Well, hi there, everyone.

It's hard to know where to begin, isn't it? I'm just going to dive in, because I want to reach out, share some pictures, be distracting for a few minutes, and hopefully make some of you feel less alone.

I am thinking of all of you, every one of you, and hoping you are okay. Knowing that a lot of you aren't, and wishing that weren't the case. I am okay. Or rather, in the words of the immortal Anne (of Green Gables), "I am well in body although considerably rumpled up in spirit." The people of my life are also okay. Tonight I am dashing off this blog post before disappearing into the kitchen to make some banana bread. Two weeks ago (it feels like months ago), Kevin and I were simultaneously hit with a dreadful and violent bout of food poisoning, and for a week afterwards, all I could eat was applesauce, rice, broth, and bananas. Then suddenly, my appetite returned, and since generally I am not a human who voluntarily eats a banana, a number of bananas have since been growing increasingly offensive in our kitchen. However, I do voluntarily eat banana bread! Unfortunately, the other morning when Kevin made some pancakes, he discovered that our baking powder expired in 2013 (How is this possible? Surely we have baked many times since 2013?). Though I found the pancakes to be perfect, he considered them to be less fluffy than he'd hoped. Knowing that I would be making banana bread sometime soon, I suggested he pick up some baking powder the next time he went to the store. Ha! So naive! Of course there was no baking powder to be had at the store. So I climbed onto a stool and shuffled determinedly through our cabinets. Success! I found some baking powder that expired in 2017. Banana bread is back on the menu. But I must begin it soon, because I no longer have the energy or the emotional fortitude to stay up until midnight.

There are a lot of ways in which Kevin and I are less impacted by this pandemic than other people. He's an indie game developer, self-employed, and was already working from home; my own writing deadlines aren't impacted by the pandemic, so I have work to keep me distracted. In fact, I've almost finished the final revision of my next book, soon to go into copyediting. I used to be excited for the day I got to tell you all about this book, but now I'm guessing it doesn't matter much. Though maybe, whenever I get the green light to talk about it, it will make some of you happy to know what I've been working on. I would like to be able to make someone happy right now.

I have an office outside the home where I can, in fact, self-isolate, but when the shelter-in-place order came down in Massachusetts, we moved me home. It involved lugging home a table; a chair; a computer; my fancy printer; every size, shape and color of pen, post-it note, and index card imaginable; many piles of crap; and many plants. Inconceivably, this was only two days ago! It feels like weeks ago.

And I try not to check the news every minute. And every morning, I plan my schedule for the day ahead with great strictness, because I have a lot of work to do, but it can be hard to focus. Incidentally, if you live somewhere other than the USA and you are looking at our country right now and thinking, "Wow, their government's handling of this crisis is a total shit show," you are correct. Then again, you are probably not surprised. Although one does occasionally think there should be limits to how badly a person can behave and how much he can screw everything up — shouldn't there? Alas. There are not.

Which reminds me that I also brought home my favorite decoration from the office:


This sublime Emily Dickinson line is from a letter Emily wrote to her friend Elizabeth Holland. The image is a greeting card painted by Pamela Zagarenski.

The smelly bananas are calling! My heart is with all of you, all over the world. Stay well, everyone, and don't forget: Being brave feels like being scared. Being strong feels like being too overwhelmed to cope. You are brave and strong.

photo taken March 2020

The series airs Fridays at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on Instagram

The post Russo Bros. Pizza Film School: Joe & Anthony Russo Launch Weekly IG Live Series appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

The musical remake of the '80s cult classic is set to hit digital platforms on Friday!

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The movie is available now on Digital

The post Valley Girl Review: An Empty-Headed but Fun Musical appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Ready for the trip of a lifetime? Read a prequel to Rose, written by Russell T Davies, on the 15th anniversary since its first transmission!

These Patreons are as diverse as their creators – typically, they share art, blogs, and what-have-you with their supporters. Usually there are freebies . . . but that's not the big reason to join a Patreon. If there's someone here whose work you especially like, support them! It will give them more time to work on their own projects, and more freedom to take on the outside projects they like.

Because I'd really like you to visit ALL these folks, I'll cut the list off after Munchkin today, and follow up soon with a Patreon article for the TFT and Car Wars fans.

