I guess I'm lacking some background to understand this.
So, I recognize fold, from the above operations ('reduce' in python), what makes it a "functional transformation"?
I'm googling function/functional transformations, and the results refer to translating, flipping or scaling a function, like transforming f(x) to f(x + 2) or f(x) + 2. It doesn't seem like it has anything to do with what you guys are referring to, but correct me if I'm wrong.
function as in functional programmi ng. https://youtu.be/2MXyNS33t2k is an indepth video on how c++ and haskell sequence transformations work and contrast.
The recent CDC study [1] suggests that vaccine efficacy against hospitalization for people 65+ is ~80% in the US. If we have reason to believe that a third vaccine dose would increase that efficacy, and the immunological data suggests that we do, then IMO it's clearly the right thing to do. Incontrovertible data will mean many seniors being hospitalized and dying in the interim.
There's so much we can do to increase the global supply of vaccines without sacrificing American citizens. Let's focus on those things to improve vaccine equity.
As long as the real rate of return is positive and wealthy people have a higher income or save a higher percentage of their income, inequality will increase. Hence inequality almost(?) always increases in times of stability. You don't need low interest rates to tell that story.
When interest rates decrease, leverage is cheap and financial asset prices balloon, so the rich become far richer. The problem with crises is that the rich are often the only group with enough of a cash balance to take advantage of fire sales that happen. Banks also become far more restrictive in lending to those without hefty collateral buffers in a crisis.
This time the banks have learnt the govs of the world aren't willing to let anyone go under, so have been making out like bandits lending out cheap money.
T bond yields are determined by auction, so the Fed does not have full discretion over long term interest rates. That's why the 30yr yield has fluctuated between 1.6-2.5% this year even though the overnight rate has not changed.
The Fed is a participant in that auction with a large ($80B/month) budget and a target interest rate of 0-0.25%, though. You don't have much of an incentive to bid low if you know the Fed is going to swoop in and buy the bonds anyway.
My mental model is that in the next decade or so mRNA treatments could be effective if a disease can be treated through the expression of a small number of proteins. These proteins could either have a direct function or stimulate an immune response. I think your example works.
What kind of proteins are important when you're looking at the immune system? Is there a protein that can attach to thyroid gland cells and signals to the body that it isn't a threat? Or is there some sort of memory of the immune system with non-threat cells, that mRNA could overwrite? I'm not a biologist, I'd love to read more about these specific inner workings without dissecting a whole undergraduate biology book.
I'm not a fan of crypto as it exists today, but setting that aside, I feel like coinbase is at an unstable equilibrium as a business. If bitcoin becomes more mainstream, the high fees will not fly indefinitely, and margin drops. If bitcoin falls, then there's no growth proposition.
