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As others have said this is interesting but use of Ultimate Guitar is flawed as the tabs/scores are so bad on that site, very often not even being close to the real chords.

On top of being simplified tons and tons of songs get rewritten with a Capo so people can just play G-C-D shapes, if your analysis doesn't look for "Capo" and then transpose all the chords then you end up overrepresenting the key of G and it's chords. Then very often 7th chords, Sus chords, etc.. all get transcribed down to major chords & minor chords due to the beginner focus. Interestingly he doesn't include 6th chords as their own thing.

To be fair there are tons of songs that do actually use those chords, so they may still end up coming out as the most popular.

I have a grandfathered in lifetime membership to UG that I only had to pay once for. It was cheap so worth it, but I really find the site kind of icky as they are mostly monetizing crowd sourced low quality work and it's very often wrong. And they nerfed their iPad app recently which is really annoying.


The fact that the data showed only 6% of Metal songs having power chords should've told him to throw the data out the window. UG has terrible tabs/charts.

It's really not that bad. It's a mix. There are also many versions for most songs and often comments with corrections.

Learning songs by ear is probably a useful skill that people don't develop because of all the other sources of information... but probably helps more people play which is good.


They have quite a few versions usually but the most accurate version is usually the one with far and away the most positive reviews/upvotes.

The power tabs and guitar pro tabs are a big step up over the text based stuff on ug. You can play it in midi and see they are usually perfect.

Obviously I've had access to those for a long time. I would still say they are nowhere near as good as published material. And sometimes I've seen the community text ones actually be more correct.

Really a question of how much you pay for it. Sounds like some plans are $25/month, that's enough to just buy tons of published material instead. I paid $5 for a lifetime membership.. very worth it.


It sounds perfect which is part of it, but if you've ever looked at the Pro tabs, especially the vocal transcriptions, the fretboard positions are all over the place, seem to be wrong about half the time, and in the worst cases I've seen nearly physically impossible to play.

Also for unknown reasons (licensing?) it's impossible to have the vocal track play when you're using a backing track.


It happens because we act like calories are calories when it's clearly not true.

Calorie counts in nutrition data are generated by something like burning the food in a bomb calorimeter. Which is most definitely not what our bodies do. We have all kinds of different biochemical ways of metabolizing different types of foods.

So someone eating 1000 calories of day could be eating very healthy or they could be ingesting a whole bunch of garbage full of sweeteners. It doesn't seem like anyone really understands how it works but all those sweeteners are more likely to make you gain weight.


Why is it that people claim the laws of thermodynamics do not apply to humans?

Obviously the laws of thermodynamics apply, but the most naive application of the laws of thermodynamics doesn't.

A human body isn't a bomb calorimeter and it doesn't perfectly combust everything you eat.


Because our metabolisation mechanisms are extremely complex and many things, like genetics, decide how we metabolise food; we are not petrol engines.

No one is claiming that the laws of thermodynamics do not apply to humans.

I can't remember exactly what I was listening to, maybe some kind of NPR podcast.

But the doctor was mentioning that none of the influencers influencing young people to try T and Steroids (which is rampant right now) are ever mentioning that you are on a ticking clock to infertility as soon as you start this stuff. Some people can regain their fertility but it might take years, and some people are going to be permanently infertile even staying on HRT.

Plenty of those "alpha male" guys on social media are shooting blanks.


Testicular atrophy and HPT axis suppression is a thoroughly documented side effect of TRT and steroids. Even beginner bodybuilders know that taking steroids will crush their natural testosterone production. They can kind of bring it back by taking short courses and using certain medications after the cycle, but most discover that some permanent damage is being done with each cycle.

There are two problems with framing it as an infertility problem:

1 - It reduces fertility but many users retain some fertility. The bigger problem for most is that natural testosterone production won't come back to the same level if they ever discontinue, so they're on it for life. Managing testosterone injections every week or multiple times per week for the rest of your life is doable but a pain, especially if you have to travel or you're not the best at keeping up with prescriptions. There are also ups and downs and side effects that come from artificial testosterone dosing. Many people are surprised to discover that after the first year or two they don't feel "great" any more and it's just back to where they started, but with a lifetime dependency now. Others get serious side effects like Gynecomastia (breast growth in men, possibly requiring surgery) or secondary hormonal alterations that negatively impact mood, cognition, or libido.

