Skip to main content

STILL MORE WORDS OF THE WEEK


Words of this week have all occurred in connection with the Coronavirus directly or its economic consequences indirectly.  Some are defined herein, while others can be easily referenced online.

General terms
  • Bifurcation (a splitting of outcomes along two different paths)
  • Inflection point (think rate of change of the rate of change, when this changes from positive to negative or negative to positive, this is an inflection point. In auto driving, this means changing from accelerating to decelerating or the reverse.)
  • Calculus – Meaning “My strategy for addressing this problem is …. A term rarely used by those who use calculus. In the given sense, the term is mostly used by politicians and other morons. The other meaning of “calculus” is as an advanced mathematical topic.
  • Model – a method, formula, or procedure for typing, addressing, or solving a problem.
  • Cyclical stock
  • Duplicity
  • Gig worker
  • Strategic oil reserve
  • Future oil contracts


Health and disease related
  • Sanitize
  • Disinfectant
  • UV effect
  • Ozone effect
  • Sunlight effect
  • Reproductive number (R0 and pronounced R-naught) - average number of secondary infections from the first infection, i.e. if equal to 2, this means each infected person infects two additional people – on average. It is our current social distancing that seeks to reduce this value.  When it is less than one, the disease fades away. When it's greater than one, the disease spreads. 
  • Herd immunity
  • Core group (for infection)
  • High risk group
  • Age assortative – implying people of the same age associate together mostly. (e.g. child-child, child-parent, but not child-elderly)
  • Epidemiological triangle (host, pathogen, environment)
  • Direct vs Indirect disease transmission
  • Vectorborne transmission


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please Comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Behavioral Science and Problem-Solving

I.                                       I.                 Introduction.                Concerning our general behavior, it’s high about time we all had some understanding of how we operate on ourselves, and it is just as important how we are operated on by others. This is the wheelhouse of behavioral sciences. It is a vast subject. It touches our lives constantly. It’s influence is pervasive and can be so subtle we never notice it. Behavioral sciences profoundly affect our ability and success at problem-solving, from the elementary level to highly complex wicked problems. This is discussed in Section IV. We begin with the basics of behavioral sciences, Section II, and then through the lens of multiple categories and examples, Section III. II.     ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where is AI (Artificial Intelligence) Going?

  How to view Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Imagine you go to the store to buy a TV, but all they have are 1950s models, black and white, circular screens, picture rolls, and picture imperfect, no remote. You’d say no thanks. Back in the day, they sold wildly. The TV was a must-have for everyone with $250 to spend* (about $3000 today). Compared to where AI is today, this is more or less where TVs were 70 years ago. In only a few decades AI will be advanced beyond comprehension, just like TVs today are from the 50s viewpoint. Just like we could not imagine where the video concept was going back then, we cannot really imagine where AI is going. Buckle up. But it will be spectacular.    *Back then minimum wage was $0.75/hr. Thus, a TV cost more than eight weeks' wages. ------------------------- 
Post a Comment
Read more

Fake News

If you've been following the news the last couple of days, you will note the flurry of copy devoted to fake news.  Both sides are blaming whatever has befallen them the consequence of fake news.  Let's look at this phenomenon a bit.    When I was a student years ago, a friend climbed some mountain in Peru.   A article was written in the local newspaper about the event.   In only three column inches, the newspaper made about six errors.   An easy article to write you say?   Just interview and reproduce.   Yet so many errors?   The question is this: was this fake news or bad reporting?   The idea here is that fake news comes in various flavors. Bad reporting – errors made by the author or editor Opinion presented as news     Deliberate creation of falsehoods to favor a point of view       The reporting of selected truths to favor a particular point of view Now we have the big social media ...
Post a Comment
Read more