You should read this for 3/08/2020:
Art and Film
Holbein’s Henry VIII joins his Ambassadors at National Gallery
Books, Libraries, Writing, and Language
Via Open Culture: Americans Visited Libraries Almost Twice as Often as They Went to the Movies Last Year, a New Survey Shows
. . . veteran polling outfit Gallup spent part of December 2019 asking Americans around the country what they did when they went out. Among the nine activities they listed—including movies, concerts, sporting events, museums, zoos, and casinos—“visiting the library remains the most common cultural activity Americans engage in, by far,” averaging 10.5 visits per year, notes Justin McCarthy at Gallup News.
Corona Virus | COVID-19
World Health Organization recommends people take these simple precautions against coronavirus to reduce exposure and transmission
How to prepare for coronavirus in the U.S. (Spoiler: Not sick? No need to wear a mask)
“Remember to not let fear override your common humanity about how you treat other people,” Brewer said. “Just remember we’re all in this together. This is a virus. It does not think. It is not planning. We shouldn’t be blaming our neighbors or our fellow colleagues or people in the community because a virus happens to exist and is spreading.”
How To Prepare For The Coronavirus: What To Buy Now In Case A Pandemic Is Declared, According To A Virologist
I’m an ICU doctor. The NHS isn’t ready for the coronavirus crisis
Coronavirus: Four more deaths in Washington state
Twitter thread: Seattle Health care worker tries to be responsible and get tested. What’s particularly interesting are the responses in the thread from people in other countries about how testing and health care are handled.
America’s Nursing Homes Are Bracing for an Outbreak “As the disease caused by the coronavirus has spread in a nursing home near Seattle, other facilities around the country are implementing plans to mitigate risk.”
How to Prepare for the Coronavirus
It’s like being in a science fiction film – my daily life in a locked-down Chinese city “In Beihan, local government cars with loudspeakers pass by regularly now, issuing warnings and orders to obey the new restrictions”
King County, Washington: Local health officials announce new recommendations to reduce risk of spread of COVID-19
Sick of singing ‘Happy Birthday’ while washing hands to fight coronavirus? Try these pop hits instead
State Department blames ‘swarms of online, false personas’ from Russia for wave of coronavirus misinformation online
In February, a top State Department official accused Russia of deploying similar tactics around coronavirus, spreading falsehoods that may stoke panic or undermine health officials’ response to the deadly outbreak. But the U.S. government has offered no public evidence of its claims, sparking criticism from tech companies, which say they remain in the dark about the exact nature of suspected Kremlin interference.
Harvard Epidemiologist predicts effects of coronavirus in the months ahead via CBS:
Coronavirus: nine reasons to be reassured See especially:
Catching it is not that easy (if we are careful) and we can kill it quite easily (provided we try). Frequent, careful hand washing, as we now all know, is the most effective way to stop the virus being transmitted, while a solution of ethanol, hydrogen peroxide or bleach will disinfect surfaces. To be considered at high risk of catching the coronavirus you need to live with, or have direct physical contact with, someone infected, be coughed or sneezed on by them (or pick up a used tissue), or be in face-to-face contact, within two metres, for more than 15 minutes. We’re not talking about passing someone in the street.
Food and Drink
On Tap in the County? Truly Local Beers “Aroostook hop growers, maltsters, and brewers are teaming up on homegrown suds.”
Nigel Slater’s recipe for butter beans, cabbage and mi-cuit tomatoes “Tins and jars are put to good use for this comforting supper of creamy beans, sweet-savoury tomatoes, and bright, fresh cabbage.”
David Atherton’s recipe for homemade baked beans
Via King Arthur Flour: Back-of-the-Bag Oatmeal Bread
This tender, high-rising sandwich bread is soft enough for kids to enjoy, yet sturdy enough for all kinds of sandwich fillings. It also makes great toast, perfect with jam or buttered alongside scrambled eggs. King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour ensures a high rise even in the presence of oats, which sometimes inhibit gluten formation. In fact, the recipe was featured on our bread flour bag for quite some time, and has become a perennial customer favorite for good reason: it’s easy to make, uses simple ingredients, and we guarantee everyone in the family will love it!
History and Archaeology
British Museum acquires 3,000-year-old Shropshire sun pendant
The pendant was found in a landscape that would have been boggy and wet during the bronze age. Curators think it would have been intentionally cast into the water as an offering, much as people today throw coins into fountains.
