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Do we all remember Brian Eno?
What a superb discussion with him here:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-UKaPyMsbE[/URL]
I rank him at the top of the music world with Roger Waters in terms of awareness.
What an educated and enlightened man he has turned in to. Now let's see those that do not agree with him try to slur him as "woke, anti-senite". This is the pathetic, polarised world we live in.
[QUOTE=RamDavidson84;2693825]Healthy societies should be able to have these discussions without attacking each other and labeling them racist bigots as liberal media has now done to Elon Musk. They are opening claiming he trying to bring back the policies of South African Apartheid. To me, that's vile unnecessary mud-racking.[/QUOTE]Save it. LOL If you are so concerned about "health" and baised, lying bitter media then where is your outrage for Tucker Carlson's sucking up to Putin, and other constant lies from that realm, some of which are clearly treasonous. If you have outrage there's plenty of opportunity to spread it around.
[QUOTE=RamDavidson84;2693825]When Trump won his election in 2016, there was a massive investigation and media campaign which accused him of conspiring with Russia to steal the Election. Republicans allowed a comprehensive government led investigation into whether there were any truth to these claims. I personally never believed he did conspire with Russia[/QUOTE]You are parroting right wing media. Why all the lying from Trump associates and cronies regarding contact with Russian agents if nothing was going on? Why all the constant, off the cuff pardons? Given the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard, the US is full of cases they don't go to trial where parties are likely guilty. Trump was never exonerated, as he and his followers like to claim. Mueller was clear on that point. In any case we got him out of the WH. In spite all the violence and coup attempts, our system held up. Have a read. The Manafort pardon is rather telling.
[URL]https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/548794-there-was-trump-russia-collusion-and-trump-pardoned-the-colluder/[/URL]
[URL]https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/19/yes-there-was-collusion/[/URL]
P.S. If you want useful responses quit the barstool filibustering with these walls of texts. Make your point in a hurry and move on to the next one.
[QUOTE=Nounce;2694610]I will be even more impressed when he speaks freely and be consistent on things related to Tesla's operation in China to Chinese government. Don't forget that he can make a lot of money from this too. I don't think he has said he will make it better even if it does not make money. It's complicated to analyze his intention because there are well established people think he is playing with monopoly money.[/QUOTE]I am just basing this off watching some of his interviews and reading the headlines, but Musk is a very strong proponent of Free Market Capitalism and the Private Sector playing a larger role in Society. He has stated this in numerous interviews. He was also furious with the government of California for temporarily shutting down his Tesla factory during the Pandemic to the point he moved a large part of his operations to Texas. I think the government regulations really cut into profits, and he may be justified in his argument that there was an unnecessary over reach of government regulation which hindered his progress and in general is an unnecessary hinderance on many big time capitalists. I think he saw how social media was used to not just shut his business down, but businesses down around the globe. I think this was the turning point for him and in his view, the liberal media needed more balance because its' bias was a detriment to society. Again, in his view, he's killing two birds with one stone. 1. he's investing in an incredibly profitable company such as Twitter and he's going to make it better and more profitable. 2. he's going to bring more political balance, increase free speech, and bring more trust back to his media platform. He's going to attempt to create a more balanced Twitter for society, so the next time there is a Pandemic or an important issue, we all have a trusted media platform we can trust and together people can freely exchange ideas to find the best possible solution to the particular problem presented to society.
I am not very familiar with his business dealings in China, and I haven't heard him speak specifically on how he deals with the the Chinese Market. My guess is, he is a "profits first" type of guy like most big time capitalists who have billions invested in their company and tens of thousands of employees who rely on him to keep the company running.
It is without a doubt a complicated situation and to fully understand it is far above my pay-grade LOL. I am rooting for free speech and a trusted media platform though. We'll see what happens though.
