Good mornng again.
Nice picture of a bird. Looks like he’s coming in for a landing.
Everything is OK here. I’m drinking my second cup of coffee.
Not anything else going on.
And at this stage of life, that’s good.
Good morning and good to see Chas up front and center. Finished Bible time and headed off to do chores shortly. Just getting my morning fix of you all and what is happening in the world before we move to Belize.
I need to grocery shop, but tend to put it off as long as I can which can mean we have some different types of meals. Necessity is the Mother of Invention, etc.
Not much going on here, either, Chas. I need to make coffee and do Bible study. I just put a lot of little things on my to do list, things of little significance to others, but things that have to be done. And oh, I forgot to add Miss Bosley’s three year rabies shot. We might bite her and make her mad!
Actually the bird flew in, touched down, grabbed a seed in it’s beak, and was taking off again when I snapped it. He threw out his wings and just dropped off the top. 🙂
I see on TV where they are trying to delete the difference between male and female athletes.
It can’t be done.
It all seems silly to me.
Nature is what it is. It can’t be changed, no matter what you call it.
It remains the same.
Men can do some things better than women.
Women can do some things better than men.
That’s the way it was meant to be.
Nobody can change it.
Still reading in Leviticus. This morning I read again about how the farmer should leave the edges for the poor. It does not say he should harvest it, mill it, clean it, grind it, and bake it into bread before giving it to the poor. Though there is room for doing all that for people who are very ill or broken, by leaving it on the edge of the field, it encourages the poor to participate in their food process. I think that is a very good thing. What a wise God we serve.
” The study notes that “80% of US states mandated masks during the COVID-19 pandemic” and while “mandates induced greater mask compliance, [they] did not predict lower growth rates when community spread was low (minima) or high (maxima).” Among other things, the study—conducted using data from the CDC covering multiple seasons—reports that “mask mandates and use are not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among US states.”
“Our findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mask use,” notes the U of L report. Researchers stated that “masks may promote social cohesion as rallying symbols during a pandemic, but risk compensation can also occur” before listing some observed risks that accompany mask wearing:
Prolonged mask use (>4 hours per day) promotes facial alkalinization and inadvertently encourages dehydration, which in turn can enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection risk. British clinicians have reported masks to increase headaches and sweating and decrease cognitive precision. ”
The first ecological study of state mask mandates and use to include winter data:
"Case growth was independent of mandates at low and high rates of community spread, and mask use did not predict case growth during the Summer or Fall-Winter waves."https://t.co/FAyieg02tJpic.twitter.com/FVaDF112Q0
Funny. Husband tried to get some universities to study the mental decline in children who cover their heads while sleeping (many in foster care are fearful of earlier events and sleep totally covered, and many have apparently slower cognitive processing. Interesting to see that masks do exactly that. The universities all told him it was not possible as our self preservation would get the blanket off when oxygen went down.
10:45: yep. My brother-in-law, a metallurgist, sent one of his employees out East recently to do some materials testing at a place where scientists are doing covid research. When the employee arrived at the facility, he saw the scientists at work in a room, and none of them wore masks.
Puzzled, he asked if he should wear a mask? The reply: “Masks are worthless.”
Masks have their uses. I don’t think anyone here, if they had surgery, would want the surgeon sneezing into their incision. Masks were used in hospitals for sterile procedures and for those on droplet and airborne precautions in hospital long before COVID. Masks are not a new invention and not a useless one. I am not surprised state mask mandates didn’t slow transmission, as people made a point of refusing to comply. All those anti-mask protesters would have done an excellent job undermining the mandates. When a large portion of a population refuses to follow instructions, that doesn’t mean the instructions wouldn’t have worked if followed. As for cognitive decline while wearing a mask, that is nonsense. Surgeons perform long intricate surgeries while wearing masks – such surgeries can sometimes go on for 24 hours.
As for the anecdote about the scientists, the scientific community is not immune to not taking safety precautions because it is inconvenient for them or gets in the way of their work. Handwashing is a very useful practice, but doctors and nurses often in the course of a long busy day, omit handwashing all too frequently and that was a problem before COVID. Scientists have been known to infect themselves, injure themselves, and even accidentally kill themselves with their experiments because they chose to take risks.
I had a great uncle who was a farmer, who would handle pesticide treated seed with his bare hands. He scoffed at any kind of precautions with handling, insisting, “You could eat the stuff.” He died of a rare form of cancer in his fifties.
I wore my mask in Publix this morning and so did everyone else. It encourages keeping the distance since it reminds that the times are still not back to normal.
I have to order a few graduation photos. I never knew as a parent that this late in life I would still be paying for such as that. And they still cost a lot only now we get to buy digital as well as print if we desire.
Mumsee, anecdotal reports by British clinicians does not established scientific fact make. There are other factors to be considered why people feel their mental processes decline while wearing masks. A big one is the sensation of having something, which only surgical teams are accustomed to, could prove distracting. So the apparent cognitive decline is just as likely to be mere distraction. I just spent 36 hours taking care of patients, and I was unable, due to time constraints, to remove my mask for long stretches of time. On Saturday, I saw about 20 patients between noon and eight in the evening, and I was unable to even stop to eat supper. Any cognitive decline I experienced was due to sheer fatigue from being actively treating patients for such a long stretch at a time. I didn’t even notice the mask.
What I find so ridiculous about the complaints about masks is that for millennia before the 20th century, both men and women covered their faces with far heavier materials. Women wore veils on a regular basis, and they were not light gauzy things – ever seen a picture of Victorian-era widow’s weeds? The veil was dense enough to completely obscure the widow’s entire face and extended nearly to the floor. It was as obscuring as the burkha, and the Victorian women who wore them also wore corsets and heavy petticoats. Did Moses suffer cognitive decline when he veiled his face from the Israelites? God mandated that those declared unclean with leprosy cover their lower faces. I saw Tuareg men in West Africa, who are noticeable because they cover the lower half of their faces with the ends of their turbans, while their women go unveiled – it is a rite of passage into manhood to cover the face. The trouble with modern Western society when faced with COVID precautions is a lack of imagination – they cannot conceive that humans can live in different conditions than the ones to which the modern West is accustomed.
