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User: drunkenoafoffofb3ta

drunkenoafoffofb3ta's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 89

  1. Re:The proper way to deal with this on In Britain, Better Not Call It Bogus Science · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Try enforcing that. PR firms supply newspapers with no end of bullshit spun to their clients' message. Time-poor journalists, under stress often end up churnalizing it. Bullshit pseudoscience turns up in good newspapers and people believe it... as they read it in the 'paper. It's one hell of a battle to keep that nonsense out of the media.

  2. Re:Britain's legal system is busted on In Britain, Better Not Call It Bogus Science · · Score: 1

    No, the libel laws are busted; overall, the legal system, while not perfect, isn't. I might as well say the American legal system is busted since there are many frivolous lawsuits. But it wouldn't make it true, based on an evidence pile of n=1.

  3. Re:Well Then on In Britain, Better Not Call It Bogus Science · · Score: 1

    Rule out the placebo effect from your anecdote and I'll listen. Or is that burden of proof too high? It certainly seems to be (IMHO) for chiropractors.

  4. Re:Twitter on Developer Exposes Copyright Infringers On Twitter · · Score: 1

    It's not even the first example of iPhone app devs nicking wood effect graphics from other iPhone apps -- in this earlier case, e-book readers. Twitter sold it to the media something good.

  5. Re:oh sit down and stfu on Student Sues University Because She's Unemployable · · Score: 1

    You learn something new every day. Shame someone moderated me as trolling in the process, but nevertheless, cool!

  6. Re:Crazy people on English DJ Claims Wi-Fi Allergy · · Score: 1

    Yes it is true. Meta-analyses reveal what the individual trials do not. If I wasn't typing this on my phone I'd direct you to the correct Cochrane Collaboration review on the matter. Meta analyses reveal what smaller individual trials cannot. In mild to moderate depression, ssris fail to be better than placebo. Furthermore, yes, lots of research has gone in to which placebo route of administration works best. The more painful the better. Ebocalp pills (the ones I've seen in the UK) are cool-- pink seems to work best. May I direct you to the archives of badscience.net for both details on both matters?

  7. Re:oh sit down and stfu on Student Sues University Because She's Unemployable · · Score: 0, Troll

    I may be reading some political bias that isn't there into that statement, but... A "liberal arts degree"?

    What are you trying to say? That degrees that get you "proper" jobs are Conservative? Or that degrees that once were thought to be worth something but were over-sold and after a financial crisis are now next-to-worthless "conservative" degrees?!

  8. Re:Crazy people on English DJ Claims Wi-Fi Allergy · · Score: 1

    I'd contest that SSRIs (or SNRIs) are much use in anxiety. Frankly, large meta-analyses of trials show that this class of drug is of no benefit over placebo in mild-to-moderate depression, and not much better in severe depression. Over placebo is the key bit here. Most of the benefits are the placebo effect -- an effect that seems to be in the mind, and works better on psych illnesses than others.

    Now, take that placebo and create a new market for it. "Generalised Anxiety Disorder". That's classic example of a "creeping indication" of a drug./P

  9. Add glucuronide to the acetaminophen tablets on FDA Considers Banning Acetaminophen-Based Pain Killers · · Score: 1

    The reason why more than 2g acetaminophen kills you is that your liver has finite supplies of glucuronide, that it attaches to the drug. When that runs out, the other metabolic pathways (I forget which) cause the formation of free radicals that kill you. Glucuronide is cheap, and can be added to packs for little cost. Why hasn't it...?

  10. Re:Its not rocket surgery... on Staying In Shape vs. a Busy IT Job Schedule? · · Score: 1

    You might be lucky. You may have an underactive thyroid gland leading to your slow metabolism. A quick blood test of T3/T4 levels will pretty much diagnose if this is the case; some thyroxin pills will sort you out pretty quickly.

    My tip, if it ain't that, don't carry any money that can be spent in vending machines!

  11. It is from Microsoft, but... on How Do You Sync & Manage Your Home Directories? · · Score: 1
    Windows Live Mesh?

    It works on Macs, Windows PCs, and mobile devices, (apparently, but I do use it on the first two happily). Could you not share your desktop folders on your devices, and get MS to sync it all for you? Alas, Linux is excluded. 5Gb space online last time I looked.

