Cover Page, 16 April 2020, Issue 229 The Shaw Sheet is reopening this week. Although the format is much the same you will notice changes over the next few weeks. Some articles will stay up longer. Some will be posted during the week. In due course the layout will be revised. The most important change
16 April 2020 Demystifying R The reproduction number. By John Watson Banged up by the lockdown? Maybe it’s time to get hold of some A-level maths books and try to understand some of the terms being used by the commentators on the progress of Covid 19. Exponential increase? What exactly is that? It sounds big
16 April 2020 Woe, Woe and Thrice Woe Irrational Fears? by J.R.Thomas Our readers may well be fed up to the back teeth with recommendations as to what to read in this period of forced semi-leisure. But this column will risk two more; not romances or thrillers or even woke novels, not vast triple magnum
16 April 2020 After Covid An opportunity. By Robert Kilconner In a competition of foolish platitudes, the notorious “Brexit means Brexit” is gradually being overtaken by the assertion that “after Covid 19 things will not go back to where they were before”. Of course they won’t, and, of course, they should not. Attitudes and social
16 April 2020 Will Covid-19 change the French? By Richard Pooley A year and a day ago the roof of Notre Dame in Paris caught fire. “You learn a lot about a people’s culture when they are hit by a disaster, natural or man-made” was the opening sentence of my commentary Notre Dame on this
16 April 2020 Town and Country Differences exacerbated. By Lynda Goetz This week, conservationist Dr Jane Goodall (the primatologist and chimpanzee expert) was reported as suggesting that the Duke of Sussex may give up hunting because of his wife’s views on the matter. Meghan is not and never will be a countrywoman. ‘Townies’ (and many
16 April 2020 Covid-19 Investment Don’t trash your golf clubs by Frank O’Nomics Question 1: Has Rory McIlroy thrown his golf clubs in a skip? Question 2: Has Damien Hirst sold his paintbrushes? Question 3: Have you sold any of your investments or liquidated part of your pension fund? The answer to the first two
16 April 2020 How Many Plagues? The great multi-tasker. By Neil Tidmarsh Biblical? Well, it does seem to have hit us at exactly the same time of year that the Old Testament plagues hit Egypt. Passover began last week – the festival originated in the culmination of the Plagues of Egypt, the fourteenth day of
16 April 2020 Diary of a Corbynista Post Corbyn Blues by Don Urquhart Shawsheet has been taking a break for 4 months. The Diary continued and here are some of the entries. 13 December A few years ago I spoke at a friend’s funeral. He had devised the order of service and it ended with
16 April 2020 Social Distancing Cumbria by Vic Leader Week 1 – 24/03/2020 One week ago I took the scientific advice and adopted Social Distancing. These are my observations from that first week. I cannot recall an earlier week in which I have spoken to more people. All by phone, Internet, etc, not face to face,
