COVID-19 The New Strain & The Truth No One is Talking About

 Covid19 has spread through the United States like a runaway train. Not one corner of our country hasn’t been touched by the virus. We’ve shut down business, closed our schools, hid in our homes and watched helplessly as our family and friends have become infected and in many tragic cases died. 

Done are the days of blame! Where did it originate? Why didn’t the W.H.O. (World Health Organization) know more? Did President Trump do too little too late? Did  we as a society take this epidemic as seriously as we should have? At this point none of that matters…. except to politicians who will use this epidemic for many elections to come as ‘fodder’ to sling at the opposing side.

The truth and simple truth that NO ONE is telling you….. COVID 19 is here to stay.

Viruses are NOT eradicated, they are controlled to a point. The flu is a virus, we have a new vaccine every year to fight whatever new strain it has morphed into. This will be the future of COVID 19 as well, forever daunting us with a new strain every year. In less than a year COVID has evolved into a new strain, more contagious than the original…. it will mutate again… and again… that’s what viruses do. 

That makes the real question, what do we do next? 

Let’s put this in perspective, I’m in Sacramento County California. As of today the majority of this state is in a mandatory ‘business restrictions’ & ‘mask required outdoors’ order. These mandates are meant to keep the virus from being transmitted from person to person, good idea in theory.

Here’s were it gets stupid: 

Masks are required to be worn in public if you are going to be within 6 feet of others. Yet the Sacramento County Sheriff's office and Sacramento County Health Services have both stated they will not enforce that mandate, instead leaning to educate people of the dangers. The time for education is long over, now is the time to ‘put up or shut up’. 

Either enforce the mandates or stop making them! After a year it’s pretty clear that far too many people either don’t believe that COVID-19 is as severe as reported or they just don’t care about their health or yours. Fine, that’s democracy in action…. we all have our own ideas and beliefs and we are FREE to have them.

Well I believe that I should be able to drive 200 mph down Interstate 80, however I can’t because it would be endangering my life and the lives of those around me. So if I do it, law enforcement will take action… for my protection and yours. How is refusing to wear a mask, not maintain distance from others, and following other COVID-19 mandates any different. Rhetorical question…. there is no difference, just politics.

What does that mean? It means that without full public support, the government or specifically politicians don’t want to risk losing your support. It means creating guidelines so every store, shop, & business is required to police those mandates themselves, making you the bad guy. Yet if you are outside a business then you are on your own if someone approaches you without a mask.

Here’s something else that bothers me about our current COVID guidelines. Restaurants are not allowed to have indoor dining or are restricted in occupancy. So to save their buisnessesmany have resorted to outdoors dining, and due to the cold & wet weather have erected tents to places the customers under. In what universe does a virus transmit less effectively in an enclosed tent, than an enclosed building?

Every week small businesses statewide are given lockdown orders or unreasonable requirements that eventually run them out of business due to money constraints or sheer exhaustion from the changing rules each week.. While big box stores continue to operate seemingly unscathed. And yet the virus is still here, despite the lockdowns, stay at home orders and countless mandates.

The point I’m making is, nothing we do as a country is going to stop, slow or eradicate COVID 19. Like the cold, flu and dozens of other worldwide viruses, it’s here to stay. It’s time to learn to live with it rather than eradicate it. The plan of attack needs to change, unfortunately politicians want to keep you scared & off balanced, because scared & off balanced people vote for solutions… even if the solutions hurt them or don’t make real world sense. 

A prime example of a government solution that makes no sense… regulate small business to the point of going out of business, yet allow mass air travel worldwide.

I don’t know if Covid-19 is the killer it’s claimed to be. I do follow the guidelines, not so much because I’m convinced, yet rather for those around me… just in case. It’s unfortunate that not all people are as respectful of their fellow Californians. You know who you are…. 

Field Review - Nikula 10-30x25 zoom monocular

This is a review of the Nikula 10-30x25mm Zoom Monocular. This monocular has a cost between $20 to $35 U.S., and can be found quite easily on Ebay and Amazon.

