Link of the day: What Europe Cannot Learn from South Korea (German)
South Korea’s track record in fighting the corona pandemic is impressive. Countless newspaper articles praise them as a model for the rest of the world to follow. The article argues that much of what South Korea’s response to the crisis so effective simply cannot be replicated in the West: The South Korean state acts as a nanny to its citizens in a way that Western societies would never … more
Link of the day: With ventilators running out, doctors say the machines are overused for Covid-19
There is some evidence suggesting that too many patients are put on ventilators earlier than would be optimal for them. Ventilation means that the patient has to be sedated the entire time and the pressure applied by the ventilator machine can cause long term damage to the lung. Alternatives include various forms of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) like giving the patient a constant high flow … more
I have a fascination for maps. And I will try to make more posts about maps and geoopolitics in the future. For now a little teaser:
Link of the day: What it’s like to date a horse
This is an interview with a man who talks unusually open about his love affair with a horse. It’s not a light read, if you are not up for that. But I found it a very interesting one. The relationship he has with the horse is characterized as quite a lot more tender and respectful than what people think of when they hear the terms ‘zoophilia’ or ‘bestiality’. This … more
Link of the day: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks To China, India
In contrast to the perception of China and India’s willingness to overexploit land, water and resources for economic gain, the countries are responsible for the largest greening of the planet in the past two decades. The two most populous countries have implemented ambitious tree planting programs and scaled up their implementation and technology around agriculture.
Interesting. This is surprising to me. … more
I had wondered why many groceries and things like toilet paper were sold out. Intuitively, it didn’t make much sense. Yes, you might have a week were people stock up and buy excessive amounts. Yes, people will go to the supermarket less often and therefore buy more at once. But most people around me didn’t buy two months worth of supplies. Most assume that supply chains will remain mostly stable over the course of the next weeks and month. And … more
Bill Gates will build seven factories to mass-produce promising vaccines for the coronavirus. Knowing that probably at most two of the seven substances currently tested will prove effective he will probably be losing billions of Dollars of his own money. This is very very good news. If any of these substances prove effective, we will already have facilities to produce at scale. Compared to a world where we only start building factories once we know which vaccine will be effective, … more
Link of the day: Pandemic forces polio eradication group to halt campaigns
“We are caught between two terrible situations,” says GPEI head Michel Zaffran of the World Health Organization (WHO). Going door to door delivering drops of oral polio vaccine (OPV) would put both communities and health workers at risk of infection with the novel coronavirus.
Ouch. This is bad.
Link of the day: Why prediction markets are bad at predicting who’ll be president
Some odds offered on prediction markets are really weird. Currently, shares for Hillary Clinton being nominated as presidential candidate are trading at 8-9cts on predictit. Who in their right mind would give her a 8-9% chance?!? Please tell me if I a am completely misunderstanding the way that predictit works… The article gives a light overview of the topic.
Link of the day: Scott Aaronson’s “On Armchair Epidemiology”
… moreA viral article implores us to “flatten the curve of armchair epidemiology”—that is, to listen only to authoritive sources like the CDC, not random people spouting on social media. This was notable to me for being the diametric opposite of the actual lesson of the past two months. It would be like taking the lesson from the 2008 financial crisis that from now on, you would only trust serious rating agencies,
