Beginning at NYU in Jan 2013 within the context of a Patents Translation course delivered online, this blog seeks to uncover the patents that rock our daily lives....
Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, the onscreen mosaic view of a virtual music performance probably conjured up Eric Whitacre’s hauntingly beautiful virtual choirs. For example, the Virtual Choir pieces Lux Arumque (Virtual Choir 1.0), Sleep (Virtual Choir 2.0), and Water Night (Virtual Choir 3.0), that bring together an increasingly larger number of voices, from 185 in the first Virtual Choir, to as many as 2000 singers in the Virtual Choir 3.0, spread across the globe, in as many 73 countries.
At the height of the COVID19 pandemic, when more than one-third of the 7.8 billion world population is on lockdown, virtual music has taken on an exponentially different significance. The electronic feats that make it possible to bring performers together in a single visually captivating mosaic have become both medium and message in an art form of its own. Using several, to hundreds of video files, usually captured via cell phone, and processed with software such as Abobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects and Pyramix Merging Technologies, the media compositions take many additional bench hours to put together.
Virtual music redux, under pandemic conditions of stay-at-home production, has become a life-line for performers worldwide, such as those working in orchestras, symphonies, operas, choirs, and other sorts of performing groups. Performers have become enabled, in collaboration with production studios, to continue rehearsing, performing and creating together, in contact with an audience, albeit virtual. No small deal, since concert halls and other venues are all shuttered, meaning that the programs of a whole season of live public performances have been canceled, leaving performers essentially cut-off, both from their audiences, and each other. 2020 is also supposed to be the 250th anniversary of Beethoven, a year that both classical musicians, and lovers of classical music, had probably planned to glamorously celebrate.
However, beyond the wizardry of the technology that is making it possible for orchestras, symphonies, bands, choirs and other performance groups to continue creating and connecting with audiences, it is the graciousness of the momentum that is so extraordinary in this new locked-down virtual music. Pieces, for the most part, are dedicated to the essential and front-line workers “out there”, taking risks to keep the world humming, while everyone else, performers included, are safely locked down at home. Some Philharmonic orchestras and symphonies worldwide are indeed playing Beethoven in 2020, but it has become Beethoven in quarantine, or socially distant Beethoven, as a tribute to essential workers. Indeed, what is most elevating, in these quasi-barbaric times, is the solidarity. Some of the finest performers on earth are opening their homes and lives to the public, via the cameras of their cellphones, playing for free, for janitors, couriers, warehouse clerks, doctors, and nurses alike, in gratitude, and by the same token, enchanting anyone with an Internet connection, able to logon to Youtube.
The beauty of virtual music on lockdown in all of its vibrant forms, is that it is triumphant. Despite the disruption, sorrow, hardship and even horrors of the pandemic, “the bands play on”, bringing back energy, rhythm, wonder, faith in a better tomorrow, and even humor into daily lives.
If the first wave of lockdown music sprung from the heart, as a gift for frontline healthcare and essential workers, perhaps that a second wave might be commissioned in honor of all the COVID19 victims - already more that 50,000 sacred individuals — in the US alone (JHU CV Resource Center).
Above, musicians of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing Maurice Ravel's Boléro as a special tribute to healthcare workers. As a reminder, New York is the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, with the highest number of infections and deaths, currently (on April 26 2020), reported for New York City alone at 12,827 casualties and 156,100 cases (NYC Health).
References (abridged shortlist)
Arctic Philharmonic - Greig's Holberg Suite - Praeludium à la quarantine
Bamberger Symphony (Germany) - Stronger together - Social symphony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZHOJHP33Ps&t=55s Buchholz, K. (April 23, 2020) - what share of the population is already on COVID19 lockdown? www.statista.com/chart/21240/enforced-covid-19-lockdowns-by-people-affected-per-country/
Cellists of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra - Bach in quarantine
This year is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a day of celebration and action, completely overshadowed by the
calamity of the coronavirus pandemic and its shocking news. Indeed, it is hard to think of
much else, when it is not only the hospitals of major epicenters of the
pandemic that are saturated, but also the morgues. In New York City, for
example, bodies are piled in refrigerated trucks on the sidewalks, and mass
graves are being dug on Hart Island (Reuters, 2020). In Italy, coffins are stacked up in neat
rows, awaiting burial in churches, where all the pews have been removed (Giuffrida & Tondo, 2020).
