[MSL]

 Hehe, I really can't imagine what kind of logic is using one, who thinks the hospitals are safe. It's enough to see a queue of patients waiting for the doctor -- a queue of caughing, runny-nosing, etc. persons and to imagine what's the viral situation around. One of the best places to catch a something bad is exactly the hospital/clinic and then the public places like cinemas, buses, metro, train, restaurants, etc. But, obviously, the clinics and the hospitals are number 1, and this is another reason I avoid to visit them.
 Ohhh, I never thought about it -- yes, of course, if there are drugs around, for sure, something like cocaine can stick on some coins/banknotes together with all those germs and other microorganisms. I never lived in those areas and for me 'drugs' is something pretty exotic/pretty far away from the reality, but you made a good point as usual!
 Back to the hospitals and doctors: a few years ago, a netizen from Bulgaria post something funny (in another forum). The sense was something as this: "What? Me visiting a hospital?! No way! Until I don't start to be seriously ill like to pee blue urine, no doctors!!!"

[mojo]

US-Americans are staying with shoes at home?!

This varies by local and custom. In the home where I grew up, shoes were never taken off until you went into the shower or laid on a bed. One of the reasons for that was livestock. You never knew what might be on the bottoms of your shoes, so you scraped them before coming in. That was my childhood reality.

Today, in my home, you take your shoes off because we all walk barefoot around inside. The only time this is ignored is if some work inside requires a repairman or the like. It's too much of a pain to be toting an arm full of replacement parts and try to untie your shoes. Doing this requires a lot of extra housework to ensure your floors are clean enough to eat off of, so to say. Many people just do not have the extra time to do this in today's working requirements. There are times when shoes of a nature are worn inside; they are called house slippers. Some times in the winter we do wear these but they never go outside as they are strictly inside wear.

As far as seeing shoes on the legs of some one propping up their legs, this again is a sort of by the region, by the individual as if this is just a rude reaction or if it is acceptable behavior. Mostly if it is rude, you will be told in no uncertain terms by the household head.

In movies much you see, is like my art; it's not real. It's done a certain way to give you an impression. Nothing you see in a movie is unplanned for, unless it works for the advantage of telling the tale. Once in a great while you find a movie set where things didn't go right, the actor was skilled enough to pull it off and make it look real, and the director/producer decided to keep it rather than scrap it. That's the rarity, not the norm.

[mojo]

I really can't imagine what kind of logic is using one, who thinks the hospitals are safe.

I should have answered this in the same post as above. Somehow I forgot there was something to be addressed and proofread and then posted.

From personal experience, during my working years, if a school came down with the flu, the parents would inevitably catch what ever their kids brought home. They would in turn bring that to work as the big thing with many work environments is to be at work when you are supposed to be there if you want to keep the job. At one point your working commitment was used as a yardstick to determine who would be laid off and who would keep their jobs. This in turn meant people were coming to work with all sorts of communicable diseases which then get passed around the work crew. Every year, what ever was going through the school system would show up at work later.

Then came the day I no longer worked. I got laid off due to automation on the job site. As a result, I was no longer rubbing elbows with others who had kids in school. When shopping for things like groceries I tend to like to go late at night. Less crowds, less crap to put up with. I went from catching stuff seasonally to never getting a cold, the flu, or anything else. After 12 years, I recently last year came down with a cold. It's that lack of public exposure that is the reason for this, is my firm belief.

[MSL]

 Eh, of course slippers are not shoes. Slippers are only for home usage -- worn indoors (if people use them properly).
 I read today the article you shared in another site (about the scientists identify a virus and 2 bacteria that could be causing Alzheimer's). Also (after I watched Ip Man 3 and understood that his wife had stomach cancer) I read that Helicobacter pylori infection is an essential risk factor in 65–80% of gastric cancers and 2% of people with Helicobacter infections develop stomach cancer. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomach_cancer#Causes). So, all this information makes me feel that we (we, who pay good attention to hygiene) are doing the right thing. Some others think that the most important is to improve their immune systems. It IS important, but there is no immune system that can defeat each and every virus, bacteria, yeast, etc.

... scraped them before coming in.

