May 2, 2020
Saturday
(This day/date has been quality checked by inspector #52 - who may or may not be a nephrologist)
Happy Saturday.
Earlier this week, Amazon delivered my new bird feeder, the Squirrel Solution 200. I have been watching my previously mentioned menagerie of birds feeding, up close and personal, over the last few days.
Yesterday, I began to wonder, "Hmm. The birds did fine before I put this feeder up. Are there data surrounding the feeding birds? Am I baiting them into coming close to my window for my entertainment? Is this some homo sapien-centrism?" Sure enough, there is data. And it looks like I may be unintentionally increasing the chances of spreading disease and impacting migration patterns. Sadly, the solution appears to be setting up multiple bird feeders, each with a single seed type. Unintended consequences are everywhere. Not sure how I am going to handle this moral dilemma, yet.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320716306851
P.S. Florida can have its WWE. I have male cardinals fighting over the right to my front yard. (Little do they know who pays the mortgage).
-------------
Latest data
FT data (No change in the presentation)
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
Death vs. Cases in the US.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-cases-deaths?country=US
An estimate of the effective reproduction number by state (not updated daily) https://rt.live/ What is this analysis about? http://systrom.com/topic/coronavirus/
I do not see much change in the data today. Here is a very helpful twitter thread discussing the Rt and related data with some thoughtful forward-looking projections and a discussion of why it is difficult to interpret this data in the setting of increasing testing.
https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1255976675252158465
----
This Atlantic article is a must-read. It touches on so much about the epidemic - science, psychology, media, bias, and fallacy. I suggest a well-brewed cup of coffee (see below) or appropriately steeped tea to accompany your reading.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/pandemic-confusing-uncertainty/610819/
A loyal reader, with a great name, sent this article along. I have not reviewed the underlying research, but the author is a psychology professor in Montana who runs a Political Cognition Lab. He looks to understand the psychology of political decision making amongst various groups of people. Enjoy!
https://heterodoxacademy.org/social-science-liberals-conservatives-covid-19/
Further reading - Level up as a human with knowledge! I did not know Political Cognition was a thing. Now you and I both know it is a thing. http://hs.umt.edu/politicalcognition/
One of the articles from yesterday was the discovery of an evolutionary biologist who not only publishes but made a few YouTube videos. Here is a video on the evolution of the coronavirus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHRGPzoFyEM&feature=youtu.be
Here is a blog post sent to me by a teammate in the UK. The author has years of experience in infectious disease and vaccine development. I do not understand his comments on his assessment of his own risk of survival (if he were infected), but there are numerous insights in his writing.
https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/about/news/how-we-lost-our-collective-memory-epidemics
More from him: https://twitter.com/GordonDougan1
The FDA approved Remdisivir for emergency use. The data driving this decision seem to be reflected in the comments made about the trial by Dr. Fauci earlier this week. Discussion about this is interesting and illuminates data problems:
https://twitter.com/FranciscoMarty_/status/1256260599417167873
https://twitter.com/microbeminded2/status/1255611458341257219
Bottom line: we will have more data, but the more "approval" the drug gets and the more it is viewed as the Answer (with an A), the less likely we are to have controls. Much like HCQ, it is difficult not to want to try if you are the patient with COVID. Nevertheless, remain thoughtful on this - shortened duration of illness is great. Mortality and a better understanding of who and when Remdisivir most helps patients would be better.
---Bonus Round - Potpourri of random internet discoveries edition.
I miss travel. The planes look pretty lonely too. Fortunately, they are all hanging out together in the desert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIbXai0l174&feature=youtu.be
Earworms alert! (Read on with care!) Steely Dan is another thing I like. It appears that Donald Fagen is doing well. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/donald-fagen-on-life-in-quarantine-991723/
Strangely, I do not believe I have ever had a conversation about "the best" Steely Dan song. The Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam - all of these bands evoke strong opinions about their "best." Either I am not talking to the right people or all the songs are equally excellent? If asked, I would put in a strong vote for "Don't Take Me Alive" from the album The Royal Scam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gV1sxB8TxI
Infographic of the day: Learning that there are mattress sizes larger than the California King and then pondering why one might want such a mattress is a path I am somewhat sorry I found myself on. Nevertheless, I now know there are bedding aspirations beyond The King.
https://i.redd.it/1f4io5xgr9w41.jpg
Here is infographic of the day #2, a quantitative description of (and math humor-filled) coffee drinks on the spectrum of milk to espresso. It certainly has more data points than the range of fish to cheese that my friend Peter plotted years ago (Tuna Melt is the only thing between fish and cheese?).
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/espresso
And on the website with the coffee graphic, I found an advertisement for this - https://hivemill.com/products/gentlemans-monocle
which made me laugh. I hope you laugh too.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
-Adam
P.S. No email till Monday. The union of information compilers and emailers (local 333) is mandating a Sunday break.
