Slashdot Mirror
Star Trek's Synthehol Now Possible?
[TheBORG] writes "Professor David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist at the University of Bristol in the UK, believes that there is no scientific reason why 'synthehol' (a science-fictional substitute for alcohol that appears in Star Trek:The Next Generation television series) cannot be created now. It will allow drinkers to experience all of the enjoyable, intoxicating effects of alcohol without unpleasant side-effects like hangovers." Of course, there's still the real deal, Romulan Ale, for when you want a splitting headache in the morning.
Synthehol is my anti-drug.
Actually Sinthehole just had the taste and none of the side-effects (like feeling happy, having impaired judgement, etc).
I didn't make my career trusting scientists with names like "Professor Nutt." And for the record, the only thing more pointless than reading articles about things that "should" "theoretically" be "possible" is writing them.
Limina.Log
Romulan Ale is okay, but real life forms prefer the Pan Galactic Gargleblaster, for when you want to feel like you have had your head smashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick.
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Most people who drink do it to get drunk. For those who want the taste, like those at wine clubs, they can't use the stuff since the alchocol in wine is naturally made, and you couldn't get the same flavor with this stuff.
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That slashdot post could very well be your life's ultimate achievement. Savor it.
But seriously, this guy must have hated life as an undergrad. Perhaps this is his get back at the nay-sayers who gave him so many years of ridicule... Okay, perhaps not *sigh*
It seems to me sometimes that we focus more on trying to make the 'cool' tech and gadgets from the tv shows of our childhood than making new innovations sometimes. I wonder if it actually inhibits science to try and make it fit to fiction, or whether fiction really is the best inspiration.
On the other hand, I really, really want my own replicator.
When are they going to make synthawhocares?
The future of alcoholism just got brighter.
Now if only they could get rid of the part of alcohol that makes people act like assholes.
"There's companies that are just so cool that you just can't even deal with it," - Bill Gates, about Google
Speaking from the perspective of an American College student whom is reasonabally responsible. DO NOT REMOVE THE HANGOVER! I can only imagine how little work I would get done, and how many more students would fail out of college. There needs to be a bit of punishment, or else mass irresponisbilty would follow.
Walk with me or walk behind.
Sorry if I seem a tad against the idea... but I think alchohol is a waste of time and money that could better be used to improve oneself and the society in which they live.
The same could be said about Slashdot but you still post in here.
I'm a chainsmokin' alcoholic sociopath, so-ci-o-path
It's hard enough to get the much less addictive and less harmfull drugs like Marijuana that people have used for thousands of years to be legal. Making some new alcohol like substance legal as a recreational drug would be near impossible.
Really, if alcohol didn't have the added guise of also being a food, and being impossibly easy to create on your own it'd be illegal now.
AccountKiller
I hear that alcohol leads to close dancing and jazz music. Clearly it should be banned.
English is easier said than done.
Nothing beats the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
Wasn't the real attractiveness of synthehol the fact that you could be drunk as hell and become completely sobre with just a hypospray of sorts? An interesting article here
If you pay your taxes you support terrorism!
Jezz, who pissed in your cornflakes?
The authorities have already lost the plot in the war on drugs. What with meth anphetamine, ecstacy, LSD and any number of other lab created drugs out there, do you really think that any government is going to allow another synthetically produced substance that alters your mood in any way whatsoever? The moment it happens the meddlers and self-appointed moral guardians that prescribe what is and isn't good for us, would be calling for a ban.
...and it's called pot.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
We can also thank our anti-drug culture the practice of adding things such as acetaminophen to opiates (e.g., vicodin and oxycodone) to make sure it destroys your liver if you become addicted (as a "deterrent"). Given this, I don't think the government, or whoever decides such things, would be terribly pleased with a readily available drug with the "positive" effects of alcohol and none of the negative effects. If this really shows up, don't be surprised if it is simply labelled a "designer" drug and made highly illegal.
In the news today: April 01, 2010. Synthehol Nation: Synthehol is everywhere...thanks to Dr David Nutt. 98% of the population abuse alcohol (I meant Synthenol)...because of NO hangovers. Dr. Nutt is now working on a new product Synmetol (Meth without side effects). In other news...4 lawsuits have been filled aganist Dr. Nutt by 2 ex-Synthehol users. Seriously...the only reason I don't brink is because of hangovers.
Actually there is a very good substitute for alcohol, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/ghb/). It is toxic at high dose (and mixed with alcohol), but at normal levels it feels the same as alcohol and is much healthier and without the hangover effect...
If the inventors would like to send me a few kegs, I will consume them. Purely in the name of science, of course.
Four roommates. No microwave. You do the math.
If people are gonna use, they're gonna use. Seems like removing the hangover is enabling on one hand, but relief for those who live with grumpy hangover drinkers on the other.
Personally, I'm waiting for phasers (replace paintball with stuns, much more fun) transporters (bank/vault walls? what?) and protoplasers (Sealing orifices shut "accidentally" - whoa.).
Take the 90-Day Challenge! http://rwmurker.bodybyvi.com/
I don't think you would be able to organically synthesise anything and then expect to put it 5% in a aqueous solution, and STILL make it for less than $1 a bottle.
They add acetaminophen and aspirin to the opiate because it increases the effect of the opiate.
Distill out the hydrocodone from a vicodin and take it and you'll be sorely disappointed..
True, there is no scientific reason as why not ... perhaps just a lack of interest until now... And I am also sure they could create something to inhibit the absorption rate at a certain level to avoid the other side effect.
... from which the only result was an well established network of drug dealers.
