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  Theirs was a mysterious bacteria spreading at a time when people didn’t yet understand disease transmission; ours, a novel virus infiltrating a world that prides itself on its medical knowledge. But in both cases, the first instinct was to close borders to try to keep the disease at bay. When that didn’t work, officials called for strict rules — but only some people paid attention. All the while, there was a proliferation of conspiracy theories. Many tried to blame the disease on outsiders or minorities — in medieval Europe, often Jews. Link: Medieval Europeans didn’t understand how the plague spread. Their response wasn’t so different from ours now.

“Funk is union,” says DJ Marlboro. Its social importance in Brazilian culture comes from the fact that the music “gives opportunity to those who are socially excluded. We’re bad with education, health and security. We are a very rich [yet] poorly administered country,” he continues. “The problem in Brazil is that the political class is trying to take advantage [of us] — of a country that has been robbed ever since it was discovered. The more miserable the favela, the more violent it is. The more urbanised the favela — with more assistance, better schooling — the less violent it becomes, because people have perspective in life. And funk helps to give perspective. Funk can lead to social ascension.” Link:  Baile funk: the criminalisation of Brazil's funk scene | DJMag.com

  Me llegó la recomendación de ver la serie de El Presidente en Amazon Prime Video a través de Roberto Greco en Twitter. @rogre : "Si te hace falta escuchar la diversidad de acentos sudamericanos, especialmente el chileno, tal vez te guste El presidente. Ojo, hay que escoger el audio “español latinoamericano” que Amazon no pone automáticamente". Otra recomendación (y esta recomendación es mía): pongan los subtítulos en español. El Presidente en su primera temporada sigue la vida de Sergio Jadue, presidente del futbol chileno en la década de los 2010.  Mi primera sorpresa fue ver a una actriz mexicana interpretando a una chilena. El acento lo lleva bien. Aunque en ocasiones siento que se le sale el tono mexicano. Luego de ver varios capítulos, descubro que el actor principal es colombiano. No sé que significa cahuín: Aunque El Presidente no aborda a Maradona esta serie sería adecuada para ver luego de la noticia de su muerte.  

  La esencia de Ted Lasso, serie de TV lanzada exclusivamente para la plataforma de Apple TV, se encuentra en el siguiente cuadro:

 Rescato estas líneas de la segunda temporada de The Boys: Related: Hice un chiste del siguiente diálogo que incluso lo vieron en Tercera Vía: Mejor tapete ever:

  Desde la infancia, tengo clavada muy claramente la distinción entre barbero, peluquero, y estilista. También empezaba a existir las estéticas unisex. Hoy me entero que esto se le debe a Jay Sebring, un diseñador que abarcó desde el estilo "messy" de Jim Morrison hasta el estilo "suave" del Rat Pack. Link:  Jay Sebring Is the Godfather of Men's Hairstyling. So Why Haven't You Heard of Him? [Esquire]

  Antes tenía la idea de que la moda era algo cíclico. Que se repetía cada 20 años.  A partir de este siglo, las modas son más caprichosas, y no siguen ese patrón de tiempo. Ahora en los 20s, la moda de regreso sería lo emo. Pero qué acaso no se ha ido con las e-girls? Los suéteres que aparecen en Esquire son un throwback a la infancia. Todo esos patrones me recuerdan prendas de hace 40 años.  No es que se regrese a un ciclo de 40 años atrás. Es nostalgia como marketing.

  Desde ayer había abierto Blogger para intentar escribir algo. Tardé un día en subir esta imagen que ya había compartido en otro lado.  Esto es la Ética de Baruch Spinoza. En los últimos meses he leído fragmento de Plotino y un libro de Boecio. Creo que la filosofía sobre el tiempo es uno de los mejores pasatiempo en esta pandemia.  "Cuanto más realidad o ser tiene una cosa, tantos más atributos le competen". Leo esto y me da un golpe de Ser.  El ser es un racimos de signos , diríamos en términos contemporáneos. El ser es un racimo de atributos.   

Review: SAULT's 'UNTITLED' Lights Up The Full Spectrum Of Blackness  (via NPR)

'Why Is a White Woman Worth So Much More?': Inside the Porn Industry's Overdue Reckoning  (via Jezebel)

John Prine gave us one last song: 'I Remember Everything'  (via  tennessean.com/ )

Hay una bibliografia muy interesante sobre la intersección del modernismo angloamericano y la epidemia de influenza alrededor de los años de 1918-1919. If you are interested in pandemic literature, there’s a lot of great things. I think Katherine Anne Porter’s novella Pale Horse, Pale Rider is one of the best pieces of literature we have specifically on the 1918 pandemic. It’s absolutely terrific. William Maxwell’s They Came Like Swallows is a short, beautiful, elegiac novel about the 1918 pandemic. It’s quite sad but it’s really beautiful. I think reading things like W.B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming” or Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway or T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”—these are difficult texts, but this is a moment where you could see that they do match our mood. Link:  The 1918 Flu Pandemic Changed Literature More Than You Think

