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Celerity
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Celerity's Journal
October 5, 2020
Demonstrators on Sunday marched to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Beverly Hills mansion, protesting company working conditions during the COVID-19 crisis and calling for higher wages, free healthcare and child care for employees. Protesters rallied at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, then marched to the gates of Bezos’ home, carrying signs and chanting “Tax Bezos.”
The demonstration was sponsored by the Congress of Essential Workers, a collective of servers, teachers and warehouse employees, and led by the group’s founder, Chris Smalls, a former Amazon warehouse manager who said he was fired in March after organizing a work stoppage over the company’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You don’t need Jeff Bezos. He needs us,” he said through a bullhorn during the protest. Organizers released a list of demands, including that the company provide workers with adequate protective equipment and cleaning supplies, as well as an increase of $2 per hour for hazard pay.
Amazon revealed last week, after months of pressure from workers and labor groups, that nearly 20,000 of its frontline U.S. workers have tested positive or been presumed positive for the coronavirus. But the online retail giant says the infection rate of its employees is well below that seen in the general U.S. population.
snip
Amazon workers march to Jeff Bezos' mansion, calling for higher wages, protections
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-04/amazon-jeff-bezos-protest-beverly-hillsDemonstrators on Sunday marched to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Beverly Hills mansion, protesting company working conditions during the COVID-19 crisis and calling for higher wages, free healthcare and child care for employees. Protesters rallied at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, then marched to the gates of Bezos’ home, carrying signs and chanting “Tax Bezos.”
The demonstration was sponsored by the Congress of Essential Workers, a collective of servers, teachers and warehouse employees, and led by the group’s founder, Chris Smalls, a former Amazon warehouse manager who said he was fired in March after organizing a work stoppage over the company’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You don’t need Jeff Bezos. He needs us,” he said through a bullhorn during the protest. Organizers released a list of demands, including that the company provide workers with adequate protective equipment and cleaning supplies, as well as an increase of $2 per hour for hazard pay.
Amazon revealed last week, after months of pressure from workers and labor groups, that nearly 20,000 of its frontline U.S. workers have tested positive or been presumed positive for the coronavirus. But the online retail giant says the infection rate of its employees is well below that seen in the general U.S. population.
snip
October 4, 2020
on edit
he is now back at Walter Reed per MSNBC live, just now
Trump new video tweet, leaving Walter Reed, making 'a surprise visit'
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1312864232711520257on edit
he is now back at Walter Reed per MSNBC live, just now
October 3, 2020
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-uk-coronavirus-cases-sky-22786629#source=breaking-news
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has skyrocketed by 12,872 in the past 24 hours - it is nearly double the previous 24 hour record. The previous record was 7,143 also recorded during the second wave of the deadly bug.
Deaths in all settings have gone up by 49 to a total of 42,317.
The figures are usually released daily by the Department of Health on its website at 4pm but today they were not made public until 8.45pm.
The official website tracking the cases and deaths said there had been a 'technical issue' which was resolved and added: "This means the total reported over the coming days will include some additional cases from the period between 24 September and 1 October, increasing the number of cases reported."
snip
UK coronavirus cases skyrocket by 12,872 - almost double previous 24 hour record
The latest figures come as a study showed there are signs the Government's 'rule of six' is starting to slow the spread of coronavirus while there are hopes a vaccine will be approved next yearhttps://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-uk-coronavirus-cases-sky-22786629#source=breaking-news
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has skyrocketed by 12,872 in the past 24 hours - it is nearly double the previous 24 hour record. The previous record was 7,143 also recorded during the second wave of the deadly bug.
Deaths in all settings have gone up by 49 to a total of 42,317.
The figures are usually released daily by the Department of Health on its website at 4pm but today they were not made public until 8.45pm.
The official website tracking the cases and deaths said there had been a 'technical issue' which was resolved and added: "This means the total reported over the coming days will include some additional cases from the period between 24 September and 1 October, increasing the number of cases reported."
snip
October 3, 2020
_/¯
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/subway-bread-sugar-irish-supreme-court-ruling
Bread. What is it? Aside from "our one true love and saving grace," its form can be elusive. The FDA considers "bread" to be anything produced by baking a mixed yeast-leavened dough that contains flour, yeast, water, eggs, milk, and sweeteners. But the Ireland Supreme Court has its own notion, having just ruled that America's beloved Subway bread is actually more like cake.
