Monday, 31. August 2020
Berlin cinemas + 2 thoughts (Corona benefits & a run at rehabilitation)

I wrote this mostly end of last month, so I'm backdating it to then. Too much to do for a relatively recently-become sexagenarian. (And no, that does not mean more sex was had. :-))

DELPHI LUX

The newish Delphi Lux cinema in the centre of West Berlin
The newest Yorck cinema, with several contained ones. In a nice building near Zoo Station, with many mod cons & decorations! Very "it"... A little miracle in the "home cinema" and (at the time) burgeoning streaming tsunami, brushing one cinema after another off the German map. So glad to be in a city where cinemas' existence is fought for!

Wow, Corona!

Again, as for the similar titled thought some months ago in this blog, I am aware of the terrible plight this pandemic means for many many people, especially those struck down into a hard death or half-life after heavier symptoms (which, luckily, many folk who get it, don't develop!).

But at this time of global (mental) depression, some positive things I've noticed:

* The pandemic has apparently forever changed the airline industry. There will be fewer flights in future, not to mention fewer companies. People will probably no longer have to be packed into seats like sardines - sonething I'm looking forward to! (Source: ECONOMIST)

* Kids in Germany, having more spare time due to school outages, have ended up running around and generally moving more than before the lockdown phase (in Germany that was mainly in April + x)! Yeah, despite more video learning/gaming... (Source: SPIEGEL) So, perhaps kids need slightly less hectic schooling in future?

* The service industry in Germany has finally gotten going in a major way. After years of lagging behind other Western countries. Which means many more small jobs. Sounds good to the layman (= me)...

* By not looking like it will be over before November (or even begin of next year), CoVID in the US has shown what a hollow "manager" the Great Orange Pretender really is, and has been. And what ends he is prepared to go to, to prevent what will likely happen in that month. (I.a. the looming loss of his "diplomatic" immunity before the law.) Unfortunately it has also demonstrated to the world, on what run-down traditionalist stilts the US political system is built. A reform of Congress & a more representatively set-up Senate badly need to follow in 2021, in my opinion, and the presidency hollowed out to prevent future idiocies by media-magnetic incumbents, it seems to me (& perhaps many Europeans?)...

* On a personal note, for the first time I took part in a meetup of an s.f. society on another continent. Usually I can't be at these regular meetups, but now I just ZOOMed in! :-D

It's taken 7 years

There was a time when I was scared to write out the name in this blog. But now a U.S. federal court has begun rehabilitating Ed Snowden, one of the true heroes of the last decade, way ahead of any Wonderful super variants or MAGA "men"! What a comeuppance! And despite the antics of previous & current presidents (before this year!) to demonize him - instead of the abusive officials who Big-Brothered full steam ahead into an inhuman future!

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