Posts
The Crisis Could Last 18 Months. Be Prepared
— The Crisis Could Last 18 Months. Be Prepared, Juliette Kayyem in The Atlantic
Things closing down
Emma’s gone up to the Midlands to collect the car so that we might have some means of getting away from London without breaking social distancing. I was anxious when she left, I don’t want her to be stuck outside of London if the government suddenly announce stricter travel measures. They’ve already started shutting down the trains bit by bit. Yesterday they shut the pubs and restaurants, and the gyms too. This morning I tried to do a workout at home and I’m still going to go for a run. Cycling around deserted streets appeals too. I feel like my...
Back from India
We got back from seeing Tom in India on Monday, and ever since then the world has gotten increasingly strange. Though it isn’t completely enforced, we’re all supposed to stay home and work from home to limit the spread of the virus. All the bars and restaurants are empty, people aren’t going to them and so instead they’re all online chatting away in the evenings. It’s like getting back home from school and everybody jumping straight onto MSN. Apart from today, every day this week the Prime Minister has come on TV and announced some restriction measure. Yesterday they announced...
Sailors On Wikipedia
I just thought it was cool to think of modern sailors at sea for weeks at a time turning to Wikipedia to pass the time. Also nice that we have the technology to support it. — Going Offline | Tools for Dead Spots
James Joyce’s grandson and the death of the stubborn literary executor
— James Joyce’s grandson and the death of the stubborn literary executor, B.D. McClay in The Outline
There Is No Swing Voter
— An Unsettling New Theory: There Is No Swing Voter, Rachel Bitecofer in POLITICO
Emma Willard's Maps of Time
— Emma Willard&'s Maps of Time, Susan Schulten in The Public Domain Review
Stuck in Central China on Coronavirus Lockdown
— Stuck in Central China on Coronavirus Lockdown, Lavender Au in The New York Review of Books
The Only Safe Election Is a Low-Tech Election
— The Only Safe Election Is a Low-Tech Election, Kevin Roose in The New York Times
The mystery of the lost Roman herb
— The mystery of the lost Roman herb, Zaria Gorvett in BBC Future
Uses, January 2020
At my day job at BuzzFeed I’m a software engineer, building stuff for the web. I use my company-issued MacBook Pro “16, 2020 (2.3GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD). It's on a Griffin laptop stand, which isn't quite tall enough to bring the screen up to my eye line, so the stand is piled on top of a couple of thick hardbacks that were lying around. I have an Apple Magic Mouse and the standard wireless Apple Keyboard. When it comes to notes I'm between places at the moment. I try to capture things in digital notes first time around, but...
Harry and Meghan's Big Funding Source Is Private. Sort of
— Harry and Meghan's Big Funding Source Is Private. Sort of, Benjamin Mueller in The New York Times
How Iran Covered Up the Downing of an Airliner
— How Iran Covered Up the Downing of an Airliner, Farnaz Fassihi in The New York Times
This Is Not the Senate the Framers Imagined
— This Is Not the Senate the Framers Imagined, Jane Chong in The Atlantic
What I Learned in Avalanche School
— What I Learned in Avalanche School, Heidi Julavits in The New York Times
Exploring the World of Paradise Lost
— The Sound and the Story: Exploring the World of Paradise Lost, Philip Pullman in The Public Domain Review
Why Scientists Fall for Precariously Balanced Rocks
— Why Scientists Fall for Precariously Balanced Rocks in Atlas Obscura
Flights
I just finished Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. I really enjoyed it without really knowing what to make of it. It’s structured in a stream-of-consciousness way, with distinct sections (which aren’t quite chapters) that sometimes relate to what’s come before with a dream logic. Here are some of my favourite sections, or at least a couple that got me thinking. — “The Tongue Is The Strongest Muscle”, p183 I’ve felt various things about my only fluent language being the lingua franca of much of the world, but this is the first thing I’ve read that captures what a shallow, wasteful thing...