Lanthanide

I have a feeling that someone will soon a link between this discovery and the whole "Sonic attacks in Cuba" mystery

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome)

Conspiracy theories aside, this is super fascinating and makes me think that if the technology pans out, the potential is immense for treating emergencies where the body cannot self regulate temperature, such as heatstroke.

This is fascinating, and a niche where I can definitely see a smaller player causing a splash and driving down prices for nuclear medicine.

My question is, how equipped are you to handle regulatory hurdles for international customers? It's one thing for a small firm to deal with US civil nuclear regulations, but how are you going to deal with the regulators of each foreign market you intend to export to? I imagine that this is something that the larger providers in the field use economies of scale to deal with, but could be a hurdle for a startup.

Both. Anecdotally I’d actually say that the ratio of MTF surgeries to FTM ones is higher than usual over here.

Not in the US style of drug ads, but not completely banned either; things like Tylenol and the various cold and flu drugs can be advertised. I’ve never seen ads for something that would be prescription-only in other countries except for Viagra and a coupe of other ED drugs, and that’s an edge case.

As far as I can see all drug advertisements (including things such as social media promotions) have to be approved by the Saudi FDA, and they don’t seem lenient at all in allowing ads for anything beyond the aforementioned meds.

Aisle 5, right next to the condoms and lube bottles =) and Victoria Secret makes money hand over fist here.

This would be off-topic here, but I think most people outside of the region would be stunned about the state of sex-change operations over here. They happen VERY frequently, albeit with a heavy veil of privacy.

I actually agree with most of your points. I don't think this is ideal at all, I just think it's a less-harmful solution (and hopefully a temporary one) in the face of systemic dysfunction in healthcare. The alternative seems to skew less towards "oh I guess now I should see a doctor about that condition now" when facing pharmaceutical hurdles and more towards the "I guess I will tough it out; I can't handle the wait times for public hospitals or the costs of private ones". The lack development in centralized patient records entrenches this problem.

The self-medication thing is a seriously double-edged sword. You elucidated why very clearly. I have two reasons though to believe that it's a SLIGHTLY less risky practice over here;

1, pharmacists are very engaged with patients in recommending medications and constantly steer them to doctors- and they are more confidant with in-class substitutions rather than dispensing to a patient outright without vitals or history (beyond what is disclosed orally by the patient). However, they'll still recommend medications freely when they judge them as being unlikely to go to a doctor otherwise, hence risking more damage. Lesser evil and all that.

2, a long history of OTC availability of medications, where controlled prescriptions are the exception rather than the norm, seems to have lead to a culture of caution and careful reading of medication leaflets, asking the pharmacists, etc. I don't mean this as necessarily a good thing, I think this is more of a "you're on your own" mentality with regards to being careful with medications. This mentality grew, I think, partially from issues with access to doctors (governmental neighborhood health centers, kind of like small GP practices in the US/UK, are a somewhat new thing here. It was all centered around huge hospitals in the past). The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that this mode of thinking is about to be reinforced further by rising healthcare costs in the face of the rapid privatization of the healthcare sector, and it will clash with increasing OTC regulations.

One aside I will say about antidepressives which you mention; I think this merits a special examination separate from the rest of the healthcare issues. I've slowly come to realize that a massive portion of the population here are actually on antidepressants (mostly SSRI and SNRI meds). Why is this notable? Because it's not anywhere near commensurate with the number of people using psychotherapy or visiting psychiatrists. The reason, I believe, is because there is such a stigma around mental illness here that I think it would be very difficult to get many of these patients into more suitable therapy, and OTC Prozac or what have you helps hide the ""shame"". We're finally, FINALLY slowly moving past this stigma, probably catching up with the public attitude of the US/EU towards mental health in the 1980s or so. I really hope this will eventually lead to mental health patients not feeling that they need to self-medicate.

Edit: I forgot to mention that you're also completely correct in the assumption about quack medicine. It is, unfortunately, endemic here. It's a constant struggle to convince loved ones that, no, Supplement X is neither a peer-reviewed medication nor is it an alternative for treatment. At the very least the regulatory environment is increasingly more strict about misleading medical claims on herbal products, etc

The subsidy/export explanation does make a lot more sense, since it's not exactly in a high-risk drug class. I suppose those regulations could have been misinterpreted by him to mean he needed a prescription.

(unless Austria, where this happened, really does have very strict OTC drug laws on medical grounds)

I live in a country where this scheme is already the norm (Saudi Arabia) and I can say that while it's not necessarily ideal, I much prefer it to the alternative. It plugs some seriously annoying holes in the healthcare experience and frees up doctors' time for more patients.