Same they can do with drugs - they could create drugs with no dependency effect and sell them legally at every pharmacy. This way we can gain control on the drug usage problem and put out of business a huge criminal network.
Well, instead they choose a simpler inefficient solution to ban
Kirk: Chekov, you know anything about a neutron radiation surge?
Chekov: Only the size of my head.
it already exists and it is illegal, ghb produces effects very similar to alcohol,
with much smaller dosage and few side effects. it works on gaba receptors like
alcohol does.
Hangovers in my experience are caused by 2 things: 1: bad alchool, since methanol really frags up your body and makes you sick, being broken up in formic acid and formaldehyde, which also makes you blind destroying your optic nerve. 2: dehydratation, since alchool, well, makes you go to the loo way too much. It's a killer when combined with dancing because you also sweat a lot. My solution? Drink good quality vodka (low methanol) mixed with soda and lemon juice (good for fighting dehydratation). Unless I mix with some strange stuff I get offered from mates the next day I'm perfectly fine for a saturday morning of coding.
Duh!
It always amazes me to see a group of well educated 18-45 year olds with loads of income talk about the government as if they had no control over it. Guess what, you're their target audience. You want pot to be legal? You can do it. You want synthehol? You can do it. At what point do rich white geeks stop blaming government and start changing it?
The only thing stopping you is the belief you can't do anything about it.
I take it you never got drunk during your teens then? You've been modded flamebait but what you say is true. In Spain alcohol causes most car accidents and, sadly, there are far more bars per square Km than any other type of store. People who die in car accidents because they drank too much? Screw them, it's called natural selection, the idiots die first. This being slashdot you'd figure people would be intelligent enough to avoid a neurotoxic drug like booze altogether. Sigh.
So... how many people in excess of typical norms have to die before they realize this was a bad can of worms to open?
How many people have to use alcohol responsibly before you realize that for the vast majority of people it's not "a bad can of worms to open"?
Sorry if I seem a tad against the idea... but I think alchohol is a waste of time and money that could better be used to improve oneself and the society in which they live.
Spoken by someone that's probbably never had a hard day and needed to relax. Do you seriously work all the time on improving yourself and society, or do you need a break now and again? Movies, television, computer games, and the internet could all be considered by some "a waste of time and money that could be better used to improve oneself". We human beings need stress reduction. Many of us choose to drink a moderate amount to do so. If alcohol doesn't do it for you, great, don't drink. But if you can't see the benefits for responsible people who use it, you're just plain blind.
AccountKiller
it's best to avoid consuming the PGG on planets without proper revalidation facilities!
News about the Kettle Open Source project: on my blog
I agree.
... or something to that effect. ;-)
The only bad part is that when you outlaw alcohol, only outlaws will become alcoholics
I think drinking is one of the single stupidest things anyone could ever do. I also believe the drinking age should be lowered to 18, possibly 16. I also believe you should be able to buy crack at your local store. The problem comes when you think your beliefs regarding morality should be imposed on others.
Spoken by someone that's probbably never had a hard day and needed to relax.
Or by someone that is way too tightly wound to ever relax.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
This AC comment deserves to be seen.
Plus of course regular heavy use may bring on the more feared long term addiction to tie dyed clothing, Grateful Dead, and believing one to be living in California in the late 1960s...
#1 Prospective cohort study of cannabis use, predisposition for psychosis, and psychotic symptoms in young people, by Cécile Henquet, Lydia Krabbendam, Janneke Spauwen, Charles Kaplan, Roselind Lieb, Hans-Ulrich Wittchen and Jim van Os, British Medical Journal, December 2004, Volume 330: 11
#2 Cannabis use and mental health in young people: cohort study, by G C Patton, Carolyn Coffey, J B Carlin, Louisa Degenhardt, Micheal Lynskey and Wayne Hall, British Medical Journal, 2005, Volume 325: 1195
(rant) Meth, tobacco, alcohol, and perhaps PCP are the worst popular drugs, in terms of bodily harm. People do fucked up things when they're addicted to heroin, etc, but the drug itself is not that bad for you. From Wikipedia: ... "Francis L. Young, an administrative law judge with the Drug Enforcement Agency, has declared that in its natural form, (cannabis) is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known." Whereas tobacco is the biggest easily preventable cause of death/bodily harm out there, with alcohol not too far behind. Its about protecting the interests of big tobacco and alcohol, not about the safety of people or even cost to society in terms of medical expenses, etc. Plus this way the politicians get to seem "pro-family" in their strong stance against "dangerous drugs". In this context, would it really be possible for some new drug to be allowed, even if it removes some of the negative consequences of alcohol (see GHB, benzodiazapenes, etc. etc.) (/rant)
I remember a guy (in New Zealand) was selling CD cleaner and people were drinking it like alcohol, and claimed it had the same effect as alcohol, but without the hangover. Does anyone remember what it was? It wasn't GHB (Fantasy), and definatly not diethanol (ethylene glycol). I keep thinking it was 1,4 Dibutanol. Any ideas anyone?
...but I had lectures from him and he's really rather good and certainly knows his stuff. If you want to knock him for his name then fine.
A psychopharmacologist is interested in why and how chemicals interact with the brain and nervous system, so it's quite within his mandate to speculate on how something like 'synthehol' should theoretically be possible. Invariably you tend to find that postgraduates in the UK have to write papers on how something is theoretically possible in order to attract funding for research.
These papers are in the public domain, so if some Sci-Fi fan for LiveScience breaks the news with the sensationalist title "Hangover-free Buzz: Star Trek's Synthehol Now Possible" while at the same time quoting passages from the paper like "Some "partial agonists" of GABA-A receptors already exist; bretazenil and pagoclone were developed as anti-anxiety drugs. These drug molecules are instantly reversible by the flumazenil, used as an antidote to overdoses of tranquillisers.", I'd wager that you should be shooting the messenger here, not the scientist.
