Big Blue Huddle

I wonder if there is a paper trail somewhere that will lead to either gross negligence on the part of an inspector or superintendent, or, worse, that someone in a senior position in the building management company or an owner somehow knowingly looked the other way or otherwise circumvented the system out of greed or laziness.

Buildings don't just collapse like that on their own. Someone somewhere had to know that things weren't right structurally.

Quote from: MightyGiants on June 25, 2021, 08:25:03 AM
there could be nearly 100 people dead in that pile of rubble, this is a pretty tragic event

Agreed, it is beyond awful. Lots of children too.

Quote from: MightyGiants on June 24, 2021, 08:36:34 AM
How does something like this happen?!?!

Sinkhole and paid off building inspector seems to be the best bet right now.

Bowie and Floyd. By a lot.

Runners up would be U2 and The Dead.

Very true about the exercise/diet/weight loss relationship. Exercise is an important component of weight loss, but it won't move the needle if you're not dieting appropriately.

One thing I have noticed is that I tend to eat better when I am exercising consistently. Not sure if others have experienced that, but when I get into a rut and don't exercise enough, my diet tends to worsen.

For me, if I'm actively trying to lose some weight, I make sure I stay below 2000 calories in a day while exercising 4-5x a week. That formula has always worked for me. 1700-1800 calories is a good daily target area for weight loss, I find, assuming you're exercising. If you make good food choices that is more than enough calories to be satiated.

Of course, it's easier said than done to give up things like pasta, bread, alcohol, pizza, etc for an appreciable period of time.

I'm normally in the gym anywhere from 3-5 times a week, usually for 45 minutes a time. Average four times a week generally. I generally do 35 minutes of cardio, often on the arc trainer (similar to elliptical but wider range of motion), but I also use the rowing machine and sometimes walk on a steep incline on the treadmill. I always stretch for several minutes at the end of the workout. I've given up on trying to run, as this has led to intermittent lower back pain and (more recently) plantar fasciitis. I sometimes swim laps as my cardio, which I know is great exercise but the whole process from start to finish takes a lot longer plus I hate not being able to listen to music while I work out, so I don't do swimming that often. I do mix in strength training as well, but on average I'm only doing that about once a week. I could probably stand to increase the frequency of strength training, but I have not done that yet.

I would say I'm in average shape. Maybe slightly above average but certainly nothing to write home about. I was talking to a good friend recently who is in terrific shape, and he pointed out to me that one should not think about exercise in a binary way. Meaning, it should not be "I'm either going to the gym today or I'm not, and that's the end of it." He said for him, exercise is much more perpetual and spontaneous than that. On top of frequently going to the gym, he said if he's at home watching a game for example, he'll spontaneously just bang out two or three sets of 25 push-ups on the floor without even thinking about it. Or if he's on the laptop, he might decide to hold a few planks. Or if he's in a texting conversation with a friend, he'll just start doing squats for a few minutes. Or if he's on the subway, he might get out a stop or two before his stop and just walk an extra 1.5 miles if the weather is good, etc. He does this on top of 4-5x to the gym every week. Or maybe it's a simple 25 minute walk right after dinner. I think this is a great way of thinking about exercise and it really combats a sedentary lifestyle wihout dramatically changing how you allocate your time. I am going to try to do this type of thing more, because right now admittedly I really don't. I'm more of the mentality that if I went to the gym four times in a given week, I've covered my nut, which is not the optimal way to think about it.

All in all though I feel I do an adequate job on this front.

Excellent post.

Today's society discourages what you are advocating as the line between the two genders continues to be delibertely blurred, but I think it is important to remember and continue to promote these traditional values. When I observe the behavioral behavioral tendencies and values of millennials and gen-y, it is very hard not to be somewhat concerned about the future.

I'm not a big milk drinker these days, but I do consume it for coffee/tea and sometimes cereal (albeit I am eating cereal less and less these days).

