Vaccine Hospitalization

If you're looking at rates of hospitalization among vaccinated people and getting scared, here's something that might help!

I used to teach Bayes theorem and its results still surprise me!

Here’s the type of diagram that usually helps it all make sense for me: pic.twitter.com/A6toIcr5xe

— Kenny (@kennyshirley) July 19, 2021

The short answer: a tiny percentage of vaccinated people still wind up in hospital, but it ends up being a larger proportion of hospitalized people due to the fact that so many people are vaccinated, so there's a way larger pool of people to draw on!

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The Billionaire Space Race

Thinking about this today.

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)

I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still.
(while Whitey's on the moon)

The man jus' upped my rent las' night.
('cause Whitey's on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Whitey's on the moon)

I wonder why he's uppi' me?
('cause Whitey's on the moon?)
I was already payin' 'im fifty a week.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
Junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
An' as if all that shit wasn't enough

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an' arm began to swell.
(but Whitey's on the moon)

Was all that money I made las' year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain't no money here?
(Hm! Whitey's on the moon)
Y'know I jus' 'bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon)

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Can't Be Trusted

You know when people say, "I can't be trusted around X," where X is probably some kind of delicious food but may be another vice?

 

And then, because we can't be trusted with it, we develop a complex set of rules in our lives to control our access to it? We hide it, freeze it in a block of ice, never keep it in the house, make ourselves to exercise before we consume it, go on cleanses or fasts or abstain for a month at a time, tell ourselves what days or what times we are allowed to have it?

On one hand, great. If that feels good for you, great.

 

On the other hand, I have a "what if?"

 

What if... we learned to trust ourselves?

 

Not that we learn to trust that our will is iron-clad and we will never overdo it when it comes to X because we now inherently follow these rules, but to actually be in tune with our bodies, with our wants and needs, with compassion, and so trust ourselves to do whatever is actually right for us.

 

It's harder at the outset. It's more complicated. But living life where you can trust yourself seems a lot more enjoyable than a life with a bunch of arbitrary rules to keep ourselves in line.

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To Every Thing There is a Season

About a year ago I announced some ch-ch-ch-changes. At the time all I knew was that I was unshackling myself from the strict guidelines I had given myself for writing daily on this blog and some of the structure and format I'd put into place here and I didn't know what that would look like.

Well, what it did look like was that I still wrote posts every day and probably poured more out into this blog than I had before.

Now, all of a sudden, I feel kinda done?

 

Not done in a forever way, but definitely in a "my life actually doesn't revolve around this blog" way.

If you like having my musings in your life and want to find out when I've written something, you can sign up from my newsletter or follow me on ye old socials (receptionist insta, personal insta, twitter, tiktok, or facebook but I never post there).

 

So... see you around? Or when I suddenly feel like my life is empty and I come crawling back here?

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The Coldest Summer of the Rest of Our Lives

A couple weeks ago, I was telling some friends how we have to enjoy this time in our lives: COVID is (theoretically) getting under control and climate change is only just ramping up. Pending other disasters (still totally likely!), we'll have some decently-enjoyable years in here before things get really bad again.

 

Honestly, my friends seemed a little perturbed by this. They called me cynical.

 

Buuuuuut after a heatwave in BC that resulted in over 700 sudden deaths (where the only way to make life bearable for most is buy an AC and contribute to making global temperatures worse, and will result in even more forest fires than usual, one of which already fully destroyed a town in a day) PLUS the ocean literally being on fire and whatever ecological effects come of that, I'm thinking I was wrong.

 

I think I was too optimistic about how "sweet" this "sweet spot" between COVID and Climate Change: Full Throttle will be.

 

I guess time will tell: as the planet becomes less and less habitable in the coming years, what will we look back on as the lull? Or will we be too busy hating our past selves for not fighting this harder? (Or, most appropriately, hating the ultra-wealthy oil barons who fully knew about climate change in the 70s and hid it?)

 

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