[QUOTE=Paulie97;2694457]I would take issue with this, as there certainly are a whole lot of people that could perform your occupation effectively given the opportunity and the proper training. Because I mean seriously, given your political analysis, calling yourself a "conservative" when you are a cyberspace blog wingnut, we are talking about an IQ in at most the 100 range, and that's generous. You could scarf up many who are asking dollars in front of Dollar General or your "Will Work for Food" culture and they'd fit the bill. Certainly there is nothing "difficult" about your "career," that you've already admitted doesn't require higher education, nor does your confession to never donate to charity speak much to your character. As to you trying to win "petty arguments," well you dig in your heels here with the best of them typing out War and Peace, so pot calling the kettle black on that count. LOL.[/QUOTE]I didn't see you brought I. Q. Into this conversation. The last IQ I had done came back at 163, but I have hit over 170 several times. We actually get tested quarterly at work to ensure our cognitive abilities stay consistent to perform the job. We get tested at the same facility as the NFL combine athletes. Our Administration informs us that we must be at least on par with see. I. A. Agents in terms of our cognitive abilities. We also spend 36 hours every month at the Harvard based think tank to discuss new emerging technologies and how they will revolutionize society. And finally we also have to fly to Houston to monitor NASA's progress at the end of each 3rd moon phase. It gets really annoying to have to track the moon phases to be ready for those NASA guys, some of them are real assholes when you have to point out their mistakes to them. Lololol.
[QUOTE=Paulie97;2694472]You can sing and dance all you want on this one but it's plainly ridiculous as males have strength advantages, as well as less instances of injuries. Your analogy of females attempting to be male, theoretically but never actually, to male transitioning to female is a fake one. The latter is typically enjoying a lot of strength of advantages along the way while never reaching the destination (XX versus XY). Best to abandon this one and join me and most Americans in the moderate camp, as the far left is just as much of an annoyance in our society as the far right. So in the end, we have have anecdotes, quite possibly straight out of your posterior coupled with fake analogies. That's a double. Again, congratulations. Wink.[/QUOTE]With very few exceptions, strength is not the main component in any sport. I played a lot of sports in my younger days and I can't think of one where the best are the strongest, except for a few reasonably minor sports. Even powerlifting has as much to do with form as muscle mass. Most team sports, if you load the team based solely on strength, you'll lose.
With repetitive motion sports, especially those which require endurance, muscle mass is a disadvantage. How many top soccer players are built like American football offensive linemen? How many swimmers? How about tennis players? Put 325# Larry Allen, Offensive Guard in the NFL (who could bench press over 700#) on the tennis court, give him the best coaches, train him for 5 years and any decent high school player could beat him in straight sets.
Pick one, just one, pick one trans athlete who has managed to dominate their sport. I'm not talking about one event, or one season, I'm talking household name. I used the example of Michael Phelps. Instead I could have said Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, Jeff Gordon. Show me a trans athlete who, I'll make it easy, for 3 consecutive years has been considered the best in their sport.
There's nothing far left in anything I've written on this subject. Two people made assertions. One person is a complete nutcase, but there's no sense in discussing mental health issues with you. The assertion is simple: trans athletes (male to female) have an unfair advantage over female athletes. I'm asking for proof. Is asking for proof political? Are your politics now based upon avoiding proof of any assertions?
If that's the case, we're at an impasse. I'm easy to please. If you say something is true, show me and I'll be suitably impressed. If you instead argue that you don't need to show me examples or evidence to support your claims, because my politics are wrong (isn't there a logical fallacy covered by that), I'm not going to instead switch to a discussion about changing my political views (I'm sure that's a logical fallacy) and forget about the support for your claims I've requested.
I'm sure this is another logical fallacy, but since we both seem to be embracing logical fallacy, what hell.
Let's say you tell me "I can drink whiskey (spiked with scopolamine and I'll be fine. I won't end up passed out and robbed and waking up in a hospital 14 hours later, arguing that the medical bill is too high. " I'd reply "prove it." Keeping with your post, your next reply would be to launch into a discussion about logical fallacies and my politics. Call up your friend, the Colombian one, and we can all drink and discuss it.
So, here are a couple of options. You could turn this into another little word battle and you know what always happens when you do that. Alternatively, you can show me one trans athlete who has managed to compete at the top of a sport for 3 years.
