The original FA (in the journal) has a reasonable abstract:
The NMDA-receptor antagonist ketamine has proven efficient in reducing symptoms of suicidality, although the mechanisms explaining this effect have not been detailed in psychiatric patients. Recent evidence points towards a low-grade inflammation in brains of suicide victims. Inflammation leads to production of quinolinic acid (QUIN) and kynurenic acid (KYNA), an agonist and antagonist of the glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, respectively. We here measured QUIN and KYNA in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 64 medication-free suicide attempters and 36 controls, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography. We assessed the patients clinically using the Suicide Intent Scale and the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). We found that QUIN, but not KYNA, was significantly elevated in the CSF of suicide attempters (p less than 0.001). As predicted, the increase in QUIN was associated with higher levels of CSF interleukin-6. Moreover, QUIN levels correlated with the total scores on Suicide Intent Scale. There was a significant decrease of QUIN in patients who came for follow-up lumbar punctures within 6 months after the suicide attempt. In summary, we here present clinical evidence of increased QUIN in the CSF of suicide attempters. An increased QUIN/KYNA quotient speaks in favor of an overall NMDA-receptor stimulation. The correlation between QUIN and the Suicide Intent Scale indicates that changes in glutamatergic neurotransmission could be specifically linked to suicidality. Our findings have important implications for the detection and specific treatment of suicidal patients, and might explain the observed remedial effects of ketamine.
TL;DR - Suicidally depressed patients seem to have a low level inflammatory process going on. They measure two compounds (out of many) in spinal fluid samples of depressed and control patients that are part of the inflammatory pathway are related to the turnover of glutamate, an amino acid felt to be a neurotransmitter (first link the TFS, a nice short explanation). The glutamate agonist levels were higher in suicidal patients, the glutamate antagonist not.
Potentially a method of quantitating level of suicideality which is a very problematic issue (witness the recent shootings in Connecticut). Very early data. Manuscript submitted but not accepted. At the level of interesting but don't run down to the local Szechuan restaurant and OD on MSG. Oh, and leave the ketamine to the vets.
The point is that while there has a been a great deal of success in keeping people alive, there has been little success in keeping them healthy.
As a generality, this isn't true. We are getting much better at successfully treating many diseases and problems such that people are returning to society more functional than ever. Even older people are often living healthier lives (with concomitantly fewer medical bills).
Even putting aside the individual pain and suffering, there are serious economic consequences. Unhealthy people produce less and require more from society. The sicker they are, the more this is true. Eventually society may have to let people die that they technically could save because they can not afford the resources to keep these people alive.
It's much more nuanced than that. Yes, there are economic consequences. There are always economic consequences. You have to decide just what the economy is there for. Is it to keep JRR Tolikien's heirs rolling in money for multiple generations or is it to keep as much of the populace as happy as possible or some complex mix of the two extremes? If you're trying to make as much money for the 'economy' as possible, yes, you euthanize everyone who isn't producing at some set level. But instead of building another Aircraft Carrier group, perhaps society decides to spend the money on nursing home care for the less 'productive' folks. Is that a bad thing.
Economic arguments, when pushed to the extremes you seem to be pushing them, are pretty hollow constructs for a society.
Read TFA. It's moderately scary. It isn't the end of the world but it gives the government power that they really should not have. It is extraordinarily intrusive.
Not only can the feds correlate any information gleaned from federal databases, but they can combine it with ANY other database. Cell phone records, mortgage records, Driver's license records, medical records. They can do so without telling anyone else about it. They have NO oversight - which is probably the most upsetting aspect of the affair.
Panopticon writ large. For the entire population. Whatcouldpossiblygowrong?
I'm quite ignorant of organic chemistry, but I thought hydrocarbons were fossils. How can there be hydrocarbons without life? Or am I WAY off in my ASSumptions?
Organic chemistry is a misnomer. Most of the hydrocarbon molecules formed in the universe have been created without life. Just a byproduct of carbon, oxygen (mostly as Carbon Monoxide), hydrogen and a few other random chemicals along with a bit of fusion and a lot of time.
It would still burn OK (if there was any oxygen around). You could still make hydrogen and power fusion reactions (if we knew how). Lots of potential energy in the universe, more than we could ever use. Just hard to get to.
If you think drilling on the northern end of Siberia is hard, try a Jovian moon. Makes for nice science fiction reading, but as far as it being an instructional video, we have a ways to go.
