1/7 Satan is trending on Twitter. I recall what Mark Twain said about him.
"I am quite sure that I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it..."
2/7 "I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being—that is enough for me; he can't be any worse."
3/7 "I have no special regard for Satan; but I can at least claim that I have no prejudice against him. It may even be that I lean a little his way, on account of his not having a fair show."
4/ "All religions issue bibles against him & say the most injurious things about him,but we never hear his side. We have none but the evidence for the prosecution, yet we have rendered the verdict. To my mind, this is irregular. It is un-English; it is un-American; it is French."
5/7 "We may not pay [Satan] reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents."
6/7 "A person who has for untold centuries maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and political head of the whole of it, must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order."
7/7 "In [Satan's] large presence the other popes and politicians shrink to midges for the microscope. I would like to see him. I would rather see him and shake him by the tail than any other member of the European Concert."
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1/5 Phenomenal thread here on the noxious effects of competitive grading on education, even on those who appear to benefit the most from such a system.
1. Convincing enough people competitive grading is harmful &
2. Transforming our education system into one that "meets students where they are, helps them build their interests & skills, teaches them they ARE valuable by being."
3/5 In Finland, "hustle culture" scorned & competition in academics minimized from the very beginning. How did Finland create such a healthy, non-competitive culture? It's certainly worth looking into.
1/ The @nytimes has a good interactive story on the safety of flying during the pandemic, but they didn’t discuss boarding & deboarding. Judging by CO2 readings I saw on recent flights, this is the most dangerous part of flying. #covidco2#COVIDisairborne nytimes.com/interactive/20…
2/ By now there is overwhelming evidence #COVIDisAirborne. It’s transmitted mainly by shared air, i.e. inhaling the air others have exhaled, which contain aerosols—tiny, liquid particles that float suspended in air for seconds to hours, depending on size.
3/ There’s no easy way to measure virus levels in the air, but CO2 is a good proxy measure of risk. Outdoor CO2 levels are ~410 ppm, but since we exhale CO2, indoor concentrations are higher. The higher the CO2 level, the more air you’re sharing.
Still quite a bit of uncertainty about this new Indian variant, but this much at least seems clear: as transmission continues unabated, allowing the virus limitless opportunities to mutate, the variants emerging dominant are invariably worse, not better, than what came before.
As B.1.1.7 spread and became dominant in country after country, it eventually became clear that it was not only more contagious but also ~60-70% more deadly than older variants.
When B.1.351 (the S. African variant) was studied, it was found to evade neutralizing antibodies from the serum of both vaccinated & previously infected individuals & seemed to infect previously infected people as easily as those never previously infected. fda.gov/media/144245/d…
Facebook censorship is out of control. In the past 10 days I've had 4 comments removed for "violating community standards." All were Covid related, & I have no idea why they were suppressed. Perhaps someone here can figure it out. Here's a censored comment from yesterday.
The comment above was (I think) on the superb Hoosier Covid Update page, run by the estimable & amiable @gbosslet. The two below were on a friend's page, which was not public but only viewable to his friends. They were supposedly flagged as spam, though I cannot fathom why.
This last one I tried posting three times, only to find it disappear almost immediately each time. This was on the excellent Public Health Is Your Health Too page (follow!), run by @EpiRNActivist. In addition to the text, one of @MicahPollak's superb graphs was attached.
1/ So I found out this garbage meta-analysis is apparently being shared all over the place. I decided to take a look at the studies they cited as evidence that asymptomatic and presymptomatic spread are marginal. What I found was shocking to say the least.
2/ They only included four studies that analyzed asymptomatic or presymptomatic transmission. One of the four studies was based on 8 cases and their 23 contacts. Four cases were presymptomatic and four asymptomatic. One of their 23 contacts was infected.
3/ The one case of transmission was from one of the four presymptomatic cases. They did not analyze any cases of symptomatic transmission. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
1/ Thanks to help from @Poppendieck & @CorsIAQ, I've used my @AranetIoT CO2 meter to estimate the # of air changes per hour (ACH) in my classroom. CO2 builds up when students are in a room & falls when they leave. Description & graphs below. #covidco2@jljcolorado@ShellyMBoulder
2/ If you record the CO2 level each minute after the room empties, plug those measurements into the formula pictured below, and graph the resulting values as a function of time (designated in hours), the slope of a linear best-fit line reveals the ACH. @MarcelHarmon1@CathNoakes
3/ So the rate of change of the CO2 level functions as a proxy measurement for ventilation. I trust if you’ve made it this far, you are aware of the vital importance of ventilation in preventing aerosol-spread pathogens like SARS-CoV-2. @akm5376@jksmith34@stephensbrent