jgradyc

Since the media seems to sensationalize everything related to COVID, I thought everyone would be glad to know that the 7-day COVID case rate has trended downward in Tennessee since December 17th. On Dec 17th, the 7-day moving average number of COVID cases was 9,600. Today, it's 3,228. Tennessee has fewer cases per capita than most other states in the US. Data can be seen at the CDC COVID Data Tracker. It's an interactive website so it might require a few clicks to find the data, but you can compare TN with other states and with the US averages. The death rates are more erratic, but the trend there is also down. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrendscases

Dr. Fauci isn't ignorant. He's arrogant. He knows the risk of infection outdoors is nonexistent unless you're surrounded by a pack of people. He also knows that vitamin D greatly reduces the risk of COVID 19 and, when directly asked, he admitted to taking vitamin D himself... but he refuses to even mention vitamin D in his nearly daily press interviews. I quit listening to this guy when he lied to us about masks back in March, saying they didn't work and then in the next sentence, saying we desperately need more PPEs (aka masks) for medical professionals. WTF?! It's tragic that thousands of people died because our public health officials refused to say, "We don't know for sure yet if it helps, but initial studies on vitamin D are promising. Clinical trials on vitamin D are underway, but until results are in, we urge everyone to take vitamin D."

Thanks for posting this. Yes, this is exactly the interview where, when directly asked, Fauci admitted to taking vitamin D himself, but that's the ONLY time! Plus, read what he says carefully. He says, "If you are deficient..." and then in the very next sentence, he says, "I do it myself taking vitamin D supplements." So... Fauci takes vitamin D himself while refusing to even mention vitamin D in his nearly daily interviews on national media. People can interpret this inconsistency however they wish. My interpretation is...well... extremely unflattering. I'll leave it at that. We've known that vitamin D shows promise since early April when US deaths were under 10,000. We know that the overwhelming majority of deaths, where vitamin D data was revealed, showed a deficiency in vitamin D.

The FBI is investigating a duplex in Antioch on Bakertown Road... maybe 115? Bakertown. It's live feed on CBS 12 News on Facebook and, I think, Fox17.com. A guy is carrying two brown paper bags filled with something out of the walk-in basement as I type this. The POI is Anthony Warner, 63. There are photos of an identical RV in his backyard a year and a half ago. Google street view shows 5 No Trespassing signs on the back fence, one on the front fence, and one on the front door. The bomb disposal (or whatever they are called) showed up about a half hour ago, but then they left. Lots of guys standing around out front at first, but now the interest is all at the walk-in basement.

Multiple videos where you can hear the recording "If you can hear this evacuate now." A witness heard either gunshots or a recording of gunshots between 5 and 5:30. She saw the RV right across from her apartment. She called the police about the gun fire... up to 5 shots. She heard the countdown starting at 15 minutes and she and her husband left and drove to Titan Stadium. When about 20 minutes passed and nothing happened, they decided to drive back and that's when the RV exploded. She said it was big and older, not slick-sided and a single vehicle RV, not a camper trailer. She added that she couldn't tell if it was shots fired or a loudspeaker of shots being fired. She said it sounded like it was right outside. Her apartment is on the 3rd floor.

Sorry multiple post

Sorry, multiple post I keep trying to post the Stooge slap gif, but I don't know how. Maybe someone should Stooge slap me!!

<getting on my soapbox> Guess what's really interesting about COIVD in Sweden? Sweden has been disproportionately hit hard in its immigrant populations, whereas native Swedes are 3x less likely to get COVID. Yes, culture plays a part, but one factor that is continually overlooked is that native Swedes have high vitamin D levels, whereas their immigrant populations (Africans and darker-skinned Middle Easterners) tend as a group to have low vitamin D levels. The US groups that have been hit hardest -- African Americans, seniors, the obese, diabetes -- all tend to have low vitamin D levels. As I type this, 67 FDA-approved clinical trials on vitamin D are underway... impressive for a lowly vitamin! You'd think Dr. Fauci would be mentioning it... but no... If I could, I would line up Fauci, Birx, et al and Stooge Slap the entire group. People are dying and they could help by getting off their sanctimonious mantra of masks, social distancing and tell people to take vitamin D. Fauci, when directly asked, admitted that he takes vitamin D, but he refuses to even mention it to the public!!! <getting off soapbox... > https://tenor.com/WW5M.gif

Is there any way for us to buy Ivermectin?

