The World Health Organization (WHO) initiated its global vaccination program in 1974 with the aim of ensuring universal access to vaccines for children worldwide. A recent study indicates that vaccination has had a substantial effect on public health over the past 50 years, resulting in the prevention of millions of deaths.

Initially, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) by WHO aimed to vaccinate all children against seven diseases, including the now-extinct smallpox. However, the program has now been extended to cover 14 different pathogens.

The recent study analyzed the effects of the vaccines for these diseases on both local and worldwide public health from the start of the EPI in June 1974 until its 50th anniversary in 2024.

These estimates were obtained through the application of mathematical and statistical modeling to determine three important metrics: the quantity of prevented deaths, the amount of gained life-years, and the duration of improved overall health.

According to the findings of the 22 models combined, global vaccination efforts over the past 50 years have had a significant effect. It is estimated that immunization has saved approximately 154 million lives since 1974, replacing death with an average of 66 years of good health per person.

The program’s most significant influence in terms of age seems to be on the youngest members of society. Modeling analysis revealed that out of the estimated 154 million deaths that were prevented, 101 million were specifically among infants aged less than one year. Additionally, it was indicated that vaccination accounted for 40 percent of the decrease in worldwide infant mortality, making it the primary factor in that reduction.

Although all of the vaccines examined had an effect, the measles vaccine had the most notable influence, despite the recent resurgence of measles.

“Measles vaccination contributed to 60% of the overall benefits of vaccination over the span of 50 years, making it the primary factor in saving lives,” stated Dr. Andrew Shattock, the leader of the study.

The authors assert that the results serve as evidence of the potential that can be realized through collaboration, and advocate for continued efforts.

“Vaccines are one of the most influential innovations in human history, as they have the ability to prevent diseases that were once feared,” stated Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccines have played a crucial role in eradicating smallpox and bringing polio to the verge of elimination. Furthermore, the development of vaccines against diseases such as malaria and cervical cancer has allowed us to make significant progress in combating these illnesses.

“Through ongoing research, investment, and collaboration, we have the potential to preserve millions of additional lives both presently and over the course of the next five decades.”

Reddit, which is now a publicly-traded company and subject to increased scrutiny regarding its revenue growth, is placing significant emphasis on expanding its international user base, beginning with targeting French-speaking individuals. During the company’s inaugural earnings call, CEO Steve Huffman verified that the company is presently engaged in developing real-time automatic translations of the site’s content into French, utilizing advancements in large language models.

In addition, he mentioned the expansion of the ecosystem through a few reversals in direction. Reddit aims to attract developers by offering new tools, which is unexpected considering its past approach in this area. Additionally, the company plans to reintroduce Reddit Gold, a virtual currency that it discontinued less than a year ago, which is also surprising.

These moves involve predicting the potential future of Reddit rather than focusing on its current state. Currently, the news regarding Reddit is quite positive. In the previous quarter, their revenue increased by 48% compared to the same period last year, reaching $243 million. Additionally, the number of unique users grew by 37%, reaching a total of 82.7 million. (This number encompasses both users who are currently logged in and those who are not, following a similar method that Twitter, now referred to as X, used to calculate its audience when it was publicly accessible.)

Expansion of user base and language localization
During the earnings call, Huffman stated that 50% of Reddit’s audience is located in the United States. This indicates that the company is prioritizing efforts to enhance its international presence.

“Our ratio of U.S. to non-U.S. is still 50/50, but our peers have a much higher percentage of non-U.S. members, ranging from 80% to 90%,” he stated. “I believe there is a significant opportunity available.” He proceeded to characterize automatic, AI-powered translation as “one of the significant breakthroughs for us in the near to medium future.”

“Today, we are translating our complete collection of texts, which is primarily in English, into other languages. We anticipate that this will contribute to the rapid expansion of our international presence,” he stated.

Despite the substantial allocation of resources, the speaker described the site-wide translation effort as being in a testing phase right now. Huffman observed that the content is also being included in the search results of Google for the French language, thereby increasing the number of visitors to the website. The company’s next objective is to address the Spanish language.

Reddit has been providing post-based translation since last year, supporting a total of eight languages.

Software development tools
Hearing Huffman discuss developer tools on the call felt unreal. In July 2023, the company became involved in a significant dispute with third-party client developers due to changes in the API. This led to the blackout of numerous subreddits as a form of protest against the API changes.

Currently, the social network is operating in a mode where users are expected to behave in a respectful and cooperative manner. Huffman stated that there are intentions to develop tools that have the potential to expand the limits of what a subreddit can encompass. He provided illustrations of current experiments, such as real-time scores displayed on certain sports subreddits and a live stock ticker on r/wallstreetbets, the subreddit famous for the Gamestop stock controversy.

According to him, several hundred developers are currently conducting tests on these new experiences. Reddit plans to expand its developer base by inviting more individuals from the waitlist to join this summer. Additionally, the platform intends to introduce monetization capabilities later in the year.

