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Posts by Myrddin

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  • Supreme Court Clears the Way for a Wealth Tax Because Obamacare Was a Tax: Unrealized Gains Can Now Be Taxed!

    06/22/2024 10:20:39 PM PDT · 8 of 49
    Myrddin to SeekAndFind
    If I bought my home in this fiscal year for $400,000 and within a year, it is now valued at $430,000, will I be required to pay taxes on the unrealized gain of $30,000 even if I did not sell my house and continue to live there?

    One should not overlook the possibility that the $30,000 of unrealized "gain" is more likely a debasement of the purchasing power of the US Dollar due to government mismanagement. There needs to be a correction for currency debasement to normalize apparent "gains". There is a similar term "indexing for inflation" that would be applicable.

  • Heat pumps are ‘cheapest, healthiest’ way to meet Minnesota’s climate goals, local coalition says

    06/22/2024 9:06:00 PM PDT · 64 of 127
    Myrddin to ChicagoConservative27
    My house in Pocatello had a heat pump. It was built in 1987. A miserable failure for both heating and cooling. I replaced it with a 95% efficient gas furnace and an new air conditioner. That cut my heating/cooling costs in half and does a better job in the temperature range from -21F to +103F that is typical of my location.
  • Idaho is fining Farmers $300 PER ACRE for using water

    06/22/2024 8:59:45 PM PDT · 37 of 50
    Myrddin to BAN-ONE
  • Idaho is fining Farmers $300 PER ACRE for using water

    06/22/2024 6:40:23 PM PDT · 35 of 50
    Myrddin to BAN-ONE
    Courtesy mention of the late Jeff Head.

    Jeff was just a couple months older than me. He was married a couple months before I was. Very parallel paths in time. I had no idea that he died in 2021. He lived in Emmmett, ID. I'm in Chubbuck, ID. Sad to learn of his passing. I sent him a Happy Birthday a couple days ago...unaware of his passing.

  • How did my personal medical info get out?

    06/21/2024 8:56:23 PM PDT · 42 of 70
    Myrddin to Not_Who_U_Think
    Did you carry your cell phone into the appointment with your doctor? It is likely that the microphone was enabled and some application listening. Did you have location tracking enabled on your phone? That would give a clue that you visited a doctor's office. Lot's of details about your behavior and choices can quietly leak out.
  • Google maps reportedly won’t offer a ‘scenic route’ option because it’s racist to NOT trek through the hood…

    06/19/2024 7:54:28 AM PDT · 31 of 38
    Myrddin to Tench_Coxe
    My GPS routed me into a nasty ghetto in Oakland on the way to a co-worker's home in 1984. Roll forward to 2003 and I'm building door to door routing for travelers. Remembering my experience, I suggested it might be a nice feature to have the customer racial/ethnic info in the travel profile and use that info to create route "avoids". It drew a laugh from my boss. Great idea, but it would never be allowed.
  • Dangers of taking Ozempic to get ‘beach body ready’ revealed by top doc

    06/18/2024 3:26:23 PM PDT · 35 of 37
    Myrddin to Jemian
    Surgery is June 25th. I'm working through my pre-op checklist. Discontinue supplements at 7 days. Discontinue Eliquis 2 days prior. Nothing to eat 12 hours prior. I won't have my check-in time until the nurse calls between 2 PM and 4 PM on the 24th. Expecting a usual "crack of dawn" arrival time. The surgery takes 4 to 12 hours. My surgeon has a running average of 5 hours 15 minutes over hundreds of surgeries.

    Complement cascades can be scary. There is always some nascent complement awaiting a trigger. Once triggered, it's like a pack of dogs going after the target. That just sets the stage for the follow-up action. Hemolysis in your specific case. Stay warm and comfy. No ice bucket challenges.

    When I was in grad school immunology, each student in class participated in a blood test. A sample of blood is placed on a slide and a reagent consisting of very fine teflon balls in a orange carrier fluid is dropped onto the sample. The slide is gently rocked to mix the reagent with the blood sample. Many others started ahead of me and kept asking what was supposed to happen. Nothing for most. My slide turned almost solid with just 3 gentle "rocks". Hey, this is different. The basis of the test is the teflon spheres become coated in antibodies from the serum. If there is an auto-antibody present, it will cling to a RBC. If another RBC nearby contacts the same sphere, it "glues" the RBCs together (agglutination). In my case, all of the RBCs converted to a flat, stiff mat on the slide in under 2 seconds. I suppose it would be a bad idea to ever allow teflon spheres in my blood supply. The test is intended to expose the presence of auto-antibodies and often heralds rheumatoid arthritis in later life. It was spot-on in that respect.

