It all started a few days ago when I made the mistake of commenting on a Twitter thread. And a Twitter thread about how policy affects death and doing the usual cherry-picking about how some favored policy in State A caused it to have lower death rates than that trogolodyte science-denying State B. Of course, you know the Team colors for A and B. But… let’s not put things in the Memory Hole, policies and recommendations have been all over the place- characterized as “evolving,” but looking more like a random walk than any actual data-driven convergence. Media and government have found a symbiotic relationship: Panic Porn gets clicks, views, and ad revenue, and government can (without even any pretense of constitutionality and respect for fundamental civil liberties) use the resulting hysteria to massively increase its control over our lives and choices, and completely distract from mundane things like two-decade-long wars. “Science” is commonly invoked.
Now a disclaimer: I am a working research scientist with a rather broad set of experiences and a LOT of experience dealing with environmental health research funded by the NIH and NSF, but I am fundamentally a physical chemist. So I’m not the guy to talk to about protein structure of virus coats and mechanisms of immunological pathways at other than an educated layman level. But handling and interpreting data, that’s something I do. Ditto, understanding the dynamics of research funding, well enough to have euchred many millions of your tax dollars for research programs. So I know how that game is played, and am numerate enough to recognize bullshit and spin, and the thing that set me off was a doozy.
Here’s a chart that was trotted out and used extensively by various howler monkeys:
Taken from Statista
Man, it’s easy to see the effect of the fantastically enlightened policies in the states near the bottom! Oh wait, their policies are RANDOM and changing weekly as well. This observation did not seem to calm the howler monkeys in the least- one even claimed a major difference between two states in the middle that were only 2 deaths/100k apart, assuming that no one could look at the chart and catch him in the lie.
Looking at the chart (and assuming the data are more or less correct), something struck me. So let’s try a really goofy, nutty, out there hypothesis: that other than really brutally stupid policies like New York government’s deliberate placement of COVID patients into nursing homes, the various policies and decrees have essentially NO influence on outcomes. They neither help nor hurt (as far as COVID). Now of course, there’s demographic differences between states (ages, ethnicities…), and some correlation doubtless can be found there, but just for shits and giggles, let’s assume spherical cows and hypothesize that things like closures, curfews, talismasks, and the like have no influence, whether mandated or not, and that the demographic differences are second order.
If this hypothesis were true, what would we expect to see? I think that if we sorted the data into a histogram with bins representing death rates and bar height representing the number of states with death rates in that bin, we’d see something like a normal distribution; it won’t be a perfect Gaussian because you can’t have negative death rates since Lazarus, so it will have a Poisson distribution character.
Let’s do it. Statista has a great feature allowing the download of their data into Excel. This is delightful for geeks like us who can slice it, dice it, or visualize it.
Well, whaddaya know? It DOES seem to distribute normally (I didn’t get a chance to fit it to a Poisson, but eyeballing, I’ll opine that λ = 5 or so will follow it tightly). There’s a little tail thickness from NY and NJ, but otherwise, this is pretty fucking close to exactly what we predicted: political policy has almost no effect. It’s almost as if viruses spread and mutate without really caring much whether bars are open or closed. Like, I dunno, the common cold?
Now clearly there could conceivably be effective policies focused on actual vulnerable populations instead of kids and healthy young adults. Conceivably. But no politician is going to conceive of that- welcome to your new chains. And as politicians are guided by “science” (meaning political appointees and government bureaucrats), the chains will only get heavier. Count on the media to not present the data in this format, where the futility of relying on politicians is far too evident.
So, let’s say it again: public policy of the sorts we’ve been pursuing (universal restriction of basic civil liberties and compulsory obeisance to symbolism of dubious efficacy) has almost no effect, positive or negative, on a virus that is a powerful replicating machine presenting relatively low risks to the majority of the population. It’s random.
Make Firsting About Being First Again
MFABFA
I am fundamentally a physical chemist – so not a lawyer
But handling and interpreting data, that’s something I do. – yes but that is what many others do “handle” the data until the correct “interpretation” appears
Caress, manipulate, digitally penetrate.
It’s random. – or is it a Jewish plot to fool people into thinking it is random?
Thank you for the graphs, but there is no way in hell I could get anyone to listen to me for long enough to explain it. If I wrote this, nobody would read it. Social media is not the best place to request critical thinking. Lastly, most of my not-libertarian circle (which is vast) is fully invested in COVID panic.
Nobody cares unless you can fit it into a meme. Or it contains a “gotcha” for the opposite political party.
