January 31
The CDC has issued an order requiring people to wear masks on airplanes, buses, subways, etc. and at transit hubs (airports, bus stations). Not wearing a mask is a violation of federal law.
January 29
On the challenges of navigating the pandemic while single. "One day I realized it had been three months since I had touched a human being."
January 28
How the "stop the steal" lie resembles the "stab-in-the-back myth" that festered in Germany after WWI and led to the rise of the Nazis. "A myth of betrayal and injustice is well underway." (This was written before 1/6.)
Across the globe, tests are being conducted to determine if dogs can be effective in screening people for Covid-19. "Early experiments appear to demonstrate high levels of accuracy by the sniffer dogs..."
Here's what we should do as the new Covid-19 variants bear down on us. I cannot describe how SO VERY FRUSTRATING it is to read articles like this that recommend doing all the things we should have been doing all along.
A pretty good explainer about what's happening with the GameStop stock situation. "How a horde of Redditors are destroying various hedge funds and becoming rich."
January 27
U.S. Suffers Sharpest Rise in Poverty Rate in More Than 50 Years. The rate increased by 2.4% in the last half of 2020 – for Black Americans, the poverty rate increased by 5.4%.
"I Left My Career in Prestige Media Because of the Shitty Men in Charge and They Are Still In Charge and Still Fucking Up." Such a surprise that the dude fired by the NY Times for that Tom Cotton op-ed is toxic.
I Am the Designer of This Restaurant's Outdoor Seating Space, and This Is My Artist's Statement. "What if you could get infinitely close to being indoors, while remaining, by some convoluted set of standards, outdoors?"
January 26
Against all odds, Paris has become a city of bikes. "Rue de Rivoli, the wide street that runs past the Louvre, has been entirely closed to private cars."
This is gloriously nerdy: "Why I've tracked every single piece of clothing I've worn for three years". Don't miss his wardrobe management advice at the end.
Rich couple flies private plane to get Covid-19 vaccine meant for Indigenous residents of a small Yukon town. I don't believe that people are inherently evil, but this is such a vile act that I may have to reconsider.
January 25
"Electric vehicles close to 'tipping point' of mass adoption." So many people I know have said something like "my next car will be electric".
JK Rowling should gift the IP for Harry Potter to a non-profit collective overseen by HP fans. It belongs to them already anyway.
"Israel sees 60% drop in hospitalizations for age 60-plus 3 weeks after 1st shot." The vaccines are amazing. We need to get them into people's arms faster!
Great episode of You're Wrong About on Shannon Faulkner, the first female student to attend The Citadel (after a lengthy sexual discrimination lawsuit). Long overdue recognition of a forgotten feminist hero.
January 22
We should be wearing better masks indoors around others. Double-masking can help. "One big advantage of double-masking that I've found is that it creates a better fit and closes the gaps around the edge of your mask."
"This site features a curriculum developed around the television series, Halt and Catch Fire." This is fantastic!
January 21
All five seasons of The Muppet Show will be available on Disney+ on February 19. Very excited for this...I was an avid Muppet Show viewer as a kid. "It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights..."
On Biden's first day in office, the US rejoined the Paris climate agreement. "It's just a huge day to get rid of this myopic, benighted administration and welcome in a new president who manifestly is committed to strong, meaningful action."
Faced with more contagious coronavirus strains, European countries are starting to mandate the wearing of more effective KN95 or surgical masks instead of cloth masks. The US should 100% do this (and provide masks).
January 20
"Where the Obama administration's approach was too often clever and strewn with budgetary wonkiness, the Biden formula should embrace the opposite: big, fast, and simple." Be bold, change lives – GOP will complain either way.
January 19
A county-by-county US map that shows who wants to get the Covid-19 vaccine. In some places, it's under 50%. Lots of work to do here.
Michigan GOP will replace a Republican election board member who voted to certify the election for Biden. Seems likely that for 2024, a few GOP-controlled swing states could have election boards in place that will not certify Democratic candidates.
January 16
The Trump administration has conducted 13 federal executions since July. "No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions." Didn't get enough deaths from Covid?
January 15
How a 14-year challenge to find a person based only on a photograph of him and his name ("Satoshi") was finally solved. Great story but that last line is an *incredible* reveal.
Covid-19 cut US life expectancy in 2020 by 1.13 years. "Black and Latino populations are estimated to experience declines...of 2.10 and 3.05 years" compared to 0.68 years for whites. 3 years!!
Sally Rooney will be out with a new book in September called "Beautiful World, Where Are You". Hot diggity!
January 14
Fascinating post about how @gumroad works as a company (all part-time workers, no meetings, no deadlines, focus on flexibility instead of growth). This is how I'd run @kottke if I could support more contributors.
Course Syllabus for Making New Friends as an Adult. "Most assignments will just end up being watching your new friend's TV-show recommendation."
Here's some information on enrolling in Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine trial for teens (12-to-17-year-olds). Test sites include Meridian, ID; Houston; San Antonio; La Mesa, CA; West Jordan, UT; and Minneapolis, MN.