  • Dangers of taking Ozempic to get ‘beach body ready’ revealed by top doc

    06/18/2024 9:39:26 AM PDT · 33 of 37
    Myrddin to Jemian
    Mine is an autoimmune hemolytic anemia

    I was tested mitochondrial antibodies that lead to hemolytic anemia. Fortunately negative. My capacity to bind iron is fine, but I was still not successfully capturing enough. My RBCs have a wide range from microcytes to anisocytes. Many of the RBCs just never mature into something useful. In spite of my best efforts, I still don't have a resolution. Perhaps getting the cancer removed will bring a resolution. Tuesday is surgery day.

    My wife as been using Ozempic with a primary goal of lowering her A1C. As a Type 1 diabetic, the delayed gastric emptying presents a problem when her blood glucose drops to a critical low. Consuming glucose is also delayed putting her at risk for going from critical low to comatose. Not really a good risk vs reward.

    I can certainly relate to the lack of energy that accompanies anemia. Just a little exercise and you feel wiped out. It's not a great situation when you live at 4600 ft elevation with somewhat less oxygen in the air. Normally, I had extra RBCs to compensate for the altitude. Not right now. It sucks.

    I'm reminded that you can't out train a bad diet. If you eat too much, you can't burn enough with exercise to compensate. The washed out feeling from anemia feels a lot like low blood sugar. I think that leads to an attempt to "fix" the problem by eating. It's a miscue.

    Good luck on your journey to keep enough RBCs to stay on the green side.

  • Pizza Hut abruptly shutters 15 restaurants - with 129 more at risk - after huge bust-up with major franchisee

    06/17/2024 9:54:01 PM PDT · 28 of 41
    Myrddin to DallasBiff
    Are there anymore dine-in Pizza Huts?

    There is still a "dine in" Pizza Hut in Pocatello near the ISU campus. I've never been in there in 24 years. My preferred pizza restaurant is MacKenzie River. We have many choices in Pocatello. We have Pizza Hut, Pizza Pie Cafe, Domino's, MacKenzie River, Papa Murphy's, Donato's, Papa John's, Little Caesar's, MOD Pizza, Olive Garden, Papa Kelsey's, Big Foot, Buddy's Italian, Costco food court, Red Robin (Donato's), Cafe Tuscano, Panera Bread. Plenty of options in town.

  • Why You Should Never Drink on Long-Haul Flights, According to Science

    06/17/2024 9:42:13 PM PDT · 21 of 34
    Myrddin to nickcarraway
    Consuming alcohol and flying an airplane is forbidden. A friend who is also a pilot reminded me that with alcohol, the higher you go, the higher you get. Although the passenger compartment is usually pressurized to the equivalent of 8,000 feet for comfort (even when flying to 42,000 ft), there is still less oxygen. The flight deck comes with oxygen masks for the pilot/copilot/engineer to ensure ability to safely fly the aircraft with adequate oxygen.
  • Dangers of taking Ozempic to get ‘beach body ready’ revealed by top doc

    06/17/2024 8:34:39 PM PDT · 30 of 37
    Myrddin to Jemian
    I'm anemic as well. Likely due to a gastric bleed associated with the cancer in my "ampulla". I made very good progress using a heme based iron product from Three Arrows. I'm also adding extra methyl folate and methyl cobalamin to aid in absorption. It is important to avoid calcium rich foods with your iron supplement as iron and calcium compete for the same receptors in the gut.

    My "go to" diet has been a hybrid of the Zone 30-30-40 and a 5-2 intermittent fasting. Mon/Thu I eat 600 calories with 30% protein/30% fat/40% carbs. The other days are 1250 calories. The Pure Protein shakes at Costco provide 30 grams of protein in 160 total calories. That is my normal breakfast. I maintain my honesty about my weight and intake using MyFitnessPal. A Charge5 FitBit tracks sleep and exercise and can "credit" calories to your daily tally if you exercise enough to earn more.

    Next Tuesday I'm having a Whipple procedure. I have already lost my gallbladder. The Whipple will take the duodenum just beyond the pyloric valve to just beyond the sphincter of Oddi. The "head" of the pancreas will get sliced off. What remains will be stitched together to make a "hopefully" working digestive tract free of cancer. It will take time to "reboot" my stomach and new digestive tract. In the interim, I plan to employ a "complete amino" powder will all essential amino acids that can be stirred into a drink. It will be a while before solid food will work again.

    threearrowsnutra.com has the heme supplement.

