i think the rule of thumb should be (and i'm not just figuring this out now, i posted this in this space over a year ago) that if you want to try to stop a virus then you need to be thinking in binary terms.

if you're going to mandate something, you should be confident that it's 100% effective - and go that extra step to make sure it is.

so, if you think the virus can jump 2 m, you need a 5 m social distancing policy, and you need to enforce it. if you can't enforce it, you should abandon it.

and, if you think that masks are only 80% effective, you should actually ask people not to wear them - and try to get them to wash their hands more often, instead.

we do this every time a public health problem comes up - we get arrogant and decide we know what to do, and then realize 100 years later that we were  exactly, completely wrong. this isn't different. but, what is different is that we at least have the theory to figure it out right away, rather than need to stumble around trying to figure it out for the next 100 years.

trust me, somebody will find this blog in the year 2220 and realize how fucking right i was, in the face of total idiocy, at every level.

but, if you don't want to walk down that path with me, let's at least realize that it's time toe ease up on the selective pressures. the vaccines will be more effective, that way - if you're not creating selective pressures to undo them.

let's stop for a second, because maybe people need this explained to them.

so, social distancing is supposed to prevent the spread of the disease, and maybe it might work if the following things are known and implemented:

- we have to know exactly how far the virus can jump in order to know how far to stand apart.

- we have to fucking do it.

but, we didn't and still don't know the answer to the first part and, if you've been in a grocery store, you know that the second part is fucking hopeless.

then, by implementing this in a half-effective way, without knowing how far the virus can actually jump, what we're doing is creating selective pressures for transmission amongst mutations that can spread further.

let's be concrete.

suppose the virus can jump a maximum of 2.5 metres and the social distancing policy is 2 metres. now, the virus will have some variation, just like humans - some mutations will allow the virus to jump a maximum of 0.5 metres, whereas others may allow it to jump 3 or 4 metres. but, if you force people to stay 2 metres apart from each other, only the viruses that can jump further than 2 metres will get to their next host and transmit further. the ones with minimal ability to jump will not be successful and will die out.

now, it is true that if we were to set social distancing at 3 m and stick to it, and we got a little luck in no mutations getting over that, then the virus would die out via social distancing. but, if we calculated this wrong (and we clearly did.) and then were half-assed about enforcing it (how about quarter-assed, really?) then it's eventually going to be the case that all of the strains of the virus will be able to jump past that 2 metre distance, and social distancing becomes meaningless because we've spurred the virus to evolve beyond it.

so, do we increase social distancing to 10 metres then? well, that's what you'd need to do, if you were to salvage the concept, yes....

likewise, if you start with a virus that can only get through a cloth mask 10% of the time (which is an underestimate of the starting point) and force everybody to wear a mask then only that 10% of virus genomes will carry on to the next generation. but, once that happens, all of the strains can then get through masks with ease - because we've driven the transmission process to select for the variants most adept at getting through masks. we'd have to all wear n95s, then. but, what happens when that selective process works it's way through?

this used to be a relatively harmless virus, but i told you, like, last year that it wasn't going to stay a harmless virus if we kept putting these kinds of selective pressures on it to mutate into a more dangerous one. so, now what?

well, right now, we've just made it more contagious. i don't think we've made it for deadly. yet.

but, if we want to avoid doing that, we should probably back off and stop being so aggressive with it and sort of let it burn out. we have 70%+ vaccination rates now. that's as close as we're ever going to get to mitigating this, and we should be careful to avoid creating a disaster out of a situation that seems like it's going to be alright.

if you're concerned about the virus evolving to be more contagious, maybe you should stop driving it's evolution with measures like social distancing?

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57431420

remember when i said i was typing into the other computer and backposting here now, instead?

well, i had to stop when i was reinstalling to that machine, and then it got put off for about ten days or so. it's just a reminder of how much i'm typing here - it was over 100 pages at 8x11 to sort through. but, i'm copying over the last bit of it, now.

i want to finish filing the machine before i turn it off and shift gears on monday or possibly tuesday.

for now, today's post is the 6th (and last, so far) compilation of flac dvds, inri063-inri069.

