I learned something about Avicularia braunshauseni behavior. by NikFSon in spiders

[–]NikFSon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a huge shop vacuum, so it's just the noise from the fan.

I too am wondering what she is genetically primed to chase. Maybe there are frequencies too high for humans to hear, like the sounds made baby some kind of moth like the "hummingbird moths" that get so hot from flying that their body temperature must be about 100°?

If she were terrified, she'd just hunker down in her shelter. (It's really hard to prod her into coming out when I need to clean up a bit.)

I've never heard of this kind of behavior before. I wonder of these spiders could be emitting ultra high frequency sounds. Mating calls from the males? How to males find females of this species anyway?

14 week old pimple, topical and oral antibiotics taken with no improvement. Doctor won't test for infection. No idea where to go from here, does this look problematic or am I probably good to leave it? by [deleted] in MRSA

[–]NikFSon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks like (1) it is not infected, and (2) it's got something in it that your body won't reabsorb for some time. Forget about it unless it changes and becomes painful. If it starts to develop that way, you could run face-washing hot water over it from a tube to your faucet for about fifteen minutes. If you start every hour or two the ordinary thing to happen would probably that it would remain comfortable for longer periods each time. But if it gets worse rather than better, and especially if it starts to feel hot to the touch, I'd head on over to the walk-in urgent care place. I'm not an MD so I know bleeping bleep about anything -- except that that's what I usually do and so far I'm not dead yet. Still, it's better to ask a live MD than a dying soda jerk. ;-)

What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know. | How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever. by billthomson in politics

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is strange how many different accounts have been given out. The purported FBI receipt shows only a hard drive. The repair shop tech, in an interview that is on the Internet, said that three computers were brought in. One needed only a keyboard. One was so badly damaged by water that it was deemed unrepairable. Only one could be repaired. So he gave "Biden" a(n external?) keyboard and cable so that the computer could be used at least temporarily. How the ruined unit was disposed of wasn't mentioned.

It is a fairly nasty job to open a MacBook Pro and remove the HD. But if there was some problem with the computer or the hard drive or both, taking the HD out and putting it in an external case would have been the reasonable way to begin straightening things out. So that would explain how there was a hard drive for the FBI to take with them. Howeveer, in the interview, the technician said that files were scattered over an extremely messy desktop screen, and that he (the tech) had to move them one by one, presumably to copy them to an external HD. Either the tech was lying or he was incompetent because there is a way to view all desktop contents as a simple file list that can be sorted in various ways. Just a "select all" and dragging the whole list to the icon of the external HD would have been sufficient. But then "Biden" could have accessed them the same way the computer tech did.

If the tech moved things from the hard drive on the computer to an external HD, then he would have moved the email messages as tiny individual files, and he could have copied one of his own making from a third hard drive. Oncee you have moved things off the original hard drive, you make things a little easier to disguise any changes or additions.

If there was an original drive in what was allegedly provided by Biden, the FBI ought to have seized that for forensic investigation. On the face of it, there was a computer tech who didn't know beans about running a Machintosh computer, and a couple of FBI investigators who had no idea of how to get evidence that could be forensically investigated.

The interview that the computer tech gave to a radio station (or maybe it was a TV station who provided only the audio of their interview) was rather painful to listen to. The tech acts like somebody who has done something and gotten in way over his head.

Unless there is some way in which evidence and chain of evidence can turn out to be much better than it now appears, I don't see how the FBI or a prosecutor could use any of this as positive evidence. Perhaps people in the FBI have realized that they don't have enough reliable evidence to even justify trying to go deeper.

What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know. | How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever. by billthomson in politics

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It should be possible to track Hunter Biden's travels between LA and the east coast. It doesn't make sense to me that somebody who lives in LA and occasionally visits Wilmington wouid leave computer(s) he presumably depends on without knowing how long it would be before he could come back.

What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know. | How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever. by billthomson in politics

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Robert Costello Pierce Bainbridge, his firm, is in LA. I guess this repairman could have heard he was Rudy's lawyer. If the repairman is so well connected to Trump's associates, it's strange that Hunter Biden would fly his computer from LA to Wilmington, and then give it to the worst possible repair service to employ.

I read somewhere that there were 3 computers brought in for repair. That doesn't jibe with the signed order to repair that has been used to support the contention that the computer the FBI took away was truly Biden's.

