#David Maizel

[semioticapocalypse]

David Maizel. History's Shadow GM12. 2010

[danielmartindiaz]

I haven't had a chance to write a proper message about Soul Machine. It was five years in the making and a follow up to Soul of Science (sold out). I want to thank the amazing authors who contributed to the book. David Pescovitz, John Maizels, and Teresa Rodriguez. The book is on its way to selling out which I am very thankful to all the love and support you have given me. In life you follow a path that the universe has unveiled. My path was to seek through the expression of art and music. I believe art articulates the unknown. Its brings awareness and elements of being that have not yet entered the collective consciousness. It expands the landscape and moves civilization forward into the realm of the known and undiscovered. It tries to dissect what is yet unimaginable, give value to the valueless, and meaning to what it is to be human. In recent years, Diaz became immersed in scientific and philosophical theories. In particular, he became obsessed with scientific diagrams, which explain theories and properties though drawings. Although these rudimentary drawings were without any leanings towards aesthetics, he found them to be beautiful, though that is clearly not their intention. He was inspired to use the simplicity of drawing to create his own interpretations of the concepts of consciousness and other theories on a scientific, philosophical, and spiritual level. All of the projects begin as drawings, which have a beauty and intimacy that paintings cannot capture. Graphite’s allure comes from its subtle lines and the quickness in which one can capture an idea. David Pescovitz @pesco (Research director at Institute for the Future, A partner and contributor at Boing Boing, and co-founder of Ozma Records. He co-produced the Grammy-winning Voyager Golden Record a vinyl box set documenting the iconic phonograph record that NASA launched into space in 1977). John Maizels @rawvisionmagazine (UK, trained at Chelsea School of Art and worked as an artist and art teacher before founding Raw Vision Magazine in 1989 as a forum for the work of self-taught artists, which he felt was overlooked and under-appreciated.) Teresa Rodriguez (the author of Fly Solo) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwnBGdiH159/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=9r9u6xep8bha

[mimosaeyes]

Stuff I’ve been reading in 2017

The third annual reading list! (Here’s 2015 in two parts, and 2016.) School was killing my love of reading but I refused to let it. And so here we are, three years and 280 books later.

I’ve taken the liberty of bolding my favourite reads this year, and including some background about how I came to read what I did. Here we go:

I pseudo-resolved to read slower this year, and savour books that need time to seep in. Longer books tend to fit that profile for me, so I went and read the longest book in my home library.

1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated from the Russian by Rosemary Edmonds (reflections here)

Don’t know how I zeroed in on this gem in a Kinokuniya bookstore, but I love it and you should definitely read it. Go. Go now. I was two years slow on the uptake for Pulley’s debut, but when her second novel came out this year, I literally ordered it online in 0.0002 seconds. It’s number 51 on this list.

2. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

I can’t summarise how I feel about this next one. It just gets to me. After reading it, I went on to watch the film as well as its 20-years-later sequel. I might read some more by Welsh, but gosh the Scottish accent is hard to decipher.

3. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Perfect for bringing along on my first semester studying overseas.

4. Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord

And then the school texts start! As does leisure/procrastination reading: all the Neruda and Sexton poetry, plus Dostoevsky. Only novels, novellas, plays, and anthologies are listed here; this semester I studied many isolated short stories and poems. Books I read twice are the ones I happened to write essays on – it doesn’t necessarily mean I liked them a lot. (In fact, if I really like a book, sometimes I deliberately avoid writing about it, because analysing something too much can ruin it.) I read all the poetry aloud, because poetry, but I worry also in part because the silence in my room was getting oppressively lonely.

5. Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner 6. Bereft by Chris Womersley (twice, actually) 7. Melanctha by Gertrude Stein 8. Breath by Tim Winton (twice, actually) 9. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 10. Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems edited by Nathaniel Tarn, translated from the Spanish by Anthony Kerrigan, W. S. Merwin, Alastair Reid, and Nathaniel Tarn 11. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 12. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (out loud just because) 13. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky 14. To Bedlam and Part Way Back by Anne Sexton 15. All My Pretty Ones by Anne Sexton 16. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (twice, actually; pseudo-thrice) 17. Live Or Die by Anne Sexton 18. Love Poems by Anne Sexton 19. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 20. Transformations by Anne Sexton 21. The Book of Folly by Anne Sexton 22. Sorry by Gail Jones 23. The Death Notebooks by Anne Sexton 24. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (her second novel is number 79) 25. The Awful Rowing Toward God by Anne Sexton 26. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 27. 45 Mercy Street by Anne Sexton 28. Words for Dr. Y. by Anne Sexton

In the break between semesters, I marathoned several TV shows (oops) and revisited a book series from my childhood. (Which, incidentally, ends in a greatly upsetting way?) That series is bookended by two novels which are companions to each other.

29. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 30. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer 31. Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer 32. Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer 33. Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer 34. Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer 35. Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer 36. Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer 37. Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer 38. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

Back to school! Again, quite a few short stories and poems not reflected here. 42, 48, 49, 51, and 57 for leisure; the rest were for my courses.

39. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (twice, actually; making it thrice in two years, dammit) 40. The Hunter by Julia Leigh (twice, actually) 41. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney 42. Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller 43. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 44. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin 45. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (twice, actually) 46. Slaves of New York by Tama Janowitz 47. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 48. My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin 49. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 50. Bad Behaviour by Mary Gaitskill 51. The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley 52. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon 53. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead 54. Simulations by Jean Baudrillard, translated from the French by Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beitchman 55. Frisk by Dennis Cooper 56. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (twice, actually) 57.《边城》沈从文 著 58. Motion Sickness by Lynne Tillman 59. Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk (twice, actually) 60. Affinity by Sarah Waters 61. The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner 62. The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White (twice, actually)

The school year concluded, while still in Australia I read books I’d been given or chose on whims. I bought number 65 in Cairns Airport because I had nothing to read for the rest of a five-day trip; I’d started and finished number 63 during my domestic flight on day one. Clearly I’d underestimated how much I still wanted to read, having overloaded during the semester.

63. Mãn by Kim Thúy, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman 64. The Arrival by Shaun Tan (no words, only illustrations; please, please experience it for yourself) 65. And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave (it’s a Bible reference; think Southern Gothic)

Back home once more, I had access to my personal library, as well our national libraries! Although I’d embarked on a big crochet project as a Christmas present for some close family friends, I went pretty hard in the rest of my free time, which was abundant, because unemployment.

Some of these books just caught my eye on the shelf. Some have been on my To Read list for ages, because of friends’ recommendations (76 and 77, for instance) or because I figured I needed to see what the hype was all about (81 through 83, and 85 through 87). On the subject of YA fiction: no offence if you’re a fan of the genre, or indeed of these two series in particular, but to me it tends to feel like the literary equivalent of empty calories — easy reading that makes for a change of pace from books like 79, or 76. I read each trilogy in a day. Also, yes I realise I’m very late to the party; I haven’t watched the movies, either. Heh.

66. The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms by Ian Thornton 67. The Borrowers by Mary Norton (on which Studio Ghibli’s The Borrower Arrietty is based) 68. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (before I went to watch the movie) 69. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka 70. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (on which Studio Ghibli’s film of the same name is based) 71. Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories by Mikhail Shishkin, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz, Leo Shtutin, Sylvia Maizell, and Mariya Bashkatova 72. The Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe 73. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman 74. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom 75. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez 76. White Teeth by Zadie Smith 77. Uprooted by Naomi Novik 78. How To Be Both by Ali Smith 79. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (her first novel is number 24; I’ll read her third in the new year, as it demands slow enjoyment) 80. The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff 81. The Maze Runner by James Dashner 82. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner 83. The Death Cure by James Dasher 84. Jip by Katherine Paterson 85. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 86. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 87. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 88. Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

And that’s it: another year in books! Do note that thanks to my new theme, I now put updates in the sidebar about what I’m currently reading and watching, respectively. So if you’re ever curious, mosey on over, I guess.

