Incidentally, if you are still interested in forms of intoxication other than alcohol (which is fun but not particularly interesting and comes with a hefty price in the form of a hangover), there are plenty of options at your disposal. Some worth investigating:
* The mescaline containing San Pedro cactus, which is a fantastic hallucinogen, IMO. Long (10-12 hours), but very fun even at low doses. I found it quite mood enhancing and stimulating, and would consume 10 grams and then proceed to clean my entire house. As I despise cleaning, this was a great way to get to those chores I detest and put off perpetually like dusting, washing walls, etc. Even the mundane becomes quite intriguing. Best purchased dried if you intend to use it for recreational experimentation, although a lovely plant in its own right.
* The salvinorin containing Salvia divinorum (a variety of sage called Diviner's sage), a very potent hallucinogen that can be bought online through lots of distributors. Extremely powerful, but very short lived.
* Amanita muscaria (the red mushrooms with white spots on the caps, also another hallucinogen). As I haven't tried it, I can't really comment on this one other to say that it's out there.
* Dextromethorphan, a dissociative anaesthetic in the same family as ketamine and quite the opposite of a traditional hallucinogen in terms of effect. At low doses, it is frequently described as a combination of alcohol, marijuana, and caffeine with extremely mild hallucinogenic effects (walls may breathe, things may seem mildly lilliputian). At high doses it is incredibly bizarre and induces phenomena like out of body experiences, astral projection, ego annihilation, etc. Really cool stuff, and available at any pharmacy without a prescription, although the product through which it is consumed does make some uneasy due to negative stigma.
* Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in the form of whippets is regularly available, although depending on your area, purchase with intent to consume may be illegal. Delightful drug, which in particular mixes well with others. Gets a bad rap because it is an inhalant, but it is *not* a solvent and does not cause the brain damage associated with solvents. Well worth trying.
* Kava, the root of the Piper methysticum tree (a variety of pepper), usually consumed as a beverage. It has been extremely popular in the South Pacific for centuries and is drank in ways similar to North American alcohol consumption. It is a sedative-hypnotic and functions very similarly to benzodiazepines (Valium, Ativan, Xanax, Klonopin and friends) but is nonaddictive. It can be ordered from Hawaii, where it is also consumed, by various suppliers. I have had fantastic, very fast service (even to Canada) with http://www.realkava.com/ and was extremely impressed with the product. This stuff is fairly mild, great and worth exploring: I would drink a few cups and then spend the night working on my creative writing. Note that there were some concerns several years ago about people experiencing liver failure after regularly consuming kava in pill forms, but the current hypothesis regarding this is that pharmaceutical companies, in an effort to curb costs, were using stems and leaves of Piper methysticum (as opposed to just roots), which contain hepatoxins. The indigenous people of the South Pacific have no recorded cases of liver damage, although they are smart enough to stick to the root of the tree.
While some of the major players in the legal drug world, those are but a sample of what is at your disposal. Some options are definitely best avoided (nutmeg and daturas, for example). The above should be fairly safe and readily available to most, although your mileage may vary on both accounts. I have tried all but the amanitas with good success, and would recommend them all.
Pot is, in my opinion, a miserable drug, but I'm one of those few people for which it is extremely hallucinogenic (not in a good way) and anxiety inducing. I also suspect th
There are huge numbers of examples of animals consuming intoxicants in nature:
* Hummingbirds will drink the sap of daturas and brugmansias, which contain deleriant tropanes, inducing extremely potent hallucinations.
* India has problems with elephants and alcohol. Elephants will consume fruit that has fermented, and then, in their state of intoxication, cause massive amounts of damage to towns and power lines.
* Most amusingly (to me), my aunt has a farm, and every night the ducks are corralled in the barn. Every morning when she goes to let them out, they're quacking and pressed up against the door. An explosion of ducks happens when she finally lets them free, and apparently they race for a shady patch across the field and fight viciously over there. She could not figure out why this was the case, so after hearing that cattle were frequently in that area, I suggested she check the cow dung for mushrooms. Sure enough, those ducks were bolting out to fight over a morning dose of magic mushrooms.
