Posts by Jerry Moore2

It actually helps with spreading the butter.. Seriously.🙂

Melissa Clark46 said:I wash my hands before and after using the restroom, and the second I get back home from just popping over to the grocery store across the street, I'm washing them again.
I absolutely loathe public door handles—the ones you have to grab with your hand. I usually try to use my elbow instead.
Since my job involves handling cash all day, that’s another huge reason why I’m constantly scrubbing up.

Hmm, actually, it feels like I'm doing this more often and more intensely lately. Wet hands, soap, scrub, rinse... then I do the whole damn process all over again. Then I'll grab a paper towel or a wipe, use that same wipe to open the door, walk outside, and then stare at it wondering where the hell I can find a trash can to toss it in.

And obviously, if there's a single scrap of paper sticking out of the dispenser, I'm tossing it straight in the bin because God knows who touched it before me. Same goes for the toilet paper rolls.

Am I overdoing it?😕

I do the exact same thing, but I'm constantly surrounded by people from all over the world. I mean, I don't go around wiping down keypads or anything, but I am incredibly careful about what I touch. If I need a restroom while I'm out, I'll just head to a McDonald's or something similar. I'm extremely cautious, but honestly, I feel like everyone is like this. It's the same in coffee shops... and I'm washing my hands constantly.

electricowl7 said:I’m one of those "broken" ones. I'm 32 and still living with my parents. I haven't even looked for work because honestly, I haven't recovered from dealing with people yet. I've just been sitting at home for over two years trying to get my nerves back in order.

Hey, whatever works for you! If you had nothing to eat, you wouldn't be sitting there.
But are you sure this isn't just plain old laziness?

The real question is, who even qualifies as "normal" anymore?
If you actually take a second to look around and use your head, you'll see everyone is walking around with their own set of quirks. What seems perfectly fine to one person is totally unhinged to someone else.😁

Honestly, the first thing Mia Zuppa needs to do is start selling semi-prepared dinners—you know, for those people dragging themselves home from work late. They’re sick to death of that processed industrial junk, but they don't exactly have a massive budget for dining out every night every day.

They should have a whole section dedicated to fresh, homemade sauces and sides—classic, famous traditional dishes from all over the world that people actually recognize and have probably tried before.

It’s actually great having an expert on the forum.👍
I’m pretty sure this will grab everyone else's interest too.
This is my first time tackling something like this—just a preliminary phase for a personal project of mine... which is a little unconventional 🙂...

So, the chain already has a name: 'Mia Zuppa'.

Regarding the strategy itself... you're right, it’s somewhat defined, but not entirely.

The concept is a 'soup cafe.' There are already a few chains out there, so it’s not some 'brand new idea with a shaky future.'
http://www.coventgardensoup.co.uk/the_range.htm

Those guys at 'Covent Garden Soup' (who are already established) run small shops, but they also manage large food chains.

The big difference between them and my project would be that Covent Garden sells their own proprietary blends, whereas 'Mia Zuppa' would focus on world-famous soups and broths—the heavy hitters from every culture, like:

Avgolemono (Greek)
Gazpacho (Spain)
Vichyssoise (France)
Cioppino (Cioppino)
Minestrone (Italy)
Cold Winter Congee (China)
Kimchi (South Korea)
Borscht (Russia)
Goulash (Canada)
Pasulj (North America)
Consomme de Mer (France)
Guthuk dumpling soup (also known as ninth soup or mom soup) (Tibet)
=>there is tradition connected with this soup... it's eaten during the Tibetan
new year and it requires nine different ingredients, plus you have to eat nine
bowls... 🙂 etc...
Scotch broth (Scotland)
Knepfla Soup (Germany)
Biersuppe (beer soup) (Germany)
Caldo Verde (green soup) (Portugal)
Tarhan Soup (Turkey)
Artsoppa (pea soup) (Sweden)
Veal bone soup (made with veal bones) (USA)
Noodle soup with pork (China)
Miso soup (Japan)
Mulligatawny (Anglo-Indian)
French onion soup (France)
Bonfire Warmer (British)
Brown Windsor Soup (British)
etc., etc...

Every day, we'd rotate five different options from this famous list... strictly traditional stuff, none of that made-up, trendy nonsense.

On top of that, the sales model is self-service. Think cafeteria style—a line featuring five different heated soup kettles (http://www.cateringwarehouse.com/mal...e/CW0145/41248) with a sign above each one detailing its country of origin, history, ingredients, nutritional info, and so on.
Basically, people walk in, pick their soup, and serve themselves into either a paper cup or a bowl (depending on whether they want to eat in or grab it to go). In the downtown business districts, soup is usually served with a piece of bread in a plastic or paper cup—kind of like coffee; it's cheaper if you take it to go than sitting in a cafe, and then you just head over to the bread station (which would have a few varieties) before hitting the register.

