*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@social.cleverlibre.org

"If We Ever Get to Mars, the Beer Might Not Be Bad"

"Here’s an interplanetary botany discovery that took college students and not NASA scientists to find: Hops — the flowers used to add a pleasant bitterness to beer — grow well in Martian soil.

“I don’t know if it’s a practical plant, but it’s doing fairly well,” said Edward F. Guinan, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/science/mars-plants-soil.html

Good article on the NY Times with data and insight on how the epidemic (and resulting travel slow down, cancelations, etc) is affecting Airbnb, its hosts and other large travel sites.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/technology/airbnb-hosts-coronavirus.html

There was a request on an earlier post for some quantifiable measure of quality or otherwise of the head of the current US administration. The Washington Post keeps a database, notice its last updated January 16th, so current numbers would be higher yet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/

Great NY Times article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/us/michigan-primary-election.html

😜

From Garth Turner's excellent daily Blog, it's on today's post, a good read too.

https://www.greaterfool.ca/2020/03/09/the-storm-2/

Impact of corona virus on various world economies is spooking the stock markets.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51796806

In Italy, pasta is serious business.

And there's even Science behind some of the discussions - like what style of Penne is the best, for taste and other reasons?

Lisce, the smooth kind? Or Rigate, the more common one with ridges on its surface?

Get your Penne fix from this Quartz article.

https://qz.com/1811768/coronavirus-lockdown-ignites-an-old-italian-debate-its-about-pasta-of-course/

8m
Deutsche Welle (English) @dw@newsbots.eu

**Italy fumbles coronavirus lockdown orders**

"People crowded onto trains on Saturday night to preempt government measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19. Italian media and politicians have been criticized for the confusing rollout of the new controls."

https://www.dw.com/en/italy-fumbles-coronavirus-lockdown-orders/a-52685263?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

Last train out of Town before quarantine restrictions.

An interesting story from an Italian Associated Press reporter who was in Padua, Northern Italy Saturday.

And the news of the upcoming quarantine for the whole region leaked in the press - just in time for her to catch the last train out of town before midnight.

"Before Italy’s virus lockdown, a dash to the last train out" By TRISHA THOMAS

https://apnews.com/0d0294807db64f300a4460030da4a701

A good Opinion piece at the NY Times. 👍

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/opinion/coronavirus-trump.html

A good article on The Guardian, talking about how older people prefer boring but safe when things look uncertain.

Last paragraph says some of Trump's supporters could take the same option if things get worse economically, they have little savings to weather a slow down or partial shutdown of the economy.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/07/biden-older-voters-safety-super-tuesday-coronavirus

Ben Jenning's Cartoon today at The Guardian... 😜

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2020/mar/08/ben-jennings-on-britains-coronavirus-composure-cartoon

'It isn't Mad Max': women charged after fight over toilet paper in Sydney

Two women, aged 23 and 60, will face court over a brawl at a western Sydney supermarket

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/07/it-isnt-mad-max-police-warning-after-shoppers-brawl-over-toilet-paper-in-sydney

Pretty sad to see people posting "jokes" about the likely candidate for the Democratic party in the US election.

And who is being served by those "jokes" and "memes"?

Yes, you bet, the opposition, lead by a despicable man, unqualified and unstable, widely perceived as a narcissist and worse by mental health professionals.

The "jokes" end up on some of the hash tags included in their posts, in company of assorted Twitter bot reposts here, all working for the same opposition team.

US pol is disgusting.

Don't be Played by these people.

A company video with more info, images from their pilot plant in Australia.

Watch “Licella” on #Vimeo https://vimeo.com/210531589

From : https://www.intelligentliving.co/australian-scientists-recycle-all-types-of-plastic/

* Australian Scientists Might Have Found a Way to Turn the World’s Plastic into Oil *

"A pair of Australian scientists claims to have come up with a circular solution to the world’s plastic waste problem: by developing a technology that effectively melts polymers down into reusable oil. For the past 12 years, Len Humphreys and Sydney University professor Thomas Maschmeyer have been working on the creation of the Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR), which uses a chemical process to recycle plastic by turning it back into the oil from which it originally came. It’s thought that such technology could be used to make all plastics recyclable."

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/gyzavw/australian-scientists-found-a-way-to-recycle-worlds-plastic-into-oil

So Right.

Still Winter, fresh little snow powder overnight.

A Nice read at the NY Times.

"Cambridge Mask Company, a British company that uses what it calls “particulate filtering layers and military-grade carbon,” has seen demand for its $30 masks spike 20 to 30 times normal levels, said Christopher Dobbing, its founder.

The rich are sparing no expense when it comes to minimizing their experience with the coronavirus."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/style/the-rich-are-preparing-for-coronavirus-differently.html