He suggested the announcement that the roll-out of a vaccine within weeks had persuaded people to break the rules and take risks.
“People maybe think the battle is over because the vaccine is coming…”
Intertemporal substitution remains underrated (Covid in Scotland)
the Times of London story. Of course economics suggests the exact opposite course of action, namely that when a good vaccine is coming you should play it safer in the meantime. Beware!
A Dance Critic On The Dancing In The Streets When The Election Was Called
Gia Kourlas: “Last weekend, the explosion of dance — which overtook social media, making it seem like it was happening everywhere — was a celebration of community. But for those of us in the dance world it emphasized another point: While the pandemic will continue to prevent public performances for what now looks to be another year or so, dance is still alive in the world. … Dancing is not just about moving your body, but reclaiming it — and with that, your faith in the world.” – The New York Times
How A Biden Celebration Ad Borrowed From An Iconic Work By Artist Lorraine O’Grady
“The video shows Americans from various backgrounds and hailing from different parts of the country holding empty golden picture frames to the tune of “America the Beautiful.” The video is a reference to O’Grady’s iconic 1983 performance “Art Is…” in Harlem, New York. In the performance, 15 performers, dressed all in white, carried empty gold picture frames during the annual African American Day Parade, inviting members of the community to pose as the subject of the artwork.” – Hyperallergic
"Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women."
A look at the beef between the owner and employees of NYC's iconic Strand Bookstore. "Why, they wonder, are their fellow employees still out of jobs while the owner gets a government payroll loan and has the money to invest elsewhere?"
How has Uruguay done so well during the pandemic? "Only 3,620 cases and 62 deaths despite sharing borders with Brazil & Argentina, two of the world's top-10 in overall cases."
"The government should pay bars, many restaurants and event venues to close for some months."
ProPublica experiments with ultra-accessible plain language in stories about people with disabilities
The winners of the 2020 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards. Lots of meaty reading here about the pandemic, climate change, and other topics
Cats Are the Best Philosophers Wall Street Journal
Cat Who Lived In A Church For 12 Years Passes Away, The Church Gives Her An Entire Memorial Service Bored Panda
MeowTalk app translates cat’s ‘language’ for pet owners New York Post
Monarch butterflies’ spectacular migration is at risk, and an ambitious new plan aims to save it PhysOrg
A Newly Discovered Tick Germ Is Sickening Dogs in the U.S., Vets Say Gizmodo
Tree rings may hold clues to impacts of distant supernovas on Earth ScienceDaily
Camel-fur-inspired power-free system harnesses insulation and evaporation to keep items coolTechxplore
Neanderthals And Humans Were at War For Over 100,000 Years, Evidence Shows Science Alert
Alibaba, JD.com say U.S. was top seller to China during Singles’ Day event Reuters
The Swiss cheese model of accident causation is a framework for thinking about how to layer security measures to minimize risk and prevent failure. The idea is that when several layers of interventions, despite their weaknesses, are properly stacked up between a hazard and a potentially bad outcome, they are able to cumulatively prevent that outcome because there’s no single point of failure. During the pandemic, health care workers and public health officials have been using the Swiss cheese model to visualize how various measures can work together to help keep people safe.
Virologist Dr. Ian Mackay has visualized the Swiss cheese Covid-19 defense in a wonderful way (pictured above). Each layer of cheese represents a personal or shared intervention — like mask wearing, limiting your time indoors w/ crowds, proper ventilation, quarantine, vaccines — and the holes are imperfections. Applied together, these imperfect measures work like a filter and can vastly improve chances of success.
He even added a “misinformation mouse” chewing through one of the cheese slices to represent how deceptive information can weaken these defenses.
Mackay has released this graphic under a Creative Commons license (free to share and adapt w/ attribution) and is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, and several other languages
