Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 9

COVID

Supposedly over, and something which may kill 3-500 people a day but we won't care about, Dem or GOP , unless we can use it to punish evil foreigners. Seriously, us making any nation do COVID tests is some sick joke stuff given how we've decided to give up. Anyhow, here's a good set of thoughts from a guy who thinks that we shouldn't worry about masking (especially if vaxxed) and younger people should not get triple boosted etc. Fair points. And I do agree that much of the communication from the health officials weren't great and only worsened distrust. Still, he mentions that masks don't do much, and it seems that only getting covid is looked at. Now, we certainly need to do more testing, but I was under the impression that initial viral load mattered. So a proper study would look into severity of the disease (especially with how infectious Omicron is) among those who a surgical mask N95 and those who don't (checking for vaxxed vs unvaxxed as well). I mean, right? 

Still, it's worth a listen. 
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Pele Passed Away

🐐 of the game ⚽️. And though there seem to be a bunch of (kids, certainly), people online claiming Messi is the "only" 🐐 (using G/A stats to make the case), I'm of the mind that comparing across eras is beyond silly. Sure, players nowadays deal with a quicker game (though hard to know since I'm not sure any of Pele's games have been updated to look like today's frame rate with today's HD, so how do you really compare? that) [1] but Pele delay with bone crunching tackles that Messi would not survive today. Also, one should consider that though players are more athletic, with all the science of today Pele would simply be better. 
Anyhow, I can appreciate each player for being a 🐐 in their time. Messi vs Ronaldo is even a hard comparison because though I like Messi's style and ability more, Ronaldo and his 3 UCLs in a row is also impressive (and you could say he had "leadership"). So even if Messi has his WC, it's not a slam dunk that he's the best of the era. 

[1] I think they certainly run way more per game than back then
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The New Yellow Peril. So A New Chinese Exclusion Act

Aimed at everything Chinese, to include TikTok (just another social media site, but perhaps our elites don't like that they aren't tracking people's every movement). Now, we're getting a rehash of the Chinese Exclusion act with America, the place that claims the virus still killing nearly 500 people a day isn't happening, now wants to act like covid in china is something they're worried about. DIdn't like Trump when he did this xenophobic crap and Biden is no better for it. Of course, the centrist #theresistance types are silent here. 
Meanwhile, our nuclear policy continues to get crazier by the day.



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Best Goals of the WC

Not sure I entirely agree with this list. 


Mainly cause I think team goals, especially if they slice up a tight defense, are way more impressive. So Richarlson's scissors kick gets top 5 IMO, but Neymar's against Croatia gets the top stop. Messi's pass in the Netherlands game gets in the top 5. 10-5 I kinda agree with (not 7, that wasn't all that great compared to Cameroon's 2 goals, 2nd vs Serbia and vs Brasil). Okay, 6 is weak too. Cute goal, but not top 15 material. 5 too.. Yeah, so not agreeing with much, I suppose (again, bangers are great, Mexican free kick is worth it, but usually overrated). 4 is solid. 3 is worth 3rd place. 2? I don't know. Good team play, but top 2? So Neymar's as 1, the 1 in the video as 2... Mbappe for 3rd, and the Mexican goal for 4th. Then Messi's pass vs the Netherlands. KSA's goal vs Argentina, Japan's winning goal vs Germany then Di Maria's goal in the Final next (better team play than the one that made it, IMO). Then Richarlison's vs SKorea was brilliant. 
I suppose I could mix the top 5 more. Cameroon's Aboubakar's chip might make the top 5 on second thought. I do like it more than the free kick, no matter how impressive that kick is. Some other ones might be added for sure, but quite a few of these are weak. 
Your thoughts?
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Just a Reminder

That the Art of Un-War is a doc that you can watch today on Kanopy (usually through your library). I think I have a second or two on it, but it's worth it not only for the artist but for his use of art to undo that war cry on which much of society is based. Check it out when you can. 
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New Genres and More Thoughts by Other Writers.

