July 21, 2020
Tuesday
More observations from moving prep: Sifting through possessions stirs a lot of memories. For instance, DVDs of children's programming reminded me of the mild anxiety about the anti-environmental and autocratic overtones from Thomas the Tank Engine's Island of Sodor. Or the box of toys that helped me revisit the angst of uncritical and tacit approval of merchandising and consumerism via Thomas, Elmo, and [fill in TV tie-in toy here] toys. I'm probably overthinking it, and all of it is getting tossed. However, I do wonder what messages my kids took from those early exposures? Do these characters set the stage for adult thinking? Rigid beliefs around the way "the island" should be organized or overly-simplistic notions of what is "right"? I hope our children have, collectively, more critical thinking skills than we do. And that they put those thoughts in action with voting and civic engagement.
Two follow-ups - 1) I note we had a lot of Elmo toys - and I am irritated that there is no pleural for Elmo - Elmi? Elmoses? Elmus? Use - "Bring the box of (old and gross) Elmi to the dumpster." 2) The great Google has demonstrated that I am not alone in my Thomas-induced anxiety: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-repressive-authoritarian-soul-of-thomas-the-tank-engine-and-friends)
---Latest Data---
Maybe new cases are plateauing? See the FT data.
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
FT data - the second graph down now has state-level data - I suggest setting it to cases, per million, linear, and add your state to the highlighted list.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=0&values=deaths
The NY Times has hotspot map is an excellent quick glace of rolling 2-week case change: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
State Details:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data: https://rt.live/
COVID risk by US county: https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/
Estimate your risk of exposure to a COVID positive person based on your county and the size of gathering: https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/
Each of the above sites reports its source data. Please review sources like https://covidtracking.com/ to understand the quality of that data.
---------
As you review the above data, please remember that Monday reports are always demonstrative of the weekend data lag.
https://twitter.com/COVID19Tracking/status/1285335300189728769
Lots of positive news about vaccines yesterday - preliminary, but directionally correct:
1) CBC News has a slick vaccine tracker:
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/coronavirusvaccinetracker/
2) Positive data on the Oxford vaccine:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/07/20/new-data-on-the-oxford-az-vaccine
3) Positive, but less exciting data on the CanSino vaccine:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/07/20/new-data-on-the-oxford-az-vaccine
4) Review of above + Pfizer vaccine from last week:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/20/health/oxford-covid-19-vaccine-results-cansino-pfizer-study/index.html
Politico offers some discussion around the HHS takeover (from CDC) of hospital data. The HHS site is now live. I await a more critical analysis of this new COVID data site. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/coronavirus-hhs-hospital-data-373269
Here is an article on the cellular physiology of coronavirus infections. The ScienceNews website offers a horror-movie headline - "Coronavirus-infected cells sprout filaments that may spread the virus" reminiscent of The Expanse or The Thing. The cited article from the journal Cell is decidedly less dramatic, "The Global Phosphorylation Landscape of SARS-CoV-2 Infection."
Article about the article: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-infected-cells-sprout-filaments-spread-virus
Journal Article: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30811-4
I would suggest using Chrome to translate, but our friends in Finland are controlling their koronavirus tartuntaa. One ICU patient in the entirety of Finland at the moment, per the article.
https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000006564428.html
Kaiser Health News offers an overview of a multi-system inflammatory syndrome related to COVID. Though incidence is low, it is scary, prolonged, and has unknown long-term consequences. It is also not clear which children are at highest risk. https://khn.org/news/why-doctors-keep-monitoring-kids-who-recover-from-mysterious-covid-linked-illness/
Missouri Governor Mike Parson joins the ranks of elected officials living in an alternate reality. From the peer-reviewed journal USA Today:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/20/missouri-gov-mike-parson-says-kids-get-over-covid-19/5474557002/
Infographic of the day #1 Infographic about infographics - It doesn't get more meta than this.
https://blog.adioma.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/what-is-an-infographic-key-components.png
from
https://blog.adioma.com/what-is-an-infographic/
Infographic of the day #2 - Interactive news bias chart
https://www.adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/
You may not agree with each of the placements, but this work is thoughtful. Check out the methodology section: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/how-ad-fontes-ranks-news-sources/
Bonus Round -- Random finds from the interwebs.
