RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Wednesday 20 May 2020 Volume 31 : Issue 84

ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks) Peter G. Neumann, founder and still moderator

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. ***** This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/31.84>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents:
Piper and Garmin Certify Autoland on Halo M600SLS (Julie Boatman)
The ultimate Turing test (Henry Baker)
The FBI Just Unlocked an iPhone Without Apple's Help (Lifewire)
Fairfax schools' switch to Google didn't stop harassment (WashPost)
Florida scientist fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data
(USA Today)
Being offline is the new luxury (Matthew Kruk)
AI gets the attention, but biotechnology is poised to change the world
(Axios)
Humans are complicated; do we need behavioral science to get through this
(Ars Technica)
Wall Street traders fight over milliseconds in mmWave transmission battle
(Light Reading)
China's New Outbreak Shows Signs the Virus Could Be Changing (Bloomberg Law) Why the coronavirus hits kids and adults so differently (The Atlantic)
The Chaos of Asynchronous Grief (Allegra)
Quarantine and a monitoring bracelet for Hong Kong returnees (Fox5NY)
How the ‘Plandemic’ Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread Widely Online (NYTimes) Covidiots: R_nought's are naughty not nice (Henry Baker)
Re: Stimulus check delays when accounts were overdrawn! (John Levine)
Re: Coronavirus New York Shock: Two-Thirds Of Recent Patients
Infected While Staying At Home (David Lesher)
Re: Meaningless "review" of Imperial COVID codebase (Chiaki Ishikawa,
Henry Baker, William Brodie-Tyrrell, Henry Baker)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 May 2020 20:29:51 -0400
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Piper and Garmin Certify Autoland on Halo M600SLS (Julie Boatman)

Julie Boatman, 18 May 2020
The final FAA blessing came following a last round of test flights.

The Piper M600SLS is the first certification platform for Autoland, with
other airplanes to follow.

Piper Aircraft and Garmin International announced on Monday, May 18, 2020,
the final FAA certification on the Halo-equipped Piper M600SLS, which uses Garmin's Autoland feature to land the airplane without human intervention in the event of a pilot-incapacitating emergency. The last push to finish
flight tests on the innovative system consisted of validation and
coordination with air traffic control, among other scenario-based
events. Piper conducted the final series of tests in M600 in Vero Beach, Florida, and Garden City, Kansas, concluded on May 5.

Garmin's Autoland system forms the basis for the Piper's version of the automated system, which also incorporates several recent updates to the aircraft, including an autothrottle, and rounding out the Autonomí suite of safety protocols, including emergency descent management (EDM), and
electronic stability and protection (ESP).

Unique among those systems, however, Autoland takes the airplane all the way
to the conclusion of landing on a runway. How it does this combines an intricate ballet of GPS-based situational awareness on the part of the
Garmin G3000 flight deck, voice and data communication with air traffic control, and mechanical functions normally operated by the pilot but
automated within the airplane once the system is activated.

Autoland features a unique passenger-centric interface to communicate what
the system is doing at all times.

Autoland, as executed in the Halo system, can only be initiated by an
occupant of the airplane -- typically a passenger -- so its interface was designed to be transparent and straightforward to non-pilots. Once the passenger presses the activation button (a guarded installation on the instrument panel), the system calculates through a wide range of
performance, operational, and weather data and criteria to conclude the
nearest safe airport at which to land the airplane. Autoland communicates
with ATC over standard frequencies so that not only are controllers alerted
but also other pilots flying in the area. The autothrottle is used to
control speed, and manage engine performance and power, allowing the M600 to climb, descend, or stay at a given altitude as appropriate as Autoland
guides the airplane to the chosen airport.

The full report on Autoland was published in the January/February 2020 issue
of Flying. Garmin expects certification of the system on board the Cirrus Vision Jet and the Daher TBM 940 to follow.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 20 May 2020 08:03:57 -0700
From: Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com>
Subject: The ultimate Turing test

I'm aware of a company that made their first 'virtual hire' due to COVID-19: this person was interviewed, hired, and started working from home without
ever being met *in person*!

With Zoom virtual backgrounds, real-time facial animations, etc., someone is certain to use these capabilities to become a fake virtual employee at a
major company -- perhaps *more than one virtual employee simultaneously*!

