Category Archives: COVID-19

Critical Thinking…

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, COVID-19, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights A statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987. Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation,Continue reading “Critical Thinking…”

Reckoning, or Ragnarok…

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, COVID-19, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights I read Mary Trump’s book “Too Much, and Never Enough,” feeling a chill when in the epilogue she predicted: “my uncle is going to get a lot of people killed.” Realize, when those words were typed on presumably her laptop, she, and all of us wereContinue reading “Reckoning, or Ragnarok…”

Survival of Community…

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Climate Change, COVID-19, Environment, Existentialism Like his more famous contemporary, Spencer was enamored with the idea of evolution. But where Darwin focused on biology, Spencer imagined that evolutionary thinking could be applied much more broadly. In his mind, it governed entire societies. Today, when Spencer is remembered at all, it is usuallyContinue reading “Survival of Community…”

The Anatomy of Delta…

Topics: Biology, Biotechnology, COVID-19, DNA, Existentialism, Research The coronavirus sports a luxurious sugar coat. “It’s striking,” thought Rommie Amaro, staring at her computer simulation of one of the trademark spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2, which stick out from the virus’s surface. It was swathed in sugar molecules, known as glycans. “When you see it with allContinue reading “The Anatomy of Delta…”

Conscientious Stupidity…

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, COVID-19, Existentialism, Human Rights “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today is 203 days after January 6, 2021’s attempted coup. “Insurrection” isn’t quite as accurate with the passage of time. Yesterday, the first hearings began, and they wereContinue reading “Conscientious Stupidity…”

COVID, and Fieldwork…

Topics: Climate Change, COVID-19, Research, STEM Just before dawn in the Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve, a patch of Ecuador’s lush coastal forest, Abhimanyu Lele unfurls a tall net between two poles, then retreats out of sight. A half-hour later, he and a local assistant reappear and smile: Their catch—10 birds that collided with the net andContinue reading “COVID, and Fieldwork…”

MisInfo Wars…

Topics: COVID-19, Democracy, Economics, Existentialism Eric Boehlert nailed it on Press Run: the Murdock variant. I alluded to this Friday. True-to-form, the gaslighting led to a selloff on Wall Street of almost 800 points, from fears of the Delta variant conservative news outlets have been sacrificing their own viewers to impact. Question: Didn’t Rupert Murdock,Continue reading “MisInfo Wars…”

Biological Fukushima…

Topics: Biology, COVID-19, Existentialism, Pandemic Note: Many stories are coming out of Seychelles. It is the most vaccinated nation on earth that is seeing rising cases of the Coronavirus due to tourism by Indian elites. We’re not going to solve this piecemeal, nor treating each other in our backward, moribund tribal “traditions.” This fight isContinue reading “Biological Fukushima…”

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics…

Topics: Biology, COVID-19, Dark Humor, Existentialism, Mathematics, Politics Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Mark Twain, also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics A follow-up to Tuesday’sContinue reading “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics…”