What? THURSDAY Links? In This Economy?

* Sneak preview: the landmark Paradoxa “climate fictions” issue, edited by the great Ali Sperling!

* The 2020 Hugo Awards: The Political Hugo.

* Hold the Starships — an Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson on Mars Settlement, Socialists in Space, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Immortality, and the Purpose of Science Fiction.

* A Second Coronavirus Death Surge Is Coming. Almost one-third of Florida children tested are positive for the coronavirus. Most air conditioning systems don’t protect against the coronavirus. In some cases, they can actually facilitate spread. How Arizona blew it. UnitedHealth posts most profitable quarter in its history. Disney World Fully Reopens to Crowds as Florida Surpasses 300K Coronavirus Cases. 51.3 million.

* First Coronavirus Vaccine Tested in Humans Shows Early Promise. The University of Oxford candidate, led by Sarah Gilbert, might be through human trials in September.

* More Than 40 Mayors Outline Their Vision for a Green Coronavirus Recovery.

* It’s the “bring their own chairs” part that makes it art. Budget ‘Bloodbath’ at University of Akron.

what if everything being cake when you cut it open has something to do with how some many things in this moment are being pared away and revealed to made of total shit

— inverted vibe curve: burgertown must be defended (@PatBlanchfield) July 15, 2020

* Minimum wage workers cannot afford rent in any U.S. state.

* Giving the NYPD the power to declare journalists enemy combatants at whim seems bad actually. Biden winning by so much that maybe even Biden couldn’t blow it. The media is covering this election all wrong.

* Another Monument to White Supremacy That Should Come Down? The Electoral College.

* Doomsday Clock only ended in December, but DC is already trying to sequelize Watchmen again. And elsewhere on the Watchmen beat: The Simpsons Watchmen Parody Is As Weird As You’d Expect.

I'm all for a new Watchmen comic about Rorschach as long as his mask doesn't have that picture of my parents having sex on it anymore.

— Paranoid Andy Edwards (@eds209) July 15, 2020

* How did they write a graverobbing Gatsby prequel and then make it about Nick Carraway? Obviously the book is Jay Gatz.

* The most interesting thing you can just barely understand: How Gödel’s Proof Works.

* Know your risk.

* Today in tech.

* The important questions.

Mutant puppies and military grade hardware: who funds the Paw Patrol?

— Tade Thompson (@tadethompson) July 15, 2020

* The postal service is such an obviously beneficial and necessary public good they have no choice but to destroy it on principle.

thinking about USPS, tax day, that two-year period of complete Democratic control of government we had a while ago, and how many small and easy things they didn't fix on account of none of them being normal people with normal problems

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) July 16, 2020

there's literally no reaching people who think "repealing an obscure 2006 bill that intentionally bankrupted the post office" was too heavy a lift for a party that had merely 57 Senate votes in 2009

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) July 16, 2020

* What It’s Like to Be Single in Your 60s With $233,921 in Student Debt.

* All the blue checks got hacked and Twitter still wasn’t fun anymore. I did like talking the MCU with you all this morning, though. Backgrounder: Hackers Convinced Twitter Employee to Help Them Hijack Accounts.

* America’s child care problem is an economic problem.

* The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

* ‘Jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born.

* Abolition is not a suburb.

* If you’re sufficiently rich and sufficiently diversified you make your money on the swing, not on the value. Chaos as investment strategy.

* And knives out for Joss Whedon. Just incredible to see his reputation transform like this.

Some Highlights from Best American Comics 2011

* David Lasky, “The Ultimate Graphic Novel (in Six Panels).”

* K. Beaton, “Great Gatsbys” (already linked previously!)

* Joey Allison Sayers, “Oh No, Pet Cat” (just a taste!)

* Gabrielle Bell, “Manifestation”

Here’s the whole book at Amazon, introduced by Alison Bechdel. Of course it’s got some Chris Ware in there, too…

Parody Is Dead

There was a time when “The Great Gatsby to be shot in 3D” could only have been an Onion headline. Those were simpler days.

Monday! Yes!

* Science proves Republicans lie more. Really!

* Boy Without a Cerebellum Baffles Doctors.

* The Great Gatsby. For NES. The best part is: it’s playable.

* Obama to grad students: drop dead.

* Computers still stink at Jeopardy.

* Ghost planets of the solar system.

* And Jasper Johns awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom. He’s the first artist in 34 years to get one.