Coronavirus News (240)

Biggest software IPO ever 

Snowflake shares more than double. It's the biggest software IPO ever Snowflake helps blue chip companies analyze and share data in the cloud. ........  now has more than 3,100 customers, double the total from a year ago. That includes 146 of the Fortune 500 firms. ........... Snowflake competes with Amazon's AWS, Microsoft's Azure and the Google Cloud platforms. .........  Revenue more than doubled in the past six months, to $242 million. But the company posted a net loss of $171 million, slightly less than the loss it posted in the same period a year ago.

You're never too old to excel: How Snowflake thrives with 'dinosaur'​ cofounders and a 60-year-old CEO  Say hello to 53-year-old co-founder Benoit Dageville, the nonstop explainer with bushy eyebrows and a pirate’s grin. Sitting across from him is Thierry Cruanes, 52, the quick-witted interrupter with a scruffy salt-and-pepper beard. Both men left their native France decades ago, with dreams of making it big as software architects in the United States. Everything since has been the tech sector’s version of a buddy movie. ............  In their mid-40s, they quit Oracle and rented a tiny office in downtown San Mateo, across the street from a hamburger joint. The cofounders picked a whimsical company name that reflected their shared love of skiing. Then they bought cheap furniture from Ikea, coaxing their kids into doing much of the assembly. ..............  “We’re French,” Cruanes explains, as he recounts those days. “Even if we failed, we knew we could do it in style.” ............ From that puny start, Snowflake has raised more than $900 million in venture money, while achieving a valuation that tops $4 billion. Snowflake’s engineers have redefined data storage and computation to take full advantage of cloud computing’s flexibility. The result: a data-warehousing system that’s easier to use and stunningly faster than older alternatives. ........  Enterprise software is the sector where older engineers, salespeople and other employees are most likely to flock. In these business-to-business markets, product cycles are longer, customers’ priorities evolve more predictably and even the boldest innovators keep building atop what has come before. As a result, long-time pros bring valuable knowledge. There’s room for people who grew up in the age of cassette tapes instead of Spotify. ............... Blunt to a fault, Slootman is famous for acid-tongued comments that make his subordinates gasp. Barely eight minutes into our interview, he tells me: “Silicon Valley is a highly promotional, self-congratulatory culture. Everybody wants to feel good all day long. Not me. I make people feel bad all day long.” ............ Even Snowflake’s elegant snack stations distress him. “We’ve got five kinds of coffee,” he observes. “Do you really need that?” .............  He’s been refining his messages steadily in nearly 30 years of tech leadership. Raise your standards. Act decisively. Shrink your priority list, so you can focus on doing just a few things brilliantly. .................. “I don’t want to high-five,” he explains. “I want to have conversations about the things that aren’t working well, or things that can be better.” ......... Most changes in software are incremental and small. What Snowflake’s doing is radical and ginormous.” ........... Data-centric businesses -- which means basically everyone these days -- are intrigued by the power of big cloud-computing platforms run by Amazon, Microsoft or Google. But moving everything to the cloud can get clunky, especially when users’ data projects create intense spikes and slowdowns in the amount of storage versus compute power they need. ................ Snowflake’s software separates compute and storage, making it faster, cheaper and easier for customers to run all the data queries they crave. ......... A lot of Snowflake’s culture reflects the steady values of lifelong engineers. The hallways are quiet. Distractions are rare. Helping everyone else succeed is a core value; showing off is not. People get their work done by 6 p.m. or so, and head home.  

Snowflake, Before It Was Obvious The founders of Snowflake felt that the problems lay not with relational technology itself, but with the way it had been implemented. They were certainly in excellent position to know, having been key architects of several generations of database products at Oracle and elsewhere. They believed that relational could be unleashed by rearchitecting it to take advantage of the power of the cloud. If they were right, the benefits would be enormous: the mainstream enterprise was already built around relational, with legions of analysts and DBA’s were fully trained in SQL, providing a large and ready market. But this notion was way out of step with the Silicon Valley belief system of the time. .........  In November 2012, Amazon released its Redshift cloud-based data warehouse into preview beta. This product would compete directly with Snowflake. Not only that, Snowflake was building its product on top of AWS computing and storage services. Amazon would be Snowflake’s chief competitor and primary supplier. .........  In 2013, the enterprise data warehousing market was largely captured in on-premise deployments of Oracle, Teradata, Microsoft and a few others. .............. there was enough enterprise data “born in the cloud” to constitute a viable early market, and that the volume and importance of cloud-born data would ultimately dominate. ..........  there is a strategic rationale for customers to embrace a focused, cloud-neutral guardian of the “Data Cloud” that allows them to unlock the power of all their data assets and put them to use however they choose. ...................  They also embraced help in the areas they needed it most from people like Mike Speiser (lead investor and original CEO), Bob Muglia, Frank Slootman and a host of other amazing team members that have made Snowflake a rare talent magnets. ........... Those of us in the early Snowflake supporter camp always believed that the company could carve out a big chunk of the enterprise data warehousing market. And we thought that the best way to penetrate would be to make it easy for customers to try the Snowflake service. This is why so much of the development effort was devoted to making Snowflake super-easy to adopt and effortless to use – in stark contrast to the brain-exploding experience customers had come to expect from legacy data warehousing projects. ................  “Snowflake is addictive,” I was told by a Snowflake Sales Ops leader. “Once customers try it, they inevitably want more.” There was more pent-up demand for analytics in the enterprise than most of us realized, and Snowflake was breaking open the dam with its new model of delivery and consumption. .............  Today one of the most celebrated dimensions of the Snowflake business model is its superlative NRR (Net Revenue Retention) on quite substantial six-figure-plus ACV’s. ............  is there a bigger happening in enterprise technology than Snowflake? The company has become the foundation of the Modern Enterprise.  

