"In a Moment": In a high school in Germany, music and basketball set off a relationship

“In a Moment” (“In Einem Moment”), directed and written by Sharon Lucia, is a sweet coming out film set in a high school in Germany.  The film as shown on YouTube did not offer subtitles.

Max (Born Helge Jochum) prepares a guitar song (“Meine Kleine Festung”) for a rock concert, and plays basketball (imported from America). He witnesses Leon (Aaron Rufer) get bullied. Later, when Leon shadows him on the court in practice, Max feels some intimacy.

  

Leon will indeed open up to him after the concert.  The music (arranged by moog) sounds like a theme from Arvo Part, I think, and it sometimes is a church hymn.

Picture: Whiteface Mountain, NY, 2012 (mine) 

"Papercut": Just conversation in the back seat of a cab

Omad Productions offer “Papercut” by Damian Overton.

Two closeted actors talk in the back seat of a cab about the film awards they will get.  One of them even says he is straight.

The cab driver has different ideas, though.

   

Both young men are “interesting” and the film could have done more with this material.

"What If We Relocated Humanity to Proxima B?"

Some day we may do this: “What If We Relocated Humanity to Proxima B?”

This is a relatively new “evacuate Earth” video.

A select group of humans boards a spaceship that will take generations to get to Proxima B.  It will have an authoritarian political structure.  Everyone has to have kids.  People will be born and die on the vehicle.  Everyone will have to share the same communist version.

The Chinese may be better at this.

  

Proxima B’s earth-like planet may well be tidally locked and is not likely to have free oxygen.  

"Just Like Arcadia", a gay Garden of Eden that starts out with perfect communism and non-compete

“Just Like Arcadia” (7 min) is a short film by Serj Llado, presented by Cine Gluck.

  

The world starts as a gay garden of Eden, perfect communism, off the grid, with no need for ego or initiative. It’s only when ego comes into the picture that, well, the pretty boys start smoking.

  

There was no need for women, for reproduction, for genetic diversity.

   

The film appears to be shot in Spain, Castille.

Picture, mine, near Myrtle Beach SC, Feb. 2019 

"The Math of Epidemics": statistics, and differential equations; many good videos (2 of them here)

Professor Tom Britton at the University of Stockholm, from Vetenkapenshus (36 min) explains “Mathematics of the Corona Outbreak”.

He models diseases abstractly, and mentions how HIV developed in the 1980s with a smaller totality of susceptible populations but very long incubations which is what resulted in increasing the R-naught.  The R0 came down with changes in behavior and with drugs that suppressed the virus.

The presentation with regard to Covid19 (Sars-Cov2) is relatively abstract and simplified.

Then Trefor Bazett explains “The Math of Epidemics” with an introduction to the SIR Model.   He uses differential equations to model outbreaks (a system of three equations).  This reminds me of an undergraduate course at GW and then a more difficult course in Partial Differential Equations at KU (starting with the Wave Equation, which may matter to quantum theory now) with a text by Blaisdell which was hard to follow as I remember (in 1966).

For predicting the peak of an outbreak (like in New York now), it is the second derivative of the curve that matters, it needs to become negative for the actual slope to flatten. I’m not sure which functions would mimic the curves;  maybe my 1968 thesis “Minimax Rational Function Approximation” (KU in Lawrence, KS)  matters.

The graph on page 12 of my thesis (picture) looks like a poorly controlled pandemic with recurrent waves with sharp peaks, where there had been no social distancing (e.g., Trump). I’ll look into this some more and see if this is a close model to outbreaks.

"Elevate" from the series "Frame of Mind" by Braden Summers

“Elevate”, by Braden Summers, is the first short film in a series called “Frame of Mind”.

   

A male-female trans person (Aug Wang) rides a glitzy elevator and gradually interacts a little bit with the people.

  

The link from the director on Vimeo is here.
     
There is no embed.  So I embedded one of his other videos.

"Science Proves Dogs Really Loves Us", and there is a genetic twist

“Science Proves Dogs Really Love Us but For a surprising Reason” by Anton Petrov.

Petrov was trying to raise money for a dog charity in South Korea.

Dog personalities and attachment to humans comes from the way oxytocin works, but, compared to wolves, they also have a genetic predisposition like those with Williams Syndrome in people. People with this syndrome may demonstrate a dyspraxia similar to mine, but I am not particularly sociable.  

The syndrome is quite interesting, in that it sometimes lead to individuals with verbal skills that seem to outflank their lack of intelligence in other areas.  And they are unusually friendly or sociable.

Wolves, compared to dogs, have the pack behavior but not the same friendliness.

   

Cats may, however, for entirely different reasons which Petrov will explore in another video. And Petrov mentioned that dolphins have languages with actual grammar.

"And Why We Can't Save You" -- a sobering video (GoFundMe won't cut it)

“Why COVID-19 Kills – I’m a Surgeon – And Why We Can’t Save You”, a 34-minute illustrated video.  

Duc C. Young, predicts 100,000 cases a day in the US by mid May, the peak in the US.