This reminded me how muddy was sometimes in our yard during my childhood and we used a special П-shaped tool outside. Inside, instead of slippers, we had something that I don't know if there is an English word for it -- it's something like shoe-shaped sweater for the feet. And it's very convenient, because almost all of the homes used carpets (kilim style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilim) and when you have a 'sweater shoe' and walk on a carpet, it's a very soft and warm feeling. Here is a photograph of this: ^{https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6d/f2/9d/6df29d03384457d5e71e0cc8f7814052.jpg}.
 Now, in China, I have no carpets (and most of the Chinese do not use carpets at home), except 2 rugs, so we use different slippers (summer and winter types).
 Well, we still didn't have some American Indians' question: I know there are different Indian people and some of them haven't many in common with the other ones. (Like in Europe, if you compare the Albanians and the Icelanders. Or in Russia -- if you compare the Yakuts and the Chechens.) So, I'm not sure what Indians they meant, but a few times I read that 'they' like to get drunken and tend to have alcoholism problem. Is it some common problem there, or just some cases and then generalizations. If you wish, tell me/us something more about the native Americans, what you think is important, interesting or worth to read.  

[mojo]

I've never been intimately connected to native Americans. I've known a few as very causal and occasional acquaintances, as well as one Alaskan Indian lady who would always take offense if anyone called her an Eskimo. As much with folks that are of a different culture the common misconception with us was that Indians from Alaska were Eskimos. The lady would set you straight rather quickly that there were various tribes that had nothing to do with Eskimos.

Like you, I've heard that alcoholism is a bit of a problem on reservations. I don't have first hand knowledge of that, so it is all hear-say. So take that with a large grain of salt.

In the summer here, we just go barefoot inside. Other than stubbing your toe, there's not much in the line of danger to the feet. Other than a house cat that might think it a toy to be played with. One of the two scorpions we did find inside, the cat found first and got sick. We didn't really put it all together until the dead body of the scorpion showed up in the broom. Suddenly him not being as perky as usual made sense. That lasted about two days and he was back to his usual self.

As far as being susceptible to viruses and bacteria, you can't protect yourself, no mater what you do. For one there are just too many different types that have evolved with us and developed the abilities to be parasitic in some method and the other is even if you managed some how to eliminate all invasive cell types, it would not last. Take a look at the flu bug as a prime example. Every year it mutates, especially in the avian, swine, and others. Those flu vaccines are a guessing game and sometimes they get it wrong. They start preparing vaccines almost at the time the last one runs it's course to prepare for the next year, so that there are enough to inoculate the population that wants it. But once in a while they make a wrong guess and the vaccine is worthless.

[MSL]

  Yes, it's true, that Eskimos are not American Indians. The Eskimos are living in 3 continents: North America (Canada and USA), Asia Russia and Europe (if we count Greenland as European place, because it's a Danish territory; if it was up to me, I'll count it as another continent. I know it's not that big as it looks on most of the maps, but I think it's big enough -- for instance it's bigger than the country Mexico.)
 The Eskimos are yellow, Asian people. Indians are also somehow related to Asia as origin, but they are earlier migrants, so their outlook, languages and cultures are not so obviously Asian. But, still, the ones in Alaska look more Asian than the ones around the Amazon (South America), for example.
 It's 'natural' for the neighbors to have problems and even hatred. I often meet similar cases as yours

The lady would set you straight rather quickly that...

