Opening a can if wildly corroded Spider-Man pasta [Twitter/DinosaurDracula]
Today on Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic
++ A GoFundMe to save NYC’s Forbidden Planet store.
++ “A labradoodle breeder is in charge of America’s vaccines: An actual labradoodle could do a better job.”
++ “Inject disinfectant:” Even when faced with ridiculous objections to scientific fact, such as climate change, journalists feel the need for dangerous both-siderism.
++ “Masks work: Lasers reveal your revolting, spittle-flecked utterances.”
++ “US telcoms sector isn’t doing better than Europe’s: Net Neutrality’s murderers want you to believe they saved the American internet.”
++ “Amazon uses its sellers' data to figure out which products to clone: And they lied to Congress about it.”
++ “Facebook let advertisers target ‘pseudoscience’ and ‘conspiracy’:” This uses the same algorithm that previously allowed advertisers to target “jew-haters.”
++ “Security expert conned out of $10,000: If you think you’re too smart to get phished…. "
I miss going to the grocery store to buy three things
Friday, April 24, 2020
I’d realize I was out of apples or coffee, and then I’d go to the store and buy that and maybe two other things and that was my errand. Related: I miss having apples every day. I now have apples most days but I do not want to risk going to the store often enough to allow me to have apples every day. I’ve been out of apples several days now, but on deadline so don’t have time for a grocery run.
Can the coronavirus be spread through farts? [Eric Hegedus/NYPost]
Australian doctors aren’t sure whether farting spreads coronavirus, and advise restraining from bare-bottom farting and farting when close to other people.
Which begs the question whether bare-bottom farting and farting close to other people has previously been common practice in Australia?
I know I have several Australian social media friends and I would appreciate enlightenment on this subject.
How close are we to breaking encryption with quantum computing? [Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols/InsiderPro]
Not very, but we need to be ready when it happens.
Wi-Fi is getting its biggest upgrade in 20 years [Jacob Kastrenakes/The Verge]
Wi-Fi is getting 4x the spectrum for a lot more elbow room.
I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out for coffee.
TV show idea: “Zeno, Warrior Princess,” about a transgender Classical Greek philosopher who defeats evildoers using logical paradoxes.
Not a Joke: The Trump Admin Hired a Dog Breeder to Run Its Coronavirus Task Force [Bess Levin/Vanity Fair]
“Don’t worry, Brian Harrison also has virtually no public health experience.”
When faced with a pandemic that threatens millions of lives, I want a labradoodle man in charge.
An old friend just shared a Dropbox folder of hundreds of photos he took when we were teenagers together.
This is me looking much cooler than I have ever been in my life.
That hair tho. I do miss having hair. 📷 📓
Claim that coronavirus came from a lab in China completely unfounded, scientists say [Kashmira Gander/Newsweek]
I expect everybody who believes the virus came from a Chinese lab will look at this article and say, “Welp, guess I was wrong about that. Thank you for sharing that information!”
The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead [Donald G. McNeil Jr./The New York Times]
An excellent overview of the best science on what to expect – not just for the next year, but for years.
Short version: Expect gradual, cautious “opening the economy” and going out in public, in phases. The process could take literally years. People proven immune will get passports that let them move freely anywhere. At-risk people will live more limited lives.
The civil liberties implications here are ENORMOUS; freedom of movement and assembly are two essential characteristics distinguishing police states from free societies. But we are going to have to give those things up to minimize harm from the pandemic.
Not said in this article: Or we could be stupid and lots of people could rush out right away to bars and movie theaters and sporting events, and we’ll see hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Are You Sitting Down? Standing Desks Are Overrated [Aaron E. Carroll/New York Times]
I’ve been using a standing desk for about 10 years. Or more precisely a sitting/standing desk - I have a tall stool that I perch on when I want to take a break from standing.
The Year 2038 Problem [Reset]: If you enjoyed the Year 2000 crisis, we get to do it again in 2038.
Also: Making the case that Y2K was not rubbish; rather, a lot of people got together to make sure that nothing would go wrong, and very little did. Because of their efforts, we did see some problems in 2000, but they were no big deal.
And, interestingly, some of the effects were felt this year, in January – one of the Y2K workarounds was to essentially kick the problem down the road 20 years.
Who’s Organizing the Lockdown Protests [The Daily]
“An informal coalition of influential conservative leaders and groups has been quietly encouraging demonstrations against stay-at-home orders across the country.”
Usual suspects of Tea Party backers, gun rights groups, and Trump advocates.
Generally I’m happy to see Trump supporters burn their own houses down, but I am genuinely grieved and appalled to see photos of these protest groups. They’re playing Russian roulette with their own lives, their children and their families, friends, co-workers and neighbors.
It’s like watching a group of people protest traffic laws by walking blindfolded across a major superhighway during rush hour.
Wheels on a shopping cart be like [yeahiwasintheshit.tumblr.com]
The problem with read-later bookmarking services like Pocket and Instapaper is your queue is filled with articles you decided not to read.