RSS
This is a reference list of recommendations for avoiding the warm and welcoming if overly suffocating embrace of Corona-chan.
Disclaimer: NOT MEDICAL ADVICE!
***
Corona Survival Guide
Follow coronavirus news and be prepared to alter behavior
Note that I compiled a list of resources for tracking the pandemic. If your country/region is conscientious about testing, and there are no cases in your city/region, there’s no need to radically alter behavior.
Conversely, if/when it comes to your city or region, you need to start altering behavior.
Do not fear changing behavior out of a desire not to appear “weird” to normies. First, even for a young person, contracting SARS-CoV-2 is about as dangerous as taking 500 flights on a Boeing 737 MAX, so you’d want to avoid that if possible; and there is also a chance of long-term health impacts, such as lung scarring and male infertility. Do not let social hangups get in the way of your health. Second, it is highly contagious; on average, under “normal” conditions, one person infects three or four others (versus 1.3 for the flu). Third, containing an epidemic is a group effort. By social distancing, you will be doing your bit to lower r0 and “flatten the curve”. By wearing a face mask in public, you will be signaling that it is OK to do so and encouraging less courageous souls to don them as well. This translates into saving lives – it’s one of the most effortless “Effective Altruism” actions you can undertake.
If you are infected, don’t panic – it’s not the end of the world. If you’re young, you might have a rough month but you’ll almost certainly make it. Even if you’re in your 80s, you’re still more likely than not to win your game of Russian Roulette.
***
Important Corona lore
Symptoms of COVID-19 may include, a fever, DRY cough, shortness of breath, and loss of sense of smell and taste.
In the event that you suspect you have COVID-19, self-isolate immediately and seek medical advice.
Although there’s uncertainty over this issue, it’s best to avoid taking ibuprofen if you are subscribed it for an ordinary fever – better suffer through that, than risk much worse effects if you actually have the coronavirus.
I need hardly tell my high IQ readers, but beware of miracle cures. Too often they turn out to be of dubious efficacy, if not downright snake oil. There are varying opinions on hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin treatment; all I will say is don’t experiment with self-medication unless you really know what you’re doing.
Transmission can occur through respiratory droplets (aerosols), contact with contaminated surfaces, and the fecal-oral route. It mainly, but not exclusively, occurs from symptomatic patients.
The main risk factor for COVID-19, superseding all others, is age. Other factors include tobacco usage, diabetes, and other serious medical conditions. If you fall into these elevated risk groups, approach self-isolation even more thoroughly than you would otherwise, and try to impose said restrictions on elderly relatives.
***
Social distancing
Try to minimize your IRL contacts.
- Work from home if possible – should be feasible for most office jobs!
- Do your shopping online if possible.
- Avoid large gatherings – Restaurants, clubs, gyms, shopping centers, sport events, ski resorts, protests, etc.
- If IRL meetings unavoidable, no handshakes/hugs! Alternatives: Elbow bump; bowing; Vulkan greeting; Roman salute. 😉
- Level up your hikikomori skills: Reading, workouts, e-learning, video games, Internet shitposting, etc.
- General advice: Assume you are ALREADY INFECTED and act on that assumption.
***
Hygiene & Behavior
- Avoid touching your face. (Incidentally, face masks can help with this).
- Try to avoid door knobs, railings, etc. to the extent possible. Simple expedient is to use your sleeves.
- In particular, be wary of cell phones – coronavirus can survive up to 96 hours. If you’re constantly swiping on your cell phone, suggest regular disinfection with screen wipes.
- Avoid people with signs of pneumonia (coughing, sneezing, etc.) and people not wearing face masks (where applicable).
- Wash hands after restroom, meetings, and handling objects.
- Vigorously wash for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.
- No hard evidence that hand sanitizer is significantly more effective than soap, but use that if no faucet is available.
- Don’t share food/drink, culinary items (cutlery, plates, mugs, etc) & personal hygiene items (towels, etc.) with other people.
- Close toilet lid before flushing.
- Make sure to get adequate fresh air and sunlight to reinforce your immune system.
