a cell, infected by covid-19 virus

(praise be)

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enjoy.

… but it is likely not a successful therapuetic. More research is in on differential responses to Coronavirus in the US, focusing on behaviors. In a nutshell the study finds:

“political differences are the single most consistent factor that differentiates American’s health behaviors”

so there’s that. Also, this. (Vox is doing a lot of good work on this. cuz reasons maybe?)

I just saw Tyler Cowen referenced an AEI study quantifying the optimal lockdown measures for the US tied to outcomes of policy.:

IF newly infected persons ends up only infecting one other person on average (an idea expressed as R0 = 1) we can end the lockdown in 30 to 34 weeks. If our policy intereventions do better and reduce the reproductive number so that subsequent infections average out to 0.7 new cases per infection (R0 = 0.7), 11 or 12 weeks should suffice. R0 = 0.5 would move us past the lockdown in 7 or 8 weeks. Considering that the virus seems to be transmissible well before symptoms appear, that number seems like such a tough row to hoe. Many will either be unable to physically distance themselves–for economic or other reasons; others, in the absence of sufficient symptoms will use their rationalization engines to justify social activity.

Speaking of which, once he recovers, I hope an ethics investigation into Rand Paul finds him wanting and his peers hold him to account.

Finally, it is the end of the month, so the March 2020 Spotify playlist is now public.

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some pictures were taken for a new album:

The title above has nothing to do with the post below; I just saw that sentence yesterday and thought it should be shared.

The Great Empty (from the NY Times) provides a fairly consise visual of where we are as a species in the short term. For millenia, we have constructed environments to suit our biologies and societies, and much of this architecture is now void of human life due to a new virus that is infecting us on a global scale.

I just spent 150 minutes with Béla Tarr’s film The Turin Horse and am at once depressed, impressed, staggered and resigned. (and unsure if that is in order or not)

The cinematography is amazing. There is not a single bad frame in this entire movie. The narrative reminded me of Camus’ bleakest, darkest stories from Exile and The Kingdom but without all the frivolity, senseless joy and optimism.

Finbarr O’Reilly is a photojournalist that I’m just becoming aware of. Reuters has a nice introduction to his work here.

This week wasn’t all doom and gloom: a weary nation missed the news, but will soon rejoice when it realizes: it is finally over.

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If you look very closely, you may notice the seams of paper combined to make this view. This watercolor, View of the Bay of Naples, done by Giovanni Lusieri, spans almost nine feet in width. The amount of detail Giovanni put into this is staggering. Here is a link allowing you to take a long look up close if so inclined.

Seriously – check out the detail!

Frederick Brosen has an enlightening lecture on the youTubez discussing his top ten list of watercolor artists, which is where I learned of Lusieri. Also, the work above is housed in the J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles if you’re ever in the area.

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Notes from the Underground by Medeski, Martin & Wood is super strong and you should listen to it if you haven’t already. A considerable time ago I added this to a list of albums to listen to later, then promptly forgot it. Last night, amid a great culling of ‘saved albums’, I took a moment to listen to a track — which immediately became the impetus to sit with the full album. It was time very well spent. (Spotify link here)

Two (+) weeks into our physical distancing regime, I find that music is taking a more central role in my daily. At the start, I suspected I would be reading a lot but I have read less than 25 pages from books in the last two weeks. Any reading is either online or from the Sunday paper. Instead it’s mostly banjo, piano*, learning how to read music and learn [music] theory, and–of course–listening to albums.

Over the course of the week, I came across this piece on getting outside of one’s comfort zone, musically, and recommend it. Ed Jong (author of I Contain Multitudes) has a piece in The Atlantic: How the Pandemic Will End which i highly recommend. I also stumbled across an interesting page on shipping Honeybees (and live Scorpions) through the mail: it seems there are rules.

Jamil Hellu has something going on he’s calling 24 Variations for a Stoning Rock and I can’t really say that I understand the presentation in the .gif format. It did get me thinking though. In 2010, a photojournalist for the AP, Farah Warsameh reported on a stoning in Somalia; that work–reportage–necessarily left a lot less to the imagination. No links will be provided here. If you want to find it, be forewarned that it is just dark.

and on that note….

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This opinion piece from Admiral William H. McRaven (Retired, USN) is more of what we all need, I think.