You should read this for 8/9/2020:
Art, Music, and Film
“On the Trail” is an incomplete portrait of what it’s like to be a female political journalist
On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries is not about the presidential candidates who are out campaigning. Rather, it follows the various female journalists who cover the campaigns for CNN. While it spends ample time on seasoned anchors like Kyung Lah and Dana Bash, it also focusses on the chaotic lives of young embeds like Jasmine Wright and Daniella Diaz, who are required to follow their assigned candidates at all times.
Save Your Google Play Music Library Before It Disappears
Books, Libraries, Writing, and Language
Redditor spots ‘Legend of Zelda’ ingredients in historical novel, author owns it
I want to let you know how much I really enjoy using BaronFig notebooks, and their excellent just-right-sized pen, the Squire. Here’s a referral link for BaronFig: $10.00 off on quality notebooks and writing instruments.
Coronavirus | COVID-19
H/T Yasmin: Over 260 Georgia school employees under quarantine 1 day after returning to classroom See also: The Truth Behind A Viral Picture Of A Reopening School Is Worse Than It Looked And yes, students do have first amendment rights: Georgia School District Inadvertently Begins Teaching Lessons In First Amendment Protections After Viral Photo and then finally: Georgia school reverses suspension of teen who shared viral photo of hallway packed with students
Should You Buy a Face Shield
300,000 Deaths By December? 9 Takeaways From The Newest COVID-19 Projections
Education
I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy “Jeff Gregorich, superintendent, on trying to reopen his schools safely”
The governor has told us we have to open our schools to students on August 17th, or else we miss out on five percent of our funding. I run a high-needs district in middle-of-nowhere Arizona. We’re 90 percent Hispanic and more than 90 percent free-and-reduced lunch. These kids need every dollar we can get. But covid is spreading all over this area and hitting my staff, and now it feels like there’s a gun to my head. I already lost one teacher to this virus. Do I risk opening back up even if it’s going to cost us more lives? Or do we run school remotely and end up depriving these kids?
The rightwing defence of ‘academic freedom’ masks a McCarthyite agenda
But while both the report and its recommendations are laughable, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take them seriously. One of the authors, Eric Kaufmann, from the politics department at Birkbeck, University of London, recently called on students and others to report academics for engaging in “politically motivated” attempts to “alter the curriculum”. Who will judge whether such alterations are acceptable? None other than Policy Exchange, under the auspices of its new History Matters project.
Food and Drink
H/T Wirecutter:
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, 2015 revision Free printable PDF file.
The science that proves making your tea in the microwave is a truly appalling act
History and Archaeology
Study Warns of Deteriorating Peat Bog Preservation
In 2019, Boethius and his colleagues dug five test pits in areas of the bog that had yielded significant amounts of organic matter during previous excavations in the 1940s and 1970s. Comparing the newly recovered material to samples that had been stored from the previous excavations, they found that the freshly excavated bones were considerably more weathered than the material from both the 1940s and 1970s, suggesting that conditions at the site have deteriorated progressively since the 1940s. Bones from the 1940s were the best preserved, and the best preserved of the 2019 bones were in similar condition to the worst preserved samples from the 1970s excavations.
Neolithic “Woodhenge” Discovered in Portugal
Science and Nature
Ancient Meteorites Can be Found Embedded in Rocks, Like Fossils
A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon I suspect that this event may have helped inspire certain narrative threads in Star Trek Discovery.
Society
U.S. Intelligence Warns China Opposes Trump Reelection, Russia Works Against Biden
JUST IN: The U.S. intelligence community in a statement warns China is attempting to undermine President Trump’s campaign; Russia is working to malign Joe Biden; and Iran is trying to undermine U.S. democratic institutions and Trump, and trying to sow division among Americans.
Twitter scientist who died of COVID-19 turned out to be a hoax. It only gets weirder from there
Technology
Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Twitter Locks Accounts For Fact Checking The President “However, where things get sketchy on the content moderation front is that Twitter also then ended up freezing the accounts of journalists and activists who fact checked that “Fox & Friends” nonsense:”
These sustainable 3D printed homes are delivered and installed on the spot — Future Blink
Women’s Work
Initially, the women said, an officer told them the vehicle had been reported stolen and that the suspects were two Black men. But the women, both African American, said no men were with them and provided proof that Johnson was the owner. She told the Secret Service she had never reported the car stolen. Eventually, the women were released — without an apology or answers to their questions, Winston said.
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
Video resurfaces of Trump struggling to vote in person in 2004 as he ramps up attacks on mail-in voting
Journalist’s gobsmacked reactions during 🤥🤥👖🔥’s interview are Twitter’s too
Not only did 🤥🤥👖🔥 double down on his well-wishes for accused child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, he also attempted to explain away the horrendous U.S. coronavirus death toll with some more charts that not even he appeared to fully understand.
🤥🤥👖🔥 said Biden ‘hurt God.’ Biden has spent his life drawing from his Catholic faith.
💩🔥💰 continues to flout social distancing guidelines even as he urges others to follow them I see dead people.
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
The Best Ways to Block Annoying People Around the Web
SetApp: A Suite of macOS Apps for a Single Price Affiliate link for a great collection of 75+ apps for a single price.
Something Wonderful
H/T Roseanne: Jimmy Buffett: “Everybody needs to take a little breath”