Thanks, OM, even I can understand your charts.
Pretty much everyone understands Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Great Pumpkin and will believe anything a politician tells them. Somehow democracy makes those elected smarter than us.
I don’t know about the Bunny and Pumpkin, but most folks do actually vote for Santa Claus.
“You didn’t tell me there would be math.”
“Math is hard.” –Barbie
I look at the Indiana site almost daily. There is a lot of data there. Some of it is useless (number of tests, positivity rate) but some of it is very meaningful (number of daily deaths, percentage of positive cases and deaths by age, separate stats for long term care facilities, hospital room availability).
Since the beginning it has only reinforced my view that this virus is very dangerous for older people, and not dangerous for younger people.
Some people in Minnesoda get it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hduw92y8J7A&feature=youtu.be
Romania has lower death per 1 million than US so our Enlightened government was clearly right to close down parks in the spring in a it where a lot of people with small children live in cramped apartment blocks. Also allowing the elderly to shop only between 11 and 13 clearly payed off.
Speaking of thicc tails, I’m sure Count Potato will be here soon with a link.
What kind of a distribution would you expect to see if your hypothesis weren’t true?
Hard to say (obviously), but one possible outcome would be something like a camel’s back: two clustered peaks separated by a trough. The peaks representing “good” and “bad” policy with some bleed in between the two. You could also have a bleed where the two “peaks” virtually meet creating one very long peak, with relatively shorter tails.
I see those types of patterns in my work and we can use “mixture models” and other techniques to help normalize the data (having “normal” data is extremely helpful when doing the analysis).
If any policies are truly and significantly effective (or the opposite), the two peaks should resolve. One nice thing about working with the raw data is that I can choose bin widths if I see an indication of multiple peaks. I didn’t, so 20 deaths/100k seemed a reasonable choice.
One other comment- if I have to go so far as to use things like deconvolution to resolve the pair (or more) of peaks, the policy differences are by definition insignificant.
I’m betting that if you added in “average energy bills by month” as a variable in the model, you’d wind up with a really clear correlation. The virus seems to spread whenever the populace of a state moves from spending a lot of time outdoors to a lot of time indoors. Since our country is huge covering a lot of different climates, what months those are change geographically.
“It DOES seem to distribute normally”
Chi squared ?
This is one thing that really bothers me about the whole ‘masks’ thing; it gives this illusion of immunity. The best, tried and true way to not get the virus is to NOT FUCKING BE THERE to get the virus.
There are pluses and minuses to wearing masks. The average Joe eliminates almost all of the pluses through ignorance and handling. Then they go about their day as normal and have been in fact more dangerous because they think they have a shield on.
The best way through all of this is letting personal freedom reign. Educate who you can and make the best decisions for you and your families. You can only lock populations in side for so long before the powder kegs start going off. People get hungry. People get lonely. people have bills to pay and children to raise. If you think a government decree and some masks are going to stop people or the virus, you’re an idiot.
I am not sure the death rates are as random as the random nature and degree to which states are cooking the numbers. I dont believe any of the numbers that have been touted yet. They have been caught lying too many times.
This is a) anecdotal, and b) a ridiculously small sample size, but it confirms my biases so it’s totally indicative.
A coworker’s wife works for a VA hospital that had a huge influx from the reservation over the past couple weeks. She tells him there’s heated debate among the staff as to whether most of those occupying beds should even be there, as there’s not much treatment being rendered that couldn’t be self-administered at home. I suspect it’s mostly down to money, so when I hear from governor shithead that “Hospitals are over capacity,” all I hear is “Billing is up!”
VA hospitals are funded in part by copays if the Vet has private insurance. They are also compensated yearly based in the amount of services used during the previous year in a byzantine system called VERA. If you told me there is a financial incentive for admitting COVID patients, I’d require very little evidence having worked at a VA as an administrator.
There is also the part where VA hospitals have a lot of extra capacity since most Vets use the system for OP services unless they are presenting in the ED, which for the entire time I worked there was never sufficient and wound up calling an ambulance to take the Vet to another hospital…all at taxpayer expense.
I suspect it’s mostly down to money, so when I hear from governor shithead that “Hospitals are over capacity,” all I hear is “Billing is up!”
We get paid based, essentially, on discharge diagnosis. The longer a patient is in the hospital, the less we make/more we lose. We are incentivized to discharge patients as soon as possible. We are also incentivized to admit as many patients as possible, but unless we are willing to commit outright fraud* by falsifying labs, radiology, etc. etc., we can’t expect to get paid for somebody we admit who wasn’t in some approximation of need for hospitalization.
