November 30
11 facts about coast redwoods. They drink fog, their bark is a foot thick, and some were alive during the Roman Empire. I love redwoods.
November 27
1000s of cover videos of Billie Eilish's Bad Guy, auto-synched by AI. "Machine learning keeps all these covers on the same beat and lets you jump from video to video seamlessly."
55 Ways White People Say 'White People' Without Actually Saying 'White People', including "real Americans", "soccer moms", "law-abiding citizens", "taxpayers", and "families".
How to Socialize in the Cold Without Being Miserable. "It's like a chess match — you need to be thinking two or three moves ahead."
Their Patients Have COVID-19 and Still Think It's a Hoax. Said one nurse: "We never have had people who thought we were lying to them. It feels like the public doesn't trust us anymore."
November 25
Social Unrest Is the Inevitable Legacy of the Covid Pandemic. "Throughout history, plagues have caused upheaval and revolts. This pandemic will be no different."
An analysis of representation in crossword puzzles. "Our finding: crossword puzzles are dominated by men of European descent, reserving little space for everyone else."
November 24
How to get good at chess. "You need to be endlessly fascinated by it and see its infinite potential. Be willing to embrace the complexity; enjoy the adventure."
The gadget comeback of 2020. "Did you expect to spend your summer trying to figure out if an air purifier made by a Bluetooth speaker company was going to be sufficient to clear the atmosphere in your isolation pod on an increasingly hostile planet?"
Ernest Cline's Ready Player Two is out today. "Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday's contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything."
Helicopter pilot finds "strange" monolith in Utah wilderness. "I'm assuming it's some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big 2001: A Space Odyssey fan."
November 23
The Birther Myth Stuck Around For Years. The Election Fraud Myth Might Too. "A significant number of Americans currently believe the 2020 election was stolen, even though it wasn't."
How to make an AC/DC song in 30 seconds. "What's that? Look out! Dog on the road!"
Recommended: this You're Wrong About episode about the Electoral College w/ special guest @jbouie. I particularly enjoyed the "what if?" discussion – it's not so straightforward what the result of EC abolishment would be on national elections.
Don't Eat Inside a Restaurant. "Each of us, to get through this terrible time, has clung to some coronavirus factoid or another that we believe protects us. Here's mine: The odds of catching the coronavirus are about 20 times higher indoors than outdoors."
On the sanctity of American marriage. "I believe that marriage is a lasting partnership between one person without health insurance and one person who gets pretty good coverage through work."
November 21
This saga of the Craigslist Pig Couch—which has been circulating in various listings since at least 2016—is intriguing in its own right. But what really nails the story are the dry, perfectly shaped sentences, one after another
November 20
The volunteers, coders, designers, coordinators, and journalists behind The @COVID19Tracking Project are some of the genuine heroes of this year. Here's how they came together to do a job the US federal government can't or won't do:
November 19
"T-shirt? Towel? Some experts say it's time to get beyond states' anything-goes approach to masks." Yes. Enough of the bandanas and single-ply gaiters.
November 18
Video of an anti-vaxxer gathering in Iowa last weekend shows huge indoor gathering, chanting Freedom!, no mask wearing, no distancing. Currently 51.7% of tested Iowans have Covid. Pure lunacy.
Modelling the risk of aerosol transmission of Covid-19 during Thanksgiving dinner. Room size matters, outdoors is very low risk, "if superspreader present, everyone will be infected", risk rises faster than group size, HEPA filters useful.
Apple reduces their App Store cut to 15% for businesses making less than $1 million/yr. Why not make this automatic and more progressive though?
More preliminary results from Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine: 95% effective after 170 accumulated infections. Moderna reported 94.5%. This is good news.
November 17
The COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool estimates how likely it is for a Covid-positive person to be at a gathering of X people. At a gathering of 15 people where I grew up in WI, there's currently an 81% chance that someone there will have it.
Beyond parody...this is real Cosmo front page copy (about The Black Death!): "Dating Lessons from Pandemics Past – The 14th Century Called and It Wants Its Sex Spree Back"
November 16
America's healthcare workers, already strained and exhausted from months of continuous effort, are facing a "bigger and broader" third surge. "More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can't go on like this."
53 Whiskey Cocktails to Get You Through Winter. Only 53?! I don't know if that's going to be enough... (Pairs well with The 4000 Best Movies You Must Watch on Netflix Tonight!!!)
Using techniques borrowed from sex-ed (to e.g. encourage condom use) to talk to people about mask wearing. "It feels strange to do this even if you don't feel sick. That's actually why it matters: if we do this, we get to keep...spending time together."
November 15
A South Dakota ER nurse on her Covid-19 patients who refuse to believe Covid is real. "They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that 'stuff' because they don't have COViD because it's not real. Yes. This really happens."