Vitamin D can be stored. Too much vitamin D can cause problems. Studies show it takes about 8 months for it to build up and level off in your body. However, the majority of Americans, especially seniors, the obese, and African Americans, are deficient in vitamin D. If you're really concerned about your vitamin D levels, get a blood test. Your doctor can request it or you can just go to a lab and pay for it. After 5 months of 7,500 IU/day, my D level was 82. Doctors consider 30-100 the normal range. The breakpoints for severe covid reaction appear to be below 30 and again below 20. Now, this is only anecdotal, but I asked my doctor and he says that D levels in the typical senior citizen that he sees is 16-18. Yes, there is risk. I'll continue to have my D levels checked every six months or so. By April, some of the 63 FDA-approved clinical trials on vitamin D should be reporting results. You could wait until then. Or, you could start vitamin D3 now and stop it in April if the results aren't satisfactory.

Oh no! Are you taking vitamin D3 and zinc? If not, have someone buy it for you and start taking it immediately. It takes a while for it to build up in your system, so take 20,000 IU the first day and 10,000 IU daily for the next week. People have safely taken 100,000 IU on day one as a COVID treatment, but that was under a doctor's supervision. You should also be taking zinc. Have someone buy it for you so you can start it today, but also order liquid zinc on Amazon for next day delivery. (I doubt if you will find liquid zinc locally... but you might try Whole Foods and pharmacies). Anyway, once you get liquid zinc, take 7 drops in 8 ounces of water. Keep doing that every day. Once you can taste the zinc, you're no longer deficient. For me, it took 8 days! It's possible to take too much zinc so be careful with this one. If you're taking Prilosec, STOP. Most heartburn meds have been shown to increase the severity of COVID, with the exception of Pepcid.

To do that, you need to get serious about antiaging starting now. I'm far more interested in competitive running than firearms and twenty years ago I had a severe injury that kept me from running for two years. When I finally recovered, I made a goal of staying as healthy as possible for as long as possible. That means weightlifting, cardio, losing weight or maintaining it you're not overweight, eating right, reducing stress, and taking supplements. These steps might not increase your life span, but they will definitely increase the quality of those years. And they will reduce your out of pocket medical expenses and trips to the doctor. I think I had COVID back in June, but I sailed through it almost asymptomatically. Only the severe shortness of breath lingered on for four months. Being in great shape helped, but I think it's mostly because I take supplements to keep my immune system strong. I take 7,500 IU of vitamin D3 every day. The research is out there, but vitamin D is not being recommended because our public health officials would rather see people die than recommend something that hasn't passed FDA-approved clinical trials. I know that sounds harsh and I'm sure that they would disagree, but their lack of emphasis on steps the individual can take speaks louder than their words. Specially, everyone should be exercising, losing weight if obese or overweight, and taking supplements to strengthen their immune systems. Failure to do these steps is strongly correlated to the severity of COVID 19. The supplements that seem to have the best results with COVID are vitamins C, D3, B12, K2, zinc, magnesium, and melatonin. Pepcid *might* help, but the other major heartburn medications increase risk of COVID. Of these, the most important seems to be vitamin D3. Not only is it a powerful antiviral, it also helps prevent the cytokine storm that's killing people.

SSD drives fail. I'd just buy a SSD off eBay. I found a new Dell 128Gb SSD for $22 with free shipping. I put a 256GB SSD in my older Dell laptop last year. It was easy. If I recall correctly, it was $45 or so. I *think* it recognized the old key and I didn't have to pay for Windows. I don't remember. Maybe I had the old keycode somewhere. I'm sure I didn't have to pay for Windows. Regardless, it turned my dinosaur into a fast, functional backup laptop.