In the new year, I’ll be creating a Goodreads account specially to complement my (admittedly infrequent) postings here. I haven’t gotten an account there previously because the star rating system seemed so reductive, but I have since realised that if professional movie critics can do it, I ought to stop being so high and mighty. Besides, I’m curious about the Goodreads community, and might want to try my hand at writing a couple of reviews, if I find the time and energy.

See you in 2018, everyone!

(Update: here is my Goodreads profile!)

[abelhorwitz]

The year ended quietly, up in Whidbey Island with my family (minus, alas, my sister). It snowed on Christmas Eve, and we woke up to a white Christmas.

As I have done for the last two years I wrote down all of the books, shows, movies and TV I saw this year. 

However, a lot of my writing this year was done by hand, and so even though I went back through my journals to record what I’d consumed, there are still gaps. So this list is imperfect. 

But, as I’m learning, that’s ok.

Let’s start with books: 21 books this year. I tend to read a book every two weeks, so this keeps with that pace. Three of these were audiobooks that I listened to while traveling around the United States, and so I associate those books with a lot of visual memories. 

I also read three classics this year, “The Sun Also Rises”, “Pride and Prejudice” and “Dune”, which was a lot of fun.

“The New Bohemians” has spurred my design for my apartment, “Will in the World” has stirred an interest in doing “Hamlet”, and “Untethered Soul” -- recommended by a coworker -- is a book I think everyone should read.

BOOK

Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan (1/9)

Future Sex - Emily Witt (1/22)

Otherwise Known As Sheila The Great - Judy Bloom (1/26)

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfus (2/24)

Closer (play) - Patrick Marber (3/7)

The Sun Also Rises - Hemmingway (4/6)

The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfus (4/11)

A Man Without A Country - Kurt Vonnegut (4/20)

Some Girls - My Life In A Harem - Jillian Lauren (5/11)

Catching the Big Fish - David Lynch (5/22)

The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson (7/9)

Hillbilly Elegy - JD Vance (audio) (8/15)

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck - Mark Manson (audio) (8/20)

Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenneger (audio) (8/25)

The Untethered Soul  - Michael Singer(9/20)

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (9/30)

I Hope I Screw This Up - Kyle Cease (9/29)

Spoon River - Edgar Lee Masters (11/14)

Will in the World - How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare - Stephen Greenblatt (11/14)

The New Bohemians - Justina Blakeney (11/25)

Dune - Frank Herbert (12/28)

The picture above is of me and the rest of the students in the acting class I finished last December. Two years of driving to Santa Monica twice a week. The class started with forty(-ish) people and these are the six of us who made it to the end. I am so proud of myself and my classmates for finishing the program.

Here is the list of shows I saw this year, both concerts and plays. Seeing U2 perform the Joshua Tree album was jaw-dropping. Seeing Tony Bennet and then The Muppets (both at the Hollywood Bowl) was a joy.

I went to two major festivals -- FYF and Arroyo Seco -- this summer, and was lucky enough to see both Tom Petty and Charles Bradley before they passed. 

SHOW

White Guy on a Bus (2/5)

Drunken Devil Bloody Gras (2/25)

U2 - Joshua Tree Tour (5/20)

Don't Call Me Anything But Mother (6/7)

Don't Call Me Anything But Mother (6/14) (Tina Preston, amazing. Saw it twice.)

Lambchop (6/3)

Arroyo Seco (6/24)

Tony Bennett (7/15)

Hamlet (8/19) with Grandma

The Muppets Take The Hollywood Bowl (9/9)

Afro Music Festival (9/9)

Spoon River @ Ruskin (11/28)

Dhani Harrison (11/30)

BØRNS (12/14) at Viacom office

The haunted house list is limited, as I have scaled down the immersive theater elements in my life, but I still love Halloween and cannot believe it has been five years of Urban Death: Tour of Terror. MAJOR props to both The Nest and Kaidan Project, which took the haunted house trope and brought it to levels I’d never seen before. 