Coronavirus News (239)

Airbus Just Unveiled Three New Zero-Emission Concept Aircraft 

At 75, is the United Nations still relevant or necessary? Legitimate criticism and lingering questions surround the UN, even as it makes important progress in areas mostly unseen and vastly under-reported Instead of using the UN as a scapegoat for political failures, criticism should be turned on to states that overpromise and underfund humanitarian operations

Australia has ‘painted itself into a geopolitical corner’ with China, but what is Beijing’s trade endgame? Australia agreed to lead the investigation into the origins of the coronavirus following a call between its Prime Minister Scott Morrison and US President Donald Trump China has since imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Australian barley, suspended certain beef imports and launched two investigations into wine imports

Indonesia’s biggest YouTube star Atta Halilintar on fame, fortune, his mistakes – and why he’s not happy any more Atta Halilintar has 25.5 million subscribers on a channel that earns him up to an estimated US$1.6 million a month But he says being number one comes at a price and that at his lowest he has thought of famous people who had committed suicide

Who’s playing the Taiwan card in India-China tensions, Modi or the RSS? Members of expatriate Indian Hindu nationalist groups are unofficially calling for greater engagement with Taipei – something likely to anger Beijing While the calls mirror a hardening of New Delhi’s stance, it is unclear how much weight they carry with PM Modi – and for him, that’s very convenient

China’s middle-class dream of a second home in Malaysia dashed by coronavirus and geopolitical tensions Many Chinese people have left Malaysia, opting to sell their homes remotely rather than wait to see when and if they will be allowed to return Individual Chinese investors are often unprepared – both financially and psychologically – for the risks of overseas investment, expert says

50 startups on the rise

Global income falls by $3.5 trillion

CEOs speak out on remote work

The Keys to Remote Work - What We Have Learned in a Decade of Leading an Award-Winning Remote Team  .... the importance of boundaries in remote work. ...... There’s a misconception that people who work from home are not accountable and let their home-life distractions spill into their work. For many remote workers, however, the opposite is more often the case. ..........  keep a structured schedule and be intentional about how time is used .......... schedule breaks into their day and stick to those break times. ........ manage your energy and keep yourself from burning out from too much uninterrupted work .......... can be easy to dive deep into work, not get up from your desk for hours, and exhaust yourself in the process ........  In the fitness world, there’s a widespread practice of interval training: strong bursts of rigorous exercise, followed by a brief period of rest. This builds your strength and stamina without overex­erting your body. Interval training can be applied to mental tasks as well—it’s important to sepa­rate periods of mentally strenuous work with short breaks to ensure you don’t burn out. ........... I like to schedule periods of intense work in the morning—when I am cognitively strongest—for tasks that involve writing and development of new materials. Then, I’ll follow that with a break and reserve the afternoon for meetings and tasks that are discussion-oriented and don’t require as much mental capacity and acute focus. ..........   Physical boundaries are also very important. We encourage employees to have a place in their home that is specifically designated for work. ........... Commuting can be a pain, but we often underestimate how much that time in the car or on the subway helps us separate from work on the way home. 

How live music makes a comeback

LinkedIn Top Startups 2020: The 50 U.S. companies on the rise.  Our editors and data scientists parsed hundreds of millions of actions generated by LinkedIn’s 171 million members in the U.S., looking across four pillars: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. 

Covid-19: A Global Perspective  everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society, and the general public .......... COVID-19 has killed more than 850,000 people. It has plunged the world into a recession that is likely to get worse. And many countries are bracing for another surge in cases. .............  we argue for a collaborative response. There is no such thing as a national solution to a global crisis. All countries must work together to end the pandemic and begin rebuilding economies. The longer it takes us to realize that, the longer it will take (and the more it will cost) to get back on our feet. ..........  How bad the pandemic gets and how long it lasts is largely within the world’s control. 