I dunno about the VA.
*We aren’t.
But is there the same stringency in Covid billing during the hysteria, especially if Medicaid is picking up the tab?
(Genuine question, I don’t know how it works.)
AZ’s version of Medicaid (AHCCCS) loosened the requirements for authorizations related to the pandemic. The same rules apply for documentation/coding/billing but they are allowing for a greater volume.
The expectation is more issues with billing will result from a larger pool of authorizations, but it doesn’t mean there is more as a percentage of the whole.
As a Jersey resident…
1. Certainly some cooking of the numbers (talked about the guy who fell off a latter, bashed his head in and was declared a covid death yesterday). I don’t know how this compares to other states although I suspect a red state / blue state bias.
2. The policy of shoving sick elderly people into unprepared nursing homes really racked up the body count.
3. The hardest hit places in NJ were some of the most densely populated and the areas where lots of people commute into NYC on public transportation. Those trains and buses are often filthy and rarely cleaned. The didn’t start cleaning them with an effort to disinfect until May.
So no coincidence we had a high death rate in the state despite a very low death rate out where I live.
” I don’t know how this compares to other states”
Colorado got busted back in May when they got caught counting someone who killed in a car wreck as a covid death because he’d tested positive but without symptoms a few days prior. Someone went back through the stats and they revised the deaths down by a few.
Also in Colorado: Dude who died with a BAC of .55 listed as COVID death…
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/05/14/coronavirus-montezuma-county-coroner-alcohol-poisoning-covid-death/
Clearly, he was trying to disinfect his bloodstream.
This graph violates Benford’s Law!
As a libertarian, I take pride in flouting the law.
We’re Number One!
The local media still kisses Murphy’s ass and ignores all the stupid shit he did in March and April to kill thousands in nursing homes.
The truth that no public official wants to get out is that most of the nursing home deaths came from (and still come from) the homes that are dependent on Medicare and Medicaid for their revenue. Somebody might get the idea that government is incapable of saving you from anything.
There was a Veterans home here where they had hundreds of them die.
I was told there would be no math.
Goddammit, I just said that to Mojeaux. GET OUT OF MY BRAIN.
As someone said the other day (could have been a year ago; it’s still “the other day”), I never understood why people would wear the star or turn on their neighbors, but now I know.
I have thought about wearing a yellow star of David mask, but nobody looks anybody in the eye anymore, so no one would see it, much less think about it.
The most disturbing thing for me during this whole thing is how many people want to be told what to do and how many get angry with those that don’t comply or even just ask questions.
Questioning might lead to thinking, and we mustn’t have that.
Religion, indeed. Many church cultures heavily discourage questioning.
isn’t that basically the lesson of the four gospels?
To question or not question?
Christ was tortured and murdered for questioning.
Questioning might lead to thinking
Now if you tell people that, you won’t have to do anything more to discourage them from questioning.
God forbid they actually have to think. That might hurt.
The founder of my church, Joseph Smith, said, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.”
Traditionally, we have stressed personal revelation and free agency.
But in 1978, one of my more recent church leaders said, “When the prophet speaks, the debate is over,” which has mutated into “…the thinking has been done for you.”
So we are no different. We have devolved from “they govern themselves” to the rule book (Miracle of Forgiveness) and cultural expectations which are the unwritten rules and regs.
The thinking has been done.
No questioning.
Questioning not allowed.
Sooo, not feeling the love for Elder Tanner, huh?
I ran into this statement as a Teacher in the Elder’s Quorum, “If it’s good enough for the Prophet, it’s good enough for me.”
Tanner’s bad, but Kimball is evil and I hope he burns in a pit of fire for the rest of eternity.
I mean, if there is a pit of fire. Jury’s still out.
What jury? What does the Prophet have to say about it, so I know what to believe? 😉
Ha!
The words of the profits were written on the subway walls and concert halls.
And these are the people who believe themselves to be intellectual and intelligent but yet aren’t able to process anything that might disrupt their view. I had a former boss who said it best, “There’s nothing worst than an idiot who believe that they are smart and incapable of being wrong.”
Feynman said this: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.”
That’s a trend that I’ve been disturbed about for a number of years. Throughout human history there have been calls for the state to exert it’s control over a vague “them.” Then you get the evolution to demanding the state control a specific group of people (e.g. tax people that make more than X). But now there’s a significant and growing number of the people clamoring for the state to control their own lives.
