Recent quotes:

Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses - Jefferson, T - 2023 | Cochrane Library

The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection.
#medicalindustrialcomplex #coronavirus #flocks #masks - cochranelibrary.com

Jeremy Grantham Discusses Recession Call, Fed Policy, Market Bubbles - Bloomberg

I started writing quarterly letters in 1998. And 1998 to 1999 of course was a glorious bubble. And it just went up, and up, and up, and up. And we fought the bubble all the way. So we were horrifically too early. In early 1998, the P/E went to 22 times. And the highest in history had been 1929, when it peaked at 21. So we were relatively patient. We didn’t take a position against the market until it was the highest P/E in the history of the US stock market in early 1998. And then we watched it go to 35 times earnings. And that is not a modest increase from 21. That was a brutal two years. And the earnings were rising as well. So the market made a magnificent move from its all-time high in early 1998. It went straight up until March of 2000. And our clients did not approve of us being early and, to a very considerable degree, fired us. And they were very upset. Missing out on making money when your golfing partner at the neighboring pension fund is making a fortune is very irritating.
#bubble #flocks - bloomberg.com

What's the prevailing opinion on social media? Look at the flocks, says researcher -- ScienceDaily

Murmuration identifies meaningful groups of social media actors based on the "who-follows-whom" relationship. The actors attract like-minded followers to form "flocks," which serve as the units of analysis. As opinions form and shift in response to external events, the flocks' unfolding opinions move like the fluid murmuration of airborne starlings. The framework and the findings from an analysis of social network structure and opinion expression from over 193,000 Twitter accounts, which followed more than 1.3 million other accounts, suggest that flock membership can predict opinion and that the murmuration framework reveals distinct patterns of opinion intensity. The researchers studied Twitter because of the ability to see who is following whom, information that is not publicly accessible on other platforms. The results, published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, further support the echo chamber tendencies prevalent on social media, while adding important nuance to existing knowledge. "By identifying different flocks and examining the intensity, temporal pattern and content of their expression, we can gain deeper insights far beyond where liberals and conservatives stand on a certain issue," says Zhang, an expert in social media and political communication. "These flocks are segments of the population, defined not by demographic variables of questionable salience, like white women aged 18-29, but by their online connections and response to events.
#Twitter #hive-mind #flocks #murmuration - sciencedaily.com