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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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And 100 years ago, the second waves were almost all worse than the first wave ... hang in there folks!!
...
According to various news media sources, Trump visited medical equipment distributor Owens & Minor in Pennsylvania today. During some remarks he made, Trump made clear that one of our problems relative to this pandemic is that we're using testing to compile statistics. Maybe this is Trump's variation on Stalin's 'you have a man, you have a problem - no man, no problem'. Anyway, according to Politico, here's what Trump said:
"And don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases.”
- Donald Trump, 5/14/20
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
I worry what will happen when creepy, sleepy, senile Joe loses in November and the Dems lose the House and the Senate. Trump derangement syndrome in full effect. I wonder if Democrats are doing this on purpose.
According to various news media sources, Trump visited medical equipment distributor Owens & Minor in Pennsylvania today. During some remarks he made, Trump made clear that one of our problems relative to this pandemic is that we're using testing to compile statistics. Maybe this is Trump's variation on Stalin's 'you have a man, you have a problem - no man, no problem'. Anyway, according to Politico, here's what Trump said:
"And don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases.”
- Donald Trump, 5/14/20
And according to Worldometer this morning, the U.S. is ranked THIRTY-NINTH in testing per capita (32,175 per million)
[Canada is 41st at 31,019 per million]
I worry what will happen when creepy, sleepy, senile Joe loses in November and the Dems lose the House and the Senate. Trump derangement syndrome in full effect. I wonder if Democrats are doing this on purpose.
Yes, after 3 1/2 years it's hard to believe that Biden is the best the Democrats could come up with. Trump and Biden - together a strong comment that 'something' is lacking in US politics.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
Yes, after 3 1/2 years it's hard to believe that Biden is the best the Democrats could come up with. Trump and Biden - together a strong comment that 'something' is lacking in US politics.
Seems the Dems have at least two major enemies: The Replublicans and themselves. I too cannot believe the best they could come up with was first Hilary then Biden...
Sorting fact from falsehoods
Caulfield, who studies misinformation and disinformation, said there is trust in science generally but that some people may be using the uncertainty in some aspects of the research to support their position as their frustration mounts with the coronavirus response.
But there's another reason why some people might believe unproven theories about the origins or spread of the virus or behave in ways that put them at risk, such as attending a protest at a time when health authorities are telling people not to congregate.
(1 in 10 Canadians believes a coronavirus conspiracy theory, survey suggests)
It relates to something psychologists call cognitive sophistication — or the ability to think rationally about an issue, says Gordon Pennycook, a psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Regina.
"It's not a basis of intelligence," Pennycook said of the term. "There are just some people who are just better at figuring out what's true or false."
There are many factors that come into play when discussing cognitive sophistication: how receptive you are to information presented to you; whether or not you question your intuition; how well you understand probabilities; and how knowledgeable you are about some of the underlying scientific principles.
"You can think about it as having a kind of mental toolbox that can be used to help discern between what's true and false in the world," said Pennycook, who wrote a 2015 paper on the ability to detect falsehoods.
It's those tools that help make people distrustful of theories that seem to fly in the face of common sense or that have been debunked by scientists, such as the claim that putting pepper in soup or injecting disinfectant will stave off COVID-19.
Interpreting the numbers
Caulfield said one of the more challenging things in the fight against misinformation is "scienceploitation," where people peddling pseudoscience use real scientific terms that can lend more credibility to advice.
"It becomes very difficult for the public to tease out what's real and what's not real when you're talking about [things like] the microbiome, and you're talking about quantum physics."
Numeracy and how people process numbers, which is not always rationally, also factors into how facts about the pandemic are interpreted.
"We didn't evolve to immediately comprehend quantities," said Pennycook.
For example, in 2004, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Indonesia claimed more than 200,000 lives. It was covered worldwide and elicited heartfelt responses and assistance from governments and people around the globe.
The global death toll from the pandemic has surpassed 300,000 but may not hit a nerve in the same manner among those not directly impacted.
"If this was a natural disaster you would be completely distraught," Pennycook said.
