The Economist used global excess deaths to arrive at the true death toll from the pandemic with a 95% confidence interval.
"Although the official number of deaths caused by #COVID19 is now 7m, our single best estimate is that the actual toll is 27.5m people. We find that there is a 95% chance that the true value lies between 17.8m and 30.8m additional deaths."
#Covid #SarsCov2 #GlobalExcessDeaths
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates
A nice article that should be shared more often to create more awareness on why #DRM harms everyone.
Earlier on I used to purchase ebooks via Amazon, and then use Calibre to strip off the DRM.
Then, after Amazon tried too hard to make life too hard for DRM strippers, I've decided to go the old pirate way all the way down.
Remember that piracy is way more ethical than giving your money to an intermediary parasite that turns a purchase into a rental, allows you to only access your purchase on very specific hardware and software, gives you no guarantee that you'll still be able to read your book in 10 years, and offers no way of gifting the book or passing it to your children.
And we also need more writers and artists who are aware of the issue. When I discovered that my computer vision book had been released on the Kindle store as well, DRM protected, I took the step of adding a line to the README Github repo used in the book, along the lines of "if you purchased a DRM-locked version of the book, please reach out to me to get an unlocked PDF or EPUB file".
DRM harms content creators as well, as it reduces the lifespan and distribution of our work and locks it into a specific platform.
https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/drm-free-e-books-are-now-available-heres-why-thats-a-big-deal
How a Bronze Age rock became a 'treasure map' for researchers
A piece of rock with mysterious markings that lay largely unstudied for 4,000 years is now being hailed as a "treasure map" for archaeologists, who are using it to hunt for ancient sites around north-western France.
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-bronze-age-treasure.html #SaintーBelec #slab #Europe #oldest #map #france #treasure #bronzeage
Israel needs to have a vision for Palestine besides just destroying Hamas: ex-CIA director
David Petraeus told CBS that Israel needs a vision for Palestine, besides annihilating Hamas.
The retired general said Israel will face a dilemma on whether to re-occupy Gaza.
https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-needs-vision-palestine-post-conflict-ex-cia-director-2023-10 #petraeus #palestine #israel #hamas #vision #gaza
Bad news for MAGA grifters: violent crime has decreased over the last two years, but hate crime is up
The GOP's fear and hate machine spews out non-stop disinformation about violent criminals illegally crossing the southern border and wreaking mayhem in the United States, but the latest FBI report on crime statistics tells a different story.
https://boingboing.net/2023/10/17/bad-news-for-maga-grifters-violent-crime-has-decreased-over-the-last-two-years-but-hate-crime-is-up.html #violent #crime #decreased #HateCrime #up
Second prisoner dies during Waupun Correctional Institution lockdown; restrictions linger at two additional prisons
Staffing shortages limit prisoner movement in Waupun, Green Bay and Stanley correctional institutions — more facilities than previously disclosed.
https://wisconsinwatch.org/2023/10/waupun-correctional-institution-lockdown-prisoner-restrictions/ #prisoner #dies #Waupun #Correctional #Institution #lockdown
Stanford scientist, after decades of study, concludes: We don’t have free will
After more than 40 years studying humans and other primates, Sapolsky has reached the conclusion that virtually all human behavior is as far beyond our conscious control as the convulsions of a seizure, the division of cells or the beating of our hearts.
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2023-10-17/stanford-scientist-robert-sapolskys-decades-of-study-led-him-to-conclude-we-dont-have-free-will-determined-book #FreeWill #nope #stanford #neurobiology
A Monster Solar Storm Struck Earth 14,300 Years Ago
https://www.universetoday.com/163712/a-monster-solar-storm-struck-earth-14300-years-ago/ #solar #storm #radiocarbon #spike #french #alps
Man gets rare 'shiitake dermatitis' from undercooked mushrooms
The man developed the painful rash two days after eating undercooked shiitake mushrooms.