It’s the secular equivalent of “Jesus take the wheel”.
I’ve read books on the Cultural Revolution and the rise of Hitler, and I’ve always been perplexed at how people can willingly turn in their neighbors and set out to destroy their lives. In my mind these events were an anomaly but post election and the corona has shown me that if you’re convinced that you’re neighbor is the other and they pose a danger to “society”, then whatever you do to them is justified. It’s disappointing and down right scary to see so many acquaintances being giant assholes to people who dare stray away from the conventional line of thinking.
A very vigilante point of view.
As good a place as any to post this Feynman piece.
http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm
Speaking of (((them))): You leave Ivanka alone!
This is harassment pure and simple. This ‘inquiry’ by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage. They know very well that there’s nothing here and that there was no tax benefit whatsoever. These politicians are simply ruthless.
From the dead thread:
Here you go (A = alive, D = dead)
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In the dead thread, someone wanted to see a visual representation of the ratio of the citizenry of the USA (350M) versus the alleged COVID deaths (250K).
Here you go (A = Alive, D = Dead)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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In the dead thread, someone wanted to see a visual representation of the ratio of the citizenry of the USA (350M) versus the alleged COVID deaths (250K).
Here you go ( D = dead, Any other letter = alive):
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(continuing)
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(continuing)
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(continuing)
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(and complete – see the letter yet?)
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I was told there’d be no language.
Nice!
Here’s the Canadian version:
Alive : Dead
3336:1
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I helpfully bolded the “d” above, to make it easier.
All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead…
‘Member when Music Television was about music?
The MTV Entertainment Group (formerly Entertainment and Youth) is looking to make progressive change in its creative community with the newly launched comprehensive DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) orientation called “Culture Code”. The immersive employee-led initiative is in partnership with The Museum of Tolerance, Color of Change, GLAAD, Anti-Defamation League, The Jed Foundation, MPAC, RAINN, RespectAbility and Storyline Partners.
The aforementioned social justice organizations will collaborate with the MTV Entertainment Group will help develop the program which will “construct a communal set of values, understanding and baseline cultural norms to create a more inclusive and welcoming creative community.” …
“We live in an increasingly divisive world and yet as storytellers, we believe in the power of content to give the gift of empathy and understanding,” said Chris McCarthy, President, ViacomCBS MTV Entertainment Group. “We’re developing our Culture Code to nurture our creative community and outline a communal set of values, respect and mutual understanding that centers around the celebration of inclusion and diversity in everything we do. We are humbled to be doing it in partnership with an incredible set of organizations who have dedicated their own lives to changing the world for good.”
I wonder if that has anything to do with categorizing people by ever-increasing numbers of immutable characteristics, forcing that ideology on normies who just want to be left alone and calling them racists/bigots/etc. if they fail to sufficient endorse said ideology.
The shocking thing to me is learning that MTV is still around.
+1
MTV always discussed the issues but the channel also knew that it was a place where young people could watch dumb music videos and escape the shitty world of being a teenager. Around the late 2000’s, the channel stopped being about music and started being about catering to what they thought the millennials liked.
I’ve been hearing “MTV used to be about the music” since the early 90s.
Late 2000’s?
It was mostly music until The Real World started in the mid-90s. Then there was Road Rules, but it didn’t get really bad until the early 2000s when a majority of the programming was no longer music but shit like Laguna Beach and Punk’d and Cribs
Sting never really wanted his MTV.
Neither did Mark Knopfler.
Here is where all of the college grads are working that are asking for student loan relief.
“The Museum of Tolerance, Color of Change, GLAAD, Anti-Defamation League, The Jed Foundation, MPAC, RAINN, RespectAbility and Storyline Partners”
We are getting more of what we reward.
I have no idea what the Jed Foundation is, but I read it as “the Jedi Foundation” and made myself laugh.
Good. Im not the only one.
Asshole Wolf says professional NFL teams will have to wear masks during play.
The office of Gov. Tom Wolf issued a new order regarding face coverings this week. Masks are required indoors and outdoors when people aren’t able to maintain social distancing. Athletes are included in that “if they cannot maintain sustained physical distance from persons outside of their household.” It is for everyone “actively engaged in workouts, competition, and on the sidelines, in the dugout, etc.”
The Steelers said Wednesday they had an exemption to that order. The governor’s office said on Thursday they did not.
Time to make a choice, gentlemen. Ignore this bullshit, or do not. Fail to ignore it at your own peril.
Rooney’s are tried and true Democrats. No chance in hell they directly defy the governor.
