onfocus

As Scientific American reported last fall, the drop-off in flu numbers was both swift and universal. Since then, cases have stayed remarkably low. “There’s just no flu circulating,” says Greg Poland, who has studied the disease at the Mayo Clinic for decades.

I wonder if masks could help with keeping flu numbers down post-covid.

Are you experiencing muscle aches?

A) Yes, I’m so achy.

B) Yes, but to be fair, I think that’s the literal definition of what muscles are? The achy things all over your body?

This article is too on the nose. Not funny.

"Those who are vaccinated can still be infected by, and test positive for, SARS-CoV-2; they’re just way, way less likely to get sick as a result. The sticky element is whether not-sick-but-still-infected vaccinated people can spread the virus to others and get them sick. So far, the early data have been promising, showing that the vaccines stop at least some transmission, but the matter is not scientifically settled."

It’s complicated but “way, way less likely to get sick” and “stop at least some transmission” is worth it in a pandemic.

iOS users must now give explicit permission for apps to track their behavior and sell their personal data, such as age, location, spending habits and health information, to advertisers. While many apps have allowed people to manage or opt-out of this for years, it's typically buried deep in user settings and wordy privacy policies.

Nice.

"The foundation of maturity: Just because it’s not your fault doesn’t mean it’s not your responsibility."

More life wisdom from Kevin Kelly. I really enjoy these.

"With the backing of Stitcher and SiriusXM, Mars said he hoped to continue producing ambitious work — without the strain of handling the financing himself."

Happy for Roman Mars but unhappy about the state of indie podcasting. Blarg.

This is a nice map of light pollution. I'm thinking about summer camping trips and feeling lucky to live close to some holes in this map. I only get to see the night sky from one of these dark spots a few times each year and it's always awe-inspiring.

"Whatever lawmakers are willing to set it at, let's double that, just to be safe. That's what I say. I say, whatever it is, let's double it. We've tried underpaying people. That doesn't work. Let's try overpaying for a little bit. I think that's the best strategy right now."

I love those angry IKEA guy videos and it’s great to hear more of his story. If you haven’t seen them yet [dramatic music starts] that’s on you. LOOK INWARD.

“For me, at the end of the day, it comes down to: Do you care? Do you care enough about democracy? Do you care enough about the fate of the nation to ensure that your product is not used to coordinate and overthrow the government?”

Based on their actions, Facebook cares about making money through engagement and data mining and nothing else. In fact, if the world burns around them it might increase their ability to make money through engagement and data mining.

Go here for classic beats to relax/study to but with several channels you can flip through. Pro tip: hit L on your keyboard to tell the interface to relax a bit.

"We talked to pharmaceutical companies and venture capitalists. No one cared,” Dr. Weissman said. “We were screaming a lot, but no one would listen."

Amazing story of one person’s perseverance and belief in science that delivered the mRNA vaccines.

"The exposed data includes the personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including over 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in India. It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and, in some cases, email addresses."

Is this even considered news anymore?

"Yahoo Answers, one of the longest-running and most storied web Q&A platforms in the history of the internet, is shutting down on May 4th. That’s the day the Yahoo Answers website will start redirecting to the Yahoo homepage, and all of the platform’s archives will apparently cease to exist. The platform has been operating since 2005."

Corporations continue to be bad at hosting our conversations and managing our data.

"They also began raising concerns about safety in Amazon’s warehouses at the start of the pandemic. Amazon fired Ms. Costa and Ms. Cunningham last April, not long after their group had announced an internal event for warehouse workers to speak to tech employees about their workplace conditions."

This is powerful. When employees speak to each other it can lead to realizing that they have common interests--even when they work in different parts of the organization that don't normally interact. Firing people advocating for safety during a pandemic is a bad look.

This documentary uses firsthand video from people who were on the Diamond Princess cruise in February 2020. It’s quite a record of the early pandemic and a reminder of how little we knew and how poorly we handled it in the early days.

"Over the past decade, the blockchain has become a refuge for people who need another place to rest their assets. For global tycoons, it’s just an alternative to parking their money in some real estate they would never visit."

Anil Dash (father of the NFT?!) on its origin and the current state of his problem child.