Eloisa Lopez, a staff photographer with Reuters, recently spent time with researchers who call themselves the “virus hunters,” as they caught and studied bats in the Philippines. They set up wide nets near roosts, then carefully untangle any trapped bats and measure and swab them, before returning them to the wild.

Two months into the pandemic, I gave in and tried Zoom dating. After a few days of chatting on OKCupid, I found myself across the screen from a perfectly nice match. It was one hour in hell: Trapped in a two-way-hostage video, I was hyperaware of everything that was missing—the smell of her perfume, how she moved through space, seeing the way she ordered a drink.If I was going to date, it had to be in person.

A few months after losing the White House, Republicans across the country have had a revelation: The Electoral College could use some improvements. The problem is that they have contradictory proposals for how to fix it—and contradictory arguments for why those proposals would help Americans pick their president. In Wisconsin, Michigan, and New Hampshire, GOP lawmakers want to award Electoral College votes by congressional district, just like Nebraska and Maine currently do.

Editor’s Note: Every Tuesday, Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer take questions from readers about their kids’ education. Have one? Email them at homeroom@theatlantic.com.Dear Abby and Brian,I don’t know if it has to do with remote learning or if this would have come up anyway, but my sixth grader, whom I’ll call “Tom,” immediately seems to forget everything he studies. He remembers non-school-related information fine.

Today, Israel will hold its fourth election in two years. This is a sign not of democracy on steroids, but instead of acute dysfunction, a semipermanent paralysis brought about, strangely, by the extreme stability of Israeli voting patterns: Neither the incumbent, Benjamin Netanyahu, nor his various opponents have been able to change enough minds to build a durable parliamentary majority.