Coronavirus News (238)

 In The Epicenter Of Mexico's Epicenter, Feeling Like A Trapped Animal  No part of the world has been as devastated by the pandemic as Latin America. Mexico, Brazil, Peru and other Latin American countries — hobbled by weak health systems, severe inequality and government indifference — have several of the highest deaths per capita from the virus in the world. ............ By the first week of September, the 10 countries with the highest deaths per capita were all in Latin America or the Caribbean. ..........  Poverty circumscribes life, with chronic water shortages. Hundreds of thousands live day by day, far more fearful of hunger than any virus. ............ Starvation haunted people who had never considered themselves poor, and rituals that had bound the community for generations were scrapped, including one of the biggest Christian celebrations in Latin America, which was canceled for the first time in more than 150 years. ............... People could wear masks, and distance as much as possible, but almost no one could afford to stay home. They had to keep working. ...........  The region is now bracing for one of the world’s worst economic crises. The old wounds of inequality are growing worse, and the poor will add another 45 million people to their ranks ........... Some officials are bracing for a lost decade. .............  Mr. Arriaga’s own attempts to stay away from the market lasted only a month before he blew through his life savings and trudged back to work in fear. ............... “Look around,” he said. “You see anyone here dying?” Many would, very soon. ........... “We survived the War of Reform, the Revolution and the 1985 earthquake,” lamented Tito Dominguez, one of the chief organizers, “and we’ve never had to do this.” .......... Hospitals began to fill and the plaintive wail of ambulances became a nighttime soundtrack. ........... Some claimed that the virus was a Chinese conspiracy, others that bleach was a cure. Even President Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered his own theories, contending that a clean conscience helped prevent infection. ........... “I’ve heard government is paying people to claim their loved ones died from Covid,” Ms. Aquino whispered. “I have two friends who were offered money.” At best, the rumors sowed confusion and doubt. At worst, they were a death sentence. ............. “I don’t care about this virus,” he said, dropping onto a plastic stool, nearly toppling over. “I have no way to survive.” ..........  After his father got sick, Mr. Arriaga fled the city, decamping to his mother’s house in the town of Chalco. For the first time in five years, he took time off. It felt strange, like a guilty pleasure. He used to joke that his dream was to sleep until 10 a.m., if only for one day. ............ “It was really beautiful, just spending time with my mom and brother and sister,” he said. “For all the bad things that happened, at least this was a gift.” ..............  And at every level, there is simply less. Fewer clients. Fewer sales. And a looming sense that the worst still lies ahead. ............ “You have no idea what it feels like to be unable to feed your family,” he said. “I never thought it could get this bad in Mexico.”   

Covid World Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 31,746,600 people, according to official counts. As of Wednesday evening, at least 973,500 people have died, and the virus has been detected in nearly every country ............... The outbreak was initially defined by a series of shifting epicenters — including Wuhan, China; Iran; northern Italy; Spain; and New York. Cases worldwide leveled off in April after social distancing measures were put in place in many of the areas with early outbreaks. ............. After case numbers fell steadily in April and May, cases in the United States are growing again at about the same rapid pace as when infections were exploding in New York City in late March. But the hotspots are now mainly spread across the southern and western parts of the country. ..............  there are four factors that most likely play a role: how close you get to an infected person; how long you are near that person; whether that person expels viral droplets on or near you; and how much you touch your face afterwards. ..........  Wash your hands often. Anytime you come in contact with a surface outside your home, scrub with soap for at least 20 seconds, rinse and then dry your hands with a clean towel. Avoid touching your face. The virus can spread when our hands come into contact with the virus, and we touch our nose, mouth or eyes. Try to keep your hands away from your face unless you have just recently washed them.

Fauci finally loses his patience with Rand Paul  the four or five things: of masks, social distancing, outdoors more than indoors, avoiding crowds and washing hands—” ....... New York adopted some of the toughest measures, and it now has the third-lowest per-capita case rate among the 50 states.  

Massive genetic study shows coronavirus mutating and potentially evolving amid rapid U.S. spread The largest U.S. genetic study of the virus, conducted in Houston, shows one viral strain outdistancing all of its competitors, and many potentially important mutations. ...........  Coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 are relatively stable as viruses go, because they have a proofreading mechanism as they replicate. ......... the strong possibility that the virus, as it has moved through the population, has become more transmissible, and that this “may have implications for our ability to control it.” ........... “Wearing masks, washing our hands, all those things are barriers to transmissibility, or contagion, but as the virus becomes more contagious it statistically is better at getting around those barriers” ............. As people gain immunity, either through infections or a vaccine, the virus could be under selective pressure to evade the human immune response. ...............  as the virus interacts with our bodies and our immune systems, it may be learning new tricks that help it respond to its host.  

