast.  We stopped at a small restaurant. We knew enough Greek to order a beer, say hello and goodbye  and ask for the bathroom. We ordered the Octopus, they asked how many we said 2.  10 minutes later we each had 2, 6 foot tentacles on a plate in front of us.  Most disgusting thing I have ever eaten.

LMAO...I had a similar experience in Madrid, but it wasn't disgusting. I met up with my sister who flew up from Tel Aviv. We both knew just enough Spanish to get into trouble. So we decided to order of a Spanish-Only menu to take a chance. My sister was dressed to the nines as she had to meet up with some important people and looked like a million dollars. She ordered something called ma

Quote from: Ed Vette on June 26, 2021, 09:57:26 AM
I love Escargot properly prepared. It has a unique flavor. There is nothing I can think of that I wouldn't eat. Just curious, do you eat raw clams and oysters? Rattlesnake or Alligator?

I am deathly allergic to certain shell fish: scallops, clams, and oysters. Been terribly sick enough times after trying each of them that I know it wasn't an anomaly. Interestingly, I can still eat crab, lobster, crayfish, etc., with no problem. Short answer, I do not eat raw clams or oysters.

Never tried rattlesnake, but I would if it was available somewhere. Have eaten plenty of alligator, turtle, etc. Don't love it, but don't hate it.

Years ago my company rewarded me for coming up with a seemingly impossible solution to a process they had struggled with for years before they hired me. I was rewarded with a dinner for two at any restaurant I could find and told "find the finest restaurant you can find and cost is no issue".

I always wanted to try a 5-star restaurant and the only one within a half hour of where I lived was in Ithaca, NY called L'Auberge Du Cochon Rouge (no longer in business).

As I pondered over the menu with my wife, I noticed a couple next to me who had ordered Escargot. The presentation was beautiful as it was served in bright red, yellow, and white ornamental sea shells. So I thought to myself, "hey, the company is picking up the tab and they told me to go all out so why not experiment?"

So I ordered them and lo and behold it tasted exactly like eating slugs from the back yard cooked with butter and spices. It was horrendous - nearly made me want to puke. Never again.

Eating that crap put a pause in my enthusiasm to trying "everything once". I have a niece who tells me that sea urchin is delicious and I must try it. I told her, "Liatt, I will NEVER EVER try it and you can't trick me into trying it".  Anyway...

Anyone here ever try Escargot and like it?

Anyone here ever eat something they wish they hadn't?

I don't pretend to actually understand the entire ins and outs of crypto and do not have a crypto wallet, but I like to follow what's going on. I refuse to invest in stock in crypto-mining (MARA) or blockchain (RIOT) companies until I see where things are headed with regulations.

The question I have (for any of the cryptocurrency gurus) is:

Last month sophisticated hackers (presumably from Russia) executed a ransomware attack on a major fuel pipeline (Colonial Pipe Line) that negatively effected millions of people in the southeast. Eventually, the company paid the ransom in cryptocurrency to get it up and operating again. I know, old news. However, the part that I struggle with is that the U.S. was able to recover (in unbelievably record time) the ransom which is supposed to be impossible - that is, unless they know far more than they claim. So here's the dilemma: Crypto is popular because there is "no way to trace crypto exchanges or know the individual who owns crypto" thanks to blockchain algorithms that are for all purposes, impossible to break.

The question to any experts on here: "How on earth was the U.S. government able to track the crypto to the hackers to recover the losses if it is impossible to do?" Secondly, the reason Congress and the executive branch is so anxious to regulate cryptocurrency is because they say it's impossible to track and therefore, impossible to tax those who hide their wealth in crypto...but it appears they can track it. So why the need to regulate?

Last, but not least. I understand that it takes banks of mainframe computers to mine crypto, but why does it require more electrical energy to operate than a small city?