[FRIAM] Huh? What is this?

[Marcus Daniels]

Fear could solve the problem, but there will probably never be enough.   Maybe it would make sense to distribute suitable antidepressants so that people could function without social interaction.   Thanksgiving behavior seemed particularly nutty.  The drive to socially interact seems to be a big problem.

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of thompnickson2 at gmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2020 10:25 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com>
Cc: 'Mike Collins' <amc at alumni.princeton.edu>; 'Steve Ross' <editorsteve at gmail.com>; 'Steve Doig' <steve.doig at asu.edu>; 'Peter St. Cyr' <peter.stcyr at gmail.com>; 'Tom Scharmen' <thomas.scharmen at state.nm.us>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Huh? What is this?


Tom,

I only read the webedition, and so don’t have the front page in front of me, but the message seemed clear to me.  BE AFRAID.  If we are learning one lesson from this pandemic, it is that lack of fear is the primary driver of rising case numbers.  Public policy has relatively little effect unless it increases fear.  And robust terror makes public policy unnecessary.  What did you NOT see that I did see?

My candidate for the worst graphic is below.

[cid:image003.png at 01D6C7CF.2F6BCD00]

Looking at this I would assume that we are out of the woods.  In fact, the current rolling 7-day average is about 140 cases, more that 10 times what it should be.  I think the downward tail of the graph reflects only incomplete data.

I have been frustrated by the state’s web page because it seems to emphasize cumulative cases at the expense of current cases and new cases per population.

Another bizarre data point appeared in the Gating criteria yesterday, where the current Ro was given as 0.97!

I think the City needs to run fumigation trucks up and don the streets or city workers with back packs and nosles .  They could be just emitting water vapor, perhaps with a little corotene thrown in for dramatic effect?

Nick

Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com<mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com>
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> On Behalf Of Tom Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2020 10:34 AM
To: Friam at redfish. com <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Cc: Mike Collins <amc at alumni.princeton.edu<mailto:amc at alumni.princeton.edu>>; Steve Ross <editorsteve at gmail.com<mailto:editorsteve at gmail.com>>; Steve Doig <steve.doig at asu.edu<mailto:steve.doig at asu.edu>>; Peter St. Cyr <peter.stcyr at gmail.com<mailto:peter.stcyr at gmail.com>>; Tom Scharmen <thomas.scharmen at state.nm.us<mailto:thomas.scharmen at state.nm.us>>
Subject: [FRIAM] Huh? What is this?

Below is this morning's front page of the Santa Fe New Mexican.  It is obviously trying to give the virus story big play.  But I can't figure out what in hell this map and all its appendages are trying to tell me.  I might be missing something big time, but shouldn't this be nominated as the worst data visualization of the year?


[cid:image004.png at 01D6C7CF.2F6BCD00]
============================================
Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com<https://www.cloudhq-mkt9.net/mail_track/link/a7ac416d5831fd2442_1606840497027?uid=226430&url=mailto%3Atom%40jtjohnson.com>
Institute for Analytic Journalism   --     Santa Fe, NM USA
505.577.6482(c)                                    505.473.9646(h)
NM Foundation for Open Government<https://www.cloudhq-mkt9.net/mail_track/link/a7ac416d5831fd2442_1606840497027?uid=226430&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnmfog.org>
Check out It's The People's Data<https://www.cloudhq-mkt9.net/mail_track/link/a7ac416d5831fd2442_1606840497027?uid=226430&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpages%2FIts-The-Peoples-Data%2F1599854626919671>
============================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20201201/e1ed1aac/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 67631 bytes
Desc: image003.png
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20201201/e1ed1aac/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 264170 bytes
Desc: image004.png
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20201201/e1ed1aac/attachment-0003.png>