Sad. I defy the VA governor on a daily basis.
It is going to be fun watching them try to breathe 1) simply wearing the masks and 2) when the become wet with sweat.
Just when you think…..uhg…..never mind.
If they spend the entire game on one-knee they would be protesting and we all know that protesting is 100% exempt from both rules and the virus.
I like turtles.
Imagine me and you, I do.
Get a Room, then you can be,
Happy Together…..
Go with the flo, Eddie.
I can’t see me checking nobody but you
For all my stats
Speaking of epidemics:
Wait, they were able to find that many to kill? Or is this like Wuhan deaths, where they get recoded as nonconfirming if they were even slightly swishy?
Male: Hair > one-half inch long = gender-nonconforming
Female: Wears pants = gender-nonconforming
The Regular Taper Cut involves hair that is more than half an inch long. And was so common as the men’s style that it also got dubbed the “standard haircut”.
All chick-boys now, by any reasonable standard.
Transgender Day of Remembrance? Hallmark make cards for that?
No, Hellmark has cornered the market on that one.
It’s one of those cards where you stick your fingers through to make boobies, but there are three holes.
have been killed
Meaningless statistic is meaningless. And if he means murder I wonder how the fact that 90-something percent of black people that are murdered are murdered by – wait for it – other black people.
Not to mention the fact that I’m pretty sure at least a handful of those 37 were prostitutes, which is a high risk occupation regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other factor.
Yep No mention there of who did the killin’.
I looked for that as well and couldn’t find it. Murder? Suicide? Heart disease? Diabetes?
Record them all as Wuhan deaths.
Other non-gender non-binding whatever. Trannies. They kill each other like flies.
They put out these numbers implying it is always the militant arm of the Democratic Party doing the killing….the kluckers.
Thanks, CPA, that’s about the stupidest thing I’ve read today.
My God, at least 37? That’s .19% of murders so far this year! For a segment of the population that makes up around .6% of the total population. Good to see that transgender people are safer than the average person.
It’s up to 0.6%? It’s gotten super trendy since I last ran the numbers.
I was told to Take this Mask, by an employee at Meijer today, I showed her the mask in my hand, and told her to back the fuck off, quit acting like a fucking Nazi, and stormed into the store,
it felt good,
Time’s up, I’m defying the fucks……
Take this mask and shove it, I ain’t shoppin’ here no more
Sanity done gone and refuted the reason I been masking for
Don’t anyone try to hand me a mask as I’m walkin’ out the door
Take this mask and shove it
I ain’t shoppin’ here no more!
People are getting restless against the masks. We had a guy come and re-sand/ stain our wood floors and the first question he asked was whether we want him to wear a mask or not. My wife and I were like…do what you want. He was relieved and went on a rant about wearing masks.
It’s a stupid and useless policy. But the person you bullied is a minimum wage drone who had nothing to do with it, just a poor schmuck trying to keep his/her job.
I save my outrage and rudeness for decision-makers and try to be courteous, understanding, and considerate to everyone else.
It depends upon the attitude. If the drone is revelling in their enforcement of petty tyranny rather than merely doing their job, that’s a different situation.
I had a security guy turn me away, already inside the store, because I came through the “wrong” entrance, not the one that apparently filters Covid at the door. This was at quarter to eleven (the new closing time, apparently before Covid comes out in force to terrorize the countryside), and hardly anyone was shopping. So I had to stalk around to the other entrance. But the guy looked as uncomfortable about it as I was incensed, and while I think he was foolish I don’t think he was being petty.
It’s in their tone, body language, and the way they approach the situation.
You get the minimum wage drones to flip on management, and management to flip on their shadowy corporate regional managers, and up the chain until you’re dealing with real villains.
It’s not like middle management could just find some other low skilled person to take their place during massive unemployment. Yup, you’re THIS close to rolling up Target.
It’s just good shopper, bad shopper. Work ’em over till they’re ratting out their bosses.
She was enjoying her role, that’s why she got called out, fucking Nazis, I see why they do what they do,
Did you refuse to wear a shirt? I mean who are they to tell you to put a shirt on? Shirts don’t do anything to stop the spread of disease. Pants, shoes? I want to see a double blind study proving I need to wear them.
Oh Fuck Off with that crap, this isn’t about the Mask and you know it,
So you’re not going to address why you allow the government to force you to wear clothes, but not a mask. Are the minimum wage employees nazis for saying “Sir, you need to wear a shirt and shoes to receive service”? That doesn’t even come with the veneer of public interest.
