But you can't know that, Rip. Because you don't have models.
Obviously.
Printable View
Rob. That IS science. You have done a spectacular job of defining science. They had a hypotesis, proceeded to test it and now have some evidence that may be explanatory. The experiment will need to be repeated and they'll need to try with different variables. Of course it doesn't "prove" anything, but it does show some evidence about how the virus spreads. Also, that study or another one showed that when you put something mimicking a cotton mask between the cages, the virus is less likely to spread from hamster to another. There's also evidence that a carrier in a restaurant spread the virus to everyone else downwind of the A/C.
TD, thank you for demonstrating beautifully how the lines have been drawn in the sand on this and neither side wishes to change its mind. You deliciously parrot MSM and government taking points on the virus and then label Mr. Rippetoe a leader of syncophants. What a lack of awareness your post shows!
How interesting that the government syncophants are telling us it's "too early" to judge the lethalness of the Wuhan Flu, because the data is incomplete and not enough time has pass
ed, and yet it wasn't too early months ago to institute these involuntary voluntary curfews, based on that same incomplete evidence.
Once again we see the passion with which government and its syncophants believe we "must do something," and yet again we have a situation unfolding where doing nothing would have been more American, liberty-appropriate, and objectively better than "doing something".
I agree with XX's post earlier (too busy trying to find ways to survive economically and support my family to dig up his post; sorry) that it would be great for like-minded people like us to unify and work together, but with the stakes of our governments "doing something" to "fix" things getting larger and larger -touching more and more people- I wonder if that bridge has already been crossed.
After all, our forefathers didn't try to "fix" England, did they? At some point they just got the heck out of there and started their own land of liberty and prosperity of their own!!
Anything Youtube doesn't want you to see is probably worth seeing: Banned by YouTube: Professor Karol Sikora discusses Covid-19 - The Post
I have said here that you are a compelling writer and speaker on the subject of strength training, and you actually hooked me with your book's reference to evolution - science - and its affect on the human anatomy. You are also excellent at slipping rhetorical punches and landing jabs that don't really hurt, but that do keep your opponent at bay, searching for a knockout blow. So, rather than continuing to trade punches in vain, I'd like to challenge you to challenge you as follows:
Select whatever set of facts and statistics you trust for all of the factors you think are relevant to the medical, epidemiological, economic, societal, and personal ramifications of the virus, and please answer the following question: Using the facts as you believe them to be, what do you think the federal government and its public health agencies should have done from the moment they knew of the existence of a novel virus until today, and what should the federal government should do from this day forward? I ask this with genuine respect, and ask only in return that you not dodge the question with something like "go read everything up until now," or "if you don't know, it's not my job to tell you." You clearly have thought a lot about this, and I am genuinely interested in your response. I wouldn't ask if I weren't.
Ok, let's discuss SCIENCE.
1. What do you assume their hypothesis was prior to setting up the experiment?
2. How did the hamster experiment (as designed) validate/disprove their hypothesis?
3. How did they interpret the results & what conclusion did they draw from the experiment?
4. How were the results of the experiment translated into a practical conclusion?
My apologies for misrepresenting your politics.
I'm not particularly clear what your position is, though. It seems pretty reasonable for a pharmacy, who caters to a population that is ill, infirm, or ederly (i.e. people who are *actually* at risk from this virus) to ask its patrons to wear masks. Even if it weren't, their roof, their rules. Commerce is, after all, a two-way street. Why would you expect a business to accommodate your demands when you refuse to accommodate theirs?
Here's another brilliant interview from the UnHerd series that's worth watching.
YouTube
It doesn't look good for the scaremongers as Professor Sunetra Gupta, a Epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, claims the IFR is only 0.05%. Puts it bang in the ball park of the flu.
So you missed all the parts where I support the ideas that a) Wichita Falls TX should not be given a "one size fits all" order that equates it to NYC, b) the approach may be different for an older clientele than a younger clientele, and c) there's still so much to know on the virus. Funny how people I mostly agree with, and actually sympathize with, go batshit crazy when I don't agree 100%. Their egos can't handle anything else.
I ADMIT I object to Rippetoe's "I alone have the answers" tone, which long predates the "Wuhan Virus," and to the followers who "Rip" (get it?) anyone who's coming in from any different angle. One recent post described someone else's response as a "feminized argument" (Good Lord, is this the game now, all you manly men?) and one guy responding to my earlier post accused me of using "big words like they use in Reader's Digest" (a magazine that thrived on simplifying the work of others to a 6th-grade reading level). Seriously, you can't make this shit up.
I actually responded to "XX's" unity appeal by agreeing. The problem is when I say, in essence, to Rippetoe, that I agree his business has been unfairly shut down (although he now suggests he just ignored the directives), and that there needs to be a middle ground, and that all parts of the country shouldn't be treated the same, he still can't hear any of the agreement, only the slightest whiff of argument. That's the essence of division. My only argument in this entire thread has been that wearing little paper masks for a few months aren't a big deal, aren't a sign of being animals driven off a cliff, aren't "cowing to illegal orders" and aren't a major abdication of personal liberty.
I'll go a bit personal and mention my son. Former offensive lineman in the ACC, 6'5 and a playing weight of 310 in his day, could outlift at that time 98% of the Starting Strength folks, and also had a bout with cancer at age 28. He's on medication for the rest of his life. I am not going to tell him whether he should or should not wear a mask, as he is an adult. But if he does, I'd nearly dare you to say he's a pussy. He could easily stuff most of you (including the Almighty "Rip") in a trash can, but because he's a gentleman he'd just laugh you off, avoid the conflict, and walk on.
And I'll quote a good friend of mine - USMC, Vietnam, paratrooper, Purple Heart - "if you're worried about wearing a mask because it inhibits your 'freedom,' remember those of us who were forcibly drafted into the military, gave up years of our lives, saw their friends die, and suffered psychological damage to protect your right to bitch about not wearing a f***ing mask."
While I understand that this website is Rippetoe's ball, and he can run home with it any time he wants to, I do deeply appreciate the thoughts of about 90% of the people who come here, which is why I come here. But again, I gladly admit that I feel, and have felt for a long time, that Rippetoe is a weirdly angry man (maybe that's just some kind of Texas manly-man posturing) who (very understandably) is now angry his life's work has been damaged, but is using that anger to go all flat-earth on the factual realities of what's happening, because the facts don't happen to suit him. He just suggested in this thread that this is "the worst economic and social catastrophe in history." Only someone who is deeply, deeply ignorant of history, and deeply self-involved, and or for whom human history is inconvenient, can ever say such a patently ridiculous thing.
But, no point going on with this. I'll opt out and leave "Rip" with the last word, because I've come to understand that's most important to him (unless he decides to have the last work by not having the last word). Or you, if you want it.