As someone with severe Crohn's Disease, I can say that it's important that you don't over look the exact phrase you mentioned: controlling symptoms dramatically increases quality of life, and preventing relapse reduces the damage to her intestines and will in turn hopefully reduce the number of surgeries she will need later on in life. So yes, I'd say that while she can't cure her Crohn's, now that she has an arsenal of medications at her disposal, there's plenty that she can do about it.
I myself was quite sheltered and didn't learn about them until recently; I must confess I was rather confused a year or so ago when walking by the Church of Scientology in Toronto and seeing a large protest, with some people wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
While I do agree that some of the Quebec language laws are a bit over the top and end up having stupid results, I feel like I must correct and question assertions made in your post in the following paragraph:
And if people in government has what is deemed an inadequate level of french, the government pays for one-on-one french lessons INSTEAD of for doing your job, and instead of for french classes with other people learning it or instead of for a government billet in a french-speaking area where you can learn the language through immersion.
Living in Ottawa, I have several government working friends who have been provided with government funded French language education (and paid for doing so), and none of them have had the privilege of one-on-one lessons: they all attended group-based French language classes, and they were required to pass in order to continue on in their roles.
I don't see how this is much different than your employer investing in job training, and I'm not opposed to it. Furthermore, the vast majority of this occurs in the Ottawa area, I'd suspect, and as most of the population here speaks French, you'd be hard pressed to find a much more immersive environment.
If anyone here is interested, here's an article written up about Quebec and their language laws: The Language Laws of Quebec
How hard is it, really? Most boys fall in love with girls, and most girls fall in love with boys. Some boys, though, fall in love with other boys, and some girls with other girls. Done with no reference to sex, and at least to the level of understanding necessary by a nine year old. The sex part can be filled in later.
I haven't read Collective Intelligence in Action, but I have studied machine learning at university and then read Toby Segaran's Programming Collective Intelligence (linky), which I found to be an excellent, highly accessible book for learning the basic concepts of ML in a practical setting and with immediate uses being highlighted.
Given the author's description, I'm glad that I chose Segaran's book: the programming language of choice is Python, which results in very short and readable, fully functional code samples, and builds right up from core concepts instead of hiding a lot of the underlying machinery using something like JDM. Reading example code written in Java (unless the code is specifically chosen to illustrate Java or Java APIs) sounds rather tedious.
Collective Intelligence in Action also sounds like it might try to be too far reaching, e.g. focusing on the data model for the problem instead of on the machine learning itself. Segaran's book was strictly focused on ML, and was a very nice, informative read.
Just thought I'd throw an alternative out there for anyone interested in machine learning, which I highly recommend studying. It's a really interesting field with loads of applications.
Seriously, how fast does a web browser *need* to be? I've never been using Firefox on Linux and thought to myself that it was prohibitively or even annoyingly slow.
Reading TFA, in most cases, the differences in times don't seem dramatic, either, so who really cares?
Combinatorics is a field of math that's easily accessible, but runs very deep and is fundamental to many other areas of mathematics. All you need to start is a good sense of logic.
I TAed an introductory combinatorics university course, and this textbook was decent:
You can explore things like counting (how many ways to pack n balls into m boxes, considering the balls distinct or not, and similarly for the boxes), probability, graph theory, design theory, and all kinds of fun stuff. Sudoku, for example, is combinatorially very interesting, and a good way to motivate anyone into the field.
I'm right handed, and I trained myself to use my mouse with my left hand. The reason? Because I was starting to develop wrist problems back when I was in IT and had to spend eight hours a day on the computer. Using the mouse with your right hand entails having to move over a much larger area of keyboard to get to it (numerical keypad, arrow keys, etc). With the left hand, you only have to travel a small distance. Also, being mouse-ambidextrous allows you to switch back and forth, thus taking the entire burden off of one hand.
In the end, I decided to go with a trackball, which is built for the right hand (MS optical one) but which I use with my left hand. Furthermore, it's great because since it's a trackball and on the wrong side of the keyboard, it keeps people away from my computer, which is just fine with me:-).