November 13
Unable to get together in person, two friends have been writing daily haikus to each other during the pandemic. Some lovely thoughts here on creativity, friendship, and happiness.
In August, 55 people attended a wedding reception in Maine. A single guest had Covid-19 and it eventually spread to 176 other people, 7 of whom died. "None of the victims who lost their lives had attended the party."
November 12
We're Past the 'Point of No Return' on Global Warming, Scientists Warn. "It simply will not stop from cutting manmade greenhouse gasses. We need to do something more in order to stop it."
A look at the beef between the owner and employees of NYC's iconic Strand Bookstore. "Why, they wonder, are their fellow employees still out of jobs while the owner gets a government payroll loan and has the money to invest elsewhere?"
How has Uruguay done so well during the pandemic? "Only 3,620 cases and 62 deaths despite sharing borders with Brazil & Argentina, two of the world's top-10 in overall cases."
November 11
The winners of the 2020 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards. Lots of meaty reading here about the pandemic, climate change, and other topics.
Trump is attempting a coup in plain sight. "That this coup probably will not work — that it is being carried out farcically, erratically, ineffectively — does not mean it is not happening, or that it will not have consequences."
Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle? "If a knight came face-to-face with a peasant in battle, then the latter had the odds very much against them."
November 10
Take some time to read about the Kristallnacht (violent anti-Jewish pogroms), which took place in Germany and German-occupied areas 82 years ago yesterday & today. We need to remember well the dangers of racist, nationalist authoritarianism.
Holy crap, watch this video of someone exhaling in a N95 mask with a value vs. an unvalved mask. If you're still somehow wearing a valved mask thinking it will protect others from your possible infection, please find a better option.
I missed this news last month: George Miller is directing a Mad Max prequel called Furiosa. Anya Taylor-Joy (Beth in The Queen's Gambit) will play Furiosa.
What if we treated the American Presidency as the civil service job that it is? "We don't think of the Presidency as a civil service position like working at the DMV or delivering the mail. But that's what it is. It's another government service job."
November 9
An interview with former chess champion Linda Diaz about what The Queen's Gambit got right & wrong. "She's really aggressive. And I was also an aggressive player. And so it comes off as 'you're impatient,' and really it's that you're creative..."
This is pitch perfect: I Guess I Just Expected a Little More From This Country. "How could a people that had to be explicitly told not to eat Tide Pods be so short-sighted?"
A toolkit for volunteering for the Georgia US Senate runoff races supporting the Raphael Warnock & Jon Ossoff campaigns. Includes places to donate, local orgs to support, how to phonebank, etc.
November 8
November 6
This is a nice map, but we do this every four years. Misleading area-based US election maps have been "fixed" for decades. It's just that the media won't stop using them.
November 5
An Oral History of 'Marge vs The Monorail', the Episode That Changed 'The Simpsons'. Always one of my favorites & quoted it endlessly w/ friends in college.
2020 Should Be the Last Time We Vote Like This. The US system of voting is terrible and unfair and racist.
An interview with James Nestor, author of a recent book on the "lost art" of breathing. Inhaling through the nose "can trigger different hormones to flood into our bodies, how it can lower our blood pressure..."
"Young people with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic are at risk for developing potentially dangerous inflammation around the heart." In a recent study, 1/3 of student athletes w/ Covid showed "evidence of heart abnormalities".
Critics look back on their reviews that they got wrong. "Daft Punk were incredibly prescient: play Discovery today and it sounds utterly contemporary. My review, on the other hand, has not aged so well."
November 4
Twitter accounts are getting TV shows now. Ava DuVernay is doing a @OnePerfectShot series for HBO Max celebrating and discussing "the best shots in film history".
Ted Lasso started as a character in a 2013 NBC Sports promo for the network's Premier League coverage. I am glad the character evolved from the meaner one in this spot...
A former chess master & columnist grades The Queen's Gambit on its chess authenticity. "The series is one of the best and most successful screen adaptations of the game."
Chad Scira responsibly reported a bug to Chase regarding their credit card rewards points (you could generate free points by transferring in a certain way). Chase responded by cancelling all of his credit cards and bank accounts.
November 3
Tamir Rice would have been old enough to vote today. "Keep him and others without a voice in mind as we use our voices in their stead."
A visualization of the role of superspreading in the Covid-19 pandemic. In a situation like this where 10-20% of the people are responsible for 70-80% of the spread, stopping those spreading opportunities is key.
November 2
An Incomplete History of White Election Violence. "No, my friends, America is not 'better than this.'"
An analysis of how police misconduct complaints are handled in Philadelphia. "Not only are the investigation and findings processes more dismissive toward Black complainants, they are more punitive toward Black officers."
Jeff Bridges updates us on his cancer diagnosis. "This cancer is making me appreciate my mortality, appreciate impermanance. I'm realizing if I have shit to share, now's the time."