While I was an undergraduate at MIT in the 1960's, I heard about a gentleman who couldn't afford all 4 years of tuition & boarding, so he signed up for a *double load* of courses, and managed to get through MIT in only 2 years by skipping lectures and only taking the exams.

In this new 'gig' economy, someone could sign up for 2,3,4 'virtual' jobs,
and with suitable scheduling of Zoom conferences, survive for months or
years before anyone ever found out.

An even better hack will be to use an 'AI' to become a virtual employee and
get away with it for a non-trivial amount of time.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 May 2020 14:32:10 -0400
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: The FBI Just Unlocked an iPhone Without Apple's Help (Lifewire)

What does the FBI's success mean for your iPhone?

https://www.lifewire.com/the-fbi-just-unlocked-an-iphone-without-apple-s-help-4845466

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 17 May 2020 17:29:23 -0400
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Fairfax schools' switch to Google didn't stop harassment (WashPost)

The incident is only the latest snarl in Fairfax’s troubled rollout of
online learning, which began in mid-April when the sprawling Northern
Virginia system tried to launch a learning platform called Blackboard. That effort dissolved into chaos after students and teachers suffered technical troubles, privacy issues and harassment.

A second failed attempt a week later led to the resignation of the school system's longtime information technology chief and to the announcement that Fairfax was moving away from Blackboard. Instead, officials switched at warp speed to Google’s online learning platform. [...]

“Basically kids have zero issue getting content from the open Internet into fcpsschools.net and back out,” said Tim Schaad, a Fairfax parent and cybersecurity specialist who raised the alarm about G Suite to Fairfax’s top brass in late 2017. “Kids are running circles around administrators.” [...]

Over the years, Schaad reached out to local officials, to state lawmakers,
to news outlets, trying to keep attention on the issue. But no one
acted. “It was crickets,” he said.

Though the pandemic has gotten schools’ attention, he remains convinced Fairfax is ignoring the risks and best practices of technology
implementation he follows every day in his profession. It is an “ironclad rule of IT,” he said. “When you give people tech, they will do whatever they
can with it.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/after-online-learning-flopped-fairfax-schools-switched-to-google-more-virtual-harassment-followed/2020/05/16/728ecb1e-9449-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 May 2020 11:47:27 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Florida scientist fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data
(USA Today)

Apparently she coded and maintained Florida's COVID-19 info site, but when
she refused to manipulate data dishonestly, she was fired.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/19/florida-covid-19-coronavirus-data-researcher-out-state-reopens/5218897002/

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 May 2020 16:53:37 -0600
From: "Matthew Kruk" <mkrukg@gmail.com>
Subject: Being offline is the new luxury

https://www.youtube.com/watch?s=&v=WBFoV6jn79c&app=desktop

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 13:38:31 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: AI gets the attention, but biotechnology is poised to change the
world (Axios)

Why it matters: This bio revolution could lead to a world that is more sustainable and even extend human lifespans. But its full extent is
dependent on social acceptance -- and carries serious risks as well.

What's happening: The scientific reaction to COVID-19 illustrates the rapid change in the biological sciences, says Michael Chui, a partner at McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). "For SARS-CoV-2, it took a matter of weeks between identifying the new disease and sequencing it, compared to months for the original SARS virus."

- Improvements in reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) machines have made it possible to diagnose COVID-19 cases in as
few as 15 minutes.
<https://link.axios.com/click/20337583.60839/ aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY291cmFudC5jb20vY29yb25hdmlydXMvaGMtbmV3cy1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1hYmJvdHQtcmFwaWQtdGVzdC0yMDIwMDUxNC15YjZpbW5rY2VqZTNibDN3Y3A1aTYzdWx5dS1zdG9yeS5odG1sP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2F4aW9zZnV
0dXJlb2Z3b3JrJnN0cmVhbT1mdXR1cmU/5c90f2c505e94e65b176e000B4fd58d24>

