How Biscoff Cookies Became the Snack We Crave on Planes www.cntraveler.com/story/how…
I never eat ‘em on the ground but I love them on planes.
It’s crazy how great it is when the flight attendant comes by with Biscoff or other favorite airplane treats. Same for the Amtrak snack boxes. I’m a grown-ass adult who can afford to buy this stuff for myself if I want it.
How to boost your home’s Wi-Fi www.theverge.com/2020/3/19…
It’s time to track people’s smartphones to ensure they self-isolate during this global pandemic, says WHO boffin.
Professor Marylouise McLaws, a technical adviser to the World Health Organization’s Infection Prevention and Control Global Unit, praises Singapore, which has a system where the government sends an SMS to citizens, who click a link which uses the phone’s location services to report their location.
www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/2…
It’s an intriguing system, with the advantage that citizens can easily opt out after the crisis, by simply refusing to participate.
We may need to allow government to track everybody’s locations during the duration of the pandemic. But we need to roll back surveillance when the emergency is over. And once government has been given power, it’s really, really hard to roll that back.
Video: Italian mayors berate citizens for breaking quarantine.
“Getting in your mobile hairdressers?! What the fuck is that for? Don’t you understand that the casket will be CLOSED?”
My first multi-person Zoom coffee break this morning. We discussed bronies and the catechism. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a meeting where either was discussed, let alone both.
I saw this excellent sidewalk art near the house. “Just keep walking” can be seen as inspirational or a threat.📷
.
Minnie practices her reading comprehension skills.
The Grass Is Always Greener by George Malcolm-Smith Bantam Books 410, 1948 Cover by Casey Jones
Locked-Down Lawyers Warned Alexa Is Hearing Confidential Calls - Bloomberg
Mishcon de Reya LLP, the U.K. law firm that famously advised Princess Diana on her divorce and also does corporate law, issued advice to staff to mute or shut off listening devices like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s voice assistant when they talk about client matters at home, according to a partner at the firm. It suggested not to have any of the devices near their work space at all.
Mishcon’s warning covers any kind of visual or voice enabled device, like Amazon and Google’s speakers. But video products such as Ring, which is also owned by Amazon, and even baby monitors and closed-circuit TVs, are also a concern, said Mishcon de Reya partner Joe Hancock, who also heads the firm’s cybersecurity efforts.
We don’t have them in the house. The risk seems high, and the potential benefit seems low.
Tlaib proposes minting two $1 trillion platinum coins to finance monthly coronavirus debit cards
Everybody gets $2,000 upfront plus $1,000/mo. to get through the crisis.
A law firm is telling employees to switch off smart speakers and similar devices while working from home.
We don’t have any in the house. The payoff seems low in the potential risk seems high.
A Florida city sent power disconnection notices to its poorest residents during the pandemic crisis. The mayor is ducking accountability.
Rashida Tlaib proposes meeting trillion dollar coins, and then using those to send “every person in the USA a $2K prepaid credit card that would receive $1K/month until a year after the crisis’s end."
Each person – children, adults, documented, undocumented, rich, poor – would get the card and the deposits, and progressive taxation would rake it back from those who don’t need it (far more reliable than means-testing, which is a persistent failure).
How “concierge doctors” supply the “worried well” with masks, respirators and tests
One big difference I observed between my life under Canadian medicare (30 years), and UK NHS (13 years) is that in the former, there is no private option, so rich people have to advocate for everyone’s care in order to improve their own. I think the relative fortunes of the NHS and OHIP can be largely explained by this difference. Allowing the rich to opt into a private system reduces the political costs of slashing the public system.
More: Pluralistic: 22 Mar 2020
Now I’ve got the 1970s Dr Pepper “Be a Pepper” jingle stuck in my head, which completely undercuts the seriousness of the point being made here.
“woefully concupiscent snails” would be a good name for a podcast.
ME
THERMOMETER: Your temperature is “don’t be such a hypochondriac you don’t have the rona” degrees.
ME (before the rona): <Bleeding profusely, skin inflamed, boils, hacking wheezing cough, seizures, occasional blindness> Probably nothing. It’ll go away on its own in a couple of days.
ME (now): <coughs once, softly, slight headache> OMG I got the rona I’m gonna die!
We’re “taking our temperature with a mercury thermometer” years old.
ME (before the rona): I haven’t been out except to walk the dog and run essential errands. All my communications, except with Julie, are online. I’m ok with that.
ME (after the rona): Same, but now I’m going nuts with claustrophobia.
