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?

Now we add some more songs to our essential Georgia playlist from Amy Ray. We ask artists to pick two songs written or performed by another Georgian that best represent the state. Amy Ray is part of the seminal folk group Indigo Girls. The Indigo Girls will return to Atlanta Symphony Hall for a two night performance on Sept. 12 and 13.

What started as a tribute to the greats, has taken on a life all of its own. Yacht Rock Revue harnesses the nostalgic soft rock vibes of the ‘70s and ‘80s, taking the term “tribute band” to a whole new level. Whether on the road, or at their own venue Venkman’s in Atlanta, Yacht Rock Revue take their audiences on a voyage to sounds of the past. Singer Nick Niespodziani joined On Second Thought to add a couple of songs to the Georgia Playlist , our tribute to songs written and performed by Georgians. Niespodziani chose “Moonlight Feels Right” by Starbuck and Washed Out’s “Eyes Be Closed.”

Now we add some more songs to our essential Georgia playlist from Avery Gipson . We ask artists to pick two songs written or performed by another Georgian that best represent the state. At 18 years old, Avery Gipson is already an award-winning singer-songwriter. Her first single , “Look What You’ve Done,” came out earlier this year.

Mac Powell is an Atlanta-based multi-platinum Grammy-winning artist. His band, Mac Powell and the Family Reunion , recently released their new single, Back Again. Mac and the Family Reunion are now on tour, performing songs from the debut album, Back Again . Before his Atlanta performance, Powell added two songs to our Georgia Playlist.

Jontavious Willis got his start singing gospel in his hometown of Greenville, Georgia, but something clicked inside him when he heard the blues. His second album, Spectacular Class, came out earlier this year. Critics and blues artists hailed it and declared him a wunderkind and genius who proves the blues is very much alive.

Shantih Shantih is a four-piece band founded in Atlanta. The band combines rock 'n' roll with harmonies over twanging guitars — heard in their new single, Radio Dream. On Second Thought invited Anna Barattin and Julia Furgiuele from the band to add some tracks to our Georgia Playlist .

Earlier this year, Rolling Stone called Deerhunter, “one of the great guitar bands of the 21st century.” But that’s not the only music to come from the Georgia band. Moses Archuleta is co-founder and drummer for Deerhunter. He also has a solo side project called Moon Diagrams, which released a new album, titled Trappy Bats , in August. We invited Archuleta to add two songs to the Georgia Playlist. That’s our collection of songs written or performed by a Georgian. His picks? Athens band Pylon, and Atlanta native Playboi Carti.

Glenn Jones got his start in the music industry at a young age, signing to gospel label Savoy Records at just 17 years old. Later, his single “Here I Go Again” reached the top of the R&B charts in 1991. Now, Jones is based in Atlanta and releasing new music under his independent label, Talent Room Entertainment. On Second Thought invited Glenn Jones into the studio to share his additions to the Georgia Playlist.

Inspired by the iconic Drag Race "unboxing," Shangela takes an audio quiz on unboxing videos found on YouTube. Heard on D.J. "Shangela" Pierce: Quaran-Queen. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: All right, are you ready to have a little ASK ME ANOTHER challenge? SHANGELA PIERCE: I'm going to tell you guys, I love games. EISENBERG: Great. PIERCE: So I'm super competitive. I'm not playing against anyone I know. But I love games. So this is so cool because I haven't been able to go to a game night. My mom and I play Connect Four (laughter) a lot. JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: (Laughter). PIERCE: But yeah, I'm so excited. Yes. EISENBERG: Shangela, longtime fans of "RuPaul's Drag Race" will remember the truly iconic moment when you surprised the Season 3 contestants by jumping out of a giant box. OK, so was that your idea? PIERCE: Oh, well, it wasn't my idea at all... EISENBERG: Oh. PIERCE: ...For the first time I did it, that was Season 3. Because I remember the

