PrairieGuy

Once we have some science to accept. It's nice that people in a Boston homeless shelter an Iceland didn't die, but that's scant consolation to New Yorkers. As I said...people just don't know. Studies are scientific. That's why science and the medical industry conduct them.

A different study in Boston showed that 147 of 408 people at a homeless shelter had the virus and 83% had no symptoms. No one died. Another random study in Iceland showed 1221 of 9199 persons (13.3%) who were recruited for targeted testing had positive results for infection. Iceland has a total of 10 deaths due to the virus (not sure if any were in the study group). Eventually people will have to accept the science.

Maybe some good news for a change. Stanford university just completed a study and the virus may not be as bad as originally thought: "Based on their results, the Stanford researchers estimated the mortality rate in Santa Clara County to be between 0.12% and 0.2%. By comparison, the average death rate of the seasonal flu is 0.1%." https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-17/coronavirus-antibodies-study-santa-clara-county

I enjoyed it, but noticed that there were also bass and key tracks.

Definitely pre-recorded, the song had bass and keys but we only saw 2 guitars and drums.

A "feel good" show we've been watching: "Returning the Favor" hosted by Mike Rowe. It's on Amazon, 3 or 4 seasons of 20 - 24 minute episodes. He visits a local do-gooder, profiles them, and sets them up with resources and sometimes a little money to help them keep help others. If you're sick of all the negativity it's a nice break.

I'm living as normally as I can while still respecting distancing. Many businesses are willing to take your order over the phone and then put the item in the trunk of your car when you go to pick it up....I bought a plumbing part this morning that way. Last night we got takeout from a local restaurant. You have to be careful but if you stop everything the economy collapses.

It's not a fair comparison unless job choice is factored in. Apples to oranges. Men "generally" choose higher paying jobs. The wage gap is entirely due to career choice, not sexism.

I'd be okay with practice if proper distancing and the precautions were taken. But we're not right now because we're just hobby bands that take the summer off. We've lost all of our current gigs and won't have any until fall at the earliest.

Almost anyone can be a competent production line worker. On the other hand competent CEOs are a magnitude harder to find and therefore worth more money. A bad production line worker will be replaced with little disruption. A CEO must make difficult decisions all day long and a bad one can destroy a company putting hundreds or thousands of people out of work. The same thing goes for an NFL player versus an EMT. There are only 1800 people good enough to be NFL players. There are millions of people good enough to be EMT workers. That's the age old argument...are athletes worth more than teachers or doctors? It's about the value they bring to the business. The NFL generates billions which is freely given by the fans. Don't the players deserve their cut of a successful business? Teachers are important but it's a job that millions can do competently. Who could afford to pay their taxes if teachers were paid $1 million per year?

Are women worth less than men? They typically get paid less to do the same job, right?. The "women are paid less than men" myth has been soundly debunked repeatedly over the years. Virtually all of the difference in wages is attributed to career choice and number of hours worked. As a general rule, men are more willing to do more dangerous work (90% of workplace deaths are men) and work longer hours to get ahead. So, technically women are paid less but it's due to personal choice, not sexism.

Let's not forget that the article is written by someone who still has a job. That makes it a lot easier to have nice thoughts and dreams for a beautiful future but the harsh reality is that millions of people that are out of work and some of them may never have a job to go back to. But they will still have rent or mortgages, families to support, and bills to pay. That being said...we've always lived modestly and the latest designer item or brand new car has never excited us so the advertiser onslaught that will come after this is over will be lost on us. Not caring about the latest new thing has its rewards.

My neighbor came by a few days ago...it was pleasantly warm and we had a couple beers on my deck sitting about 10 feet apart. He brought his own beer and I had mine so there was no contact at all. Last week my GF's ball team had to cancel a get together that had been planned a couple months ago. Instead we all got on Zoom and had a 3 hour "party" from the comforts of our individual living rooms. My GF is also using Facetime a lot to chat with her friends and a couple days ago she took one of her friends on a "tour" of the reno I'm doing in the house. We are limited to what we should do and what we are comfortable doing individually, but with technology and a little common sense complete isolation isn't always necessary.

Norton...that chart is a complete joke. It has NYT, CNN, MSNBC, and WashPo right in the middle.

The media has no interest in balance, they always have an agenda. Case in point, one media source recently suggested (and that was their headline) that the drug was promoted by a certain person very high in the government (guess who) because they had a financial interest in the drug. Buried in the story was the fact that the holdings are somewhere between $100 and $1500. That's right...at the very most a measly $1500. Since the virus has arrived my trust in the media is eroded even further (something I never thought possible) and in addition I no longer use Facebook. I used to use it to promote my bands but since we're not gigging there's no point going on there only to see people post misleading or outright false media stories all day long.

The Surgeon General and CDC listened to the WHO regarding masks. Based on who is in charge at the WHO, that might not have been a good idea.

A little humour at a time like this doesn't hurt:

80% or more people who contract it show little or no symptoms so a lot of positive people have never been tested. The death rate is based only on confirmed cases, so until a lot more people can be tested the death rate of 4% is very misleading.

Using it at a band rehearsal because someone doesn't know the song is a different story, but one of my friends hosts an informal jam a couple times a month and who knows who will show up. He projects chord charts onto a 55" TV so everyone can play along. Everyone is more or less competent so they can "play along" without much problem and we have a couple hundred songs to choose from. We're there to play music and have fun and it's very helpful. Both of my bands have pulled up chord charts to test run a song. There's nothing wrong with spending 2 minutes trying something out and then deciding if it suits the band/singer so everyone can learn it for the next rehearsal.

My girlfriend (who I love dearly) is a typical uneducated music fan...she liked what she liked and never thought much about it beyond if she could dance to it. Then she moved in with me and heard me practice bass along to the recording and said "Oh, so that's what the bass sounds like." When I go see a band I often find it hard to just enjoy the band...my inner musician (and I'm not really that good) spends too much time analyzing the musicianship or the mix. I wonder if a musical education would be wasted on her or her friends? Would they start getting picky and enjoy it less?

I'm in 2 cover bands that gig semi-regularly. The "better" band is great musically but suffers from musical self-indulgence and gigs are scarce. The other band plays all the songs that everyone has heard a million times...Talk Dirty To Me, 867-5309, What I Like About You, etc. We pack the dance floor and have to turn down gigs.

Sadly, this isn't limited to non-musical people. In one of my bands, myself and 1 other person are the only 2 people out of 5 that have a pair of decent tower speakers. The other 3 listen to music on their phone or laptop through a small Bluetooth speaker. It's the same in my other band. The guitarist used a pair of small cheap computer speakers with a subwoofer until I finally convinced him to at least run it through the PA speakers (we rehearse there). Everyone else has gone to a Bluetooth speaker. We're all in our 50's with decades of playing and band experience. I've been in a band with 2 of these guys for over 30 years and back in the day we all had stereo systems but now they've dumped them. I remember helping friends move and setting up the stereo was one of the very first things we did. Now due to space limitations or simply a lack of caring no one seems to have a decent sound system any more.

One of the best tips I got was to get up, make my morning coffee, and then do a few minutes of cleaning/dishes while the coffee was brewing. I do this every day and you'd be surprised how much you can get done in those few minutes.

Or this