🎓 Dr. Freemo 🇳🇱 @freemo@social.cleverlibre.org

I like how the world is cuddling us #italians at the moment, for the #COVID thing.
I mean, even Iran is not doing good, but I don't think they had 1 month free subscription to PornHub now, did they?

Some Hard information on #COVID19 as compared to other epidemics in recent history.

==COVID-19==
R0 = 2.2
Global Mortality: 7%
Death Toll = 4,718 (and rising)

== 2009 Swine-flu ==
R0 = 1.5
Global Mortality: 0.04%
Death Toll = 500,000

== 2002 SARS ==
R0 = 3
Global Mortality: 9.6%
Death Toll = 349

== 1920 Spanish Flu ==
R0 = 2
Global Mortality: 2.5%
Death toll = 100 million

For those who don't know R0 is the average number of people who will contract the disease from an infected individual.

As you can see the numbers are very concerning. The only disease that had the same potential for damage as this would have been the SARS epidemic in 2002. Luckily it was contained early on and never spread. The big difference seems to be the 2002 SARS epidemic had very few if any asymptomatic individuals. So it was easy to stop the disease before it spread (artificially lowering the R0 effectively).

However the COVID-19 has a large portion of people with the disease whoa re asymptomatic. This causes the spread to go unhindered. Despite having a lower R0 and lower mortality rate the death toll is already more than 10x what it was for 2002 SARS.

The numbers are scary, it suggests to me, we are in for some really nasty times ahead...

#coronavirus #science #SARS

Map of every concentration camp in WWII, U.S. News and World... http://dlvr.it/RRqx9d

*Walks into best buy*

*looks at the TVs*

Me....

Employee: Can I help you with anything?

Me: Does this one come with its own parallel port or would I have to download one?

Employee: Uh-

Me: How many ECCs does it have? I'm guessing like 5?

Me: I could always upgrade it with a CMOS chip right?

Me: Do you have this one in another BIOS? Preferably on laserdisc?

Does it come with a decapped Ethernet dongle or would I have to go buy a few RAMS?

Wow I just came back from my local supermarket. People are TENSE. All the canned food is gone, soup in bags are gone, pasta was gone, toiletpaper and hand sanitizer hoarded. #covid19 panic seems to have reached #Amsterdam.

🔸 There's a huge class of receptors that don't form a pore and these are called metabotropic receptors.

🔸 So, metabotropic receptors, like ionotropic receptors, will bind neurotransmitters. But they do not directly lead to an electrical change because this molecule cannot form a pore. Instead, this complex is attached to a G-protein.

🔸 Once the receptor is bound to neurotransmitters, the G-proteins are activated. And they are going to go off and do things like simulating enzymatic reactions, or they're going to bind to other molecules that are in-turn going to simulate enzymatic reactions. So these G-proteins are going to go and do things, but that means it takes time.

🔸 The second thing is that what's the effect of this? Well the effect could be to open a channel, an ion channel somewhere; it could be to close an ion channel. Or it could have no effect on the ion channels. It could just go off and actually elicit a change in the genetic transcription. So it could have an electrically silent effect on the cell. So there is a huge variation in effect.

🔸 Another thing that is different about these metabotropic receptors is that they're incredibly numerous and varied. There are more than 1000 types, while there are less than 10 types of ionotropic receptors.

🔸 Not only do metabotropic receptors take time to activate for the effect to be seen, but the metabotropic receptor amplifies — it goes through many rounds of activating these G-proteins, and so it can have a lasting effect that is pretty difficult to turn off.

🔸 Many of the drugs that we use to treat Glaucoma, motion sickness, arrhythmias, hypertension, asthma, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and so on are acting on G-protein coupled receptors. So this is a very common target for drug development.

#GIS experts: do you have strong opinions on what's better between ArcGis and #QGIS?
I know we are all #FOSS lovers here, but my gis professor will only use arcgis and I'd like to understand how sour is this pill I should swallow 😄

YAAAAS #Mozfest will be in #Amsterdam next year!! 🎉 🎉

https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/