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Mass. state coastal beaches remain open but dont plan on getting a tan. Heres what to know. – Boston.com

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Danzig

Massachusettss state-managed coastal beaches remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic, but beach-goers are limited in what theyre allowed to do.

And coastal beach parking areas are now temporarily closed, as of Friday afternoon, according to the state Department of Conservation & Recreation.

In addition, state-managed hockey rinks, campgrounds, golf courses, playgrounds, visitor centers, and athletic fields and courts are all closed through May 4, when the department will reassess the situation.

On Monday, Massachusetts State Police patrolled the area near Castle Island in South Boston to enforce the no parking order, according to a spokesman.

But state-managed coastal beaches are still open, albeit for passive recreational activities that only involve transitory movement (walking, jogging, running, etc.), DCR says.

Sitting, sunbathing, and other stationary recreational activities are prohibited on state beaches, the department says on its website. Additionally, athletic and recreational activities that bring participants into close, physical contact are prohibited.

Here are the Boston beach parking areas that have temporarily closed, according to DCR:

Carson Beach, M-Street Beach, Pleasure Bay, and Castle IslandDay Boulevard, South BostonParking lots at McCormack Bathhouse, WWII Memorial, Murphy Rink, and Castle Island are closed. On-street parking along ocean side of Day Boulevard from Columbia Road to Farragut Road is closed. All parking on Day Blvd. from Farragut Road to Shore Road is closed.

Malibu Beach, Savin Hill and Tenean BeachDorchesterParking lots at Malibu Beach and Savin Hill Beach off Denny Street are closed. Parking lot at Tenean Beach off Conley Street is closed.

Constitution Beach ParkBarnes Avenue, East BostonPorrazzo Ice Rink Beach Parking Area is closed.

Check out the full statewide list of closings.

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Mass. state coastal beaches remain open but dont plan on getting a tan. Heres what to know. - Boston.com

Police chief: The Seaside beach is closed to everyone, and that includes you – KPTV.com

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Danzig

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Police chief: The Seaside beach is closed to everyone, and that includes you - KPTV.com

Coronavirus At The Beach? In The Surf? In The Breeze? It’s Complicated – CBS San Francisco

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Danzig

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) COVID-19 wasnt the only scary thing spreading virally over the weekend.

A Los Angeles Times article published Thursday included this startling quote from Santa Rosa native Kim Prather, an atmospheric chemist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla:

I wouldnt go in the water if you paid me $1 million right now.

Her reason? According to the L.A. Times article, Prather fears that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could enter coastal waters [via runoff and wastewater discharges] and transfer back into the air along the coast.

In this hypothetical scenario, coronavirus excreted then processed in sewage treatment facilities survives and makes it to the sea where the crashing surf churns it into an aerosol that wafts along the shore where beachgoers inhale it and become infected.

So far, so scary. And Prathers (literal) money quote was all some news sites needed to crank up the clickbait. One Bay Area site Sunday had a front page photo of the beach at Crissy Field with Golden Gate Bridge in the background over the headline: California scientist warns people to stay away from beaches during COVID-19 pandemic.

A Google search for coronavirus prather beach will quickly demonstrate how quickly a new angle on the coronavirus pandemic can propagate among media outlets in this sheltered-in-place time.

But how real is the threat of catching COVID-19 by inhaling the fresh sea breeze? On Saturday, Dr. Prather took to social media to clarify her remarks to the Times.

Now, what about where I said I would not go into the ocean if you paid me? That was totally taken out of context and when I first read it, I cringed, Prather wrote in a lengthy post on her Facebook page. I made it very clear to (the Times reporter) that SARS-CoV-2 has not been detected in the ocean or atmosphere by anyone. Much research needs to be done to understand this virus and how/if it travels through the environment. It is also a virus that has a fragile envelope that if disrupted by heat or water kills the virus that is very good news.

The main point Prather wanted to make wasnt the danger of coronavirus blown ashore by surf spray. It was to dismiss the idea that 6 feet is some magic distance beyond which the coronavirus wont venture.

People infected with a virus can exhale small aerosol particles that do not settle out within 6 ft they can float around for hours. Note these are emitted into the air without coughing, Prather explained. Right now, there is a large fraction of people that are infected and do not have any symptoms. So, if they are surfing or running along the beach, they could be exhaling tiny infectious aerosol particles.

Perhaps the best takeaway from both the original Times article and Prathers social media post is this: coronavirus, when attached to invisibly-tiny water droplets, can travel much farther than six feet, no matter where or how it gets onto those droplets or into the air.

So, to breathe a little easier when youre outdoors or anywhere else among people, cover your face.

WEBLINKS

Is the coronavirus airborne? Experts cant agree (Nature)

Coronvirus at beaches? Scientist says stay away (LATimes.com)

Biological Activity Found to Affect Aerosols Produced from Sea Spray (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

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Coronavirus At The Beach? In The Surf? In The Breeze? It's Complicated - CBS San Francisco

Local beaches: What’s open and what’s closed – 10News

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Danzig

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- State beaches in California are still open while most city beaches remain closed.

Despite social distancing orders, some beaches have been packed with people.

10News viewers have flooded us with emails like this one, saying in part, "There were large crowds at Solana Beach and Cardiff with tons of surfers. Is it time for citations?"

The city of San Diego shut down it's beaches weeks ago. Leaving iconic piers at Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach totally empty.

But, California State Beaches remain open. On the California Parks website, it says the beaches are closed for vehicles, but are still open for locals who wish to walk, hike, and bike. That includes Carlsbad, South Carlsbad, Cardiff, Torrey Pines, and Silver Strand State Beaches, among others.

So, here's the breakdown of what's open and what's closed.

State beaches and beaches in Oceanside are closed to vehicles, but open to the public for exercise only.

Some city beaches are completely closed, including San Diego, Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, and Imperial Beach.

Coronado city beaches are closed only on weekends.

The closures and non-closures have led to a lot of confusion, with many people worried they're just driving crowds from one area into another.

The statewide stay-at-home order has been in place for weeks now. The governor's website encourages people to still go outside for exercise, but to do it in your own neighborhood.

So, unless you can walk to the beach you probably shouldn't be there.

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Local beaches: What's open and what's closed - 10News

Governments talk about how to reopen the beaches – Fernandina Beach News-Leader

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Danzig

Several city and county officials took part in a conference call Monday afternoon to discuss how, and when, to reopen the beaches on Amelia Island.

Local beaches will not be opening in the foreseeable future, but Danny Leeper, chairman of the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners, said the purpose of the conference call was not to reopen the beaches, but to look ahead at what the opening of the beaches might look like. He said the opening should be done in stages with cooperation from all local agencies involved.

This is not about opening the beaches immediately today, or even next week, or maybe even next month, Leeper said. Our priority is to protect the public, but also to give our residents hope that your elected officials are doing all we can to bring some type of gradual return to normal life, whatever that might look like in the future. The goal is to have some concerted effort with our neighboring agencies that we all can agree on and not just one decision maker. Quite frankly, theres very little regional cooperation going on at the moment.

Fernandina Beach City Commis-sioner Chip Ross, who is an emergency room doctor, gave four benchmarks he believes should be met before beaches open again. He said local beaches should not open until all beaches in Northeast Florida, including the state parks on Amelia Island, are opened.

If one opens and the other one doesnt, I think the capillary reaction would be chaos or overloading that area, he said.

Ross said the Florida Department of Health issued a public advisory when the beaches closed that said all people over the age of 65 should stay at home. That advisory, he said, should be lifted before local beaches are opened, as well as the ban on the public use of restaurants in Florida.

Ross added he wants Dr. Eugenia Ngo-Seidel, director of the Florida Department of Health Nassau County, to issue a public statement indicating when open access to the beaches is safe and meets the standard of preserving the health, safety, and welfare of the community.

However, Ngo-Seidel said she doesnt think her department will issue a statement. She said Nassau County should use federal and state guidelines as a minimum level of safety precautions.

All the people involved in the call said that cooperation between local agencies is crucial and that the beaches should be opened incrementally.

I have been in contact with other coastal counties in our region from Flagler to here, and the discussion has started about what will happen when we open regionally, Nassau County Emergency Management Director Greg Foster said. A phased opening is the general consensus, from letting people get to the beach without parking to full opening. There will be a regional plan, and if we wish to follow it, it will be discussed and ready to go.

County Manager and Attorney Mike Mullin said the county, with help from the Amelia Island Tourist Development Council, is keeping tabs, as much as possible, on people from other regions coming into the county. Mullin also said he is looking at policies set forth in Jacksonville, although he did not say those policies would be implemented in Nassau County.

Weve been tracking the lodging industry and who is checking in and checking out, Mullin said. We have some evidence of people from New York who checked in before the governors order, and were trying to see if we need to change the order. The mayor in Jacksonville has issued an order determining which lodging establishments are essential and which guests are essential. Its hard to discern the basis for that, but were looking at that.

Also discussed are businesses that have large stores where many people could be inside. Foster said that there has been no edict from the state limiting the number of customers a store can have inside, but that some smaller local businesses have been doing so.

All those who participated in the call said they believe the beaches should stay closed for the foreseeable future.

I think it would be foolish to open the beach any time soon, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said. Florida is a tourist state, Nassau is a tourist destination. People come here from all over the world, so we have to be aware of that. The majority of our citizens are following the emergency executive orders that have been put in place. We do, however, have a few that think theyre special and the order doesnt apply to them, that we have to shoo off the beach, which creates a strain on our resources.

Opening the beaches at this time would be contrary to the advice of epidemiologists, Ross said. People need to stay home except for buying food and supplies and medical necessities.

Its critical that we dont open the beaches up until we know we are getting the all-clear sign, AITDC Managing Director Gil Langley said. A misstep could hurt us more than what has occurred already.

Also participating in the call were Assistant County Manager Taco Pope, County Maintenance and Facilities Director Doug Podiak, Nassau County Sheriffs Office Legal Counsel Bobby Lippelman, NCSO Director of Operations Butch Osborne, and Fernandina Beach City Manager Dale Martin.

jroberts@fbnewsleader.com

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Governments talk about how to reopen the beaches - Fernandina Beach News-Leader

3 more Ocean County beaches closing this week as coronavirus cases mount – NJ.com

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Danzig

Three more Ocean County towns have collectively decided to close their beaches as the number of coronavirus cases in the county continued to mount this month.

