tingilinde

tom lehrer is 91

So many pieces, but my favorite gives a nod to the fact he was a math professor.

mousetrap visualization of social distancing

the old physics demo you probably saw, but adapted to today

quote for the day

 

 

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

George Orwell, 1984

 

 

jigsaw puzzles

How they're made

As a kid I emptied all of my old ones into a box and sold jigsaw puzzle by weight.  There weren't any takers.

 

when to use ventilators

Perhaps they're being used too early.

snip

...

That is making critical care physicians suspect that blood levels of oxygen, which for decades have driven decisions about breathing support for patients with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress, might be misleading them about how to care for those with Covid-19. In particular, more and more are concerned about the use of intubation and mechanical ventilators. They argue that more patients could receive simpler, noninvasive respiratory support, such as the breathing masks used in sleep apnea, at least to start with and maybe for the duration of the illness.

“I think we may indeed be able to support a subset of these patients” with less invasive breathing support, said Sohan Japa, an internal medicine physician at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I think we have to be more nuanced about who we intubate.”

...

 

a tip of the hat to Jim

 

 

seasonality and the virus

Suggesting no major seasonal effect

 

perhaps the best garfunkel and oates song

cheering the loser who tries

 

tax avoidance of the rich

As an investor friend says

he REAL INEQUALITY is not wealth of the 1%––but the cynical knowing of stuff––the masses don't.

This is not illegal, not tax evasion
But it IS tax avoidance––spun brilliantly

 

The donor advised funds loophole

snip

...

Most of DAF critics’ policy fixes have focused on minimum payout requirements, which would require a set disbursement every year, such as 5 percent, or payout terms, which would require all the money to be disbursed within a given time frame, which Madoff has suggested could be as much as 20 years.

But at the federal level, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s really paying attention. A proposal in the House of Representatives a few years ago to impose payout terms went nowhere. Since then, there has been little serious legislative risk to donor-advised funds at the federal level. A bill currently in the California legislature would subject DAFs in the state to additional reporting requirements.

...

 

 

 

if you need a diversion

Spurious correlations - wonderful!

a tip of the hat to Greg

 

 

plague muzak

How do you keep people calm in stores?

 

radiolab for kids

This should be great for kids from about 10 to 100.  (they're looking for relevant regular RadioLabs)

 

 

the flag

 

 

the path of misinformation

How a badly flawed study made it to the most dangerous place.

snip

...

The story of how hydroxychloroquine was anointed the Trump administration’s miracle drug for the coronavirus pandemic is a distinctly modern tale of misinformation within a global information ecosystem beset by widespread uncertainty, fear, media fragmentation and hyper-partisanship. Belief in the drug’s potential to cure patients infected with the virus followed an extraordinary trajectory from a small study conducted in France (Trump’s “very good test”) to Silicon Valley social media influencers, Fox News and the largest bully pulpit: the White House.

But it’s also a story as old as medicine itself. When an epidemic killed thousands in ancient Rome, said Aaron Shakow, a research associate at Harvard Medical School and historian of medicine, the chief physician of the emperor Nero circulated a recipe for an old miracle cure.

“It was an attempt by Nero to sustain his legitimacy in the midst of this catastrophic event,” Shakow said. “Epidemics are dangerous to rulers.”

...

 

 

 

failing social distancing

The new coal-rolling of mostly right-wing males.

 

sylt

Archeology of the not-too-distant past..  a Nazi concentration camp on the isle of Alderney - one of the Channel Islands. (free access)