Well, just got my first dose of allergy desensitization. Had to go to the hospital to take it, just in case I had an anaphylactic reaction. I didn’t, but it did cause allergic symptoms. That’s expected though. I will have to do this for about 3 years, and it is just for my dust mite allergy, which is the most severe and debilitating one I have.
I’m in the brutal Isaiah 13 today, and this Enduring Word comment struck me:
We often – to his great delight – inflate Satan’s status and importance. We think of him as the opposite of God; as if God were light and Satan were darkness, as if God were hot and Satan were cold. Satan wishes he was the opposite of God, but God wants us to know now what everyone will know someday – that Satan is a mere creature and is in no way the opposite of God. If Satan has an opposite, it is not God the Father or God the Son, it would be a high-ranking angelic being such as Michael.
My understanding is that Satan is a fallen angel. That is, he is an angel who is powerful beyond imaginable capabilities of humans. but he is not an “inferior” god.
I have no problem with wearing a mask for others. It is just that I do not go anywhere that would offer that.
The covering up with blankets thing is taking place in children, who are still developing brains. By the time they develop, they seem to decline again. I suppose it would be the same regardless.
I wish I could look up the Biblical sections to back up my argument above. But my vision doesn’t permit such anymore.
But I will be 91 in August. It has been a good life. But I am ready to go.
Don’t weep for me when the time comes.
Seriously: When I lost Elvera, I lost my reason for being here.
Chas, the doctrine of Satan is made up of a number of different passages. The first is the serpent in the Garden, which is the first indication that there is a part of the Creation that is rebellious. The next clear mention of Satan or the Adversary (that is what Satan means) is in the book of Job. The context indicates that Satan is an angel, because he appears before God when the other angels, called “sons of God”, do. Although the heavenly scene in Job is a strange one, it is not wholly without precedent, as the prophet Micaiah describes a similar scene in heaven to king Ahab. I Kings 22:
‘Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.
And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.’
I have never read any commentary on this passage or heard a sermon on it, so I do not know if it is considered to be Satan in this passage, but since Satan is described by Christ as the father of lies, the passage is another indication that even the rebellious angels are under God’s control when it comes to how they interact with humans.
It’s been a too-busy morning with the vet appointment (and lots of problems again getting Cowboy in the car, 35-year-old teen next door wandered out at some point and the timing was perfect, he’s helped me with Cowboy before). I wonder if I’m causing more damage or injury just in this whole process of coming and going for these treatments (which do seem to be helping).
Then it was 90-minutes on staff calls, then the mobile screen guy came to re-screen the one panel that the cat tore. $105. There’s a diversity call at 1 which I may or may not make, as I also have a story to turn in.
I’m forgetting my mask sometimes now, so I am keeping extras both in the car and in my bag. Numbers here continue to stabilize in low percentages, but since not everyone is vaccinated the masks remain a logical approach — and most businesses, stores, etc., still require them. Screen guy wasn’t wearing one and neither was I — outdoors, I’m guessing (but didn’t ask) that he’s also vaccinated.
The other Old Testament passages that are traditionally viewed as referring to Satan are parts of the prophecies to the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14 and to the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 26. The Isaiah 14:12 passage is where the name Lucifer comes from. I say traditionally because there is a school of modern thought in the church, and I mean the orthodox church, which now claims there is no evidence these passage refer to anyone else other than the kings of Babylon and Tyre, but I find their argument doubtful and lacking in spiritual imagination.
In the New Testament, it becomes obvious there is more than one fallen angel at work tormenting humans, with a whole legion inhabiting one man, but their limitations also become obvious – the Legion couldn’t stay on earth without having a physical habitation of some kind, and they are none of them singly or as a whole able to withstand the Holy Spirit working in the name of Jesus. Jesus gives a couple of brief character descriptions of Satan, calling him a murderer and the father of lies. There are warnings about the Adversary given in the epistles of the Apostles, but they are brief and it is made clear by James that temptation comes from human lusts and that the demons are always aware of the existence of God and tremble for it, while Jude uses the example of Michael contending with Satan by letting God rebuke Satan to caution against spiritual pride in humans. Revelation finally describes the Adversary as a dragon, but makes it clear that the dragon will be defeated. The New Testament treats Satan as an enemy already defeated by God the Son, who just does damage where he is allowed by humans but is otherwise toothless.
There are a couple posts from Facebook that I have recently read that have me slightly puzzled. The subject that each one is touching on is how neurodivergent people (for instance, those on the autism spectrum) understand things vs. how neurotypical people understand things.
The first one is explaining to people on the spectrum that when a neurotypical person asks something like “What game are you playing?” or “What are you watching?” they don’t really want you to explain the game or the show, but they are really asking to join you. So if you (the person on the autism spectrum) explains the game or the show/movie, the other person will feel that you are rejecting them by not asking them to join you.
When I read that, my thought was that if I ask what someone is playing or watching, then yes, I do want an explanation, and am not necessarily asking to join them. When I commented that, the reply implied that I may very well be on the spectrum myself (not that there is anything wrong with that, of course).
The latest post claims that “bringing up a relatable story about yourself when someone is telling you something about themselves is a way that neurodivergent people connect with others and show that they care.” So supposedly, neurotypical (aka “normal”) people don’t do that?
What do you all think about these examples? Do you think the people who wrote them are off-base? Or am I the one who is confused?
I’m not a scientist, obviously, but since Covid can be spread by droplets from the mouth and nose, it makes (common) sense to me that the masks offer at least some protection in situations where there could be face-to-face interactions or exposures.
