CAN WE AUDIOPHILES DO OUR PART?
I was amazed, and delighted, when I went to the Cardas website to see that they are doing their part. Go to their website and you'll see their director, Angela Cardas, wearing a mask. If you click on the Cardas Nautilus logo in the upper left corner, you'll see pictures of people there in the factory making masks with sewing machines. I called the company to congratulate them, and spoke with a woman named Darla, who said it was their way, during this economic slump, to keep their employees working and also their way of trying to "do our part."
I'm not writing all this to advertise Cardas products. They are a very good company, but trust your ears, not anything I write, when it comes to buying their products. They do get credit, however, for helping me come to a realization that pushed me in the right direction. I called a woman I am friends with, who is 85 years old and is a good seamstress, to suggest she start making masks. She already was--and is. By phone she has organized several other women to do the same, and right now they are needing more material and elastic. I managed to gather about 50 pounds of material and am starting to gather elastic while also getting more material. But I don't sew. I can't help out with that. Any ideas as to what we--all of us who are good with our ears and focused with our budgets--can do to help out in other ways?
I realize this is an odd topic to bring to an audio forum, but it was a very socially responsible audio company that got me to thinking about it, and frankly I believe I should be socially responsible enough to do what I can to get other people to thinking about it. While also being open to other people's ideas about ways someone like me who is "just an audiophile" can help.
Thank you, in advance, for any and all ideas on this.
geoffkait,
That does not make you an expert. https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00432.asp?deliveryName=USCDC_511-DM28431 |
This just came across my desk, file under That’s the way it goes sometimes. The Food and Drug Administration is cautioning the public about the reliability of a widely used rapid test for the coronavirus. The test, made by Abbott Laboratories, has been linked with inaccurate results which could falsely reassure patients that they are not infected with the virus. The Trump Administration has promoted the test as a key factor in controlling the epidemic in the U.S. and is used for the daily testing that is going on at the White House. As first reported on NPR, as many as 15 to 20 out of every 100 tests may produce falsely negative results. A subsequent study released this week indicated that the test could be missing as many as 48% of infections. The FDA issued the alert on the Abbott test "in the spirit of transparency," and said in a press release, it's investigating whether the false-negative results could be connected to the type of swab used during the rapid test, or the material the samples are being stored in when they're transported. |
Sweden has one of the highest per 1 million inhabitants deaths. Only Belgium and a few others are worse (check countries with much tighter lock downs in eastern Europe, NZ etc) Once we get to 200K deaths in the US I will be curious if anyone's opinion changes - especially those who's family or close friends will be impacted. Hope none of yours. |
@snarbut , I’ve been hearing the same stuff about Y2K for 20 years now. "See, it was never a problem." Only because we fixed it beforehand. In my organization the Y2K committee began meeting in 1994. In 1995 serious resources were allocated. In 1996 patches were being tested. In 1999 we were running simulations at night. In 2000 "Hey, nothing happened, what was the big deal, some kinda con job?" Yeah, right, whatever. |
@glupson , Y2K mainly affected legacy systems. That is, systems that were written on OS from the 60's, had been implemented in the 70's, elaborated in the 80's and fudged along in the 90's. It was all because memory was so scarce in 1960. Back then a mainframe ran on core memory - that is, magnetic beads, or cores, which were physically moved back and forth to indicate one bit. A mainframe computer the size of a truck might have 32K of core. Every bit was precious, literally. It takes 4 bits to indicate a digit, so the software was written to use 8 bits, not 16; that is '66' uses 8 bits, '1966' uses 16 bits. Anyhow 40 years is a long time in computing, and we'll all be retired by 2000, and "Use computers for air traffic control? Huh? What are you smokin'?" Net result, deep in most every big application was a date function which could only handle two numbers, and returned an error message when it saw a year beginning with a zero. That caused the program to crash and fail. The prospect was a return to no computing whatsoever for all the longest standing applications (hence most important) in society, and no paper backup. Overnight. Easy when you take the trouble to understand the issue. Thank goodness most of those responsible did. Sorry to digress. |
stereo5,
We learned from the best. First two pages contained insults from you to millercarbon, ozzy62, and audio_audition at least. Along with some whining about people and the situation from your past. Give us a rest already please. At least we keep it contained and, by the way, those were not really insults. More like some colorful pinching. |
From what I can tell we are working really hard on a vaccine that should be ready very soon. Maybe by the summer. There’s a very good possibility. This is going to be great. Really great. The American people should be very happy, we’re all very excited. Everyone at NIH and FDA has been working hard, really hard, since January, no one even knew about it, when the virus was posted in the internet. We have 400 candidates for these vaccines, can you believe it’s that many? I can’t believe it. It’s going to be amazing! Really amazing! The wheels are in motion! Making arm movements indicating wheels going round and round. |
Then there’s Brazil 🇧🇷. Sound familiar, like you’ve heard this somewhere before maybe? https://apple.news/AQOpOr7Z-S8aPgxvarztSUA |
1976 movie: Network. Everyone threw their television sets out the window, chanting "I'm not going to take it anymore". I myself disconnected from TV in 2006, The internet is increasingly being sensored of real truths, which you will not find anywhere on the boob-tube networks. It is all in the Bible, guys. |
