SpinnyNuNu

Hundreds of shoppers - many not wearing masks - streamed into the first California mall to reopen Wednesday, prompting a warning from the local public health director to comply with orders or risk a return to more strict measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Via the BlackPeopleTwitter subreddit.

The Los Angeles Lakers has repaid a $4.6 million coronavirus relief loan the professional basketball organization received as part of the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program.

Dr. Kelli Ward, a former state senator and primary care physician, tweeted on Friday that people participating in protests to end the government-imposed closures of regular business should wear scrubs and masks.

"The March for Science (formerly known as the Scientists' March on Washington) is an international series of rallies and marches held on Earth Day. The inaugural march was held on April 22, 2017 in Washington, D.C., and more than 600 other cities across the world. According to organizers, the march is a non-partisan movement to celebrate science and the role it plays in everyday lives.  The goals of the marches and rallies were to emphasize that science upholds the common good and to call for evidence-based policy in the public's best interest.

Particular issues of science policy raised by the marchers include support for evidence-based policymaking, as well as support for government funding for scientific research, government transparency, and government acceptance of the scientific consensus on climate change and evolution. The march is part of growing political activity by American scientists in the wake of the November 2016 elections and the 2017 Women's March."

I've become so jaded by the internet that I don't often LOL, but I did for this.

One of the vehicles in each crash has been digitally removed.  Unsettling to watch, to say the least.  I wonder if a similar technique has been applied to football tackles.

Nicely done (via).

They want YOU to go back to work.  Discussion thread here.

Via.

This is the wrong silver lining.

A Lodi church said it will continue to have Sunday services after the San Joaquin County public health officer ordered the facility to close amid coronavirus concerns.

I don’t know about you, but I feel anxious and wound pretty tightly. It’s not great, Bob.

So I’m being the person I need in the world. This is for me, and for anyone who needs it:

1. Take a deep breath. Hold it and close your eyes for a few seconds.
   
2. Gently exhale and feel the breath leave your body. Inhale, and feel it come back in.
   
3. Relax your shoulders. You’re holding a ton of tension in your neck and shoulders and you’ve been doing it so long, you don’t even notice it.
   
4. You’re clenching your jaw, too. Open your mouth and take in a big breath. Feel that air nourish you and let the nourishment spread outward through your body, from your lungs to the tips of all your fingers and toes.

"A crinkle crankle wall, also known as a crinkum crankum, serpentine, ribbon or wavy wall, is an unusual type of garden wall built in a serpentine pattern with alternating curves.

The crinkle crankle wall economizes on bricks, despite its sinuous configuration, because it can be made just one brick thin. If a wall this thin were to be made in a straight line, without buttresses, it would easily topple over. The alternate convex and concave curves in the wall provide stability and help it to resist lateral forces.
 
"Crinkle crankle" is an ablaut reduplication, defined as something with bends and turns, first attested in 1598 (though "crinkle" and "crankle" have somewhat longer histories). However, it was not until the 18th century that the term began to be applied to wavy walls. At that time these garden walls were usually aligned east-west, so that one side faced south to catch the warming sun and were historically used for growing fruit...
 
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) incorporated so-called serpentine walls into the architecture of the University of Virginia, which he founded. Flanking both sides of its landmark rotunda and extending down the length of the lawn are ten pavilions, each with its own walled garden separated by crinkle crankle walls. Although some authorities claim Jefferson invented this design, he was merely adapting a well-established English style of construction. A university document in his own hand shows how he calculated the savings and combined aesthetics with utility." [below, via] 

Related:  Worm fence (snake fence)

Really, really thrilled at the number of dogs involved in these

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Week 3 of quarantine and I’m not sure what circle of hell this is but it’s definitely one of them. Everyone’s top priorities right now are 1. Not getting coronavirus, 2. Scouring the earth for a single roll of toilet paper, and 3. Not going completely insane. Honestly, which of those three things will end up being my undoing is a toss up at this point. It’s anyone’s game. This is the fourteenth article I’ve written about being in quarantine which means this is the fourteenth time I’ve had to figure out a new way to write about being in quarantine, so it’s safe to say I’m pretty close to a psychological break of “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” proportions.

Anyway,

People have gone to pretty impressive lengths to stay entertained and in good spirits while essentially being on house arrest, and so have some major institutions. The Getty in Los Angeles, like all museums across the country, is closed to the public for the time being. So, since nobody’s allowed to walk the grounds and marvel at the works of art throughout it, the Getty Museum posed an unconventional challenge to the public.

Recreate famous pieces of art using whatever they can find in their home.

And the results were GLORIOUS.

I couldn't solve any of these until I saw the 20th one.  With that enlightenment I immediately figured out #19 - but I couldn't solve the others.

The answer is in a link at Miss Cellania.

After his wife began showing symptoms of the illness after she gave birth, he admitted that he had not been feeling well.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Trump's impeachment trial distracted the government from paying attention to the novel coronavirus.

Before Trump, said MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, "God had been taken out of our schools." (He's lying.)

I've tried to keep you-know-who off the blog as much as possible, but I just had to post these sentences:

"This whatever they want to call it.  You call it a germ, you can call it a flu, you can call it a virus.  You know, you can call it many different names.  I'm not sure anybody even knows what it is, but the children do very well."

This is real, spoken at a televised press briefing in reply when asked what he would say to students home from school that might be watching.

No.  You can't just call things whatever you want to call them.  For fox ache.

Extended text and video.

Nacho cheese, plz.

Country singers like Jason Alden and Brad Paisley are paying tribute to the Grammy-winning artist.

The Davis lacrosse team is spending their time at home making shield masks for hospital workers.

The other is a Striped Cuckoo.

The party goers intentionally got together "thinking they were invincible" and purposely defied state guidance to practice social distancing, officials said.

Prince Charles is the first British royal to test positive for the virus.

Chuckleworthy.  Credit to Hayley Cakes and Cookies.

Rand Paul is the first member of the Senate to report testing positive.