August 12, 2020
Wednesday
Some days are so busy that I don't have much time to review articles and news. I notice a decompression from not doomscrolling (an obsessive, intellectual rubber-necking of scary news). But, the choices are not ideal. One should not rely on a small number of news sources. And yet, it is time-consuming and a psychological burden to satisfactorily review a wide range of sources. Like Frodo and the ring, choosing to inform yourself with a wide array of media exposes you to corrosive forces that sometimes make intellectual victories feel pyrrhic and corrupt. A well-informed populace will require a lot of Frodos carrying a lot of rings. "Checking out" is the path of least resistance. I'm pretty sure some in our country are capitalizing on this.
There are other ways to fight this, I think. https://www.eac.gov/voters/become-poll-worker
------------
Latest Data
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
a slow decline in new cases per million in the US
stable deaths @ 3.2 per million in the US on August 8
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=cases
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The US Regionally:
There are both falling rates of new cases and death per million in more states than not, per FT data.
The NYT has the best state-level data visualization:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
-----------
It is not clear that the new HHS data gathering from states and hospitals is living up to the advertised "improved data reporting." Read the latest COVID tracking project blog post:
https://covidtracking.com/blog/hospitalization-data-reported-by-the-hhs-vs-the-states-jumps-drops-and-other
Yesterday, Russia declared that they have an effective COVID vaccine. There is much skepticism and NO DATA to support this assertion. BUT, I'm not sure the skeptics are their target audience for this messaging. Either way, the best analysis I have found implies they have skipped phase 3 of vaccine testing, which has a reasonable chance of having unintended consequences.
Twitter offers a robust discussion on this topic:
https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1293143496900182017?s=10
or
https://twitter.com/peterhotez/status/1293180411187609600?s=10
As a point of reference, a large percentage of drugs fail in phase 3. Here is a 2019 editorial from the American Academy of Science that covers drug failure and approval rates. Not sure where vaccines fall in this data, but it is vital to have a robust and complete drug evaluation process.
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2019/05/09/the-latest-on-drug-failure-and-approval-rates
STAT news offered an article about a novel molecule that could, eventually, be useful as an antiviral agent against coronavirus. Despite the large amount of work still to be done, the story is interesting, and it is the first llama-derived therapy I am aware of. Learn about nanobodies!
https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/11/scientists-create-potent-anti-coronavirus-nanobody-inspired-by-llamas/
Infographic of the day: Passwords.
Not only is there a fellow infographic lover out there, but this one wrote about the relationship between password length, complexity, and time to breaking it.
https://cloudnine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CrackPassword2.png
from https://cloudnine.com/ediscoverydaily/electronic-discovery/how-long-will-it-take-to-crack-your-password-cybersecurity-trends/
----Bonus Round: Simulated slime mold
There is something very meta about using software that simulates slime molds' growth to generate abstract art that looks vaguely like things in the real world. The notion of fake biology and technology yielding abstract beauty may be profound. Or not. Maybe it is just more 2020.
https://fronkonstin.com/2020/08/11/abstractions/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
Some days are so busy that I don't have much time to review articles and news. I notice a decompression from not doomscrolling (an obsessive, intellectual rubber-necking of scary news). But, the choices are not ideal. One should not rely on a small number of news sources. And yet, it is time-consuming and a psychological burden to satisfactorily review a wide range of sources. Like Frodo and the ring, choosing to inform yourself with a wide array of media exposes you to corrosive forces that sometimes make intellectual victories feel pyrrhic and corrupt. A well-informed populace will require a lot of Frodos carrying a lot of rings. "Checking out" is the path of least resistance. I'm pretty sure some in our country are capitalizing on this.
There are other ways to fight this, I think. https://www.eac.gov/voters/become-poll-worker
------------
Latest Data
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
a slow decline in new cases per million in the US
stable deaths @ 3.2 per million in the US on August 8
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=cases
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The US Regionally:
There are both falling rates of new cases and death per million in more states than not, per FT data.
The NYT has the best state-level data visualization:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
-----------
It is not clear that the new HHS data gathering from states and hospitals is living up to the advertised "improved data reporting." Read the latest COVID tracking project blog post:
https://covidtracking.com/blog/hospitalization-data-reported-by-the-hhs-vs-the-states-jumps-drops-and-other
Yesterday, Russia declared that they have an effective COVID vaccine. There is much skepticism and NO DATA to support this assertion. BUT, I'm not sure the skeptics are their target audience for this messaging. Either way, the best analysis I have found implies they have skipped phase 3 of vaccine testing, which has a reasonable chance of having unintended consequences.
Twitter offers a robust discussion on this topic:
https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1293143496900182017?s=10
or
https://twitter.com/peterhotez/status/1293180411187609600?s=10
As a point of reference, a large percentage of drugs fail in phase 3. Here is a 2019 editorial from the American Academy of Science that covers drug failure and approval rates. Not sure where vaccines fall in this data, but it is vital to have a robust and complete drug evaluation process.
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2019/05/09/the-latest-on-drug-failure-and-approval-rates
STAT news offered an article about a novel molecule that could, eventually, be useful as an antiviral agent against coronavirus. Despite the large amount of work still to be done, the story is interesting, and it is the first llama-derived therapy I am aware of. Learn about nanobodies!
https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/11/scientists-create-potent-anti-coronavirus-nanobody-inspired-by-llamas/
Infographic of the day: Passwords.
Not only is there a fellow infographic lover out there, but this one wrote about the relationship between password length, complexity, and time to breaking it.
https://cloudnine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CrackPassword2.png
from https://cloudnine.com/ediscoverydaily/electronic-discovery/how-long-will-it-take-to-crack-your-password-cybersecurity-trends/
----Bonus Round: Simulated slime mold
There is something very meta about using software that simulates slime molds' growth to generate abstract art that looks vaguely like things in the real world. The notion of fake biology and technology yielding abstract beauty may be profound. Or not. Maybe it is just more 2020.
https://fronkonstin.com/2020/08/11/abstractions/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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