…is turning out to be an unlikely elixir.
It’s the only reason I choke down the swill every morning.
And please, no recommendations about how I’m just not making it properly. I’ve had lots of coffee from people who assure me that it is how coffee should taste. It always tastes like coffee to me (i.e., terrible).
Would Mark Watney have been able to stay sane?
I think it’s realistic to think he’d have been fine, as long as he had some level of hope, and tasks with which to occupy himself.
A debate over a law is never “over”:
As this debate moves forward toward the next election I would hope that Republicans and conservatives take the opportunity to remind voters that our entire system of government is, to varying degrees, a flexible and constantly shifting beast. Obamacare is, beyond question, the law of the land as it stands today. It’s also true that a couple of aspects of it have been challenged through the proper rules of order and have survived the test all the way to the highest court. But absolutely none of that has magically transformed this piece of legislation into some sort of natural law, essential human right or sacred text brought down on stone tablets from Mount Sinai.
The law of the land is as permanent as the voters decide it should be. Its expiration date may never come or it may be swept way with the next meeting of the legislature. There is no debate over the law which ever truly ends as long as there are those left who wish to debate it.
It’s almost as thought they want to silence dissent.
Using nanoparticles, to repair blood cells.
The problems she describes with the federal procurement system afflict both Air Force and NASA space projects as well.
Had a weird experience after going to sleep last night. I woke up in the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life. It was in my back, in the region of my right kidney, but it felt like a severe muscle cramp or strain. It was a dull pain, not sharp (as I’d expect a kidney stone to feel like). I couldn’t lie down, and could barely tolerate sitting. We thought about going to the emergency room, but after putting on a heat bandage, taking a couple ibuprofen, and then a vicodin, and lying up in bed with several pillows behind me, I eventually managed to get back to sleep.
Woke up this morning, and it was a little sore, but nothing like it had been when I went to sleep. Now I can barely tell it happened, but I’m feeling slightly nauseated (haven’t had anything to eat or drink except water and a couple cups of coffee, though that’s normal for me). Still don’t know what it was, or if it will recur, but if it does, I’ll definitely have to go to the doctor.
[Thursday-morning update]
Just got off the phone with a friend who’s an ER doc with decades of experience. He said that unless it persists for more than a couple days, to not sweat it, other than maybe peeing in a bottle to see if I can get a sample for testing. “Don’t waste money on urologists or scans.”
[Bumped]
The Beeb checks them out.
Kind of funny that the reporter thinks that Aubrey de Grey is a woman.
[Update a few minutes later]
@Rand_Simberg oh wow, thanks for flagging. As you'll see from my film, I do know that! Not sure how that happened. Will change now.
— Benjamin Zand (@BenjaminZand) September 15, 2015
Probably an editorial error.
An interesting article on both the physical and philosophical difficulties involved.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Related, and sad: A young neuroscientist’s bet on cryonics.
Oh, FFS:
After a week of eating 6,200 calories a day — with a diet rich in carbohydrates and fat that included foods like hamburgers, pizza and cookies — the men gained nearly 8 lbs. (3.5 kilograms), on average. All of this added weight was fat.
Emphasis mine. Hey, guys (and/or gals). There are these things called “controls.” They’re all the rage among real scientists, I hear.
I wish I had more confidence that they’re not just treating a symptom:
As for the efficacy of the drugs, it is not yet proved that very low LDL levels produced by drugs lead to sharp reductions in heart attacks, strokes and deaths from cardiovascular disease, as researchers have seen in people with the naturally inactive PCSK9 gene.
Many cardiologists, though, are persuaded by a large body of evidence supporting the idea that the lower the LDL, the lower the risk.
“I believe lower is better and do not believe that a very low LDL is harmful,” said Dr. Daniel Rader, a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Others, like Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale, urge caution. “We are in a period of exuberant enthusiasm about these drugs,” he said. “We could just be performing cosmetic surgery on a lab value.”
If it were certain that the PCSK9 inhibitors were safe and effective in preventing heart attacks and deaths there would be no need for clinical trials, he noted.
$14,000/year is a lot of money for a treatment for which we have no idea whether or not it’s effective. I think improving diets would be much more cost effective.
[Update Tuesday morning]
Here’s a longer piece about the new drugs and the issues. Note: 1) It is assumed that the goal is to lower cholesterol, and that this will in turn result in lower mortality and 2) No mention of diet as a potential solution. Of course, it’s hard to get people to change their diets. But I suspect that to the degree that doctors are telling people to do so, they’re still telling them to cut out sat fat and cholesterol, despite all the actual science, and probably still telling them to follow FDA food-pyramic advice, which is junk science.
[Bumped]