  • regarding rules and guidelines the SH word abbreviation and Biden's ability to F things up... and the self- appointed SH Patrol

    06/17/2024 2:57:57 PM PDT · 12 of 50
    Myrddin to Jim Robinson
    On my heck is heard around the LDS heavy Pocatello area.
  • Commutes are getting longer as hybrid workers make trade-offs

    06/17/2024 1:32:09 PM PDT · 10 of 14
    Myrddin to ChicagoConservative27
    I have worked from my home office 100% since Sept 2014. The "office" is 920 miles south in San Diego. Because I have a "home" office, I do not have a physical "office" in the building in San Diego. My labor rates are adjusted accordingly to the customer. I have no wasted time or money commuting or seeking lunch. In the past, I did have a physical office with a physical telephone on the company PBX. It was necessary because my tasking took place in a secure compartment. It's not that way now. There is no pressing need to be physically present.

    The last time I visited the building in Sept 2017, it was for the purpose of a in-person visit with the 25 staff members under my lead. We had a good time. I was somewhat hobbled by not having a physical office to work.

  • The Supreme Court just effectively legalized machine guns

    06/16/2024 8:24:36 PM PDT · 51 of 86
    Myrddin to DoodleBob
    The words of a total illiterate. A semi-auto action has a mechanism that "catches" the hammer if the trigger is retracted. On release of the trigger, the mechanism releases the hammer and it moves to catch on the sear. That release is typically called a "reset" and must occur before the trigger can release the hammer again by moving the sear.

    A full auto mechanism is different. If the trigger remains retracted, the auto-sear releases the hammer after the bolt goes into "battery" and allows another firing sequence to begin. If the trigger is released, the auto-sear holds the hammer back until the trigger is operated again.

    In each case, semi-auto or full-auto, the design of the fire control mechanism dictates whether a single shot or multiple rounds get fired with a single depression of the trigger.

    The "bump stock" provides a sloppy way to use the motion of the WHOLE RIFLE experiencing recoil to "reset" the trigger between presses. It is extremely inaccurate and requires some skill to achieve a burst of fire. It's stupid range toy for people who have lots of money to burn dumping magazines full of ammo.

  • Angel Reese Commits Flagrant Foul on Caitlin Clark as WNBA Fans Sound Off on Video (brutal hit, no help from teammates)

    06/16/2024 6:15:54 PM PDT · 56 of 121
    Myrddin to vespa300
    Angel needs a year off without pay. Total ban on playing the game for 12 months for any organization.
  • Opus

    06/16/2024 4:22:50 PM PDT · 49 of 85
    Myrddin to Jim Noble
    Take care. Your contributions to threads have been first class over the years.
  • BREAKING: House of Representatives Passes Bill for Mandatory Military Registration of Young Men Between 18 and 26

    06/14/2024 6:39:20 PM PDT · 68 of 163
    Myrddin to Robert DeLong
    I registered at age 18. I was taking junior sequence courses at UCSD. My card came back with a 1H. The next year when I was 19, I received a 1A card. I watched as the lottery was pulled. My birthday came up 319. A low number would have pressed me to OCS with an interest in Chem/Bio/Nuke related work. The OCS path never happened, but the alternative did as a civilian DoD contractor.

    My father was a US Navy Commander with 25 years service when they pulled my lottery number.

  • Windows 11 LTSC 2024 arrives making TPM and Secure Boot optional — lower storage requirements, too

    06/14/2024 6:26:44 PM PDT · 24 of 31
    Myrddin to fireman15
    My laptop is an Asus model sold through Costco. i7 CPU. 16 GB RAM. 1 TB NVME disk. It needed a BIOS update to successfully keep updating Windows 10. I pull it out infrequently. Time to charge and apply updates. I have it as a fallback when I retire and return my company laptop.
  • Moment Democrat lawmaker called for more migrants to be bused into her state 'because there aren't enough locals to fill jobs'

    06/14/2024 12:18:39 PM PDT · 14 of 21
    Myrddin to DFG
    The jobs go unfilled because they don't pay enough to make the rent, eat and cover a car payment. If you bus migrants in and GIVE them food and shelter, they can take the jobs because the two largest expenses are covered.
  • Windows 11 LTSC 2024 arrives making TPM and Secure Boot optional — lower storage requirements, too

    06/14/2024 12:10:14 PM PDT · 15 of 31
    Myrddin to kiryandil
    My 2013 vintage Windows 10 machine has been gagging on updates for the last 6 months. It's unsettling to watch it chew for hours and never finish. A hard reset initiates attempts to undo the update and clean up.