March 31
Quarantene, a song about staying home sung to the tune of Dolly Parton's Jolene. "Quarantine, Quarantine, Quarantine, Quarantine. Please don't go out just because you can."
March 30
Patrick Stewart is reading a Shakespeare sonnet every day on Instagram. "A sonnet a day keeps the doctor away?"
This is super depressing but not surprising: The Social-Distancing Culture War Has Begun. "They made a show of shaking hands, and complained loudly about the 'stupid hoax' being propagated by virus alarmists."
Advice from a cinematographer on how to look & sound your best while video conferencing (mind your angles & your light). You could also ask a friend who's good at selfies for advice.
Dutch swear words are more often about disease than are English swears. "An undesirable person might be told to 'typhus off' (optyfussen) or 'get consumption' (krijg de tering)."
March 28
The Four Possible Timelines for Life Returning to Normal. "Come summer, Americans might get restaurants but no music festivals, offices but no crowded beaches, bars with spaced-out seating."
March 27
"The Board Game Remix Kit is a collection of games that you can play using the boards and pieces from games you might already own: Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Clue and Scrabble." Now available for free download.
YES! THIS! "A huge research literature shows disaster makes people *more* pro-social. They cooperate. They support each other. They're better than ever."
March 26
A ranking of Radiohead's 40 greatest songs. "'I want you to notice when I'm not around,' Yorke broods, a perfect lyric he probably hates."
Six Feet of Separation, an online youth newspaper started by a group of quarantined kids in San Francisco. The contributors ages range from 2 to 19.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire premieres on Hulu tomorrow. VOD in April. One of the best new movies I've seen in the past year.
Bread baking is on the rise (*ahem*) during the pandemic. Yeast and flour are in high demand (my local store has been sold out of yeast for at least a week and a half).
Epidemiologists have been puzzled at how Japan has kept COVID-19 at bay even though folks there are mostly going about their normal lives. Now their luck may be running out.
March 25
Singapore will open source the code for TraceTogether, a contact tracing app for use during the pandemic. "The TraceTogether app can identify people who have been within 2m of coronavirus patients for at least 30 minutes."
A prescient article from 2018: The Next Pandemic Will Be Arriving Shortly. "As a result, in 2018, it is impossible to reconcile the redirection of funds away from preparing for pandemics with these realities on the ground."
March 24
Nine Extremely Long, Extremely Good Movies (to watch on streaming). The Right Stuff, Hoop Dreams, Barry Lyndon, etc.
The latest issue of the @kottke newsletter just went out. I'm feeling a little fragile today – I hope that intro isn't too rough.
Working with Italian doctors, engineers have developed a 3D printed adapter to turn a snorkeling mask into an emergency non-invasive ventilator for COVID-19 patients. The template is available for free.
An Arizona couple tried to self-medicate after watching Trump suggest an untested treatment on TV. The husband died, the wife is in critical care. Millions more deaths to come if this administration continues on its present course.
March 23
Flatter Me, a battle card game in which players "compete" to gather the most compliments. A perfect game for the times.
Health experts who have fought pandemics lay out how COVID-19 could be stopped in the US. "Americans must be persuaded to stay home, they said, and a system put in place to isolate the infected and care for them outside the home."
An attempt at a realtime map of people who have fevers in the US, using data from internet-connected thermometers. These are weird maps. The band of higher temps across the mid part of the country is telling us what exactly?
I know it seems like a good idea to get all kinds of things delivered while you're in quarantine, but you're offloading your risk onto others in doing so. Please stay mindful of that and order only what you absolutely *need*.
Great interactive piece from the NY Times about how the virus got out of Wuhan and China to the rest of the world. "About 7 million people left [Wuhan] in January, before travel was restricted."
March 21
Audible is offering free books for kids while schools are closed. Titles include Winnie the Pooh, Anne of Green Gables, The Jungle Book, and Brave New World.
March 20
The first lines of classic novels rewritten for social distancing. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be hoarding toilet paper."
Just sent out the latest issue of the @kottke newsletter. I made a few formatting tweaks…more to come.
Steven Heller is right – this is an awful magazine cover by New York magazine. The wrong tone at the wrong time. Ad/marketing/media folks need to rethink these "attention at all costs" strategies.
March 19
From Lynn Ungar, a poem called Pandemic. "What if you thought of it / as the Jews consider the Sabbath– / the most sacred of times?"
From Opentable, a look at how quickly the worldwide restaurant industry shut down due to COVID-19. Like Hemingway said, "gradually, then suddenly".
We might have to make do with virtual travel for awhile. You can check out 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Taj Mahal, Dolomites, Stonehenge) using Google Earth.
March 18
Volunteers are 3D printing $1 replacement valves for machines used in life-saving COVID-19 treatments. The company that normally makes the valve sells them for $11,000.