"Fossil fuels' are mostly compressed algae and diatoms although the carbon sources doesn't really make any difference - it's just hydrogenated carbon chains squished under a lot of pressure, heat and time that flow into relatively impermeable areas and collect. It is NOT mostly bits of T. rex and friends. Coal is an early form of this process - less time and heat and pressure - so you can occasionally see the original (mostly plant) source material.
Natural gas refers to the various blends of short chain hydrocarbons that are created in the process and that tend to migrate to different places (but not always). "Oil" tends to be longer chains. Oil sands (oil rock) has long chains imbedded in an annoying matrix of one composition or another. Natural gas is a 'fossil fuel' although the term is not a very apt description of how the stuff was produced. All of those descriptions are arbitrary and the material is produced along a spectrum.
Hopefully, you are not trying to be an abiotic oil nutcase.
I mean really. TFS has a link to Wikipedia (OK, now we know what the NCC is and I guess it's not a space ship), then a paywalled article.
OK, I'm willing to go along with the concept that the US Federal government has gotten even more intrusive however, a little real info would be nice. Very nice. How about taking 30 seconds more and finding a better link.
I know some feel that the ACLU is a bit on the left wing insane side, but it's a nice balance to the the WSJ right wing insane. And the blog is at least free, readable and nominally interesting.
I wonder how many job opportunities I've missed or friends I've drifted apart from because of email dropped by statistical classification techniques. That's why everybody uses Facebook to keep in touch now.
Kazakhstan is a huge source of oil for the Chicoms.
If Russia invaded Kazakhstan, the Chicoms would wipe Russia off the face of the earth.
With what? Their 'aircraft carrier'? At present the PRC military can do two things: 1) prevent some other country from invading China and 2) prevent a popular Chinese uprising. They are not equipped and not skilled and not positioned for an aggressive war. Perhaps in a generation or two, but not at present.
And where would you consider to be a "safe" area in the US that has no storms, no earthquakes, etc? And is also somewhat accessible and relatively close to a large population center?
Well, that's not generally true. Depressed individuals score lower on assessments of health or happiness. Depressed individuals have higher rates of illness across the board. There seems to be some indication that depressed individuals are more creative and / or productive and again, you have the issue of a fairly broad and imprecise definition of depression (or normal for that matter) but most people would 'fix' their depression if given the chance (and given effective means of doing so).
But it is safe to say that severe depression increases your risk of disease and decreases perception of health and happiness which is a pretty good working definition for 'unhappy'.
These countries need to be dissolved and integrated with another. Things are just going to get worse. What's better, preserving a nations identity or preventing the inevitable extinction of it?
Oh, that works out all the time. Look at the history of, say, the Middle East and Africa. Historical political boundaries chopped up by England and France (with a little help from other largely European countries) starting before WWI and going on to the present day. Trying to make larger political entities from little ones doesn't actually usually work. The US, India and China appear to be the major 'success' stories using this schema. Russia, not so much.
It's a pretty slow, messy process and nobody has any sort of idea how to make it work. Not that the US hasn't tried.
Could this work on politicians? If anybody needs a brain pacemaker, it would be them.
Not sure of this particular tech, but I think you need higher cortical functions in order for this to work. Most politicians seem to be moved only by the basest of emotions and certainly not logic or other 'higher' functions. In short, I don't think there is anything to 'pace'.
Now, an AICD implanted in the brain. That's another thought entirely. One that I kinda like. Fills me with all sorts of tingly joy.
Slashdot Mirror
OK then, it's Bush's fault....
The original FA (in the journal) has a reasonable abstract:
The NMDA-receptor antagonist ketamine has proven efficient in reducing symptoms of suicidality, although the mechanisms explaining this effect have not been detailed in psychiatric patients. Recent evidence points towards a low-grade inflammation in brains of suicide victims. Inflammation leads to production of quinolinic acid (QUIN) and kynurenic acid (KYNA), an agonist and antagonist of the glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, respectively. We here measured QUIN and KYNA in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 64 medication-free suicide attempters and 36 controls, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography. We assessed the patients clinically using the Suicide Intent Scale and the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). We found that QUIN, but not KYNA, was significantly elevated in the CSF of suicide attempters (p less than 0.001). As predicted, the increase in QUIN was associated with higher levels of CSF interleukin-6. Moreover, QUIN levels correlated with the total scores on Suicide Intent Scale. There was a significant decrease of QUIN in patients who came for follow-up lumbar punctures within 6 months after the suicide attempt. In summary, we here present clinical evidence of increased QUIN in the CSF of suicide attempters. An increased QUIN/KYNA quotient speaks in favor of an overall NMDA-receptor stimulation. The correlation between QUIN and the Suicide Intent Scale indicates that changes in glutamatergic neurotransmission could be specifically linked to suicidality. Our findings have important implications for the detection and specific treatment of suicidal patients, and might explain the observed remedial effects of ketamine.