   

That’s just when 3% of people need a ventilator, according to his math.

"Slime Organism Creates an Accurate Model of the Universe" (Petrov)

Anton Petrov explains how “Slime Organism Creates an Accurate Model of the Universe”.

  

I’ve presented other videos on the slime mold, which is a “protist” animal, usually a single cell with multiple nuclei but sometimes a colony that makes stalks.  But the organism can fill itself in over maps (like London subways) and form networks similar to the filaments among galaxies in the Universe.

  

Petrov describes a 3-D simulation of this process.  Alien life is likely to be like this.   

Petrov says he works in South Korea and worked from home for two weeks under quarantine.  He says he is fine physically.  

"Kiss Me Gay" and "Plumber"

I’ll do an easy one today, “Kiss Me Gay”, from CA Men TV.

(Well this one went private.  It didn't stay up very long.  Maybe it will come back later revised. )

Two young men, as one of them returns from work, must simply deal with latent jealousy.

I wish I had ever been in that situation.  I sort of remember 1978.

This is a micro film, running less than two minutes.  I wish the distributor didn't put ads for the next film over the final frame, interfere with even watching this. 

Since the first video disappeared, here's another microfilm, "Plumber", who visits a straight couple. Not that much happens.

From Body Czech. 

"Isocation at the Giant Forest": how to take a quicky getaway during an outbreak?

Andrew Goes Places presents “ISOcation at the Giant Forest”

Dr. Andrew Neighbors goes on a long weekend in Sequoia National Park with Matt and Sean.  The cabin is secluded and luxurious inside;  they have a whirlpool, and drinks, and go on a hike in the mist, through redwood tunnels.

The gathering is fewer than 10 people.  But they are not always six feet apart.

  

Andrew is an optometrist, I think. I’d love to know his medical impression of the whole coronavirus thing.

Picture: My parents at Yosemite Falls (I think) in 1940, before I was born. 

"Estimating Actual Covid-19 Cases" by Khan Academy

The Khan Academy offers a 12-minute animated or instructional video “Estimating Actual Covid 19 Cases (Novel Corona Virus Infections) in an Area Based on Deaths”, put up on March 14.

The video seems to be narrated by Salman Khan himself.  It is based on a paper by Tomas Pueyo (from the Book Reviews blog). 

The main part of the analysis is to go back with each patient and make a separate bar graph on the day symptoms started.

   

The video winds up explaining the need to “flatten the curve”. 

Picture: Reno, 2018.  

"Learn from China Before It's Too Late" from Barrett Channel

Today’s short film is the sobering "Learn from China Before It’s Too Late".  The film’s tag is “Western v. Chinese Mindset”.

Ollie Barrett ("Oli") from the Barrett Channel (the father-son team) walks through Shanghai (where they flew, from Shenzhen recently, I thought they said) still with a black mask.  It’s hard to believe you need a mask outside but he makes a deal of it – to protect other people from “you” if you’re infected and healthy enough not to have symptoms.

He talks about the collective mindset that the Chinese have, since Maoism even as it then moved toward “The People’s Republic of Capitalism”).  This would never fly in the UK, where there is more of “everybody takes care of himself.”  Well, not quite.

  

He said Chinese pay for their health care – I thought under communism that was covered.  He compared it to the British NHS.

Picture: 

By 王沂峤 (Wsj8526) - self-made, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

"Catch Me If You Can": the real DiCaprio movie

I do remember Steven Spielberg’s film with Leonardo Di Caprio, “Catch Me If You Can”, the same title as an ABC 2020 episode last night.

Ironically the movie starts in New Rochelle NY, Frank (Leonardo) wants to get his divorced parents back together after his dad is chased by the IRS.

  

Frank even impersonates being “The Good Doctor” before it is over (does he scrub properly)?  He also becomes a post 9/11 airline pilot and a prosecutor. A “flim flam man” indeed.

"Brain in a Jar" aka "The Simulation Hypothesis"

Transhumania offers the 40-minute short film “Are We Living in a Simulation?”

  

  

It could also be called “Brain in a Jar” or “The Simulation Hypothesis”.  In fact, back in the 1950s there was a horror film (“Chiller”) called “Donovan’s Brain” which controlled the stock market (better than Donald Trump does).

The film mentions a mathematician named Bostrock.  It considers relativity to be like an “ingame” model, where as quantum mechanics, with planck nuggets of space and time, is actual physics.

There are multiple circular logical and perhaps moral paradoxes in considering how you would prove your life is or is not real.

  

One thing I notice is that my own life has a number of really improbable coincidences.

Image: Area 51 sign in Nevada, my trip, May 2012.  

Animated video "Where Do New Viruses Come From" seems particularly relevant now.

“Where Do New Viruses Come From?” seems relevant now. 

This animated video comes from a channel called “Simply Stated”.

  

The video explains how virus particles attach to receptors on cells.  Animals have different receptors, but evolution enables viruses to change receptors so that they can enter human cells, sometimes.