***
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Contrary to Western officialdom until late March, masks do work. Japan avoided an Italy-scale outbreak just through the simple expedient of having most of the population wear them
- AK: Corona-chan Didn’t Care Until I Put on The Mask
- Sam Watkins: #masksforall
- Scott Alexander: Face Masks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Ideally, you’d want to wear an n95 (FFP3) respirator and airtight goggles when going outside, especially to indoors and potentially crowded locations such as supermarkets, clinics, and government offices. You don’t need many n95 respirators since they can be reused. Store them in a ziplock bag when between use, and isolate them for a few days at a time to kill off any coronavirus. (Place in oven at 70 C for 30 mins for quicker solution). Do also note that n95 respirators need to be airtight – that means they need to be properly put on (YouTube this), and you’ll need to remove any facial hair.
That said, even surgical masks are very effective (may even be reusable by soaking in 30w/v % salt solution).
Furthermore, as Scott Alexander points out, for n95 respirators to be more effective than surgical masks, you need to know how to put them on. Apparently, this is far from trivial; even the majority (65%) of healthcare workers fail at it, which is little different from the performance of the general public (76%). Although a poorly fit n95 respirator is, of course, still far superior to nothing, functionally it is nothing more than an expensive surgical mask.
Sadly, many countries dallied with building up face mask production capacity, so for many people acquiring the above items may not be feasible right now, due to price gouging or sheer unavailability.
Until that is fixed, I would strongly suggest figuring out a way to get homemade masks. Get grandma to sew you one (and a few more for herself and family/friends), or do it yourself.
- fast.ai Forums: Resources for making home masks
- Wear a homemade mask to slow the spread of COVID-19
#Masks4All - What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks?
- SCMP: How to make your own mask: Hong Kong scientists reveal temporary solution for those unable to get protective gear because of panic buying and price-gouging
Ultimately, even just wearing a scarf wrapped around your mouth and nose is far better than nothing.
If even that is not possible, at least have the common courtesy to sneeze/cough into your elbow when you have to.
***
Life in the Age of the Plague
Having a stockpile of non-perishables on hand is a good idea, and is widely practiced amongst “preppers”, survivalists, and some religious communities like Mormons.
You don’t need many people to run the agriculture, food processing, and transport industries, so there shouldn’t be major shortages during epidemics except short-term ones borne out of panic hoarding. This makes life during epidemics more “comfortable” than during many other cataclysms, such as natural disasters or nuclear war.
However, there are still excellent reasons to get your supplies in on time – reducing grocery shop visits, which carry the risk of contagion and may even be restricted under especially severe lockdown conditions. Internet shopping will be no panacea either, since they companies will suddenly have an order of magnitude more customers spread out across a limited number of delivery people. As such, I recommend obtaining two weeks to a month’s worth of essentials, such as:
- 20+ kg of carb staples (rice, pasta, buckwheat, etc) per person.
- Frozen meat/fish (steak can be dry aged in the fridge).
- Multiple bags of coffee and tea; bottled water, soda pop, alcohol, weed (if you’re into that), etc.
- Stocks of vitamins.
- Cleaning liquids, washing machine/dishwasher pellets, paper towels, and yes, toilet paper, I suppose – though why not get a shower bidet already, you filthy peasants.
Familiarize yourself with plague lore: The Decameron, Camus’ The Plague, and Stephen King’s classic, The Stand; Richard Preston on Corona-chan’s more bloodthirsty but impulsive sister, The Hot Zone; Russian cult classic video games Pathologic and the more recent Pathologic 2, as well as Plague Inc. video game; zombie movies (my favorite is REC); and Contagion, perhaps the most realistic movie on what a pandemic would look like.
Most importantly, follow the right protocols: Say a prayer to Papa Nurgle and poast “I LOVE YOU CORONA-CHAN!” in the comments.
***
Other Guides
- Adam Rizika: Best way to combat coronavirus is to agree on norms to create safe spaces for families/groups
- The Prepared: COVID-19
***
Speculative Suggestions
I haven’t seen these recommendations being made anywhere in particular – send feedback, may upgrade them to recommended suggestions if warranted (or delete them if not).
- Avoid hand dryers. Actually, it’s good advice regardless – they’re disgusting. But coronavirus is also transmitted fecally, so you don’t want that shit-flecked air all over your hands. Just let them dry naturally if no paper towels.
