What is Contact Tracing?Contact tracing is the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person ("contacts"). By tracing the contacts of infected individuals, testing them for infection, treating the infected and tracing their contacts in turn, public health aims to reduce infections in the population. Diseases for which contact tracing is commonly performed for include tuberculosis, vaccine-preventable infections like measles, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), blood-borne infections, some serious bacterial infections, and novel infections (e.g. SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2).
What is Totalitarian?Totalitarianism is a political system or a form of government that prohibits opposition parties. It restricts individual opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. In totalitarian states, political power has often been held by autocrats who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media. Totalitarian regimes are often characterized by extensive political repression, a complete lack of democracy, widespread personality cultism, absolute control over the economy, restrictions on speech, mass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism. Other aspects of a totalitarian regime include the use of concentration camps, repressive secret police, religious persecution or state atheism, the extensive practice of capital punishment, fraudulent elections (if they take place), and potentially state-sponsored mass murder and genocides.
Who is Bull-Hansen?Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen (born 1972) is a Norwegian novelist, blogger and YouTuber. Born in Oslo, Bull-Hansen decided to become a writer when an automobile accident on December 22, 1995 left him injured and unable to continue education towards an economics master's degree. He had previously won several prizes in powerlifting, including two gold medals in the Norwegian Powerlifting Championship, a bronze medal in the European Championship, and fifth place in the world, as well as several Norwegian records. The stories in Bull-Hansen's novels tend to be set in hostile environments, and he has written both from Iron Age settings and from a post-apocalyptic world. His characters are often troubled and it is easy to see that Bull-Hansen's experience working with people shines through in his novels. He was a therapist before becoming a full-time writer.
What is a Smartphone?Smartphones are a class of mobile phones and of multi-purpose mobile computing devices. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which facilitate wider software, internet (including web browsing over mobile broadband), and multimedia functionality (including music, video, cameras, and gaming), alongside core phone functions such as voice calls and text messaging. Smartphones typically include various sensors that can be leveraged by their software, such as a magnetometer, proximity sensors, barometer, gyroscope and accelerometer, and support wireless communications protocols such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and satellite navigation.