@blumenkraft I don't understand. If this is happening in the states, some of the count might just be hospitals getting used to including covid in the cause of death whenever someone has covid and dies. It wouldn't have to do with other countries' numbers.…

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Ear, ear

Whilst showering yesterday, both my ears became blocked, the left one improved in a few hours but not so the right. The doctor this afternoon after examining me reported that water, which at best is an irritant to the inner workings of ears, had combined with ear wax and swollen to cause the blockage. The problem with the right ear, he said, was there was also an infection in the outer ear canal. Until that is fixed, nothing can be done with the wax buildup. So I’m on a course of antibiotics and some eardrops containing another antibiotic plus cortisone, the latter being prescribed to deal with the inflammation caused by the expansion of the spongy wax/water mix & the infection itself. I’m due to see him again on Friday. If the infection is gone, then the irrigation syringe can be employed to remove the wax buildup. The awkwardness of the blockage is exasperated by sitting & standing, I’m a little more comfortable lying down.…

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property is theft

The Men’s Shed had a break-in on Tuesday night last week, losing about $8000 worth of power-tools, etc, including the 21.5-in 2013-spec iMac bought in 2015. It was getting old & slow, so having it nicked was a blessing in disguise. Police recovered about $2000 of mains & air powered tools and a couple of battery tools but that’s all. We put in an insurance claim, it was approved about 6 hours ago, so we’ll get the payout in about nine hours. A local retail chain has a 10% off Mac computer sale the ends on Sunday, so tomorrow we’re buying a new 2020 base model 27-in iMac that’ll see us in good stead for several years hence. Well-maintained & updated backups on external HDD & SSD mean no loss of data plus all the passwords have been changed. Replacement battery tools will be bought locally, our usual supplier has a deal ending at the end of Sept whereby Milwaukee tool kits purchased include 3 extra batteries that are normally $170 each. With the influx of new equipment, a new records system will be instigated, incorporating copies of receipts, descriptions & photos of the items. We also have to find a way of securing the gear against repeated break-in attempts.…

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chopped

@ludolphus Following the ChimpNut update, I’m still getting the chopped-off icons at the top of the screen with my iPad (new 2020 model). No problems on the 2020 iPhone SE. It’s a minor irritation, tapping the new message button then closing the new message before entering text fixes the issue.…

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APatreon App Rant (also, seriously, I'm really only rarely grumpy innactuality)

I think I finally figured out the star rating for the Patreon iOS app. It is a horrible app. I hate saying that, because some human(s) worked on it, but damn. And the reviews marked ‘most helpful’ clearly reflect that opinion. Yet it has an overall 4.8 rating. I think this is primarily due to people rating it within the context of the service Patreon overall provides, as well as (and maybe more so) with good feelings for the content creators the reviewers/raters are supporting. That’s got to be it, cuz it makes me angry every time I try to use it. Horrible, horrible UX, and it is awful at handling any kind of media. …

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Illness-induced grumpy rant

Before: {insert 1960s shot of the Earth from orbit} After: {insert comparable shot of Venus} Motivation: Profit Result: That profit becomes increasingly worthless as the planet regresses toward being uninhabitable. Sorry. Maybe that’s over the top. But I’ve been fighting an infection and fever for several days now, so I might be a little grumpy. …

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matrix and irc

For the most part I really enjoy using Matrix for chat. But the IRC bridge, particularly with Freenode, is really really irritating. Especially getting kicked from Matrix rooms that are bridged because my IRC connection has been "idle" for too long. So I find myself falling back to IRC where I would rather use Matrix because of the bridge can cause more problems that it solves. …

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#Goober users (Android & BB10) let me know what you think of the current app layout. Good? Bad? WTF? I've started working on it's successor for Linux and I'm trying to decide what if any UX to take from the old apps into the new. …

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grammar

On his 70th birthday, a man was given a gift certificate from his wife. The certificate was for consultation with a well known therapist who was rumoured to have a simple cure for erectile dysfunction. The husband made an appointment and saw the therapist. He was given a potion and, with a serious look on his face, the quack said, "This is powerful medicine. You take only teaspoonful, and then say: ‘1-2-3.' When you do, you will become more manly than you have ever been in your life, and you can perform for as long as you want." The man thanked the therapist, and as he walked away, he turned and asked: "How do I stop the medicine from working?" "Your partner must say ‘1-2-3-4,' he responded, "but when she does, the medicine will not work again until the next full moon." He was very eager to see if it worked so he went home, showered, shaved, took a spoonful of the medicine, and then invited his wife to join him in the bedroom. When she came in, he took off his clothes and said: "1-2-3" . Immediately, he was the manliest of men. His wife was also excited and began throwing off her clothes, and asked: "What was the 1-2-3 for ?" And that is why we should never end our sentences with a preposition, because we could end up with a dangling participle.…

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EUROPE

when this crisis is over, we really need to have this discussion in which cases a federal system makes sense. during a pandemic, when it comes to countermeasures, it makes no forking sense at all! and i want this discussion on EU level, not on national level! there must be preparation for different scenarios (i.e. having masks/drugs/etc in stockpile, having production capacity locally) beforehand! given the numbers on both deaths and economic impact, unpreparedness for situations like this is a way bigger problem then, say, terrorism or crime. #forreall!…

