Contents
A four-week WHO expedition to Wuhan did not clarify the origin of the coronavirus. Social media users switch to audio, and Chinese miners leave a neighboring state without electricity
Topics of the week
- Coronavirus went unnoticed
The mission of the World Health Organization (WHO) found no traces of the leak of SARS-CoV-2 from the laboratory in Wuhan. After four weeks at the epicenter of the pandemic, an international panel of experts suggested that COVID-19 appeared two months earlier than it was first diagnosed in patients in Wuhan. WHO does not consider the version of bioterrorism.
“We are not saying that there could not have been a leak, we are saying that it is very unlikely,” – Vladimir Dedkov, Deputy Director of the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. Pasteur Rospotrebnadzor.
Now WHO experts will focus on finding the natural source of the disease. Meanwhile, Liang Wanyan, who led a team of Chinese experts who worked with the WHO, said the research needs to be expanded to other countries. And the administration of US President Joe Biden is in no hurry to take the conclusions of the WHO international commission on faith and is going to thoroughly study the reports in order to make its own independent assessment.
- The phenomenon of social networks of a new type
One of the fastest growing apps in the world, Clubhouse attracts not only millions of users, but also millions of investments. In this social network, they communicate at audio meetings and conferences. The success of a startup is explained by a good release time: the pandemic encourages people to look for new technologies for communication. Now you can sit “in the same room” with Elon Musk himself or Jared Leto, listen to their casual speech about everything in the world, and even ask a question in person. The subject matter of the content also resonated with the audience: in Clubhouse virtual rooms, deep intelligent conversations are held on a variety of topical topics. In China, this social network quickly became popular due to the lack of censorship. But this did not last long. After discussing the topic of the 1989 protests, which was taboo in the country, Clubhouse was blocked in China.
From the point of view of psychologists, a conversation without the need to connect a video or look at the interlocutors on the screen liberates and calms users who are overloaded with video content. At the same time, the network encourages participants to use real names, not nicknames. There was no similar format in popular social networks before. But Twitter has already launched one of them – Spaces, Facebook is also developing its version. Investor Mark Cuban is investing in a new Fireside app, described as a podcast platform where listeners can ask live questions to the hosts.
“Voice communication is an emerging and growing trend with a bright future. We move from text to voice and further to VR. The voice is an obvious advantage and a unique positioning of the network,” Vasily Cherny, Brand Analytics Marketing Director.
News of the week
- Roskomnadzor launched a mobile version of the service for user complaints about prohibited content on the Internet.
- The documentary film “Gunda” by Russian director Viktor Kosakovsky was included in the shortlist of contenders for the Oscars.
- The South African authorities are looking for an alternative to vaccinate the population after the withdrawal of the drug AstraZeneca.
- Iran has accused Chinese miners of massive power outages in Tehran and other cities in the country.
- Air France-KLM has performed the first passenger flight on environmentally friendly synthetic fuel.
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the telecommuting of the future: “We will use teleport, not transport.”
- Mastercard will allow transactions with cryptocurrencies as early as 2021.
“Our philosophy with regard to cryptocurrencies is simple: it is an opportunity to choose. Mastercard will not recommend the use of cryptocurrencies. But we are ready to give customers, retailers and manufacturers the opportunity to move their funds in traditional digital or cryptocurrency, as it suits them,” Raj Damodaran, Vice President of Mastercard
Week numbers
- Tesla bought $1,5 billion worth of bitcoin.
The bitcoin rate immediately jumped and exceeded the historical maximum – above $44,2 thousand. Elon Musk’s company plans to accept payments in cryptocurrency in the future.
- 42 billion rubles Private labs have started working on coronavirus tests.
According to the Department of Statistics of the PRUE. G.V. Plekhanov, in May 2020, 175,3 thousand commercial tests were performed daily in our country, and in October-December there were already about 520 thousand.
- Those arriving in the UK face a £10 fine and ten years in prison for violating the new restrictions.