- AI-powered R&D is speeding the search for a vaccine,
<https://link.axios.com/click/20337583.60839/ aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2lyZWQuY29tL3N0b3J5L29waW5pb24tYWktY2FuLWhlbHAtZmluZC1zY2llbnRpc3RzLWZpbmQtYS1jb3ZpZC0xOS12YWNjaW5lLz91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249bmV3c2xldHRlcl9heGlvc2Z1dHVyZW9md29yayZzdHJlYW09ZnV0dXJl/
5c90f2c505e94e65b176e000B738f17f1>
while geneticallyengineered animals have been used to develop potential
treatments.
<https://link.axios.com/click/20337583.60839/ aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2NpZW5jZWFsZXJ0LmNvbS9sbGFtYS1ibG9vZC1jb3VsZC1wbGF5LWEtcm9sZS1pbi1oZWxwaW5nLXBlb3BsZS1maWdodC1vZmYtY29yb25hdmlydXMtaW5mZWN0aW9ucz91dG1fc291cmNlPW5ld3NsZXR0ZXImdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249bmV3c2xldHRlcl9heGlvc2Z1dHVyZW9md29yayZ
zdHJlYW09ZnV0dXJl/5c90f2c505e94e65b176e000B10036e18>


*But the response to COVID-19* only scratches the surface of what the bio revolution may make possible. [...] https://www.axios.com/biotech-revolution-covid19-coronavirus-world-14a98277-e9c2-4f01-8419-986377d0e96b.html

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 13:36:30 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Humans are complicated; do we need behavioral science to get
through this (Ars Technica)

*Some scientists think social science isn'9t ready for the COVID-19 crisis*

In mid-March, just before President Trump declared COVID-19 a national emergency <https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/covid-19-is-a-national-emergency-trump-declares/>,
Stanford psychology professor Robb Willer posted a call to arms <https://twitter.com/RobbWiller/status/1237815774024052736> on Twitter,
asking for suggestions on how the social and behavioral sciences could help
to address the pandemic. ``What ideas might we have to recommend? What
research could we do?'' he asked. ``All ideas, half-baked or otherwise, are welcome!''

Given the importance of our social interactions to the spread of the
pandemic, behavioral sciences *should* have a lot to tell us. So Willer got
a large response, and the result was a huge team effort coordinated by
Willer and New York University social psychology professor Jay van Bavel <https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/jay-van-bavel.html>. The goal:
to sum up all the best and most relevant research from psychology,
sociology, public health, and other social sciences. Published in the
journal Nature Human Behaviour <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0884-z> last week--a
lightning-fast turnaround for academia--the resulting paper
highlights research that addresses behavioral questions that have come up in the pandemic, from understanding cultural differences to minimizing
scientific misinformation.

Different sections, each written by researchers with expertise in that particular field, summarize research on topics from social inequality to science communication and fake news. Responding to the crisis requires
people to change their behavior, the paper's authors argue, so we
need to draw on behavioral research to ``help align human behavior
with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health
experts.''

But while Willer, van Bavel, and their colleagues were putting together
their paper, another team of researchers put together their own, entirely opposite, call to arms: a plea, in the face of an avalanche of behavioral science research on COVID-19, for psychology researchers to have some
humility. This paper--currently published online in draft format <https://psyarxiv.com/whds4/> and seeding <https://twitter.com/hansijzerman/status/1254649705667100678> avid <https://twitter.com/jayvanbavel/status/1254845283151818753> debates <https://twitter.com/StuartJRitchie/status/1254866823570427918> on social
media <https://twitter.com/NeilLewisJr/status/1256209412164911104>--argues
that much of psychological research is nowhere near the point of being ready
to help in a crisis. Instead, it sketches out an *evidence readiness*
framework to help people determine when the field will be. [...]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/humans-are-complicated-do-we-need-behavioral-science-to-get-through-this/

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 13:40:28 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Wall Street traders fight over milliseconds in mmWave transmission
battle (Light Reading)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to decide
later this month whether the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) plans to offer
a new, high-speed wireless connection is anti-competitive.

The situation highlights the financial value of high-speed, low-latency connections, as well as how seemingly minor technological details -- such as the difference between a wired connection and a wireless one, or the
distance between a data center and a cell tower -- can have significant implications.

At issue is the new 160-foot-tall E-Band millimeter wave (mmWave) cell tower that NYSE's parent company, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), built at
its data center in Mahwah, New Jersey, where NYSE's electronic trades are executed.

ICE, through its data services division, provides the wireless connectivity between third-party data centers and the Mahwah, NJ, data center. Its new
tower transmits in the E-Band, a slice of mmWave spectrum that sits between 71GHz and 86GHz and is ideal for carrying ultra-high capacity traffic a very short distance (typically just one or two miles). Such connections can be
even faster than wired, optical networks because sending signals through the air can be faster than sending signals through glass.

