The You&Me Blog

Nice White Countries

Posted Saturday September 19, 2020

The creation of statistical data is informed by basic questions of ethics and philosophy. How do we decide that something is a thing? How do we identify things as being in particular category? And which do we value more: beneficence or autonomy? What information should be gathered, and what should be allowed to be seen by the public? What are we trying to prove, or to say, about the world at large with our information? And once we get those things settled as best we can, then there are practical considerations. Can the data we want actually be measured? Do we have the resources to do so? What...

Where are all the trackers?

Posted Friday September 4, 2020

By this we don’t mean all the contact tracers that never came to be, but all those lurid, red ink numbers about COVID-19 that used to be on the front page of all our news websites. Oh right, numbers are going down now. That’s not news. Let’s wait and hope they go up again. Get those clicks! Gotta scare or anger people to get engagement, baby! Statistics of varying utility are still out there, though. Each state in the United States, for example, has some form of tracking posted. Politics and competency still impact this reporting, of course. But with the power of middle school math, you can...

Study: Small Penis Size, Not Wearing a Mask Linked

Posted Friday August 28, 2020

Okay, there’s not a study, but you know it’s probably true… But, masks don’t actually do anthin…Hush! Of course they aren’t a perfect solution. But like wishing Tinkerbell alive in Peter Pan, if we all pretend really hard then good things will happen. Namely that maybe we can extricate ourselves from political and media fear spiral we find ourselves trapped in and get our economy and our rights back on track. Now, before any reader consigns us to the brigade of tin foil hat wearers (with MAGA scrawled on that hat somewhere), let’s be clear: the COVID-19 virus is not nothing. We are not...

Even a Stopped Clock

Posted Friday August 14, 2020

…is right twice a day. * Many years ago, the US Marine Corps decided to collect DNA swabs from all their marines. Two young marines filed a lawsuit, alleging that there were inadequate precautions in place to safeguard this sensitive data, and were no guidelines or controls on how the information would be used. Now these men and their families were proto-Qanon members, certified tin foil hat wearers who referenced vague, but widespread conspiracy theories in their complaints to the media. But the thing is, they were right. The data was being collected without safeguards or limits on use, and...

Why Politicians Shouldn’t be in Charge of Medical Decisions: Example Number

Posted Tuesday July 28, 2020

Hi there! We haven’t posted much on COVID and/or coronavirus news lately. It’s a fast-moving target, there are other places to get information (but be careful!) and we have already said that the US needs better testing, better planning and more coordinated responses, as well as a reduction in panic-mongering and an increase in realistic risk-reduction strategies. But sometimes…you just want to say something, especially about our particular pet peeve: politicians, who may be fine as administrators and lawyers, stepping into the realm of practicing medicine, where they most definitely do not...

Coronavirus: How worried should you be?

Posted Saturday June 20, 2020

Is the current coronavirus thing worth worrying about? We realize that even asking this might be seen as putting us in “Internet commentators who post about ‘crooked Hilary’ a lot” territory because here in the US of A anything can be politicized, unfortunately. But people need to know just how serious the current virus of focus is, or isn’t, because currently the sources of information they tend to rely on, the government and the media, have failed to provide them with accurate data. People do seem to think that their political affiliation, and if they just believe hard enough, like saving...

The Stock Dilemma

Posted Saturday June 13, 2020

Been a lot going on lately, no? It’s to the point where we almost feel pressured to post something like all those CEOs of giant corporations have about how we here at You&Me think racism is bad. Well, we may be going out on a shocking limb here, but we here at You&Me do think racism is bad. We are also aware that it exists and has existed prior to 2020. One interesting way that that does impact our site, is in our selection of stock photos. Over the past few years, we have mostly used images without people in them to illustrate our articles. We have done that for two main reasons,...

Remember Me?

Posted Tuesday June 9, 2020

Remember Me? Coronavirus Updates and questions Once we have information how are we going to use it? For all the “we’re in this together” talk, no, we aren’t. Certain groups are much more at risk from respiratory viruses in general than others, and in the case of COVID-19 (which we will continue to call it for clarity purposes) younger people are typically only mildly impacted, but older people, especially people in their 70s and 80s are much more seriously affected. Let’s look at some findings. Here’s data collated in a Forbes post from May 26th. This is still (as of Jun 9th) the latest data...

Media Inoculation

Posted Wednesday May 27, 2020

There are times when our media can be toxic, so here are some concepts to “inoculate” yourself and increase your “immunity” to toxic and unhelpful news. FYI, some of this might be helpful for the current virus news, but it also applies to anything involving technical future predictions or discussions of science based conditions in the popular media. Good news is no news, but bad news means clicks. So here are some ways the media try to make sure that your news is as bad as possible. Beware of Percentages News organizations love to present percentages in the most dramatic way possible. One of...

The Elephant in the Room?

Posted Wednesday May 20, 2020

What about religion? Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment, US Constitution Americans take their religion seriously. But what should happen if we have a really dangerous epidemic in the United States? Coronavirus, by the way, isn’t that epidemic. So far coronavirus infections have killed an estimated 180 to 320 people under the age of 45 in the...