The Black Hole of Blindspots

“The whole purpose of (formal and informal lifelong) education is to turn mirrors into windows.”
~ Sidney J. Harris

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Here’s how to tell if you have the coronavirus — and when to see a doctor.

How Taiwan Used Big Data, Transparency and a Central Command to Protect Its People from Coronavirus.

WHY DO PEOPLE FIND VEGANS ANNOYING? IT’S A MYSTERY. Vegan Jogger Offended By the Smell of Meat Tells Neighbors to Close Windows While Cooking. Best response: “I would roast an entire goat right outside just to spite him.”

The Black Hole of Blindspots – In his article Marc Solomon explores how CI/BI researchers, investigators and law librarians, on a personal level, can identify and come to terms with blindspots in the context of performing complex, time sensitive work.

How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media - Citizen Lab – Censored Contagion – “Key Findings:

• YY, a live-streaming platform in China, began to censor keywords related to the coronavirus outbreak on December 31, 2019, a day after doctors (including the late Dr. Li Wenliang) tried to warn the public about the then unknown virus.
• WeChat broadly censored coronavirus-related content (including critical and neutral information) and expanded the scope of censorship in February 2020. Censored content included criticism of government, rumours and speculative information on the epidemic, references to Dr. Li Wenliang, and neutral references to Chinese government efforts on handling the outbreak that had been reported on state media.

Saudi Arabia issues tourism visas as it adjusts its economy ...

The 14 Reasons Six Sigma & Lean Don’t Work in Most Companies – David Dibble, an expert in systems-based sustainable organizational performance improvement, contrasts contributors to under-performing or failed Six Sigma and Lean programs with the Systems-Based Transformational Leadership Model (STL). 

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Surfaces? Sneezes? Sex? How the Coronavirus Can and Cannot Spread.

How to work during a pandemic - TechCrunch: “The world is bracing for the seemingly inevitable proliferation of SARS-COV-12, also known as COVID-19 and coronavirus, which has already paralyzed cities and isolated millions. In the U.S., especially the nonstop work culture in startups, we tend to think we’re immune to such things and carry on business as usual. We are not only deluding ourselves but putting others in danger — so here are a few ground rules to make sure you don’t make this difficult period any harder for yourself or the people you work with. We decided to publish something on this because we saw a lot of people unsure about what is appropriate to do and not do, as a CEO, an aspiring founder, or an employee in the tech world. If you are looking for the latest news on the health crisis or want to learn more about the virus, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization‘s dedicated sites…”
See also Ars Technica: “With the dizzying international spread of the novel coronavirus, the World Health Organization Friday announced that the global threat of COVID-19 has increased. The risk of spread and risk of impact has now risen from “high” to “very high” on a global scale, according to the organization’s latest assessments. Between Thursday and Friday, five additional countries identified their first cases—Belarus, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Nigeria—and large outbreaks in Italy (888 cases) and Iran (388 cases) continue to export cases. So far, at least 24 cases in 14 countries link back to Italy, and at least 97 cases in 11 countries link back to Iran, WHO reported Friday. Worldwide, there are more than 85,400 cases and 2,924 deaths, with 53 countries reporting cases in addition to China, as of Saturday morning. While China still has over 90 percent of those cases, the daily case counts outside of China are now exceeding those within…”