- Keto diet helps? (“Higher glucose concentrations induced a dose-specific increase in influenza infection. Linking influenza virus infection with glycolysis, we found that viral replication was significantly reduced after cells were treated with glycolytic inhibitors. Addition of extracellular ATP after glycolytic inhibition restored influenza infection. We also determined that higher levels of glucose promoted the assembly of the vacuolar-type ATPase within cells, and increased vacuolar-type ATPase proton-transport activity. The increase of viral infection via high glucose levels could be reversed by inhibition of the proton pump, linking glucose metabolism, vacuolar-type ATPase activity, and influenza viral infection.“)
***
Since this blog post will be buried underneath future posts, I will also keep a duplicate at my website, which may be updated in the future: https://akarlin.com/corona-survival/
Please keep off topic posts to the current Open Thread.
If you are new to my work, start here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I’d prefer it if discussions here were devoted to discussing the contents and further suggestions. OT comments may be moderated. Since I want to ensure this is a reliable reference source, disinformation/Corona denial/etc. will be removed.
For the record Russian health ministry recommends hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID patients.
https://static-3.rosminzdrav.ru/system/attachments/attaches/000/049/881/original/COVID19_recomend_v4.pdf
So it’s not just some “miracle cure” that’s being promoted on the internet. It’s in international treatment guidelines for COVID-19.
That is a good tip. Can’t we use it for simple surgical masks? The virus is said to remain active on surfaces:
– for up to a week at 20 C
– only 5 minutes at 70 C
https://static-3.rosminzdrav.ru/system/attachments/attaches/000/049/881/original/COVID19_recomend_v4.pdf
So it's not just some "miracle cure" that's being promoted on the internet. It's in international treatment guidelines for COVID-19.That is a good tip. Can't we use it for simple surgical masks? The virus is said to remain active on surfaces:
- for up to a week at 20 C
- only 5 minutes at 70 C
Interesting, TIL. Anyhow, I moderated that statement – at the very least there appear to be serious proponents on both sides of that debate.
Also on the table is the old stereotypical Amerind greeting “How!”
PEACE 😷
Hydroxichloroquine apparently helps lower viral load according to French expert Didier Raoult. It’s not a miracle cure and won’t help treat severe cases in ICUs, but it’s cheap and available right now. The opponents of plaquenil seem to be motivated mostly by monetary considerations as the alternatives, Kaletra and Remdesivir are much more expensive, despite being just as unproven.
The main risk factor for COVID-19, superseding all others, is age.
I haven’t seen any good evidence yet that age by itself, in the absence of serious pre-existing conditions (or “comorbities”), is all that significant. According to the most detailed study I have seen — of 481 patients apparently randomly selected from the first 3,200 deaths in Italy — 98.8% had 1 or more “comorbities”, and the mean was 2.7 (1).
Perhaps an extraordinarily high percentage of the elderly in Italy have 1 or more serious existing pre-conditions, in which case the fact that 99% of the deaths fall in this category would not be so significant, and age could thus indeed be the principal factor. But to show this one would need to have statistics relating to the distribution of pre-existing conditions among the elderly, which must exist somewhere but I haven’t come across.
To date, approximately 14,000 have died in Italy from Covid-19. If the 98.8% figure for comorbities still holds, this would mean that approximately 170 “healthy” people have died thus far in Italy. The “elderly” (65+) population in Italy is 13 million. Let us assume that at least 25% have no serious pre-existing conditions — surely this must be a very conservative assumption. Even assuming that all of the 170 “healthy” dead were elderly, this would mean that a healthy elderly person in Italy would (thus far) have had a 0.005% (i.e. 0.00005) chance of falling dead from Covid-19, surely not an overwhelming risk.
(1) https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus/bollettino/Report-COVID-2019_20_marzo_eng.pdf
At present it's necessary to make 'heroic' assumptions about the distribution of comorbidities by age group, and the deaths-with-comorbidities by age group.
It's not stupid to assume that some key 'lifestyle' comorbidities (emphysema, cardio-vascular disease) increase with age; others (diabetes) might be more uniform.
If you assume that death-with covid19[+n], n ≥ 0 is apportioned according to the guess about the age-prevalence of the main relevant comorbidities, you will get ZERO CFRs for "death-with covid19[+0]" for the entire under-70 population.