It’s so interesting how all of this has become so steeped in one’s politics (bolstered by niche partisan media outlets on top of that). But I’d guess that’s because we already were so divided in this country that there is now no non-political issue that exists? Because we insist on making everything political.
Kizzie, I have no idea whether I am neurotypical or not – I suspect not, because my father would probably classified as on the autism spectrum had he to grown up today and I am very like my father in mental processes and I have always been a social misfit. But when I ask what are you watching/playing I don’t necessarily want to join, I just want the information. I might then decide to join you if it interests me enough, but only if I know the person well enough to feel comfortable asking for that. I also find telling personal anecdotes to be a common human experience. I think who ever wrote those comments is just attention seeking.
Likewise. I see on TV where Biden is proposing a 6 Trillion budget.
That is six thousand billion dollars.
Thee ain’t that much money.
Somebody figure out how much money that is per person.
Who will get this money?
What will happen when people realize that sil trillion dollars doesn’t exist.??
Roscuro – I had a similar reaction. Most people I know will offer a relatable story in a conversation. We do it on here all the time.
Those posts were shared by, although not written by, YA, who prefaced one by including herself as one who is neurodivergent. It is very possible that she is, but it is also very possible that she is looking for attention, as she often does (and she tends to greatly exaggerate).
For a year after college I rented a bedroom from a couple I got to know while I was in college (I worked for her one summer) who rented out bedrooms. We were told that if they were considering bringing in a new boarder they’d ask us first, so at one point they mentioned the name of someone and I said I didn’t get the sense that she liked me and I would rather not have her in my home, if I had any say in the matter. I was told that I didn’t, and she moved in.
She was emotionally troubled/needy enough that it was an awkward few months. Among other things, she hogged the household phone several hours several times a week to cry about stuff that had been revealed through hidden memories. Just overall not the best housemate ever. But the thing relevant to this conversation is that if I came through the living room and she was watching something, I’d ask, “What are you watching?” and nod and look interested, just to be polite, because I really didn’t care what she watched and I mostly just stayed out of her way. Likewise, if I went into the kitchen to make supper and she was making something, I’d ask what she was making, as a way of making smalltalk.
After she’d lived in the house a few months she told me she needed to talk to me about something. So I sat down and she told me she felt like I was “spying” on her because I’d ask what she was watching on TV or what she was eating for supper. I told her I was sorry, didn’t mean to give that impression, and I wouldn’t do it again. After that I just tried to stay in my bedroom if she was out and about. At the time, my social skills were still pretty weak, and it never even occurred to me to explain to her, “This is just basic smalltalk, a way to make a small connection if you share a home with someone.” I didn’t bother to tell her that far from “spying” on her, I really didn’t care at all what she watched or what she ate, but was doing the barest minimum to be polite to someone who really never bothered to return the favor.
Kizzie, I am very distractible–a moving object always catches my eye even if I’m talking to someone. I think I might be somewhere “on the spectrum” too–but what does that even mean? The reality is that people are all different, and there’s no such thing as a precise “normal.” If I ask what someone is watching on TV, I’m being polite. If I want to join and watch, too, I will either just do so or ask “Mind if I watch, too?” I don’t need an invitation. Giving an invitation might be polite, but it isn’t a “necessary” thing to politeness. The polite thing to do in that situation is to answer the question; whether or not you ask the person to watch with you is up to you.
My hunch is that neurodivergent people (what a bulky term!) are less likely than average to bring up a “relatable” story, because they’re less likely to have the social skills for that level of give and take. But I might be wrong. I sense sometimes that I myself am too quick to tell a “relatable” story and that people sometimes think I’m just trying to turn the spotlight onto myself. In reality, I’m a word person and a storyteller, and stories come to mind readily for me.
Cheryl – That was my thought, too – that bringing up a relatable story would be less likely to happen with someone on the spectrum. Like you, I do that myself, and then sometimes worry that I may come across as “making it all about me”. There are some people who do that by then commandeering the discussion to their own situation, away from the first person who was talking.
I have said it before, I will say it again. We are all on the spectrum. It is called being human. We really need to stop labeling as though it meant anything. People act like people. Some go this way, some go that.
Feel free to disagree.
My dear father does that steering to his favorite topics. We will be discussing a topic and he will say, “That’s just like…” and segue onto his favorite soapbox. We can all tell he doesn’t mean any harm, but his tenacity in talking about his interests even when other people are talking if other things is one of the traits we find indicative of the autistic spectrum. His eldest grandson is very like him, and he too is very likely on the spectrum as he even has the repetitive movements and sensory alteration that are characteristic, and he is a savant musically. What drives me crazy about my eldest nephew is that he is a musical savant and he doesn’t care – he isn’t even interested in making music his profession. As a young child he used to him all the different parts of the orchestra in Beethoven’s Fifth, and play the soundtracks of his favorite video games by ear on the piano. By age twelve, he had made a CD of electronic music – I bought it from iTunes and really like two of the tracks. But he doesn’t see his marvelous gift and instead dreams of being an engineer. It isn’t that he isn’t smart enough to be an engineer, as he is, but rather that his natural skill lies in building cities of sound, not of mortar and steel, and he cannot see that.
Mumsee, there are those whose point on the spectrum needs acknowledging. I have a friend whose brother is further down the spectrum, and this brother has sensory alteration to the point where he laughs when he is in pain. That is the kind of thing that needs to be recognized. I think there is benefit in realizing there is an average or normal. It is rather like the discussion earlier on male and female. If one cannot say, for fear of offending that it is normal to be able to see, or to walk, or to interact politely with strangers, then there is no way forward to being able to cure or alleviate blindness or assist those unable to walk or to correct impolite social behaviour.
