Science etc.

[sparks]

At Arth:

Don't need your help.

I'm looking for the reasons why you buy the claims you make. Obviously you believe them.

But why?

And as far as your claims not being 'scientific', I agree. But that doesn't exempt you from providing a basis for them. You can always refuse to do so, but then how can we take you seriously?

[sparks]

Not going to waste time cursing you out.

But you are the one making the claim. Burden of proof is on you.

Sorry about your hand being numb. What the hell is that all about?

neuropathy (nerve damage) from arthritis and other stuff, like falling off scaffold and going over the handle bars and such)
pretty common at this age. major suck. some blame vaccine. i have no need to. Occam's razor tells me otherwise. btw, prolonged alcohol consumption (and diabetes) are also common culprits. Usually starts in feet. Peripheral neuropathy. Myelin sheath gets destroyed by our own immune system in some disease. Mine is trashing the cushion between bones. Came on fast; same with my bro.

All the old fucks limp, around here. Life is a disease, of sorts. As fatal as rabies.

Sorry to hear it stank. I enjoy debating with you. Have to agree with your analogy of life itself as a disease. It's for damn sure no one gets out alive! Except the baby Jeebus. (And all the other figures who died and came back from the dead by mythical intervention, but these are legion.)

[stanky]

Bottom line here is corruption or no corruption, it'd be better if individuals advocated for themselves instead of taking someone else's word for it (healthcare).

You can't blame the system because of the stoopid people who use it with unsatisfactory results.

at some point, you can, and have to, blame the system. And then, hopefully, a new system replaces it.
(Nod to non-americans: our health care system is fairly fucked, relatively. it's wildly expensive and gets comparatively bad results. We pay insane $ for (imho) really shitty drugs that don't show good results. I could explain why we do this, if you don't know.)

as per blame the system sentiment, which isn't to suggest an individual can't master her destiny, an apt analogy is our transport system.
A kid born in the US now is a victim of cars. You can't walk freely, across america. You'd have to intersect hiways illegally. Very dangerous. Kid can't have a sane way to get around. Not his fault; system is to blame. And it's too big to fail. And failing.

[sparks]

Good points there stank.

And perhaps I'm being a bit hard on The Stoopid people. Our system is fucked. All the more reason users of the system really ought to be paying closer attention to what the system is doing to them and yell Foul! if they see something out of wack.

Said this before: Healthcare should not be a for profit system. Several other things shouldn't be for profit either, but those are different discussions. As is obvious, the profit part represents a conflict of interest and should not be tolerated.

[arthwollipot]

And as far as your claims not being 'scientific', I agree. But that doesn't exempt you from providing a basis for them.

I just did. Perhaps you might go take another look at what I said?

[stanky]

Good points there stank.

And perhaps I'm being a bit hard on The Stoopid people. Our system is fucked. All the more reason users of the system really ought to be paying closer attention to what the system is doing to them and yell Foul! if they see something out of wack.

Said this before: Healthcare should not be a for profit system. Several other things shouldn't be for profit either, but those are different discussions. As is obvious, the profit part represents a conflict of interest and should not be tolerated.

"Profit" hardly describes this massive pot of gold available to the unscrupulous designers. The legal drug trade has always made the black market look wholesome. In fact, during this spell of inflated prices for everything, along with constant chipping away at quality of product, illegal drugs have come down in price and up in quality...a lot! (Friends tell me stuff.)

The U.S. is the druggiest. Most otc use; most scripts; and most use of illegal drugs. We've radically over prescribed various wonder drugs and anti-biotics through the years. Early 60's; diet pills and valium...oops! Then prozac...we're depressed in correlation with its use. Causation? Doesn't prove anything, except, overall, we're not cured. It's a very pushy system. My niece worked as a travelling rep for a large drug company; wining and dining doctors; free samples galore; kick-backs, etc.

I saw it from the inside, though 50 years ago. Hasn't changed much that i can see. new names for drugs that replaced the last round; also crap. So few serve any purpose. Knowing some chemistry makes it more infuriating, watching this shake down. America doesn't do mathy stuff, so they don't realize what a milligram is. 325 in a single aspirin, or 21 times more substance than the entire month's script i recently consumed, one pill a day, for pissy prostate stuff. The single aspirin is also hugely less expensive than the other pill.

meds increasingly lean towards minuscule quantities directed at a specific receptor. micrograms means nothing on the purchase end. it should, but the fabulous savings aren't passed on. must be crazy difficult chemistry? why? fully equipped lab with good starter molecules and pre-tested measurements? No cops? Easy. Fentanyl is one, that some analogs (carfentanyl) are active at 5 mics. that's 200,000 doses in a gram. Clandestine chemists are able to do that one.

the notion of the great worth of these meds is fabricated and renewed, relentlessly. It's the biggest cash cow for the least work, ever.
The dream meds are the ones that you need to take forever, for a chronic condition that is very common. few side effects helps unless one needs a side effect to believe...to engage the placebo process.

[sparks]

We're on the same page stank. But perhaps I should have said 'obscene profit'.

[grayman]

Good news if it works.

"Simple desalination tech needs just a dash of heat"


https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/20 ... sh-of-heat


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47313-5

[sparks]

Good news if it works.

"Simple desalination tech needs just a dash of heat"


https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/20 ... sh-of-heat


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47313-5

Indeed! And as soon as water is as expensive as gas, the ivory tower hoodlums will get right on it.

What? Too cynical?

[Meadmaker]

Good news if it works.

"Simple desalination tech needs just a dash of heat"


https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/20 ... sh-of-heat


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47313-5

Indeed! And as soon as water is as expensive as gas, the ivory tower hoodlums will get right on it.

What? Too cynical?

th
The ivory tower ones will follow it just because it's cool, assuming "ivory tower" is a reference to academics.

It's the capitalists that will wait until water gets as expensive as gas.

My guess is that even at 1/5 the energy cost, it still won't be economical enough for irrigation. That's just a guess, though.

One way or another, a plant will be built as soon as someone can make money off of it. In the meantime, academics can study it even if it doesn't work, but they might discover a way to cut the energy cost further, or find some side effects that offset the cose. (There's dissolved lithium in seawater....) That's the way it works, and it mostly works very well.