Also, this year I went to three branded haunted houses (IT, Horror Rewind and Lore), which shows me that there’s very much a corporate interest in this type of art, which makes me happy and makes me wary to see what comes next.

HAUNT

Tortured Souls (3/4)

Fear is What We Learned Here (3/26)

The Nest - Scout Expedition Co (4/14)

Knotts Scary Farm (9/23)

Urban Death (all October)

The IT Experience (10/1)

Night Shift (10/13)

Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin (10/15)

Horror Rewind (10/15)

Lore (10/22)

While on vacation in Mexico City I saw three movies, “Moonlight”, “Split”, and “T2 Trainspotting”, which was such a joy to simply BE in a foreign country, have leisure time, and see a movie every day if I wanted to. I loved that.

The experience I want to hold tight to is going to the Clyde Theater, the single-screen gem near where my parents and grandmother live, to see “Coco” with my brother and my grandma.   

MOVIE

Muppets Most Wanted (1/1)

When A Man Loves A Woman (1/2)

Deadpool (1/8)

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (1/8)

Tim's Vermeer (1/13)

La La Land (1/14) director Damien Chazel spoke afterwards

Hyperrealism (2/6)

Top Five (2/25)

Moonlight (3/12)

Split (3/15)

T2 Trainspotting (3/17)

Knight's Tale (4/7)

Ever After (4/8)

What We Do In The Shadows (4/13)

Inside Man (4/14)

Moana (4/21)

Closer (5/6)

City of Gold (5/8)

The Usual Suspects (5/13)

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (5/27)

Wonder Woman (6/4)

Baby Driver (7/7)

Baby Driver (7/14)

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (8/11)

The Wackness (8/15)

The Tao Of Steve (8/27)

Teaching Mrs Tingle (9/3)

The Third Man (9/10)

IT (9/17)

Total Recall (9/21)

Sicario (10/3)

Love and Mercy (10/8)

Hocus Pocus (10/11)

Blade Runner 2049 (10/16)

Michael Clayton (11/5)

Haunters The Movie (11/14)

Jim & Andy (11/22)

Thor Ragnarok (11/21)

The Meyerowitz Stories (11/27)

Murder on the Orient Express (12/9)

Star Wars Last Jedi (12/22)

Coco (12/29)

As always, TV consumption was my largest category. Most of these were watched inside of my apartment on my laptop. Amazon and Netflix make it easy to binge shows. A lot of these shows I simply loved -- The Tick, G.L.O.W., Kimmy Schmidt, Marvelous Mrs. Maizel, Big Little Lies. A few of these I didn’t (mostly Obama saying goodbye).

I notice that I am drawn to TV series with strong female leads and also late-night comedy that deals with today’s politics.

TV

Good Girls Revolt (1/9)

Obama Farewell Address (1/10)

Good Girls Revolt (1/11)

Blackish - Drumpf Episode (1/13)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (1/13)

Good Girls Revolt (1/13)

Good Girls Revolt (X3) (1/14)

Obama's Final Press Conference (1/18) (Yikes)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (1/18)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (1/20)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (1/23)

Full Frontal With Samantha Bee (1/24)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (1/25)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (1/31)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2/1)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2/3)

Z - The Beginning of Everything (2/5)

Z - The Beginning of Everything (X2) (2/8)

Z - The Beginning of Everything (2/9)

Abstract (2/12)

Z - The Beginning of Everything (2/12)

Abstract (2/13)

Last Week Tonight (2/13)

Z - The Beginning of Everything (2/24)

Oscars (2/26)

Z - The Beginning of Everything (2/28)

Abstract (3/6)

Z - The Beginning of Everything (3/10)

Samantha Bee (3/16)

Mike Birbiglia: Thank God For Jokes (3/20)

Series of Unfortunate Events (3/31)

American Playboy (4/15)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (4/22)

Abstract (4/22)

Abstract the Art of Design (4/28)

Samantha Bee Correspondents Dinner (4/29)

Abstract (5/5)

