nudge

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.

Obesity rates of hospitalised cases might generally match national obesity rates (although I'm not sure that's true - for example in the French study the obesity rate of hospitalised patients was 70%, whereas the national obesity rate in France is only 17%), but that doesn't mean that the researchers simply "see a large portion of obese people and assume that’s a health risk", that's a ridiculous claim. First of all, obesity itself is the main proven risk factor for other observed comorbidities of covid-19 (diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronical inflammation); and not only that - it's pretty much a risk factor for anything health-related and a primary driver of many chronic illnesses. The article also conveniently ignores other studies from numerous countries which demonstrate that the proportion of cases that develop severe pneumonia and require mechanical ventilation is by far higher in those with obesity than in those without, even when controlled for potential confounders and independently from other comorbidities. Yes, there should be more research done and more data collected, but at this point everything points at obesity being a factor associated with a more severe course of the disease and more negative outcomes, so I'm not sure why we should pussyfoot around it based on some weird claim that such facts are somehow harmful to the obese because it creates stigma. Normalisation of obesity is what's harmful to the public health, not scientific research pointing it out as one of the risk factors.

I'll be honest, I'm at loss at what is the actual point of this article? Questioning whether obesity alone is an independent factor for higher risk of covid-19 complications or whether it's a combination of factors is one thing, but it soon went into "fat activists" (whatever the fuck it is) rambling about the society and scientists interpreting the research data being "fatphobic" and claiming that it's harmful to attribute obesity to negative outcomes because it causes stigma and daily discrimination to those of "higher weight" The best part was the claim that apparently it's not being obese but the stigma associated with it that jeopardises their health, as it "can increase the likelihood of chronic inflammation, which is in turn linked to diseases that increase COVID-19 risk such as heart disease, cancer, asthma, and diabetes". What a load of bollocks. They should be encouraging obese people to change their diets and lifestyles to improve their general health instead of accusing researchers of having prejudices against "fat bodies"...

Two races at Silverstone confirmed!

Yes, should have probably mentioned that the purpose of the testing is to determine the scale of asymptomatic spread in society rather than the levels of acquired immunity. In all honesty, I think mass antibody tests are pretty pointless as it's quite obvious already that only a small fraction of the population in any country has been affected, nevermind other limitations of the tests.

Hungary is currently carrying out nationwide representative testing, they have only confirmed 2 positive cases in 8276 tests so far. Lithuania has similarly tested 5391 random people, only 1 turned out positive.

Austrian Bundesliga is set to resume on the 2nd of June, after it was given the green light by the government and agreed upon by all twelve clubs. The Cup final will be played on the 29th of May.

I remember the last time I went out with my work colleagues a few years ago. Never again Three of us had birthday at the same time, so we booked a few tables + some food and drinks at a bar for the total of 20-25 people, the majority of them being younger ones, in their early 20s. Bloody idiots spent 90% of the time staring at their phones and some were even sending messages to the people sitting at the other side of the table The next day everyone was talking about what a great evening out it was.... Fucking hell, what a bunch of boring twats

No, never felt the need to, as I use social media only for following certain people, groups and specific topics for news and exchange of information and I think it's a fantastic tool for that. I just stay clear of the comments section when it comes to popular media outlets in order to avoid wasting time on reading petty arguments, poorly formulated opinions and "witty" remarks.

Reminds me of this:

Does it have to be this monstrosity of a shirt though?...

I beat you to that

Not exactly giants...but I can guarantee one disappointment after another though

Masks are mandatory here in public, and a lot of people also wear gloves too (so do I). It's an easy way to protect yourself and others with very little inconvenience.

I'll check it out then... I ordered some Werder stuff back when I was living in NL, and they charged me 15€ for a delivery of a single shirt Fuck sake.

Pfffft, not even close Haha, the delivery would probably cost double that.

I think it's just a fuck up in the F1 Store failing to put things into the right categories. But I thought for a moment that Williams are in such a dire situation that they are selling the merchandise of their opponents already That said, I want this: