Coronavirus outbreak and its spreading all over the world

While the WHO stated the risk of COVID-19 spreading worldwide is now "very high", officials have suggested that efforts to combat the coronavirus are still in the containment phase. But some medical experts think the containment stage has long passed since, the spread of the COVID-19 is inevitable, and that living with the virus might become a reality. COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. "This will not be contained, this has not been contained," said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease physician at Toronto General Hospital.

Massive public health efforts were helpful in slowing down the spread of infections and reducing the pace and frequency of exported cases from China to the rest of the world, but containment has not worked, Bogoch said.

Will continue to spread

"The coronavirus is spreading throughout the world and it will continue to spread throughout the world," he said. On Friday, the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference that the Geneva-based health agency has "increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at a global level." China has seen more than 80,000 confirmed cases with almost 3,000 deaths. Outside China, there have been more than 7,000 cases in 60 countries reported, with more than 100 deaths.

Accepting the spreading

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program said public health authorities speak of containment and of mitigation strategies when dealing with disease. Containment, he said, includes the measures taken to break the chain of transmission of the virus. Mitigation accepts the fact the virus cannot be prevented from spreading and then causing COVID-19. But health officials do what they can to mitigate the impact through treatment. "What we've been saying clearly is that containing the virus and interrupting transmission gives us an opportunity to stop the virus," Ryan said. "Accepting mitigation is the only option is to accept that the virus cannot be stopped."

But Bogoch said that if WHO officials are defining containment as the possibility that the coronavirus will not spread beyond a certain border, that they can still prevent different countries in different regions from seeing this infection, "I don't think that's very realistic. We're seeing global transmission of this infection."

CP/M on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum

After the Nostalgia Nerd reviewed the Sinclair ZX Spectrum on Youtube I reminded myself today that I always wanted to run CP/M on it. THere it is. I got - again - stuck in ED's insert mode. Just felt like 1982. :-D

Look at my D*CK

Funny fake TV commercial about deck sealant from New Zealand. Nice play with words. :-)

The two British invasions in pop music

In terms of pop music of the 21st century two British invasions occurred. That happened twice, when single artists or brand from Great Britain ruled the music charts of other countries, especially the USA, and scored one number one hit after the other over months and years.

The first British invasion

The first took place between the late 1950s to the early 1970s, when band like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Who, Led Zeppelin, single music artists like Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, od Stewart and others were on the top of the music charts of many countries, not only in the UK. They moved local bands and artists to lower places, depriving them to reach the number one position of their respective chart. Audiences, especially teenagers, went mad and bought more records than of local acts.

The second British invasion

Between the late 1970s and mid 1980s was the era, when the second British invasion took place. Its focus was on synth pop, which emerged around that time. Acts like Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, OMD, Yazoo (known as Yaz in the USA), The Human League hit the number one spot also in charts outside the UK. Local artists were again moved to lower chart positions. Interestingly, while the first invasion was focused on Rock, the second invasion with focus on synth pop also created several new music genres, like New Romantic Wave, New Wave, Ska. And opened the way to cyber punk while competing with Disco Music. This invasion fizzled out around 1983, when American musicians were again able to rule the charts of many countries.

My opinion

Looking back I miss that time of the second invasion. I was a teenager back then and loved to listen to the radio while recording the songs to create mixed tapes (on compact cassettes, kids today won't know). I doubt that there will ever be a third British invasion again.

Ageing music artists

When you think of it you might realize that most music artists have their chart success when they are between 20 and may be 35 years old. That makes averagely five to ten years. Take Pink Floyd or The Rolling Stones for example. They were all over the charts in the 1960s and 1970s with Pink Floyd's The Wall being the last album in 1979 to score a single as hit.. The Rolling Stones kind of fizzled out in the late 1970s while Mick Jagger had a few singles in the 1980s as solo artist.

My favorite pop stars from the 1980s when I was a teen and twen are Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw. From what I read is that Nik was pressed onto the bubble gum pop track by the music label but had huge hits on his 1984 albums Human Racing and The Riddle, scoring several hits from each. Besides one or two singles from the following album that was it for him. Not bound to the label anymore he continued to produce rock albums but never had any chart success. He and most other "80s stars" are still on tour and play their charts hits from the 1980s for their ageing fans.

There are a few exceptions like Madonna. Starting 1982 she had a string of hits until today. But I doubt that for example Miley Cyrus, Rihanna or Beyoncé can follow Madonna's footsteps to keep being successful.

Why is that? I can only assume that most of the music artists are not able to adapt their music style to please the young generation. Seems only Madonna and a hand full of other music artists.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century from 1979

The movie Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was released 1979, marking it the 40th anniversary in time writing this. I starred the hot Erin Gray as Colonel Wilma Deering in a jump suit and a handsome Gil Gerard as Captain Buck Rogers, based on this comic character created in 1928 already.

The intro might suggest this it's a soft porn movie, but it is not. But as close at it gets to be allowed on prude 1970s US TV. I was in my early teens and when Erin Gray was slipping up and down the illuminated letters of BUCK ROGERS... Oh boy. :-)

It's a space soap and rides on the success of this new genre created by Star Wars two years earlier. The movie also spawned a TC series spanning over two seasons the same and following year. After the quality of episodes quickly went down and with it the number of viewers the series was cancelled.

I missed this time just after Star Wars hit the big screen 1977 with all the cheesy space operas movies and TV shows as a result. Another I really liked was the first Battle Star Galactica series from 1978. Space soaps died out around 1982. And He-Man took over. ;-)

Compensation flight delays Lufthansa

Flight delays and flight cancellations during private and business trips are not uncommon. Even airlines can be affected. If the delay is greater than three hours or the flight is cancelled completely, the passenger has the right for a compensation.

Get a compensation when flights were delayed for more than three hours. We will check your claim for any delay or cancellation of any airline in which you made a trip by air, free of charge and without obligation. The amount of the compensation can be between 200 and 600 Euros, depending on the distance between the departure and destination airports.

We work with experts on all aspects of travel law and enforce their claims in the event a passenger experiences a flight delay airlines, if necessary in court.

Background information Lufthansa

Destinations served are largely located in Mediterranean regions. Other popular holiday destinations, such as the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Egypt or Madeira, are also on the flight schedule. In Germany airplanes usually serve (as of 2016) 23 different airports. These include Berlin-Schönefeld (SXF), Berlin Tegel (TXL), Bremen (BRE), Dortmund (DTM), Düsseldorf (DUS), Erfurt (ERF), Frankfurt (FRA), Frankfurt Hahn (HHN), Friedrichshafen (FDH) , Hamburg (HAM), Karlsruhe (FKB), Cologne / Bonn (CGN), Leipzig / Halle (LEJ), Memmingen (FMM), Munich (MUC), Münster (FMO), Nuremberg (NUE), Paderborn-Lippstadt (PAD), Rostock (RLG), Stuttgart (STR), Sylt (GWT) and Usedom (HDF).

Further information

The German airline Lufthansa was founded in 2007 after the companies were merged. The airline advertises its flights with fair prices and offers as a special service to inform its passengers about any delays on the day of departure. Victims can claim up to 600 € per person

Claim Save

HOW DOES IT WORK?

• 1 Data entry
• Find out how high your claim for compensation is.
• 2 Have the data checked
• We check your claim within a few minutes and take care of everything else.
• 3 claims to pay
• You receive your compensation. If your claim is justified, we will transfer your money. After that the problem is done for you.

If you want a link to your law form here instead of this form, contact me.