As discussed previously, this is my weekly Twitter roundup. Note that tweets of articles generally include header images from the articles, which are not included here unless they happen to be available under a free license. Most are not. But I now add most of my commentary here, where I’m not restricted by the message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

I also don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:05 – Mon 11 May 2020

The FDA Is Now Admitting It Let Fake Coronavirus Antibody Tests Into the U.S. from VICE

…the FDA made a “trade-off” to allow unverified tests on the market, according to a Monday statement from the agency.

Related: Trump Fires Inspector General Ahead of Damning Whistleblower Complaint About Bogus Coronavirus Cures from The Intercept

12:01 – Mon 11 May 2020

Refusing to rule her people, she did what was better, she served them, and in no way so grandly as by her example.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop

9:02 – Tue 12 May 2020

Ohio Government Invites Employers to Secretly Report “Work Refusal” Due to Coronavirus from The Intercept

…the state did not take the time to define what a ‘good cause’ exemption includes or does not include, it did have time to develop an online form where employers could report employees.

12:05 – Tue 12 May 2020

Would that I were possessed of the necessary ability to do justice to the merits of those men, to whom is due the civilization of so many thousands of souls, and of numberless others that will succeed them.

William Heath Davis

9:03 – Wed 13 May 2020

This new program gives funds to California restaurants if they serve free meals and commit to fair wages from Fast Company

The crisis provides a chance to rethink typical operations and how workers are usually treated.

12:03 – Wed 13 May 2020

So many were seen, were seen

An inky sky above casts shadows

Cloaking mountain summits in darkness

Shrouding mountain headlands

Moving before my eyes

Ioane Kaneiakama Papa ʻĪʻī

9:01 – Thu 14 May 2020

On the Same Day Sen. Richard Burr Dumped Stock, So Did His Brother-in-Law. Then the Market Crashed. from ProPublica

In a Feb. 7 op-ed that he co-authored with another senator, he said “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.”

Turns out, the gentleman from North Carolina (Burr) was busy on Thursday, both stepping down from the Senate intelligence committee (Richard Burr to step down as Intelligence Committee chairman from CNN) and getting served an FBI warrant (FBI serves warrant on senator in investigation of stock sales linked to coronavirus from the Los Angeles Times). It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!

12:04 – Thu 14 May 2020

Knowledge has been a passion with me during my whole life, one which has not lost its charm to the present day.

Liliʻuokalani

9:04 – Fri 15 May 2020

Gorillas have surprisingly active social lives from Futurity

While members of different groups were observed engaging in direct competition, gorillas from different groups also engaged in friendly interactions such as play.

12:02 – Fri 15 May 2020

…we pray that man’s greed for power and spoils shall not be allowed to disturb the otherwise happy life of these islands, and that the revolutionary agitations and disturbances inaugurated here since 1887, by a few foreigners may be forever suppressed.

Emma ʻAʻima Aʻii Nāwahī

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, here’s a sixth article that didn’t fit into the week, but too weird to not mention.

The African slave who taught America how to vaccinate itself from smallpox from Quartz Africa

Enquiring of my Negro man, Onesimus, who is a pretty intelligent fellow, whether he had ever had the smallpox, he answered, both yes and no; and then told me that he had undergone an operation, which had given him something of the smallpox and would forever preserve him from it; adding that it was often used among the Guramantese and whoever had the courage to use it was forever free of the fear of contagion.

I figured this was especially interesting as it dawns on everybody that It Was Clear COVID-19 Would Hit Black People Hard. Yet Experts Stayed Silent (via VICE).

Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.