Are we going to have a year of this nonsense? (Sent apparently to 22+ million people, thanks @reuters). Nobody is claiming strong protection in just a few days post-vaccination, plus even 95% efficacy means occasional positives. Will they all become pointless, global headlines? pic.twitter.com/PZtV6eLEbl

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) December 30, 2020

Yes, we will have years of this nonsense. There are always allergic reactions to vaccines. Always.

Also, this vaccine is 95% effective, which is very, very good. However, give it to 10 million people, that means that it won’t work on 500,000 of them. That’s just math and completely normal for a vaccine.

I merely wish there were a vaccine against stupidity that the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers could take.

without saying your age, post a gif or image of your favorite film that was released in the year that you turned 18 https://t.co/DvuS4RMz0T pic.twitter.com/QcBljnVUJ1

— Bo Bolander (@BBolander) December 29, 2020

OK:

Guy who gets jacked so that his arguments are more convincing

— The Brossiah (@vontallboy) December 29, 2020

I’d forgotten what it’s like to be fawned over!

When I went to renew a certification recently, there were two early 30s women in the test center responsible for helping cert-seekers. I am sure they were nice people just generally, but I am equally sure I wouldn’t have been treated this way if I looked like the schlub I was two years ago.

Anyway, they were so solicitious and amiable and mildly flirty that I was almost shocked. And then I realized I was wearing one of my older t-shirts from when I was schlubby that is now tight on me.

People treat you much, much better when you are fit and strong-looking. Not out of intimidation — it’s another version of the halo effect. People want to be around me more, want to please me more, listen to me more, and treat me more respectfully, now that I have a far better body.

These two ladies were basically almost holding my hand and leading me around to do what I needed to do and the other couple of guys who came in there didn’t get that treatment.

That’s one clear advantage of being really fit that I had forgotten but now stands out for how long it was absent from my life.

An unfortunate truth:

A lot of people over the years have said that I don’t know how to have fun because I am always aloof, removed. Watchful. I never lose myself.

But I do know how to have fun: it’s conquering solar systems and accruing larger bodies of scientific knowledge so that one day, in 25 billion years or so after my trillions of workers disassemble several million supergiant stars, I can halt the expansion of the universe and prevent it flying part into nothingness.

Now that’s how you have fun.

You’re Infected With the Coronavirus. But How Infected? Knowing the amount of virus carried in the body could help doctors predict the course of a patient’s illness.

And masks exhibit protective effect for the wearer in reducing viral load, thus reducing Covid-19 severity.

Everyone wants to think in binary: am I infected or not? Do masks work or not? But that’s not how the world functions at all. There are spectra of risks, mitigation measures and outcomes. Fortunately, some of the easiest mitigation measures are also the most effective in this case (and, actually, most cases).

I am glad I started trading young because that taught me so, so much about risk and hedging, when to take the leap and when to stand back and watch the herds stampede off the cliff’s edge.

Learning from the failures of other people is so much better than being forced to learn from your own.