I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me. “The paper’s series on slavery made avoidable mistakes. But the attacks from its critics are much more dangerous.”
Science and Nature
SETI@home No Longer Needs Your Gateway 2000 To Search For Aliens “Gold bulla is described as one of the most important bronze age finds of the last century”
Society
Via Twitter Kurt Schrader @kurt: Remote Working Tips
A number of companies I know are suddenly becoming (at least temporarily) distributed this week and several people have asked for advice on how to run a remote team . . . , so I figured I’d pull together a few quick tips here.
Technology
H/T Benedict Evans: How Sticks and Shell Charts Became a Sophisticated System for Navigation
Twitter thread from Chris Cox @Cyber_CoxThis is a thread all about why personal cell phones and laptops are no longer allowed at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA. “It has adventure, surprises, and treachery. It starts, as the best stories often do, with a call from a 3-letter agency. ”
Women’s Work
Surviving perimenopause: ‘I was overwhelmed and full of rage. Why was I so badly prepared?’
Miriam Margolyes: ‘I Like Men – I Just Don’t Feel Groin Excitement’
Lesbian priests to lead church service on eve of Anglican summit “Service is intended to send strong message to once-a-decade Lambeth conference”
An “inclusive” eucharist at a church in Canterbury will be presided over by the Rt Rev Mary Glasspool, the assistant bishop in New York. The preacher will be the Rev Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth, a daughter of Desmond Tutu, the veteran South African anti-apartheid campaigner.
Bishops’ spouses have traditionally been guests at the Lambeth conference, but it was deemed “inappropriate” to invite same-sex spouses to this year’s event. Glasspool received a letter from Welby in December 2018 informing her of his decision “not to invite your spouse to the Lambeth conference, a decision that I am well aware will cause you pain, which I regret deeply.”
Women work for free for two months a year, says TUC analysis
Nine out of 10 people found to be biased against women “Analysis of 75 countries reveals ‘shocking’ scale of global women’s rights backlash”
Sexism Sank Elizabeth Warren “Warren was a brilliant candidate who would have made a great president. The problem? She’s a woman—and she isn’t ‘perfect.’”
Sexism played a role in the failure of all her arguments. Some people openly said that a woman couldn’t beat Donald 💩🔥💰. Other people made the same point, but more subtly. And most people did the usual, frustrating thing where they said a woman could win, “but not that woman.” She was called “shrill,” she was called a “school-marm,” she was called a “snake.” She got criticized for not hitting certain candidates “hard enough” and then got criticized for vaporizing other candidates down to the molecular level. And when she actually talked about the sexism she faced, and all women candidates face, the conversation became about what she could do to overcome it instead of about what everybody else needed to do to stop it.
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
Coronavirus: 💩🔥💰 hurls insults as 21 cases confirmed on cruise ship
Donald 💩🔥💰 used a freewheeling press conference on Friday, intended to provide updates on the coronavirus, as an opportunity to attack Democrats, praise his own intelligence, lash out at CNN and spread false and misleading information about the status of the outbreak, as a slew of new cases were confirmed aboard a cruise ship off the California coast.
Speaking at the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) main campus in Atlanta, Georgia, while wearing his red “Keep America Great” re-election campaign hat, the president went on a rant criticizing Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, as a “snake” and saying he disagreed with his vice-president’s complimentary remarks toward the Democrat. Inslee, who ran for president last year, is overseeing the response to the most serious outbreak in the US.
In a moment that some commentators have called one of the most “disturbing” and “frightening” remarks of 💩🔥💰’s response to the public health crisis, the president also said he would prefer that cruise ship passengers exposed to the virus be left aboard so that they don’t add to the number of total infections in the US.
We can’t trust Trump to handle the coronavirus crisisThe outbreak couldn’t come during a worse presidency. Even if Trump hadn’t gutted the federal government’s ability to respond to pandemics, and even if his administration wasn’t rabidly anti-science, it remains the case that our president is both a prolific liar and an egregious narcissist who betrays no understanding of or ability to act in pursuit of the public good. This means the public — which needs to trust what leaders say in moments like these — has little reason to believe what comes out of his mouth. In other words, Trump has an extreme credibility problem. That’s never a good thing, but it might be particularly dangerous during a public health emergency.
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
Sanders Blasts Heckler Who Waved Nazi Flag At Rally: My Family Was ‘Wiped Out By Hitler’
