[the finisher]

Man, what a great series. The IT Crowd - Soo fn funny

Edit - Also check out Coupling, them Brits know humor.

 

[jimmers]

Man, what a great series. The IT Crowd - Soo fn funny

Edit - Also check out Coupling, them Brits know humor.

I really liked Coupling when it was on and recently I saw a boxed set of all 4 series in a charity shop so I bought it ($3) looking forward to making time to watch it again.

Where I worked a few years ago the IT department consisted of three people, a slightly strange guy with dark curly hair, a scruffy guy who was on the artistic spectrum and their manager who I used to call Jen, he didn't find that amusing at all

 

[TomSix]

The Mayo Clinic has always charged based on a person's ability to pay, all doctors are on salary. Watch the documentary sometime if you get a chance, many changes in medicine came about because of their research. Now getting in there is not always easy because people come from all over the world.

That's all good, but the gist of my point is that we have to think in terms of the larger context of the really existing U.S. healthcare situation.

The Mayo is obviously an exceptional medical institution full of dedicated, talented people doing quality work. I have little doubt they see a *limited* number of patients who receive treatment either at much reduced rates or gratis. However... I also have little doubt that merely "getting in the door" for treatment at the Mayo in the first place (aside from some structured medical trial, or an impoverished children outreach program, or similar) would be a major, likely insurmountable hurdle for the vast majority of persons of modest means.

I'd further suggest the main problem for *most* people in the U.S. is simply a lack of affordable access to medical treatment/care of *any* kind --let alone newer "cutting edge" treatments etc.

The funding and organization of preventative medicine in the U.S. is so lacking in adequacy, that many diseases which were nearly eradicated in modern industrial countries over the last 100 years or so are now beginning to reemerge and proliferate in lower income and impoverished populations throughout the U.S.

A couple of years ago the well-known international non-profit crisis medicine organization MSF ( 'Doctors Without Borders') set up some temporary free treatment clinics in a few states in the U.S. As I recall the story, MSF was caught surprised as droves of people flooded in, in unexpected numbers, often from hundreds of miles away, and stood for hours in long lines to receive basic medical treatment. Strangely, this didn't get a lot of play in the U.S. mainstream press...

The political support for an essentially "coin-operated " national 'healthcare system' is a firmly *bipartisan* operation, with both dominant political parties, in more or less equal measure, enforcing the ascendancy of an entrenched, minimally regulated, largely private for-profit regime.

For most U.S. citizens, healthcare concerns are a non-partisan issue. Large numbers of physicians themselves are now leading a movement for structural change. Many in-depth studies have been undertaken and/or funded by physician-lead advocacy groups in support of *substantive* U.S. healthcare reform: http://www.pnhp.org/

Was that off-topic enough?

 

[KoshNaranek]

That's all good, but the gist of my point is that we have to think in terms of the larger context of the really existing U.S. healthcare situation.

The Mayo is obviously an exceptional medical institution full of dedicated, talented people doing quality work. I have little doubt they see a *limited* number of patients who receive treatment either at much reduced rates or gratis.

However, I also have little doubt that merely getting in the door for treatment at the Mayo in the first place (outside of some structured medical trial, limited impoverished children outreach program or similar) would be a major, likely insurmountable hurdle for a majority of persons of modest means.

I'd suggest the main problem for *most* people in the U.S. is simply one of access to affordable treatment of *any* kind.

The funding and organization of preventative medicine in the U.S. is so minimal, that many diseases which were nearly eradicated in modern industrial countries over the last 100 years or so are now beginning to reemerge and proliferate in lower income and impoverished populations throughout the U.S.

A couple of years ago the well-known international non-profit crisis medicine organization MSF (AKA Doctors without borders) set up some temporary free treatment clinics in a few states in the U.S. As I recall the story, MSF was caught surprised as droves of people flooded in, in unexpected numbers, often from hundreds of miles away, and stood in long lines for hours to receive basic medical treatment.