Roscuro, it is also very, very difficult to make a living in music, and engineers have some job security I think. So it may be that he’ll make a living as an engineer but get a chance to excel at music when he doesn’t have the pressure of making a living off it.
Our younger daughter, though, is quite gifted musically, with a natural touch on the piano. Her teacher told us she is the best student she ever had–but she almost never practiced. Her interest in it and her skills in it didn’t match. We’d like to see her play or teach or otherwise use it, but at least at this point I don’t think she really cares. She does play for church sometimes, or did before Covid, but I don’t think she plays other than to practice and play the hymns.
Kizzie, YF seems to need affirmation of the wacky view she has of the world, and she seems to enjoy putting herself up and others down. Maybe that is entertainment for her, to find those who will in some way engage in her game?
Morning all. Off to school on this Friday morning. Today I must share with my class that little Emery Jean, my best friends granddaughter, died at three days old. She only weighed less than a pound and a half, but the class has prayed for her.
Roscuro, I do agree that it is helpful to know where a person is different from “normal.” But whether that requires a specific label is sometimes in doubt. I also personally know the harm that labels can cause. As a child I didn’t fit in, because I wore the wrong clothes, didn’t have specific skills my peers had, etc. Directly or indirectly I was labeled weird. Recently my only sister decided that if she had to stop telling me I was “manipulative” (a label that doesn’t fit me), then she should stop talking to me altogether. That label was so important to her she simply could not, or would not, communicate with me without using it.
I think labels can help when they give us a way to feel compassion or understanding–this person is hard of hearing, so speak up. This person is shy to the point of having extreme discomfort if you try to make her carry on a conversation, so tell her hello but don’t insist on conversation. But it’s so easy to turn them into an insult or use them to put people in a box. Or we expect a person not to succeed in anything if he has a limitation or disability. Truth is we are all different and we all have weaknesses and strengths. And ideally we bear with one another in them.
Cheryl, in his case, he could make a living off it. The pieces he made for his CD were, considering his age and lack of technical training, surprisingly good quality – the best tracks have the ability to evoke scene and mood in a manner reminiscent of the great film composer of electronic music, Vangelis. Had I half my nephew’s talent, I would not have hesitated to go into music professionally, and I am not without musical talent. With a bit of sincere work, any avenue in the music industry would be open to him, and there are many avenues. But it was ever thus. I have an uncle and a cousin who were born able to play music, having perfect pitch and the ability to teach themselves any instrument. Neither of them even play anymore. In fairness to my cousin, he only associates music with the long hours his father made him practice every day throughout his childhood and youth, but it is maddening to think of that talent laid waste.
Labels: they are useful for people dealing with them, and maybe useful in the fact that a label says there are others like you. But too often they become something else.
Of course, everybody needs to be taught good manners. And how to work. And how to learn.
If I was to label somebody, it might be the man who brought son to us. Very odd social graces, but he could play anything on the piano. He made some music and sold it and is quite gifted but he prefers to flip houses with his wife (the sister of son) and with our son. He also does some amazing coding or whatever and is wealthy enough to travel for months at a time thanks to that bit of effort and the music. But they enjoy flipping houses and raising their little boy. His label has done nothing to help or hinder him.
But unless it is acknowledged that someone who cannot see will not be able to work in the same way someone who can see does, then unnecessary and even cruel difficulties will be placed on the person without sight who tries to work. If parts of a body or brain are missing or damage, it does no good to pretend they are not missing are damaged.
Cheryl, I also was labeled as weird, in fact, we all were. Second was outright bullied by her peers in our childhood church for her odd style of dress. But that labeling by peers is unofficial and I’ll informed. The labeling of a diagnosis is different. Incidentally, my nephew has never been diagnosed, because he has never been assessed. But that has not stopped some peers in their church from labeling him weird.
When I was finally diagnosed with Moebius Syndrome at age 16, it was such a relief. Until then, my facial paralysis was just weird-looking, but once diagnosed, it was neat to know that there were others out there like me. (Although not many, percentage-wise. Nobody really knows how many of us there are, but Moebius is referred to as “extremely rare”.)
Masks: Is there any validity to the MIT study which showed that indoors, with cloth masks the droplets can travel up to 60 feet, meaning that the usual 6 ft “social distancing” is useless?
DJ- That baseball play is funny when you realize, that as Chas said, the 1st baseman only has to tag the base. But it is also the Pirates, a team that doesn’t win a lot. Now we now why.
The best and most that can be done for YF or YA is prayer as you note, Michelle. Engaging with God on her behalf helps a lot more than engaging with her or her posts directly.
Good morning! This is the first day of racing. I am still at the ER finishing up my night shift before heading to the track. I have a transfer pending.
Wandering Views 
Good mornng again.
Nice picture of a bird. Looks like he’s coming in for a landing.
Everything is OK here. I’m drinking my second cup of coffee.
Not anything else going on.
And at this stage of life, that’s good.
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Good morning and good to see Chas up front and center. Finished Bible time and headed off to do chores shortly. Just getting my morning fix of you all and what is happening in the world before we move to Belize.
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So glad to find Chas here this a.m.
I need to grocery shop, but tend to put it off as long as I can which can mean we have some different types of meals. Necessity is the Mother of Invention, etc.
Not much going on here, either, Chas. I need to make coffee and do Bible study. I just put a lot of little things on my to do list, things of little significance to others, but things that have to be done. And oh, I forgot to add Miss Bosley’s three year rabies shot. We might bite her and make her mad!
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Actually the bird flew in, touched down, grabbed a seed in it’s beak, and was taking off again when I snapped it. He threw out his wings and just dropped off the top. 🙂
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You caught him just at the right time, AJ. Good picture.
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I see on TV where they are trying to delete the difference between male and female athletes.
It can’t be done.
It all seems silly to me.
Nature is what it is. It can’t be changed, no matter what you call it.
