Virologist Dr. Ian Mackay has visualized the Swiss cheese Covid-19 defense in a wonderful way (pictured above). Each layer of cheese represents a personal or shared intervention — like mask wearing, limiting your time indoors w/ crowds, proper ventilation, quarantine, vaccines — and the holes are imperfections. Applied together, these imperfect measures work like a filter and can vastly improve chances of success. He even added a “misinformation mouse” chewing through one of the cheese slices to represent how deceptive information can weaken these defenses.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just complained that “you can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. Now it’s considered bigotry.” This is a standard complaint of the right: the real victim is the racist who has been called a racist, not the victim of his racism, the real oppression is to be impeded in your freedom to oppress. And of course Alito is disingenuous; you can say that stuff against marriage equality (and he did). Then other people can call you a bigot, because they get to have opinions too, but in his scheme such dissent is intolerable, which is fun coming from a member of the party whose devotees wore “fuck your feelings” shirts at its rallies and popularized the term “snowflake.”

Nevertheless, we get this hopelessly naive version of centrism, of the idea that if we’re nicer to the other side there will be no other side, just one big happy family. This inanity is also applied to the questions of belief and fact and principle, with some muddled cocktail of moral relativism and therapists’ “everyone’s feelings are valid” applied to everything. But the truth is not some compromise halfway between the truth and the lie, the fact and the delusion, the scientists and the propagandists. And the ethical is not halfway between white supremacists and human rights activists, rapists and feminists, synagogue massacrists and Jews, xenophobes and immigrants, delusional transphobes and trans people. Who the hell wants unity with Nazis until and unless they stop being Nazis?

Max DeNike aggregated the richest families in the United States, by state.

So whats common among all of these? You guessed it - they are all white.

Van Jones on CNN expresses what we are all (at least the 75 million plus Americans that voted for Biden) are feeling today.

Trace back why you like the thing, and learn the thing that made the thing you like, and you'll be five times better every time you do that.

Jordan Klepper on what hopefully is the last Trump rally of the 2020 campaign:

Tony, I need my sheet. I’m gonna give you facts. That fact sheet.

That fact sheet is in my car.

Trump supporter pulling out her cell phone to find those facts.

Okay, jobs added 4 million. Under Biden and Obama negative 2.8 million.

What is your website you are on?

I don’t know.

And what is going to happen if Trump doesn’t win the 2020 election? What are his bat shit crazy supporters going to do?

I will not live under a socialist government. Just look up the three red flags on the Biden campaign poster, there’s three red lines.

yea

Look it up on Google.

Well I think it’s an E

Its supposed to be an E but look at the tree red flags or red banners.

And they mean?

Communism

He snuck communism right there on the flag?

You got it.

you don’t want to be in a place with socialized medicine?

Nope.

So where would you go?

I am gonna look at Costa Rica.

Costa Rica? Which has universal health care?

Yea, I mean, I’m not gonna live under socialist rule. I don’t think Biden is gonna make the four years, and the camelback, forget it.

Camelback? Who’s that?

Kamala.

These people are so ignorant. Whats scary and disturbing is how they all revel in their ignorance. And ignorance would be bad enough - if not for their racism. Here is hoping that this is an anomaly in American political history. Seven More days to go…

We are just over one week till the 2020 election (8 days, 11 hours, and 27 seconds of this writing). Regardless of where you stand on policy or what your political affiliation is, it is time to return to decency and intelligence in the White House. That doesn’t mean that we agree on everything, but it does mean that we can have a constructive, reasoned and intelligent conversation.

And just in case you forgot what that looks like:

So go out and vote. Leave no doubt.

Hard to believe Back to the Future is 35 years old this year.

One of the greatest movies ever made. Easily the best time-travel story. The writing is rock-solid, the double-act of Michael J.Fox & Christopher Lloyd are the heart and soul of this story and the timeless and epic score of Alan Silvestri gives the movie so much heart that makes it feel larger in scale.

This movie has something that modern Hollywood lacks - a soul. Very few movies today have performances that make you want to watch them again. I have lost count of how many times I’ve seen it over the years but I still laugh every time Biff gets “the make like a tree” line wrong and the penultimate Clock Tower scene is a still a pulse-racing experience to this day. Doc Brown is on of my favorite characters of all time.

35 years. Watch it today and its just as charming, funny, nail biting as when I saw it when I was as 12. They just don’t make movies like they used to. Here is a reimagining using 8 fan made animations that Universal strung together to reimagine Back to the Future.

And here is a recent cast re-uniting:

And I am still waiting for my hover board.

William McRaven, in an op-ed for the The Wall Street Journal:

This week I went to the polls in Texas. Truth be told, I am a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, small-government, strong-defense and a national-anthem-standing conservative. But, I also believe that black lives matter, that the Dreamers deserve a path to citizenship, that diversity and inclusion are essential to our national success, that education is the great equalizer, that climate change is real and that the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. Most important, I believe that America must lead in the world with courage, conviction and a sense of honor and humility.

