Shiny Shiny daily round up: Superdrug sells Covid-19 saliva tests
Superdrug is now selling coronavirus saliva tests which it claims are as accurate as the swabs used by the Government. The £120 kits are available from today either in-store or online and give results within two to three days of sending off a test. Results are included in Public Health England’s daily figures and information on positive cases is automatically handed over to the NHS Test and Trace system. The Superdrug test is the first high-street saliva test available in the UK and offers a less intrusive and more comfortable option than nose and throat swabs. See story here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9278405/120-Covid-19-SALIVA-test-goes-sale-Superdrug.html
Facebook has apologised for censuring a Black Country history group after members discussed traditional local dish, faggots and peas, writes The BBC. The group’s administrator said she had “sleepless nights” after the word “faggots” saw the account threatened with deletion. The social media giant has since accepted the term was used in culinary context. This latest blunder by Facebook follows a similar cultural mistake last month when it removed posts referring to Plymouth Hoe, believing them, mistakenly, to be offensive.
Talking to people while they are asleep can influence their dreams – and in some cases, the dreamer can even respond without waking up. Those are the findings of Ken Paller and his colleagues at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois who found that people could answer questions and even solve maths problems while lucid dreaming – a state that typically occurs during rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep when the dreamer is aware of being in a dream, and sometimes able to control it. Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2268496-people-can-answer-questions-about-their-dreams-without-waking-up/#ixzz6muvrWYsP
With its ban on Australian news, Facebook has so far only succeeded in strengthening the government’s resolve, argues Lenore Taylor in The Guardian. “It’s hard to think of a better way for a platform to anger a nation and destroy what’s left of its own reputation,” she says, “than to block health and hospital sites in a pandemic, emergency service sites in a state that recently battled bushfires and the sites of innumerable welfare groups, charities and community organisations, all in a bid to avoid making payments under a new media bargaining code that aims to address the power imbalance between media companies and the big tech platforms.”
Personal transport company Revel has just unveiled a scheme in New York which may hold a few clues as to how we will use small electric vehicles in the future. The company, which is best known for its pay-by-the-minute electric moped rentals, has now developed a subscription scheme for e-bikes. New York residents can pay $99/month to have their own e-bike. The scheme, which is called Coast by Revel, includes drop-off and pickup of the e-bike, an included lock and any necessary maintenance or repairs. Revel promises that if the bike goes wrong a member of the team will have the bike on the road within 24 hours. See full story here: https://www.transitionearth.co/2021/02/17/would-you-pay-a-monthly-subscription-for-an-e-bike-revel-and-hurrecane-are-convinced-you-might/
Drivers in the UK predict that there will be more electric cars in the UK than diesels by 2030. However, petrol-engined cars will still be the most common, according to new data. The AA conducted a survey of 12,977 drivers who believe that in 2030 – when the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars is set to be banned in the UK – EVs will make up 19.8 per cent of cars on the road. This, despite the fact, that in December 2019 they only made up 0.3 per cent. See story here: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/354319/more-electric-cars-road-diesels-2030-drivers-predict
The owner of the world’s biggest Dogecoin cryptocurrency wallet has amassed a holding worth $2.1bn (£1.5bn) after the digital asset skyrocketed in value. Dogecoin has surged more than 950pc since the beginning of the year as Reddit users have flocked to the cryptocurrency based on the meme of a smiling Shiba Inu. 28% of all existing Dogecoin is owned by a single account, The Wall Street Journal reports, with speculation mounting that the owner is Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, following his Twitter posts calling it “the most fun crypto” and “the people’s crypto.” See story here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/02/18/dogecoin-surge-leaves-mystery-holder-21bn/