It remains the same.
Men can do some things better than women.
Women can do some things better than men.
That’s the way it was meant to be.
Nobody can change it.
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And those differences should be celebrated, not disparaged. God knew what he was doing and still does.
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We have definitely gone backward in that and in race relations in the past forty years.
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Still reading in Leviticus. This morning I read again about how the farmer should leave the edges for the poor. It does not say he should harvest it, mill it, clean it, grind it, and bake it into bread before giving it to the poor. Though there is room for doing all that for people who are very ill or broken, by leaving it on the edge of the field, it encourages the poor to participate in their food process. I think that is a very good thing. What a wise God we serve.
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The “experts”……
Wrong again.
” The study notes that “80% of US states mandated masks during the COVID-19 pandemic” and while “mandates induced greater mask compliance, [they] did not predict lower growth rates when community spread was low (minima) or high (maxima).” Among other things, the study—conducted using data from the CDC covering multiple seasons—reports that “mask mandates and use are not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among US states.”
“Our findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mask use,” notes the U of L report. Researchers stated that “masks may promote social cohesion as rallying symbols during a pandemic, but risk compensation can also occur” before listing some observed risks that accompany mask wearing:
Prolonged mask use (>4 hours per day) promotes facial alkalinization and inadvertently encourages dehydration, which in turn can enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection risk. British clinicians have reported masks to increase headaches and sweating and decrease cognitive precision. ”
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Funny. Husband tried to get some universities to study the mental decline in children who cover their heads while sleeping (many in foster care are fearful of earlier events and sleep totally covered, and many have apparently slower cognitive processing. Interesting to see that masks do exactly that. The universities all told him it was not possible as our self preservation would get the blanket off when oxygen went down.
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10:45: yep. My brother-in-law, a metallurgist, sent one of his employees out East recently to do some materials testing at a place where scientists are doing covid research. When the employee arrived at the facility, he saw the scientists at work in a room, and none of them wore masks.
Puzzled, he asked if he should wear a mask? The reply: “Masks are worthless.”
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Masks have their uses. I don’t think anyone here, if they had surgery, would want the surgeon sneezing into their incision. Masks were used in hospitals for sterile procedures and for those on droplet and airborne precautions in hospital long before COVID. Masks are not a new invention and not a useless one. I am not surprised state mask mandates didn’t slow transmission, as people made a point of refusing to comply. All those anti-mask protesters would have done an excellent job undermining the mandates. When a large portion of a population refuses to follow instructions, that doesn’t mean the instructions wouldn’t have worked if followed. As for cognitive decline while wearing a mask, that is nonsense. Surgeons perform long intricate surgeries while wearing masks – such surgeries can sometimes go on for 24 hours.
As for the anecdote about the scientists, the scientific community is not immune to not taking safety precautions because it is inconvenient for them or gets in the way of their work. Handwashing is a very useful practice, but doctors and nurses often in the course of a long busy day, omit handwashing all too frequently and that was a problem before COVID. Scientists have been known to infect themselves, injure themselves, and even accidentally kill themselves with their experiments because they chose to take risks.
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I had a great uncle who was a farmer, who would handle pesticide treated seed with his bare hands. He scoffed at any kind of precautions with handling, insisting, “You could eat the stuff.” He died of a rare form of cancer in his fifties.
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Funny how nonsense becomes fact at times.
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https://ministrywatch.com/study-more-churches-closing-than-opening/
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I wore my mask in Publix this morning and so did everyone else. It encourages keeping the distance since it reminds that the times are still not back to normal.
I have to order a few graduation photos. I never knew as a parent that this late in life I would still be paying for such as that. And they still cost a lot only now we get to buy digital as well as print if we desire.
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The masks were to protect others, not yourself.
I wear a mask in public to honor others’ concerns, not my own.
If everyone is vaccinated, no one has to wear a mask.
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Mumsee, anecdotal reports by British clinicians does not established scientific fact make. There are other factors to be considered why people feel their mental processes decline while wearing masks. A big one is the sensation of having something, which only surgical teams are accustomed to, could prove distracting. So the apparent cognitive decline is just as likely to be mere distraction. I just spent 36 hours taking care of patients, and I was unable, due to time constraints, to remove my mask for long stretches of time. On Saturday, I saw about 20 patients between noon and eight in the evening, and I was unable to even stop to eat supper. Any cognitive decline I experienced was due to sheer fatigue from being actively treating patients for such a long stretch at a time. I didn’t even notice the mask.
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What I find so ridiculous about the complaints about masks is that for millennia before the 20th century, both men and women covered their faces with far heavier materials. Women wore veils on a regular basis, and they were not light gauzy things – ever seen a picture of Victorian-era widow’s weeds? The veil was dense enough to completely obscure the widow’s entire face and extended nearly to the floor. It was as obscuring as the burkha, and the Victorian women who wore them also wore corsets and heavy petticoats. Did Moses suffer cognitive decline when he veiled his face from the Israelites? God mandated that those declared unclean with leprosy cover their lower faces. I saw Tuareg men in West Africa, who are noticeable because they cover the lower half of their faces with the ends of their turbans, while their women go unveiled – it is a rite of passage into manhood to cover the face. The trouble with modern Western society when faced with COVID precautions is a lack of imagination – they cannot conceive that humans can live in different conditions than the ones to which the modern West is accustomed.
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Well, just got my first dose of allergy desensitization. Had to go to the hospital to take it, just in case I had an anaphylactic reaction. I didn’t, but it did cause allergic symptoms. That’s expected though. I will have to do this for about 3 years, and it is just for my dust mite allergy, which is the most severe and debilitating one I have.