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

Middle school spans those tween and early teenage years when, for many, puberty hits. Bullies seem to reign supreme. And we begin to grow into ourselves. Like most, writer and reporter Judith Warner was once a middle schooler. She's also the mother of two former middle schoolers. In her new book, And Then They Stopped Talking To Me , she investigates why the middle-school years can be so awful — and what we can do to help make them a little bit better. Interview Highlights On asking people what words come to their mind when thinking of middle school Soul crushing. Shattering. A rush of nausea. Any variation on the word misery that you can come up with. By and large, the answers were so powerful. And yet then there were a couple of people who had good memories too. And that was something that was important for me to hold on to and listen to in more detail. On deciding to write the book It really grew out of a kind of random thought one day when my daughter was in middle school and I

You might not be able to pack your bag, get on an airplane and jet off to some new exciting place right now, but don't worry, you can still travel and explore here with World Cafe Sense of Place. In this series, we take you deep into one city's music scene, and today, we're kicking off our sessions from Los Angeles, with more to come every Friday in May. We start with a bit of an overview from someone who really knows what he's talking about. Nic Harcourt is a legendary name in LA radio. He hosted Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW for many years, and now he's a host at our affiliate station, 88.5 KCSN/KSBR. We recently connected with Nic via video chat to find out what's going on right now, the new LA bands you need to be listening to: Freedom Fry, The Buttertones, Los Abandoned, Pure Protein and Brad Byrd. Hear songs from each of them at the top of the playlist below, which also features artists and songs you'll be hearing in the coming weeks. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit

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

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

Dr. Grace Farris is chief of hospital medicine at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan. She also writes a monthly comics column in the Annals of Internal Medicine called "Dr Mom." You can find her on Instagram @coupdegracefarris . Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Samanta Schweblin is not a science fiction writer. Which is probably one of the reasons why Little Eyes , her new novel (translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell) reads like such great science fiction. Like Katie Williams's 2018 novel Tell The Machine Goodnight before it, Little Eyes supposes a world that is our world, five minutes from now. It is a place with all our recognizable horrors, all our familiar comforts and sweetnesses, as familiar (as if anything could be familiar these days) as yesterday's shoes. It then introduces one small thing — one little change, one product, one tweaked application of a totally familiar technology — and tracks the ripples of chaos that it creates. In Tell The Machine , it was a computer that could tell anyone how to be happy, and Williams turned that (rather disruptive, obviously impossible) technology into a quiet, slow-burn drama of family and human connection that was one of my favorite books of the past few years. Schweblin, though, is more

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

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

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with author Amy Jo Burns about her debut novel, "Shiner," set in the West Virginia mountains.

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 hat wegen der Corona-Pandemie eine Verlängerung des Einreisestopps nach Europa um einen weiteren Monat empfohlen. Zuletzt gab es immer mehr Forderungen, Deutschland solle die Kontrollen an den Grenzen zu seinen Nachbarländern aufheben.

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.

Die Sterberate Corona-Infizierter in Russland ist extrem niedrig. Die Regierung verweist bei der Frage nach den Gründen auf den Erfolg der russischen Strategie – einige Bürger dagegen trauen der Zählweise der Toten nicht.

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.

Viele Länder planen in der Corona-Krise ihre Rückkehr zum normalen Leben. Doch wer lockert, riskiert auch steigende Infektionszahlen. Der WELT-Überblick zeigt, wo sich die Entspannung rächt – und wo es Hoffnung gibt.

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.

Der UN-Sicherheitsrat findet angesichts der größten Bedrohung der Gegenwart keine gemeinsame Haltung. Ein ausgehandelter Kompromiss droht am Streit zwischen den USA und China zu scheitern. Die USA stoßen sich im Entwurf der Corona-Resolution an einer Erwähnung.

Der Konflikt zwischen seiner Partei und Boris Palmer spitzt sich zu: Die Grünen fordern den Tübinger Oberbürgermeister auf, die Partei zu verlassen, der Beschluss fiel einstimmig. Palmer weist die Forderung entschieden zurück

In der Fleischfabrik Westfleisch in Coesfeld hat sich das Corona-Virus in den letzten Tagen rasant verbreitet: Mindestens 151 Mitarbeiter sind infiziert. Trotzdem ist lange nichts passiert.

Nach einem internen Bericht der Europäischen Grenzschutzagentur Frontex ist mit einem Zustrom von Migranten an der Grenze zwischen der Türkei und Griechenland zu rechnen. Der Bericht liegt WELT vor.