Covid-19
Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
Beautiful interactive dashboard to view the vaccine distribution across US and the rest of the world.
China COVID vaccine reports mixed results
Researchers in Brazil reported that CoronaVac, developed by Beijing-based Sinovac, was 50.4% effective at preventing severe and mild COVID-19 in late-stage trials. That’s significantly lower than the 90% efficacies of several leading vaccines.
The Richer You are, The More Likely You’ll Social Distance, Study Finds
People who made around $230,000 a year were as much as 54% more likely to increase these types of self-protective behaviors compared to people making about $13,000.
School’s out: the true cost of classroom closures
"‘Laptops!’ people have been crying. ‘The poorest kids don’t have laptops or internet connections!’" The damage done to students’ mental health is less well chronicled, but no less serious.
Broken promises: How Singapore lost trust on contact tracing privacy
The Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed that the contact tracing data could actually be accessed by the police for criminal investigations. These revelations triggered public anger and criticism. Concerns that governments could abuse contact tracing systems have been raised around the world.
How COVID unlocked the power of RNA vaccines
The era of RNA vaccines has arrived. Typically, weakened pathogens or fragments of the proteins or sugars on their surfaces, known as antigens, are injected to train the immune system to recognize an invader. But RNA vaccines carry only the directions for producing these invaders’ proteins. The aim is that they can slip into a person’s cells and get them to produce the antigens, essentially turning the body into its own inoculation factory.
Technology
Jared Mauch didn’t have good broadband—so he built his own fiber ISP
Mauch said he has spent about $145,000, of which $95,000 went to the contractor that installed most of the fiber conduits. Some customers spent $5,000 up front to help offset building costs and will receive service credits for multiple years in exchange now that the network is built. Based on the amount Mauch invested and his expected revenue, he estimates he'll break even within 42 months.
The Bit Short: Inside Crypto’s Doomsday Machine
One man's research into potential Tether fraud. Turns out most of the crypto currencies purchased in many exchanges were not bought with USD, but with Tethers instead.
The Bitcoin Dream Is Dead
Bitcoin’s recent 25% plunge illustrates why it will never be a true currency. Instead, it is treated like speculative asset. You buy it because you think someone else will pay more for it in the future.
They Used to Post Selfies. Now They’re Trying to Reverse the Election.
Facebook’s algorithms have coaxed many people into sharing more extreme views on the platform — rewarding them with likes and shares for posts on subjects like election fraud conspiracies, Covid-19 denialism and anti-vaccination rhetoric.
Business
Universal basic income doesn’t impact worker productivity
Providing workers with a universal basic income did not reduce the amount of effort they put into their work, according to an experiment conducted by Spanish economists.
China CCP to Nationalize Jack Ma's Alibaba and Ant Group
"Just a couple of weeks ago, they set out plans to nationalize Ant Group and Alibaba; the timing was deliberate ... Those plans all came from the central leadership,"
Can Intel’s ‘boy wonder’ pull a Steve Jobs?
Intel's ex-CTO returns as CEO. He will face quite a task in returning the chip giant to the glory days of which he was a part.
'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
Shoji Morimoto has been advertising himself as a person who can "eat and drink, and give simple feedback, but do nothing more," since June 2018, and has received over 3,000 requests. Initially he had offered his "rent-a-person who does nothing" services for free, but he now charges 10,000 yen (roughly $96) per request.
Being an Amazon Seller in 2020; Year in Review
Detailed e-commerce analysis by the CEO of Viahart, an educational toy company. They did about $7.4 million in sales in 2020. Amazon accounted for 93.4% of their sales in 2020.
Cameo Celebrating a Blockbuster 2020
The Cameo app offers personalized celebrity video. They did approximately $100M in GMV, growing at a rate of over 4.5x YoY, with average order value increasing by ~25% to roughly $70.
Products
OPOVE M3 Pro Massage Gun
This massage gun is black magic. I've had some mild chronic shoulder soreness from carrying my kids on the shoulder and prolonged working hours at the computer. Many sessions with a physical therapist and chiropractor fail to heal it. The pain goes away after just two days with this gun. Since then, I've relied on this massage gun whenever my muscles feel sore.
Culture & Fun
Stillwater
New TV series to watch with the kids. Cute characters conveying moral storylines like overcoming anger, sharing and chasing dreams.
Incredibox
Super easy beatboxing app. We played it on the iPad and the kids love combining the different sounds together.
2020 Game
Simple browser game that lets you relive the major events of 2020 including the wildfires, COVID-19, stock market crash, and others. Play with the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Rhythm of War: Book Four of The Stormlight Archive
Great fantasy novel from my favourite author. Note that you would have to read the earlier books first to enjoy it.