More COVID-19 limericks to pass the idle springtime hours.
The uncommon girl’s name Corona is set to become even less common because of SARS-CoV-2. In recent weeks I’ve seen or heard the coronavirus being called Corona, the Corona, the Rona, and Covid, with or without the capitals.
Sainsbury’s Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Friday 27 March 2020
Some coronavirus links from the last week, for anyone who’s been living in a cave (and if that’s you, well done on being a model of self-isolation).
Tesco Hermiston Gait, Edinburgh, Monday 16 March 2020
A rare digression into talking here about the day job.
Okay, so perhaps the impulse to make light of COVID-19 hasn’t left me yet…
There are reports today that Tom Hanks and his wife have contracted coronavirus on the Gold Coast in Australia, where he was filming a movie about Elvis Presley. How distressing for them both, and what a rotten break for a fine actor. But an Elvis movie… well, it’s hard not to enjoy a moment of black humour before the shutters come down, because it turns out there’s an Elvis song for every COVID-19 mood.
A fifteen-minute writing exercise closes the gender gap in university-level physics.
U.S. national park illustrations based on their worst reviews. In a similar vein, my old upstairs neighbour (and Australia’s best editorial cartoonist) has illustrated Australian national parks after the bushfires. Poor Depot Beach.
In January and February I linked to advice from Laurie Garrett and Ian Mackay on preparing for the coronavirus now known as COVID-19. After bubbling under the surface of the main news headlines in the UK for weeks, last week it leapt to the forefront; it was pretty hard to downplay the shutdown of northern Italy and now the whole of it. I’d not posted about it here (apart from those links) because I’m no more an expert than anyone else, but as of this week J. is part of UK efforts to test for the disease—on the coordination side rather than in the lab—and not much seems more important than that. We’re so proud of her.