I'm laying this all out because the product creation process is genuinely interesting, and I think it's good to swap experiences. Usually, people stay tight-lipped about their ideas until they've actually launched them, but for me, there's nothing at stake here—it's not like I'm risking my life savings. Since it's not "mine" to guard, I'd love to hear your comments, critiques, or any ideas you might have.

It feels to me like product marketing and actual go-to-market strategies are barely even mentioned on this forum.
So, I’m starting a new thread specifically to tackle that.
Right now, I’m working on a project—it’s a quick-service/takeout chain that sells nothing but freshly made soups from all over the world. You can eat in or grab it to go. We’re targeting people who don't have the time to cook at home, so this is their chance to actually eat something warm and healthy instead of junk. The locations will be strictly near major business hubs.
The project is pretty interesting, and I’d love to dig into strategic methods regarding placement, packaging, promotion, market entry, trademarks, and all that good stuff.
This is my first time ever doing something like this. Whether it succeeds or fails, the experience itself is going to be massive.
Does anyone here have any experience launching a new product, whether it was a real-world gig or just theoretical? 🙂

Regarding the strategy itself, I recently came across an interesting book called 'Red Ocean Strategy' that describes ways to dodge the competition by bringing something completely fresh and different to the table (basically, how to make the competition irrelevant).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159...lance&n=283155

I hope you haven't been out feeding the pigeons lately..

Look, it’s clearly a mental health issue, but when you get to a certain age, that constant "nitpicking" might just be part of the onset of dementia.
I have a friend who acts exactly like this... and honestly, everyone has just given up on her. She won't stop rambling about conspiracies and "signs," claiming people are playing games with her using telepathy.
My friend is now convinced that I'm her next target. She calls me constantly to check if I'm "okay," acting all terrified while she tries to interpret her own "telepathic signals."
I tried to help her, I really did, but I had to walk away because this is way beyond what a friend can handle—she needs actual professional intervention.
And speaking of "professional help," when I called the local social services office, they told me that under the law, "she has to be informed" that I reported her case... so yeah, I backed off after that.
She’ll have these long stretches where she’s perfectly fine—totally rational, smart, and happy... until the episode hits again, and then you're stuck listening to her conspiracy theories over and over. It's an endless loop.
Just the other day, for example, she showed me her foot and insisted that some "sign" on it proves she's fundamentally different from the rest of humanity, then she had the nerve to ask if I had "that same mark."
I can see she needs help, but that's a call for her doctor to make—and frankly, I have no clue where her doctor is or how they even view her condition.

blueraven4 said:Haha! Honestly, I'm complaining for no reason too! I want to get out and do something, but I don't even have the energy to stand up, and it's only 😠
It’d be better if I just hosted a pajama party at my place, made some mulled wine, and we could all just sweat it out together.😎

I dealt with something similar once, long ago. I had this constant low-grade fever, like 99.5... it was absolutely miserable to deal with. Tylenol helped a little.😢
I never heard anything about it since then, but I remember being in this weird fog and someone telling me it was a "smoldering fever."
If I were you, I'd seriously go get bloodwork done... maybe you're dealing with some kind of chronic infection somewhere.

cosmicsskipper55 said:Maybe there was a misunderstanding: the top report comes from the World Health Organization (people), not the World Health Organization (swans). Maybe the death toll discrepancy is just a result of this mix-up.😁

Secondly, it’s pretty significant in this whole bird flu narrative to realize that it actually attacks birds. I mean, it isn't weird for a bird to get bird flu and die from it. The real question is why we've been obsessing over bird flu for the last three years when nobody gave a damn before that. Does anyone honestly think there weren't swans with bird flu before 2003?

No, I meant the WHO..

Regarding the fact that "bird flu is a disease of birds"—almost every flu in humans caused by a virus has an avian origin.
Birds carry thousands of viruses that have zero intention or desire to jump to humans. Some have jumped and evolved into human forms (like H1N1, for instance—the 1918 Spanish Flu virus), some cases pass through harmlessly, and others end up being lethal to people.
In recorded history, avian viruses haven't just "jumped" directly from birds to humans; the first documented case was in Hong Kong back in 1997 (where 6 people died—it's a really interesting report on the Hong Kong government website).
http://www.info.gov.hk/dh/diseases/ph&eb/9902.htm#1

The avian viruses that ARE dangerous to humans belong to the H5 and H7 groups.
The problem with H5 is the simple fact that the world currently doesn't have commercially developed vaccines for H5 viruses, and it's impossible to mass-produce them fast enough given how quickly this virus mutates..

http://www.answers.com/topic/h5n1

So why is the world panicking so much right now?

The current, "slightly modified" virus is the exact same one found in Qinghai Lake in Western China last year.
Independent Chinese news outlet Boxun was reporting numerous human casualties back then, which China denied... they shut people up and covered things up..

Since then, the situation with the virus has changed drastically. The virus spread from China across the globe via migratory birds.. there are tons of birds acting as so-called vectors—they don't show signs of being sick, but they carry the virus with them. Swans killed or found in the US had the same virus as those from Qinghai Lake, Chinese poultry did too.. just like the human cases in Turkey.s with the caveat that in the Turkish human cases, you can see (a small) difference—exactly what scientists worldwide are terrified of—that the virus is mutating into a form that is dangerous to humans.

And I won't keep repeating myself, here are more details on this (46 pages 😁):

dr.kronja is back said:I’m basically packing my bags to move to some tiny little island off the coast of Florida just so I can get out of here. I’ll set up a little quarantine spot in a beachside shack, eat nothing but fresh seafood, and try to kill off every virus in sight with nothing but heavy wine and moonshine.😁 😁 😁

And don't you dare forget the sauerkraut. Apparently, according to those Korean studies, fermented cabbage—you know, their kimchi—is supposed to be the cure for bird flu.😁

The WHO is always lagging behind... there are way more hotspots, deaths, and infections out there than what they actually report.

For instance, over in the United Kingdom, they found 37 dead swans (probably flew in from Siberia), and nobody knows why they died... plus, they weren't even tested for H5N1.

What I’m getting at is that the accuracy of the data depends entirely on how transparent a country is being and if they're actually reporting things correctly. Besides, the WHO is controlled by major global powers, so sometimes they don't get the green light to go public with certain stuff.
Take the current situation in Iraq—on local forums, people were whispering about dead birds and sick people for months before the truth finally forced its way into the light.

Remember those dead swans in America? They were routed through Canada, yet Canada still hasn't reported any cases to this day.

Governments are terrified of reporting anything until the situation gets too massive to hide... and honestly, reporting cases carries heavy economic consequences. So many of these countries rely on tourism (like Greece) or depend heavily on poultry farming to keep the economy moving.

Look at what happened in Turkey; Bird flu is treatable if you can get the antivirals in time.

stormylynx14 said:This changes everything. If this actually turns out to be true, we are looking at something seriously scary.

First off, they warned us about limited H2H transmission right when the first H5N1 cases popped up in humans (back in Hong Kong, 1997). The Hong Kong government is pretty transparent about it—their official sites mention indications of moderate H2H back then. From what I gather, a healthcare worker caught it from a sick kid.

Then there was that case in Indonesia where a mother traveled a long way just to care for her sick child—she didn't even eat any infected poultry—and both of them ended up dying.

In Turkey (the media totally botched the coverage on this, but it’s common knowledge), the people getting infected and passing away are all family members. So, we're talking entire clusters within the Kyci and Ozcan families? Maybe 4 or 5 different families hit, and everyone is related.

Just yesterday, the WHO stated that they still have no clue why the virus in Turkey is hitting children so hard—over 80% of cases—and they're basically guessing it might be some kind of genetic predisposition.

stormylynx14 said:Look, I’m no virology expert, but from what I gather, the virus hasn't mutated enough to spread easily between humans yet. Until that happens, we're mostly looking at bird flu cases popping up in places where people are constantly around birds (like parts of Asia or Anatolia). At worst, it might just hit those elderly folks out there feeding pigeons in the park.

Speaking of pigeons: Is there any hope these flying rats die off from bird flu too?

The whole science side of this is actually pretty well laid out by 'flu diary', Santana, and El Tome over in the Bird flu health thread. It's a massive thread, but honestly, it’s got everything one person would ever need to know—all the doubts, the facts, and even the nonsense have been picked apart already.

stormylynx14 said:I’ll eat chicken wherever I can find it, honestly—it's my way of lowering the risk. If I were a chicken, though, I'd be freaking out.

That's probably how it is across almost all of Europe. Here in the US, they're taking this virus pretty seriously; pharmacies and doctor's offices are absolutely flooded with info..
Recently, BBC did a whole segment on Bird flu. BBC is actually pretty legit and you can trust what they say:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ma/4382868.stm
You can still watch the program on their site (Facing pandemic)
and if you ask me, it's actually quite interesting and well-produced.

