extrapenguin

There's been an increase in covid cases these two weeks in Finland – to be expected, as these past weeks were school break weeks in various parts of the country and seemingly half the population of Finland hopped over to North Italy. (Plus one person who went to Iran?) Our patient 1 was a Wuhanese tourist in Lapland back in January; these are all at the other end of Finland with different strains, so no evidence of community transmission yet. We'll be hit eventually, but probably not until late March/early April or even later. (I, personally, will be fine, as I'm under 30 and in zero risk groups ever. My relatives over the age of 40 all live in the middle of forests with the capability to self-isolate for probably months. Worst case scenario is an elder care worker coming to work while infected and infecting grandma, but I hope they've been given extra precautions to do.)

I've also spent way too much time on Twitter, seeing what's going on; have some highlights from my misspent time:
Maths on why we need to slow the spread of the disease
Putting slack in the healthcare system
Evidence for social distancing
Social aftereffects
What science knows about the virus
Measures of covid R0 in preprint vs published articles
The chemistry of why soap works (better than disinfectant)
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nextstrain has links to situation reports and a view of how the virus has genetically evolved. It's cool! /science nerd

In fandom news, I wrote the last unwritten scene for For No Crade Lasts Forever! Tomorrow comes the last chapter proper, and the epilogue either on the weekend or early next week, depending on how I feel – I'm coming down with a cold, probably. My next longform project, Every Door a Death, is 3.2k long, and powered by the background music of 白月光 (White Moonlight) (translation).

I've also started a new cnovel, Golden Stage. It basically confirms that pining and slow burn are my anti-tropes; I'm much more into established relationship power couples, and this one delivers. (We do see the get-together, too, but it's a burn that smolders at a more tolerable rate than the usual glacially paced slow burns.) 79 chapters, 40 of which are translated so far. The romance is sweet and all misunderstanding tropes are solved with communication. The relationship hits a lot of the same notes as Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan for me, tbh. (Sha Po Lang, too, though that's more on the plot side.)