For the past 20 years or so, I have always been a skim milk guy, but recently I have been trying out other types of milk such as oat milk and almond milk. I have not tried soy milk yet, and to be honest I'm not dying to. I am not lactose intolerant as far as I know, but reducing dairy intake does seem like a good idea as I get older, as dairy contributes to inflammation.

I'm curious, does anyone have a strong preference with some of these other milks? So far, from a taste perspective I prefer oat milk to almond milk, but I have read that oat milk has higher sugar content than almond milk (and regular milk), so I am not sure whether the health benefits are a net positive.

I have not done a great deal of work on this subject to be honest, and I do intend to read more, but I was curious if anyone had any strong or well-researched thoughts/recommendations on the subject.

Apologies in advance if this has been mentioned already somewhere else (either in this thread of a past one), but has anyone watched a Netflix series called "Startup"? I had it strongly recommended to me by a friend who is normally razor sharp with his recommendations, so I'm very interested and surprised I missed it. There have apparently been three seasons so far, and it debuted in 2016. It is some sort of a crime thriller/drama that involves cyber and crypto. It has an 8.0 on IMDB, which is a very strong rating. I'm about to delve in and see if it's good, but I wanted to check with the braintrust here beforehand in case anyone had any direct insights.

I think hygiene, respect of others' personal space, and just general awareness of health-related matters will exist at a permanent higher level than they did before. I think people in general (not all, but many) will be much more conscientious about this stuff moving forward. This is probably obvious, but nobody else mentioned it so I thought I'd just throw it in. I think the days of snickering at people for being germ-phobes are probably largely over, with the exception of with people who have been covid-deniers this whole time and who have been contemptuous about any sorts of safety measures. Those folks of course won't be any more conscientious in the future than they were before covid. In fact some might even be less so, just to try to make their point.

I think work-related travel will not just decline, but collapse. Very few people I know ever really liked business travel in the first place. It's a major pain in the neck, it's expensive, and it's overrated. I think companies now understand this and will really consolidate a lot of their employees' business travel and also eliminate a good part of it. And with the growing intensity of focus on environmental concerns, decreasing one's carbon footprint is the natural direction of things right now anyway.

Work from home is an interesting one. It really depends on the work. Some tech companies have told employees that they can work from home forever if they want to. Banks on the other hand have been much less comfortable allowing it and have made it clear in the past couple of months that they want people back in the office. I suspect most office type jobs will offer at least partial WFH plans for employees. I think it's tough to tell anyone who is part of any sort of team environment that they never have to be in the office, but partial/rotational WFH arrangements at the very least seem likely to be permanent at most companies.

I can't stand when olives are cooked (particularly in a sauce). I don't mind olives by themselves when they're in a bowl on the table, but when they're sliced and cooked in food I find them gross.

On very hot days I shower more frequently (two, and sometimes even three times a day instead of once). Even just a quick, 3-4 minute room temperature or cool rinse-off in the shower makes a difference.

Hydration is important. In serious heat I probably drink at least an extra liter of water a day on top of my normal 2.5 liters.

I don't mess around when it comes to AC and very hot weather. I try not to be too indulgent with air conditioning when it's just moderately warm, but when it's serious heat, I don't play games. Especially at bedtime. I can't sleep in a sweltering bedroom. In fact I like my bedroom to ideally be a couple degrees below room temperature (ideally 69 or 70 degrees).

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on June 05, 2021, 01:09:18 PM
Personally, I hate phones that go with you wherever you are. I miss the day when the phone was attached to the wall and had a cord...although, the cordless home phones were a bit of a blessing. I miss not having to answer a call and knowing that the people will call back again when I am home. I also liked the caller ID and voice mail in case the call was urgent, but that's where my love of phones ends.

