John Green on coronavirus: “Togetherness is the superpower of our species. Like, yeah, we as individuals are very smart, as animals go, but it is our collective knowledge that has made us so successful.”

youtu.be/dh23nwxpf…


American Airlines blew $15B on stock buybacks to benefit shareholders, jacked up prices and nickel-and-dimed customers. Now it wants a $50B bailout - 3x 9/11.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/1…

When companies make good decisions, management and shareholders are rewarded. When companies make bad decisions, they scream for help to Uncle Sam … and management and shareholders are rewarded at taxpayer expense.

Good thing Bernie is going down. Otherwise we might have socialism or something!


NYT: Trump Now Claims He Always Knew the Coronavirus Would Be a Pandemic

www.nytimes.com/2020/03/1…

Trump lies compulsively, and many times a day, about things that are easily verifiable as untrue. He claims he always knew the coronavirus would be pandemic within days of having gone on the record numerous times downplaying the seriousness of the virus and ridiculing people who took it seriously.

None of this is secret. It’s all on video. You can see it for yourself. Probably you did see it.


Scientists warn we may need to live with social distancing for a year or more

www.vox.com/science-a…

Grim reading.


Facebook was marking legitimate news articles about the coronavirus as spam due to a software bug

www.theverge.com/2020/3/17…


San Diego leaders back freeze on evictions tied to coronavirus outbreak despite landlord concerns

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/poli…


California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday he has put the California National Guard on alert to help protect communities and fight the spread of COVID-19.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/mili…


Suddenly unemployed, San Diego workers grapple with how to pay rent and utility, grocery bills

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/…


The Atlantic: America’s Restaurants Will Need a Miracle

Social distancing could prove devastating to the restaurant industry, as restaurants are becoming vital economic infrastructure.

Americans now spend more at restaurants than at grocery stores—something they had never done before 2015. This modern dining revolution has made restaurants one of the country’s most important sources of work. In 1990, manufacturing employment was almost three times larger than the food-service industry, but today there are about as many jobs in food service as in manufacturing. Restaurants are the new factories, and without them state and local economies across the country would fall to pieces. Food-preparation and food-service jobs now account for more than 10 percent of all employment in Nevada, Hawaii, and Florida.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc…



Scientific American: Time Has No Meaning at the North Pole

On the research vessel, Polarstern, at the North Pole, time zones, seasons and even day and night are meaningless.The sun rises and sets once a year, and 24 times zones converge on a single point.

The captain changes the ships time zone arbitrarily, to communicate with other ships on different clocks.

blogs.scientificamerican.com/observati…


This Tom Hanks Story Will Make You Feel Less Bad

www.nytimes.com/2020/03/1…


“There is nothing in this world that occurs to you that has not occurred to me first. That is the affliction I live with.”

maximumfun.org/episodes/…




Shit.


Charter employees are fuming as the Internet and phone provider prohibits working from home, despite coronavirus.

One engineer sent an angry mailblast to a SVP and hundreds of engineers. He doesn’t work at Charter anymore.

techcrunch.com/2020/03/1…


Cory Doctorow: Be sure to fill out your census. Do it online or by phone.

Filling out your census is important to your community getting its share of federal representation and services.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/1…


Cory Doctorow’s Twitter account was suspended for a day, because of a list of trolls he created called “colossal assholes.”

Says Cory: “‘Colossal assholes’ got me suspended, but not its companion list, ‘Toe-faced shitweasels’”

But he’s back now.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/1…


Family Room Decor, 1970s retropopcult.tumblr.com/post/6128…