"Chinese Authorities Tested Me for COVID-19" by the younger Barrett

“Chinese Authorities Tested Me for COVID-19”, a 16 minute video today by Ollie Barrett  ("Oli")

  

He was riding a cab and had taken off his mask.  When the cab got to a toll booth in Shenzhen, he was detained and taken to a center where he was given a CT scan and the throat and nose swab test, which can make you gag.  Part of the problem was that initially his temperature was elevated, but then dropped.  Then the next day he got he result (negative) before he was allowed to return.

   

Yes, in China it is that strict.  This is all rather shocking to Americans who are seeing the possibility of local lockdowns and accidental quarantines on their own horizons.
   

Wikipedia: By Kevin Poh - https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinpoh/4090961234/, CC BY 2.0, Link

Why "Parallel Worlds Probably Exist"

Veratasium shows that “Parallel Worlds Probably Exist”

The video discusses particles as waves which collapse when observed.  He describes superposition, entanglement, and measurement, and a probability of position as a square of amplitude.

  

If the universe is infinite, you can see only one chain of events.  The theory may explain why bizarre and ironic coincidences happen more often in a lifetime than you would expect.

Austin cancels SXSW out of coronavirus fears, devastating to some indie filmmakers

City and county officials in Austin, Texas cancelled the South by Southwest film festival (which also includes music festivals), and now the SXSW reports that insurance does not cover city cancellation because of communicable disease outbreak (or fear of one); it does cover other natural disasters and probably terrorism.

  

The Austin Chronicle reports in an article by Kevin Curtin 

  

CDC is probably more interested in seeing large events canceled than small things like protests, ordinary movie performances, and the like.  The Travel show in Washington DC was held as expected today. Outdoor events would not seem to raise the same level of concern.

"Will Humans Conquer the Solar System?" Maybe with a lot of social credit along the way

Unveiled, with Noah narrating, “Will Humans Conquer the Solar System?”

Noah says NASA expects us to be able to live in a colony on the moon by around 2030. We might be able to start a colony on Mars in about another decade after that.

For Venus, we would have to live in the atmosphere sailing about the atmosphere at an altitude of about 30 miles. But he says we should land on Mercury and mine it for materials to build a Dyson Sphere.

We could conceivably orbit high in the clouds about Jupiter, but we would land on Europa (or other large moons) to look at the subsurface ocean.

Titan could indeed by interesting. This video showed a shot of what looked like Niagara Falls to simulate Titan? A honeymoon spot?  (The moon belongs to Carlos Maza.) 

We would explore the Oort cloud, which may extend about half a light year, something like one-eighth of the distance to Alpha Centauri.

The sociology of life on a space ship where one is confined for years (maybe a big O’Neill cylinder) is interesting speculation.

Writing a movie script in seven days: Tyler Mowery discusses Ryan's effort

Tyler Mowery has a new video Tuesday where a friend of his, Ryan, tried to write a script in seven days and “failed”.

(This video links to Ryan’s and embeds much of Ryan’s in a frame partition).

Tyler gives a pep talk here, and says it is a lot about self-concept and self-motivation (this sounds a lot like what John Fish says in his videos about personal achievement in general). Tyler says many new screenwriters have trouble starting the “middle” of a script and then starting the “end” also.

  

In other words, it’s the middle section (like in a music ternary form) that is a problem, more maybe the development section of a Sonata structure.  I could imagine a situation where going between two characters in an exposition could be a problem (like going between the first two scenes within one Act of an opera).  For example, in a video from 2017, John Fish described (and films in aftermath) an auto accident when he was a teen driver (caused by another distracted driver) and plays music where the transition to the second theme in the Beethoven Fifth occurs with the crash.

  

I raise the question as to whether it helps to have a treatment first, and a detailed plot with characters and incidents, Wikipedia style, written first.  I encourage outlining your plot in detail in Microsoft Access and setting up keys to check for plot holes and inconsistencies programmatically (with SQL).

“First Ever Animal that Doesn’t Breathe” is not exactly a box jellyfish but just as alien

“First Ever Animal that Doesn’t Breathe”, by Anton Petrov.

Anton describes the Henneguya Salminicola, which might be related to jellyfish, but which has no mitochondrial DNA for normal respiration with ADP.  It lives inside the muscles of salmon, and parasitizes them, giving up breathing to have more energy for reproduction.  A sea worm is also part of its life cycle. 

  

It’s an odd animal to talk about in the middle of the world public health crisis.

Wikipedia: By Michal Maňas - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1777605

"How Doctors Stay Safe Battling Coronavirus"

“How Doctors Stay Safe Battling Coronavirus”, according to the Wall Street Journal .

The doctors and nurses have to be very precise with the order of their movements putting on and taking off the protective garments.

Then there is the issue of scrubbing. 

The world keeps acting like this is the Andromeda Strain.

Wikipedia attribution: 

By NIAID - https://www.flickr.com/photos/niaid/49557785797, CC BY 2.0, Link