The beaches of Point Pleasant Beach, Mantoloking and Bay Head will all close on Friday until further notice, the three towns announced in a Facebook post earlier this week.

While we deeply regret having to restrict this access to those who enjoy our beaches and have respected the Governors essential travel restrictions and practiced proper social distancing, the mounting numbers of coronavirus cases in Ocean County and New Jersey have made this decision a necessity to protect the safety and well-being of our local residents and other beachgoers, the joint announcement said.

As of Wednesday afternoon there at are least 1,209 positive coronavirus cases in Ocean County, the local health department reported, and 23 deaths, according to the latest numbers provided by Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday.

Come Friday, only one town on the Barnegat Peninsula will not have closed its beaches; Seaside Park. The 20-mile, narrow barrier peninsula stretches from Point Pleasant Beach to Seaside Park, and is a popular destination for summer visitors to the Jersey Shore. It has opted to close its boardwalk.

Seaside Heights, Ortley Beach and Lavallette closed boardwalks and beaches late last month, while Point Pleasant Beach had originally only elected to close its boardwalk.

Seaside Heights has also announced an emergency order prohibiting the rental of homes and any other type of rental units via AirBNB, VRBO and other online marketplaces in the borough.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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3 more Ocean County beaches closing this week as coronavirus cases mount - NJ.com

These Are the Must-See TV Shows Premiering in April – HYPEBEAST

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Well, as many already know, there arent any movies premiering in theaters this month. Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many films have pushed back their release dates some even a full year ahead of schedule. This has led many recently released movies to debut on Digital or VOD early, such as Bad Boys for Life, Sonic the Hedgehog and Birds of Prey.

Although there will be a list of the must-see films on Digital or VOD in the future, there are for now still must-see television shows arriving to streaming services this month as usual on platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Now and more. Read on for our picks of the best TV shows to arrive on those platforms, with more to come on how you can keep up with the latest movies.

After being imprisoned by the Pykes, Ahsoka Tano and the Martez sisters manage a daring escape of their stronghold. Together they flee through the city to their ship, desperate to evade the Pyke forces in pursuit.

Why its worth your time:This is probably the best series launching from the lackluster slate of new content Disney+ is offering. Whats more, this final season looks to be wrapping up a few loose ends in Ronin Jedi Ahsoka Tano before her live-action debut inThe Mandalorian season 2. If you plan to catch everything thats happening when the show comes back in October (well, if it comes back), youre going to want to know about Anakins former Padawan.

Harley Quinn has taken down the Joker and Gotham City is finally hers for the taking following the huge earthquake caused by the collapse of Jokers tower in season one. Penguin, Bane, Mr. Freeze, The Riddler and Two-Face join forces to form the Injustice League, who now stands in the way of Harley and her crew from taking sole control of Gotham as the top villains of the city.

Why its worth your time:Shazam, Aquaman and Harley Quinn have singlehandedly kept whats left of the DC extended universe afloat. The best ofHarley Quinn may not be her spot-on live-action counterpart in Margot Robbie, but her animated form in this series. It currently hold 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and is heralded as one of the biggest selling points of the entire DC Universe. Its got a lot to say about the superhero industry far more than the big-budget adaptations.

Its 1996, and second-year high school students Haruo Yaguchi, Akira Oono and Koharu Hidaka live their lives as passionately about video games as they did five years ago. Brought together by arcade games, what began as a healthy rivalry and friendship has now turned into something more.

Why its worth your time:The first season took us by surprise. Not only is it a sweet tale full of typical anime charm, but it also pays deep respect to the fighting arcade game scene throughout the 90s. Theyve got a pretty interesting love triangle too that seemed to be ramping up in the season one finale.

Season four sees the return of Insecures core characters, Issa, Molly and Lawrence as they navigate the aftermath of the previous season. We also see some characters grow up a bit more, particularly Tiffany whose new baby changes her friendships.

Why its worth your time:This show has found its niche in its fourth season and remains one of the best long-running series on HBO. Issa Rae continues to put the main focus on the current generation of black women, but also shines a light on the plight of contemporary black men through fan-favorite characters like Lawrence.

Ruby Richardson walks away from her ordinary life in the suburbs to revisit her past with her college boyfriend, Billy Johnson. The two made a pact 17 years earlier: If either one of them texted the word RUN and the other replied with the same, they would drop everything and meet in Grand Central Station and travel across America together.

Why its worth your time:This comedy looks like itll turn into more of a touching dramedy come the season finale. Its also an HBO joint, and the platform has been on fire with its recent releases. Although most of those shows have been limited series, were hoping the streak of excellence continues in their upcoming ongoing shows.

Inspired by Kenya Barris irreverent, highly flawed, unbelievably real-life marriage and approach to parenting, race, and culture, this new show stars Barris himself alongside Rashida Jones.

Why its worth your time:The show boasts that its looking to revamp the traditional family sitcom. Its a bold claim, especially when Barris other show Black-ish looked to achieve a similar goal initially though it fell flat in later seasons. Were hoping the restrains are lifted by partnering with a streaming service this time around, alongside getting more star-studded faces like Jones and several noticeable stars of color make cameos throughout the trailer above. Fingers crossed.

A space caster traverses trippy worlds inside his universe simulator, exploring existential questions about life, death and everything in between.

Why its worth your time:We all have our favorite reccurringJoe Rogan Experience guests, and one of ours is this shows creator Duncan Trussell. If the series is anywhere near as psychedelic as his appearances on JRE or even his own podcast, then were sure The Midnight Gospel will be a hit among its April 20 demographic. Well be tuning in.

The series takes place in the year 2045 following Stand Alone Complex and after an event called Synchronized Global Default has provoked an economic disaster in the world. AI technology has now become so advanced that its sparked a conflict called the Sustainable War and a new dangerous posthuman species.

Why its worth your time:Okay we know anime fans are sick of Netflix using CG animation in every single product they deliver. But this isGhost in the Shell, they got Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki to direct. Motoko Kusanagi and Public Security Section 9 are back. But we dont think Yoko Kanno is returning to give us another stellar opening intro, sorry guys.

The limited drama series unfolds around a shocking crime that rocks a small Massachusetts town and one family in particular, forcing an assistant district attorney to choose between his sworn duty to uphold justice and his unconditional love for his son.

Why its worth your time:The series marks Chris Evans first leading role post-Marveland reveals one of Apple TV+s biggest scores in terms of star power. Evans now joins Hollywood heavy-hitters likeStephen Speilberg and Tom Hankswho have signed on to produce upcoming content for the platform.

After a grisly murder, Detective Tiago Vegan and his partner, Lewis Michener, become embroiled in an investigation that reflects the history of Los Angeles.

Why its worth your time:We are suckers for good stories about the Devil, and this season is set to portray a conflict between those who worship the Santa Muerte and Satan himself. The season is set 40 years after the original series, during the Golden Age of Hollywood and will explore LA, but also the deep traditions of Mexican-American folklore. It all sounds intriguing, and Game of Thrones alum Natalie Dormer looks electric in the trailer. We just hope the series is able to handle this many nuanced themes.

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These Are the Must-See TV Shows Premiering in April - HYPEBEAST

The Atmospheric Indie Exploration Title In Other Waters Has Been Released! – Happy Gamer

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Indie games make the world go around, especially nowadays with everyone being forced to spend so much time indoors. Indie games are typically cheaper, but their quality is no lower than non-independent games, making them a perpetually great choice. Of course, you also have the legendary indie releases, likeUndertale.

The latest indie game to be released in search of reaching that acclaim just hit stores across multiple platforms. Players that want to dive into the waters of another world can playIn Other Waters on Nintendo Switch or Steam.

In Other Waters is a unique title where you explore the oceans of an extraterrestrial planet without ever seeing them. Rather than playing as the explorer, you play as the explorers AI in their suit. Helping navigate for xenobiologist Ellery Vas, youll scan the environment to keep her up to date on any incoming threats or changes as you explore the planet together.

If youve heard ofIn Other Waters before, its likely from the accolades the indie title has acquired. Back in 2019, the title became an awardee at the Indie Cade International Festival of Independent Games, and gaming journalism outlet Rock, Paper, Shotgun also gave it their Bestest Bests award recently. Both titles applaud the unique gameplay and entrancing nature of the game as great draws.

Guide Ellery and keep her safe as you dive deeper and explore an underwater alien landscape, The description reads. The planets unique life, and its dark history, are yours to uncover and the bond between you and Ellery will be tested by the secrets you learn.

Players wont just be passively scanning. You take the role of the AI within her malfunctioning dive suit, but you arent some pre-programmed force for all good. As the story continues through a shifting narrative, youll discuss your discoveries with Ellery Vas as she tries to decide whether she can trust you to do the job she needs to do. Building your relationship with the xenobiologist is absolutely vital to the game.

Through this shifting narrative,In Other Watersasks questions about the nature of natural and artificial life, and investigates what it means to be a human in an epoch of extreme environmental destruction.

As the title states, for life to continue, it must change.In Other Waters is a fantastically posthuman romp that makes up for its lack of graphical spark with an intriguing story, strategic gameplay, and addicting progression.

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The Atmospheric Indie Exploration Title In Other Waters Has Been Released! - Happy Gamer

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu – Locus Online

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu (Saga 978-1-9821-3403-7, $26.00, 432pp, hc) February 2020.