Non starter, this isn’t about public decency at all, if they forced me to wear a hat, I would tell them to Fuck off, and BTW, I’ve seen some pretty indecent people in public, it’s none of my business,
Why is public decency > public health? You aren’t harmed by a fat person without a shirt. You could be harmed if someone coughs on you. A mask may reduce the range of a cough. I’m not following the reason to berate an employee over one situation and not another. The only difference I see is clothing for decency predate your birth and mask are new. Kids born today told to wear a mask won’t think anymore about it than you think about putting on pants to go outside. If you have been railing against pants then you have been consistent in your principles.
I guess my Tin foil hat is wrapped on too tight, you go quietly into the night, I’ll be here Raging,
Are you changing your handle to Yusef the Nudist? Yusef yells at clouds?
The people who don’t want to wear shirts and shoes are not the people you want to see not wear shirts and shoes. Very much in the public interest.
Another counter argument. Yes we have already subjected ourselves to countless tiny restrictions. My contention is that these tiny restrictions while sounding reasonable on the surface lead to a slippery slope of more and more restrictions. Which you have just provided examples of.
I honestly have COPD, and can’t breathe through them for very long, I suffer it for most places, I had my mask in hand, ready to wear, 87 people died in MI, I’m done worrying about Your Health, Live Free or Die!
Even nudist resorts make you put something down between your bunghole and a public seat.
Ridiculous! I know how to wipe my ass. Why should I be forced to carry around a towel?
“Science” is commonly invoked.
The best part: those who claim the high ground of SCIENCE relentlessly use appeals to emotion in their arguments.
“So many deads! Oh, infamy, oh, shame! What murderous barbarians you are!”
I know it’s obvious to most of us here, but those who claim to believe in “Science” have never done any or even understand what it is.
Science is diktats handed from on high by experts…..right?
‘We Must Cancel Thanksgiving,’ Says CDC Scientist Who Looks Suspiciously Like A Turkey In A Lab Coat
good one,
I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t read the headline to the wife, had to just show it to her.
One other comment- if I have to go so far as to use things like deconvolution to resolve the pair (or more) of peaks, the policy differences are by definition insignificant.
This may or may not be a parallel thought process, but I cannot keep myself from thinking a virus for which you can whip up a 95% effective vaccine on the first try might not be a particularly pernicious pathogen.
I don’t need no vaccine cuz I gots my hydro cloroxy queen
We had a guy come and re-sand/ stain our wood floors and the first question he asked was whether we want him to wear a mask or not.
The mask actually does something beneficial when you’re running the sander. Otherwise, not.
The office of Gov. Tom Wolf issued a new order regarding face coverings this week. Masks are required indoors and outdoors when people aren’t able to maintain social distancing. Athletes are included in that “if they cannot maintain sustained physical distance from persons outside of their household.” It is for everyone “actively engaged in workouts, competition, and on the sidelines, in the dugout, etc.”
Pete Rozelle would have told him to shove it up his ass, I think.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnAKQ0RXcAEaN4F?format=jpg&name=900×900
Fucking Awesome!
Funny because its true.
Cross-contamination and ensuing false positives (Britain-specific but probably globally applicable): https://lockdownsceptics.org/2020/11/20/latest-news-199
Lab in Milton Keynes. Of course it’s going to have bad results.
My current youtube crush on scientists pushing their religion as science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dSua_PUyfM
For those of you that don’t like Dark Matter, she’s got a three-part miniseries on why it’s probably wrong but might be right in a revised form, starting hier
You can tell in the first nine seconds that her takedown of String Theory is going to be brutal.
Thanks, I’ll watch it later. I’ve really enjoyed PBS space time and Issac Arthur on YouTube. Maybe a little basic if you work in the hard science, but fascinating for a layman.
PBS Space Time is far and away the crunchiest science show I’ve ever seen.
Still fun as an intro to some topics. Issac’s show goes deeper, but still no hard math(s).
I like how in the spring Cons were anti-vaxxers, because BILL GATES MICRO-CHIPS!!11!!! And Progs were WE CAN’T LEAVE OUR HOMES UNTIL THEIR IS A VACCINE!!!!111!!
Now, Because Trump!!!!11! The Cons are Pro-vaxxers BECAUSE HOuR LOrd N Server TUMP!!!!!11! Brought us a magical vaccine; and the PROGs are all ‘THE VAxxinE WonT WerK BEcUz OrANgeMAn Bad!!111111!!!!!