Ain’t nothing dreary about the opportunity to write everyday, and I’m grateful for the prompts. Looking forward to 29 more! #mbnov
None to Run Week 10: for me, three 10-minute runs, spaced with a 1-minute walk. 🏃♀️ I could barely manage a 30-second run when I started so I’m super happy and proud. Next week 20 minutes and then I’ll “graduate” with a 30-minute run.
Currently reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚
Finished reading: Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand 📚A cracking good read. Interesting insights into the world my parents grew up in - 1930s and 1940s America (they had nothing to do with horses!).
Currently reading: Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand 📚
Currently reading: Inland by Téa Obreht 📚
Finished reading: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 📚 Turns out this is a novel about surviving a pandemic, one which kills 99% of the world’s population. The tension is that I think the author believes the world would be a better place. It is good storytelling.
Finished reading: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño 📚 Ugh. The book is made up of five smaller books. I was quite interested by the first three books, thought-provoking tales which made me consider the nature of reality. But book 4 is horrific, to the point of being sick. Is this a novel about the awfulness of men? Perhaps.
Post-COVID Syndrome and POTS
Wondering if POTS is the name of what my post-COVID brother is suffering from
postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, was coined in 1993 by Dr. Phillip Low and his team at the Mayo Clinic, though it went by other names throughout history. POTS precludes standing for more than a few minutes at a time, because autonomic damage prevents blood vessels in the lower extremities from properly returning blood to the heart and brain against gravity. Heart rate can double or triple on standing, and lack of oxygen to the brain and upper body lead to many of the symptoms seen in POTS patients: dizziness, headaches, shortness of breath, chest pain, “brain fog.”
If a POTS patient does stay vertical for a prolonged period, he or she can be left with massive fatigue, light and sound sensitivity, tingling extremities, temperature intolerance and gastrointestinal problems (again, all the bodily functions of the autonomic nervous system gone awry).
When the Doctor Is a Covid ‘Long Hauler’ - The New York Times
Really good article about the Google antitrust suit from Stratechery United States v. Google – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
I loved this concept: > what is SEO but a collective effort by basically the entire Internet to ensure that Google’s search engine is as good as possible?
Research into Contract Grading
Contract Grading Samples
How I Contract Grade · Ryan Cordell
Sample course explanation Course Assignments
Another one, same teacher Course Assignments
My Current Grading Contract – Teaching with Trust
Intrinsic Motivation
The Wrong Lesson That Almost All Schools Are Teaching – Teaching with Trust
This one especially resonates for me. Could I start off the class with a discussion of intrinsic motivation, then talk about contract grading?
Don't engage in phone sex during your business Zoom call
I’m actually hoping this incident makes people more likely to keep their cameras on during Zoom calls, so no one thinks they are engaged in weird sex while on the call.
But what the hell was Jeffrey Toobin thinking?
Jeffrey Toobin of New Yorker Is Suspended After Zoom Incident - The New York Times
During a pause in the call for breakout discussions, Mr. Toobin switched to a second call that was the video-call equivalent of phone sex, according to the two people familiar with the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
If lungs can heal post COVID, perhaps brains can, too
I take some hope from this article, even though lungs are not brains. I do this research for a family member who has post-COVID neurological issues.
Some Signs of Recovery From Severe Covid Lung Damage - The New York Times
Doctors at Mount Sinai found that Covid doesn’t break down the lung’s blood vessels but rather dilates them, which makes the blood flow too fast for the oxygen to be absorbed, causing hypoxemia or low levels of oxygen in the blood.
Currently reading: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 📚
Currently reading: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño 📚
Well, that was a surprise this morning.
OMG this a day in the life project is AMAZING! I am loving seeing photos from ALL OVER THE WORLD. Such a bright ray of sunshine in weird pandemic times.
Finished reading: Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan 📚A fascinating, thought-provoking, and beautifully written novel. Highly recommended, especially for all of us techies here. There’s an interesting alternative history subtext: “what if Turing hadn’t been essentially murdered by the uptight Brits?”
There’s still stuff going on in my town. 9:30 AM local time in Harrisville, NH, USA
#adayinthelife
Possible pathway for SARS-CoV-2 entry into the brain
My brother is a COVID-19 “long hauler,” suffering from brain fog and post-exertion malaise 6 months after he “recovered” from COVID. We’re trying to understand what’s happening to him.
At both the adult and fetal stages, we detected a distinct pattern of SARS-CoV-2 entry associated genes’ transcripts in brain vascular endothelial cells and microglia, providing a potential explanation for an inflammatory response in the brain endothelium upon SARS-CoV-2 infection
Finished reading: Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer by Sara Lawrence Lightfoot 📚 Definitely worth reading. The story of a black woman, the only one in her class at Cornell in the 1930s, who goes on to medical school and becomes a renowned child psychiatrist. Useful perspective both from her daughter (the author of this book) and herself about living while Black in America. We have wasted so much energy on racism and prejudice in this country. You can see it in the energy her white male bosses put into thwarting her, and of course the energy she has to waste on being allowed to do the work she is so good at.
Quite the sky yesterday evening
Currently reading: Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan 📚
Loving the new Sylvan Esso 🎶 album “Free Love” Apple Music link I think they are my favorite 2020 band.
Hey, I’m still doing the None To Run™ - Gradual Running Plan and App for Beginner Runners 🏃♀️program. On Saturday, I start Week 7. I’ve gone from only being able to run for 30 seconds followed by a 2-minute walk to running for 2 minutes followed by at 30-second walk. A miracle.