BLOG PAGES

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Coronavirus Fragments 12: No Fate But What We Make


Anti-COVID19 measures in Pakistan. Video Source: 4chan.

If you look at anything this week, please see this summary of medical research articles on nCov. At a glance, it gives you a broad understanding of the symptoms and complications of COVID19:


Image Source: NYT via 4chan.

There is a good piece at the NYT about the virus's genome, here, which points out that the end of the RNA strand concludes with a long string of a's.

Complications

The complications of COVID19 are horrifying. The latest medical article which stands out in that regard was published on 31 March 2020 in Radiology: COVID-19–associated Acute Hemorrhagic Necrotizing Encephalopathy: CT and MRI Features (https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2020201187). This might explain why people who are functioning normally drop in their tracks, as in the account from the US and Ireland, below.

Click to enlarge. Image Source: 4chan.

The earliest mention of coronavirus in Hubei province appears now to be 18 September 2019 (see image below). Chatter from China is turning hostile, as from one anon on 31 March 2020:
"The arrogance displayed by the Western powers is beyond disgraceful and only shows the real condition of the Western nations blindly adhering to the nonsensical leftist notions of human rights without sufficiently accentuating human sacrifice and the necessity to collectivize so as to truly arrive at the societal prosperity. The West is perpetually immersed in the miasma of hedonistic stupor and instead of trying to lift its own populations from the mire of degeneracy and senseless consumerism, the Western administrations eagerly encourage rampant consumerism with a view to perpetuating their own tenuous rule. The fact that people of the West find the conduct of the Chinese administration problematic is most ironic given Western democracies' absolute lack of regard for their own native populations whose real condition is concealed under a flimsy guise of human rights and consumerist rights. The West is going to get what they're asking for, way sooner than they expect. All people responsible for contemptible acts of brazen imperialism against People's Republic of China shall soon face harsh, but just consequences."

Click to enlarge. Image Source: 4chan.

There are deniers on the Internet who are saying that the virus is a hoax or a mild flu, an excuse to implement police states. I don't doubt the totalitarian bent of a budding global technocracy. Still, people have trouble understanding the seriousness of the virus. This was made worse by the fact that that authorities and the MSM initially played down the dangers of COVID19.

Stay home cuz this is reality. (1 April 2020). Video Source: Youtube.

In the video above, a Brooklyn man witnessed bodies being removed from Brooklyn Hospital at 10:40 a.m. on Sunday, 29 March 2020. This was not news on the Internet or television from far away. For this man, Brooklyn, New York is the bottom line. It is real reality, and in that real reality, there are clearly so many people dying from COVID19 that the hospital's morgue is overflowing. On 31 March 2020, a tent was erected over the entrance to the hospital's freezer truck, to conceal hospital staff as they drop off bodies.

NYPD ESCORT FOR AMBULANCE WITH CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS IN NEW YORK CITY (3 April 2020). Video Source: Bitchute.

NYPD IN NEW YORK CITY ENFORCING SOCIAL DISTANCING (3 April 2020). Video Source: Bitchute.

MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL IN NEW YORK CITY WITH CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS (3 April 2020). Video Source: Bitchute.






Not only is the pandemic real, but it is highlighting and testing weaknesses and blind spots in our societies. The insensitivity shown by some toward the elderly is terrible. My heart goes out to every person who is alone in a nursing home as this disease ravages these institutions, especially if these older people are cut off from their friends and families. Older people are devalued because of their limited productive capacity in a broken system. Those who use that metric to decide who will live and die exhibit the bankrupt mindset of a bankrupt economy.


Pivot away from the Macro, toward the Micro

That bankrupt economy will likely collapse. The time frame for the pandemic is likely two years, followed by an economic depression, social transformation, and possible wars. Life is not likely to return to 'normal' as we knew it for another decade.

We need to recover lost skills, lost techniques in food cultivation, preparation and storage. We need to rebuild lost industrial capabilities. And we need to stop expecting our governments to do everything for us and the mainstream media to spoonfeed us pablum information. Individuals have to evolve, as do their governments.

Blaming our leaders is a coping mechanism, and provides a false illusion of control which in fact weakens us. With our eyes always fixed in fear on top-down political action and abstraction, we become weak and susceptible to totalitarianism. Stop blaming the evil fascist President Trump, or the cabal, or the Deep State. Focus on the microcosm. Work online to develop and strengthen community-level networks and initiatives in the virtual space. Reach out by telephone to ensure that seniors, impoverished and isolated people in your community are supported and protected.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Coronavirus: Interlude by Theatre, Ballet, Film and Music


This 1950s' sign greets commuters as they enter central London, UK, through Southwark. It was a clever marketing campaign for a brewery named 'Courage.' Image Source: Painted Signs and Mosaics.

As I mentioned in this post, many opera companies, live theatres, symphonies, ballets, and other highly-renowned arts organizations are streaming their performances now online. If you can donate even the price of a cup of coffee to them, please do so in return for their beautiful efforts.

If you have suggestions, please comment at the bottom of this post and I will add them.