Hospitals are not only not overwhelmed, they are empty and laying people off.Funny, the hospitals in Detroit are trying to figure out how to replace the nurses and health care workers that are DYING from Covid-19. A far cry from "laying off". And "unconstitutional"? Please. Save the "unconstitutional" gibberish for the Prepper forums. Another idiotic opinion misinformed by the anti-science, anti-government, "it's all about me" crowd and state-run Faux Newz.*yawn* |
"Chorus I managed to somehow survive this deadly, once in a lifetime menace. As I look squarely in the face of 66 years on this sphere I need to tell you something. People in Oregon are born socialists who would sell their kids into slavery if the gov't told them it needed doing. Yeah!!! " I too am an Oregonian and am stunned by our state's unnecessary restrictions on our citizens rights. I too have circled the planet 66 times working on my 67th. Total deaths in our state as of yesterday 137, 80% of those poor souls were over 60 and had serious medical conditions. If you folks want to help this situation tell your local governments to pull their heads out of their rumps and get the economies opened up again. Further watch the rhetoric in DC and put somebody new in there when election time rolls around. And yes of course this is a political thread. |
I guess, somewhere along the way we lost track of the original question 'What can we do to help?' When I can I make financial contributions to one of the larger food banks, that has a long track record of getting help to those in need. I should take a look at how I can do more. Not to be political, but is interesting that bailouts to the top1% came at the speed of light, while small business and little farmers are going under, struggling to even get a loan. When and as we can, is most important to support our local small businesses and local farmers....Jim |
I guess, somewhere along the way we lost track of the original question ’What can we do to help?’ There were a few answers earlier in the thread, but they diluted after a while. Interestingly, there were a few "I am not helping" and a few more "help by asking to be exposed more". In case anyone is still interested in ideas, I am repeating my early post to add to jhills’ example... It will greatly depend on your location. Patronizing local business may be the step you are looking for. If your area is greatly affected, delivering meals for workers may earn you a smile or two. As the situation is changing, an iPad you never use donated to local hospital's pediatric department may entertain a sick and confined child for days. Before anything, take care of yourself. That is the most you can do for people out there. |
It appears the running average number of deaths per day in the US has ticked down to 1700 from 2000. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ |
Think of it like Alien or The Thing. You don’t know who’s got it inside them. So be very cautious. You might have inside you. Everybody should come under suspicion. People are carriers who don’t they have it. You might be a carrier yourself. One assumes there are millions of carriers waltzing around out there. There is no way of knowing. Keep your distance. 12 feet is better than 6 feet. It’s twice as good, actually. I spotted a whole bunch of people who acted like they had no idea what the heck was going on. It’s a good thing they didn’t come waltzing up on me. |
isochronism Early 2017 it was announced (Fauci) that a "surprise outbreak" would occur during this Administrstion. How did they know? It is also announced that it will return again in the Fall. Conveniently before the upcoming election to skew tabulation of votes? >>>>>I thought he was talking about the swallows coming back to Capistrano. I might have misunderstood. Note to self: it looks you’re on another roll. |
How did they know?Simple history. “I thought I would bring that perspective [of my experience in five administrations] to the topic today, [which] is the issue of pandemic preparedness. And if there’s one message that I want to leave with you today based on my experience … [it] is that there is no question that there will be a challenge to the coming [Trump] administration in the arena of infectious diseases … both chronic infectious diseases in the sense of already ongoing disease … but also there will be a surprise outbreak, and I hope by the end my relatively short presentation you will understand why history, the history of the last 32 years that I’ve been the director of the NAIAD, will tell the next administration that there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that they will be faced the challenges that their predecessors were faced with.” ~ Anthony Fauci, 2017 During the Obama administration ALONE: H1N1, Zika, Ebola (Africa). It always helps to view things in a fuller context rather than through the spoon-fed, distorted snippets preferred by some media outlets pretending to be semi-objective "news". Who, as it turns out, are now alleging that Anthony Fauci is not to be believed, trusted or lent any credence because........he's not an elected official. Always better to implement political solutions to public health issues, yeah? After all, it's best to call an electrician when your car starts making funny noises under the hood, isn't it? |
stevencason I too have circled the planet 66 times working on my 67th.Wow! Are you on the International Space Station? |
Oh, geez, this just in. You gotta hand to the government with their cool names for things. I wonder if that was Flock of Seagulls’ idea? No, probably not. Slow Boat to China is probably a better name anyway. President Donald Trump unveiled plans to find a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, in a government initiative dubbed "Operation Warp Speed" which he compared to the Manhattan Project, a research effort during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. Speaking at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden on Friday, Trump said the initiative’s title "means big and it means fast" and said the military had been called upon to help health officials make preparations for the vaccine. |
