Interesting Links for 22-07-2021

[andrewducker]

Anansi Boys TV show under way

(tags:TV neilgaiman )

Here's a lovely story.

(tags:LGBT love lesbians relationships )

Boycotts are terrorism now, apparently

(tags:IceCream Israel terrorism )

Tolkien, Lewis, and Gygax play Dungeons and Dragons together

(tags:Tolkien CSLewis dungeonsanddragons funny )

24 photos showing the massive changes to Edinburgh's St James district down the decades

(tags:edinburgh construction history )

Catholic priest quits after "anonymized" data revealed alleged use of Grindr (a great example of why "anonymous" data isn't!)

(tags:data location lgbt religion OhForFucksSake )

No Covid is not the most infectious respiratory disease

(tags:pandemic virus infection )

Why hasn't "herd immunity" stopped Covid in the UK? (Detailed and fascinating)

(tags:infection pandemic uk )

Me on an obstacle course

(tags:dogs funny video viaSwampers )

People In Positions Of Power Are More Likely To Blame And Punish Others For Poor Performance

(tags:psychology power work )

Comments

[calimac]

3) And boycotting the settlements in the occupied territories isn't even the same thing as boycotting Israel. The denunciation of this is over the top.

4) Or, why I have no interest in D&D.

[redbird]

I looked at the link for "Covid is not the most infectious respiratory disease" and immediately thought of measles, where "a patient was in this room an hour ago" is a recognized risk of transmission. I hadn't realized chicken pox could be that infectious, though.

But lots of people think of measles as a solved problem (which it would be if not for anti-vaxers) and of chicken pox and sometimes measles as no big deal.

[andrewducker]

Very glad you have had both of them vaccinated for measles and chicken pox!

[davidcook]

I caught chicken-pox a few years ago (aged 48!), as I'd apparently missed the childhood vaccination for it (maybe it came along after I was a child?).
It was certainly a big enough deal - I was wiped out for two weeks, and took a while to get back to normal after that.

[redbird]

It's definitely a bigger deal if you catch it as an adult.

About a dozen years ago, I went to the NYC Health Department for a hepatitis B vaccine. Their policy was, as long as you were there, to offer catch-up vaccines. In my case they asked if I'd had the MMR, and then said that since I'd been born in the US before 1980, they would assume I'd either had chicken pox or was immune without having gotten sick. There are exceptions, but I suspect that if I'd said "can I please have that one anyway" she'd have happily given it to me.

[mellowtigger]

I'm one of those unusual people who got chickenpox on only half of my body. (I don't remember the illness or which side of my body was affected. I know only because my mother told me about it.) I made sure to get the new shingles vaccine when I was finally old enough to be eligible at age 50. I knew that getting chickenpox on the other half of my body late in life could be dangerous.

[nancylebov]

In re herd immunity: I think we need tests that distinguish between has some antibodies, has enough antibodies to almost certainly not get infected, and has enough antibodies to almost certainly not get very sick.

[aldabra]

Anything that challenges state power is terrorism.

[anna_wing]

The research demonstrates an irritating lack of understanding about how large organisations work. No-one has a time to "crowd-source" a decision like that. Large organisations are not democracies. There should be an SOP and even if there isn't it's the business of the immediate supervisor, HR or whoever decides bonuses, and no-one else. No wonder people got tetchy and unsympathetic if their time was being wasted with that kind of nonsense.

[trailer_spot]

The herd immunity article helpfully provides a timely overview of the various, hard to quantify factors that interact with each other when it comes to herd immunity. But as I mentioned before, I'm still somewhat puzzled by how the recent sharp rise of infections in the UK (as well as places like Spain and the Netherlands) happened. I thought the vaccination progress plus immunity acquired from prior infection would slow such a rise. But maybe a large event as the football Euros really worked as a catalyst.

[melchar]

The D&D played by Tolkien, Lewis & Gygax made me giggle entirely TOO much. Loved it!