Coronavirus News (237)

 What Two Billion People Pay Attention to Is Still in the Hands of a Few Companies

Microsoft Had a Crazy Idea to Put Servers Under Water—and It Totally Worked

Three Steps for Creating a More Equitable Workplace

Are You Ready for the Quantum Computing Revolution?  Quantum physics has already changed our lives. Thanks to the invention of the laser and the transistor — both products of quantum theory — almost every electronic device we use today is an example of quantum physics in action. We may now be on the brink of a second quantum revolution as we attempt to harness even more of the power of the quantum world. ......... Although quantum theory is over a century old, the current quantum revolution is based on the more recent realization that uncertainty — a fundamental property of quantum particles — can be a powerful resource. ............  In the quantum world, we must use the language of probability, rather than certainty. ......... the revolutionary idea behind quantum information processing is that quantum uncertainty — a fuzzy in-between “superposition” of 0 and 1 — is actually not a bug, but a feature. It provides new levers for more powerful ways to communicate and process data. .............. While mathematical encryption techniques are vulnerable to being cracked by powerful enough computers, cracking quantum encryption would require violating the laws of physics. ............  quantum computers are fundamentally different from current classical computers. The two are as different as a car and a horse and cart. A car is based on harnessing different laws of physics compared to a horse and cart. It gets you to your destination faster and to new destinations previously out of reach. ............ quantum teleportation, where information encoded in quantum particles disappears in one location and is exactly (but not instantaneously) recreated in another location far away. While that sounds like sci-fi, this new form of data transmission could be a vital component of a future quantum internet. .............  A particularly important application of quantum computers might be to simulate and analyze molecules for drug development and materials design. ..........  solving complex optimization tasks and performing fast searches of unsorted data ............  Given the current state of the field, it’s not clear when or if the full power of quantum computing will be accessible. ............ Nobody could have predicted the myriad ways that classical computers impact every aspect of our lives. Predicting quantum applications is equally challenging.  

Coronavirus cabinet concludes: Full lockdown beginning Friday Blue and White ministers accuse PM of using closure to mute protesters · Nearly 7,000 people diagnosed in one day ............  The country is heading back into a complete lockdown which is to begin Friday and is likely to last until at least the end of the holidays. .......... The lockdown is expected to be more stringent than the one in March, and should include shuttering synagogues, reducing the number of people who can protest, closing all nonessential businesses and markets, reducing public transportation routes and allowing citizens to gather only within their nuclear families. ........... The decision comes on the day that almost 7,000 people were diagnosed with coronavirus in a 24-hour period – unprecedented numbers. ...........  The closure will cost an estimated NIS 35 billion ($10b.) if the lockdown lasts three weeks. .............  There were 6,948 people diagnosed with the virus on Tuesday, the Health Ministry showed Wednesday evening – some 11.7% of the 61,165 people screened. Israel has now had 203,136 cases since the start of the pandemic ........... new restrictions to stop the coronavirus from burning across the country ............   “I am fighting for the lives of the citizens of Israel... We are at war – wake up!” 

Coronavirus News (236)

China must deliver on opening up promises ahead of Xi Jinping’s ‘last chance’ EU virtual summit next week President Xi Jinping is expected to take part in a virtual summit with European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Monday The talks are seen as key as Beijing tries to convince Europe it is sincere about opening its markets and free trade ahead of the US presidential election

Coronavirus: Chinese vaccine ready for use in November, top scientist says Clinical trials have been progressing smoothly and preparations are being made to go into mass production, CDC’s chief biosafety expert Wu Guizhen says Wu says she was inoculated herself in April and ‘has felt quite good’ since

What the World Can Learn From Life Under Tokyo’s Rail Tracks

Nepal’s remittance villages New book on overseas labour migrants details the good, bad and ugly about dependence on money they send home

नेपालकाे रेल यातायातमा अर्काे यात्रा शुरु (फाेटाे फिचर)

Sagoon

NASA Has Figured Out a New Way to Safely Land on the Moon How to land on the Moon without a human pilot.

Ford VP Disses Cybertruck, Calling Electric F-150 a “Real” Work Truck Ford has no interest in "competing for lifestyle customers."

WHO SAYS EUROPE IS HEADED INTO ANOTHER POTENTIAL PANDEMIC CRISIS "WE HAVE A VERY SERIOUS SITUATION UNFOLDING BEFORE US."  ...... “pandemic fatigue” is causing numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to surge in parts of Europe ....... Numbers are rising in both France and Spain. In some instances, the number of new cases is outpacing peak numbers back in April. Both countries even surpassed the per capita-adjusted numbers in the US. .............  this autumn could look especially bad, considering the fast-approaching flu season. 

A BRAZILIAN CITY MAY HAVE HAD ENOUGH COVID-19 CASES TO REACH HERD IMMUNITY IS THIS IN STORE FOR ALL OF US? ...... Coronavirus cases in the city of Manaus, Brazil are on the decline — and experts suspect it’s because so many people already caught COVID-19 there that it’s now too hard for the virus to spread to new people. ......... about 66.1 percent of residents of Manaus were infected with COVID-19 at some point, which falls in line with the percentages that epidemiologists previously predicted would be necessary to establish herd immunity.  