Munchkin, Mostly

Art Baltazar, who illustrated the Super Munchkin Guest Artist Edition – Sketchbooks, ideas, mini-prints. https://www.patreon.com/artbaltazar

Katie Cook, who has done several Munchkin supplements, Deadly Doodles, the Munchkin CCG, dice, and more – From blog access to a new original watercolor every month, all yours! Or, at the level in the middle, you can buy her a bottle of Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc. https://www.patreon.com/katiecook

Lar DeSouza (Scarf-N-Barf, lots of Munchkin) does not have a Patreon, but he does commissions. Your favorite character? You? Your dog? Tweet to him @lartist.

Phil Foglio did the Girl Genius Munchkin set, and various other things. The Studio Foglio Patreon supports their ongoing graphic novel series: https://www.patreon.com/girlgenius

Greg Hyland has been working with us for years: Munchkin Zombies GAE, Munchkin Fu, Chez Geek Spring Break, Ninja Burger . . . His patrons get early access, blogging, and more. https://www.patreon.com/frogcrisis

Mike Luckas illustrated the Munchkin Legends GAE, and worked on the Munchkin CCG – on his Patreon you can get early access, vote on characters for future artwork, and see works in progress. https://www.patreon.com/stupiddeadskullhead 

John Kovalic has been with us since INWO and "Murphy's Rules" in Pyramid. He also has a gaming comic, Dork Tower.  John illustrated the original Munchkin and many, many other Munchkin releases. His patrons can get access to a LOT of blog posts, as well as works in progress, and discounts at his online store – https://www.patreon.com/Kovalic

Len Peralta, of Geek a Week, drew the Star Munchkin GAE, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and the Munchkin Apocalypse GAE. His Patreon goal is to do videos about his speed-painting techniques. Of course you get goodies too – https://www.patreon.com/len

Tom Siddel, creator of Gunnerkrigg Court, illustrated the Munchkin Booty GAE and parts of the Munchkin CCG. His Patreon lets him continue as a full-time comic artist and surprise his patrons with Stuff. https://www.patreon.com/gunnerkrigg 

Howard Tayler, creator of Schlock Mercenary, who illustrated Munchkin Starfinder and its supplements. His Patreon offers behind-the-scenes peeks at his process; at higher levels, you can also get ad-free and retina-resolution versions of the strip. https://www.patreon.com/SchlockMercenary

Shane White did the Munchkin Pathfinder GAE and worked on the Munchkin CCG – his supporters get blog articles on "storytelling, creativity, comics, art & more," with more material at higher levels. https://www.patreon.com/shanepatrickwhite

– Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Do The Robot!

We released the Kitten d6 Dice Set and Dungeon Survival Pack: Kitten Adventurers earlier this year, and both have been strong sellers during these early months of 2020. 

But we know that some of you can never have enough kitties, and it is for you cat lovers that we created the Kitten d6 Litter, which comes with 36 dice featuring paw prints and the adorable kitty artwork of Katie Cook!

Better still, you'll notice that some of the dice in this large bag are different colors from those found in the Kitten d6 Dice Set and the Dungeon Survival Pack: Kitten Adventurers, meaning that your selection of cat dice grows dramatically as soon as you add this set to your collection.

Order the Kitten d6 Litter today from Warehouse 23. If you're a retailer and would like to carry this pack of dice in your store, please email us to ask for information about a direct-sales account. Our team will be happy to get you set up so you can get this and several other direct-sales exclusives for your store.

– Phil Reed

Warehouse 23 News: I Want It All!

Who doesn't? Now you can get everything that came with our first The Fantasy Trip Kickstarter in 2018. The I Want it All Box lives up to its name: Old-school roleplaying at its dungeon-crawling finest. The Fantasy Trip is easy to learn and fast to play – but it's been out of print for almost 40 years. Now it's back! Order The Fantasy Trip: I Want It All Box now on Warehouse 23!

[Revised entry by Michael Blake and Patrick Taylor Smith on May 4, 2020. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] International distributive justice has, in the past several decades, become a prominent topic within political philosophy. Philosophers have, of course, long been concerned with wealth and poverty, and with how economic inequalities between persons might be justified. They have, however, tended to focus only upon inequalities between inhabitants of the same state. In recent years, though, a sustained philosophical dialogue has emerged on how these ideas might be applied to the relationships and institutions holding at the global level....

[Revised entry by Bruce Russell on May 6, 2020. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] A priori justification is a type of epistemic justification that is, in some sense, independent of experience. Gettier examples have led most philosophers to think that having a justified true belief is not sufficient for knowledge (see Section 4.4, below, and the examples there), but many still believe that it is necessary. In this entry, it will be assumed, for the most part, that even though justification is not sufficient for knowledge it is necessary and that...

