I found a way to get around tariffs that will raise the price of audio equipment.

The problem is I have a sweet tooth and still eat like a kid....

I hear you, @nonoise , me too and the same for an awful lot of us. I am only a few years younger than you, and it wasn’t always like this for me, but now controlling my food cravings are way harder than controlling my cravings for alcohol and illicit use of drugs ever was. A low dose of a statin got my cholesterol in the way good range, so for me, considering my lack of will power and discipline in my old age, a pill seems to be the answer. I have known people that have told me they maintained a relatively healthy life style (diet and exercise) but still could not keep their LDL within safe parameters, so if what they told me about their lifesryle was true, I’d think they are a victim of the genes that they inherited and a pill may extend their life.

Back after my Mom died in ’92 my Dad pretty much gave up on any semblance of healthy eating, and I used to lecture him from 2000 miles away on the telephone as I was young and into health food and weight lifting and felt real good back then . . . but he took a daily statin and a blood pressure pill and he made it to 90.

It’s a personal choice and I am not going to lecture anyone for whichever way they choose . . . if you can do it without a pharmacolgical intervention, I say more power to you and keep up the good work . . . but if not, not all pills are bad all of the time; they are part of the reason average lifespan has been increasing.

Ya gotta be a li’l careful with these docs.... Some years ago, there was this doc...i can’t remember the full premise on why she said the following, but, she said something along the lines of/in a business like fashion ,"yeah, we’ll take your gall bladder out, pretty quick, easy peasy" something like that... It didn’t hit me for a second, but then, my internal rage built up a li’l (so i had to put up a fake smile on the outside) and the inner monologue started..."millions of years of evolution to get a fine tuned gall bladder, it certainly ain’t a vestigial organ..and here she is, 4 years of pre-med, 4 years of med school and she knows everything about the sophistication of this thing apparently". I dropped her in a hurry and the gallblader’s still here, alive and kickin.. the current doc’s a good dude, a bit more evolved in consciousness.

Oh, did i forget...i had a tooth guy say all my wisdom tooth needed to be taken out for no good reason...outta nowhere, in a business-like manner. Again, my internal rage started to build up a lot and i had to put up the fake smile in a hurry...I said "Why? What’s wrong with me keeping all my wisdom teeth??? we’ll see if anything happens"...30+ years later, all my wisdom teeth are still there and the toothline looks just fine. None of the things he warned me about ever happened.

All my life I’ve had higher than normal LDL levels but everything else was fine. The doctor I had then said not to worry as it was most likely due to genetics and that my other levels compensated for it or they’d be off as well.

Fast forward to my present doctor and she said I was pre-diabetic and put me on some statins that lowered my levels by over 40 points in one month. The downside was some awful constipation so I stopped cold turkey with the statins and nothing bad came of it. I told my doctor about it and she was fine with it.

It appears that Big Pharma loves its product and their pill pushers are still doing the lord’s work doling out the meds. By the way, I went Vegan years ago and like you, never felt better, dropped 30 pounds and felt like a spring chicken. After a few years I stumbled and had a cheeseburger and it’s been rough going ever since. I just may take it up again.

All the best,
Nonoise

Not all of us are super-humans, like yourself, @deep_333 .  Some of us are unable to simply think away impacted wisdom teeth and blocked bile ducts and we occasionally need medical intervention.

@nonoise  I'm aware of the low price of BYD's EVs.They're built cheaply 

No they are not.

Our labs have torn down every nut and bolt and found them to be amazingly well built.Very high ratings. At this price point the testers were shocked at how well built they are. Just yesterday they announced a 5 minute battery charge time. Even Tesla is warching BYD very closly.

Our auto industry needs to catch up. We're lagging 10 years behind.

Not in the car reviews I’ve been reading. What they do have is lots of tech that we don’t get here and that the ride and handling aren’t up to our standards. The more expensive ones meant for foreign markets are built to higher standards for the more discerning cliental.

BYD has some great cars in their line up but also some cheap stuff. There are some channels on YouTube that specialize in EVs just made in China and thats’ where I get my info along with some online reports.

As for Tesla, they’ve been lagging for too long and need to play catch up.

All the best,
Nonoise