From the comments: She is holding the floppy in the one spot you’re not supposed to touch it. via
If you’re going to fake paying attention with Zoom backgrounds, make it a looping video
Use a looping video of yourself paying attention as a background for video conferences. Then you can just go sit in the other room, drink beer and check blogs and stuff.
I saw this hopeful sign while walking the dog. 📷 🎉
I just ordered clippers for a home haircut. I am prepared for the apocalypse.
I followed @bestoftimes this morning and added two books to my to-be-read list from his feed. Thanks!
Coronavirus: Drive-in theaters report uptick in business - Axios
Fond memories of going to drive-ins with my parents and brothers as a child, and later with friends as a teenager.
Mel Gibson - The Road Warrior (1981) via
We need a moonshot program to build a first-class healthcare system in the US in the next year or so.
This will certainly be difficult but it will benefit in so many ways.
This Is How We Beat the Coronavirus www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc…
Trump viciously attacks NBC News reporter in extended rant after being asked for message to Americans worried about coronavirus www.cnn.com/2020/03/2…
“Trump has refused to coordinate federal procurements of emergency supplies for states, saying the fed is not “a shipping clerk” for state governments.”
A bidding war for medical supplies is a terrible idea right now.
Charter is now letting employees to work from home . www.lightreading.com/cable-vid…
I saw Lake Murray looking spectacular this afternoon. 📸
We’re not going back to normal: Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks. It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever. www.technologyreview.com/s/615370/…
Even while GOP leaders were ridiculing and downplaying coronavirus risks, at least one – Senator Richard Barr, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee – was simultaneously saying the opposite to big-money constituents, warning them that the virus was extremely dangerous. www.npr.org/2020/03/1…
The newer, smaller, more flexible device begins to take on the characteristics of the older, bigger, more rigid device.
However, in the case of the laptop and PC server, the new devices were much less expensive than the ones they replaced. Not so with the iPad Pro vs. laptop!
America’s grocery supply chains are going strong. Shelves are bare because of spiked demand. “It’s like the weekend before Thanksgiving — day after day after day.” www.npr.org/2020/03/1…
Cory Doctorow: Fox News is a suicide cult. Theirs and Trump’s initial coronavirus denialism is still helping fuel the spread. pluralistic.net/2020/03/1…
Cory Doctorow: “How to structure a fair covid bailout: Stimulus, not private jets.” pluralistic.net/2020/03/1…
“Congress’s worst Democrat is Dan Lipinski, a corrupt, anti-abortion, corporatist, gunhumping asshole…. "
And now he’s primaried out.
Shameful that the DNCC supported this clown.
15 Broadway Plays and Musicals You Can Watch On Stage From Home www.playbill.com/article/1…
China didn’t start coronavirus, but Chinese incompetence and authoritarianism is a big part of the reason why it’s now a global pandemic, rather than a local problem.
The same Chinese government that mishandled the crisis at first is now telling us that everything’s fine in China now; they’ve got it under control. Seriously?
Michael Auslin:
While the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, China is fighting a propaganda war. Beijing’s war aim is simple: shift away from China all blame for the outbreak, the botched initial response, and its early spread into the broader world. At stake is China’s global reputation, as well as the potential of a fundamental shift away from China for trade and manufacturing. Also at risk is the personal legacy of General Secretary Xi Jinping, who has staked his legitimacy on his technocratic competence. After dealing with the first great global crisis of the 21st century, the world must fundamentally rethink its dependence on China.
… no one knows if Beijing’s claims that new indigenous cases are slowing down are true or not, given long-standing doubt about the veracity of any official Chinese statistics, and the party’s failure to act in the early days of the coronavirus.
Auslin goes on to say that the coronavirus pandemic is making globalization downsides apparent, particularly the reliance on China for so much manufacturing, particularly essential drugs.
Congressional Democrats are to the right of the GOP on coronavirus relief.
If Sanders, Warren, and Ocasio-Cortez find a way to speak with one voice, they can push the Pelosi–Chuck Schumer–Joe Biden wing to act with urgency. Otherwise, we’re stuck in a world where Romney and Cotton are to the left of the Democratic Party’s leadership.
We live in Zoom now www.nytimes.com/2020/03/1…
‘Friends’ Reunion Special Delayed at HBO Max www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed…
They will not be there for you.
Google tracked his bike ride past a burglarized home. That made him a suspect.
Dr. Fabiano Di Marco, a doctor in a hospital in Bergamo, Italy, shares his story: “It’s like a war,” he says. “We cry every day.” The US may be headed the same way. www.nytimes.com/2020/03/1…
The origin stories of the peace sign, smiley face and power button symbol.
