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The coronavirus outbreak has captured Randall's imagination because it makes a virtue out of his innate passivity.

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524, but this is only incidentally about biology so I guess I'll let it slide.

This is a perfect example of what the Catholic Church means when it teaches about the vice of curiosity. "Earth hosts about 10 exa-exabytes worth of data" is a statement absolutely devoid of meaning. Even granting that there is some rigorous way of quantifying "information" in this sense (I assume this is some podcast-style estimate of all the DNA and RNA carried by all the organisms and/or viruses in the world)-- what good does it do anyone to know this? Randall's reflexive deference to anybody standing in front of a blackboard causes him to think the problem lies with his own inability to comprehend such a big number, and not with the fundamental vacuity of the statement at issue. It is mental masturbation: an absolutely sterile exercise in memorizing facts* that lead nowhere.


*Again, granting that this is actually a fact

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Currently 92 cases in Massachusetts

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I've been kind of busy lately so it's just as well I can just not check these until people stop talking about the epidemic.

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If we all die of coronavirus, at least XKCD will have to stop making comics about it

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Hasn't every basket-case zoomer been saying this since January 10?

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The machine says "PCR" on it so you can tell these are real Scientists who know what they're doing.