The same could be said about Slashdot but you still post in here.
Only when I'm drunk!
Considering how few of all the synthethic shit we are putting into our self (to cure stuff and so on) and their bi-effects, what would you rather use? The natural real thing or the synthetic version?
Atleast our bodies know how to deal with alcohol and get it out of the system. What biological "units" have understood how to handle "synthehol"?
Lemon Smackers! - It's like a punch in the mouth, with a lemon!
I design user interfaces for a free network management application,
Romulan Ale is for lightweights. Real men drink Klingon Blookwine.
Software Wars
Anyone have any Starfleet docs on whether or not it was permitted to replicate hash brownies?
Though they aren't as bad as arabs or chinks.
We human beings need stress reduction. Many of us choose to drink a moderate amount to do so.
And there are also those of us who never use it for stress reduction, but do use it to celebrate! I like a quote I heard from a pastor one day "Jesus turned water into wine, and evangelical christians have been trying to turn it back ever since"
http://marriedmansexlife.com/
now we can have 'Free, as in beer' and 'Expensive, as in synthenol'.
Synthenol Cristal? I'll take 4 cases.
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
nt
Those studies were a pile of crap, none of the participants were screened for psychosis before they started smoking, which leads to the inevitable question, would someone who is bordering psychosis possibly self medicate with marijuana? Correlation != Causation.
They're pretty much both anti MJ propaganda pulled out by people who were against the reclassification of marijuana in britain. Strange how they suddenly got done right around when the reclassification became news.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
1: Get hold of portable dialysis machines 2: Offer dialysis out of pubs in Glasgow on friday and saturday nights 3: PROFIT!!!
I'm going to say this: Nutt's drug would send civilisation down the tubes faster than you can imagine. Why? Because at the moment anybody who is at the bottom of the heap will often try to forget their misery with drugs. The drugs cause vast social damage and cost, encouraging crime. As a result, society is aware of the problems and has to take steps to address them - often unsuccessfully because neocons and "libertarians" (sociopaths) will attribute any cause to social problems other than ones that might require them to change their behavior. But even just locking up two million people costs them tax dollars.
Now imagine a drug as described. Fine for well adjusted middle and upper class individuals. But the poor and the maltreated will take it to forget their problems, and because there won't be any resulting social costs they will just be forgotten about. Right up until the infrastructure stops working. Or the rich start dying of the diseases being spread around by the poor drug users who don't care.
Marx described religion as the opiate of the masses, i.e. it was used to keep them quiet and obedient. This drug really would be the opiate of the masses. The problem is that most of us identify with the rulers not the masses (especially when we are young and think life is easy.) But, in reality, most of us fall into the classes decribes by Marx as the "masses." Bear that in mind.
Pining for the fjords
Alcohol is involved in more car accidents than cars even!
Synthehol sounds very dangerous. The body and brains vicious negative feedback mechanisms are important tools for controlling our behaviour. Bypass these at your peril. Sounds like Synthehol will be much easier to abuse than regular alcohol.
excess of typical norms have to die before they realize this was a bad can of worms to open?
:)
Geez, how many people do you think alcohol kills every year? I'd be willing to bet it's less than the sum of road rage and psychopaths. A drink might have actually helped in both those cases.
improve oneself and the society in which they live.
We did. We invented alcohol. And people stopped dying of dysentery. At this point in the span of humanity, alcohol has probably still saved more lives than it has taken. You and I might not be here today if our ancestors hadn't had the stuff around as a disinfectant. DFO was the typical norm way back when, I'm all for technology that saves lives and has fun side effects.
lmao, "Synthehol, 2020's gateway drug that leads to 'hard' liquor." The same (liquor) shit people made in bathtubs a hundred years before then a month after the govenment said it was illegal. I could actually see something like that airing on the news even now, in an effort to cover this article, wouldn't have to wait til 2020. We're becoming such pussies.
From Wikipedia:
...exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person...You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work...This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant after-effects that follow exhilaration brought about by alcohol....Absolutely no craving for the further use of cocaine appears after the first, or even after repeated taking of the drug...
[I]n 1884 [...] Sigmund Freud published his work Über Coca, in which he wrote that cocaine causes:
Free Manning, jail Obama.
Professor David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist at the
I don't know whether I had been exposed to syntehol myself or whether I'm still half asleep, but the first thought, which came in my mind when reading the abstract was: of course, a "Nutty Professor"!
It seems that Gene Roddenberry's precognition, as weel as his later fellows', made another strike!
Maybe we could do research in a different way: first attend to the whole Star Trek series taking notes, then go to the labs and try them out!
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
It will allow drinkers to experience all of the enjoyable, intoxicating effects of alcohol without unpleasant side-effects like hangovers.
IIRC, you didn't get the intoxicating effects either, it just had the taste of alcohol.
nd wahts sides effe,cts of reel alcihoal???? yoo guys arr stuupid1 just kidddng i love you gusyhs
"...experience all of the enjoyable, intoxicating effects of alcohol without unpleasant side-effects..."
Funny thing here. For me alcohol is a flavour and texture component of my favorite drinks. The volatility and solvent properties of ethanol make most alcoholic drinks impossible to fake--dealcoholized wines are wretched, non-alcoholic beer if carefully done can rise to the level of almost mediocre, and dealcoholized hard liquor is an oxymoron.
For me and many others, the "enjoyable" effects are not the "intoxicating" effects, and in fact the latter often fall under the category of "unpleasant side-effects."
