Interesting Links for 27-04-2022

[andrewducker]

1. Edinburgh strip club dancer speaks about what it's really like to work as an exotic dancer

(tags:sexwork edinburgh )

2. Brexit has devastated UK exports to smaller EU countries, study says

(tags:UK Europe trade Doom )

3. Moviedle is a Wordle-like that condenses a movie down to a single second

(tags:games movies timelapse )

4. People naturally gravitate to the food which provides the vitamins and minerals they need

(tags:food psychology vitamins health )

5. Brexit has caused UK food prices to rise 6%

(tags:economics trade UK Europe )

6. 75% of US children have now had COVID, up from 44% due to omicron

(tags:Pandemic children USA )

7. Multiple sclerosis 'breakthrough' as scientists 'reverse symptoms' with cells transplant

(tags:ms immune_system disease )

8. Would you like to see a comparison of objects in the solar system spinning?

(tags:space solarsystem video planets )

9. No, you can't save £30 per year by switching off your "standby" devices

(tags:electricity fraud )

10. This is the sequel The Batman deserves!

(tags:batman )

11. Film productions in Edinburgh, including Good Omens and Outlander, generated £13.9 million for local economy

(tags:TV movies economy Edinburgh Scotland )

12. Turns out most dads like being involved with their young kids

(tags:children fatherhood parenting )

13. Background music can make us less cautious

(tags:music psychology )

Comments

[armiphlage]

I have several power monitors that are useful for measuring actual standby and operating power consumption. A few of my older devices did have high standby costs (a phone charger used $70 a year!), but everything else is reasonable.

Rule of thumb I use (with average $0.13 per kWh cost): if a device isn't warm, it's not using enough power to worry about the cost.

[mtbc]

Good tip about the warmth, thank you.

[azdak]

#12 is a revolting piece of emotional manipulation from Aptamil Follow-On Milk. It makes it sound as if young dad can only bond with their babies if they bottle-feed them. When an article is this biased the newspaper should state right at the beginning who funded the research (and ideally it would have mentioned how Aptamil benefited from drawing these particular conclusions).

[andrewducker]

Sorry, should have made that clearer in the description. The "and the best way to do that is with formula!" stuff is all clearly nonsense. But I did find it made a big difference when Jane pumped and I could feed the kids than when I was entirely extraneous to requirements except as a pillow.

[azdak]

I absolutely agree, my husband felt the same way, but in the context of trying to sell formula it seems deeply disingenuous.

[redbird]

That study of MS linked at 7 is definitely preliminary: 24 patients, no control group, and not yet peer reviewed. A lot of things can look good as treatments of MS, because ups and downs are part of how MS behaves even in people who aren't being treated with anything. I really hope they're onto something useful, and the EBV connection puts them well ahead of umpteen "we have a substance that cures 17 different things including MS," but they're some way from a point where I should be asking my doctor about it.

[movingfinger]

I'm wondering how they can handle a control group in a larger study. Are they going to limit it to patients using a particular set of therapies, to exclude the possibility that whatever they are currently using is having an effect? Are they going to restrict it to patients not using any therapies? Early-stage, non-medicated patients, which given how hard it can be to get MS diagnosed is going to be hard to find? The number of participants being 80 is mentioned and that is still a very small study!

[redbird]

When I was first diagnosed, my doctor asked me to volunteer to be in a study of a new medication, because they were specifically looking for people who hadn't been on any of the existing medications. But that was two decades ago, and there were only three approved medications, quite similar to each other. I said yes, because it was also the case that none of those three was really wonderful -- they were more, this helps about 2/3 of the patients to take it, but there's no way to know, before, during, or after, which 2/3.

I think a good study design in this case would be to recruit patients who are already taking a specific therapy, and add either this new treatment or a placebo to the patients' current regimen.. I'm nothing like an expert here, but that would fit with the ethical requirement that the treatment being tested is no worse than the existing standard of care.)

[hellofriendsiminthedark]

6 is rather horrifying, especially given the prevalence of long covid. And pediatric hospitalizations peaked four times as high during omnicron than during delta?? It's heartbreaking how preventable that could have been.

13 is very misleadingly titled. The study had nothing to do with cautiousness, only decision-making within specific domains. The article even admits in the last two paragraphs that it's not possible to directly extrapolate any implications for driving-related decisions and that the possibility of an effect on cautiousness is "worth exploring further."

[mellowtigger]

4 is unsurprising. I thought we could already assume that conclusion simply from pregnancy cravings? I've always known to indulge my unreasoned urges to eat specific foods (now, now, eat that weird thing NOW!) or even crush spearmint and inhale it as a child to relieve my awful allergy sinus pressures.

6. *SIGH!* We know that SARS-CoV-2 damages the immune system. Similarly to the last epidemic. And now mystery opportunistic disease is emerging in a particularly vulnerable (age 1-6, unvaccinated) demographic. It's not so silly now, watching China build its new barbed wire border, is it?

[darkoshi]

#8 surprised me with how fast the gas giant planets spin. I'd thought they would spin much slower due to their large size.

[andrewducker]

I really liked this explanation of why
https://twitter.com/physicsJ/status/1519027315618897920?t=J3skWWp8MgfA8HXD1UEknA&s=19