I can think of a few, e.g. proper furigana support (what they have now is terrible, and thus keeps me using MS Office for most of my tasks). Lots of people (an entire and not insignificant country, especially with regards to education, as a matter of fact) would care about this.
And if all the MS Office functionality that's needed has been added, wouldn't this be a great opportunity for them to innovate?
Given the dangers associated with alcohol compared to many of the commonly abused drugs, logically, it should be banned.
The current drug legislation is also tremendously unfair to those of us who have health conditions that prohibit us from enjoying the currently legal drugs. For example, I have Crohn's Disease, and drinking caffeine in any significant quantity is sure to land me in the hospital. Smoking is highly recommended against, as it can exacerbate my health condition severely. Drinking is also generally a no-no for most, although I'm lucky that I can occasionally have a little bit of hard liquor without too many problems. Given how serious and unpleasant Crohn's Disease is, in order to make it through the day without feeling the urge to up and seek euthanasia as I struggle with pain, fevers, humiliation, the inability to function as a normal human being, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and a whole host of other problems, I *need* some kind of chemical escape to cope on occasion, and alcohol is not an option.
Marijuana seems to help many people with this condition, both in terms of the pain and the damage due to inflammation of the intestines. Of course, however, it's illegal in many parts of the world despite the fact that it's largely harmless. Opiates are necessary for many of us, but incredibly difficult to obtain due to drug laws, control, and stigma: I've had an incredibly difficult time to get the drugs necessary to get my pain under control to the point where I can at least have days where I can be productive and a contributing member of society, and have had one doctor outright accuse me of faking my pain and being a junkie, which is extremely humiliating and insulting. It's indicative of just one facet of the sad state of affairs that have arisen due to our current hysteria and insanity regarding drugs.
It just baffles my mind that millions of dollars have been spent in research, for example, to develop synthetic cannabinoids that demonstrate minimal highs to treat health conditions because somehow, a substance making you feel good is a detriment.
I just wanted to point out, in response to your post, that the vast majority of cough syrups contain dextromethorphan, which is a powerful dissociative anaesthetic similar in effect to ketamine. Hence, while "drinking cough syrup" may sound sensational and like someone is in the throes of desperation to achieve a high, it's actually just a completely legitimate route to a very interesting drug experience that simply happens to be legally obtainable, and is actually quite safe on the grand scale of drugs of abuse.
One thing I never understand about certain religions and spiritual beliefs is this importance that's placed on love. Sure, love is a powerful force that we generally consider "good", but love can be quite dark and twisted at times, and certainly hate can easily be just as powerful in terms of what one will accomplish in the name of it, and heck, it can definitely be very rewarding, too.
Why does love get touted around on a pedestal like it's some miracle thing? Seems a little silly to me. Any emotion can be beneficial when used in the appropriate context and detrimental when it isn't. Love is no different, and not particularly worth special praise.
Indeed. The one benefit of global warming that I'm looking forward to is that it'll (hopefully) kill the Olympic winter games, thus cutting the stupidity in half. Still, half of infinity is still infinity, so perhaps my hopes are in vain.
Even advanced computer education would be useful. I'm a PhD computer science student, so I see the holes in undergraduates' knowledge of computer technologies, i.e. things that they're simply expected to know for a class and never taught. I also see how frustrating they find it to try to fill these holes in with self-study while maintaining a full course load.
Big examples that spring to mind include things like basic Linux commands, LaTeX, Maple, MATLAB, etc. Offer workshops for students where you teach them how to at least get started with these technologies and I'm sure that you'll have some interest.
What really opened up my mind to really thinking about different dimensions and infinity was nitrous oxide, preferably mixed with other substances like marijuana or opiates. The fourth dimension? Many nitrous users report experiencing an infinite number of dimensions, which you then feel as being equivalent to zero dimensional space, or a space that defines itself over and over. It's almost impossible to explain with words, but if you can get to that point, it's quite beautiful and freaky. After my extensive experiences with nitrous, I converted from Christianity (which felt quite childish, at that point) to philosophical Taoism. The first passage in the Tao Te Ching explains what one might experience on nitrous oxide far better than I could possibly:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal name 'Nothingness' is the beginning of heaven and earth. 'Oneness' is the mother of everythings. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery.