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@blumenkraft Freud uns sehr,dass es Dir so gut geht.Minimi hat nur die Hälfte gefressen.Hat ihr bestimmt nicht gut geschmeckt,War was vom Schrank und hat auch nicht so schön ausgesehen.Haben sie heute gehört.Sass hinter dem Küchenschrank.Fabi hat Deine Blumen auf dem Schrank nochmals gegossen.…

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@blumenkraft Habe ich schon,eine grosse Tüte,zwei kleine Beutelchen und Stangen.Die Stange ist immer gegessen.Auch von den anderen Sachen ist was weg.Nur von Deinen Kügelchen will sie nicht so viele,aber ich gebe ihr viel von allem,damit sie ja nicht hungern muss.Schön, dass es Dir besser geht.…

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@blumenkraft Hallo Jochen,das Dach wird gereinigt,habe alle Fenster zu gemacht.Auch die Fenster im Flur.Müssen wir noch was mit der Krankenkasse oder mit Deinem Arbeitgeber regeln?Minimi frisst ganz gut,Futter ist immer leer,nur das Trockenf.lässt sie liegen.Aber sie kommt nicht aus ihrem Versteck.Habe es mit Leckerlis versucht 😀😀.Nichts!!!…

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Something unheard of happened this week in Dutch parliament.

There was a motion to vote for increasing medical staff (like nurses, not necessarily doctors who already once said they earn enough) salaries. When the time came to vote it turned out that during a short break before the vote most had left. At least 76 (there a total of 150) required to vote. Earlier during the day, the debate started at 11 in the morning, 96 members were present. It was a long debate sure, it took until 10 in the evening. Somehow 34 members felt it necessary to go home, some were literally seen running out of parliament like there was a fire or something. It is obvious that this was done on purpose. Anyway there will be a new vote someday soon.…

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"Scientism"

@ludolphus Well said. Sometimes I wonder if people have been taught what CS Lewis called “scientism” instead of the meaning of science. Are we expected to bow in defeat if someone shouts “science!” at us? As you say, there must be ongoing examination of facts and use of logic. Disagreement is good, because it helps us find our biases and blind spots.…

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Hot topic

@mandy yeah I did that because the topic is a bit heated everywhere. Seeing accounts of high profile people getting locked because they have a different opinion, video’s being removed from YT which are just interviews with doctors etc that do not comply with WHO and/or local government views. It takes only one scientist to prove all others wrong. In science there is discussion, new discoveries and ideas, change of views all the time right? Why is this all of a sudden not allowed anymore? It all doesn’t make sense anymore to me. I try to look at it logically and objectively. The phycological impact it all has on people. What’s happening to the economy, small businesses, self employed people (I’m doing fine btw), social contacts, isolation mandatory or self induced. Yes there people died. Yes there is a virus, but those have always been here and will probably be with us always. Isn’t it better to try to live with it as best as possible. It is not possible to save everyone. People die, we all do at some point. What is an acceptable amount of deaths for any cause (fill in any diseases, accidents, drug abuse including alcohol and cigarettes, etc). I know these are not infectious but some and maybe even many deaths due to these causes could be prevented. Smoking kills many people and not just those who smoke, do ‘we’ stop smoking? No! Why not? Ironically from the who.int site: “Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.” Please don’t smoke near me 😉…

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LCD slate after one week

Thoughts so far on my birthday gift: Boogie Board Blackboard It is a smooth and delightful tactile experience! They need to work on getting a matte surface. In the office there are overhead lights everywhere and I have to move my head a lot to view the whole slate. Then if I should wish to use the app, glare is a huge problem. Once calibrated, partial erasing works! The app is pretty good. The color tags and notes don’t export though, and that is the best way to know what’s in the file since it is handwriting. I’d rather organize notes in a folder somewhere accessible by my computers but I don’t know how to include keywords. Occasionally pulling a file into OneNote will work with handwriting recognition. It has worked with files from the app. Using the scanner on the copy machine looks good to my eyes but not to OneNote. I want to experiment more with flatbed scanning due to glare when using a phone camera. Bic mechanical pencils with the lead retracted make nice, fine lines on the slate. It is fun to have options. I really want to improve my sketching by using the Blackboard.…

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Logical humor

The following truth table based of the meme why Biden is Trump’s clone as far as policies go. Case 1. If the two opponents have the same policies then each implies the other. In other words a vote for one is a vote for the other👹😆 If you disbelieve it for both , each still implies the other The other two columns don’t count based off the data Conclusion: A vote for Biden is a vote for Trump.…

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Mother Love Bone w/ Andrew Wood

Pulled out this older LP. It’s interesting for its place as a bridge between 80s rock/metal and grunge, for its place in a scene that would explode shortly thereafter, and for being the only real glimpse those of us outside of the scene had to one of its early stars. #NowPlaying: Mother Love Bone - This Is Shangrila [Download on iTunes](https://music.apple.com/us/album/this-is-shangrila/1440922697?i=1440922707&uo=4&at=136721)…

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