tingilinde

america's broken vaccine data system

A no-bid contract and a steaming mess.

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The explanation for how Deloitte could be the only approved source for a product like VAMS, despite having no direct experience in the field, comes down to onerous federal contracting requirements, Schank says. They often require a company to have a long history of federal contracts, which blocks smaller or newer companies that might be a better fit for the task.

Those inefficiencies are magnified in the health sector. America’s heavily privatized medical system was held together by duct tape and bubble gum long before the biggest public health crisis of our lifetimes.

“The health-care software industry is enormous, and it exists largely because it’s privatized, it’s not standardized,” says Stone. “There are a lot of free-market inefficiencies. And the country doesn’t have a public health infrastructure, so there isn’t any real drive to fix it.”

“You think about the industries that have been transformed by technology—someone said, How do we get a pizza to your house faster? That’s a competitive advantage,” he says. “That has not happened in American health care.”

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the pitfalls of reconciliation and a need for justice

A lesson from 1878

“There was a right side and a wrong side in the late war, which no sentiment ought to cause us to forget,” Douglass declared. “[W]hile to-day we should have malice toward none, and charity toward all, it is no part of our duty to confound right with wrong, or loyalty with treason.”  Frederick Douglass

 

 

 

explaining these ponds

if you're looking for mask tests...

covid-19 and understanding smell

fascinating piece that goes beyond the covid problem

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Many patients were reporting loss of taste as well as smell, but this, too, was complicated. Thanks to a process called oral referral, which causes us to perceive what’s happening in the nose as if it’s inside the mouth, smell is integral to our experience of taste. People often struggle to separate the two, certain that they have lost their sense of taste when the taste buds — which detect only sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami flavors — remain fully functional. There was also the question of the sensations we experience through neither olfaction nor taste, but via the nerves of our trigeminal system: the coolness of mint, the spice of peppers, the bubble of carbonation. Were these also affected? (The three, together, are known as our chemosensory senses: those we use to detect the presence of chemicals in our environment.) Answering these questions could help solve the most urgent puzzle: What exactly was happening inside patients to make their sense of smell disappear in such an unusual way? Could Covid-related smell loss teach us anything new about how the virus worked? Or about how we did?

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a new spanish bullet-train

Madrid to Barcelona for as low as about six bucks.  (that's roughly a Boston to Washington DC scale trip)

 

 

tim cook lays into facebook

Apple's CEO at the International Dave Privacy Day event. 

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Cook laid into Facebook in all but name, accusing it of manipulating public news consumption and exploiting user data collection in order to serve hyper-targeted ads while simultaneously fueling political polarization and the spread of misinformation.

"What are the consequences," he asked, "of prioritizing conspiracy theories and violent incitement simply because of their high rates of engagement? What are the consequences of not just tolerating, but rewarding content that undermines public trust in life-saving vaccinations? What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups?"

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From his talk (not in the article)

"At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement"

 

a tip of the hat to David.

Apple is not a clean player, but comparing the two is equivalent is silly.  It's important to remember than you're the product if the service is free.

 

córy doctorow on gamestop

One of the better pieces. 

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Recall that all of this is only possible because Robinhood lets average joes buy and sell stocks for free. How can Robinhood give away a service that costs it money and still stay in business? (Hint: They're not making it up in volume).

The answer is: surveillance. Robinhood partners with institutional investors and lets them spy on what the average joes are buying and selling. Sometimes, this is just "market intelligence" ("Hey, people like fidget spinners") but the main event is front-running.

If you're paying Robinhood to tell you what assets its customers are about to buy, you can go out and buy them up first and sell them for a profit to Robinhood's customers.

Or you can buy some of that asset up because you know its price will go up once Robinhood's customers orders are filled.

Or both.

Citadel Securities is Robinhood's main institutional investor partner. Founded by billionaire Ken Griffin, they combine tech (high-frequency trading), an "asset manager" (they spend other peoples' money) and a "market maker" (they sell things like options).

Citadel gets to see all those r/wallstreetbets buy orders before they're filled. They can fill some of those orders, making a profit. They can buy some of the same stock for themselves, making a profit. They can sell options, making a profit.

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finding your way in old brooklyn

A fascinating piece on the history of street names and numbers in Brooklyn. (via The New York Times)

 

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Walk a mile in a Brooklynite’s shoes, whether on brownstone-lined blocks or the streets filled with vinyl-sided houses, and you’re bound to notice address plates crowded with fractions. On Norman Avenue in Greenpoint, you’ll find three in one short stretch: 68½, 72½ and 78½.

When hailing an Uber, repeating street names might give you pause: Are you going to Washington Street in Dumbo or Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill?
Today’s Brooklyn map is a relic of a massive 19th-century project to renumber every building and rename dozens of streets — an example of how decisions made by bureaucrats can leave an imprint on urban life for decades or even centuries.

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loons

 

Margorie Taylor Greeene never fails to lower the bar