[quote=oregonfrank]One of the major reasons the average life span in the Western world has improved from about 40 years in 1900 to the high 70s today ...........


Actually only true in statistics, proving statistics lie. The truth is the age has increased because of the greatly improved health care for infants/toddlers. In other words if half the population under say 5 lives, that automatically shows an increase in life span. The actual average age of death hasn't increased very much.

Yup, it does. I grew up and learned to surf with Duke Kahanamoku as a teenager, thats been awhile now. I wonder if the brainless protesters will try to take his statue down, after all he must have done something to piss them off.

Right on Bob. I wonder what the sheep hiding in the basement think is the end game of this whole thing? The virus is going to disappear one day? There have been viral outbreaks since recorded history, and once the population develop antibodies, the severity fades. Or maybe if they wait until the "vaccine" is available, all will be well? Just look at the annual flu, with vaccinations, and antibodies built up the herd, yet 50-70,000 die in the US alone annually. My son just came down with it, and within 10 days he is symptom-free, and will return to his work next week. All the time the one-worlders are trying to convince us to just submit to the "experts", and all will be well. Someone above mentioned the age factor in this group, its possible that as a group we are more susceptible to these things. no one said we will live forever.

I never said, nor did I mean to say that the virus does not kill. My point was that many of the numbers are manufactured out of thin air.

[quote=camerapapi]Islamorada is part of the Florida Keys. I spent my day yesterday there. There was a crowd everywhere I went and most people were not wearing a mask. Are we forgetting that Covid-19 is a killer?

Wow, thanks for the reminder. Have you noticed that the number of cancer, heart attack, flu, pneumonia, gunshot and other miscellaneous deaths have decreased, almost to zero? Why even old age doesn't seem to kill folks. Just amazing, I wonder why that would be? Do you think the news and liberals trying to get rid of Trump to the destruction of the country would....nah, couldn't be that! Just keep listening to the (One) World Health org.

Just wow! Like a gun is going to jump up and start shooting. If your position had any validity, there would be no cars either, since auto "accidents" cause a similar number of fatalities each year.

So if universal health care is so great, I wonder why the well-to-do in canada come south for their health care????

I appreciate the comments and thank you all. Attached is a photo from the MLS of the house we have purchased. The lighting is exceptionally even here, but in reality the carpet and walls are much darker, in fact almost a purple tinge to the dark grey, yet the white doors/blinds are not blown out. We will end up recarpeting/repainting the interior.

Attached file:
(Download)

I've never given much thought to this, but now that my wife and I are looking to buy a home, it has really made me appreciate the talent that some photogs have. It is instantly apparent when an amateur produces the online ad, as opposed to a real pro. Some of the MLS ads have me wanting to just send money with the expectation the house will look like the photos show. Such is not the case, however. My wife, bless her heart, hasn't quite figured it out, and goes to each showing expecting the house to look like the ads. How long does it take, and what is the investment required to produce these results? I assume a FF (or larger) camera is necessary, and the lighting just WOW. I would like to attach a photo that illustrates what I mean but it would probably be against some rules or other.

sorry to say there were no actual links, I would have liked to give it a go. but these look a lot like Dutch babies???

I'm just in the process of getting an extension tube for my D7200, to use with a 60mm macro and ES-1. If one had a 40mm lens the extension tube wouldn't be necessary. Here is a very thorough article on using an ES-1 or ES-2 with a full-frame camera. The author says 24 mp (such as the D7200) is more than adequate to capture all the detail available on a slide.
https://www.scantips.com/es-1.html

We get that kind of response all the time from the current occupant of the White House and that level of mentality is what scares the bejesus out of me and most other Americans when we look to our leadership to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare of us Americans.

Stan[/quote]

it is impossible to rationalize with Trump Derangement syndrome that some people have. And if you think Trump should have been ready for this, how about Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama? Is your irrational hatred specifically Trump? Sure seems like it.

It is so disheartening to hear people equate the "economy" with money mongers and wall street. A very short sighted, polarized point of view. No, the economy is 100 million people who aren't working, or working part time, whose savings are being eaten away, landlords who aren't being paid so they can repay their bank loans, etc. It certainly is not whether Bill Gates or Warren Buffet lose or gain a few billions on their investments. My wife and I haven't been able to open our offices for 6 weeks with no end insight; we are still paying our employees a stipend, but that will have to end soon. Then we will be on the bread lines with the rest of the "economy". There is no context to the recent rants, 2018 flu deaths US: 80,000. (CDC) Or also CDC, how about drug deaths US: 67000. The list goes on. This is not to make light of the recent pandemic, rather in the context of life it is another challenge.
Sources: https://www.statnews.com/2018/09/26/cdc-us-flu-deaths-winter/
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html

If its a Mac, you may be SOL. A pc on the other hand might have options. You could look on the back of the drive box and see if it has a eSata port, looks like USB but definitely different. Its possible the USB electronics in the drive box got scrambled. At any rate if you can hook it to your computer via eSata you could try that. Otherwise, you can take the drive out of its box, open up the computer and see if you can hook it directly to a sata port in the motherboard.

I had been having warning signs about diabetes type 2 for a year or so, tests indicated 'pre-diabetic'. Doc said I better change lifestyle or it would escalate. So a year ago I went hard on the keto diet, lost 30 lbs. and all the 'pre' symptoms went away. Actually it wasn't bad at all, I got to eat all the bacon i wanted :-)