===========

purchasing this release does not come with a download. 

inri063: these tracks are all based on existing demos from 2001-2002 that were initially intended to be completed with vocal parts and were remixed from july, 2014 to may, 2015 as purely instrumental recordings. released may 2, 2015. disc finalized as lp014 on nov 21, 2017. this is my sixth official record. 

inri064: these tracks were written and recorded over november and december of 2002 and uploaded, unmodified, in may of 2015. released on may 2, 2015. re-released on physical media and finalized on nov 24, 2017. 

inri065: written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed repeatedly and re-rendered repeatedly over may, 2015. released on may 16, 2015. expanded & finalized on nov 25, 2017. 

inri066: originally written, programmed and recorded from 1996-2002. reclaimed & remixed from june to december of 2015. initial completion date was december 31, 2015. disc finally released, closed and finalized on nov 26, 2017. lp015. 

inri067: written and recorded between dec, 1999 and july, 2002, except the hidden track (which was created in the summer of 1998). none of these tracks were remastered or otherwise modified after 2002. disc simultaneously created and finalized as lp016 on nov 26, 2017. 

inri068: originally written, programmed and recorded in varying states of finality over 2001 and 2002, except the hidden track (which was programmed in 1997). the associated tracks were completed between february, 2014 and may, 2015; these mixes, however, were spun off as late as nov, 2017. released as lp017 on nov 27, 2017. expanded and finalized on jan 1, 2018. 

inri069: initially written and recorded between 1997-2003. this compilation idea was developed and expanded upon as an intended full record release between 2006 and 2011. reinterpreted, reconstructed and remixed between 2014-2018. sequenced over december, 2017 and january, 2018. disc released & finalized as lp018 and tetris I-IV on jan 7, 2018. 

originally created from 1997-2003. this compilation is dated to april 27, 2003. slowly remastered, reconstituted, compiled, reconstructed, released and finalized from 2014-2018. compilation finalized on jan 9, 2018. as always, please use headphones. 

released april 27, 2003 

j - electric & acoustic & classical guitars, electric bass guitar, bass synth, digital & analog effects processing, synthesizers, electric air reed organ, electric & grand pianos, flute, voice, vocal noises & relics, analog & electronic drum kits, drum programming, drum manipulations, drum sampling, bowls, claps, tables, ebow, mandolin, orchestral & other sequencing, sampling, loops, equalization, light-sound synthesis, generative programming, granular synthesis, sound raider, noise generators, cool edit sequencing, found sounds, octavers, coughs, digital wave editing, sound design, production, composition. 

sean - harmonica (inri063, inri069), ring modulator (inri067, inri069) 

greg - drum performance sample source (inri063, inri067-inri069) 

the various rendered electronic orchestras include tuba, french horn, trombone, trumpet, english horn, saxophone, brass section, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, flute, bamboo flute, piccolo, orchestra hit, melodic toms, hand drums, timpani, orchestral drum set, piano, agogo, celesta, xylophone, marimba, clavinet, kalimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, tubular & other bells, music box, woodblock, mallet, electronic drum kit, drum machine, jazz drum kit, koto, synth pad, synth bass, synthesizer, synthesizer effects, mellotron, organ, sitar, acoustic bass, synth bass, electric bass, fingered bass guitar, picked electric guitar, nylon guitar, distorted & clean electric guitars, guitar effects, bowed electric guitar, guitar noises (fret noises, knocks, pick scrapes), violin, viola, cello, contrabass and various full string sections. it also includes choir.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/flac-dvd-disc-volume-6

no, i need to actually really clarify the question: do you want muslims and christians to build a coalition and get along and work together?

like, have you thought that through?

have you worked out the consequences of such a thing?

i'd have to argue that i'm more in favour of a divide and conquer strategy to keep them bickering with each other, as if they ever get together and join forces, the world is truly done for - it would be the end of modernity, as we understand it.

and, i'd find myself aligning with the chinese, as bad an ally as they would be, to try to stem the collapse into backwardsness.

that is the last thing the world needs.