Kimmy Schmidt (X2) (5/21)

Kimmy Schmidt (5/22)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (X3) (5/24)

Kimmy Schmidt (5/25)

Kimmy Schmidt (X3) (5/29)

Kimmy Schmidt (6/2)

Kimmy Schmidt (6/4)

G.L.O.W. (X3) (6/28)

GLOW (X3) (6/30)

Attack on Titan (7/4) (X3)

I Love Dick (7/14)

Abstract (7/18)

New Girl (X2) (7/20)

Weekend Update Summer Edition (8/12)

Abstract (8/22)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (X3) (8/26)

Weekend Update Summer Edition (8/27)

The Tick (X2) (9/5)

The Tick (X2) (9/6)

The Tick (X2) (9/7)

The Tick (9/10)

The Tick (9/15) (X3)

The Tick (X3) (9/22)

Wet Hot American Summer Ten Years Later (9/22)

Samantha Bee (9/24)

Wet Hot American Summer Ten Years Later (9/24)

Broad City (9/28)

Wet Hot American Summer - Ten Years Later (X4) (10/1)

Mindhunter (10/25)

Stranger Things (10/29)

Mindhunters (11/1)

Mindhunters (11/2)

Samantha Bee (11/2)

Mindhunter (11/3)

SNL - Tiffany Hadish and Taylor Swift (11/11)

Mindhunter (X2) (11/12)

Last Week Tonight (11/13)

Disjointed (11/13)

Mindhunter (11/15)

Disjointed (11/15)

Samantha Bee (11/16)

Mindhunter (11/17)

Mindhunter (X2) (11/19)

Disjointed (11/20)

Godless (11/24)

Disjointed (11/24)

Disjointed (X2) 11/26

The Marvelous Miss Maizel (11/29)

The Marvelous Miss Maizel (12/3) (X2)

Community (12/2) (X2)

Community (12/3) (X2)

Marvelous Miss Maizel (12/4)

The Marvelous Mrs Maizel (12/8) (X2)

The Marvelous Mrs Maizel (12/9) (X2)

Marvelous Mrs. Maizel (12/10)

Marvelous Mrs. Maizel (12/11)

Big Little Lies (12/13)

Big Little Lies (12/15)

Big Little Lies (12/16)

Disjointed (12/20)

Big Little Lies (12/22)

Marvelous Miss Maizel (12/27)

And lastly, MAGAZINES/NEWSPAPERS:

LA Times

NY Times

Los Angeles Magazine

Bloomberg Businessweek

Rolling Stone

Hollywood Reporter

Esquire

That’s my list. That was my year in consumption (at least, what I wrote down. If I included the amount of music and internet I inundate myself with it’s a surprise I did anything else at all). Here’s to the new year. 

[warninggraphiccontent]

15 May 2020

Losing the plot

When it comes to data visualisation, we all make mistakes. We all need to make mistakes. And the recent revolution in data visualisation is still new enough that it's wonderful to see people trying to use and visualise data. There's a balance to be struck between perfectionist pedantry (I'm still often guilty) and encouraging people to have a go. Therefore, I try not to criticise people for slightly substandard charts.

I made an exception this week. We should expect better from government. And poor visualisation is just one aspect of the government's muddled communication of the numbers.

Elsewhere:

The government's coronavirus recovery strategy had (only) a couple of interesting references to data: a vague reference to 'robust safety measures' when it came to contact tracing - we should expect more, quickly, especially since (as Peter points out) the reference to Asian countries raises more questions than it answers - and a vague reference to rewiring the state. Much more from the IfG on the coronavirus crisis and lifting lockdown restrictions here.

People are still updating our collaborative spreadsheet on data-related developments, transparency things and mortality stats (thank you!). Find it here - further additions always welcome.

My former colleague Nicole is now at the Royal College of Nursing, and she's recruiting - take a look at the ads for Digital Content Officer and Senior Media Officer.

On the subject of nursing... it was Florence Nightingale's birthday this week, the Lady with the Lamp also being a pioneer in the use and visualisation of data. Some bonus links below.

