Author Archives: Trond

Bumblebees are great

By | March 20, 2020

Turns out that bumblebees can do a lot for us in addressing the pollination crisis, where threats to honeybee populations are making it harder and harder to pollinate certain crops. Like fruit? Well, many fruit trees won’t bear fruit unless their flowers are pollinated. You’re going to need bees! When I was a kid, I… Read More »

Ref – SARS-CoV-2 survival on surfaces and in aerosol

By | March 19, 2020

Wondering how long the SARS-CoV-2 virus persists in the environment? The media’s been pretty vague, but this recent article from the New England Journal of Medicine is much more helpful. It shows that the virus is detectable up to 48 hours after exposure on many surfaces, particularly plastic and steel. It’s less stable on cardboard,… Read More »

Case Fatality vs Mortality Rates in Covid-19

By | March 13, 2020

I’m still seeing a lot of confusion around mortality rate figures for Covid-19. There are three figures worth understanding. The first is the case fatality rate (CFR). It measures the proportion of cases of a disease that result in fatality. To calculate it, take the number of fatalities and divide it by the sum of… Read More »

2020 – New Years Goals

By | January 27, 2020

I don’t usually do New Years resolutions. I’ve dabbled with them in the past, but they’ve always been vague ideals that I didn’t write down, didn’t track, and had no help of understanding my progress towards, let alone achieving. This year, I’m going to try applying SMART criteria to the process. For the uninitiated, this… Read More »

On Group Discussion Formats

By | August 26, 2019

I’ve been thinking about group discussions, particular those where a group of four or more people are exploring and learning about a complex issue together. I’m doing this both because I want to reboot the Futures Salon I’ve been running with Arunabh and because I’m currently gearing up to run an unconference for the Seattle… Read More »

On Suicide (and shootings)

By | March 15, 2019

I was already in a grim frame of mind this evening when I heard about the shootings in Christchurch. I’m not ready to talk about them, but I wanted to write about the other thing. Someone I know committed suicide just recently. I didn’t know them particularly well, but they are the third person in… Read More »

Concepts of Class

By | December 15, 2017

What does class mean? In the last week I’ve encountered three conceptualizations – financial, cultural, and aspirational. Under the financial concept, class is determined by whether one’s assets and income are below or above some threshold. Here, class is external to the individual and might vary relatively easily as an individual gains more wealth. This… Read More »

Musings on creativity, passion, and conviction

By | June 18, 2017

I often wonder at people who are artistic, who have sudden bursts of creativity and desire to make something beautiful or whatever. I don’t have quite that same impulse – I don’t see something aesthetic and decide I want to make something similar; instead, I see something made and desire to have mastered the techniques… Read More »