'Amid the pains and struggle of life, how can we draw hope and comfort from the promise of the resurrection at the end? Why, in a very real sense, does almost nothing else matter?'

'So many different writers, in so many different contexts, and yet the same God is revealed by them all. How does this amazing truth help confirm for us the veracity of God’s Word?'

'This week we will look at some foundational aspects of the origin and nature of the Bible that should impact our interpretation and understanding of it.'

'Jesus taught His disciples obedience to the Word of God and the law. There is never a hint of Him doubting the authority or relevance of Scripture. On the contrary, He constantly referred to it as the source of divine authority. '

'How do we distinguish between the Word of God and human tradition? Why is it so important that we make this distinction?'

Everything is trash. Feel free to vent your frustrations here. Fuck it. Fuck all of it. FUUUUUUUUCCCCC​CCCCCCKKKKKKKKK​KKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

Long ago we started up a group for magical mefites, it has grown into something that includes mefites and nonmefites alike, and I'd like to welcome polytheists, witches, animists, unidentified flying spiritual practitioners (or nonflying) if interested! Zoom meetings are happening.

Currently we have been focusing a lot on how to create resources from the land in connection with spirits and deities in the area. Community preparedness for uncertain times, and just general sharing of our different spiritual practices and growth. There is a zoom meeting tonight (theme of spring and what we are growing) and we might be moving our meetings from monthly to weekly for the next few months.

Message me and I'll get you into the group! Currently using facebook as a base but I am trying to move to a website as much as my technically challenged abilities let me.

I was thinking about making an fpp about how Whole Foods is using a "heat map" of factors to try and prevent unionization. The article is behind a paywall at Business Insider I read it on an archive site. Is there a way to make post that people can read ethically?

There's a venting thread, but maybe you want to share a surprising good thing that has happened despite the terrible situation in the world right now.

Let's create a space to recognise the small good things that are happening.

It's OK to acknowledge the negative here too- this thread is designed to be a space to share the good stuff that is happening despite the negative.

(I felt that posting positives in the Fucking Fuck thread was not fair to that thread.)

Am I the only person who keeps accidentally almost flagging posts instead of favoriting them?

The UI for adding favorites vs flags is a bit confusing, and if I'm not the only one who finds it so, maybe we could make it clearer. The current UI strongly implies that clicking the ! is how you favorite a post:

[add to activity] [add to favorites] 3 users marked this as a favorite [!]

I've been on metafilter for umpty years and I still keep trying to favorite things by clicking that exclamation point, instead of going back to [add to favorites].

This could be clarified by changing the order, but even more so by using [Flag post] instead of just a [!] - as below:

3 users marked this as a favorite [add to favorites] [add to activity] [Flag post]

(If it's just me, I'll probably get used to it in another 10 years or so...)

Greetings, Sapients! You may have visited famed site "Metafilter" before - but did you know this: Metafilter also has "Metafilter Chat"! It does.

As this chat is associated with Metafilter proper, we chat about all kinds of things! Do you like cute animal GIFs? We chat those! Do you wish to ask a question? We answer! Do you fucking fuck the fucking thing? We fuck that!

As implied above, you may chat through the standard web interface. If you wish to use alternate methods of chatting, there are OPTIONS! We are very quite versatile, you know. [previously]

Prithee, come chat. We do not bite - unless you ask!

As foretold in prophecy, at 6 PM Eastern time tonight Joel Hodgson will be hosting a special "social distancing" MST3K show, with the cast of the live tour riffing, in a chatroom setting, the season one episode Moon Zero Two, which is a kind of "space western." We watch MST frequently in our own chat room, keeping each other distantly social long before it was cool or necessary. We're going to be trying to watch and riffing them watching and riffing their old riffshow, in a pleasantly recursive showing, assuming we can set it up correctly. You all are all invented to watch and riff along if you like!

Thanks to Fizz for suggesting mentioning it here. After their show we'll be watching our own scheduled episode, 203 JUNGLE GODDESS.

I have successfully eliminated feeding time drama. I will tell you how.