In his introduction to The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Lius much-anticipated second collection, Liu tells us that selecting the stories was easier, since he no longer felt the pressure to present, but rather decided to stick with stories that most pleased myself. In fact, more than half of the 18 stories (plus an excerpt from the forthcoming third volume of his Dandelion Dynasty novels) are old enough that they might have been included in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories back in 2016; the oldest date to 2011. This is one reason that second or third story collections are often more revealing than first collections; rather than showing us this is what I can do, they show this is what Im interested in. In no sense do any of the stories here feel like leftovers from that first collection, although a couple seem a bit fragmentary, like the Borgesian parable Cutting in which a group of monks annually cut out more words from their holy book as offerings to the gods, a kind of clever inversion of Clarkes The Nine Billion Names of God. What most of the stories reveal, however, is what Liu seems to be thinking about the past few years and a few clear themes emerge. One, which isnt too surprising given Lius background in computers, is the notion of the digital singularity, the now-familiar SF trope of uploading consciousness. But if that suggests the hard-SF side of Lius imagination, what emerges as an abiding concern of his humanist side is even more interesting: the problems, pitfalls, and rewards of child-parent relationships, which figure in fully half the stories here, as they did in his most celebrated story, The Paper Menagerie. Those same relationships often reveal a third theme: balancing dual identities, such as a British-educated student returning to his Chinese family in Hong Kong, or a parent who is also a distributed web intelligence, or a child learning to be a parent to a mother suffer ing dementia.

Perhaps not surprisingly, these themes converge in a number of stories, which together form a kind of meta-narrative of the singularity, which Liu treats as a mass migration into cyberspace. Lius singularity has some draconian rules: in order to upload, the living brain has to be scanned, but the procedure leaves the brain a bloody, pulpy mess. In other words, and not unlike in many religious beliefs, the geek rapture (to borrow a term already masticated into baby bird food) only works if your body dies, or at least your brain. In Lius more or less consistent chronology, one of the first to undergo such a procedure is a brilliant computer scientist in The Gods Will Not Be Chained, one of three connected stories originally published in John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howies Apocalypse Triptych anthologies. The narrator of the story is his daughter Maddie, who discovers a mysterious web presence speaking entirely in emojis that helps her deal with online bullying. The story maintains a fine balance between the account of a grieving and unhappy girl coming to terms with her parents and the cyber-thriller of what really happened to her father and why. The immediate sequel, The Gods Will Not be Slain, retains Maddies appealing narrative voice but moves into Colossus/Terminator territory as her dad battles against other uploaded consciousnesses, or gods, who have concluded that helping humanity destroy itself by taking control of weapons systems would be a dandy payback. By the third installment, The Gods Have Not Died in Vain, Maddies home life is more focused on dealing with her overworked mom, but now she meets a virtual sister she names Mist a native of the uploaded world, created by her father and the two of them form a bond even as Mist raises the argument that a post-scarcity paradise can be achieved only as people are willing to give up their physical bodies to enter the now rapidly growing cybercommunity. None of these arguments are particularly original with Liu, nor is the assumption that gender identities and family relationships will somehow persist in a nonbiological environment, but the sympathetic focus on Maddie, as she comes to terms with radical changes in her life and future, keeps the tale from turning into programmatic spec-fic.

By the time of Staying Behind, the rapture term left behind is invoked to describe those who resist uploading, even as the physical world grows depopulated and increasingly primitive and violent. The parents here cynically refer to the uploaded as the dead and have convinced their kids that the singularity is a false promise, but when the mother begins dying from a long illness, the desperate father has her uploaded against her fervent wishes, leaving the children to face a dilemma when the mother emails them that I was wrong and claims the digital world leaves her ecstatic another loaded quasi-religious term. Still later, in Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer (interestingly, a title taken from the same Auden poem that gave us Catherynne Valentes Silently and Very Fast), most kids are virtual-world natives, living in multidimensional constructs. The mother of the narrator, one of the few remaining ancients who lived part of her life in flesh, worries that humanity has turned inward and become complacent, as she tries to persuade her daughter to join her in exploring the physical universe by having herself beamed to a robot sent to a distant planet. The timescale shifts more radically in Seven Birthdays, a kind of formal experiment in which Liu forces himself into ever more remote futures by the simple trick of having each of the birthdays a multiple by seven of the previous one so that it begins with the young-girl narrators seventh birthday, then jumps to 49, to 343, and so on until were well past a million years in the future. Its the sort of device used before in stories like Jonathan Lethems Five Fucks or Sean Williamss All the Wrong Places, but as usual Liu casts it as a family drama: the overworked mom nearly misses Mias seventh birthday, and by the time Mia turns 49, she herself is so busy working on the problem of scanning brains that the roles are reversed, with the now elderly mother suffering from dementia. By her 343rd birthday, the focus shifts to Mias relations with her own daughter, both now living in virtuality. The parental problems move to the background a bit in subsequent jumps into deep time, but the tale ends with a somewhat contrived but nonetheless moving full-circle conclusion.

Family dynamics arent confined to Lius singularity tales, however. Other familiar SF tropes are also invoked in service of exploring parent/child relations. A mother given only two years to live realizes that the time dilation of repeated space journeys will enable her to see her daughter grow up and even grow old in the brief but elegant Memories of My Mother, while an enigmatic alien structure on a distant planet brings together an alienated father and daughter in The Message, a story which in many ways inverts and critiques Godwins The Cold Equations, though its nearly as front-loaded as that chestnut. One of the most complex and provocative tales is the lead story, Ghost Days, in which an ancient Chinese spade-shaped bubi coin passes from a British-educated Chinese student in 1905 Hong Kong who is facing cultural tensions with his father, to a Chinese-American student confronting racism in Reagan-era Connecticut, and finally to a genetically engineered posthuman student on a remote planet in the 24th century. Each is confronted with the conundrum of living in two worlds, symbolized by the bubi, and Lius ingeniously layered structure only adds to the resonance between the different time frames. The question of dual identity is made even more explicit in the one story involving aliens, The Reborn, depicting a problematical kind of symbiosis that in some ways reflects the debate over embodiment vs. uploading in those other stories.

As should be evident by now, Liu is fond of narrative packets tales whose segments jump forward or backward in time or shift viewpointscovering thousands of millennia in the case of Seven Birthdays and this can be equally effective when the time frames are more intimate as in Maxwells Demon. The collections most direct indictment of racism, it describes the fate of a young Japanese American physicist interned at the Tule Lake concentration camp in 1943, first classified as a no-no girl, then sent as a scientific spy to Japan. Because of her apparent affinity with spirits, she finds herself attached to a paranormal research unit which assigns her to train the spirits to act as a literal Maxwells demon in order to create a superweapon. Despite its odd mix of supernaturalism and classic physics, the storys bitterly ironic ending, which moves forward to 1945, is powerful. Equally powerful, but in a very different and disturbing way, is Thoughts and Prayers, which shifts among the viewpoints of family members of a young woman killed in a mass shooting, as they helplessly watch internet trolls cruelly manipulate images from her memorial video into porn videos. The memorial video itself is produced using algorithms which feature much more prominently in Real Artists, a rather slight satirical piece about the film industrys growing obsession with audience research.

As those last two stories suggest, an abiding concern of Lius is how technologies that are already with us may be used or misused in the near future. Byzantine Empathy is not only the most provocative story Ive read concerning the possible uses of blockchain technology, but one of the clearest explanations of blockchain itself (not surprising that it originally appeared in the MIT anthology Twelve Tomorrows). After opening with a genuinely disturbing VR scene of Myanmar refugees being brutalized by soldiers, though, it develops into what amounts to a policy debate between two former college roommates over the relative benefits of a new VR-based blockchain called Empathium which radically decentralizes fundraising for worthy causes compared to more traditional charity organizations. (The title comes from a parable about Byzantine generals needing secure communications lines.) Despite the sympathetic portraits of its two main characters, the story cant help but turn into a fairly abstruse debate about resource allocation. By contrast, Lius treatment of another hot-button issue, global warming, is given the unwieldy title Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts and is set in a more distant 27th century, when (somewhat as in Kim Stanley Robinsons 2312) terraforming efforts are underway to make Earth once again habitable. Much of the action is set in a sunken Boston, hauntingly evoked in a way which recalls Robinsons Venice Drowned.

Given Lius success with his epic Dandelion Dynasty fantasy novels, its interesting that only three of the selections here approach fantasy, and one of those is a brief preview of The Veiled Throne, the forthcoming third volume in that series (which is fun, but Ill refrain from commenting until the novel shows up). Each of the two other fantasy tales seems ready to open up into broader narratives. The title story, The Hidden Girl, is set in Tang Dynasty China, where a young girl is abducted by a bhikkhuni, or Buddhist nun, who trains her as an acrobatically skilled assassin. But on her first assignment, her encounter with the targeted warlord and his son causes her to re-evaluate her training, placing her at odds with her sister assassins and setting her on her own course to protect the innocent and guard the timid. Its basically a superhero origin story, and its not surprising that Hollywood optioned it a few years ago. Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard, the only story original to the collection, also concludes with a suggestion of further adventures. In a repressive sort of steampunk dystopia, Ava works as a miner sifting through the middens of an ancient technological civilization destroyed by an apocalyptic Plague. One of the few avenues for the repressed miners to gain social status is to partake of Revelation wine, a magical potion which allowed its drinkers to reshape their body into a second form, a form that displayed their latent talents and hidden abilities. Avas transformation simply turns her into a rabbit. Those rabbit skills prove useful in unexpected ways as she rescues a mare (the revealed shape of another woman) and the two of them join forces with a poacher who takes the form of the coal leopard. With the three women learning how their individual powers can work together, the story seems to set the stage for an epic revolution yet to come. Perhaps this sort of adventure which, as we know from the Dandelion Dynasty, Liu can write with the best of them liberates him from the conscientiousness and tech-savvy explanations that sometimes clog the movement of his SF tales, even while deepening their power. Lius fantasies may be more freewheeling than his SF, but The Hidden Girl and Other Stories leaves us wanting a lot more of both.

Gary K. Wolfe is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University and a reviewer for Locus magazine since 1991. His reviews have been collected in Soundings (BSFA Award 2006; Hugo nominee), Bearings (Hugo nominee 2011), and Sightings (2011), and his Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature (Wesleyan) received the Locus Award in 2012. Earlier books include The Known and the Unknown: The Iconography of Science Fiction (Eaton Award, 1981), Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever (with Ellen Weil, 2002), and David Lindsay (1982). For the Library of America, he edited American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s in 2012, with a similar set for the 1960s forthcoming. He has received the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, and a Special World Fantasy Award for criticism. His 24-lecture series How Great Science Fiction Works appeared from The Great Courses in 2016. He has received six Hugo nominations, two for his reviews collections and four for The Coode Street Podcast, which he has co-hosted with Jonathan Strahan for more than 300 episodes. He lives in Chicago.

