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Syd
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:06 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I also mourn Kirstie Alley, who to me is not the character she played so well in Cheers, but as the original Lieutenant Saavik (I think she was a Lieutenant) in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. I can understand why she abandoned that to make a fortune, but I was sorry to see her replaced.

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bartist
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:37 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
gromit wrote:
1990-2005 was all about breakneck growth, and they'd deal with the consequences later. Not terribly different than the US post war industrialization, followed by environmental laws starting circa 1970, after rivers caught fire, acid rain, etc.
From 1990-2010m China lifted perhaps 300M people out of poverty. Which certainly involves caring for welfare at a most basic level.

The past 15 years, China has passed more environmental laws, has gone in big for EV's, stopped accepting other countries garbage, etc. A pretty basic two-stage economic process. Develop wealth, then address the harms caused when there is money available.

2021 saw reportedly the heaviest rains in central China in 1000 years, yet only a few hundred died. This isn't Bangladesh. The govt has more resources to tackle natural disasters and has been improving building codes and inspections. And fires officials who fark up.
So i think your stereotype is a bit out of date...


It is. Twas speaking more of the ideological history, the Marxist view as curved through the lens of Lenin and Mao, of community having priority over the individual, and a rush to catch up with the West. Move fast and break things. Present is better in some ways, as you outline. Still seems to me that the tradeoffs in totalitarian communist systems do not do well at factoring in the mental health effects. That's my bias, and I own it. Have a soft spot for the libertarians who don't like government telling them what to do, even if it's for their own good. TBH, I think most westerners who don't live in China will always have a hard time understanding their system.

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bartist
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:54 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
Syd wrote:
I also mourn Kirstie Alley, who to me is not the character she played so well in Cheers, but as the original Lieutenant Saavik (I think she was a Lieutenant) in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. I can understand why she abandoned that to make a fortune, but I was sorry to see her replaced.


Kirstie and I grew up in the same neighborhood in Wichita (I moved away, age 11). She was a few years older than me, so I only remember her in that shadowy peripheral way of someone you see around but have little contact with. She had a sort of biker chick vibe, as a teenager.

Her Saavik was my favorite role of hers. But the Kirstie I remember in my dim Wichita memories seemed destined to be a barmaid.

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gromit
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 5:46 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
What I posted elsewhere, 2 weeks ago:

China just abruptly switched from nearly 3 years of regular testing, lockdowns and quarantines to ... a herd immunity approach. A charitable interpretation would be the gov't heeded the protests against continued strict zero-Covid policies. Less indulgent, the gov't might have decided to give the people what they wanted, the freedom to have mass outbreaks and illness. More cynically, XiJinPing got his 3rd term and secured his position at the top, and so protecting health and welfare became less of a concern.

Unfortunately, Covid policy in China became politicized, as it did in the US, though in different ways. Likely a lot of the decision was made due to economics, as the strict policies and lockdowns were strangling the economy, while frequent mass testing was an expensive drain. But funny how Mr. Zero Covid went completely silent.

Beijing was already facing a minor outbreak when strict policies were lifted. Now it's reportedly like a ghost town, under a voluntary or self-imposed lockdown. As noone wants to go out and get infected. Shanghai is in a calm before the storm lull, with CV expected to run rampant over the next few weeks and remain prevalent for months. I'm starting to stock up on food and cat food and dread. At least the threat of being carted off to a horrible quarantine center or halfway decent hotel is largely off the board. Will be interesting to see how things play out.

Sort of the worst of both worlds -- a 3 month lockdown in the Spring and now an expected 3 months of Covid spreading in the Winter. Edit: and SH is now a ghost town with hardly anyone venturing out. Chinese New Year in late January might be the ultimate super-spreader, with potentially hundreds of millions crowding through transit stations, returning home to infect their relatives, and then mixing again on their return to Shanghai and other destinations.

Extra: Chinese are very adaptable people, out of necessity. But to go from gov't protection for 3 years to you're-on- your-own overnight is pretty startling. the total lack of planning can be seen in the lack of fever medicine available (empty shelves in pharmacies) and the 60% infected rate among hospital inpatients (and rising).
A general concern is that the delivery guys will all become infected or too afraid to deliver. and then more people will need to go out.

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bartist
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
My training was in life sciences and biochemistry, so I'm too aware of how much folk medicine (maybe "youtube medicine" is more current term) is based on pretty thin evidence (or just nonsense). That said, I hope everyone has information on true immune boosters like zinc, beta carotene, and vitamin D. And a plus about those is you can get them even if the vitamin shelves are empty, e.g. zinc from wheat germ and beans. And hopefully people are using N95 masks, which have the double benefit - reduce viral transmission and intercept PM 2.5 (the particulates in pollution that can really zap lung function, esp in places like Beijing and Shanghai). Even if Uncle Xi does nothing, people have ways to protect themselves.

