Favorites May 17th 2022

Iceland August 2016

This is one of the few photos I have of Iceland, relevant given one of the threads today.

Antonio Fatas @AntonioFatas

Employment to population ratio for workers aged 55-64 is at a record high level in the Euro area. Unlike in the US, level is above pre-COVID. What is more impressive is that Euro has caught up with the US (from 40% to 60% in last 17 years).

If you showed me the starting point on this graph I would never have guessed the endpoint today.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

One of the consistent worst takes of the past ten years has been the idea of Putin as some kind of master strategist.

Alexander Stubb @alexstubb

Finnish Parliament vote on @NATO: YES 188 NO 8. Historic.

I didn't link to it yesterday, but Switzerland getting closer to Nato.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

This is not some crank opinion of mine, the American Academy of Pediatrics even now says it but it's buried in this quiet quasi-footnote when they should really be trying to make sure people are aware. slowboring.com/p/a-straightfo…

Parents of children age 6 to 12 months are a relatively small demographic, but if that's you, the point of this article is that it's probably a good idea to move to normal cow's milk a bit early due to the formula shortage.

Eric Topol @EricTopol

"Our results demonstrate that use of live-attenuated [nasal] vaccines may offer advantages over available COVID-19 vaccines, specifically when applied as booster, and may provide a solution for containment of the COVID-19 pandemic." biorxiv.org/content/10.110… nytimes.com/2022/05/16/opi…

From the NYT op-ed: "Nasal spray vaccines using the Spike protein could prevent infection — not merely blunt long COVID, hospitalization, death — in a way that is safe for even the immunocompromised." I'd be excited to see this move forward faster, the Bay Area is currently having a bit of a COVID spike.

Threads

• Thread about the "Icelandic fish festival", I was unable to read this aloud earlier this evening because I was laughing too hard.

• Very long thread explaining how diversity helps military organizations.