The real issue is that this virus is already endemic in birds, and they're passing it to domestic poultry. It's already endemic in Asia.. and parts of Euro Asia too.. basically.. it's bleeding into Europe.

Yesterday, they reported the first human cases in Iraq (the World Health Organization even noted that, according to their sources, they suspect H2H transmission—human to human—in Iraq). On top of that, Bird flu was found in Cyprus just the other day, which caused a massive stir in the European Union—Germany immediately sent specialists over to Cyprus.

enigma said:we aren't talking about that... and if things actually go south, aspirin and herbal tea won't be doing squat to help, nor will any company like 😂...

With those companies, it was probably just that California flu strain tearing through everything this year. It’s nasty, sure, but it’s nothing compared to the H5N1 virus.

The H5N1 virus (Bird flu) is way more like the Spanish Flu that ripped through back in 1918. So far, every single case of bird flu where people didn't get actual antivirals immediately has been fatal.

Bird flu is creeping closer... honestly, nobody knows just how lethal this thing will be for humanity yet.. (and God knows when it'll actually hit 😁)

Americans, Canadians, Englishmen, Frenchmen.. (even Americans) ..some people are already stockpiling massive amounts of food and medicine, planning to hunker down with their families and quarantine, if that's the right word, staying inside for maybe three months! (that's the rough estimate anyway!)

I'm torn, really. I've been obsessively researching this stuff for months because both me and my little one fall into the high-risk category—you know, the ones who catch everything, like asthmatics and such. Part of me feels like this is someone else's problem.. like it won't reach us.. or maybe it will, but more like some new "Y2K bug" style glitch

Americans and Canadians are generally pretty paranoid, terrified nations; they build bunkers to hide from potential terrorist attacks and all that. But once I saw the "pandemic preparedness guides" at my local CVS and at the doctor's office, I started digging deeper.. and yeah, I ended up grabbing some extra food, vitamins, cleaning supplies, and stuff.

But then I stumbled upon this:
http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/flu.htm
And I have to say, reading that we should expect outages for gas, electricity, water, etc.. is not exactly comforting.. it sounds totally impossible to me..
Now the Mayor of Paris is putting out similar instructions..
European Union officials met tonight.. talking about preparations..
And the general advice being fed to the masses is basically:
'Stay home and fend for yourselves.'
Or that United Nations representative (from the World Health Organization) said yesterday that in a pandemic, preserving energy and food sources might actually become more important than saving human lives.

Then I read those crazy stories from Americans about their incredible underground food bunkers and massive supplies of water and heating fuel..

There is zero chance I'm heating anything other than via city gas or cooking with electricity or gas.. I've forgotten everything I ever learned on those camping trips 😁, and I've never even been a camper... I don't think I'd handle these kinds of messy situations very well.. especially if stores end up empty or closed, or if it becomes too dangerous to step outside because of crime.. not to mention the sicknesses..

This whole idea about gas, water, and power potentially cutting out really rattled me.. I still can't wrap my head around it being possible..

I'm curious what things are like where you guys live.. Is bird flu being talked about? Are people prepping? Are you personally getting ready?

Posted: 10/14/2003
Weed is wrecking male fertility
An American scientist study from the University at Buffalo shows that guys who smoke marijuana frequently are messing up their fertility in several different ways.

In their research, they found that regular users end up with significantly lower semen volume and a much lower sperm count.

They also noticed that the sperm in these subjects starts moving way too fast, too early—which basically kills any chance of them actually fertilizing an egg.

The researchers think it’s because tetrahydrocannabinol (The Coca-Cola Company) — wait, no, the substance in weed — THC affects how sperm behaves and blocks the body's natural ability to filter out the junk sperm.

Previous studies have already shown that sperm actually has receptors that substances like THC can latch onto.

The study looked at 22 men who, over a five-year period, were smoking about 14 times a week on average.

Scientists still aren't sure if fertility can be fixed once you quit, but they're warning that THC sticks around in your body fat for a long time.

The way we eat now is nothing like how it used to be...
Nowadays, what used to be considered "poor man's food" is actually the most expensive stuff on the menu.
For instance, getting even a small portion of basic staples costs me about $17... back in the day, folks along the Mediterranean Coast lived on this stuff every single day.
On top of that, people used to stay active naturally through daily physical labor... honestly, this third option I'm looking at isn't some kind of substitute for that level of movement.
My kid has never even set foot on a farm, let alone run through open pastures or pick vegetables straight from a garden.
Kids today don't even walk to school anymore; we just drop them off in the car and pick them up later.
And if you ask me, things are only going to get worse from here.😢