“Matchstick Art” – Got some spare time on your hands? Here’s an idea…
Have you heard of polyphonic overtone singing?
First, I came across this video on YouTube. I expected to hear a pretty voice. Instead, I heard this:
I sent it to Number Two Son, a composer, and he introduced me to something called the “harmonic series.” He did his best to explain. I couldn’t get it. So he sent me this:
That helped some. I still don’t understand it well enough to explain it. But what struck me most about this second clip is the fact that these vibrations are not arbitrary. They follow a precise mathematical order. The universe is, in this sense at least, ordered.
“Questioning Conventional Wisdom in the COVID-19 Crisis”
Finally, some doctors and scientists are starting to talk about all this bad math we’ve been given.
Some of my friends are arguing about the administration’s response to the Corona Crisis. I’m not interested in that discussion, except from a social and psychological perspective – i.e., how social myths affect rational thinking . But here are some of the facts:
US COVID-19 Case and Death Timeline 12/31 to 4/14
December 31: China reports virus to WHO
Case and Death Toll: 1 case, no deaths
January 6: CDC issues travel notice to Wuhan
January 17: CDC starts health screening at SFO, JFK, and LAX
Case and Death Toll: 1 case, no deaths
January 20: Dr. Fauci says NIH working on vaccine
Case and Death Toll: 5 cases, no deaths
January 27: CDC announces Level 3 travel notice
January 31: Trump announces travel ban to start on 2/2
February 6: CDC starts shipping testing kits
February 24: Administration requests $2.5 billion to combat the virus
Case and Death Toll (2/28): 9 cases, 4 deaths
February 29: FDA allows certified labs to begin testing while pending applications; Trump raises travel advisory to Level 4
March 6: Trump signs $8.3 billion coronavirus spending bill
Case and Death Toll (3/7): 407 cases, 27 deaths – 6.6% case fatality rate (CFR)
March 9: Administration asks Congress for payroll tax cut
March 11: Trump announces travel restriction for Europe
March 13: Trump declares national emergency to access $42 billion in funds
March 13: FDA approves Roche AG and Thermo Fisher tests
Case and Death Toll (3/14): 4,240 cases, 63 deaths – 1.4% CFR
March 14: Coronavirus Relief Bill passes House
March 16: FDA allows testing in state labs
March 18: US Navy deploys two hospital ships
March 19: Trump announces hope for hydroxychloroquine
March 21: Administration places orders for millions of N95 masks through FEMA
Case and Death Toll (3/21): 45,093 cases, 297 deaths – 0.65% CFR
March 28: Trump and Cuomo talk
Case and Death Toll (3/28): 107,930 cases, 2,001 deaths – 1.8% CFR
April 2: Trump invokes Defense Production Act
Case and Death Toll (4/4): 229,268 cases, 8,379 deaths – 3.6% CFR
April 5: 3,000 military and medical personnel deployed to NY
Case and Death Toll (4/11): 522,843 cases, 16,593 deaths – 3.1% CFR
April 12: FDA authorizes devices to decontaminate 4 million N95 respirators per day
Case and Death Toll (4/14): 602,473 cases, 25,668 deaths – 4.2% CFR
“Hozier Sings ‘The Parting Glass’” – a beautiful rendition of a beautiful Irish song that might bring some thoughts and feelings back into a larger perspective.
A Harvard Business Review study 4,700 public companies looked at the three years before, during, and after several recent recessions (including the recession of 90/91). They divided companies’ responses – their “driving” strategies – into four categories:
* Prevention – a focus on cost cutting, with every decision viewed through a loss-minimization lens. Companies in this category do more of the same with less, often lowering quality and customer satisfaction.
* Promotion – a heedless optimism that ignores the gravity of the situation and early warning signs. Companies in this category add features when customers desire greater value.
* Pragmatic – a haphazard combination of prevention and promotion characteristics. These companies tend to over rely on reducing the number of employees.
* Progressive. These companies get the prevention-promotion balance right by evaluating every aspect of their business model, making near-term changes that reduce costs now and after demand returns.
A sports star talks about his experience with COVID-19…
As the plague ravaged Italy from 1629 to 1631, killing more than 45,000 in Venice alone, the northern Italian town of Ferrara kept it at bay. Critical to the city’s success, records suggest, were border controls, sanitary laws, and personal hygiene. Click here to read an article on History.com about this remarkable success story.
The Marsh Family goes viral with a lockdown version of “One Day More” from Les Miz…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRoMfg5ZgZU
On March 25, Waffle House declared a “Waffle House Index Red” in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Waffle House Index, an informal metric used by FEMA for nearly a decade, refers to the measure of destruction caused by a natural disaster based on how many Waffle Houses have closed. As of that date, the chain had shuttered 418 stores, more than a fifth of its locations. (Source: NBC News)