As it is, the only medications that require a prescription to buy in Saudi are psychotropic ones, narcotics, and most recently, antibiotics. Things like insulin, birth control medications, hypertension medications, even antidepressants and anti-psychotics- they are all OTC. And I think they should remain so, because from what I've seen the damage from misusing those drugs against pharmacists' advice is far less than the damage from going without them due to the difficulties encountered in seeing a doctor.

The reason that this is the norm here is twofold; one, health insurance wasn't much of a thing here until a few years ago. The second reason (and the reason health insurance didn't factor in until recently) is that the socialized healthcare system here was (and still is) stretched thin; seeing a doctor to get prescriptions for every little thing becomes prohibitively difficult, with appointments taking months.

It's asinine to expect someone suffering from, say, an acute athsma attack to try to navigate ERs or try to see a doctor on short notice during a crisis, when a pharmacist would be able to dispense the exact medication needed, leaving the others free for more complex cases that need closer attention.

Edit: this actually created a bit of culture shock for an older friend of mine. He was traveling to an EU country for the first time and didn't do his homework- he thought he he could simply walk into any pharmacy and ask for a pack of his cholesterol medication, as he usually does back home. I don't envy the poor pharmacist that had to keep trying to explain the dispensing system to him and to emphasize that yes, they are aware that it's Lipitor, not morphine, it's just how the regulation is.

Things get a bit more difficult when the identity is standing in the way of creating wealth. This seems to be the case here, assuming EU/NATO memberships would be largely positive economic forces for Macedonia.

I'm tempted to apologize on behalf of my countrymen, but hell no- those reprobates are a national embarrassment to us all over Europe, and deserve the antipathy. I'm sorry you have to suffer through their douchiness, however.

I audibly groan whenever I see GCC license plate on the road in London; these fuckers are part of the reason why I have to either lie about my nationality when asked, or to slowly explain that most of us drive Hyundais back home, not Bentleys.

Edit: regarding the diplomatic immunity, it's not as much of a carte blanche as most assume it is. The bills aren't waived by any means just due to the immunity- they just go to the embassy instead. The embassy usually pays up then chases them down back home to get reimbursed, though often unsuccessfully I'm afraid.

Thanks for the headsup, love Ben's stuff but I haven't caught up with it in a long time, I'll be sure to check it out.

Makes for a much more in-depth and capable version of the Game Boy Camera + Printer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Camera an object of gadget lust for me when I was growing up

For economics and economy-related cultural topics, I really like NPR's Planet Money (https://www.npr.org/sections/money/127413729/planet-money/). The episodes on average are really short (anything from 6 to 20 minutes) so they're great for a quick passtime.

The polar opposite would be Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, with each episode seldom less than four hours. But with a fantastic narration and historical research that's head and shoulders beyond any other podcast I've ever seen (https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/)

LSE's Public Lectures and Podcasts is a great resource as well for more academic topics, albeit more in politics and economics rather than tech: (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/london-school-economics-...)

Mike Rowe's podcast is another one that's great for when you need just to plug in a few minutes gap of free time with just general amusement and stories (http://mikerowe.com/podcast/)

A subject of interest to me personally is true crime and criminal justice, and there are plenty of quality podcasts on the subject. Two of the best out there are Sword and Scale (http://swordandscale.com/), and Criminal (http://www.thisiscriminal.com).

Hah, while that would be hilarious it's not what it means in context; it refers to the apps block being lifted at midnight this past Wednesday.

I'm not sure this is at all accurate. Source: I'm in Saudi, and it's not working at the moment- unlike the other apps.

There's been a big deal made out of the lifting of the voip ban since it's been a pain in the ass for users for years, but they specifically stated that whatsapp and Viber are excluded (though Telegram is present somehow...). CITC, our local FCC equivalent, said that the the requirements laid out in the unblocking decision are 1: having a "clear mechanism for contact and cooperation in emergencies" (I'm guessing this is partially euphemism for intercept court orders and similar as well), 2: being open to removing illegal content, 3: having a clear and robust data protection system in place for users, and 4: making it possible to call emergency numbers [1, Arabic].

Obviously a lot of these can be technically impossible like the one about being able to call emergency numbers, and for those with e2e encryption a lot of the content requirements are impossible too. But hey, baby steps I guess- the telecoms are livid about the lost revenue stream, and people no longer have to use VPNs for friggin' Facetime to work.

[1] https://sabq.org/%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%AC...

It's a lot simpler than that actually; there's just a need for money in the short-term. I can nearly guarantee that this has nothing to do with fears of electric cars or any disruptive tech.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund and other assets have been heavily liquidated and depleted to defray the costs of recent economic pressures, like the gambit against shale oil a couple years ago and the ongoing war costs. The IPO is only one facet; there are new taxes and some austerity measures concerning public sector employees that heavily slashed household incomes for a while, though some of the latter have been reversed recently when cashflow got better.

