Chertow, Daniel, Sydney Stein, Sabrina Ramelli, Alison Grazioli, Joon-Yong Chung, Manmeet Singh, Claude Kwe Yinda, et al. ‘SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Persistence throughout the Human Body and Brain’, 28 December 2021. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1139035/v1.

This is an interesting starting point for discussing the ills of comparative anthropology which will tend to put one culture or society over another in some sort of linear way and an expectation of equivalence relations (in a mathematical sense).

Humans and their societies and cultures aren't always reflexive, symmetric, or transitive. There may not be an order relation (aka simple order or linear order) on humanity. We may not have comparability, nonreflexivity, or transitivity.

(See page 24 on Set Theory and Logic in Topology by James R. Munkres for definition of "order relation")

‘It’s misinformation at worst.’ Weak health studies can do more harm than good, scientists say. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-misinformation-worst-weak-health-studies-can-do-more-harm-good-scientists-say

An interesting take on creative work by Jeremy Strong

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/Better-mortgage-firm-has-mass-layoff-Zoom-16673576.php

Kristian G. Andersen on Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved 3 December 2021, from https://twitter.com/K_G_Andersen/status/1465822536629821442

Progressive International. (2021, November 29). BREAKING: 2.5 million nurses from 28 countries have filed for a UN investigation of human rights violations by the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway, and Singapore for blocking the waiver on Covid-19 vaccine patents as new strains proliferate: Http://covid19criminals.exposed https://t.co/Rj37RqDA4J [Tweet]. @ProgIntl. https://twitter.com/ProgIntl/status/1465202919687348227

Sloman, S. A. (2021). How Do We Believe? Topics in Cognitive Science, 0(2021), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12580

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/evangelical-trump-christians-politics/620469/

Evangelical Christians have been held together more by political orientation and sociology than they have by a common theology. This has set them up for a schism which has been exacerbated by Donald J. Trump, COVID-19, and social changes.

Similar to Kurt's quote, "We go to church to see and be seen", too many churches are focused on entertainment and being an ongoing institution that they aren't focusing on their core mission. This is causing problems in their overall identity.

Time at church and in religious study is limited, but cable news, social media, and other distractions are always on and end up winning out.

People are more likely to change their church because of politics than to change their politics because of church.

The dichotomy of maleness and femaleness compound the cultural issues of the evangelical church.

Southernization of the Church

Pastors leaving the profession due to issues with a hostile work environment. Some leaving because parishioners are organizing and demanding they be fired.

Peter Wehner looks at the rifts that are appearing in the Christian evangelical movement in America, some are issues that have been building for a while, while others are exaggerated by Donald J. Trump, the coronavirus, the culture wars, political news, political beliefs, and and hypocrisy.

What part does The Great Resignation have in part of this? Any? Is there overlap for any of the reasons that others are resigning?

What about the overlap of causes/reasons for teachers leaving the profession since the pandemic? What effect does the hostile work environment of politics play versus a loss of identity and work schedule during a time period in which closures would have affected schedules?

What commonalities and differences do all these cases have?

Rational thought and emotions are entwined at the deepest level. Also, what Lakoff says about universals is very important as we consider how we unite and depolarize politics. We need to find the common denominators, but this is not such a simple task.

Given how cheap and easy this intervention is, I'd say this is adequate evidence that all ME/CFS patients should be taking these supplements. Moreover. given that the p-value is so low, it is almost certain to be replicated.

An example of a figure calming waters in myth.

cross reference: Moses and the parting of the Red Sea

To what dates might we attribute these two texts? Which preceded the other? What sort of potential cultural influences would the original had on the subsequent?

Also cross reference the many deluge/flood stories in ancient literatures including Genesis 6-9, The Epic of Gilgamesh, etc.