TL;DR - Suicidally depressed patients seem to have a low level inflammatory process going on. They measure two compounds (out of many) in spinal fluid samples of depressed and control patients that are part of the inflammatory pathway are related to the turnover of glutamate, an amino acid felt to be a neurotransmitter (first link the TFS, a nice short explanation). The glutamate agonist levels were higher in suicidal patients, the glutamate antagonist not.
Potentially a method of quantitating level of suicideality which is a very problematic issue (witness the recent shootings in Connecticut). Very early data. Manuscript submitted but not accepted. At the level of interesting but don't run down to the local Szechuan restaurant and OD on MSG. Oh, and leave the ketamine to the vets.
The point is that while there has a been a great deal of success in keeping people alive, there has been little success in keeping them healthy.
As a generality, this isn't true. We are getting much better at successfully treating many diseases and problems such that people are returning to society more functional than ever. Even older people are often living healthier lives (with concomitantly fewer medical bills).
Even putting aside the individual pain and suffering, there are serious economic consequences. Unhealthy people produce less and require more from society. The sicker they are, the more this is true. Eventually society may have to let people die that they technically could save because they can not afford the resources to keep these people alive.
It's much more nuanced than that. Yes, there are economic consequences. There are always economic consequences. You have to decide just what the economy is there for. Is it to keep JRR Tolikien's heirs rolling in money for multiple generations or is it to keep as much of the populace as happy as possible or some complex mix of the two extremes? If you're trying to make as much money for the 'economy' as possible, yes, you euthanize everyone who isn't producing at some set level. But instead of building another Aircraft Carrier group, perhaps society decides to spend the money on nursing home care for the less 'productive' folks. Is that a bad thing.
Economic arguments, when pushed to the extremes you seem to be pushing them, are pretty hollow constructs for a society.
But it yielded Tim Benzedrine. That alone was worth it.
Along those lines, a quote in TFA made me wonder exactly which book Peter Jackson was basing the plot on?
An interminable sequence in Bilbo’s hutch culminates in a dorky, dwarven drinking song, performed alongside animated plates and spoons.
Bored of the Rings?
We Boggies are a hairy folk,
Who like to eat until we choke.
Loving all like friend and brother,
We hardly ever eat eat other.
Gorging out from morn till noon,
But don't forget your plate and spoon.
Now, I would pay good money to see that film.
Read TFA. It's moderately scary. It isn't the end of the world but it gives the government power that they really should not have. It is extraordinarily intrusive.
Not only can the feds correlate any information gleaned from federal databases, but they can combine it with ANY other database. Cell phone records, mortgage records, Driver's license records, medical records. They can do so without telling anyone else about it. They have NO oversight - which is probably the most upsetting aspect of the affair.
Panopticon writ large. For the entire population. Whatcouldpossiblygowrong?
Hell hath no fury ....
I'm quite ignorant of organic chemistry, but I thought hydrocarbons were fossils. How can there be hydrocarbons without life?
Or am I WAY off in my ASSumptions?
Organic chemistry is a misnomer. Most of the hydrocarbon molecules formed in the universe have been created without life. Just a byproduct of carbon, oxygen (mostly as Carbon Monoxide), hydrogen and a few other random chemicals along with a bit of fusion and a lot of time.
It would still burn OK (if there was any oxygen around). You could still make hydrogen and power fusion reactions (if we knew how). Lots of potential energy in the universe, more than we could ever use. Just hard to get to.
If you think drilling on the northern end of Siberia is hard, try a Jovian moon. Makes for nice science fiction reading, but as far as it being an instructional video, we have a ways to go.
Where to begin....
"Fossil fuels' are mostly compressed algae and diatoms although the carbon sources doesn't really make any difference - it's just hydrogenated carbon chains squished under a lot of pressure, heat and time that flow into relatively impermeable areas and collect. It is NOT mostly bits of T. rex and friends. Coal is an early form of this process - less time and heat and pressure - so you can occasionally see the original (mostly plant) source material.
