Slashdot Mirror
Ever-Happy Mouse Sheds Light on Depression
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have bred a strain of mouse that's permanently cheerful, in hopes of better understanding and treating depression in people. By breeding mice lacking the TREK-1 gene, which is involved in serotonin transmission, researchers were able create a depression-resistant strain. They say it's the first time depression has been eliminated through genetic alteration of an organism."
Wow this is really good new.... aww hell I'm too depressed to finish writing this comment, where is the icecream?
Some people encrypt by using rot-13 twice. I prefer the more secure method of using rot-1 a total of twenty six times.
Pinky
do they know the mice are happy?
:HAPPY
ECHO Oh boy! Wheel!
ECHO Oh boy! Ladder!
ECHO Oh boy! Water!
ECHO Oh boy! Food
GOTO:HAPPY
From TFA:
The details of this research, which involved an international collaboration with scientists from the University of Nice, France....
What better place for depression research. No, really. They have great beaches. Such cool stones.
FairTax baby!
Reminds me of the movie Brain Candy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116768/
He's been working for Disney for years.
Grow an ear on his back, that'll teach 'em!
I'd like the be the first to welcome our cheerful overlords...
If you're incapable of depression, and you're always happy, how do you know if you really are happy?
Deactivate a mouse's TREK-1 and it acts like it's on antidepressants.
Take my Trek away from me and I get depressed.
I wonder how closely depression and negative emotions like outrage, regret, etc are tied together? If I'm unable to be depressed, would I be able to care about what seems to be a series of bad things shaping the world? People I've met on anti-depressants can be pretty non-chalant regarding just about everything, so long as they're on their pills.
If you can see where I'm going with this, you're probably a paranoid conspiracy theorist too.
what the hell is a 'junk character', anyway?
je t'enmerde slashdot
Whilst this seems like it could be useful if applied to humans, what kind of effect is it going to have at times that it might be appropriate to be depressed (ie. greiving period after a death, etc.)?
Hmm, sounds like we might have some reaver mice on our hands in a few years.
Kill the damn things before they escape, learn to talk, and start asking us if "we are having a case of the Mondays"
NO GOOD CAN COME OF THIS
humans can have very similar experience: just quit work and start smoking pot, eating magic mushrooms and dancing on the streets in the nude.
Is it a good idea to get rid of stress-related (causing) mechansims? A stress free life maybe a very exciting prospect for an individual for about a month or a year, but is this going to be good from point of view of the bigger picture? If humans did not stress about things at all, would they bother doing anything, like bothering to find food, protecting the offspring, basically surviving as a species?
You can't handle the truth.
TREK-1 has an important role in neuroprotection against epilepsy and brain and spinal chord ischemia. So there are some very adverse side effects to this.
The article seems very light. There's lots of interesting stuff to be found if you google for "trek-1 gene".
Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
Hey, maybe the scientists can use this to their advantage. Something like this:
PETA spokesman: You're abusing animals in your lab, you fiend.
Scientist: But they're happy!
PETA spokesman: How can they be happy with you jabbing them with needles every half hour? Among OTHER things.
Scientist: Easy - they're permanently cheerful, no matter what we do to 'em. We engineered 'em that way.
PETA spokesman: >.
The point here is to catch on to better treatments because even if the depression-triggering factors are removed the depression may still be present and self-sustaining.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I'm all for medical advances and improving people's lives, but something just doesn't sit well with genetically engineering happy people.
I mean, call me old-fashioned, but we are people exactly because we have the full spectrum of emotions, all of which have influenced our society and creativity.
Sure, a society full of happy people is a nice goal to strive towards, but isn't the right way to approach this actually improving society, to make it more suitable for humans, and a happier environment to live in? Like Fromm argued long ago.
Something about this just reeks of genetically engineering efficient workers who don't complain instead of fixing some of societies underlying problems. Sure, it could help some clinically depressed patients, but I can't help but think of Lucas' THX 1138 if this gets out of hand.
Mice wake up, eat, sh!t and run on their wheel.
Mice DON'T change the world. Mice invent new tools to save back breaking labor.
Mice don't feel taunted by the universe, to figure out it's secrets.
Mice don't get depressed because a loved one is dying of cancer, and work tirelessly seeking, supporting, and funding medical research. (then again I think Mice get the raw end of this particular desire of Man)
I am not a rat in cage.
I am not a tool to be made happy so I can work longer at a job I should hate.
Keep your chemical paradise, I'll take life for all it's worth.
I would rather be ashes than dust!
If they can breed a Goth that's permanently cheerful *then* I'll be impressed.
If we resorted to genetic engineering of humans to make everyone perpetually happy, I'd say that'd be quite depressing.
Frog blast the vent core.
I wonder if this will lead to identifying animals that don't have this gene at all as being permanently happy? Perhaps it will be revealed that koalas or dolphins are also happy the whole time.
I've been posting on the net since 1994 and I still haven't come up with a good sig!
I know a lot of people who have struggled with depression, and I really hope more effective treatments are created as a result of this study. But, and this is a big "but" (not the J Lo kind), this kind of treatment practically begs for "A Brave New World" type exploitation by a government (even a "benign" one). Considering all of the other means by which some governments force their will upon a population, they would be stupid not to take advantage of this type of advanced "happy pill."
Of course, it's possible that this type of demeanor just isn't stable in a human, or (more likely) it reduces the usable work output of a person enough that it could not be abused on that scale. Of course there's also the problems of individuals taking drugs like these for personal use and ending up apathetic about everything else (a "safe" version of crack, so to speak). Any thoughts on preventing/solving these problems?
Let's get Marvin to talk to the mouse and see if it still remains cheerful.
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
If you'd take away pain, there's not much of a strong, primary inhibitor to prevent yourself from damaging yourself (except rational thoughts, which usually take second place to instincts).
I'm going on a edge here, as not all depressions have clear causes, but I'd say most depressions are symptoms of unhealthy emotional behaviour, like not being able to bond to another human e.g. Much like not all pain has a clear cause, but mostly it's just you hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer or such. Taking away the depression will take away the motivation to solve the underlying problems.