But first - if you're willing to make a small screw hole in the pantry door, you can get an inexpensive metal latch hook that will improve that part of your system. If that won't work, you can find another way to keep that door securely closed. If you get stuck, just use your second AskMe question. You should be able to solve this problem :)

If you can't, well, it doesn't sound like you're getting a ton of help from the robot. Would it be just as easy to store the food in an air-tight container and serve whenever you feel like it?

Now - here's how I got my round little foster cat to stop harassing us for food:

I convinced her that I was not responsible for deciding when to feed her. I had an old phone with a distinctive, not-unpleasant alarm sound (harp glissando), set the alarm for her feeding times, and made a huge show about hearing the alarm sound, running over to it (to shut it off), and feeding her exactly then. It was clear that I was controlled by the harp sound. She made the connection very quickly, and would go sit and watch the sound/alarm system when it was close to meal times. My life improved. Safety improved (no cat weaving around my ankles). My estimation of my own cleverness improved also :)

People tend to overthink this, and I am speaking from real experience. Just keep the requisite number of gallons of water you'd use in the timespan for which you're planning and change them every couple of years, just for the sake of doing it. They'll last for eons in reality.

In an emergency, water's great, but in a longer-term bad situation, it falls pretty far down the list. Unless you're in an unusually arid place, a means to obtain the water necessary to live (maybe not to shower, run the dishwasher or laundry though) will make itself known. And you'd never store enough to matter for *that* long, while a few gallons of cooking oil or a bag of salt would make you a local hero for a long, long time.

What people tend to really wish they'd planned for, but don't:

1) cooking oil
2) toilet paper, paper towels
3) spices, herbs, pepper and salt
4) sugar, chocolate (especially for its fat), candy, honey
5) soap, shampoo, cleaning products
6) seeds for easy-to-grow stuff
7) vitamins
8) if you can keep a couple of hens, you won't regret it.

Nothing's as tradeable (relative to effort) as eggs!

Aside from the last three, these things can be stored for a long, long time. And in reality, #6 and #7 would be good for a few years.

I am a Sarajevan who lived during the siege with no heat, electricity, water, phone (etc) for the most of a three-year period. What's on the list above is what I was almost always missing. We got "dry" food packages from various sources. These tended to be Truman eggs (good for a little protein, but thats about it), macaroni, rice, powder potatoes, Vietnam-era "biscuits" - supposedly with vitamins, but these were from the late 1960s and of dubious nutritional value.

What was missing was: fat, protein, flavor and variety. Boiling was the only way to cook things, due to lack of any cooking oils. To fry something was a rare miracle - even if you were frying reconstituted potatoes from powder. And to have a little pepper or salt was nirvana.

My work has been doing mandatory, camera-on videoconference "socials" every Friday -- scheduled at 4pm just to twist the knife. I hate them so much and finally told my manager I'm not going to attend anymore. People seem to think that because we're working from home, they're free to push on the boundaries between work life and private life in a way that is super uncomfortable for me and it has definitely been adding to my COVID stress in isolation.

If you're so ignorant that you think any promotion involving a gun on the streets in this day and age is appropriate you are a fucking idiot and detainment is the least of your worries.

This is the sort of mentality that leads to minority kids getting killed for having the temerity to play with toy guns.

If your location is correct, the Humane Society will do the communual cremation for $35 and there's a campus in your city. If that's too much but you can get her there, I'll cover it. If group cremation isn't the correct choice for you for this pet, however, no pressure.

I've found that about two-thirds of the way through any large knitting or crochet project, most stitchers get bored and antsy and often start a new project instead of finishing, so I'm familiar with this type of thing in another context. But I think anyone who thinks we're in the third quarter of this situation now has another think coming.

Many trans people have never been able to trust or access public toilets, even if they are present and unoccupied, and excluding trans people from bathroom use is currently a mainstream political stance. I was disappointed to see this not addressed in the article. I'll continue to hope (while also cynically doubting, I contain multitudes) that we will use the societal changes required by the pandemic to benefit everyone, rather than re-creating the previous dysfunction.

