Mini book review:
Johnson’s The Ghost Map, 2006.
A terse and lively account of the cholera epidemic, London at the time, and John Snow’s work together with Henry Whitehead and others. The grander arc on city development is a bit more tenuous and feels like overplaying Snow’s legacy.

Apparently gets the historical details right (unlike e.g. Tufte). Good pointers to further reading. Minus for not including a good reproduction of the maps.

#history #epidemology #visualization #maps

Thoughts about how information flows on #Mastodon compared to the nonfederated, corporately owned social media platforms. For example, #twitter #facebook.

How would mastodon compare to Twitter, in regard to the types of information that spread on social media (e.g., going "viral") - during the outbreak of a novel virus that is infecting humans?

During a viral pandemic, the source of more reliable information is obviously the people that have been studying viruses and the spread of pathogens - as part of their everyday Job description. For instance, virologists and epidemiologists. Unfortunately, as we witnessed during the #SarsCoV2 outbreak - there are many arrogant people who believe they know more than they do, regardless of the subject. Ignorant arrogant types of personalities - have a habit of instinctively being motivated to share their unqualified opinions on social media (& get annoyed by toots like this one - that detail the evident facts about some human’s, poor quality, social media behavior)

A person only experiences this if they're qualified in a scientific subject - because then you perceive the level of ignorance. Those who aren't qualified (or "well-read" on the subject) - don't perceive that ignorance because they're part of it (within the social echo chamber of misinformation).

And then there are the social media users that are politically motivated, in other words, social gossip, rather than scientifically motivated (the average person in many cultures). They may or may not be informed about some subject, but, due to their personal agendas are either implicitly or intentionally spreading disinformation.

The fossil fuel industry and biased folk that, for example, like their fuel-burning lifestyles (e.g., cars, trucks, etc) - are typical examples of the people that intentionally spread disinformation about climate change and reject the ideas to mitigate climate change (the naysayers & the what about problems? - rather than promoting climate solutions).

So, we know that mastodon is different in that it's not owned by a corporation (though it is regulated by the instance admins) and does not use algorithms to promote toots. Would mastodon be a more reliable source of information during a novel viral outbreak that had a high mortality rate? (Better to ask these questions now rather than later) Because, due to the levels of ecological degradation that humans are causing - those pathogen outbreaks are increasing.
"Our Risk For Infectious Diseases Is Increasing Because of Climate Change" https://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/what-we-do/climate-change-and-infectious-diseases/index.html

#fediverse #software #SocialMedia #climate #ClimateChange
#science #virology #virologists #epidemology #epidemiologists #InfectiousDiseases #COVID #virus #fungi #bacteria #ZoonoticInfectious #disease #mosquitoes #ticks
#laypeople #politics #ignorance #ConfirmationBias #misinfromation
#narcicism #disinformation #corruption

Thoughts about how information flows on #Mastodon compared to the nonfederated, corporately owned social media platforms. For example, #twitter #facebook.

How would mastodon compare to Twitter, in regard to the types of information that spread on social media (e.g., going "viral") - during the outbreak of a novel virus that is infecting humans?

During a viral pandemic, the source of more reliable information is obviously the people that have been studying viruses and the spread of pathogens - as part of their everyday Job description. For instance, virologists and epidemiologists. Unfortunately, as we witnessed during the #SarsCoV2 outbreak - there are many arrogant people who believe they know more than they do, regardless of the subject. Ignorant arrogant types of personalities - have a habit of instinctively being motivated to share their unqualified opinions on social media (& get annoyed by toots like this one - that detail the evident facts about some human’s, poor quality, social media behavior)

A person only experiences this if they're qualified in a scientific subject - because then you perceive the level of ignorance. Those who aren't qualified (or "well-read" on the subject) - don't perceive that ignorance because they're part of it (within the social echo chamber of misinformation).

And then there are the social media users that are politically motivated, in other words, social gossip, rather than scientifically motivated (the average person in many cultures). They may or may not be informed about some subject, but, due to their personal agendas are either implicitly or intentionally spreading disinformation.

The fossil fuel industry and biased folk that, for example, like their fuel-burning lifestyles (e.g., cars, trucks, etc) - are typical examples of the people that intentionally spread disinformation about climate change and reject the ideas to mitigate climate change (the naysayers & the what about problems? - rather than promoting climate solutions).

So, we know that mastodon is different in that it's not owned by a corporation (though it is regulated by the instance admins) and does not use algorithms to promote toots. Would mastodon be a more reliable source of information during a novel viral outbreak that had a high mortality rate? (Better to ask these questions now rather than later) Because, due to the levels of ecological degradation that humans are causing - those pathogen outbreaks are increasing.
"Our Risk For Infectious Diseases Is Increasing Because of Climate Change" https://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/what-we-do/climate-change-and-infectious-diseases/index.html

#fediverse #software #SocialMedia #climate #ClimateChange
#science #virology #virologists #epidemology #epidemiologists #InfectiousDiseases #COVID #virus #fungi #bateria #ZoonoticInfectious #disease #mosquitoes #ticks
#laypeople #politics #ignorance #ConfirmationBias #misinfromation
#narcicism #disinformation #corruption