Otte, J. (2021, November 11). ‘No jab, no job’: Care home workers in England on the Covid vaccine mandate. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/11/england-care-home-workers-on-mandatory-covid-vaccines

Object Oriented Ontology - Objects are always revealing something, and always concealing something, simply because they are Other. ... There is no "outside" - just the entire universe of entities constantly interacting, and you are one of them.

This needs to be harmonized with Stop Reset Go (SRG) complimentary Human Inner Transformation (HIT) and Social Outer Transformation (SOT) strategy.

Even more recent research adds to this:

See the annotated Oxfam report: Linked In from the author: https://hyp.is/RGd61D_IEeyaWyPmSL8tXw/www.linkedin.com/posts/timgore_inequality-parisagreement-emissionsgap-activity-6862352517032943616-OHL- Annotations on full report: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Foxfamilibrary.openrepository.com%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10546%2F621305%2Fbn-carbon-inequality-2030-051121-en.pdf&group=__world__

and the annotated Hot or Cool report: https://hyp.is/KKhrLj_bEeywAIuGCjROAg/hotorcool.org/hc-posts/release-governments-in-g20-countries-must-enable-1-5-aligned-lifestyles/ https://hyp.is/zo0VbD_bEeydJf_xcudslg/hotorcool.org/hc-posts/release-governments-in-g20-countries-must-enable-1-5-aligned-lifestyles/

This suggests that perhaps the failure of the COP meetings may be partially due to focusing at the wrong level and demographics. the top 1 and 10 % live in every country. A focus on the wealthy class is not a focus area of COP negotiations perse. The COP meetings are focused on nation states. Interventions targeting this demographic may be better suited at the scale of individuals or civil society.

Many studies show there are no extra gains in happiness beyond a certain point of material wealth, and point to the harmful impacts of wealth accumulation, known as affluenza, and show many health effects: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950124/, https://theswaddle.com/how-money-affects-rich-people/, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-dark-reasons-so-many-rich-people-are-miserable-human-beings-2018-02-22, https://www.nbcnews.com/better/pop-culture/why-wealthy-people-may-be-less-successful-love-ncna837306, https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/affluence,

A Human Inner Transformation approach based on an open source praxis called Deep Humanity is one example of helping to transform affluenza and leveraging it to accelerate transition.

Anderson has contextualized the scale of such an impact in his other presentations but not here. A recent example is the temporary emission decreases due to covid 19. A 6.6% global decrease was determined from this study: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00090-3#:~:text=After%20rising%20steadily%20for%20decades,on%20daily%20fossil%20fuel%20emissions. with the US contributing 13% due to lockdown impacts on vehicular travel (both air and ground). After the pandemic ends, experts expect a strong rebound effect.

Policy alone may not be sufficient to change this deeply ingrained luxury lifestyle. It may require deep and meaningful education of one's deeper humanity leading to a shift in worldviews and value systems that deprioritize materially luxurious lifestyles for using that wealth to redistribute to build the future wellbeing ecocivilization. Transform the wealthy into the heros of the transition. Shaming them and labeling them as victims will only create distance. Rather, the most constructive approach is a positive one that shifts our own perspective from holding them as villains to heros.

This underscores the critical nature of dealing with the cultural shift of luxury lifestyle. It is recognized as a "hot potato" issue, which implies policy change may be slow and difficult.

Policy changes and new legal tools are ways to force an unwilling individual or group into a behavior change.

A more difficult but potentially more effective way to achieve this cultural shift is based on Donella Meadows' leverage points: https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/ which identifies the top leverage point as: The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, power structure, rules, its culture — arises.

The Stop Reset Go (SRG) open collective project applies the Deep Humanity (DH) Human Inner Transformation (HIT) process to effect impactful Social Outer Transformation (SOT). This is based on the inner-to-outer flow: The heart feels, the mind thinks, the body acts and a social impact manifests in our shared, public collective human reality.

Meadows top leverage point identifies narratives, stories and value systems that are inner maps to our outer behavior as critical causal agents to transform.