This is just another drug to get stoned on. Big deal. Personally, I'd stick to mushrooms.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
any day. Anyone is familiar with Banks Culture books will remember the drug glands most people have in their bodies. soma on tap basically. Think of what you want and your body secretes it. 20 year acid trip, woohoo. ok I have a strange idea of fun, I admit; but self produced drugs on tap, a gland that replicates caffeine directly into your body. sweet.
Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
Some of the greatest minds in history from musicians, artists, poets, scientists, to engineers have said that the use of different drugs/alcohol helped them stimulate their thougts, come up with new and unique ideas or unique solutions to old problems or that the use of for example LSD was one of their greatest and most important experiences ever.
Health risk of an opiate NEGLIGIBLE?? Hello, anybody home? I've smoked plenty of opium, let me tell you that you're dead wrong. A few things I've learned from personal experience...
1. Opiates constipate you (Immodium AD, loperamide, is an opiate)
2. Smoking opium is harsher on the lungs than marijuana.
3. Opium is far, FAR more addictive than alcohol (witness China and Turkey with their opium wars way back in history)
4. Once hooked to strong opiates, the general recourse to getting off of them is an even worse medication (methadone) as opposed to counseling and Antabuse prescriptions for alcohol addiction.
5. Opium can and will kill you, or get you killed.
6. Opium screws with your system more than alcohol. The only reasons more die from alcohol than opium are embarassingly simple - Alcohol's far easier to obtain, it's legal, and people get really stupid off of it, and therefore do stupid things.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Really, that guy is just asking for trouble.
You can't go around being a pharmapschycologist AND having Nutt as a last name and expect to get away with it.
...but isn't the hangover a result of severe dehydration?
As I understand it, this is a chemical response at the cellular level to the presence of alcohol in the system. I don't know if it's true, but anecdotally one fairly dedicated alcoholic I knew in college advised me on a number of 'drinking tips' of which this is one that actually worked: if you're drunk when you go to bed, take 2 aspirin and a huge glass of water before falling asleep.
Voila, no hangover in the morning.
So in regards to TFA, how do you make alcohol that doesn't have the chemical effects of alcohol?
(And yes, if you're too wasted to remember to do this, you're drinking too much and deserve the aftereffect.)
-Styopa
At this point, I've had to quit my job in order to try and keep up with all these edges coming off. I wish there were a way to actually get ahead of the curve.
--
Dineanetics...The Modern Science of Eating Out
I once heard that it is a good way of "taking control of ones's own thoughts." Who knows, it might help.
"Heinekin? Pabst Blue Ribbon m*ther f*cker!"
What?
Every good inventor has had to have some kind of inspiration to actually make the invention. Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention — the inventor needs a particular device or effect, so he creates it — but sometimes they don't realize there is a need, or they don't have a basis to work from. Some brilliant researcher could be looking at the paper, smacking his forehead and crying "Now why didn't I think of that?" and proceed to apply his research in anti-anxiety drugs to create alcohol without negative effects. Sure, it's the end result guy who gets the patent (or, if the first guy is clever enough to pull off a very general patent, he may get it), but it was the inspiration of the person who posted the theoretical idea that got things off of the ground.
Heck, you see it all the time in programming. Someone points out a theoretical vulnerability in an encryption algorithm and next you know, someone's posted a practical implementation. Personally, I wonder if the original poster was trying to avoid DMCA lawsuits by getting someone else to be their catspaw, but the idea is there.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
mmm . . . cancer
does it still make washed up piece of shit old men beat their families?
does it still make fat chicks hot?
does it still make that car behind you "definitely not a cop"?
-- lol pwned
Yes, but will the synthehol be able to replicate the taste of Tranya, so that I can get drunk with Clint Howard? I really want to get in on that "scaring the crap out of the Federation with a big honking ship and a puppet" action.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
"Romulan ale should be illegal!" - Worf
"It is."- Geordi LaForge
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I see a lot of posts saying this is great cause if you hate hangovers, and this stuff is actually made, you can just drink it instead.
There's already a nearly foolproof way to not have hangovers the next day. It's called drinking a good amount of water before sleeping/passing out, and you're good to go the next day.
...a bunch of drunk people running around with phasers shouting "Make it so!"
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Still, we all have vices. At least in Freud's day, money spent on cocaine didn't fund gangsters and Colombian warlords.
If only we have some device, which, by pushing a button, we could communicate with others remotely.
There is a company which has a device which will vaporize alcohol and let you breath it. You supposedly get the same effects, but with no calories and no hangover. Now I figure it makes it a little closer to laughing gas, and in that respect, there is no hangover but the buzz also is probably going to go away pretty quick after you get off the machine. The link to the company is here:
http://www.awolmachine.com/
From their press release:
NEW YORK - There's a new low-calorie, low-carbohydrate way for adults to consume alcohol in The United States, and you don't even need a glass. It's AWOL, Alcohol With Out Liquid, and for the first time, it is available in The United States after successful debuts in Europe and Asia.
Spirit Partners, Inc. announced that it has acquired the exclusive license to market the AWOL technology in the United States, August 20, 2004, at The Trust Lounge in New York's Meat-Packing District. Spirit Partners will sell at least one AWOL dealership in all 50 states.
AWOL consists of two components: an oxygen generator and a hand-held vaporizer. Tubes from the generator attach to the vaporizer. The user chooses an 80-proof spirit, which is poured into the vaporizer. Oxygen mixes with the alcohol producing a mist which is inhaled through the mouth.
"We are elated to launch AWOL," said Kevin Morse, president of Spirit Partners, Inc. "We are now able to dispel the rumors that have been expressed in some media reports and show that AWOL is simply a fun, new, exciting way for adults to enjoy alcohol in a responsible manner."
