Sunday Night Links!

* ICYMI: I’ve finally succumbed to the inevitable and started a podcast. Go ahead and listen! We’ve just recorded our first bonus episode, on “Welcome to the Monkey House,” which is a nightmare story about which there is nothing good to say. Watch for the episode next week!

* Why Our Economy May Be Headed for a Decade of Depression. The battleground states are getting absolutely hammered. Unions worry Congress is one step closer to a liability shield. Getting back to normal is the last thing we need. I Don’t Feel Like Buying Stuff Anymore.

* You go too far, sir! The Case for Letting the Restaurant Industry Die.

* Jesus Christ.

more convinced of this than I was two days ago and also more convinced that our pathologically dysfunctional institutions will have absolutely no way of properly evaluating risks if it does happen https://t.co/akDTiw0DKe

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 24, 2020

* Why do some COVID-19 patients infect many others, whereas most don’t spread the virus at all? The coronavirus invades Trump country.  Running in the Age of Coronavirus. The Pandemic and the Appalachian Trail. America gives up.

* Antimalarial drug touted by President Trump is linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, study says. Low virus rate leaves Oxford vaccine trial with ‘only 50% chance.’ No One Knows What’s Going to Happen.

Hill said that of 10,000 people recruited to test the vaccine in the coming weeks — some of whom will be given a placebo — he expected fewer than 50 people to catch the virus. If fewer than 20 test positive, then the results might be useless, he warned.

“We’re in the bizarre position of wanting COVID to stay, at least for a little while. But cases are declining.”

* The coronavirus pandemic is rapidly transforming this year’s elections, changing the way tens of millions of people cast ballots and putting thousands of election officials at the center of a pitched political fight as they rush to adapt with limited time and funding.

* ‘Hundreds of millions of dollars’ lost in Washington to unemployment fraud amid coronavirus joblessness surge.

* Is Testing Students for COVID Feasible? Obviously not, are you joking? The Complex Question of Reopening Schools. ‘A Dramatic and Unprecedented Contraction’: A Look Inside JHU’s $375-Million Budget Shortfall.  ‘The stakes of doing it wrong is that someone dies’: How coronavirus will transform K-12 schools in the fall. COVID-19 is driving students away from community college – maybe forever, says Bunker Hill president. Moody’s disagrees. 5 Myths About Remote Teaching in the Covid-19 Crisis. Reopening Indiana University? Troubled Reflections of a Wayward Professor. A Note from Your University About Its Plans for Next Semester.

I’ve said this before but if they really need to reopen they shouldn’t bother with any precautions and just save the money for the lawsuits.

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 22, 2020

* Huge — if true: Locked-Down Teens Stay Up All Night, Sleep All Day.

I think a quietly radicalizing moment for me was realizing that basically everything we associate with being a teenager — irritability, bad decisions, impulsivity, depression — is a symptom of sleep deprivation caused by making school hours match working hours.

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 23, 2020

* From Camping To Dining Out: Here’s How Experts Rate The Risks Of 14 Summer Activities. A summer without pools in Milwaukee.

* As life moves online, gaps in digital accessibility mean millions of disabled Americans are being left behind.

* I Enrolled in a Coronavirus Contact Tracing Academy.

* The Misfortune of Graduating in 2020. The humanities vs. the virus. Teaching African American Literature During COVID-19.

My man is an economist who thinks the humanities are subsidized. Son, we are cheap and the excess revenue our students generate pays for most of the university https://t.co/N8ZTtbE3R8

— Matt Gabriele (@prof_gabriele) May 22, 2020

economics is simply a tool like anything else, with the proper training and safeguards it is no more dangerous than a firearm https://t.co/de6Sye85qg

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 24, 2020

* Today’s fan fiction prompt: 6 months on, Trump hasn’t completed his physical. The White House won’t say why.

* Meanwhile, in Oregon.

The Senate nominee said she was “literally physically in tears ” after reading the statement posted by her own campaign to her personal Twitter account and bucked her own campaign by reiterating support for QAnon.

“My campaign is gonna kill me,” Perkins said. “How do I say this? Some people think that I follow Q like I follow Jesus. Q is the information and I stand with the information resource.”