We need to take a much deeper look at the pysche of the luxury lifestyle. Philospher David Loy has done extensive research on this already. https://www.davidloy.org/media.html

Loy is a Buddhist scholar, but Buddhist philosophy can be understood secularly and across all religions.

Loy cites the work of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, especially his groundbreaking Pulitzer-prize-winning book: The Denial of Death. Becker wrote:

"Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order to blindly and dumbly rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and to have to live with. The lower animals are, of course, spared this painful contradiction, as they lack a symbolic identity and the self-consciousness that goes with it. They merely act and move reflexively as they are driven by their instincts. If they pause at all, it is only a physical pause; inside they are anonymous, and even their faces have no name. They live in a world without time, pulsating, as it were, in a state of dumb being. This is what has made it so simple to shoot down whole herds of buffalo or elephants. The animals don't know that death is happening and continue grazing placidly while others drop alongside them. The knowledge of death is reflective and conceptual, and animals are spared it. They live and they disappear with the same thoughtlessness: a few minutes of fear, a few seconds of anguish, and it is over. But to live a whole lifetime with the fate of death haunting one's dreams and even the most sun-filled days—that's something else."

But Loy goes beyond mortality salience and strikes to the heart of our psychological construction of the Self that is the root of our consumption and materialism exasperated crisis.

To reach the wealthy in a compassionate manner, we must recognize that the degree of wealth and materialist accumulation may be in many cases proportional to the anxiety of dying, the anxiety of the groundlessness of the Self construction itself.

Helping all humans to liberate from this anxiety is monumental, and also applies to the wealthy. The release of this anxiety will naturally result in breaking through the illusion of materialism, seeing its false promises.

Those of the greatest material wealth are often also of the greatest spiritual poverty. As we near the end of our lives, materialism's promise may begin to lose its luster and our deepest unanswered questions begin to regain prominence.

At the end of the day, policy change may only effect so much change. What is really required is a reeducation campaign that results in voluntary behavior change that significantly reduces high impact luxury lifestyles. An exchange for something even more valued is a potential answer to this dilemma.

Kovacs, M., Hoekstra, R., & Aczel, B. (2021). The Role of Human Fallibility in Psychological Research: A Survey of Mistakes in Data Management. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 4(4), 25152459211045930. https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459211045930

https://i.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/qhg5jo/this_resume_got_me_an_interview/

That's a substantial fraction of the 11 point lower blood volume in ME/CFS found in one study. Moreover, this was achieved with only 13 days bed rest. I can only imagine the long-term effects of a sedentary lifestyle. It's likely that this is the primary cause of most ME/CFS. Nonetheless, exercise is unlikely to be the optimal treatment.

I notice the standard deviation is low for their sample size. Normally smaller sample sizes increase SD. However, comparing to a study with 30 subject per group, we can see the expected SD for blood volume (ml/kg) in this sample size of 20 should be greater than ±22.

The reason for this small SD is probably that subjects with ME/CFS are scrunched up against the lower end of the curve. The body simply will not allow blood volumes below a certain level. Judging by this study, I'd say around 50 ml/kg is the lowest possible number.

That's an interesting hypothesis. I wouldn't have thought histamine was involved. Though, histamine being a stimulant, it also makes some sense. I'd have thought the primary mechanism is serotonin blockade, which would work in part by dopamine dis-inhibition as mentioned here.

Reimagining our social architecture might begin with rethinking our past and origins as a species.

Lagnado, D. A. (2022). Explaining the evidence: How the mind investigates the world. Cambridge University Press.

Schlosser, F., & Brockmann, D. (2021). Finding disease outbreak locations from human mobility data. EPJ Data Science, 10(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-021-00306-6

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/netflix-employees-stage-walkout-protest-dave-chapelle-special-the-closer-transphobic-1235093535/

Conversation is not happening! There is a leverage point in holding open conversations where we understand each other’s language of different cultural groups. Finding common ground, the common human denominators (CHD) between polarized groups is the lynchpin.