A young man from Scotland was very against my conclusion that "You're almost an Englishman." /From outside Scotland, England... Great Britain looks something pretty 'equal' and united, but from their internal point of view, they're very different nations and even some of them want independence. Another case -- a Chinese was upset, that living in neighboring to the Koreas region (full of Korean minority), there are people, who ask him is he a Korean and that he looks Korean... There are even cases when some native Chinese, who live in Taiwan, Hongkong, Macao, Singapore and so on, prefer to refer to themselves as Taiwanese, Hongkongers/Hongkongese, etc., but not 'Chinese'./
I expressed before my point of view, that it's better, if people pay less attention to the nationality and the world become more cosmopolitan. Many people like to separate themselves: for example our nation against another nation. If there is no another nation, then it will be our province against another province or our sport team against your sport team. One of the most terrible forms is our religion against your religion or our race against your race (at least the history shows so).
 Back to Alaska -- it's really a place with many minorities and it's bigger than what people usually imagine -- maybe you know this picture, so I'll show it for the others, who never imagined the real size of that state: ^{By Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) - Own workData:NGDC World Coast Line (public domain)NGDC World Data Bank II (public domain), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5007438}. It's very natural in so big territory to exist more than 1-2 minorities/nationalities, because there isn't so cold as in Antarctica.
 Except the Eskimos there is another Asian (with Asian origin, look and culture) minority in the USA -- the Hawaiians. They're relatives of most of those in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. So, we can say that the most Asian native US citizens are the Eskimos and the Hawaiians (and after them -- the American Indians, which are an earlier Asian 'wave', something like 'proto-Asians'). There are similar ethnogeneses and minorities in Europe, too. For example the one and only 100% yellow, Asian and Mongol minority in Europe are the Kalmyks, living in the European part of Russia (more about this minority: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmyk_people). This is the only Mongol minority in Europe.
 I'm sorry, if it was boring for some of the others, but I think Mojo likes to read, plus it's useful for the forum (from the 'more quality content' point of view).
 About the diseases -- yes, some of them are inevitable (unavoidable), but washing reducing the hazards; for example some of the diseases are known as 'the disease of dirty hands'. I don't want to concretize which ones, because it may sounds 'racist' (which is not), but I know some minorities, who do not like to use water very much (for example they rare take a bath/take a shower) or they just haven't enough water around... and there the disease rate is much higher.
 What I mean and what I want to say is that better hygiene isn't a panacea (it's not 100% effective), but makes sense, because can reduce the number of the ill people. And I think we all agree about it.
 What we can call 'American national drink'? Is there something, except the Coca Cola/Pepsi Cola that's pretty popular or something that's not very popular abroad, but people like it (something like that cactus wine, for example)? Do you like to make home-made drinks?

[SEO]

When I watch that map and I wonder about California and Florida. If we compare these 2 states what are the + and the - of them? If there is a dilemma where to live, which one do you think is better?

[mojo]

My spring is getting weak in my mouse and will have to buy a new one today. I've lost three posts because of it. Two the day before yesterday. I go to drag something from one point to another or click on something I get double and triple clicks. So I reference something off page and suddenly the page I am typing a response disappears never to be gotten back. Those posts lost were of considerable length and it sort of tees me off to say the least. I'm writing this one on notepad so I don't lose it yet again.

There's an old joke from the Texans.

How do feel about it now that Texas is no longer the biggest state in the Union?

It still is, wait till the ice melts.

And if you couldn't guess from all that where I live I'll give you this image.



As a boy, a new family moved into the neighborhood. I became friends with the son. He once showed me a gold nugget that came from a stream in Alaska, that being where his family moved from. This was a different set of folks than the lady who was not an Eskimo. I sort of got an informal education on Alaska at the time from him without really realizing how much I was picking up. Not that I remember all that today.

On a standard drink, common to all the US, I don't know if there is one. Here at home we drink iced tea. Made at home and refilled whenever it is needed. If we go somewhere on the road, then two bottles of tap water, cooled in the fridge go with us. I no longer drink soft drinks unless there is no choice. I will drink them before I drink plain tap water from other places strange to me. It's not that our water has various bugs in it that would make you sick, it's that water tastes different from place to place. Outside the borders of the US then it would be the bugs in the water. Known as Montezuma's Revenge (Traveler's Diarrhea) is the reason.

I guess my point on how far to take hygiene is that there reaches a point of diminishing returns. Not only that but in order to keep from having the same ones return in your life you have to at some point be exposed to them so as to build antibodies against them.

[SEO]

Well, usually when there is an error and I refresh the page the post is still here and I can repost it or it's already reposted, if I clicked 'Post', but if you close the window, then it's already lost. I know how discouraging, depressing it is and I know that it's causing someone to lose confidence or enthusiasm to post again, so I wish you to get rid of this problem asap.

[mojo]

It was taken care of yesterday. I now have a new track ball type mouse. Thought I would try a new style trackball as I had one back in the day before 3 button mice became available on the market. That's also before lasers were used in mice. That one lasted for years before it broke, unlike many of the more modern and cheaper made mice.

I also could not find a wired mouse in a small town. The choices are limited to wireless only. Main reason I like wired is no batteries to deal with, ever. While this trackball claims long battery life, one must remember the games that corporations play to make their products sound better than your actual user experience comes out to be. This one uses one AA battery and claims 18 month battery life. Most likely they are measuring mouse usage on a hour or so a day, which is not realistic in terms of my computer usage.

Will just have to wait and see. I think I see rechargable batteries in my future again.