As someone with a very painful, debilitating chronic health condition (very active Crohn's Disease), you should assist in paying for my health care because you're part of a society that has made euthanasia illegal and severely demonized suicide (indeed, were I to attempt it, I would likely be institutionalized). Hence, as society has taken away my only alternatives, it has an obligation to provide me with access to the requisite medical procedures and drugs.
The basis of 20th century psychopharmacology was in the discovery that certain dyes affect the brain in profound ways, so this hardly seems like a stretch to me. (See "The Creation of Psychopharmacology" by Dr. David Healy if you're curious.)
Furthermore, as someone with a chronic, debilitating disease whose causes are not known (Crohn's Disease), I've learned to embrace new treatments where they're found, even if they make no sense in the context of the body of existing knowledge about the condition. Indeed, it seems that the successes of treatments often are quite formative to hypotheses as to the nature of my illness. Were it not for TNF-alpha inhibitors, I would probably be dead right now.
I agree that eventually you want to get good mats (I'm using two RedOctane Ignitions now since the metal pads are difficult to get here in Canada unless you're willing to build your own and pay a fortune in shipping, and they're fine, even for doubles) IF you like the game, but I think for a beginner, cheap mats to find out whether or not DDR is your fancy are probably your best bet.
DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) absolutely
on
How Do Geeks Exercise?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I have a health condition that makes it extremely difficult and stressful for me to leave the house to exercise... I do enjoy a good cardio workout, and was feeling quite unhappy about being unable to engage in a regular routinized exercise session that I enjoyed (because aerobics, yoga, pilates, etc. tapes just aren't that much fun to me), so I decided to see what the hype was about last Christmas and I picked up a DDR game.
Now I'm an avid DDRer, and I must say that it can be a fantastic workout, especially if you play doubles (i.e. two mats) as you move your centre of gravity much more often, and if you work yourself up to the harder levels, which get you moving faster. I can burn an estimated 1000 calories per session, and those sessions just fly by because I'm really enjoying myself. You don't only see your improvement in the game, but the improvement in your appearance, too. My stomach is trim now, and I have that nice abdominal V that some fit people get.
If you haven't tried DDR, I highly recommend it. Get a PS2 game, get a couple cheap mats, and give it a go. If DDR isn't your cup of tea, find an exercise routine that you can do at home that you enjoy so that you actually feel inclined to do it more than a few times. You'll never keep up a regime that bores, intimidates, or embarrasses you.
I think the human race, at least in the developed world, is selecting for intelligence. Intelligent people have better health care and better resources making them more likely to reproduce and afford more children.
I have to disagree with your assessment. I strongly believe that it is not intelligence that leads to success so much as it is business acumen. I, for example, am quite intelligent (not to toot my own horn, which is not my intention), but I have no sense for business at all, and thus recognize that there's a good chance I will never be rich. My father, on the other hand, while also very smart but probably not quite so much so as I, has a great head for business and has done extremely well for himself in life.
As others have pointed out, studies indicate that the intelligent are generally having fewer children as well.
Keep in mind that the celebration of the girl geek is a fairly new social development. This certainly wasn't in place back when I was a teenager (I'm 30 now). Let's wait 20 years or so before we make any conclusions as to how this has affected the interest of girls in more scientific pursuits.
Additionally, I think that girls largely base their self-worth on the opinions of other girls, and girl-geekery, I suspect, is not celebrated largely within the female community just yet.
For those of us with severe chronic illnesses who do not wish to but feel obligated to stay alive for our loved ones since the current societal view is that quantity of life is more important than quality of life, this is very disheartening to read.
Doubly so for those of us concerned with overpopulation.