This one, from the Indian author Pankaj Mishra, is solid. Insightful about the thought of the day or of the moment that takes away from introspection. 
I think this is true about a lot of what goes on in the world. Does it need my immediate input? Even if I think the narrative is wrong (take, for example, surrounding the Ukrainian war)? Naw, probably not. And it won't make much of a difference compared to actually doing things. And, indeed, there does need to be more introspection if something of value will be created. 
Peace 


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Mask Up.

n95 ftw, people. Because despite the internet trends (and thus what I've seen IRL, where no one masks up at all) COVID is still a thing. Though, hearing this, one wonders if the numbers are much much lower than reported. 
I mean, look at this thread. Post-viral symptoms are definitely an issue, but post novel-virus ones are probably worse, in that we still don't know. 

So a patient who came in for COVID back in the summer of 2021 died recently. After anoxic brain injury, regular bouts of sepsis, amputations and bouncing back between medicine and ICU the body finally just gave up. Since they spent practically a year and a half in hospital, this person never made it into the statistics at the height of COVID. Their story, however, is so much more horrible than the poor souls who were vented for a couple of weeks and died while sedated. Long COVID indeed. I thought I would be relieved when it finally happened, but I'm just sad today.

The comments are solid:

As everyone here is aware, COVID isn’t unique in this respect. We’re really really good at preventing death from the original insult. We kind of suck as the body accumulates secondary and tertiary complications. 

There’s a young guy who is post-COVID including a 2 week ICU admission that comes into our COPD rehab sessions largely because there’s no COVID rehab in the area and the foundational principles are the same. He’s 2 years out now, and still isn’t back to baseline. He was such a win for us in the moment — we never intubated him, managed him on 100% NIPPV for 6 days, transitioned to HFNC, got him out of the ICU seemingly quicker than other similar patients. He has just languished since then. A 40 year old absolutely broken, maybe forever, but a win for the system because he survived and we never intubated him.

IOW the medical system is kinda like this, it helps prevent death but quality of life is another issue. Will have to say that since COVID is so prevalent, this makes sense. More on post-viral complications:

That is a good point. I feel that post viral syndrome(s) in general are underappreciated. Of course it is natural to classify the treatment as a success if the patient did not die, but complications are maybe more common than is admitted.

The more we learn, the more we find out about the long term impact of viral infections, and the notion that they are generally "harmless" may be wishful thinking.

Success, isn't what you think it is, not on the charts that I've shared, not anywhere:

I remember during the height of delta the “successes” were atrocious. Middle aged people now bedbound, on dialysis, tube fed. I remember thinking dying on a vent would have been more merciful than the life they would go on to live.

There was one I remember, I think he spent two+ months vented. But eventually he got off the vent and the trach came out. He learned to talk and eat and walk. He had been a cross-fitter so even after months of muscle loss he still had some strength left.

I remember him because he was the only 100% full recovery/able to go home and not SNF that I saw after someone was vented with delta

Anyhow, seriously too many people coughing and walking around like it's nothing. And yet there's a Tylenol shortage (for kids) because so many kids are currently sick. Some damn near end times shit or even boring dystopia shit, but damn is it nuts, right?
Be safe out there. 
I'll have more on pieces like this. 

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Writing.

Reading more, looking for proper ways forward here. Hope you enjoyed the previous link. Send me your thoughts when you get a chance. Brasil is out of another World Cup. This time they bottled it, but like previous times, the ref allows another team to absolutely hack away at them without repercussions. This is has been a historical thing. Brasil should have had 4 WCs back in Pele's time, but they hacked him enough to stop him in 66 (62 too, but he was surrounded by a team good enough to win it without him). So it's a shame that it was allowed to happen again in this WC. Though I'm not entirely saddened, given that the likes of Neymar and much of the team are pro Bolsanaro. Decent article on that here. 
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Told You About Me Working on New Genres.

I mean, not entirely new, but new to me (and that I've seen, in general). Gonna be a long journey (in may mind, perhaps all this just ends soon enough) so bare with me. Here's the first pub , so yay for me. 
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Self Aware/Sentient

Btw, all the text AI (more so than art ai, since that seems to simply evoke something about craftsmanship... incorrectly, I feel) is raising talk about is the chat bot sentient or self-aware. And the latter word is more or less useless, IMO, since it just points to a feeling that no one can fully explain let alone prove (and can be knocked out of a human if parts of the brain are tinkered with). And the same goes for sentient which is "able to feel things"

But I couldn't tell you why that's so special and what that means (and why a sensor wouldn't imply that a computer has that ability etc). So the conversation becomes pretty odd since we don't ever get to the bottom of those definitions. Or maybe you've a better answer?
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