Have you read 75% of the threads around here? Who thinks we are intelligent? Theres absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to understand something yourself rather than relying on someone else to tell you how it is, but people as of late seem to think you can skip the time and dedication it takes to understand something for yourself by reading other people's responses on google and somehow thinking those are more valid because they have no idea what they're talking about, and for that reason couldn't be propoganda.

How can anyone come to the conclusion that a signal could possibly cause a virus without understanding how electromagnetic radiation works, how energy from that radiation effects living cells, or viruses.

I've been trying to make epinephrine and insulin in my back yard, and they've been telling me no  

In addition, I got my nuclear reactor shut down years ago while I was still building it. DHS' concern was more that I was using a local river for cooling, even though it was a closed loop system! Damn government.

Not that I think the stimulus plan is a great one, but I do think its possibly better than nothing. I'm not very pro socialism, but what I hate more than socialism is poorly done socialism. Thats what the US has now. Our public medical care is socialized to a degree already whether anyone likes it or not. The reason emergency room visits cost as much as they do is because they can't turn away people that inevitably will not be able to pay, so the extra cost is spread out to everyone else to make up for it. Well that and other issues with healthcare costs. People scream we don't want something socialized, when in reality we are already 95% there and that 5% that we don't commit to is just making it horribly inefficient and expensive.

My point wasn't actually about health care, but just something to consider is that the cost of not giving everyone something to buy food while they're out of work very well potentially could have a greater financial effect than the printer brrrring out 2 trillion dollars. We've survived a few quantitive easings, which again I wont say I'm too on board with, but human lives have a lot of value. And I dont mean the sappy, "everyone is special" sort, I mean that there is a calculable cost to the government for each person that gets sick. There is a calculable loss to GDP, tax collection, etc etc for each person that dies. You'd hope that there were some fancy economists that looked over what information they had at the moment and saw, ok if we do nothing this will likely cost us $3 trillion, but we can reduce that by printing 2 trillion now.

Even if it wasn't the optimal move, its probably reasonable to believe that the cost of inaction may be higher than the cost of action now. They can always say alright, we want our $1200 back 6 months down the line and burn it (not that that'll happen) but they can't bring people back to life.

Losing your license to practice medicine that you spent 16 years and likely at least a half of a million dollars obtaining is pretty good incentive not to lie. I agree with the rest.

Theres nothing magic or spooky about 5G, its just a stupid wavelength for a frequency for practical purposes. It is however very far away from the dangerous range.

Very very simply put, shorter wavelength - higher frequency waves carry more energy. Even at 60Ghz you are quite a few orders of magnitude away from being dangerous to the human body. Resonant frequencies where signals overlap does happen, but the statistical probability of enough 60 Ghz frequencies perfectly resonating to cause damage is on the same order of magnitude as you (if you are an average sized man) walking through a wall without any structural damage to the wall or your body.

As a side note, why would electromagnetic radiation effect your lungs? They're pretty well protected by the rest of your body, if 5G was to damage anything it'd be skin/surface level. Xrays are sort of able to reach the inside of your body, and they're in the pHz to eHz range.

Whether you believe Italy or not, check out the information every country in the world is publishing. Even if it doesn't kill you, there is an obscene amount of hospitalization required for healthy people with no underlying conditions. People that are showing as completely asymptomatic can show signs of lung damage when scans are done. Read a couple of articles from Iceland, they've done some of the most extensive testing by population %. I'll let you source them yourself so you don't have to bother finding counter articles, you can read them both at the same time.

Regardless of your background, you can look at the numbers that we have right this moment. While it doesn't take a whole lot of understanding of infectious disease or math to understand why predictions are fairly accurate (there is a contest to predict flu statistics before they happen each year, and the winner is normally +- 1000 cases worldwide) if you take a second to look at the statistics as they are now, you'll see that corona virus is more dangerous right now than drunk driving. We wear seat belts because cars are inherently dangerous. Even if you don't buy into any of the fear or potential scenarios, it is the reasonable measure to take precaution. We don't live our lives in fear of drunk drivers, but plenty avoid driving on New Years Eve or holidays where people traditionally drink to minimize their risk.  