The IPO would would help replenish the sovereign wealth fund and cash reserves, and to help reinstate funding for some public projects that got affected by the downturn (massive nuclear energy projects and public transport infrastructure, for example)

Doesn't work that way. The 5% sale is used to finance an overseas sovereign wealth fund. If the shares were made void the overseas assets would be seized by creditors and then the credit rating of the entire country would crash. It's not the 1940s anymore.

From wiki:

"Both acetaminophen and paracetamol come from a chemical name for the compound: para-acetylaminophenol and para-acetylaminophenol."

The former is the name used by the United States Adopted Name (USAN) while the latter is the (International Nonproprietary Name (INN) one.

I'll take Chief :eggplant: Officer.

(Previously known as Chief Restructuring Officer)

Saudi here;

It's too early to tell. This is not the first schism in the GCC involving Qatar, but it's the one that's amped up the fastest. There's a lot of dynamics involved here both overt and those left unsaid.

1: The possibility of a Qatar-Iran rapprochement. I don't think it was ever likely but rather was a political manouver by Qatar that got out of hand, particularly after Trump's very recent visit and his attitudes towards the Iran deal. The reason why this would be a big deal is not regional power flexing or the usual cross-gulf shitslinging, but rather that Qatar worries about being overshadowed in political affairs by Saudi, and Saudi worrying about the possibility of increasing influence of Iran within the GCC and OPEC. The irony, of course, is that the fear of GCC disintegration by Iran sowing disunity might cause disintegration...

2: The Muslim Brotherhood. Despite generally aligned political and theological views, UAE+Saudi are really at odds here. They views the MB as a populist force that aims to undermine the government and to covertly back more extreme Islamist factions in pursuit of that("enemy of my enemy...), and to create parallel structures in governments to advance their cause. Qatar views them as a useful tool, giving them somewhat safe harbor and the inclination of AlJazeera, one of the region's strongest media conglomerates. This came in useful in Libya and for relations with the Palestinian Authority and Turkey, but it can backfire quickly.

3: The possibility of normalization of relations with Israel. Probably more of a PR jab than a real issue, but it's one that's somewhat salient for the general public.

What would all this amount to? Probably not much, you'll notice that Kuwait is absent from that list and the likely reason is that they're being used as a backchannel. This altercation has been remarkably public in the popular media here (despite not being popular per se) so odds are all sides want this to be over ASAP.

It really was, complete with a 1880s-vintage Tinder: http://archive.org/stream/wiredlovearomanc24353gut/24353.txt

I read that a while ago and though the plot itself is kinda facile (it is supposed to be just a simple romance novel after all), it's really fascinating to see the parallels of the telegraph with the internet from a cultural aspect. It's easy enough to draw comparisons between the two as being different stages in the evolution of networks etc but the human side of things is always a bit harder to sum up.

There's fighting dirty, then there's obstructing your own cause. He demanded that very accommodation, why make it more difficult than it needs to be- ESPECIALLY if he knows he's innocent?

He absolutely has cause for concern, I agree, but what he has to gain in this specific case strikes me as a lot more than he can inflict on his opposition, even if it came down to just the PR benefits.

Well, there's yet another meaning for it in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf countries; "video game console". It became a genericized trademark for those who grew up in the 1980s. The phrase "Hey, did you get that new Atari, the SNES?" somehow made sense here back in the day.

Desalination is definitely a big one, innovation here may be needed to head off major ecological/humanitarian catastrophes.

Desalination itself isn't hard, keeping it affordable is.

Between ill-advised agricultural ventures in the past few decades and clumsy regulation here in the GCC, groundwater deposits are draining frighteningly fast. Desalination is just too expensive as it is since it's directly linked to hydrocarbon prices and deposits.

You can switch Amazon.de to English from the account settings; is that not the case with Amazon.it?

We do; their coverage of our stock market is often better than the domestic coverage!

On that note, I have a feeling Mobily's stock is about to dip a bit after this article...

Not quite- hotels don't serve alcohol in Saudi or in Kuwait. But you are right that the religion itself doesn't say anything about non-Muslims consuming alcohol.

There isn't a specific idiom that I'm aware of, I'm pretty sure the Economist were just summing up a perceived sentiment with the 'slippery-slope' comment. In Arabic, that sentiment would most likely be expressed in the form of saying that it's laying the groundwork for further cultural drift or something similar, without a particular idiomatic shorthand.

Thing is, even though there's probably phrases like that in regional dialects, they wouldn't be quoted since the majority of Arabic media (and therefore anyone preparing to be quoted by a media outlet) is mostly in Modern Standard Arabic.

They did and still do- optionally. But the system probably uses Gregorian underneath it all, using the Hijri calendar just for display and maybe file timestamps (been a while since I had mine set to Hijri so I'm not certain).

It can be enabled pretty easily in Windows 10: http://windowsclan.com/switch-to-hijri-calendar-in-windows-1...