A really interesting, in-depth look at the state of the medicine, how it works in practice, and what it might mean for the future of obesity and healthcare.

A smidge of hope for a better future.

A brief, no-nonsense rundown of the various stages of the pandemic leading to the “new normal” of today. My biggest takeaway from the article is the reinforcement of the idea that neither total eradication nor herd immunity were ever achievable, no matter how many lockdowns and other public health interventions we tried.

A poignant meditation on living with chronic illness.

“In the long run, I think the way technocratic institutions safeguard their independence and build their legitimacy is by doing a good job. You want people to think ‘these guys seem like they know what they are doing.'”

“Maybe this is a glimpse of the inevitable heat-death of ecommerce: Bots trying to convince other bots to buy stuff no humans would ever click on.”

I loved Lovecraft Country the book, and enjoyed certain aspects of the television adaptation (notably the brilliant pilot episode), but I’m not surprised the second season has been cancelled given the unevenness and problems of the first season. This article from last October does a great job of explaining where the show went wrong, including its over-reliance on historical “name-dropping” in place of actual character and plot development.

Landlords and tenants suffer in a broken economy.

I missed this a year ago but it is even more relevant now.

They didn’t lock down, but faced the same economic consequences as neighboring companies that did, while also enduring a massive death count.

We dropped from R3 to R1 and we got stuck. My guess is that the lockdown wasn’t strict enough, and the longer it went on the more people became non-compliant.

It is hard, and fancy new technological solutions do not make it any easier.