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The answer is 'No.' I might be wrong here, but I think it’s exactly the right time to put our needs and desires for fun and camaraderie aside and think of the big picture. We’re likely just a matter of days before we begin a more strict lockdown and “distancing” becomes “isolation.” As we try to flatten the infection curve, I think we should stay ahead of the curve and avoid any kind of group activity.

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Most cases are not life-threatening, which is also what makes the virus a historic challenge to contain.

We live in an interwoven, interconnected world where an injury to one is truly an injury to all. We must confront the coronavirus with solidarity and fight for a society where the health of all is more important than profits for a few. --- The scramble reveals a class system in which a mark of relative status is the power to withdraw. If you have wealth or a salary from an institution that values you, and enough space at home, you might be able to pull off the essentially absurd trick of isolating yourself for a few months by drawing down the global web of commodities on display at Costco and Trader Joe’s. But for the 50 percent of the country that has no savings and lives paycheck to paycheck, or in small apartments with little food storage, or has to hustle every day to find work, this is simply impossible. People will be out every day, on the subways, at the gas stations, choosing between epidemiological prudence and economic survival, because they have no choice but to make that choice. […] “Wash your hands” is good advice but also a poignant reminder that this is not the sort of problem that personal responsibility can solve. Epidemiology is a political problem. It’s not hard to sketch the steps that would ease our cruel situation: a work stoppage, massive income support (unemployment payments with some universal basic income in the mix), a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures and evictions. Treatment for coronavirus and potentially related symptoms should be free and comprehensive, no questions asked (about immigration status, for instance), so that no one goes untreated because of fear or poverty. This is all, in the most straightforward sense, good for everyone. It is also how people look out for one another’s vulnerability and need when they see one another’s problems as their own. […] It takes a vast and intricate infrastructure to keep us all running in one another’s service, and in the ultimate service of return to capital: from highways to credit markets to the global trade regime. The fact that these interwoven systems are tanking financial markets around the world at the prospect that people might need to spend a few months sitting at home rather than hurrying around exchanging money shows how finely calibrated they are to profit, and how totally lacking in resilience to shifts in human need.

Slow television is the uninterrupted broadcast of an ordinary event from start to finish. Early efforts included burning Yule logs on TV around Christmas and driver’s views of complete British rail journeys (not to mention Andy Warhol and the pitch drop experiment), but Norwegian public television has revived the format in recent years. The first broadcast was of a 7-hour train trip from Bergen to Oslo, which was watched at some point by ~20% of Norway’s population.

During a round of Power Slides one player gives an improvised 5 minute pitch for an imaginary app using a series of randomly selected slides. The app concept will be on the first slide. Slides will advance automatically. On the last slide, the presenter must come up with a name for their app, and the audience must applaud! Power Slides is best when displayed on an external screen or projector. Once a pitch has begun, it will not require additional input in the browser.

Compiled and updated by Thursday Bram.

A big Google Document full of helpful tips for online meetings, classes, and events. Friends, as we scramble to move our offline interactions online, this is an emerging initial place to share, curate and organize resources. It could really use the loving attention of a great curator!

As I drove to my parents' home yesterday - trunk full of disinfectant, hand sanitizer, thermometer, nutritious meals for their freezer - I couldn't stop thinking about how our definition of "acts of love" needs to change during this crisis.

for anyone with covid19 cabin fever, here's some of my fav walking tour youtube channels 🧵 i love having these ~1hr vids the background when working on my computer or cleaning. gives a great sense of exploration of other people/cities…

Restaurants and bars that closed or switched to takeout-only service in the Portland area over concerns from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

These guidelines are intended to help Flatten the Curve with the COVID19 outbreak, to help limit spread and reduce the load on hospitals and other healthcare.