so, when i look outside and see interfaith marches, my blood curdles - that is frightening.

first upload of inri075

the next chunk of material to come up is going to be inri075-inri080, inclusive. some of this is totally done (inri079, inri080), some of it needs a brief look at (inri076) and some of it will be a project to finish (inri075, inri077, inri078). i'm going to try to get an approximate document for each project up, one per day, over the next week. this was an unstable period, so some of these releases will be short eps meant to represent ideas that were temporarily abandoned due to needing to relocate and finished elsewhere in a different mindset as a result...

for today, here is a rough outline of inri075: 

jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/akousmatic-performance

this release is meant to document a tracklist of acoustic material, as performed over the summer of 2003, when i was backpacking across canada. some of these will be tracks from period 2 and others will be demos for the upcoming period 3. as such, it's a sort of middle point between what was done over 2000--2002 and what is coming up for 2003-2007. 

i want to re-record a number of these tracks on acoustic guitar because the demoes i have were done for electric or classical, and may rerecord everything in the process. we'll have to see.

for now, this is a starting ep that i'll fill out over the next few weeks as i finish these releases for period 3.1, which ran from mid-2003 to mid-2004 and was kind of unfocused and scattered due to reality around me.

i'm reposting this to add aluminum to the list.

my lead levels were fine, which i checked because i'm close to detroit. but, we add huge amounts of aluminum to the water to clear it of lead, and guess what? aluminum also blocks iron...

it's not going to be a major priority, but if we get through this list of things and find nothing then it's worth exploring.

and, it will help me understand if the aluminum in the water is a potential problem or not, as well.

=====

these tests are pending at lifelabs:

- asca   <---crohn's

- mercury

these tests are pending from dynacare:

- pyruvate <----manganese

- gastrin  <---stomach ulcers

- copper serum

this test requires a 12 hour fast:

- amino acid fractionation   <-----total nitrogen

- gastrin (redo)

these tests can be done next time i go

- pth  

- calcitonin

- cortisol

i will need to pay for these tests out of pocket next weekish:

- celiac ($90 at dynacare)

- cea  ($36 at lifelabs)

- p-anca  + c-anca ($70 at lifelabs)

- psa: ($35 at lifelabs )

- another fit test ($59 at dynacare only)

- osteocalcin  ($65 at lifelabs)  <----double check, info from med labs

- igf-1 ($70 at dynacare) <-----double check, info from med labs

these tests need to be done at dynacare because only they offer them, although i'd rather they were done at lifelabs because they have a free reporting system:

- glutathione  <----- windsor site does not collect

- balp  (not yet ordered)

this test is covered by ohip but is not offered anywhere in the region:

- serum oxalate

this test is only available in a california lab:

-hepcidin

these tests were skipped, for now:

- vitamin e

- vitamin k

- selenium

- molybdenum

- manganese

- iodine

and, here's my list for absorption regarding my diet:

a - absorbing at high levels

b1 - next time

b2 - next time

b3 - next time

b5 - next time

b6 - next time

b7 - next time

b9 - absorbing at high levels

b12 - absorbing, and increasing stores

c - absorbing, at saturated levels

d - absorbing, but a tad low. i should check again soon.

e - pending  (paid)

cholesterol - perfect

k1 - pending (paid)  <----but ptt, inr, fibrinogen normal

fluoride?

aluminum?

sodium - absorbing & regulating

potassium - absorbing & regulating

magnesium - absorbing & regulating

phosphorus - absorbing & regulating

chlorine - absorbing & regulating

calcium - absorbing & regulating

chromium - next time

manganese - pending (paid) <----but,  pyruvate kinase is coming immediately

iron - not absorbing in food, but absorbing in pills

nickel - next time

copper - absorbing & regulating

zinc - absorbing & regulating

selenium - pending (paid) <----- need to find access to glutathione test, not priority right now

molybdenum - not available <---but pancreatic function is normal

iodine - pending (paid) <-----note that tsh is lowish. checking pth. no sign of goiter. dietary sodium is low...

mercury - pending

lead - low

my greatest fear is that the muslims and christians unite into a single conservative religious voting block to ram through a return to the dark ages.

