Reductions in air pollution due to COVID-19 in China have probably saved 20x the number of lives than have so far been lost to the virus. Does not mean pandemics are good, but rather that our economies absent pandemics are bad for health https://t.co/3UUIo4IpCA (Thread 1/n)
The thing people are missing about the jackpot is that’s it’s easily 300 years long, started at least 100 years ago, and we’re just reaching the point where we notice that. https://t.co/kGt9IugXct
I’m developing a new theory that ‘Cyclonopedia’ and 'Intelligence & Spirit’ are parts 1 and 2 of a long-winded argument, at the end of which Reza will declare that cyclopean masonry proves Iran invented Lego.
“To protect business, you must not go to work.” Keep it up coronavirus. You’re creating a gigantic general strike. As a matter of fact, you’re making neoliberalism create a gigantic distributed general strike.
The efficiency of Taiwan and Korea’s responses vs. the U.S., Japan, China and Iran suggest that democracies and autocracies both suffer from distinct failure modes in the face of external shocks, and that the best government is a democracy with competent technocratic leadership.
Far from the city, where the Milky Way shines in the night sky, she met an alien from a distant star.
“Why are you here, so far from civilisation?” she asked.
“I could ask the same,” the alien said.
“We can’t travel to other stars.”
“I know. I meant you.”
“Oh. To escape.”
“Same.”
Just blocked a few who discuss this virus in terms of “predicting” & track record, as Phil the rat @PTetlock & others in the “forecasting” BS are presenting it.
When you put your seat belt you aren’t “forecasting” a crash. When you lock your house you aren’t forecasting theft…
In FKA Twigs’ “Cellophane”, a male voice is mimicking the hi-hat line.
In Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy”, the hi-hat line is actually a sound recording of a traffic light in Sidney.
In Rosalía’s “Malamente”, flamenco clapping is playing the role of the hi-hat.
— Jose Luis de Vicente (@Macroscopist) March 4, 2020
What I’d give to have been a fly on the office wall of whoever chose the photo to accompany this editorial on Covid as the pangolins’ revenge. https://t.co/9u34TBAbbv
In 1665, Cambridge University closed b/c of the plague. Issac Newton quarantined himself at his childhood home. It was the most productive time of his life. He discovered the calculus & laws of motion. Stuck a bodkin in his eye to study optics. How will you spend the next year?
dirt-cheap hardware, abundant solar energy, censorship-resistant domains and p2p storage solutions will soon combine, ensuring every new website launched today will remain online forever, browsable eternally in the next 200 years of vapor-ized solarpunk futurenow
A public who can imagine a better future, or understand the present in the context of history, is bad for the kleptocrats. Which is one motive for the current drive to promote STEM subjects in higher ed, and the shutdown of humanities faculties (except as a luxury for the rich.) https://t.co/6XCHEkiwxQ
as someone studying linguistics i can tell you all words are fake and language is arbitrary and prescriptivist grammars are tools of class and race supremacy <3 https://t.co/sORj9FAyFr
Remember when it was hard to accept that non-humans, like microbes, could be full fledged actors -actants rather- able to build up associations in addition to those more classically “social”? Now it’s common sense: here is Chinese pollution with or without virus. (Huffingtonpost) pic.twitter.com/5cxpcbeA1C
“Hyper-accumulating” plants draw metal from the ground, producing rich, multi-colored saps that can be more concentrated than ore bodies at traditional mines. Landscape metallurgy. The garden as mine. Extractive forestry. [Photo by Antony van der Ent] https://t.co/0pbUW9NLLOpic.twitter.com/h5qSGyeyHm
- wash your hands regularly
- stock up on essentials
- self isolate if you feel ill
- don’t make unnecessary journeys
- don’t take risks on treacherous roads
- don’t swim in the sea
There are two types of people: those who like their nuclear waste site warnings as giant collections of menacing concrete spikes, and those who prefer their nuclear waste site warnings to be genetically manipulated cats who change color as foretold by ancient songs and fairytales
The health and safety of our customers and crew is a priority for Singapore Airlines and SilkAir. In view of the Covid–19 outbreak, we would like to share with you the enhanced cleaning and precautionary measures that we have instituted on board our aircraft.