Free streams during the lockdowns:
  • Today Tix: A long list of links to different theatre companies offering online streams during the nCov quarantines and lockdowns. More theatre long lists here and here.
  • New York's Metropolitan Opera: Each performance comes online at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time (New York time) and remains online for 24 hours.
  • Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet (starts 1 April 2020) on the Bolshoi's Youtube channel
  • Vienna's State Opera (schedule and streams): After registration (here) at www.staatsoperlive.com the subscription can be booked free of charge until further notice. Starting on Sunday, 15 March 2020, Wiener Staatsoper will broadcast recordings of previous opera and ballet performances daily via its streaming platform www.staatsoperlive.com – worldwide and free of charge. This online programme will even follow the originally planned schedule at the house, with a few exceptions only. Streams start at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. (Die Frau ohne Schatten, Der Rosenkavalier) or 5 p.m. CET respectively (Ariodante, Parsifal) and remain available for 24 hours.
  • London's Royal Opera House: From Our House to Your House: Live-streamed via Facebook and YouTube, virtual performances will include appearances from some of the industry’s most talented ballet dancers and opera singers – and they’re all completely free. ... [I]ts online programme will see productions such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Verdi’s La Traviata hit people’s screens. In addition to its virtual performances, the Royal Opera House will also be offering viewers behind-the-scenes looks behind its closed doors. Live broadcasts will commence ... on 27 March, before becoming available on demand, with The Royal Ballet’s 2010 production of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (here) the first to be performed online. Other performances scheduled include Handel’s opera, Acis and Galatea, on 3 April, Mozart’s Così fan tutte on 10 April and ballet The Metamorphosis on 17 April, with more to be announced.
  • UK's National Theatre Live (starts 2 April 2020) streams are here: Records and broadcasts stage shows from London’s West End to cinemas worldwide. Every Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time (7 p.m. UK time), a production filmed in front of an audience in the theatre will be streamed and then be available on demand for seven days. Sally Cookson's 2017 adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (April 9), Bryony Lavery's 2014 take on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (April 16) and Shakespeare's classic comedy Twelfth Night (April 23).
  • Amsterdam's Dutch National Opera: (schedule and stream) Until April 5, Mozart's Magic Flute (here)
  • Berlin's State Ballet (list and links): Offers some unlisted Youtube performances.
  • Berlin's Theatre: Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (schedule and daily stream)
  • Berlin's German Opera: Includes offerings for children and jazz enthusiasts. Look on the homepage for livestreams every couple of days, starting with Boris Blacher's PRUSSIAN FAIRY TALE (March 29-31); Giuseppe Verdi's OTELLO (March 31-April 2); Richard Wagner's TRISTAN AND ISOLDE (April 2-4); Beethoven's FIDELIO (April 4-6); Domenico Cimarosa's THE SECRET MARRIAGE (April 6-8); Aribert Reimann's THE GESPENSTERSONATE (April 8-10); Mozart's DON GIOVANNI (April 10-12); Giuseppe Verdi's DON CARLOS (April 12-14); Carl Heinrich Graun's MONTEZUMA (April 14-16); Wolfgang Rihm's OEDIPUS (April 16-18).
  • Munich's Bavarian State Opera and Ballet: schedule until April 19 and streams: A series of Monday Concerts beginning on 23 March 2020: each starting at 8:15 p.m. (Munich time) on STAATSOPER.TV, live and free of charge. The programme of the Monday Concerts consists of lieder, solo instrumentalists, chamber music and dance performances. For the week of March 31: Parsifal.
  • Montreal's reFrame Films: film descriptions here, streams here). reFrame Films, a Montreal documentary film company, is removing the password on its award winning films and making them available free of charge via Vimeo until June 1. Memorable films such as Bonjour! Shalom!, Chez Schwartz, The “Socalled” Movie, Bittersweet Deliveries, Cricket & Parc Ex: A Love Story and My dear Clara are engaging slices of life in Montreal. Others such as In Pursuit of Peace, The Man who Learned to Fall, On Wings of Song and Giota’s Journey are stories of hope and compassion.
  • NaNoWriMo (here): Now's your chance to write a novel, rather than read one. NaNoWriMo is providing moral support for writers who want to use the quarantines to write their next masterpiece.

"A scene from the Bolshoi Theatre's performance of Boris Godunov, with Mikhail Kazakov in the title role." Image Source: Bolshoi Theatre via South China Morning Post.


- I will add to this post as more links come to my attention. (Thanks to -T., -B.)

Coronavirus: A Pandemic Launch Pad?


Image Source: 4chan.

At the rate things are going with the global pandemic, my main hope has been that the world doesn't go full Mad Max. I don't want to end up running down the 417 highway in my underwear with one shoe on, or negotiating for my survival with armed marauders in a truck decked with burning skulls.

I told fellow blogger, Dia Sobin of Trans-D Digital Art that the world is becoming like a Stephen King novel, and I could handle that, just so long as it doesn't turn into a Clive Barker novel.

We were already living in something like a Stephen King novel, that is, a Norman Rockwell painting gone wrong. But in a Barker-esque horrorworld, we would be dealing with underground cities of mutants who would be communing with demons (watch Barker's Underworld here, while the link lasts). I just don't want to go through that.

There are a lot of references to plagues in modern culture: it is an eternal theme. It should not be taken as 'predictive programming' for a planned agenda, as some have. The eerie similarities between novels, video games, and films and the current pandemic reinforce a message that human ingenuity and resilience can triumph. But nothing is guaranteed. Pandemics reflect pre-existing weaknesses in all systems and populations. They can be launch pads for political oppression and war. It is up to us to recognize what is true, not just what we want to see, and to learn how to adapt to changing circumstances.

- All copyrighted material below is reproduced non-commercially under Fair Use.