[MSL]

 I supposed that you're in Texas, after you mentioned the Tex-Mex food and then Cape Canaveral (it not far away from Texas), etc. I heard there are some specialists, who even can guess where are you from only by reading your posts (in your native language), because some of the words (for example dialectisms, slangs or idioms) are unique or semi-unique to some areas. Ones a person online guessed right that I lived long time in a certain BG city (this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleven), because I used a kind of slang word or an idiom (I don't remember exactly what), which is unique in that area. I post about it, because I know you like the privacy topics and maybe this is interesting for you (if you didn't know it already).
 About the antibodies -- it's true. The pity is that our bodies are imperfect and incomplete (which is a sort of proof against the creationism) and we can't beat in this way hepatitis, hydatid disease and others around. Many thanks for the link about the traveler's diarrhea! 
 I also wonder about the states mentioned above: California and Florida. Why, for example, Florida's beaches are very famous and Californian aren't? California is in front of the Pacific ocean and it's a pretty warm place. Or maybe they are and I don't know? Any impressions from there?
 Related link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_beaches_in_California

[mojo]

Actually, California beaches are more 'famous' than those in Florida. Huntington Beach, Malibu, Laguana, Coronado, Venice, to name only a few. Globally through the movies, many people have seen these beaches as background for a movie without ever knowing they were seeing them.

Here is a photo I took of a relativity unknown beach in Florida near my home town.

Cape Canaveral is located in the state of Florida. After the Kennedy assassination it was renamed for a while as Cape Kennedy.

Houston, is the city nearest location for NASA's space efforts in Texas (Houston we have a problem).

You're in serious trouble if you go by my idioms without knowing it. I've picked up all sorts of slang, dialect, and idioms by living all over the Eastern US, from north to south and it's a huge jumble that most you have not heard yet. chuckles

[MSL]

 In this case, you're pretty language-tracking secured.
 Very good photo! I never saw palms so near to the seawater! Amazing.

[MSL]

 I beg a pardon for what I will post here (because it's not a question about the USA, it's more like a political science point of view or a problem related to the political science/elections. I said yesterday, I don't want to feel sorry again, that I missed to say 1-st something like the chicken is a relative of the Rex, so I want to express my 'prediction' earlier now). I'll make it as a question form "Am I right that...?" and, if someone want, welcome to share some answer or own point of view. And here is the topic: My guess is that Donald Trump is not going to win. As far as I'm informed, he's a person with many great values, experience and if he is a president, it may change (probably) the things not only in the US, but also around the world. I, personally, like a lot of what he is and many of the things he's saying. And here is why I think he's not going to win (and, if I'm wrong about some details, I'd like to know):
- He'll not get enough support from the 'minorities' (in fact, they're not that minor) like: relatives of the immigrants, who may vote; homosexuals, transgenders, etc.; black people; Muslims (and some of the Christians); feminists and others.
 My elections' experience shows this: if you're not enough rich /Trump IS rich, so it's okay/, if you're not enough populist and not enough showing pro-minorities politics, you're out.
 (All my thoughts here are valid, if there is no some election fraud, of course! All I mean and think are 100% honest elections, not something like http://occupydemocrats.com/2015/04/21/jeb-bush-wants-us-to-forget-his-election-fraud-that-stole-the-white-house-for-george/).

[mojo]

My personal opinion is the election will be rigged to be stolen. The votes the voters make won't matter.

The monied and the elite have over a period of time made the elections a joke. In order to raise the money needed for a national campaign, politicians must take hat in hand and go beg for money everywhere the money is at. To run for an election takes a LOT of it. That money always comes with strings. In the end, the candidates for election are bought long before they ever make it to the race. The voters choice always comes down to the lessor of two evils. No matter who you vote for at the end of the day, it's still an evil.

A good portion have given up on voting. It's gotten bad enough that those who do vote sort of hold their nose while doing so. Many don't bother anymore. This election is going to show why many have become disillusioned with voting. It's not the voters that will determine who becomes candidate; it's the convention delegates that will do that and 1/3^rd of them called super delegates are not bound to what the voters want. They will vote however they wish and it will not be according to the wishes of the voters. This business was established when the elite nearly lost control of power. They are worried in this election because their favored candidates they put the money on have been pretty much rejected by a populace that is tired of being ignored. The voters are in revolt and want anything but politics as usual. To maintain power the elite will have to do pull sneaky tricks and that is why the superdelegates exist in the first place.

The voters have been voting for those already rich because they don't come with the same strings.