I got a feel of this growing sunflowers last year. They got quite big, significantly taller than me. They died in autumn as herbaceous plants do, but as I cut them down I noticed the part where the stem meets the root was seriously woody. Like, I could have cut out a small piece and convinced someone it was a piece of wood.

I think it's worth throwing some shade on Joe Rogan, despite the overlapping ingroups.

Things i have wondered about this week:

• The UK has vaccinated a larger share than the US, although America is catching up. Still, US states seem to be opening up to all adults very soon, while the UK is only going to 45+. Why is that? My current theory is that the UK has much higher vaccine take up among older people.
• Why is Japan doing so few vaccinations? They could afford afford it and surely have the organizational capacity. Are they so confident that they can control the virus that they don't bother? Are kindly letting the west have the vaccine first since we clearly need it?
• Are there factories out there that could be making COVID vaccine but aren't? In theory there shouldn't be because Pfizer, AstraZeneca, J&J and others should rationally be subcontracting to others to manufacture for them. Worldwide demand should be easily big enough to justify it. Yet I'm not sure. 

Do they think ‘oh the six foot thing was all a lie?’

I think everyone understood that six foot was not a magic line but a rule of thumb, and it can be relaxed now that things are better.

I didn't get the point about Walid Gellad's tweet. Is he someone I should recognize?

This looks sensible and will probably save you money compared to buying a car, as long as neither of you use the car very often. One option to consider is to have them keep full ownership of the car and you pay a per-mile rate. Employers pay a standard rate of $0.56 per mile when an employee uses a private car for work. This is probably a bit higher than true cost, but they are taking the risks of unexpected repairs and such. That arrangement would be easier to get out of if needed: You just stop driving it.

Since this popped up on the front page Recommendations today, did we ever get any clarity? My general feeling is that initial viral dose is not all that important.

I've gotten to the point where I think something is technically wrong with my account. I literally cannot find a single interesting room.

I have now spent about 3x15 min in the Clubhouse app after getting an invite from Azatris in this thread (thanks!) So far I haven't found anything interesting. I guess I need to go in with a good idea of what I'm looking for.

At the moment the start view is just rooms in languages I don't speak. There are long lists of people I never heard of, and some Silicon Valley people I have heard of but not interested in. "Upcoming for You" is marketing NFTs and "Boss Talk".

I'm not trying to talk down Clubhouse. It's clearly very appealing to a lot of people. What am I missing?

The UK is rolling out twice weekly lateral flow tests quite widely:

• Anyone who wants it (mainly for those who work outside the home)
• All Secondary school children
• All school staff
• Parents of primary and secondary school children

That seems like a really good thing. My worry is that a lot of parents will skip it because nose swabs are uncomfortable.

I should probably know this, but are any of the mass produced COVID vaccines peptide vaccines?