Sifting Through the Pandemic is a site about how to recognize misinformation on social media, focused -- obviously -- on information about the pandemic. OneZero provides an example in this article, where someone claiming to be a doctor posted that hand-sanitizer would do nothing to kill the coronavirus (False!).

What I love about the infodemic.blog system (SIFT) is how simple and memorable it is:

• Stop
• Investigate the Source
• Find Better Coverage
• Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context

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Trump seeks to further distance himself from increasingly unpopular and politically costly coronavirus lockdowns.

"Unpopular", "politically costly", but effective at flattening the curve. I think maybe people don't realize that in order to #flattenthecurve on #covid19 you have to maintain the suppression activities over the life of the curve. If you stop, the curve goes back up.

This are projections for Arizona from CovidActNow.org:

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Right now the "expected hospitalizations" curve is nice and flat, but lift the restrictions on activities too soon, and the demand for beds exceeds supply in about 10 days. Calling for new restrictions after they've been lifted would be a hard sell to a population frustrated with the isolation and hurting from the economic effects we're already seeing. There's no easy answer, but I believe that solutions are going to involved more government aid to -- yes, small businesses -- but especially to disadvantaged populations who are getting hit the worst.

#lockdown #stayhomestaysafe

In order to fix my archives and daily digests, I might have to address timezone handling on my blog. Or I might just stop blogging #timezonehell #blogging #programming

Since we’re in #stayhomestaysafe, perfect time to watch the Bourne trilogy

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So, while I do want to make a work light like @dontrythis, my lunch project was a basic friction-adjustment stand for my work light made with 1/2" square tube and a remnant of 1" square tube #diy #shoptime #project

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Adam Savage's one-day-build for his LED worklight #bookmark #project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL3uZ88vA_0

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This data from https://mackuba.eu/corona/#united_states.daily is a week or so old, but this does NOT say "go back to work!" to me #covid19 #stayhomestaysafe

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Today is the excision for the small #melanoma on my arm. I feel like I just don't have the emotional resources for this. Any other year I could probably cope much more easily. Instead I'm feeling really freaked out and scared.

(R_t) represents the effective reproduction rate of the virus calculated for each locale. It lets us estimate how many secondary infections are likely to occur from a single infection in a specific area. Values over 1.0 mean we should expect more cases in that area, values under 1.0 mean we should expect fewer.

R_t Live is tracking daily transmission rate values across the US States. My home state of Arizona is currently in a downward trend with an R_t right now of 0.77:

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Looking at the daily case numbers, you can see how small rises in R_t result in muliplicative rises in case numbers:

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We are noticeably flattening the curve in Arizona since late March, but opening up businesses and social gatherings any time soon will change these trends for the worse.

I have friends and family for whom RSS is not easy to explain or subscribe to, and who don't really follow blogs in general, but who have expressed an interest in my writing here, such as it is.

So I've hacked up an experimental feature, where I am sending out a nightly email (subscribe in the sidebar) that is comprised of all my posts for the day. Right now the blog posts and notes will be intermixed, so there might be some confusion in the content, it's an ongoing experiment.

If this is something you'd like to try, you can subscribe form in the sidebar of the site or use the subscribe page.

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Thread: https://twitter.com/timkmak/status/1251936242834563073 -- Same people resisting masking, different pandemic #COVID19 #masksforall #publichealth

Evening project: started sewing simple tie-back surgical style cloth masks to donate #covid19 #masks4all

"Klatchian coffee has an even bigger sobering effect than an unexpected brown envelope from the tax man. In fact, coffee enthusiasts take the precaution of getting thoroughly drunk before touching the stuff, because Klatchian coffee takes you back through sobriety and, if you're not careful, out the other side, where the mind of man should not go."

-- Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett

#coffee #humor #reading

What with #stayhomestaysafe and all, a comment from Les Orchard on Twitter inspired me to re-install Quake 3 Arena... behold the return of Mr. Ni.

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Repaired some stuff in #goldfrog around #webmention handling on weird responses (hello amzn redirects)

Yeah, I powered through this series due to #stayhomestaysafe, and happy I did. A really fun story, and enjoyed seeing many characters in the_Io_ books introduced here in some more depth.

Between the two Io books and the three Tao books, I really want to read Io 3 (write faster, Wesley).

#scifi #reading #quasingwars

"You are you", and it took me until the just before the end to put the pieces together. Touches on #technology and #identity #race and #racism, empathy, compassion, revenge, and a humdinger of an ending #reading #scifi #reading2020

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I need suggestions for some wholesome content to put on my extra screen that is NOT minute-by-minute pandemic information #mh #mentalhealth

Berlin clubs, empty due to community quarantine, are live streaming some great house sets... https://en.unitedwestream.berlin #techno #streaming #covid19

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TL,DR: I'm joining YouGov as a Senior Python Developer, working with the survey systems team.

Slightly Longer Version...

For the last 6 years, I've been working for Wells Fargo as a python developer and unofficial feature team lead for a team in their infrastructure technology organization. I started with Wells as a web developer (in fact my title remained Web Developer (level) for my entire career there) but my focus really become building and supporting systems that connected OpenStack and bank business systems. It was challenging, rewarding work, and the team that grew up around this effort is one of the best I've ever worked with.

But there came a time I looked around and realized that my work and responsibilities did not reflect the goals and priorities I had set for myself and my career.

My work with YouGov will involve lots of Python application development, naturally, but also give me exposure to big data, ETL processes, some statistical work, and some devops work. There's a lot that I can bring to the table, and a lot that I'll be learning, which is one of the things I was looking for in a new position.

I am really looking forward to this!