We often talk about the same things, share the same values, have the same common human denominators, but couched in different language. It is critical to get to the root of what we have in common in order to establish meaningful dialogue.

What first appears as difference may actually emerge from consciousnesses that have more in common than one first realizes. Finding the common ground, what we refer to as the common human denominators (CHD) within the open source Deep Humanity praxis becomes the critical climate change communication leverage point for establishing genuine communication channels between politically polarized groups.

This is aligned to the Stop Reset Go project and its open source offshoot, Deep Humanity praxis that seeks conversations and personal and collective journeys to appreciate Common Human Denominators that are salient for all participants. It also underscores the value of integrating with the Indieverse Knowledge system, with its focus on symathessy embedded directly into its codebase.

This stresses the importance of applying Deep Humanity wisely by finding the most compelling, salient and meaningful common human denominators appropriate for each conversational context. Which group are we interacting with? What are the major landmarks embedded in THEIR salience landscape?

The BEing journeys we craft will only be meaningful and impactful if they are appropriately matched to the cultural context.

The whole mind- body understanding of how we cognitively construct our reality, via Deep Humanity BEing journeys, can help shift our priorities.

Deep Humanity, as an open praxis available to any human being to both use and contribute to is a leverage point that, by awakening us to our own sacredness as living and dying human interbeing, can shift our self-perspective from scarcity and poverty mentality, to hsving super powers that emerge from the lived experience of our own sacredness as living and dying human interbeings. The Stop Reset Go linkage between human inner transformation (HIT) and social outer transformation (SOT) are criticsl to recognizing our social transformative potential.

Love, or recognizing the other person in the other tribe as sacred, is going to connect with that person because we are, after all, all of us are human INTERbeings, and love is the affective variable that connects us while shame is a variable that DISconnects us. Love is , in fact, one of our most powerful common human denominators.

The bottom-up nature of this cluster makes it the focus area for civil society movements, inner transformation approaches and cultural methodologies. Changing the mindset or paradigm from which the system arises is the most powerful place to intervene in a system as Donella Meadows pointed out decades ago in her research on system leverage points: https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/

The Stop Reset Go initiative is focused on this thematic lens, bottom-up, rapid whole system change, with Deep Humanity as the open-source praxis to address the needed shift in worldview. One of the Deep Humanity programs is based on addressing the psychological deficits of the wealthy, and transforming them into heroes for the transition, by redirecting their WEALTH-to-WELLth.

this suggests that perhaps the failure of the COP meetings may be partially due to focusing at the wrong level and demographics. the top 1 and 10 % live in every country. A focus on the wealthy class is not a focus area of COP negotiations perse. Interventions targeting this demographic may be better suited at the scale of individuals or civil society.

Many studies show there are no extra gains in happiness beyond a certain point of material wealth, and point to the harmful impacts of wealth accumulation, known as affluenza, and show many health effects: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950124/, https://theswaddle.com/how-money-affects-rich-people/, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-dark-reasons-so-many-rich-people-are-miserable-human-beings-2018-02-22, https://www.nbcnews.com/better/pop-culture/why-wealthy-people-may-be-less-successful-love-ncna837306, https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/affluence,

A Human Inner Transformation approach based on an open source praxis called Deep Humanity is one example of helping to transform affluenza and leveraging it accelerate transition.

Interestingly, this is still all-too-often how business owners, entrepreneurs, and corporations view their own workers.

We are a creative, collaborative, self-organizing learning community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MBaFL7sCb8

Passion is a terrible yardstick for life.

You create life by living it.

"Do not loan money to a person following their passion." —Scott Adams advice on being a loan officer

Passion is where your energy and effort meets someone else's need. —Terri Trespicio

This is the water we swim in.

This is Water by David Foster Wallace

Dolgin, Elie. ‘The Tangled History of MRNA Vaccines’. Nature 597, no. 7876 (14 September 2021): 318–24. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02483-w.

