Category: link blog

Link blog: internet, bbc, retrocomputing, acorn

Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act | Techdirt
The CDA does not make the fabled “platform” vs “publisher” distinction. Via Popehat
(tags: law internet libel politics)
John Kortink’s website – Hardware – GoSDC
An SD card interface for the Acorn Electron and BBC B. Cool!
(tags: acorn bbc retrocomputing)

Link blog: covid19, model, simulation, evangelicalism

Imperial College simulation code for COVID-19 | Clive Best
In which someone runs the code, and it seems to work reasonably well.
(tags: covid19 simulation model mathematics programming)
The Imperial College code | …and Then There’s Physics
Someone else ran it too.
(tags: covid19 simulation model)
Jared Yates Sexton on Twitter: “PLEASE. Tell people about this. I’m going to provide some history of Neo-Confederate, white-identity, apocalyptic evangelicalism, what I call the Cult of the Shining City. This is who Donald Trump was messaging yesterday wi
some history of Neo-Confederate, white-identity, apocalyptic evangelicalism, what I call the Cult of the Shining City.
(tags: christianity politics usa evangelicalism)

Link blog: walking, cambridge, productivity, dreamwidth

dw_news | PSA: Likely LiveJournal password compromise
Passwords used on LiveJournal around 2014 have probably been compromised. Dreamwidth noticed because accounts where people had common passwords on both sites got hacked on DW. Use a password manager, people.
(tags: livejournal fail security password dreamwidth)
Books in Which No Bad Things Happen | Tor.com
A list, including contributions from commenters.
(tags: books science-fiction)
Walks south of Cambridge
I did one, it was nice. Bookmarking to try others.
(tags: walking hiking cambridge)
bigH/git-fuzzy: interactive `git` with the help of `fzf`
A CLI interface to git that relies heavily on fzf (version 0.21.0 or higher).
(tags: git productivity fzf)

Link blog: covid19, mathematics, model, nhsx

Expert reaction to unpublished paper modelling what percentage of the UK population may have been exposed to COVID-19 | Science Media Centre
It’s an interesting paper but consensus seems to be that it’s not a good reason to give up lockdown (it’s ancient history from back in March now, but some discussion going on on UnHerd after they interviewed one of the researchers).
(tags: covid19 model mathematics)
James Hay on Twitter: “A recent analysis from Oxford presented a range of model scenarios consistent with observed COVID death counts. I’m going to reproduce their analysis here and then present some slight modifications to provide a conservative (if te
A good thread on what that Oxford team did.
(tags: covid19 model mathematics bayesian)
Staying alive: background tracing the NHS COVID-19 app – Reincubate
How’s the NHSX contact tracing app going to stay alive in the background on IOS? How does it work?
(tags: nhs health covid19 app nhsx android ios Bluetooth)
Knight Rider for 8 cellos – YouTube
Yay!
(tags: tv music knight-rider)
Do any Covid-19 ‘cures’ actually work? – UnHerd
All studies so far flawed, including the flaw of eliminating dead people from the stufy. Tom Chivers continues to be one of the few worthwhile things on UnHinged.
(tags: covid19 science drugs tom-chivers)

Link blog: covid19, uk, politics, influenza

Here’s What The UK Government Was Told By Scientists, Said In Public, And Did On The Big Coronavirus Issues
“Much of the evidence to the government has been made public, and it means we have a level of insight into where the government’s words and decisions, and the advice from the experts, come together — and diverge.These timelines explore five of the biggest issues: mass events, social distancing, school closures, isolation, and testing.”

Via the ever-interesting @TomChivers
(tags: pandemic uk sage government covid19 science)

The problem with our response to Covid-19 wasn’t that we didn’t have a plan – it was the opposite
“People make plans, but plans exert power over people. Covid-19 is not a flu virus but something new for which we don’t yet have effective medications, and it is more infectious than Sars and Mers, the other two coronaviruses to have emerged since the turn of the century. Faced with the novel problem of an untreatable, highly transmissible virus, the government’s current advisers seem to have found it hard to break with the plan they had – now unfit for purpose – and think anew.”
(tags: covid19 uk politics influenza flu)
Fatal exceptionalism and lack of humility to learn from the Asian example
“Covid-19, or how the West was undone by its assertion of civilizational difference bordering on provincial narcissism”
(tags: covid19 korea china politics epidemic)

Link blog: covid19, medicine, epidemic, seir

What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine | Bill Gates
Bill tells us what to expect.
(tags: covid19 bill-gates medicine pandemic)
What Happens Next? COVID-19 Futures, Explained With Playable Simulations
Really cool playable simulations of the pandemic, looking at the effects of various strategies. A collaboration between an epidemiologist and a make of cool web pages.
(tags: covid19 infection simulation medicine seir model)
COVID-19 with Chris Whitty – YouTube
The UK’s Chief Medical Officer gives an excellent talk on Covid-19.
(tags: medicine chris-whitty science covid19 epidemic virus)
Where did it go wrong for the UK on coronavirus? – CNN
CNN looks at the Government’s mis-steps.
(tags: covid19 politics uk epidemic)