nudge

Yeah...his time is surely running out now? Understandably so. Regardless, I don't think we can manage to turn things around either way.

Don't remember much about the school lunch, but it used to be quite decent. Always some kind of soup and then a choice of the main dish. Schnitzel, curd cheese pudding, potato pancakes, meatballs were the usual suspects. We used to buy chocolate cigarettes at a kiosk after school

Yeah, this and the Silk Road. I'd love to do both.

To be honest it's not that bad, depends on the airline and their service a lot. As someone who's quite tall, I do struggle with leg room, but other than that, it's tolerable as long as I get half decent food, alcohol, and access to a few movies. I do try to sleep as much as possible, but sometimes it just doesn't work... I love train travel. The Transsiberian Railroad journey is definitely still on the cards for the future...

I don't think it's that simple. Numerous countries depend on tourism, it's a huge part of their GDP and hundreds of millions of livelihoods depend on it. So it's understandable that they need to start reopening gradually, I don't think it's dumb - they simply can't afford not to.

From June 3rd Italy will drop the quarantine requirement for people arriving from certain countries, namely: - The 26 other members of the European Union - Schengen Area members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland - The United Kingdom - Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City Tourists arriving from these countries will not face any restrictions upon entering Italy, though depending on their own country's rules they may be required to quarantine when they return home. Likewise Italian residents can make a trip to any of these countries without being required to quarantine when they return to Italy. The restrictions are based on where you're departing from or travelling to, not on your nationality.

Yeah, most European countries are already making arrangements to reopen the borders and to revive the tourism industry, so unless there's a huge new outbreak somewhere, I think a holiday in Europe (for Europeans) will be possible in a few months. Definitely harder to predict for outside of Europe though - but since a lot of economies and livelihoods depend on it, I reckon they'll also try to get it up and running as soon as possible again.

Maybe won't return to the pre-Covid levels, but there will definitely be regular passenger flights either way. The biggest hurdle for any international holiday at this point would be each country's entry requirements, not much point in going for a holiday if you have to self-isolate/be quarantined for 14 days after arrival, haha.

Saw this one in a reddit thread "What song is 10/10 but hardly anyone has heard of it?" today. Wow. Was not disappointed, it's fantastic.

Nice pics @Rick.

You might want to check out 500px. It's basically the same photo sharing concept as Instagram, but solely for photographers (all levels, from the very beginners to pros with amazing portfolios), so you don't get stupid influencers, advertisers and whatnot. They also run numerous photography challenges and quests regularly. If you wish, you can also license your photos with them and sell them that way.

NASA has released the Artemis Accords, a set of principles for international Moon exploration. https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-accords/index.html

I am used to long haul flights (but still hate them with passion), so anything less than 15 hours sounds great, really How are rail networks in South America? If they're good, then it's another option, but I don't think it's a viable way of easily traveling through numerous countries there? You should check out Season 2 of BBC's The Race Across the World, by the way. It's all South America. A great watch...

I would like to go to Cuba... Actually saw cheap flights early this year and was considering it. USA doesn't interest me a single bit. Central and South America would be cool, but that would have to be a few month trip. Not a fan of running through numerous places and countries in short time!

Data research (medical field). I'm independently contracted, so no fixed working hours, no supervision, no stupid chats with work colleagues, no meetings. I changed houses at least 7 times in the last 6 years, so that question is a bit complicated but generally, when it comes to work, I just need my laptop and internet connection, so choosing houses always comes down to just personal choices, unrelated to the work I do.

I love working from home and wouldn't change it for anything else. Granted, it's not for everyone, but for me, it's the best thing ever.

Oh MUFC

At first I will be heading back to SE Asia, as I have been involuntary stuck in Europe for months now haha. For holiday, I planned going to the Philippines before this started, so I might just do that. Although I'm also very tempted to do a proper Thailand trip again... Definitely somewhere in Asia, either way!

Yes, read that earlier today as well! Cross-reactive T cells are very good news. There was also another study (in pre-print) that suggests the same thing, so it's definitely encouraging.

Snowpiercer is now a TV show... First two episodes out on Netflix next Monday.

A bit unrelated, but in 2016 we were close to getting a SARS vaccine (the original SARS, that is), but nobody was interested in funding it as the virus was a distant memory at the time. Makes you wonder if it could have provided a cross-protection for the new one too...

Moderna Announces Positive Interim Phase 1 Data for its mRNA Vaccine (mRNA-1273) Against Novel Coronavirus: https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-positive-interim-phase-1-data-its-mrna-vaccine

At this point it's still unclear how long the immunity lasts. Could be weeks, months, or years - we simply have no way of knowing yet for sure, as it hasn't been around long enough. However, similarity to other coronaviruses suggests that the immunity should last for 1-2 years, likely.

Staged by RTL TV crew who brought the pool noodles, asked people to wear them during filming, and then reported it as the idea of the cafe owner...

I really, really don't get your point. BMI might not be flawless as a measurement (there are better ones), but obesity is an established medical diagnosis with well known concrete negative health effects with tons of research throughout the decades, so I'm not sure what "rhetoric" you're referring to? Yes, it's a complex condition influenced by many factors, including genetic and socioeconomic ones, but regardless of what combination of factors causes it, it doesn't change the fact that an obese person is, well, obese. It's a medical term, not some arbitrary label assigned to someone in order to discriminate or create stigma. I think the article is just trying to spin the latest research on obesity and covid-19 into some sort of a social issue, which in my opinion is a very weird thing to do here.