Buy Clotilde's latest book, The French Market Cookbook!

Do you know what Otium means? Otium is the Latin word for virtuous leisure, a time free of obligation that […]

The post Otium Salad with Roasted Radishes and Shaved Asparagus Recipe appeared first on Chocolate & Zucchini.

As much of the U.S. remains on lockdown, abortion rights are under attack nationwide. We get an update on the fight for abortion access with Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Our bodies have literally been deemed essential," she says, "and yet the control of our bodies and the right to control our own bodies has not."

As multiple states have moved to further restrict access to abortions during the pandemic, a powerful new dramatic film follows a 17-year-old girl as she travels from her small town in Pennsylvania to New York City to get an abortion without having to notify her parents. "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" director and writer Eliza Hittman joins us to discuss the making of the film, which is being distributed online while cinemas remain closed in most states due to the pandemic.

President Trump dangerously suggested injecting disinfectants could help patients sick with the coronavirus, then said he was being "sarcastic." But his remarks led to a spike in calls to helplines about taking disinfectants. We look at "What We Know About the Most Touted Drugs Tested for COVID-19" with Tanya Lewis, associate editor for health and medicine at Scientific American.

In a broadcast exclusive, world-renowned singer-songwriter Fiona Apple joins Democracy Now! for the hour to discuss her critically acclaimed new album, "Fetch the Bolt Cutters," which was released early amid the pandemic. "I've heard that it's actually making people feel free and happy," Apple says, "and it might be helping people feel alive or feel their anger or feel creative. And that's the best thing that I could hope for." Her record includes an acknowledgment that the album was "Made on unceded Tongva, Mescalero Apache, and Suma territories." We also speak with Native American activist Eryn Wise, an organizer with Seeding Sovereignty, an Indigenous-led collective that launched a rapid response initiative to help Indigenous communities affected by the outbreak.

We look at the impact of the pandemic on schools, universities, students, parents, teachers and professors — and who is at the table to shape what happens next. "We now have an economic crisis on top of the public health crisis, and the ways that we're choosing to educate children is simply unequal and is going to lead to an educational crisis,” says education scholar and Cornell University professor Noliwe Rooks, author of "Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education."

As nearly 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment in just six weeks and millions worldwide face hunger and poverty, we look at the global economic catastrophe triggered by the pandemic and its impact on the most vulnerable. As the World Food Programme warns of a massive spike in global hunger and more than 100 million people in cities worldwide could fall into poverty, can this crisis be a catalyst for change? We ask French economist Thomas Piketty. His 2014 internationally best-selling book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," looked at economic inequality and the necessity of wealth taxes. His new book, "Capital and Ideology," has been described as a manifesto for political change.

On Thursday in Puerto Rico, activists in dozens of cars held a "Caravan Por La Vida," or "Caravan for Life," through San Juan to demand the government provide more COVID-19 tests and sufficient resources for people to stay at home during the pandemic. At least 92 people have died from COVID-19 in Puerto Rico, and last week the island was reporting a testing rate lower than any U.S. state, at an abysmal average of 15 tests a day for every 100,000 people. No one in Puerto Rico has received $1,200 checks from the government, according to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. Police stopped the caravan and said their sound trucks were illegal. When organizer Giovanni Roberto demanded that police describe the laws they were breaking, he was arrested. Roberto was released later in the night, and his charges of obstruction of justice were dropped. We hear voices from the protest. Special thanks to _Democracy Now!_ correspondent Juan Carlos Dávila.

As the Senate reconvenes today, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is demanding that Congress use the next stimulus bill to protect corporations from liability for workers. "He wants to protect their right to engage in egregious misconduct," says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.

We go to Moscow for an update on the pandemic in Russia, where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly, with at least 10,000 new cases a day and the second-highest infection rate in the world, and more than 100 medical workers have died fighting the virus, and many have reported lack of personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, three Russian healthcare workers mysteriously fell from hospital windows over the past two weeks. Two died, and the one who is hospitalized had posted a video online to note the lack of medical equipment and said he had to keep working despite testing positive. We speak with Joshua Yaffa, Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker magazine.

As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide approaches 4 million and the pandemic could be with us for months or years, we look at who can access drugs like remdesivir, being developed by pharmaceutical giant Gilead, which has the patent for the drug and is poised to make massive profits. We look at how much drugs like remdesivir will cost, and who can access them, with writer Achal Prabhala, coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.

OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z earphones were launched last month alongside the new OnePlus 8 series. The earphones are priced at Rs 1,999 in India, which is cheaper than the US price. The OnePlus 8 and the 8 Pro smartphones are expected

GST law was introduced with the objective of seamless flow of input tax credit but on actual implementation of CGST Act, 2017, admissibility of input tax credit has been restricted subject to provisions contained in section 17(5) of the CGST Act, 2017. The input tax credit on motor vehicles was disp

With no time to make treatments from scratch, researchers search for existing compounds that deflect harm

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

An inexpensive assay based on the technique can provide yes or no answers in under an hour—perhaps even in the home soon

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

LabCorp’s Pixel kits rely on self-swabbing and mailing samples, and they have yet to be scaled up for widespread use

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli has identified dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves, and she warns there are more out there

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Proposed cuts could end decades of U.S. leadership in exploring that world

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Assays that detect prior novel coronavirus infections could reveal the extent of outbreaks. But they may give individuals false security

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Its sting is excruciating to people, but it is a bigger threat to honeybees vital for agriculture

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Cathy Morrow Roberson, Founder & Head Analyst for Logistics Trends & Insights LLC – a boutique market research firm that specializes in global supply chains – recently shared her observations on the current state of the global and domestic Third-Party Logistics (3PL) industry in this exclusive interview.

United States Postal Service (USPS) announced that it has named Louis DeJoy as its 75th Postmaster General and CEO. DeJoy will be replacing Megan Brennan, whom has been serving in the position since 2015, and will take over on June 15. The incoming USPS chief will be the fifth Postmaster General to come over from the private sector, going back to when the USPS, in 1971, became an independent establishment within the Executive Branch.

Cathy Morrow Roberson, Founder & Head Analyst for Logistics Trends & Insights LLC – a boutique market research firm that specializes in global supply chains – recently shared her observations on the current state of the global and domestic Third-Party Logistics (3PL) industry in this exclusive interview.

Originally posted on - blogs by NPG staff

Many of us had heard the term ‘coronavirus’ for the first time at the office lunch table. Our team lunches are unusual, discussing topics that range from evolution, to bodily functions to Bollywood. The scientific experts in the team were trying to explain how the coronavirus works, its relation to respiration and the conspiracy theories associated with it.  Read more

Gal Beckerman has a NY Times piece on celebrity bookshelves (“With celebrities now frequently speaking on television in front of their home libraries, a voyeuristic pleasure presents itself”) that might not be worth a post except that 1) I myself certainly focus on those shelves when they show people talking from home, and 2) Cate […]

I’m finally getting around to reading a book that a kind Hatter got me almost a decade ago (thanks, Andrei!), Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival by Owen Matthews, and am enjoying it greatly; the first chapter has material of clear LH interest: I spoke Russian before I spoke English. Until I […]

Evelina Leivada, a psycholinguist at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, has an article in Inference, Misused Terms in Linguistics, that begins: The evolutionary biologist Eörs Szathmáry observed that linguists “would rather share each other’s toothbrush than each other’s terminology.” This is far from an isolated view. Peter Hagoort, an eminent cognitive neuroscientist, voiced […]

Kelly Grovier at BBC Culture writes a piece that perfectly illustrates the pitfalls of the popular belief that earliest attestation is the same thing as word creation. Her thesis is that “it was often female writers who sculpted the fresh coinages that kept language rippling with poignancy and power.” She illustrates it by combing the […]

ICAI - 100 crores corpus earmarked for scholarship to CA students ...

New procedure for registration, approval, etc. of certain entities deferred to 1st October, 2020...

Clarification in respect of residency under section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) contains provisions relating to residency of a person. The status of an individual as to whether he is resident in India ...

Äratuskell oli mul sellel hommikul pandud kella viieks, kuid selle abi ma ei vajanudki. Kerge ärevus ja põnevus eelseisva hommiku osas oli teinud oma töö – ärkasin kellata. Mul oli plaan minna varahommikusele metsatiirule ja sellel hommikul lootsin kohata just karu! Kuidagi tunne oli selline, et vot nüüd on küll õige aeg! Eks oma osa […]

Laupäeval tegin perega väikese tiiru looduses. See kujunes 100km pikkuseks. Ühte järjekordsesse oma paika jõudes mainisin, et siin võib kohata nirki. Haarasin kaasa vaid binokli, jättes oma “rasketehnika” taaskord autosse. Plaan oli teha seal vaid väike, kümne minutiline jalutuskäik, kus kogu aja oleks auto nähtaval olnud. Muidu ma niimoodi tehnikat ikka autosse ei jäta. Viiekesi […]