Another option, which is my recommendation, find another passion that doesn't involve me. Surely, with all of the time you've spent in Medellin, all those trips, experiences, you could be posting useful information, answering questions and giving advice. But you don't do that. Almost the every time you post in a useful thread, it's to try and score points against me. All because, nearly 5 years ago I pointed out to you that getting stuck in a long, unmoving line at Exito is a normal experience in Medellin. It's not something to throw a tantrum over.
The bad news is, I'm not keeping score. There's no trophy. I'm not getting another big pay raise because of what I post on ISG. Other than killing time when I'm feeling lazy and satisfying my writing urges, the only things I get from posting here are friends. I spent most of yesterday just enjoying being in Medellin with friends I've met through ISG. Medellin is a great place. It's cheap, comfortable and there's all the women most men could ever want. However, for me, without all the friends, it's just another city.
I know very little about what the Israelis and Palestinians are fighting about and learning from an un biased POV is nearly impossible. Let my Jewish friends tell it, the Palestinians are savage unibombers. Let my Arab friends tell it the Jews are Trump loving baby killers. I always figured the truth was somewhere in the middle but it's insane to me how similar these two groups are people are in looks, action, and faith yet they are at each other's throats.
[QUOTE=JustTK;2694643]Do we all remember Brian Eno?
What a superb discussion with him here:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-UKaPyMsbE[/URL]
I rank him at the top of the music world with Roger Waters in terms of awareness.
What an educated and enlightened man he has turned in to. Now let's see those that do not agree with him try to slur him as "woke, anti-senite". This is the pathetic, polarised world we live in.[/QUOTE]
Sorry bud, but it's the truth. Why would you do that more than once? They have perfectly normal taxis or you can grab an Uber.
They could steal your luggage and then your whole trip is ruined. Why risk that when you have other options?
[QUOTE=AboveAverage;2694387]So I guess I'm an idiot because when I get off the plane at the airport and all those taxis guys start mobbing me I actually give in to them sometimes. On two occasions I've done this and both times they brought me back to an unmarked car and I'm too chickenshit to back out at that point.
The first time I got into a car with two guys and was freaking out the whole time thinking I was about to lose all my luggage and everything but instead they just convinced me to buy some overpriced weed.
The second time I did this ended up paying 50 k pesos for a 5 minute ride. It was a rip off but I was exhausted and just wanted to get into my hotel bed. The next morning I couldn't find my phone and I started freaking out until somebody knocked on my door and it the driver from last night who brought back my phone! I have him some more pesos and thanked him profusely.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=JustTK;2694643]Do we all remember Brian Eno?
What a superb discussion with him here:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-UKaPyMsbE[/URL]
I rank him at the top of the music world with Roger Waters in terms of awareness.
What an educated and enlightened man he has turned in to. Now let's see those that do not agree with him try to slur him as "woke, anti-senite". This is the pathetic, polarised world we live in.[/QUOTE]This is better. YouTube is an entertainment platform and music is entertainment. Also, I remember Brian Eno and many others. I appreciate the musicians for the music, not for their views on a particular subject. Their views might align with mine, or not. Unless I find their views particularly repugnant, it doesn't affect my appreciation of the music.
However, outside of music, their views, with the rare exception of musicians who are recognized experts in a field unrelated to music, are no more important than any other person's views.
Judging by your post and Flappy's reply, it could be that my views might well align with Eno. But where does that get us? I see no indication that the Israel-Palestine conflict will be resolved in my lifetime, certainly not in any way agreeable to all parties.
I like the table here with regards to death and the vaccines: [URL]https://brownstone.org/articles/have-people-been-given-the-wrong-vaccine/[/URL].
As for the peer reviewed part, Some may criticize the Danish study for not yet being peer-reviewed, but it has been. It was peer-reviewed by me and several colleagues, and all of us have decades of experience with these types of studies. That it has not yet been peer-reviewed by anonymous journal reviewers is inconsequential.