There are symbols all around us that we take for granted, like the lightning strike icon, which indicates that something is high voltage. Or a little campfire to indicate that something is flammable. Those icons are pretty obvious, but there are others that aren’t so straightforward. Like, why do a triangle and a stick in a circle indicate “peace”? Where does the smiley face actually come from?"
If you must smoke while wearing your influenza mask, 1918 reddit.com/r/OldScho…
How to avoid the time-suck of social networks while working at home www.zdnet.com/article/h…
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!
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.
Cory: “The Republican Party, folks. The party of death and poverty and tragedy and hate. Remember that in November.”
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!
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
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. Restaurants are the new factories, and without them state and local economies across the country would fall to pieces. Food-preparation and food-service jobs now account for more than 10 percent of all employment in Nevada, Hawaii, and Florida.
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.
“There is nothing in this world that occurs to you that has not occurred to me first. That is the affliction I live with.”
Shit.
One engineer sent an angry mailblast to a SVP and hundreds of engineers. He doesn’t work at Charter anymore.
Cory Doctorow: Be sure to fill out your census. Do it online or by phone.
Filling out your census is important to your community getting its share of federal representation and services.
Cory Doctorow’s Twitter account was suspended for a day, because of a list of trolls he created called “colossal assholes.”
Says Cory: “‘Colossal assholes’ got me suspended, but not its companion list, ‘Toe-faced shitweasels’”
But he’s back now.
Family Room Decor, 1970s retropopcult.tumblr.com/post/6128…
Andrew Cuomo Is the Control Freak We Need Right Now
The qualities that make him a problematic governor in normal times are right for a crisis like the one we’re in.
We are legit running low on TP. May have to use cats instead.
Andrew Sullivan finds similarities between the initial public reactions to the coronavirus, the gay community’s initial reaction initial to the AIDS epidemic – which, as a gay man, Sullivan lived through – and the 1918 Spanish flu.
In all three cases, the initial reaction was denial and complacency. Even people who accepted the reality of the situation failed to gauge its seriousness and react appropriately.
Ira Glass, at this American Life, compared the current period to waiting for biopsy results from the doctor.
www.thisamericanlife.org/696/low-h…
Julie and I have been through biopsies a few times and the metaphor is perfect. You walk around living your life as usual – eating, working, watching TV, etc. – and not even feeling particularly scared most of the time. But in the back of your head is this little bubble of fear. You know that everything could turn awful very soon. Or it could all be … nothing.
Also, this from Sullivan:
With Trump, we have a deeper crisis, of course. Trump is incapable of admitting error, numb to any form of empathy, narcissistic even in a communal crisis, and immune to any kind of realism. He simply cannot tell anyone bad news. And he cannot keep a story straight, which is essential for public health. His only means of communication is deceptive salesmanship.
(Emphasis mine.)
At the end of this weekend’s This American Life, Glass announced that he’d been exposed to the virus and was going into self-quarantine.
A white Republican mayor seeks the truth about Tulsa’s race massacre a century ago
Two more seasons of Bosch, then no more. Alas!
“Barring a new craze for mummy costumes, the actual use of toilet paper is unlikely to increase.”
He comes to talk to his dad every day since the nursing home is on lockdown www.reddit.com/r/pics/co…
Anbara Salam on Twitter:
“As a public service in these stressful times I’d like to offer, as a palate cleanser, the most embarrassing moment of my life.”
The lobster pool float completes the tale.
Cut the guy some slack. He’s in a perfectly legitimate business, he saw an opportunity and he overreacted.
If you hate the guys who hoarded all that hand sanitizer, wait until you find out that a few hundred people have hoarded half the wealth in the country.
And they’re not keeping it in their garage, either.
P.S. If you sent this guy death threats, he’s not the asshole. You’re the asshole.
Cory Doctorow: TikTok’s secret guidelines require moderators to suppress videos from old, ugly, fat, disabled and poor people.
How to prepare for coming layoffs: Good advice from Cory Doctorow, who’s been self-employed for nearly 20 years. :)
Cory Doctorow: An Italian hospital fixed its ventilator with 3D printed parts.
Stupid TiVo didn’t record the debate.
What’d I miss?
Went to the store. Did not buy extra TP. Did buy extra coffee.
It’s called “priorities.” Look it up.
I’m ready for the debate.
NBC’s Saturday Night Live Various Artists Arista Records/USA (1976)
