Here in the UK we have just had over 60,000 deaths from Coronavirus. Hospitalisations and deaths are ramping up again. I think that there is a very high possibility that this virus will become endemic, and our society will have to adjust to live with it. On the other hand, some countries in the Asia-Pacific region have very low case rates, and seem to be controlling the pandemic. I think that there is a definite possibility of a two-speed world economy, with much faster growth going to those countries that have managed to control the pandemic.
Recent articles I've been reading
Over the last week or so, I’ve enjoyed the following blog posts / twitter threads.
La Revolution
We just finished watching “La Revolution” on Netflix. Very cool! It’s a lush, gritty series based around the French Revolution, but with a supernatural element. The cinematography is excellent. The story is gripping. Both Helen and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Sufficiently Advanced Technology
I was listening to The Economist “Babbage” podcast yesterday, and was really struck my something Timoni West said. She mentioned Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law - “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. She then said; “The reverse is also true - any sufficiently rigorous technology doesn’t feel like technology any more”.
Brexit, no deal looming?
This morning the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, told the UK public to start preparing for a “No Deal” Brexit. Most commentators I follow on Twitter believe that there will be a trade deal - albeit a thin one. The Guardian has what I think is a good analysis of today’s analysis.
A behavioural model of the coronavirus
There is an interesting section in this letter from Bronte Capital about developing a behavioural model of the Coronavirus. The letter points out that as people's perceptions about the danger of going out and socialising increases, their behaviour will change which will lower the R rate in the epidemiology model. Other factors are obviously important. Without a good healthcare and welfare system, the citizens of countries like the U.S. have a greater incentive to go out and work despite an increase in perceived risk.
New blog engine up and running
My blog is now live running my new blog engine. I decided to replace Wordpress with a lighter-weight and (hopefully) faster engine that I wrote myself. I started writing it towards the end of December, 2019. I stopped working on it for a long time, and then went back to it a couple of weeks ago. It should emulate the functionality of my old Wordpress site pretty well.
Seeing Phil Perform
Today we saw Phil (a friend) perform at the Hard Rock Cafe at Surfers Paradise. He was singing and playing guitar with another guy. They were playing Sound Garden (and related music). It was lovely.
Timing code within functions in Unity
I had to time some C# code within a function in Unity3D. Without the professional version of Unity, you don't have a profiler. The code I used was the following:
long startTime = DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks;
// some code you want to time
long now = DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks;
long tm1 = now - startTime;
startTime = now;
// more code you want to time
now = DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks;
long tm2 = now - startTime;
startTime = now;
// etc
Debug.Log("tm1 = " + tm1);
Debug.Log("tm2 = " + tm2);This worked for me and enable me to determine which part of the code was taking the time (not the part that I was expecting!).
There may be better ways to do this, but this worked for me.
Causes of Death in the US...
... versus media coverage...
From https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2019/05/Causes-of-death-in-USA-vs.-media-coverage.png
