Tuesday, October 20, 2020
As a condition for our house's sale, we begrudgingly agreed to have our air ducts and vents cleaned. Yesterday, the duct cleaning company's small jet engine of a vacuum spent 2 hours in our house. According to the _very engaging_ duct cleaning technician, his fan "had the power of 10 contractor-grade leaf blowers - 6000 CFM!" He removed significant quantities of dirt and debris. Curiously, I found myself experiencing surprise, anger, and disbelief. Defensive automatic thoughts flashed across my mind: "My vents are clean! You planted that dirt! How can good people have dirty ducts?!?" Cognitive bias (belief and confirmation biases, in this case) can appear in unusual ways and about mundane topics - even when you write about biases many mornings of the week. A clean house doesn't necessarily mean clean ducts. And my ducts don't reflect on my quality as a person. I hope.
https://yourbias.is/
-----Latest Data---
Case rates trending up in many states and parts of the world
Death rates still stable - remember it is often a 2+ week lagging indicator. The US is now diagnosing more than 50,000 new cases per day (7-day rolling average) and is stable at 675-700 deaths per day (7-day rolling average).
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
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 - NY. Times:
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.
----
Medscape reports on physician burnout during the pandemic, based on direct physician surveys. The quotes are striking, articulate, and likely applicable to frontline healthcare workers.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/939343
JAMA offers commentary from a group of physicians at Yale on herd immunity - when it works and when it doesn't. It is a quick read.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2772167
ProPublica offered an article on the inner workings of the Data Safety Monitoring Board for operation Warp Speed. While the headline focuses on Dr. Fauci, there is more to the report. I suggest reading it with coffee this morning.
https://www.propublica.org/article/who-decides-when-vaccine-studies-are-done-internal-documents-show-fauci-plays-a-key-role
STAT News published this article on the FDA approval processes for new vaccines. The next meeting of the vaccine advisory board is Thursday of this week.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/10/20/dry-technical-but-important-why-an-fda-advisory-panels-meeting-on-covid-19-vaccines-matters/
Infographic(s) of the day: I happened upon a treasure trove of infographics this morning, The Visual Communication Guy.
Logical Fallacies: https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/rhetoric-overview/the-logical-fallacies/
A Summary of the Trump/Biden debate: https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2020/10/01/a-visual-summary-of-the-first-presidential-debate-of-2020-yes-it-was-this-bad/
Check out his repository of infographics:
https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/digital-downloads/
Bonus Round --- Unexpected Moments of Learning (UML)
Much like becoming more aware of my biases via duct cleaning, I found a few articles that gave me UMLs from unexpected places in the last few days.
Though I often think of him in campy martial arts films, I was surprised to learn more about the intellectual and philosophical side of Bruce Lee. His daughter just released a book reflecting on his martial arts as a metaphor for creativity and perseverance. UML#1
https://medium.com/@ajay971/3-important-lessons-bruce-lee-teach-us-df0d224fa10f
more: https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/10/16/bruce-lee-death-artist-of-life/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250206685/braipick-20
UML #2 came by way of Washington Monthly. My older son and I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey a few months back. He and I still discuss what makes it "great." The pacing is slow. It is, at times, monotonous. And yet, it is loved. I found this article about Kubrick, which adds depth to the movie - HAL as the failed rebel. And Kubrick as a storyteller of failed rebellions.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/september-october-2020/stanley-kubricks-calculated-rebellion/
clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
As a condition for our house's sale, we begrudgingly agreed to have our air ducts and vents cleaned. Yesterday, the duct cleaning company's small jet engine of a vacuum spent 2 hours in our house. According to the _very engaging_ duct cleaning technician, his fan "had the power of 10 contractor-grade leaf blowers - 6000 CFM!" He removed significant quantities of dirt and debris. Curiously, I found myself experiencing surprise, anger, and disbelief. Defensive automatic thoughts flashed across my mind: "My vents are clean! You planted that dirt! How can good people have dirty ducts?!?" Cognitive bias (belief and confirmation biases, in this case) can appear in unusual ways and about mundane topics - even when you write about biases many mornings of the week. A clean house doesn't necessarily mean clean ducts. And my ducts don't reflect on my quality as a person. I hope.
https://yourbias.is/
-----Latest Data---
Case rates trending up in many states and parts of the world
Death rates still stable - remember it is often a 2+ week lagging indicator. The US is now diagnosing more than 50,000 new cases per day (7-day rolling average) and is stable at 675-700 deaths per day (7-day rolling average).
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
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 - NY. Times:
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.
----
Medscape reports on physician burnout during the pandemic, based on direct physician surveys. The quotes are striking, articulate, and likely applicable to frontline healthcare workers.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/939343
JAMA offers commentary from a group of physicians at Yale on herd immunity - when it works and when it doesn't. It is a quick read.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2772167
ProPublica offered an article on the inner workings of the Data Safety Monitoring Board for operation Warp Speed. While the headline focuses on Dr. Fauci, there is more to the report. I suggest reading it with coffee this morning.
https://www.propublica.org/article/who-decides-when-vaccine-studies-are-done-internal-documents-show-fauci-plays-a-key-role
STAT News published this article on the FDA approval processes for new vaccines. The next meeting of the vaccine advisory board is Thursday of this week.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/10/20/dry-technical-but-important-why-an-fda-advisory-panels-meeting-on-covid-19-vaccines-matters/
Infographic(s) of the day: I happened upon a treasure trove of infographics this morning, The Visual Communication Guy.
Logical Fallacies: https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/rhetoric-overview/the-logical-fallacies/
A Summary of the Trump/Biden debate: https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2020/10/01/a-visual-summary-of-the-first-presidential-debate-of-2020-yes-it-was-this-bad/
Check out his repository of infographics:
https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/digital-downloads/
Bonus Round --- Unexpected Moments of Learning (UML)
Much like becoming more aware of my biases via duct cleaning, I found a few articles that gave me UMLs from unexpected places in the last few days.
Though I often think of him in campy martial arts films, I was surprised to learn more about the intellectual and philosophical side of Bruce Lee. His daughter just released a book reflecting on his martial arts as a metaphor for creativity and perseverance. UML#1
https://medium.com/@ajay971/3-important-lessons-bruce-lee-teach-us-df0d224fa10f
more: https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/10/16/bruce-lee-death-artist-of-life/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250206685/braipick-20
UML #2 came by way of Washington Monthly. My older son and I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey a few months back. He and I still discuss what makes it "great." The pacing is slow. It is, at times, monotonous. And yet, it is loved. I found this article about Kubrick, which adds depth to the movie - HAL as the failed rebel. And Kubrick as a storyteller of failed rebellions.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/september-october-2020/stanley-kubricks-calculated-rebellion/
clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
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