I dunno, but I have a bad feeling about scientists even trying this, it all seems very short sighted. What would the pratical applications be? Genetically altering foetuses of people with a hereditary inclination to depression? Brrrr...
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
Seeing Rosanne Barr naked in the streets would sober my ass right up, and depress me, all in one shot.
Dog is my co-pilot.
I don't really think that anyone will use this method on humans. This gene evolved for a reason, and just removing it could cause problems. What this does do, though, is show that influencing the genes themselfs can stop depression, which could lead to new cures. This is less of a way of tackling the problem, and more a way of looking at it differently.
I give bread to the poor, they call me a saint.
I ask why the poor have no bread, they call me a communist.
A beowulf country of happy republican slaves.
Maybe that is enough to make the neocons believe in genetics.
FEMALE MOUSE 1 to (No TREK-1) Mouse: You are so cool, always cheerful, lets have sex!
FEMALE MOUSE 2 to others: That mouse has no self-respect!
... Bush and Cheney too, and while your at it slip me some of that. Ah, wait, wow that feels nice. Fuck it, everything will work out. I'm going to the park.
Obviously Trek-1 exists in the animal physiology for a reason. Although it can take what seems like eons to genetically evolve, the system would have removed this substance from the body at least to some degree if it weren't necessary. A previous post had mentioned that it's used in relation to epilepsy, or more to the point, it is part of the system that avoids epilepsy. This sounds pretty important to me.
Now, I don't think it's a bad idea to experiement with this kind of genetic science, in fact, I'm glad someone is doing it. Whether we actually directly benefit from this research regarding Trek-1 or if we benefit from the methods that were created or learned regarding genetic manipulation in general, it's a good thing. The problem is, could they have spent their time and the tax payers money more wisely by altering another gene instead? After all, if we already knew that high risk of epilepsy (if I understood the post I refered to correctly) is the side effect of this type of genetic manipulation, then in reality, it can be seen as producing and organism susceptible to epilepsy instead of having produced a less depressed organism.
Also, I don't know if anyone else has had the experience that I've had in the past with people that are typically never depressed. I mean, really... it's incredibly annoying. I even know one person that is naturally incapable of being depressed (it seems) and also has insomnia. This combination made him the worst roommate I ever had. Although I love him like a brother, I can't spend a weekend at a cabin with him. It's just not possible.
I'd also like to point out, that in my experience, a persons ability to understand the difference between right and wrong is often based on their ability to place themselves in another persons' shoes. For example, it must be wrong to do this, because if someone did it to me, I would be sad and depressed. After all, if you were to take someones puppy and put it in a meat grinder to make sausages, if they were incapable of feeling depression, then they probably wouldn't even care.
Whether there are people with severe depression disorders or not, it's part of what makes us human. I sadly am a realist and believe that unless normal people had depressed people to compare themselves to, then they would be the depressed people themselves.
Well, yeh, I wasted far more time on this than I should have already, everyone enjoy your Wednesday, sleep well and dream of large women.
This is a new conspiracy call the "Booby-Hatch Conspiracy." I guess those men/ladies in those funny white coats (or is that funny blue coats?) don't have enough of a workload so they are drumming up more of a workload for themselves. If this is the case then maybe they are the ones to be locked up while the insane, umm, i mean the "happy ones" go free.
Perhaps we will one day see an end to this fad of the perpetually depressed EMO kids...
Anybody saw/remember Serenity (movie of Sci-Fi series Firefly)? Can it happen if we get rid of stress? Spoiler Alert! -------------- In the movie, somehow they took people's aggressiveness, and people simply stopped doing anything (they literally stopped moving), and they died while they are sitting/lying down like dolls. --------------
Why do people make things better or new things? Because were become unhappy with the old, thats why we have cars, areosole cheese, jam, rockets, WD-40 and duct tape.
If you were always happy with burning your hand then we would never of made the oven glove.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
They say Depression is the common cold of mental health. There are two types: Clinical depression (the chemical inbalance type) and depression caused from 'faulty mind-sets'. This won't stop depression... it will just be another drug that doctors will prescribe. Besides, being someone who has suffered from heavy depression for years, i think that it can be good to have in small doses. It gives you a wake up call, "hello - everything is not well - you may want to get some help"... thats what it did for me. I'm of the opinion that too many people opt for the 'chemical fix' rather than adjusting thinking patterns, changing their thought life.
Jesus Saves
This kind of scares me.
Being depressed once in a while is a part of life which I think is very important.
There are some things you just can't learn by simply being 'happy' all the time.
IF this will ever be applied in masses to human beings (wich I doubt), and IF something
goes wrong later on and the person feels depressed for some reason, it has NO way
of dealing with it.
It's a bit like teaching someone about pain without ever inflicting it.
Ellidi
And I thought this was for computer mice. I could really use a depression-alleviating mouse to cheer me up while I stuff my face with chips and coke while playing CS all day. Thanks for nothing, science. :(
Two common side effects of most SSRIs:
Increased thoughts of suicide in teens.
Decreased libido.
When they find you're suffering side effects of one, they phase you over to another in the hopes of dodging those side effects.
You'd really want to be damned sure the source wasn't simply your body's reaction to its own seratonin in larger quantities before you modified genes and made it permanent. As far as I'm aware, you generally can't simply switch to a different set of genes if one set isn't working so well.
Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?
I dunno Brain, but whatever it is, it's going to be fun. WahooeeeiiiNARF!
"It's the Pax. The G-Paxilon Hydrochlorate that we added to the air processors. It was supposed to calm the population, weed out aggression.
"Well, it works. The people here stopped fighting. And then they stopped everything else. They stopped going to work, they stopped breeding, talking, eating. There's a million people here, and they all just let themselves die.
"I have to be quick. About a tenth of a percent of the population had the opposite reaction to the Pax. Their aggressor response increased beyond madness. They have become...well, they've killed most of us. And not just killed -- they've done things.
"I won't live to report this, but people have to know. We meant it for the best... to make people safer..."
Mice don't feel taunted by the universe, to figure out it's secrets.
Mice DON'T change the world. Mice invent new tools to save back breaking labor.
To quote the Douglas Adams:
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.
