New Zealand isn’t just flattening the curve. It’s squashing it. It took only 10 days for signs that the approach here — “elimination” rather than the “containment” goal of the United States and other Western countries — is working. [...] The health minister was caught mountain biking and taking his family to the beach. He was publicly chastised by Ardern, who said she would have fired him if it weren’t disruptive to the crisis response. [...] “Other countries have had a gradual ramp-up, but our approach is exactly the opposite,” he said. While other Western countries have tried to slow the disease and “flatten the curve,” New Zealand has tried to stamp it out entirely. [Washington Post | The Conversation Carl T. Bergstrom: letting the epidemic go through to herd immunity is worse than it sounds and Some nations may… Read More...

Nudists warned by police to cover up their mouths for coronavirus Coronavirus could attack immune system like HIV by targeting protective cells, warn scientists The virus seems to have binary properties: not very contageous under most circumstances, but highly contagious in others. Three novel alphacoronaviruses and three novel betacoronaviruses were detected for the first time in bats in Myanmar. Ongoing land use change remains a prominent driver of zoonotic disease emergence in Myanmar, bringing humans into ever closer contact with wildlife, and justifying continued surveillance and vigilance at broad scales. What is required to prevent a second major outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 upon lifting the quarantine of Wuhan city, China [PDF | Cell.com] Study suggests extending school and workplace closures in Wuhan until April, rather than March, would likely delay a second wave of cases until later in the year, relieving… Read More...

The Best Hopes for a Coronavirus Drug Researchers modelling the spread of the coronavirus emphasise the importance of avoiding busy indoor spaces Why Does the Trump Administration Keep Seizing Hospitals’ Coronavirus Supplies? Faced with Covid-19, Germany resisted better than the other major European countries. If the number of contaminations is very high, mortality is much lower than in Italy, Spain, or France. Is there a German model in the fight against coronavirus? [France Culture | Google Translate] Italy working on coronavirus tracing app to help lockdown exit Sweden has no mandatory quarantines and few limitations on free movement. Elementary schools remain open; malls, gyms and shopping streets are far from empty. [...] even as provisional intensive care units –– and makeshift morgues –– have been set up in the Swedish capital, and the government is considering stricter measures, some sidewalk… Read More...

Panama is quarantining women and men on different days during its coronavirus lockdown Around the world, seismologists are observing a lot less ambient seismic noise -- meaning, the vibrations generated by cars, trains, buses and people going about their daily lives. And in the absence of that noise, Earth's upper crust is moving just a little less. [CNN] What NASA is doing to keep COVID-19 off the space station Several dogs and cats have tested positive to COVID-19 virus following close contact with infected humans. Studies are underway to better understand the susceptibility of different animal species to the COVID-19 virus and to assess infection dynamics in susceptible animal species. Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that animals infected by humans are playing a role in the spread of COVID-19. Human outbreaks are driven by person to person contact.… Read More...

Most experts agree that wearing a face mask can stop some virus-laden watery droplets that are thought to be a main coronavirus vector and are expelled into the air when a person coughs, sneezes, just breathes out [Financial Times] or talks [CNN] The importance of viral dose is being overlooked in discussions of the coronavirus. As with any other poison, viruses are usually more dangerous in larger amounts. Small initial exposures tend to lead to mild or asymptomatic infections, while larger doses can be lethal. From a policy perspective, we need to consider that not all exposures to the coronavirus may be the same. Stepping into an office building that once had someone with the coronavirus in it is not as dangerous as sitting next to that infected person for an hourlong train commute. Both small and large amounts of… Read More...

Chinese criminal gangs are spreading swine fever using drones to force farmers to sell pigs cheaply so they can profit A scientific meeting on coronaviruses was cancelled due to coronavirus Frustration grows in China as face masks compromise facial recognition [Thanks Tim] Live Facial Recognition Is Coming to U.S. Police Body Cameras Company is applying artificial intelligence to government-owned surveillance and traffic cameras across the entire state of Utah to tell police about "anomalies." In addition to more than 2,200 law enforcement agencies, Clearview’s software had been sold to companies in 27 countries, including major U.S. retailers such as Macy’s, Walmart, and Best Buy. This dissertation examines how first impressions influence decision-making, why people persistently rely on first impressions, and how the influence of first impressions can be reduced. Tilting the face upward increased dominance and decreased physical attractiveness All… Read More...

Snoop Dogg employs a full-time blunt roller Insufficient sleep lowers lifespan, but it means you spend more hours awake per day... could outweigh dying sooner? OH (a former CTO of Autodesk): “I can walk through most buildings and tell you which version of AutoCad was used to design it.” A standard response of both policy makers and private citizens to hardships—from natural disasters to mass shootings—is to offer “thoughts and prayers.” Critics argue that such gestures are meaningless and may obstruct structural reforms intended to mitigate catastrophes. In this study, we elicit the value of receiving thoughts and prayers from strangers following adversity. We find that Christians value thoughts and prayers from religious strangers and priests, while atheists and agnostics are “prayer averse”—willing to pay to avoid receiving prayers. Furthermore, while indifferent to receiving thoughts from other secular people, they… Read More...

studies have shown that America has been getting more narcissistic since the Seventies [...] one study found narcissistic traits to be rising as quickly as obesity, while yet another showed that almost one-third of high school students in America in 2005 said that they expected to eventually become famous. [Rolling Stone] French company liable after employee dies during sex on business trip Human corpses move around significantly as they decompose, according to an Australian researcher who observed a dead body over a 17-month period Google Maps shows sunken car where missing man’s body was found Feds served Google with a search warrant, asking for data that would identify any Google user who had been within 100 feet of the bank during a half-hour block of time around the robbery. Google Has My Dead Grandpa’s Data And He Never Used The… Read More...

Man Hospitalized for 10+ Day Erection Florida man reports handgun stolen during orgy at his home Computers start to take over leadership functions once performed by human leaders, e.g., assigning tasks to human workers Should we eat our research subjects? – it seems that Animal Studies scholars are divided on that issue; some do, some don’t study found a strong correlation between adultery and workplace misconduct by corporate executives and financial advisers 91.4% of worries did not come true for those with generalized anxiety disorder Self-Checkout Thievery “Anyone who pays for more than half of their stuff in self checkout is a total moron.” Do We Create Shoplifters? Scientists develop 'artificial tongue' to detect fake whiskies. The technology can also be used to identify poisons as well as to monitor rivers. When you go to a website and load a… Read More...

It seems that as we get older our ears get bigger (on average by 0.22 mm a year). [PDF] The scrotum in humans is asymmetric, the right testicle being visibly higher than the left in most men. Paradoxically, it is also the case that the right testicle is somewhat larger, rather than smaller, as might be expected. [...] The cause of this asymmetry is not clear. We may however reject a simple mechanical explanation which would say that the heavier of the two organs is pulled to the lower position by the action of gravity, for in both adults and foetuses it is clear that the right testicle is both the heavier and also the greater in volume; that is the larger and heavier is also the higher. Such a relationship is counter-intuitive, and we may expect that it would… Read More...