Itās so weird. Even my own rents are scheptical and they are no dummies under normal circumstances. And its happening all over the place. Seems to me like there is some active disinformation/psyops work involved.
More rambling thoughtsā¦We do live in a world awash with BS, hidden agendas, hype and all of that. We know it. And there is a lot of bad science out there, quackery, etc. But in my view, and in my experience, public health science and medicine is mainly comprised of people who are in it for the mission more than the money. Itās not elective surgery. Historically this has been true - Salk made the polio vaccine public domain, smallpox was eradicated by a devoted team that was not doing it for the money, ebolaās spread was checked, and so it has gone for the most part.
I got my second shot in mid March. Since that time I have followed masking rules indoors in public and when needed, but otherwise I have been a lot more lax than I had been. Itās been fine so far. Actually, all that masking kept a lot of us from the usual winter cold or flu.
My main caution is the fact that so many people are not going to go along and get their shots. Including millions who got just one shot but for some reason wonāt go back for #2.
And I do understand that this is a time of exceptionally low trust among people in general about any leadership other than oneās specific preference. But to me the argument that it is a āpersonal choiceā holds no water. Once could call driving on the wrong side of the road a personal choice too.
At some point does not some sense of social responsibility take hold?
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Maybe whatās different is not people false beliefs about how to stay healthy, but that it matters to the whole society.
i.e. there has always been a wide circulation of dangerous diets, dodgy food supplements, quack remedies, and every other way to harm yourself. But people are usually only harming themselves, and perhaps their loved ones.
Iām basically in favour of the right to do whatever you like to your own body, however ill-advised. But itās another matter when the self-harm has such huge externalities.
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Well I donāt know, actual Pfizer employees sound like a pretty solid sourceā¦not to mention vice president who spent 16 years there. One would think he has certain qualifications and access to information.
Your rents arenāt dummies but we reached a point where even dummies start scratching their headsā¦
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I was recently interviewed for a podcast about online communitiesā¦the photo is by @matteo_uguzzoni in Morocco.
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Very nice, John! I saw it online.
Iāve enjoyed the Europarama podcasts about Witness a lot. Do you already know when the next episodes will be released? Will they be spaced again 2 weeks apart?
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Yes, it is every second Friday. Here is the link and here the update on the project.
The next one is out this week.
I like them very much too, @porcarorama has done an amazing job and the guys are in top form.
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Ladies and gentlemen: mushrooms, beer, love, millenia and monastic production - the episode of Europarama on the Covenant is out.
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Hello people around the campfire! Iāve been reading about Edgeryders developments on the forums for some time already, and also participating in some eventsā¦ now working on a new Distrikt called Libro Werde in Witness (worldbuilding).
The Distrikt is polyglottal via a hybrid human-machine linguistic system. I saw some Edgeryders threads in other languages than Englishā¦ so the question is, what are all the languages in use at Edgeryders, and are there plans to boost some particular ones? What languages would you like to see a polyglottal new Distrikt to start with (not necessarily the same ones as Edgeryders uses at the moment)?
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Hi! I donāt know if itās going to help you in any way, but I I personally love the sound of Greek, Farsi, and ā¦Hungarian (I knowā¦ a weird one).
A note on Libro Werde, I loved the idea of a distrikt diaspora, quite interestingā¦
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This seems very interesting!
As I"ve noticed, the languages in use here are English, German and Polish! Also, some Balkan languages (Serbian, maybe Croatian, Bosnian).
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And all three of them could be considered as one language 
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But then definitely some Italian, French and Dutch
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Of course, and lets not forget - Montenegrin language 
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Quite an interesting talk. I visit monasteries often and I look at them as great models of self sustainability.
@alberto It totally makes sense that monasteries were ābeacons of innovationā in middle ages. Very few people/organisations at that time had resources or time to dedicate to such pursuits.
Their model seems to be very much in line with mission economy discussion we had some time ago.
You reminded me of an interview I heard few years back. The guest was a scientist, an engineer who battled with depression and substance abuse/suicidal thoughts for years. He finally decided to become a monk and he spoke about the whole experience.
One interesting thing he said was contradictory to what great majority of people think when they hear about monasteries or religion in general. He said that it actually gives you the absolute freedom.
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I resonate with that. Freedom for me is the freedom to do good, beautiful, meaningful work, devoid of hustling or form-filling. Monks have that, though my work is not their work.
I assure you I am quite a cheerful man! 
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We hear the phrase āonline communityā all the time now, applied in just about any situation one can think up. But here is why The WELL is still the real thing:
Two nights ago an apartment building in Portland Oregon, USA caught fire and burned completely in a very short time. Two people died in the fire and others were injured. One who did not die, and who barely got out of there with his life and phone and nothing else, is, and has been for many years, the chief tech support person for The WELL. When the word got around that he had lost everything including his cat, a quick fundraising effort came together and in 24 hours the community raised and sent to him $20,000. Thatās community.
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