This review and more like it in the February 2020 issue of Locus.

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Lawsuits Swell as Owners, From Gun Shops to Golf Courses, Demand to Open – The New York Times

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Blueberry Hill Public Golf Course & Lounge became a community institution almost the day it opened in western Pennsylvania in 1961, with one generation of players succeeding the next on the wooded, undulating course bordering the Allegheny National Forest.

It had its share of misfortune last spring a tornado roared through its 400 acres, leaving $100,000 in damages across its 18 holes. With spring now budding early, Jim Roth, the general manager, anticipated a boom year even as coronavirus fears escalated people still needed exercise, didnt they?

I thought I had a little bright light starting to shine, then somebody turned the light bulb off, Mr. Roth said.

That somebody, as far as he was concerned, was Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania. On March 19, Mr. Wolf introduced an initiative to categorize businesses as life-sustaining or not, shuttering golf courses among the latter.

So Mr. Roth sued, joining a lawyer, a realtor, a logger, a politician and a laundry owner in demanding that the governor not hold absolute power to open and shut segments of the Pennsylvania economy like a spigot.

I do not understand why Mr. Wolf is able to deem this business life-sustaining and this one not, Mr. Roth said. I think the governor might have overstepped his boundaries.

It is a growing refrain across the United States as more governors invoke their police powers to take extraordinary measures to protect public health. Some Americans, many hoping to protect their livelihoods and others suspicious of such sweeping powers, are turning to the courts.

What you will see are massive increases in the number of people who have problems that could benefit from some kind of legal assistance, said Rebecca Sandefur, a sociologist at the American Bar Foundation.

Because of sparse online records, it is not clear how many ordinary Americans have turned to state courts for redress, legal experts said, but there has been a wave of lawsuits as state governments extend the timeline for people to stay home and to shutter their businesses.

Various political leaders and civic organizations have criticized the measures as excessive and bound to hurt the American economy, a line abandoned by President Trump but still maintained by some allies.

We have to focus on keeping people employed, Devin Nunes, the California congressman and top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News this week. I will tell you this, if we dont start to get people back to work in this country over the next week to two weeks, I dont believe that we can wait until the end of April.

Some of those suing their state governments seek redress for specific, local grievances, as with the golf course or in a similar suit in Pennsylvania being pursued by a company that says it is the countrys oldest manufacturer of orchestra-quality bells and chimes. Those lawsuits and one in Arizona are rooted in the Fifth Amendment, which requires due process and guarantees compensation for property seized by the government.

Other constitutional amendments have been invoked in several lawsuits in recent weeks attempting to force open gun stores, or to argue that measures to curb the virus should not outweigh rights like freedom of assembly and religion.

Those may be serious, but they may also be part of an attempt to make an argument in the press about overreach, said Tom Burke, a political-science professor at Wellesley College who studies the politics of litigation.

History dating back to the time of 15th-century plagues shows that lawsuits typically plummet during pandemics, Mr. Burke said, for the obvious reason that courts are closed. But legal experts anticipate a tidal wave of court activity afterward especially in fields like insurance and debt collection because of the economic dislocation caused by the pandemic.

A smattering of those suits has already been filed. Thomas Keller, the chef behind upscale restaurants like Per Se in New York and the French Laundry in Californias Napa Valley, sued the Hartford Fire Insurance Co., asking a state court in California to confirm that the insurer must cover losses caused by the government-ordered closures.

In Oklahoma, the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations also went to state court to demand that their insurers cover losses sustained by their casinos.

Suits meant to preserve long-established rights often do not prove popular in times like this, with the public endorsing the need to make health a priority.

Dan Hynes, a lawyer and local politician in New Hampshire, was taken aback by the reaction when he sued Gov. Chris Sununu in state court, claiming that even the initial restrictions limiting the size of public gatherings like church services were an infringement on basic rights including freedom of religion and freedom of assembly.

Negative comments flooded into his social media accounts and those of the three other plaintiffs. Knock it off, wrote one woman on Facebook. You can harm others with your sheer ignorance. Or, you can be a good member of a community and society.

Merrimack Superior Court threw the suit out.

In Pennsylvania, Marc A. Scaringi, the lawyer for the golf course and others, said that the states Disease Prevention and Control Law, last amended in 1959, targets infected individuals. It does not refer to pandemics, nor grant the governor the extensive power he is claiming under other catastrophes, Mr. Scaringi said, especially without due process. Finally, the list of banned businesses seemed to change at random, with even some of his original plaintiffs removed, he argued in court papers.

At the golf course, Mr. Roth said he recognized that the measures were for the public good, but exercise was beneficial, too, and he was ready to modify the rules. He could limit golf carts to one per person, or even force players to walk, for example, and bar touching the flags.

Critics accused Governor Wolf, a Democrat, of playing favorites with the life-sustaining list. The governors former family business, which makes kitchen cabinetry, was initially deemed life-sustaining, the complaint said, then scratched off the list. There was also some public grumbling that the Dan Smith Candy Company, a chain in the family of State Senator Joe Scarnati, a prominent Republican politician, was operating.

The Wolf administrations highest priority is protecting public health and safety, the governor said in a statement when asked about the lawsuits. By Friday afternoon, Pennsylvania had more than 8,000 coronavirus cases and 100 deaths.

The statement denied that the governor was directly involved in the choice of which companies received waivers. Those requesting an exemption represent a fraction of the Pennsylvania business community and we are working to ensure that those exemptions are properly processed and align with our most current guidance, the statement said.

Confectionary businesses were not closed, the statement noted, while the Dan Smith Candy Company said on its Facebook page that it was life-sustaining because it also sold spaghetti sauces, pasta, oil and other goods.

When your neighbors house is burning down, though a burden, the law requires that you allow the fire engine to block your driveway for the protection of the entire neighborhood, the state said in a brief filed by Attorney General Josh Shapiro. A pandemic is burning across the world. The only effective tool we have to fight that fire is social distancing.

Across the United States, closing gun shops provoked a series of lawsuits arguing that the measure violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Critics filed lawsuits in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas and California, where the National Rifle Association was one plaintiff.

David Jensen, the lawyer in a New Jersey case, said his clients were not necessarily arguing that gun shops be allowed to open, but that a route be found to allow some gun sales. You cannot close off the ability of anyone to acquire a firearm, he said.

Representatives for Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, allied organizations that lobby for stricter gun laws, countered that nothing in the Second Amendment suggested that gun stores enjoy special treatment during a public health crisis.

Governors should not be pressed into declaring gun stores essential, said John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Defending First Amendment rights led to lawsuits in various states including New York, Maine, Georgia, Texas and New Mexico.

In New Mexico, the president of the Albuquerque Tea Party, Leland Taylor, filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the emergency orders issued by the governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, violated the rights to worship and free assembly, among others.

Mr. Taylor initially claimed that the virus was not serious enough to warrant such emergency orders, calling it not as egregious an infection as reported and one with a 100 percent cure rate by using an inexpensive antimalarial. That echoed statements from Mr. Trump about the use of antimalarial drugs in combination with antibiotics that his own experts later denied.

This is a frivolous lawsuit based on extremely dangerous misinformation that, if widely disseminated, will do nothing but worsen this crisis in New Mexico and lead to more illness and death, Nora Meyers Sackett, the spokeswoman for the governor, said in an email.

With courts shuttered, plaintiffs usually hope that emergency injunctions or similar measures will win them a quick hearing on the phone. It is hard to prevail in any case, however, over government measures designed to protect public health, legal experts said.

The general pattern in the middle of a crisis is that courts are very deferential, said Mr. Burke, the political scientist.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

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Lawsuits Swell as Owners, From Gun Shops to Golf Courses, Demand to Open - The New York Times

Why Housing The Homeless In The Age Of Covid-19 Is Essential – Forbes

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Homeless people make shelters on the sidewalk in front of the Midnight Mission at Skid Row in ... [+] downtown Los Angeles, California on March 19, 2020. - The US government is now preparing for 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic, including multiple waves of illnesses. The ominous announcement comes after cases in the US spiked 40% in just 24 hours. (Photo by Apu GOMES / AFP) (Photo by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)

In many parts of the country, some of us have become so accustomed to seeing homeless people aroundin tents, begging at intersections, sleeping in downtown doorwaystheyve almost become part of the landscape, ever-present yet barely noticed.

Its time to notice. Because in the public health emergency created by the novel coronavirus, we truly are all in this together. And caring about what happens to a half million strangers with no place to go, whether out of compassion or pragmatism, must be part of the national response to this virus.Its not far-fetched to call helping the homeless get safely inside one of the keys to both physical and economic survival. Here's why.

Preliminary research suggests SARS-CoV2, the name of the virus that causes Covid-19, might linger in the air as an aerosol even after an infected person has left a room. Might that be enough to infect the next person to enter the room? Possibly. There isn't enough data yet to know for sure. It can hang around for days on the ubiquitous plastics that seem to define modern life. Keeping six feet away from others is better than nothing but not by much, which is one reason why governors of most states have told their residents to stay home.

Thats mandatory, in many places. But what about those who dont have homes? Beleaguered officials in places with huge homeless populations, like the San Francisco Bay area, and Portland, Oregon, have exempted homeless people from shelter-in-place orders. That doesnt, however, exempt them from getting and spreading the virus.

NEW YORK, NY APRIL 02: Medical workers wait for patients at a special coronavirus intake area at ... [+] Maimonides Medical Center in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn which has seen an upsurge of coronavirus patients on April 02, 2020 in New York City. Hospitals in New York City, which has been especially hard hit by the coronavirus, are facing shortages of beds, ventilators and protective equipment for medical staff. Currently, over 75,000 New Yorkers have tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Miriam Komaromy, MD, Medical Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center, which treats a significant number of homeless patients, says that to get Covid-19 under control, its essential to get the unhoused inside, where they, too, can self-isolate. That means on the other side of a door they can shut behind them. Not left on the streets. Not in tents. Not in homeless shelters.