And another anniversary - it was International Dylan Thomas Day yesterday, marking the premiere of Under Milk Wood. Which is as good an excuse as any to revisit the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company's lockdown production of the opening scene, starring various people who can actually act, and me.

Have a lovely weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Flo charts

Happy 200th birthday #FlorenceNightingale! (Royal Society)

Florence Nightingale is a Design Hero (Nightingale)

Florence Nightingale the Angel of the Crimea (British Library)

International Nurses Day: what would Florence do on the COVID-19 front line? (Nursing Standard)

Special issue: Florence Nightingale (Significance)

Tips, tech, etc

The new rules to living in lockdown (The Observer)

Presentations post-Covid? (Matt Jukes)

Free-Range Working (Convivio)

In cycling there’s a thing called a “false flat” (@Lesley_NOPE)

Easing physical and mental strain in the workplace (Open Access Government)

Keeping our employees and partners safe during #coronavirus (Twitter)

What we’ve learned about mental health during lockdown (Prospect)

Graphic content

Viral content: cases

Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as countries fight to contain the pandemic (FT)

NHK conducted an experiment to see how germs spread at a cruise buffet (via Spoon & Tamago)

Where U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise (Reuters)

Without A Vaccine, Herd Immunity Won’t Save Us (FiveThirtyEight)

Majority black counties see triple the Covid death rate* (Bloomberg)

Coronavirus Australia data update: Covid-19 active and new cases, numbers, map and statistics (The Guardian)

Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales: deaths registered up to and including 20 April 2020 (ONS)

Russia’s Covid death toll could be 70 per cent higher than official figure* (FT)

Nowcasting and Forecasting of COVID-19 (MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge)

Viral content: the economy

How bad is unemployment? Literally off the charts* (New York Times)

Invidious choices await Sunak in tackling cost of virus crisis* (FT)

One month, 20.5 million jobs lost (Reuters)

Why 1.4 Million Health Jobs Have Been Lost During a Huge Health Crisis* (The Upshot)

Viral content: lifting lockdown

Disease modelers are wary of reopening the country. Here’s how they arrive at their verdict.* (Washington Post)

Americans’ Commitment to Social Distancing Is Eroding* (Bloomberg)

Lifting lockdown: what Britain can learn from the rest of the world* (The Times, via Cath)

London is most vulnerable to coronavirus outbreak in the UK* (FT)

Phone data identify travel hubs at risk of a second wave of infections* (The Economist)

Britain on the move even before Johnson eased lockdown, data show* (FT)

Getting Britain working (safely) again (Resolution Foundation)

What would happen if Londoners tried to go back to normal on a socially-distanced Underground? (The Guardian)

Viral content: everything else

This is live @CitizensAdvice web traffic from 7- 7:35 pm (i.e. #borisspeech) (Gemma)

A Study Said Covid Wasn’t That Deadly. The Right Seized It.* (New York Times)

COVID19 Grants Tracker (360Giving)

A Pandemic That Cleared Skies and Halted Cities Isn’t Slowing Global Warming* (Bloomberg)

Facemasks: would you wear one? (Behavioural Insights Team)

Anti-viral content

GDP first quarterly estimate, UK: January to March 2020 (ONS)

Freedom of information (Oliver for IfG)

The civil service after Brexit: lessons from the Article 50 period (Maddy, Haydon and Joe for IfG - charts here)

What Does Opportunity Look Like Where You Live?* (New York Times)

What's at stake in Britain's post-Brexit trade talks? (The Guardian)

#dataviz

Poor chart rating for the government’s coronavirus communications strategy (me for IfG)

The dataviz in the PM's statement... (Mark Edwards)

Someone who is good at equations please help me (Policy Sketchbook)

Counting the human cost of Covid-19: 'Numbers tell a story words can't' (The Guardian)

Visualising Odds Ratio (Henry Lau)

A plan for accessible charts (Benjy Stanton)

How data journalists became the rock stars of news (BBC Sounds)