From February 8, all passengers on international flights must undergo two tests for COVID-19 within ten days. Arriving from 33 “red list” countries are sent to quarantine in special hotels for £1 (about €750). The Scottish Regional Government is introducing a mandatory self-isolation regime for passengers on all international flights.
Weekly Rating
Fortune has named the most adored companies in the world. Apple has been in first place for 14 years in a row. Facebook is not on this year’s list.
Top-10 list of World’s Most Admired Companies:
Canadian eco-farm: without pesticides, but with programmers
The world’s largest commercial rooftop greenhouse is located in a former warehouse in Montreal, Canada. Lufa Farm was founded by two enthusiasts who had never grown anything before. “We said, ‘Instead of learning how the agro industry works, let’s just imagine how it should be,’” says Mohammed Hage, 39, who co-founded Lufa with Lauren Rathmell in 2009.
Today, their rooftop greenhouses are farmland right in the city. These “elevated” fields do not use pesticides and herbicides. All waste is composted, rainwater is collected and reused. And the products are delivered directly to the consumer on the day of harvest. Lufa collects part of the assortment from partners – local farmers and bakeries. Customers, or lufavors, as the company calls them, place their orders in the online store a few days before the delivery date. This is how Lufa’s suppliers know how much and what kind of product to sell.
In addition to an eco-friendly agricultural system, the company is developing a unique IT infrastructure. Our own team of programmers develops software for online sales, warehouse management, customer service, work with suppliers and other business processes.
What to listen
- Podcast “Leo Tolstoy Syndrome”, episode “How to study effectively and what does the French Revolution have to do with it.”
The authors of ten-minute essays on trends in self-development call themselves eternal students. And this time they are discussing a recently established pattern: what a person does before the learning process affects the effectiveness of assimilation of new information.
- Episode “What Innovations Does Mankind Need?” Podcast What Has Changed?
In the new episode of the Trends podcast, a “picture of the world” of innovations is collected: who is involved in them, what problems they face, what Russian developments one can be proud of. During the conversation, Mikhail Antonov, Deputy Head of the RVC Venture Fund, explained what technology competitions are and why innovations are not always implemented.
What to read
Translated from a lengthy personal blog post by Derek Lowe, Organic Chemist and Pharmaceutical Development Columnist for the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemistry World. Lowe explains why all the pharmaceutical companies in the world cannot just take and jointly produce as many doses of COVID-19 vaccines as possible. Similar claims to inhumane competition in the context of a pandemic have been heard more than once against Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna.
Even if we imagine that vaccine developers decide to share the formulation of a drug, there would still be a bottleneck in the manufacturing process. It requires special custom-made equipment, which not even a large pharmaceutical company possesses. “This is not to say that it is impossible to build new plants, but I would argue that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna (and CureVac) have already pretty much chosen the resource for this kind of expansion,” argues Derek Lowe.
What to see
The broadcast of the US National Football League Super Bowl final has been turning into a kind of elimination round of brilliant commercials for many years in a row. Corporate video masterpieces, created especially for the Super Bowl, are sent to the Cannes Lions. The AdIndex edition has made a selection of the most impressive films of the advertising genre from the game, which took place on February 7, 2021. Particularly impressive is a video from Toyota based on the story of a 13-year-old girl from a Siberian orphanage who became a Paralympic swimming champion.
Drone maker Wingcopter has raised a $22 million investment as the startup plans to build a factory in the US and participate in the supply of a COVID-19 vaccine to hard-to-reach areas. In a video that demonstrates the capabilities of Wingcopter drones, it is argued that the future is just behind this method of delivering medicines.
On February 9, 2021, the first Arab spacecraft, Hope, created in the UAE, entered the orbit of Mars. It was launched on a Japanese carrier on July 20th. The culmination of the first Arab mission to Mars was watched by the first persons of the state – the Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zeid. The almost two-hour broadcast of Hope’s approach to the “red planet” was organized with the scale of a historic event.
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