According to The Independent, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled that Subway "bread" cannot be taxed as "bread," per se, but rather a “confectionary.” Why? In order for "bread" to be "bread" in Ireland, the amount of sugar in the dough must be 2% of the flour's weight. Subway's bread is 9.2%.
The case started with Bookfinders Ltd., a Subway franchisee, that argued against paying a national sales tax -- or value added tax -- which staple foods like bread and milk are exempt from. To settle the case, the court had to decide whether or not Subway bread was considered a "discretionary indulgence." Criminally, there was no talk of the best Subway sandwich, or how well the chain's food holds up in delivery during the proceedings. If there had been, perhaps the outcome would be different.
Now the Subway franchisees will have to pay the 13.5% value added tax for bread sales. Am I angry at Ireland? No, I'm perfectly fine and chill. I just think it's funny that the court disses our breads while allowing Irish citizens to eat sandwiches filled with chips and ketchup.
snip
Irish Supreme Court Rules That Subway 'Bread' Isn't Legally Bread
From the folks who eat sandwiches filled with chips and ketchup. ¯_(ツ _/¯
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/subway-bread-sugar-irish-supreme-court-ruling
Bread. What is it? Aside from "our one true love and saving grace," its form can be elusive. The FDA considers "bread" to be anything produced by baking a mixed yeast-leavened dough that contains flour, yeast, water, eggs, milk, and sweeteners. But the Ireland Supreme Court has its own notion, having just ruled that America's beloved Subway bread is actually more like cake.
According to The Independent, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled that Subway "bread" cannot be taxed as "bread," per se, but rather a “confectionary.” Why? In order for "bread" to be "bread" in Ireland, the amount of sugar in the dough must be 2% of the flour's weight. Subway's bread is 9.2%.
The case started with Bookfinders Ltd., a Subway franchisee, that argued against paying a national sales tax -- or value added tax -- which staple foods like bread and milk are exempt from. To settle the case, the court had to decide whether or not Subway bread was considered a "discretionary indulgence." Criminally, there was no talk of the best Subway sandwich, or how well the chain's food holds up in delivery during the proceedings. If there had been, perhaps the outcome would be different.
Now the Subway franchisees will have to pay the 13.5% value added tax for bread sales. Am I angry at Ireland? No, I'm perfectly fine and chill. I just think it's funny that the court disses our breads while allowing Irish citizens to eat sandwiches filled with chips and ketchup.
snip
October 3, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/10/possessor-brandon-cronenberg/616563/
Maybe the best approach to making a dystopian film, given the state of the planet in 2020, is to not set it many years from now. The ruined worlds of classic movies such as Blade Runner or A Clockwork Orange typically exist decades in the future, as grim warnings about the path society is on. But Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, a gleefully gory bit of techno-horror in theatres starting tomorrow, is set in the past—an alternate 2008 where online surveillance has become the norm, city streets are eerily empty, and income inequality has reached staggering proportions. In other words, it’s a different world from ours, but a distressingly familiar and plausible one.
Possessor’s writer and director is the son of the Canadian master of horror David Cronenberg, who has made many nightmarish sci-fi standards (Scanners, The Fly, Videodrome). Like his father, Brandon Cronenberg seems concerned about technological overreach and expresses that fear through a particularly visceral brand of body horror. Possessor is one of the gnarliest movies I’ve seen in years, with moments of violence that drew audible yelps from me even as I watched it alone at home. (It’ll be available on demand next month.) But the film deploys its extreme imagery for a reason, interrogating notions of selfhood and agency through a plot where nefarious agents can tap directly into someone’s brain.