On a more serious note, just because mice deal with different issues, who is to say their depression is any different. First of all, all pain in relative: being hanged by the tail might be as big of a deal for a mouse as you losing a job is for you, there is no way to tell. Second, as previous posters have pointed out, continuous depression is less a factor of the situation and more a factor of how your body deals with it. Biology makes it so that some people deal with the death of a loved one relatively well, while others break down completely at day to day activities. Basically, who are you to say that similar ways of dealing with depression can be used on mice and people.
I give bread to the poor, they call me a saint.
I ask why the poor have no bread, they call me a communist.
The same thing we do every night, Pinky: Throw a muthaf*ckin party in this muthaf*ckin cage - yoyoyo man, give up!
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
The really scary part of your post is that the first person you thought of naked dancing in the street was Roseanne Barr.
Not exactly the person that I would have thought of first...
... or is that just what the hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional mice WANT us to think?
-David
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?"
"Narf!"
"Exactly! - Narf!"
"Narf!"
"Narf!"
"Zonk!"
"Dude I'm so high right now, and I don't even konw why!"
"Narf!"
(...)
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
So the next step is to make an animal (cow, pig, whatever) happy with the prospect of being eaten by us and add enough intelligence so that it can communicate this to us.
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
Some of my most profound thoughts have occurred during periods of depression. How else can one get a better perspective on things usually taken for granted? Depression even helps me prioritise things... without it I wouldn't have discovered the energy and motivation to change things I ought to.
I would think it axiomatic that most thinkers like Einstein and Newton have had long and frequent bouts of depression. An uncaring, nonchalant, ever-smiling drone is useless in real life - unless one is a politician, that is. Or a lawyer, perhaps.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
"The discovery of a link between TREK-1 and depression could ultimately lead to the development of a new generation of antidepressant drugs," noted Dr. Debonnel.
Uh, yeah. Forgive my lack of enthusiasm about that last part.
We're not even sure how current antidepressants work, which leads to prescribing them in a shotgun manner hoping that one will cure what ails ya', and producing a raft of side-effects including - wait for it - suicidal tendancies.
What we really need out of this discovery is more drugs. Riiiight.
SLM
main() {1;}
This is nothing new. It was done long time back when Jerry was created. Jerry has been blasted into outer space, hit upon with a sledgehammer, is perpetually chased by a cat 10 times his size, but he never ever gets depressed
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Would that be before, or after, you gouged your eyes out?
What kind of nut job wants to create permanently cheerful beings? Mega corporations and governments - that's who! Are you low paid, beaten, ill-fed and without proper housing? Missing some human rights? Don't worry - all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. Be cheerful!
maybe your TREK-1 levels need levelling - clearly an additive to the ice-cream that came right off that test tube tree over there.
I just now got done writing a very long (3,746 words) diary entry about my recent depression - and then I come to slashdot and find out there's a freaking MOUSE out there someplace that's living what my depressed-self would consider the perfect life. How... depressing.
Life. Don't talk to me about life.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
I'm all for curing depression, but I still have to be wary of genetic engineering that makes you incapable of being unhappy...
>> Obviously Trek-1 exists in the animal physiology for a reason
Not necessarily, think of the appendix. That's not how evolution works. Evolution isn't efficient or intelligent. It doesn't get rid of the appendix or anything else just because they're not required. It just selects for things that provide a competitive advantage.
Could such technology in the future be used to control a group or a population? There's so much potential for misuse, I tell ya, in keeping the people (workers, potential dissidents... etc) cheerful and oblivious to depressing circumstances and reasons for complaint.
Otherwise explain flared jeans... Go on.
Deleted
Hmm..And on top of that, they are all features normally associated with overlords... .. I, for one, welcome them..
Back in the old days the only experiments done with mice ended up with them getting cancer or some other miserable disease; but now they're getting happy pills... Methinks the little b*stards have formed a union... PS. Don't post here pointing out it wasn't a "pill" - it's a figure of speech.
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
SSRIs don't actually boost serotonin production. They inhibit the reuptake of serotonin thereby keeping the levels higher. It's all in the name (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors).
A drug such as Venlafaxine or Ecstacy boosts your levels of serotonin.
The no so fun part is moving from SSRIs to something like Venlafaxine, which is a booster. Most SSRIs have a very long half-life, so you have to stop taking them for a while before starting on the boosters. If you don't you'll probably end up with serotonin poisoning.
My personal experience is that SSRIs didn't really work, Venlaxfaxine can get you through the day, although you may have to vomit about 1 hour after taking your perscription, and you walk arround supported on meathooks (best desc I can make for it). Stopping taking Venlafaxine is 'interesting, due to your brain chemistry suddently crashing. After about two years of battling I ditched the pills, my job, drank a bit less, ate better, lots of regular exercise, and after 6 months started a new job I knew I wasn't going to work more than the minimum hours. At the moment, it's going well.
To be exact, they have just numbed her (note: in Russian, different animals have genders, and mouse is 'she'. I will never point to animal as 'it', please excuse me) emotions instead of making here genuinely happy. Not-sad mouse is as far, far away from ever-happy as she could be.
Sorry, yes I know a dirty word around here, but it stops depression dead. Our body is designed to do physical work on a daily basis, if it doesn't get exercise all sorts of things start to go wrong, depression is just one of them, and not a minor one.
Deleted
Your first link is incorrect. Just in case someone want's to find them, here are the singing mice.
Hey if you take away my depression what does I would do all that time cheerfull!? no thanks let me depressed and happy.
All Your Happy Mice Are Belong To US!!!
Horns are really just a broken halo.
Yes - and they are mighty mighty
...was caused by being too much in artificial light as an infant. It appears to me that if this is the case, you should alleviate that problem before using any other more 'intruding' methods.
Makes sense too, regarding the depression-rate in certain Scandinavian countries (being much higher than where the sun shines more evenly).
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
I am having ADHD; got it genetically from my mother. This means I am depressed half of the time; because evidentely I do care about too much which I shouldn't even care about....
.. for a moment ....
...
I've had Relatine (Ritaline) on doctors prescription for me. That time when I started taking that drug I could not draw, design, write anymore; I could not mix my music (am weekly resident DJ); nothing creative worked.