Human Centered Design Workshop for PPE. (n.d.). Eventbrite. Retrieved March 3, 2021, from https://www.eventbrite.com/e/136323937567?aff=efbneb

My guess is that this is caused by a sleep surplus. I'd analogize it to the CBT-i recommendation to avoid napping because it will impair sleep drive that night.

“Mental models are one of the most important concepts in human–computer interaction (HCI).”

— Nielsen Norman Group

Stop Reset Go

How do we engage in bottom-up whole system change? Perhaps we need a model for understanding who we are serving that transcends the bias and limitations of personas as they are used in user experience design (UX).

What is a more holistic model for understanding human perceptions, motivations, and behaviours?

That's quite impressive. It's worth noting that benefits accrued throughout the entire study duration. There's likely further benefits over longer durations. I take the benefit to be from antioxidants.

This was achieved by a single size 0 capsule. The benefits would likely be proportionally greater with higher doses. Though, there is probably a cap depending on one's starting antioxidant status. I take it to be antioxidants that are providing the benefit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ7CyM1Zrqc

An interesting experiment to change one's schedule this way.

I feel like I've seen a working schedule infographic of famous writers, artists, etc. and their sample work schedules before. This could certainly fit into that.

One thing is certain thought, that the time of waking up is probably more a function of the individual person. How you spend your time is another consideration.

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” ― Picasso

“Everybody has the same energy potential. The average person wastes his in a dozen little ways. I bring mine to bear on one thing only: my paintings, and everything else is sacrificed to it...myself included.” ― Picasso

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. —Picasso

see also: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/03/07/child-art/

Boy, don't they

What a great quote to include in the closing!

Josiah Wedgwood was apparently the first to institute a system of clocking-into work.

We attend to time in large measure as a need to be able to synchronize our work.

Eternal struggle of competition here. The workers (and the poet) admonish that one compares themselves against their neighbors (competitors) than simply themselves.

The fix for this is for the leadership/bosses to participate themselves to see if the yield isn't as good as it might otherwise be. So much could be fixed if the "boss" is involved in the actual work or physically on site at least some of the time to experience what is going on. Participation counts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Monday

These are the effects I was expecting to find. cGMP plays a role in SCN nighttime signalling, though I expect it has other mechanisms as well.

The Uncomfortable Truth is the Difficult and Unpopular Decisions are Now Unavoidable.

Topic is relevant across a span of global issues. Natural resources are Finite.....period! Timely decisions are critical to insure intelligent use of resources. DENIAL is the enemy and 800lb gorilla in the room. Neoliberisim and social dysfunction feed on any cognitive dissonance and poop it out as "crap". True believers of American Capitalism (yes there is a difference) have become "cult-like" and drink the fluid of the cult to the very end, human consequence is of no concern.

Point being: Reality is always elusive within a cult controlled (authoritative) mindset. Cult members are weak sheep, incapable of individual logic/reason. Authority can not be challenged. -- Denial, a human defense mechanism has been and is the common denominator in all personal and global conflict. Denial can be traced throughout modern history and rears its ugly head whenever the stakes are high.

This is probably due to nasal congestion.

Paul Lockhart in Lockhart's Lament

It's hard to say what this tells me about my hypothesis that the 7 mg patch increases HRV. It really depends on their blood levels. The second-hand smoke machine is extremely unrealistic. They were exposed to 30 puffs of 1.8% nicotine e-juice in the first measurement interval. Assuming 150 puffs per ml, that's 3.6 mg smoked in a single 15 minute interval! I've not read the full study to confirm this calculation. Nonetheless, it's clear that these insane conditions require scrutiny. That's not even counting the fact that there's no placebo (Or even control). How am I supposed to know if this is not just an effect of being concern about inhaling e-smoke? I'm still searching for studies on low concentration of nicotine and HRV.