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I’m in the brutal Isaiah 13 today, and this Enduring Word comment struck me:
We often – to his great delight – inflate Satan’s status and importance. We think of him as the opposite of God; as if God were light and Satan were darkness, as if God were hot and Satan were cold. Satan wishes he was the opposite of God, but God wants us to know now what everyone will know someday – that Satan is a mere creature and is in no way the opposite of God. If Satan has an opposite, it is not God the Father or God the Son, it would be a high-ranking angelic being such as Michael.
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My understanding is that Satan is a fallen angel. That is, he is an angel who is powerful beyond imaginable capabilities of humans. but he is not an “inferior” god.
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I have no problem with wearing a mask for others. It is just that I do not go anywhere that would offer that.
The covering up with blankets thing is taking place in children, who are still developing brains. By the time they develop, they seem to decline again. I suppose it would be the same regardless.
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I wish I could look up the Biblical sections to back up my argument above. But my vision doesn’t permit such anymore.
But I will be 91 in August. It has been a good life. But I am ready to go.
Don’t weep for me when the time comes.
Seriously: When I lost Elvera, I lost my reason for being here.
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Chas, the doctrine of Satan is made up of a number of different passages. The first is the serpent in the Garden, which is the first indication that there is a part of the Creation that is rebellious. The next clear mention of Satan or the Adversary (that is what Satan means) is in the book of Job. The context indicates that Satan is an angel, because he appears before God when the other angels, called “sons of God”, do. Although the heavenly scene in Job is a strange one, it is not wholly without precedent, as the prophet Micaiah describes a similar scene in heaven to king Ahab. I Kings 22:
‘Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.
And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.’
I have never read any commentary on this passage or heard a sermon on it, so I do not know if it is considered to be Satan in this passage, but since Satan is described by Christ as the father of lies, the passage is another indication that even the rebellious angels are under God’s control when it comes to how they interact with humans.
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It’s been a too-busy morning with the vet appointment (and lots of problems again getting Cowboy in the car, 35-year-old teen next door wandered out at some point and the timing was perfect, he’s helped me with Cowboy before). I wonder if I’m causing more damage or injury just in this whole process of coming and going for these treatments (which do seem to be helping).
Then it was 90-minutes on staff calls, then the mobile screen guy came to re-screen the one panel that the cat tore. $105. There’s a diversity call at 1 which I may or may not make, as I also have a story to turn in.
I’m forgetting my mask sometimes now, so I am keeping extras both in the car and in my bag. Numbers here continue to stabilize in low percentages, but since not everyone is vaccinated the masks remain a logical approach — and most businesses, stores, etc., still require them. Screen guy wasn’t wearing one and neither was I — outdoors, I’m guessing (but didn’t ask) that he’s also vaccinated.
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The other Old Testament passages that are traditionally viewed as referring to Satan are parts of the prophecies to the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14 and to the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 26. The Isaiah 14:12 passage is where the name Lucifer comes from. I say traditionally because there is a school of modern thought in the church, and I mean the orthodox church, which now claims there is no evidence these passage refer to anyone else other than the kings of Babylon and Tyre, but I find their argument doubtful and lacking in spiritual imagination.
In the New Testament, it becomes obvious there is more than one fallen angel at work tormenting humans, with a whole legion inhabiting one man, but their limitations also become obvious – the Legion couldn’t stay on earth without having a physical habitation of some kind, and they are none of them singly or as a whole able to withstand the Holy Spirit working in the name of Jesus. Jesus gives a couple of brief character descriptions of Satan, calling him a murderer and the father of lies. There are warnings about the Adversary given in the epistles of the Apostles, but they are brief and it is made clear by James that temptation comes from human lusts and that the demons are always aware of the existence of God and tremble for it, while Jude uses the example of Michael contending with Satan by letting God rebuke Satan to caution against spiritual pride in humans. Revelation finally describes the Adversary as a dragon, but makes it clear that the dragon will be defeated. The New Testament treats Satan as an enemy already defeated by God the Son, who just does damage where he is allowed by humans but is otherwise toothless.
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There are a couple posts from Facebook that I have recently read that have me slightly puzzled. The subject that each one is touching on is how neurodivergent people (for instance, those on the autism spectrum) understand things vs. how neurotypical people understand things.
The first one is explaining to people on the spectrum that when a neurotypical person asks something like “What game are you playing?” or “What are you watching?” they don’t really want you to explain the game or the show, but they are really asking to join you. So if you (the person on the autism spectrum) explains the game or the show/movie, the other person will feel that you are rejecting them by not asking them to join you.
When I read that, my thought was that if I ask what someone is playing or watching, then yes, I do want an explanation, and am not necessarily asking to join them. When I commented that, the reply implied that I may very well be on the spectrum myself (not that there is anything wrong with that, of course).
The latest post claims that “bringing up a relatable story about yourself when someone is telling you something about themselves is a way that neurodivergent people connect with others and show that they care.” So supposedly, neurotypical (aka “normal”) people don’t do that?
What do you all think about these examples? Do you think the people who wrote them are off-base? Or am I the one who is confused?
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I forgot to add that I’ve always thought that “bringing up a relatable story” is a perfectly “normal” way to communicate within a conversation.
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I’m not a scientist, obviously, but since Covid can be spread by droplets from the mouth and nose, it makes (common) sense to me that the masks offer at least some protection in situations where there could be face-to-face interactions or exposures.
It’s so interesting how all of this has become so steeped in one’s politics (bolstered by niche partisan media outlets on top of that). But I’d guess that’s because we already were so divided in this country that there is now no non-political issue that exists? Because we insist on making everything political.
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Kizzie, I have no idea whether I am neurotypical or not – I suspect not, because my father would probably classified as on the autism spectrum had he to grown up today and I am very like my father in mental processes and I have always been a social misfit. But when I ask what are you watching/playing I don’t necessarily want to join, I just want the information. I might then decide to join you if it interests me enough, but only if I know the person well enough to feel comfortable asking for that. I also find telling personal anecdotes to be a common human experience. I think who ever wrote those comments is just attention seeking.