It was like I am now thinking in tree-structures to solve things; both my body, mind and emotions will solve my problems now. If I feel bad; I will try to think till the roots of the problem to solve that problem too...
With the drugs I was thinking "straight headed" as there was only one road paved for success.. but.. it wasn't. The drugs started to take control over my personality because I could not find my own ways of dealing with things; there was just one option, the option of a "clear head" and a "direct decision". I felt happy
After 7 months Relatine started to go haywire with me; I could do nothing creatively anymore, it was making me more crazy and even more mentally depressed. I stopped with those pills and after 1 year and a half I could seriously mix, draw and write again as I could before.... That particular drug destroyed a lot in my brains for some time; and I still feel the leftovers of it; it alters perception and it alters your personality too...
This drug is being given to kids who are (often mis)diagnosed to ADHD; I am glad though I quitted Relatine completely. I feel not only my life has been further than ever but I am also feeling MYSELF again
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
I told you i'd shoot!
But you didn't believe me!
Whhhyyyy didn't you believe me!
This reminds me of
1. a Tom and Jerry cartoon where some superdangerous white mouse escapes from a lab and Tom mistakes it for Jerry who just fell into a bowl of flower
2. Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy!
(off to buy cheese stock)
In unrelated news, the latest statistics from News Corp suggest that mice signups to Myspace have plunged to record lows...
Scientists finally clued into what you're saying and decided they sure as hell didn't want any variety those "super mice" angry. All new "super mouse" models will now be forced to comply to the new industry standard in happiness.
would it make MySpace useless?
That decrease in ad clicks would be depressing...
Mind you, he used a big screw driven into the head of a boy, instead of breeding for traits.
(In case you're wondering...)
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
While I don't dispute the need to study behavioural models of depression as a means of unlocking and treating human misery I am a little concerned that reports such as this offer misleading insights into the nature of depression. There's a fair bit of work [c.f. Parducci] showing that affect is relative. For example, one way that a stimulus that elicits misery is through comparing that stimulus with a reference set. Losing $100 will elicit greater misery for someone who has $100 in the bank than someone who has $10,000 in the bank.
Although these mice might appear happy it is unlikely that the relationship between stimuli governing their affective state change. Knocking out a gene doesn't double the number of nuggets in their bowl. This, I think, highlights the important interaction between genes and environment and suggests that changing one without the other is not sufficient to 'cure' depression.
If people could switch their brains to perceive anything at all as the happy button, how many do you think would go "kewl, let's make myself happy to learn quantum physics?" I mean, what for? So you can have a better job and be happier in the future? Not much of an incentive if you can just make yourself arbitrarily happy right now. "Yay, I'm living in a dumpster!" Works just as well, and is an immediate reward.
Basically what you propose is somewhat equivalent to giving yourself a pot joint as a reward. (It mimmicks the brains happy signals very very well.) How many people do you think use those as "ok, if I learn this chapter, I'll smoke one as a reward"? I'd guess extremely few, if any.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
TFA says that "Serotonin is known to play an important role in mood, sleep and sexuality". Can somebody who knows what they're talking about (??) shed some light on the latter?
What's your GCNSEQNO?
The current issue of Discover magazine (with a large face shot of Einstein "The Einstein Dilemma") on the cover. The article on point is Shiny Happy People. "Can you reach nirvana with the aid of science?".
And...(OT)..."Will Wright (Sims et al., for those who have been living in a bomb bunker), The master of the "god game" tackles alien life and dreams up a world that would make Darwin drool".
the ever cheerful robot Colin.
Maybe they just inserted a bit of wire into the mice?
this.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
...just "happy accidents"!
Damnation. Broke the link on the first post.
I guess that you have not read this.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Comment removed based on user account deletion
As a person working in a customer service field, I highly fear being genetically treated to be more "friendly" and "helpful" to customers no matter how rude they are or how shitty my day has been.
I can't imagine WalMart employees actually acting the way their vests imply them to act. It would be ludicrously weird. Like ClownMart or something, with all the scary weird happy WalMart smiley people and faces surrounging you. Sounds like a bad dream.
a teeny tiny little helmet?
Chicks Have All The Fun
It was on the cirriculum for my english class in high school. And I did read it.
Did you know that border collies are my favorite strain of dog? Oh wait, does that sound absolutely retarded? Yeah, I suppose it does. The article even says breed. It's not totally inaccurate in this context, but strain generally refers to microorganisms. Why do /. submitters insist on making themselves look like jackasses by trying to sound smart?
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
The first time I read the last line I thought it said They say it's the first time depression has been eliminated through genetic alteration of an orgasm
I thought no shit it's going to be happy. A happy little boinker. Boinky, boinky, boinky.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
It seems that we are getting one step closer to the Brave New World...
Blahbedy Blah Blah Blah
1. a Tom and Jerry cartoon where some superdangerous white mouse escapes from a lab and Tom mistakes it for Jerry who just fell into a bowl of flower What kind of flowers were they and what does that have to do with changing his color?
It is truly an exciting time to be alive...as a mouse.
There's no place I can be, since I found Serenity.
News Flash!
The current administration has decided that this is just great. They hope to have all citizens modified prior to Election Day. This way, the presidents approval rating will climb. This in turn will limit the adverse effect that the GOP was expecting from Bush's poor approval rating.
P.S. - And they thought "1984" was bad!!!!!
Wait till they get a look at the mice that end up like the Reavers!
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
exciting? maybe.. happy? ..with out a doubt.
Collector's Edition
Maybe he won't be so depressed anymore?
http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
So, did that English course go well?
The gene modification has been successfully tested on Tom Cruise, sources say.
There mice were all male right?
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
On top of that these mice are now happy?!
Other than that whole 'plague' thing, wouldn't you be?
Then we'll really know if it works.
What's wrong with 'And'?
How do they know if a mouse was depression-resistant? Did they kill the mouse's whole family and then tell it "You have a mortgage to pay off for the rest of your short life, and all of your mousey property can not be passed on thru your mousey will (which incidentally is made of delicious cheese)," then sit back and watch the mouse just shrug and go on whistling and smiling?