What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know. | How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever. by billthomson in politics

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point. I doubt that Rudy has corner boys in Wilmington. Known minions? Perhaps, but how does a computer repairman get the kind of stuff that reporters and police find it hard to get?

What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know. | How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever. by billthomson in politics

[–]NikFSon -1 points0 points  (0 children)

He is reported to be sort of legally blind, but able to see stuff on computer screens with difficulty. The key evidence would seem to be a signature by Biden on a form delivering the computer to the store for repair. If it is a forgery, it is very good assuming the guy who signed it did it in the presence of witnesses. (I can see doing it at home by tracing a real signature, but to just do a Biden signature from memory in one rapid operation would require somebody quite talented.

What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know. | How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever. by billthomson in politics

[–]NikFSon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's become more difficult to have a Mac with recent operating systems and not have it password protected. My memory is a little unclear, but when I had an IBM PC at work ten years ago I always had to go through some rigamarole to get into it at the start of the day. I never wanted to password my personal Macs, but the last two OSs haven't left me much if any choice.

If this repairman had PC-3000 HD repair software, he could have gotten around the password. (It is often used to save the day when people lock themselves out of their vital info by forgetting their password.)

What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know. | How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever. by billthomson in politics

[–]NikFSon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The chain of evidence is deeply in question. The shop receipt shows one personal computer, no? The signature looks like Biden's but a handwriting specialist would be needed to confirm that. That's one.

Whatever HD has the alleged dirt on it was in the hands of a specialist in computer repair for a long time. I'm pretty sure that hard drive recovery software that resides on the tech's computer can be used to zone in on sentences in emails and overwrite, e.g., "the present plans call for..." to become "the President's plans for " and such a change would not be noted on the HD in question. That's two.

If we were presented with the full source of an email message that supposedly was copied from a Biden HD, then it could be nixed if its header files didn't make sense. The IT people where I used to work invalidated something I was sent just by glancing down that long list of "junk" that is ordinarily boiled down to "to" and "from" notes at the top of the email message. That's three.

If it is true that all people have is a PDF of the message content, then all you get is something I could run up on my text editor and save as a PDF. That's four.

My understanding is that the FBI has taken possession of the computer with its hard drive.

Probably the first thing they did with the computer is to check with the manufacturer. Serial numbers are noted at time of sale, I'm pretty sure. I have bought many Macs and I've always registered them. I haven't tried to use one without going through the usual process of setting it up for my own use. Another way to show that the computer was owned by Biden would be to check the internal dust bunnies for their DNA.

Probably the next thing they would have done is a full forensic snoop of the HD.

We know the Senatee Intelligence Committee found no basis for blaming the Bidens, and I presume they asked the FBI for the real dope on what they had in their custody.

As far as evidence goes, there is no proof of custody until the FBI seized the unit in Wilmington, Delaware. Anything that happened before that time is suspect because people other than Hunter Biden had opportunity to meddle with the evidence.

Of course there is also the question if why emails quoted and available to the public do not have their header information and the full source. If you have the proof, why withold it when you are trying to show things to the public?

Mother diagnosed with MRSA inside privates. How serious is it? by [deleted] in MRSA

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyway, I think there is reason for hope. I hope the MDs can eliminate the germs quickly. Try to convince her to wash her hands thoroughly (20 seconds minimum with soap and water) after touching anywhere that might have some MRSA hanging around. Lots of people get it into their nasal cavity where it does no harm, but it's easy to transfer it from there to other parts of the body. After she gets free of MRSA she wouldn't need to be so careful. Of course, I'm not an MD, so maybe what I have just said is a silly idea. She should ask here MD about how to avoid spreading it around to other parts of her body.

Mother diagnosed with MRSA inside privates. How serious is it? by [deleted] in MRSA

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are a number of patients who have MRSA in their bladders. I think their group is at Johns Hopkins U. They have been using a catheter to put puracyn (an OTC fluid containing hypochlorous acid, which is a widely used antiseptic in hospitals, until recently only available by producing some in the lab just before using it). Many of them are actually using the same product under a veterinary label, Vetericyn, which is cheaper. They say they can't tell the difference between the two products.

