I would think that your comparison of an ocassional Statalist thread
mentioning MS Word (which obviously is welcomed by at least a fair number of
list readers) to SARS and people coughing up blood has helped reinforce my
use of the word absurd. But I fear this topic has gone on long enough -- we
might scare others into unsubscribing...
Michael Blasnik
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "SamL" <[email protected]>
To: "Stata Listserve" <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: st: Re: What's off-topic for Statalist? (was How to calculate
adjusted standard errors in Quattro Pro)
> Absurd? Boy, I am sure glad the people who had to make the call on
> whether to quarantine China during the SARS event weren't thinking as you
> suggest we should. :-) Michael, epidemics *always* start small. It isn't
> the number of cases that should draw your attention, it is the extremity
> of their expression. Someone saying, "Statalisters, help me do this in
> MSWord because I don't have time to read the manual" should draw attention
> that discourages the behavior. Answering helpfully only encourages the
> behavior. Similarly, saying, "It was only one incident," is only to serve
> to delay action until there are additional incidents; if we wait too long,
> we won't be able to prevent the incidents from overwhelming the list. It
> would be like saying, "This person who died after coughing up blood in the
> hallway is pretty sad, and we have no idea why that happpened but, not to
> worry, it was just one case." Epidemics always start with a small number
> of cases. Wise actors keep them from becoming epidemics by acting when
> the number of cases is low. It isn't absurd, it's the most effective
> response.
>
> Unlike in medicine, which has various therapies and responses to maladies,
> in social action, and in the commons, talk is about the only resource we
> have to encourage helpful behavior and discourage non-helpful behavior.
> No one paid you for your nice code, and no one pays anyone on statalist
> for all the helpful advice. But your rep--talk about you--is positive,
> because you've contributed to the commons. As a social scientist, I have
> come to see such things are important. Talk may be cheap, but it is also
> worthwhile. ;-)
>
> Take care, from one east coaster to another, and to others on other
> continents and coasts,
>
> Sam
>
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