People around the world are turned off by the news, study says. Are you one of them? (via CNN)

In media circles there is a hot new phrase this month: “Selective news avoidance.”

Source: CNN

Column: Good riddance, President Trump (via Los Angeles Times)

First the Lakers. Then the Dodgers. Now this. Thank you, Pennsylvania. Thank you, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Source: Los Angeles Times

The Prophecies of Q (via The Atlantic)

American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.

Source: The Atlantic

Op-Ed: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge (via Los Angeles Times)

Protesters in Chicago on Saturday. (Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)

The main concern of black people right now isn’t whether they’re standing three or six feet apart, but whether their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers will be murdered by cops.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Inside the Nightmare Voyage of the Diamond Princess (via GQ)

Doug Bock Clark uncovers what two weeks trapped aboard the ill-fated, coronavirus-infected cruise ship felt like—for unsuspecting tourists, for frightened crew members, and for the captain himself.

Source: GQ

All Eyes On Zoom: How The At-Home Era’s Breakout Tool Is Coping With Surging Demand — And Scrutiny

In an exclusive interview, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan accepts the blame for recent privacy and security issues at his videoconferencing company and vows to make things right.

Source: Forbes

Living With the Virus

People management at Costco to help regulate the number of shoppers at one time and to maintain social distancing.

It’s been just over two weeks since our daughter called us – I should say lectured us – about taking the virus threat more seriously. Since then, we’ve stayed inside except to walk the dog and to quickly run essential errands.

It’s a strange feeling. I’m retired so I don’t really HAVE to be anywhere. Through the wonders of Medicare, I have a free gym membership which I was enjoying several times a week. I play golf. I have several volunteer activities and I was finding my retirement days were busy and full.

Until it all shut down.

Lithuanian independence

Kovo 11 means March 11, the day 30 years ago when Lithuania declared its independence.

I took this photo in June 1992 in front of the Lithuanian Parliament building.

The barbed wire was from 1990-1992 when leaders of the newly independent State of Lithuania barricaded themselves in the building which was the “heart of Lithuania” and political center of the country.

“Kovo 11” means March 11, the day in 1990 when Lithuania became the first Soviet state to dare to declare its independence from the Soviet Union. “Islandja” refers to Iceland, the first country to recognize Lithuania’s independence.

The Soviets grudgingly accepted Lithuanian independence a year and a half later in September, 1991. The barbed wire and other signs of the barricades were still there when I took this picture 9 months later in a symbolic protest of the Red Army troops that were still stationed in the country.