Couple Hosts "Pants Optional" Wedding On Zoom Amid Lockdown
Tests in recovered patients found false positives, not reinfections, experts say
The findings of this study suggest that most transmission of COVID-19 occurred at the very early stage of the disease or even before the onset of symptoms. [...] High transmissibility of COVID-19 before and immediately after symptom onset suggests that finding and isolating symptomatic patients alone may not suffice to interrupt transmission, and that more generalized measures might be required, such as social distancing. [JAMA Intern Med.]
My problem with contact tracing apps is that they have absolutely no value. I'm not even talking about the privacy concerns, I mean the efficacy. Does anybody think this will do something useful? ... This is just something governments want to do for the hell of it. To me, it's just techies doing techie things because they don't know what else to do. It has nothing to do with privacy concerns. The idea that contact tracing can be done with an app, and not human health professionals, is just plain dumb.
COVID-19 Futures, Explained With Playable Simulations
How the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Warping Our Sense of Time
France's sports ministry said Thursday that joggers and cyclists will have to stay at least 10 metres (33 feet) from one another once stay-at-home orders are lifted on May 11. [France 24]
The coronavirus has killed so many people in Iran that the country has resorted to mass burials, but in neighboring Iraq, the body count is fewer than 100. The Dominican Republic has reported nearly 7,600 cases of the virus. Just across the border, Haiti has recorded about 85. In Indonesia, thousands are believed to have died of the coronavirus. In nearby Malaysia, a strict lockdown has kept fatalities to about 100. The coronavirus has touched almost every country on earth, but its impact has seemed capricious. Global metropolises like New York, Paris and London have been devastated, while teeming cities like Bangkok, Baghdad, New Delhi and Lagos have, so far, largely been spared. The question of why the virus has overwhelmed some places and left others relatively untouched is a puzzle that has spawned numerous theories and speculations but no definitive answers. [...] Interviews with more than two dozen infectious disease experts, health officials, epidemiologists and academics around the globe suggest four main factors that could help explain where the virus thrives and where it doesn’t: demographics, culture, environment and the speed of government responses. [NY Times]
Chinese Scientists Uncover Structural Basis for SARS-CoV-2 Inhibition by Remdesivir
Rich Americans Seize Historic Chance to Pass On Wealth Tax-Free
Upcoming films from Cannes, Sundance & more on YouTube for Free -- The virtual festival will kick off on May 29 and run until June 7. It will feature programming by festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Toronto International, Berlin International, Tribeca, and Venice. [We Are One: A Global Film Festival]
Collectively, the global fashion industry produces nearly 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, or 8.1% of the world total [...] The process of making one cotton t-shirt emits about 5 kilograms of carbon dioxide — around the amount produced during a 12-mile car drive. It also uses 1,750 liters of water. That's because cotton is a water-guzzling crop. [...] Over half of fast fashion items are thrown away in under a year. [CNN]
For nearly two hundred years, U.S. copyright law has assumed that owners may voluntarily abandon their rights in a work. But scholars have largely ignored copyright abandonment, and the case law is fragmented and inconsistent. As a result, abandonment remains poorly theorized, owners can avail themselves of no reliable mechanism to abandon their works, and the practice remains rare. [LawArXiv]
An examination of nearly 350 published psychological experiments found that nearly half failed to show that they were based on a valid foundation of empirical evidence, suggesting that a wide swath of psychological science is based on an “untested foundation.”
Dehydration predicts longitudinal decline in cognitive functioning and well-being among older adults
AI Poet Mastered Rhythm, Rhyme, and Natural Language to Write Like Shakespeare
In modern manufacturing, it is a widely accepted limitation that the parts patterned by a 3D printer must be smaller than the machine that produced them. We developed a foaming prepolymer resin which can be expanded after printing to produce parts up to 40× larger than their original volume.
Welcome to the largest product placement database on the internet
Smallest restaurant in the world set to open in Sweden From May 10th until August 1st, Bord för En (Table for One) will open its ‘doors’ to a single diner each day. Located approximately 215 miles (or 350 kilometres) from Stockholm, in the region of Värmland, the ‘restaurant’ is just one table set in the middle of a picturesque country meadow.