Think of this cyber-hijacking process as remote puppetry, a wireless form of body hopping that involves a computer spike being planted into your skull. Possessor follows Tasya Vos (played by Andrea Riseborough), an elite assassin who carries out her kills by controlling other people’s bodies, using them as clandestine weapons against their loved ones, and then forcing them to take their own lives before her subterfuge is discovered. It’s a naturally creepy premise: What if you couldn’t even trust your closest friends or family to protect you from harm? But Cronenberg is also fascinated by the questions of identity that would arise from such an invention, and by the limits to which Tasya can do her amoral work before the people she’s targeting begin to fight back.
Possessor doesn’t let a scene go by without cramming in some stomach-churning detail. Cronenberg animates the process of body possession with grossly beautiful practical effects, imagining Tasya’s body melting into the form of her target, a gooey soup that’s transfixing if you can suppress your gag reflex. Later, as she does psychic battle with her target Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), Cronenberg visualizes their struggle by showing him tearing her face off and trying to wear it like a mask, an indelible image that has defined the film’s advertising campaign. The aesthetic might be nasty, but it’s refreshingly original too.
snip
A New Dystopian Thriller That Will Twist Your Stomach and Your Brain
Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor is a grisly film that asks perturbing questions about the world we already live in.https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/10/possessor-brandon-cronenberg/616563/
Maybe the best approach to making a dystopian film, given the state of the planet in 2020, is to not set it many years from now. The ruined worlds of classic movies such as Blade Runner or A Clockwork Orange typically exist decades in the future, as grim warnings about the path society is on. But Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, a gleefully gory bit of techno-horror in theatres starting tomorrow, is set in the past—an alternate 2008 where online surveillance has become the norm, city streets are eerily empty, and income inequality has reached staggering proportions. In other words, it’s a different world from ours, but a distressingly familiar and plausible one.
Possessor’s writer and director is the son of the Canadian master of horror David Cronenberg, who has made many nightmarish sci-fi standards (Scanners, The Fly, Videodrome). Like his father, Brandon Cronenberg seems concerned about technological overreach and expresses that fear through a particularly visceral brand of body horror. Possessor is one of the gnarliest movies I’ve seen in years, with moments of violence that drew audible yelps from me even as I watched it alone at home. (It’ll be available on demand next month.) But the film deploys its extreme imagery for a reason, interrogating notions of selfhood and agency through a plot where nefarious agents can tap directly into someone’s brain.
Think of this cyber-hijacking process as remote puppetry, a wireless form of body hopping that involves a computer spike being planted into your skull. Possessor follows Tasya Vos (played by Andrea Riseborough), an elite assassin who carries out her kills by controlling other people’s bodies, using them as clandestine weapons against their loved ones, and then forcing them to take their own lives before her subterfuge is discovered. It’s a naturally creepy premise: What if you couldn’t even trust your closest friends or family to protect you from harm? But Cronenberg is also fascinated by the questions of identity that would arise from such an invention, and by the limits to which Tasya can do her amoral work before the people she’s targeting begin to fight back.
Possessor doesn’t let a scene go by without cramming in some stomach-churning detail. Cronenberg animates the process of body possession with grossly beautiful practical effects, imagining Tasya’s body melting into the form of her target, a gooey soup that’s transfixing if you can suppress your gag reflex. Later, as she does psychic battle with her target Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), Cronenberg visualizes their struggle by showing him tearing her face off and trying to wear it like a mask, an indelible image that has defined the film’s advertising campaign. The aesthetic might be nasty, but it’s refreshingly original too.
snip
October 2, 2020
Dirty Projectors - Earth Crisis (7 Minute Short Film)
October 2, 2020
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/borat-subsequent-moviefilm-sequel-trailer
Well, here's an unlikely source of an October surprise: Borat -- the intrepid journalist from Kazakhstan, played, of course, by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen -- is back, and he has made a "subsequent moviefilm," otherwise known as a sequel, just in time for the 2020 election.
Amazon released the first trailer for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, giving us a taste of just what havoc Borat unleashed on his most recent visit to "Yankeeland." This time his traveling companion is not producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian), but rather his very own daughter (Irina Nowak), and the footage also addresses how in the hell the now very recognizable character gets away with all of this.
Once again, the bigoted Borat is Cohen's way to expose America's prejudices, though, given the state of the current political discourse, some of the heinous things he gets people to say are a little less surprising than they were back in 2006, or in Who Is America?, his recent Showtime series. As the trailer indicates, Cohen was filming as COVID-19 spread throughout the US, and made an appearance, dressed as Donald Trump, during Mike Pence's speech at CPAC back in February.
