Interesting Links for 04-08-2021

Carbon neutral cement - by extracting lime from seawater

(tags:co2 cement materials )

Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution

(tags:fire prehistory society )

Apple holds out in adopting next-generation RCS texting standard

(tags:apple communication Technology )

Why X-rated masterpiece The Devils is still being censored

(tags:censorship movies UK USA history )

The UK's safety checks will not be recognised by the EU from 2022 (or vice versa). Manufacturers are not ready.

(tags:safety uk europe regulation doom )

Neil Gaiman catapulted into Chinese bestsellers charts after recommendation by wuxia star

(tags:publishing China neilgaiman )

The delightful friendship of the two men who shared gold for the Olympic high jump

Google will kill off very old versions of Android next month

(tags:Android obsolescence security )

Taika Waititi's Flash Gordon Film Is Apparently Live-Action Now

(tags:movies scifi )

We're More Willing To Engage With Sexists If We Think They Are Intelligent

(tags:sexism Intelligence )

Fast, Efficient Neural Networks Copy Dragonfly Brains

(tags:insects ai )

DOJ repatriates looted "Dream of Gilgamesh" tablet, other artifacts to Iraq

(tags:iraq archeology usa )

The most important graph for showing where we are now with the pandemic in Scotland.

Obviously, the three lines aren't on the same scale - but they are scaled so that their peaks match for the second (Christmas) peak. Which allows you to compare peaks.

The important things to note are
1) In the peak last April a much lower level of cases nearly overwhelmed the NHS by translating into a high level of hospitalisations.
2) The ratio was vastly improved at Christmas. This will be a combination of better testing and better treatment.
3) The ratio improves dramatically again in the current peak, because we've now got 3/4 of the country vaccinated in some form. Which knocks hospitalisations down, and deaths even further. Which is amazing all round.

It's also important to remember that the metric the government cares about is hospitalisation. Fundamentally "Is the NHS going to be overwhelmed". And now that we're vaccinated that's dramatically less likely to happen. And so it's very unlikely that restrictions will be reimposed.

The next test will be around spread from large gatherings (festivals, sporting events) and from schools going back (August 13th). Let's hope schools reopening doesn't send things sky high again!

Graph, as usual, from here.