Less dread here, but the hideous winter storm brought my area fifty below zero windchills, blizzards that closed supply lines for supermarkets etc. and plumbing pipes that wanted so badly to freeze. And so there was some dread when the gas company sent everyone a recorded message telling us to turn down our heat because there were supply problems with natural gas. Made me think about what Ukraine is dealing with.

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Befade
Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2022 7:46 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
There are some very good articles about the COVID situation in Shanghai in The New York Times December 21-26.

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bartist
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:13 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
Snow wranglers everywhere are today wondering how a Jason Bourne film star could be critically injured plowing his driveway. It goes against the natural order of things. May Renner recover and be able to resume his fine work. He was really good in Wind River.

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Syd
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:14 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I'm not doing many movie reviews these days because most of the movies people are praising are not showing locally, and to view a reasonable selection, I have to subscribe to a bunch of streaming services.

For example, CODA won best picture at the Oscars last year, never showed locally, and is not available by any streaming service I have available. I think it's through TV+, which means yet another service to subscribe to, so go fuck yourselves.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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Syd
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:40 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
The only movies I've seen in a movie theater this year (excluding leftovers from last year) are "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (which I absolutely hated), "Three Thousand Years of Longing," "Wakanda Forever," and "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish." I'll probably see Avatar 2 eventually. The rest looked awful, weren't available, or were Marvel Universe films that depended on you watching miniseries in advance that I wasn't interested in. I don't give a damn about the Marvel Multiverse.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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bartist
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2023 1:39 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
Yeah, the way Apple has locked up its Best Pic winner seems the essence of cynical capitalism and not good for the Academy or film generally. I'm not adding their streaming service, either, especially as they seem to have held back the DVD too - the local library usually has the previous year's best pic winner by now, but they haven't been able to with CODA.

No interest in Marvel, or liking the current habit of identifying actors with much broader resumes as "Marvel actor _____ ______."

They did that with Jeremy Renner in recent news, thus obscuring his career peaks like Hurt Locker or Wind River. It makes me feel like media are all whoring for Hollywood cash cows.

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Syd
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2023 7:47 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I did see the new Black Panther movie which is not in the current multi-universe thread and doesn't depend on the spinoffs.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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Befade
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
Gromit……just read an article in th NYT about the Covid situation in Shanghai. Photos of ctowded hospitals. Are you ok?

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gromit
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:01 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
It's the voluntary lockdown stage. Where people try not to go out too much and mostly hunker down inside.

I think China reported 70k CV deaths in the 1 month since controls were removed (Dec 1 - Jan1). 4x the population of the USofA.

I mostly try to avoid people. Stay in a lot. Wear a mask everywhere. Though I did play basketball 4 on 4 last week. Needed some exercise.

Now it's Chinese New Year, so all quiet on the Eastern front. Just me & 3 cats (and 10 more outside I feed).

No idea when the virus will settle down here. Initial estimates were 3 months (Dec/Jan/Feb). But there could be a second wave. I assume many people will get infected multiple times.

Throughout Dec, it seemed everyone you knew was sick. But most people just had a cough or fever for 3 days or so. Weird times.

Unfortunately the govt didn't allow the virus to spread back in the Spring, and instead went for lockdown in SH. And then didn't at all prepare for herd immunity when they did switch things up.

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gromit
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:01 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
It's the voluntary lockdown stage. Where people try not to go out too much and mostly hunker down inside.

I think China reported 70k CV deaths in the 1 month since controls were removed (Dec 1 - Jan1). 4x the population of the USofA.

I mostly try to avoid people. Stay in a lot. Wear a mask everywhere. Though I did play basketball 4 on 4 last week. Needed some exercise.

Now it's Chinese New Year, so all quiet on the Eastern front. Just me & 3 cats (and 10 more outside I feed).

No idea when the virus will settle down here. Initial estimates were 3 months (Dec/Jan/Feb). But there could be a second wave. I assume many people will get infected multiple times.

Throughout Dec, it seemed everyone you knew was sick. But most people just had a cough or fever for 3 days or so. Weird times.

Unfortunately the govt didn't allow the virus to spread back in the Spring, and instead went for lockdown in SH. And then didn't at all prepare for herd immunity when they did switch things up.

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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.
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Syd
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:33 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I'm still shocked that "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is doing so well at award nominations when I thought it was terrible. But then I realize that a lot of people like Wes Anderson films and the only one I liked was "Fantastic Mr. Fox".

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament
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