Seeing Covid-19 in Influenza-like Illness, NYC 2020

This article is part of the Syndromic Surveillance and Covid-19 collection on Thoughtfaucet. This document outlines the thinking behind my initial chart, trying to see if there was anything to the idea that Influenza-like Illness could be used to spot Covid-19 in NYC. A thread on Twitter by Farzad Mostashari mentioned EpiQuery, a data collection […]

Napkin sketch: A news business model free from advertising

(Originally published in Sept 2015 but sadly still relevant.) We know that advertising in all its forms is cluttering and degrading our experience of the web. Great stories and bits of news are accompanied by six-packs of “26 gay celebrities, you’ll never believe #4!” and “Stop bellyfat with this great tip to end credit card debt!” […]

Pattern Recognition: Entryways

Anything that flows information or physical objects in one direction, can likely feed them in the other direction as well. Often this is clear and obvious, but in moments when time and attention are not available the “opposite direction” is less obvious. Learning to identify the pattern of Entryways can be useful in strategic considerations. In a defensive […]