People in shelters are typically crowded together and so are breathing aerosolized and droplet secretions from each other, she explains. They are also touching the same surfaces, and so are infecting each other via touching surfaces contaminated by respiratory droplets.

This virus spreads by stealthespecially in places where people gather in close proximity. In Washington state, 60 singers got together for choir practice. They didnt exchange their usual hugs and no one had symptoms. Within days, 28 had tested positive for Covid-19, another 17 became sick but werent tested, and two people died. After a late February funeral in Georgia, dozens of mourners fell ill with Covid-19. Here too, none had appeared ill at the time of the funeral. In Westport, Connecticut, which didnt have a single known case of the novel coronavirus before a socialites big, glitzy 40th birthday celebration, 85 cases were diagnosed within 11 days of the party. And again, no one had shown up noticeably sick.

So isolating people after fever, coughing, or other signs appear is too late. And that includes homeless people, who have been shown to be particularly susceptible to infectious diseases because of their living conditions.

Dr. Komaromy believes she has an answer. Because of the pandemic, the US has millions of vacated dorm rooms, offices, and hotel rooms. Use these empty spaces to house those without homes, and avert what could lead to ongoing disaster.

Its a brilliant solution, perhaps the only solution. The owners of the empty facilities may well be interested in gaining income if they agree to house people, says Komaromy. But we have found that there is a great deal of resistance from commercial entities such as hotel owners.

The government might not actually have to persuade hoteliers and others (although the federal government, itself, might be the toughest entity to convince). Under the fifth amendment, in time of war or public danger, a temporary taking under eminent domain is a potential option. The government would have to pay rent to take control of the properties needed without taking permanent ownership. Thats a big expenditure, but it just found $2.2 trillion to help save the country from the economic side-effects of the pandemic. How much is it worth to plug a hole in the plan to stop the pandemic, itself?

What might happen if the country decides to ignore that gaping holeas its ignored so many other longstanding issues that Covid-19 has exposed as needing immediate attention?

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2020/03/28: Homeless person lays under blanket on street and reads Holy ... [+] Bible in Manhattan. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Hospitals in New York, the current center of the the US pandemic, are already overwhelmed. Elective procedures have been canceled or postponed indefinitelyeven those for cancer.Some hospitals are reported to have imposed do-not-resuscitate orders,without first getting consent, for certain Covid-19 patients.There is simply no way to save everyone.

Homeless people tend to have higher rates of the kinds of chronic conditions that make severe illness with SARS-CoV2and the need for greater medical resourcesmore likely.

The country cant afford to allow large swathes of the population to go unhoused and exposed. It endangers everyone.

Of course, there are other big questions: how does temporarily housing homeless people solve what might be an ongoing emergency? What if the virus mutates and produces variants? If so, could those whove recovered from it, and are presumed to be immune to the current strain, be re-infected? If this is the new normal, must the country fix all the problems its ignored for decades, at once, all while combatting an invisible killer?

It just might.

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus

How About Some Good News on the Economy? | VodkaPundit – PJ Media

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Appearing remotely on Sunday's Face the Nation, St Louis Federal Reserve Bank Chairman James Bullard indicated that the Fed has no idea, really, just how bad the Coronavirus Contraction is going to get. Asked by Margaret Brennan about his team's prediction that "47 million Americans could lose their jobs," bringing the unemployment rate up to 32%, Bullard said the "32 percent number is a compromise in the middle."

In the middle of what, you might ask. Bullard told Brennan that he and his economists at the St. Louis Fed estimate that the "unemployment rate could go anywhere between 10 percent and 42 percent."

So things could get Great Recession bad or blow past the 25% unemployment record set during the depths of the Great Depression in 1933. That's a bit like the doctor telling you that you either have a bad case of the flu or maybe caught a rare form of cancer that makes all your limbs slowly fall off.

I'm not picking on Bullard here. Not only does no one know what's going to happen to the economy, at this point nobody can know. The question is less "How bad is it going to get?" but "How quickly do we recover?"

The answer to that could be very nice, indeed.

An economy with plenty of liquidity and weeks of pent-up demand ought to bounce back almost as quickly as it sank -- like a big kid on a trampoline. Sharp economic downturns are usually followed by equally sharp recoveries. The 1981-82 and 1991 recessions come to mind.

What made the Great Depression and the Great Recession alike were anemic recoveries that took seemingly forever. As I noted back in March [VIP link]:

Coming into office on the heels of the 2007-08 financial panic (caused in no small part by Washington meddling in the mortgage markets), President Barack Obama indulged in a flurry of lawmaking and micromanagement unseen since FDR. As a result, Obama's recovery was the slowest since FDR's. In some ways -- Washington's addictions to spending and debt are the worst examples -- we're still dealing with the hangover from Obama's reaction to the Great Recession.

But back to Bullard on Face the Nation. Asked if there "will be somehow just a switch that flips on and the economy will come back roaring," Bullard said:

This is no bailout for big banks like we saw during the Great Recession. If anything, Congress is following the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth states that private property cannot "be taken for public use, without just compensation." If your labor isn't your property, then what is? If stopping a pandemic isn't public use, then what is? Relief checks aren't enough in my opinion, but they do represent at least some small amount of compensation for government orders to stay home and not work.

And as Bullard noted, "There's nothing wrong with the economy itself. The economy was actually doing quite well going into this health situation." If Washington can manage not to insert itself into the recovery, we ought to get right back to where we were before coronavirus in short order. The Democrat-controlled House is going to have a very strong itch to hobble the economy with a progressive wishlist of crap legislation, but the GOP-held Senate and White House ought to put the kibosh on any such nonsense.

There are some excellent indicators that the worst might soon be over. The White House noted on Sunday that there have been signs of stabilization in hospital rates, and New York enjoyed -- if that's the word -- its first daily decline in COVID-19-related deaths. Death rates are slowing in Europe, too, even in hard-hit Italy and Spain. Social distancing works, and as I reminded you three weeks ago [VIP link], "extreme measures at the start of a crisis can prevent extreme consequences later on."

For now we're stuck in the middle: We've taken the extreme measures, but the crisis persists. But it also looks like we'll avoid the extreme worst-case scenario, in no small part because of those extreme measures. Strangely enough, gridlocked Washington is kind of a best-case scenario for this particular crisis. The economy needs craploads of liquidity at a time when spending craploads of money is the one thing both parties can agree on. What the economy doesn't need is a bunch of new agencies and regulatory schemes hobbling the recovery -- and gridlock ought to prevent just that.

So hang in there. We're not off the bumpy road yet, but I think America and Americans are going to emerge from this thing stronger than ever.

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How About Some Good News on the Economy? | VodkaPundit - PJ Media

Shelter in Place order will be enforced by police if necessary – Daily O’Collegian

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Stillwaters Shelter in Place order, which went into effect Monday at 11:59 p.m., will be enforced by municipal police if necessary.

The order was the latest in an escalating series of proclamations Mayor William Joyce has issued, aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

According to the proclamation, all residents of Stillwater are required to shelter in place at their homes, excluding necessary trips for specific essential purposes. The order also closes playgrounds, gazebos, and public sports facilities, although walking trails and the city parks themselves remain open.

Previous proclamations closing certain businesses, and prohibiting gatherings of 10 or more are still in effect. Violations of these proclamations now carry a fine of up to $500 per violation.

Multiple city officials said despite the new order, residents will not be stopped and asked to show identifying papers, or other documentation of an essential reason to be out. Police Chief Jeff Watts said officers wont be instituting major changes to enforce the order, although they are authorized to issue citations if necessary.

Obviously our officers would use lots of discretion on how they would approach any situation, Watts said. But as far as the actual Shelter in Place, if people are out moving around, our officers are not going to contact them. We are not going to require that they provide documentation that shows they have a legitimate reason to be out. We will not be fining or citing people, or arresting people for not sheltering in place.

Watts said the most enforceable parts of the proclamation were the business closures and limits on large gatherings.

Other city officials said they hope people would comply with the order on their own. City Manager Norman McNickle at the city council meeting on Monday said people should take the threat of community spread seriously.

You just need to act like you have it, McNickle said. There is community spread, no ifs, ands or buts.

Social distancing measures are being enforced at many essential businesses throughout Stillwater, although shortened hours and panic buying have kept some stores crowded. Mayor Joyce said at the city council meeting on Monday that citizens should consider the necessity of a trip before they leave their homes.

Even if something is open, even if something is available for you to do, you should not go do it just because you can go do it, Joyce said. Just stay home unless you absolutely need to be out.

The measures taken by the city government mirrors those of other municipalities throughout the state.

These kinds of measures work best when they are done in conjunction with surrounding communities, Joyce said.

The only public commentator to speak at Mondays city council meeting said he is not a Stillwater resident, but all of his business and shopping takes place in Stillwater.

I understand people are afraid, and I dont blame them, Ali Sarsak said.

Sarsak said the proclamation was a violation of his First Amendment right to assemble, and his Fifth Amendment protection from unlawful search and seizure.

Their fears do not cancel my rights, Sarsak said.

Mayor Joyce said the measure had received both positive and negative feedback from the public.

news.ed@ocolly.com

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Shelter in Place order will be enforced by police if necessary - Daily O'Collegian

The Matrix Movies, Ranked Worst to Best | Screen Rant – Screen Rant

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

How does everymovie inThe Matrix franchise rank from worst to best? Envisioned by the Wachowski siblings and developed in the late 1990s,The Matrix delivered a pre-millennial dose of existential science fiction action and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Based in a dystopian future where a war between man and machines ended with AI robots enslaving the human race in a digital simulation (the titular Matrix), the 1999 classic follows a small band of resistance fighters as they fight back against their captors, free others from their virtual prison and wear some damn cool leather trench coats. At the eye of the storm is Keanu Reeves' Neo who proves to be the figure of prophecydestined to finally end the war and liberate mankind.

A pair of sequels followed, both released in 2003,but the Wachowskis' world has also expanded into animation, video games and other media considered canon alongside the cinematic releases. The influence, legacy and popularity ofThe Matrix remains strong 17 years after the last film was released and talk of a fourth entry has been almost non-stop during that period. After much speculation,The Matrix 4 was officially announced in 2019 for a 2021 release, bringing back Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss' Trinity and The Merovingian, while also adding an array of modern stars such as Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick and Neil Patrick Harris. Although the coronavirus pandemic has put a halt on Neo's return (and pretty much everything else) for the moment,The Matrix 4 is happening and in production, with Lana Wachowski directing.