La forma del cubrebocas por excelencia del coronavirus asemeja un brasiere. Todo el mundo lo ve, intuitivamente. Es correcta esa observación. Like most nondescript and pervasive products, not many people stop to think about where it came from. Now, owing to the attention placed on it as a key tool in the health care professional’s fight against coronavirus, the woman behind the mask has come to the forefront. Her name is Sara Little Turnbull, and she designed what would become the N95 based on the shape of a bra cup. Link: Remembering Sara Little Turnbull, Whose Bra Cup Design Became the N95 Mask

Kylie Jenner ha afirmado en los últimos años que es billonaria gracias a su negocio de maquillaje. De acuerdo a nueva información, no está cerca. Infló sus estados financieros. Confundió finanzas con entretenimiento. Based on this new information—plus the impact of Covid-19 on beauty stocks and consumer spending—Forbes now thinks that Kylie Jenner, even after pocketing an estimated $340 million after taxes from the sale, is not a billionaire. Link: Inside Kylie Jenner’s Web Of Lies—And Why She’s No Longer A Billionaire

Mongolia registra cero muertes por Covid-19 Mongolia has had the best COVID-19 response in the world. Not only do they have zero deaths, they have zero local transmissions. Mongolia didn’t flatten the curve or crush the curve — they were just like ‘fuck curves’. In Mongolia, there simply wasn't an epidemic at all. And no, they didn’t just get lucky. Starting in January, Mongolia executed a perfect public health response, and they have never let up the pressure since. COVID-19 did not just leave Mongolia alone. Mongolia kicked its ass. [ Link ] La situación en Ghana y Senegal Ghana, with a population of 30 million, has a similar death toll to Senegal, partly because of an extensive system of contact tracing, utilising a large number of community health workers and volunteers, and other innovative techniques such as “pool testing”, in which multiple blood samples are tested and then followed up as individual tests only if a positive result is found. The advantages in this approach a

Inspired by a documentary he’s making about COVID-19, the artist decided to create an entire collection after printing his iconic middle finger onto one of the disposable cloths. “An individual wearing a mask makes a gesture; a society wearing masks combats a deadly virus. And a society that wears masks because of the choices of individuals, rather than because of the directive of authorities, can defy and withstand any force. No will is too small and no act too helpless,” he writes on Instagram. While masks have become a ubiquitous symbol for the COVID-19 crisis, many of the inky renderings hearken back to Ai’s ongoing commitment to humanitarian efforts. Link:  Ai Weiwei Has Designed Face Masks to Raise Funds for COVID-19 Relief

El último día de mayo es la fecha límite para lanzar producciones y ser considerado al Grammy Latino.  Nuevos lanzamientos: Anuel, Carlos Vives, Kany García, Ricardo Arjona (!!!), Alaina Castillo, Enrique Bunbury, Mala Rodríguez, y literalmente un largo etcétera.   Link:  Every Latin Album Release in May: Ricardo Arjona, Kany Garcia, Christian Nodal & More

Today, there is widespread recognition the novel coronavirus is far more unpredictable than a simple respiratory virus. Often it attacks the lungs, but it can also strike anywhere from the brain to the toes. Many doctors are focused on treating the inflammatory reactions it triggers and its capacity to cause blood clots, even as they struggle to help patients breathe. Learning about a new disease on the fly, with more than 78,000 U.S. deaths attributed to the pandemic, they have little solid research to guide them. The World Health Organization’s database already lists more than 14,600 papers on covid-19. Even the world’s premier public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have constantly altered their advice to keep pace with new developments.  Link:  Doctors keep discovering new ways the coronavirus attacks the body

Este hilo de Twitter me hizo pensar que he utilizado la palabra gripe, heredada de mis padres y abuelos. El vocablo al parecer se refería a la fiebre española. THREAD: This weekend, a relative shared with me two pages of a letter that describes the Spanish flu (aka “grippe”) as it affected our family in Fresno in Nov 1918. This is a letter from my great-great-grandfather, Sidney Forward Hadsell, to my great-grandfather, Dan Hadsell. THREAD: This weekend, a relative shared with me two pages of a letter that describes the Spanish flu (aka “grippe”) as it affected our family in Fresno in Nov 1918. This is a letter from my great-great-grandfather, Sidney Forward Hadsell, to my great-grandfather, Dan Hadsell. pic.twitter.com/zugysfAAYg — Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) May 4, 2020 Link: Twitter

Link: Study Shows That Yes, People Who Wear Watches Really Are Superior Humans

The long-term illnesses that can follow viral infections can be devastating — and are devastatingly common. In 2015, the nation’s top medical advisory body, the Institute of Medicine, estimated that between 800,000 and 2.5 million U.S. residents live with the illness or illnesses awkwardly named myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). An estimated three-quarters of these cases were triggered by viral or bacterial infections. Now, as a new pandemic virus is burning through the world and causing many deaths, researchers are raising alarms that the novel coronavirus and the covid-19 disease it causes will also leave in its wake a potentially large population with post-viral problems that could be lifelong and, in some cases, disabling. Link:  Researchers warn covid-19 could cause debilitating long-term illness in some patients