There seems to be three parts to publishing. A pre-print is released like what we see here, then the anonymous peer review process, and then the publishing itself. I have been finishing the book "What really happened in Wuhan" and when data supportive of the lab leak theory became available, that information was held from even prepublishing until around April 2021. So the people who like to point to "anonymous" peer review as the gold standard would like us to pretend that science is above politics when clearly it is not and with Covid really never has been.
As far as the data goes, it always amazes me how so few numbers are needed to sway things in a prevention study. Adenovirus vaccine arm had 16/72000 deaths compared to control of 30/50,000. MRNA had 31/37000 versus control of 30/37000.
The problem with any of this data is that it is out of date as soon as it is published. The vaccines were amazing against the variant present when they first came out. Then delta showed even less protection and omicron less still.
So you can check for antibodies from the vaccine and antibodies from the virus and monoclonal antibodies can also be made. Thing most people do not get is there are limits on what the body can produce, and I think something most people do not get is the Biden administration pulled most monoclonal antibodies with omicron because most monoclonal antibodies did not work with Omicron.
So if monoclonal antibodies worked with beta and delta and the vaccine did as well, and you are pulling most monoclonal antibodies, why would you not pull the vaccines too?
Vaccine manufacturers tried to reconfigure the vaccine for omicron, and it did not work that well, and most importantly, they did not have to do any safety trials nor even prove the new fangled vaccine was effective.
When Joe Rogan got Covid, he got monoclonal antibodies and what happened with him and with so many others, is that the disease stopped in its tracks.
Putting resources towards the sick is almost always more cost effective than putting money towards the general population. Furthermore, when you vaccinate someone, you are using the body's antibody factory to produce antibodies that may not work versus this variant of the virus instead of letting the body decide on its own.
This could cause people who are vaccinated to be more likely to fall ill and have more Covid deaths, and that is what is happening in New Zealand now: [URL]https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-the-failure-of-the-mrna-shots-is-on-display-for-all-with-open-eyes[/URL].
For most of us though, the biggest thing is stupid government policies stay in place even more so now that things are off the front pages. So why the requirement to be vaccinated to enter Colombia when the vaccines do not do even work anymore? Why the stupid fucking Covid test one day prior to coming back to the USA? Has that been shown to do any good at all?
And the latest on masks was even more stupid. Now you do not have to wear masks on planes, and I think maybe one in ten people had them on coming to Colombia. Then you get off the plane in Colombia and mask up? Uh why?
Coming back to Colombia, most people had on their masks, but I took one off to get a drink, and no one told me and others to put it back on, so we kept them off.
And FWIW, when I went to the mall, I had only one person comment on wearing a mask and saw many, many more people maskless than I have before.
I do not think though that people get how badly we handled things financially. Bill Maher did and posted this clip [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhhoQbzupug[/URL].
And that is just the $6 trillion in stimulus Congress gave out. There was the $3 trillion worth of assets the Fed printed money for and bought.
Bill Gates was on CNN saying the pandemic may not be over and given how his stock in Microsoft went from $150 to $330 a share maybe he does not want it to be over.
Hopefully, we will now get an honest review of what worked and what did not and see what we got for our money. To me, by far, the most cost effective use of government money was for monoclonal antibodies, and I hope that lesson is learned, but I do not think it will be.
[QUOTE=Paulie97;2694685]Save it. LOL If you are so concerned about "health" and baised, lying bitter media then where is your outrage for Tucker Carlson's sucking up to Putin, and other constant lies from that realm, some of which are clearly treasonous. If you have outrage there's plenty of opportunity to spread it around.
You are parroting right wing media. Why all the lying from Trump associates and cronies regarding contact with Russian agents if nothing was going on? Why all the constant, off the cuff pardons? Given the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard, the US is full of cases they don't go to trial where parties are likely guilty. Trump was never exonerated, as he and his followers like to claim. Mueller was clear on that point. In any case we got him out of the WH. In spite all the violence and coup attempts, our system held up. Have a read. The Manafort pardon is rather telling.