Slashdot Mirror
Incidentally, if you are still interested in forms of intoxication other than alcohol (which is fun but not particularly interesting and comes with a hefty price in the form of a hangover), there are plenty of options at your disposal. Some worth investigating:
* The mescaline containing San Pedro cactus, which is a fantastic hallucinogen, IMO. Long (10-12 hours), but very fun even at low doses. I found it quite mood enhancing and stimulating, and would consume 10 grams and then proceed to clean my entire house. As I despise cleaning, this was a great way to get to those chores I detest and put off perpetually like dusting, washing walls, etc. Even the mundane becomes quite intriguing. Best purchased dried if you intend to use it for recreational experimentation, although a lovely plant in its own right.
* The salvinorin containing Salvia divinorum (a variety of sage called Diviner's sage), a very potent hallucinogen that can be bought online through lots of distributors. Extremely powerful, but very short lived.
* Amanita muscaria (the red mushrooms with white spots on the caps, also another hallucinogen). As I haven't tried it, I can't really comment on this one other to say that it's out there.
* Dextromethorphan, a dissociative anaesthetic in the same family as ketamine and quite the opposite of a traditional hallucinogen in terms of effect. At low doses, it is frequently described as a combination of alcohol, marijuana, and caffeine with extremely mild hallucinogenic effects (walls may breathe, things may seem mildly lilliputian). At high doses it is incredibly bizarre and induces phenomena like out of body experiences, astral projection, ego annihilation, etc. Really cool stuff, and available at any pharmacy without a prescription, although the product through which it is consumed does make some uneasy due to negative stigma.
* Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in the form of whippets is regularly available, although depending on your area, purchase with intent to consume may be illegal. Delightful drug, which in particular mixes well with others. Gets a bad rap because it is an inhalant, but it is *not* a solvent and does not cause the brain damage associated with solvents. Well worth trying.
* Kava, the root of the Piper methysticum tree (a variety of pepper), usually consumed as a beverage. It has been extremely popular in the South Pacific for centuries and is drank in ways similar to North American alcohol consumption. It is a sedative-hypnotic and functions very similarly to benzodiazepines (Valium, Ativan, Xanax, Klonopin and friends) but is nonaddictive. It can be ordered from Hawaii, where it is also consumed, by various suppliers. I have had fantastic, very fast service (even to Canada) with http://www.realkava.com/ and was extremely impressed with the product. This stuff is fairly mild, great and worth exploring: I would drink a few cups and then spend the night working on my creative writing. Note that there were some concerns several years ago about people experiencing liver failure after regularly consuming kava in pill forms, but the current hypothesis regarding this is that pharmaceutical companies, in an effort to curb costs, were using stems and leaves of Piper methysticum (as opposed to just roots), which contain hepatoxins. The indigenous people of the South Pacific have no recorded cases of liver damage, although they are smart enough to stick to the root of the tree.
While some of the major players in the legal drug world, those are but a sample of what is at your disposal. Some options are definitely best avoided (nutmeg and daturas, for example). The above should be fairly safe and readily available to most, although your mileage may vary on both accounts. I have tried all but the amanitas with good success, and would recommend them all.
Pot is, in my opinion, a miserable drug, but I'm one of those few people for which it is extremely hallucinogenic (not in a good way) and anxiety inducing. I also suspect th
There are huge numbers of examples of animals consuming intoxicants in nature:
* Hummingbirds will drink the sap of daturas and brugmansias, which contain deleriant tropanes, inducing extremely potent hallucinations.
* India has problems with elephants and alcohol. Elephants will consume fruit that has fermented, and then, in their state of intoxication, cause massive amounts of damage to towns and power lines.
* Most amusingly (to me), my aunt has a farm, and every night the ducks are corralled in the barn. Every morning when she goes to let them out, they're quacking and pressed up against the door. An explosion of ducks happens when she finally lets them free, and apparently they race for a shady patch across the field and fight viciously over there. She could not figure out why this was the case, so after hearing that cattle were frequently in that area, I suggested she check the cow dung for mushrooms. Sure enough, those ducks were bolting out to fight over a morning dose of magic mushrooms.
