March 28, 2020
I am back to the concept of truth today. I recently re-visited the Allegory of the Cave ( thanks to mental wanderings starting with my son's ninth grade civics classwork) and once again found myself focused on how we know what we know. Epistemology is not just a great word to say (go ahead, say it out loud) but an important concept as we live in a reality through screens and limitless streams of electrons. Here is my attempt at a Coronavirus truth and lies Saturday edition...
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Latest data from FT. Hoping to see some rightward turning around day 25.
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
Wired on Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories
https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-covid-19-misinformation-campaigns/
Wired on the origins of the bad rumors on ibuprofen
https://www.wired.com/story/the-ibuprofen-debate-reveals-the-danger-of-covid-19-rumors/
Who doesn't love Canadians? The fact that a number of their academic institutions have put together a whole website on COVID-19 misinformation only grows that love...
https://covid19misinfo.org/misinfowatch/
Saying you don't know sometimes means your very smart
The Dunning-Kruger effect (which describes the bias behind the fallacy of ipsy dixit from yesterday)
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/dunning-kruger-effect/
Important when it comes to Coronavirus
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532754-600-can-you-catch-the-coronavirus-twice-we-dont-know-yet/
or
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2238819-does-a-high-viral-load-or-infectious-dose-make-covid-19-worse/
or
https://www.newsweek.com/fauci-really-confident-people-recover-coronavirus-become-immune-infection-1494612
Last point on this one - https://thedecisionlab.com/ (link in the first article above) is a consulting think tank on behavioral science. I just discovered their website which seems to have a number of articles on behavioral science, behavioral economics, and cognitive biases! (https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/). (Interest piqued - someone tell me if I am inadvertently fronting for a creepy analytics firm...)
2 trillion feels like a very big number. For better or worse, my first thought was, "I hope we can charge it and get the points..."
https://i.redd.it/cqvqit8bp6p41.jpg
Follow up on cell phone tracking:
Look at this company https://twitter.com/TectonixGEO
And this post https://twitter.com/TectonixGEO/status/1242628347034767361
And finally, the most entertaining post from a trending hashtag this morning taught me the metaphor "the herpes of craft supplies." I am still laughing.
https://twitter.com/PopShopAmerica/status/1243670112433057792
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Bonus Round - People you may not know about, but who fought for the truth edition
Witold Pilecki was a polish resistance agent in WWII who went into Auschwitz deliberately to escape and report back to the world on what he saw. One of the many bright lights in a very dark time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki
His entire report, in English, on the web http://witoldsreport.blogspot.com/2008/05/volunteer-for-auschwitz-report-by.html
A biography that is worth the read https://www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-Volunteer-Beyond-Bravery/dp/1480569208
Emile Zola was a French writer and journalist who played a major role in exposing the injustice of the Dreyfuss Affair. He we very influential in the political liberalization of late 19th century France through his subjective literary style which pre-supposed later work of people like Truman Capote and Hunter S Thompson. And, I believe, it is worth noting he was a prolific photographer, mastering a photojournalistic style with the equipment of the day (no easy feat). He always reminded me of a more intellectually well-rounded version of Upton Sinclair...
About https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Zola
His photography http://photographyhistory.blogspot.com/2012/03/amateur-art-photographs-of-emile-zola.html
And, sure enough, google yielded gold on my uber-nerdy thought of a comparison between Zola and Sinclair
https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/102/
Keep clean hands and sharp minds.
-Adam
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