Interesting! Many decades ago there was a recognized discipline known as the "scientific method". It was taught in schools, and particularly in physics studies, which contributed to the age when physics was the "king" of the sciences, and those fortunate enough to be schooled in classical physics would certainly be among people capable of discerning truth from falsehoods. Unfortunately, today there are enough idiots around who are prepared to debunk even the "scientific method", so as John Cleese says in his recent tours, there is no hope for any of us.
Interesting! Many decades ago there was a recognized discipline known as the "scientific method". It was taught in schools, and particularly in physics studies, which contributed to the age when physics was the "king" of the sciences, and those fortunate enough to be schooled in classical physics would certainly be among people capable of discerning truth from falsehoods. Unfortunately, today there are enough idiots around who are prepared to debunk even the "scientific method", so as John Cleese says in his recent tours, there is no hope for any of us.
For more insight from Mr. Cleese, see the following:
India has now gone ahead of China in total cases. Peru will also. For those wondering Canada will soon.
India, Canada, Peru and most other countries probably fully report their cases. China probably under-reports its cases. There are reports that the number of cell phones has shrunk by 21 million in China in three months. Hopefully there are alternative explanations than the obvious one. I know my cell phone usage has greatly declined as I usually only used it while outside and my trips outside have been greatly reduced to once or twice a month.
You are welcome Aris... I'm sure John Cleese is not everyone's cuppa but I generally find him hilarious.
He is not a stupid person (sorry, no back reference implied) and he often ruffles feathers of the establishment.
You are welcome Aris... I'm sure John Cleese is not everyone's cuppa but I generally find him hilarious.
He is not a stupid person (sorry, no back reference implied) and he often ruffles feathers of the establishment.
Many thanks Kerry. Viewing that clip lead me to numerous Monty Python clips including Holy Grail. That is a comedy classic including some of the absolute best political satire.
But back to the theatre of the absurd, that is US politics. Biden was not my first choice, or second, or third etc. but given the US crippled democracy and corrupt political system, it seems the electorate are again faced with two terrible candidates. Short of some miracle, choosing the lesser of two evils would seem the best option. Of course, that would be Joe Biden. Or really any Democrat, animal, vegetable, or even a bran muffin, whatever. But will they screw it up again, oh quite possibly.
I keep an eye out for polls. Commentators are constantly making wild claims of Trump support collapsing, but then when I investigate, nothing. Trump support continues to remain in a narrow band between 40% and 45%. CNN came out with a new poll on Wednesday. Reporting on this new poll was first the Biden was crushing Trump, then it was that Trump was crushing Biden. What? So, I tracked down the poll today and read it. Here is what I found.
The report is 49 pages long and is mostly a waste of time. The sample size is a mere 1,112 adults out of a population of 328 million. But of course, most states are either heavily red or blue and are “not in play”. Only the 15 battleground states will determine who is the next President. But to give the pollsters credit, they do give summary data for the 15 battleground states, but only in aggregate, not state by state. But the sample size is now only 302 adults out of a population of 118 million, or an average of 20 voters per state. Only state by state data has any predictive value, and certainly larger sample sizes are needed.
Countrywide: Biden 51%, Trump 46%. Okay, but does it matter?
Battleground states: Trump 52%, Biden 45%. This is scary, but how does it compare to 2016? That would be interesting data, but again, state by state. Electoral college, remember.
The poll also asked questions about other politicians: Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, Gretchen Whitmer, and Justin Amash. There seems to be one name missing. Who could that be? I wonder who?
In 2016, Trump won the electoral college 306 to Clinton 232. The red and blue bases are 170 and 182 respectively, leaving 186 in the 15 battleground states. Trump won them 136 to Clinton 50. Can Biden flip enough of these 8 states to win? Recent polls suggest possibly Biden could flip Florida and Wisconsin, while Trump keeps North Carolina and Ohio.
While flipping Florida and Wisconsin, while keeping all of the 2016 states, would be enough to capture the White House, it seems ominous that both Florida and Wisconsin are notorious states for Republican dirty tricks.
It would appear possible that the US electorate may blunder again this year having learned nothing after 4 years of Trump.
Last edited by Bob Gillanders; Sunday, 17th May, 2020, 12:18 AM.
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