Support the FairTax
Actually, the mouse was born with a permanent smile on its face. Bet s/he was bummed about that!
A recent PBF suggests an easier way to create ever-happy mice...
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
The parent post and a number of other posts in this thread showcase the lack of understanding people have of depression and the medication used to treat it.
Depression is not sadness. It a serious mental illness that has very detrimental effects on a person's well being and livelyhood. There is no relationship between depression or its treatment and ones ability to feel emotions like outrage and regret.
Antidepressants are used to treat clinical depression. They are not "happy pills." I personally suffered from depression combined with panic disorder that set in approximately two years ago. Since then I have been taking Lexapro which effectively treated my depression and continues to treat my panic disorder. I don't run around feeling happy all day and I still very much posess the ability to feel sad, happy, angry, outraged and regretful.
I especially can't believe the parent's comment about people being non-chalant while on antidepressants. People who make the decision to take antidepressants don't just pop them like tylenol. They take antidepressants because of a mental illness. Did you consider that it could be the depression that is making these people non-chalant? When you're consumed by your own depression it's a little bit difficult not to be non-chalant about what's going on around you. You have bigger things to worry about.
The poster is refering to the fact that it is considered, by some, improper English to start a sentence with "and" or "because."
Few researchers are working on TMS treatment as well to create magnetic pulses to stimulate an area of the brain associated with depression. BTW I hope the new treatment by way of serotonin transmission in brain might be a helpful to chronic patient.
24x7 Technical Support & Server Management
"I'm...so...damned...happy...(please kill me)"
When I first read this headline, I assumed it was about some new Chinese computer mouse, the "Ever-Happy Mouse", which would light up cheerfully while it was being used, thus helping users get over their depression at having to wait for Windows Vista.
But, I guess I was wrong.
...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
The Kingdom of Heaven (as in joy) is within you. That is, within a gene in you.
Having said that, a dirty mind approximates eternal bliss.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
It was actually done ages ago. Here's a picture:
http://www.kidsera.com/images/0397a.jpg
See, the brain (and not only in humans) is nicely tuned to keep needing the next thing to be happy about. Whenever you have some achievement (even small ones, like getting food when you're hungry) the brain gives itself a "yay, I'm happy" chemical signal, but that's followed immediately by releasing the "antidote" to that signal, to get back to the baseline. So you'll need the next achievement for your next moment of joy.
There is considerable truth in what you say. But the neurochemical aspect of this phenomenon is not the whole story. There are cognitive and social elements that are needed to complete the picture.
Much of the story has to do with how poorly we predict the hedonic value of future events. Generally we assign inflated values to resulting future happiness or sadness. Researchers have demonstrated this: we think if we get a particular job, we'll be happy. And we will be, but not as happy for as long as we thought. We think if our child dies we will be sad. And we will be, but usually not in the permanently incapacitating way we thought.
In human society it's also a very important factor in why, for example, consumerism is alive and kicking, and keeping the capitalist economy going well past the point where just the needs are covered
This is true. But I think of this as exploiting a bug in our software: we overestimate the hedonic value of aquiring something; the happiness it brings (as you point out) is short lived. But most insidious are the ways we undermine our own social contacts in order support an aquisitive lifestyle: we take jobs we don't like for people we don't respect. We work long hours to the detriment of our social life, damaging our families or losing touch with our friends.
So my take is that if someone actually produced genetically-engineered humans which are permanently happy, those humans would be even worse
Clearly, happiness seeking is a survival trait. However this does not inevitably lead to insatiable acquisition. That's a function of our massive logic and symbol processing capacity working on faulty data and producing inaccurate results. Putting a naive and immature person into today's consumer culture is like placing an unpatched computer on a hostile network. Forging strong bonds of friendship, cooperation and respect with those around us is also clearly a strong survival trait, and, if researchers are correct, is a stronger producer of happiness than consumption.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I wonder how many people got that.
Now that the topic has actually come up in a fashion that makes me want to know, I'll have to ask and see just what the hell they were/are taking.
Yeah, STFU would be the best approach.
You know, the funny thing is, I even looked up 'curriculum' on google before I posted, and still managed to mistype it..
It's the end of EMO as we know it, and I feel fine...
cd
That's an excellent point. To compare Vincent van Gogh to Janis Joplin is completely useless. Psychological disorders and drug abuse cannot be lumped into the same category. Of course, some sufferers of those disorders do turn to drugs (such as Cobain). Having bipolar disorder myself as well as being a songwriter, I can attest to the fact that being categorized as insane is really insulting. When I write music, yes, it is far easier to write about the painful times. But unless you are a completely self-pitying egotist wallowing in your own sorrow because it makes you feel superior, there's not much in life that could trump an opportunity to be happy when you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
"By breeding mice lacking the TREK-1 gene, which is involved in serotonin transmission"
I knew that Star Trek was at the center of depression. How could one not be after they cancelled Enterprise and didn't make a new series after it?
Oh You POS
Scientists can now produce singing, fearless , cancer resistant, super strong , plague-infected, mice with human brain cells from artificical sperm. On top of that these mice are now happy?!
Said mice were last over heard singing Monty Python's,"Always look on the bright side of life."
God spoke to me.
If you have the TREK-1 gene does that mean you're more prone to be a StarTrek fan.
they should test it with programmers,
THEY(WE) DESERVE TO BE HAPPY!
deadlines with a smile (tm)
would be a awesome tag for software companies....
i have found, you can find,happiness in slavery!
If I read this right, I can lower my risk of being depressed by almost 20% if I move to Canada. Has anyone got figures for somewhere warmer, like Costa Rica?
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
Anti-depressants mess with your cause and effect reasoning.
People have stress triggers that are the cause of worry or concern, if you short circuit those triggers, people will be less worried. They also may not connect dangerous cause and effect and do what would be considered quite stupid and dangerous things because they never considered the consequences of their actions.
Anti-depressants may be appropriate for some people, but the reality is that some people's lives really are bad. Taking some pills does not correct the bad things in their life, or help them make better decisions that could improve it.
Some good counseling and quality of life improvements are still needed and in many cases would be a suitable alternative to prescribing drugs in the first place.