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Now this looks, feels and even ‘smells’ (via my imagination) like summer to me.
And it’s the Chicago Cubs, just for Cheryl.
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Re: 3:08. I don’t get it All the first basemen had to do is touch first.
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Likewise. I see on TV where Biden is proposing a 6 Trillion budget.
That is six thousand billion dollars.
Thee ain’t that much money.
Somebody figure out how much money that is per person.
Who will get this money?
What will happen when people realize that sil trillion dollars doesn’t exist.??
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I am 90 years old. .
It doesn’t really concern me, but I worry about what will happen when people try to collect on some of this “money”.
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Roscuro – I had a similar reaction. Most people I know will offer a relatable story in a conversation. We do it on here all the time.
Those posts were shared by, although not written by, YA, who prefaced one by including herself as one who is neurodivergent. It is very possible that she is, but it is also very possible that she is looking for attention, as she often does (and she tends to greatly exaggerate).
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For a year after college I rented a bedroom from a couple I got to know while I was in college (I worked for her one summer) who rented out bedrooms. We were told that if they were considering bringing in a new boarder they’d ask us first, so at one point they mentioned the name of someone and I said I didn’t get the sense that she liked me and I would rather not have her in my home, if I had any say in the matter. I was told that I didn’t, and she moved in.
She was emotionally troubled/needy enough that it was an awkward few months. Among other things, she hogged the household phone several hours several times a week to cry about stuff that had been revealed through hidden memories. Just overall not the best housemate ever. But the thing relevant to this conversation is that if I came through the living room and she was watching something, I’d ask, “What are you watching?” and nod and look interested, just to be polite, because I really didn’t care what she watched and I mostly just stayed out of her way. Likewise, if I went into the kitchen to make supper and she was making something, I’d ask what she was making, as a way of making smalltalk.
After she’d lived in the house a few months she told me she needed to talk to me about something. So I sat down and she told me she felt like I was “spying” on her because I’d ask what she was watching on TV or what she was eating for supper. I told her I was sorry, didn’t mean to give that impression, and I wouldn’t do it again. After that I just tried to stay in my bedroom if she was out and about. At the time, my social skills were still pretty weak, and it never even occurred to me to explain to her, “This is just basic smalltalk, a way to make a small connection if you share a home with someone.” I didn’t bother to tell her that far from “spying” on her, I really didn’t care at all what she watched or what she ate, but was doing the barest minimum to be polite to someone who really never bothered to return the favor.
Kizzie, I am very distractible–a moving object always catches my eye even if I’m talking to someone. I think I might be somewhere “on the spectrum” too–but what does that even mean? The reality is that people are all different, and there’s no such thing as a precise “normal.” If I ask what someone is watching on TV, I’m being polite. If I want to join and watch, too, I will either just do so or ask “Mind if I watch, too?” I don’t need an invitation. Giving an invitation might be polite, but it isn’t a “necessary” thing to politeness. The polite thing to do in that situation is to answer the question; whether or not you ask the person to watch with you is up to you.
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My hunch is that neurodivergent people (what a bulky term!) are less likely than average to bring up a “relatable” story, because they’re less likely to have the social skills for that level of give and take. But I might be wrong. I sense sometimes that I myself am too quick to tell a “relatable” story and that people sometimes think I’m just trying to turn the spotlight onto myself. In reality, I’m a word person and a storyteller, and stories come to mind readily for me.
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Cheryl – That was my thought, too – that bringing up a relatable story would be less likely to happen with someone on the spectrum. Like you, I do that myself, and then sometimes worry that I may come across as “making it all about me”. There are some people who do that by then commandeering the discussion to their own situation, away from the first person who was talking.
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Really, I think most people do that, don’t they?
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I have said it before, I will say it again. We are all on the spectrum. It is called being human. We really need to stop labeling as though it meant anything. People act like people. Some go this way, some go that.
Feel free to disagree.
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My dear father does that steering to his favorite topics. We will be discussing a topic and he will say, “That’s just like…” and segue onto his favorite soapbox. We can all tell he doesn’t mean any harm, but his tenacity in talking about his interests even when other people are talking if other things is one of the traits we find indicative of the autistic spectrum. His eldest grandson is very like him, and he too is very likely on the spectrum as he even has the repetitive movements and sensory alteration that are characteristic, and he is a savant musically. What drives me crazy about my eldest nephew is that he is a musical savant and he doesn’t care – he isn’t even interested in making music his profession. As a young child he used to him all the different parts of the orchestra in Beethoven’s Fifth, and play the soundtracks of his favorite video games by ear on the piano. By age twelve, he had made a CD of electronic music – I bought it from iTunes and really like two of the tracks. But he doesn’t see his marvelous gift and instead dreams of being an engineer. It isn’t that he isn’t smart enough to be an engineer, as he is, but rather that his natural skill lies in building cities of sound, not of mortar and steel, and he cannot see that.
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used to *hum
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Mumsee, there are those whose point on the spectrum needs acknowledging. I have a friend whose brother is further down the spectrum, and this brother has sensory alteration to the point where he laughs when he is in pain. That is the kind of thing that needs to be recognized. I think there is benefit in realizing there is an average or normal. It is rather like the discussion earlier on male and female. If one cannot say, for fear of offending that it is normal to be able to see, or to walk, or to interact politely with strangers, then there is no way forward to being able to cure or alleviate blindness or assist those unable to walk or to correct impolite social behaviour.
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Roscuro, it is also very, very difficult to make a living in music, and engineers have some job security I think. So it may be that he’ll make a living as an engineer but get a chance to excel at music when he doesn’t have the pressure of making a living off it.
