Slashdot Mirror

Not only that, but excess fluoride exposure has been linked to paranoia, irrational anger, and uncontrolled fits of YELLING.

Curiously, fluoridation of water is also associated with lower rates of suicide. Ref.

Fluoridation results in a significant decrease in dental caries (cavities), but also an increase in fluorosis. Ref.

Mild to moderate fluorosis seems to have a primarily cosmetic effect; severe fluorosis can affect the integrity of the tooth. Consequently, efforts are made to moderate (but not eliminate) the exposure of people to fluoride. In general, it is thought that the significant decrease in caries more than outweighs the increased risk of (predominantly mild) fluorosis.

Many European nations do not fluoridate their water; instead they mandate fluoridated toothpaste. Recent studies have investigated appropriate dosages, though dose control can be stymied by incorrect individual usage. Ref. It has also been observed that fluoridation of water significantly improves dental health among the poor, who presumably have less access both to dental practitioners and, for that matter, toothpaste. Ref.

Until we have a better understanding of the mechanisms of both the formation of dental caries (Ref.) and fluorosis (Ref.) we're left with making public health decisions based on available epidemiological data--which overwhelmingly support the continued fluoridation of drinking water to protect oral health.

Not only that, but excess fluoride exposure has been linked to paranoia, irrational anger, and uncontrolled fits of YELLING.

Curiously, fluoridation of water is also associated with lower rates of suicide. Ref.

Fluoridation results in a significant decrease in dental caries (cavities), but also an increase in fluorosis. Ref.

Mild to moderate fluorosis seems to have a primarily cosmetic effect; severe fluorosis can affect the integrity of the tooth. Consequently, efforts are made to moderate (but not eliminate) the exposure of people to fluoride. In general, it is thought that the significant decrease in caries more than outweighs the increased risk of (predominantly mild) fluorosis.

Many European nations do not fluoridate their water; instead they mandate fluoridated toothpaste. Recent studies have investigated appropriate dosages, though dose control can be stymied by incorrect individual usage. Ref. It has also been observed that fluoridation of water significantly improves dental health among the poor, who presumably have less access both to dental practitioners and, for that matter, toothpaste. Ref.

Until we have a better understanding of the mechanisms of both the formation of dental caries (Ref.) and fluorosis (Ref.) we're left with making public health decisions based on available epidemiological data--which overwhelmingly support the continued fluoridation of drinking water to protect oral health.

Not only that, but excess fluoride exposure has been linked to paranoia, irrational anger, and uncontrolled fits of YELLING.

Curiously, fluoridation of water is also associated with lower rates of suicide. Ref.

Fluoridation results in a significant decrease in dental caries (cavities), but also an increase in fluorosis. Ref.

Mild to moderate fluorosis seems to have a primarily cosmetic effect; severe fluorosis can affect the integrity of the tooth. Consequently, efforts are made to moderate (but not eliminate) the exposure of people to fluoride. In general, it is thought that the significant decrease in caries more than outweighs the increased risk of (predominantly mild) fluorosis.

Many European nations do not fluoridate their water; instead they mandate fluoridated toothpaste. Recent studies have investigated appropriate dosages, though dose control can be stymied by incorrect individual usage. Ref. It has also been observed that fluoridation of water significantly improves dental health among the poor, who presumably have less access both to dental practitioners and, for that matter, toothpaste. Ref.

Until we have a better understanding of the mechanisms of both the formation of dental caries (Ref.) and fluorosis (Ref.) we're left with making public health decisions based on available epidemiological data--which overwhelmingly support the continued fluoridation of drinking water to protect oral health.

Not only that, but excess fluoride exposure has been linked to paranoia, irrational anger, and uncontrolled fits of YELLING.

Curiously, fluoridation of water is also associated with lower rates of suicide. Ref.

Fluoridation results in a significant decrease in dental caries (cavities), but also an increase in fluorosis. Ref.

Mild to moderate fluorosis seems to have a primarily cosmetic effect; severe fluorosis can affect the integrity of the tooth. Consequently, efforts are made to moderate (but not eliminate) the exposure of people to fluoride. In general, it is thought that the significant decrease in caries more than outweighs the increased risk of (predominantly mild) fluorosis.

