Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: August 30, 2021

Study finds vaccine booster shots effective as WHO Europe head says they’re ‘not a luxury’

Washington Post: “Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are highly effective against both coronavirus infection and severe covid-19, Israeli scientists reported in a new paper that supports the idea of administering a third dose as protection against the virus wanes. Researchers at a variety of Israeli institutions looked at data from the nation’s Health Ministry for 1.1 million people 60 or older this month. On July 30, Israel became the first country to make booster shots available to people in that age range who had been fully vaccinated with two shots of the Pfizer vaccine at least five months earlier. The United States plans to start offering booster shots to most people Sept. 20 if the plan is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The World Health Organization has repeatedly urged wealthy nations to hold off on booster shots of the coronavirus vaccines until people in poorer countries can get their first doses. But Hans Kluge, the head of WHO Europe, on Monday called additional doses valuable for those most at risk as he raised alarms about rising coronavirus cases on his continent.

A third dose of vaccine is not a luxury booster taking away from someone who is still waiting for a first jab,” Kluge said at a news conference. “But it’s basically a way to keep the people safe, the most vulnerable. But at the same time, we need to share. So we need to do it all.“

How to Use Your Browser’s ‘Reader Mode’ to Actually Read What You Click

Lifehacker: “Most of the time, you’re probably skimming the web instead of actually reading it. And that’s okay for quick news updates and browsing social media. But when you’ve opened up a long article that you actually want to read, things start to get difficult. You find your mind wandering, and paying attention to the… Continue Reading

6 Things You Need to Do to Prevent Getting Hacked

Wired: “There are two big reasons why people get hacked. Flaws in software and flaws in human behavior. While there’s not much you can do about coding vulnerabilities, you can change your own behavior and bad habits. Just ask former US president Donald Trump, whose Twitter password was “maga2020!” Or Boris Johnson, who revealed details… Continue Reading

Unpaywall

Unpaywall – “An open database of 29,928,647 free scholarly articles. We harvest Open Access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories, and make it easy to find, track, and use.. Get started: research – OA researchers can use Unpaywall to answer research questions about the current and historical state of open access. There are several… Continue Reading

Role of the Supreme Court in generating or avoiding systemic risk

Edwards, Benjamin, Supreme Risk (August 18, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3907534 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3907534 “While many have discussed the social issues that might arise because of a majority-conservative Supreme Court, one critical consequence of the current Supreme Court has been overlooked: the role of the Supreme Court in generating or avoiding systemic risk. For some time,… Continue Reading

Buying Legal Tech Is Becoming Like High Street Shopping

Artificial Lawyer: “First we have the ‘own-brand megastores’. These are like the flagship stores of Apple or Microsoft on Regent Street in London. They primarily sell one brand’s products and those products are designed to fit together. They may work with other companies’ systems – out of necessity – but the goal is to offer… Continue Reading