2 - Many young men in their 20s or even teens see infertility as a positive rather than a negative. It's very common for people of this age to think they've made up their mind for life, but they have yet to even have a serious relationship or even know any peers with kids. People who work in fertility fields are starting to see a lot of men who went into TRT or steroids when they were young because they thought the consequences would never be a problem for them.

> Plenty of those "alpha male" guys on social media are shooting blanks.

Honestly, they don't care. I skim the testosterone subreddits occasionally and many people brag and joke about how small their testicles are.

It's crazy to me to see this shift happening. TRT clinics that advertise on the radio, TikTok, and everywhere else will entice people to come in for "free tests" but the trick is that it doesn't matter what your numbers come back as, they'll always find a way to prescribe you TRT because it's easy recurring revenue for them with lifelong dependence attached.


I am a data point of resuscitation of fertility. Confirmed to be shooting blanks after years of juice, and decided to see if I could reactivate by following the broscience (and all the pubmed papers) on the topic.

An aggressive protocol of HCG and HMG (analogues for FSH and LH in the pituitary) reactivated the testes to get back to spermatogenesis and T production after about 5 years of complete dormancy. It took about 4 months of daily needles and well-timed marital conception-attempts. The son I fathered as a result is anecdotally very strong and a voracious eater. My urologist said it sounded like I knew everything I needed to do and was satisfied to let me self-treat.


To clarify, did you try to conceive approximately four times (four months)? Because from what I hear that isn't exactly unheard of in people that aren't on the juice.

No, it was about a year of multiple attempts per ovulation before I decided to get serious and bring my whole HTPA under control.

> Even beginner bodybuilders know that taking steroids will crush their natural testosterone production.

Maybe beginner bodybuilders understand this. But I'd argue the average new steroid user is more likely the be un/mis-informed. The average person gets all their information from Instagram/Tiktok/Youtube/Reddit.

But my observation is a lot of people are jumping on gear for purely aesthetic reasons. They are ordering online from research chemical sites and they're almost always not working with a trainer/coach/doctor (vast majority of young people on gear are not doing it under any type of supervision, also means many skip basic necessities like regular bloodwork).

It's much more common for people to jump on gear, experience a negative effect, and then do research afterwards. Which is fine for substances that are relatively benign, but risky when you're messing with your hormones especially at a young age.


I go to a budget gym that is used by a lot of high schoolers and college kids in the evenings. The needle boxes in the bathrooms are full. It's insane.

> Honestly, they don't care. I skim the testosterone subreddits occasionally and many people brag and joke about how small their testicles are.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if most of that was coping behavior.


What is there to cope about? It's not a big deal, and arguably a benefit.

>It's very common for people of this age to think they've made up their mind for life, but they have yet to even have a serious relationship or even know any peers with kids.

At least it is much less serious than people in the opposite situation, that think they want a child at 19 without understanding the implications.


This is interesting because about 20 or so years ago when I was super into bodybuilding, you couldn't talk about a "cycle" on a bodybuilding forum without talking about a "post cycle protocol."

I know that's different than permanent TRT but I feel like you couldn't get very far researching that stuff without understanding that you natural test production (and sperm production) would get "shut down" as soon as you started adding exogenous androgens.


Yeah, it's well known that steroids shut you down. The problem with the broscience is that the PCT is talked about like it reverses everything like an antidote, but long-term bodybuilders often end up on TRT because eventually they can't get back to baseline.

That isn't true. Dedicated bodybuilders, starting more commonly ~5 years ago, decided that PCT wasn't worth it. Instead of typical 16-20 week cycles followed by 4-6 weeks of PCT, they adjust the dose between supraphysiological and (generally) top-of-normal, i.e.: blast and cruise.

It's not because they couldn't recover, it's because they don't want to or see the point.


The big, big problem is heart disease. Infertility might be bad for your family planning, but the high blood pressure will kill you.

It has nothing to do with the pandemic. The ban on masks is about whether or not protesters are actually students. Masks have been used to conceal identities when taking over buildings or shutting down classes.

Spending massive amounts of money on sports is something state schools are very much into.

They will shutter academic departments but continue to pay a football coach more than the University president.

Not all schools do this but it is part of the conversation, sports spending has grown out of control along with everything else.


This still works if you get your phone too close to an electric guitar!


This is actually more common than we might think in the music world. TC Electronic and a few other guitar/effect companies also had audio based ways to transmit program data into effects pedals.