I'm trying to get a handle on the distribution of key chronic illness by age group for Italy today; the data's not terrible, but you have to get it one age group at a time and one comorbidity at a time - for example from the ISS's CuoreData for CVD risk, and diabetes, one age group at a time... and it can't easily be automated (e.g., by a Python script). There's a tendency for publications on this stuff to be heavy on bullshit bad-cartoon pseudotables, and light on links to actual data tables... shit that looks like this ->
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fo23udn2iu4mqqz/ItalyCVD35-69F.png?dl=1
That's from a publication in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology from 2015, and it looks like it was done by an 11 year old. The only thing that would make it worse is if they actually used Comic Sans.
Anyhow... before bothering about age/comorbidity splits, age-cohort by itself is good enough to declare categorically that people under 50 can CTFD... here's the breakdown of CFR by age group, and deaths per million age-cohort-population, for Italian data as at March 30 (the latest at the time).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d7ithtic40cfg9z/Italy_CFR_vs_DPM.png?dl=1
Notes:
CTFD: Calm The Fuck Down
If possible you need to have the webmaster increase your number of Front Page links. Threads started today have already rolled off.
If you are exposing you cellphone in public this may be necessary.
If the bulk of you cell phone use is in your personal controlled space, this level of care may be unnecessary.
Citrus based cleaners + electronic screens = BAD
Many screens have coatings such as anti-glare. You may escape one cleaning with a more aggressive product. However, over cleaning screens with the wrong products will damage them.
Pain causes its own set of complications and behaviours. If you will not use your hands to clean (e.g. arthritis + no ibuprofen) you are likely better off taking the pills.
If your stomach can tolerate aspirin or acetaminophen, those are alternatives to ibuprofen. However, aspirin has its own set of side effects.
_____
If the materials in your N95 can take it. 120 seconds in a microwave will kill almost anything.
WARNING: The top seal in some brands of N95 masks are metal. Do not attempt to microwave anything with metal components.
_____
No single set of recommendations can possibly work for all individuals. AK’s guide is a good starting point, but everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves and their families.
STAY SAFE OUT THERE 😷
If a SJW sub-group chooses self extermination over “How!” refusal, I am not going to cry over the reduced number of Low IQ snowflakes. There is only so much you can do to help those who are too stupid to survive.
PEACE 😷
Even the over eighty may take heart:
“104-year-old WWII veteran recovers from COVID-19, celebrates birthday at the same time”.
By Meaghan Wray Global News
Posted April 2, 2020 3:01 pm:
‘A man celebrated his 104th birthday by becoming possibly the oldest person to recover from COVID-19.
William Lapschies has been isolated in his room at the Edward C. Allworth Veterans’ Home in Lebanon, Ore., since he was diagnosed with the virus on March 5.
He’s one of 15 residents to test positive at the seniors’ home; he was one of the first two cases at the residence.
But on Wednesday, his loved ones received some incredible news. The Second World War veteran and birthday boy — who lived through the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and multiple recessions — had fully recovered from COVID-19, according to a spokesperson, KOIN-TV reports.
Though his family wasn’t allowed inside the facility, Lapschies’ family surprised him outside his home for a socially distant celebration.
Aside from likely being the oldest coronavirus survivor, he was also one of the first Oregonians to contract the disease, daughter Carolee Brown told The Oregonian.
“He is fully recovered. He is very perky,” Brown said. “And he is very excited.”
@https://globalnews.ca/news/6768961/man-turns-104-recovers-coronavirus/
I suspect leaving packets one takes from outside in the sunlight for a few hours before handling them further can help prevent infection (in addition to hand washing). Confirmation pending. Also, it’s best to wash one’s hands for many, many seconds and with plenty of soap, but even if one’s unbearably lazy, sloppy handwashing might still make a difference by reducing the amount of the virus that enters the body and therefore the severity of a possible illness. As with homemade masks, some protection/prevention is always, always better than none, if that’s not evident.
I’ve seen several doctors who treat COVID patients say that everyone they know has been infected through being in close proximity to a Corona patient, and especially touching them. They are not aware of anyone who had been infected from touching a random surface.
But these doctors are treating people who had been hospitalized, i.e. serious cases by definition. So does it mean that if you get the virus from touching a surface you’d only get mild symptoms or no symptoms? Judging by what they say about the importance of viral loads for the severity of the disease, it’s possible. Still, it’s a good idea to avoid touching stuff; because even if your own symptoms are mild (and in the end you get a free vaccination) you may infect someone else.
https://static-3.rosminzdrav.ru/system/attachments/attaches/000/049/881/original/COVID19_recomend_v4.pdf
So it's not just some "miracle cure" that's being promoted on the internet. It's in international treatment guidelines for COVID-19.That is a good tip. Can't we use it for simple surgical masks? The virus is said to remain active on surfaces:
- for up to a week at 20 C
- only 5 minutes at 70 C
A virus isn’t alive, how the fuck can it be “active” ???