Related:The Matrix: Everything That Happened After The Original Movies

While fans will certainly need to catch up on all 3The Matrix movies before diving intoThe Matrix 4, which of the trio comes out on top, and which is the glitch in the program? And has the passage of time forced a reevaluation of the less-liked films in a similar manner to theStar Wars prequel trilogy? Here's our ranking of the movies inThe Matrix series, from worst to best.

Upon release, fans widely pannedThe Matrix Revolutions as one of the most disappointing climaxes in science fiction cinema and that opinion has barely improved with the passage of time. It could even be said that fan desire to fix the mistakes of the thirdMatrix movie is as much of a driving force behindThe Matrix 4 as the prospect ofreuniting withKeanu Reeves' Neo or the multitude of story possibilitiesyet to be explored in the Wachowskis' world.

Despite suggestions to the contrary,The Matrix Revolutions isn't an entire disappointment. The finaleputs greater emphasis on story over action, compared toThe Matrix Reloaded, boasting a far meatier plot to chomp on.The Matrix Revolutionsrounds off Neo's deadly feud with Agent Smith, the final days of the war against the Machines, the true purpose and nature of the Matrix, and Morpheus' faith in Neo - all points that lingered in the previous film without much movement.This progression immediately fixes one of the biggest problems withThe Matrix Reloaded, but the 3rd film still doesn't match the storytelling quality of the original. Trinity's death, for example, is a waste of a major character and lacks any real emotional impact. Thankfully,The Matrix 4has a key opportunity to remedy this error.

Another positive to draw fromRevolutions isthe ending itself -even ifhowthose final moments play out largely fail to satisfy. The trilogy concludes with the Matrix rebooted, Neo ending the Machine war with a heroic sacrifice, and humanity given hope at a brighter future. Audiences are afforded the closure of a happy ending but not without a touch of bitter mortality, and this is exactly where The Matrix should have finished.

Related:The Matrix 4: Why Only One Wachowski Sibling Is Directing

Unfortunately, the routeThe Matrix Revolutions takes to reachsaidfinaleleft movie-goers reaching for the blue pill.The end of Neo's story is a meandering and frustrating quest for answers that fails to emulate the philosophical intrigue of the 1999 movie, coming off as pretentious, ambiguous and evasive. AsThe Matrix Revolutions struggles to bring together its real-world Machine storyline and the threat of Agent Smith inside the Matrix, it becomes clear thatReloadedandRevolutions really should've been condensed into a single streamlined film.

As detailed above, the sequels ofThe Matrixfranchisearen't fondly remembered, but while it's tempting to lump the pair together in one disappointing bundle,Revolutionsbears more responsibility thanThe MatrixReloadedfor the series' decline.

Perhaps the most damning indictment ofThe Matrix Reloaded, the middle installment of the trilogy, is that the entire film can be removed and the emphasis of the overall narrativeis barely effected.The Wachowskis' first sequel does precious little to develop the story of the originalMatrixor advance key events, and instead plays more like a procession of action sequences loosely linked together by barely-concealed exposition. While the cast, crew and visuals all remain consistent with the firstMatrix offering,Reloaded actually employs an entirely different ethos, replacing smart subtlety and interesting metaphor with obvious and literal parallels. This more straightforward approach lifts the curtain on the aura of mysteryThe Matrix built, but fails to put anything of substance for viewers to discover underneath. Apart from an awful rave sequence.

Despite its shortcomings,The Matrix Reloaded isn't entirely without merit, and succeeds on two fronts: expanding the fictional universe and visually stunning action. While the plot itself might be largely inconsequential, the secondMatrix movie introduces concepts that would become key to the franchise as a whole and enrich the in-universe dystopia. The Merovingian's influence is explored and his famous twin henchmen introduced, viewers learn more about the formation and hierarchy of the Matrix, and Agent Smith is established as a rogue program - all great additions, but ones that serve the franchise more thanThe Matrix Reloaded as a standalone movie.

In terms of action, the highwaybattle over The Keymaker is without question the most memorable part of the Wachowskis' awkward middle child. The fight sequences are one of the few elements thatfeellike palpable step-up from the original, proving every bit as fun, innovative and artistically intense. And therein lies the key problem withThe Matrix Reloaded; where the original film was a novel blend of philosophical themes, mind-bending science fiction andaesthetically grandioseaction scenes, the follow-up's focus was squarely on heart-pounding adrenaline.The trigger-happy "Reloaded" tagline perhaps should've been an early warning thatThe Matrix's sequel wouldn't meet expectations.

Related:How John Wick Could Be A Matrix Prequel (Or Sequel)

The first 1999The Matrix is quite simply several levels above the other 2 films in the series. Movie sequels are sometimes unfairly judged just because fans are so attached to the original, they struggle accepting any expansion of their beloved franchise. In the case ofThe Matrix, however, there exists a clear and tangible gulf in quality between the original and its successors.

Visually,The Matrix was a revolutionary undertaking from the Wachowskis. The creation of a dual setting - one familiar to viewers but malleable and fake, and one futuristic but completely fabricated - was unlike anything movie-goers had seen before and felt utterly immersive, even with pre-2000 special effects.The Matrix also helped pioneer new trends such as "bullet time" and gun-fu, as the action sequels seamlessly melded together martial arts, firearms and futuristic technology. This approach wasn't just fresh, it also perfectly melded with the zeitgeist of the day - the fears and hopes of the western world heading into the year 2000.

But with the visuals and action sequences consistently stunning across allMatrix movies, what elevates the first above the pack? Somewhat ironically, given the themes at play,The Matrix's true strength lies in its near-perfect balance. As much asThe Matrix is a landmark action movie, the film also incorporates cerebral science fiction subject matter in the style ofBlade Runner, and can either be enjoyed as a mindless fists-and-firefights flick or endlessly analyzed and dissected as a dystopian think-piece. Such balance is lost in the sequels, withThe Matrix Reloaded falling too far into action territory andRevolutions disappearing up its own backside in an attempt to be intelligent. Similarly, The Matrix manages to tread the fine line between intriguing the audience, but without frustrating with a lack of clear answers - unshackled byunnecessary filler or confusing contradictions, unlike the sequels.

With a mind onThe Matrix 4, it's difficult to imagine the 17-year-in-the-making movie happening ifthe original hadn't left such a strong and enduring legacy, navigating the potential damage 2 less-than-impressive sequels might've inflicted. The benefit of hindsight might not have done much to improve fan sentiment towardsRevolutions andReloadedbut, hopefully, the intervening years have allowed Lana Wachowski to finally craft a truly worthy successor toThe Matrix.

More:The Matrix 4 Should Repeat Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trick

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Craig first began contributing to Screen Rant in 2016, several years after graduating college, and has been ranting ever since, mostly to himself in a darkened room. Having previously written for various sports and music outlets, Craig's interest soon turned to TV and film, where a steady upbringing of science fiction and comic books finally came into its own.Craig has previously been published on sites such as Den of Geek, and after many coffee-drenched hours hunched over a laptop, part-time evening work eventually turned into a full-time career covering everything from the zombie apocalypse to the Starship Enterprise via the TARDIS.Since joining the Screen Rant fold, Craig has been involved in breaking news stories and mildly controversial ranking lists, but now works predominantly as a features writer.Jim Carrey is Craigs top acting pick and favorite topics include superheroes, anime and the unrecognized genius of the High School Musical trilogy.

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The Matrix Movies, Ranked Worst to Best | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

Olympic sponsors stick by 2021 games, but what will disrupted budgets deliver? – The Drum

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

The Olympic flame will remain extinguished until next summer, with the tournament now officially having been dialled back by 365 days.

On Monday (30 March), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) penned in the Tokyo 2020 Games from 23 July 2021 to 8 August. Additionally, The Paralympic Games will run between 24 August and 5 September 2021.

Despite running one year behind schedule, there is no rebrand planned. Tokyo 2021 will remain Tokyo 2020. With fresh dates cemented, organisers, athletes and fans have now been relieved of the uncertainty inspired by first postponement in the 124-year modern history of the modern Olympic Games.

For the sponsors bankrolling the Games and athletes, the celebration is muted, their best laid plans now lie in tatters.

US Olympics TV rights holder, NBCUniversal, announced proudly just last month how it had already sold 90% of its commercials for the tournament. The total sum amounted to $1.25bn; a new record, surpassing the total for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janiero and giving an indication of how much advertisers had planned to stump up.

Some brands including Nike, Coke and Adidas have already launched products and activations pinned to this years event. Many have spent the best part of a year laying the pipework for big-budget creative executions, as well as competitions, online promotions and on-the-ground campaigns.

In the meantime, the Covid-19 pandemic has been wreaking havoc on marketers budgets. Airbnb, Budweiser, Coca-Cola and John Lewis are just some companies to have frozen or redirected spend in the wake of the pandemic. At the start of this week, Warc forecast a recession in the first half of the year for the global ad market which, if materialised, will have a knock-on impact on budgets for the next 12 months at least.

The Olympics is a platform for glitzy, award-winning work that delivers real results for brands (see: Under Armours Rule Yourself; P&Gs Thank You Mom; and Nikes Unlimited Youth). In the midst of a coronavirus crunch, where marketing budgets are stretched, Tokyo 2020 could see sponsors take a different approach to Olympic advertising.

Joel Seymour-Hyde is managing director UK at sports and entertainment agency Octagon, which countsMastercard, Unilever, Budweiser and Expedia among its clients. He says, in a world where brands revenues and share prices are tanking it would be nave to think it will be business as usual for Olympic sponsors in 2021.

Will budgets be impacted? Of course they will, he asserts. There is a unique challenge in Olympics marketing: the fact that the partners get minimal media rights in exchange for other main assets like IP and the right to buy tickets.

He adds: Therefore typically the ratio of activation spend, including marketing, campaigns, media, employee engagement, B2B and hospitality, to rights fees is higher for Olympics sponsors v most other properties.

