One of the most dangerous trends of our time is the anti-science movement. Our defense against these assaults rests with the small cadre of scientists willing to endure threats and insults by the deniers to get us the factual insights we need.
Some of these voices for sanity have drawn a bright line in one important venue: Wikipedia's climate change page. The way Wikipedia works is to summon the "wisdom of the crowds" to display the page with well-referenced citations on the encyclopedia's free interface.
According to Mashable, a group of roughly seven editors ensure that the page stays up to date and scientifically accurate, despite the predatory attempts to infiltrate the page by climate deniers. These aditors are unpaid, which is Wkipedia's policy and how the content can remain free.
Most of these editors prefer to remain anonymous, due to the risk they will be targeted by the denier crowd, but four of the seven core team spoke to Mashable's reporter Mark Kaufman about their effort.
In my view, these seven unpaid editors are heroes, and kudos to Kaufman as well for telling their story. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change>
BTW, the Wikipedia election page is also accurate, up-to-date and free from disinformation. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election> Another example of a core group of editors providing a valuable public service.
***
When it comes to pandemics, most of what we hear is how the disease is impacting the every day life of middle class people, who are working from home, supervising children doing remote learning, ordering food and supplies to be delivered, and spending much more time with their families than they used to.
I am one of those people.
But pandemics have had and are having far more serious impacts on indigenous people, including Native Americans, and those stories are far less told. Not only is the death rate higher for indigenous people, there have been many more pandemics historically in Western countries among their populations than among the Europeans who colonized their native lands.
As Seth Archer has written in "Perspectives on History," an academic journal: "Infectious diseases ravaged Native American communities after Europeans introduced them to the Americas starting in 1492. While the timing varied by region, new pathogens sparked health crises in scores of Indigenous societies."
Archer also reports how horrible pandemics shredded Hawaii's population, to cite another example. And today, in the Amazon, that history is repeating itself.
***
As far as I could tell my youngest grandson (9) had been ignoring the election when he spotted the latest popular vote totals on my laptop screen in San Jose yesterday. "Oh I see Biden has increased his lead," he said. "I think Trump wants them to recount every last ballot because that will take a long time. If this was a soccer game, he would be what we call a bad loser."
***
Here is the news:
* The U.S. surpassed 1 million new confirmed coronavirus cases in just the first 10 days of November, with more than 100,000 infections each day becoming the norm in a surge that continues worsening. The number of hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 has hit an all-time high. [AP]
* After Trump’s Tariffs and Insults, Canada Is Relieved at Biden’s Win (NYT)
* Biden poised to embed climate-change action across government, beyond environmental agencies (WashPo)
* States cite smooth election, despite Trump’s baseless claims (AP)
* “Adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns, especially if combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, hand hygiene, and adequate ventilation,” the CDC wrote in a scientific briefing. The agency added that even a 15% increase in mask-wearing throughout the U.S. could save $1 trillion in economic losses and avert future shutdowns. [HuffPost]
* Could Listening to the Deep Sea Help Save It? -- In the abyss, everyone can hear you scream. (NYT)
* China's new submersible dives 35,790 ft down the Mariana Trench (MailOnline)
* GOP superlawyer Ben Ginsberg is bucking his party and blasting Trump’s baseless election claims (WashPo)
* Biden's popular vote victory margin has topped 5.1 million and has achieved the most lopsided win since FDR's in 1932. (CNN)
* Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s former assistant director for counterintelligence, praised Biden for how he’s handling Trump's refusal to concede and legal actions to overturn the 2020 election results. “We’re coming very close to having what the bureau calls a barricaded subject,” Figliuzzi said on MSNBC. “The barricaded subject is in the White House.” [HuffPost]
* Karl Rove, the architect of former President George W. Bush's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns, acknowledged Wednesday that the 2020 presidential election will not be overturned regardless of the flurry of lawsuits from President Donald Trump challenging the results. (WSJ)
* In Iran, a massive cemetery struggles to keep up with virus (AP)
* Pfizer Announces First Batch Of Coronavirus Vaccine Will Be Collector’s Edition Limited To 2,000 Doses (The Onion)
***
[Personal Note]
I was happy to write about Wikipedia today because in the past the Wikimedia Foundation, parent of the free encyclopedia, was a client of mine. I worked with two brilliant designers, David Peters and Rhonda Rubinstein, to produce the non-profit's annual report for several years.
In that capacity, I got to know many of the people who work at the foundation in San Francisco's Soma district, and to see up close how diligently their army of volunteer editors preserve the integrity of the content.
Thanks to them, the world has a critical resource free to all.
***
The old man turned off the radio
Said, "Where did all of the old songs go
Kids sure play funny music these days
They play it in the strangest ways"
Said, "it looks to me like they've all gone wild
It was peaceful back when I was a child"
Well, man, could it be that the girls and boys
Are trying to be heard above your noise?
And the lonely voice of youth cries "What is truth?"
-- Johnny Cash
-30-
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