Bill Gates: Countries shut for coronavirus could bounce back in weeks — www.cnbc.com/2020/03/1…
Sister Maria Elena Romero, a cloistered nun, offers advice on social distancing, which nuns and monks have been doing for nearly 2,000 years.
U.S. Virus Plan Anticipates 18-Month Pandemic and Widespread Shortages
18 months!
Cory Doctorow: Plague precautions from 1665.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
A comprehensive list, resembling extreme measures we might see today – both virtues and flaws (tippling in public houses STILL permitted). Science was just getting started then, but people had plenty of experience with plague. Among the precautions: Public entertainments, including bear-baiting, are banned. The bears must have been pleased. pluralistic.net/2020/03/1…
Cory Doctorow: "Bigoted Republican Congressjerk votes against coronavirus relief because it might cover same-sex partnerships."
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Cory: “The Republican Party, folks. The party of death and poverty and tragedy and hate. Remember that in November.” pluralistic.net/2020/03/1… In reality, the law that hateful moron Andy Biggs (R-Az) objects to makes no change to US policy regarding same-sex partnerships. None. Also, the way infectious disease works is that for any of us to be protected, all of us need protection. Even people we find contemptible, like Andy Biggs.
John Green on coronavirus: “Togetherness is the superpower of our species. Like, yeah, we as individuals are very smart, as animals go, but it is our collective knowledge that has made us so successful.”
American Airlines blew $15B on stock buybacks to benefit shareholders, jacked up prices and nickel-and-dimed customers. Now it wants a $50B bailout - 3x 9/11.
When companies make good decisions, management and shareholders are rewarded. When companies make bad decisions, they scream for help to Uncle Sam … and management and shareholders are rewarded at taxpayer expense.
Good thing Bernie is going down. Otherwise we might have socialism or something!
NYT: Trump Now Claims He Always Knew the Coronavirus Would Be a Pandemic
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/1… Trump lies compulsively, and many times a day, about things that are easily verifiable as untrue. He claims he always knew the coronavirus would be pandemic within days of having gone on the record numerous times downplaying the seriousness of the virus and ridiculing people who took it seriously. None of this is secret. It’s all on video. You can see it for yourself. Probably you did see it.
Scientists warn we may need to live with social distancing for a year or more
Grim reading.
Facebook was marking legitimate news articles about the coronavirus as spam due to a software bug
San Diego leaders back freeze on evictions tied to coronavirus outbreak despite landlord concerns
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday he has put the California National Guard on alert to help protect communities and fight the spread of COVID-19.
Suddenly unemployed, San Diego workers grapple with how to pay rent and utility, grocery bills
The Atlantic: America’s Restaurants Will Need a Miracle
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Social distancing could prove devastating to the restaurant industry, as restaurants are becoming vital economic infrastructure. Americans now spend more at restaurants than at grocery stores—something they had never done before 2015. This modern dining revolution has made restaurants one of the country’s most important sources of work. In 1990, manufacturing employment was almost three times larger than the food-service industry, but today there are about as many jobs in food service as in manufacturing.
Having a wonderful time, 1969
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere/comments/fia3db/having_a_wonderful_time_1969/
Scientific American: Time Has No Meaning at the North Pole
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
On the research vessel, Polarstern, at the North Pole, time zones, seasons and even day and night are meaningless.The sun rises and sets once a year, and 24 times zones converge on a single point. The captain changes the ships time zone arbitrarily, to communicate with other ships on different clocks. blogs.scientificamerican.com/observati…
This Tom Hanks Story Will Make You Feel Less Bad
“There is nothing in this world that occurs to you that has not occurred to me first. That is the affliction I live with.”