...because, then we're fucked.

i'm a godless liberal.

and, these interfaith marches scare the fuck out of me.

and, i think i have good reason to fear the renormalization of religion.

that's not something that belongs in the dsm - that's a rational analysis of something that has a strong potential to substantively harm me.

it's the system of illiberal laws that is the enemy here - not the people enslaved under it's grips.

so, don't shoot the messenger...

but, like i say - i strongly suspect that none of this is actually real, and these kinds of scary displays of religious solidarity are the ultimate intended outcome of the propaganda that created them.

my ultimate concern is not whether some idiots killed some muslims in london, but whether a corollary of that is that i need to fend off further restrictions to my freedom brought in as a result of it.

if you're concerned about the encroachment of religion into the legal system, the right way to do it is to fight it in court, not to lash out against people that are ultimately victims of the ideology, as well.

i think i've been clear that i'm concerned about the encroaching renormalization of religion that is occurring as a byproduct (intentionally, seemingly) of large scale migration from conservative countries. it should be clear that my concerns are rooted in ideology, not in race - as are the concerns of the people pushing the ideology. this isn't about race, it's about religion - and if it's about religion, it's about control.

and, i support a diversity of tactics.

but, i don't think that killing people is helpful, and these kinds of marches demonstrate why - it just makes people more likely to walk freely into the grips of religious control.

...which is why i tend to be very skeptical about news reports of this nature, and tend to avoid commenting on them. i often don't believe that what's being reported is actually true, and i'm often suspicious that events are being manufactured to generate sympathy for the ideologies that the elite wants us to adopt. but, i haven't any evidence of these suspicions. 

what i'll say is that a large interfaith march is an unsettling thing to see, and it makes me feel unsafe and uncomfortable - because it indicates that those who are trying to bring religion back are getting what they want, at the necessary expense of secularism and individual freedom.

listen - a multifaith march is not something i'd go anywhere near, under any circumstance. those people creep me out even more than the anti-lockdown people do.

that's not anywhere near where i stand on the political spectrum.

sorry.

Highlighted comment

jessica murray

1 week ago

that said, let's talk about israel and the evangelicals. let's understand this...

1

 jessica murray

jessica murray

1 week ago

what it says in the christian bible - the revelation, which was written in greek, rather than aramaic - is that israel will be destroyed from the east. i always laugh at these christians that think russia means the east; in fact, russia is to the west of israel. rather, everybody living in israel at the time would have known that the east meant the persians, the ancestors of today's iranians.

jessica murray

jessica murray

1 week ago

so, what do the evangelicals actually want? do they want to support israel as a colonial state and have it take over the region and bomb the iranians? i mean, you could naively assign that to the generals (although larry aptly described why that's wrong), but what about the evangelicals, who you couldn't even get to vote at all until reagan?

jessica murray

jessica murray

1 week ago

what the evangelicals actually want is the second coming, the return of jesus, who will separate the worthy from the damned on judgement day. and, in order for that to happen, the temple must be destroyed, by the beast from the east. which is iran.

jessica murray

jessica murray

1 week ago

so, this idea of evangelical support for israel is sort of a double-edged sword, like jesus' wacky tongue, in the psychedelic visions that describe the prophecies - they want to ensure israel exists....so it can be destroyed. and, by who? by iran.

Digital Communist

Digital Communist

14 hours ago

 @jessica murray  basically they want  Armageddon to come , on the plains of Meggido and all that jazz so Jesus will some again and lead righteous ones to heavenly gardens… Funny thing is they are all basically anti semites of the worst kind. If you ask them if Jews will be taken to heaven , since Jesus showed on this plane as Jew,  they will tell you ( as long as you are not TV, journo etc)  they will all convert …. Lmao.

jessica murray

jessica murray

9 hours ago (edited)

 @Digital Communist  these weird contradictions are pretty standard in europeanized interpretations of christianity, and it's partly because it was never an organic thing in that part of the world. the original christians were, of course jews, themselves. but, the parts of the world where christianity was an actual thing on the ground were egypt and syria, not western europe. in europe, christianity came in via imperialism, feudalism and violent conquest - and was never really successful in converting substantial portions of normal people. so, there was this motif in the middle ages about the jews killing jesus, which is the central point of the religion - christianity is incoherent without the crucifixion, but that doesn't matter in the westernized versions, because it was never anything besides a tool of domination. i'm not going to go down the rabbit hole on this and accuse the british of doing this as a means of control, but it does serve that purpose, still, even today. so long as people think jesus is coming back any day, they're apt to be less concerned about materialist conditions in their physical lives.