You are entitled to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". Emphasis on pursuit, nobody ever said you are entitled to happiness, just an opportunity to get it if you work for it. Can true happiness be found in a bottle?
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Robots don't have any emotions, and sometimes that makes me very sad. -- Bender
Anyone else read that subject and think this was some computer mouse that made people happy when they use it?
i can think of dozens of people on /. that could use this.
but since it requires breeding it will never happen.
The environment is stable. It's the Pax. The G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate that we added to the air processors. It was supposed to calm the population, weed out aggression. Well, it works...
Ahh... life imitating art. Serenity now!
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
esp. if they are cheerful in the morning. Great, just great, the mouse version of the spirit squad.... I can see them saying the mouse equivalent of 'The pep assembly is going to be really neat!' .....
I hates meeses to pieces.....
where's the coffee....
grumble... grumblese...
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
...as salesmen. Happy people make great salesmen. Only trouble is, they have nothing to sell because all the bleak, creative people were modded out of the gene pool. Worse yet, half the population died of malaria because the modded out the sicle-cell gene from the Black mice, and then those mice interbred with the others. No worry though. The entire mouse population will die from an airborne strain of HIV in 2017. But while they are dying, none of them will be depressed. See what happens when you try to edit software you didn't write?
Remember, the computer says happiness is mandatory, and the computer is our friend!
I just know this is going to lead to an evil race of people who are all chipper and bouncy in the morning... a race of Soledad O'Brians and Matt Lauers... ewww.
I am a 36 year old programmer and I feel that the drugs have brought some stability, but I feel I take them to do what the establishment says and keep my job, and get a decent referral to hospital should the need arise. I have had 5 breakdowns followed by a month off work. Should I wait to get the sack before ditching the drugs, or am I missing out on life and even getting the most from my employment (money is not everything but no money is nothing). [There is more in my life, my wife just had a baby boy.]
Be Free: Free Software Tuition
Hmmm,
Isn't this the key plot item in the movie Serenity (based on the firefly universe)? PAX (a chemical) is introduced into the atmo and 99.99% of the population becomes dull and listless... and 0.01% becomes masochistic, sadistic, cannibalistic REAVERS....!!!!!
Reavers... are... people....
They're so glad that they're happy engineered mice. Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than happy engineered mice do, because they're so frightfully clever. Happy engineered mice are really awfully glad they're happy engineered mice, because they don't work so hard. And then happy engineered mice are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides, they wear black, which is such a beastly color.
Well, those mice are. They also produced miserable mice in the process of doing so. Which isn't funny.
P.S. Your singing mice link points to the plague-infected story?
What are we doing tonight, Brain?
Same thing we do every night, Pinky... Try to take over the world!
Ok maybe this is a stupid question... but what does a depressed mouse look like? How can you tell its not just a tired or lethargic mouse?
Hasn't anyone ever seen that purple demon... er dinosaur? It MUST have been genetically modified. IT's ALWAYS happy, and physically cannot stop smiling! EEEEEkkk!!!!
-Sir Woody Hackswell, the Arch-Fool
Walt Disney apparently had this knowledge years ago. I dont think I ever saw Mickey depressed.
Now all they have to do is accidently produce a strain of Reaver mice...
Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
Does this mean I don't require my half gram of SOMA?
But when will we be able to make mice play FPSs and fighting games so we can have bots that learn...
and apparently bots that are always happy...
I swear I'm going to throat punch the next person who calls depression and illness and prescribes medication for it. I understand its an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. But so is an orgasm. That doesn't mean we need pills to prevent that. If people just tried a little harder to be happy and realise that its all in your head, the world would be a better place. We do have control over our emotions. And if you do get depressed "sometime in your life" (as the article explains), then just wait for it to pass. So what? Your depressed. If people weren't depressed once in a while, people wouldn't be able to judge if they were truly happy when true happiness hit. Depression is an important emotion that, when channeled, can lead to great things (note: I do not count art as great things so much as doing better in your job to try to get out of your depression slump).
But I probably made like 10 "foes" right now. And half the slashdot community who reads this probably thinks I'm some uneducated, stupid red-neck who is also insensitive.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
Before I was on the meds I would have the ambition to do things but couldn't actually get up and do them. It was horribly frustrating.
Now that I'm on the meds I have both the ambition and the ability to do the things I like.
If this could have been 'bred' out of my family's genetics I think we all would have been much better off. That is, unless there's a trade off we haven't seen yet.
From first hand experience, my time spent on Welbutrin and Zoloft was profoundly helpful in treating my depression. I have been off all medication for over four months now and my brain functions are working well.
My personal growth has been in leaps and bounds over the course of my therapy and I've never been happier in my life.
BUT, I've also experienced the depths of sadness and anger (and all their variations). I am now able to experience those feelings without being drawn down to the depths of depression nor am I compelled to perpetuate dysfunctional behavior.
I think it's hard for people with healthy emotional and physical upbringings to relate to the distorted thinking and perceptions of depressed people. I'm not talking "sad" depressed. I'm talking about "clinically" depressed. There's a huge difference.
In my experience, my clinical depression stemmed from a number of factors including upbringing, genetics (possibly), miseducation (or lack of education), and the effects of personal decisions from that framework (poor choice of marriage, poor choice of lifestyle, etc...). I also know that my experience was my own, no one else's, and that I don't have the capability of knowing what is best for some one else, nor can I fully comprehend another person's experience.
In other words, as a dear friend put it, "who the fuck am I to think I know better than you..." as to what is best for your life? We're not talking parent-child relations, we're talking peer-to-peer.
I see this research as significant from the perspective of learning about biological mechanism. It's research, period. The applications will come later and I can make my decisions on those at that time.
Aside from that, I welcome our Ever Happy Furry Little Rodent Overlords.
sounds to me like those mice have a case of the Mondays
So... Happy... Ironing... Stimpy's... Underwear!
:)
Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
Why are so many /. readers depressed? I know we've been /.ing for years and Linux still isn't dominant, but I've read this whole thread and it seems every other person here is discussing their experience with anti-depressants.