Membrane viruses are very fragile - breaking membrane (what soap does) simply scatters proteins and RNA into solution. Although the RNA is technically still able to infect cell it cannot enter by itself. Capside viruses (like smallpox) are completely different beast - they can remain virulent for years but fortunately our corona-chan is of the former type.
Functional receptors for binding onto your cell, intact membrane and RNA/protein complex inside. The attack happens by many complex chemical systems working in cohesion so if any of them is damaged nothing happens (other that the virion will eventually be eaten by macrophage). Biochemists call even single proteins (like enzymes) as active if they are able to perform intended chemical or mechanical role.
Membrane viruses are very fragile – breaking membrane (what soap does) simply scatters proteins and RNA into solution. Although the RNA is technically still able to infect cell it cannot enter by itself. Capside viruses (like smallpox) are completely different beast – they can remain virulent for years but fortunately our corona-chan is of the former type.
That Roman Salute thingy doesn’t go over so well in parts of Europe. I just give a friendly wave of the hand.
https://faktenfaktenfaktenfaktenfakten.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/winken.png
Over-the-counter painkillers, especially NSAIDS, should be avoided at this time.
-NSAIDS inhibit antibody production
-Ibuprofen additionally upregulates ACE2 expression
-Acetaminophen/paracetamol depletes glutathione
If you require painkillers and are unable to obtain opiods the least harmful choice is acetaminophen (Tylenol). Pair it with n-acetyl cysteine (NAC), which inhibits hepatoxicity and helps prevent glutathione depletion as it is the precursor for the body’s production of glutathione. You can also take liposomal glutathione directly and supplement glycine.
Tobacco upregulates ACE2 expression, which was the original reason for Lance Welton’s galaxy-brained take that whites are immune. The mechanism appears to be from nicotine, so smokeless tobacco is in this case not a safe alternative. Smoking is also immunosuppressive to begin with. That said data show that former smokers are more vulnerable than current smokers. Take that with a grain of salt however as perhaps former smokers in Wuhan are older and have more comorbidities like emphysema and lung cancer.
This is not the time to engage in fasting beyond the standard 16/8 IF protocol. While fasting ultimately boosts your immune system, while you fast white blood cell production is inhibited.
I also endorse the keto diet suggestion, but if you’re not willing to do that just avoid sugar. Sugar is strongly immunosuppressive, but starch is not.
Nutraceuticals supplementation guide: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033062020300372
Note that boosting the type 1 interferon response, while broadly positive, can also contribute to the dreaded CYTOKINE STORM. A way to limit this possibility (if the virus evolves to cause this in the second and third wave) is avoidance of polyunsaturated fatty acid body composition. Note that it’s not just sufficient to avoid consumption–you must deplete your body’s existing stores of PUFA. This is something everyone should be doing anyway, so now is a great time to start.
I should add the fresh air and sunlight are your friends.
During the Spanish Flu hospitals were then as today overwhelmed. Many countries resorted to improvised tent hospitals in open fields. Those treated outdoors had a lower mortality rate and recovered faster.
British research in the 1960s found that microbes die faster in fresh air for unknown reasons. Probably ozone and sunlight.
The sun, contrary to being something that is to be avoided at all costs, is recommended for health. Not only for vitamin D, but many other processes in the body. Germane to this particular pandemic is that sun exposure upregulates the body’s production of nitric oxide, and nitric oxide inhibits the replication cycle of the virus. You can also increase your body’s nitric oxide with supplementation of citrulline (or arginine). Beets are also good for this.
One positive change I’ve seen locally is that people do a lot more walking outside now to relieve boredom. It used to just be me.
And if you can’t stand raw beets, then make them into beet chips via a food dehydrator or an equivalent. Beet chips are delicious.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/rf-buying-guides/best-beet-powders-reviews
If any of you older men suffer from ED this may help you as well. Though you can always simply order generic viagra or cialis from alldaychemist.com.
