Bizarre story (how could it not be?) in the LA Times on Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh’s experience with Covid-19 and the delusions he experienced at the height of the illness during two weeks in the ICU.

Among other things, he became convinced he’d written an entire new Devo album and hallucinated the band performing it live on the streets of Hollywood using augmented reality.

Months later, he’s still recovering physically.

The way the Palantir network compromises Saruman and Denethor shows the danger in who controls the algorithm that manages your newsfeed.

Pippin picks it up, starts doomscrolling, and can’t put it down. Literally.

Aragorn plans out his post, gets on just long enough to make his point, and gets the hell out, knowing he’s made an impression.

imported from mastodon

Infections are still high, but the LA/CA case-fatality rate has dropped since spring. Partly we’re spotting more of the mild cases, and younger people are a bigger percentage of cases now.

But also we’ve learned more about how to treat it:

  • dexamethasone for patients on oxygen
  • remdesivir shortens recovery time
  • nasal oxygen turns out to be enough for many patients who would’ve been intubated
  • we know about the clotting so we can jump on anti-coagulants

(Note that a certain high-profile Twitter user’s favorite covid drug treatment isn’t on that list because it doesn’t actually work on covid.)