A few things of note from my latest trip down the rabbit hole:
Music-making monks. Some do beatbox meditation and Temple Techno. Some do the Beatles and Ramones covers. Mixing cultures and styles can be amazing. Let Open Culture and YouTube be your guide.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/07/a-beatboxing-buddhist-monk-creates-music-for-meditation.html
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/japanese-buddhist-monk-covers-ramones-teenage-lobotomy.html
http://www.openculture.com/2017/02/japanese-priest-tries-to-revive-buddhism-by-bringing-techno-music-into-the-temple.html
I wonder if reproducing famous art in the appropriate palate and style is as challenging as it looks. Either way, this feels like the right mix of culture and science to end with:
https://www.instagram.com/plaguehistory/
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
-Adam
More observations from moving prep: Sifting through possessions stirs a lot of memories. For instance, DVDs of children's programming reminded me of the mild anxiety about the anti-environmental and autocratic overtones from Thomas the Tank Engine's Island of Sodor. Or the box of toys that helped me revisit the angst of uncritical and tacit approval of merchandising and consumerism via Thomas, Elmo, and [fill in TV tie-in toy here] toys. I'm probably overthinking it, and all of it is getting tossed. However, I do wonder what messages my kids took from those early exposures? Do these characters set the stage for adult thinking? Rigid beliefs around the way "the island" should be organized or overly-simplistic notions of what is "right"? I hope our children have, collectively, more critical thinking skills than we do. And that they put those thoughts in action with voting and civic engagement.
Two follow-ups - 1) I note we had a lot of Elmo toys - and I am irritated that there is no pleural for Elmo - Elmi? Elmoses? Elmus? Use - "Bring the box of (old and gross) Elmi to the dumpster." 2) The great Google has demonstrated that I am not alone in my Thomas-induced anxiety: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-repressive-authoritarian-soul-of-thomas-the-tank-engine-and-friends)
---Latest Data---
Maybe new cases are plateauing? See the FT data.
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
FT data - the second graph down now has state-level data - I suggest setting it to cases, per million, linear, and add your state to the highlighted list.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=0&values=deaths
The NY Times has hotspot map is an excellent quick glace of rolling 2-week case change: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
State Details:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data: https://rt.live/
COVID risk by US county: https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/
Estimate your risk of exposure to a COVID positive person based on your county and the size of gathering: https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/
Each of the above sites reports its source data. Please review sources like https://covidtracking.com/ to understand the quality of that data.
---------
As you review the above data, please remember that Monday reports are always demonstrative of the weekend data lag.
https://twitter.com/COVID19Tracking/status/1285335300189728769
Lots of positive news about vaccines yesterday - preliminary, but directionally correct:
1) CBC News has a slick vaccine tracker:
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/coronavirusvaccinetracker/
2) Positive data on the Oxford vaccine:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/07/20/new-data-on-the-oxford-az-vaccine
3) Positive, but less exciting data on the CanSino vaccine:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/07/20/new-data-on-the-oxford-az-vaccine
4) Review of above + Pfizer vaccine from last week:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/20/health/oxford-covid-19-vaccine-results-cansino-pfizer-study/index.html
Politico offers some discussion around the HHS takeover (from CDC) of hospital data. The HHS site is now live. I await a more critical analysis of this new COVID data site. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/coronavirus-hhs-hospital-data-373269
Here is an article on the cellular physiology of coronavirus infections. The ScienceNews website offers a horror-movie headline - "Coronavirus-infected cells sprout filaments that may spread the virus" reminiscent of The Expanse or The Thing. The cited article from the journal Cell is decidedly less dramatic, "The Global Phosphorylation Landscape of SARS-CoV-2 Infection."
Article about the article: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-infected-cells-sprout-filaments-spread-virus
Journal Article: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30811-4
I would suggest using Chrome to translate, but our friends in Finland are controlling their koronavirus tartuntaa. One ICU patient in the entirety of Finland at the moment, per the article.
https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000006564428.html
Kaiser Health News offers an overview of a multi-system inflammatory syndrome related to COVID. Though incidence is low, it is scary, prolonged, and has unknown long-term consequences. It is also not clear which children are at highest risk. https://khn.org/news/why-doctors-keep-monitoring-kids-who-recover-from-mysterious-covid-linked-illness/
Missouri Governor Mike Parson joins the ranks of elected officials living in an alternate reality. From the peer-reviewed journal USA Today:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/20/missouri-gov-mike-parson-says-kids-get-over-covid-19/5474557002/
Infographic of the day #1 Infographic about infographics - It doesn't get more meta than this.
https://blog.adioma.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/what-is-an-infographic-key-components.png
from
https://blog.adioma.com/what-is-an-infographic/
Infographic of the day #2 - Interactive news bias chart
https://www.adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/
You may not agree with each of the placements, but this work is thoughtful. Check out the methodology section: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/how-ad-fontes-ranks-news-sources/
Bonus Round -- Random finds from the interwebs.
A few things of note from my latest trip down the rabbit hole:
Music-making monks. Some do beatbox meditation and Temple Techno. Some do the Beatles and Ramones covers. Mixing cultures and styles can be amazing. Let Open Culture and YouTube be your guide.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/07/a-beatboxing-buddhist-monk-creates-music-for-meditation.html
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/japanese-buddhist-monk-covers-ramones-teenage-lobotomy.html
http://www.openculture.com/2017/02/japanese-priest-tries-to-revive-buddhism-by-bringing-techno-music-into-the-temple.html
I wonder if reproducing famous art in the appropriate palate and style is as challenging as it looks. Either way, this feels like the right mix of culture and science to end with:
https://www.instagram.com/plaguehistory/
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
-Adam
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