Week of October 10, 2022
Our house sits amongst large, old black oak trees, and I spend time on fall weekends contemplatively leaf-blowing. Herding thousands of leaves into piles (only to have more fall in a few hours), I am struck by the Sisyphean battle against entropy and the scale of the universe. Perhaps even transient power-tool victories over nature fill some primal need. Or maybe I just like a momentarily clean yard.
For anyone that cares, I use an electric leaf blower. Leafblowers, in some communities, have been politicized.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/james-fallows-leaf-blower-ban/583210/
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In the U.S., COVID case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths are stable.
The U.K. and E.U. countries are reporting increased case rates.
As always, the data is nuanced, and you should read the individual pages for details.
N.Y. Times Tracker
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
Financial Times Data
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=eur&areas=usa&areas=e92000001&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usnm&areasRegional=uspr&areasRegional=usaz&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=usnd&cumulative=0&logScale=0&per100K=1&startDate=2021-09-01&values=deaths
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On October 7, Florida's Department of Health published a press release changing recommendations about "the risks" of vaccinating 18 to 39-year-old men against COVID, stating there is data that this age group is at higher risk for cardiovascular events. The pre-print (non-peer-reviewed) study cited is deeply flawed - small sample sizes, survivorship bias, questionable non-standard data definitions, and cherry-picking subgroups to find any statistically significant correlation. I strongly recommend reading the analysis by two different epidemiologists. Changing official public policy on such flimsy information is a massive disservice to the people of Florida and (at best) dishonest.
https://twitter.com/kmpanthagani/status/1578921562761465857
and
https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1578894014132408320
Let's talk about articles based on intellectually honest science. And you can thank me later for helping you achieve more ROI from your college biology classes.
University of Pennsylvania epigeneticists released an interesting paper demonstrating how SARS-CoV-2 disrupts human cellular reproduction and cellular responses to the viral infection. In other words, part of the illness caused by COVID is the direct inhibition of cells from effectively responding to the viral infection. I wonder how many viruses have this ability (for instance, HIV inhibits cellular replication through a different mechanism)? It is a bit in the weeds, but this data emphasizes how fantastic (in an intellectual way) biology is.
Summary Thread
https://twitter.com/upulie/status/1578004402438381570
From the Lab
https://twitter.com/KorbLab/status/1577745645980381184
and
The paper
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05282-z.epdf?sharing_token=N_qxhO1i3NLzQ6JkMwo4RtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PlLUFkU9cFC2FfiUqzExKuhSFdie_XGmrWhXsQHw-qGfsQ4HN8y3ybU9PPzgVPyMtzU9z3x6dQg-__Y7E2up_08_aieJvG1Nk0fCCpfh6cOEJkSDJePfNzgozYyf35KfM%3D
Canadian evolutionary biologist T. Ryan Gregory blogs on the impact of ineffective control of coronavirus spread in large populations of humans. Put another way, what happens when a virus continues to spread in a highly mobile population of homo sapiens? The virus stops evolving as one variant and convergently evolves into multiple similar variants.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1577617059525140480.html
Using regression modeling, Nick Beauchamp from Northeastern University found that scented candle reviews claiming "no smell" on Amazon.com correlate with changes in U.S. Covid cases even when controlling for the seasonality of those reviews and might be a tool for tracking the ebb and tide of the pandemic. Thank you, loyal reader.
https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19388/19160
related thread
https://twitter.com/DataDrivenMD/status/1579128777690742789
Medical Trends and Technology
Did you know that tick bites can lead to red meat (pork, lamb, and beef) allergies - from rashes to anaphylaxis? Break out your permethrin clothing spray and meet (meat?) the lone star tick. And learn how it relates to pig-heart transplants into humans.
https://twitter.com/avrahamcoopermd/status/1543570190306349058
and
https://radiolab.org/episodes/return-alpha-gal
Infographics
For the Gordon Lightfoot fans, I offer the funny/not-funny "Ways the Great Lakes Try to Murder Ships - Illustrated."
https://i.redd.it/l1wzgwcv0ms91.jpg
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Edmund_Fitzgerald
See through the eyes of our A.I. Overlords!
"oil painting of large leaves falling on man meditating on grass holding leaf blower"
https://labs.openai.com/s/QngDRGchPeIikbvHkNLClRTK
What is this?
https://openai.com/dall-e-2/
Things I learned this week
Names have power, and, given the state of the world, the name Karen may carry a heavier burden. Moreover, humans are disconcertingly able to associate physical traits or appearances with specific names:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/name-face-stereotypes_n_58b45891e4b060480e0a67a0.
Likewise, there is data to suggest people will grow to look like their name - the Dorian Gray effect:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hecparis/2017/06/08/the-importance-of-being-ernest-how-your-first-name-can-shape-your-face/?sh=59b5481873ab
and
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-dorian-gray-effect-how-your-name-alters-your-face-20170228-gunl3e.html
Here is a very comprehensive YouTube video on this topic and other cognitive biases around appearance:
https://youtu.be/vjqt8T3tJIE
In a world of homogenized globalization, local variation in vending machines is still a thing. The magic of the interwebs permits for multinational sharing of (amongst other things) vending machine-dispensed pizzas (western Europe), steak and sausage (Germany), Salmon (Norway), and canned mackerel (Chile). Amazing.
https://twitter.com/JohnGeeMcCarthy/status/1578696366821240832
more
https://www.lovefood.com/gallerylist/118033/the-worlds-best-hot-food-vending-machines
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
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