Coronavirus News (235)

 Nancy Pelosi unveils details of stimulus deal to avoid government shutdown 

How Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ Saved Particle Physics Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years. 

Chief Justice Roberts’s lifelong crusade against voting rights, explained He has fought to undermine voting rights his entire career. 

11 ways to fix America’s fundamentally broken democracy A plan for the democratic revolution America needs.

Despair at CDC after Trump influence: 'I have never seen morale this low'

Republicans will replace RBG but Democrats hold the trump cards – no, really

Climate Change Increases Fire Risk

‘You can win this!’: how Beto O'Rourke is becoming Joe Biden’s greatest ally

Coffee Rust Is Going to Ruin Your Morning Coffee plants were supposed to be safe on this side of the Atlantic. But the fungus found them.

How to Break Out of Your Social Media Echo Chamber Platforms like Facebook are designed to profit from humans' confirmation bias. Here's how to restore balance to your feed........  social media platforms ensure we only get a single side of every story. ........ Social media companies therefore rely on adaptive algorithms to assess our interests and flood us with information that will keep us scrolling. The algorithms ignore the recency and frequency of what our friends are posting and instead focus on what we “like,” “retweet,” and “share” to keep feeding content that is similar to what we’ve indicated makes us comfortable.

A Breakdown of the Biden Policy Platform: Five Key Takeaways

Employee Engagement: Making a Difference

Preparing for What’s Ahead: The Case of Sonoma County Winegrowers

What Will the World Look Like in 2030?  while these trends have been gathering pace for years, the pandemic is accelerating many of them .......... I am very bullish on sub-Saharan Africa because of their demographic dynamism, and because the biggest cities in Africa are growing and creating an expanding middle class. Now, only maybe 15% of the sub-Saharan African population is middle class. But that proportion is growing. That will change the world, because Africa will soon become the second most populous region in the world. ..........  As a result of the pandemic, technology adoption has been progressing much faster, out of necessity. .........  We may have to consider very seriously ideas such as a universal basic income ........... universal basic income also has a business case. Remember, two-thirds of the American economy is [made up of household] consumption. If people don’t have jobs or don’t have well-paying jobs, then we need to compensate for that. ............  But if we add other functions or other uses to those digital tokens — like if they will help us vote, keep politicians in check or provide incentives for people to save the environment — then there is a bright future ahead for digital tokens. So instead of digital currency, I would say digital tokens, which would include a currency component to them. .......... and the pandemic only exacerbates inequality. Not everyone can work from the home, and therefore they have to expose themselves to the virus while taking public transportation to go to work. ........ Millennials right now are suffering from — for a second time during their adult lifetimes — a very difficult labor market. ........ We need to focus on two things. One is international collaboration among governments when it comes to climate change, but also in other areas like trade, where it is completely absent right now. The second one, which is the one that I push in my book, is we as individuals need to take ownership of this. We need to be less wasteful. We need to economize our resources. We need to be more pro-environment in our own behavior as consumers. 

Coronavirus News (234)

China invites EU leaders to ‘see real situation in Xinjiang’ amid claims of Uygur detention and abuse ‘We have always welcomed friends … to go to Xinjiang for a walk,’ says Chinese foreign ministry Previous foreign delegations to the home of Uygur minorities have been carefully controlled, limited in scope and labelled Chinese propaganda tools ........  the invitation had been extended during a virtual summit on Monday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and three EU leaders: European Council president Charles Michel, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. ...........  Reuters reported in November that the EU had rejected the offer because China had set unreasonable conditions – such as saying the delegation could not discuss human rights issues – and refused to allow a meeting with Xinjiang’s top official, Communist Party boss Chen Quanguo. ......... Beijing has been the subject of international condemnation for the detention camps it operates tin Xinjiang. ........  According to Beijing, the centres are “pre-emptive measures against extremism” that offer “trainees” jobs and other life skills. Late last year, Xinjiang officials claimed most of the Uygurs in the centres had “graduated” and returned to society. 

China must deliver on opening up promises ahead of Xi Jinping’s ‘last chance’ EU virtual summit next week President Xi Jinping is expected to take part in a virtual summit with European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Monday The talks are seen as key as Beijing tries to convince Europe it is sincere about opening its markets and free trade ahead of the US presidential election   

Coronavirus News (233)

There won’t be enough coronavirus vaccines for a return to normal life until 2022, WHO scientist says The need for social distancing and mask wearing will continue next year, leading World Health Organisation scientist predicts Negotiations ongoing for US and China to participate in the WHO’s global alliance of equitable vaccine distribution ...........  “The way that people are picturing it is that in January you have vaccines for the whole world and things will start going back to normal – it is not how it works” ..........  people in China would have access to locally developed vaccines as early as November or December. ..........  hundreds of thousands of Chinese had already been vaccinated .............  There were 92 low-income countries eligible for free vaccines subsidised by wealthy countries and donors