The political support for this essentially "coin-operated " national 'healthcare system' is a firmly *bipartisan* operation, with both dominant political parties enforcing an entrenched for-profit status-quo in essentially equal measure.

Again, this is clearly a non-partisan topic. Physicians themselves are starting to lead a movement for charge. Many in-depth studies have been undertaken and/or funded by physician-lead advocacy groups in support of *substantive* U.S. healthcare reform: http://www.pnhp.org/

Was that off-topic enough?

I regret that I have but one upvote to give

 

[Paladin79]

That's all good, but the gist of my point is that we have to think in terms of the larger context of the really existing U.S. healthcare situation.

The Mayo is obviously an exceptional medical institution full of dedicated, talented people doing quality work. I have little doubt they see a *limited* number of patients who receive treatment either at much reduced rates or gratis. However... I also have little doubt that merely "getting in the door" for treatment at the Mayo in the first place (aside from some structured medical trial, or an impoverished children outreach program, or similar) would be a major, likely insurmountable hurdle for the vast majority of persons of modest means.

I'd further suggest the main problem for *most* people in the U.S. is simply a lack of affordable access to medical treatment/care of *any* kind --let alone newer "cutting edge" treatments etc.

The funding and organization of preventative medicine in the U.S. is so lacking in adequacy, that many diseases which were nearly eradicated in modern industrial countries over the last 100 years or so are now beginning to reemerge and proliferate in lower income and impoverished populations throughout the U.S.

A couple of years ago the well-known international non-profit crisis medicine organization MSF ( 'Doctors Without Borders') set up some temporary free treatment clinics in a few states in the U.S. As I recall the story, MSF was caught surprised as droves of people flooded in, in unexpected numbers, often from hundreds of miles away, and stood for hours in long lines to receive basic medical treatment. Strangely, this didn't get a lot of play in the U.S. mainstream press...

The political support for an essentially "coin-operated " national 'healthcare system' is a firmly *bipartisan* operation, with both dominant political parties, in more or less equal measure, enforcing the ascendancy of an entrenched, minimally regulated, largely private for-profit regime.

For most U.S. citizens, healthcare concerns are a non-partisan issue. Large numbers of physicians themselves are now leading a movement for structural change. Many in-depth studies have been undertaken and/or funded by physician-lead advocacy groups in support of *substantive* U.S. healthcare reform: http://www.pnhp.org/

Was that off-topic enough?

I merely mentioned the documentary, I am a fan of the works of Ken Burns. He showed the clinic, warts and all. If you get a chance to see it you might enjoy it. A nun had the vision and raised the money for the first hospital, every thing was done with a hand shake and she foresaw what the clinic would become. This happened in a town of 7,000 people. The Mayos were instrumental but it was a joint venture and charity was certainly involved.

I may need to borrow or purchase a small Schiit stack in the near future for some photos. If anyone has upgraded and has unused equipment laying around they should PM me. Were I to purchase some, it would eventually be used for testing so it would not go to waste.

 

[yonson]

Oy! Now, there ya go. I got into skeet and hunting big while stationed in Grafenwohr around ‘80. I am tortured remembering passing up an opportunity to buy a Browning over under Liege so wonderfully engraved for about $500. Regrets, I have a few.

I never saw the appeal to skeet shooting, I've always shot trap, and then moved on to sporting clays which really hurt my trap game... What's funny is when I lived in Kommiefornia I would shoot every single weekend, and now that I'm in a free state I rarely ever get to go.

 

[audio philestine]

Dynamic Range restoration is already being done by other people. The new Lyngdorf integrated amplifiers use a DSP algorithm to restore up to 10dB of range to peaks clipped by heavy compression. I think approaches like this will evolve with time and lead to totally new ways to re-produce music.