Sobre la cuarentena: When Buscemi calls me from his home a few weeks later, the world around us is completely altered by the pandemic. Well, mostly. “It doesn't feel that much different from what I do when I'm not working,” he admits. “Except that I would usually go out more.” Sobre el duelo:  In grieving, Buscemi has had days when he feels like he's underwater and doesn't want to be comforted. Other days when he's immensely grateful to have friends and family to lean on for support. Last fall, when he had to fly to Prague to film something after Andres died, he was racked with anxiety about being so far from home. The process is anything but linear. I ask him how he's weathering it now, with so much uncertainty swirling around us. “It's been over a year now since Jo passed, and I'm just starting to feel lighter,” he says. “It is very strange that, oh, now this is happening. If it was another personal thing, I think that would be really hard. “But the fa

Un elemento fascinante de la vida ultramarina, aquella que habita en las profundidades de los mares, es que antes de ver estos videos la humanidad no había tenido contacto con estas formas de vida.   Link:  Deep-Sea Exploration in the Ningaloo Canyons Unveils Gripping Footage of Undiscovered Aquatic Life

A un nivel antropológico tipo Armas, gérmenes y acero , China desperdició una gran oportunidad para convertirse en el nuevo líder global.  Link:  China Blew a Chance at Global Leadership Responding to Covid-19

No soy un gran fanático de la saga de Rápido y Furioso a pesar de haber disfrutado mucho la de Hobbs and Shaw (ante todo por la estética de Errolson Hugh). Consigno la siguiente información: hay un orden específico para ver todas las películas de Fast and Furious. Hay dos que desconocía. Link:  You've been watching the 'Fast and Furious' movies all wrong — here's the right order

Luego de la Gran Recesión de la década cero, se viene la Gran Recuperación tras la parálisis de la actividad económica mundial por la contingencia del coronavirus. Más allá de situaciones económicas, grandes figura de la cultura contemporánea como Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, John Mayer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tyler, the Creator, entre otros, han recurrido a piezas accesibles en cuestión de relojes. A partir de esto se puede construir un estilo. O dar una idea. Link:  These Are the Affordable Watches Celebrities Love

Hasta el año pasado Charli XCX tardó seis años en sacar su tercer disco. Su cuarta producción la lanzó esta cuarentena. Entre un álbum y otro pasaron unos cuantos meses.  Link:  Charli XCX Captures the Weird Intimacy of Quarantine

Esta es una serie fotográfica poco conocida del escritor Jack Kerouac. El fotógrafo a cargo fue Burt Goldblatt, diseñador de varias portadas de álbumes muy influyentes en el jazz como Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, y otros. Circa 1959. Rarely seen color photographs of Jack Kerouac, by Burt Goldblatt, designer of many influential jazz album covers by Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, and others. Circa 1959. pic.twitter.com/Vv8MmUzUGh — Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) May 21, 2020

Algo que Edvard Munch no consideró para su famosa pintura de El Grito fue conseguir pigmentos de mayor calidad. Un siglo después el público ha ido diluyendo la pintura con su propia respiración.  “It turned out that rather than use pure cadmium sulphide as he should have done, apparently he also used a dirty version, a not very clean version that contained chlorides,” Koen Janssens, a professor at the University of Antwerp who worked on the study, told the Guardian. “I don’t think it was an intentional use–I think he just bought a not very high level of paint. This is 1910 and at that point the chemical industry producing the chemical pigments is there but it doesn’t mean they have the quality control of today.” Link:  Munch’s ‘Scream’ Is Fading Because of Viewers’ Breath, New Study Finds

En una pandemia, la cifra debe ronda el billón de piezas.  On April 2, the New England Patriots’ team plane left China with mundane but suddenly precious cargo: 1.2 million N95 respirators, a critical type of mask that protects health-care workers treating patients who have infectious diseases. Was that a big stash? In normal, pre-covid-19 times, the answer would be yes. Most hospitals buy just a few thousand N95s per year, according to a company that negotiates purchasing contracts. In the frenzied weeks of March and April, when the trickle of covid-19 patients suddenly grew into a deluge, the answer was a hard no. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Robert Kadlec had testified in February that the United States would need 3.5 billion N95s in a serious pandemic. By March, hospitals in areas with large outbreaks reported burning through the one-time-use masks at up to 10 times their normal rates. Now in mid-May, as emergency supply lines have begun to kick in and reuse of hos

Hay un nuevo libro por la editorial Taschen sobre el telescopio Hubble, que este 2020 cumple 30 años en funcionamiento.  Launched in April 1990, the telescope sits above the Earth’s rainclouds and polluted skies, which allows it to capture an unobstructed view of distant stars, galaxies, and planets that make up the rich tapestry of our solar system. Alongside the arresting images, the book features texts that unravel some of the most compelling questions of space and time, including words by photography critic Owen Edwards, Hubble astronauts Charles F. Bolden, Jr., John Mace Grunsfeld, and Zoltan Levay. La publicación, titulada Expanding Universe: The Hubble Space Telescope , cuenta con 30 imágenes inéditas. Link: Explore 30 Years of Arresting Images Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in a New Book