Monday, August 23, 2021

CDC Data On Deaths By Age

 According to KFF, 23.6% of US Residents are 0-18, which is significantly more than those 65 and older, 16.5%.

Over the span of the Covid pandemic, 3,906,056 people 65 or older died from all causes.  Of these, 485,290 died of Covid.  At the other end of the spectrum, there were a total of 53,193 children under 18 who died from all causes.  So, as a kid, you're about 1/70th as likely to die in a given couple of years as a person who is older than 65.  Of that 53,193, how many would you guess were from Covid?

361   

Likelihood of a 65+ person dying in a given period/Likelihood of under 18 dying of Covid = 15,476

Also, the total percentage of Americans who have died of Covid has yet to reach 1/5th of 1%.

CDC Data On Deaths By Age

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Linda and Phillip

If you're a fan of Phillip K. Dick, you also likely know that he was obsessed with Linda Ronstadt.  So far as I've been able to determine, she never met Mr. Dick and possibly never knew he existed.  When he first heard "You're No Good", he thought she was speaking directly to him.  He wrote about her directly in "novels" like VALIS and she appeared pseudoanonymously in other works, as a galactic diva.

Ms. Ronstadt didn't live entirely in the music industry--she dated the Governor of California.

At the peak of her career, she was extremely well known, but now--It's dubious if many young people have heard of her.  Too bad. She had a distinctive voice and many of her covers are the best known versions of songs.

Over the decades, probably starting with Blade Runner, Phillip K. Dick has slowly become a legendary figure--even though all the films and shows, so far, have only glanced off-of what made his work brilliant.  As a side note:  Each of Galactic Pot Healer, We Can Build You or Martian Time Slip, would be great material for a streaming series, with 10 1-hour episodes.  Don't change anything, just use exactly the dialog from the books.

I can't be the only one to imagine that eventually, Ronstadt will be more known for Dick's fervid ideations of her, than for Ronstadt's own considerable music career.


Dick's thoughts, probably.