Trump: Americans will develop ‘herd mentality’, coronavirus vaccine weeks away Trump denies playing down virus, floats ‘herd mentality’ strategy instead of ‘herd immunity’ US president said a US vaccine could be three or four weeks away, before the election on November 3  ......... US President Donald Trump said that a coronavirus vaccine may be available within a month – an acceleration of even his own optimistic predictions – but added that the pandemic could go away by itself. ........... Experts including top US government infectious diseases doctor Anthony Fauci say vaccine approval is more likely toward the end of the year. ..........  Returning to one of his most controversial views on the virus, that has ravaged the economy and which government scientists say will remain a danger for some time, Trump insisted “it is going to disappear”. ........... Challenged about how the virus would go away by itself, he said “you’ll develop like a herd mentality”. .............. said “a lot of people don’t want to wear masks and people don’t think masks are good”. .........  Asked what people he meant, Trump answered: “Waiters”. “They come over and they serve you and they have a mask,” he said. “I saw it the other day when they were serving me and they’re playing with the mask. I’m not blaming them. I’m just saying what happens: They’re playing with the mask. So the mask is over, and they’re touching it, and then they’re touching the plate, and that can’t be good.” .............. 52 per cent of adults do not trust Trump’s statements about an upcoming coronavirus vaccine, compared to 26 per cent who do.   

Scientific American magazine backs Joe Biden in its first-ever White House endorsement Editors say they feel ‘compelled’ to back Democratic candidate’s effort to unseat Trump in coming election Move prompted by US president’s scepticism of scientific experts and handling of pandemic ........... The magazine's editors wrote that they felt “compelled” to back Biden in his effort to unseat President Donald Trump. Scientific American cited Trump’s handling of Covid-19 and his scepticism of expert opinion and mainstream science on issues such as climate change as the impetus for its decision. ........... “The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the US and its people – because he rejects evidence and science” .........  “Joe Biden, in contrast, comes prepared with plans to control Covid-19, improve health care, reduce carbon emissions and restore the role of legitimate science in policymaking. He solicits expertise and has turned that knowledge into solid policy proposals.”  

What the World Can Learn From Life Under Tokyo’s Rail Tracks 

Scientific American has never endorsed a presidential candidate in our 175-year history—until now.

The 2020 election is literally a matter of life and death. We urge you to vote for health, science and Joe Biden for President.https://t.co/8TlH7shjFn

— Scientific American (@sciam) September 15, 2020

Trump, who is president, just tried to blame Joe Biden, who is not president, for not implementing a national mask mandate.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 16, 2020

Sometimes it’s hard to see the fo rest for the exploding trees

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) September 15, 2020

Trump isn’t president, he’s basically a trash fire.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 15, 2020

Reminder that the Republican Party is the only major political party anywhere in the world that denies the reality of climate change.

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) September 15, 2020

The @KamalaHarris de-planing videos & her completely appropriate self-confidence every time are quickly becoming one of my favorite things about this campaign.🙌 https://t.co/rPxas1KRkj

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) September 15, 2020

Maybe one day, like a miracle, it will disappear. But I think the safer course of action is to make sure you vote.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) September 15, 2020

Science knows.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) September 15, 2020

Look, it's Joe Biden's flying basement https://t.co/lVhzMqCFkj

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 15, 2020

Guys, literally everything @realDonaldTrump does is fake. He hired models for his announcement. But, since we're talking about stock pictures & footage, allow me...

— Kevin Cate (@KevinCate) September 15, 2020

Mrs. Vice President. pic.twitter.com/wvmrgFLmoa

— Jill Biden For FLOTUS (@Jillbiden46) September 15, 2020

Last night when I was in the ER, I asked the absolutely wonderful doctor taking care of me if, five weeks into #COVID19, I were still contagious. He said he didn't know, adding, "The CDC has guidelines for this, but I don't trust the CDC anymore."

That's where we are, folks.

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 15, 2020

I can't get over the entire Trump team thinks that a peace agreement between countries that have never been at war means that they've achieved peace in the Middle East.

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) September 15, 2020

Climate change is real. pic.twitter.com/iy1uuRpyQr

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 15, 2020

I deleted my account on facebook a few years ago. Whenever i have a conversation with someone who spouts crazy stuff and with no basis in facts, i ask where did they read or hear that. In nearly every case, the answer is....Facebook.

— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) September 15, 2020

"We can't have a president that's mentally lost," Trump says.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 15, 2020

Coronavirus News (232)

France reports highest daily coronavirus spike since pandemic began, India sees record rise There have been more than 28.7 million COVID-19 cases confirmed worldwide ........ domestic air travel in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic, has returned to pre-pandemic levels. ....... Antarctica is still free of COVID-19. Nearly 1,000 scientists have wintered on the ice and are getting a peek of the sun for the first time in months. Now the task is making sure incoming colleagues don’t bring the virus. 

