May 30, 2020
Saturday
(Happy Mint Julep, water a flower, and Loomis Day - and the conclusion of Italian Beef Week. Celebrate as you will.)
A typo in my introduction yesterday may have accidentally coined the notion of "mental humidity." As one reader pointed out, this seemed to be a good concept to explore since it feels like something my emails have been fighting. I guess that makes me a kind of "mental dehumidifier?" I am not sure what I would do with the effluent from a mental dehumidifier. What kind of fluid is that? And where do you safely dispose of it? I don't want to put it in the municipal water system.
In the interim, coronavirus has become the #2 story, for now. As I watch the images of protests and rioting, I note there are quite a few police officers and protesters not wearing masks and are physically very close to each other. This is concerning. Spreading a disease while protesting for humane treatment is a sad, somewhat ironic, possibility.
------------
State comparisons:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data
https://public.tableau.com/shared/7FH637YGW?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
FT data is still the best visualization I have found for country comparisons.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=0&values=deaths
The NY Times has hotspot infographics - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?referringSource=articleShare
Our world in data has some interactive features that are worthy of playing with as well. Look at the trajectory of new confirmed cases per million people in India and Sweden, compared to other countries.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?yScale=log&zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-04-16..&country=USA~GBR~CAN~BRA~AUS~IND~DEU~FRA~ITA~SWE&deathsMetric=true&dailyFreq=true&aligned=true&perCapita=true&smoothing=7
The tableau data is from The COVID Tracking Project, which compiles and rates state-reported data. Please review https://covidtracking.com/ to understand the quality of the data.
------
National Geographic offers a number of very practical articles in the last few days:
Is it Safe to Travel? A comprehensive review of options:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/05/safety-tips-to-help-you-travel-again-during-covid-19-cvd/
How to clean your face mask (these seem to be THE accessory for the near future)
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/coronavirus-best-way-to-clean-your-face-mask-cvd/
Cleveland Clinic offers some public-facing advice on how and why face masks protect others from asymptomatic spreaders.
https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/how-simple-face-coverings-protect-against-covid-19/
Here are specific population data on the use of HCQ. The data from this article suggests cancer patients who receive HCQ+Azithro have an increased likelihood of mortality.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31187-9/fulltext
It is enlightening to find eloquent physician writers. I found Dr. Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doc in the UK this morning. Get coffee, read, and learn.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/30/this-man-knows-hes-dying-as-surely-as-i-do-a-doctors-dispatches-from-intensive-care?CMP=share_btn_tw
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/12/dear-life-rachel-clarke-review
And the practical realities of running a business in a time of resource scarcity mandated reductions in physical capacity and overall decreased demand. I think they covered this in my Econ 101 class in college.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-latest-coronavirus-war-is-the-covid-19-surcharge
Infographic of the day - Stains. It seems to be metaphorically appropriate to talk about stain removal. Not the kind the stains that color a society due to inequality. I am referring to the "Adam is 45 years old and still spills on himself (when is this going to end? Probably never at this point.)" type.
https://www.insider.com/ways-to-get-out-stubborn-stains-2016-6
Infographic of the day #2 - this felt appropriate today too
https://i.redd.it/4em4o68oft151.jpg
Bonus Round - Getting the ball rolling
Loomis day is the celebration of Mahlon Loomis, who was an American dentist and inventor in the mid-19th century. He spent much of his savings and many years working on wireless telegraphy. Interestingly, his theories of wireless transmission science were wrong (creating a circuit between different layers in the atmosphere or different temperature layers in water). If anything, he was inadvertently sending radio signals in the 1860s. He recorded unverified accounts of his successful transmission of data between Kites on different mountain tops and underwater between boats 2-3 miles apart. His work was underfunded and not appreciated. His tests were not rigorous or well documented—lots of lessons to take away from this story. Loomis did patent his ideas (and Tesla was probably aware of these as he did is wireless work). To be sure, Tesla and Marconi had their own issues deciphering the data from their later work, but had much clearer successes in the world of wireless transmission. At the very least, good funding and good scientific rigor seem to be critical if you want to be "The One" rather than the almost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahlon_Loomis
http://www.lynchburgmuseum.org/blog/2018/12/28/dr-mahlon-loomis-pioneer-of-radio
https://books.google.com/books?id=DzMR8x_rbPgC&pg=PT173&lpg=PT173&dq=Tesla+loomis&source=bl&ots=hDgrJzt-CK&sig=ACfU3U1hYLBNB8X-cG302DV1wmVnNJD_hg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjs6aLEzdvpAhVfj3IEHbJaAb4Q6AEwA3oECBkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Tesla%20loomis&f=false
Arthur Zimmerman was a career German bureaucrat and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Germany in 1916-1917. By all accounts, he was a modest, intelligent, honest, patriotic, and good-humored man. However, the combination of his time and place in history put him as an instigator of some serious historic avalanches. Here is a list of things he was involved with:
-In 1914, helping arm the Irish Volunteers and stoke the Easter Rising, which leads to the Irish War of Independence in 1919.
-Bringing German civilian government support to the notion of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1916, intensifying the stakes of WWI and further drawing in the neutral US.
-Paying for and transporting exiled Bolsheviks back to Russia (through a Europe amid WW1) in 1917, stirring foment and leading to the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. (This removed Russia from WWI, clearing Germany's eastern front, but also started Communist Russia)
-In 1916, inciting the Mexicans to attack the US via secret messages, thereby solidifying US entry into World War I (and ending the war as it did, setting up the 20th century for WW2 and the cold war).
The contrast between his personality and the historical avalanches he helped set in motion is quite striking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Zimmermann
But, the Wikipedia page doesn't do these stories justice.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/613792.The_Zimmermann_Telegram
Clean hands and sharp minds,
-AW
Back on Monday.
