Two delightfully uplifting and optimistic stories

I hope you can make time for these two stories, the kind of stories we need right now. 

1:

A Staten island elementary school choir teacher who really believes in his kids and teaches life lessons through music. And gets them to sing harmony, which is no small feat. 

"You're making me cry - you're so on point"

"You have a connection to the song in the way you're singing it...Make sure that your audience understands what the song is about...You're going to show the meaning of the song just by your eyes."

"When they sang, they could be totally off key...if they showed they had music inside of them, I said "I can work with this kid.""

"I will cry, openly, in front of the children. I'm teaching them that music is an outlet for  emotions, and if I try and stifle my own emotions, I'm being a hypocrite."

"When someone says something that hurts us, that we don't like it, we don't have to accept it. We don't have to hate them. Is it possible? Yeah it can happen. That's the problem in the world. People aren't listening to each other."

"You guys are really deep thinkers, you get it, and it gives me hope, that you guys are going to [be] next when it's your turn to be the adults and it's your turn to take charge."

"What happens in our room - it's an allegory for the utopian world were working towards... You guys are like the best medicine."

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RoZS1kYWlseQ&ep=14&episode=Z2lkOi8vYXJ0MTktZXBpc29kZS1sb2NhdG9yL1YwL1dkaVlWQ2Nfc0NXYTgwT1hRYTVqUXpfQU1ncEtjalZGX2NjTUtXOFFZQlE

You can see him in action here:

https://youtu.be/VmEVvKu44mI

"I just want them to love what they do and have passion, and if anything be competitive with themselves."

2:

And this Ted talk about a journalist's journey to discover his true calling. 

From his original intent of bringing a scientific discovery to a moment of "Oh wow!" wonder...to getting his interviews to lead his subject to the moment of struggle - the "sigh" [that expresses] truths colliding and the struggle to make sense. 

But how do you end that story...get beyond that struggle? 

"I had chosen a conceit for this series that my soul had trouble with."

Dolly Parton, implausibly, would show him the way beyond the struggle. "She would force me beyond  the simple categories I had constructed for the world." - "Don't bring your stupid way of seeing the world into my story." 

"We love to fetishize difference, but journalists need to be the bridge between those differences. The story can't end in difference, it has to end in revelation."

When two people come together, they make a new entity, "the third," which is their relationship. His calling, his literal vocation, is to "find the third, that place where the things we hold as different resolve themselves into something new."

[It's better to watch this as the video: ]

https://www.ted.com/talks/jad_abumrad_how_dolly_parton_led_me_to_an_epiphany/up-next?language=en

[But you can listen to it as a podcast also: ]

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/third_ted_talk

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLmZlZWRidXJuZXIuY29tL3JhZGlvbGFi&ep=14&episode=ZDI2YTkyNjAtZDMwNi00MzllLWJlODEtMjkxZWJhZDhjYzZm

Here's the episode where he links Dolly Parton's "hallowed ground" she's sung about for 50 years - to his Persian immigrant story. 

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america/episodes/neon-moss

<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="130" width="100%" src="https://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/wnycstudios/#file=/audio/json/970022/&share=1"></iframe>

The fallacy of checking symptoms and temperature to prevent spread of COVID.

Although everyone is checking symptoms and temperature before granting entry these days, that may be tilting at windmills.*  The virus is mostly spread before symptoms begin, which is the insidious, menacing truth that makes this so much worse than regular flu. 

Quantitative COVID-19 infectiousness estimate correlating with viral shedding and culturability suggests 68% pre-symptomatic transmissions.

"The profile suggests that a 68.4% (95% CI: 67.0-69.7%) of the infections are caused by infections before the symptoms appear..."

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?client=ms-android-google&um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&q=related:u1j20nOjlV2qdM:scholar.google.com/#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3Daek_yt49o7MJ

Temporal dynamics in viral shedding and transmissibility of COVID-19

"We estimated that 44%(95% confidence interval, 25–69%) of secondary cases were infected during the index cases' presymptomatic stage..."

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?client=ms-android-google&um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&q=related:u1j20nOjlV2qdM:scholar.google.com/#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3Du1j20nOjlV0J

Temporal dynamics in viral shedding and transmissibility of COVID-19

"We estimated that 44% (95% confidence interval, 25–69%) of secondary cases were infected during the index cases' presymptomatic stage"

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0869-5

And a substantial proportion of people have a puzzling absence of symptoms throughout their infection. (The Diamond Princess was a perfect  crucible in which to study virus transmission in detail in an isolated population.)