Beet powder is also widely available since it’s consumed by a lot of athletes. I supplement citrulline directly prior to lifting since I follow the lean gains protocol (requires fasted training), but a lot of athletes prefer beets.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/rf-buying-guides/best-beet-powders-reviews
If any of you older men suffer from ED this may help you as well. Though you can always simply order generic viagra or cialis from alldaychemist.com.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/rf-buying-guides/best-beet-powders-reviews
If any of you older men suffer from ED this may help you as well. Though you can always simply order generic viagra or cialis from alldaychemist.com.
I’ve made converts out of those that swore that they “hated beets.” Why would anybody pay $32.99 for a three pack of 16 oz. beet powder when you can get perfectly good fresh beets for .99 cents a lb.? Also, beet salads are great too, where I add in some of Dave’s hot pickles for a little extra zing. I’m eating more borshch lately and upping my garlic intake too, I’ve never felt better!
or:
Nice to see that you’re back (I thought that it was odd that you didn’t chime in for Karlin’s recent thread about coffee infused steak?). 🙂
I decided it was irresponsible to keep waiting in light of the current crisis where every man must do his duty.
I don't personally purchase beet powder and will not advise you to do so, but obviously the advantage is convenience. Note also that 16 ounces of beet powder is not equivalent to a pound of beets because the beets contain a lot water.
One dehydrated food powder product I do enjoy using is beef liver. I can tolerate eating beef liver, but I'll never love it. Easier to just use the powder from time to time.
I’ve been waiting for an open thread to discuss Tesla, but this hasn’t been forthcoming.
I decided it was irresponsible to keep waiting in light of the current crisis where every man must do his duty.
I don’t personally purchase beet powder and will not advise you to do so, but obviously the advantage is convenience. Note also that 16 ounces of beet powder is not equivalent to a pound of beets because the beets contain a lot water.
One dehydrated food powder product I do enjoy using is beef liver. I can tolerate eating beef liver, but I’ll never love it. Easier to just use the powder from time to time.
I decided it was irresponsible to keep waiting in light of the current crisis where every man must do his duty.
I don't personally purchase beet powder and will not advise you to do so, but obviously the advantage is convenience. Note also that 16 ounces of beet powder is not equivalent to a pound of beets because the beets contain a lot water.
One dehydrated food powder product I do enjoy using is beef liver. I can tolerate eating beef liver, but I'll never love it. Easier to just use the powder from time to time.
I’m curious, just how many servings per 16 oz bag?
Whenever I make borshch (no “T” on the end) I make enough for two people for at least 3 days. If I’m more energetic I’ll make a pot for a whole week. The nice thing about borshch is that it gets better with daily aging.
I share your feelings about liver, and like to eat it (smothered in sauted onions) about once every three months. I always knew that it was a great source for Vitamin B, but I looked it up once at my go to website for nutritional value http://www.whfoods.org/, where they used to have an entry for beef liver. The accompanying nutritional chart blew me away – beef liver is a super-food excelling most anything else by far! They no longer include beef liver, as apparently the food police (that you’ve railed against in the past) have got to them. Needless to say, I seldom visit that site anymore.
But consider that humans are said to be 70% water. What's the figure for beets? 80%?
So perhaps 16 ounces of beet powder is equivalent to five pounds of beets.
I love borscht myself but don't make it often since I am not slavic.
Oddly enough, seal steaks have a liver rather than a steak taste.
I’ve never had the “pleasure?” Eskimos include a lot of seal meat within their diet, and they live a long time. Plenty of Omega 3, so it must be good for your heart. I know that you like visiting the Scandinavian countries and that you live close to the Canadian border, and am guessing that somewhere in-between is where you’ve acquired a taste for this form of exotica?…
I don’t know how many servings are in a 16 ounce portion of beet powder since I’ve never bought it.
But consider that humans are said to be 70% water. What’s the figure for beets? 80%?
So perhaps 16 ounces of beet powder is equivalent to five pounds of beets.
I love borscht myself but don’t make it often since I am not slavic.
6 small country style ribs
2 good sized beets (3 smaller ones)
3 large carrots
1/2 cabbage (either green or red)
2 medium potatoes
1 can V-8 juice
1 onion
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1)Cover ribs with water, add some large whole black peppers and 3-4 bay leaves, bring to a simmer.
2) Add in "zasmashka*"
3) cut up remaining beets into mouth size pieces and add to ribs at the bottom of the pot
4) Start adding the V-8 juice.