Do you actually like this guy? You've written an essay here and the only positives you list about this person are qualities you assumed about him during the period you had no personal contact. Of course he makes himself look interesting in his own blog.

Stop worrying if he likes you or not, or likes you enough or more than your friend maybe. For the next few weeks, your sole focus should be "do I actually like this guy, really?"

If it's your anxiety telling you you're not good enough that's one thing, but I don't get the impression from what you've written that you've spent a lot of time looking at this dude with a critical eye. HE needs to be right for YOU before you start concerning yourself with whether you're good enough for him.

Well, somebody didn't click through before commenting... Great job, 100%

I have a health condition with a high mortality rate, where about one quarter of us die within the first year, and two-thirds of us don't last five years. I'm on Year 4 now and I'm doing okay, and I'm thankful to be receiving excellent care, and I'm generally optimistic that I'll get to stick around for a while.

Ramping up to my diagnosis, I thought my life was over. And that was both utterly untrue and completely true at the same time. You can't really know what it's like until you have the actual diagnosis, and even then it's been a world of surprises. You may or may not be able to do some of the things you would like to do.

For me to deal with it in a healthy way, I kind of had to create a hard line in the sand. I had to take time to grieve the person I'd been before falling ill, take stock of my accomplishments, and most importantly, I had to REALIZE MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS WERE ENOUGH for my lifetime. If I'd been hit by a bus, my life would have been over in a snap, and whatever I'd accomplished by that point would have had to be enough. Taking that pressure off myself was the kindest thing I could do for myself.

I found I had to let a lot of things go and not compare Previous Me to Sick Me. Previous Me was active, enjoyed travel, able to hold down complex and interesting work. Sick Me can't do much of that, but Sick Me does pretty okay for a sick person, and Sick Me does so much more than Dead Me could possibly do! Seriously, compared to Dead Me, Sick Me is a total winner. Sick Me can do a little modest gardening, enough to keep the weeds away. Sick Me can care for my dog and handle the occasional load of laundry. Sick Me finds a lot of joy in my friends and family and internet communities, and has transferred my social life to text, email, and the occasional dining out when the stars align and energy allows. (Metafilter is a lifesaver because I can pick it up whenever my energy level allows and people are so welcoming and understanding.)

As you're waiting for news, it's easy to fall to worry. Please be kind to yourself and don't suffer those fears and losses before you need to. Right now, you are there for your children. Don't put yourself through the punishment of losing them multiple times unnecessarily. And don't say you won't ever get to do a painting class -- I took my first painting class last fall and it was a boon to my soul and it renewed my capacity for beauty.

In the meantime, take as much control of the situation as you need to. Write down a list of questions to review with your doctors. (I've actually typed them out and distributed copies for them to follow along.) You can google, and it's hard not to, but please never tell a doctor that your questions or concerns are coming from google. Also, do not call yourself a hypochondriac -- what you are feeling is what you are feeling, and your concerns are valid and deserving of respect.

Waiting is hard. Please be extra kind to yourself.

Everyone Expects The Spanish Influenza: There is one solution and one solution only: Stop using Amazon. Period. Nothing else will work. Nothing.

The other solution is to get laws passed which don't allow them to engage in these practises. Laws like that have been passed before; they can be passed again.

"fascinating, and I'm going to assume it's not hoax. But it doesn't so much raise my impression of the inherent decency of humanity as get me wondering what sort of values etc they were propagating at that exclusive school in Tonga."

This is actually pretty well-studied -- I have a friend who did a Ph.D. in the total collapse of local civil authority and what happens next -- and Lord of the Flies is flat wrong. Humans in an emergency situation lean on each other and help each other. If they fall into despair and think survival isn't possible, they might destroy themselves -- but they don't (usually) take others with them. But generally they pool resources, create organization, find ways to help the group, and find ways to care for the helpless and infirm. People get really frustrated when they're NOT able to assist the group, and even people who have very limited physical abilities try to find ways to help, maybe keeping an eye on the little children, or teaching kids to read.

