Favorites September 8th 2021

Michael Tae Sweeney @mtsw

If I was a Democrat in Congressional leadership I'd find a particularly sympathetic kid who died of Covid in Florida after catching it at school, then pass a federal law saying states can't invalidate local mask mandates called "X's law" where X is the name of the kid

Branding is good, but it's even better for vaccine mandates, constitutional too.

Vipin Narang @NarangVipin

South Korea tests an indigenous SLBM. Eight countries have done so. Seven of those have nuclear weapons. Only South Korea does not.

en.yna.co.krS. Korea successfully tests SLBM from new submarine | Yonhap News AgencyBy Oh Seok-min SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has successfully test-fired a home...

Charlie Stross points out, Non-nuclear sub launched ballistic missiles would probably not be particularly practical, especially so few… but he goes on: “How to tell me you’re a serious nuclear power without telling me you’re a serious nuclear power.”

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

This seems like an underappreciated point: COVID spread by *asymptomatic* vaccinated people is probably very uncommon. nytimes.com/article/breakt…

All the more reason that antigen tests (which are crazy fast, and most accurate when you're symptomatic) are a good idea. About that need for rapid antigen testing...

Bill Gurley @bgurley

W/ Covid likely "with us" forever, superiority of Rapid Antigen tests is critical to understand. Europe is way ahead of US (Germany: 67 approved vendors, US: 2). Price 15x higher here. But policy also important. Europe "recommends" antigen first. U.S. gov't still reluctant.

Michael Mina @michaelmina_lab

Did you know: A test *not* performed has a sensitivity of 0% for symptomatic and asymptomatic ppl A test w a 48 hr delay has 0% during the days of waiting I talk a lot about sensitivity- but if we want to detect infectious people - frequency of testing is even more important.

There are at-home 15 minute antigen tests selling for $3.50 in amsterdam, and they're made by a company out of San Diego, but not approved in the US. If you haven't checked, Rapid Antigen tests start at $25 in the US. Too much to be doing as often as is really needed to stop the chain of infection.

Trevor Bedford @trvrb

At this point, it seems highly likely that the next impactful variant will emerge as a sub-lineage from within Delta diversity, bearing additional mutations on top of Delta's mutations. Consequently, I would urge that the regulatory process for vaccine updates begin. 12/14

I had links discussing delta-specific boosters in the past, I think this really helps clarify why they're important despite the fact that the existing vaccines work ok against Delta.

David Cole AIA @DavidColeAIA

Every urbanist who posits "Why don't we build more of these old-timey walk-up apartment buildings?" needs to be prepared to explain how a percentage of the units plus all common areas can be made wheelchair-accessible. Otherwise you're just saying disabled people don't matter.

Everyone loves hating on all these new 'stumpies' but for folks with mobility challenges, or who care about structural stability, they're a huge improvement.

Ryan Radia @RyanRadia

@mattyglesias This is the ideal residential building type. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

Stumpy: 5 stories of wood over 2 of concrete.

Nathanael Lauster @LausterNa

Brilliant to see a vacancy chain study done with registry data & including social housing! Findings in Finland are generally consistent w/ Mast in USA, except chains deepen more quickly, probably due to less inequality & segregation. H/t @MarketUrbanism doria.fi/bitstream/hand…

The spillover effect for new market rate homes is real, in case you still weren't sure.

May 2018, Kyoto