I was at Vanderbilt for an appointment Thursday. They asked if I had an appointment and if I had any COVID symptoms. I said yes and then no and they let me in. My GYM HAS STRICTER SCREENING. I have to have my temp scanned to get in my gym. Oh well, I wore my serious mask and avoided humans as much as possible. I guess if they screened for temperature, they'd be turning away a lot of people who are sick with something else.

Totally a guess on my part, but I'd think that when people show up really sick, they get tested for both flu and COVID. Some of those negative flu cases might have tested positive for COVID. I haven't seen any data published on that, but it wouldn't explain all of the decline in flu cases. As I said, it's pretty obvious that masks and social distancing are working because of the decline in flu cases. By "working", I mean reducing the risk, not eliminating the risk.

Ah! I misspoke. It didn't work this way. First, I tried using a USB C hub. I connected an HDMI=> to HDMI on the Hub. Then, I connected an HDMI => USB C on the hub. The HDMI=>HDMI monitor worked. The HDMI=>USB C on the hub did not work. So didn't use the hub. I did this instead. I connected one HDMI => HDMI port on the laptop and the other HDMI to the USB C port on the laptop. That DOES work for both monitors and that's how I'm running it now.

Thanks to everyone for your help. I'm operational and using a USB C hub connecting HDMI =>HDMI port on the hub for one monitor and HDMI => USB C port on the hub for the other. However, my laptop screen is still on and shows as a 3rd monitor. Is there a way to only show the two 28" monitors? The display mode doesn't appear to give me an option of turning off the laptop screen. Maybe I can add a bluetooth keyboard+mouse and then just close the lid? I kinda prefer my laptop keyboard. I've used these smaller keyboards so long that a full size keyboard seems uncomfortable.

First, thanks to AuEagle for posting on Ivermectin. I wonder why it hasn't gotten more publicity. I'm usually on top of all COVID 19 treatments and I had never heard of it. I'm not taking a position on the freedom vs masks debate. I'm just posting this to say masking works. The CDC puts out a weekly influenza surveillance report. Comparing this year's flu cases to last year's is eye-popping. Last year through week 48 (Nov30), 227,629 flu tests were done with 10,326 positives. This year through week 48, 140,863 influenza tests were done with 84 positives. That's a 99.2% decrease based on positive cases. It's equally obvious that masking isn't stopping the spread of this disease. We need to be doing more... hence, vaccines, but they are also problematic, in my opinion. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use the mRNA approach, which shows promise, but has never been used for a vaccine. That's also scary. What are the long term effects a year or two down the road? More immediately, how will it interact with the flu vaccine? Most people get their flu shots in Oct-Dec, but the vaccine tests were done in the summer long after those volunteers took their flu vaccines. If I could stockpile human grade Ivermectin for my family, I would do so. Same with hydroxychloroquine. But I can take vitamin D3... 63 FDA-approved clinical trials on vitamin D are underway, which is impressive considering that it's natural and can't be sold for outrageous profits by Big Pharma. Specifically, I take 5,000 IU of vitamin D3, plus C, B12, K2, a multivitamin, zinc, magnesium, and melatonin every day. I also take another dozen or so supplements. As we age, our cells lose the ability to work efficiently. Supplements improve cellular efficiency, but equally important, they insure that the cells have an abundance of raw materials to work with. My sister and her husband are in several high risk categories... over 70, overweight, multiple pre-existing medical conditions. When she got COVID about three weeks ago, I next day shipped vitamin D3+K2 and zinc to her. She's recovering. Did those supplements make a difference? I guess we will never know. I think i had COVIDS back in June. I had several symptoms but they lasted only a few hours. The severe shortness of breath lasted for 4 months! Did supplements help me? I think so.

I had not heard of this drug so I did a search. Clinicaltrials.gov reports that 44 clinical trials are underway on Ivermectin and COVID-19.