As someone with severe Crohn's Disease, I can say that it's important that you don't over look the exact phrase you mentioned: controlling symptoms dramatically increases quality of life, and preventing relapse reduces the damage to her intestines and will in turn hopefully reduce the number of surgeries she will need later on in life. So yes, I'd say that while she can't cure her Crohn's, now that she has an arsenal of medications at her disposal, there's plenty that she can do about it.
For those not familiar with Anonymous or their activities, Wikipedia has a fairly good article discussing them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)
I myself was quite sheltered and didn't learn about them until recently; I must confess I was rather confused a year or so ago when walking by the Church of Scientology in Toronto and seeing a large protest, with some people wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
While I do agree that some of the Quebec language laws are a bit over the top and end up having stupid results, I feel like I must correct and question assertions made in your post in the following paragraph:
And if people in government has what is deemed an inadequate level of french, the government pays for one-on-one french lessons INSTEAD of for doing your job, and instead of for french classes with other people learning it or instead of for a government billet in a french-speaking area where you can learn the language through immersion.
Living in Ottawa, I have several government working friends who have been provided with government funded French language education (and paid for doing so), and none of them have had the privilege of one-on-one lessons: they all attended group-based French language classes, and they were required to pass in order to continue on in their roles.
I don't see how this is much different than your employer investing in job training, and I'm not opposed to it. Furthermore, the vast majority of this occurs in the Ottawa area, I'd suspect, and as most of the population here speaks French, you'd be hard pressed to find a much more immersive environment.
If anyone here is interested, here's an article written up about Quebec and their language laws: The Language Laws of Quebec
How hard is it, really? Most boys fall in love with girls, and most girls fall in love with boys. Some boys, though, fall in love with other boys, and some girls with other girls. Done with no reference to sex, and at least to the level of understanding necessary by a nine year old. The sex part can be filled in later.
I haven't read Collective Intelligence in Action, but I have studied machine learning at university and then read Toby Segaran's Programming Collective Intelligence (linky), which I found to be an excellent, highly accessible book for learning the basic concepts of ML in a practical setting and with immediate uses being highlighted.
Given the author's description, I'm glad that I chose Segaran's book: the programming language of choice is Python, which results in very short and readable, fully functional code samples, and builds right up from core concepts instead of hiding a lot of the underlying machinery using something like JDM. Reading example code written in Java (unless the code is specifically chosen to illustrate Java or Java APIs) sounds rather tedious.
Collective Intelligence in Action also sounds like it might try to be too far reaching, e.g. focusing on the data model for the problem instead of on the machine learning itself. Segaran's book was strictly focused on ML, and was a very nice, informative read.
Just thought I'd throw an alternative out there for anyone interested in machine learning, which I highly recommend studying. It's a really interesting field with loads of applications.
Seriously, how fast does a web browser *need* to be? I've never been using Firefox on Linux and thought to myself that it was prohibitively or even annoyingly slow.
Reading TFA, in most cases, the differences in times don't seem dramatic, either, so who really cares?
Combinatorics is a field of math that's easily accessible, but runs very deep and is fundamental to many other areas of mathematics. All you need to start is a good sense of logic.
I TAed an introductory combinatorics university course, and this textbook was decent:
http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Combinatorics-Alan-Tucker/dp/0471735078/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234141953&sr=8-4
You can explore things like counting (how many ways to pack n balls into m boxes, considering the balls distinct or not, and similarly for the boxes), probability, graph theory, design theory, and all kinds of fun stuff. Sudoku, for example, is combinatorially very interesting, and a good way to motivate anyone into the field.
I'm right handed, and I trained myself to use my mouse with my left hand. The reason? Because I was starting to develop wrist problems back when I was in IT and had to spend eight hours a day on the computer. Using the mouse with your right hand entails having to move over a much larger area of keyboard to get to it (numerical keypad, arrow keys, etc). With the left hand, you only have to travel a small distance. Also, being mouse-ambidextrous allows you to switch back and forth, thus taking the entire burden off of one hand.