"Because by the time I read Lord of the Flies in Grade Nine or thereabouts, I'd experienced enough suburban schoolyard/playground savagery and whatnot to not really find its extrapolations all that unbelievable."

So part of the problem with children and schoolyard savagery is that we keep them in a HUGELY artificial structure and limit their ability to participate in society and contribute to it. We MAKE them savages by refusing to allow them to contribute to the group. One of the things we know about children who find themselves without adults and with a need to organize and survive (which might be like these boys, in an actual hardcore survival situation, or they might have plenty of food and water and heat and just need to wait for the blizzard to end and grown-ups to fetch them from where they got snowed in) is that they are amazing at it. Given a chance to be competent and responsible, they usually do really really well! And children have a HUGE innate sense of fairness (it's a developmental phase), so kids under 14 or so basically IMMEDIATELY sit down as a group and hash out how they're going to make decisions and hold people accountable. Generally, they decide on a democracy -- it's not "fair" unless everyone has a say -- and that everyone will have to take turns at gross jobs, and create some kind of punishment for those who don't do their work, which is usually either an extra turn at gross jobs or having to sleep in the worst spot (where they otherwise take turns). They tend to be very conscious of what they know about safety (problems come in with what they DON'T know, like not using a grill indoors for heat b/c you can die from the smoke), and cautiously warn each other to be careful cooking and with sharp objects, and take care to learn from each other's knowledge. If one kid knows how to build a fire, the others will defer to his expertise and will have him teach them and follow his instructions carefully.

Kids do CRY a lot more than adults do, and they get their feelings hurt a lot, but kids are also very conscious of and used to the fact that you can't just avoid people or cut them out of your life (kids don't have that power), so they tend to do a really good job reconciling in-group disputes. They might not all LIKE each other, but they find a way to work together and just complain about each other.

Do you remember that reality show that was meant to be "Kid Survivor" and they hoped it would turn into Lord of the Flies, and it was a SPECTACULAR FLOP? The producers had set up better and worse "houses" in the "abandoned town" set and expected the kids to race for a free-for-all to get the best stuff, and instead they arrived, explored, and then all sat down and made a group decision about how to divide it all up. A couple kids tried to be selfish and stubborn, but got shamed into compliance by the rest of the group, and one of their first concerns was that the littlest kids be buddied up with older kids because it would be too hard for them otherwise "and they might get scared." They agreed on a decision-making procedure the first night and basically stuck to it through the show. When one kid was a jerk, they would all go sit around the campfire and talk and talk and talk until the jerk agreed to stop being a jerk. The producers would create survivor-like challenges where the "winner" would get extra food or some special thing, and every single time they kids would either a) refuse, as a group, to compete, because it wouldn't be "fair" or b) agree to compete because it would be fun or because they wanted/needed the reward, but the winner would share his winning equally with the group AND ALWAYS DID.

Margaret Mead said that in her opinion, the first sign of civilization was a 15,000-year-old human grave with a healed thigh bone. Which means that the nomadic group rescued that person, immobilized his femur, and then cared for him for MONTHS while he recovered and could not contribute to the group. Wild animals die if they break a bone. Humans became civilized, she felt, when the group cared for the individual and allowed them to heal from such grievous injuries. Turns out that's still how we roll.

So like, nobody else finds the timing of this story kinda culturally suspicious? We had years of warnings of Africanized bees, and now we've got deadly Asian hornets, at a moment when anti-China rhetoric has reached a fevered pitch? Literally two of these bugs have been spotted in the US, and the guy who is the focal point of the NYT story isn't sure these were even involved, but now the Paper of Record and the entire American internet is talking about Asian Murder Hornets? Gaaaaaaaah I'm just going back inside for a while.

I think a lot of managers don't know how to manage. When you're in an office, they can perform all sorts of work theater. When they're not, they have to find substitutes to prove they're doing something.

