onfocus

"The company paid the hefty ransom in untraceable cryptocurrency within hours after the attack, underscoring the immense pressure faced by the Georgia-based operator to get gasoline and jet fuel flowing again to major cities along the Eastern Seaboard, those people said. A third person familiar with the situation said U.S. government officials are aware that Colonial made the payment."

Facepalm. This should really help stem the tide of infrastructure attacks. We get a gas panic and the criminals get #!?*coin. At least the perpetrators can't buy Teslas with it.

"In the meantime, those who are already vaccinated can help speed up the process by encouraging their friends, family, and peers to get the shot. Surveys consistently show that around 1 in 3 unvaccinated people are waiting for others around them to get vaccinated first before they do so. Sharing vaccination stories, then, could give people the push they need."

I just want to share that I got the vaccine (twice!) and it was worth the minor inconvenience to help get everyone out of this pandemic. The inconvenience is nothing compared to over a year of lockdown life. We’re very lucky to have easy access to vaccines here in the US—we can do this!

"The investment bank calculated that a $1bn investment in bitcoin would produce the same carbon emissions as the annual output of 1.2m cars due to energy usage associated with bitcoin."

It's the opposite of buying carbon offsets.

In addition to Covid-19 transmission that takes place directly in schools, researchers also attributed the increase to “spillover” factors like parents being able to do more outside of the house if their kids are in school, and school reopenings sending an “incorrect signal” that “normal activities are safe again” to the broader community.

Seems obvious, but good to see a study that confirms this because there's so much denial about schools playing a role in spreading covid.

We're talking about a guy who received one complaint from a student who came to his office to talk to him, and then he himself voluntarily canceled the course. He took his ball and went home. And yet we're supposed to be like, “All of these kids today, they're so over-sensitive”.

Fantastic conversation that connects 90s political correctness discourse with cancel culture discourse. They show how flimsy moral panic stories were fabricated, used as evidence of liberal overreach, and repeated ad nauseam.

As a 28-year-old, he didn't feel in any particular danger, but he finally decided he should start looking for a Covid-19 vaccination clinic this week. Then he heard the magic words.

‘Free beer’, he said.

Heart these incentive stories. More free beer everywhere, please!

"The press needs to start taking this even more seriously than it does now. Every elected Republican who has played footsie with the Big Lie should have to defend that record before they can speak on any other topic. They can’t be allowed to dodge."

Dan Rather on The Big Lie reminding us that we’re still in a dangerous moment in the country.

"The mRNA platform used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can be readily tweaked, enabling the companies to produce newer versions within weeks. Moderna began modifying its vaccine to combat the variant identified in South Africa, after reports emerged that the existing vaccines are slightly less effective against that variant."

I am happy to sign up for these Moderna service packs.

"After all the build-up, the actual vaccination was a bit of an anticlimax. It was over in seconds."

Fun story from Australia about spontaneously deciding to get vaccinated. I’d like to see hundreds of variations on this here in the US. I mean, why are people waking up and deciding to get vaccinated that day?! Please figure that out, media. What is motivating them? Are they happy with their snap decision? What unexpected niche groups have done this? What are some unusual clinic locations and the interesting things people get to see there?

It’s the only vaccine decision story I want to read.

"The Lomax Digital Archive provides free access to audio/visual collections compiled across seven decades by folklorist Alan Lomax (1915–2002) and his father John A. Lomax (1867–1948)."

Fascinating folk music archive to wander through.

"The station has stuck to its pledge in its day-to-day coverage ever since, by simply and without fanfare including boilerplate language about how lawmakers conducted themselves during the attempts to overturn the election whenever they are mentioned in the course of regular news coverage."

Daily journalism with a memory is rare.

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.