What happens when flu season and Covid-19 collide?

PLUS: bungled college reopenings, the Microsoft Surface Book 3 review, and bad news about blue jeans. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions 09.02.20   IDEAS The Flagrant Hypocrisy of Bungled College Reopenings BY C. BRANDON OGBUNU Higher education has ignored its main mission: to teach critical thinking. It's time to take the adults back to school.   PRODUCT REVIEW The Surface Book 3 Is Expensive—and Heavy on Compromises BY SCOTT GILBERTSON Microsoft's refreshed 2-in-1 has more power than ever before—but for the price, you're getting neither the best tablet nor the best laptop.   MICROFIBERS Your Beloved Blue Jeans Are Polluting the Ocean—Big Time BY MATT SIMON When you wash denim, tiny fibers shed and flow into the environment. Scientists just found that Arctic waters are now loaded with little bits of jeans.   AUTUMN IS COMING Flu Season and Covid-19 Are About to Collide. Now What? BY MARYN MCKENNA Hospitals in the US are already stressed. Now, they must brace for a wave of flu patients needing more beds, lab tests, and ventilators.   PANDEMIC PARANOIA How to Deal With the Anxiety of Uncertainty BY STÉPHANIE THOMSON Our brains aren't wired to deal with the "psychological pandemic" of not knowing what the future holds. Here's how to cope with life in limbo.   VIRTUAL REALITY Covid Snuffed Out Burning Man—but the Festival Goes On in VR BY PETER RUBIN No one in meatspace is going to the Black Rock Desert this year. So I soared into the sprawling digital reconstruction that is BRCvr.   HEADS UP The FBI Botched Its DNC Hack Warning in 2016—but Says It Won't Next Time BY ANDY GREENBERG Facing looming election threats and a ransomware epidemic, the bureau says it has revamped its process for warning hacking victims.   AUDIOMATIC Google Wants to Remix News Radio Just for You BY BOONE ASHWORTH The company's latest news product is an ever-replenishing playlist of audio stories—curated, in part, by the wealth of data it has on you.   IDEAS No, Public Trust in Scientific Institutions Has Not Eroded BY DANIEL ENGBER But given what we've seen during the pandemic, maybe it should.     This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or Manage your newsletter subscriptions