Bing - fuckin' - o

One of the things I do professionally is to help organisations move to flexible and remote working (yes, business is great right now) and the hardest thing is always the cultural and performance management aspects. Many/most managers have never had any training in - nor done any serious thinking about - management. They're like newborns with no object permanence, when things are not in their field of view, they don't exist. When you ask them to evaluate their staff, they give vague answers not backed up by evidence or linked to specific objectives.

It's not that hard. Assign people tasks, check that they have completed them correctly, give feedback. I don't care how much time my team spends wanking, watching prestige television, or reading during the day as long as they deliver me the stuff I've asked for when I've asked for it. I'm genuinely curious what kind of jobs even exist that can be done remotely but are not amenable to an output based way of working. Seriously, name one!

This kind of stuff makes me want to start putting people against the wall.

Tim Bray is a smart guy who's been around tech for a long time. Presumably most people here know that, but in case you don't, he's got a very solid nerd pedigree.

To have him get near the top of Amazon, and then walk away because of his principles, says both that things at Amazon are really bad, and also that he's got integrity.

Yes, he probably has a decent retirement nest egg stashed away, but it's still nice to see someone with privilege (particularly in Silicon Valley) be vocally on the correct, humane side of an issue.

I live most of the year in a small, fairly self-contained village of about 8 people. We do use grid power where we can't get micro-hydro. There's not enough sun to make solar workable (we're in a valley). We all have wood stoves to heat and cook, big gardens, forage for food and medicine, and hunt and fish for meat as well as raise chickens and sheep. Our main needs from the outside world are salt, grains, cooking fats, sweeteners, tobacco, and tea/coffee. There is a large vegetable farm our friend owns up the road, and most of us work there during the summer and we get lots of free produce. We have neighbors we visit to harvest from their orchards and wild berries.

Being totally self-sufficient all on your own is honestly almost impossible unless you are willing to really, really rough it. The things you need depend on your climate, but outside of a few outlier 'lives in the woods by himself in a cave' folks, this is not easy to achieve.

So you need a house. Insulated from heat and cold. This means building a good shelter with air flow and heating. Wood burning stoves are a good solution. If you're in a 4 season climate, you will need between 2 and 4 cords of wood, (60 hours or so of chopping if you know what you're doing) which have to cure for a year before you can use them, even from dead standing. So chainsaw, axes, wedges, and probably a truck. Which means gas. This means money on an ongoing basis.

You need water. A well or a spring, or a creek close enough to the source to not need filtering. This all means pipes or tubing and maybe a pump unless your sources is higher than your house. Also costs money, and needs to be replaced eventually.

You need food. Most gardens are geared to fruits and veg, and you'll need a lot of space to grow enough to live on without supplementing from stores. Depending on where you are, you might be able to harvest some berries and fruit if you have producing bushes/trees on your land. Or you can plant them and wait until they are mature enough to produce. You will need to freeze, dry or can what you pick or it's gonna go bad before you can eat it all. So you need canning stuff (big pot, grabber tongs, hella mason jars, and those lids have to be replaced every couple years). A root cellar (lots of digging! So much!) will keep your root veggies and apples fresh through the winter if it's deep enough. Wash your cabbages and carrots in bleach water every now and then. You'll add a month to their viability. You'll want a dehydrator for sure. you can build a passive solar one, but we use an electric one as fall fruit in an outdoor space is a bear fun time pantry. You need garden tools. They cost money and need to be replaced periodically.

You still need protein. Say you live in a place where you can fish and hunt (in season). You need to pay for licenses for these things. You can trap smaller game, but that's much more challenging. If you are hunting larger game you will need a deep freezer to store (electricity!) or be content with a massive salting / smoking process that will allow you to store meat long term.

You also need carbs. Grains need a lot of land space, and the right climate. Getting them to an edible state means you'll need to thresh, winnow, and grind your wheat/oats/spelt etc. Grinding means you need a stone mill. A hand crank meat grinder isnt going to cut it (literally) but you'll want one anyway for other stuff. Potatoes are a good source, and are easy to grow in the right climate. These need to be stored in a cool dry place away from rodents and insects to last all year.