Many European nations do not fluoridate their water; instead they mandate fluoridated toothpaste. Recent studies have investigated appropriate dosages, though dose control can be stymied by incorrect individual usage. Ref. It has also been observed that fluoridation of water significantly improves dental health among the poor, who presumably have less access both to dental practitioners and, for that matter, toothpaste. Ref.

Until we have a better understanding of the mechanisms of both the formation of dental caries (Ref.) and fluorosis (Ref.) we're left with making public health decisions based on available epidemiological data--which overwhelmingly support the continued fluoridation of drinking water to protect oral health.

Not only that, but excess fluoride exposure has been linked to paranoia, irrational anger, and uncontrolled fits of YELLING.

Curiously, fluoridation of water is also associated with lower rates of suicide. Ref.

Fluoridation results in a significant decrease in dental caries (cavities), but also an increase in fluorosis. Ref.

Mild to moderate fluorosis seems to have a primarily cosmetic effect; severe fluorosis can affect the integrity of the tooth. Consequently, efforts are made to moderate (but not eliminate) the exposure of people to fluoride. In general, it is thought that the significant decrease in caries more than outweighs the increased risk of (predominantly mild) fluorosis.

Many European nations do not fluoridate their water; instead they mandate fluoridated toothpaste. Recent studies have investigated appropriate dosages, though dose control can be stymied by incorrect individual usage. Ref. It has also been observed that fluoridation of water significantly improves dental health among the poor, who presumably have less access both to dental practitioners and, for that matter, toothpaste. Ref.

Until we have a better understanding of the mechanisms of both the formation of dental caries (Ref.) and fluorosis (Ref.) we're left with making public health decisions based on available epidemiological data--which overwhelmingly support the continued fluoridation of drinking water to protect oral health.

Not only that, but excess fluoride exposure has been linked to paranoia, irrational anger, and uncontrolled fits of YELLING.

Curiously, fluoridation of water is also associated with lower rates of suicide. Ref.

Fluoridation results in a significant decrease in dental caries (cavities), but also an increase in fluorosis. Ref.

Mild to moderate fluorosis seems to have a primarily cosmetic effect; severe fluorosis can affect the integrity of the tooth. Consequently, efforts are made to moderate (but not eliminate) the exposure of people to fluoride. In general, it is thought that the significant decrease in caries more than outweighs the increased risk of (predominantly mild) fluorosis.

Many European nations do not fluoridate their water; instead they mandate fluoridated toothpaste. Recent studies have investigated appropriate dosages, though dose control can be stymied by incorrect individual usage. Ref. It has also been observed that fluoridation of water significantly improves dental health among the poor, who presumably have less access both to dental practitioners and, for that matter, toothpaste. Ref.

Until we have a better understanding of the mechanisms of both the formation of dental caries (Ref.) and fluorosis (Ref.) we're left with making public health decisions based on available epidemiological data--which overwhelmingly support the continued fluoridation of drinking water to protect oral health.

At times I experience depression, mania, visual hallucinations and paranoia. Less commonly I've heard voices and experienced dissociation, which is a sort of disconnection between reality and one's experience. Life seemed to be like a movie I was watching but not participating in. I also get anxiety at times - so bad I want to climb out of my own skin. I've had disturbed sleep for my entire life. One time I slept for twenty-nine hours, on another occasion I was awake for about a week, which made me hallucinate so heavily I could hardly see where I was going.

I've been in psychiatric hospitals five times, for periods ranging from overnight to six weeks.

I was first inspired to discuss my experiences with mental illnesses online when I read Lori Schiller's book The Quiet Room. Schiller was also diagnosed schizoaffective. She had it much worse than me, but managed to recover and had the courage to write a book about it.

Schizoaffective disorder is a spectrum of conditions. It's not completely clear whether it's a unique disorder or that one is unfortunate enough to have gotten both illnesses at once. I'm much more manic depressive than I am schizophrenic, with depression being my most prevalent symptom. Lori Schiller is much more towards the schizophrenic end, having hallucinated so badly at times she was hardly connected to the real world. I'm the bipolar type of schizoaffective, there is also a depressive type, where one does not experience mania.

Lori Schiller spent years in a number of mental hospitals. Hers was a very difficult case, and I think she, her family and her doctors had despaired of ever finding a treatment. What saved her was a new kind of medicine, the atypical antipsychotic clozapine.

The "classic antipsychotics" like haldol and thorazine work by reducing the levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. The atypical antipsychotics do that too but also act on one of the variants of the neurotransmitter serotonin.

The classic antipsychotics were troublesome in that they didn't work all that well and had a lot of bad side affects like deep sedation, hand tremors, muscle cramps and a motion disorder called tardive dyskinesia that is a form of incurable brain damage, that causes repetetive, involuntary movements and can even put you in a wheelchair. If you see a mentally ill person who appears to be in a stupour, it's quite likely that it's caused by his medication rather than his illness.

One time I was in the hospital, profoundly manic and hallucinating, and was being given enough haldol to stun a horse. It caused a sort of seizure, where my jaws locked up so I couldn't speak, and all of my limbs curled up so I couldn't walk. I was carried to my room and injected in the butt with a large dose of cogentin, which is usually prescribed in a lower-dose tablet form to treat the motion disorder side effects of antipsychotics.

(As I lay on my bed slowly uncurling, with the cogentin causing this odd thing with the focus of my eyes, the nurse who injected me said: "You worry too much. You should go to Hawaii and get laid.")

Classic antipsychotics didn't help Schiller much, which is why she was entered in the drug trials for clozapine. Besides haldol, I've also taken prolixin and stellazine, and never found any of them particularly helpful.

Clozapine is more effective, but it has its own problems with side affects. It can kill you by damaging your blood, so you have to have regular blood tests. It is also very expensive, with treatment

A 1996 poll of 1,000 adults found that 79% believed that spiritual faith can help people recover from disease [McNichol T. The new faith in medicine. USA Today, April 7, 1996, p 4.]. This idea is also popular among physicians. Although many studies have found associations between various measures of religiosity and health, no well-designed study has demonstrated that religious beliefs or prayer actually benefit health [Sloan RP, Bagiella E, Powell T. Religion, spirituality and medicine. Lancet 353:664-667, 1999. The full text of this article can be accessed online by registering at the Lancet Web site and going to the contents page of the Feb 20th issue.]. In fact, one well-designed study found just the opposite. The study involved patients whose progress was followed for nine months after discharge from a British hospital. They evaluated the outpatient records and the responses of 189 patients to questionnaires. the researchers concluded that the health status of patients with stronger spiritual beliefs were more than twice as likely to be unimproved or worse [King M, Speck P, Thomas A. The effect of spiritual beliefs on outcome from illness. Social Science & Medicine 48:1291-1299, 1999.]. Although some studies have found that churchgoers tend to be healthier and to live longer than nonchurchgoers, church attendance itself is unlikely to be responsible for the difference [Gorski T. Should religion and spiritual concerns be more influential in health care? No. Priorities 12(1):23-26, 41, 2000.]. [context]

--
Stephen Barrett, M.D.

As they say in statistics, the plural of anecdote isn't data. I fully expect to see several postings of similar tales. In this instance, the Devil's Advocate might note that the friend was under a lot of stress related to marriage trouble, and may have suffered clinically significant mental effecs because of it. She recovered afterwards because a) she divorced the guy that was causing the stress, and b) she could blame the fillings for the divorce and not herself.

A more charitable interpretation is that the 'schizophrenia' was the result of some other undiagnosed disorder--a burst blood vessel in the brain, perhaps.

The symptoms from mercury (heavy metal) poisoning are essentially asymptomatic (non-deterministic)

As they say on Slashdot, I don't think that word means what you think it means...'asymptomatic' means 'without symptoms'. If the chief symptom of poisoning is that there are no symptoms....

The parent poster presents as fact some highly controversial ideas--the 'link' between mercury and schizophrenia or chronic fatique syndrome, for instance. There is a statistically significant increase in the body's mercury load from amalgam fillings, though it is extremely small. Well-controlled, randomized, blind trials have not found a link between mercury amalgam fillings and any illness, though there are ongoing clinical trials in several places.

Perhaps one of the most troubling observations with respect to dental amalgam is the number of individuals who self-diagnose an amalgam related disorder--of course removal of the fillings cures the psychosomatic illness.

'Over the past two decades, mercury released by amalgam fillings has been held responsible for a number of mental and somatic health complaints. However, a systematic relation between increased mercury levels and the severity of the reported symptoms has never been demonstrated in any of the present well-controlled multidisciplinary studies. These studies, however, have found a high prevalence of mental disorders, especially somatization syndromes, among patients with self-diagnosed "amalgam illness". Additionally, our own studies indicate that

amalgam anxiety is often merely one aspect of a general environmental anxiety. Overall, the present findings suggest a psychological etiology for amalgam-related complaints.'(1) [My emphasis]

From The Lancet,

'The US National Institutes of Health are 2 years into a 7-year, multicentre clinical trial of children aged 6 to 10 years to see whether any adverse health effects result from amalgam fillings (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov; search on "amalgam"). "Of course, they can't release any findings yet, but they have told us that there are no indications right now that would cause them to discontinue the trial", says Eichmiller. "And we know from the recent oestrogen trial [see Lancet 2002; 360: 146] that if there were any adverse responses, they'd pull the plug in a hurry, especially in children."' (2)

Further thoughts--in addition to damaging the teeth during filling replacement (and possibly leading to unnecessary surgery and the associated nonnegligible risks) there are concerns that the replacements for mercury amalgam may be more dangerous to health than the mercury fillings themselves.

'In many cases of removal, the amalgam filling is replaced by composite or gold restorations. Although the composite materials do not contain mercury, F Reichl and colleagues' in-vitro studies show significant cytotoxic and even genotoxic activity for some of their components. These restorative materials a

There are several examples of alternative treatment centers which keep use of medication to an absolute minimum. One such example is the Soteria Project, which has the same success rate as conventional medicine, but none of the terrible side-effects of heavy medication such as Tardive Dyskinesia. (The US uses the world's largest dosages for treatment of schizophrenia; amounts that are up to twice as much as the accepted dosage in Europe.)

Furthermore, it's not yet fully understood how or why the antipsychotic drugs work. They think it has something to do with dopamine receptors, but it's all speculation at this point. There's been some intimation that chronic schizophrenics have different brain chemistry or morphology than "normal" folks, but they have yet to show whether these conditions exist before the onset of the disease, or whether conditions in the brain or heavy medications cause these changes.

Personally, if I start slipping into psychosis, I'm going to scrape together my money and buy a plane ticket for Bern, Switzerland where the current Soteria House is...

- ben

No, people do not need to consume cholesterol. Your body makes all the cholesterol it can ever use.

Provide your source. your body also makes Vitamins B1, B3, and B6 but you will be deficient if you do not eat enough of it. Further, that ability exists in infants from the moment they are born. Why would the need to consume cholesterol only apply to infants, in stark contradiction to many other vitamins and hormones including those I just mentioned? Or do you think cholesterol is in mother's milk out of some freak coincidence?

Cholesterol is only available from animal sources. If humans needed cholesterol to survive, strict vegetarians (vegans) would be dropping dead left and right.

The vast majority of vegans do not remain that way for extended periods of time. Further, when they do binge it is often on dairy products that contain substantial amounts of cholesterol. Cholesterol is used by your body to produce lipoproteins which comprise cell membranes. All cellular growth thus requires cholesterol. Where do vegans have major problems? Reproduction and muscle growth. The number of cases of low birth weight and spontaneous abortion are quite high amongst vegans. All the medical evidence clearly indicates veganism is dangerous.

Correlation is one thing. Causation is another.

Well, you must have a PhD in statistics! Thank you so much for that enlightening knowledge. Perhaps you are unaware, but the whole of medical knowledge is based on theories and the use of statistics to support them. causation, on the micro level, is almost impossible to prove. Science today is entirely based on probability.

Its good that you are taking an interest in your health and your diet. But learn nutrition from books and journals -- not from magazines, newspapers, and TV.

Ahh yes, can you name one newspaper article or television show that discusses anything I just mentioned, specially the points you selectively challenged and that I will shortly dismiss with numerous references to journals? No, I didn't think so. Fortunately for you, I actual DO read medical journals, and not just bullshit on slashdot. Have fun reading, of course you won't however... as this completely conflicts with your preconceived notions of proper diet (no serious student of medicine would give any credit to veganism)

The following citations can be found on the National Library of Medicine

low blood levels of cholesterol are linked with decreased immunity
(1)Weverling-Rijnsburger, A.W. et al, Total cholesterol and risk of mortality in the oldest old. Lancet 1997 / 350 (9085) / 1119-1123. ,

(2)Forette ,B. et al, Cholesterol as risk factor for mortality in elderly women. Lancet 1989 / 1 (8643) / 868-870.

(3)Isles, C.G. et al, Plasma cholesterol, coronary heart disease, and cancer in the Renfrew and Paisley survey. Brit. Med. J. 1989 / 298 (6678) / 920-924.

(4)Rose, G. & M.J. Shipley, Plasma lipids and mortality : a source of error. Lancet 1980 / 1 (8167) / 523-526.

Low blood levels of cholesterol impair brain and liver function

(1)Xu, G. et al, Relationship between abnormal cholesterol synthesis and retarded learning in rats. Metabolism 1998 / 47 (7) / 878-882.

(2)Schoknecht, P.A. et al, Dietary cholesterol supplementation improves growth and behavioural response of pigs selected for genetically high and low serum cholesterol. Nutr.1994 / 124 (2) / pag.305-314.

(3)Hague, Z.U. et al, Importance of dietary cholesterol for the maturation of mouse brain myelin. Biosc. Biotech. Biochem. 1992 / 56 (8) / 1351-1354.

low cholesterol is associated with severe pathological behavior

(1)Golomb BA, et al, Low cholesterol and violent crime. J Psychiatr Res 2000 Jul-Oct;34(4-5):301-9.

(2)Hillbrand M, et al, Serum cholesterol concentrations and mood states in violent psychiat

Yup, if you actually trust those damned BMI charts, then 6'2" at 230lbs is downright obese (a BMI of 30 or greater.)

However, there is a huge difference between a 6'2" 230lb guy in the clydesdale class at the local bike race vs. a 6'2" 230lb guy who's only form of excercise is his Xbox.

With the help of a handy body-fat analysis scale, it's easy to calculate that at 6'3" tall and 244 pounds, I have approx. 190lbs of lean body mass. At a nice, respecatable 10% body fat, I would weigh around 210 pounds. That's a BMI of 26.2, and is considered overweight. Yet anything less than 10% body fat is simply not possible unless you are a body builder.

At least some folks now admit that the BMI is inaccurate for many people, it has not been modified to allow for these people. At least the chart my doctor used back in the 80's allowed for different body types.

To bring this back on topic... I destroy 36-spoke MTB wheels on a regular basis and eat road bikes for lunch. I doubt that the $200 electric bike would last more than a week with me on it, assuming it could even get up the smallest of hills.

You're probably thinking of toxoplasma. It lives in at least rats, cats and humans. Apparently one of its effects on the brains of rats is to make them less afraid of cats, making them more likely to be eaten. It may cause a similar reduction in risk-averseness in humans.

The really interesting information is a reverse-engineered interpreter. Who cracks the ribosome code will harness the lathe of heaven.

I think you're talking about a DNA Microarray.

It allows you to get the expression profile of the cell. More info here.

Flash tutorial here.

Interestingly enough, it's the reverse transcriptases that are used by viruses like HIV to embed themselves in our genome that allowed cDNA technology and therefore Microarray technology to become a reality. We could have made the complimentary DNA strands that the messenger RNA binds to using other methods, but it would have been much harder.

on the other hand, the outrageous amount of evidence that HIV is the primary cause of AIDS:
Natl Inst of Health

Their supposed anti-HIV sounds a lot like a "defective interfering virus", however, given it is a wired article it is really impossible to tell anything about the details.

Defective interfering viruses occur in nature and have been studied for decades. The key points are that they are "defective", i.e. they cannot replicate on their own because they lack something required for replication. Second, they "interfere" with the replication of the fit virus.

Their idea is not novel within virology and it is not novel with respect to HIV. These guys sound like some pompous guys who don't realize they aren't as smart as they think they are.

Go to Pubmed and do a search for "defective interfering virus" to learn more about this. You can also search for '"defective interfering" AND HIV' (search for what's between the ' ') to see that people have thought of this with respect to HIV.

Finally, we can cure just about anything in a dish, most everything in mice, but not very much in humans.

My prediction. This will go absolutely nowhere. Just like the rhabdovirus study mentioned up-page that selectively kills HIV infected cells. Worked great in the dish, never to be heard of again. This study was presented in one of the most prestigious journals, yet it is now just a memory.

That is the current quandry. Anti-retroviral therapy, with its combination of drugs, currently is very effective. Basically the medicine stops the virus from duplicating (the overall viral load will go down), and that lets the bodies infection fighting resources recover (increased T cells). The problem with current treatments is the medications become toxic after long periods of time. Otherwise healthy HIV (+) patients are having liver failure due to the effects of the medications on the liver.
The problem with people who have full blown AIDS is they have lost so much protection, the body becomes very susecptable to all sorts of nasties, sorta like an unpatched Windows box.A nice little primer on HIV can be found at the CDC

Here's a link to the abstract of their actual paper on the topic. Technically, this is news from last Sept, though I suppose it's good to get mainstream press where possible so everyone knows where their taxpayer funded $200K is going. :)

I used the term "monkey" too loosely, but macaques and SIV are very much a model system used for determining HIV vaccine efficacy. You're wrong that SIV never kills macques; in fact, the right strain of SIV kills them very quickly.

ask these guys. ?

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

That may be true, but I support any technology that makes it easier for slashdoters to get laid.

In all seriousness though, this is very very cool. Anyone interested in the original HIV genome (it's like sourcecode) can find it here.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

The so-called "direct effect" of regional haze results in an approximately 5-30% reduction in the solar irradiance reaching some of China's most productive agricultural regions. Crop-response model simulations suggest an approximately 1:1 relationship between a percentage increase (decrease) in total surface solar irradiance and a percentage increase (decrease) in the yields of rice and wheat. Collectively, these calculations suggest that regional haze in China is currently depressing optimal yields of approximately 70% of the crops grown in China by at least 5-30%.

Chameides, W.L., H. Yu, S.C. Liu, M. Bergin, X. Zhou, L. Mearns, G. Wang, C.S. Kiang, R.D. Saylor, C. Lio, Y. Huang, A. Steiner, and F. Giorgi, Case study of the effects of atmospheric aerosols and regional haze on agriculture: An opportunity to enhance crop yields in China through emission controls? Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, 96:13626-13633, 1999.

Right, here you go, then! Just watch out for those panic attacks...

The current genome build has a size of 3,020,300,000 bp, at 2 bits per bp and 5(?) spice girls, that's about 3.5 GB (uncompressed).

Of course with a mostly static database like that you only want to store the diffs, not the whole thing. The bulk of the diff would be SNPs, roughly 1 per 1000 bp: 3,020,300,000 / 1000 / 4 / 1048576 that's about 0.72MB per spice girl. An if you only store the ones actually different from wildtype you probably don't need more than 20% of that.

You can fit a Spice Girl on a floppy.

The genomes of rats, mice and humans have a lot of key differences in the basic metabolic pathways. That recent study explains a lot about why rat and mouse studies can be so wrong about human responses to drugs and things.

Microwaves do not cause biological damage unless you have hundreds of watts of them, and that's just heat.

It's really not physically possible. The frequency is too low to cause any ionising effects, leaving the only possible effect as heating, and I think that you get much more heating from say the hard drive in your laptop than you do from the 1W WiFi.

The National Library of Medicine makes available a number (maybe 25?) of the electronic versions of print textbooks on a variety of topics. This can be an excellent resource. Check it out.

Re. cell phone safety--I read a recent study (New Scientist, perhaps?) that showed cell phones cause extreme damage to rat brains.

Click around PubMed for a while. brain cell phone is a good query. No one has shown conclusive evidence of damage due to RF radiation. Though everyone says "more research is needed" that's just a standard hedge, cause they don't want to miss out on any grants.

Re. cell phone safety--I read a recent study (New Scientist, perhaps?) that showed cell phones cause extreme damage to rat brains.

Click around PubMed for a while. brain cell phone is a good query. No one has shown conclusive evidence of damage due to RF radiation. Though everyone says "more research is needed" that's just a standard hedge, cause they don't want to miss out on any grants.

That's not all! It's only the top of the iceberg! Just see what I found here! All our bodies are COVERED by millions of these little bacteria and fungi - the same bacteria that KILL people every day!

We're doomed!

The end is near...

Even BSD is dying... ;-)

We have the complete sequence of HIV and know all of the "naughty bits" already. (NCBI Sequence) Stripping them would limit the use of the virus though since the "naughty bits" are what make is so effective.

Psychological state and mood effects of steroidal chemosignals in women and men.

Jacob S, McClintock MK.

Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, 5730 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.

We tested the hypothesis that isolated steroids, claimed to act like pheromones, affect human psychological state or mood. In the first experiment, we established that two steroids, Delta4, 16-androstadien-3-one and 1,3,5(10)16-estratetraen-3-ol, modulated emotional states within 6 min of exposure. In men and women, neither steroid had specific effects on states of alertness or negative-confused mood. However, both steroids increased positive stimulated mood state in women but decreased it in men. These psychological findings do not parallel the reported sexually specific effects of these two steroids on the surface potential activity of putative vomeronasal epithelium. In a second experiment on women, we replicated that Delta4,16-androstadien-3-one modulated their general mood state, even when women were not aware of its odor and gave identical olfactory descriptions for the steroid and the control carrier solutions. In this within-subjects, repeated-measures experiment, androstadienone prevented the deterioration in general mood which occurred during exposure to the clove oil carrier solution in the laboratory environment. Thus, androstadienone appears to modulate affect, rather than releasing stereotyped behaviors or emotions. It is premature to call these steroids human pheromones. They are nonetheless psychologically potent, mandating future work delineating their function-i.e., whether these steroids are communicative chemosignals, context specific, or related to unconscious associations. In light of these modulatory effects and the complexity of human behavior, the function of chemosignals and pheromonal systems in a variety of species may need to be expanded to include the concept of modulators, as well as the traditional releasers, primers, and signaling compounds. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

I actually found this reference on the site of a company that sells pheromone cologne, in a section describing the basis for their product claims. They're implying at least that they sell either the same pheromones mentioned in that study, or something with similar results.

Makes me curious...

Agreed. How about anybody with a web browser? In true open-source fashion, you may need to compile the genome yourself from its components, but with over 2,000,000 nucleotide sequences, over 7,500 peptide sequences, the complete genome of Zea mays' chloroplasts, etc. to work with it should be possible...

Yes. It does. have something to do with it. Interesting addition of function of ketamine to the whole thing, too.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a water-soluble, waxy solid that is used extensively in the cosmetic and toiletry industry. As the molecular weight of PEG increases, viscosity and freezing point increase

Polyethylene glycol-electrolyte solution (PEG-ES) is used to cleanse the bowel before a gastrointestinal examination or surgery. It works by causing diarrhea... Polyethylene glycol-electrolyte solution (PEG-ES) comes as a powder to take by mouth

skipping the religious issues for the moment, you can get XX males.

Note if you are going to google this, search for "XX males" not XXX males, or I will not be accountable for the consequences...