*An anticompetitive connection?* [...] https://www.lightreading.com/services/wall-street-traders-fight-over-milliseconds-in-mmwave-transmission-battle/d/d-id/759555

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 20 May 2020 12:29:50 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: China's New Outbreak Shows Signs the Virus Could Be Changing
(Bloomberg Law)

Patients in new cluster take longer to show symptoms, recover.
Uncertainty over virus mutation is hindering control efforts.

Chinese doctors are seeing the coronavirus manifest differently among
patients in its new cluster of cases in the northeast region compared to the original outbreak in Wuhan, suggesting that the pathogen may be changing in unknown ways and complicating efforts to stamp it out.

Patients found in the northern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang appear to carry the virus for a longer period of time and take longer to test
negative, Qiu Haibo, one of China's top critical care doctors, told state television on Tuesday.

Patients in the northeast also appear to be taking longer than the one to
two weeks observed in Wuhan to develop symptoms after infection, and this delayed onset is making it harder for authorities to catch cases before
they spread, said Qiu, who is now in the northern region treating
patients. [...]

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/chinas-new-outbreak-shows-signs-the-virus-could-be-changing
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/chinas-new-outbreak-shows-signs-the-virus-could-be-changing/ar-BB14mHis

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 13:35:30 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Why the coronavirus hits kids and adults so differently
(The Atlantic)

*COVID-19 is much less severe in children, and it could have to do with a child's still-developing immune system*

Only after New York City passed its current coronavirus peak did
pediatricians notice a striking, new pattern: Dozens of kids who had been exposed to COVID-19 were coming in sick, but they weren't coughing. They
didn't have severe respiratory distress. Instead, they had sky-high inflammation and some combination of fever, rashes on their hands and feet, diarrhea, vomiting, and very low blood pressure. When ICU doctors around the world gathered for a weekly online COVID-19 call on May 2, doctors elsewhere began sharing similar observations. ``The tenor of the meeting completely changed,'' says Steven Kernie <https://www.nyp.org/physician/skernie>, the chief of critical-care medicine at New York -- Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, who was on the call.

Until then, the news about children and COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, had been largely good: Kids can get seriously sick, but
they rarely do. They can spread the disease, but they do it less than
adults. Study after study--in China <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.11.20056010v1.full.pdf>, Iceland <https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2006100>, Australia <http://ncirs.org.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/NCIRS%20NSW%20Schools%20COVID_Summary_FINAL%20public_26%20April%202020.pdf>
, Italy <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.17.20053157v1>, and the Netherlands <https://www.rivm.nl/en/novel-coronavirus-covid-19/children-and-covid-19>--has found that children get less sick and are less contagious.

But a very small number of children seem to have a delayed reaction to the novel coronavirus --one that takes many weeks to manifest. What
pediatricians first saw in Europe and New York is now named
``pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome'' (PMIS) or,
per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00432.asp>, ``multisystem
inflammatory syndrome in children.'' Since the New York City Health
Department issued an alert on May 4 <https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/han/alert/2020/covid-19-pediatric-multi-system-inflammatory-syndrome.pdf>
, 82 such cases <https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/13/more-than-80-kids-in-new-york-city-have-coronavirus-inflammatory-syndrome-mayor-de-blasio-says.html>
have been confirmed in the city. Most patients have recovered or are recovering, but one child has died. Across the country, doctors are finding similar cases. PMIS does seem to be a phenomenon unique to kids <https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00432.asp>.

But the virus is the same, whether it infects adult or child. The question
is, why does COVID-19 affect them so differently? Both striking patterns in kids--the fact that most do not get very sick but a small number
still end up with a delayed inflammation syndrome--may be rooted in a
child's still-developing immune system. And although COVID-19 is a
new disease, these patterns are seen with other viruses too. [...] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/covid-19-kids/611728/

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 13:37:30 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: The Chaos of Asynchronous Grief (Allegra)

*Spoiler: I hate to say it, but Americans have only begun the five stages of grief, and we aren't all going through it in the same way and at the same
time. This can be problematic for cooperation -- something we need if we are going to get through a global pandemic.*

For the first time in our lived memory, the entire planet has experienced
the same horror and the same fear at the same time in a broad and deep way. Yes, many of us have been concerned about climate change, but the immediacy
of COVID-19, and its threat of sudden death, shocked us into compliance with our local health departments and authorities. At the start of the worldwide infection, most of the globe was on the same page for how to stay safe. All over the world, we were scared, and we stayed home as much as we could. This mostly worked in the United States -- until recently, when it suddenly
didn't, and some people hit the streets to protest, claiming a burning need for, of all things, haircuts.