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
When I first (mis-)read the title of this article, I was hoping someone had invented a sunlight-emitting pointing device to help prevent seasonal affective disorder.
Nope. It looks like my second winter here in Seattle will be as bleak as the first. *sigh*
There are significant differences between diabetes and depression, and I think your analogy is flawed. Diabetes is an autoimmune dysfunction that attacks and kills the insulin producing cells of the pancreas. Once these cells are destroyed and enough time has passed, it is believed that you will be forever incapable of developing new ones and hence, producing insulin*.
While depression and anxiety might be a mismanagement of neurotransmitters by the brain and medication does help many, both are quite responsive for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for many people. I, for example, have tried several antidepressants (various SSRIs, venlafaxine) for both chronic mid-grade depression and severe, chronic Generalized Anxiety Disorder, both of which run prominently in my mother's family along with mild obsessive compulsive disorder. I found that the medications themselves, due to side effects, caused more undesirable symptoms than the original ailments that they were prescribed to treat. In the end, the thought of taking these daily drugs for who knows how long was incredibly unappealing, so I decided to deal with my emotional hardship day by day and pursue a rigorous program of CBT while doing so. The CBT was a good amount of work and while I noticed a difference fairly quickly (think about four weeks), it took months before I can say that I felt largely cured. And while I may still be genetically more prone to anxiety and depression than most people and find certain situations trigger my "start getting depressed / anxious" mentality (which used to be virtually nonstop), because I have been mentally trained to do so, I can recognize the triggers and respond to them appropriately to prevent the process from continuing to the point where I probably don't feel significantly more anxiety and depression than your average Joe.
I won't deny that these issues are likely due to a deficiency of serotonin, but I'd also like to propose that, psychologically, one can affect the level of neurotransmitters in one's brain. I am a strong believer that in the case of emotional illnesses as above, lower serotonin increases one's proclivity to anxiety, depression, and obsessive tendencies, but allowing the thoughts that come with these states to continue in turn decreases serotonin and causes a vicious cycle.
* Interestingly, however, some research seems promising in the realm of correcting autoimmune dysfunction through the use of hypnotherapy, especially with regards to things like environmental allergies, Crohn's Disease, etc. So there might well be a psychological component here, although in diabetes, by the time the problem becomes fully evident and such a treatment (in conjunction with insulin, obviously) is considered, it is likely to be too late.
'And' is never used at the beginning of a sentance. (Except the previous one.)
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Your singing mice link points to the plague-infected story?
Who cares if these two traits get mixed up?
I ordered the singing mice for my daughters birthday present! Those idiots switched the mice again. Damn plague. They should have at least sent me the happy mice!
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Why not air lift a load of SSRIs to the people who care least about life, suicide bombers, etc. They really don't care about anything or anyone, their life is so hopeless the thoughts of virgins in the afterlife sounds appealing.
Your first link is incorrect. Just in case someone want's to find them, here are the singing mice.
Indeed. That was the very thing for which I was searching. Now with singing plague-infested fearless mice cheerfully marching forth we can welcome the new overlords with joy.
I never do this, but please mod parent up! It's Informative :D.
This is all fine and dandy, however, depression is a part of the human experience. Besides, we already have a solution to depression and low moral. Fire all the unhappy people!
Actually, regardless of the "and" rule, it's perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with "because" when used in certain ways:
"Because I had learned English correctly, I knew which words could be used to start sentences."
I personally suffered from depression combined with panic disorder that set in approximately two years ago. Since then I have been taking Lexapro which effectively treated my depression and continues to treat my panic disorder.
So you were fine for years & years, and then two years ago everything changed and you've been on anti-depressants ever since? This is why us anti-pharmaceutical types get all hot under the collar when people say that some people are just broken, and need the benefits of modern drugs.
I myself have had great success controlling compulsive behavior with Cranial Osteopathic treatments (see case #10). After a few visits the doctor was like, "fixed your misshappen head" (I'd had a blow to the chin 7 years before, don't remember 2 weeks, and ever since I'd always thought that something didn't seem quite right about my head, but I didn't realize what it was), then a few weeks later, "finally got your head working right - when I first started working with you, it was like a disorganized bag of sand." Something about restoring proper cerebro-spinal fluid flow in the brain...
Met a psychologist years ago that said she had much, much better results with her clients when she sent them for cranio-sacral therapy (non-monopoly cranial osteopathic manipulation) and "Network Spinal Analysis" (a gentle offshoot of chiropractic) too.
Then there's always 'accupuncture' for emotions, which has worked mircales for hundreds of thousands of people.
And there's also the old standby, Hypnosis.
I'm of the opinion that antidepressants just cover up the actual problem, analogous to giving someone who's just broken their leg Morphine for the pain, but not bothering to set and cast it so the bones can heal properly.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
I'm not happy about living under the thumb of our new mice overlords, but my genetically engineered children will be.
f u cn rd ths u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgmng
Didn't they already do something like this at NIMH? Maybe they named the smartest one Nicodemus...
Probably more like "First Monday After Christmas and Its Girlfriend Dumped It and Stole Its Car That Morning"s.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
Actually, it is.
43rd Law of Computing:
Anything that can go wr
fortune: Segmentation violation -- Core Dumped
I tend to think of depression as an evolutionary adaptation, or a symptom of our adaptation in the crazy modern world. I think one of the largest factors affecting selection and reproduction in humans now on an evolutionary scale is the ability to cope with and deal with the stresses that seem ongoing and constant in our world now.
Some argue that human evolution has come to stand still, but I think just the opposite is happening. If you look at what affects mate selection and generation continuity today, stress, or more importantly how we deal with it, plays a big role.
If one constantly ignores the need to reflect, think, and gain persepective on life - one tends to become autonomous and forgetful of what's important. Depression forces a person to stop and think and is likely the result of the built-up need to take time out. At least, that's my theory. I don't want to sound like I'm trivializing the pain and suffering experienced by those that suffer from depression, just offering perspective here.
Imagine if we were all just happy and walking through life with a shit-eating grin -we'd all become robots in short order. The article is slightly misleading when it says about 10% of peopel suffer from depression, it's more like 100% of people suffer from depression from time to time and in varying degrees. I'm sure it has purpose and reason in our human existance.