The antics will drop on Amazon Prime October 23, a week after Cohen's Oscar-worthy performance in The Trial of the Chicago 7 hits Netflix. It's the fall of Sacha Baron Cohen.
snip
Borat Is Back in the Hilarious Trailer for His Surprise 'Subsequent Moviefilm' Sequel
Sacha Baron Cohen's return as Borat will drop on Amazon Prime.https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/borat-subsequent-moviefilm-sequel-trailer
Well, here's an unlikely source of an October surprise: Borat -- the intrepid journalist from Kazakhstan, played, of course, by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen -- is back, and he has made a "subsequent moviefilm," otherwise known as a sequel, just in time for the 2020 election.
Amazon released the first trailer for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, giving us a taste of just what havoc Borat unleashed on his most recent visit to "Yankeeland." This time his traveling companion is not producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian), but rather his very own daughter (Irina Nowak), and the footage also addresses how in the hell the now very recognizable character gets away with all of this.
Once again, the bigoted Borat is Cohen's way to expose America's prejudices, though, given the state of the current political discourse, some of the heinous things he gets people to say are a little less surprising than they were back in 2006, or in Who Is America?, his recent Showtime series. As the trailer indicates, Cohen was filming as COVID-19 spread throughout the US, and made an appearance, dressed as Donald Trump, during Mike Pence's speech at CPAC back in February.
The antics will drop on Amazon Prime October 23, a week after Cohen's Oscar-worthy performance in The Trial of the Chicago 7 hits Netflix. It's the fall of Sacha Baron Cohen.
snip
October 2, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/10/donald-trumps-covid-19-clinical-probabilities/616584/
Donald Trump is 74, and he is male. Little else is known about his physical condition. Throughout his presidency, he has disclosed almost nothing in the way of medical records. He stands accused, by one of his former doctors, of dictating his medical assessment as a candidate in 2016. Even Trump’s body-mass index—a basic, objective measure of a person’s body weight divided by their height—is disputed. His reported height increased by an inch in his 2018 physical exam, which left him one pound shy of obese for his height. This is the context in which, in the predawn hours this morning, the world received news that the president had tested positive for the coronavirus. Trump disclosed his diagnosis in a tweet, and his doctor, Sean Conley, said in a statement that Trump and his wife, Melania, have the virus but are doing well and are at home in the White House.
The president’s prognosis includes the full spectrum of possible outcomes. Many people infected by the coronavirus have no symptoms at all. Today, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told reporters that Trump has been showing “mild” symptoms, akin to those of a common cold. If Trump is indeed symptomatic, that suggests he has been infected for at least two days, possibly many more. He could clear the virus and test negative in short order, and return to the campaign trail within days. He could also have a prolonged hospitalization involving weeks of unconsciousness on a ventilator, during which time Vice President Mike Pence would take charge. The president could die. Death is not the most likely outcome, but it is far from unlikely. Based on age and sex alone, Trump is at high or very high risk for severe disease. Eight percent of COVID-19 patients ages 65 to 74 die from the disease. Those 75 to 84 are at far higher risk: 18 percent die. And men are significantly more likely to die of COVID-19 than women.
Obesity is also predictive of a severe course. Compared with people in the “normal” BMI range, obese patients are 74 percent more likely to be admitted to an ICU and 48 percent more likely to die. (Despite the uncertainty about Trump’s precise BMI classification, his risk is demonstrably elevated.) The president’s doctors have assured the nation during his time in office that he is in good health and does not have chronic medical conditions. But we know that Trump’s lifestyle does not portend an optimized immune system. His sleep schedule is erratic, he does not exercise, and he subsists on fast food and declines vegetables. He is prone to angry outbursts. These lifestyle factors, taken together, are suggestive of impaired resiliency, and could leave him more susceptible to being laid low by the virus.
