August 31, 2020 Monday
Our kids are starting school today, remotely for ninth and tenth grade. This year, school supplies included an upgraded mesh Wifi system for the house, a new laptop for child #2 (the emergency backup baby, now 14), and an install of Photoshop for an art class for child #1. In college (1993-1997 for me), thanks to the networked dorm rooms, I used to quip that the internet's teleological endpoint was all of us lying in bed working. I did not understand the implications of what I was saying nor how we would arrive at this moment. Of course, without this reality, my son and I would not have had the touching moment of parent-child bonding - commiseration about meetings (and classes) scheduled without zoom links in the invite. And, as I wave to them walking upstairs to their rooms I say, "Have a great first day at school, and may all of your meetings have URLs!"
----------------
Latest Data
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
There is a continued slow decline in new cases in the US (40,000 a day, still). Deaths are a lagging metric but lower at 2.8 (from 2.9-3.0) per million. These deaths amount to about 900 per day, but the data varies by state and region.
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:
The NY Times 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.
-----------
The COVID tracking project continues to offer insightful commentary on its blog. I strongly recommend their blog post from Friday with the weekly roundup of trends and data quality discussion.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/this-week-in-covid-data-aug-27
This NY Times article pairs nicely with the above blog post. Forwarded by a loyal reader, it starts to highlight the problems of not just delayed testing, but of testing that only offers - positive and negative results. PCR testing has some ability to quantitate the amount of virus in a sample. It is an excellent, lay-person discussion of nuance in data reporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html
Here is a thoughtful analysis of data from Australia by Dr. Hyde, an epidemiologist from Perth. She offers a practical framework for thinking through reported data, highlighting how testing and tracking/tracing play a role in controlling COVID spread.
https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1300066979810693120
Lastly, and in the spirit of back to school, here is a twitter thread about how the University of Arizona uses wastewater testing to localize and contain the coronavirus.
https://twitter.com/cfishman/status/1299049476288544768?s=10
Contrast with the University of Alabama
https://time.com/5884874/university-of-alabama-1000-covid-19-cases/
Infographic of the day: Ethnomathematics!
I had never considered the variation in counting notation (tally marks) based on geography and ethnicity.
https://i.redd.it/whv714qdp7k51.jpg
read the discussion to appreciate how varied these are used, even within a country
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/ijljbf/tally_marks_from_around_the_world/
And, you can download a worksheet for the kids!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tally-Marks-Around-the-World-An-Ethnomathematics-Counting-Lesson-2644510
Bonus Round - Early Modern Memes
In the spirit of accidentally predicting the future, I happened upon this article about Joseph Ducreux, a French painter who created non-traditional (for the 1790s) self-portraits.
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/joseph-ducreux-self-portraits
These portraits, thanks to their overt expressions, have become popular meme images. More interesting, I found a related article about how often woodcut images (used in early printing) were reused and recycled. This reuse drove a varying degree of context and meaning for these images - in essence, a parallel to the meme.
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/early-modern-memes-the-reuse-and-recycling-of-woodcuts-in-17th-century-english-popular-print
One more article I found for the very interested:
https://mercuriuspoliticus.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/recycled-woodcuts/
There is nothing new about the ability to reuse art and images to emphasize common sentiment.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
Our kids are starting school today, remotely for ninth and tenth grade. This year, school supplies included an upgraded mesh Wifi system for the house, a new laptop for child #2 (the emergency backup baby, now 14), and an install of Photoshop for an art class for child #1. In college (1993-1997 for me), thanks to the networked dorm rooms, I used to quip that the internet's teleological endpoint was all of us lying in bed working. I did not understand the implications of what I was saying nor how we would arrive at this moment. Of course, without this reality, my son and I would not have had the touching moment of parent-child bonding - commiseration about meetings (and classes) scheduled without zoom links in the invite. And, as I wave to them walking upstairs to their rooms I say, "Have a great first day at school, and may all of your meetings have URLs!"
----------------
Latest Data
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
There is a continued slow decline in new cases in the US (40,000 a day, still). Deaths are a lagging metric but lower at 2.8 (from 2.9-3.0) per million. These deaths amount to about 900 per day, but the data varies by state and region.
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:
The NY Times 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.
-----------
The COVID tracking project continues to offer insightful commentary on its blog. I strongly recommend their blog post from Friday with the weekly roundup of trends and data quality discussion.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/this-week-in-covid-data-aug-27
This NY Times article pairs nicely with the above blog post. Forwarded by a loyal reader, it starts to highlight the problems of not just delayed testing, but of testing that only offers - positive and negative results. PCR testing has some ability to quantitate the amount of virus in a sample. It is an excellent, lay-person discussion of nuance in data reporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html
Here is a thoughtful analysis of data from Australia by Dr. Hyde, an epidemiologist from Perth. She offers a practical framework for thinking through reported data, highlighting how testing and tracking/tracing play a role in controlling COVID spread.
https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1300066979810693120
Lastly, and in the spirit of back to school, here is a twitter thread about how the University of Arizona uses wastewater testing to localize and contain the coronavirus.
https://twitter.com/cfishman/status/1299049476288544768?s=10
Contrast with the University of Alabama
https://time.com/5884874/university-of-alabama-1000-covid-19-cases/
Infographic of the day: Ethnomathematics!
I had never considered the variation in counting notation (tally marks) based on geography and ethnicity.
https://i.redd.it/whv714qdp7k51.jpg
read the discussion to appreciate how varied these are used, even within a country
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/ijljbf/tally_marks_from_around_the_world/
And, you can download a worksheet for the kids!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tally-Marks-Around-the-World-An-Ethnomathematics-Counting-Lesson-2644510
Bonus Round - Early Modern Memes
In the spirit of accidentally predicting the future, I happened upon this article about Joseph Ducreux, a French painter who created non-traditional (for the 1790s) self-portraits.
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/joseph-ducreux-self-portraits
These portraits, thanks to their overt expressions, have become popular meme images. More interesting, I found a related article about how often woodcut images (used in early printing) were reused and recycled. This reuse drove a varying degree of context and meaning for these images - in essence, a parallel to the meme.
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/early-modern-memes-the-reuse-and-recycling-of-woodcuts-in-17th-century-english-popular-print
One more article I found for the very interested:
https://mercuriuspoliticus.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/recycled-woodcuts/
There is nothing new about the ability to reuse art and images to emphasize common sentiment.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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