This Eurasia Group guy on Bloomberg right now is saying so many words and yet nothing at all. The vaccines do not need new approval if they have to be adjusted for a different strain, just as the flu vaccine is reformulated every year and doesn’t require new regulatory approval.

— Milena Rodban (@MilenaRodban) January 6, 2021

I kinda knew it already, but this year has been revelatory in uncovering that most people know almost nothing about anything, aren’t very curious, and yet have lots of opinions about these topics they know less than nothing about.

Clown world.

Great cover.

“You can’t work for a better world unless you know what a good life is.”

–Natalie Merchant

I did see this performance when it aired, and it blew me away at the time. Still does.

Starting around the 2:30 mark, lord, that’s some magic right there. And the violin player is just killing it. Pros make things look easy that are just impossible.

I didn’t see this performance at the time; this was just when I was getting into music on my own. Natalie Merchant was 23 in this video, though she’d been in the band since she was 17.

The primary and defining experiences of most men’s lives is rejection and the vast apathy of the universe towards you, while the primary experiences of most women’s lives is constant demands combined with no rewards.

Which is better?

How the rioters who stormed the Capitol came dangerously close to Pence.

Huh, that was closer than I thought. They were almost fast enough.

Georgia confirms what I’ve learned from decades of doing voting rights work. Voter fraud is not the problem, it’s voter suppression. Republicans use made-up allegations of fraud as an excuse to prevent eligible citizens who they suspect are Democrats from voting. https://t.co/FyEEbHU3un

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 15, 2021

That’s where the real voting fraud is. And it’s going to get worse.

excellent point! TV writers write spec scripts for currently-running shows, then shop those scripts around to similar genre shows

that's how you get gigs https://t.co/gHhkVERIwa

— bletchley punk (@alicegoldfuss) January 16, 2021

Yep! It’s not magic. It’s a production process like anything else. Quite often, scripts are written for one show or movie, and then adapted into an altogether different show or film. This happens all the time.

In other words, it’s fanfic all the way down. The reason it was besmirched is because fanfic as we currently think of it was mostly produced by women in our recent cultural history.

In the past, it was produced by nearly everyone as just how culture proceeded.

If you believe this data, the US has eleven times more retail space per capita than Germany!
Via @SoberLook pic.twitter.com/oyHBwsaWsN

— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) January 16, 2021

I believe it. When I was in Germany, I was like, Where all the stores be at?

I’m used to seeing a broken-down strip mall around ever corner. A Wal-Mart. A Kohl’s or Dillard’s. A Dollar General. Or something. But in Germany that’s just not the case. There’s a shopping area or two, and the Hauptstraße, and that’s all.

It’s much better, I admit. But it also feels a bit disorienting.

This gives me hope for the future. Beautiful. https://t.co/R2Sw0abRbX

— GuruAnaerobic (@GuruAnaerobic) January 15, 2021

Good for them. Lockdown now has nothing to do with the virus.