Thanks to everyone. I bought two of these Samsung monitors, hooked one to the HDMI port and the other to the USB C port and I'm pleased with the screen resolution. I tried to order the MK540 keyboard/mouse bundle, but BestBuy said they weren't available anywhere. I'm a little ticked off that they teased me with a $25 savings and when I got to the cart, it said it wasn't available except for pickup and none were in any store within 100 miles.

Thanks for posting the ARK ETF info. I checked them out. Impressive. I'll consider adding them to my long term portfolio.

I agree, although I rarely trade options. I'm on the Robinhood Facebook group. The posts are often hilarious. There are people who have NO clue what they are doing. I'm also on the Stock Trading group, which is better informed. I'm intrigued by the near term reactions to events. The whole "COVID cases increasing" on one side and "vaccines coming soon" on the other creates a volatile stock market with lots of opportunities. Year to date, the S&P 500 is up 15% while I'm up 40%, but it has been a roller coaster ride. Fortunately, I took it upon myself during the crisis to learn more about swing trading. The data and tools we have access to (and free!) are amazing. I remember paying for a Morningstar subscription and wading through massive reams of paper to find information. Now it's just type the symbol and pick a dozen websites to research it.

Yes and yes. And no. Yes it's all educated guesswork. Yes, it will be detrimental to the market, but it won't be across the board or necessarily in the near future. Stimulus bills will have a positive effect. The big money will move from one sector to another. The "green" energy sector is going crazy now. There are ETFs that are designed to track the performance of the S&P 500 so a person could invest in those ETFs. There are ETFs that attempt to track sectors of the market and sub-sectors. A balanced portfolio of ETFs, in theory, should provide about the same average long-term return as the S&P 500 without as much downside risk. This is why ETF portfolios are used by many Registered Investment Advisors. Personally, I like (and own) MFMS and TMFC as part of an ETF portfolio. These ETFs are based on recommendations by the Motley Fool advisory service.

This is overlooked by all the new Robinhood investors who think the market will always go up. Right now, there are stocks that are skyrocketing that are JUNK! Case in point, by mid-November, cannabis stocks had taken off after the election. I looked around for laggards and dogs no one wanted because a rising tide lifts all boats. Sure enough, I found two dogs that were lagging way behind. I bought them both. One has doubled! The other is up 20%. This is an unusual bull market because the tail is wagging the dog. The volatility is being generated, in my opinion, by small traders whose activity creates computer-programmed alerts. A stock crosses a point in volume or price and it triggers a big signal. Traders move in. Their buying triggers upward prices that trigger more buying signals for the big traders. Eventually, it dies out and the stock either drops or sits. AAPL is a good example. It went up steadily until August and then the traders went elsewhere. If you bought AAPL in August, you're probably looking at a loss in December. Same with Amazon and they are both good long-term stocks.

I would recommend against collectables. The obvious problems are storage, insurance, and the ability to make the right buying decisions at the right price, but the bigger problem is illiquidity. With an ETF, you list click "sell" at market in your Schwab, TDAmeritrade, etc account and within an minute you get an alert that's it's done. Wait until the settlement date and you can withdraw the funds. So, sell on Monday and you can have cash available to trade stocks on Monday or withdraw and have the cash in hand realistically by Thursday/Friday. With a collectable car or vintage gun, the buyer's market is MUCH smaller. It might take months. Plus, there is a major problem for what your heirs would have to do if something happens to you. A friend's late husband collected vintage musical equipment... pedals, speakers, keyboards, etc. He died with a house full of this stuff and his widow had no idea of how to get rid of it. It has been over a year and she still has one entire side of the garage and one bedroom filled with stuff that's worth tens of thousands of dollars, but people want to know it actually works before buying it. It has been a MAJOR hassle that you wouldn't want to leave to your spouse or children. In fact, what survivors typically do is sell it at auction for pennies on the dollar. I'd recommend a portfolio of ETFs. Vanguard is good, but there are others I would recommend as well. That's what some of the professional asset managers use. I know because I held the CFP designation for 34 years before retiring.