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shadowkatJust finished re-watching one of my favorite movies of the 1980s, the Alan Parker film Fame circa 1980. The film ages well. Gets really dark and kind of depressing towards the end, but also ground-breaking and edgy for its time. [Tackled topics like homophobia, abortion, and the poor urban housing conditions. And had among the best musical scores - this was an instance in which the film's score was bigger than the film - and the album was number one in the world. I owned the album as a teen.] I loved it, and I still do. So much so, that I watched the television series it spawned in the early 80s. (While everyone else was watching Magnum PI, I was watching FAME.) It's part of the TCM Classic Film Festival.
It's an interesting film to watch because the only one who still has roles seems to be Paul McCrane who played Montgomery and Debbie Allen who played Lydia. Gene Anthony Ray who portrayed LeRoy - died at the age of 41 due to complications with AIDs, Irene Cara who portrayed Coco is still touring with her band Caramel, and won grammy's for Fame, and Flashdance. She sang and wrote "What a Feeling" for Flashdance. The others kind of faded into obscurity or just did lots of theater.
Anyhow...I tried to walk around the Cemetery after work today, but alas, the gates at the Fort Hamilton Entrance were closed. I wore a thin cloth mask - as a kind of experiment - thinnest I've worn to date, also the most comfortable. (I'm fully vaccinated - it's supposed to be safe to wander about indoors and outdoors in most locations without, but no one trusts the CDC any longer - so were all wearing masks regardless. It's amusing in a way, last year at this time - people were reluctant, now people are reluctant not to wear them. I decided not to wear a mask to pick up a package, and was nervous about it - when it turned out not to be an issue since no one was in the hallways or the lobby. I don't feel comfortable not wearing one out doors, and all stores still have the mandate to wear masks upon entry.)
The question remains? How the heck are they going to know who is vaccinated and who isn't - to enforce the mask mandate? Also, the people getting vaccinated were the ones who wanted to wear the masks to begin with.
Family members and others keep posting on FB about the whether or not to wear a mask now. The consensus appears to be to continue to wear one - until we're all absolutely certain it is safe not to. In short, no one trusts the Federal Government or the CDC. Gee, I wonder why? I talked to mother about it today, and we were in agreement - the CDC has been inconsistent in regards to the virus. First it was - you don't need to wear a mask, then they did a 190 degree turn and decided we needed to wear a mask. Also, last year at this time - everyone was convinced we could get the virus from surfaces and was insanely cleaning things. (Surfaces are insanely clean now in NYC. We still have litter, but the surfaces are all bright and shiny. You should see the subways. My god. I don't know how long that will last now that they are going back to 24/7 service next week. Kind of hard to keep the subways spotless and free of the homeless when they are 24/7, just saying.)
Then the CDC said, eh, sorry, we were mistaken, it's just an air-born virus, you can't get it from surfaces - but still clean your hands and the subways.
Mother said one of her drivers was a young woman, who was afraid to get vaccinated because she was still in her childbearing years, and had a young child. She didn't know what effect if any it would have on her ability to continue to have children. (I can understand that fear - considering how the vaccine affected my menstrual cycle and various other people's. I mean there were people who went through menopause, two years ago, who got their periods after getting the vaccine. And the CDC has been silent on that particular side-effect.)
In short, I still don't think they completely understand the virus or the vaccines affect on it. But, the infection rate in New York has gone down dramatically. To date we've vaccinated over 17 million with one dose, and over 50% are fully vaccinated. We have a 1% infection rate, or a .99% infection rate in my area. We've not been that low since sometime in August, I think.
So good news.
Also on FB, folks were discussing the deaths in India. Someone stated that you can't trust the numbers coming out of India. The administration/government was trying to down-play it, and fixing the numbers to reflect less people dead. But it's actually in the millions. (I actually believe that. I've been watching India for a while now, and I didn't believe the numbers. India is a densely populated country, with sever poverty and horrid health care. There's no way they aren't going to be decimated by a pandemic. It's just not possible. The odds are against them. Also they didn't get ahead on the vaccine or got the vaccine late in the game. The countries relying on other countries to get the vaccine - got it later.)
I don't trust the numbers coming out of Russia and China either. Both of those administrations lie through their teeth. They've feed us misinformation for years. How much you want to bet that they've lost more people to this virus than either are willing to admit?
Also, I'm not certain they even know how many lives they've lost. We don't.
I know people who got this virus - who weren't counted in the statistics. And know people who died, outside of hospitals, from either COVID or COVID related symptoms, that weren't counted. And the NY Times has compared the death tolls from previous years per capita to the death tolls from 2020 and 2021, and guess what 2020 and 2021 is substantially higher in death rates across age groups.
According to the Johns Hopkins COVID MAP OF DOOM, actually they changed it, it has evolved! It is now the COVID DASHBOARD OF DOOM.
161,554,788 CASES
3,353,195 DEATHS
1,410,839,550 Vaccine Doses Administered
So at least we're ahead on the vaccine doses. Just have 5.7 billion to go or thereabouts.
Want some good news? Check out the World Population Meter - there's more people being born per second than dying. I was surprised. I honestly thought it was the opposite.
* Current World Population - 7,865,806,083
* Births today 374,368
* Deaths today 157,168
* Population Growth today 217,200
* Births this year 51,403,436
* Deaths this year 21,580,393
Curious to know how accurate they are. But that World Meter tracks a lot of interesting things, like how much forest has been lost, solar transmissions, newspapers printed, corona virus deaths, by country, by region, etc. And it is live. Really cool. I'm book marking it. I found those types of statistics interesting. But, again, how valid this is? God knows.
It's late, I got distracted, time to go to bed. Adieu.