Estimating the asymptomatic proportion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, Yokohama, Japan, 2020

"The estimated asymptomatic proportion was 17.9% (95% credible interval (CrI): 15.5–20.2%). Most infections occurred before the quarantine start."

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?client=ms-android-google&um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&q=related:u1j20nOjlV2qdM:scholar.google.com/#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DAj_UE20f0JsJ

-Tom

* I love that quaint expression "tilting at windmills"

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/tilt_at_windmills#:~:text=(intransitive)%20To%20attack%20imaginary%20enemies,engage%20in%20a%20futile%20activity.

Tamsulosin for patients with ureteral stones?

Normally given for prostate problems, this medication may help kidney stones to pass. 

"alpha-blockers increased [distal ureteric] stone passage within one to 6 weeks when compared with placebo or no additional therapy."

"The pooled risk of stone passage was higher in the tamsulosin group than in the placebo group (85% vs 66%"

"tamsulosin was beneficial for larger stones, 5 to 10 mm in size"

"did not increase the risk of dizziness (RD=.2%; 95% CI, -2.1% to 2.5%) or postural hypotension (RD=.1%; 95% CI, -0.4% to 0.5%) compared with placebo."

"Only distal stones were included in 7 of the 8 trials."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5770178/

NYTimes: Easy Mocktails to Make At Home

Easy Mocktails to Make At Home https://nyti.ms/2Zeo2Mf

Mock Cosmopolitan
Time 15 minutes
Yield 2 servings 
Ingredients ¼ cup Seville (bitter) orange marmalade 
Juice of 1 lime 
½ cup cranberry juice 
Lemon twists for garnish 
Steps 1. Place the marmalade in a strainer over a small bowl. 
Gradually add 2 tablespoons boiling water as you force the jelly, not the peels, through the strainer. This is your marmalade syrup. You should have 4 tablespoons. Stir it. 

2. Place marmalade syrup in a mixing glass. Add lime juice, cranberry juice and ice. Stir well. 

3. Strain into two chilled stemmed cocktail glasses and garnish with twists. 

If desired, the drink can be served on the rocks in large wine goblets.

Workshop on Scalability in Autonomous Driving

https://youtu.be/g2R2T631x7k

Very interesting lecture on the challenges Tesla engineers currently face in scaling and developing their full-self-driving capability. 

You would think identifying a stop sign is straightforward, but starting at 7:39 he describes all the difficulties - signs occluded by foliage, signs mounted on a barrier that don't apply unless the barrier is closed, stop signs hand-held by a construction crew, and stop signs straight ahead of you indicating a stop only for a left-turning lane that don't apply if you're following the main road curving to the right. 

At 5:12, he points out that competing teams are first building up a huge lidar data set pinpointing  where roads and lanes are, so the vehicle follows predetermined lines. Tesla decided each car should see the road ahead for the first time, not relying on an established data set - which is expensive to maintain to be current for construction, damage, and other changes. A Tesla has to not only detect in real time, but interpret for instance which traffic light applies to the lane the Tesla is currently in. 

At 13:52, he describes all the preliminary stages a new feature goes through until it's signed off by their QA department. The Tesla fleet is silently in the background actively testing future capabilities and reporting results back to headquarters on features still in the testing stage. 

At 25:20, he shows some really rare scenarios that are very hard for the software to recognize and interpret - a chair falling off a truck ahead, a person walking their dog alongside their car, a car reflected in a shiny truck, and a toppled safety cone that looks like a traffic light. 

The Most Important Filmmaker You Haven't Heard Of

https://youtu.be/vdXUjtE-ltA

Dede Allen single-handedly changed the influence that film editors have on a film, becoming the first editor to receive a credit in the title sequence. Her jump-cuts and trademark dubbing of audio from the subsequent scene into the end of the current scene increase the pace of storytelling. She would even be on set during filming to tell directors what angles and shots she would need during editing. 

How Spies Use Disguises | WIRED

https://youtu.be/JASUsVY5YJ8

Dental appliances, hair, bandaging the knee, putting a pebble in your shoe...all subtle ways to change your appearance. The goal was to blend in and be forgettable. Ask your acquaintances what is distinctive about you and get rid of those attributes. Americans lean on one leg, switch hands when eating, and other giveaways that make them targets for pickpockets. 

Spy tech eavesdropping from light bulb filaments

Spies Can Eavesdrop by Watching a Light Bulb's Vibrations.   The so-called "lamphone" technique allows for real-time listening in on a room that's hundreds of feet away.  

