1. How *Gestures Broadly at Everything* Became the Perfect Meme for Our Bad Times
If there is one meme that was made for 2020, it is *gestures broadly at everything*. This short history of the meme takes us back to 2016 (which, at the time, seemed like a particularly bad year), to David Bowie’s death and a woman with the username @SweetestCyanide. The last paragraph of that story is just…*chef’s kiss*. Read it now.
2. A room, a bar and a classroom: how the coronavirus is spread through the air
This piece made quite the rounds this week. It is excellent, but there’s a bit of context that is important to keep in mind (that, as usual, has received muss less attention than the original piece). So here goes: The piece illustrates how the coronavirus spreads indoors through aerosols, and how specific safety measures (wearing masks, ventilation) have a large impact. However, as Carl Bergstrom, biologist and author of «Calling Bullshit», notes: It doesn’t show a usual scenario, but a worst-case…