andrewducker | Interesting Links for 16-08-2023

From:

anef

Doom!

From:

andrewducker

Definite doom!

Speaking of which, did you get my reply to your email about your visit?

From:

anef

The one suggesting lunch? Yes, that would be lovely - I 'm sorry, I should have replied but we haven't sorted out our timetable yet. Do you have any preferred dates?

From:

andrewducker

Monday, Wednesday, or Friday all work for me.

From:

anef

I will talk to M, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

From:

andrewducker

Monday or Friday are the best. Jane can't do Wednesday.

From:

redbird

The headline say that Edinburgh is a new Covid hotspot, and then the second paragraph says that the entire rest of Scotland falls under "insufficient data." Given that current government policy is not to share any data they are even bothering to collect, "insufficient data" could mean anything from healthy people not calling the doctor, to a serious outbreak and a lot of people being hospitalized.

On the less worrying side, the mention of "hundreds of thousands" of tourists makes me wonder about the denominator in that "cases per million people" figure. 35,000 case/550,000 people is a much higher rate than 35,000/800,000.

Yes, go back to masking indoors if you ever stopped, even if you're not at the Fringe, or in the Edinburgh area. But how much of this the virus spreading faster at the Fringe, because people are mixing with more strangers, in more crowded conditions? Are people more likely to call a doctor if traveling, who would stay home, eat chicken soup, and take the painkillers they already have if they're at home?

From:

andrewducker

The data doesn't come from the government. Zoe is a voluntary-use private app.

The Scottish government is still counting hospital admissions, and you can see the figures here:
https://scotland.shinyapps.io/phs-respiratory-covid-19/

From:

danieldwilliam

Item 4 is interesting. I saw the headline and thought to myself - I wonder if they've controlled for the income effect of higher altitudes being more rural and therefore poorer - and they have. I wonder if any studies have been done on the Alps.

From:

andrewducker

That would be fascinating to see!

From:

danieldwilliam

You would get an interesting spread of data from France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria which might allow some interesting and useful conclusions to be drawn.

From:

channelpenguin

Yeah I wondered the same... and noticed the same.

From:

channelpenguin

We have just had a property tax reassessment here in Germany - not done since 1989.

I do worry about the "nice old lady who bought cheap years ago" problem, because I am not quite old, nor was it quite so cheap, but an area becoming more desirable and / or rising house prices are NOT UNDER MY CONTROL and NOT PREDICTABLE BY ME. So, it seems insanely unfair that any of us could be "priced out" of our home through no fault of our own, or of our own planning, at a time of life with very little room (or energy) to increase income. A bit like the raosing of retirement ages for people already in their 50s and 60s - you simply can't meanihfully adjust investment strategies that late in the day (if you even have enough income for such a luxury).

I am NOT a Tory or anything, Gods forbid - but there is a point that "normal" "higher" income people have already paid higher taxes throughout their working life. I mean people like me, decent earned income but not in the bracket to pay pros to pull clever dodges. I dont like asset taxes, land or property. Service taxes, yeah, progressive income taxes HELL YEAH, even if that means me (which I woudl bloody well hope it does) - but the REAL big "earners" ALWAYS have too much opportunity be "tax-efficient" and wriggle out.

sigh. I dunno what the solution is. I just know I dont like an ever-increasing cost of ownership on stuff I bought decades ago - and I am very much not alone there.

Bugger, if I outlive the cat I will go love on a boat - guaranteed to depreciate mightily!!! :-)

From:

andrewducker

I think there's an argument for letting the extra accumulate until the property is sold/inherited.

From:

channelpenguin

I think lots of people would also hate that. :-) Having no kids, I would not care :-)

But I think that I fundamentally (emotionally, see later) object to tax on normal-level personal assets and would instead favour vastly increased taxes on income. I appreciate the huge problem that the rich will always abuse any such system.

The emotional basis of this is ---- that I feel it ought to be possible stop bloody worrying about money at some point and just live, from what you already earned. Especially if this is more than the average for decades. It should be possible. That I have already paid way more taxes than normal should count for something. Dont say investment plans / pensions - they are also a) effort and work over many years and often cant be adjusted easily on the fly when rules change and b) NOT predictable - and ones lifespan certainly is not. if I live to 100 (like members of my family have already done) then that is literally unplannable for, and impossible to make enough "investment", regardless of what in.

sorry for brain dump. you can tell it bugs me.

From:

agoodwinsmith

I can't read all of #2 because paywall, but it did remind me of some factoids I discovered while researching a job interview presentation back in 2007 (oh, longer ago than I thought - well, anyway). Canada relies heavily on immigration for population replacement (never mind growth), and it turns out that is doesn't matter which ethnic/racial/national group has immigrated to Canada: the first families are big crowds, and then by the second and third generation, the families are ones and twos. Our The-Good-Life lifestyle of a nice house and cars all round and good schools and enrichment activities for kids and adequate retirement funds is not sufficiently supported by the wages of many of our professions. Regardless of ethnic/racial/national starting point.

From:

anna_wing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility

From:

agoodwinsmith

Thank you.

From:

anna_wing

Instead of intrusive and expensive examination of individual teenagers' brains, perhaps it would be more cost-effective to make it harder for teenagers in general to acquire the habit in the first place. The New Zealand generational smoking ban is an interesting experiment, it will be very instructive to see how it turns out.

From:

andrewducker

New Zealand will be very interesting. I hope it's effective.

From:

anna_wing

It would be interesting to look at high-altitude populations in other places to see if this particular correlation holds generally (and if so, why. Oxygen issues? Poverty stress?). The Alps, yes, but also the Altiplano, Tibet, the Himalayan countries, the Urals...

From:

andrewducker

Agreed. Tiny bit of discussion here: https://andrewducker.dreamwidth.org/4330241.html?thread=30365953#cmt30365953

From:

bens_dad

Wikipedia's list of cities by elevation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_elevation
was full of surprises for me (but you will have to click to view the list sorted by altitude).

Would South Africa have good records for a similar study ?

Mexico (Mexico City, Tuloca and Guadalajara each over (or almost) 1.5 million and 1500m) has a high high population:-) too.

But mostly I just had not realized how many African cities are high up.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Very cool, if true

Interesting Links for 16-08-2023

Interesting Links for 16-08-2023

Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

Re: Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

Re: Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

Re: Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

Re: Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

Re: Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

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#5

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Babies and immigration

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