@dancohen @ayjay, don't forget the noble professions of philosopher's clerk or secretary:

What it would be like to be a philosopher’s clerk: “It’ll be a matter of filing the generalisations, tidying up paradoxes, laying out the premises before the boss gets in.” —Tom Stoppard

For five years he [Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)] served as personal secretary to, yes, Francis Bacon. In fact, I’ve noted over a course of years that the job of a secretary can be utterly fulfilling just in case one’s boss happens to be Francis Bacon. —Daniel N. Robinson

(reply to https://micro.blog/dancohen/11752827)

‘No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit. (2021, August 19). The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/19/book-psychology-pandemics-steven-taylor

This disproves my suggestion that 2 mg might increase HRV, but I was looking for 1 mg rather than 2. The 2 mg gum is still plausibly a higher dose than a 7 mg patch. I'm struggling to find studies in the lower doses. This may be because everyone wants to prove the harm of nicotine. There may even be publication bias (especially if there's no effect).

This was with a 14 mg patch. A 21 mg patch would probably reduce HRV given that a 4 mg lozenge does so.

I still expect to find enhance HRV with 7 mg. This study supports that hypothesis to an extent. That it, it shows that 14 mg may be the tipping point between increased or decreased HRV from nicotine.

Assuming a half life of two hours, I calculated a 7 mg per day patch delivers a peak dosage of around 0.8 mg. Given that a 4mg lozenge has a bioavailability of 79%, this is equivalent to a 21 mg patch.

Given that we know anything above a 7 mg patch disrupts sleep (while 7 mg enhances sleep), it's unsurprising that HRV was reduced. I expect that a 1 mg lozenge or gum would increase HRV. Given that the above citation lists the bioavailability of a 2 mg lozenge at 50%, 2 mg may also increase HRV.

Benefits accrued throughout the 8 weeks. I recall reading on Longecity forum that ashwagandha takes a month for benefits to kick in. This study demonstrates that benefits continue to increase over two months. I suspect they continue even further than that.

Interestingly, this is pretty similar to the two placebo controlled studies on antioxidants for sleep. Thus, I wonder of the benefits of ashwaganha extract are largely antioxidant capacity. This would be a bit surprising because the ORAC of dried ashwaganda is just slightly above raw pinto beans. Based on the recommended doses, the extract isn't vastly more potent than the whole root. Though, this comment saying that the Withanolide/Withaferin A (edit: withaferin A is purportedly cytotoxic) reside mostly in the leaves has greatly confused me. Either the extract has more antioxidant activity than I realize (directly or indirectly), or the benefits come primarily from the purported mechanisms of ashwagandha (which include cortisol reduction and GABAergic activity). Edit: the full text mentions a 15 to 1 extract ratio, which is enough to put the antioxidant mechanism back on the table. It's probably a partial explanation, but after seeing the full text I think the benefits are too great to be simply from antioxidants.

I see no mention of the time of day of administration. I'm assuming it was in the morning, which contrasts with the near bedtime dosing in the antioxidant studies. If I later find out that antioxidants in the morning don't help with sleep, then that will suggest ashwagandha works by other mechanisms. However, I expect antioxidants at any time of day help with sleep. Nonetheless, I'm not discounting that ashwagandha may work by other mechanisms.

I believe this roughly equates to the benefits from an increase in SWS.

Oddly, the strong adenosinergic pressure from ~20 hours wake combined from caffeine withdrawal didn't lead to increased SWS. Indeed, there was a nonsignificant trend towards a decrease in SWS. One possibility is that caffeine induced SWS surplus accumulation over the previous week, reducing SWS drive. However, this could alternatively be explained by the 60 minute nap.

Withdrawal restored REM sleep under these conditions. The withdrawal condition looks quite similar to placebo (both REM and SWS), which is rather surprising.

This aligns with intuition. However, they only tested a single night in each condition. The harm of eating at night may be a zeitgeber effect, taking multiple days to accumulate.

These results bring into question advice about avoiding food at night. Food quality likely plays a critical role. It remains unclear whether eating before bed is advisable, but this data gives reason to at least avoid making recommendations against it.