Whether you think its overhyped media scare money mongering or whatever else, a few weeks of inconvenience is worth it. Even a fraction of a percent are not odds you want to bet against with your health. Make it a little bit less abstract by comparing your likelihood of having a bad time with the illness to your local crime rates or something that is more real to you.

Face masks are a decent solution because asymptomatic people are often carriers of the disease. Masks that don't seal around your face don't stop you from creating positive pressure when you breath in that'll suck in unfiltered air from the outside, however if everyone wears masks, it reduces the virus leaving the mouths/noses of people who genuinely don't know and may never know they were sick to begin with. That said in the case of a mask shortage, doctors/nurses should have them first, and thats not just for their sake but their patient's. Imagine a doctor that gets infected and then goes on to spread it to the 100 patients they see throughout the day.
Other people have the option to limit their exposure, but doctors may not have a choice.

As Franky1 mentioned there are a few reasons why Africa may not be getting hit as hard. Its not a certainty, but theres a reasonable chance that corona virus does not spread as well in hot and humid climates, as is the nature of other respiratory viruses like the flu. Ambient humidity causes moisture from your breath/coughs/etc to fall out of suspension with the surrounding air more quickly, giving it less time to get inhaled by the guy behind you in line.

I didn't see a lot of discussion about masks extending the period corona virus is around, but seeing as thats the title of the OP, thats actually somewhat true. In 1918 during the Spanish flu, Philadelphia and St Louis were the #3 and #4 largest cities in the US. Philadelphia didn't put in place measures to slow the spread, and St Louis did.



Time wise, Philadelphia had it a shorter period of time but the overall death count was far more severe. Social distancing, wearing masks, etc is going to drag this out longer, but it allows hospitals to deal with a steady inflow of patients rather than a surge that they can't handle.

We don't have a real good reputation here since we're heartless bastards... I mean not easily scammed by fake sob stories. PG has such a good reputation here because hes honestly shown his character all of these years, even without the photo proof, I bet the vast majority of people wouldn't question his words for a second (short of maybe making sure his account wasn't hacked).

I see it as an interest free loan. Something will happen to taxes so that they can recollect the debt they are producing. Its probably not fantastic fiscal policy, but I figure if we had a half way decent government (regardless of party, they're all clowns right now), we can fix the economic problems after we're no longer busy fighting to keep people alive.

Contributed as well. Bruno you're one of my favorite people here. A real "troll" that has long since had your title stolen by annoying whiny kids spamming UMAD. Your humor was on point, and you messed with people for the right reasons using creativity and wit rather than lazy tactics. Its an absolute shame to see you go, and you'll be missed.

Whenever I reference old Bitcointalk, its always represented by Phinnaeus Gage, Dank, Goat, MNW, The Butterfly Labs clowns, and a few assorted others to fully describe what created the society of our lovable hive of villainy and scum. You're a founder here as important as Hal Finney to the community. I repeat, I absolutely hate to see you go, but I hope that its all on your own terms and you don't let a little thing like a brain tumor tell you what to do. You may respectfully agree with its decision however.

They are a pretty reputable company thats been around for a long while, I've been using them for years without a single issue. I'd say with a high degree of confidence that if they can serve your need, it is far safer than buying the cards off of a forum member here. Not that you can't get legit cards here, but statistically I'd vote for purse. Just an option to consider.

Not sure what type of discount you are after, but Amazon gift cards are one of the most frequently frauded cards so be careful. Purse.io has my vote of confidence for buying stuff for you on Amazon at up to 33% off, but you aren't guaranteed to find someone offering that kind of discount. 20% off is fairly common though.

I use Petrobond for less expensive metals like copper and brass when I have the patience to hand finish things or lose detail. I've never used Delft Clay because of the cost. Do you bother cutting vent holes when you use delf clay/green scand/ or petrobond? Ive had pretty decent luck just using the porosity of the material itself. What I really do not like about the sand casting methods, is 3D models with lettering are realllllly inconsistent if you do any sort of lettering or detail where you can break the sand and remove features when removing the model. I had issues where if I applied inconsistent pressure when packing, sometimes I could remove the 3D model, sometimes I couldn't, etc. If I pack too hard vs not hard enough even if I didn't break features off, I'd get inconsistent weights as well which is really tough with this crowd.