EXPLORE EXPLAIN S1 E3: JOHN BURN-MURDOCH (Visualising Data)

Meta data

Viral content: contact details (UK)

The code behind the NHS Covid-19 App (NHSX)

Also FAQs, DPIA (via Jim Killock)

UK starts to build second contact tracing app* (FT)

UK could switch to a different contact tracing app, says minister* (FT)

NHS coronavirus advisory board split over ditching government app (The Guardian)

Just how anonymous is the NHS Covid-19 contact tracing app?* (Wired)

Secret NHS files reveal plans for coronavirus contact tracing app* (Wired)

To trust the contact tracing app, we need safeguards* (Harriet Harman for The Times)

Harman seeks to bring private member’s bill over contact tracing* (Computer Weekly)

Analysis of the NHSX Contact Tracing App ‘Isle of Wight’ Data Protection Impact Assessment (Michael Veale)

Who governs? Platform privilege, contact tracing and APIs. (Richard Pope)

The tech firms getting their hands on NHS patient data to fight coronavirus (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

Coronavirus: Send virus alerts within 24 hours or risk second wave, scientist warns (Sky News)

Coronavirus contact tracing at risk unless vital info shared with councils (Local Government Association)

Only 50% of Britons would download NHS tracing app – poll (The Observer)

Workplace testing – guidance for employers (ICO)

Viral content: contact details (international)

How Europe splintered over contact tracing apps* (FT)

A flood of coronavirus apps are tracking us. Now it’s time to keep track of them.* (MIT Technology Review, via Alice)

India made its contact tracing app mandatory. Now people are angry* (Wired)

Nearly 40% of Icelanders are using a covid app—and it hasn’t helped much* (MIT Technology Review)

How Google and Apple outflanked governments in the race to build coronavirus apps (Politico)

Viral content: lies, damn lies, and...

The government’s daily briefings on #Covid_19 are "not trustworthy communication of statistics" says Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter (Andrew Marr Show)

Boris Johnson’s Covid-19 threat alert system is a parody of mathematical precision* (New Statesman)

Sir David Norgrove letter to Matt Hancock regarding COVID-19 testing (UKSA)

There’s always a “but”: why Covid-19 statistics never tell the whole story* (Prospect)

The armchair epidemiologists (Office for Statistics Regulation)

Viral content: what's a pirate's favourite epidemiological number?

R: A thread on real-time estimation and false precision... (Adam Kucharski)

The R-number – and the danger of false certainty* (The Spectator)

We should be very wary of the R value (UnHerd)

Viral content: everything else

Understanding the impact of coronavirus on the workforce (ONS)

Coronavirus: record ethnicity on all death certificates to start building a clearer picture (The Conversation)

Want to know how relevant the new government guidance on walking and cycling is to your area? I've got census data and ranked local authorities by public transport to work mode share (Jack Maizels, via Lee)

UK Data for Assessing COVID-19 Activity (CEBM, University of Oxford)

Why we cannot afford to leave technology to the experts – the case for public engagement at times of crisis (Ada Lovelace Institute)

Exclusive: Test data from commercial labs going into ‘black hole’ (HSJ)

Goodhart’s law comes back to haunt the UK’s Covid strategy* (FT)

The pandemic has spawned a new way to study medical records* (The Economist)

Viral misinformation

This Woman Says Her Photos Were Stolen In A Viral Post About The COVID-19 Death Of Her Uncle David. She Doesn’t Have An Uncle David. (BuzzFeed)

‘Conspiracy bingo’: Trans-Atlantic extremists seize on the pandemic (Politico)

Platform announcements

How Government as a Platform is meeting challenges posed by coronavirus (GDS)

Scaling up GOV.UK Verify to help during coronavirus (GDS)

DWP takes centre stage in future of Gov.uk Verify (Computer Weekly)

HM Treasury tells GDS: No further online services can use Gov.uk Verify (Computer Weekly)

Anti-viral content

People, Power and Technology 2020 (Doteveryone)

Launch event video (Doteveryone)