Though the effect was stronger in those with lower intake, the effects on mood in those with higher intake were still quite substantial, (full text). That is to say, both groups benefited. Selenium improved anxiety only in the low intake group, (full text).

Interestingly, the high and low intake groups had the same baseline scores. That is to say, it's not that selenium brought the low intake group up to normal, but rather that they were lifted above the high intake group. It's possible that they had adapted to their low intake, be it psychological or physiological adaptation. I recall a similar effect with creatine and cognitive performance in vegetarians.

This raises the question: does the benefit disappear over time as one adapts to their new selenium levels? Perhaps, but I find it more likely that the benefit drops only slightly. That is, I think what may be occurring is a a positive feedback loop where better mood makes you more optimistic, thus improving your mood; I expect this psychological mechanism to fade, leaving the biological component intact.

Of course, there is the possibility that this is a statistical fluke. Nonetheless, I'd expect the above mechanism to occur in general. If I learn more about statistics I could probably run a p-value test.

That is a moderate but worthwhile benefit over placebo.

Not only was is significant, but it was impressive! The 200 μg dose cut the score over 50%, compared to 20-22% reductions in the placebo. Everyone with RLS should be given selenium.

However, I disagree with the authors that this should be a replacement. Multiple treatments are likely necessary to achieve adequate relief.

Smith, M.-D. (2021, July 6). One mother’s human-rights victory over hardline COVID restrictions. Macleans.Ca. https://www.macleans.ca/society/one-mothers-human-rights-victory-over-hardline-covid-restrictions/

Galea, S. (2021). Elevating Dignity as a Goal for Health System Achievement in the COVID-19 Era and in the Future. JAMA Health Forum, 2(8), e212803–e212803. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.2803

As expected. This study was placebo controlled, too.

I'd be interested to see the effect of a 7 mg patch. 14 mg is too high for sleep, so I wonder if it is also too high for akathisia.

‘Trust the science’ is the mantra of the Covid crisis – but what about human fallibility? | Margaret Simons | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/24/trust-the-science-is-the-mantra-of-the-covid-crisis-but-what-about-human-fallibility?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://theamericanscholar.org/blue-collar-brilliance/

Acknowledging the work and art that blue collar workers do is an important thing.

Sometime in the past six months I ran across a description of how migrant workers do this sort of activity in farming contexts. That article also pointed out the fact that the average person couldn't do this sort of work and that there was extreme value in it.

<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>Alan Jacobs</span> in July Check-In · Buttondown (<time class='dt-published'>07/01/2021 09:19:13</time>)</cite></small>

Idea of John Paul II's encyclical being a form of blogging in a different era. They're all essays in form, it's just about distribution...

This same sort of illusion also occurs in email where we're always assumed to be constantly available to others.

Kraemer, M. U. G., Hill, V., Ruis, C., Dellicour, S., Bajaj, S., McCrone, J. T., Baele, G., Parag, K. V., Battle, A. L., Gutierrez, B., Jackson, B., Colquhoun, R., O’Toole, Á., Klein, B., Vespignani, A., Consortium‡, T. C.-19 G. U. (CoG-U., Volz, E., Faria, N. R., Aanensen, D., … Pybus, O. G. (2021). Spatiotemporal invasion dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 emergence. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj0113

I concur. This merits human analysis. I'd be curious to know the subjective effects of combining the two. In particular, I'm wondering if mirtazapine reduces "wanting" while enhancing "liking".

The main reason I'd been thinking this is due to comparison to similar drug combos in humans. I'd heard that combining hydroxyzine and opioids was sometimes prescribed to enhance the effectiveness of opioids and/or use lower opioid doses; I'd also read on some harm reduction forum that some people enjoy combining opioids with antihistamines. Given that mirtazapine is to a large extent just hydroxyzine but with added adrenergic effects, it seems likely that much of these data can be cross-applied (between mirtazapine and hydroxyzine in particular).

