i actually thought i had set the stripe account up for google play, but when they sent the "close account" information, i remembered that i must have set it up for the subscription service on bandcamp.

i briefly had that set up years ago, and haven't touched it since. i get that you'll make more money from people if you get a recurring charge, but it strikes me as slimy unless you're actually doing monthly content, and i don't want to enforce those kinds of time restrictions on myself like that.

but, that's done with and i can forget about it and move on, now.

it's after 19:00, so i'm going to get some eggs and shift focuses.

my phone appointment with the doctor in toronto about the orchidectomy is tomorrow, and i'm very excited about that.

the company i was fighting with was stripe:

https://stripe.com

in the end, they refused to log me into the account because they couldn't get me on the phone, but they did confirm that the account has not been logged into in months (years?) and agreed to close it for me.

the situation was just silly. they called my voice mail and left me a message - i even forwarded them the recording. i then called the number that showed up on the display feature, and left them a message. they asked for id, and i gave them a canadian health card. my login credentials were correct.

they had absolutely no grounds to suspect i was anybody other than the account holder, but that wasn't the point; the point was to associate the bank account with a phone number, and when they couldn't do it, they just cut the cord.

i would have liked to log in and delete the account information first, and then close the account after - no doubt a meaningless formality, but the best i could likely actually do in deleting the information from their servers.  as it is, the account is probably not permanently deleted, and the file probably persists. all i probably actually did was remove my ability to edit it.

but, i can't access it, anyways. so, what's the point?

i'm very poor and don't have access to the newest technology, but i'm pretty technical, and there's no doubt in my mind that they weren't keeping me out for security reasons - there's far too many contradictions here for that.

so, i'd advise you stay away from this company; this is a front group for an intelligence apparatus, and what they're trying to do is connect your phone to your bank account.

the existing government in canada is unusually pro-american, and especially for a liberal government, because it's staffed by people that grew up watching rocky films and other overt forms of american propaganda. worse, large amounts of these people went to school in the united states and/or have business contacts there. these are people that identify more with the historical democratic party than the historical liberal party - and you can consistently see it in the messaging, the policies, etc.

and, they're being taken for a ride by a new administration that fully realizes how stupid and naive they really are.

i've said this a few times - the competent version of donald trump is, in fact, joe biden. trump was like the opening band - biden's the main event. trump set everything up; biden's going to deliver.

and, don't be surprised if trudeau sounds more and more like trump, as he wishes for his return, as he carries out what's left of his dwindling mandate.

i mean, it's exciting shit.

sometimes, literally.

i'm stringing along the two people reading this.

will jessica have sufficient serum zinc?

stay tuned, for next time.

i'm going to have to start posting the link to any embedded videos in the post. i've been annoyed for months that it wasn't archiving, but it turns out it's as simple as posting the link in the body - silly, but so be it.

the full lab results - and, most importantly, the zinc results - should be in the mail tomorrow.

i seem to have gotten the issue escalated, so i guess i have no choice but to sit on it for a few hours and get back on their ass again tomorrow, if i don't hear anything about it.

unfortunately, my avocadoes are too hard to cut into, but it's almost time to stop to eat. another wasted day, unfortunately.

i called about mailing the bloodwork earlier, but they claimed it wasn't in yet. let me try again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIitQNXVgb8

that's right - america is stealing the oil.

surprised? lol.

you thought we were special, didn't you? nope. not at all...

so, our environment minister is demanding that the americans refrain from shutting down an aging pipeline that is bound to leak at any time. surreal.

so, here's where i inject a dose of realism.

there's a reason our pipelines go through the united states, and it's not logistical. i'm going to stand with the governor of michigan here and not with my own federal government - the pipeline should be shut down. but, what that really means is that the pipeline will be re-routed, and canada will get cut-off.