You need fats. Wild crafted diets are low in fat, which is not always a good thing. Game meat is low in fat, and you can't make cooking oil from it. Deer tallow will make soap and icky candles. You need bees for good candle wax (and honey!) Raising chickens can get you both fat and eggs. But they need a place to roost that keeps them safe from predators.

You'll need fencing to protect your garden from deer and bears. Without an electric fence, your garden and chickens are going to get eaten or trampled. Dogs help with this, as do shotguns.

So you need micro hydro (only if you have an accessible, appropriate water source that has enough flow rate) or solar (if you live in a place that gets enough sun all year round.

You need medicine. Our mainstays are tinctures and teas. A very small sampling: nettle, mint, mullein, poppy, willow bark, chamomile, chaga, lions mane, spruce tips, elecampane, milky oat, pearly everlasting, ghost pipe, pine pollen, raspberry leaf, and red clover.

If you really want to go all out, you need clothing and cleaning cloth, so you'll need to tan leather or weave flax or cotton. We have alpacas we shear for fiber. They are cute and less trouble than llamas, but won't haul anything, so sometimes we have to borrow a donkey if we're pulling things up a steep path. You'll need soap, so save your tallow.

I could go on. But really, this is a massive, MASSIVE effort for a single person. Without access to money or the outside world it is going to be a slog. But wow, if you're into it, go try it! I don't recommend you buy some remote property and cut yourself off from the world to see if you can hack it. One bad winter where you run through your firewood? One bad frost or dry summer that kills your crops? There's a reason people tend to settle together.

So yeah, you need good land, good water, good equipment, many years to get established, some friendly neighbors, and some way to get money when you need it. Or a bunch of people already doing this that like you and want your help.

Go look up a victorian household guide on Project Gutenberg. So many good ideas! They have instructions for making everything from soap to paint.

Good luck!

Good must always be ditched in favor of a theoretical Perfect.

Hire good people; review their work; correct errors.

This is the "eat food, not too much, mostly plants" of modern management.

"It's silly to say, 'I just trust them all,' and close my eyes and hope for the best," he said. Some workers have grimaced at the surveillance, he added, but most should have nothing to hide: "If you're uncomfortable with me confirming the obvious [about your work], what does that say about your motives?"

Actually, not being able to provide your employees with the least amount of autonomy marks you as a shitty (and ineffective; how much work are YOU getting done if you are spying on your team constantly?) manager.

Hire good people; review their work; correct errors. That is your job as manager (along with putting out fires, managing interpersonal issues, and administrative tasks).

People also respond positively to trust and productivity goes up (as well as problem-solving ability).

Mistrust means people do the minimum, stop caring about their job except as revenue generation, and leave as soon as they can. They certainly won't take initiative, why bother? Clearly their boss/company sees them as ungrateful jerks just itching to slack off and steal.

How you treat your employees affects how they perform. This is not rocket science.

Oh for fuck's sake. There's some really interesting stuff in these links, most of it has nothing to do with the three-quarter point of anything, and none of it is making any kind of claim about when this will end.

It's a bunch of interesting stories about how people fail under isolation, and fail harder when relief still feels out of reach. Sure, one thing that can make it feel out of reach is knowing you've still got a quarter of your mission left. Another thing is having no clue how long things will last, which hopefully we can all agree is relevant?

Can we take a deep breath, pretend that Athanassiel chose a pull quote that wasn't total pedant-bait, and start over?

Comedians Ashley Nicole Black and Chelsea Devantez join forces to unscramble two-word phrases where both words are anagrams of each other. Heard on D.J. "Shangela" Pierce: Quaran-Queen. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: This is ASK ME ANOTHER, NPR's hours of puzzles, word games and making your hand fall asleep so it feels like a stranger is touching your face. I'm Jonathan Coulton. Here's your host, Ophira Eisenberg. OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: I do that every night to fall asleep. Thank you, Jonathan. We're playing games with two great comedians, Ashley Nicole Black and Chelsea Devantez. OK. Ashley, you were doing a podcast for a while before this all happened. Are you thinking about bringing it back? ASHLEY NICOLE BLACK: It was an advice podcast, and I feel like everybody has the same questions now, so it might not be as varied (laughter). EISENBERG: How? Why? COULTON: (Laughter). BLACK: Yeah. EISENBERG: Chelsea, are you creating new projects in quarantine?

