COVID-19: Netflix/Prime Films

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

DAY           USA   WORLD  Brazil  India South Africa

May     13    1772     5314

            14    1715     5317
            15    1595     5072
            16    1218     4360
            17      865     3618
            18    1003     3445
            19    1552     4589
            20    1403     4685
            21    1418     4934         1188     150         30
            22    1293     5252           966     142         28
            23    1036     4183           965     142         10
            24      617     2826           703     156         22
            25      505     3096           806     148         52
            26      774     4048         1027     172         43
            27    1535     5283         1148     190         28
            28    1223     4612         1067     177         25

Summary:  Well, it's not getting worse.  In fact, all show drops in new deaths.

The combination of an effective vaccine and herd immunity will ultimately control COVID-19.  The vaccine is not here yet, and won't for the masses until next year, at best.  Herd immunity also is far away, for you need to reach 60% (not shown below, but Wuhan is at 10%):

Until then, face masks and shields will need to be worn in public.  A packed football stadium will not happen this year.  Dine-in will be an issue, for you can't eat with a mask on.

Temperature checks (Amazon has one for $26.)?

• Way back in February, the World Health Organization already indicated:

Temperature screening alone, at exit or entry, is not an effective way to stop international spread, since infected individuals may be in incubation period, may not express apparent symptoms early on in the course of the disease, or may dissimulate fever through the use of antipyretics; in addition, such measures require substantial investments for what may bear little benefits.

• Researchers say anywhere from 25 percent to 80 percent of people with COVID-19 are unaware they have the virus.  The CDC speculated that this figure is around 35%.  Thus, perhaps half of those passing the temperature check could be capable of passing on this virus to you.
• Add on the fact that most others who show any kind of high temperature probably came from allergies, colds and the seasonal flu.  Just consider the flu where in the winter months there can be 2 million cases/week.

• It's been three months since the first COVID-19 case in the U.S., or 12 weeks.  Thus, there could have been 24 million flu cases during this period.  The country has not yet reached 2 million COVID-19 cases.  Just comparing this pandemic with the flu, for every 13 you turn away for having a temperature, only one would have COVID-19.  Of course, you wouldn't want to have someone with the flu serving you food or anything where you can be infected, but this is the case every year during flu season...and we tolerate it, with no effect on the economy.  When you plug in the colds, allergies and everything else that could cause a light fever, the ratio would probably be closer to 20:1 and higher.  Authorities take temperatures anyway because at least it looks like they're doing something.
• Certainly, taking your temperature before boarding a flight would turn away too many people who don't have this novel coronavirus ailment.  But you still need to do this because there is nothing else available.
• Well, there is that Abbot Labs quick-test.  First, you need access to it.  Then, it's not free.  Finally, and worse of all, according to the FDA, this test misses about half the time.  52% accuracy!  
• If this analysis today does not depress you, go watch a film on your television.

After a tough day on the computer, exercise room and .... actually, not much, I usually spend the evening watching Netflix and Amazon Prime.  However, those series are addictive and take up too much of your time.  Films are easy, watch one or two and go to sleep. 

Film                                                   Rotten Tomatoes      My Rating
                                                       
                                                            Critics  Audiences

Sahara (2005)                                          38          53                 B+
Extraction (2020)                                     68         70                 B-
Burning (2018)                                         95         82                 B+
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)                    92         87                 C+
Fyre (2019)                                               92         87                 B-
Jim and Andy (2017)                               94         87                 B-
The Obscure Object of Desire (1977)  100         90                 B-
Harlan Ellison (2008)                             100         85                 B-
Cosmos (2019)                                          ?          78                 A-
Uncut Gems (2019)                                 92          52                 B-

Sahara featured Matthew McConaughey playing Dirk Pitt in a Clive Cussler movie dealing with a possible virus outbreak in Africa and a lost Civil War ship with rare gold coins, that somehow ends up close to the later epidemic site.  Reviewers hated it and the effort is among the biggest box-office failures.  I kinda liked it.  Nostalgic songs pervaded, like Magic Carpet Ride, Sweet Home Alabama, On the Road Again and a dozen more.

Extraction is a 2020 film starring Chris Hemsworth.  Lot of action in Dhaka, Bangladesh.  The citizenry of the country complained that their city was misrepresented.  The Netflix premiere drew 90 million households, the largest in its history.  Rotten Tomatoes reviewers got it about right.  A sequel is planned.

