In 2015, New York Governor Mario Cuomo and his politically allied state legislature told experts to create a rationing plan for ventilators in case of a pandemic in the state. Though Ebola was wrecking Africa and coronavirus had done the same to the mid-east in 2012, New York politicians took the money that could have been used for the requested 16,000 ventilators and spent it on, among other porkbarrel initiatives, a solar panel plant being built by a political ally.

In March of 2020, the mayor of New York City told residents to go to bars right away if they wanted a drink because he was going to close them soon. Mayor de Blasio clearly did not take the threat seriously, since he told everyone to pack themselves into rooms with strangers.

I'm not all that excited about manned missions in space because it is a struggle for NASA to even build a space telescope without going 13 years over budget, but it's worth doing basic research on how an outpost on Luna might be built.

It will require a lot of multi-purposing, and re-purposing. 

Like most writers, Sage Boggs (also on Bandcamp) is a curious guy. At a party he saw there were Triscuits, the snack crackers, and asked why they were named Triscuits.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continue to be the kind of nimble agency it once was in response to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic, and the hundreds of U.S. deaths COVID-19 has caused.

They are not only facilitating access to antibody-rich plasma donated by people who have recovered from COVID-19, in hopes transfusions could lessen the severity or duration of the illness, they have gone a step further and are helping create a master protocol so independent investigators can work on this without the usual 'I won't share data in case I get beat to publication' concern that besets the life sciences. Actual collaboration.

There are a number of drugs that may be beneficial in treating coronavirus but how do we convey that a treatment is not a cure? And that what prevents one disease may not prevent another when used off-label? How can outlets stress the importance of preventing spread of SARS-CoV-2, the 2019 coronavirus that set off the flu in Wuhan, China, late 2019, later called COVID-19, without conflating cases of the virus with cases of the disease?

It's not often that a guy who can't order lunch in under a thousand words can be stumped for what to say, but when it comes to "Automatic Reload" by Ferrett Steinmetz, I am at a loss. Mostly because all of the good one-liners were taken by others before I got my galley.

The best cyborg meet-cute you'll read this year? I can't use that, Corey White did. A cyberpunk rom-com? Yes it is, but I'd be cheating if I say it. 

I should start at the beginning. No, that's boring, I will start at the end.