Better Redress for the Digital Age (Doteveryone)

The Online Resolution Service: a prototype of a shared platform for online complaints (Doteveryone)

UK police adopting facial recognition, predictive policing without public consultation (Verdict)

Machine Intelligence Garage Ethics Framework (Digital Catapult)

Facebook is quietly helping to set up a new pro-tech advocacy group to battle Washington* (Washington Post)

Rest of World: Reporting Global Tech Stories

Smart Cities in a time of crisis - London calling with an open data focus (diginomica)

Alphabet Spinoff SIP Aims To ‘Future Proof’ Infrastructure With Tech & $400M Series A (Crunchbase)

Don’t Regulate Artificial Intelligence: Starve It (Scientific American)

Digital transformation in the NHS (NAO)

Using FOI to protect social housing and council property (mySociety)

Opportunities

JOB: Data Journalist (DfT, via Quantum of Sollazzo)

JOB: Beneficial Technology, Analyst (Omidyar Network)

JOB: Help us be bolder using technology for good (Citizens Advice)

JOB: Lead User Researcher (Parliamentary Digital Service)

Call for IRM Local and National Researchers (Open Government Partnership)

GRANT: Next Generation Internet (NGI) Policy-in-Practice Fund (Nesta)

EVENTS: REIMAGINING GOVERNMENT: AN ANZSOG AND CENTRE FOR PUBLIC IMPACT SERIES

EVENT: Public Health Interventions, Data, and Privacy: Countering COVID-19 with Technology and Trust. (The Alan Turing Institute)

And finally...

Viral content

School teacher hilariously marks government’s lockdown chart (The London Economic, via Pritesh)

Things to do while #StayingHome... (Microsoft 365)

DIY hairdressers under covid-19 lockdown tend it like Beckham* (The Economist)

Anti-viral content

Global population density (Alasdair Rae)

State topographic maps (via Randy Olson)

I was bored. (Stephen Bush, via Alice)

Enormouse data (Martin Lewis)

colors.lol

[artinbuildings]

Barry Le Va Switch, 1967 / 2016 gray felt, aluminum, and steel ball bearings Dimensions variable, approximately 12 x 20 feet overall Installation at Park Avenue Armory, New York, 2016 

Courtesy David Nolan Gallery, New York

Barry Le Va is one of this year's Francis J. Greenburger Awards winners! 

Join Omi International Arts Center and us on Tuesday, April 25th to celebrate his work! Learn more on the Omi Website! 

Barry Le Va Silent Readings, 2013 concrete, resin, aluminum, and steel ball bearings Dimensions variable, approximately 27 x 11 1/2 feet overall Installation at David Nolan Gallery, New York, 2013

Courtesy David Nolan Gallery, New York

Barry Le Va was born in 1941 in Long Beach, California. Among his earliest shows was a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1969. Beginning in the late 1960s, his work has been included in landmark exhibitions such as Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1969, and Information at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970. Le Va has subsequently participated in documenta 5 (1972), 6 (1977), and 7 (1982) in Kassel, Germany; and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual and Biennial exhibitions of 1971, 1977, and 1995.

Le Va has had numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and in Europe and has been the subject of major survey exhibitions at the New Museum, New York, 1979; the Carnegie Mellon Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, 1988, (traveled to: Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, 1989; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1989; Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, 1990); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, 2005 (curated by Ingrid Schaffner); and the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Portugal, 2006.

More recently, Le Va’s works were included in Greater New York at MoMA PS1, New York, 2015-2016; Piece Work, organized by Robert Storr, at Yale University School of Art, New Haven, 2015; and Bold Abstractions: Selections from the DMA Collection 1966–1976, curated by Gavin Delahunty, at the Dallas Museum of Art, 2015.

His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute Chicago; Dallas Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; mumok, Vienna; The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. The artist is the subject of a new scholarly book by Michael Maizels entitled Barry Le Va: The Aesthetic Aftermath, published by the University of Minnesota Press, 2015. Le Va currently lives and works in New York City.