5) After 10 minutes, add in leftover carrots also cutup into mouth size pieces.
5) Repeat with potatoes, you guessed it, in mouth sized pieces.
6) Add in leftover cabbage shredded nicely.
7) Any time towards the end, add in a can of the beans.
8) garnish at the end with nicely minced dill, sour cream, and dark crusty bread and cloves of garlic
*zasmashka - thick grate 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1/4 cabbage and 1 chopped onion and fry up on pan. Mix and transfer to cooking pot when through. This is the most labor intensive part of the whole process.
Play around with it. Typically, I also like to cut up and include one hot chili pepper to the pot, for that extra oomph. Now, you too can begin to think and act like a real Ukrainian kozak - Smachnoho!
I tried seal steak in a village not far from the Quebec coast a couple of years ago. Epic road trip.
But consider that humans are said to be 70% water. What's the figure for beets? 80%?
So perhaps 16 ounces of beet powder is equivalent to five pounds of beets.
I love borscht myself but don't make it often since I am not slavic.
Easy recipe for six large servings, average sized cooking pot:
6 small country style ribs
2 good sized beets (3 smaller ones)
3 large carrots
1/2 cabbage (either green or red)
2 medium potatoes
1 can V-8 juice
1 onion
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1)Cover ribs with water, add some large whole black peppers and 3-4 bay leaves, bring to a simmer.
2) Add in “zasmashka*”
3) cut up remaining beets into mouth size pieces and add to ribs at the bottom of the pot
4) Start adding the V-8 juice.
5) After 10 minutes, add in leftover carrots also cutup into mouth size pieces.
5) Repeat with potatoes, you guessed it, in mouth sized pieces.
6) Add in leftover cabbage shredded nicely.
7) Any time towards the end, add in a can of the beans.
8) garnish at the end with nicely minced dill, sour cream, and dark crusty bread and cloves of garlic
*zasmashka – thick grate 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1/4 cabbage and 1 chopped onion and fry up on pan. Mix and transfer to cooking pot when through. This is the most labor intensive part of the whole process.
Play around with it. Typically, I also like to cut up and include one hot chili pepper to the pot, for that extra oomph. Now, you too can begin to think and act like a real Ukrainian kozak – Smachnoho!
I LOVE YOU CORONA-CHAN!
This is correct, beef liver, by weight, is likely the world’s most nutritious food for humans. Unfortunately, I personally can’t stand the taste of it. This is the first I’ve heard of powder, that’s a great idea.
Actually, drinking liver down in a powdered concoction sounds more yucky than eating it (smothered in onions and mashed potatoes) to me. Are you old enough to remember tang – it’s what spacemen drank during their trips into outer space).
See Jack LaLanne's 1984 interview in Playboy: http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=365365.0http://www.humansarenotbroken.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/jack-lalanne.jpg
https://files.rightwingwatch.org/uploads/chad-meme-800x458.png
Who said anything about drinking it?! Yes, I am old enough to remember Tang, absolutely putrid stuff.
The powder is bland and inoffensive. It doesn’t mix well, but that doesn’t matter much since you drink it quickly. Beef liver powder is also available encapsulated, and liver pills were an old favorite of golden age weight lifters like Jack LaLanne.
See Jack LaLanne’s 1984 interview in Playboy: http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=365365.0
See Jack LaLanne's 1984 interview in Playboy: http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=365365.0http://www.humansarenotbroken.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/jack-lalanne.jpg
https://files.rightwingwatch.org/uploads/chad-meme-800x458.png
As a little kid, I remember watching Jack, he did some incredible things. My computer’s virus protection software wont allow me to access the link that you posted. Did Jack forego eating beef liver in favor of the capsules? Did he regularly imbibe in the pills? Are they good as a “pick me up”, how do you feel after you take them?
Warning to everyone: vitamin A (retinol), while essential to human health, builds up in the body and can become toxic. So while it's great to eat liver don't go crazy either!
Entire interview:
I don’t know whether or not he avoided eating beef liver, but he took the pills as a workout supplement. This was common to power lifters and bodybuilders of his generation like Vince Gironda, Steve Reeves, Dave Draper (still alive and still yoked), etc.
They’re probably good as a pick me up if you’re deficient in micronutrients. I’m not deficient so I feel nothing in particular.