If we remain indifferent to our role in the world, if we retreat from our obligation to our citizens and our allies and if we fail to choose the right leader, then we will pay the highest price for our neglect and shortsightedness.

I voted for Joe Biden.

Apple has launched Apple Music TV, a free 24-hour curated livestream of popular music videos that will also include “exclusive new music videos and premiers, special curated music video blocks, and live shows and events as well as chart countdowns and guests,” according to the announcement.

You know what would be great? If they bring back the original MTV VJs like Mark Godman and Martha Quinn. Sting said it best:

Somehow “I want my Apple Music TV” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Rebecca Boyle recently asked her followers to share their local Covid-19 signage and their responses are here. My favorites:

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is doing well after his bought with COVID-19 and spending 7 days in the ICU. He was given Eli Lilly anti-body treatment along with Remdesivir. In his own words:

so I received both of those in combination very early on in my illness. The doctors decided that because I am an asthmatic tat they wanted to be very aggressive with the treatment and I am, you know, very fortunate that I have a great hospital right near my home, I have health insurance and I was able to have myself taken care of quickly before the disease got out of control.

While I am glad that Governor Christie is doing well, he received health care that most Americans do not have access to. We have almost 40 million people who don’t have insurance. Most that do, have insurance that would not fully cover the treatment that Governor Christie has received.

And his party is working to remove what little protections that most Americans do have. The privilege on display is repulsive.

I wish you all health and recovery and a long life. But we have to note the tragedy here. It is horrible, and awful, and profound. Sick and in isolation, Mr. President, you have become a symbol of your own failures — failures of recklessness, ignorance, arrogance — the same failures you have been inflicting on the rest of us. Get well and please — for the rest of us who don’t get to go to Walter Reed — get well and get it together.

Indi Samarajiva lived through the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka and just wrote about the decline of Sri Lankan society.

This is how it happens. Precisely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner. If you’re trying to carry on while people around you die, your society is not collapsing. It’s already fallen down.

With 210,000+ Americans dead due to covid, protests all over America, and a government that is failing at the most basic level - are we witnessing the fall of American society?

I hope not, but with all that is going on, I am wondering what I am going to have for dinner…

A new acronym / mnemonic: A CIViC DUTY

America Edwards has created a great set of posters.

A group of scientists have written up a Google Doc of advice for the public in a FAQ on Protecting Yourself from COVID-19 Aerosol Transmission.

The goal of these FAQs is to provide information to the general public in an efficient manner about how to prevent aerosol transmission of COVID-19, with the hope that this will allow more informed decision making by individuals or organizations. All of this information has been posted in Twitter and other forums, but can be difficult to find. Having multiple experts working together, and having the ability to update this information also improves its quality. These FAQs represent our best understanding at this time, and should always be similar or more stringent than information provided by CDC, WHO, and most regional & local health authorities. If your authority has a more stringent guideline than discussed here, follow that more stringent guideline.

From the most important actionable take away form the FAQ:

3.5. How can I protect myself from aerosol transmission indoors?
We can never be perfectly safe, only safer. Hence, we need to take as many steps as possible to reduce the risk of our activities. You should try to avoid or reduce as much as possible situations that facilitate inhaling the “smoke” (exhaled air) from others. To reduce risk avoid:

Crowded spaces
Close proximity to others
Low ventilation environments
Long durations
Places where people are not wearing masks
Talking, and especially loud talking / shouting / singing
High breathing rates (e.g., indoor aerobic exercise)

Each one of these features potentially increases the aerosol concentration you might inhale indoors. So if you must enter one of the above situations, complete your tasks as quickly as possible to reduce your exposure duration and risk.

And of course, as always, wear a f**k'n face mask!

A US judge on Thursday blocked controversial Postal Service changes that have slowed mail nationwide, calling them “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service” before the November election.

Judge Stanley Bastian said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by 14 states that sued the Trump administration and the US Postal Service.

From the editors of Scientific American:

Scientific American has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly.

The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September. He has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its greatest challenges. That is why we urge you to vote for Joe Biden, who is offering fact-based plans to protect our health, our economy and the environment. These and other proposals he has put forth can set the country back on course for a safer, more prosperous and more equitable future.

I didn’t know there was a prequel..

All day yesterday, my social media feeds were full of photos taken of the skies on the west coast, bloodied red and orange from the wildfires raging in California, Oregon, and other western states. Each fresh photo I saw shocked me anew. Friends told me: as weird as the photos look, they don’t do justice to what this actually looks like and feels like in real life. Automatic cameras (as on smartphones) had a tough time capturing the skies because the onboard software kept correcting the red and orange colors out — the phones know, even if climate change denying politicians and voters don’t, that our skies aren’t supposed to be that color.

When asked why he hardly uses pedals - Keith Richards, in his usual witty way, offers some sage advice all of us aspiring musicians should take to heart.

As aware as I am that I was the bugger that started the foot pedal with Satisfaction, to me, that was a one of effect. I am not gonna go around on stage doing tip toes on different machines. I expect my sound to coming out of my amp and I don't wanna change it once its there. I am not fancy. I need my feet to stand up.