It's an interesting film to watch because the only one who still has roles seems to be Paul McCrane who played Montgomery and Debbie Allen who played Lydia. Gene Anthony Ray who portrayed LeRoy - died at the age of 41 due to complications with AIDs, Irene Cara who portrayed Coco is still touring with her band Caramel, and won grammy's for Fame, and Flashdance. She sang and wrote "What a Feeling" for Flashdance. The others kind of faded into obscurity or just did lots of theater.
Anyhow...I tried to walk around the Cemetery after work today, but alas, the gates at the Fort Hamilton Entrance were closed. I wore a thin cloth mask - as a kind of experiment - thinnest I've worn to date, also the most comfortable. (I'm fully vaccinated - it's supposed to be safe to wander about indoors and outdoors in most locations without, but no one trusts the CDC any longer - so were all wearing masks regardless. It's amusing in a way, last year at this time - people were reluctant, now people are reluctant not to wear them. I decided not to wear a mask to pick up a package, and was nervous about it - when it turned out not to be an issue since no one was in the hallways or the lobby. I don't feel comfortable not wearing one out doors, and all stores still have the mandate to wear masks upon entry.)
The question remains? How the heck are they going to know who is vaccinated and who isn't - to enforce the mask mandate? Also, the people getting vaccinated were the ones who wanted to wear the masks to begin with.
Family members and others keep posting on FB about the whether or not to wear a mask now. The consensus appears to be to continue to wear one - until we're all absolutely certain it is safe not to. In short, no one trusts the Federal Government or the CDC. Gee, I wonder why? I talked to mother about it today, and we were in agreement - the CDC has been inconsistent in regards to the virus. First it was - you don't need to wear a mask, then they did a 190 degree turn and decided we needed to wear a mask. Also, last year at this time - everyone was convinced we could get the virus from surfaces and was insanely cleaning things. (Surfaces are insanely clean now in NYC. We still have litter, but the surfaces are all bright and shiny. You should see the subways. My god. I don't know how long that will last now that they are going back to 24/7 service next week. Kind of hard to keep the subways spotless and free of the homeless when they are 24/7, just saying.)
Then the CDC said, eh, sorry, we were mistaken, it's just an air-born virus, you can't get it from surfaces - but still clean your hands and the subways.
Mother said one of her drivers was a young woman, who was afraid to get vaccinated because she was still in her childbearing years, and had a young child. She didn't know what effect if any it would have on her ability to continue to have children. (I can understand that fear - considering how the vaccine affected my menstrual cycle and various other people's. I mean there were people who went through menopause, two years ago, who got their periods after getting the vaccine. And the CDC has been silent on that particular side-effect.)
In short, I still don't think they completely understand the virus or the vaccines affect on it. But, the infection rate in New York has gone down dramatically. To date we've vaccinated over 17 million with one dose, and over 50% are fully vaccinated. We have a 1% infection rate, or a .99% infection rate in my area. We've not been that low since sometime in August, I think.
So good news.
Also on FB, folks were discussing the deaths in India. Someone stated that you can't trust the numbers coming out of India. The administration/government was trying to down-play it, and fixing the numbers to reflect less people dead. But it's actually in the millions. (I actually believe that. I've been watching India for a while now, and I didn't believe the numbers. India is a densely populated country, with sever poverty and horrid health care. There's no way they aren't going to be decimated by a pandemic. It's just not possible. The odds are against them. Also they didn't get ahead on the vaccine or got the vaccine late in the game. The countries relying on other countries to get the vaccine - got it later.)
I don't trust the numbers coming out of Russia and China either. Both of those administrations lie through their teeth. They've feed us misinformation for years. How much you want to bet that they've lost more people to this virus than either are willing to admit?
Also, I'm not certain they even know how many lives they've lost. We don't.
I know people who got this virus - who weren't counted in the statistics. And know people who died, outside of hospitals, from either COVID or COVID related symptoms, that weren't counted. And the NY Times has compared the death tolls from previous years per capita to the death tolls from 2020 and 2021, and guess what 2020 and 2021 is substantially higher in death rates across age groups.
According to the Johns Hopkins COVID MAP OF DOOM, actually they changed it, it has evolved! It is now the COVID DASHBOARD OF DOOM.
161,554,788 CASES
3,353,195 DEATHS
1,410,839,550 Vaccine Doses Administered
So at least we're ahead on the vaccine doses. Just have 5.7 billion to go or thereabouts.
Want some good news? Check out the World Population Meter - there's more people being born per second than dying. I was surprised. I honestly thought it was the opposite.
* Current World Population - 7,865,806,083
* Births today 374,368
* Deaths today 157,168
* Population Growth today 217,200
* Births this year 51,403,436
* Deaths this year 21,580,393
Curious to know how accurate they are. But that World Meter tracks a lot of interesting things, like how much forest has been lost, solar transmissions, newspapers printed, corona virus deaths, by country, by region, etc. And it is live. Really cool. I'm book marking it. I found those types of statistics interesting. But, again, how valid this is? God knows.
It's late, I got distracted, time to go to bed. Adieu.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 03:55 pm (UTC)That's our biggest problem - it's hard to determine the accuracy of the most reliable information sources. (Forget the nonsense ones, or the propaganda sites...)
no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 05:14 pm (UTC)Also my thought. I plan to keep wearing mine for my own comfort, especially since places like WalMart and other stores now won't require it (not that they've been enforcing it much in the past 6 months anyway). I've heard various people say that they plan to keep wearing them seasonally due to allergies or flu season so it'll be interesting to see if it becomes an optional thing on a permanent basis. If it hadn't become such a politicized issue, I definitely think that would have happened.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-17 08:12 am (UTC)