In the end, I decided to go with a trackball, which is built for the right hand (MS optical one) but which I use with my left hand. Furthermore, it's great because since it's a trackball and on the wrong side of the keyboard, it keeps people away from my computer, which is just fine with me :-).
I can think of a few, e.g. proper furigana support (what they have now is terrible, and thus keeps me using MS Office for most of my tasks). Lots of people (an entire and not insignificant country, especially with regards to education, as a matter of fact) would care about this.
And if all the MS Office functionality that's needed has been added, wouldn't this be a great opportunity for them to innovate?
Given the dangers associated with alcohol compared to many of the commonly abused drugs, logically, it should be banned.
The current drug legislation is also tremendously unfair to those of us who have health conditions that prohibit us from enjoying the currently legal drugs. For example, I have Crohn's Disease, and drinking caffeine in any significant quantity is sure to land me in the hospital. Smoking is highly recommended against, as it can exacerbate my health condition severely. Drinking is also generally a no-no for most, although I'm lucky that I can occasionally have a little bit of hard liquor without too many problems. Given how serious and unpleasant Crohn's Disease is, in order to make it through the day without feeling the urge to up and seek euthanasia as I struggle with pain, fevers, humiliation, the inability to function as a normal human being, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and a whole host of other problems, I *need* some kind of chemical escape to cope on occasion, and alcohol is not an option.
Marijuana seems to help many people with this condition, both in terms of the pain and the damage due to inflammation of the intestines. Of course, however, it's illegal in many parts of the world despite the fact that it's largely harmless. Opiates are necessary for many of us, but incredibly difficult to obtain due to drug laws, control, and stigma: I've had an incredibly difficult time to get the drugs necessary to get my pain under control to the point where I can at least have days where I can be productive and a contributing member of society, and have had one doctor outright accuse me of faking my pain and being a junkie, which is extremely humiliating and insulting. It's indicative of just one facet of the sad state of affairs that have arisen due to our current hysteria and insanity regarding drugs.
It just baffles my mind that millions of dollars have been spent in research, for example, to develop synthetic cannabinoids that demonstrate minimal highs to treat health conditions because somehow, a substance making you feel good is a detriment.
I just wanted to point out, in response to your post, that the vast majority of cough syrups contain dextromethorphan, which is a powerful dissociative anaesthetic similar in effect to ketamine. Hence, while "drinking cough syrup" may sound sensational and like someone is in the throes of desperation to achieve a high, it's actually just a completely legitimate route to a very interesting drug experience that simply happens to be legally obtainable, and is actually quite safe on the grand scale of drugs of abuse.
LOL. I'm gay, and married up here in Canada to my husband of four and a half years :-)... but thanks for playing!
One thing I never understand about certain religions and spiritual beliefs is this importance that's placed on love. Sure, love is a powerful force that we generally consider "good", but love can be quite dark and twisted at times, and certainly hate can easily be just as powerful in terms of what one will accomplish in the name of it, and heck, it can definitely be very rewarding, too.
Why does love get touted around on a pedestal like it's some miracle thing? Seems a little silly to me. Any emotion can be beneficial when used in the appropriate context and detrimental when it isn't. Love is no different, and not particularly worth special praise.
Indeed. The one benefit of global warming that I'm looking forward to is that it'll (hopefully) kill the Olympic winter games, thus cutting the stupidity in half. Still, half of infinity is still infinity, so perhaps my hopes are in vain.
Even advanced computer education would be useful. I'm a PhD computer science student, so I see the holes in undergraduates' knowledge of computer technologies, i.e. things that they're simply expected to know for a class and never taught. I also see how frustrating they find it to try to fill these holes in with self-study while maintaining a full course load.
Big examples that spring to mind include things like basic Linux commands, LaTeX, Maple, MATLAB, etc. Offer workshops for students where you teach them how to at least get started with these technologies and I'm sure that you'll have some interest.
