Interesting Links for 20-07-2020

[andrewducker]

Shamima Begum may not deserve your sympathy, but she is entitled to legal aid

(tags:law UK )

England's test and trace system failing in areas battling major outbreaks, leaked analysis reveals

(tags:UK England pandemic fail )

Changing Places toilets for disabled people to be compulsory in the UK

(tags:UK disability toilets GoodNews )

How Special Relativity Makes Electromagnets Work (an illuminating video)

(tags:magnets electricity video relativity )

Plastic visors do not protect you. Wear a mask

(tags:pandemic )

Association between consumption of vegetables and COVID-19 mortality at a country level in Europe (interesting, but massive confounders obviously)

(tags:vegetables virus )

Comments

[lilysea]

Changing Places toilets for disabled people to be compulsory in the UK

Hurray! ^_^

Next challenge: to stop restaurants and cafes using Changing Places toilets as storage lockers for chairs; boxes of toilet paper; boxes of cleaning products
as they currently do...

[hilarita]

Can't use them as storerooms if they don't exist!

the food-and-COVID-mortality result is odd

[redbird]

So, on a national/ecological level, consumption of cabbage or cucumber correlates with a lower mortality rate, and consumption of broccoli and lettuce might correlate with a higher mortality rate?

Even aside from the point that this isn't useful as individual dietary advice, that's a weird pattern. The intro talks about fermented foods, which includes cucumber pickles and sauerkraut but rarely broccoli, but it also mentions yogurt as a fermented food, which isn't discussed further.

[nancylebov]

But, but, I thought wearing a mask only protects people other than the wearer!

Seriously, if visors are a problem, it's worth knowing.

[andrewducker]

My understanding is both. Moreso the person being breathed on, but still somewhat the person doing the breathing.

[nancylebov]

That makes sense, but for a long time (seems like forever), the claim was that wearing a mask only protects other people.

[calimac]

My understanding has always been that it's strikingly (though not entirely) protective of others, and is significantly less so at protecting the wearer but still enough better than nothing to be worthwhile for that purpose.

[jducoeur]

The problem is that everyone tries to make this into a binary yes/no thing, and that bears no resemblance to the truth. The studies I've seen cited indicate that wearing a non-medical-grade mask provides something like 20-60% protection (depending on the details) to yourself over not wearing a mask.

So some people take that as "Oh, it's entirely useless", since it isn't perfect protection, and the medical community bend over backwards to make clear that it is not perfect (because people are dumb), but that's still extraordinarily useful. It's just not a panacea...

Begum

[anna_wing]

I find it very strange that the fact that Begum was fifteen when she left the UK and still underage for much of the time that she was with ISIS is not apparently considered relevant. She was a juvenile, presumably being influenced by ISIS propaganda from some source (family, community, on-line, wherever), and once she was there, presumably in fear of her life if she backslid. Even in the camp where she spoke to the journalist, it is surely very doubtful how much of what she was saying in public, in an insecure location, where her safety if she said the wrong thing was not guaranteed, was her genuine opinion and not said out of fear of her fellow camp inmates.

In most common law countries, there is a distinct legal regime for juveniles, and the law also takes account of coercion and undue influence upon vulnerable people, when assessing culpability.

Re: Begum

[andrewducker]

Oh, I totally agree with that too.

I've seen some decent discussion of her having been a minor who was groomed.

It was the basis of this piece, which I shared three days ago
https://newsthump.com/2020/07/16/sympathy-for-victims-of-grooming-stops-if-the-child-is-brown-confirm-racists/

[marahmarie]

With visors, assuming they're open-ended along the bottom, it seems if anything they might be contra-indicated - like yes, they'll keep actual snot from flying into your eyes or onto your face but they'll also create, like, a little micro-climate beneath, won't they, that can hold and trap whatever air's around you, and considering the jury's still out on whether C-19's airborne (though it is leaning strongly in the direction) I think the last thing I'd want is aerosols trapped between my face and the visor.

Happy to hear from anyone that there is no micro-climate under those things, should that be the case, but seems to me...