January 13
HE REMOVED HIS MASK TO SNEEZE!!! ARGHGHGHGH.... That's it, I'm outta here for the rest of the day.
House Republicans are afraid their right-wing constituents will harm them if they vote for impeachment. Voting "no" for this reason serves to shift that danger onto their Democratic colleagues, who are already under threat. Deplorable.
My pal Aaron owns a small ice cream shop in Boston and he recently posted the shop's 2020 sales numbers (compared w/ 2019's). "Total sales were down about 50% and number of transactions was down 66%."
The Only Strategy Left for Democrats. "After this week, the mandate is clear: Make people's lives better."
According to the NY Times, 4,400 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the US yesterday. With cases still high, we'll see 5000/day in the coming weeks. Might see 8000-10,000/day with the new strains unless action is taken. A colossal crisis.
Was discussing this with a friend yesterday: Why Aren't We Wearing Better Masks? Cloth masks and bandanas were a stop-gap measure but we're a year into this now...everyone should be wearing better masks, especially with B.1.1.7 on the horizon.
The Congressman Who Lost His Son and Fled a Mob. "The day before the Capitol riot, Representative Jamie Raskin buried his 25-year-old son, who had left a note for his family on New Year's Eve."
January 12
Israel is on pace to have 50% of their population fully vaccinated for Covid-19 by the end of March.
The Great Gatsby is now in the public domain. Here's a good free ebook copy you can read online, on your Kindle, or on another tablet or ereader device.
January 11
An explanation of how a "self coup" works. "An autogolpe is, at its simplest, when a duly elected leader revolts against his *own* government to consolidate power."
The US needs a National Hi-Fi Mask Initiative. "Ideally, a set of [N95 or close equivalent] masks would be mailed to each U.S. household every month — the costs of doing so pale in comparison to the pandemic's toll on lives and the economy."
A TikTok user w/ Parkinson's made a video complaining about their tiny hard-to-use pills so another user taught himself how to use 3D modeling software and designed an easier way to take those small pills. Schematics are open source.
"There has been not a single official briefing from the White House, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, or Capitol Police. The federal government has gone dark." An electrifying question to ask yourself rn: "Who is in charge of America?"
January 10
Trump incited people to storm the Capitol Building and then purposefully delayed deploying the National Guard to deal with the situation. This is a clear abuse of power and a heinous criminal act against the US government.
January 8
Among the terrorists who stormed the Capitol on 1/6 were those who were equipped for mayhem – possibly to take hostages, kidnap high value targets, or even take lives. "We'd better not forget what they almost managed to do."
A good thread from Dr. @EricTopol about why we should be taking the Covid-19 "superspreader" strains very seriously. "Over the next several weeks, these new strains will become the dominant ones in the United States..."
Twitter just permanently banned Donald Trump. "We have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence."
How To Talk To Kids About The Riots At The U.S. Capitol. "No doubt many young people across the country are finding this moment extremely scary. Parents, caregivers and teachers can help children cope."
January 7
Madness on Capitol Hill. "'This is not America,' a woman said to a small group, her voice shaking. She was crying, hysterical. 'They're shooting at us. They're supposed to shoot BLM, but they're shooting the patriots.'"
Right-wing folks were openly & publicly planning their terrorist campaign online for weeks before yesterday. Law enforcement & anti-terrorism agencies stood by and let this happen.
Nearly 3800 US deaths from Covid-19 reported yesterday. Will likely be another 3000+ deaths reported today. And every day for days and weeks to come.
January 6
Twitter's policy about removing people from its platform hasn't made any sense for awhile now. It's long past time: Trump should be permanently banned from Twitter.
Most respondents to this YouGov poll say that the terrorists' storming of the Capitol today is "a threat to democracy". But *45% of Republican respondents* say they support the terrorists' actions.
A List of Everyone Complicit in This Coup Attempt. People must be held accountable for this. Otherwise, after Ted Cruz is elected President in 2024, he'll be the last democratically elected one. (Far-fetched? Not after what happened today.)
Some tips garnered from research on how to change people's minds. "Be nice and respectful. Listen. Understand. Instill doubt."
America's "toxic individualism" has got to go. "How do you convince people that caring about others is necessary? How can we relay the idea that living in a civilized society means working for the health and happiness of everyone in it?"
LeBron James tweets about putting together an ownership group for the Atlanta Dream, the WNBA team that outgoing senator Kelly Loeffler co-owns. A good idea from the comments: make it a cooperative so that fans own the team.
January 5
A lecture on the history and prehistory of Unix. "Unix popularized so many fundamental concepts in computing that it's easy to forget that they had to come from somewhere."
After a short holiday break, the Kottke Ride Home podcast is back on the airwaves. It's a daily 15-minute shot of the day's most interesting news hosted by @jackisnotabird.
January 4
The Open Source Motorcycle. Using this collection of open source, modular part designs, you can "build your own fully customizable, street-legal motorcycle in a weekend".
January 1