....because that's what america does: it controls the supply of oil, and it spends trillions of dollars on wars in order to do it. 

the lesson to canada is that it should have built it's own pipeline network. maybe if we had something like a national energy program, right?

eh?

but, that's not what the industry wanted - what the industry wanted was integration with the united states so they could set their own prices, and what they actually got was nafta, instead - a great deal for the yanks, but a lose-lose situation for both halves of canada, and a losing policy that just keeps on losing.

if you take a look at this map, it's easy to see what's going to happen if you eliminate line 5:

what they're going to do is just twin it to chicago, and probably end up exporting it.

then, voila - the eastern bastards can freeze in the dark. or, they can increase imports from biden's buddies, the saudis, which is what they mostly do, anyways. 

but, once you get your head around the geopolitics (which the minister apparently doesn't understand), here's my take on it: instead of fighting this, we should use it as an incentive to quickly transition. i'm actually happy to reroute the oil away from here. let's take advantage of it....

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/frustrated-canada-presses-white-house-to-keep-great-lakes-oil-pipeline-open-1.5402082

i'm making very mild progress in getting this account deleted. they're very anal, and i get it; i did tech support, i know there are specific rules you need to follow. so, i'm asking for an escalation, and the techs don't want to do it. but, they're going to have to...

what happened is apparently that, because i didn't have two-step authentication turned on, they need to call me to verify it's me. yeah - that's the company policy, that you can either turn on two-step identification, or you can accept a call from the service every time you try to login.

that's obviously a problem, if you don't have a phone, as i don't.

but, i think it obscures the actual policy here, which is that they're trying to tie banking information to sim cards. this is more about data collection than it is about security, and what they're essentially doing is holding the account hostage until they can associate it with a phone number, and by proxy a sim card and the whole surveillance apparatus attached to owning a phone.

....which would be why i wouldn't want a phone anyways, even if i could afford it.

the lesson here is that you don't want to sign up for this service, as they seem to be collecting personal information, and probably as a front for the cia, nsa or some other government group. and i'll let you know who they are, once i get the account deleted.

to be clear: you could take a large, random sample of people that have been vaccinated and watch them get infected by a variant and then rather easily beat it and conclude the vaccine must have helped, at least a bit.

but, there's no reason to think they wouldn't have beaten it easily, anyways - and hence no reason to think the vaccine did anything at all, if you're seeing routine contraction in vaccinated people, which we apparently are.

rather, what we're doing is assuming the vaccine worked at least a little bit, and i'll even hold to that - that's a reasonable assumption.

but, we're going to need some major studies before this line that it protects against "severe illness" can be reasonably evaluated. and, in the end, i suspect it will turn out lacking.

but, i want to repeat the point - if you're high risk, you should get vaccinated, anyways, because even a little bit of protection might make the difference, in the end. it might not. but, you want to take that guess - that's a bet you want to make, even if it turns out to be specious, in the end.

the line from the experts is that the vaccines might still prevent "severe illness" from contact with the variants.

but, severe illness is so rare that it would be almost impossible to tell if that's true or not without doing a rigorous study, which hasn't been done yet.

rather, the surface data seems to suggest that it's obvious that these new variants are evading existing immunity, which strongly suggests minimal efficacy regarding the existing vaccines.

indeed, the chinese - which seem to be at the forefront of this - are already looking at updating their existing vaccines. and, it's a matter of time before we catch up.

Like Manaus in Brazil, studies suggested that up to half the population in some of India’s biggest cities had already been infected in the first wave, meaning fairly high immunity in the population. “I think the problem is that what we are seeing is that this idea of herd immunity is messy,” said University of Manitoba virologist Jason Kindrachuk.

what it means is that it's answering the question about whether the vaccines are protective against the variants or not.

i'm not arguing against vaccination, and especially not if you're an older person. but, we need to stop thinking about these vaccinations as being one-off - it's too late for that. the virus has clearly already mutated beyond that.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/covid-19-india-canada-herd-immunity

socrates was right, i guess, huh?

https://nationalpost.com/news/fifteen-people-spent-40-days-in-a-cave-without-sunlight-or-phones-for-a-study-most-want-to-go-back

it is very sad. i would never suggest otherwise.

but, we can do this simple math together:

955/208195 = 0.00458704579 ---> .4587% required emergency care

142/208195 = 0.00068205288 ----> .0682% went to the icu

8/208195 = 0.00003842551 ---> .0038% died

and, the denominator is of course an underestimate - perhaps by as much as a factor of 10.

it's always very sad when young people die, but anything has a concept of risk - including crossing the street. and, i know that's not what the families want to hear, but it's my job to tell them what they don't want to hear, if the raw data contradicts it.

how many people is 8 people, over about a year?

according to the following site, a total of 477 people under the age of 17 died of the flu in the last full flu year in the united states. let's round that up to 500.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1127698/influenza-us-deaths-by-age-group/

the population of ontario is about 5% that of the united states. 500*.05 = 25.

again: it's very sad. but, the fact is that some number of young people are going to die of viruses every year and, if anything, 8 is a fairly low total, in comparison to past years.

so, let's be rational in our behaviour, please - even as we acknowledge tragedy when it's placed in front of us.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-claims-teenagers-life-1.6002023

today's post is the 0th ambient works compilation, inri035.

it's also the last release dated to the 90s.

======

when i sat down to make the ambient works, i wanted a "mix tape" style cd-r of ambient fragments that ran from 1996-2003 as a volume 0. but, when i sat down to actually make it, i ended up with a 90 minute actual mix tape of material from 1996-1999. it actually split itself fairly cleanly into an inri period release, so i've made space for it as a 1999 release. 

initially written and recorded between 1996-1999 and remixed between 2013-2015. initially released as part zero of a three volume set on may 21, 2015. split into it's own release on june 14, 2015. finalized as lp008 on sept 29, 2017. as always, please use headphones. 

this release also includes a printable j-card insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (2015, 2017).

released december 31, 1999 

j - guitar, effects, bass, pick scrapes, tapes, metronome, synth, electric piano, drum & other programming, sound design, cool edit synthesis, windows 95 sound recorder, loops, sampling, sequencing, sound raider, digital wave editing, production, composition

they may claim their security is the greatest.

but, they've just succeeded in locking out the rightful owner of this account by setting the bar higher than i can reach - and without any forewarning or consent.

unfortunately, i'm fighting with a paypal alternative this morning, who has decided to lock me out of my own account because my computer is "too old". their overbearing, micromanaging software is not somewhere i want my data kept, so i need to get into the account to delete it. but, they're insisting that i'm trying to hack my own account.

the paranoia inherent in the post-russiagate world is reaching a tipping point where organizations and governments are starting to act in ways that defy logic. i have, in fact, proven that i am the owner of the account, but it's not up to a set of criteria that i have no ability to satisfy, due to financial and technical restraints. and, the fact that i'm not an american citizen.

and, i can't let them run off with my banking info - i need to get in to claim and close the account.

so, this is a stupid waste of time, brought on by unnecessary and unwanted layers of security, but i have to do it. unfortunately.

so, i took a shower last night and sat down for a nap and woke up at 5:00 am...

yesterday was therefore a wasted day, but i'm feeling more alert and should get some progress on the filing done today.

ugh.

not this bullshit, again.

this is a messaging strategy first used by the (second) bush administration to make the president appear holier than thou, or something. it apparently means something to christians; it's supposed to be a halo.

to a secularist, this is scary stuff - especially coming from the fake left. you can sort of laugh it off when the republicans do it, but...

it seems that the party has realized the importance of the white christian vote that it swung last election, and is trying to message towards it to try to maintain it. and, that's a tent i'd rather burn down than hang out in.

it's useful to point out that the philips curve is, of course, completely wrong - and none of the governmental bodies have seriously adjusted to it yet, 50 years later. by insisting on empirical trigger points, hopefully the idea is to slowly eliminate reliance on this debunked metric altogether. but, it's been very hard to get central banks to wake up, on this.

as i'm rebuilding, i need to focus on putting asides references to events that occurred in the past. i can save those here.

also, i want to set up a flickr account for old profile photos, as i migrate out of facebook.