Featured Links - Septermber 3, 2027

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

Summer flowers beginning to fade

• Minimal Influenza Virus Transmission from Touching Contaminated Face Masks: a Laboratory Study. "Somewhat reassuringly, today we've a study in Nature that suggests that concerns over viral transfer from touching a contaminated face mask may be overblown." If I could have gotten COVID by touching my mask, I'd have had it long ago. 
• Financialisation: a 21st century commercial determinant of health equity. " The aim of this Viewpoint is to expand the understanding of the commercial determinants of health to explicitly include the financial system and present key plausible pathways via which the financialisation of advanced economies influences public health and planetary health equity. The global public health community must pay close attention to these key commercial determinants of health. It is now crucial to reduce the power of financial actors and hold financial actors accountable."
• R.I.P. Journalist, Editor and Counterculture Enthusiast, Steve Silberman. I never met Steve Silberman but I have been reading him for years and have corresponded with him a bit here Mastodon. I always enjoyed reading what he had to say. I will miss seeing him his posts and I am sure  I won't be the only one.
• 2024 Dragon Awards Winners. These were awarded at DragonCon in Atlanta over the Labour Day Weekend. Starter Villain by John Scalzi won the Best Science Fiction Novel Award and is the next book on my TBR list.
• MAGA attacks on Kamala Harris' stepdaughter threaten to backfire on Donald Trump. "Ella Emhoff has triggered Trump's bitter bro fanbase — but an embrace of the incel vote could come back to hurt him. "
• 'Everything we found shattered our expectations': Archaeologists discover 1st astronomical observatory from ancient Egypt. "This first ancient Egyptian observatory discovered in modern times showcases advanced knowledge of astronomy and its profound link to the Egyptians' spiritual and ritualistic practices."
• String Theorists Accidentally Find a New Formula for Pi (archive.ph link). "Two physicists have come across infinitely many novel equations for pi while trying to develop a unifying theory of the fundamental forces."
• Is digital technology really swaying voters and undermining democracy? (archive.ph link) "Many fear that voters are being manipulated by political campaigns that use Facebook ads, TikTok and YouTube videos, but research reveals a more surprising story."