Warning to everyone: vitamin A (retinol), while essential to human health, builds up in the body and can become toxic. So while it’s great to eat liver don’t go crazy either!
Entire interview:
I haven't seen any good evidence yet that age by itself, in the absence of serious pre-existing conditions (or "comorbities"), is all that significant. According to the most detailed study I have seen -- of 481 patients apparently randomly selected from the first 3,200 deaths in Italy -- 98.8% had 1 or more "comorbities", and the mean was 2.7 (1).
Perhaps an extraordinarily high percentage of the elderly in Italy have 1 or more serious existing pre-conditions, in which case the fact that 99% of the deaths fall in this category would not be so significant, and age could thus indeed be the principal factor. But to show this one would need to have statistics relating to the distribution of pre-existing conditions among the elderly, which must exist somewhere but I haven't come across.
To date, approximately 14,000 have died in Italy from Covid-19. If the 98.8% figure for comorbities still holds, this would mean that approximately 170 "healthy" people have died thus far in Italy. The "elderly" (65+) population in Italy is 13 million. Let us assume that at least 25% have no serious pre-existing conditions -- surely this must be a very conservative assumption. Even assuming that all of the 170 "healthy" dead were elderly, this would mean that a healthy elderly person in Italy would (thus far) have had a 0.005% (i.e. 0.00005) chance of falling dead from Covid-19, surely not an overwhelming risk.
(1) https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus/bollettino/Report-COVID-2019_20_marzo_eng.pdf
There’s pretty strong tendency evidence – easily strong enough to make the call that the under-70s age group have a comordbidity-agnostic CFR less than half of the 70+. And for under-50s, the CFR is almost not worth worrying about.
At present it’s necessary to make ‘heroic’ assumptions about the distribution of comorbidities by age group, and the deaths-with-comorbidities by age group.
It’s not stupid to assume that some key ‘lifestyle’ comorbidities (emphysema, cardio-vascular disease) increase with age; others (diabetes) might be more uniform.
If you assume that death-with covid19[+n], n ≥ 0 is apportioned according to the guess about the age-prevalence of the main relevant comorbidities, you will get ZERO CFRs for “death-with covid19[+0]” for the entire under-70 population.
I’m trying to get a handle on the distribution of key chronic illness by age group for Italy today; the data’s not terrible, but you have to get it one age group at a time and one comorbidity at a time – for example from the ISS’s CuoreData for CVD risk, and diabetes, one age group at a time… and it can’t easily be automated (e.g., by a Python script). There’s a tendency for publications on this stuff to be heavy on bullshit bad-cartoon pseudotables, and light on links to actual data tables… shit that looks like this ->
That’s from a publication in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology from 2015, and it looks like it was done by an 11 year old. The only thing that would make it worse is if they actually used Comic Sans.
Anyhow… before bothering about age/comorbidity splits, age-cohort by itself is good enough to declare categorically that people under 50 can CTFD… here’s the breakdown of CFR by age group, and deaths per million age-cohort-population, for Italian data as at March 30 (the latest at the time).
Notes:
CTFD: Calm The Fuck Down
6 small country style ribs
2 good sized beets (3 smaller ones)
3 large carrots
1/2 cabbage (either green or red)
2 medium potatoes
1 can V-8 juice
1 onion
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1)Cover ribs with water, add some large whole black peppers and 3-4 bay leaves, bring to a simmer.
2) Add in "zasmashka*"
3) cut up remaining beets into mouth size pieces and add to ribs at the bottom of the pot
4) Start adding the V-8 juice.
5) After 10 minutes, add in leftover carrots also cutup into mouth size pieces.
5) Repeat with potatoes, you guessed it, in mouth sized pieces.
6) Add in leftover cabbage shredded nicely.
7) Any time towards the end, add in a can of the beans.
8) garnish at the end with nicely minced dill, sour cream, and dark crusty bread and cloves of garlic
*zasmashka - thick grate 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1/4 cabbage and 1 chopped onion and fry up on pan. Mix and transfer to cooking pot when through. This is the most labor intensive part of the whole process.
Play around with it. Typically, I also like to cut up and include one hot chili pepper to the pot, for that extra oomph. Now, you too can begin to think and act like a real Ukrainian kozak - Smachnoho!
That sounds amazing. I love beets, but I never have them because Mr. Rosie says they “taste like dirt.” WTF?
Beets have a gritty texture which isn’t appealing to everyone.