Copyright 2020 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm TV critic David Bianculli. I've watched many broadcast and streaming specials since the coronavirus began affecting our lives, but one in particular really got to me. It was the recent 90th birthday salute to Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, featuring performances from an array of musical theater stars. This is Donna Murphy. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) DONNA MURPHY: (Singing) Isn't it rich? Are we a pair? Me here at last on the ground, you in midair - send in the clowns. BIANCULLI: Nothing I've seen on TV since the pandemic hit has impressed me quite like "Take Me To The World," the star-studded 90th birthday salute to Stephen Sondheim. It was shown April 26, is still available for viewing and will be for some time. Aimed to raise funds for a favorite charity of his, Artists Striving To End Poverty, "Take Me To The World" was presented on YouTube and Broadway.com

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross. Today on FRESH AIR, one of our favorite interviews from our archive - Terry's conversation with comedian, actor and writer Steve Martin. He's also an accomplished bluegrass musician and has been posting occasional videos on social media playing banjo in the woods. Last month he visited CBS's "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert in a special socially distanced comedy bit with Colbert sequestered inside his house and Martin with his guitar, strolling in a forest, determined to sing a song that Colbert is just as determined not to hear. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE LATE SHOW") STEPHEN COLBERT: So we go now live to Steve Martin in the middle of the woods. Hi, Steve. STEVE MARTIN: Hey, Stephen. Thanks for having me on. COLBERT: Well, Steve, you're certainly welcome. MARTIN: You know, Stephen, I was thinking that something we as people need to remember right now

Updated at 6:12 p.m. ET Andy Serkis, the physically nimble actor largely known for his CGI-assisted roles, did some quarantine reading, performing the entirety of The Hobbit in a livestream on Friday. On a Gofundme page established for the event, Serkis wrote that he would conduct the 12-hour marathon reading of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy novel to raise funds for COVID-19 relief efforts. Depending on his copy, that's some 300 pages of Bilbo Baggins' adventure from his humble hobbit hole in the Shire to the mountain lair of the fearsome dragon Smaug – and back again, read and performed by Serkis. The actor began reading the novel at around 10 a.m. in the United Kingdom (that's 5 a.m. ET). "Together we'll face the might of the trolls, journey to the magical Rivendell, encounter the giant spiders in the labyrinths of Mirkwood, and the evil goblins living among the roots of the Misty Mountains, until we meet the dragon Smaug, and see the Battle of the Five Armies," Serkis wrote on

Beanie Feldstein does not like the way teenage experimentation and growth gets dismissed as just a phase. "There tends to be the sort of stigma or judgment," she says, whether it's about dress, mood, makeup, or music choice. What she loves about her latest film, How to Build a Girl, is that it gives teen phases the respect they deserve. "Those phases matter ," she says. "It doesn't mean they're going to last, but they do matter. ... I think we could all be reminded of that lesson — especially adults." How to Build a Girl is a film adaptation of Caitlin Moran's 2014 semi-autobiographical novel about an awkward teen turned music critic. Feldstein stars as Johanna Morrigan, a 16-year-old growing up in England in the 1990s. Johanna "hasn't found her people yet," says Feldstein, and her closest confidants are her heroes (Julie Andrews, Freud, Sylvia Plath, Karl Marx) whose pictures are taped to her bedroom wall. Feldstein admits she sometimes felt nervous during filming, but found thinking

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Magician and animal trainer Roy Horn, of the legendary Las Vegas duo Siegfied and Roy, died Friday from complications related to COVID-19. Horn tested positive last week. He was 75. "The world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend," Siegfried Fischbacher said of his partner in a statement. "Roy was a fighter his whole life including during these final days. I give my heartfelt appreciation to the team of doctors, nurses and staff at Mountain View Hospital who worked heroically against this insidious virus that ultimately took Roy's life." Roy Horn was born in Germany in 1944. He and Siegfried began their act in Las Vegas in 1967. In 1989 they began a 14-year run at the Mirage Resort performing illusions with exotic animals, making tigers, lions, even elephants vanish and reappear. In October of 2003, Roy Horn was performing with a 400-pound white tiger named Mantecore when the great cat grabbed him by the throat before a stunned audience and dragged him