Natural gas refers to the various blends of short chain hydrocarbons that are created in the process and that tend to migrate to different places (but not always). "Oil" tends to be longer chains. Oil sands (oil rock) has long chains imbedded in an annoying matrix of one composition or another. Natural gas is a 'fossil fuel' although the term is not a very apt description of how the stuff was produced. All of those descriptions are arbitrary and the material is produced along a spectrum.
Hopefully, you are not trying to be an abiotic oil nutcase.
Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I mean really. TFS has a link to Wikipedia (OK, now we know what the NCC is and I guess it's not a space ship), then a paywalled article.
OK, I'm willing to go along with the concept that the US Federal government has gotten even more intrusive however, a little real info would be nice. Very nice. How about taking 30 seconds more and finding a better link.
I know some feel that the ACLU is a bit on the left wing insane side, but it's a nice balance to the the WSJ right wing insane. And the blog is at least free, readable and nominally interesting.
tl;dr - we're doomed.
I wonder how many job opportunities I've missed or friends I've drifted apart from because of email dropped by statistical classification techniques. That's why everybody uses Facebook to keep in touch now.
Friends? An AC on Slashdot?
Jobs? An AC on Slashdot?
Not to worry.
practical interesting applications for such a material ?
Patents. Patents. More Patents. Lawsuits.
You know, the usual stuff.
Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
+1 for India and there working Thorium reactor!
+1 for India and there (sic) not yet working Thorium reactor!
That's more like it.
when will Alaska get back to it's owner ? you know, being drunk, you are not competent to perform legal acts etc...
I'm confused. Are you trying to describe Alaska under Russian ownership or Alaska under current management. Either way, you're correct.
Short answer, usually in the middle of nowhere.
Longer answer, nowhere isn't what it used to be.
Oh and it's a national wildlife refuge.
Oddly enough, so is Cape Canaveral (more or less)
Kazakhstan is a huge source of oil for the Chicoms.
If Russia invaded Kazakhstan, the Chicoms would wipe Russia off the face of the earth.
With what? Their 'aircraft carrier'? At present the PRC military can do two things: 1) prevent some other country from invading China and 2) prevent a popular Chinese uprising. They are not equipped and not skilled and not positioned for an aggressive war. Perhaps in a generation or two, but not at present.
Last elections over there showed it:140% votes [economist.com]
Perhaps Mr. Putin could be persuaded to finish off his career in the United States, helping us to increase our terrible level of political engagement.
I'm thinking more along the line of the big square trucks in "Men In Black". Guess I'm not that old.
And where would you consider to be a "safe" area in the US that has no storms, no earthquakes, etc? And is also somewhat accessible and relatively close to a large population center?
Why, your back yard. Of course.
Of the dozen or so people I've met with exotic pets all of them had an IQ a standard deviation or two below the mean.
The pet or the pet owner? A python with an IQ of 66 or so could be pretty impressive.
WTF is this news? Was it in the 'What Hicks do in their spare time' section?
What are you about? Python is an important, widely used computer language. Of course discussion of it belongs on Slashdot.
Oh. Wait.
Introversion is not unhealthy.
Neither is depression.
Well, that's not generally true. Depressed individuals score lower on assessments of health or happiness. Depressed individuals have higher rates of illness across the board. There seems to be some indication that depressed individuals are more creative and / or productive and again, you have the issue of a fairly broad and imprecise definition of depression (or normal for that matter) but most people would 'fix' their depression if given the chance (and given effective means of doing so).
But it is safe to say that severe depression increases your risk of disease and decreases perception of health and happiness which is a pretty good working definition for 'unhappy'.
These countries need to be dissolved and integrated with another. Things are just going to get worse. What's better, preserving a nations identity or preventing the inevitable extinction of it?
Oh, that works out all the time. Look at the history of, say, the Middle East and Africa. Historical political boundaries chopped up by England and France (with a little help from other largely European countries) starting before WWI and going on to the present day. Trying to make larger political entities from little ones doesn't actually usually work. The US, India and China appear to be the major 'success' stories using this schema. Russia, not so much.
It's a pretty slow, messy process and nobody has any sort of idea how to make it work. Not that the US hasn't tried.
Could this work on politicians? If anybody needs a brain pacemaker, it would be them.
Not sure of this particular tech, but I think you need higher cortical functions in order for this to work. Most politicians seem to be moved only by the basest of emotions and certainly not logic or other 'higher' functions. In short, I don't think there is anything to 'pace'.
Now, an AICD implanted in the brain. That's another thought entirely. One that I kinda like. Fills me with all sorts of tingly joy.