Well, in theory you can expand it back, but.... if you don't match the original curves and thresholds, instead of expanding the dynamic range, your just warping in a non-linear fashion into a an artificially larger range. If you're doing this at 16 bit, good luck, you were in the shallow end of a narrow pool of bit depth to begin with, If you upsample to 20-24+bits, you gain a little bit of freedom, but your making resolution that just wasn't there. If it is was brickwalled, forget it, those bits are gone. And as ableza pointed out, once you process the bits out, you can't put them back in unless you have access to the master.

[I can't speak for Mike, but the fanboy in me thinks I can predict how he'd feel about it]. Now I'm sure mike could figure out a way to do this, but given how big a fan he is of ambient natural music with real instruments in real rooms with real resolution and imaging, and how much he hates electronic over-processed (especially over-compressed) music, I think the result of dynamic range expansion (de-compression?) would sound so much like ass that he'd never do it except as a joke.

Now, go ahead and prove me wrong I'd be happy to find the unicorn dust that fixes over compressed music, parts of my collection would start sounding better.

 

[Paladin79]

I never saw the appeal to skeet shooting, I've always shot trap, and then moved on to sporting clays which really hurt my trap game... What's funny is when I lived in Kommiefornia I would shoot every single weekend, and now that I'm in a free state I rarely ever get to go.

I have done some clay pigeon shooting and bench rifles but my real loves are target pistols and archery. Both have always been more of a challenge to me and having two older brothers who were competitive archers certainly let me down that path.

 

[GumbyDammit223]

Man, what a great series. The IT Crowd - Soo fn funny

Edit - Also check out Coupling, them Brits know humor.

UK Coupling ==> absolutely f'ing amazing!
US Coupling ==> embarrassment beyond belief if you'd already watched the UK version

Another short-lived BBC comedy Manchild. Definitely geared towards guys but hilarious.

 

[RCBinTN]

@RCBinTN

How is the Skeet shooting in the Nashville area? I will probably want to get back into shooting registered Skeet again.

Well Hi, Winders,
I don't know, but a colleague at my former company is a shooter so I reached out for info.
Will let you know what he reports.

 

[Paladin79]

Well Hi, Winders,
I don't know, but a colleague at my former company is a shooter so I reached out for info.
Will let you know what he reports.

East of Nashville in Smithville is a resort I like:

https://www.evinsmill.com/en-gb

Great food and atmosphere, elegant rustic.

 

[RCBinTN]

East of Nashville in Smithville is a resort I like:

https://www.evinsmill.com/en-gb

Great food and atmosphere, elegant rustic.

That place is very close to Tom's house @kilkil where we've been having HP meets the last couple of years.
It's at Center Hill Lake, which is actually a man-made reservoir. A beautiful part of the world!

 

[OlDNuke]

Medical deserts I've seen: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Central California. It just mind boggling that in this country you can be over 100 miles from a hospital and not be in a national forest...

 

[liquidsmote]

Not trying to make a fuss...

My replacement (1st completely died and was replaced) Modi MB has been slowly dying over time and finally bit the bullet on the 5th.

I've reported to Schiit support last Friday, but so far have only received the automated email.

I've been checking my Junk/Spam folder JIC ... should I just keep waiting? This long of a wait is definitely unusual for them, I know they're probably busy from RMAF, and I just want to make sure it's not an email issue.

 

[RCBinTN]

@RCBinTN

How is the Skeet shooting in the Nashville area? I will probably want to get back into shooting registered Skeet again.

OK - here ya go with shooting hobby info around here ...

"There's one in Murfreesboro: Big Springs, and one in Nashville: Nashville Gun Club, just off Briley Parkway by the mall.
I am also part of a group that puts on a charity shoot every year in April in Tunica. This is sporting clays and we get about 400 shooters for the event. This will be our 20th year and will be a big milestone for us -- we have some huge sponsors, Beretta, Remington, Beneli, Waste Management, several large recycling companies, (most of the guys in our group work in the recycling industry). If this is something he would be interested in, I have room on one of my teams - don't have the exact date yet, we are still negotiating with the Casino on dates..."

Hope this helps -
RCBinTN