A typo in my introduction yesterday may have accidentally coined the notion of "mental humidity." As one reader pointed out, this seemed to be a good concept to explore since it feels like something my emails have been fighting. I guess that makes me a kind of "mental dehumidifier?" I am not sure what I would do with the effluent from a mental dehumidifier. What kind of fluid is that? And where do you safely dispose of it? I don't want to put it in the municipal water system.
In the interim, coronavirus has become the #2 story, for now. As I watch the images of protests and rioting, I note there are quite a few police officers and protesters not wearing masks and are physically very close to each other. This is concerning. Spreading a disease while protesting for humane treatment is a sad, somewhat ironic, possibility.
------------
State comparisons:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data
https://public.tableau.com/shared/7FH637YGW?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
FT data is still the best visualization I have found for country comparisons.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=0&values=deaths
The NY Times has hotspot infographics - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?referringSource=articleShare
Our world in data has some interactive features that are worthy of playing with as well. Look at the trajectory of new confirmed cases per million people in India and Sweden, compared to other countries.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?yScale=log&zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-04-16..&country=USA~GBR~CAN~BRA~AUS~IND~DEU~FRA~ITA~SWE&deathsMetric=true&dailyFreq=true&aligned=true&perCapita=true&smoothing=7
The tableau data is from The COVID Tracking Project, which compiles and rates state-reported data. Please review https://covidtracking.com/ to understand the quality of the data.
------
National Geographic offers a number of very practical articles in the last few days:
Is it Safe to Travel? A comprehensive review of options:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/05/safety-tips-to-help-you-travel-again-during-covid-19-cvd/
How to clean your face mask (these seem to be THE accessory for the near future)
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/coronavirus-best-way-to-clean-your-face-mask-cvd/
Cleveland Clinic offers some public-facing advice on how and why face masks protect others from asymptomatic spreaders.
https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/how-simple-face-coverings-protect-against-covid-19/
Here are specific population data on the use of HCQ. The data from this article suggests cancer patients who receive HCQ+Azithro have an increased likelihood of mortality.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31187-9/fulltext
It is enlightening to find eloquent physician writers. I found Dr. Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doc in the UK this morning. Get coffee, read, and learn.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/30/this-man-knows-hes-dying-as-surely-as-i-do-a-doctors-dispatches-from-intensive-care?CMP=share_btn_tw
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/12/dear-life-rachel-clarke-review
And the practical realities of running a business in a time of resource scarcity mandated reductions in physical capacity and overall decreased demand. I think they covered this in my Econ 101 class in college.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-latest-coronavirus-war-is-the-covid-19-surcharge
Infographic of the day - Stains. It seems to be metaphorically appropriate to talk about stain removal. Not the kind the stains that color a society due to inequality. I am referring to the "Adam is 45 years old and still spills on himself (when is this going to end? Probably never at this point.)" type.
https://www.insider.com/ways-to-get-out-stubborn-stains-2016-6
Infographic of the day #2 - this felt appropriate today too
https://i.redd.it/4em4o68oft151.jpg
Bonus Round - Getting the ball rolling
Loomis day is the celebration of Mahlon Loomis, who was an American dentist and inventor in the mid-19th century. He spent much of his savings and many years working on wireless telegraphy. Interestingly, his theories of wireless transmission science were wrong (creating a circuit between different layers in the atmosphere or different temperature layers in water). If anything, he was inadvertently sending radio signals in the 1860s. He recorded unverified accounts of his successful transmission of data between Kites on different mountain tops and underwater between boats 2-3 miles apart. His work was underfunded and not appreciated. His tests were not rigorous or well documented—lots of lessons to take away from this story. Loomis did patent his ideas (and Tesla was probably aware of these as he did is wireless work). To be sure, Tesla and Marconi had their own issues deciphering the data from their later work, but had much clearer successes in the world of wireless transmission. At the very least, good funding and good scientific rigor seem to be critical if you want to be "The One" rather than the almost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahlon_Loomis
http://www.lynchburgmuseum.org/blog/2018/12/28/dr-mahlon-loomis-pioneer-of-radio
https://books.google.com/books?id=DzMR8x_rbPgC&pg=PT173&lpg=PT173&dq=Tesla+loomis&source=bl&ots=hDgrJzt-CK&sig=ACfU3U1hYLBNB8X-cG302DV1wmVnNJD_hg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjs6aLEzdvpAhVfj3IEHbJaAb4Q6AEwA3oECBkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Tesla%20loomis&f=false
Arthur Zimmerman was a career German bureaucrat and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Germany in 1916-1917. By all accounts, he was a modest, intelligent, honest, patriotic, and good-humored man. However, the combination of his time and place in history put him as an instigator of some serious historic avalanches. Here is a list of things he was involved with:
-In 1914, helping arm the Irish Volunteers and stoke the Easter Rising, which leads to the Irish War of Independence in 1919.
-Bringing German civilian government support to the notion of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1916, intensifying the stakes of WWI and further drawing in the neutral US.
-Paying for and transporting exiled Bolsheviks back to Russia (through a Europe amid WW1) in 1917, stirring foment and leading to the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. (This removed Russia from WWI, clearing Germany's eastern front, but also started Communist Russia)
-In 1916, inciting the Mexicans to attack the US via secret messages, thereby solidifying US entry into World War I (and ending the war as it did, setting up the 20th century for WW2 and the cold war).
The contrast between his personality and the historical avalanches he helped set in motion is quite striking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Zimmermann
But, the Wikipedia page doesn't do these stories justice.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/613792.The_Zimmermann_Telegram
Clean hands and sharp minds,
-AW
Back on Monday.
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