(This day/date has been quality checked by inspector #52 - who may or may not be a nephrologist)
Happy Saturday.
Earlier this week, Amazon delivered my new bird feeder, the Squirrel Solution 200. I have been watching my previously mentioned menagerie of birds feeding, up close and personal, over the last few days.
Yesterday, I began to wonder, "Hmm. The birds did fine before I put this feeder up. Are there data surrounding the feeding birds? Am I baiting them into coming close to my window for my entertainment? Is this some homo sapien-centrism?" Sure enough, there is data. And it looks like I may be unintentionally increasing the chances of spreading disease and impacting migration patterns. Sadly, the solution appears to be setting up multiple bird feeders, each with a single seed type. Unintended consequences are everywhere. Not sure how I am going to handle this moral dilemma, yet.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320716306851
P.S. Florida can have its WWE. I have male cardinals fighting over the right to my front yard. (Little do they know who pays the mortgage).
-------------
Latest data
FT data (No change in the presentation)
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
Death vs. Cases in the US.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-cases-deaths?country=US
An estimate of the effective reproduction number by state (not updated daily) https://rt.live/ What is this analysis about? http://systrom.com/topic/coronavirus/
I do not see much change in the data today. Here is a very helpful twitter thread discussing the Rt and related data with some thoughtful forward-looking projections and a discussion of why it is difficult to interpret this data in the setting of increasing testing.
https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1255976675252158465
----
This Atlantic article is a must-read. It touches on so much about the epidemic - science, psychology, media, bias, and fallacy. I suggest a well-brewed cup of coffee (see below) or appropriately steeped tea to accompany your reading.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/pandemic-confusing-uncertainty/610819/
A loyal reader, with a great name, sent this article along. I have not reviewed the underlying research, but the author is a psychology professor in Montana who runs a Political Cognition Lab. He looks to understand the psychology of political decision making amongst various groups of people. Enjoy!
https://heterodoxacademy.org/social-science-liberals-conservatives-covid-19/
Further reading - Level up as a human with knowledge! I did not know Political Cognition was a thing. Now you and I both know it is a thing. http://hs.umt.edu/politicalcognition/
One of the articles from yesterday was the discovery of an evolutionary biologist who not only publishes but made a few YouTube videos. Here is a video on the evolution of the coronavirus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHRGPzoFyEM&feature=youtu.be
Here is a blog post sent to me by a teammate in the UK. The author has years of experience in infectious disease and vaccine development. I do not understand his comments on his assessment of his own risk of survival (if he were infected), but there are numerous insights in his writing.
https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/about/news/how-we-lost-our-collective-memory-epidemics
More from him: https://twitter.com/GordonDougan1
The FDA approved Remdisivir for emergency use. The data driving this decision seem to be reflected in the comments made about the trial by Dr. Fauci earlier this week. Discussion about this is interesting and illuminates data problems:
https://twitter.com/FranciscoMarty_/status/1256260599417167873
https://twitter.com/microbeminded2/status/1255611458341257219
Bottom line: we will have more data, but the more "approval" the drug gets and the more it is viewed as the Answer (with an A), the less likely we are to have controls. Much like HCQ, it is difficult not to want to try if you are the patient with COVID. Nevertheless, remain thoughtful on this - shortened duration of illness is great. Mortality and a better understanding of who and when Remdisivir most helps patients would be better.
---Bonus Round - Potpourri of random internet discoveries edition.
I miss travel. The planes look pretty lonely too. Fortunately, they are all hanging out together in the desert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIbXai0l174&feature=youtu.be
Earworms alert! (Read on with care!) Steely Dan is another thing I like. It appears that Donald Fagen is doing well. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/donald-fagen-on-life-in-quarantine-991723/
Strangely, I do not believe I have ever had a conversation about "the best" Steely Dan song. The Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam - all of these bands evoke strong opinions about their "best." Either I am not talking to the right people or all the songs are equally excellent? If asked, I would put in a strong vote for "Don't Take Me Alive" from the album The Royal Scam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gV1sxB8TxI
Infographic of the day: Learning that there are mattress sizes larger than the California King and then pondering why one might want such a mattress is a path I am somewhat sorry I found myself on. Nevertheless, I now know there are bedding aspirations beyond The King.
https://i.redd.it/1f4io5xgr9w41.jpg
Here is infographic of the day #2, a quantitative description of (and math humor-filled) coffee drinks on the spectrum of milk to espresso. It certainly has more data points than the range of fish to cheese that my friend Peter plotted years ago (Tuna Melt is the only thing between fish and cheese?).
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/espresso
And on the website with the coffee graphic, I found an advertisement for this - https://hivemill.com/products/gentlemans-monocle
which made me laugh. I hope you laugh too.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
-Adam
P.S. No email till Monday. The union of information compilers and emailers (local 333) is mandating a Sunday break.
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