You should read this for 10/04/2020:
Books, Libraries, Writing, and Language
Trending: ‘schadenfreude’
Lookups spiked 30,500% on October 2, 2020
Schadenfreude was our top lookup on October 2nd, by a very considerable margin, following President Trump’s announcement that he and the First Lady had tested positive for COVID-19.
Use the 1913 Webster’s Dictionary When You Need to Define a Word
Coronavirus | COVID-19
Study shows Trump is a super-spreader — of coronavirus misinformation
A Cornell University study of more than 1 million news articles concluded that “the President of the United States was likely the largest driver of [a] covid-19 misinformation ‘infodemic.’ ”
How We Survive the Winter “The coming months of the pandemic could be catastrophic. The U.S. still has ways to prepare.”
Scrutiny on Rose Garden event after Kellyanne Conway and other guests test positive for Covid “At least seven people who attended event for Trump’s supreme court nominee have confirmed they have coronavirus”
H/T Daring Fireball—Link round-up from Jason Kotke: How to Protect Yourself from the Aerosol Spread of Covid-19
Education
In Internet Dead Zones, Rural Schools Struggle With Distanced Learning
This pandemic has shone a glaring light on a lot of inequalities. The federal government estimates that more than a third of rural America has little or no Internet. In numerous recent interviews, educators have told NPR they’re concerned the rural-urban divide will only worsen if kids can’t get online to learn.
Morning Brew newsletter — a free daily morning newsletter that’s a well-written, intelligent round-up of business news that’s actually interesting: Morning Brew Referral link .
Food and Drink
Sunday best: 17 expert tips for the perfect roast dinner, from brining the chicken to bashing the potatoes One of the things I love about this meditative collection of Sunday dinner tips is that it is So Very British.
History and Archaeology
Video: Maliwawa Figures: Ancient Aboriginal art ‘unlike anything seen before’ “Professor Paul Tacon explains how the 572 paintings known as the Maliwawa Figures offer a glimpse into life more than 6,000 years ago.”
Science and Nature
Wildlife Photographer Captures a Rare Black Panther Roaming in the Jungles of India
Half a Million Sharks Could Be Killed to Make a Global COVID Vaccine “A number of potential coronavirus vaccines are using something called squalene, from shark liver. Experts estimate that about 3,000 sharks have to die to extract a single tonne of the stuff.”
Humpback whales seize chance to sing in Alaska’s cruise-free Covid summer
Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.; acknowledgment: Mahdi Zamani
Hubble stared at this magnificent galaxy for nine hours to capture the perfect shot
Society
Senator Klobucher has had enough: these are the facts.
H/T Roseanne: I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There.
I
lived through the end of a civil war — I moved back to Sri Lanka in my twenties, just as the ceasefire fell apart. Do you know what it was like for me? Quite normal. I went to work, I went out, I dated. This is what Americans don’t understand. They’re waiting to get personally punched in the face while ash falls from the sky. That’s not how it happens.
This is how it happens. Precisely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner. If you’re trying to carry on while people around you die, your society is not collapsing. It’s already fallen down.
Jaime Harrison brought his own plexiglass divider to debate Lindsey Graham
If there’s one word that can perfectly describe Jaime Harrison in his first debate against Sen. Lindsey Graham, it’s “prepared.”
On Saturday, Harrison — South Carolina’s Democratic Senate candidate — spent the debate masterfully discussing key issues such as the Supreme Court nominee, COVID-19, and more with the Republican senator. But Harrison didn’t stand out solely for his words. His actions, one in particular, also made quite a statement.
SetApp: A Suite of macOS Apps for a Single Price Affiliate link for a great collection of 193+ macOS apps for a single price—now with iOS apps too.
Technology
The best podcasting apps on iOS in 2020 I want to add a shout-out to my own favorite: Pocketcasts for iOS, Android, macOS.
Voting Resources
How to track your ballot like a UPS package
How to vote in your state
How to prevent your mail ballot from being rejected</a
Women’s Work
Via libbyjones715: Most people who know the name Sophie Scholl know she was a 21 year old German student activist who was executed by the Nazis for distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets on her college campus. But people don’t talk about what happened leading up to her execution, or what happened after.
Women Value Their Group Texts in Normal Times. During the Pandemic They’ve Become a Lifeline
We are scared and we are exhausted and we are often by ourselves. We know better than to complain too much because no one besides the women like us seem to want to hear it.
How I learned to love being an Essex girl
‘Priceless skill’: The Māori hunter helping women swap the food bank for the rifle
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰</h4
Postal Service workers quietly resist DeJoy’s changes with eye on election
Mechanics in New York drew out the dismantling and removal of mail-sorting machines until their supervisor gave up on the order. In Michigan, a group of letter carriers did an end run around a supervisor’s directive to leave election mail behind, starting their routes late to sift through it. In Ohio, postal clerks culled prescriptions and benefit checks from bins of stalled mail to make sure they were delivered, while some carriers ran late items out on their own time. In Pennsylvania, some postal workers looked for any excuse — a missed turn, heavy traffic, a rowdy dog — to buy enough time to finish their daily rounds.
“I can’t see any postal worker not bending those rules,” one Philadelphia staffer said in an interview.
‘INFECTED’: How the media scrambled to cover Trump and the first lady’s positive coronavirus tests
Donald Trump tests positive for Covid and goes into quarantine – live updates
Before testing positive for coronavirus, Trump scoffed at many health guidelines
In the seven months since the outbreak first spread across the U.S., he has flouted seemingly every basic health guideline put forth by his own government in response.
He repeatedly refused to wear a face mask, and held large rallies with hundreds of supporters who did the same, often in violation of local ordinances. He allowed the White House to continue its daily operations with scant social distancing, exposing himself to dozens of people who had taken few protections against the virus.
Last month, Winston Wolkoff told The Washington Post’s Jada Yuan that the first lady used private email accounts, iMessage, and Signal, an encrypted messaging app, while at the White House. Critics said the finding was hypocritical considering the president’s attacks on Hillary Clinton, who used a private email server while she was secretary of state.
.; . .
Trump suggests that the migrant children are treated well at the border and have a higher quality of life than they did in their home countries.
“The kids, they say, ‘Wow I will have my own bed? I will sleep on the bed? I will have a cabinet for my clothes?’ It’s so sad to hear it, but they didn’t have that in their own countries, they sleep on the floor,” she said. “They are taken care of nicely there. But you know, yeah, they are not with parents, it’s sad. But when they come here alone or with coyotes or illegally, you know, you need to do something.”
— People said this about slavery, too. It’s still wrong, and yes, still untrue.
💩🔥💰 VOTE 💩🔥💰
Pelosi Prepares Democrats For Rare Possibility The House May Decide The Election
If the outcome of the election is not clear by Jan. 6, the decision goes to the House. But the vote is not as straightforward as Democrats having the majority of seats overall. Each state would get a single vote, which would be determined by the party that has the majority of members from that state.
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
8 Black-Owned Bookstores for Buying Your Next Great Read
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
Via Morning Brew: So Much Better than watching paint dry
Via Morning Brew: French Press Coffee To Water Ratio Calculator
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