covid-19
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Quickies
Quickies: Vaccines, Bananas, and Impostor Syndrome
Happy end of semester to MEEEE! 14+ months of pandemic teaching is finally behind me and I get a BREAK finally. (Where Break = time to do research and other things I had to set aside because I have a 3-3 teaching load but you already knew that.) Here are a few good reads that have come across my feed…
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Skepticism
Norwegian conspiracy theorist dies with COVID
Yes, I wrote “with” COVID. 60-year old Hans Kristian Gaarder had not been receiving medical treatment before his death and the positive COVID-test was done post mortem. The news do report him having symptoms for one to two weeks before dying on April 6., but as an absolute skeptic about the role of the health care system in “creating” this…
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Science
New Study: Twitter Predicted COVID-19 Outbreaks
This post contains a video, which you can also view here. To support more videos like this, head to patreon.com/rebecca! I often talk about the dangers of social media, particularly how easy it is for misinformation to spread on outlets like Twitter and Facebook, and how easy it is to push someone into a bigoted echo chamber and then radicalize…
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Quickies
Short list of Quickies for the longest week yet…
Look, I honestly don’t know what to say yet about a week like this has been for us here in the US. So anyway, here’s some stuff. Here are some resources for teachers on the days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol.From June but incredibly relevant, a study of more than 15,000 protests across the US and found that…
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Quickies
New Year, New Quickies
Hello, fine readers! It is safe to say that the Fall 2020 semester absolutely kicked my ass in all the worst ways. After a bit of recovery time, I think I’m ready to take on 2021. That includes getting back to my weekly quickies here! So, in the spirit of the holiday, I’ve picked some retrospectives and big-picture items that…
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Anti-Science
If You Only Care About the Covid-19 Death Rate, You Are Missing the Big Picture
Frequently, when I’m browsing Facebook, I see friends post stories about the devastation of Covid-19. And then I see others posting comments like, “only 1% of people die from it” or “most of the people died from something else.” In addition to these anti-science statements being utterly heartless, they’re also missing the point. If you say something like, “most people…
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Science
Covid-19 Questions: Why Exactly is the Virus More Contagious in Colder Weather?
For months, scientists have predicted that Covid-19 cases would rise as the weather got colder. This wasn’t just speculation; rather was based on what we already know about the structure of common viruses and how exactly colder weather can make them more contagious. Interestingly enough, if you have a stick of butter in your fridge, you already know something about…
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Activism
Do Not Give Away Our Shot!!
I woke up at about 2 am to use the bathroom, as women my age are prone to do. After a profoundly unsatisfying pee, I checked Twitter. I’ve got a friend on a crazy COVID-19 sleep schedule and he’s usually up at about that time. He’s got a perfume blog that you should check out. Remember blog rolls? I miss…
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