 

Digital Communist

Digital Communist

8 hours ago

 @jessica murray  British came late into whole jesus game, nor it was basis of their imperial conquest. Theirs was commercial imperialism , even from the early days their ruling class  held fairly cynical view . Sprinkled with racial theories of the era , Darwin and all that… Various imperial Chinese  dynastic eras are similar in approach…On the other hand , Portuguese, Spanish,  Arabs ( yes Islam is unreformed Old Testament religion)  really did it in high gear , lmao.

 

jessica murray

jessica murray

32 minutes ago (edited)

and, it's of course worth pointing out that the spanish and arabs were both mostly looking for gold, even if they were directed by their respective religious overlords in their journeys to do so. the religion was central to most of their atrocities, as it formed the justification for them. but, from the time the arabs headed across the desert to the time the spaniards crossed the atlantic, they were always looking for gold....

jessica murray

jessica murray

30 minutes ago

 @Digital Communist  google is filtering this, so i'm going to post it in little bits to figure it out.

jessica murray

jessica murray

21 minutes ago

 @Digital Communist  it seemed to post in chunks, but then deleted again when in one piece, so let's try this sequentially. google doesn't tell you what the filters are, so you have to experiment...

jessica murray

jessica murray

13 minutes ago

 @Digital Communist  this isn't working, suggesting it might be being deleted by a live person, rather than filtered by a computer. ok, let me give it some time, then.

jessica murray

jessica murray

13 minutes ago (edited)

 @Digital Communist  yeah, it's sort of a half-truth. the british have always been weird. it's true that the british people never embraced christianity the way they did in italy or france, but the british aristocracy was perhaps the most cynical of the bunch. so, it's true that the british were a commercial power, but what that means is that their use of religion as a control mechanism was always starkly cynical, not that it wasn't there. when the puritans left britain, a big part of the reason is that they thought the british state was horribly corrupt - but the fact that they existed in britain is a consequence of the tactics of control used by the state, which created them in the first place.

 

jessica murray

jessica murray

12 minutes ago (edited)

( to use a twisted metaphor, it's like god's creations realizing how sadistic their creator was. as mentioned, i don't think that this idea that zionism was invented to control british christians is actually true - but it might as well have been, and it's the kind of thing that people in the future might decide is obvious, in the absence of sufficient source material.)...

the more i've looked into this...

brushing and flossing really probably aren't the best way to clean your teeth, whether they're crooked or not. it's a kind of unsophisticated, brute force attack, and for a lot of people is probably creating more problems than solving.

these newer approaches seem to be superior, and will probably replace the older tactics altogether, in time.

but, i need to take it one thing at a time - if i can't get into the curved space behind my teeth with a brush, i need something to spray the area with, instead.

you can also buy these low frequency things that shake it off....

that's the sort of thing i need to look at, as brushing isn't going to help, in that area - and i have to sort of get it and back off before i ruin my gums even more.

so, i mentioned that my crooked teeth were getting worse and it was probably driving the recession...

it's worst on the lower incisors, to the point that one of them is going to get crushed and just fall out, eventually. i don't seem to have extra teeth, but they're completely out of line at the top, as well, in an arrangement that you'd normally associate with extra teeth. on the bottom, the canines are both shifting directly inwards, which is just destroying those little incisors.

i've looked into how to fix this, and it sounds like the cure is worse than the disease, especially at my age, and especially especially in the presence of osteopenia. i'd have to dissolve the bone in the jaw and rebuild it. that's not actually feasible.

