It's OK to dope as long as you're not in competition with other humans? Sounds good to me. If a scientist is the only one applying for a grant, or even self-funding their research, why should anyone tell them what to do?
Love of science? Thrill of discovery? Hopes of benefiting our fellow humans? Honestly, most scientists I know (including, I think, myself) aren't really ruthless or uncaring. We're here because we enjoy the field, not to get rich or to win fame. (Most of us.) What thrill of discovery will you get from being jacked up on Ritalin 72 hours straight?
Anti-doping rules aren't made for the benefit of an imaginary sporting spectator, they're made for the benefit of scientists, and for the same reason that other labor laws dealing with quality of life exist. We have a limited work-week because otherwise employers would force us, via free labor markets, to all work so long and hard that we'd have no time left for the rest of our lives. Likewise, we have anti-doping rules because otherwise funders would force us, via free labor markets, to all take drugs to the point of ruining our lives.
That's the best analogy for the issue I've seen so far. Do we want our scientists to be human beings or Guild Navigator-esque mutants who interact little with normal society?
A better comparison than athletics might be to a job where strength is still required, like fire-fighting. If you had a fairly safe (I won't pretend that any drug will have no side-effects) steroid that fire-fighters could take to make them stronger and more effective at their jobs, would you permit it? I think it's a fairly similar situation. Do firefighters compete with one another to get new fire-trucks or hoses? No, the public pays for their equipment.
In science, the best results win the money. It's a competition, and any competition must have standards to make it fair. Otherwise, why should anyone but the most intelligent, most ruthless, and most uncaring about themselves and others go into science in the first place?
Simple. Doctors have done the medical science and determined that coffee, taken in moderate doses, does not pose a risk to human health, even when used for performance-enhancement purposes. Harder stimulants do pose that risk. So the doctors say, "If someone really needs these drugs to correct a deficiency in their brain, OK, but otherwise there's just no net health benefit."
What happened to actually listening to our doctors?
Are you being unfairly treated because you refuse to stay up 48 hours in a block, like some other researchers do? If medical science says that staying up for 48 hours in a block is bad for me, then YES! As a society, we shouldn't allow labor markets to force their participants into unhealthy behaviors.
And I say this as a diagnosed (at an age where they actually can diagnose it with reasonable accuracy) ADHD "sufferer" who has a Focalin prescription to help with it (that I avoid taking when I can).
How about if they have unhealthily high blood pressure or LCL cholesterol coupled with a high BMI, suggesting that their fat is giving them heart problems?
Actually, I think that having murderers kill randomly selected politicians (ie: unimportant people) with low approval ratings sounds like a great way to keep the government efficient and trustworthy.
What's wrong with people fiddling around with themselves? How is it fundamentally different from what we already have today? Well for one thing, it results in a desolate undersea city filled with freakish little girls protected by large, mean men in robo-suits.
Look, dude. These are the Israelis we're talking about here. If they find someone with the ruthlessness gene, they won't medicate him or try to sterilize him; they'll promote him to IDF General!
I'd like to see if they let independent artists who haven't signed with a label for a record deal yet sell their music on MySpace. TFA provides too little information, but this could end up as a good way for starving artists to stop starving.
I'm 19 bloody years old. Are you really saying I have to wait 10 more years before women will become mature enough to drop the douchebags, or is there some way to meet these interesting, mature women I keep hearing about?
Not for nothing, NDS comes from the same country that developed Kra Maga, a very vicious martial art based wholly on Cobra Kai's slogan. Well yeah. It was invented for fighting off Nazis in Hungary, then moved to fighting off invading armies in Israel. It needs to be vicious.
Problem is, doesn't working with computers constitute the exception here? In almost anything else, I'd say you're right, but people who work with computers just find that no woman gives half a damn about what we do.
Slashdot Mirror
That's funny. The OP doesn't even mention Israel. Apparently you care enough about them that they're on your mind when you need someone to hate.
Anti-doping rules aren't made for the benefit of an imaginary sporting spectator, they're made for the benefit of scientists, and for the same reason that other labor laws dealing with quality of life exist. We have a limited work-week because otherwise employers would force us, via free labor markets, to all work so long and hard that we'd have no time left for the rest of our lives. Likewise, we have anti-doping rules because otherwise funders would force us, via free labor markets, to all take drugs to the point of ruining our lives.
You can love science and love a family too, but when everyone has to dope to get funded the only ultimate advantage goes to the guy who has no life or concerns outside of his work. This is part of why so few people want to go into science; why do we want a field that excludes people with rich, full lives?
That's the best analogy for the issue I've seen so far. Do we want our scientists to be human beings or Guild Navigator-esque mutants who interact little with normal society?
In science, the best results win the money. It's a competition, and any competition must have standards to make it fair. Otherwise, why should anyone but the most intelligent, most ruthless, and most uncaring about themselves and others go into science in the first place?
Simple. Doctors have done the medical science and determined that coffee, taken in moderate doses, does not pose a risk to human health, even when used for performance-enhancement purposes. Harder stimulants do pose that risk. So the doctors say, "If someone really needs these drugs to correct a deficiency in their brain, OK, but otherwise there's just no net health benefit."
What happened to actually listening to our doctors?
Yeth thur.
Control your own biochemistry all you want, but don't claim that you should get a research grant instead of me or my friend Dave who don't take drugs.
And I say this as a diagnosed (at an age where they actually can diagnose it with reasonable accuracy) ADHD "sufferer" who has a Focalin prescription to help with it (that I avoid taking when I can).
How about if they have unhealthily high blood pressure or LCL cholesterol coupled with a high BMI, suggesting that their fat is giving them heart problems?
DAMNIT EMACS! Real programmers use butterflies!
Actually, I think that having murderers kill randomly selected politicians (ie: unimportant people) with low approval ratings sounds like a great way to keep the government efficient and trustworthy.
Goddamn splicers.
Look, dude. These are the Israelis we're talking about here. If they find someone with the ruthlessness gene, they won't medicate him or try to sterilize him; they'll promote him to IDF General!
Actually, the MIT course has switched to Python.
Generally, the guy who knows he's about to lose his free will to a *WOMAN*.
I've heard of whipped, but at some point you have to reclaim your dignity!
Nobody's going to mod you up for calling Unix old, but you're dead right.
At the very least, couldn't they buy out Plan 9 and base Win7 on that?
I'd like to see if they let independent artists who haven't signed with a label for a record deal yet sell their music on MySpace. TFA provides too little information, but this could end up as a good way for starving artists to stop starving.
Funny, Hardy Heron seems to detect the lid fine on my Macbook Pro. Suspend on close, wake on open.
Only one subdomain of Slashdot (idle.slashdot.org) seems to have gone annoyingly "Web 2.0" for April 1, 2008.
Feh. I want "OMG! PONIES!!1" back.
I'm 19 bloody years old. Are you really saying I have to wait 10 more years before women will become mature enough to drop the douchebags, or is there some way to meet these interesting, mature women I keep hearing about?
Shit, so Republicans are the Wraith now? Does that mean we can use a retroviral treatment to turn them into real human beings?
So how do nerd genes propagate in that scenario? If there are so many of us, we're reproducing somewhere.
Problem is, doesn't working with computers constitute the exception here? In almost anything else, I'd say you're right, but people who work with computers just find that no woman gives half a damn about what we do.
I feel ashamed of understanding that post, but proud to never have been to 4chan.