The obvious implications of this for 2021, Seymour-Hyde argues, would be some reduction in associated media spend, and potential reductions in the scale of hospitality initiatives. It ultimately depends on how long and deep the disruption goes, he adds.

At the time of writing, the majority of the IOCs top-tier global brand partners (many of which have inked long-term deals) had issued statements expressing their continued support of the Games.

The longest-standing sponsor of the Games Coca-Cola said it fully respects the decision of the IOC and the Tokyo Organising Committee (TOCOG). We know this decision was made in the best interest of the health, safety and security of all, added a spokesperson.

Airbnb, a newcomer to the (pricey) world of Olympic sponsorship also reaffirmed its commitment. Along with P&G, Dow, Bridgestone and Intel.

Alibaba Group stands firm for the postponement too: Despite the delay, such a decision, made amidst the ongoing global fight against Covid-19, is the epitome of the Olympic spirit of peace, friendship and solidarity, the Chinese firm said.

For its part, payment provider Visa has already made official moves to extend its Olympic athlete sponsorship through to 2021, as well as its headline deal.

As a proud sponsor of the Olympic Movement for more than 30 years, we will work with the IOC, the TOCOG, the government of Japan and our partners in the coming months to make the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 as memorable in 2021 as they would have been this year, it said in a statement.

For sports marketing consultant Tim Crow, its unlikely any flagship sponsors will pull out, unless their own businesses go into freefall.

For the large part, sponsors contracts will allow them to extend their rights to the new date of the Games, and their fees due to the IOC will simply be re-phased.

How much of their lost activation costs they can recover will depend on insurance, which could be a sticking point for smaller, struggling brands on a lower sponsorship tier.

Inevitably there are a lot of lawyers trying to talk up litigation but I don't see that happening either, Crow insists.

Next year's spend will be all about how businesses are doing, how the world economy is doing, and how clear the world is of the virus.

One sponsor to keep a close eye on is new kid on the block Airbnb, which this week unveiled a coronavirus contingency plan to help its business save $800m. This includes the suspension of all marketing activity for the foreseeable future.

Crow believes theres a silver lining to the postponement though, with many brands seeing the 2021 Games as an opportunity to engage with customers following the most tumultuous period in modern history.

These are big businesses with big budgets, and they'll already be seeing the Olympics as a potential means of helping them bounce back, he argues.

Seymour-Hyde agrees, saying that when the Games do return to screens the positive reaction from athletes, consumer, sponsors and broadcaster should be huge.

This applies to all sport, and already there is consensus that the return of live sport will be a huge cultural moment, he adds. Clearly there is nothing a brand or sponsor loves more than tapping it to the cultural zeitgeist, so its a fantastic creative challenge and opportunity.

With every sponsor likely to be on the same page (and sharing the same brief) its going to have to be some very special work to cut above the clutter and noise particularly if traditional media spend budgets are tighter.

Crow chips in: The worldwide context of the Tokyo Games has changed so fundamentally that well see many of the global Olympic sponsors, in particular the consumer brands, re-work their campaigns.

Many, he argues, will seek to capitalise on the inherent DNA of the Olympics, which at its heart is a celebration of humanity, of the best in human spirit: We'll see that really dialled up.

As for the legalities, over the next few months, the ins and outs of what this means for existing sponsorship contracts are likely to be negotiated on an ad hoc basis. Commercial media lawyer Nick Breen told The Drum last month that the implications of cancellation or postponement would be significant for brands; especially those that have already stumped up cash.

He also highlights how the effects would be less severe where an annual or repeated event (like the Olympics) was merely rescheduled and sponsors could carry over agreements into the following year.

It wont always be clean or even possible to reschedule an event or defer a sponsorship to a subsequent event, but in the majority of cases, sponsors and promoters will need to find a commercial and pragmatic solution, rather than resorting to a legal dispute, he explained.

One certain thing is that by the time 2021 rolls around, the world will be more than ready for Tokyo 2020 and everything it represents. If brands are smart they will go for gold in the next 12 months, readying strategies that allow them to bounce back in a post-coronavirus world.

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Olympic sponsors stick by 2021 games, but what will disrupted budgets deliver? - The Drum

The Coronavirus Outbreak Is Exposing Government Follies on Many Levels – Reason

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

After the coronavirus spread, left-leaning writers began declaringthat no one is a libertarian during a pandemic. We all need collective action to save us from this frightening health risk, they say.

But a funny thing happened on the way to big-government Nirvana, as officials try to ramp up testing and assure that we all have access to vital medical and other services.

The first thing that state officials did was grab various executive powers to order us to stay at home. Now, the federal government is pumping$2 trillionin taxpayer funds into the economy in the form of various bailoutssomething that might help ease the economic pain in the short term, but will cause more harm (exploding debt) in the long run.

These governmentresponsesgrab headlines, but offer little relief. Most serious approaches to the crisis, however, are decidedly libertarian. They involve reducing regulations that keep industries from responding rapidly in an emergency situation.

I recentlyexplainedhow the market economyand its sophisticated supply chainsis keeping us fed in these isolated times. Now we're seeing that government is more of an obstacle than a help. Pretty soon, we'll all be libertarians during a pandemic. The question is why more of us aren't libertarians the rest of the time, given what we're learning about the nature of government.

Let's start at the federal level. AsReason'sJohn Stossel recently explained, the Centers for Disease Control's COVID-19 tests were woefully inaccurate, but private companies were forbidden from developing tests unless they went through the long process of Food and Drug Administration approval. The Trump administration has temporarily waived those rules, but they left our country in a precarious position when a pandemic struck.

"The federal government regulates and monitors practically every activity that takes place in the US economy, from where and when truck drivers drop off their deliveries, to what tests hospitals and labs can use on patients," CNNreports. That's an eye-popping statement about the degree to which government controls everything. (So much for America being the land of unbridled capitalism!)

Because of the delays these rules cause, the Department of Transportation now iswaiving restrictionson how many hours truck drivers can work. The Department of Health and Human Services is waiving privacy laws so more Americans can use telehealth servicesallowing them to access medical advice from home. During good times, few people notice the burdens. They are more obvious when the chips are down.

At the local level, police departments are suspending the enforcement of picayune infractions. Some cities, such as Philadelphia, are not making minor drug and prostitution busts. Los Angeles isreleasingsome low-level inmates from its jails. It makes you wonder why law enforcement focuses on such things during normal times.

California state officials, however, have been resistant to eliminating the nonsensical rules that are making it tough for hospitals to treat increasing numbers of coronavirus patients. The state already has a vastnursing shortage, caused largely by the bureaucracy's limits on nursing-school attendeessomething designed to reduce the numbers and boost salaries.

As The Orange County Register reported, a number of hospitals are discontinuing clinical rotations during the crisis, which will delay nursing graduations because students are required to spend 75 percent of their clinical education in a hospital. The other 25 percent is done through simulations. The schools are asking the governor to reduce that requirement to 50 percent. He has yet to give an OK, but relaxing that rule will reduce nursing shortages.

Meanwhile, California is in a minority of states that does not recognize nurse-licensure compactsagreements that allow qualified and licensed nurses from other states to work here. Licensing rules in general impose steep barriers to entryfor workersand mostly are about established industries artificially boosting pay by reducing competition. They unquestionably create shortages, which create real dangers in a health emergency.

Sen. John Moorlach (RCosta Mesa) has introduced Senate Bill 1053, which would include our state in a 34-state nursing compact. It's a sensible reform, especially in these dire times. If the Legislature were serious about assuring that we have enough trained staff to deal with coronavirus patients, they ought to pass this measure as soon as possible. Remember this when you hear lawmakers complain about healthcare shortages.

If the governor were serious about improving resilience during the current mess, he should immediately postpone enforcement ofAssembly Bill 5, which forbids many industries from using contractors as workers. The law impoverishes freelancers during a time of hardship, discourages people from working at home and imposes hurdles on those providing vital delivery services. It creates a real impediment.

Government has a role, but a lot of what it does isharmful. We need to suspend counterproductive rules nowand then think twice before we reinstitute them after the crisis has passed.

This column was first published in the Orange County Register.

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The Coronavirus Outbreak Is Exposing Government Follies on Many Levels - Reason

Stuck at Home? Read about the History of Liberty – Cato Institute

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Looking for intellectual stimulation while youre stuck at home? Why not take ashort course in the history of liberty?

The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, published in 2008in hard copy, is now available free online at Libertarianism.org. The Encyclopedia includes more than 300 succinct, original articles on libertarian ideas, institutions, and thinkers. Contributors include James Buchanan, Richard Epstein, Tyler Cowen, Randy Barnett, Ellen Frankel Paul, Deirdre McCloskey, and more than 100 other scholars.

In an interesting discussion of social change and especially the best ways to spread classical liberal ideas at Liberty Funds Online Library of Liberty, historian David M. Hart had high praise for the Encyclopedia:

The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism provides an excellent survey of the key movements, individuals, and events in the evolution of the classical liberal movement.

One should begin with Steve Davies General Introduction, pp. xxvxxxvii, which is an excellent survey of the ideas, movements, and key events in the development of liberty, then read some of the articles on specific historical periods, movements, schools of thought, and individuals.

He goes on to suggest specific articles in the Encyclopedia that are essential reading for understanding successful radical change in ideas and political and economic structures, in both aproliberty and antiliberty direction. Heres his guide to learning about the history of liberty in the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism:

I could add more essays to his list, but Ill restrain myself to just one: Along with the essays on the Constitution and James Madison, read Federalists Versus AntiFederalists by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel.

By the way, you can still get the beautiful hardcover edition if you prefer real books, for yourself or as agift.

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Stuck at Home? Read about the History of Liberty - Cato Institute

This Libertarian Country Defeated The Coronavirus With The Free Market – Patheos

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

Hail! Hail, Freedonia!

The country of Freedonia has successfully fought off the COVID-19 virus successfully. This small European nation in the middle of the coronavirus maelstrom reportedly used free market forces to keep its citizens safe.

President Rufus T. Canard remarked on the remarkable story of laissez-faire economics and public health. Did you know the invisible hand of the market belongs to God? He is better than a legion of unelected bureaucrats telling you to put face masks on.