This action came on the tail of US politicians and the powerfully wealthy *seemingly more concerned about `The Economy' than human lives, <https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/04/politics/chris-christie-coronavirus-deaths-reopening/index.html>*
publicly urging us to risk infection for the good of commerce, rather than staying home as advised. That didn't play well for those of us who were
scared and staying home, and many of us were outraged by this
declaration. However, for some people, it sparked something, enough so that
the people who liked these new ideas began to organise.

This organising seemed manufactured, and in many ways it began that way.
The websites that posted information about how or where to protest the ``lockdowns'' were coordinated efforts <https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/whos-behind-the-reopen-domain-surge/>, with many of the domains registered to the same person. The protest
turnouts were eerily similar, and seemed to be occurring in key political states in which voters of either party could be harmed by an increase of COVID-19 cases (pretty much all states, really), or states where the
President is against a Governor (nearly all Democratic ones). But it may
not just be about the President's preferences. Some have rightly argued
that structural racism has played a huge part in who gets COVID-19 <https://ehe.amfar.org/disparities>. Proportionally, the virus is taking a higher toll in lower income, disadvantaged communities, and racism may be
part of where the impetus for some to protest comes from: the idea from
those protesting the lockdown that the spread of the virus could result in
the eradication of certain minority members of society, who are on their
lists to remove.

The protests mimic the audience participation portion of Trump's
campaign rallies. Just as the President misses his podium, the crowds miss being there as well. Trump's rallies offered his supporters
camaraderie, and the chance to yell and join together against common
enemies.

In psychological parlance, a Narcissist like Trump needs both an Apath (an enabler) and an Empath (a victim). Apaths are dangerous because their
actions normalise ``the toxic individual and their harmful behaviours
towards others <https://www.businessinsider.com/what-an-apath-is-and-why-they-are-dangerous-2018-2>.''
The rallies have provided a place for these dangerous Apath enablers to get support and strokes for pleasing the Narcissist, whilst being able to vent, scapegoat and blame his (their) victims, who do not conform to the
Narcissist's whims. With sporting events shut, many people lack the constructive ways to express themselves and their feelings that games and playoffs can provide, and with Trump's campaign rallies currently suspended, his supporters also lack the public space they usually have to get that emotional charge -- as well as to scapegoat, blame, and bully others.
Trump's Apaths are simultaneously suppressed and powder kegs about to blow. They need a regular outlet, so they've created one: protesting against the lockdown offers them a way to let off steam, please their leader, and get
those emotional strokes they rely on from him, and from banding together.

However, what people are protesting seems odd. They are protesting change,
and this is realised by them protesting having to stay home. Cloaked in the label of *Freedom*, these gun-toting, flag-waving folk are crowding together
in public <https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/trump-supporters-protest-coronavirus-orders>.
Some of these protestors are likely COVID-19 positive but asymptomatic, creating disease vectors, which at best could further imprison them at home
or in a ICU hospital ward, and at worst, kill them and their loved ones.
That aspect doesn't seem to matter as they chant displeasure towards the rational common sense enacted by health departments and state governments,
as well as a dislike for the rest of us who choose to stay home, potentially denying the protestors sources for the goods and services that they desire
and imagine will be accessible to them when things open. It doesn't make
sense, as acts of passion rarely do, to those not directly involved.

Perhaps these protests aren't about freedom at all, but are
leveraging the concept to validate other, more irrational actions. The protestors aren't for everyone else's freedom, for they
don't seem to want some subset of the population (hairdressers to
name one group <https://www.newsweek.com/protesters-wave-signs-branded-dumb-ignorant-1498873>) to be at home, either, which would be an expression of another's
freedom to choose. No, these protests are about something else underneath
their chants.

