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COVID-19 Updates, The Aesthetic Dimension
May. 2nd, 2020 12:02 pmWorld COVID-19 confirmed cases are now at 3.395 million, and 239 thousand dead. The United States makes up 1.129 million and 65 thousand of those figures. It has now killed, in three months, more Americans than their military intervention in Vietnam, which was over two decades, which is more of an indication of the political and cultural shift which the latter generated. A health comparison with considering is HIV, which in 2018 which had a mortality of 770K, but of course with COVID-19 the challenge is the speed and ease of transmissions and deaths of all which necessitates the strong social isolation measures. It would make an interesting study to see what it would be like without such an approach (a comparison between Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland provides some indication; Sweden, which has a strong communitarian spirit, is still practising voluntary social distancing, for what that's worth).
Of course, even for those countries that have engaged in flattening the curve, there is still a massive economic hit that's coming down like a tsunami. I have written a piece (c2400 words) on Pandemic Economics, which compares the approaches of stimulus packages, universal basic income, and job guarantees. It followed an interview I did with David Ayliffe on Thursday which covers similar topics which will be on Youtube soon enough; I am hoping to do a follow-up one on the effects of inequality of income and wealth, of which The Spirit Level is an influential text. Apropos, I am continuing my massive sell-off of my collection of roleplaying games to donate the proceeds to Medicines Sans Frontiers; I am at around $5000 raised so far, although I must confess it can be slow going with work and other pressures. Usually, I manage to compile a list for four to five people a day, and at that rate the current list will take another two weeks.
In what little spare time I have had over the past few weeks has involved a little ventures into the aesthetic dimension. I have finally written my review of Mark Burgess' View From A Hill, which had been on my to-do list since 2012. I have also made my through a few SF films, namely Annihilation, with a rather well-constructed "enter a wild and dangerous locale" plot, Advantageous, which takes a good look at the dangers of re-sleeving technologies, and Snowpiercer, a slightly absurd and violent take on the class system in a train. In addition have finished the second season of Altered Carbon which does improve over episodes, the latest season of The Blacklist, and the art-deco period of Archer. In addition, I finished Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart; a beautifully written, but very unhappy novel, and indirectly appropriate for our times.
Of course, even for those countries that have engaged in flattening the curve, there is still a massive economic hit that's coming down like a tsunami. I have written a piece (c2400 words) on Pandemic Economics, which compares the approaches of stimulus packages, universal basic income, and job guarantees. It followed an interview I did with David Ayliffe on Thursday which covers similar topics which will be on Youtube soon enough; I am hoping to do a follow-up one on the effects of inequality of income and wealth, of which The Spirit Level is an influential text. Apropos, I am continuing my massive sell-off of my collection of roleplaying games to donate the proceeds to Medicines Sans Frontiers; I am at around $5000 raised so far, although I must confess it can be slow going with work and other pressures. Usually, I manage to compile a list for four to five people a day, and at that rate the current list will take another two weeks.
In what little spare time I have had over the past few weeks has involved a little ventures into the aesthetic dimension. I have finally written my review of Mark Burgess' View From A Hill, which had been on my to-do list since 2012. I have also made my through a few SF films, namely Annihilation, with a rather well-constructed "enter a wild and dangerous locale" plot, Advantageous, which takes a good look at the dangers of re-sleeving technologies, and Snowpiercer, a slightly absurd and violent take on the class system in a train. In addition have finished the second season of Altered Carbon which does improve over episodes, the latest season of The Blacklist, and the art-deco period of Archer. In addition, I finished Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart; a beautifully written, but very unhappy novel, and indirectly appropriate for our times.