-kg
----------------------------
Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
And' is never used at the beginning of a sentance. (Except the previous one.)
It's also never used at the beginning of a sentence.
Head-crushing.
--pyro_dude
Disney has claim to all of these with prior art which is still locked up thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Act. What else would you call a persistently happy, talking mouse who can sing, dance, cast magic, and never appears to age a day.
from the animal rights groups.
"Stop abusing those poor lab rats!"
"But they're happy!"
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
If the public is always happy no matter what you do, you can get away with anything.
Hell just look at how much governments get away with when they're making everyone mad. Imagine if those same people were bubbly happy cheerful all the time. Forget open season. It'd never end. It would just be play-time (for them). And we wouldn't know the difference.
Obligatory comment:
I for one welcome our new seratonin bringing overlords.
I'm not sure exactly what the obvious answer to that question is, but personally id rather be depressed then strung out on meds all the time thinking im happy. Whenever i get depressed and lack the motivation to do something i NEED to be doing, i say the following in my head "This is happiness, get used to it". Works most times and lets me put aside the lack of motivation to get shit done in my life.
On a related note, i have had a few friends completely change, to the point where i did not like being around them any longer from being on various drugs for several years. One friend i know is a regular dexidrine (speed) Rx user. I think he takes 2 or 3 caps a day. Anyway, i'll never forget what he said to me when i asked him to stop taking the drugs: "I'm not sure which me is me anymore." Now thats a very scary thought that someone who was born into the world as is, considers them not themselves unless they are severely medicated everyday for the rest of their lives. This particular person was forced onto the drugs as well, through emotional coercion and to fit better into his family.
But i don't really buy into the whole "depression is a disease" paradigm any more than agression is a disease or pacificism. Depression can be a societal advantage, as i find it. For instance, I would not be able to acurately troubleshoot computers if I wasn't always looking for the worst case scenario, or imagining what horrible things could happen - no matter how remote. I also don't believe that real depression ever goes away. It can increase/decrease in intensity, but I personally think its impossible to be depressed for say, several weeks and then rebound and not need to take drugs after that. Its not the flu or mono, its the way your brain is wired.
We should be very careful. We do not know enough to start reprogramming peoples brains. It is more important for society to be diverse than to illeviate all suffering. "Oh brave new world with these people in it..." would be suggested reading here.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Now everyone can live in DisneyWorld!!! If only those mice had been around for the Titanic....
Depression is frequently the pysiological result of unhealthy thought patterns.
In my experience, less-than-ideal mental health is the result of disrupted physiology in the brain.
To make a less-than-perfect analogy, suppose you have a DirecTV satellite dish, and it only works sometimes. You check the wiring, change the receivers, but still - nothing helps it to work all the time. So you call an expert out, and he takes a look at the dish itself. "Well, there's your problem. It's filled with metal shavings, and there's a huge-ass dent in the parabolic surface that further scatters the satellite signal." The expert sprays out the metal shavings, and pulls out his trusty hammer to put the dish back like it should be. Magically, the satellite receiver starts to work just like it should.
Drugs treat the physical symptoms and therapy treats the psychological problems.
But if you only treat the chemical symptom and don't Address the Physical Problem (disrupted brain physiology, which is what my post was about), the psychological problems are much more difficult to treat. When the physical problem is resolved (NOT "treated" with drugs), the undesirable behavior will frequently just go away, or at the very least, significantly decreases in severity.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
"Because I had learned English correctly, I knew which words could be used to start sentences."
Your example sentence still reads like a kid with Down's Syndrome trying to run through a tire obstacle course while wearing swim fins. How about something like "Having studied English, I knew which words could be used to begin sentences."
IANAPE (I am not a professional editor)
Also want a keyboard thats happy 24-7...
Said mice were last over heard singing Monty Python's,"Always look on the bright side of life."
And "Every artificial sperm in sacred".
Allow me to rewrite that sentence with the proper punctuation: He was _hugely_ successful in college and in work and in swimming in money thanks to these drugs, ****but**** (dunh-dunh-dunh...) was he truly happy without poetry and music? I think the proper punctuation really highlights what we in the business call "dirty hippy talk." Please - insightful? I have never LOL'ed, but that ridiculous line made me LOL. Now I'm living with the shame. I hate to be so hateful, but the parent comment as well - "If you're incapable of depression, and you're always happy, how do you know if you really are happy?" - and others below have addressed this, but think about it: "If you're incapable of happiness, and you're always depressed, how do you know if you really are depressed?" Well duh...
Anyone see Demolition Man. Have a happy joy joy day!
Like we really need this $h!t.
"John Spartan, you have been fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality code."
...I hope no one's looking into practical applications for this. It's dangerous. I once knew a girl who was permanently cheerful. Everyone around her kept trying to commit suicide.
The fact that other options may be more appropriate does not mean that what I said is incorrect, though. Just about everything that you changed in that sentence was simply a matter of personal choice (start vs. begin, for example). Further, it sounds more--for lack of a better term--snobbish than the other.
So "Happly married" can be a reality soon?!
I'm saaaad...that I'm drowning.
Firefox can't find the server at www.thehedonisticimperative.com
So then there's no functional purpose for depression, no reason why it exists other than as a punishment from God upon the wicked? Are they CERTAIN it performs no useful function for creatures at all, say perhaps as a way of forcing them to take time and reflect on mistakes and learn something from them?
That's all we need, having mad (genetic) scientists running around "curing" genetic "disorders" without REALLY being certain that in fact they are disorders and nothing more. They want to do the same with "autism", in spite of the fact that this spectrum of traits also happened to produce some of the greatest minds and scientific achievements we now enjoy... people like Einstein and Archimedes and many thousands in between.
Eugenics is a dish best left to Mother Nature to prepare. We don't have a complete recipe.
Why do I have this strange echo in my head ... something about the mice being furious when the earth was destroyed! Hmmmm ... :-)
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
Don't forget hairless. Not long before were over run by giant highly intelligent naked mice that can mate with out woman.
There goes being "Tragically Hip"!
-Eric
No parlare inglese ;o) flour