All SIA and SilkAir aircraft already undergo a thorough cleaning process when on the ground. In addition, all flights arriving from Mainland China undergo disinfectant fogging. Common surfaces such as tray tables, handsets, and inflight entertainment screens are cleaned with disinfectant wipes. We also remove all headsets, headrest covers, pillow covers, bedsheets, and blankets after every flight sector.
The air filtration systems in our aircraft are equipped with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, which have a similar performance to those used in hospital operation rooms. Constant airflow also ensures that the cabin air is refreshed every two to three minutes.
During this period, you may also notice that there have been changes to our in-flight services. These include the replacement of the hot towel service with pre-set wet towelettes, cessation of the after take-off drink service, removal of reading materials from seat-back pockets, and suspension of in-flight sales.
Pre-flight temperature screening for all cabin crew and pilots operating out of Singapore has been in place since 29 January 2020. Our crew also know that they should see a doctor immediately if they feel unwell and should not report for work.
Thank you for your support. We wish you good health and look forward to welcoming you on board soon.
Things that happen in Econ that would be odd in other sciences:
“The Kavli Institute, a privately funded physics think tank dedicated to the idea that dark matter doesn’t exist, came out with a meta-analysis of astrophysical data that claims dark matter doesn’t exist.”
A graviton near or at its ground state would be super spread out, right? It’s cold in space, mostly. I believe the universe is a graviton, frequency unknown, amplitude universe, shimmering near or at its ground state. What do I know I’m just a humanist clown
Think I’m making shit up? One of the most popular apps in S. Korea right now is one that alerts you if you’re close to one of Shincheonji’s ‘churches’ or other affiliated establishments. Of which there are over 730 across S. Korea alone, btw.https://t.co/dN0lz5dLGP
The Coronavirus Chronicles keep getting weirder and weirder.
You’ve probably heard about the sudden outbreak of the virus in South Korea. Well, did you also know that this is, in large part, to thank to an actual death cult? It’s called #Shincheonji, and it’s super scary.
If good software is easy to change, and bad software is hard to change, the limit of any software with sufficient development resources is bad. This may mean that the only thing that keeps some software good is a lack of resources, or attention, or both.
So following my retweet of the saguaros being cut down, it occurs to me that the extraordinary nature of the saguaro may not be common knowledge. Therefore, let us talk about this marvelous vegetative creature.
(1) GR is nonrenormalizable AND its short distance (high energy) structure is plagued with diseases that prevent us from using quantum (field) theory to study it
(2) QM and GR treat spacetime differently in many ways, e.g., background (in)dependence
My own initial reaction to gpt2 helps me understand why pre-modern tribes reacted to being filmed and shown the footage like the camera was stealing their souls. Except, I *like* the idea instead of being horrified by it. Unfortunately as untrue for AIs as for film cameras.
I’m glad @quinnnorton finally put this out: https://t.co/LJE078osbA. I was and am one of those friends, and it was horrifying to watch this happen — it still haunts me. I have no great lessons here, other than that we still don’t understand how to live in the networked age.
A Hindu god now has a permanent reserved seat on an Indian Railways train (which will only serve vegetarian food and play devotional music on train’s speakers) https://t.co/vzru444Rp9 via @qzindia
How can we stop pandemics? Pandemic Math explains: Turn rapid exponential growth to rapid exponential decline. Change the contact network by (1) targeted individual isolation (2) early symptom identification (3) reduce social connectivity (4) travel and group boundaries. pic.twitter.com/8BkEFizHEv
cool project - permanently encase the air of Amazon fulfilment centers by exploiting the fact that they inflate those padded air cushions during the packaging process. https://t.co/rGGZn6engn
“That’s what the world is. The world is not an unsolved problem for scientists or sociologists. The world is a living mystery: our birth, our death, our being in the moment – these are mysteries. They are doorways opening on to unimaginable vistas of self-exploration, empowerment and hope for the human enterprise.”