I argue that this new faction of protestors taking action arises from people being at various stages in a grief cycle, combined with different imagined realities of outcomes for the future. Throughout the 20th century, scholars
and psychologists have developed models for understanding and processing the complex human emotions that arise as we are able to extend the human life
span. As we live longer, we live with illnesses that can last decades. As a result, we have had to come to terms with slower processes of
dying. COVID-19 has created conditions where we are all Schr=C3=B6dinger's
Cat: sequestered in our homes, unsure if we are ill or not ill, and lacking ways to get reliable confirmation one way or another. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat>

This produces feelings. Lots of them. One of the more well known volumes on
the subject of grieving is K=C3=BCbler-Ross' 1969 book, On Death and
Dying <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model>. In it, K=C3=BCbler-Ross outlines the stages of a grief and/or bereavement as a
process and offers a psychological tool for humans to understand and accept terminal illness and death. [...] https://allegralaboratory.net/the-chaos-of-asynchronous-grief/

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 20 May 2020 12:28:50 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Quarantine and a monitoring bracelet for Hong Kong returnees
(Fox5NY)

It sits on your wrist, just as a wristwatch would. And in a moment when the world fears infections more than almost anything, it knows exactly where you are.

Since late March, residents returning to Hong Kong have been required to undergo a two-week quarantine at home, in a hotel or at a government
facility as part of stepped-up efforts to curb the spread of the
coronavirus.

To ensure people don't flout quarantine, the semi-autonomous Chinese city issued mandatory wristbands to all arrivals, to be worn for the entirety of
the two-week period.

Those required to go through the two-week quarantine are unable to leave
their homes and must rely on food or grocery delivery for meals. Government officers also conduct random checks on their homes to make sure they have
not broken quarantine. [...]

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/quarantine-and-a-monitoring-bracelet-for-hong-kong-returnees

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 20 May 2020 12:01:51 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: How the ‘Plandemic’ Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread Widely Online
(NYTimes)

Conspiracy theories about the pandemic have gained more traction than mainstream online events. Here’s how.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/technology/plandemic-movie-youtube-facebook-coronavirus.html

Virus Conspiracists Elevate a New Champion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/technology/plandemic-judy-mikovitz-coronavirus-disinformation.html

If Someone Shares the ‘Plandemic’ Video, How Should You Respond? https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/05/plandemic-video-what-to-say-conspiracy/611464/

Coronavirus, ‘Plandemic’ and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-plandemic-and-the-seven-traits-of-conspiratorial-thinking-138483

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Date: Wed, 20 May 2020 12:27:24 -0700
From: Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com>
Subject: Covidiots: R_nought's are naughty not nice

I'm surprised that the century-old Ross/Kermack-McKendrick "R0" differential equation models are still being (ab)used, even though they are fatally
flawed in our 21st Century when we know a lot more about "fat-tailed" --
i.e., large or infinite variance -- distributions.

I think the paper below does a pretty good job of destroying the nonsense
about "R0" being superspread by the covidiot talking heads appearing on
cable TV.

Before wasting additional trillions of dollars on bad policy choices,
perhaps we need to retire the R_nought models in favor of models with the tiniest bit more fidelity to real life, and the covidiot talking heads need
to quietly disappear with their fat tails between their legs.

https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/transmission-t-024-cristopher-moore-on-the-heavy-tail-of-outbreaks

Transmission T-024: Cristopher Moore on the heavy tail of outbreaks
April 27, 2020

R-naught is just an average: the transmission rate varies widely, and
outbreaks can be surprisingly large even when the epidemic is subcritical.

Much of the coverage of COVID-19 talks about R0, the average number of
people each sick person infects. If R0 is bigger than 1, cases grow exponentially, and an epidemic spreads across the population. But if we can keep R0 below 1, we can limit the disease to isolated outbreaks and keep it under control.

But R0 is only an average. Your ability to practice social distancing
depends on whether you are a first responder or healthcare worker, whether
you have to work in close quarters, or whether you can work comfortably from home. (I'm one of the lucky few getting paid to work from my garden.) It depends on how seriously you take your government's warnings and how
seriously your government takes the warnings of public health experts. And
it depends on the structure of your family and your home.

As a result, R0 varies wildly, not just from region to region, but across social space, as well. In New Mexico, Santa Fe has very few new cases, but there has been an explosion of cases in rural areas due to lack of running water, multi-generational homes, and other factors. As of April 26, 47
percent of our confirmed cases are in Native American communities, even
though Native Americans make up only 11 percent of New Mexico's

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