Coronavirus COVID-19

Congratulations everyone! We're past 1 Million Confirmed Cases!

= ) 

  On 4/2/2020 at 11:19 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

Congratulations everyone! We're past 1 Million Confirmed Cases!

 

= ) 

[world] pats self on back. 

isn't that where Atlas earns his shekels

  On 4/2/2020 at 11:33 PM, ignatius said:

[world] pats self on back. 

6-8 days until 2m if they keep testing up. 

USA NUMBER 1!!!

Sorry

So, apparently there are 2 tests and one of them is called HIV and they sting you with a needle on your finger to get your blood... 

according to cell phone tracking data by reuters, counties that voted for trump are less likely to change their travel habits as covid-19 took hold 

  On 4/2/2020 at 11:19 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

Congratulations everyone! We're past 1 Million Confirmed Cases!

 

= ) 

Meant to put this below the above quote:

  On 4/2/2020 at 5:57 PM, bendish said:

Not a chance. China is the new crowned superpower - both hard, soft and everything in-between.

Uhhh what? GDP, still behind US and EU. Soft power? Maybe 20 years ago when they had a bunch of innovative filmmakers coming out of Hong Kong, but what was the last Chinese film to make any impact on the art world, let alone the mainstream? Meanwhile, South Korea, a population with a 10th that of China’s is killing it with those ridiculous boy bands and girl groups, and parasite. Japan’s anime still gives it way more soft power than China. 
China flexes its money/military in Africa and SE Asia (military there more than anywhere else) but don’t kid yourself, the last 5 years have been a terrible drag down of the good will the Chinese had built up. 

Cabin fever setting in now. Haven't seen anyone for 18 days. Felt completely listless and bored beyond belief all day today.

  On 4/3/2020 at 3:06 AM, chenGOD said:

Uhhh what? GDP, still behind US and EU. Soft power? Maybe 20 years ago when they had a bunch of innovative filmmakers coming out of Hong Kong, but what was the last Chinese film to make any impact on the art world, let alone the mainstream? Meanwhile, South Korea, a population with a 10th that of China’s is killing it with those ridiculous boy bands and girl groups, and parasite. Japan’s anime still gives it way more soft power than China. 
China flexes its money/military in Africa and SE Asia (military there more than anywhere else) but don’t kid yourself, the last 5 years have been a terrible drag down of the good will the Chinese had built up. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Souls_(2018_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Elephant_Sitting_Still

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Day's_Journey_into_Night_(2018_film)

Plenty of good film coming out of China

WTF @ Canada jumping from 13 deaths in one day yesterday to 52 today.   Total daily cases jumped from ~1,000 to ~1,500!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

I hope that Ayn Rand is spinning in her grave so fast that she opens a portal to a timeline where Bernie wins the presidency.

  On 4/3/2020 at 5:51 AM, Braintree said:

I hope that Ayn Rand is spinning in her grave so fast that she opens a portal to a timeline where Bernie wins the presidency.

we all know there's no body in her  grave. that she faked her death because she got too famous to keep her vampirism a secret. she's somewhere over a hell mouth waiting for the right circumstances to bring forth more demons. 

  On 4/3/2020 at 5:54 AM, Stickfigger said:

Bernie Sanders will die from Corona Virus as a political stunt to escalate the conversation around free healthcare 

  On 4/3/2020 at 5:51 AM, Braintree said:

I hope that Ayn Rand is spinning in her grave so fast that she opens a portal to a timeline where Bernie wins the presidency.

I doubt it, you have to spin 88 miles per hour to do that. Not an easy feat.

  On 4/3/2020 at 5:54 AM, Stickfigger said:

Bernie Sanders will die from Corona Virus as a political stunt to escalate the conversation around free healthcare 

Biden will die from corona but his death will be regarded as merely a speech impediment 

  On 4/3/2020 at 5:04 AM, Stickfigger said:

- Aus is only *entering* flu season now and our cooler months. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

 

 

Yeah up here in FNQ the seasons don't seem to exist other than dry/wet (currently buckets down a few times a day, so hard to have much faith in leaving the house for long periods, basically lockdown anyway).

But when I lived in Canberra, I remember April 4/5 is when you typically got that first bone-chilling night, and Anzac Day is when the winter fashions start to line the streets as you get that dreary midday breeze. Melbourne and Western Sydney also get very chilly by the end of April. Melbourne is going to enter flu Mecca season very soon.

Australia seems to be flattening the curve quite well for now. Still some stupid crap from time to time, but feel we are well placed for now.

Yesterday afternoon I spent twenty minutes chillin' with the biggest praying mantis I've ever seen. We seemed cool until I tried to offer it an ant-infested dead moth, and it bolted. Fair enough, dead moths are like the grubby pigs of the insect world minus the bacon, and if I was a mantis I'd be disturbed by mobs of ants as well.

When I was a little kid I was playing with a mantis and then immobilised it in a tight driveway crevice during lunch so I could play with it later. When I returned some ants had come along and dismembered its limbs and were already crawling out of its torso and eyeballs. First time I ever felt guilt in relation to an animal. Which is weird because mantis are about as sympathetic as a shark or octopus.

  On 4/3/2020 at 4:17 AM, Taupe Beats said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Souls_(2018_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Elephant_Sitting_Still

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Day's_Journey_into_Night_(2018_film)

Plenty of good film coming out of China

Yes those are good films (I haven't seen Dead Souls for disclosure), but I'm talking about movies like Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, Ashes of Time, Chungking Express, Happy Together, Eat Drink Man Woman, John Woo's material from the early 90s, (and Red Cliff), Infernal Affairs. That period of time really spread China's soft power (along with other things, but no one here wants to talk international relations and we're supposed to be discussing coronavirus in this thread), and Xi is laying waste to a lot of that.

Saying that, blaming China for the coronavirus is straight-up race baiting. The Chinese initial response was not great, but fuck Trump for trying to blame China for America's issues. 

  On 4/3/2020 at 6:49 AM, chenGOD said:

Yes those are good films (I haven't seen Dead Souls for disclosure), but I'm talking about movies like Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, Ashes of Time, Chungking Express, Happy Together, Eat Drink Man Woman, John Woo's material from the early 90s, (and Red Cliff), Infernal Affairs. That period of time really spread China's soft power (along with other things, but no one here wants to talk international relations and we're supposed to be discussing coronavirus in this thread), and Xi is laying waste to a lot of that.

Saying that, blaming China for the coronavirus is straight-up race baiting. The Chinese initial response was not great, but fuck Trump for trying to blame China for America's issues. 

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A lot of those films you mention are actually Hong Kong or Taiwan cinema rather than mainland China. The Chinese films that critically do well internationally tend to be rather critical of the state as well. You also seem to have a very narrow concept of soft power.

  On 4/3/2020 at 7:05 AM, Roo said:

A lot of those films you mention are actually Hong Kong or Taiwan cinema rather than mainland China. The Chinese films that critically do well internationally tend to be rather critical of the state as well. You also seem to have a very narrow concept of soft power.

Well aware of that (HK being the epicentre of Chinese film), but Xi's handling of HK is indicative of the failure of Chinese cinema, symbolizing China's downward trajectory in their ability to influence global policy through the use of soft power (I'm trying to keep this conversation from going into an Asian international relations thread).