Interesting Links for 11-08-2021

[andrewducker]

Stop anthropomorphising Covid 19!

(tags:disease pandemic psychology )

Twitter says UK is by far the main origin of racist comments after Euro 2020 final

(tags:racism uk football )

From Holy Roman Empress to VHS pioneer - how Tiffany scaled the heights

(tags:names history video )

Work from Home & Productivity: Evidence from Personnel & Analytics Data on IT Professionals

(tags:work pandemic homes )

End of the line for Uber?

(tags:transport taxi fraud epicfail )

Odeon owner AMC to accept payment in Bitcoin

(tags:cinema bitcoin )

Facebook removes Russian anti-vax influencer campaign

(tags:russia vaccination fraud facebook )

Hit songs rely on increasing "harmonic surprise" to hook listeners

(tags:music )

Herd immunity in the UK is not a possibility as falling infections appear to stall

(tags:uk pandemic doom )

Comics Laureate Recommended Reading List

(tags:comics advice )

Comments

Delta Variant Vaccine

[danieldwilliam]

Presumably someone somewhere is working on a vaccine specifically for the Delta variant.

Re: Delta Variant Vaccine

[andrewducker]

I assume so. But we may end up in the same situation as we have with the flu - a new vaccine every year.

Re: Delta Variant Vaccine

[danieldwilliam]

I think I'd probably take that.

Between acquired immunity from catching it (largely assymptomatically), residue immunity from previous vaccinations and a decent annual update with good take up rates that should keep the number of deaths and serious illnesses to an acceptable level

Re: Delta Variant Vaccine

[dewline]

Since several existing vaccines have some partial effect on Delta Variant, they're likely chasing down that angle first for whatever improvements they can get.

Re: Delta Variant Vaccine

[danieldwilliam]

I think that sort of thing was what I thinking of - probably easier and quicker to start with something that mostly works already.

Uber

[danieldwilliam]

About 24 months before Uber actually runs out of other people's cash?

Re: Uber

[andrewducker]

Unless people give them some more!

Re: Uber

[danieldwilliam]

I think that's the nub of my comment. Looks like they could keep running as they currently are for about 2 years. So unless they (1) reduce their losses or (2) find additional capital then they stop in about 2 years.

(1) looks unlikely given that they appear to have a negative gross margin i.e. they lose money on each sale rather than a negative net income i.e. they make money on each sale but the cost of running the whole organisation is too large.

So, the question becomes can they do (2)? And how many times?

Re: Uber

[andrewducker]

That depends very much on the application of Greater Fool Theory.

Re: Uber

[danieldwilliam]

Very much so, and that turns on how investors behave.

I am reminded of the scene in the Big Short where the Big Bank did not wish to discuss the theories of the Hero and how they could market them until after they had sorted out their own long position.

Re: Uber

[andrewducker]

I love that movie so much.

[calimac]

So I listened to that song that they say is so full of harmonic surprises, and I don't believe a word of it.

[dewline]

3. That was fun to watch yesterday.

6. Not sure what I think of AMC taking cryptocurrency payments at all. Since I don't trust cryptocurrency...

7. Good. Keep looking.

9. Yikes?

[andrewducker]

What don't you trust cryptocurrency to do?

[dewline]

To be anything other than the financial weapons of fascists and "libertarians" against the rest of us.

[danieldwilliam]

How do you think they are using it as a weapon?

(I'm not fan of cryptocurrency but mostly because I think it's a solution in search of a problem and / or a con.)

[matgb]

Tax avoidance for a start, followed by the stated belief of a lot of adherants that it's a method to undermine/avoid government, some of the more ardent supporters are really weird about it

Then there's the whole mining farms eating the worlds electricity and silicon chip supply

[andrewducker]

My research would tend to indicate that the current shortage isn't really bitcoin related.

Certainly high end graphics cards are impacted, but generally the processor shortages are caused by more people buying home tech during the pandemic, US blocks in Chinese chip foundries, and Taiwanese droughts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%9321_global_chip_shortage

[danieldwilliam]

The bloody mining of the stuff boils my blood and my planet.

The way it could be at all acceptable would be if one cooled the server farm with water from a municipal swimming pool.

[anna_wing]

Just wearing masks in crowded indoor places like shops, theatres, cinemas and the Tube, cuts transmission of every airborne disease, not just COVID. Fewer people dying unnecessarily of flu every year would also be a good thing. And in cold climates a mask keeps your face warmer (see balaclavas and ski-masks). The exemption for restaurants is probably unavoidable, but it would still reduce risk everywhere else. There's really no sensible reason not to keep doing it, and I say this as someone living in a tropical country where it is hot and humid all year round.

[danieldwilliam]

I have been pondering the long term impact of the pandemic and wondering if things like increased mask wearing, increased hand-washing, increased acceptance of vaccination programmes and some of the technology developed to produce vaccines or do things like track and trace contacts might go on to have a small but significant in the long term benefit.

We've had about 150,000 COVID deaths in the UK and I wonder how much of the COVID habits we'd need to adopt to save more than 150,000 lives from e.g. flu and so on.