Scholars begin to try to make sense of the vexed year 2020, in this study: “Frozen Meat Against COVID-19 Misinformation: An Analysis of Steak-Umm and Positive Expectancy Violations,” Ekaterina Bogomoletc, Nicole M. Lee, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, epub 2020. (Thanks to Faye Flam for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at North […]
Tag: COVID-19
Ig Nobel Medical Education Prize Winner Continues His Lesson
One of the nine co-winners of the 2020 Ig Nobel Prize for Medical Education is in news headlines worldwide today, for his personal experimentation with the Covid-19 virus. Here is the certificate awarded to that winner at the 30th First Annual Ig Nobel ceremony on September 17. The certificate is signed, as per tradition, by […]
A nice song about a not-nice virus
A song for the here and now: “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and his wife, Diane Baker, can’t do their usual volunteering at Camp Fantastic, where children with cancer spend a week together in a camp setting, but with the necessary medical support.” Dr. Carrie Wolinetz wrote the lyrics. The […]
Ministerial Exploration: Ozone Up the Rectum in Brazil
The pandemic is inspiring a few individuals to new depths of innovation. The English translation of this headline is: “Minister of Health meets with supporters of ozone use in the rectum against covid-19“. The August 5, 2020 news report appears in the Brazilian magazine CartaCapital: The article begins by saying: “The interim Minister of Health, […]
How Well Do Horror Fans Survive Real Pandemics?
As if prepared for it all their lives, fans of horror fiction plunge now into a real pandemic. A new study looks at their psychological prospects. “Pandemic Practice: Horror Fans and Morbidly Curious Individuals Are More Psychologically Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Coltan Scrivner [pictured here, stylistically], John Johnson, Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, and Mathias Clasen, PsyArXiv, […]
Dead Salmon Spirit: Can You Not Tell Cats from Covid-19?
[NOTE: The paper was retracted, as described below—here is an updated link to a copy of it.] In the spirit of the Ig Nobel Prize-winning dead salmon study (and subsequent studies that went looking for fishy things) comes this new study about Covid-19, cat images, and some limitations of technology: “Can Your AI Differentiate Cats […]
Searching in the Weeds for a Cannabis Treatment for Covid-19
Almost every surprising discovery comes from something that seemed unlikely—the seeming-unlikeliness is why the discovery had to be discovered surprisingly. Here is one of many new attempts to discover something that would surprise and delight the world. This particular discovery, should it be discovered, would theoretically infuriate a few people. “In Search of Preventative Strategies: […]
Masked and Un-Masked Spittle Produced When One Says “Stay Healthy”
The biomedical race to understand and tame the COVID-19 virus proceeds rapidly, drop by drop. This new spittle study is the very latest addition to the literature: “Visualizing Speech-Generated Oral Fluid Droplets with Laser Light Scattering,” Philip Anfinrud, Valentyn Stadnytskyi, Christina E. Bax, and Adriaan Bax, New England Journal of Medicine, April 15, 2020. (Thanks […]
Fire Risk in Whisky-based Method of Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2
Protecting against the COVID-19 virus might—might—be able to involve both pleasure and risk, in the method outlined in a new study: “Possibility of Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in Human Respiratory Tract by Controlled Ethanol Vapor Inhalation,” Tsumoru Shintake, arXiv 2003.12444. (Thanks to Vaughn Tan for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Okinawa Institute […]
Saying “FACE”, in gatherings in pandemic times
How to get people to pay more attention to NOT touching their eyes, nostrils, or mouth? We invited people, in a gathering, to say “FACE” whenever they saw a speaker touching a hand to their face. And most of those people said “FACE”, cheerily—appreciating that they were talking to themselves as much as to the […]