This is what I had to do. It was probably beneficial. I was pretty young.. 10-12? My dad is also an engineer and would help me debug the programs after I typed them in, teaching me BASIC as we went. I wasn't necessarily able to understand it all but it probably built me a foundation for programming no different than introducing children to a 2nd language earlier rather than later.

There were also books I checked out of the library. These sometimes presented additional difficulties as we didn't have a computer powerful enough to take advantage of everything in the book, or had a completely wrong environment.

I must have been weirdly motivated but in some way I think this was better than the way everything is spoonfed and easy for kids today if they want it? My son is not motivated the same way, it's just too easy to go over to a game or something else that's less challenging. Quite a few of my friends who also became software engineers/computer scientists had a very similar experience in the late 80s and early 90s.


It's easy for Jon Stewart to feel that way cause it can't hurt him. There is no minority Jon Stewart to take his job, and he already has so much money he will be wealthy the rest of his life even if he loses his job today and never works again.

I think that is where democrats often run foul of average voters.. they see very wealthy democrats pushing something. It won't hurt the wealthy democrats, but it could hurt them. Average non-wealthy people don't want to be punished for the sins of past wealthy people who happened to have the same skin color as them.


Yes. Jon Stewart has said multiple times something like "it's just resource guarding," which is easy to say from a position of abundance.

He is the populist voice of the educated left and I find lots of echo's in my own social circles/education.

Stewart is coming around and waking up to the idea that "woke" policies were rejected, and the democrats need re-framing/a reckoning. IMHO, he is largely the voice of democratic reckoning. Biden wasn't kicked out until Stewart's public evisceration and declaration that the emperor, in fact, has no clothes. He at least adapts with increasing information.


> Stewart is coming around and waking up to the idea that "woke" policies were rejected, and the democrats need re-framing/a reckoning. IMHO, he is largely the voice of democratic reckoning. Biden wasn't kicked out until Stewart's public evisceration and declaration that the emperor, in fact, has no clothes. He at least adapts with increasing information.

I just finished watching his interview with Ezra Klien, and as an on/off viewer of the TDS from back in his anti-war rants from 2003 or so (still in HS so kind of fuzzy on dates) to today I have seen a noticeable difference; he has finally realized that it's not that 'fraud, waste, abuse' in government doesn't occur on both sides of the isles (that much is probably always clear) it's that the two-party paradigm have in fact insidiously profited in their own specific ways from their respective MOs, and political theater aside are entirely complicit with it as it maintains the status quo.

Anything that deviates from the norm (eg Bernie Sanders or Ron Paul) is to be brandished too extreme, or unelectable and a loss to the other isle is a better result as it is something that detracts from the business as usual approach in modern US politics. The faces/names might change, but the tactics are the same, denying access to RNC/DNC platforms removing or outright denying delegates etc... it's all been done on both sides.

Just look at the face of the man melt when he hears how the Rural Broadband Bill process purposely rendered itself moot, and perhaps made the cluster** of DOGE become an inevitability--the obvious profiteer in chief Musk being the only one to really 'win' because of his innate and impeccable ability to award himself and his corps Govt contracts while championing and branding himself the best CEO the private sector has to offer.

Not only that, watch the interview with Maria Ressa when he realizes that the same Zuck that got Obama elected and then cozied up to Trump when he needed to has been the cause and reason why extremes of political fascism in the Philippines has risen, via Cambridge Analytica, and is part of the same agenda that has been playing out in US elections since 2016.

I don't know what to say about the TDS Host alumni, I reserve judgment on their POVs at this point, but I was a big fan of John Oliver since his days on The Bugle but if/when both him and Jon get together on a stand-up tour like he did with Chappele targeted at their primary demographic I think they can exert their collective influence to their hard-liner leftist audience to see that in actuality the Left-Right paradigm is in actuality a very parasitic symbiosis where the host (The US populace and perhaps World at large) will always suffer if it is the only form of governance we can either fathom or implement.

It's clear that resources and technology aren't the limiting factor in solving a large amount of Humanity's problems, it's that entrenched power (and those who benefit from it) refuse to relinquish any of it and will sooner destroy itself, and us with it, before it ever corrects itself.


I have a kid with celiac.. he has eaten exactly 0 school food ever. They have never been able to make us feel confidence in their preparation safety.


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