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Fox News lied, and people died

If you watch only one YouTube video today, watch Heroes of the Pandumbic, The Daily Show’s fantastic supercut of Republicans and their propaganda wing Fox News downplaying or outright dismissing the coronavirus threat earlier this year.

Canadian readers for whom the YouTube version is blocked can watch it below:

Then you might want to watch Pandumbic (the trailer), which was released on March 10…

…followed by Pandumbic 2, a March 12 follow-up:

Also worth checking out

“Exponential Threat”: The COVID-19-themed ad that the Trump/Pence campaign doesn’t want you to see:

See how quickly Fox News pivoted once Trump took COVID-19 seriously.

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This has got to be the most “2020” headline so far

Tap the image to see the source.

I’m now half-expecting a story about Carole Baskin’s missing ex-husband’s body being found beneath a private cache of ventilators, N95 masks, and toilet paper. This is yet another bit of evidence for my theory that we’re living in a simulation whose player got bored and set all the controls to “maximum”.

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Star Wars: A New Hope — the 2020 director’s cut

Stills from “Star Wars: A New Hope” — Obi-Wan: “Luke, you must learn the ways of the Force.” / Luke: “I’m ready, Obi-Wan.” / Obi-Wan, now seen on a laptop: “Ooooookay. Let’s see here. After you’ve logged in, you’re gonna want to go to the student portal and click ‘Jedi’...”

Thanks to Chris McGinnis for the find!

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The official candle of 2020

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

If I can find out where you can get one of these, I’ll let you know.

Thanks to Ryan Rossman for the find!

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Plague report – April 1, 2020

Yours Truly, in the front yard.

Good morning, stay-at-homers! A number of friends from my old home town, Toronto, have been asking how we’re doing down here in Tampa, and what our days are like. I thought I’d post a couple of reports with photos, starting with this one.

Other seasoned remote workers may say that they work just fine in their pajamas, but I prefer to dress up as if I was still living in the “before times”. Luckily for me, I work in tech, so wearing an aloha shirt, jeans, and deck shoes, isn’t just dressed for work — some techies might assume I was dressing for a job interview.

We do have an indoor room designated as the home office. Anitra uses it during the day, and I use it in the evening to work on non-day-job projects. During the day, my work for the day job — building Lilypad’s mobile app — happens on the office that I’ve set up on our screened-in front porch. I get lots of light, enjoy the cognitive benefits of being around our yard’s greenery, and even get to say “hi” to the neighbours from a safe distance as they go about getting their exercise or walking their dogs.

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

Here}s the view from my chair, panning from left to right. (Yes, you might be able to make out what’s on my screens, but none of them are displaying anything sensitive in these photos.)

The left view. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

The center view. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

The right view. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

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Tiger Space! (or: When “Tiger King” meets “Office Space”)

Tap the photo to see it at full size, man.

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Free plague films: “Hackers” (1995)

Still from the fim “Hackers” where the titular hackers are rollerblading through the streets of Manhattan

It’s silly, dated, and full of the kind of fakety-fake techno-cheese that were the trademark of “hacker” movies of the 1990s, but the 1995 film Hackers is still a guilty pleasure. I find myself willing to suspend my disbelief about their depiction of the tech scene of that era, the motivations of some of the characters, Penn Jillette as a pushover cybersecurity specialist, and the way the movie shows computers in general.

However, there’s one thing where my suspension of disbelief comes to a crashing halt: The way the film tries to portray rollerblading as cool.

It’s on YouTube — legally, even! — as part of YouTube Movies, and you can view it for free; you just have to put up with some ads: