onfocus

"Through her work, she's found that those who have been through a period of isolation value the experience for what it has taught: They have a better idea of their personal values, and they're more committed to acting on them. "When people have space to sit back and think it allows them to figure out what's important to them," she said."

Lessons from others who have been isolated.

"Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving, and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign."

Running out the clock while making people doubt the clock. We lost another month and nothing is changing to contain the virus.

Profiles of some covid-19 victims. It’s difficult to process the toll of covid-19 without taking some time to see who we’re losing. Numbers are numbers and that’s how I’m understanding covid-19 right now in charts and data. This NYT piece is a step toward a different type of understanding.

"The opposition expressed by sizable majorities of Americans reflects other cautions and concerns revealed in the survey, including continuing fears among most people that they could become infected by the coronavirus, as well as a belief that the worst of the medical crisis is not yet over."

Overwhelming majority says it’s too soon to open. Protest sentiment you see in the news is a small minority.

"Firing whistleblowers isn’t just a side-effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets. It’s evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison."

Tech pioneer Tim Bray leaves Amazon over warehouse worker firings.

The Board was presented with a unique and complex situation – impacting one of the largest registries with more than 10.5 million domain names registered. After completing its evaluation, the ICANN Board finds that the public interest is better served in withholding consent as a result of various factors that create unacceptable uncertainty over the future of the third largest gTLD registry.

This is a relief. The .org top-level domain is not being sold for parts after all.

Interesting visualization of the disparity between the ultra-rich and others. This might indicate a problem with the system?

Willie Nelson playing the entire Red Headed Stranger album live on Austin City Limits in 1976. (!!) You might also want to see all 143 (!!!) of his albums ranked. I was happy to see Red Headed Stranger near the top. It has always been a favorite of mine.

Pink Floyd concerts available if you want to fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way. △

See also: Radiohead, Metallica.

Happy birthday, kk! Thanks for the advice, this is a great unordered list of wisdom.

"It now seems less likely than ever that the United States will do what is necessary to reopen the economy without causing a second wave of deadly infections."

With no quick fix on the way and lack of political will to build testing infrastructure we’re left with two options: continued quarantine or rising death toll.

"In this case, not only is it humanitarian, it’s about strategic relationships and it’s about making sure the disease isn’t coming back into the US as we participate in global commerce that we benefit immensely from. So I think what you’re seeing in the short term, in terms of how the US is engaging, isn’t where we’ll end up. There are many voices that are going to push us to work with Europe and work with other countries and be part of the innovations that will bring this to an end."

Headline is a bit misleading, but it's always interesting to hear where Gates is at with this. I appreciate his optimism.