Featured Links - July 24, 2023

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

Marina on the Talbot River

The Misery: Return of Measles. "Low vaccination rates in London are an opportunity for the old scourge."

A new, thin-lensed telescope design could far surpass James Webb—goodbye mirrors, hello diffractive lenses. "A light, cheap space telescope design would make it possible to put many individual units in space at once."

Emergency lights and sirens on ambulances may do more harm than good. "Theoretically, lights and sirens save lives by parting seas of traffic to rush patients to hospitals as fast as possible. But research into them echoes Mecklenburg’s takeaways: About 5% of EMS patients benefit, clinically, from quicker transports. Meanwhile, lights and sirens have been found to only save seconds or minutes at most — and almost triple the chance of crashing with a patient onboard."

Insider: Fujifilm X-H2 Teardown and Disassembly. This is a fascinating look at what makes up a modern digital camera. The complexity and amount of computer circuitry is remarkable.

We have no idea if pesticide protections for bees actually work — a serious issue for conservation. "A new study shows pesticide research is biased towards honeybees, which could negatively impact other bee species."

"VC qanon" and the radicalization of the tech tycoons. We need a 99-percent wealth tax that kicks in after $10,000,000 or so.

People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars. "If you’ve ever let out a string of curses while fumbling to control your car’s air conditioning because it’s buried under several menus in a dang touchscreen, you’re not alone. At a time when car companies are racing to outdo each other by slathering more and more tech onto their products, people are getting increasingly fed up with their car infotainment systems."

Infant deaths surge in Texas after abortion ban. "The increase in deaths reverses a nearly 10-year decline." Predictable and predicted.