The fact that the company can’t reproduce your book without your permission doesn’t mean much if the only way to get your book into the public’s hands is through that company, or one of a small handful of companies with identical negotiating positions. None of the Big Five publishers will let you keep your ebook rights, and increasingly they won’t let you split your commonwealth and US rights, or retain your audio rights, or even opt out of binding arbitration in your contract, meaning that all disputes you have with them need to be settled not in court, but in a private arbitration system where they pay the judge who decides whether you’ve been wronged by them. In that monopolistic world, beefing up the author’s monopoly isn’t just useless – it’s counterproductive. You can extend the scope or duration of copyright all you like, but if those new rights are useful to the firms that monopolize the sector, they will simply acquire them as a condition of doing business with them, and add the rights to their arsenals, strengthening their market dominance.

A guide to maintaining good mental health for new remote workers. With the spread of COVID-19, many tech companies are sending employees home to work remotely. As someone who has worked remotely for multiple companies, in different setups, I wanted to offer some assurances and tips for maintaining your mental health while adjusting to this new life.

Ableds, hi, hello, wish we could have met under better circumstances, but here we are. Generally speaking people don’t care about ableism until it affects them so you are probably panic-following myself and a bunch of other disabled people Here’s a crash course. Thread 1/? You’re probably experiencing a lot of different emotions based on how the government is treating the #COVIDー19 pandemic and watching in horror as people around you dismiss your fear as irrational. I would love to say I’m going to hold your hand through this thread, but 2/? We simply don’t have the time. What you’re experiencing is ableism on a national scale. Early on, many wrote off the #coronavirus as something “just elderly and disabled (sick) people die from.” People felt they didn’t have to take action because only the most disposable 3/? Would be harmed. People tend not to care bc restrictions based on illness/disability are usually “someone else’s” problem,” those affected just need to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and “overcome.” This virus doesn’t give a fuck about the American Dream mythos. 4/? This is all our problem so undoing your unconscious bias towards disability and disabled people is critical. Here are some things you’ve probably noticed since the crisis hit: 5/? Disability Accommodations/accessibility are “special treatment” right up till nondisabled people need them. I wrote a thread about this a few days ago, but the gist of it is, all of the institutions that previously failed disabled people? Suddenly accessible. Shocking. 6/? Things are more expensive now that you need them to survive. Disabled people call this #CripTax. Not only are the things you need more expensive, but there’s now an added cost to get them delivered since your health depends on you staying home. 7/? People you thought were your friends are kind of assholes. People in your life don’t quite understand why you’re staying home and making a big deal out of nothing. If they’re not goading you into unhealthy behavior then they’re telling you it’s not a “big deal.” 8/? The government doesn’t know what to do with you. They have fumbled the response to the virus, so while it scrambles for approval ratings, you’ll have to rely on complete strangers for help and guidance opening you up to be taken advantage of. 9/? Why demand competence and accessibility from your elected officials when “There’s always someone to help.” 10/? Your environmental stewardship has been cut off at the knees. You saw the turtle and the straw, but have you ever seen the Clorox wipe and the fish. Your going to have to ask yourself: was your environmentalism performative morality now you need single-use plastics? 11/? Finally, a complete group of strangers on the internet are the only people who seem to validate how you feel about this experience and are sharing resources and knowledge simply to see you survive. because your previous life was previously accessible doesn’t mean anything. 12/? Disabled people have been dealing with your shaken new realities our entire lives. Things are more expensive, people around you change, and the world is completely inaccessible until it decides not to be. You should be listening to disabled people not only in a crisis but 13/? Every single day. No one does worse because people, places and things are MORE accessible. I hope this current crisis challenges all of you to do better. Fin 14/14

All over America, the coronavirus is revealing, or at least reminding us, just how much of contemporary American life is bullshit, with power structures built on punishment and fear as opposed to our best interest. Whenever the government or a corporation benevolently withdraws some punitive threat because of the coronavirus, it’s a signal that there was never any good reason for that threat to exist in the first place.

Multnomah County has at least 4,000 people living in shelters, cars and on the street on any given night. Health officials say they are among the most vulnerable in a pandemic like the one sweeping through Oregon.

For centuries, the United States has resisted a centralized public health policy. This week, as protective measures against the coronavirus varied county to county, Americans saw the cost.