I have for years depended on my little 10x Tasco monocular I won as a 3rd Prize back in 1998. This monocular though not terribly powerful nor fog proof or  waterproof, has taken quite the "beating" over years, and still delivers as clear an image as the day I got it. But I've been wanting something more powerful, yet not as bulky as a spotting scope. Go to any online store, like Walmart or Target and you'll find scores of expensive monoculars of all sizes yet most are between a power range of 6x to 20x. There's a reason for that, as any avid sportsman knows, the higher the power of the monocular, the smaller the field of view seen through the monocular, which simply means that you have to stabilize the monocular on a tripod otherwise the tiny movements of your hands will make it seem like your watching an earthquake when peering through the monocular.

Well I have a small pocket tripod so I thought why not try and find a high power monocular. So I spent a few weeks searching the web and really was only able to find 2 pocket sized monoculars that might fit my needs. One was the Brunton 10-30x Zoom. The price was reasonable at $35, but I am a penny pincher of the worst kind. So after bidding and losing on several auctions in the hopes of getting it cheaper, I decided to look to the 2nd monocular I found. Which was the Nikula 10-30x Zoom.

Now let me first say that this monocular is made in Taiwan, not necessarily a bad thing. Alot of good optics come from overseas, including my old Tasco which was manufactured in China. So this wasn't a huge worry for me. And the description showed that it had the much preferred Bak4 lens. Now the one thing that did strike me, is the cost. The  cheapest one was selling for $22. Now I am frugel, but I'm no fool. If its being sold for $22 with free shipping(from China), then very likely it only costs about $5 there. So I was concerned that the description was going to be misleading. But I couldn't help myself, I  bought stuff from China before and was perfectly happy with it, so I hoped for the best and bought it.

After a couple of weeks, it arrived and I eagerly opened it. The construction was better than expected, though I wouldn't be as confident dropping it as I am with  my rubber armored Tasco. The weight was nice and had a good feel in my hand, but as I put it to my eye I immediately noticed that the rubber eyepiece had an odd feel to it. Upon a closer look, the rubber eyepiece is slightly thinner that what you would expect. So when you bring it up to your eye, you can feel the thinness of it, causing an odd feeling that you're about to get a paper cut. That of course is an exaggeration, but you get the idea.. you can noticeably. feel the difference.

I looked at the other end and saw that the objective lens looks a little cheap. But I decided not to judge to harshly and kept an open mind. I peered through the lens to find a remarkably clean clear image at the 10x setting. I was actually surprised, the image was bright and very crisp, even more so than my Tasco. So I started messing with the zoom dial to see if the image stayed as bright and clear. I cranked the dial to 30x and was again surprised, though this time devastatingly so. The zoom dial didn't do anything. It didn't even increase the power by 1x, it was just a "Do - Nothing" dial.

I played with the focusing dial and looked at things at different distances from 7 feet to 50 yards and found the image to be the same nice image. But the power dial still didn't work. So basically I paid $22 for a 10x monocular.

I've contacted the seller, and they've agreed to send a new one. I'll update this post, as to whether the one they send shares the same problem.

UPDATE:11/14/2012
I just received the replacement that they promised to send me. It works great! And the zoom works perfect on this one. So I'm pretty happy with this purchase, for $22 bucks I got a really good monocular that rivals some of the name brand ones that cost $40 - $50.

But for this monocular, its really BUYER BEWARE! If you get a working one, it works better than I would expect for a $22 monocular. It delivers a sharp bright image (during mid-morning and mid-afternoon, outdoors) at all power levels. It stays in focus when zooming, its light weight, fits in shirt pocket, and has an easy to operate focus dial.

Just keep in mind, I don't know if the first one was damaged in transit from China, or if the power dial is a common imperfection in this Brand monocular. If you purchase one, buy one from someone who offers replacement or money back. Ebay is a good place to buy this one since they offer Buyer Protection on most purchases. I'm just glad this replacement works and works very well.