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Making Sense of Donald Tr... Donald Trump has been president for a few days now, and people all over the...
Was “Never Trump... Remember back during the primaries when the “Never Trump” movement...
Steiner’s esteem fo... That Steiner regarded natural scientific training as valuable is evident from...
GOP Tax Plan X: Elite Fav... The economy is exactly what the elites want it to be. And post the GOP tax...
Responding to the WC III Another poster that has been looking at my writing is someone who signs their...
The challenge with death ... Even in regular years death statistics are challenging. Coroners do their...
The Destruction of the Mi... After WWII the US entered a phase of great shared prosperity. The tax code was...
Fly-By critics Some time ago when I thought the MBA would be useful, I took a graduate course...

SARS-Cov-2 and Conspiracy Theories

SARS-Cov-2 is a novel virus, meaning that humans have never before encountered it. But it is also just one more in a pattern of pathogens that have, at a particular time, moved from the animal kingdom and spread widely among the human population, striking down some and passing over others. Given these facts—that it is new, and it is deadly—it is little wonder that all sorts of explanations are proffered. People do what...

Thoughts on Grading

A former student asked how she should grade a course she was asked to teach. My reply: The wrong way: throw out a grade at the end based loosely on what you feel about the student. The right way: a rubric. A rubric is a list of what will be scored and how it will be evaluated. The rubric can be tuned to support the learning goal of the class and assignment. Not every paper needs a heavy emphasis on spelling, for example....

Will a Covid Vaccine be Found?

A vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is the type of logical thing we can all write into plans for how to restore society and the economy back to “normal”. Except there is no reason to believe that a vaccine will ever be found. As of right now there are no vaccines for this type of virus. Some viruses have traits that allow for easy vaccines (polio) some kind of work (flu) and some have eluded us to date (the common cold)....

The Difference Between Lifespan and Life Expectanc...

Did people in the ancient world ever live past 30? Actually, people in the ancient world could live as long as people today. Only, in the ancient world only a handful of people got to old age, whereas today most people expect to. It is the difference between lifespan and life expectancy. Life expectancy is the average expected of a child at birth, and is heavily influenced by things like infant mortality. If 50 out of every...

Does Rudolf Steiner Believe in Viruses?

Here is a great example of why we have to be careful with Steiner quotes. This one is from GA 185, 3rd lecture (From Symptom to Reality in Modern History). “But bacilli, as such, are of course in no way connected with disease. In phenomena of this kind we must realize that just as behind the symptoms of history we are dealing with psychic and spiritual experiences, so too behind somatic symptoms we are dealing with...

Alarming Nonsense about Covid by People Who Should...

Is Coronavirus Contagious? – Nourishing Traditions Sorry, but I find this thoroughly unconvincing. For one, there have been plagues about every decade in European history back into the Middle Ages. No need to stop at 1918. The Roman era was ended by plagues and climate change in the early 600s (cooling in that case, leading to malnutrition and then disease). Plagues wiped out the Native Americans over three centuries....

Another Suspicious Covid Article

Here is another article that is briefly popular on social media. It seems people are greatly attracted to ideas that reflexively propose that experts are all wrong and the heroic lone thinker has figured out what has baffled the best minds to date. Even if multiple indicators signal that the writer’s claims should be taken very cautiously. Covid-19 ~ Hypoxia – holistiq.com I ran the article by an experienced...

Health Care Costs and Covid

Biden says coronavirus’ impact on health system hasn’t changed his mind on single-payer What will change a lot of minds: the 40% increase in premiums projected for next year as the insurance companies recapitalize to pay for everything the providers bill for keeping up with the virus (Aetna CEO’s comments during a conference call with investors). Think $25,000/year for a family plan is bad? Next year it...