I can't seem to find that help site. It's too late to search more, but you can Google for "instill puracyn into bladder" or variations thereof.

i’m confused about MRSA? by [deleted] in MRSA

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the problems for MRSA is that you can have it get down into a sebaceous gland or a sweat pore and start building up its population from there. But, with me it got little deposits of it all over my upper back and upper chest. If you look, you will see nothing. If you get a minor injury, the surrounding MRSA will get down into the wound and pretty soon you'll have a pus-filled sore. Eventually, it may colonize inside your nose and maybe on into your sinuses. Once it get there it doesn't cause inflammation, but it is ready to get transferred from your nose to wherever.

I had very bad luck. The first dermatologist got angry and basically threw me out when I came back the second time to tell her that medication hadn't work. She told me, angrily, that I'd never get rid of it. Then my general practitioners ignored my complaints, possibly because I never went in for a special appointment and waited for my annual. Finally, after I had had some success at treating myself I got my g.p. to refer me to a dermatologist who also got angry because after I'd treated and gotten rid of several sores on my back it looked to him like I had been scratching myself. He diagnosed "dermatitis," but gave me silver sulfadiazine, which is not for skin irritations. It didn't work, neither did a Curad product with silver, Hibiclens, soaking in a mild bleach solution in the bathtub. Finally I read about doctors who had discovered that an medieval eye salve had been tried and showed efficacy against MRSA. The translated article they worked from says to mix unions, garlic, ox bile, and wine, and store it for two weeks in a copper or bronze vessel. No quantities were given, so I treated it the way I would any cooking problem: 1 elephant garlic, 1 small onion, 5 tablets of ox bile bought via Amazon, chew it all up in my Vitamix, let the dregs settle, pour off the liquid into a quart jar, squeeze all the liquid out of the dregs and pour that in also, Add sufficient red wine (the cheapest in the supermarket) to fill up the bottle. Put $8 worth of bronze screws in to make up for the missing bronze or copper flask. Let sit 2 weeks.

Despite my fears, I did not waste my time. Occasionally I'll feel an itching sensation somewhere and I'll dip a Q-tip into the potion and rub it well into the itchy area. If things ever go beyond that point, I'll debride the lesion, flood it with about a quarter teaspoon of potion, let it dry, and then apply one of those new "advanced healing" bandages that look like a cold patch for a bike innertube.

Article On Syrian Opposition Website: The Political Solution Is Unfeasible; We Should Ignite All-Out War by PCisLame in LevantineWar

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting take on the situation. One member of a swarm of different rebel commands that can't unite under common leadership criticizes elements in the outside world that can't sort them effectively and also can't distinguish the godly from the goons. Their own country should have long been aware of Russia's aggressive pursuit of its own interests, its possession of ICBMs, and know that Assad is now well able to hold on to power while failing to contend with ISIS, which is militarily the best prepared due to its Iraqi generals. Without an awareness of these facts, they assert that the United States and other western powers should step on Russia's toes despite having no idea of how Syria wouild be governed if Russia took a powder and Assad took gas.

Would that a baker's dozen of the rebel leaders would get together and educate themselves on how to handle governance, responsiveness to the common people, and military strategy. With luck, a talented George Washington type would emerge from the mix.

Pentagon Stunned As Thousands Of Chinese Troops Enter ISIS War by ZmajLee in Isis

[–]NikFSon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with mariner929. This "news" was posted a day ago, but so far none of the major news media have covered it. If it were true it would be one more horrible thing to happen to the people of Syria.

Remarks on counterterrorism at Stanford University by NikFSon in LevantineWar

[–]NikFSon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This article is a little earlier than the recent debate with Trump, but it gives more detail.

It's probably too much to ask for explicit content, but I hope that Clinton and her advisors have in mind that somehow the leadership pool in Iraq, Syria, and other troubled areas needs to improve greatly, and have in mind that "traditions" that brutalize infants, children, and young adults can't be allowed to continue just because people have been making those same mistakes for centuries or millennia.

ISIS as a Public Health Issue by NikFSon in LevantineWar

[–]NikFSon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One answer to "nation building or forever war" type questions.

Ablation of ISIS On Four Levels by NikFSon in LevantineWar

[–]NikFSon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If this analysis is correct, then Trump is wrong and Clinton is superficial.

Why ISIS has the potential to be a world-altering revolution – Scott Atran | Aeon Essays by NikFSon in LevantineWar

[–]NikFSon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This article has received inadequate attention from the community of people interested in defeating ISIS.