https://www.livescience.com/health/viruses-infections-disease/man-gets-rare-shiitake-dermatitis-from-undercooked-mushrooms #shiitake #dermatitis #undercooked #mushrooms #WhipLikeStreaks
Comet Airburst Initiated Transition to Agriculture 12,800 Years Ago, Scientists Say
Around 12,800 years ago, Earth collided with fragments of a disintegrating comet, triggering Younger Dryas climate change; this event created environmental conditions at Abu Hureyra, Syria
https://www.sci.news/archaeology/younger-dryas-agriculture-12357.html #Comet #Airburst #Transition #Agriculture #YoungerDryas
Central Nervous System: Is creatine a CNS neurotransmitter?
A range of experiments suggests that creatine, a molecule known for recycling ATP in muscle and brain tissue, may also function as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.
https://elifesciences.org/articles/91824 #CNS #creatine #neurotransmitter
Kwik Trip says ‘network incident’ causing disruptions at stores
Kwik Trip addressed widely reported outages that disrupted services at its more than 800 stores across the U.S. this past week, writing on several social media sites that it is in the midst of a “network incident.”
https://therecord.media/kwik-trip-network-incident-causing-disruptions #KwikTrip #network #incident #disruption
What You Need to Earn to Own a Home in 50 American Cities
Once a fundamental part of the American dream, the ability to own a home is drifting farther and farther away for many Americans.
Using May 2023 data tabulated by Home Sweet Home, we map out the annual salary needed to afford a 30-year mortgage (at 6.37%) to buy a home in America’s 50 most populous metropolitan areas.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/what-you-need-to-earn-to-own-a-home-in-50-american-cities/ #homes #ownership #RealEstate #earnings #infographic #america
Scientists find 10 'markers' in blood that predict people's chances of reaching 100
A recent study pinpoints measurable differences in the blood of people who survived to age 100 and those who died younger.
https://www.livescience.com/health/ageing/scientists-find-10-markers-in-blood-that-predict-peoples-chances-of-reaching-100 #Centenarians #BloodMarkers #health #aging
Emission factor of Dutch electricity plummeting thanks to the surge in wind and solar power. Well on its way to achieve the Climate Agreement target of 100 g/kWh before 2030. And to zero by 2040, but we have bigger emissions to urgently tackle in other sectors.
Graph by @BM_Visser
Today, Epic Games’ sale of Bandcamp to Songtradr closed and at least half of Bandcamp’s staff was laid off. This is heartbreaking. We love our jobs, the platform we’ve built, and the Bandcamp community. We’re glad we have our union — coworkers who have each other’s backs. We’ll be moving together to decide our next steps. On Wednesday we return to the bargaining table with Epic Games, and we’ll keep you updated. Love and solidarity to the whole Bandcamp community. Thank you for your support.
GOP Admins Had 38 Times More Criminal Convictions Than Democrats, 1961-2016
We compared 56 years of corruption in Republican and Democratic presidencies: both sides are not equally corrupt.
https://rantt.com/gop-admins-had-38-times-more-criminal-convictions-than-democrats-1961-2016
Wisconsin sees big jump in doctor discipline ranking
Wisconsin, which long ranked near the bottom among states in a watchdog group’s analysis of serious disciplinary actions against doctors, jumped to No. 8 in a report this year.
But whether the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board has ramped up penalties or Public Citizen’s new way of ranking states accounts for the improvement, or both, is not clear.
https://madison.com/news/local/business/health-care/wisconsin-doctor-medical-board-discipline/article_597073da-679f-11ee-85bd-a7212d9342c9.html #wisconsin #medicalboard #doctor #discipline #PublicCitizen
Is hydrogen a metal?
Hydrogen is not a metal on Earth, but scientists keep trying to create metallic hydrogen under high pressure to unlock a new superconductor.
https://www.livescience.com/chemistry/is-hydrogen-a-metal #hydrogen #metal #superconductor #dense
Geologist from Wisconsin at home in Japan.
Always exploring this world.