Because of distancing measures to mitigate the spread of the pandemic, people
are dying alone, in the corridors of overcrowded hospitals or makeshifts, alternatively
in their own living rooms, self-quarantined and suffocated (Berger, 2002; Horowitz & Bubola, 2020).
However, before dismissing Earth Day as a
digression, you might be surprised to find out that climate change is actually
a "threat multiplier",
according to Sherri Goodman, former first deputy undersecretary of defense in
environmental security, now a senior fellow at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program and Polar Institute. An amplifier of threats to life that include viral pandemics. Indeed, the predicted consequences of global warming,
such as the increase in catastrophic climate events (e.g, tsunamis, tornados, droughts and floods) risk overwhelming
healthcare, emergency preparedness, institutional and infrastructural systems
(Ross, 2020).
Population
growth, encroaching on natural habitats, further eliminating carbon sinks, together with mass-migration of climate victims into refugee camps, create perfect conditions for zoonotic
disease carriers to thrive, such as bats and rats; and for parasitic disease vectors
such as mosquitoes, ticks or fleas to proliferate and expand their geographic
ranges (CDC - Parasites). Zoonotic carriers of diseases, responsible for COVID 19, or parasitic vectors
responsible for such diseases as dengue fever, West Nile virus and Lyme
disease, are all zoonotic in that they transfer from animals to humans. In turn, such consequences of climate change on health, each converge in their connection to fossil-fuel burning, the root cause of the increase in greenhouse gases,
ever-increasing since the industrial revolution, and hypothesized as directly
responsible for global warming. Increases in greenhouse gases found in worsening
air pollution, in turn responsible for some of the leading causes of death, such as chronic
lower respiratory diseases (CDC – Climate effects on health)
Consequently, rather than digressing, it
just might be right on track to lean in, at least today, to embrace the climate action theme of Earth Day 2020, even if it might take a heroic effort
to bypass the grief, pain and burden of the pandemic, affecting everyone on
earth, in such cruelly unequal ways.
In fact, there is much to gain in climate action and subscribing to what
is termed the Green Deal, reminiscent
of the New Deal, launched as a
successful stimulus and recovery program by Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the Great
Depression of the 1930s. Chief among the benefits according to Chomsky, Pollin and Polychroniou (2019), is that the Green
Deal will not only help to avoid the apocalyptic consequences of the path
to increased global warming, it is foremost a viable economic and political
platform. In converting from a fossil fuel-based
‘dirty” economy to a green “clean” solar, wind and thermal energy-based economy
(at an estimated cost of 2.5% of the GDP for 30 years in the US, according to economist Robert Pollin), the Green Deal will not
only act as a global climate stabilization program, it will also create 2 to 4
times more jobs than those that might be created while maintaining the existing “dirty” industrial model.
The promises of the Green Deal, its potential to avert the disasters of global warming and the consequences in terms of the toll on human life, as well its economic advantages, are perhaps the reason why some observers were
quick to notice the absence of Green provisions and language, from the recent 2-trillion
CARES Act stimulus package, even if President Trump opted to drop an explicitly earmarked 3-billion
dollar oil-company bailout from the final package (Freidman & Villegas, 2020,; US Treasury Department). For example, Lamphere (2019)
specifically points out the missed opportunities, resulting from excluding
the following Green Deal provisions
from the CARES Act:
a carbon neutrality requirement for US domestic flights by 2025 as part of the airline bailout,
meaning that, short of finding alternative clean means of propelling planes, airlines would have to sink as much carbon dioxide as they produce;
a Green Jobs program, different though in the spirit of the New Deal Works programs that created
millions of jobs, resulting incidentally
(back in the 1930s) in the planting of 2 billion trees, developing 800 parks
and stocking rivers with 1 million fish;
Green bonds issued to fund climate
smart projects, promoting the conversion from dirty to clean economy;
Green tax
credits, providing incentives to convert to green clean energy, and
a National
Green Bank to fund investments in projects and measures to mitigate global
warming, while promoting the full spectrum of benefits associated with a
Green Deal.