Burning is a Korean mystery drama that is not what you think it is.  One reviewer called it a masterpiece of psychological unease.  The key actor is Stephen Yuen, who was born in Seoul, but moved with his family to Canada and then to Troy, Michigan, a town I know well.  He graduated from Kalamazoo College and went on to Second City (that comedy group in Chicago).  You've seen him in Okja, Mayhem, the AMC series, The Walking Dead and Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone series.

Y Mama Tambien is an R-rated Mexican film, on the edge of being an X, directed by Alfonso Cuaron.  Of course, you've heard of him.  He has won two Oscars for direction, Gravity and Roma.  You might say this is a coming of age erotic road movie in search of a mythical beach, Heaven's Mouth, which turned out to be real.  Of all the places, it made its U.S. premiere at the Hawaii International Film Festival.  Ranked #9 in a Film of the Decade listing.

Fyre was the greatest party that never happened.  Think about the mud of Woodstock.  This was supposed to be the once in a lifetime rock concert on a Bahamian island, featuring high luxury.  It was a total disaster.

The Obscure Object of Desire, was released 43 years ago.  The 100% reviewers rating drew me to this production.  Luis Bunuel has vision, passion and absurdity, well characterizing this effort.  Using two different actresses who did not look similar in the same role was confusing.  Never explained in the film but later as a means to save money, for the first actress abandoned the production.  This was his last film when he was in his mid 70's.  Fernando Rey was cool, but too patient.  How many times do you need to learn a lesson?  Can't imagine why it got a 100% rating.

Harlan Ellison:  Dreams with Sharp Teeth is another anomaly to me.  How did it get a 100% reviewers' rating?  All he does is rant and rage for the entire film.  Sure, he must have been a kind of genius, who was prolific with 1,700 short stories, etc., winning all kinds of awards.  He certainly had experience, working as a tuna fisherman, itinerant crop-picker, hired gun, driver of a nitroglycerine truck, short-order cook, cab driver and door-to-door brush salesman.  Prepared him well.  But 100% for a non-stop tirade?

Cosmos is a film I just stumbled across.  Checked Rotten Tomatoes, and it too hardly heard of it.  It's not even in Wikipedia!  This is a British production following the attempt by three educated amateurs to detect extrasolar intelligence.  It was slow and technical with moments of unnecessary urgency.  I loved it!  You won't.  Why?  Brought me back to my days working at NASA's Ames Research Center 45 years ago on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  Contact with Jodie Foster was splashy and extravagant.  Liked it too.  But Cosmos, not related to Carl Sagan, was simple, understated and real, although with flaws.  I hope there is a sequel because, I'm still not clear what they found.

Uncut Gems is an R-movie starring Adam Sandler about a Jewish financial hustler.  While he remains frenetic and uncontrolled, it was in a serious way.  This is that breakthrough role every actor seeks.  He won the Razzie Redeemer Award presented to a Golden Raspberry Award winner who became respected.  Also has Judd Hirsch and Kevin Garnett, the basketball player.  He really acts, and well.  It's stressful, exhausting and exciting.  If you want a quiet evening, avoid this at all costs.  Maybe opals are bad luck.  Oh, that 52% score by the audience.  That included me...it was too, too stressful.

On to 1997:

• Dolly, sheep cloned in Scotland. 
• President Clinton bans human cloning.
• Divorce legal in the Republic of Ireland.  The Philippines is the only country left today without this option.

• IBM's Deep Blue, defeats Garry Kasparov, the first time a computer has beaten a World chess champ.  Kasparov is today the symbol of opposition to Vladimir Putin.
• Handguns banned in the UK.
• UK returns Hong Kong to China.
• F.W. Woolworth goes bankrupt.

• Oldest person ever, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment passes away at the age of 122.
• Princess Diana killed in auto accident.  Her funeral watched by 2 billion.  Elton John and Bernie Taupin re-did a song first written in 1973 in honor of Marilyn Monroe, Candle in the Wind.

• Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to the only surviving septuplets in Des Moines, Iowa.  To the right, their photo at the age of 21.
• James Cameron's Titanic premieres.

• First Toyota Prius.
• Kyoto Protocol for global climate warming control adopted.  I was a small part of the process and had one of my pet projects included.

The 100 best songs of 1997 in 11 minutes.  #1 was Candle in the Wind.  Elton John released this as a double A-side with Something About the Way You Look Tonight.

I end with Waltz of the Flowers (click bottom right corner to view on full screen):

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