What really opened up my mind to really thinking about different dimensions and infinity was nitrous oxide, preferably mixed with other substances like marijuana or opiates. The fourth dimension? Many nitrous users report experiencing an infinite number of dimensions, which you then feel as being equivalent to zero dimensional space, or a space that defines itself over and over. It's almost impossible to explain with words, but if you can get to that point, it's quite beautiful and freaky. After my extensive experiences with nitrous, I converted from Christianity (which felt quite childish, at that point) to philosophical Taoism. The first passage in the Tao Te Ching explains what one might experience on nitrous oxide far better than I could possibly:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named is not the eternal name
'Nothingness' is the beginning of heaven and earth.
'Oneness' is the mother of everythings.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.
As someone with a very painful, debilitating chronic health condition (very active Crohn's Disease), you should assist in paying for my health care because you're part of a society that has made euthanasia illegal and severely demonized suicide (indeed, were I to attempt it, I would likely be institutionalized). Hence, as society has taken away my only alternatives, it has an obligation to provide me with access to the requisite medical procedures and drugs.
The basis of 20th century psychopharmacology was in the discovery that certain dyes affect the brain in profound ways, so this hardly seems like a stretch to me. (See "The Creation of Psychopharmacology" by Dr. David Healy if you're curious.)
Furthermore, as someone with a chronic, debilitating disease whose causes are not known (Crohn's Disease), I've learned to embrace new treatments where they're found, even if they make no sense in the context of the body of existing knowledge about the condition. Indeed, it seems that the successes of treatments often are quite formative to hypotheses as to the nature of my illness. Were it not for TNF-alpha inhibitors, I would probably be dead right now.
I agree that eventually you want to get good mats (I'm using two RedOctane Ignitions now since the metal pads are difficult to get here in Canada unless you're willing to build your own and pay a fortune in shipping, and they're fine, even for doubles) IF you like the game, but I think for a beginner, cheap mats to find out whether or not DDR is your fancy are probably your best bet.
I have a health condition that makes it extremely difficult and stressful for me to leave the house to exercise... I do enjoy a good cardio workout, and was feeling quite unhappy about being unable to engage in a regular routinized exercise session that I enjoyed (because aerobics, yoga, pilates, etc. tapes just aren't that much fun to me), so I decided to see what the hype was about last Christmas and I picked up a DDR game.
Now I'm an avid DDRer, and I must say that it can be a fantastic workout, especially if you play doubles (i.e. two mats) as you move your centre of gravity much more often, and if you work yourself up to the harder levels, which get you moving faster. I can burn an estimated 1000 calories per session, and those sessions just fly by because I'm really enjoying myself. You don't only see your improvement in the game, but the improvement in your appearance, too. My stomach is trim now, and I have that nice abdominal V that some fit people get.
If you haven't tried DDR, I highly recommend it. Get a PS2 game, get a couple cheap mats, and give it a go. If DDR isn't your cup of tea, find an exercise routine that you can do at home that you enjoy so that you actually feel inclined to do it more than a few times. You'll never keep up a regime that bores, intimidates, or embarrasses you.
I think the human race, at least in the developed world, is selecting for intelligence. Intelligent people have better health care and better resources making them more likely to reproduce and afford more children.
I have to disagree with your assessment. I strongly believe that it is not intelligence that leads to success so much as it is business acumen. I, for example, am quite intelligent (not to toot my own horn, which is not my intention), but I have no sense for business at all, and thus recognize that there's a good chance I will never be rich. My father, on the other hand, while also very smart but probably not quite so much so as I, has a great head for business and has done extremely well for himself in life.
As others have pointed out, studies indicate that the intelligent are generally having fewer children as well.
Keep in mind that the celebration of the girl geek is a fairly new social development. This certainly wasn't in place back when I was a teenager (I'm 30 now). Let's wait 20 years or so before we make any conclusions as to how this has affected the interest of girls in more scientific pursuits.
Additionally, I think that girls largely base their self-worth on the opinions of other girls, and girl-geekery, I suspect, is not celebrated largely within the female community just yet.
For those of us with severe chronic illnesses who do not wish to but feel obligated to stay alive for our loved ones since the current societal view is that quantity of life is more important than quality of life, this is very disheartening to read.
Doubly so for those of us concerned with overpopulation.