Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Here are some pictures of my beautiful tidewater city, which I shall call for now “Port Lafayette.”
On The Road – Betsy – Beautiful “Port Lafayette”Post + Comments (12)
1. #COVID19: China's case total topped 70,000 — 70,548 to be precise. Deaths hit 1770.
New numbers for Feb. 16:
2048 new cases
105 new deaths
China's totals include clinically confirmed cases in Hubei province, not just people who tested positive. pic.twitter.com/YHBpHvLSuM— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) February 17, 2020
This is big: Due to Coronavirus, China is set to delay the National People’s Congress, the annual gathering of nearly 3,000 national legislators in Beijing, says Xinhua.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 17, 2020
.
Look for the helpers, Mr. Rogers would say…
Hero.
Wuhan's cat rescuer: the man saving pets abandoned during coronavirus outbreak – video https://t.co/Ih22EMf38Z
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) February 15, 2020
The opposite of helpful: Would-be rising star of the GOP goes full ‘Filthy, scheming, dishonest Chinese’ conspiracy mode:
Sen. Tom Cotton fans the embers of a coronavirus conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked by experts https://t.co/z0Mr4KmiOu
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 16, 2020
COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Sunday / MondayPost + Comments (14)
Like most NASCAR viewers, I'll just be watching in hopes of seeing a crash. https://t.co/OSjeInXiao
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) February 16, 2020
I like that the car is comically distorted as if Trump was a character in a Tim Burton movie. https://t.co/JYpn20U2nG
— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) February 16, 2020
Highly efficient president fits his workout into his campaign rally. https://t.co/RjtxuiO0hK
— Khashoggi’s Ghost (@UROCKlive1) February 16, 2020
You get a Big Mac and you get a Big Mac and YOU get a Big Mac… https://t.co/ohon2iz8bs
— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) February 16, 2020
He needs it written down whenever he’s not talking about himself and his list of grievances. https://t.co/95bKFa8Zkg
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 16, 2020
President @realDonaldTrump takes a few laps around Daytona International Speedway. pic.twitter.com/H2shfXbqYk
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 16, 2020
Murrica. Fuck Yeah!
This is all a fucking nightmare, right?
President TruckNutz’s Big Day At the RacesPost + Comments (99)
I have always loved the threads where we talk about movies and books, and some of our best open threads of long ago were when BGinCHI would toss out a question or a comment about a book or a film, and the thread would be off and running for a good, long time. In that way, I have always kind of thought of BGinCHI as the John Cole of movies and books, who can start a 300-comment thread with a single thought.
So I am happy to announce that BGinCHI has agreed to do a regular weekly guest post on Balloon Juice, where we can all talk about popular culture. Books, films, TV. This is something we can count on once a week, same time, same station, as one more hedge against this soul-sucking political miasma we’re living in.
Who knows, it might help us all remember why we liked each other and started spending so much time here in the first place!
If you are a newer commenter, or a recent lurker, you might not know BG, but you are in for a real treat. This guest post series will be featured every Sunday, starting at 5pm Balloon Juice time. (Also known as eastern time in some circles.)
I’ll let BG tell us more about himself. We are lucky to have him!
Culture as a Hedge Against this Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living InPost + Comments (197)
Let’s talk soundtracks, not the filler music, but the songs chosen to accompany a movie or TV show. It may shock you that a guy that titles most of his posts with a song reference would have opinions on song choice — I hope you’re sitting down, because I do.
Lots of movies have featured popular music in the background, but I think it was The Big Chill, a self-indulgent boomer fable, that really kicked off heavy use of popular music that wasn’t composed for the movie. It had a lot of Stones and other ’60s hits. At the time, it was innovative. But today, use of old R&B hits is derivative at best, and to me it’s just lazy music choice. No offense to the estate of Marvin Gaye, but let’s give “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” a rest in movie soundtracks. In fact, let’s give any Motown 60’s hit a rest – they are totally overused, in my opinion.
Another song that is in an amazing number of soundtracks is Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You. It’s almost as if the soundtrack pickers (sound designers?) have an automatic go-to whenever there’s a melancholy moment in a movie. I do like the song, and Hope Sandoval in general, but it’s another lazy choice.
For me, the ultimate movie soundtrack was chosen by Paul Thomas Anderson for Magnolia. It’s almost all Aimee Mann songs that PTA weaves into the story, and used to inspire his characters. The cast singing her song “Wise Up” during the movie is, to me, a great moment.
More recently, like a lot of things movies and TV series, the music choice has gotten really good. There are a lot of good examples, but one you might not expect is the soundtrack to the British TV series Sex Education. It’s a combination of original work by Ezra Furman (here’s an example), plus a very eclectic and wide ranging song choice, including 80’s bands like The Smiths and The The, to good covers like the Hot 8 doing Sexual Healing. Somebody put a ton of work into it, and when they use a cliche song like Sexual Healing, at least they picked a good cover instead of the original (again, apologies to the estate of Marvin Gaye).
I don’t know if anyone else gives a shit about this stuff, but if you do, share some good examples of movie or TV show soundtracks.
There’s a lot being written about COVID-19, the new coronavirus, maybe too much in my opinion. There’s a lot that can be said about China’s political reaction to the virus, although even there we are at the beginning of things, and there’s a lot we don’t know.
I read a short and well-written article last night in Science magazine. It got me thinking about what I’m looking for in news about the virus. The mathematics of disease transmission are similar to the mathematics of chemical kinetics, which was part of my life as a chemist. That’s where my questions originate.
There is no evidence that the virus was generated as part of a biological warfare program. Its DNA has been sequenced, and there would be clues there if that were the case. It most likely originated in bats, as has been true for other coronaviruses, and was transmitted through another animal in a live-animal market. Tom Cotton lies; but we knew that.
We know very little of the parameters that are necessary to predict how widely the virus will spread or how dangerous it will be. Epidemiologists are collecting data, but the parameters depend on statistics that we need more of or time-consuming laboratory work that may be hard to carry out while treating sick people is the first priority.
Every day, there is more information available, but I doubt there will be a reliable R0 for some time. Each case can provide a bit of data – I particularly hope that good records are being kept on that cruise ship in Japan.
James Palmer is a good Twitter follow on the subject for the big picture. He’s lived in China.
What I Am Watching About The New CoronavirusPost + Comments (42)