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Democracy Links
Member's Off-site Blogs
the last supper before moving to cyber-nights...
Going to the footy is off the agenda, pub crawls are on hold and your social calendar is swirling through the U-bend. But there are plenty of ways to kick loneliness to the curb during these wild times of social distancing.
Businesses are using online meeting platforms to keep the country running, so why not use these to pump up your social life? Here ares our top tech hacks to inspire your next virtual group gathering.
Movie nights with friendsRe-creating a cinema experience with your friends is a tough one, but here’s where Netflix is stepping in.
Netflix Party is a Google Chrome extension you add for free to your laptop or desktop computer. It allows you to choose a movie and watch it in sync with friends remotely. You can add a group chat so there’s plenty of opportunity to swoon over Ryan Reynolds in 6 Underground, laugh and cry with Taylor Swift doco Miss Americana or get old retro belly laughs with Ghostbusters.
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Wine tasting nightsWhat better time to be sampling the great wines on offer from around Australia (and delivered straight to your door) via well-established companies including Vino Mofo, Tipple, Jimmy Bring, Naked Wines and, of course, your local wine store.
Gather your purchases, slice up some cheese and launch Facetime! Use the app for Group FaceTime sessions if you have iOS 12.1.4 on the iPhone 6s or later and for iPadOS on the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, or iPad (5th generation) or later. Simply open the app and add up to 31 contacts, then start your call.
However, the FaceTime app is only available for Apple cult members, so if your crew includes an Android user or two, switch to Facebook Messenger, which can now handle up to 50 guests at one time. Simply create a group of winos, er, friends who appreciate a good drop, then hit the video button. Messenger’s filters can add a whole new level of hilarity. If you have wifi it’s free, otherwise the vid chat may eat into your phone’s data.
Read more:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/coronavirus/2020/03/20/coronavirus-netfl...
- By Gus Leonisky at 21 Mar 2020 - 3:35pm
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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silent music...
Australian live performance workers are ‘shell-shocked’ after companies have shuttered and all jobs have dried up – virtually overnight
During the 45 minutes we’re on the phone, Steve “Pineapple” Alberts – a behind-the-scenes mainstay of Australian live music – misses seven calls.
Alberts, 58, has 40 years experience as a roadie and five years as a mentor to others, in an industry particularly vulnerable to mental health issues, addiction, depression and suicide.
He usually gets 25 calls or messages a month, from people reaching out for support.
But as rumours began to swell last week that public gatherings would be banned – a crucial response to the coronavirus crisis, but one which will decimate live entertainment in Australia – Alberts got around 30 calls in just a handful of days, from colleagues who were suddenly, shockingly, completely out of work. Five of them, he says, were thinking about ending their lives.
While there’s been no comprehensive research into the Australian industry, non-profit organisation CrewCare believes that the suicide rate among live entertainment crew and roadies – who number around 10,000 in Australia – could be 10 times the national average. Alberts himself lost 17 industry friends last year; the year before that, 14.
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/21/coronavirus-leaves-roadies...
under doctors' orders...
It’s now clear that we – like most countries – are already in a recession that promises to be long and severe. It will be a recession unlike any we’ve previously experienced. Why? Because it’s happening under doctors’ orders. So it deserves a unique name: the coronacession.
It’s taken a few weeks for this to become obvious, mainly because economists don’t know much about epidemiology and it’s taken the nation’s medical experts until now to make clear that their preferred response to the virus will take months to work and involve closing down much of the economy.
We already know that real gross domestic product is likely to contract in the present March quarter and it’s now clear that last week’s $17.6 billion stimulus package is unlikely to fully counteract the fall in economic activity – production and consumption – during the imminent June quarter, brought about by the government’s measures to impose “social distancing” and encourage “self-isolation”.
Read more:
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/it-s-the-coronacession-we-re...
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