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Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

In this time of fear and uncertainty, people are going back to the land — more or less. Gardening might just be overtaking sourdough baking, TV binging and playing Animal Crossing as our favorite pandemic coping mechanism So here I am in my back yard, where I've got this lovely four foot by eight food raised garden bed — brand new this year, because yes, I'm one of those people who are trying their hand at gardening. I've got tomatoes, I've got cucumbers, I've got radishes, I've got beets sprouting up, I've got what I think might be a zucchini and a spaghetti squash, but the markers washed away in a storm. And I had some watermelon seedlings, but they died in the last cold snap. So that's why I'm out here today — driving in stakes and draping plastic wrap for the next cold snap. I have to be extra careful now, because I couldn't actually replace my watermelon seedlings — garden centers and hardware stores have been picked clean. Jennifer Atkinson is a senior lecturer in environmental

Samantha Bee is the host of the late night comedy show Full Frontal, so we've invited her to play a game called "Full Backtal." Three questions about the people who stand in for actors when a posterior shot is required, and the star is either unwilling or unqualified to do it. Click the audio link to find out how she does. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Updated at 1:55 p.m. ET Little Richard, the self-described "king and queen" of rock and roll and an outsize influence on everyone from David Bowie to Prince, died Saturday. He was 87 years old. Wayne Chaney, his longtime bandleader and tour manager, tells NPR that Little Richard died at his brother's home in Tullahoma, Tenn., after a battle with cancer. Rolling Stone was the first to report on his death. With his ferocious piano playing, growling and gospel-strong vocals, pancake makeup and outlandish costumes, Little Richard tore down barriers starting in the 1950s. That is no small feat for any artist — let alone a black, openly gay man who grew up in the South. He was a force of nature who outlived many of the musicians he inspired, from Otis Redding to the late Prince and Michael Jackson. His peers James Brown and Otis Redding idolized him. Jimi Hendrix, who once played in Little Richard's band, said he wanted his guitar to sound like Richard's voice. The late David Bowie was 9

Der Bundespräsident nennt die Auseinandersetzung mit der NS-Zeit einen „langen, schmerzhaften Weg“ – in seiner Gedenkrede zur Kapitulation der Deutschen Wehrmacht vor 75 Jahren formuliert Frank-Walter Steinmeier schöne Sätze. Doch den Punkt trifft er nicht.

Die EU-Kommission will eine Verlängerung des Einreisestopps nach Europa bis zum 15. Juni. Die Lage in Europa und weltweit bleibe wegen der Corona-Pandemie instabil. Entscheiden muss aber letztendlich jedes Land für sich.

Nach dem Ausbruch des Coronavirus in einer Fleischfabrik in Coesfeld werden die Lockerungen teilweise verschoben. Mit mehr als 50 Infizierten pro 100.000 Einwohner gilt der Kreis als Risikogebiet.

Die Corona-Auflagen beschäftigen auch die deutschen Gerichte. Denn mittlerweile sind rund 1000 Eilanträge von Klägern gegen die Einschränkungen eingegangen, so der deutsche Richterbund.

In den USA haben allein im April 20 Millionen Menschen ihren Job verloren, infolge der Corona-Pandemie. Präsident Trump versucht, durch Optimismus gegenzusteuern, und zweifelt die Zahl der Todesopfer an.

Wie sind Beschränkungen bei sinkenden Infektionszahlen überhaupt noch zu rechtfertigen? Und werden nach dem neuen Notfallmechanismus bei neuen Ausbrüchen ganze Städte abgeriegelt? Hessens Ministerpräsident Volker Bouffier (CDU) hält die kommende Phase für heikel.