Notes From All Over; Pop Quiz At Very, Very End -- October 8, 2020

Co-opting: if your high school student ever needs to provide an example of "co-opting" this is perhaps the best example in American history. Seriously. Can anyone provide a better example? And this is not a rhetorical question. Perhaps putting the Ku Klux Klan monkey on the back of the wrong party, but that was not co-opting. Same with calling conservative states "red" and progressive states "blue" but again, that's not co-opting.

Commissioner notes huge drop in BLM ratings: "things will change next season." No link; story everywhere. It's been regularly reported for the past week on non-mainstream media outlets. BLM championship ratings plunged this year -- despite so little sports activity even competing for eyeballs.

OPEC+: how bad is it for the cartel? Even with a crippling strike in the Norwegian oilfields and operators shutting down off-shore rigs in the US Gulf, the "OPEC basket" is pretty much unchanged. OSP levels out at $40 and change. Saudi needs $80-oil to sustain "business as usual." Says it can meet obligations at $60-oil.

Amazon: I ordered two identical items at the very same time with each one going to a different destination. I ordered the items on Sunday or Monday night, I forget which. The item sent to my house here in north Texas arrived Wednesday, much more quickly than Amazon estimated. The same item going to a residential address in Portland won't arrive until tomorrow, Friday, two days later. FedEx is having major delivery delays in Portland, OR, based on anecdotal reports.

Don't know what they're talking about: headline in local Ft Worth newspaper -- "Trump returns to White House even while still infectious." Whoever wrote that has no idea. How does the writer know the president was still infectious when the latter was discharged from the hospital. An understanding of human nature suggests he would have asked his physicians that very question. Every infectious disease expert will tell you that one is most infectious during the first two to three days before viral symptoms are noted. That infectious period lasts through the first day or so of viral symptoms but how long it exists after that varies considerably but drops off quickly, much like the dreaded Bakken decline. By the time the president returned to his home he had had the disease for at least five days, and was very likely not very infectious, if at all.

Over at Schwa Nation we discuss this in a two-part series. Here we begin near the end of that series.

3. If the "cycle" phenomenon is analogous to the homeopathic process then the 2^40th cycle (trillion "dilutions" as it were, this is really, really crazy). Two things: one) at 2^40th we're talking homeopathic concentrations which "no one" really "believes" in; and, two) it just shows how few viral particles are needed (any virus) to produce symptoms. I think it's all quite amazing.

4. One can see why this is never discussed much in non-specialty media. Most of us have trouble multiplying / dividing big numbers -- using exponents (2^40) would be beyond the pale. 

AP COVID-19 data: fact-checked by Brian Williams, Rachel Madcow, and the NYT editorial board.

Really Bad Math, Brian Williams

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Magnets 

Sophia is a "remote learner" as she is called by her school district, or a "distance learner" as described by others, but to me, she is a "streamer."  (Apologies for really bad grammar.)

"Streamer" arose from this analogy. In her school district, kids who have an aptitude for arithmetic/math, stay in their "regular" class but are "telescoped" into higher math classes, and are called "telescopers" by their peers.

Sophia, in first grade, and I are having a blast. 

We are taking Spanish together using an iPad app. She is taking piano lessons on an iPad app. She is taking math, science, music, art, writing, reading, etc., as a "streamer." 

I have never understood the phenomenon of magnets. I blame that on a really, really poor physics experience (or more appropriately, a non-experience) in high school.

This week we were told that Sophia would be studying magnetism in science. I immediately ordered an $8-magnet-education kit from Amazon and it arrived two days ago. Wow, what a blast. I finally get it. I don't understand all of it (nor do scientists who study the phenomenon) but I now understand enough to feel comfortable.

These were my notes I used with Sophia:

I did not know the red/white arrow in a compass was a magnet. I just thought it was a piece of metal that oriented itself toward the earth's magnetic north, just as non-magnetized iron filings will orient toward a bar magnet. I assume I am/was the only one that did not know that. But, again, that little floppy red/white double arrow in a compass in a magnet.

Like all magnets, it has a north pole and a south pole. Now think about this: by convention, the north-seeking end of the magnet needle is painted red. Since "opposites attract", the red end of the magnet needle would be the south "pole" of the magnet. 

According to a google search, by convention:

So, the "red" portion of a magnet, by convention, is usually "south." 

Unfortunately / ironically, the magnets in Sophia's set (made in China) has the red end of the bar magnet marked with "N" -- which would suggest it's the north pole. In fact, it's the "north-seeking end" which is the south pole.

I know that for a fact because accomplishing the exercise of dangling the bar magnet off the edge of a table (with a string), the bar magnet's red end (market north) points north. LOL. 

I also understand (but don't "get it") why some substances like paper can never be magnetized whereas other substances like iron can be magnetized. 

I also understand (but also don't "get it") why the earth is one huge bar magnet (a bar magnet shaped like a sphere). The good news: scientists don't fully understand, either, why the earth is a huge bar magnet. 

But I now understand enough about magnets to die happily. Solving another mystery. 

By the way, I often see signs on cars in the local area promoting their universities/colleges with this slogan: "Yo Soy UNT."

Sophia and I now know what that means, and it has nothing to do with soy sauce. 

Pop quiz: back to magnets. Bar magnets, by convention, are red at one end, black at the other. The little red/white arrow in a compass is a magnet. Why is the little red/white arrow in a compass red/white and not red/black like all other bar magnets?