2023-03-31
2023-03-26
2023-03-25
Irrational humans
I would have thought that a deadly pandemic would have united the human race to a common cause to defeat an enemy killing so many people. However, instead of the pandemic joining us, it divided us even further.
The evidence shows that the vaccine reduces your overall chances of dying by a considerable amount. Nevertheless, I daily see attacks on the vaccine as if it were some sort of plague. People have a right to make poor choices, but the amount of misinformation is vast, which affects people's ability to make decisions.
If COVID had a smallpox death rate then I don't think there would be any argument. Everybody would be lining up for the vaccine, regardless of any potential side effects. However, a death rate of 1% (or less) is still pretty significant if you or a loved one is the one who dies.
This has caused me to reflect on why humans are so irrational. I am seeing what I think is a common factor in how people make decisions. This ties into politics. I have long noticed people are much more intense about the things that they are opposed to. I am calling this the "boogeyman factor." The thinking is that those people over there are going to do something that we don't like so we are going to fight them no matter what. People naturally focus more on adverse outcomes because fear is the most powerful motivator. On the other hand, if you are a happy person who has few worries, which is almost no one, then you might not have much need for politics.
In our current era, we have become very tribal, with no middle ground or nuance. Ask anyone, regardless of party, about politics and they will name at least one evil person that needs to be defeated. It is human nature to need an enemy that we can fight, and in recent years we will vilify just about anyone.
When it comes to the vaccine there are quite a few "boogeymen", whether that be Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, "big pharma", or the government. There are a great many people who are thoroughly convinced that evil forces are trying to hurt us, by one means or another, so they are unwilling even to consider the vaccine because it comes from an evil source.
Once people make up their minds, confirmation bias becomes very strong. They will look only at evidence that supports their position while ignoring evidence to the contrary.
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Best wishes,
John Coffey
The evidence shows that the vaccine reduces your overall chances of dying by a considerable amount. Nevertheless, I daily see attacks on the vaccine as if it were some sort of plague. People have a right to make poor choices, but the amount of misinformation is vast, which affects people's ability to make decisions.
If COVID had a smallpox death rate then I don't think there would be any argument. Everybody would be lining up for the vaccine, regardless of any potential side effects. However, a death rate of 1% (or less) is still pretty significant if you or a loved one is the one who dies.
This has caused me to reflect on why humans are so irrational. I am seeing what I think is a common factor in how people make decisions. This ties into politics. I have long noticed people are much more intense about the things that they are opposed to. I am calling this the "boogeyman factor." The thinking is that those people over there are going to do something that we don't like so we are going to fight them no matter what. People naturally focus more on adverse outcomes because fear is the most powerful motivator. On the other hand, if you are a happy person who has few worries, which is almost no one, then you might not have much need for politics.
In our current era, we have become very tribal, with no middle ground or nuance. Ask anyone, regardless of party, about politics and they will name at least one evil person that needs to be defeated. It is human nature to need an enemy that we can fight, and in recent years we will vilify just about anyone.
When it comes to the vaccine there are quite a few "boogeymen", whether that be Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, "big pharma", or the government. There are a great many people who are thoroughly convinced that evil forces are trying to hurt us, by one means or another, so they are unwilling even to consider the vaccine because it comes from an evil source.
Once people make up their minds, confirmation bias becomes very strong. They will look only at evidence that supports their position while ignoring evidence to the contrary.
--
Best wishes,
John Coffey
2023-03-24
2023-03-21
Perspective
Sometimes it is nice to have perspective. Our Milky Way Galaxy is 105,000 light-years (617 quadrillion miles) across.
This is an artist's rendering based on astronomical data. It is difficult to see everything because interstellar dust gets in the way. We used to think that our solar system was closer to the edge than it actually is. This was revised a few years ago.
I wondered why there are spiral arms. All the stars in the spiral arms should be moving at different speeds depending upon their distance from the center, so you would not expect them to clump together into a structure. The technical explanation as to why this happens is quite complicated, and there are multiple reasons for it. The Milky Way is so big that it has smaller galaxies orbiting around it, and their gravitational influence is part of the reason that the arms form.
In about 2.5 billion years, the Milky Way Galaxy will begin to collide with the bigger Andromeda Galaxy. Eventually, the two galaxies will merge into a larger galaxy.
2023-03-19
2023-03-17
2023-03-16
2023-03-15
2023-03-14
2023-03-11
2023-03-09
Tucker Carlson: Here is the truth
I would really like to trust Tucker Carlsen, but I can't. He repeatedly engages in conspiracy theories. His modus operandi is to spin partial truths to outrageous levels and then claim that there is a conspiracy to hide the truth.
The events of January 6th were terrible and by definition an insurrection. People on the right who I would normally respect have tried to spin this as a peaceful protest. Maybe for some, but it took a violent riot to break into the capital.
2023-03-08
Life Before the Internet… You had to do WHAT!
This should be self-evident, but I grew up (mostly) before computers, microwave ovens, CD's, DVD's, and VCR's. High tech was a stereo system, transistor radio, or color TV.
2023-03-07
M2 Mac Mini
I have come to believe that the M2 Mac Mini is a con and this is what we have come to expect from Apple. If you want the coolness of Apple products, then you have to pay the Apple Tax. The M2 Mac Mini is successful because Apple does a really good job of hyping its products.
I want a faster computer than what I have now, and the M2 is most definitely faster, but the base model has four times less memory and storage. Upgrading is cost-prohibitive because of what Apple charges for those upgrades, which I think is an insult. Once you buy it, you have a computer that is not upgradeable, won't run my Windows games, and could die in five years due to SSD failure that can't be repaired.
I recently saw a gaming PC on sale for $700. Not only did it have a faster processor, more storage, and 32 gigs of RAM, but those components can be replaced if they fail. Any decent PC could last up to 10 years.
There are mini PCs that can give the Mac Mini a run for its money. I'm holding out for the AMD 7940hs, which should be at least as powerful if not more so.
There are use cases, like content creation or app development, where the M2 processor with a memory upgrade might make sense.
COVID Numbers are down
The COVID numbers were somewhat steady for months, but have turned downward. We have gone from about 500 deaths per day, which seemed significant to me, to only about a hundred.
I was at the Columbus, Indiana hospital yesterday when they dropped their mask mandate.
Does this mean the Pandemic is over? Not for some people, but the rate of the disease doesn't seem very threatening right now.
This is not what I thought would happen. COVID is very good at both spreading and mutating, and given the number of people who aren't fully vaccinated, I thought that we would be dealing with this for many years.
I used to watch "Physics Girl" on Youtube. Her Long COVID has become so severe that it has become life-threatening. This is from an infection that she had eight months ago.
2023-03-05
2023-03-04
Faraday Cage Physics EXPLAINED using 1843 Ice Pail Experiment and History
This topic interests me because I wonder what we would need to protect ourselves from an EMP attack.
2023-03-03
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