but, i've been slowly realizing that i can't brush them anymore, either. it's not that bad in the front, but i'm noticing what is probably the first actual plaque buildup that i've ever had in my life on the inside, and i can't seem to stop it. i've tried rolling up toilet paper and trying to kind of polish it off, and it seemed like it was working, but it wasn't. i've tried flipping the toothbrush over perpendicular to the teeth, and the head is still too big.

if i could find a small enough brush, that would probably do it, but where - and at what expense?

rather, i think i'm going to pull the trigger on a waterpik system when the check gets here (and it had better get here by tuesday at the latest). the basic physics of the shape of the teeth, due to being crushed, is that they're now curved and therefore unreachable with a brush. maybe there's some other answer, but i don't think there is one - i'm going to have to spray them down, instead.

i've mused about genetic approaches to trying to fix my gums, but that's not going to fix that one incisor, which i'm just waiting to fall out. i'll have to bring it up with the dentist in september - is it better to pull a crushed tooth like that, to try to save the rest of them?

and, where did iran get all of these weapons to ship to venezuela from, exactly?

if the russians or chinese wanted to ship them weapons, they'd just fly them in.

and, why exactly isn't the united states intercepting this supposedly dangerous vessel?

bullllllshiiiiiiiiit.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/10/defense-iranian-ships-venezuela-493189

as mentioned, the vessel is probably full of oil, and the oil is probably destined for houston. now, it seems as though we're going to ship weapons to iran, in return. which sounds familiar, doesn't it?

no, all the recent brown immigrants to canada are not going to vote for a fag like jusin trudeau.

rather, they're going to vote for a good manly dumbass like doug ford...

again: this sounds strange to americans, right? immigrants voting for conservatives? what? but, it's well understood that these are the demographic boundaries, here. there's been influential books written about it. all the strategists know all about it.

it's not an ethnic characteristic, which is kind of the stupid mistake that liberals make about brown people and their voting preferences. if you listen closely, you even hear a sense of entitlement in the liberal party about it.

rather, there's two simple facts underlying it:

1) brown people tend to come from more conservative cultures, and our conservative party is actually a conservative party. they readily identify with it, because it's leaps and bounds the closer thing to their cultural value system. they don't have the baggage that the republicans have, either.

2) our immigration system was overhauled by stephen harper and jason kenney (now the premier of alberta) in the 00s to actually target conservatives, and i see no evidence that the liberals have fiddled with it at all, since. so, it's not just that recent immigrants tend to be more conservative in general because they come from more conservative cultures, it's that the immigrants we pick and fast track are specifically chosen and fast-tracked because they're conservatives. our system identifies conservative immigrants and targets them, because it was designed by conservative politicians - they've gotten what they wanted.

the election of doug ford was a little weird in the sense that it was the first time these changes were made obvious, but it didn't surprise anybody and the projections are that his coalition is likely stable for the near future. that's the new toronto, as redesigned by jason kenney.

the question is whether the white flight driven by the pandemic is acting as a catalyst or not...

i would be happy to move to a less expensive downtown toronto core and thrive in the decay.

upwards of 200,000 people have left toronto in the last year and a half.

here's an open question - what kind of demographic changes are all of these people moving in and around toronto going to create?

if i understand correctly, what's happening is that the money is fleeing the city, even if the result is higher property values (and empty or half empty properties). it's becoming a city of renters, as all of the property owners flee the city. that's not that different than what happened in detroit in the 70s, although the starting demographics are radically different.

i'm not going to make any predictions at this point because i haven't seen any useful data, but i wonder if the liberal strongholds in toronto (which were defined mostly by older white families) might have just thinned themselves out to the point that other parties might find themselves more competitive. i mean, that seems to be the basic movement - wealthy white liberals are moving into conservative ridings, and probably not in large enough numbers to swing them. 

it seems counterintuitive right now...

...but the main beneficiary of this migration, as the city hollows out to leave behind less wealthy recent immigrants and white renters, may end up being doug ford. that's his base, and they may have been handed the city by liberals trying to get out as fast as they can.