I have never used an Iphone because they are so expensive. All my kids and a couple of my grandkids use Iphones. I don't love or live for a freakin phone. I get calls on my cell phone at the least opportune times (checking out at a store, going to bathroom, in an important conversation, golfing, etc.) and I can't remember a single call on my cell phone that was urgent. I recall when my son came home from Iraq and we were gathered in the living room with his sisters. All of them were on their cell phones and I finally said, "put those f....g things down - your brother who you haven't seen in over a year and is heading back is right here. Whoever you are texting or whatever you are watching can wait until later. You only get to see each other once in a great while now". Anyway, it irks me to see people who are socially unavailable because their faces are glued to a phone. When I got my vaccination in Syracuse Fair Grounds a couple months ago we were instructed to sit in this enormous waiting room for 15 minutes after our shot. Probably 200 chairs spaced more than 6 feet apart where people sat to wait their 15 minutes. Every person in the room was glued to their cell phone except me and this elderly Asian woman. I thought, what a waste of life.

Anyway, I always buy the cheapest decent phone I can get that is unlocked. Right now I have a Samsung A20s that I got on Woot after my last phone bit the dust. I only use it for phone calls or occasional texting. It supposedly has a decent camera that I might use if I see something worth taking a picture of. One of the things I use the camera for is taking a picture of the fine print on something in the store so I can blow it up on my phone and actually read it without digging out my reading glasses. So anyway, I have only used Android. It doesn't blow me away. It's just used as a phone and occasionally answering a text. Oh yeah, the one app I actually use is the flashlight when I can't see something in the dark. That's a nice thing I guess.

I don't particularly like talking on the phone and try to avoid it other than with relatives and certain close friends, but I certainly would not give up my phone. I get the point about being glued to it, and I don't feel I do that, but it comes in handy in just so many ways that I'd be lying if I said I missed a time when we didn't have it. There is no question that they add a lot of convenience to life, and one can use it how often or how little he or she wants. My Dad, who is 78, brings his with him anytime he goes out, but he keeps it powered off and only uses it when he needs to. While I certainly don't do that, I think this is a suitable option for someone who claims they "hate" the phone.

I do agree that people are are buried in their phone constantly all day, texting and checking social media, are probably doing themselves a psychological and social disservice, but IMO there's a difference between that type of behavior and having a phone as a handy modern convenience.

The most logical theory is that people have been pent up for a while and are a bit unbalanced at the moment. Add alcohol to that equation and you're going to get more instances of bad behavior than you would in normal times.

I think you're going to see a lot of misdemeanor type stuff this summer. People are going to go nuts. I'll bet drunk driving will be way up too.

Quote from: MightyGiants on June 02, 2021, 10:45:19 AM
Here in NJ last Friday the lifted mask-wearing in stores.  I wore a surgical mask in the supermarket Monday and this morning and I was part of an overwhelming majority

I am being less cautious but I am not abandoning mask-wearing, not just yet.  I have a close friend who is a health officer.  We spoke last night about the new standards.   She hasn't been vaccinated and she was saying the unvaccinated are "encouraged" to keep wearing masks.  However, the actual rules being put into place requiring the unvaccinated to keep wearing masks.

My issue is that people who are unwilling to give to the common good by getting vaccinated are also the same type who will be the first to rip off their masks.

So while I have eased up on the higher level KN95, I am not yet willing to run around going maskless and put my health and safety in the hands of strangers who may have refused to get vaccinated but unmask anyway.

I am pretty much on the same page. With the numbers looking very benign now, and much of the population having had at least one dose, I am definitely easing up a little. However I still wear the surgical mask in stores and other indoor venues, and I am still pretty conscientious about distancing (as much as possible) and sanitzing, etc. However I have been to a couple of restaurants (obviously no mask when sitting down), and I have started going to the gym again sometimes. I am as careful as I can be about distancing in these situations, but no doubt the risk is higher. I just feel that with the numbers what they are now, and with me having been fully vaccinated, the timing is right to begin to grind slowly back towards a more normal existence.