Alcohol enters the bloodstream through the lungs rather than the stomach making AWOL low calorie and low carbohydrate. The resulting feeling is the same sense of well being an adult gets from consuming alcohol in the traditional manner, only milder.
Once the alcohol enters the bloodstream, it affects the body in the same way as drinking alcohol. Additionally, the alcohol leaves the body in the same manner as if it had been consumed by drinking.
"One of the ways alcohol leaves the body is through the mouth," Morse said. "Therefore, contrary to reports, the alcohol will definitely register on the Intoxylizer 5000, commonly called the Breathalyzer test which is used by law-enforcement officials to apprehend drivers who are under the influence of alcohol."
When used responsibly, there is no evidence to indicate greater risks from using AWOL than consuming alcohol in the traditional way. AWOL should be used no more than two 20-minute sessions within a 24-hour period.
"We are not aware of any current evidence to suggest that use of the AWOL machine, in accordance with your advice and instructions, poses particular risks to the user over and above the risks that may be posed by consuming an equivalent amount of alcohol in an equivalent time period in a more traditional way," said Judith Hind of England's Department of Health Alcohol Policy Team.
AWOL is intended for patrons of an adult-only facility or people that are at least 21 years old. Patrons should not drive or operate any type of machinery after using AWOL.
AWOL units may be purchased directly from Spirit Partners. However, Morse says the company is currently selling exclusive dealerships in all 50 states.
Ron Paul
What do you want synthehol for? Just let me know when they invent milk plus.
Robert: "Your synthehol...never leaves you out of control, isn't that so?"
Picard: "That is so."
Robert: "This will. Now there's something I'd like to see."
Picard: "What's that?"
Robert: "I venture you've probably never been drunk in your entire life."
The episode you're remembering is Relics. Data does claim that synthehol, "simulates the appearance, smell, and taste of alcohol, but the intoxicating effects can be easily dismissed." I suppose you could interpret "easily dismissed" as "easily shaken off" but given the evidence from other episodes, I interpret it as him saying that the intoxicating effects are so low that they can be dismissed as inexistent.
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
lawl
http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/
:)
The last word in alcohol use and abuse. Their article on pruno was very informative
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
You know, between "Dutch courage" and "Dutch uncle," the Dutch must be an interesting bunch.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Also I believe (less scientific proof available) there is a bunch of poisoning or other interference with the body caused by manmade additives and other impurities, either due to poor quality or inherent in a certain liquor. Those guys who made high quality (?) vodka by passing cheap stuff through commercial filters is another example it seems.
This leads me to believe that drinking water or including in the drink something that breaks down to a lot of water is good for you, higher purity drinks are good, a way to wash alcohol and impurities out of the system through tons of water or perhaps by adding easily antagonised/captured chemical groups to the substances so they can be dumped out of the body is good. This latter possibility sounds like the quote from TFA and suggests that maybe you could still get drunk but you could get sobered up with a sobering elixir like in the scifi.
The really nasty side effects are killing people with drunk driving. If people had the option of choosing alcohol analog based drinks and they actually tasted good, it might really improve safety on the road.
That nasty beer like stuff that has no alcohol in it... ?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Star Trek is a TV show. Please stop comparing it to REAL LIFE.
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
I thought that was called a quaalude.
--
make install -not war
I make wine while my wife makes beer. Our 'external' liquor purchases have dropped from 120$/month (10 good bottles of wine) to around 120$/6 months (30 bottles of cheap wine).
Basic costs are grape juice (25$/5 gallon) and malted barley (50$/55lb bag). Yeast is cheap and bottles are free if you're willing to ask around for them.
All in all I figure it costs (excluding equipment depreciation, I know...) just around $1/bottle of wine and around 0.25$/bottle of beer.
Thanks, but I'll take my hangovers. They remind me that I need to be more careful while boiling the wort.
If what this article is saying is true-- that I could get a buzz without the wretched hangover, I will buy that product. It won't even take me a second to think about it. The first retailer that has hangover free vodka or beer is going to be a bazillionaire.
Honestly, there are only a couple blatantly obvious inventions left in the world and this is one of them.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
Add one shot of any cheap Scotch blend (Johnny Walker or Sheep Dip) and add a cup of Mountain Dew over ice. Enjoy!
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
I reccomend Meditation instead. About half-hour daily to relieve stress.
But if you're talking about who's suffering more damage, more side effects, and is more likely to develop the dreaded "beer belly" - you've got that covered in spades. Binge drinking is without a doubt more harmful than moderate drinking, even when consuming the same amount over time.
That said, I don't agree with the US's current concept of "alcoholic" and the complete blindness to the difference between an alcohol problem and an alcohol addiction. That went away in the early 80s it seems, and I'd like to have it back again. Shades of grey are important here.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Well, OK, but I think you're an exception. Most people who I've discussed this with get sheepish.
And I'm sort-of with you on the scotch, it's a very interesting drink... though I would call it stimulating rather than enjoyable. A good scotch tastes like peat! No one goes around chewing peat.
Fruit juice can be just as complex without alcohol, you need to investigate non-alcoholic cocktails.
If you don't like sugar though, there are plenty of foods that are just as interesting as scotch - curries in particular. My point being that there are plenty of interesting tastes in the world which don't involve alcohol, so if you do drink then you must do so for the mind altering effects, therefore the person you were replying to is right.
Maybe you're an exception (as your sig), but I don't think you represent the majority here. After all, look at the popularity of non-alcoholic beer... and check out the ages of people in bars.
Let's concentrate on making synthetic babes! Oh, wait...
