This week we have a bit of news on the new Covid variants, the craziness of the US, gamers being gamers (i.e., toxic)… but also some good news regarding roaming in the EU and the future of CRISPR. Let’s start:
Keep your masks in the closet
Because Covid is not over, and we cannot know for sure if new variants will cause trouble. It seems like the latest variations are better at infecting people who were immune to the original omicron strain, so we might see some booster shots in the future specifically designed for these evolved viruses.
What Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 variants mean for the pandemic, on Nature
COVID-19 booster shots should target omicron variants, FDA says, on The Verge
Time travelling is real
And it is happening on the USA right now. My condolences to any woman that will suffer from one of the most stupid decisions I have ever seen in that country (and the list is not short by any means). Seems like many people have less problems with kids being killed at schools than with women taking their own decisions.
Right to abortion overturned by US Supreme Court after nearly 50 years in Roe v Wade ruling, on Sky News
I Invented Gilead. The Supreme Court Is Making It Real, on The Atlantic
World leaders condemn US abortion ruling as ‘backwards step’, on The Guardian
How 9/11 shaped the world
I have shared some articles before on how 9/11 shaped the world we live in, but this week I found this new series by The Verge on the Department of Homeland Security. It is very cool to see the budget and topics they have been focused for the past few years: airport safety and surveillance, bending the law in the name of safety, invading other countries… that is quite a list.
Homeland: a special series from The Verge, on The Verge
We can’t have nice things anymore
People being jerks is nothing new, but the internet is taking this behaviour to incredible levels. This week Ron Gilbert posted a nice trailer for the upcoming video game on the Monkey Island franchise, and some idiots reacted in a toxic manner, personally attacking the people working on the game. Go play the game when it’s launched or just ignore it, but for the sake of god, let people do their thing without stupid attacks. BTW, the trailer looks super cool and I can’t wait to play it this winter.
Ron Gilbert won’t post about the new Monkey Island anymore following online abuse, on The Verge
EU delivers
One of the trinkets that the EU gave us was being able to move around with internet access on our phones without having to pay abusive fees. The thing is that the benefit had an expiration date (2022), but luckily for us, this measure has been extended for another decade. Hopefully by then we will have a global network of free access to information.
European Union keeps mobile roaming fees at bay for another decade, on TechCrunch
I am here in my mould
Really cool article on the story behind one of the most famous songs of the past few decades. I was not aware of any of it, but to be honest, it does not really surprise me. After all, we keep seeing almost every month stories about plagiarism in music, and stupid fights about who sampled what or who should be on the credits of some song. Anyway, quite the dick move from Jagger and Richards to not back a fellow musician (it is not like they really needed the money from royalties…).
‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: The Bittersweet History of “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, on The Ringer
The future is here
And we cannot even imagine what a technology such as CRISPR will enable in the following years. I have shared before some of the ideas based on it, such as fighting global warming, but the list is almost endless. There are some very important moral debates too, which makes the topic extremely interesting. You can take a look in this nice article from the New York Times.
CRISPR, 10 Years On: Learning to Rewrite the Code of Life, on The New York Times
And that’s it for the week. Stay safe!
Bonus track: Summer is officially here
Featured image from the intro sequence of Homeland
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