Our younger daughter, though, is quite gifted musically, with a natural touch on the piano. Her teacher told us she is the best student she ever had–but she almost never practiced. Her interest in it and her skills in it didn’t match. We’d like to see her play or teach or otherwise use it, but at least at this point I don’t think she really cares. She does play for church sometimes, or did before Covid, but I don’t think she plays other than to practice and play the hymns.
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Kizzie, YF seems to need affirmation of the wacky view she has of the world, and she seems to enjoy putting herself up and others down. Maybe that is entertainment for her, to find those who will in some way engage in her game?
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Morning all. Off to school on this Friday morning. Today I must share with my class that little Emery Jean, my best friends granddaughter, died at three days old. She only weighed less than a pound and a half, but the class has prayed for her.
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Roscuro, I do agree that it is helpful to know where a person is different from “normal.” But whether that requires a specific label is sometimes in doubt. I also personally know the harm that labels can cause. As a child I didn’t fit in, because I wore the wrong clothes, didn’t have specific skills my peers had, etc. Directly or indirectly I was labeled weird. Recently my only sister decided that if she had to stop telling me I was “manipulative” (a label that doesn’t fit me), then she should stop talking to me altogether. That label was so important to her she simply could not, or would not, communicate with me without using it.
I think labels can help when they give us a way to feel compassion or understanding–this person is hard of hearing, so speak up. This person is shy to the point of having extreme discomfort if you try to make her carry on a conversation, so tell her hello but don’t insist on conversation. But it’s so easy to turn them into an insult or use them to put people in a box. Or we expect a person not to succeed in anything if he has a limitation or disability. Truth is we are all different and we all have weaknesses and strengths. And ideally we bear with one another in them.
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Cheryl, in his case, he could make a living off it. The pieces he made for his CD were, considering his age and lack of technical training, surprisingly good quality – the best tracks have the ability to evoke scene and mood in a manner reminiscent of the great film composer of electronic music, Vangelis. Had I half my nephew’s talent, I would not have hesitated to go into music professionally, and I am not without musical talent. With a bit of sincere work, any avenue in the music industry would be open to him, and there are many avenues. But it was ever thus. I have an uncle and a cousin who were born able to play music, having perfect pitch and the ability to teach themselves any instrument. Neither of them even play anymore. In fairness to my cousin, he only associates music with the long hours his father made him practice every day throughout his childhood and youth, but it is maddening to think of that talent laid waste.
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I sometimes long to tell him he could be an engineer – a sound engineer.
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Labels: they are useful for people dealing with them, and maybe useful in the fact that a label says there are others like you. But too often they become something else.
Of course, everybody needs to be taught good manners. And how to work. And how to learn.
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If I was to label somebody, it might be the man who brought son to us. Very odd social graces, but he could play anything on the piano. He made some music and sold it and is quite gifted but he prefers to flip houses with his wife (the sister of son) and with our son. He also does some amazing coding or whatever and is wealthy enough to travel for months at a time thanks to that bit of effort and the music. But they enjoy flipping houses and raising their little boy. His label has done nothing to help or hinder him.
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But unless it is acknowledged that someone who cannot see will not be able to work in the same way someone who can see does, then unnecessary and even cruel difficulties will be placed on the person without sight who tries to work. If parts of a body or brain are missing or damage, it does no good to pretend they are not missing are damaged.
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Cheryl, I also was labeled as weird, in fact, we all were. Second was outright bullied by her peers in our childhood church for her odd style of dress. But that labeling by peers is unofficial and I’ll informed. The labeling of a diagnosis is different. Incidentally, my nephew has never been diagnosed, because he has never been assessed. But that has not stopped some peers in their church from labeling him weird.
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When I was finally diagnosed with Moebius Syndrome at age 16, it was such a relief. Until then, my facial paralysis was just weird-looking, but once diagnosed, it was neat to know that there were others out there like me. (Although not many, percentage-wise. Nobody really knows how many of us there are, but Moebius is referred to as “extremely rare”.)
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Masks: Is there any validity to the MIT study which showed that indoors, with cloth masks the droplets can travel up to 60 feet, meaning that the usual 6 ft “social distancing” is useless?
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DJ- That baseball play is funny when you realize, that as Chas said, the 1st baseman only has to tag the base. But it is also the Pirates, a team that doesn’t win a lot. Now we now why.
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I truly can’t comprehend how things like this can happen. I suppose it means college dorms need a bathroom for each room?
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/christian-college-ready-to-challenge-transgender-order-despite-setback/
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Peter, the MIT study did not find that with cloth masks the droplets can travel up to 60 feet. Rather, it found that in enclosed spaces, droplets can travel up to 60 feet, meaning that wearing masks, rather than social distancing 6 feet, was a better safety measure in enclosed spaces: https://www.cnet.com/health/mit-covid-study-shows-indoors-masks-may-be-more-important-than-social-distancing/
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“Mumsee, anecdotal reports by British clinicians does not established scientific fact make. ”
Sure. And there’s no chance the virus escaped a lab in Wuhan. The WHO and The Lancet said that was conspiracy talk.
Except we now know it’s true. They let it out.
Spare me.
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I suspect YF is a damaged woman–many losses, traumas perhaps, and a life filled with people who don’t think she’s of much value.
Or, as we have done, someone who needs prayer–just like the rest of us.
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The best and most that can be done for YF or YA is prayer as you note, Michelle. Engaging with God on her behalf helps a lot more than engaging with her or her posts directly.
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The Real, actually we do not know. Three sick Wuhan lab technicians in November 2019 are not proof, especially since there is evidence that COVID was circulating in Europe in September 2019: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-anitbodies-covid-study-b1723243.html
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I see on TV that Congress wants to punish China for spreading the virus.
How will they go about punishing China??
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OH! Good morning everyone, but Jo.
Good night Jo.
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Good morning! This is the first day of racing. I am still at the ER finishing up my night shift before heading to the track. I have a transfer pending.
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