Why movie soundtracks have gotten so bad.

 Lengthy rant worth reading is here:

 https://www.slashfilm.com/673162/heres-why-movie-dialogue-has-gotten-more-difficult-to-understand-and-three-ways-to-fix-it/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

It was Charlie Wilson's War that started the current trend of garbled movie sound tracks.  It is NOT my hearing going on me.  The sound tracks on my classic movies from the '50's and '60's are clear as a bell.  I can hear every word on my TV, it is only the new movie sound tracks that are garbled.  Curse of the sound man I call it.

There are some things any sound man can do.  First you gotta mute the score and the sound effects when the actors are speaking.  Second the actors have to speak up and not mumble. Finally you have to place the mikes in the right places. 

Mandates, Corona virus type.

   Democrats are pressing for “mandates”; laws that would require everyone to get the Corona virus vaccine whether they want it or not.  Industry is responding that the necessary firings of unvaccinated workers would cripple their productivity. 

   Don’t get me wrong, I think the vaccines work, are better than 99.9% effective, and are safe.  I got my first two vaccinations back in February and March, and got my booster shot yesterday.  I think people who don’t want to get vaccinated are wrong headed and I would try to talk them into getting vaccinated.

   However, America is a free country (at least it used to be).  People walking around unvaccinated don’t bother me, I am vaccinated and that protects me.  I see no reason to force the firing of all people who don’t get themselves vaccinated, except for the unholy desire to boss people around just for the fun of it.  I think everyone ought to get vaccinated, but I don’t think we should force it by law.   

Those that worry about catching Corona virus from the unvaccinated should get themselves vaccinated.

I got Boosted this morning.

 My doctor recommended it.  So I did it.  Other than a needle stick in the arm, didn't hurt a bit.

Will Corona virus be around forever?

 

TV people are talking about Corona virus will be with us forever.  Historically this is not true.  The Black Death killed something between a quarter and a half the population of Europe back in the 1340’s.  It came back at least once, maybe twice, and killed a lot more.  The Black Death makes Corona virus look like a bad cold.  Over the years, the Black Death lost its power to kill.  It hasn’t been around in centuries.  Partly this come from the survivors passing on what ever it was that made them survivors to their children, and partly the Black Death mutated in the direction of being less lethal.  After all, if the virus kills its host before it has time to infect other people, it is going to die out with its unfortunate hosts. 

   At any rate, a lethal disease that nearly depopulated Europe 6-7 hundred years ago is not a problem today. 

New Strain of Corona virus

 Omichron I think they call it.  The only way we can identify it is by decoding its genetic material in the lab.  It has a lot (25-30?) mutations in the working part of the virus.  Which makes all the medics suspect (but they lack real evidence) it can do all sorts of bad things.  There are a lot of people, newsies, health bureaucrats, big pharma, and others, who are profiting from the Corona virus pandemic.  These people are overjoyed to find and excuse to keep the pandemic going, and keeping the money flowing their way. 

As far as I can tell from listening to the TV, there is no documented clinical difference between the Omichron variant and the parent virus.  Patients get sick, in the same way as the old style virus.  I have not heard any clinical evidence that the Omichron strain is better or worse than  the "standard" strain.  Other than getting that booster shot this week, I will just watch the circus on TV.  Beat the Press had Fauci on this morning.  Fauci claims the booster shot improves your antibody levels by a yuge amount.  No numbers on how yuge is yuge, no description of the experiments that yielded this encouraging info.  This is the talk of a medical bureaucrat rather than a working MD who treats live patients. 

Seven Inches of snow in Franconia Notch

 This all fell last night.  Although we had snow flurries all day yesterday there was no buildup until later.  It was cold, 24F at my place early this morning.  That gave us nice slight and fluffy powder snow, the best kind for skiing.  No wind, so the snow stays on the Cannon trails rather than blowing into the woods.

Went to the Grocery Store today (Black Friday)

 Shaw's in Littleton.  Looks like Shaws  beat up on their supply chain and got a lot of stock in for Thanksgiving.  They were offering it on sale today.  Big 20 pound turkey went for $46 before Thanksgiving.  It was marked down to $13 day after thanksgiving.  Some things were still expensive.  Nice Ribeye beefsteak $15 a pound.  Lot of strange brandnames on stuff, brandnames I had never heard of before.

I heard a reason for the growth of skinless, boneless, tasteless chicken parts.  Apparently the skin and bones are chopped up really fine and used to make chicken nuggets.  Remind me to stick to recognizable parts of chickens, like thigh, and breast.