Entries from November 2008 ↓

Genius idea:

http://www.google.org/flutrends/

Fantastic way to use search data and to watch an epidemic unfold.

How can communities utilize this data to minimize an epidemic?  It might be the case that by the time the data shows a danger- it’s too late, as the spikes indicate the epidemic has successfully spread.

Imagine if you could be alerted to any acceleration of  a trend. Say you limit the search to a region and see a doubling or tripling of searches over a 2 day period (click on Arkansas, for example, as of today). Would having a sort of ‘snow day’ actually increase net productivity for a given period of time, considering that if you didn’t, you’d have a larger portion of the populace infected? Though the flu is communicable over about a week’s time, it appears, and you can infect others before you experience symptoms. Would it be worth having a text-message alert system where residents could sign up to be alerted to accelerations in the data? – and could that be done without causing paranoia and/or causing people to remove themselves from society unnecessarily?

And what’s the difference between Idaho and Oregon – there’s no scale to measure by, but it appears they are hypochondriacs in Idaho. –actually, I’m guessing that’s the effect of a lower population density on the spread of the disease. Compare Idaho to California and you can infer that higher density in California enables fast-spreading infections, whereas the infection travels slowly in ID.

My kids have just gotten over fevers – and the teacher said it went around the school. It does make you wonder if there’d be a net-gain in school days if everyone were kept home from school for a, say, 3-5 day period, at the beginning of an upward trend, rather than having an infection cycle over a couple of weeks.

(from this nyt story)

In this case, a picture is worth about a hundred gazillion words.

But while the picture is fascinating, more than anything I’d like to know what those words were.

“So now, again, is this the way to the bowling alley, or the war room?”

Speaking of which, I’m guessing Barack will be improving his bowling. 

Correction! He already has a transition plan for that.

nah, f_ it, turn it off. I still hear that Rage Against the Machine song in my mind just about every time I hear the word radio. And also Mexican Radio, great song. 

In any case! I will be on KBOO tomorrow at 10:30 am with Dmae Roberts talking about and reading from Couch. Tune in if you’re around.

Let’s find out. 

The following is a response to this piece on refugeesfromthecity.blogspot.com

I haven’t really ever been in this position before, but I would rather acknowledge the piece than ignore it. 

–

Hi John – thanks for reading my piece on Scalzi’s blog. I suppose your answer here might highlight the risk of writing a piece on a fantastical premise on the blog of a Sci-Fi writer.

I think you make good and obvious points here about civilization’s debt to science and the scientific method, but since being called an idiot always gets the blood running merrily through the veins, I’ll say a few things:

- Hyperbole is an excellent seed for fiction. The book centers around a magic couch, and so to defend some whimsical speculation in a fantastical book as not adhering to what’s possible in science does not seem germane.

i.e.: Moby Dick is a horrible western; there are no horses!

- The scientific method can be defended righteously. Its implementation cannot.

- The book has as a theme the loss of knowledge throughout history – including the loss we are experiencing now, which is primarily via genetic material and through cultural imperialism. Irrigation advances civilization, true. But Tuvan throat singing enriches it. And the potential of these, scientific or otherwise, is more or less unknown. Certainly to the science of systems they are an irreparable loss. Perhaps within this loss is contained a fascimile of your coal tar derivatives. Perhaps within the loss of any of these other cultures is equal in scale.

- “Idiots such as Parzybok who repudiate the best of Western culture in our intelligentsia are ingrates. The 30 million or so Chinese mothers making their kids study Western classical piano have none of the white-guilt problems that cause overeducated fools in the West to repudiate what’s good about their heritage – they know what works when they see it.”
I think this is a dangerous perspective. Many cultures through time have thought their cultures superior to all others, which in essence is what this argument is. Having lived in Chinese speaking countries and taught English in cram schools, I believe what you’re describing is called cultural hegemony.

I love science and spent many early years of my life wanting to be a scientist. However, I think the world is less black and white than your article seems to imply. All knowledge is not equally valuable to all people, but all knowledge has the potential of great value to some. 

Cheers,
Ben

Nice try.

Sincerely,

Ben

The miniseries has come to an end, and we await the climax. Hooray!

And now, for a bit of Couch news you can read between refreshing your poll trackers…

- My publisher is having a Couch carrying photo contest
- There’s an excerpt of the first 10k words of Couch up at Book Spot Central
- and also a contest there
- Powell’s is selling signed copies of Couch. Who signed them? I have no idea – I hope it’s a special robot with a calligraphic flare living in the basement. Named Robert. Who hums while he signs. But if you like signatures at the front of your book, that seems like a good way to get one if you’re not going to be in one of these places.

That’s all for now. Go vote and be merry.

Incidentally, we so voted for Omar.