I've not used pyrite before, but I'll look into it. I primarily use gold, electrum, argentium silver, fine silver, aluminum bronzes, copper, aluminum, platinum/palladium (though I need to retool to do those better) though I've tried a few exotics with mixed results. Purple gold is by far my favorite but the strangest material I've ever worked with. Its super pretty but has  trash mechanical properties. This is a stock photo from google pictures, as I don't have any pictures of what I've made with it handy.




The primary method I use now is lost wax casting. I've got a Resin 3D printer which is slow as hell but produces unbelievable detail down to a couple of microns. I can buy castable resin for it and go straight from print to mold, but the resin is something like $375 per liter, so I just use the standard stuff that'll provide me with a good finish, and put it in a silicone mold so I can wax inject replicas. Material cost is still sort of ridiculously high for low batch things, but its a lot better than adding up all of the man hours that goes into making things individually.

With the spoon and about 50 other plans I have, the issue I am running into is my furnace size for burning out the molds. Its taken forever but I'm finally getting around to finishing up my 13.5x13.5x13.5 inch kiln. Ive just gotta make some finishing touches and install the electronic controls at this point and I should be all set.



Plaster casts are typically 1 time use, but they give the best detail. Commercial products have all sorts of chemical additives to eliminate air bubbles, (though you still need a vacuum chamber) surfactants to keep the surface of the molds super smooth and without pores otherwise you get pits in your cast, and low shrinkage factors. DIY methods will work if you are careful and do a carefully controlled heat cycle to remove ALL moisture from the mold, but often the size of what you cast will be inconsistent at the very least.

I use commercial investment powders, and while expensive, give expected results more often than not once you deal with a few minor tweaks that you'll need to do regardless of mold material. The burnout cycles are provided by manufacturers, and typically take anywhere from 10 to 18 hours with VERY specific temperature heat soak/ramp schedules. They might require you start at 275 degrees (Fahrenheit) for 45 minutes, ramp up to 350 for 30 minutes, then up to 475 for 15 minutes, 550 for 2 hours, 675 for 3 hours, 900 for 2 hours, 1150 for 2 hours, 1350 for 1 hour, and then back down to 900 before you cast the material. Little things like not following the very particular timing/length can completely ruin an otherwise perfect mold. DIY products don't have manufacturer suggested times, so just know you'll have to do a bit of experimentation before you get it right.

Going to make this post even longer and just throw in a few pictures of things I'm working on.







And to physically hurt the bullion collectors here

I appreciate it. It was serious, but I should be in the clear now. I'd be careful with refractory cements, they really don't handle temperature changes well and aren't designed to rid themselves of moisture to the degree that needs to be done. In the best case scenario and you are lucky and it holds up, your surface finish will likely have issues. As I've found through the years, the difference between the expensive method of metal product production where you use professional products versus the DIY homemade versions is success rate and time. Home made versions fail more often and require a lot of extra manual work to get to a finished product, which by the time you are done with it replaces the cheaper DIY material cost with labor costs.

Titanium is neat, if just sort of blows up if you heat it improperly. I've got a lot of neat and interesting metals I can work with though. I say go for it with the 1 KG copper coins, just a heads up though it'll likely take you a while to get it right. Copper is really hard to work with, its taken me about 5 years to cast my own copper pan and I'm close but still haven't gotten it quite right. Its doable, just requires a whole lot of tinkering, degassing, temperature, and geometry exploration. Best of luck 

The project isn't dead, just had some health issues come up a little while ago that prevents me from executing all of my fun project plans. I'll be back at it in April though!

Sorry to hear that, I hope it works out for you. Curious though, the Scottsdale Mint made these coins? Do they have the legal authority to put a fiat denomination on the coins? I know some countries have agreements with other government mints to produce coins for them, like the Somalian Elephant series comes out of the Bavarian State Mint, but I didn't think anyone but government mints or foreign government mints with permission from the original country could mark fiat denominations. I suppose Scottsdale would probably have not made them if they weren't legally allowed to, but I find that odd.

1 @ 0.018
2 @ 0.018

 

1 @ 0.016
2 @ 0.016

lot 1 @ 0.014
lot 2 @ 0.014

lot 1 @ 0.0125
lot 2 @ 0.0115