[URL]https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/548794-there-was-trump-russia-collusion-and-trump-pardoned-the-colluder/[/URL]
[URL]https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/19/yes-there-was-collusion/[/URL]
P.S. If you want useful responses quit the barstool filibustering with these walls of texts. Make your point in a hurry and move on to the next one.[/QUOTE]Show me recent evidence of Tucker Carlson sucking up to Putin?
Show me something which is "clearly treasonous" that has come from any recent American politician, right or left? I want to see the hard evidence.
You actually believe that Trump got together with Putin and stole the 2016 election? Like what did they do? Have spam bots change people's minds LOL? Spam bots rigged the election LOL? You don't think there is a massive amount of global influence that would love to see the Democratic Party win elections in the USA. You don't think they do what they legally can to support Democratic Candidates? You don't think countries like Mexico, China, Iran would love to see guys like Obama and Biden in office? The whole world pays attention to our elections and they all do what they can to influence the candidates they want to see win. Maybe Russia did put some spam bots out, but this type of stuff is always going to be around. Turn on any TV Channel, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, ETC. They all have liberal spins on all their media platforms. I and the United States Government investigation saw absolutely no evidence to bring charges against Trump for rigging an election. Its silly shit Republicans had to deal with for winning an election.
The January 6th attack on the capital as I have said many times was disgraceful and if one day it comes out that Trump had something to do it, I won't be shocked to say the least. As of right now he is innocent until proven guilty though. Personally I think if he had done something to intentionally plan that attack, the evidence would have come out by now and he would have been charged with a crime.
The Trump Impeachment was a total joke in my view as well. Hunter Biden is a crooked junkie piece of shit rich kid who was doing a ton of shady shit. Honestly, who fucking cares if Trump did want to take down that little scum bag if he is doing illegal business dealings in Ukraine? You wouldn't want to know that if his dad is running for President? Don't you think that is important information voters should be made aware of? Instead, Democrats wasted everyone's time and put on a Big Drama Show Impeachment which everyone knew was bullshit and was an impeachment they knew they were never going to win anyway. I bet the media loved the ratings from it though LOL. I wonder if they factored that into it when they decided to impeach him?
All that being said, Trump is not and never was my ideal candidate, I did not vote for him in 2016. The unfairness and the difficulty the Democrats gave him while he was in office was exactly why I voted for him in 2020. And his economic policies. I still didn't like him, I just hated how biased the Democrats had become. They lost their their souls when Trump won in 2016 and it became a party on a mission to see Trump fail rather than work together to put policies into place which would entice voters to elect their candidates.
P.S. - LOL If my posts are too long, then don't read them. It probably takes less than 45 seconds to read my posts.
[QUOTE=JjBee62;2694713]With very few exceptions, strength is not the main component in any sport. I played a lot of sports in my younger days and I can't think of one where the best are the strongest, except for a few reasonably minor sports. Even powerlifting has as much to do with form as muscle mass. Most team sports, if you load the team based solely on strength, you'll lose.
With repetitive motion sports, especially those which require endurance, muscle mass is a disadvantage. How many top soccer players are built like American football offensive linemen? How many swimmers? How about tennis players? Put 325# Larry Allen, Offensive Guard in the NFL (who could bench press over 700#) on the tennis court, give him the best coaches, train him for 5 years and any decent high school player could beat him in straight sets.
Pick one, just one, pick one trans athlete who has managed to dominate their sport. I'm not talking about one event, or one season, I'm talking household name. I used the example of Michael Phelps. Instead I could have said Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, Jeff Gordon. Show me a trans athlete who, I'll make it easy, for 3 consecutive years has been considered the best in their sport.
There's nothing far left in anything I've written on this subject. Two people made assertions. One person is a complete nutcase, but there's no sense in discussing mental health issues with you. The assertion is simple: trans athletes (male to female) have an unfair advantage over female athletes. I'm asking for proof. Is asking for proof political? Are your politics now based upon avoiding proof of any assertions?