Ten Considerations Before You Create Another Chart About COVID-19. "Visualizations are powerful for communicating information, but can also mislead, misinform, and – in the worst cases – incite panic."
Some potentially positive COVID-19 news: this preprint paper suggests that SARS-CoV-2 infection confers immunity. "Our results indicated that the primary SARS-CoV-2 infection could protect from subsequent exposures."
QuarantineChat: free service that connects random people from around the world for phone chats. "Get calls at random times and get paired with another person in a one-on-one." It's Chatroulette for phone calls.
"Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus." It's really great that scientists who could be working on something urgent need to spend time debunking conservative conspiracy theories.
March 17
The Coronavirus Calls for Wartime Economic Thinking. "This is not a normal economic event in any way, shape, or form. You have to be willing to think what previously would have been unthinkable."
The perfect self-quarantine meal is @kenjilopezalt's 3-ingredient mac & cheese. It's as easy to make as the box kind and way more tasty. Uses shelf-stable & freezable ingredients too.
The airlines may want a federal bailout, but after making billions of dollars over the past decade, perhaps they do not deserve it. "Before providing them any assistance, we must demand that they change how they treat their customers and employees."
March 16
Canada just announced it has closed its borders to anyone who isn't a citizen or permanent resident. US citizens are exempt (for now).
Working and Learning from Home with Young Children, good advice on how to work from home and homeschool at the same time from Erin Kissane. "Don't be Captain Homeschool on day one."
Interactive chart where you can toggle between "weak quarantine like Italy" and "strong quarantine like South Korea" for your locale. If Massachusetts acts like Italy, there will be "widespread ventilator shortages" by Mar 25.
March 15
NYC schools are closing tomorrow to help slow spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. They will remain closed through at least April 20.
A simple COVID-19 simulator. You can really see how early efforts (like social distancing) can result in huge changes in infections & deaths down the road. Like tens of millions vs thousands.
This is an excellent simulation of how COVID-19 could play out under 4 different scenarios: a) do nothing, b) attempted quarantine, c) moderate social distancing, d) extreme social distancing. The differences are stark!
March 14
The number of obituaries listed in the local newspaper in Bergamo, Italy has skyrocketed. Feb 9: 1.5 pages. Mar 13: 10 pages.
After cancelling live performances due to COVID-19, NYC's Metropolitan Opera will be live-streaming opera performances on their site for free. Verdi, Puccini, and Tchaikovsky for starters.
These guys are assholes, full stop. Cleaning out stores of necessary supplies before the onset of a pandemic is profiteering from human death & suffering and is morally repugnant.
March 13
Floodlines, a new podcast from The Atlantic about Hurricane Katrina. Now you can learn about a disaster & relief effort botched by a Republican administration while living through a disaster & relief effort botched by a Republican administration.
This is a clever idea: Quarantine Book Club. Video chats with authors on Zoom, tickets are $5 a pop.
Epidemiologist and former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler on what the US government should do to fix the COVID-19 testing mess, e.g. "set up mobile specimen collection units throughout the country, staffed with medics".
Great interview with Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma. I saw this earlier in the week and *loved* it.
March 12
How Delays in Testing Set Back the U.S. Coronavirus Response. "A series of missed chances by the federal government to ensure more widespread testing came during the early days of the outbreak, when containment would have been easier."
March 11
Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for COVID-19. Pls pls don't let anything happen to the one of the only genuinely nice guys in Hollywood...
Tutorials from Stanford Online High School about how to create an online classroom. "We want to emphasize that you don't need to 'reinvent the wheel' for online teaching."
March 9
You might find this online Zamboni game soothing today. You steer the Zamboni to clear the ice. That's it. (Unless you leave the ice. In which case, it's a metaphor for *gestures at everything*.)
March 6
Some guidelines on how journalists and newsrooms can cover COVID-19 more responsibly. "The public is starting to freak out. Don't add to it with screaming clickbait headlines and scary generic images."
An interview with a man who held a plank for more than 8 hours. "When it was over, Mr. Hood did not sink onto his belly...he eased back into the yoga position called child's pose."
March 5
The Disposables – the Washington Post sent disposable cameras to 25 women around the country and here's what they captured. "This transported me to a time before instant gratification."
This winter was the hottest ever on record for Europe. The average temps for Dec, Jan, & Feb were *1.4C above* the previous record. I mean!!!!!
Women who work in the adult film industry, photographed with their children. Each photo is accompanied by a short profile. "How do they balance motherhood with their work?"
March 4
March 3
Classic children's books, from Roald Dahl to Little House on the Prairie, are sometimes sexist and racist. Acknowledging that to your kids while reading them can be a learning experience.
March 2
Sliced mayonnaise? Sliced mayonnaise!