Reading club : 2021-03-14

Reading club selections for 2021-03-14:

1. “The other America” by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Grosse Pointe Historical Society, 1968-03-14).
2. “Mars is a hellhole” by Shannon Stirone (The Atlantic, 2021-02-26). An assault on Elon Musk’s “colonial” view of Mars and the solar system.
3. “Why is there financing for everything now?” by Amanda Mull (The Atlantic, 2020-12-15).
4. “I didn’t care about the royal family. Then there was Meghan Markle.” by Lauren Puckett (Elle, 2021-03-08). What does the Twitter post by andi zeisler, featured in the article, reveal about the article? about us?

Read : 2021-03-13

Articles on SARS-CoV-2 and covid-19:

1. “Recommended guidance for extended use and limited reuse of N95 filtering face piece respirators in healthcare settings” (CDC).
2. “South Africa suspends use of AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine after it fails to clearly stop virus variant” by Jon Cohen (Science, 2021-02-08).
3. “One chart shows how well covid-19 vaccines work against the 3 most worrisome coronavirus variants” by Aylin Woodward (Business Insider, 2021-03-12).
4. “Scripps Research tracks prevalence of new covid-19 variants with daily reports on Outbreak.info” (Scripps.edu, 2021-02-17). The reports cited in the title can be found at SARS-CoV-2 (hCoV-19) mutation situation reports.
5. “Genomic epidemiology identifies emergence and rapid transmission of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 in the United States” by Nicole L. Washington et al. (medRxiv, 2021-02-07).
6. “Mutated virus may reinfect people already stricken once with covid-19, sparking debate and concerns” by Carolyn Y. Johnson & William Wan (The Washington Post, 2021-02-05).
7. “Coronavirus disease (covid-19): serology, antibodies and immunity” (World Health Organization, 2020-12-31). Q&A detail.

Articles related to the Texas freeze in mid-February:

1. “What went wrong with Texas’s main electric grid and could it have been prevented?” by Andrea Zelinski (Texas Monthly, 2021-02-17). An interview with Joshua Rhodes, founding partner at IdeaSmiths LLC energy consulting firm and research assistant at the University of Texas, Austin. Rhodes advocates for deliberate cost-benefit analysis and better planning for how to rotate rotating blackouts.
2. “One of Texas’s busiest plumbers explains what to do if your pipes burst” by Andrea Zelinski (Texas Monthly, 2021-02-19). Know where your water meter is, be wary if neighbors have water flowing but you don’t (in which case, consider shutting off the property-owner’s valve as a preventative measure to avoid surprise leaks, especially if you’ll be out of the house), let pipes thaw before running water, document damage for insurance and water bills.

Articles and videos on running:

1. “The reinvention of Ryan and Sara Hall” by Rachel Levin (Runner’s World, 2021-02-23).
2. “Brigid Kosgei crushes 2020 London Marathon; USA’s Sara Hall sprints to 2nd place” by NBC Sports (YouTube, 2020-10-04). 5m58s.
3. “Flat-out sprint decides 2020 London Marathon by :01; Kipchoge’s streak ends” by NBC Sports (YouTube, 2020-10-04). 2m49s.

Other articles:

1. “My twentieth century evening — and other small breakthroughs” by Kazuo Ishiguro (Nobel Prize, 2017-12-07). Acceptance speech by Kazuo Ishiguro for the Nobel Prize in Literature. (Among Ishiguro’s works is the novel Never let me go.
2. “China’s campaign to crush democracy in Hong Kong is working” by Wenxin Fan (The Wall Street Journal, 2021-02-25).
3. “Losing time against a climate disaster” by Juan Siliezar (The Harvard Gazette, 2021-02-24). Summary of a Harvard Science Book Talk with Bill Gates.
4. “Forum on leadership: A conversation with Jeff Bezos” by TheBushCenter (2018-04-20).
5. “The gospel according to Oprah” by Julia Reed (The Wall Street Journal, 2018-02-12).
6. “What pastoralists know” by Ian Scoones (Aeon, 2021-03-12).
7. “Harvard University : Online courses” (Harvard University). Online learning options, including many free ones.