If no one has the heart to celebrate Earth Day 2020 in the midst of a
pandemic still raging with a daily death toll updating by the hundreds, and stay-at-home
orders protecting everyone from the spread of COVID 19, it might still be possible to take
action, climate action, just as Earth Day 2020 had envisioned, many months ago, since climate action is also a preemptive measure in the battle for survival.
Next week, by April 17, many people are slated to receive a tax-free direct deposit, in the amount of $1200, from the Federal Government. Who could have ever imagined a no strings attached Federal check, coming just when taxes are due? It was already quite extraordinary that the tax filing deadline was moved to July 15 this year, without penalties (IRS, March 20, 2020). However, no matter how extraordinary these measures might be, they now pale in comparison to the US State of Emergency, where, to date, close to half a million people are infected with the coronavirus, and approximately 20,000 have died as a consequence (CDC - COVID19). Indeed, the situation is so dire, that it is no longer possible to post data without an “update counter”. The numbers keep climbing, from one day to the next, even from am to pm. The predicted flattening of the outbreak curve has yet to be observed (John Hopkins U, Data Center).
On March 26, 2020, the CARES Act (1) a
historic 2-trillion dollar COVID19 pandemic-related stimulus package, was voted in Congress. The
stimulus package arose in response to the economic fallout from the COVID19
pandemic. The magnitude of the stimulus appeared commensurate with the economic paralysis predicted as a result of the SARS-COV2 pandemic. On
March 26, 2020,3.3 million people had
already filed for unemployment claims. On April 2, this number had doubled. 6.6 million
unemployment claims had been filed. On April 9, the updated figures indicated another
6.9 million unemployment claims, totaling close to 17 million temporary unemployment claims,
representing an unemployment rate of about 10.4% (Cohen & Hsu, April, 9,2020). A trend that analysts fear will
only increase.
The US, indeed the whole world, is not only
fighting a deadly and invisible virus. An economic and financial crisis is also
impending, already heading in a direction far worse,in terms of unemployment rates than the past two economic recessions, and even the Great Depression in 1929-30.Indeed, during the Great Depression, the US
national unemployment rate was 24.9%, while during both the 1982-83 Reagan-era recession and 2009-11 dot-com bubble bust, US national unemployment rates climbed up to 10% [USBureau of Labor Statistics]. A10% rate (representing in fact, far more people today than during the previous two recessions, because of population growth), that was reached at what the economist Robert Pollin calls "breakneck speed" in just the past three weeks, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic shelter at-home mitigation measures (Polychroniou, 2020).
US currency: Nickle & Dime
It is in reference to theCARES stimulus package, during passage through Congress, that the term “nickel and diming" recently surfaced, on both sides of the political arena. On
the Democrats' side, Senator Bernie Sanders accused Republicans of “nickel and diming the unemployed” because of the Republican opposition to the Democrat-proposed expansion of unemployment benefits (Kilgore, March 22, 2020). On the Republicans' side,
Senator Lindsay Graham, slammed the Democrats for “nickel
and diming at a time when people are dying […]” In other words, he accused Democrats of preventing passage of the Republican initiative, because of the increase in unemployment benefits they countered, together with tighter oversight of corporate loans (DailyMail, May 24, 2020).
The CARES stimulus package that was passed
offers immediate relief in the amount of $1200 for individuals,$2400 for married couples, plus $500 for each
qualifying child under age 16, phased out at an adjusted gross income, in the amount of $75,000 per individual, and
$150,000 per couple. $500 billion dollars were earmarked as a business loan fund with oversight from an inspector and congressional
panel. A separate 367 billion-dollar loan fund was earmarked for small businesses. Hospitals will be receiving 100 billion in relief funds. As for the contentious unemployment
benefits, these were vastly expanded to include the self-employed (e.g., Uber drivers) and part-time workers, in
addition to full-time workers. The expansion of unemployment benefits was further designed to fill the gap
between salary earned, and regular unemployment benefits covered by
State funds. Thus, provisions exist for eligible workers to receive up to $600 extra, per week, in
federal pandemic unemployment benefits,
topping off regular unemployed benefits, so as to fully replace original paychecks, through to July 31 [Bernard & Lieber, April 11, 2020; Emma & Scholtes, March 27, 2020]
The CARES stimulus package does not cover such persons as those who can work at home, those receiving leave time,
first-time job-seekers unable to find a job, those no longer insured through their
jobs with potentially astronomical COVID19-related health care bills, front-line workers performing essential services
who are at disproportionately increased risk of becoming casualties, both
low-paid (e.g., warehouse workers, bus drivers and cleaners) and professional (e.g.,
doctors nurses), temporary foreign
workers on J-1 visas, and undocumented workers. Exclusions, in regards temporary
and undocumented workers, for example, which are already causing much concern,
since pandemic conditions only serve to exacerbate the pre-existing precarious situation of a subpopulation, without the benefits of health care, recourses,or adequate housing, in many
cases [Jan, April 4,2020; Maclean, April 12, 2020].
Zoombombing is presented as a form of cyberterrorism, carried out by individuals who
intrude on ZOOM teleconferencing sessions. As uninvited participants in ZOOM meetings, such individuals variously disrupt, interrupting sessions, controlling the cursor, sometimes diffusing graphic and hate messages, sometimes attending stealthily to collect confidential or
protected information (Lorenz, March 30, 2020; Lorenz & Alba, April 3, 2020). Since COVID19 Shelter-in-place orders mandate both work
and study from home, using networking technology, ZOOM teleconferencing usage has skyrocketed, together with a concomitant rise in intrusions.
As a reminder, ZOOM is a teleconferencing program,
enabling people located remotely, in geographically different places, to connect
synchronously during a scheduled session. Typically, all participants in a ZOOM
session are both visible and audible, via audio-video recording. The session is
moderated by the organizer. Thus, in a ZOOM session, everyone participating can see and
hear everyone else in real-time. Additionally, participants can chat,
vote, share screens and documents, and break up into smaller workgroups. The sessions
might also be recorded for the benefit of participants, who are unable to attend synchronously
in real-time.
Cybersecruity specialists recommend the following
procedures, among others, to guard against Zoombombing:
keeping password options on when creating sessions
keeping meeting URLs private
(avoiding to share the meeting links)
editing automated calendar
entries for a Zoom meeting which might include the above (i.e; meeting links or
passwords)
User beware! Especially, if ZOOM meetings are your lifeline in these
unprecedented times of virtual socialization. Update
After 200 million people used ZOOM teleconferencing daily last month (a twentyfold increase on previous peak usage), Zoom is now caught in a zoombombing backlash. Indeed, the company is heading for a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into its “flawed privacy and security”, having allegedly misled users with deceptive claims about the privacy of communication during sessions. [Bond, April 3, 2020]
References
- 20 minutes (avec AFP) (2 avril, 2020) L’application de vsioconférence ZOOM veut renforcer
sa sécurité
- Marottin, A. (April 2, 2020) Zoom video meetings are being
interrupted by hackers spewing hate speech and showing porn.It’s called ‘Zoombombing.’ Here’s how to
prevent it.Chicago Tribune