No one is coming to save the global economy this time The coronavirus depression will be much worse than the last worldwide recession, because this time no country is strong enough to rescue the global economy. ..........  Skipping a recession doesn't come cheap. China spent half a trillion dollars avoiding the financial crisis, and in the years that followed it built up a massive, opaque shadow banking system that it has since been trying to tamp down since 2015. This year China's total debt – corporate, household, and government — climbed to 303% of GDP. ........... Since economic transactions are mostly human interactions, you can see the problem there. ......... our first wave never ended. We have handled the coronavirus badly. The US unemployment rate is sitting at 8.3%. Testing is splotchy. Washington was able to get its act together to blunt the full force of the coronavirus' onset, but now Democrats and Republicans are locked in an argument over whether or not the country needs another rescue package. It does. In fact, the whole world needs it.

A top disease expert is warning of 'another 12 to 14 months of a really hard road ahead of us,' and says the US has no national plan to stop it  the US doesn't have a national plan to stop the spread of COVID in the fall and winter. ...........  Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said Americans should expect to "hunker down" in the upcoming fall and winter months. ............. 62% of adults in the US are worried "political pressure from the Trump administration" could push the Food and Drug Administration to approve a vaccine "without making sure that it is safe and effective." ....... I don't go back and replay February and March. I play right now. ..........  "We have 50 state plans that in many cases are so different, so divided, and not necessarily based on good science. So, yeah, we got a long road ahead." 

Israel to reinstate strict three-week coronavirus lockdown 

Why A COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Would Press Pause how temporarily halting a trial can sometimes mean the process is working as intended.

The U.S. Doesn’t Want To Join A Global Effort To Stop A Global Pandemic

Coronavirus News (231)

 A new study warns the virus is ‘a life-threatening disease in people of all ages.’

China-India border dispute: both sides see need for troops to quickly disengage Foreign ministers meet in Moscow for first time since Himalayan border tensions turned deadly But lack of trust undermines prospects for progress, observers say

The real economic reforms China needs to become less dependent on exports Despite talk of a new ‘dual circulation’ strategy, China’s slowing economy will only become more dependent on exports unless it overhauls its investment-led growth model to truly boost consumption There are efficiencies to be reaped in focusing resources on megacities and stripping away bureaucracy, but political will is lacking

“Unprecedented”: What’s behind the California, Oregon, and Washington wildfires The size, speed, and timing of the wildfires, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, have created a unique disaster. .......  “The grass is so dry, the temperatures are so hot, and the winds are so heavy ... and these conditions are exacerbated by the changing climate.”  ....... a strange dry lightning storm near the San Francisco Bay Area in August led to more than 11,000 lightning strikes and triggered more than 300 fires in its wake. ...... One hallmark of the recent blazes has been how quickly they gained ground, spreading over hundreds of thousands of acres in just a few hours. It’s a sign of just how much dry fuel was ready to burn. ...... and the smoke is affecting the health of millions now subjected to some of the dirtiest air in the world. 

Fauci says US won't get back to normal until late 2021 

Reed Hastings: ‘Netflix is still in challenger status’   Netflix hates rules. Staff face no limit on holiday, nor do they need expenses approved. Everyone is deliberately paid more than their market rate — much more. “Brilliant jerks” are sacked. Big risk-taking is encouraged. Openness and transparency — “sunshining” — applies to almost everything, at least internally. Market-sensitive earnings data is shared with 700 staff (most companies treat them like nuclear codes). Individual salaries are searchable too. It is, in theory, the antithesis of bureaucracy described by the sociologist Max Weber: “Nothing but those little cogs, little men clinging to little jobs”. At Netflix “F&R” — freedom and responsibility — is the creed. ..........   But there is a hard edge. This company’s mantra is being “a team, not a family”. So good employees are subject to the so-called “keeper test”, where adequate performance is rewarded with “a generous severance package”. Radical candour extends to near-constant discussion of whether employees are a Netflix fit. It smacks of nonstop group therapy, with the risk of eviction at any moment, pour décourager les autres. “If your people choose to abuse the freedom you give them, you need to fire them and fire them loudly,” Hastings writes. ..........  “Hypermasculine . . . and downright aggressive” was co-author Meyer’s first reaction to Netflix’s culture. But for all the self-reflection, readers still might feel something is amiss. The system has an unfalsifiable quality, an answer to every flaw. But all systems have a fundamental weakness, don’t they? .........  the Netflix approach suits places where innovation trumps the need for consistency or safety. “At Netflix it has really been about, you know, tolerating some level of chaos and error, so that you stimulate more innovation . . . but then the question is, as we went from 200 people to 500 to 1,000 to 5,000, how do you not have the chaos overwhelm you?” ........   “If you just say no rules, then it is kind of anarchy,” he replies. “The question is, can you manage through values and context, so everyone is doing the right thing without central co-ordination? It’s the jazz metaphor versus the orchestra.”  .........  Hastings, though, describes himself as “a pretty average kid with no particular talent”. He grew up in the Boston suburbs, joined Marine officer training, then dropped out, heading to Swaziland with the Peace Corps. After MIT turned him down, his break was a place on Stanford’s computer science graduate programme. ..........  In business he fell into being a “people leader” without many people skills. ......... the unforgettable one-to-one meeting where he was ousted as chief executive. Hastings walked in, straddled a chair, then laid out Randolph’s weaknesses in a PowerPoint presentation. ..........  it is difficult to take your co-founder and then slide them out. I wanted to have a really clear rationale and explain why it was right for the business. And at that time I thought in PowerPoint ............  “I was big on clarity of thought, you know, on being precise.” ........ Hastings proudly takes “very few decisions”. ........ Beyond the US, Hastings calls Netflix “small fry”. Most of its growth is outside America, and its business model depends on keeping that expansion going. ...........  Netflix has no ads. No live sport ........ he once said Netflix wasn’t “in the truth to power business”? Hastings pauses. “It isn’t the best phrase I have ever used,” he replies. “What I meant is that we are not in hard news . . . We’re entertainment. You are right that there is a lot of truth in entertainment.” ............  “There is a movie theatre with a long line in front of the title: The Reassuring Lie. Then there is The Inconvenient Truth — and there are two people standing in line.” ...... Hastings, it turns out, remembered it slightly wrong. It was in the Christian Science Monitor. And there is actually nobody queueing for The Inconvenient Truth.

