docgonzo

A series on the Peloponnesian War from the Great Courses. Heard but not seen. I had been listening to some series on Greek history that seemed to culminate with this "civil" war. There are fascinating lessons about how democracies can fail. The lecturer (Ken Harl) is amazing and gets excited to the point he's almost shouting (not in a bad way) by the end of lectures. Some highlights include the Athenian democracy voting itself out of existence, multiple betrayals, and a cameo from Socrates. I got a copy from my local library at the time ~ 2014. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/peloponnesian-war

https://localwiki.org/davis/Banning_leaf-blowers finally a political party I can get behind

Non-GMO still uses herbicides. Glyphosate is comparatively very safe [0]

[0] https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/glyp...

Organic farming uses pesticides as well. Are they safe for the environment? We don't know because they're organic and therefore must be safe. See links within: https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/organic-pestic...

I feel this is closely related to Therapeutic Touch. While these practices may be generated by a placebo affect, I would argue that there is a difference between feeling better and being better. Therapeutic touch was largely debunk by a 10 year with a simple experiment that blinded the practitioners as to whether they were applying their touch to a patient or not using a piece of cardboard [0]. The practitioners could not tell the difference. Interestingly, the author is the youngest person to publish a research article. Science based medicine has a nice response to this article as well [1]. [0] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/187390 [1] https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/no-editors-of-the-atlantic-...

When I was a UC grad student, it appeared to me that the UAW preyed on idealistic students that the UAW could take advantage of. I agitated for having them ejected but was told something along the lines of "we're not allowed to talk about that." I would have liked to continued questioning, but I lost the floor at that point.

The barrier of entry to biology is artificially high due to all sorts of reasons, mostly regulatory. Considering the nature of the placebo affect and the difference between feeling better and being better, I am skeptical of pulling down many of the barriers to DIY biology. Forgive me if I am misunderstanding and making a straw-man here, but we already have therapies that do not work, such as acupuncture or a wide range of So Called Alternative Medicines. "Stem cell" treatments that are outright fraud already exist [0,1]. My fear is that this will be replicated with CRISPR technology. Personally, I would like treatments that work and am skeptical that the market could decide what's best (I don't think this is the argument that you are making, but I want to address it nonetheless). The CRISPR babies that I believe you were referring to are an example of needing regulations. One rogue doctor made changes to their genome that are not preventative. This was incredibly shoddy work that should not be applauded [6]. I would also argue that the barrier is not artificially high. Doing biological research is incredibly difficult. Unlike with your analogy to Tesla, people can die from treatments [2]. Additionally,with CRISPR there are off target affects that need to be understood before wide scale use [3]. There is great promise in biotech [4,5]. However, the consequence are not just billion dollar explosions, but lives. I may be over dramatizing, but I think a careful approach is important. Also, the increments are still progress. Could there be another way to approach this kind of research, absolutely! There I think you hit on something very important. My bio graduate education did not at all prepare me for any kind of business thinking. remember the donation you made to the local animal rights campaign helped hinder biological research and development by decades I think this is a little over dramatic, but I agree with the feeling without really knowing if this has been studied.

[0] https://www.nature.com/news/stem-cell-ruling-riles-researche... [1] https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/more-stem-cell... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/43977 [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31911131 [4] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/boy-rare-disease-get... [5] https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/360/360ra134.full [6] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/did-crispr-help-or-h...

This is wild extrapolation from Dr. Gagliano's already controversial results [0]. Her findings are interesting [1]. Our own immune system has memory and responds to its environment [2 and 3]; does that make it intelligent. The bioacoustics work [1] is way out of my expertise, but is non the less interesting and compelling. I have not kept up with it to see how well it has held up. Dr. Gagliano has some strange opinions and her work is often subject to these kinds of extrapolations. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29214474 [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22445066 [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK27158/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunological_memory

I have been skeptical about these claims in the past. I really like this tear down of the previous claims[0]. Since this articles has some specificity, chloroform and benzene, with a mechanism it seems like some more solid ground, instead of the vague claims of pollutants. This may be a step in the right direction though I must admit this is outside of my expertise. [0] https://www.gardenmyths.com/garden-myth-born-plants-dont-pur...

This raises an important issue. The megadeath weed killer that you are likely referring to is in most cases round-up, also called glyphosate. Glyphosate is considerably less toxic [0] than other pesticides used in the past, such as paraquat. In general, I agree with your statement, but I believe that it needs some fleshing out Food Evolution [1] touches on the topic of pesticide use and relative safety issues. I find the idea of BT crops more compelling than round-up ready crops as well, however my reasoning here is more on a feel good basis and the desire to avoid breeding resistance. The topic of resistance I have not fully explored and am not sure where the field stands on since it rather distant from my expertise.

[0] https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/does-glyphosat... (popsci with links) [1] https://www.foodevolutionmovie.com/

Interesting finding because I find it conflicts with my stereotype of the laid back stoner. Though I could see drug use leading to other stresses in life (speculation, I'm not that kind of doctor). However, I have a problem with their definition of "marijuana user"

We selected participants eligible for mortality follow-up, aged 20 years and above, who answered “yes” or “no” to the question, “Have you ever used marijuana or hashish?” Participants who answered yes were classified marijuana users and those who answered no, as non-marijuana users. Duration of marijuana use was estimated by subtracting participant’s age at marijuana use initiation from the age at the 2005 screen.

from the study

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/204748731772321... it is open access