Once the government of Freedonia realized the pandemic was sweeping through its neighbors it took tough action nothing. Privately funded hospitals had all the respirators they needed because thats how capitalism works. The citizens of this nation whose motto isHail Freedonia, land of the Brave and Free!immediately engaged in complicated statistical analysis and realized they had all better start practice social distancing. And best of all no one hoarded toilet paper.

Unrestrained market forces do not create panics where people hoard items like toilet paper, remarked President Canard. You can look that up in any economics textbook.

Citizens of Freedonia are proud of their nations dedication to Ayn Rands ideals,Friedrich Hayeks economics, and a total disregard of reality. They point to how the Great Depression never depressed and their successful pay-by-the-minute education system. The world envies how each and every enrolled student has their own coin operatededu-meter,Canard quipped.

I dream of a world where people can do what they want whenever they want regardless of facts, President Canard said. And that will make the world a better place.

In related news, an American televangelist pays for a private jet with sperm bank donations.

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This Libertarian Country Defeated The Coronavirus With The Free Market - Patheos

A Little-Known Democratic Governor Is Breaking Out in Kentucky – The Intercept

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

In the absence of federal leadership, governors have become the public face of the effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them, like New Yorks Andrew Cuomo and Californias Gavin Newsom, have risen to the media status of national hero, certainly in comparison to the deadly, daily clown show on display at the White House. Others have exposed themselves as unfit for office such as Georgias Brian Kemp, who this week expressed shock after learning a basic fact about the disease, namely that asymptomatic carriers can spread it.

Lost between the coasts, meanwhile, is the remarkable story of Kentuckys Andy Beshear, whose handling of the coronavirus crisis looks especially strong next to neighboring Tennessee. The two states are like a life-and-death experiment, showing the difference between governing and not governing in the face of a pandemic.

The 42-year-old son of former Gov.Steve Beshear, he won a contested Democratic primary against a more progressive opponent, and then went on to face the extraordinarily unpopular Matt Bevin in the general election in the fall. The Libertarian Party, which Bevin had tussled with, decided to field a candidate simply to undermine him. The libertarian pulled 28,000 votes, enough to swing the election; Beshear beat Bevin by just 5,000 votes.

Republicans in the state legislature immediately began calling the result illegitimate, with Republican Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers saying it was appropriate of Bevin not to concede and that the GOP-controlled legislature might end up choosing the victor. He specifically cited the libertarian vote, claiming the results werent a genuine reflection of support for the Republican incumbent. It felt like a dry run of the 2020 presidential election, which skeptics have warned Donald Trump may not concede even if he loses.

But instead of the quivering response the public has come to expect from Democrats a threat of a lawsuit, complaints about norms to the media Beshear plowed forward, talking and acting like the rightful winner of the election. He began naming cabinet members and setting up his government, and in the face of his show of force, the media recognized him as the winner of the election and the GOP crumpled.

Beshear was sworn in as governor on December 10, 2019, and immediately began wielding power. That day, he signed an order restoring voting rights to more than 100,000 felons. On December 16, he killed Bevins Medicaid overhaul, which had been designed to throw people off the rolls. Another key issue in the election had been anger from teachers at Bevin over a slew of assaults, chief among them his attempt to undercut their pensions. Bevin had been concealing a 65-page official analysis of that plan showing its cost to public workers and its ineffectiveness in the long term. Beshear spiked the plan, and, on December 20, publicly released the assessment, in all its gory details.

In February, Beshear, a deacon at his local church, became the first governor to appear at the Fairness Rally, an anti-discrimination event organized each year by LGBTQ leaders.

A photo he took with a group of drag queens launched a local scandal, and one Republican lawmaker lashed out at him for defiling the state Capitol. Beshear again fought back, calling the lawmakers attack homophobic and demanding he apologize personally to everybody in the photo. Beshears aides, and the state party, called on the man to resign, transforming the scandal into one about Republicans and their backward views on social issues.

Days later, on March 6, Beshear became one of the first governors in the country to treat the coronavirus pandemic with the seriousness it deserves, declaring a state of emergency when he announced the states first confirmed case a day before New York state.

Trump was still laughing the pandemic off as no worse than the common flu. That same day, March 6, Trump toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declaring himself a natural expert. Anybody that wants a test can get a test, Trump lied from the CDC. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, How do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.

Trumps expertise had led him to conclude, on March 2, the pandemic would be less of a problem than the flu. Were talking about a much smaller range of deaths, he said. Two days later, he told Fox Newss Sean Hannity, Its very mild. The day after Beshear had declared a state of emergency, Trump said, at a dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his entourage (who all went home with the virus) at Mar-a-Lago, Im not concerned at all. On March 10, he was still full of bliss. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away, he said.

Tennessees Republican Gov. Bill Lee followed Trumps lead, telling his states residents no emergency declaration was necessary, even though Tennessee has more large urban centers than neighboring Kentucky. He finally switched course nearly a week later and declared an emergency, citing new information.

By that point, Beshear had already ratcheted up his warnings, urging Kentuckians to take the crisis seriously and to avoid large gatherings. By March 11, he announced the coming closure of schools. Beshear began 5 p.m. daily press briefings that have become appointment TV for a nervous public, even as Kentucky has one of the lowest spreads of the virus producing endless memes celebrating the governors empathy and authoritative style.

Less than two weeks later, Beshear began warning Kentuckians not to travel to Tennessee, where cases were exploding. Here in Kentucky, we have taken very aggressive steps to try to stop or limit the spread of the coronavirus to try to protect our people, he said. We have made major sacrifices such as shutting down bars and restaurants, nail salons, all these forward-facing businesses. But our neighbors from the south in many cases have not. On Sunday, the U.S. Army restricted travel to Nashville from nearby Fort Campbell in Kentucky, as well.

Tennessees mistakes couldnt be allowed to harm Kentuckians, he warned. I cannot control that Tennessee has not taken the steps that we have, Beshear said. I need you to be strong in your pride in this state, and I need you to make sure that you dont take someone elses lack of action and ultimately bring it back to Kentucky to harm us.

Beshear, by choosing to govern, has gradually risen to his own hero status, and, like Cuomo, become an unlikely sex symbol. A Reddit thread titled Govern me, daddy, became a Salon headline and a T-shirt.

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A Little-Known Democratic Governor Is Breaking Out in Kentucky - The Intercept

Three political philosophies, and how they apply to the coronavirus pandemic – BioEdge

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Danzig

As the coronavirus pandemic escalates, countries are facing increasingly complex ethical decisions in their bid to control the virus and save lives.

ICU Physicians are being forced to ration healthcare resources like ventilators and medication. Governments have introduced sweeping public health restrictions that have radically altered peoples day to day lives. And as authorities seek to stop the spread of the virus, questions are being asked about our duties to prisoners, migrants, and people on sea vessels.

These ethical dilemmas lead us to reflect on the philosophical frameworks that inform our decision making when faced with a global threat like the coronavirus. Commentators have discussed three philosophies in particular in recent days: communitarianism, utilitarianism, and libertarianism.

Communitarianism

Communitarianism is a political philosophy that emphasises the connection between individuals and communities. Communitarian thinkers suggest that individuals derive their identity from social groups, and that individual rights cannot and should not be viewed in isolation from community norms and interests. Communitarians, furthermore, see the welfare of society or communities to be the orienting principle of political decision-making, and are inclined to prioritise the public interest over the preservation of the liberties of individual citizens. Notable communitarian thinkers include Princeton philosopher Michael Waltzer and Harvard political theorist Michael Sandel (though Sandel is somewhat reluctant to identify as a communitarian).

As Bloomberg columnist John Authers observes, China practiced an authoritarian kind of communitarianism after the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan in January. The people of the city of Wuhan were told to lock themselves in their houses, and often forcibly quarantined, for the good of the community and the state, largely identified with the Communist Party.

Yet there is a democratic form of communitarianism that is more in line with Western liberal values. The latter form of communitarianism is more defined by solidarity with societys most vulnerable rather than an idolisation of the State or some other political entity. Many of the restrictions on civil liberties in Western countries have been brought in under the guise of protecting societys most vulnerable (such as the elderly or people with disabilities).

In a recent address in St Peters Square, Pope Francis offered communitarian perspective on the current crisis, stating that we have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a philosophy that gives primary importance to the consequences of actions, and, in particular, the utility that those actions produce. In the context of politics, utilitarianism takes the form of a calculus about political decision-making, whereby actors consider which course of action would bring about the greatest benefits for society at large.

One controversial example of a utilitarian approach to COVID-19 pandemic would be the so-called herd immunity strategy for managing the coronavirus threat. Some epidemiologists, as well as politicians, have advocated intentionally exposing society at large to the virus, with the aim of developing population immunity to COVID-19. This strategy would involve massive rates of infection and loss of life, but would allow for greater economic activity during the pandemic and would address the problem of the virus head on. A herd immunity policy was recommended to the UK government by its Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance in mid-March, though the government says it is not currently pursuing this approach.

Utilitarianism is also exemplified in the rationing policies currently being advocated by many influential medical ethicists. Recently, several prominent doctors and ethicists in the United States published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, arguing that the value of maximising benefits is the most important value in ICU rationing.

Libertarianism

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that prioritises individual liberties over other goods. Libertarians are deeply suspicious of any attempt to limit individual freedom, even if this may be necessary to prevent some grave risk to society. Libertarians suggest that people should be free to take risks if they want to, even if this behaviour may be seen as imprudent, immoral or unreasonable by other members of society.

Libertarianism is exemplified in the behaviour of some members of the public in response to government warnings about the risk of contagion. Social media in recent weeks has been full of images of big social gatherings -- often in luxurious social settings -- even after governments have introduced strong new measures to stop the spread of the virus. If I get corona, I get corona, as a 22-year-old said on video recently in Florida. At the end of the day, Im not gonna let it stop me from partying.

Recently, scholars from the Mises Institute -- a libertarian think-tank in the United States -- argued that governments should immediately rescind lock-down laws, and instead allow individuals and families to decide what level of risk the wish to take in continuing with their daily lives during the pandemic. In a recent editorial, the editors of Institutes official blog state:

Xavier Symons is deputy editor of BioEdge