The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. -- Daniel Webster
I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.
-- Dean Martin
(Ok, so I had to throw in a Nick Cage quote from 'Leaving Las Vegas' - call it a two-fer Friday special!)
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I'd never heard of GHB, so I googled.
GHB: Gamma hydroxy butyrate or Gamma hydroxybutyric acid, Sodium Oxybate
Made From: gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide - basically it is degreasing solvent or floor stripper mixed with drain cleaner.
And that guy thought it would be safer than beer????
...because if they did make it, it would be considered a drug, subject to FDA regulations, and so forth.
By all rights, alcohol should be considered a drug. It is a drug. It's just that it has such a unique relationship with our society that it's essentially "grandfathered in"--the one time they tried to regulate it as a drug, it caused so much trouble that they ended up deregulating it again.
But a "synthetic alcohol," regardless of whether it's supposed to act just like alcohol without the bad side-effects, would not be the same thing as alcohol--so it would probably never be available in lieu of alcohol.
Furthermore, I'm not sure how they could incorporate it into beers, wines, or liquors, given that the character of the beverages is created at the same time the alcohol comes into being naturally. (Unless they could somehow genetically engineer yeast to make the synthetic stuff instead of the real stuff.) So what you're talking about is basically a synthetic form of Everclear.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Every pirate's choice of drink!
Contains one or more of the following: kerosene
propylene glycol
sulphuric acid
artificial sweeteners
red dye no2
rum
acetone
battery acid
scumm
axle grease
and/or pepperoni
If you want to talk about hangovers, this one will put you in a coma!
Fighting over religion is like seeing whose imaginary friend is best.
It was worth seeing just for the scene with Captain Picard downing some of Guinan's real deal. Prior to that, I always thought of Picard as a sissy frenchman.
...we already had this and it was called Everclear.
Whenever you read this sig someone's refrigerator light turns on.
"Romulan ale" is not the real deal. There is no such thing as Romulan ale, much less Romulans. Get therapy.
I can only imagine how little work I would get done, and how many more students would fail out of college.
Hangovers do not prevent people from drinking.
Hangovers do prevent people from going to class or work the next morning.
The thing about drinking is that people forget fairly quickly what a hangover feels like... And go... "Oh what is one beer going to do to me! Mmmm... This buzz feels good. Another one can't hurt!"
Of course 6 beers, 2 shots of jadger, a 5th of tequila, and then 4 hours later... Your alarm goes off around 6:00am and your still in the bathroom with your head in the toliet and your swearing you'll never drink again.
Of course... Until next week until you decide to have another beer and then all those memories of being hungover are completley forgotten.
If there were no hangovers, then people wouldn't drink more, but wouldn't call out sick the next day.
Seriously, how many college students and workers aroudn the world do you think called out this morning alone because of a hangover? Productivity and grades would increase world wide if they could drink and then get up the next morning without any ill effects.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I LOVE YOUUUU MAN!
"that appears in Star Trek:The Next Generation television series) cannot be created now. " Oh, it can't now?
Close.
The problem, in the beginning, isn't alcohol, but alcohol can quickly become a problem.
When alcohol abuse is simply a symptom, that is addiction.
When alcohol abuse leads to a physical need for more alcohol, that is chemical dependency.
You dimwit! Duff Lite wasn't the name of the new beverage produced when Springfield banned alcohol after a woman saw Bart drunk at the St. Patrick's day parade, and which brought about the immediate failure of the Duff Brewing Company---it was Duff Zero!
Right; and tobacco doesn't cause lung cancer, people who were going to get lung cancer anyway are probably drawn to/self-medicating with tobacco.
When people get hallucinations long after taking LSD ('flashbacks') that's not the LSD, people who get random hallucinations are drawn to/self-medicating with LSD.
There are vastly higher rates of disorder A amongst people who take drug B. There can only be one explanation; people with disorder A are drawn to drug B. Honestly..
If you want to smoke it then fine, but please don't spread rubbish like this for kids to read and get the impression that it's harmless.
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
That's completely disingenuous.
People don't make GHB out of Draino, even if Draino contains NaOH. The use of NaOH or KOH in the production of GHB is not a particularly enlightening fact and says nothing about whether the final product is safe.
Mixing GBL and NaOH is not like making a rum and coke. There's no "drain cleaner" floating around in the final product. The chemical reaction is transformative.
Secondly, GBL may be a "degreasing solvent" but that's irrelevent since it's not poisonous. It's metabolized directly into GHB, in fact.
Finally, GHB is endogenous, which means it is naturally produced in and used by your body. It metabolizes into GABA, an important neurotransmitter. So, congratulations, man, you're on GHB right now.
...but I've smelt it, and it doesn't smell that good. From what I can tell, alchoholic beverages don't taste good half as much as it's an acquired taste.
In star trek synthahol was non-alcoholic drinks, except in the star trek universe they tasted good, or just like the original would. so the synthahol equivalent of whisky would taste exactly like whisky but without the effects like getting drunk and having a hang over. It didnt just show up in next generation either, it was alive and well in the 60's show as well. they even mentioned at some point that it doesnt get you drunk, thats why scotty kept a secret stash of scotch under one of the armor helmets in his quarters. I believe McCoy kept a stash too for "special occasions".
Even in TNG they mention that synthahol is non-alcoholic. after picard gets turned into a borg and back again he goes home to see his brother, they get together and statrt to drink some real wine, picard's brother says to him that this is the real deal, you might loose control. Not like that synthahol garbage the military makes you drink.
so technically we already have a synthahol type equivalent, so drink up your o'doules (sp?)!
-ManJerk
-Boycot shampoo! demand real poo!
