You should read this for 2/29/2020:
Art and Film
H/T Kira Cee: An Artist Hides Cats in His Paintings, Creating a New Kind of Art We’ve Named “Catscapes” These are delightful.
Books, Libraries, Writing, and Language
Audible: Stories Help A collection of free to listen “stories” mostly designed for kids stuck home while schools are closed. Lots of potential here.
For as long as schools are closed, we’re open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.
Joel Mathis: Newspapers have never been more vital. Bail them out.
The pandemic comes at a moment of crisis for the news industry. The New York Times and The Washington Post may be flying high, but local and regional newspapers that reach community audiences were already on life support, shedding staff and reducing coverage. The collapse of the economy will reach into every sector of society and make it extraordinarily difficult for these publications to serve their communities.
Covid-19’s Impact on Libraries Goes Beyond Books “Shuttering public libraries puts a strain on communities—even if it’s the only way to keep people safe.”
Via The GuardianBook sales surge as self-isolating readers stock up on ‘bucket list’ novels “Book sales have leapt across the country as readers find they have extra time on their hands, with bookshops reporting a significant increase in sales of longer novels and classic fiction.”
Coronavirus | COVID-19
16 National Healthcare Leaders: The best thing everyday Americans can do to fight coronavirus? #StayHome, save lives
Rand Paul Has More Than a Cold
The senator from Kentucky was worried enough about being exposed to the virus that he got a still-hard-to-obtain test for it. But while he was waiting for the results, he decided to keep showing up to the Senate. He went to group lunches with his Republican colleagues, took the Capitol elevators, talked with reporters, and worked out in the somehow-still-open Senate gym. Yesterday morning, he was doing laps in the pool there.
By yesterday afternoon, Paul had announced that he had tested positive. Graciously, he said that he would start self-quarantining.
Paul is exactly what we’ve been told to worry about.
‘It’s a community effort’: Wiltshire villagers unite against coronavirus isolation
Coordinator Morag Philpott, a parish councillor, has divided the village into 18 sectors and allocated at least one of her 33 volunteers to each one.
The volunteers are staying in close touch with the people who are isolating within their sector – which might be part of a longer street or the whole of a smaller one – to make sure they have the supplies they need and to top them up when required.
Phishing in the Time of COVID-19: How to Recognize Malicious Coronavirus Phishing Scams
California State DepartmentCOVID-19 Updates of Public Health This is what more states need to do.
Via NPR: States Are Taking Many Approaches To The Coronavirus. Here’s A Look At Each
The Safest Way to Dilute Household Chemicals
Food and Drink
Make a Batch of Flavored Salts
Green Beans with Bacon
Via Serious Eats: Food Safety and Coronavirus: A Comprehensive Guide
Mexican Lasagne It’s not that Mexican, and it’s not lasagne, but this layered casserole using corn tortillas, seasoned ground beef, refried beans, a mix of grated cheeses, and salsa, is tasty. Serve it with sour cream, salsa, jalapeño pepper slices on the side.
How to Make Your Own Chili Oil
The terminology is a little confusing; all peppers are apparently deemed “chili”; the chili flakes in the title are the bootled dried red pepper flakes familiar from pizza parlors if not your own spice rack. But as the article suggests, there are losts of kinds of dried pepper flakes.
Via Sage Boggs @Sageboggs on Twitter: OK, buckle up. I wanna talk to you about Triscuit
Rachel Roddy’s Italian recipes for lockdown “Tins, packets and short ingredient lists are good friends right now – as is ever-resourceful Italian cooking. Our resident Roman offers 10 simple meals to keep you well fed.”< THis is the the one I’m planning on: Rachel Roddy’s classic Neapolitan puttanesca sauce recipe./p>
History and Archaeology
Fossil of 67m-year-old raptor dinosaur found in New Mexico “Remains of agile meat-eater show raptors were thriving right up to point asteroid struck 66m years ago”
Science and Nature
Free E-Book: “And The Geese Exploded…” Bird photographer Chuq von Rospach has released a free .pdf ebook of his bird photos. These are some really amazing photos.
Koalas are being released back into the wild after Australian bushfires
Technology
Via the BBC podcast The Boring Talks#41 Pencils
Brian Mackenwells is passionate about pencils. In this Boring Talk he shares his passion for good pencils.
He talks us through their history, and explains why having a good pencil gives you a pleasurable ‘small pivot point that can change your whole mind set’. He also talks us through his favourite pencils, and shares the very personal reason that he can’t part with one particular pencil in his collection.
See also this accompanying illustration
Every Default macOS Wallpaper – in Glorious 5K Resolution
Women’s Work
Peter Conrad for The Guardian reviews Diana Souhami’s No Modernism Without LesbiansConrad is perhaps a bit more paternalistic and heteronormative than a careful reader would wish, or Conrad realizes:
s Diana Souhami sees it, lesbianism is much more than a sexual preference: it extends into an artistic vocation, an enraptured emotional cult and a political campaign that challenges the bullyboy patriarchs who assumed that “women’s bodies belong to men” and should be consecrated to perpetuating the male line. Souhami has written several fine biographies of what Truman Capote once reprehensibly called the “daisy-chain” of “butch-babes”; now, in a comprehensive cultural history, she awards lesbians the credit for modernising art, manners and morals in the early 20th century.
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
Trump is trying to stop people from seeing this ad on his response to coronavirus
H/T Eric Nelson: The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life “The president was aware of the danger from the coronavirus – but a lack of leadership has created an emergency of epic proportions”
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
We’ve made Monument Valley 2 free on the App store and Google Play for a little while!
Neil Diamond sings “Sweet Caroline” with updated lyric for safety during Covid-19 pandemic. Stay safe out there!
LibraryThing Is Completely Free This is both a book cataloging site, and a community for readers. Apps for iOS and Android, as well as a solid easy to use Website.
Something Wonderful
Via Twitter; Sir Patrick Stewart Sonnet 116 “Let Not Marriage . . .
Sonnet 1
A Selection of Cats From Ancient Art to Present Day
H/T Less Harper via RSPV Stationary Podcast: In celebration of Cheapass Games in Black and White, a retrospective covering the black-and-white games published in the early days of Cheapass Games to be released in October, we’re pleased to offer these print-and-play games for your enjoyment!