Coronavirus News (230)

 A New Breakthrough Just Brought City-Wide Quantum Communication Into Reach 

An Army of Microscopic Robots Is Ready to Patrol Your Body

How Firms Can Become More Resilient in the New Normal

Getting the Job Done: How Immigrants Expand the U.S. Economy

What Will the World Look Like in 2030?

Oxford Scientists: These Are Final Steps We’re Taking to Get Our Coronavirus Vaccine Approved

Yes, COVID-19 Kills Younger Adults, Too — "A life-threatening disease for people of all ages"

Coronavirus has sped up the digital revolution, with China leading the way From live-streaming sales to building lasting business relationships online to adopting AI in manufacturing, Chinese companies have risen to the challenge of the pandemic and offer the rest of the world a glimpse of the future

With Shenzhen poised in the wings, is Hong Kong’s time in the sun over after protests, Covid-19 pandemic and US-China row? Hong Kong’s premier position has weakened in the past year as it was rocked by months-long civil unrest and hit by economic recession amid pandemic Shenzhen appeals to investors, start-ups, but experts say former British colony still has the edge, for now

China’s inward-facing ‘dual circulation’ strategy leaves many wondering where domestic demand will come from A lack of purchasing power among the people is flying in the face of Beijing’s economic plan to create a massive domestic market to curb nation’s reliance on exports Beneath surface of China’s weak consumer spending is a national wealth-distribution system that favours the state and the wealthy instead of average households

Covid-19: A bad flu season colliding with the pandemic could be overwhelming 

Experts project autumn surge in coronavirus cases, with a peak after Election Day

AMERICANS’ TEETH ARE CRACKING IN HUGE NUMBERS DENTISTS ARE BUSIER THAN EVER DURING THE PANDEMIC. HERE'S WHY.

Gene-Hacked “Bodybuilder” Mice Stayed Ripped on Space Station Eventually, they want to try the same genetic modification on human astronauts.

Facebook wants its AR glasses to give wearers superhearing

AngelList pioneers rolling VC funds in pivot to SaaS

Peloton is betting you'll never go back to the gym

Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving Capability' falls short of its name

Coronavirus: what does suspension of Oxford-AstraZeneca trials tell us about vaccine development? Independent committee must investigate any possible link between participant’s unexplained illness and the trial vaccine Thousands have received test vaccine and the company plans to enrol up to 50,000 volunteers worldwide for the last stage of trials

India-China border: Tibetans at Pangong Tso race to help amid warnings military face-off could take ‘any trajectory’ Families of those who fled after Beijing sent troops into Tibet in 1950 are now helping New Delhi supply its forward bases in the icy heights of Ladakh Soldiers from both sides are reportedly in eyeball-to-eyeball proximity as foreign ministers Wang Yi and S. Jaishankar are expected to meet in Moscow

China debates cutting US access to drugs as hostilities spike Some government advisers say China should cut drug exports to the US if Washington increases sanctions Others contend it could be immoral and speed up relocation of US pharmaceutical firms out of China

China-India border dispute: armed parachute drills by elite PLA forces point to military build-up CCTV reports over 300 Chinese troops conducted a jump over the Tibetan Plateau Drawing on elite forces from various units for high-altitude airdrops suggests China is preparing for potential conflict, analyst says

How does the COVID recession compare?