It's called GHB. If you can get past the media "date rape" hype, and actually listen to people who've been "abusing" it for years, you'll find there are no hangovers and all you need to do to sober up is eat a little food.
Why is it that "designer drugs" are bad, but some chemist mentions "real synthehol" and all of slashdot yells "cool!" ???
I fully understand the practicalities of alcohol as medicine and would not want to discourage its use in that area, but without negative side effects to drinking to excess, the bottom line is that more people will do it. Drink too much, that is.
And note that unlike Star Trek's synthehol, the intoxicating effects themselves of what they are talking about in this article are not easily ignored... it's just that the most visible negative side effects like hangovers and getting sick won't happen. People can, and most definitely will still get piss-ass drunk with this stuff. It'll be a boon for bars, because if people don't get sick, they'll have that much less reason to stop drinking.
And of course, it's more often than not that an alcohol related death was not a person who themselves had drank to too much, but was killed (often inadvertently) by the actions of a person who was drunk, so we can't even attribute it to darwin's theory in action.
TAANSTAFL.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Even if they can find away not to trigger the physical craving response by some subtle manipulation of the molecules, how can they remove the powerful psychological urge?
If you take GHB, it removes the physical urge to drink alcohol. It also makes you happier. Overall, the psychological urge to drink is greatly diminished. In fact, US Patent 6,436,998 covers GHB as an alcoholism treatment.
For the sake of comparison, how badly did you want to get drunk the last time you exercised? If you've never felt GHB, it is like a five mile run in a bottle.
I can get quite intoxicated every night, including sharing a couple nights with my girlfriend for a week and only use 1 gram/week.
An unfiltered cigarette weighs about a gram, a full pack is half an ounce. I weighed it once when I used to smoke the nasty things.
I think you mistyped; you mean an eighth of an ounce lasts you and your lady a week, if you're talking about three or four bongs or one-hitters per night.
But yes, a "pack" of good marijuana "cigarettes" would last most smokers two weeks to a month. And would cost up to several hundred dollars.
I am not going to say that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer, nor am I going to suggest that cancer doesn't have natural causes that can't be eliminated (it does), but I tend to wonder about the real truth about it. Personally, I think that smoking is but one, most likely minor (especially in the case of secondhand smoke!), component amongst much greater ones, in causing lung cancer and other cancers today.
The truth is, most of us live in a very dirty, polluted world. In our cities and suburbs - indeed, just about anywhere - we have air pollution, most of it caused by industry, but a significant portion of it (especially at ground level) caused by automobiles and other internal-combustion engine powered machines. We sit in these machines, and breath the exhalations of them. We walk by them, and breath not only that, but also the dust from the roads, tires, and brake linings. Some of this dust is likely fibrous and/or nanoscopic in size.
Couple all of this with benzene, pvc, and other contaminants - it should be a wonder that we arent' dying quicker from lung cancer and other cancers before we are 30. Actually, when it gets right down to it, we are...
Ignore all of that, though. It isn't the automobile, nor is it industry which is helping to cause high cancer rates - it is cigarettes, evil, nasty smokers - BOOO! BOOO!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Opium really is the correct anti-anxiety medication when you do the analysis.
All recreational drugs, including stimulants, are "relaxing" or "relieve stress." What you want from an anti-anxiety drug in particular is a boost in dopamine levels. The problem is that most dopamine drugs, like alcohol and Xanax, tend to work by destroying neural connections. In fact, the dopamine boost from these drugs may be coincidental; certainly having your brain manually shut off can be regarded as anti-anxiety by itself.
In other words, all depressants I've ever seen work by causing brain damage. Opiates are not a depressant. They simply produce a great deal of dopamine, probably the only drug that does.
I cannot believe no one has mentioned this.
http://www.odouls.com/
p.s. I agree with the fella who pointed out that Data's description of the effects of synthehol as, "...easily dismissed," means there is no intoxication. Which fits O'Douls perfectly. It tastes similar to alcohol, no hangover, is not toxic, and its effects are easily dismissed.
However, I highly doubt it will get borgs drunk.
like:
- running over people with your car
- waking up with shit all over your dick
- child support a year later
- numerous inexplicable cuts, bruises and sprains
- friends that aren't anymore
- marriages that aren't anymore
- the bed in a jail cell
Yeah, I need more of that.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
what you're playing with is not your grandparent's, or even your parent's, pot.
Let me explain the difference between what we had and what you have today.
The only thing that's changed is how pot's packaged, while how its strength is measured hasn't.
When the police (whose measurements are what's used by the Gov. to cook these bad data up) test pot, they test it all, together; seeds, stems, and all.
In 1971 a fifteen dollar ounce of pot had perhaps a half an ounce of seeds. The seeds have almost no THC whatever; you can't get high smoking seeds. The stems weigh as much as the smokable material, and have littlte to no drug, either.
Take out your half ounce of stems and seeds and you have half an ounce of pot that contains as much drug as the previous full ounce.
Of the half ounce that's left, half of that was leaves. The leaves will get you high, but the buds are the good part. Throw away the leaves (what we called "shake" and the kids now call "schwag") and you have a quarter ounce of good bud, no different than the quarter ounce you now get.
See, they just stopped selling stems, seeds, and leaves. So when you measure the potency, it's four times as strong. At forty to over a hundred dollars a quarter ounce!
I can assure you from personal experience that what I smoked in Thailand in 1974 was far better than anything you can buy on the street today.
Discussion of this topic (as any other) should not be impinged, regardless of whose kids you feel obligated to protect. With that said, I agree that those lacking mental maturity should not use psychoactive drugs.