One thing I’ve learned in therapy is that in times when the world around us feels terrifyingly beyond our control, we turn to small expressions of control over our thoughts, our bodies, and our time. Two big ways that desire to regain a sense of autonomy & control can manifest is spending money, and physically going places. If your aging parents (for example) insist on going to the grocery store unnecessarily, it’s possible they’re doing it to (unconsciously) soothe anxiety! If a person needs to spend money and/or leave their house to feel a sense of control over themselves, telling them not to do it is a direct threat to this assertion of autonomy. Of course they’re going to push back, of course they’re not going to “listen to reason.” So much of being the adult child of aging parents is the art of benevolent manipulation. (Sorry Mom & Dad, if you’re reading this.) Instead of telling them not to go to the grocery store, full stop, redirect their impulses — buy a cozy sweater online, take a walk through a park There are ways to both spend money and leave the house that don’t put you or others at risk! Sometimes people ignore good & urgent advice because they’re assholes or idiots! More often, they’re just scared, and don’t necessarily realize they’re scared, and don’t necessarily realize they’re making their choices in an attempt to calm their fear. NB grocery shopping can also be soothing because (if the person doesn’t live alone) it’s not just spending, it’s spending *to care for loved ones*. Buying a sweater online doesn’t scratch that itch—in that case maybe the move is buying books or games as gifts for friends/family This is especially ~a thing~ with many older women, who can have a hard time centering themselves when soothing their own anxieties. (“I’m cold, go put on a sweater!”) I don’t want to make this all about older generations though! Those beautiful young idiots still packing into bars and restaurants are asserting autonomy. I usually hate leaving the house and lately all I want to do is take the dog for a walk, or go for long drives. Our brains are always running background programs to rebalance and recalibrate. The best thing you can do is learn how to see it in your loved ones (and yourself! but that’s um many many years of therapy) and gently help them fulfill those self-soothing needs in less harmful ways

Our health system will not be able to cope with the projected numbers of people who will need acute care should we not muster the fortitude and will to socially distance each other starting now. On a regular day, we have about 45,000 staffed ICU beds nationally, which can be ramped up in a crisis to about 95,000. Even moderate projections suggest that if current infectious trends hold, our capacity (locally and nationally) may be overwhelmed as early as mid-late April. Thus, the only strategies that can get us off this concerning trajectory are those that enable us to work together as a community to maintain public health by staying apart.

Soap absolutely annihilates the coronavirus, a chemistry professor explains. --- One side of the soap molecule (the one that’s attracted to fat and repelled by water) buries its way into the virus’s fat and protein shell. Fortunately, the chemical bonds holding the virus together aren’t very strong, so this intrusion is enough to break the virus’s coat. “You pull the virus apart, you make it soluble in water, and it disintegrates,” he says. Then the harmless shards of virus get flushed down the drain. And even if it the soap doesn’t destroy every virus, you’ll still rid them from your hands with soap and water, as well as any grease or dirt they may be clinging to. Soap will also wash away bacteria and other viruses that may be a bit tougher than coronavirus, and harder to disintegrate. The trick is this all takes a little time to happen, and that’s why you need to take at least 20 seconds to wash your hands.

We must learn to do good for the good of the stranger now. We now have to live as daily evidence that we believe there is value in the lives of the cancer patient, the elderly person, the disabled one, the ones in unthinkable living conditions, crowded and at risk. Total misery in the coming days is not a total inevitability: we have a capacity to respond today. We can practice excellent hygiene, stop leaving messes for cleaners, disinfect our common spaces. We can try our best to get what we need to get by for a while. We can -- today, right now -- organize mutual aid networks among our existing social contacts, make plans to care for the vulnerable, prepare supplies for those who will get sick. We can provide shelter for the people who don't have it, offer to be a support for anyone feeling crazy from the news, promise to take care of someone's pets or kids if they get sick. We can provide important information to those who have been deceived or ignored. We can protect those who are unfairly stigmatized and discriminated against. We can sew masks and make disinfection kits to give to those who will be caring for the sick at home.

The caricature of Sanders’ vitriolic online supporters has driven political conversations for nearly four years, but at what cost? --- And within mainstream American politics, Bernie Sanders is nearly singular in his sustained resistance to the establishment logic that motivates these disastrous decisions. So the thinking goes: For his entire time as an observable figure, he has been right, and nearly everyone else has been wrong. He has never needed to evolve; his positions were fully formed from the start. This is not exclusively true, but whatever; a record of leftist foresight and nuance that has, on balance, turned out to be mostly correct in comparison to his peers is unbelievably seductive to people cursed with paying attention in a country that broadly does not. If I can pick out a genuinely identifying characteristic among all my friends who support Bernie, from the very online to the very not, it’s that they prioritize this quality. In the context of American politics, he feels like a revolutionary, though of course he is an elected politician. That his congressional record appears middling can be hand waved off with an acknowledgment of his prevailing milieu; it’s not so easy to dismantle institutional power when almost all of your colleagues are dedicated to propping it up. But as president, when public rhetoric and private whipping can force the chains of bureaucracy? Then maybe, just maybe… And with climate change and the endless wars and the brewing pandemics and shoddy health care and all of the myriad afflictions making life hell for a plurality of Americans, the necessity of electing the one candidate who seems to understand the urgency of wrenching back control feels paralyzingly clear to those who’ve done the reading and allowed themselves to feel one flicker of empathy. Hence the Bernie Bro affect: a righteous and logic-driven correctness about the trajectories and realities of American society, because haven’t you been paying attention, coupled with the combativeness inherent to the internet, where everyone likes to believe they are right, all of the time. Social media and all its related platforms offer an incredible opportunity to be correct, in public, and that Bernie’s overall argument looks so good on paper makes it easily repeatable when faced with the truly astonishing amount of stupid, banal bullshit repeated everyday on the internet. There is always someone to argue with. […] That is what I detect most within these collective spasms of Bernie-driven passion: the disbelief at how dumb all of this is, how the evidence for what we need is right there and yet the forces that be (and their followers) believe otherwise. […] But that such a niche phenomenon has captivated political discourse for so long reveals fundamental ideological disagreements about how the internet should be used, cutting across generation and gender and race and so forth with no fixed understanding. It is a real issue that sprawls far beyond Bernie, and can’t be as simply waved off as “old people don’t get the internet” — evidence shows it’s plenty of young people, too. One person’s ingrained harassment is another’s victimless shit-talking is another’s revolutionary action is another’s technically right, but being an asshole about it, and in a world where everyone expresses their opinion all at once, there is no easy way to gain consensus.

Mix & match avatar illustrations in Sketch App with this free library.

Mix-&-match illustrations of people with a design library for InVIsion Studio and Sketch.

Open Peeps is a hand-drawn illustration library to create scenes of people. You can use them in product illustration, marketing, comics, product states, user flows, personas, storyboarding, quinceañera invitations, or whatever you want! ⠀

Billie Eilish has done everything right in her career so far, but that’s not enough for a celebrity industry fixated on sex. --- But being anointed a liberating force in the body-image stakes is its own kind of prison, one that preserves physicality as the ultimate measure of a female star’s worth – and the standard by which they can be undermined. The music industry and the media like to pat themselves on the back for making stars of Eilish and Lizzo, who often joins her in headlines about body positivity, though if these women one day wish to change their physical presentation, they will be accused of betraying fans and squandering their authenticity.

Donald Trump is running for reelection on an anti-socialist message. But the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrates the emptiness of ideological labels.

Comey isn’t an abuse victim, and Trump is not gaslighting you. --- Survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence face significant barriers when they try to report their abuse, and the Trump administration is making it harder for victims to seek justice. Given this, there’s something inherently icky about people comparing political situations to sexual assault. It’s a metaphor that serves no one.

The experimental/ambient label has survived not just due to hard work, but to the depth, breadth, and persistence of their vision.