Digital Coffee (Free) #12 — five interesting reads & some thoughts to ponder 🤔
Happy Tuesday! Short issue today, but hopefully you enjoy. Don’t forget to hit the like button or share if you’re enjoying these newsletters.
Some thoughts to ponder
“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.” — Paul Coelho
Five interesting reads
In Russia, fake news and real radiation (via New York Times) — In online posts and calls to local officials, Russians expressed anger that the explosion of a small nuclear reactor at a military test site last week had gone unacknowledged for days by their government. Some Moscow television broadcasts were mysteriously interrupted for as long as 53 minutes on the night of the accident. A government broadcast agency later described the disruption as a malfunction of a storm warning system. Screens went blue. A text urged people to stay at home because of a storm with strong winds, but it never arrived.
Ebola is now curable (via Wired) — Amid unrelenting chaos and violence, scientists and doctors in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been running a clinical trial of new drugs to try to combat a year-long Ebola outbreak. On Monday, the trial’s cosponsors at the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health announced that two of the experimental treatments appear to dramatically boost survival rates.
One city saved $5m by routing buses by an algorithm(via RouteFifty) — The Boston Public School District held a contest to determine the best solution for busing around 25,000 students to school every day. The winning algorithm improved the efficiency of the routes in 30 minutes.
Anxiety looks different in men (via WSJ) — Instead of coming across as nervousness or worry, anxiety in men often appears as anger, muscle aches or alcohol use—leading many men to go undiagnosed.
It takes more than protests to drive change (via Stanford) — Those large-scale protests on everything from climate change to wealth inequality make for engaging news segments. But do they result in real change? Social advocacy organisations have greater impact on federal legislation when their experts get to testify.
Until next time, thanks for taking the time to check out this issue of Digital Coffee.
“Be a voice, not an echo” — Unknown