  12. These phone criteria could apply to terrorists too on Best Handset For Freedom? · · Score: 1

    The answers from slashdot's finest are equally applicable to freedom-wanting Iranians or people wanting to coordinate an attack on, say, americal soldiers in Iraq.

  13. Re:We need a cancer expert here, since... on Steve Jobs Had a Liver Transplant Two Months Ago · · Score: 1
    Hmm. I always understood it to be way more complex than that. The immune system not only mops up pathogens, but also errant cells that are then programmer to die.

    Also, cancer isn't a binary yes we bad cells escape this, or don't, but a relative ratio of escaping the body's safety mechanisms to being mopped up. But then, I'm no expert these days. But I was Reading a cyclosporin patient information leaflet, and cancer spreading is one adverse event you're warned about. I'm worried Steve has had this because his quality of life will ne better in the short term, but ultately he will die faster. I really hop the wsj is wrong and Steve isn't suffering.

  14. We need a cancer expert here, since... on Steve Jobs Had a Liver Transplant Two Months Ago · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Your immune system keeps cancer at bay -- not always -- but often. Your immune system also causes transplant rejection.

    Surely suppressing the immune system for stopping transplant rejection = massive increase in cancer aggressiveness!

    If this is true, then either steve's doctors are crazy, or the WSJ are telling porkies!

  15. Hats off to Microsoft's PR on Does Bing Have Google Running Scared? · · Score: 1

    Really. Well done. This story; the "sound of found" name for something I'd associate with the waste product of coal mining (bing). Actually, Bing's pretty good too. I did bother to try it, thanks to the marketing. But for some reason, I've returned to Google since trying it. Hmm...

  16. Re:How do I get a reasonable level of respect? on How Do IT Guys Get Respect and Not Become BOFHs? · · Score: 1

    No, this guy is New Here.

  17. Re:Pretty soon ... on Google Tricycles To Map Footpaths For Street View · · Score: 2, Funny

    My brother photoshopped that concept: http://www.b3ta.com/board/5779869

  18. Re:Resistance on IBM Pushing Water-Cooled Servers, Meeting Resistance · · Score: 1

    seems like if water is meeting resistance, then pressure's building up. Server explosion!

  19. Re:Holy crap. on Merck Created Phony Peer-Review Medical Journal · · Score: 1
    I think you're making the very big assumption that they made up the data AND the journal to promote their drug... andthe drug is bad.

    More likely, they have a boring drug with boring results that's #4 to the market, with #3 efficacy. This is just laziness on merck's part so that reps can show results quickly. Don't worry. Doctors, in general, aren't stupid. They see right through this.

  20. I think someone in Merck Australia has been on Drug Company Merck Drew Up Doctor "Hit List" · · Score: 1
    ...watching too many gangster movies.

    It's not uncommon for pharma to keep tabs on key doctor's work for them, competitors, and their opinions on so and so's drug. I've worked on them. However... This is batshit crazy behaviour. Smearing doctors? Mega fallout when caught. Merck are going to have a hard time in that market now!

  21. Re:All Ex Cheerleaders on Drug Company Merck Drew Up Doctor "Hit List" · · Score: 1

    To be fair, that's old news. Stuff like that doesn't happen any more-- or rather, it's increasingly difficult for pharma to do it and escape censure. Don't feel too bad. Doctors have to slum it in only 4* hotels these days, and freebies are cost limited to something like $20-- and they have to be pertinent to the job... But it's still free stuff.

  22. Re:Be Skeptical of Drug Company "Scientific" Claim on Drug Company Merck Drew Up Doctor "Hit List" · · Score: 1

    The barrage of potential side effects is there purely because of regulation. It's not as if Pharmacos and the ad agencies are happily putting it in.

  23. Looking forward to on The Guardian Shifts To Twitter After 188 Years of Ink · · Score: 1

    Rants by George Monbiot over Guardian Twitter then! : )

  24. Re:REACH on Hints of a Link Between Autism and Vinyl Flooring · · Score: 1

    Say what?

    There were 100,106 chemicals in use in the EU in 1981?!

    I suspect that's a massive underestimation...

  25. Is this modelling purely excitatory synapses? on Microchip Mimics a Brain With 200,000 Neurons · · Score: 1

    Since most neural net modelling on smaller scales forgets that approx. 30% of brain neurons are inhbitory.