GLOBAL GYPSUM:THE LAST WORD

摘要

The Covid-19 pandemic upended most people's normal routines around the world in 2020.Many column inches have been devoted to'the new normal.'What will'normal'look like in a week,a month,or a year? When government rules change every other week,the question is an ever-shifting goalpost.Comments can age rapidly and make the author look silly,even a few days later.At the moment'normal'may,depending on your location,include a lockdown,home-working,home-schooling,a lack of meaningful socialising,an inability to travel and/or other restrictions.From the'start'of 2021 it is impossible to say very much about how the year will pan out.One thing is for sure-it will be another rollercoaster,with plenty of'new normals'to take in along the way.But what makes something'normal'anyway? As an adjective in everyday use'normal'means'conforming to a standard,usual,typical or expected situation,'whether the topic is behaviour,height,blood pressure or any other facet of the world around us.In mathematics,'normal'is defined a perpendicular to a tangent line or curve.In statistics the'normal'distribution describes a probability distribution that is symmetrical around the mean.