But a key variable in Trump’s case is that, because he is president, he will have the best possible medical monitoring and care. Should he need it, Trump will have care at the world’s best hospitals from doctors such as Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, whose advice Trump has spurned and rejected. Trump will have health care of the sort he has dangled as a campaign promise to all Americans since 2016, but never delivered. Trump is also white. This means he is statistically less likely to experience severe disease, or to die of COVID-19, compared with nonwhite Americans. Even as the pandemic has killed more than 1 million people, Trump has continued to downplay and deny the severity of the disease, and mostly declined to wear a mask. If he does experience a mild case, his perception may skew even further away from the realities of the crisis. Still, no one can be guaranteed an easy course of disease. COVID-19 can have lasting effects, and being in and out of the ICU can be traumatic. If Trump has an intense case, the experience may reorient him to take the virus more seriously. Severe cases of COVID-19 have a way of reorienting people’s capacity to fear it.
snip
The Probable Outcomes of Trump's Diagnosis
Here’s what is currently known about Trump’s health, and what it means for everyone else.https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/10/donald-trumps-covid-19-clinical-probabilities/616584/
Donald Trump is 74, and he is male. Little else is known about his physical condition. Throughout his presidency, he has disclosed almost nothing in the way of medical records. He stands accused, by one of his former doctors, of dictating his medical assessment as a candidate in 2016. Even Trump’s body-mass index—a basic, objective measure of a person’s body weight divided by their height—is disputed. His reported height increased by an inch in his 2018 physical exam, which left him one pound shy of obese for his height. This is the context in which, in the predawn hours this morning, the world received news that the president had tested positive for the coronavirus. Trump disclosed his diagnosis in a tweet, and his doctor, Sean Conley, said in a statement that Trump and his wife, Melania, have the virus but are doing well and are at home in the White House.
The president’s prognosis includes the full spectrum of possible outcomes. Many people infected by the coronavirus have no symptoms at all. Today, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told reporters that Trump has been showing “mild” symptoms, akin to those of a common cold. If Trump is indeed symptomatic, that suggests he has been infected for at least two days, possibly many more. He could clear the virus and test negative in short order, and return to the campaign trail within days. He could also have a prolonged hospitalization involving weeks of unconsciousness on a ventilator, during which time Vice President Mike Pence would take charge. The president could die. Death is not the most likely outcome, but it is far from unlikely. Based on age and sex alone, Trump is at high or very high risk for severe disease. Eight percent of COVID-19 patients ages 65 to 74 die from the disease. Those 75 to 84 are at far higher risk: 18 percent die. And men are significantly more likely to die of COVID-19 than women.
Obesity is also predictive of a severe course. Compared with people in the “normal” BMI range, obese patients are 74 percent more likely to be admitted to an ICU and 48 percent more likely to die. (Despite the uncertainty about Trump’s precise BMI classification, his risk is demonstrably elevated.) The president’s doctors have assured the nation during his time in office that he is in good health and does not have chronic medical conditions. But we know that Trump’s lifestyle does not portend an optimized immune system. His sleep schedule is erratic, he does not exercise, and he subsists on fast food and declines vegetables. He is prone to angry outbursts. These lifestyle factors, taken together, are suggestive of impaired resiliency, and could leave him more susceptible to being laid low by the virus.
But a key variable in Trump’s case is that, because he is president, he will have the best possible medical monitoring and care. Should he need it, Trump will have care at the world’s best hospitals from doctors such as Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, whose advice Trump has spurned and rejected. Trump will have health care of the sort he has dangled as a campaign promise to all Americans since 2016, but never delivered. Trump is also white. This means he is statistically less likely to experience severe disease, or to die of COVID-19, compared with nonwhite Americans. Even as the pandemic has killed more than 1 million people, Trump has continued to downplay and deny the severity of the disease, and mostly declined to wear a mask. If he does experience a mild case, his perception may skew even further away from the realities of the crisis. Still, no one can be guaranteed an easy course of disease. COVID-19 can have lasting effects, and being in and out of the ICU can be traumatic. If Trump has an intense case, the experience may reorient him to take the virus more seriously. Severe cases of COVID-19 have a way of reorienting people’s capacity to fear it.
snip
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: London
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Current location: Stockholm, Sweden
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2018, 07:25 PM
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