Additional notifications
In a recent agreement, Reddit and Google have partnered to allow the search engine giant access to the social network’s data. Huffman stated that the company intends to grant licenses to other companies for the use of their data. This has been a significant matter, often generating controversy, as users may express reluctance towards their data being utilized for purposes such as AI training or other prevalent applications. Huffman emphasized that the company is being discerning and careful in its partner selection process.

The current focus of the company is to expand its infrastructure in order to generate more revenue. Although Gold and another blockchain-based currency called community points were discontinued last year, Reddit is considering reintroducing virtual currency on its platform. This move is seen as an opportunity for Reddit to expand and diversify its business model. During the earnings call, the company announced its intention to introduce an upgraded Gold product, featuring new programs that allow users to both spend and earn money on the platform.

Black holes are enigmatic entities that, despite our extensive knowledge, continue to perplex our comprehension of physics. Physicists have proposed unconventional hypotheses to address the paradoxes encountered during the study of these phenomena. One hypothesis suggests that these paradoxes indicate that our universe is actually a holographic representation. According to this idea, everything we observe and perceive is encoded at the boundary of our universe, which is a three-dimensional representation of a two-dimensional universe, including time. Moreover, there have been suggestions that this could potentially indicate that our universe exists inside a black hole within a larger universe.

Black holes are regions of space that result from the gravitational collapse of massive stars, exhibiting such intense gravity that even light cannot escape. Their presence presented a challenge when examining them from a thermodynamic perspective. After achieving stability, a black hole’s mass, angular momentum, and electric charge are the only factors that determine its final state.

“According to French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet’s 2016 review, in classical general relativity, a black hole effectively traps any particle or form of radiation within its cosmic confinement, preventing their escape.” “To an external observer, the moment a material body passes through an event horizon, all information regarding its material properties becomes inaccessible.” Only the updated values of mass (M), angular momentum (J), and electric charge (Q) are retained. Consequently, a black hole engulfs a vast quantity of information.

It may appear straightforward—or at least as straightforward as physics can be. However, if a black hole possesses mass (which is typically substantial), it should theoretically possess a temperature in accordance with the first law of thermodynamics. Furthermore, in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, it should emit thermal radiation. Stephen Hawking demonstrated that black holes emit radiation, now known as Hawking radiation, which is generated at the boundary of a black hole.

“Hawking subsequently identified a paradox.” “If a black hole undergoes evaporation, a fraction of the information it possesses becomes permanently irretrievable,” Luminet elaborated. A black hole’s thermal radiation does not retain or replicate information about the matter it ate. The irrevocable loss of information contradicts one of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. The Schrödinger equation states that in physical systems that undergo changes over time, information cannot be created or destroyed. This property is referred to as unitarity.

This phenomenon is referred to as the black hole information paradox, and due to its apparent contradiction with our existing comprehension of the cosmos, it has been extensively examined and discussed.

Examining the thermodynamics of black holes within the context of string theory led to the discovery of an alternative solution. Gerard ‘t Hooft demonstrated that the total number of independent variables within a black hole is directly proportional to the surface area of its horizon, rather than its volume. This enables the examination of the entropy of a black hole.

“In terms of information, Luminet explains that each bit, represented as either a 0 or a 1, corresponds to four Planck areas. This correspondence enables the derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking formula for entropy,” Luminet concludes. “To an external observer, it appears that the information regarding the entropy of the black hole, which was previously contained within the three-dimensional arrangement of objects that entered the event horizon, is no longer accessible.” However, according to this perspective, the data is encoded on the flat, two-dimensional surface of a black hole, similar to a hologram. Thus, Hooft concluded that the information consumed by a black hole could be fully recovered through the process of quantum evaporation.

Although it is consoling to know that black holes do not violate the second law of thermodynamics, this has given rise to the unusual idea that a three-dimensional space’s two-dimensional boundary can explain its physics.

It has been suggested that the universe itself could potentially function like a black hole, with all phenomena occurring at its boundary and our observations arising from these interactions. However, this concept does not apply to the space outside of a black hole. This idea is quite unconventional, with some unexpected additions. For example, there is a suggestion that gravity may emerge as a force from entanglement entropy at the boundary.

The theory falls short in its ability to provide a convincing explanation for our universe, as standard physics continues to offer the most accurate description of the observable universe. However, there are valid justifications for why individuals consider it of great importance.

In order for the model to be valid, it is crucial that the Hubble radius of the universe, which represents the radius of our observable universe, is equivalent to its Schwarzschild radius. This refers to the size of a black hole that would form if all the matter within it was compressed into a single point. These two figures are unexpectedly similar, although this could be attributed to a cosmic coincidence.

There are other factors to consider, like this comprehensive chart that indicates the possibility of our existence within a black hole within a larger universe. However, until a theory emerges with substantial evidence and predictions that surpass our current knowledge of physics, we recommend refraining from succumbing to an existential crisis. This applies regardless of whether you perceive yourself as a three-dimensional entity existing within conventional space-time or as a holographic projection originating from a two-dimensional boundary within a larger universe.