Call me when they get the Pan-Galatic Gargle-Blaster ready, baby!
(slow... wait... slashdot... time....)
how long until
Good god man, did you stop to think about obesity? 2/3 of Americans are suffering from weight problems. And you think smoking weed is safe? :)
Guinan will be serving!
Get drunk without organ damage, without a hangover, and without risk of overdose? It's called GHB. Just don't mix it with alcohol and you're fine. It'll still make you puke if you take too much tho.
Have you ever heard of an alcohol vaporizer? Minimal hangover, fast onset of effects, and reduced health risk compared to excessive drinking. All the properties of this proposed "synthahol". Unfortunately, this is how we celebrate innovation in our society. So I wouldn't hold out hope for whatever this guy creates staying legal for too long...
LRC, the best-read libertarian site on the web
Fermented grape juice is a partial answer to the question, "what have the Romans done to us and how can we get back at them for it?"
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Make mine a prune juice
Why don't Baptists have sex standing up? It could lead to dancing.
Actually, what he's looking for is Ketamine. Horse tranquilizers. Dry the liquid, powder it, and snort it. The high lasts 20 minutes, there is no comedown, and it's completely harmless. Actually, it even protects neurons from oxygen deprivation. A ketamine high is very similar to being slightly drunk, although you don't want to mix ketamine with alcohol as the two potentiate each other and you may get queasy or find yourself unable to focus your eyes. It's a disassociative, which is why (in higher doses) it was used as a general anaesthetic for children (it's that safe.) But the kids would wake up and claim they had talked to God, which disturbed many parents, so they stopped using it in humans. Who cares if a horse talks to God, right? The disassociative part reminds me of the effects of LSD, about six hours into a trip, when you get all introspective. But very manageable. Physically, it takes a little getting used to. The first time you try walking on ketamine, you'll feel like your limbs are all the wrong size and you'll walk like a marionette. But good luck finding any now, the feds have cracked down and I haven't seen any in years.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I worked in a medical marijuanna club in San Francisco, building computer security systems to keep our patients' medical records out of the hands of the Feds. The highest grade cannabis commonly available today has 20%-25% THC. Some high end strains that have been grown absolutely perfectly may have upwards of 30%. On the other hand, THC is not the only thing in cannabis that gets you high. We had a college student come in one day and show us some absolutely 100% pure THC he had extracted in the lab. That should get you SUPER high, right? Nope, it really didn't do much at all. Without the other cannabinoids I couldn't even recognize the effects. We also had a fellow who made hash oil that was 80% pure. Now that stuff would put you in a coma if you weren't careful. We had things like movie night at the club, and sometimes he would come around and give out free samples. We had to ask him to be more careful, some of our new members who weren't used to pot would get so intoxicated they couldn't get up off the couch afterwards. Trying to herd a bunch of near comatose cancer and AIDS patients out the door at nine at night is no fun.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
It was just another yuppie trend like O2 bars. Complete waste of time and money.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
These devices are pure BS. Sounds good but they don't work.
You'll get more buzz in an O2 bar.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The only law that makes things taste good is the Reinheitsgebot, or Beer Purity Law of 1516.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Well, I am extrapolating from the smell, and smell is a component of taste.
There was an interesting post here a while ago about hacking Vodka.
1 6/1731212
Essentially it is all about the filtration:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/
Saturday November 20, 2004
Libertas in infinitum
synthenol sounds like odouls
If this prevents me from waking up next to something which looks like a Ferengi I'm all for it.
Great, does Synthehol mean an end to Girls Gone Wild? Damn....
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
I am thinking about spreading a rumor about some kind of drug effect to garlic mustard (Alliaria Petiolota). Garlic mustard is an ecological disaster in the making, and the people around here who are educating people about the problem are organic types who would faint at the suggestion of Roundup herbicide -- they are laboring under the impression they can bring it under control by pulling it. This weed is beyond some pony-tailed volunteers going into city parks every May and pulling it -- they are hardly making a dent and it is spreading with each passing year. It is actually highly nutritious, in the same family as cabbage, broccoli, but I don't think enough people want to eat it. If we convinced the authorities that people were smoking it, boy, you would see an erradication effort.
My observation is that alcohol abuse can take two forms, both of which are lumped in as addiction.
Some have the widely recognized real physical addiction. Others have the less recognized habituation or psychological addiction. The former are in for a long struggle. The latter really can 'just stop' if they begin to address the underlying psychological issue (or in a few cases, just realize "hey! I'm drinking a hell of a lot of beer, and it's a problem!"). They will, however, need to do occasional reality checks afterwards lest they slip into old habits again. The physical addict must consider social drinking very dangerous. The (formerly) habituated will not likely have a problem with it once they stop for a while.
The habituated group really can be helped by meditation, or perhaps in really bad cases, anti-depressants. That group CAN be cured (that is, once they stop, they no longer have a problem).
It's unfortunate that there's so much dogma around alcohol addiction.
"I've never had a date though and, being 30 already, have mostly given up."
You will, don't worry. The thing is to find something you enjoy, and enjoy it in a social environment. Sounds like you like music, you got a pet. Hey, go to some music gigs. Hang out with other folk who have the same pet as you. Do it online if you want. You're going to end up chatting to a load of people who share the same interests. Some of them you'll end up hanging out with and sharing social time with, and discover you have more shared interests. The folk who are into the same music might also be into going out for Mexican food or watching sci-fi movies or whatever. One of these folk might turn into a date, you'll be spending your time enjoying sharing your interest in music or whatever and forget to be worried about chatting them up. Nothing is more attractive than somebody's who's excited by the same interests as you are. You'll be fine. Good luck on you.