What a clever idea - since a light bulb filaments is a precarious tiny mobile wire when the bulb is lit, it would respond to sound vibrations in the room and slightly change its light output. This spy technique measures those slight variations to detect and reproduce sounds from afar. https://www.wired.com/story/lamphone-light-bulb-vibration-spying/

Listen to the quality of the audio reproduction at 2:16 in this video. 

https://youtu.be/t32QvpfOHqw

It reminds me of this technique, tested in this video with "home" equipment, that detects vibration of objects in the room by reflected laser light and uses that to extract audio from a remote source. 

https://youtu.be/eUzB0L0mSCI

How a riot escalates

I've never seen such clever, second by second analysis and interpretation of bystander video that captures the actual moment when a Seattle protest went from peaceful to violent. One officer's sudden move makes fellow officers and protesters suddenly overreact. 

Watch This Protest Turn From Peaceful to Violent in 60 Seconds https://nyti.ms/3856d6o

Cooper Black Font - why is it so good?

https://youtu.be/Zu91meda2I8

A great little documentary on Cooper Black - really well done, with animated illustrations that make the point well.

It reminds me of the surprisingly good documentary about Helvetica font. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/

Curcumin, (better known as turmeric): A Review of Its Effects on Human Health

Take curcurmin with (black) pepper, which increases its absorption.  

"Curcumin...multiple health benefits, which appear to act primarily through its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanisms. These benefits are best achieved when curcumin is combined with agents such as piperine [black pepper,] which increase its bioavailability significantly. Research suggests that curcumin can help in the management of oxidative and inflammatory conditions, metabolic syndrome, arthritis, anxiety, and hyperlipidemia. It may also help in the management of exercise-induced inflammation and muscle soreness, thus enhancing recovery and subsequent performance in active people. In addition, a relatively low dose can provide health benefits for people that do not have diagnosed health conditions."

Benefits in healthy people:

"Curcumin significantly lowered triglyceride levels but not total cholesterol, LDL, or HDL levels."

"Inflammation-related neutrophil function increased..."

"There was a decrease in salivary amylase activity, which can be a marker of stress, and an increase in salivary radical scavenging capacities..."

"decrease in beta amyloid plaque, a marker of brain aging..."

"One hour after administration, curcumin significantly improved performance on sustained attention and working memory tasks, compared with the placebo. Working memory and mood (general fatigue and change in state calmness, contentedness, and fatigue induced by psychological stress) were significantly better following chronic treatment."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664031/

Simple writing

Orwell proposed the following six rules

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Never use the passive where you can use the active.

Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

https://infusion.media/blog/george-orwells-six-rules-for-writing/

Mark Twain once said, "I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one."

And Hemingway's writing philosophy is one of simplicity.

Ironic weekend rain in Nova Scotia

Pollution generated in the Northeast US during weekdays drifts over Nova Scotia by the weekend and causes rainy weekends. 

Weekly cycles of air pollutants, precipitation and tropical cyclones in the coastal NW Atlantic region. "satellite-based precipitation estimates indicate that near-coastal ocean areas receive significantly more precipitation at weekends than on weekdays."

http://www.physics.hmc.edu/courses/p022/samplepaper1_online.pdf

"S Town" Podcast, Horology and Clocks | Witness marks

An intriguing meandering story of a mysterious enigmatic recluse of eclectic interests who may have secreted away a vast fortune. One minor subplot explores his interest and virtuosic skill for  repairing antique clocks, or horology. 

Antique clocks do not have repair manuals. Their intricate inner workings must be intuited, then  reconstructed during their repair. Horologists "rely on what are often called 'witness marks' to guide their way. A witness mark could be a small dent, a hole that once held a screw: These are actual impressions and dent lines and discolorations left inside the clock of pieces that may have once been there. They are clues as to what was in the clockmaker's mind when he first created the thing. I'm told fixing an old clock can be maddening. You're constantly wondering if you've just spent hours going down a path that will likely take you nowhere, and all you've got are these vague witness marks which might not even mean what you think they mean."

https://www.chelseaclock.com/blog/s-town-podcast-brings-horology-spotlight

The podcast series: 

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLnN0b3ducG9kY2FzdC5vcmcvc3Rvd25wb2RjYXN0&ep=14

Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most

"every temperature increase of 1 degree Celsius in the week before delivery corresponded with a 6 percent greater likelihood of stillbirth between May and September. Both studies found racial disparities in the number of stillbirths."

"ozone...associated with preterm births, low birth weights and stillbirths...high exposure to air pollution during the final trimester of pregnancy was linked to a 42 percent increase in the risk of stillbirth."

"African Americans are less likely to have health insurance, less likely to have access to healthy foods, less likely to have access to green space to shield them from heat waves, and more likely to live close to sources of pollution."

https://nyti.ms/37EGcLb