* The Progressives of Burlington, Vermont.

* Whoopsies.

* Is capitalism racist? Oh god I hope not.

* Behind the scenes of Yesterday. Fascinating look how the industry works.

* The end of Hong Kong.

* Biden man. I mean really.

There is a *direct* line between the Democrats never holding their leaders accountable for anything for thirty years no matter how badly they behave or how catastrophically they screw up and a Joe Biden campaign that is nothing but humiliation after humiliation.

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 23, 2020

Biden doesn’t have an aspirational message, doesn’t have symbolic or historical importance, doesn’t even have a policy agenda, has an absolutely wretched, dirty record, and can’t appear on television without embarrassing himself, and it just doesn’t matter. It’s absurd.

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 23, 2020

what the hell man pic.twitter.com/c6dXJfbnkk

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 23, 2020

* 40 Years of Pac-Man.

* What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about the Brain.

* Just this article made me more afraid of spiders.

* What to Do When Your Video Game Gets Co-opted by Neo-Nazis.

* Of course you had me at Exclusive First Look at the New Back to the Future Game.

* An Oral History of the Battle of Hoth. Maybe AT-ATs Aren’t as Dumb as They Look.

* Homeowners use up 10 times more pesticide per acre than farmers do. But we can change what we do in our own yards.

* After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure: Universal Orlando to re-open with new guidelines, grim reminder that you, too, shall die.

* I truly thought I’d seen everything but Watchmen Noir has shocked even this cynical soul in new depths of despair.

* Picard, the xBs, and Disability.

* This rules.

* Did… did a dark feeling write this?

* And the only other good thing left on the Internet: a thread of Taika Waititi smiling but his smile gets bigger as you keep scrolling.

All the Tuesday Links

* Mars. 

* “For Unpaid College Loans,Feds Dock Social Security.”

* Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism Advisory Board member and University of Nebraska at Omaha Criminology professor Pete Simi had extensive long term contact with alleged Wisconsin mass killer Wade Michael Page when he was conducting a multi-year study of the hate rock music scene in Southern California.

* The wisdom of markets: ‘Crude-oil futures bounced up over $1 at one point Monday after a false Twitter rumor exposed the oil market’s knee-jerk fear of Mideast turmoil.’

* Romney v. Reid, part 1000: “I don’t really believe that he’s got any kind of a credible source.” They’re his tax returns; if it’s within the realm of possibility that Reid has “any kind of a credible source,” isn’t that logically a concession the claim is true? TPM explains how it could be, though I still think it probably isn’t.

* Louisiana School Forces Students to Take Pregnancy Tests, Kicks Out Girls Who Refuse Or Test Positive. Naturally, the school also forces any young man suspecting of fathering a child to let’s not ruin a young man’s life over one mistake.

* The brightest timeline: New Arrested Development Season Starts Shooting Today.

* The darkest timeline: Papa John Warns: Pizza Prices Will Rise Under Obamacare.

* Ohio man brings bag full of knives, guns and ammo to ‘Dark Knight’ screening – tells police it’s for self-defense.

* Residents in Richmond. North Richmond and San Pablo. Are advised to shelter in place. Go inside. Close All windows and doors. Turn off all heaters. Air conditioners and fans…

* Joss Whedon will write and direct both Avengers Reaveng’d and help develop the Marvel TV series. This is reasonably promising, and yet I can’t help but agree with @HitFixDaniel: “I’d rather have Joss Whedon direct *literally* anything original than do an “Avengers” sequel. *ducks*”

* Save the arcade industry the barcade way.

* For my SF academics: UC Riverside’s Eaton Lifetime Achievement Award to recognize Ursula Le Guin, Ray Harryhausen and Stan Lee. As if you need another reason to go!

* The last alignment chart you’ll ever need: all Gary Oldman edition.

* The last missing piece of the puzzle: Witness claims there were actually two UFO crashes at Roswell in 1947.

* Science Proves Luke Skywalker Should Have Died In The Tauntaun’s Belly.

* And don’t say it unless you mean it: speaking on Attack of the Show about Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, David Tennant says he’s still got the costume.