If that's the case, we're at an impasse. I'm easy to please. If you say something is true, show me and I'll be suitably impressed. If you instead argue that you don't need to show me examples or evidence to support your claims, because my politics are wrong (isn't there a logical fallacy covered by that), I'm not going to instead switch to a discussion about changing my political views (I'm sure that's a logical fallacy) and forget about the support for your claims I've requested..[/QUOTE]If you want proof, go look at every single athletic record in history. Any type of evidence which can be measured. Running, lifting, swimming, cycling. All the records are held by men. The burden of evidence is on you due to those records. Show us something which proves women are equal athletes to men.
[QUOTE=RamDavidson84;2694707]I am just basing this off watching some of his interviews and reading the headlines, but Musk is a very strong proponent of Free Market Capitalism and the Private Sector playing a larger role in Society. He has stated this in numerous interviews. He was also furious with the government of California for temporarily shutting down his Tesla factory during the Pandemic to the point he moved a large part of his operations to Texas. I think the government regulations really cut into profits, and he may be justified in his argument that there was an unnecessary over reach of government regulation which hindered his progress and in general is an unnecessary hinderance on many big time capitalists. I think he saw how social media was used to not just shut his business down, but businesses down around the globe. I think this was the turning point for him and in his view, the liberal media needed more balance because its' bias was a detriment to society..[/QUOTE]I don't think you've done your research. To start with, [B]I[/B] think Musk is one of the greatest engineers of our lifetime. I think he is on a par with the likes of Edison and Franklin. But he is way out of his depth as a CEO. He got into a pissing match with the SEC. Since the SEC regulates publicly traded companies, this was just plain stupid. I don't even remember the issues involved and it matters not whether he was right or wrong. You just don't tell the police that you are allowed to exceed the speed limit because there isn't any traffic on the road and they are fucking stupid to stop you. A CEO is supposed to be working for the benefit of the shareholders.
He has made a tender offer to purchase Twitter and apparently it has been accepted.
Twitter isn't an incredibly profitable company. I can't imagine where you came up with that idea. I just took a quick look at their financial statements. They have been profitable 2 of the last 10 years. (2012-2021). Does he have some ideas on how to reenergize Twitter? Maybe, but Twitter is competing against Facebook / Instagram / Messenger and Google / YouTube / GMail and TikTok and. Etc. And. Etc.
It's his money, well some of it is anyway, so let him have his party.
As to bringing political balance to social media. I think you're off your rocker on that as well. What is his complaint? That Twitter blocked certain messages because of their content? I believe the reason given by Twitter was that they blocked and removed messages that were dangerous and demonstrably untruthful. Maybe he thinks every Elvis deserves a place to advocate dangerous practices, like taking Ivermectin to fight CoVid or what was that other loony one? Hydroxycloroquine? Whatever.
Maybe he thinks his engineering acumen extends to social engineering as well? Well some part of his fortune will be on the line and surely his prestige as well.
[QUOTE=Elvis2008;2694795]I like the table here with regards to death and the vaccines: [URL]https://brownstone.org/articles/have-people-been-given-the-wrong-vaccine/[/URL].
[/QUOTE]But this study does not agree with my already invested opinion Elvis. This means it must be written by anti-vaxxers and ur a fuckin moron!
[QUOTE=RamDavidson84;2694805]If you want proof, go look at every single athletic record in history. Any type of evidence which can be measured. Running, lifting, swimming, cycling. All the records are held by men. The burden of evidence is on you due to those records. Show us something which proves women are equal athletes to men.[/QUOTE][URL]https://www.newsmax.com/reagan/binary-gender-oklahoma/2022/05/07/id/1068853/[/URL]
[URL]https://amgreatness.com/2022/05/07/yes-we-con[/URL]
Medicaid will pay for a man to get tits because he feels like a woman but if a woman loses her tits due to cancer that's "cosmetic" surgery to fix it and not covered.
Wow, I mean wow. Anyone interested in political history should watch the first 11 min 30 sec of this. Very informative and powerful. I wish I had learnt about the history of May Day when I was at university.
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7KbCFdWyRQ[/URL]