PsyArXiv Preprints | Vaccine Equity and G7 Summit. (n.d.). Retrieved 22 July 2021, from https://psyarxiv.com/gx87e/

Hill, Ryan, Yian Yin, Carolyn Stein, Dashun Wang, and Benjamin F. Jones. “Adaptability and the Pivot Penalty in Science.” ArXiv:2107.06476 [Physics], July 13, 2021. http://arxiv.org/abs/2107.06476.

An interesting take on valuing one's time.

van Lange, P., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Human Cooperation and the Crises of Climate Change, COVID-19, and Misinformation [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6tpa8

Reis, E. F. dos, & Masuda, N. (2021). Metapopulation models imply non-Poissonian statistics of interevent times. ArXiv:2106.10348 [Physics]. http://arxiv.org/abs/2106.10348

reflecting on the year after george floyd for me is that the different responses that we all have right are valid and true and authentic and they create possibilities when they're read in you know its full context um but some of what is happening or some of what the role of the the classroom or the the person is to do is to try to say this is the range of the acceptable response and i feel like as a teacher our role is to kind of say you get to choose how you want to show up but base it in something that's real that's authentic that's not just about you this but it's about the collective so how do we cultivate that connection to collectivity how do we cultivate that ethical uh commitment and conviction to one another but at the end of the day how do we allow young people and everyone really the agency um to decide how they want to like show up—Christopher R. Rogers (autogenerated transcript)

This is a powerful teaching philosophy. Return to reflect on this.

a lot of our assessment system our accountability system in education is built around being able to say oh are you on the right path and not acknowledge the multiplicity of paths or in in some ways that the uh the things that are structuring this path is oppressive to our humanity in the first place—Christopher R. Rogers (autogenerated transcript)

He very carefully encapsulates a lot of the issues we've got in modern education here. Should we worry about the "standards" like memorizing and correctly using a semicolon over acknowledging our humanity and removing focus from eudaimonia?

when i was in high school just a high school in chester pennsylvania there was like english class there was also like a card game that was happening in the back of the room and no one like asked those students what they were teaching in that card game because we were like supposed to be doing worksheets in english class but that's also an intellectual practice so like ...—Christopher R. Rogers (autogenerated transcript)

I love the idea of this parable of a card game in an English class.

Moral: Don't marginalize the card game in preference for the supposed main topic as it has its own power and value, and may in fact be more valuable to the participants and their lives than the "main conversation". Value the thing for itself and not for some perceived other thing. View it in a positive framing rather than in a negative one. Simultaneously, don't attempt to subvert it either to reframe or re-capture the topic. Let it be what it is.

you could kind of go deeper with that is um do the work of like fred moten and stephanos harney's uh black study or radical study in in the undercommons of of this idea of like um there are these molds intellectual practice you know that sometimes we don't give you know uh you know credit to or sort of like survive underneath in the subterfuge of what's happening—Christopher R. Rogers (autogenerated transcript)

He's talking about work (scholarship) that may sit outside the mainstream that for one reason or another aren't recognized (in this case, because the scholars are marginalized in a culture mired in racist ideas, colonialism, etc.). At it's roots, it doesn't necessarily make the work any more or less valuable than that in

cf. with the academic samizdat of Vladimir Bukovsky who was working under a repressive Russian government

cf similarly with the work of Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Consensus can very often only be consensus until it isn't.

How do these ideas interoperate with those of power (power over and power with)? One groups power over another definitely doesn't make them right (or just) at the end of the day.

I like the word "undercommons", which could be thought of not in a marginalizing way, but in the way of a different (and possibly better) perspective.

We can't define ethics and human values in objective terms.

We do better with algorithms where the utility function can be expressed mathematically. When we try to design for utility/goals that include human values, it's much more difficult.

Defence Force service members told to get vaccinated or face being fired. (2021, April 23). RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441066/defence-force-service-members-told-to-get-vaccinated-or-face-being-fired